Superstitiously careful hands picked up a strange, carved object out of a basket. It resembled a stork, but with its legs merged into a single extrusion from the main body. The totem twisted and swirled with color, as Sumire turned it over to look at its underside. She tightened her clutch around it, held it close to her chest and closed her eyes. Then she opened her eyes and put the stork right back in the basket, shaking her head.

"Not the one?" Makoto said.

"No." Sumire sighed. "Sorry to take so long," she said. By now it was the tenth thing she'd picked up, looking for some kind of lucky charm. "I just really want to get this right."

It had been a week since midterms. A week since the interrogation with Kamoshida. A week since Makoto last thought of the investigation hanging over his head. He wondered how much longer the Principal would be willing to wait.

"It's fine, Sumire. Take as long as you need." Those words were for Makoto himself as much as they were for her. A wish that Sumire might not be under the same sort of time pressure he was feeling.

But they did have somewhere to be. Sumire considered an eight pointed star she found, a spiral of blue and gold. "I really thought the first one would be it," she said. "I never expected this to take this long." Sumire shook her head and put the star back down on its shelf. "Hmm. Is it even lucky anymore if it takes ten tries to find?"

"That's up to you." Makoto took a step closer and reached up for Sumire's shoulder. "Whatever you choose, and even if you can't decide, I believe in you."

Sumire smiled and rubbed her hands together. "Oh yeah," she said. "Come to think of it, maybe I don't need a good luck charm. Actually, I wanted to thank you for helping me study."

Makoto sheepishly held his hands up. "I think Kasumi did most of the work there."

"Yeah, that goes without saying. Kasumi's really smart, after all," Sumire said. "She's always helped me before, but we never had anything to show for it. It was just like gymnastics, we'd study the same things, but I'd forget while she remembered. This time, it was different. When it came time to take the test, I felt confident, like I was really prepared. And I think that, I think it's because of you."

"Well, I'm happy to help however I can," Makoto said. It was a little eerie to think he could conjure good test scores out of nothing. At least for people other than himself. If Sumire believed it, though, maybe it stood a chance of being true. "I should mention, though, I've had a streak of bad luck, lately."

"That just means your good luck is right around the corner," Sumire said. "Just like you told me!" She grabbed Makoto by the arm. "Okay then, let's get going."

They left the craft store for an art gallery hosting the Madarame exhibit. On the steps to the gallery entrance, Makoto saw a bunch of red and black leaflets scattered about the ground. He pointed them out to Sumire, but after exchanging shrugs, they didn't think much of it and kept going to the door. A sign blocked their way.

The Madarame art exhibit is closed today due to vandalism. We are working hard to get the area cleaned up to open tomorrow. We apologize for any inconvenience.

"Oh." It sapped all the air out of her lungs and the life out of her arms. Sumire sniffled and stood frozen on the spot before the sign. "The one day dad gets tickets for this, this happens. Just my luck, isn't it."

"Or mine," Makoto said. "Guess you were off the mark."

"That's…" Sumire took an exaggerated step away from him. "That could be." She looked down from Makoto to the exhibit's closed notice, and around to all the papers strewn about. "Do you think that has anything to do with it?"

Makoto picked up one of the leaflets. The toothy smile and top hat drawn on one side made it immediately clear what it was. He turned it over, and read aloud. "Sir Ichiryusai Madarame, a great sinner of vanity whose talent has been exhausted. You are an artist who uses his authority to shamelessly steal the ideas of his pupils. We have decided to make you confess all your crimes with your own mouth. We will take your distorted desires without fail. From, the Phantom Thieves."

There was no mistaking it, and even Sumire's eyes opened wide as she realized it was the Phantom Thieves' calling card.

Makoto drooped down. The Phantom Thieves were real. They went to his school. They stole Kamoshida's desires. And now they did it again.

"Is something wrong?" Sumire said.

"Maybe?" Makoto said. There was a chance it was something different. Someone different, that got to Madarame. A copycat crime, if what was happening was a crime at all. At least, that was what he was hoping. "Sorry, Sumire. I've got a lot to think about."

"Is it something I can help you with?" She took a step closer to Makoto. "You've done so much for me, I'd like to help you however I can."

Makoto shook his head. "Maybe next time. This is related to that thing Niijima told us at the bookstore. I've been investigating it for a while, and I need to finish soon."

"I understand," Sumire said. "If you ever do need help though, we're all here for each other. Okay?"

"Yeah, of course." They walked together back to Shibuya Central, to the stairs of the subway where they parted. On the platform, waiting for the train, Sumire ran off, saying she was going back to the craft store.

With the setting sun at his back, Makoto dug around his pocket for the key to his family's apartment. He passed the front door, up the stairs, and found his sister, Komaru, sitting in the living room with a stack of magazines next to her. She had her hair down in a clean bob, even that one tricky strand that liked to stick out every now and then. Like Makoto's.

Komaru looked up. "Hey, bro!" And she looked right back down, flipping pages.

