[16th May, lunch, courtyard]

After yesterday's little investigation in Madarame's palace, life seems to be normal for the three Persona users. With Ann's modeling after school, they just waited for school to end.

Mr. Inui paused in his lecture. "Oh yes, the great artist Madarame is holding an exhibit in Shibuya right now, isn't he? I've gone to see his works a number of times."

Ren, Ann, and Akira's head perked up as they heard Madarame's name.

"Goodness, are they magnificent! The moment I saw them, I knew he was something else." He said, closing his eyes in nostalgia.

'Um... I've never seen him like this...' Akira thought, sweatdropping in the process.

"By the way, you seem far removed from the arts, Mr. Amamiya." The teacher's asked gaze dropped to the fuzzy-haired boy. "Do you know who created the piece which sold for the highest price back in the 20th century?"

"Hmm?" Ren straightened from his seat, blinking in confusion for a moment. "Vincent van Gogh, right?"

"That's correct. It seems you know a thing or two after all." Mr. Inui clapped, impressed with Ren's knowledge. "That piece was purchased for the equivalent of 18 billion yen, and it sold for even more later. However, since the turn of the 21st century, a new record has been set practically every year."

The students beside Akira and Ann almost immediately whispered to each other, surprised by his knowledge.

"Hey, did you know that? I had no idea!"

"Maybe he actually is smart. I'm kind of surprised."

"Oh shoot, Inui-sensei's glaring at us!"

"People put a serious amount of passion and money into art. If I had that kind of money, I wouldn't mind having a painting or two myself…" Removing his glare from the two students, the teacher chuckled.

"Seems like art can make you a tidy sum." Morgana declared quietly, flicking an ear. "Let's see with our own eyes whether or not the accusations of him stealing art are true. You're meeting the others at the train station, right? Let's go when class lets out!"

Ren nodded faintly in response.


[After school]

Once the school had ended, Ren, Ryuji, and Ann all met up at the station and got onto the subway toward Shibuya. Since there weren't enough seats, thus Ryuji stood while Ren and Ann sat down. Ren put his bag on his lap, letting Morgana poking his head out.

"Phantom thieves goin' by train...This ain't any different from how I get home from school, y'know." Ryuji grumbled as he held onto the safety grip, sighing sullenly.

"We can walk the whole way there if you want to," Ren remarked, shrugging.

"The train is the fastest way to go. Plus, we can bring pets on here."Ann nodded in agreement.

At that, Morgana turned toward her. "Hey who're you calling a pet?!" He exclaimed, panicking.

"Dude, be quiet! We didn't pay the pet fare." Ryuji hissed, looking around.

"I'm the one guiding you to your destination!" The cat retorted, glaring at him. "You should be calling me 'Master'!"

"No. We're not going to call you 'Master'." Ren deadpanned, pinching his nosebridge in annoyance. "And please be quiet... You're making a scene."

"No! I'm not-"

"Oh, kitty!"

the trio stopped, looking at the source of the voice with widened eyes. It was a young girl walking up to them, smiling innocently at the cat.

"Shoot..." Ann murmured, biting her lips.

"Is that your pet, Mister? I heard it meowing!" The girl asked excitedly, looking up at Ren.

"It's a stuffed animal." Ren lied with a surprisingly calm look, trying his best to hold his laughter internally.

Ann nodded hurriedly. "Yeah, it's just a toy. It meows when you press on its head." She smiled nervously.

With a grin on his face, Ryuji looked at Ren impishly. "You heard her, Ren. Press on its head."

Giving him a nod of agreement, Ren looked down at the cat with a smirk.

"Ren! This is ridici-" Morgana's began in panic, but was interrupted when Ren pressed on his head, causing him to meow with a frown. "M-Mewww..."

"Wowweeeee! Again! Again!" the little girl clapped happily, bouncing in her place.

An idea hitting him, Ren put his hand on the feline's head. 'Time for some payback for forcing me to sleep.' He thought devilishly.

"Time to button mash."

Before Morgana could say anything, he started to pet him furiously. "Mew...Meowowowowowowowowow!" Morgana sputtered, his head bobbing up and down out of his control, before flopping against the side of the bag.

