Author's Note: Another short chapter, hope everyone enjoys it. Sorry for not sending out replies last chapter, it was exam week, I was a bit stressed out! Understandably so, haha! Anyway, I'm working on Digital/Kaiju next followed by Digital Extra.

Starlight's Poet: The story is slow-paced, but every chapter brings it forward a bit more.

Korrowe: Diamond is Unbreakable Jotaro.

Kithrin: There's a reason why I made him Ruler, and your points will be brought up in-story at a later point.

Daemon of Crawling Tentacles: Unlike to happen, both Hakuno and Ritsuka represent the player, blank slates. They are also supposed to be everyday individuals caught up in larger-than-life situations.

Guisniperman: I'm sure Hakuno can manage it!

Daureod: It was going to be a set shortly after Diamond is Unbreakable's beginning, Hakuno would arrive and lead to a series of events that derail the canon situation… As she does.

What lies in the body, the heart, and the soul? Are they but physical and metaphysical? The flame caused by her actions now seeks to devour her, but the road to her deletion is yet to be paved. Can this Digital Human change her path?

Digital/Culmination

Chapter 11: Change Oddity

Hakuno Kishinami walked the increasingly familiar road from the train station to Shujin Academy, having awoken slightly earlier than usual and dressed in school uniform with practiced precision after taking a hygienic shower. It was a bright, sunny day by the time she approached the educational facility, only a few students were arriving for now, most of them likely belonging to clubs or the Student Council.

"Oh, arriving early?" The voice of the Japanese Language teacher, Ms. Kawakami, spoke with approval, walking up to her from the same direction the girl came from. "Good to know you have your priorities straight, an example transfer and honor student."

There was a clear bit of annoyed expression, but it wasn't directed at Hakuno Kishinami, whatever the purpose the faculty member kept it behind her professional mask.

"Morning," The magus greeted. "Odd week."

"Tell me about it," The woman answered. "Morning as well, um…" She seemed to think for a moment. "Kishinami, correct?"

Hakuno nodded.

Kawakami smiled, "Sorry, odd week as you said. You keeping up well with your classes? You joined part way into the term," She said with visible concern for her student's progress.

It reminded Hakuno of Taiga during the Preliminary Rounds, a good teacher that cared for their students, even the ones not in their homeroom.

"I'm fine," She replied. "Makoto helps."

"Niijima?" Kawakami said in slight surprise, but it faded back into a gentle expression. "Pleased to know your senior is helping you, Kishinami. You arrived early to meet her?"

She did not, Hakuno only woke earlier than usual, and didn't have some forced Velvet Room visit or scarring memory of her counterpart in her dreams last night. So, the Digital Human had a quite sound and restful sleep, a miracle for once.

A full night's sleep, not that she didn't feel rested before, just no wake-up thought contemplation this time.

Though, now that Kawakami mentioned, perhaps she should visit Makoto? As the Student Council President, the black-haired teenager should have arrived earlier to school than the rest of the student body. Makoto was a reliable source of information for school-related topics, and she knew some trivia as well. Not to mention, interacting with the girl was quite pleasant for the magus.

Hakuno won't ponder long about it, "I will try to," She said.

Kawakami nodded, "Nice meeting you again, keep up the good behavior." With that, the teacher continued walking into the building.

The Digital Human watched her go before digging into her uniform's pocket and pulling out her Portable Terminal. She tapped for the chat and wrote a brief message to Makoto Niijima, then slipped the device back into its previous position and entered Shujin Academy.

She heard a chime shortly after, Makoto confirming her presence at school.

Hakuno Kishinami entered the building, switched her shoes at the shoe box, then trekked up to the third floor. Only a few minutes past since the reply and the brown-haired schoolgirl knocked on the door into the Student Council Room before sliding it open.

Makoto was the only one here.

"Where's the rest of the Student Council?" Hakuno questioned.

"We don't have many members," Makoto said. "I'm the only one here currently," She said, motioning her hand in a wave, addressing the state of the room void of people, yet cluttered with papers on the table.

That was a minor difference between Shujin Academy and Tsukumihara Academy, but Hakuno wasn't really concerned about the size or activities of the Student Council.

Hakuno blinked, entered and slid the door closed, she walked up to the table and sat across the Student Council President. "Want some help?"

"You don't need to do that," Makoto replied quickly. "Aren't you having any trouble with your schoolwork? The first term exams are only a few short weeks away."

"No, all the work has been simple enough," Hakuno said truthfully.

She was cheating with advanced knowledge from the Moon Cell's fake high school memories. But Makoto didn't need to know that. It was a bit strange how some of her knowledge exceeded the current education system, there wasn't that much of a disparity in years, only two decades, but perhaps it was just the Moon Cell itself.

Well, except for the Social Sciences, the only topic that eluded her. But a bit of dedicated work solved it.

Hakuno smiled a bit, all this thinking about school, homework, clubs… How nostalgic.

"Well…" Makoto seemed hesitant.

Regardless, the Digital Human picked up a writing utensil and began looking through the papers. It was a large list of school budgeting and requests, something she was quite familiar in thanks to the school background of the Moon Cell. She skimmed through the mathematics done by her student peers, calculations and equations solved at insane speeds in her head before marking down the corrections.

Hakuno handed it to Makoto, who blanked for a moment as she glanced over the newly written down arithmetic done by the second-year student.

"I don't have all the variables," Hakuno stated. "I don't know if cheaper materials exist than what's noted already."

"But… Huh…" Makoto Niijima kept glancing down at the paper, Hakuno assumed the older girl was checking the math out. She looked up at the transfer student, "Is mathematics your best subject?"