"Hey," Makoto said. He took off his shoes and peeked at the magazine. He saw a sharp eyed girl in a dress of tessellating pentagons, captioned Venus of Shogi. "Who's that?"

"Beats me," Komaru said. She pulled the picture closer to her. "Hifumi Togo. First time I've seen her. Niche magazine, too." She flipped it around for Makoto. "She's cute though, isn't she? I like that thing in her hair." The girl in the picture had a red string decoration in her hair, running down one of her bangs.

"She looks like she doesn't want to be there," Makoto said.

Komaru turned the magazine back around. "Hmm, yeah, I think I can see that." She turned the next page, and the next and next until she got past the interview portion. "I hope she sticks with it, though."

"Are you even reading these?" Makoto said.

"I will! I just have a lot to catch up on." Komaru waved her hand over the stack on the living room table. "Now that exams are done."

"Where's mom and dad?"

Komaru shrugged. "Out late? I dunno."

"Oh, okay," Makoto said. Well, they'd call for him whenever they got back. Makoto headed to his room.

Tomorrow. Makoto decided tomorrow was the day he'd wrap up the investigation with the Principal.

Tonight, he'd get all his evidence in order. One cohesive argument.

First, there was Kamoshida's account. He abused and harassed students, especially the volleyball team. His actions drove Shiho Suzui to attempt suicide. He used Shiho's position on the team as leverage to coerce Ann Takamaki into a relationship with him. There were some more bizarre things he said at the assembly, as well. He mentioned being reborn. He thought of the school as his castle. He sentenced students to expulsion, like a king sentencing people to execution.

Later, Kamoshida clarified that the three students he tried to have expelled were Ryuji Sakamoto, Ren Amamiya, and Yuuki Mishima. He made this decision on the fifteenth of April, when they confronted him in his office. It was the same day Shiho tried to commit suicide. Around this same time, his relationship with Ann was rapidly falling apart. The last thing he had to cling to was Makoto's approval.

Would one of them, or several of them, have the motive to seek this confession?

There was the first calling card. It was posted on the school bulletin board shortly before the assembly. It was made of cutout letters, and suggested a firsthand connection to Kamoshida's actions. The day after it was put up, Kamoshida took a leave of absence until the assembly, where he made his confession. Everything happened as calling card said.

Who could have known how it would all go down?

The day he got his assignment, Makoto saw Ren, Ryuji, and Ann all gathered on the rooftop after school. They seemed to be in the middle of a conversation, and had a cat with them. This meeting connected all three of them, although it could have just been a coincidence.

But if it was a coincidence, why else would they all be together like that?

Makoto Niijima gave her account at the bookstore before exams. Last year, Kamoshida was responsible for the termination of the former track coach, and started abusing the team when he took over. Ryuji tried to fight back. The details about what followed were unclear, but Ryuji ended up with a broken leg, and the track team was dissolved. Niijima was assigned to investigate, but moreso to conceal it, and pin the blame on Ryuji. It was possible Kamoshida instigated this entire incident.

Why was Kamoshida allowed to terrorize the school for a whole year?

Sihho gave her account in the hospital. She said that she had been hiding injuries from Kamoshida's abuse ever since he took over the volleyball team. The worst of the abuse happened on April fourteenth. Kamoshida sexually assaulted her in his office. Apparently, during this, he mentioned Makoto's name. Ann arrived at the hospital at that point in the conversation, initially hostile to Makoto, seeing him as an unwanted interrogator.

Even though she was right, why did Ann suspect Makoto had ulterior motives for the visit?

Sae Niijima, a public prosecutor working for the Special Investigations office, oversaw the interrogation with Kamoshida in prison. She explained that he was potentially a witness to a related investigation, and was more interested in the cause of his sudden shift of personality than the actions that shift made him confess to. She did not say what the other investigation was, but was willing to accept a wide range of suspects.

Why was the SIU so interested in this case to begin with?

Makoto thought that was it, but after he ran through the events since the assembly again, one more thing stood out. It was Kasumi's account, when they talked in the batting cage before the investigation even started. In the little time she'd been at Shujin, she didn't have much interaction with Kamoshida at all. When she refused him, he backed off. It was like with Kasumi, and only Kasumi, there was a line Kamoshida couldn't cross.

And if there was, then who drew that line?

Then there was one last thing, he pulled out of his pocket, the second calling card. This one was addressed to a man named Madarame. It carried a more refined drawing than the first one, a more refined message, a more refined rage. But it spoke to the same fact pattern of abuse, the same system of confession, and the same threat of immediate action.

But was it really the same Phantom Thieves?

Makoto unbuttoned his blazer and hung it up on a peg on the wall. He took off his white shirt, his black pants, and changed into his pajamas he picked up from the floor.

A knock came at his door. "Dinner's here," Komaru said, and her footsteps bounced away to the kitchen.

"Thanks," Makoto said. "I'll be right there." He would have one last chance to mull things over after dinner, but for now, this was what Makoto had to go on. It was what he had to show for nearly a month of his mind. And tomorrow. Tomorrow, Makoto resolved, it would all be over.