"...Blerghh…" He groaned, head rolling back.

"That's so funny! I wanna hear it again!" the little girl cheered, laughing innocently.

"I just threw up in my mouth…" The feline whispered weakly, head bobbing.

"Seriously..?" Ryuji sweatdropped, shaking his head exasperatedly.

Lucky for Morgana, an announcement of arriving at Shibuya station interrupted them. The teens perked up and Ann turned back to the little girl. "Oh, this is our stop! Well, see you later! Bye Bye!" She said with a friendly smile

"Mm-hm! Bye Bye!" The little girl nodded and hopped back to her mother.

On the other hand, the trio of Le Fool was standing on the other end of the train cart, watching them in amusement.

"Ren is such a real troll sometimes." Akira remarked, covering his laughter. "Poor Morgana."

"They are so not like what a Phantom Thief should be like." Keigo commented, sighing in slight disappointment. "But looking back at us, we're just the same... Just like everyone else, we're just mere human after all..."

"You know, your philosophical side is creeping me out." Shiho said, taking a small step back toward Akira. "Is the Shadow Operative always filled with peoples like you?"

"From what I see..." The brown-haired boy said, sweatdropping in the process. "...Yeah, maybe."

"I'm not going to admit or denied that claim..." The mixed-blood deadpanned, gesturing them to exit the train before it's too late. "And we're there."

Akira and Shiho shrugged in unison and exited the train, walking toward Madarame's shack with Ren's group in front of them.


[Shibuya, In front of Madarame's shack]

After walking through the crowded and noisy central street, Ren and his teammates finally reached the shack. It was old, very old. And a big contrast from the nicer house beside it.

They exchanged a hesitated look at each other. Ann looked down at the map on her phone. "We're in the right address..."

She looked at the door plate below the doorbell, it wrote 'Madarame' on it. "The door plate does say 'Madarame'."

"Uhh... You ring the bell." Ryuji suggested, putting his hands on her back and lightly pushed her toward the house.

"Me?!" Ann exclaimed in surprise, eyes widening. "The walls won't collapse when I do, will they...?"

"Maybe, but I'm not sure about that." Ren jokingly commented, shrugging.

"You're not helping at all, Ren." The model deadpanned, giving him a low glare.

They walked up to the house and Ann rang the doorbell. The speaker crackled. "Who is it? Sensei is currently busy."

"Um, it's Takamaki." She spoke to the speaker.

She heard a gasp from the speaker as she finished her sentence. "I'll be right out!"

before anyone could say a thing, the door slid open with a crack, revealing Yusuke. "Takamaki-San! You came!"

"Y-Yeah..." Ann awkwardly giggled, trying to be polite.

However, the artist's glance instantly changed into a more disappointed one as he noticed the appearance of Ren and Ryuji. "...You two are here, as well?"

"Hey." Ryuji greeted with a shit-eating grin on his face. "Sorry, but we ain't here to talk about the modeling thing. There's something we gotta ask you."

"Beg me pardon?" Yusuke asked, tilting his head in confusion.

He furrowed his brow. "Is it true Madarame's plagiarizin' stuff? He's abusin' people too, yeah?"

"Are you serious?" The young painter asked flatly, staring at him with an unimpressed face.

"We read about it online." Ren took out his phone and showed the forum post on the Phan-Site to him. "We're just concerned about you."

"This…?" Yusuke squinted at the post, crossing his arms. He held his forehead, his shoulders beginning to tremble.

"Uh..." Ann gave the two teens a creeped out glance. "This is creeping me out."

"Preposterous!" A few chuckles escaped him before transforming into full-on laughter. "Not only is the plagiarism impossible, but abuse? If he hated children so much to harm them, he would never allow pupils into his home!"

"And I'm the one residing here and studying under him. I'm saying it's not true, so it's beyond doubt." He finished, but he's right eyes twitched unintentionally as he stated that.

Ren caught the unusual twitching on his eye. 'So it's true...' He thought.

"OK... We'll not ask you about this for now." Backing down, Ren nodded. "Now, it's about Ann's modeling, right?"

"Yes." Yusuke nodded, guiding the three teens to his room in the shack.