"World History," She replied. "Though it's a close second."

"Honor student indeed," The Student Council President commented. "If only your Social Science skills were as impressive," She teased.

Hakuno let loose a smile, "My weakness."

Niijima nodded as she reached to take a sip of tea in a plastic bottle. Hakuno had a sudden thought come up in her head, and she curiously tilted her head at Makoto as to why that is.

Unfortunately, that thought was quickly interrupted as Makoto started choking on her own drink, spilling some on the floor as she tried in vain to hold it in while turning away from Hakuno.

"Are you okay?" Hakuno asked in concern, expression returning to normal.

"I'm… Fine…" Makoto responded, catching her breath and clearing her lungs with a few last coughs. "Just went down the wrong way… Yeah, that's all. Nothing else besides that."

What a strange sentence, but Hakuno wouldn't question it or the slight pink tint on her senior's face.

"Moving on, there is a school-wide assembly soon," Makoto stated. "So let's get through this as much as we can before then," She wasn't denying the younger girl's help anymore, not with how stubborn Hakuno was.

For a rather plain-looking, nearly monotone junior, she was quite determined…

Makoto would keep the words 'and cute' locked deep in her mind.

Hakuno Kishinami was none the wiser of her friend's inner thoughts.

"Okay," She answered and continued looking through papers.

However, the magus girl was a bit curious as to why there was an unplanned morning assembly today, there hadn't been any announcement of one in the prior days.

Hakuno Kishinami stood as just one more person in the mass of students within the assembly, most students were in proper attire like her, only a few have minor alterations. However, in the sea of Japanese, Hakuno spotted the foreign hair color of who she recalled belonged to the girl on the roof a few days ago. She really was an oddity, but the magus didn't seek to dive further into it.

Her friend, Makoto, has mentioned this school-wide assembly a little ahead of time. But as expected, most students were chatting about its sudden announcement or topics possibly related to it.

By habit, Hakuno had tuned her hearing in listening for new information. It had revealed quite a few interesting facts which had occurred in the school prior to her transfer. For one, there had been an attempted suicide by a female student. Secondly, the topic of the calling card was in hot debate. Thirdly, the volleyball coach, Kamoshida, had been absent a day after the card's appearance.

Hakuno had been aware of the two latter events but wasn't of the apparent suicide. Perhaps if she had paid more attention to gossip she would have been, but such information was unreliable.

Shujin Academy's principal walked up to the center stage behind a podium. He cleared his throat vocally in the microphone, silencing the assembly of students.

And began to talk about the recently attempted suicide and bright futures…

At the very least, Hakuno knew that whoever was the student hadn't died. She could sympathize with that.

Then, the loud slam of a closing door echoed in the assembly hall, interrupting the principal's speech. Hakuno Kishinami glanced over and spotted a man, slouched yet standing, that was…

"Mr. Kamoshida?!" The Principle gave the name.

"I… Have been reborn." Kamoshida began. "That is why I will confess everything to you all…"

It was a radical shift in personality than what Hakuno Kishinami remembered him like, she watched curiously, with focused attention, as Kamoshida walked to the stage while the school students began talking amongst themselves.

Barely a few minutes passed through this confession…

And Hakuno Kishinami was very much concerned.

It wasn't the confession of Kamoshida's immoral acts that concerned her, but rather the fact that he had become suicidal in wanting to repent. His entire personality, which had boasted confidence and arrogance in equal measure before, had become completely shattered. It wasn't just a coincidence that this happened after the Calling Card's reveal a few days ago.

There wasn't a real-world explanation to why this would happen, especially at how quickly at the rate Kamoshida changed.

However, when taking into context the cognitive world.

These Phantom Thieves had done something, they had 'stolen' his heart.

As explained by the residents of the Velvet Room, a person's cognitive self can tie directly to the one in the real world. The word 'heart' had come up a few times in the Velvet Room, it clearly meant more than just its original metaphorical meaning.

Hakuno Kishinami did not approve, this was forcing a state of being on another individual, a complete mental alteration of the person.

The memories of something similar… A rogue AI suppressing and enhancing mental aspects of Masters… A timeline that was both her and not her's.

She forced away the vague memory, that seemed to be another side-effect of her brief period inside the Moon Cell Core. Regardless, while she may disapprove of this method, she also needed to know how the Phantom Thieves accomplished it without killing the cognitive self.

And that involved discovering who were the Phantom Thieves, a question that was likely on many minds.

But, she had an advantage, the group likely was using the Metaverse in some manner. Hakuno could try tracking them down through there?

Hakuno put it on her mental list to note on her Private Terminal as she left the assembly hall after the teachers began their attempts to disperse the students after the blond girl… Ann's retort at Kamoshida's suicidal remark, preventing his self-inflicted demise.

It was good that he wasn't going to die, even if he had done those immoral deeds. The individual that did those actions and the person that was now crying on the stage were now two different people. There wouldn't be any sort of recompense, it wouldn't be right.

After all, Hakuno Kishinami didn't have the same background deeds of her own real counterpart, even if she was a digital clone of sorts.

Also… She had directly killed Wakasa through the Metaverse, even if unintentionally, Hakuno would try to prevent that from happening again. These Phantom Thieves would've caused an indirect death if not for Ann's intervention.

In any case, this was the only day of school for most of the week. She would think upon her to-do list after school, such as investigating Rani's previous friend, explore more of Mementos, figure out more about her Velvet Room's Paths, and now discover and converse with whoever were the Phantom Thieves… Not to mention, the Black Mask.

It was a whole bunch of tasks.

But unlike in the Moon Cell, Hakuno Kishinami had time on her side now.