[26th of May, the hideout.]

"Everyone's here?" Ren said, glancing at everyone and nodded to himself as he saw everyone's here.

He turned to Hifumi who was leaning against the railing. "Hifumi... I know it's hard for you-"

"You don't need to reassure me, Ren-Kun." The shogi player interrupted him, her somber look was replaced by a determined one. "I had made my resolve."

"How splendid..." Yusuke muttered to himself, instantly taking out his painting album to draft. "The look of determination! Now excuse me, I want to capture this moment."

"Uh... Yusuke, we're in the middle of a meeting..." Ren tried to snap him back to the real world. However, seeing that he was totally invested in his painting, he decided to leave him be.

Keigo sweatdropped. "She's scary..." He whispered to Akira, unintentionally taking a step away from her. "Why everyone girl we met is a freaking psycho..."

"How would I know?" Akira whispered back, shifting his collar to let some air in. "But that's the charm in them..."

Ryuji sweatdropped as he overheard them. "Dude, you're so weird..." He murmured.

"Coming from a guy who had a crush on a dominatrix." The persudo-detective said in retort, narrowing his eyes.

"Comin' from a guy who had a childish crush on a-"

Akira interrupted him with a tense glare. "Don't you even dare to finish that sentence."

Their stare contest was interrupted by both Shiho and Ann. "Uhh..." They started in unison, eyes darting between the two teens before turning back to each other. "You handle Akira/ You handle Ryuji."

The two nodded and forcefully took the two boys away from each other. After getting some distance, Shiho turned Akira around and narrowed her eyes at him, crossing her arms. "What are you doing?"

"Uh..." The persudo-detective froze, trying his best to find a word to respond. "Just had some disagreement with Ryuji, that's pretty much it."

"But you kinda overreacted..."

"Maybe..." Akira shrugged, shifting his focus to Ren. "Um... Ren, how long are we going to be stuck in here?"

"You don't need to worry about that anymore." Ren replied, taking out his phone and opened the Meta-Nav. "Let's do this."

He tapped the phone and the scene around them warped, purple and red surrounded them, sending them to the palace.


[Mitsuyo's palace, entrance]

Different than how Kamoshida and Madarame's palace, the air was significantly lighter, almost felt like what it used to be. However, the red aura surrounded the palace and the slight change said otherwise.

"It felt less intimating than Madarame..." Fox muttered. "Is it because Mitsuyo's shadow had been anticipating us?"

"It's a possibility." Jester agreed, giving Joker a glance before tapping his phone, teleporting everyone to the nearest saferoom.

[10th floor]

Once the thieves entered the final floor, they were greeted by Mitsuyo's shadow. Holding a paper fan over her face, she narrowed her eyes at the thieves, especially on Majesty.

"I've been waiting for you." The shadow said. "All of you."

Jester sweatdropped, holding his revolver under his trench coat ."Um... Joker." He whispered. "It felt weird here..."

"Yeah." Joker agreed.

Majesty took a few hesitant steps forward. "Mother, I don't want to fight you." She said. "Please, just give us the treasure to us..."

"Majesty, this won't work..." Swan muttered out loud.

"The shadow is too unpredictable!" Mona added, hesitating at whether rushed forward or not. "We don't know what she'll do to us!"

"And the treasure is nowhere to be seen." Fox said, looking around the room to find the treasure they were looking for.

"The treasure is in my hand now." Mitsuyo announced, holding a small notebook with her free hands to show it. "If you thieves want to get them, I'm afraid that you need to fight me to get it."

"What did you tell us about it?" Roi questioned, shifting his hats to get a better sight.

"I don't know either." The shadow answered, trying her best to hide the fact that she was holding off from killing them. Ever since the calling card, the grief, and anger toward Hifumi from her real self have been effecting her in a bad way. "But I think... our fight is inevitable..."

Majesty took another step forward, glancing at her with worry. "Mother? Are you OK?"