A minute or two after Ren's group entering the shack, Akira and his teammates appeared at the walkway opposite of the shack. Akira opened his Meta-nav and ready to enter the palace again.

"So... They want to use Ann modeling to find any new information." Shiho sighed, pinching her nosebridge in frustration. "I swear to god. If Ann was in danger, I'm going to use Kitagawa as my personal spike training target."

"You've said it for the sixth time now, Shiho." Keigo deadpanned, sighing while crossing his arms.

"Keigo, just leave her be." Akira patted his shoulder, shrugging. "She'll be fine."

"But Akira..."

"I know." Sighing, The leader tapped at the navigation history. "Shiho, businesses first."

"Y-Yeah." Shiho quickly snapped back to the real-world, nodding. "Sorry about that."

Akira nodded and pressed the navigation button, sending the three to the Metaverse, vanishing in plain sight.

However, they didn't notice that a certain young lady was overhearing their conversation, watching them vanished in thin air.

"They did it again..." The young lady murmured, remembering their name and their school from the uniform. "Shiho... Keigo... Akira... Shujin Acadamy..."


[Madarame's palace, in front of the gold statue.]

"Great." Jester sighed in annoyance, looking down as he crossed his arms in front of himself. "Still closed."

"This is going nowhere." Roi looked around, trying to find an opened window or anything that'll create a new path. "Jester, did you found anything new to go?"

"I don't think so." Swan answered, equally frustrated as him. "Let's just go back..."

"As much as I hate this, but I think today is a no go as well." The leader commanded, leading the two toward the opened window in frustration.

However, as they're going to grapple themselves back toward the opened window, the sound of other thieves caused them to quickly hid into the shadow.

"Oh! The skylight's open!" Skull's cheerful voice echoed the empty museum. "I think we can get in here."

It was followed by Panther's hesitated reply. "But it's a pretty far drop...Will we be able to get back out this way?"

"Don't worry..." Mona snickered, seems to be taking something from his pocket. "I have a rope! I'm our tool specialist, after all!"

"Thanks, Mona." Joker thanked, tying one end of the rope to an AC unit and dropping the other in through the open skylight.

"By the way, Mona," Panther asked again. "where do you get your supplies?"

"It's my special Meowvery ability!" The feline thief said with sheer confidence.

"Oh, OK." The red thief sweatdropped.

Overhearing everything they said, Jester turned to his teammates and whispered. "I'm going to have a little talk with them, just find another way to proceed in the museum, OK?"

"You're serious?" Roi asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "There's no other way-"

"Maybe the pathway triggered when someone entered the shack in the real world." Swan interrupted, giving their leader a frim nod. "We'll be fine, even if we encountered some shadow."

"...I hope so." Jester nodded, patted her shoulder before jumping down, using the shadow from his tophat to mask his face.

The other thieves slide down from the rope, examining their surroundings. "...It's quiet. Almost too quiet." Mona commented.

"H-Hey..." Panther trailed off, looking at the portraits. "This…"

"It's...moving…" She commented hesitantly, walking up to one.

"C'mon, we're in a Palace." Skull refuted. "That ain't anything to be freakin' out over."

"Hm," Mona narrowed his large eyes. "The Palace reflects its ruler's heart...We may want to check these paintings out."

Seeing it as his opportunity, Jester decided to speak out, gaining their attention. "Those portraits are for Madarame's pupil."

"Huh?!" Even though visibly surprised by his appearance, but Skull quickly regained his composure. "Jester! Why are you here?!"

"We are also investigating Madarame." He explained, leaning to the wall behind him. "And you're not gonna like what you saw here."

"Wait, 'We'?" The punk caught the strange word he used, narrowing his eyes in question. "That means... You're not alone?"

"Of course! Remember Kamoshida's fight?" Jester deadpanned in the shadow. "Swan was there at the time."

"Oh yeah!" Panther exclaimed in realization, nodding. "I remember that!"

"Well, at least you're not as hopeless as seems." The tophat wearing thief jokingly remarked, putting both of his hands to the pockets on his trench coat. "Back to topic, Madarame only sees his pupils as product... and product only."

The group's eyes widened as he explained, looking back to those portraits in horror and anger. "Wait... Now it all makes sense now." Panther breathed, covering her mouth with a shivering hand.

"No way..." Joker murmured, turning to Jester. "You said that there's more of it... right?"

"Yeah..." He nodded, pointing at the doorway toward the statue. "Even though I don't want to let you guys see that... But you need to."

with that said, he fired his grappling hook, disappeared into the shadow.

"Hmm? You guys are back." He muttered in a slight surprise as he saw his teammates crouching beside him. "So... No?"

"Yeah, still locked." Swan sighed, looking at the opened skylight. "I think we'll come back tomorrow to see if any new development."

"I Agree." Roi agreed with a nod, readying his grappling hook. "Let's go back."

With a sigh, Jester agreed. "Yeah, let's go."


[18th May, Afterschool, Shibuya station.]

"So Mishima said Nakanohara is meeting us here..." Ren muttered, standing in the crowd of people and leaning on a pillar. "Ann, Ryuji, just wait for me at the hideout, OK?"

With a nod of confirmation, the other two left the scene and left the leader alone with Morgana watching his back from his shoulder bag. "Let's hope this works." The feline whispered.

After a few minutes of waiting, a familiar man with an unmistakable bowl cut in a suit walked up behind them. "...My name is Nakanohara. Natsuhiko Nakanohara," He mumbled. "The one who was posted about on the Phantom Aficionado Website."

'He seems nice, so the change of heart did work.' Ren thought, nodding slightly.

"The administrator of that website contacted me…" Nakanohara continued. "They told me to look for someone in a Shujin uniform with a cat."

"Well, you found the right person," Ren replied, crossing his arms in front of himself. "So, why are you contacting us?"

Nakanohara looked down for a moment, hesitated to what he's gonna say. "You may have already heard, but there's someone I wish to trigger a change of heart in." he took a deep breath.

"...An artist by the name of Madarame."

"OK." The thief nodded, listening closely to what he's going to say.

"I'm...one of Madarame's former pupils. He gave me lodging at his home, where I thought only about art. I genuinely wanted to be an artist…" He clenched his hands, looking away. "There was another pupil as well. A very talented man, multiple years my senior. Obviously, Madarame kept tabs on him. Everything he made was claimed as a Madarame original. He wasn't the only victim though…"

"In response to Madarame's actions...that senior pupil committed suicide."

Ren and Morgana's eyes widened as they heard the word coming out of Nakanohara's word. "That's more awful than I thought..."

"He must have been unable to bear seeing his work praised under Madarame's name… That was when I disobeyed Madarame's pleas and left." He looked away, clenching his hand in anger. "...But he quickly pressured other parts of the art world, and my life as a painter was destroyed."

"I tried to turn over a new leaf working at a ward office...but it was no use. My attachment to art warped my emotions. Soon I began getting attached to everything..." The teller hung his head, chuckling bitterly. "In the end, I even turned into a stalker…"

Ren only furrowed his bow in sympathy for him. 'He never meant to be a stalker... Just because of Madarame's action on him...'

"...I'd like to ask again. Please, make Madarame have a change of heart." He requested quietly. "Not only for me. It's...to save the life of another man as well."

"Even now, there is still one young man remaining under Madarame's tutelage. I think he's about your age."

"It's Kitagawa, right?" Ren asked, earning a surprised look from Nakanohara. "We've met him."

He quickly regained his compose, nodding. "I have no right to say this given my prior cowardice, but I don't want to see another suicide...!" He grimaced. "I'd like to find a way to save this young man. He has a bright future ahead of him...Please consider that when thinking about changing Madarame's heart." He bowed politely before turning away to leave. Ren also left soon afterward to the hideout.


[Madarame's palace]

"So they did something in the real world..." Jester muttered as he looked at the infrared laser at the bottom.

"Luckily, we have our grappling hook." Roi whispered, taking out his grappling hook. "Let go, shall we?"

The two nodded and changed their position to the other side. observing at the shadows below.

"Maybe we can help them to clear some shadow beforehand." The leader whispered, turning toward Swan. "Swan, can you do this?"

"Of course." She replied with a faint smile on her face, readying her grappling hook and aimed at the security. "I got some experience before."

She fired her hook and attached it directly to the back of the guard, pulling her self to there. "Greeting." The white thief whispered to its ear, ripping off its mask.

The other two quickly jumped down and rushed to her side while she jumped elegantly from the back of the shadow. The guard dissolved into a pile of black goo before transforming into two Night Walking Warriors.

"Fly high, Jeanne!" With no hesitation, Swan touched her mask and summoned the crystal Persona. "Giant Slice!"

Jeanne rushed to the shadow and sliced one of the Night Walking Warrior in half, taking this as his opportunity, Jester quickly followed up with his own attack.

"Blast them apart! Moriarty!" He shouted, holding his revolver with both of his hands while Moriarty mimicking his motion. "Revolver barrage!"

The two fired all twelve bullets from their revolver and hit the target with no misses, killing the shadow Jeanne sliced in half in the process.

"Persona!" Roi quickly shouted, running to the only shadow remain while the black rider appeared beside him. "Conqueror's Rush!"

A ray of green light surrounded him and he felt his body becoming lighter and faster. With a small smirk on his face, he rushed to the shadow and sliced it into pieces with his longsword, ending the battle.

"That was easy," Jester commented, reloading his revolver and putting it back to his holster. "Well, let's continue, shall we?"

the other two nodded, and they continued their infiltration toward the depth of the museum. Killing many shadows in the process and somehow didn't raise the alarm level.

A few moments after the three left the exhibition room and follow the hall right, they came across a large purple door. Jester glanced at the two with a raised eyebrow, seems to be asking for permission from them.

"Let's see what's in there." Roi nodded, taking his evoker out from his holster.

"After you." Swan added, taking her saber from her holster as well.

With a frim nod, he pushed open the purple door, only for the room to shudder for a moment before return to normal. Seeing this as a sign of saferoom, the leader sighed in relief. "Saferoom, fantastic."

"Saferoom?" Roi questioned, examing the surroundings while entering the room. "So there are places for us to take a rest in a palace?"

"Correct," Swan replied, sitting at the chairs in relaxation. "We should mark this room for quick travel in the future."

"Already done~," Jester said in a sing-song tone, stretching his arms. "Let's take a few minutes to break first."


In the meantime, the four thieves came into the museum via their ropes left, seeing the new security they were facing. "Well... That's new." Panther commented, examing the infrared laser devices.

"The rumors might slowly be making Madarame become warier of us…" Morgana said, turning toward their leader. "Joker! They're not easy to see, but you should be able to do it with your skills. Be careful!"

"I know." Joker nodded in understanding. Closing his eyes, he activities his third eye ability, seeing the red lines clearly. Running toward the gate, he swiftly slid underneath, avoiding the lasers perfectly.

The others followed his action soon afterward, Skull stumbling for a bit as he stood back up. The feline spotted a shadow coming in their way and quickly told everyone to hide behind a corner.

"Ready..." The leader muttered, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Once the guard was inside of his range, he jumped to the back of the shadow, gripping on its mask.

"Show me your true form!" He shouted, ripping the mask off before jumping off with a backflip. His teammates rushed to his side afterward, ready for a battle.

The shadow dissolved into a black pile before changing into two Girl of the Hanging Tree and one Leafy Old Man. With no hesitation, Joker fired his handgun to one female shadow, knocking her down.

Giving his opportunity to Skull, he did a high-five with him, passing the baton. With a smirk on his face, the punk thief summoned the pirate. "Captain Kidd! Headbutt!"

The pirate slammed itself to the Leafy Old Man, killing it instantly. "Panther! Your turn!" Skull shouted, looking back toward the red thief.

"I know!" Panther exclaimed with sheer confidence, summoning Carmen behind her. "Dance Carmen! Maragi!"

Carmen fired a barrage of fireball toward the two shadows, but the fireballs got repelled and headed directly to the user herself. "Wha-"

Before she can finish her word, Skull suddenly jumped toward her from aside, pushing themselves away from the fireballs. They rolled on the ground for a moment before stopping with the pirate on top of the red thief.

Even though Mona was a bit relieved as he saw Skull saved her from the fire attack, but he quickly turned his attention back to the battle on hand. "Show them what you've got! Zorro!"

Zorro swung his rapier and sent a wave of razor-sharp wind to the two shadows, finally killing them.

Once the battle was over, Joker turned to both Skull and Panther with a worrying glance, jogging toward them. "Hey! You guys alright-"

He interrupted himself as he saw the situation they were in-They were frozen in their position, staring at each other's eyes in complete silence. Sighing, he put both of his hand to the pirate's shoulder and pull him up, signaling Mona to help Panther to get up.

"Hey, bro." He said, poking Skull's shoulder. "Are you coming back to the land of the living?"

"H-Huh?" The pirate finally shook out from his state of zoning out, looking back at Joker with slight embarrassment. "Oh s-sorry, just zonin' out for too long."

Joker studies the look on his face, eyes darting between Panther and him before realizing something. With a smirk on his face, he patted his teammate's shoulder with a nod.

"Panther, it's lucky that Skull was just in time to save you. You should be careful." Mona sighed, looking at his feet. "I wish that person is me..." He muttered quietly and didn't get heard by Panther.

"Well... Yeah, I should be more careful." The red thief said with a faint blush on her face, luckily covered by her mask. "J-Joker! I think we should get going now!"

Surprised by her sudden request, the leader hesitated for a moment before nodding, leading the trio deeper into the museum.


After a few-minute break, the three thieves of Le Fool continued their infiltration and came across a huge golden in the middle of the room. "Umm... Why would a golden vase be in here for no reason?" Roi questioned, tilting his head toward the other two.

"It's a trap, I think." Jester shrugged, decided to continue their infiltration.

They exited the room with the golden vase, set out across the room and down the hallway, turning the corner. Unfortunately, the rest of the hall was blocked with infrared beams.

"No go... Huh." Jester muttered, noticing at the ledge to their way. "Let's try that way."

They jumped up onto the rim. Looking out into the next room, they saw a security guard roam the barren exhibit and a large hole in the middle of the ground.

"uh... No go either?" Swan sighed, looking at his teammates for another suggestion.

"Wait a minute. Look!" Roi replied, pointing at the guards who were standing at the 'hole'.

"It's an optical illusion." Jester concluded, jumping down and ambushing the enemy.

Jumping to the back of one of the guards, Roi gripped at the edge of the mask. "Bonjour." He whispered, ripping off the mask while Jester ripping off the other guard's mask.

Finishing the two shadows off, they looked around and saw two bathrooms aside. Nodding to each other in slight awkwardness, the two male thieves explored the men's bathroom while Swan investigated the women's bathroom.

"Nothing here." Jester shrugged as he saw nothing in here, turning back. "Let's head back out-" However, his word was interrupted someone's voice suddenly rang from outside, catching their attention.

"The hell?!" It was Skull, obviously. "How're we supposed to get past this huge hole in the ground!"

"Oh man..." Swan commented with a disappointed sigh, peeking from the entrance of the bathroom. "what should we do?"

"Maybe we can throw something to show them that it's an optical illusion." Jester murmured, as if he is answering her. "But what should we throw?"

"A card or some sort." Roi replied, pointing at his notebook in his pocket. "Just make a paper plane or something, come on."

"I guess." He shrugged, peeling an empty page from his notebook and folded it to a paper plane. "Let's hope it hits the mark."

He threw the paper plane from the bathroom, internally hoping that it'll land on the 'hole'. Luckily, it landed perfectly on that and caught the other thieve's eyes.

"A paper plane? Why is it her-" Joker interrupted himself as he saw where the plane landed on, widening his eyes in realization. "Oh! It's just an optical illusion after all... I'm stupid."

"No you're not." Mona sweatdropped, jumping down to the ground with the others following him.

Seeing this as their opportunity, the trio quickly fired their grappling hook and pulled themselves into the shadow, continuing their infiltration.


Using their grappling hook to skip past some locked doors and security measures, they reached an open garden and a golden monolith of a building at the end of the walkway. That building was composed of multiple golden blocks, stacked haphazardly in random, reaching into the night sky.

Looking at the map they acquired, Jester raised his eyebrow. "That building is not on the map."

"So we're on the right track." Swan replied, smirking faintly.

They ran in the direction of the building and the bamboo painted shoji doors parted, opening a path toward the building. "That's interesting..." Roi commented, marveled at the mechanics.

However, Their way was blocked by several red electric fences, static filling the air. And behind it was another large shoji door with painted peacock feathers decorating its surface.

"Well... There's must be something worth protecting ahead." The leader commented, putting the map back in his pocket. "But I think grappling hook won't work this time."

"Why?" Swan asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Look." Roi answered, pointing at the infrared device on top of the shoji door. "We can't just jump over there, it has to be by opening this door."

"That sucks." She sighed in frustration, putting her hands in her hip. "Than how can we open the door?"

"No clue at all." Jester answered, shaking his head. "Let's head back for now, we'll find a new way to continue tomorrow-"

His word was interrupted as he saw four figures running toward them and quickly signaled the others to hide. They hid behind the underbrushes aside, overhearing their conversation.

The four thieves ran through, stopping in front of the red electric fences. "Whoa! The hell?!" Skull yelped.

"Are these...infrared lasers? There's no way we can get past them…" Panther trailed off, biting her lips.

"This level of security only proves there's something worth protecting up ahead." Mona commented, narrowing his eyes.

Joker noticed a plaque that was stood to the side like an information sign and walked up to it. "'All personnel: This door can only be opened via the security room that lies beyond it. Please be cautious, as it is impossible to open from the outside.'" he read.

Overhearing their mention about the plaque, Swan and Roi turned to Jester and glaring at him. "How can you miss that." They mouthed.

"You guys miss that too!" He mouthed back, trying his best to stay quiet.

Furrowing his brow, Skull stomped the ground in frustration. "So it's never gonna open?! How're we supposed to get past..?!"

"No idea at all." Their leader sighed, taking off his mask to pinch his nosebridge. "What can we do now..."

"Wait." Mona called out, eyes locked on the large door that blocked their path. "That door...I think I've seen that pattern somewhere…"

Panther tilted her head in confusion. "Where? Is it from your memories?"

"No, nothing like that..." Mona trailed off for a moment before perking up. "Oh right! There's no mistaking it! That's the same door I saw earlier!"

"Huh?" The other three questioned in unison.

"Guys, let's head back!" He shouted, turning back toward the pond.

"Why?!" Skull questioned exasperatedly, looking at the feline quizzically with his teammates.

"I think I know what real-world door that's based on. There may be another way to open it!" Mona replied. "In any case, I'll explain later! Come on, let's go!"

"Maybe he does have a plan." Joker shrugged before following him.

Panther and Skull looked at each other questioningly for a moment, finally decided to follow them as well. Seeing no solution for now, the trio of Le Fool also left the palace, using their grappling hook to exit the palace before them.


[The real world, Shibuya Station Central Street]

Once the trio of Le Fool was back to the real world, they quickly walked back to the train station, discussing their next step.

"So now we can only wait." Akira sighed. "This is not going nowhere..."

Shiho nodded, pinching her nosebridge in frustration. "But how can we know that they successfully opened the door?" She asked.

"No idea." Keigo replied.

The three sighed in unison, continuing their walk to the station.

Until someone's voice suddenly rang from behind, interrupting them.

"You three are the Phantom Thief, right?"

"Huh?" They turned toward the source of that voice, eyes widening in horror.

It was that young woman wearing a normal Kosei uniform, the one who was observing them in secret. "You three are from Shujin... That school where the Phantom Thief appeared."

"Now Madarame's name was on the Phantom Aficionado Website, you are targetting him, right?" She finished, showing them the moment they entered the Metaverse on her phone.

"This is bad, very bad." Keigo murmured, swallowing in nervousness.

"Akira..." Shiho whispered to the brown-haired boy, unsure of what to do. "What should we do?"

"I don't know..." Akira trailed off, widening his eyes further as he recognized who is the young lady in front of them. "Wait! No way..."

"You're... Hifumi Togo!"


With that, chapter 14 of P5: Another Thief concludes! thank you for reading!

The trio of Le Fool was caught red-handed by Hifumi, what does she want from them? Will they able to defuse this situation? With Madarame's palace occupying their schedule, they couldn't do another palace in the meantime... right?

Hope you would enjoy this story so far, reviews are welcome!