"My real self has been affecting me since the calling card..." The shadow murmured, clenching her head in pain. "P-stand back! I-I don't want to..."

"She's going out of control!" Mona exclaimed, rushing forward to pull Majesty back. "I don't want to say this but... I think the only way is to defeat her."

"Everyone, ready for anything!" Joker commanded, readying his dagger and changed into a fighting stance. "This is going to be a tough fight!"

The shadow shook her head in pain. "I don't want to... I... I'll kill all of you!" She shouted in a distorted voice, her body started to be covered by black goos.

The shadow emerged from the black goos and float in the air, holding a katana in her hand. Her kimono was replaced by white samurai armor and her black hair floating behind her and spreading, strikingly similar to Oichi. "Now, let finish this, once and for all!"

With no hesitation, Joker touched his mask and summoned Matador. "Swift strike!" He commanded, and the bullfighter swung its saber, striking her for a few times.

Taking his chance, Roi touched his mask and summoned his Persona. "Napoleon, Frei!" The rider pointed his sword forward, sending a few orbs of nuclear energy and hit the shadow.

The shadow grunted in anger, swinging his katana sideway and sent a shockwave through the whole floor, knocking everyone back. Then a light orb appeared her left hand and she crushed it, a red aura covered her and boosted her attack.

"She just boosted her attack!" Mona exclaimed, eyes glancing at everyone. "We need to be more cautious!"

"You don't need to tell me 'bout it!" Skull shouted, crossing his arms at his face and summoned Captain Kidd. "Whip 'em, Persona!" The pirate pointed its hand cannon to the sky and fired, a barrage of lightning struck her.

Aiming his revolver at the shadow's head, Jester touched his mask and summoned Moriarty. "Crimson Shot, that'll be its name." He whispered, smirking as his revolver started to be infused with curse energy and glow in red. Once the revolver's glow was the brightest, he instantly pulled the trigger and fired all round to the shadow.

The bullets hit their target right in the torso and exploded, knocking the shadow back to the ground.

Dashing forward at full speed, Majesty touched her mask and Oichi materialized next to her. "Agilao!" The biker-like woman raised her hand, sending a large blast of fire to the shadow.

Following Majesty's attack, Swan aimed her sniper rifle at the shadow's head, finger on the trigger. However, she was interrupted as the shadow suddenly generated a purple orb in her hand and threw it into the air.

Noticing the orb split into multiple smaller ones and flying toward them, Joker quickly raised his hand in front of him. "Everyone! Guard!"

The others quickly raised their hands up to guard. The orbs hit the ground around them and exploded, knocking Panther and Fox down to the ground. Jester flew and hit the wall from the shockwave, coughing and grunting in pain. Joker was barely able to keep himself straight from the damage he took.

He turned to Mona, who was in a bit better shape than him. "Mona, we need healing." He breathed, panting hard as he talks.

"I know." The feline nodded, summoning Zorro. "Media." He commanded, and a white and green aura surrounded the thieves, and they felt the pain lessened.

"Jeanne, Requiem of Rebellion." Swan breathed and her Persona sung, sending another wave of white light to everyone, further healing everyone.

"One strike and we're like this..." Jester murmured himself, struggling to stand straight. "Guys! We need to finish this ASAP!"

"I know!" Panther and Swan exclaimed in unison, giving each other a glance before raising their firearms.

"Hey Panther, remember what Jester just did to his revolver?" Swan asked, touching her mask and summoning Jeanne. "I think it's kinda interesting."

"Maybe." Panther smiled, summoning the crimson dancer as well. "Infusing our elemental power to our guns? That's awesome!"

Both with a smirk on their faces, the two Persona cast Agi and Kouga to their guns. "White Out!" Swan announced, firing her light-infused sniper rifle to the shadow's head.

"Scarlet Inferno!" Panther pulled the trigger, spraying the burning bullet to the shadow as well.

Following their attack, Fox pulled out his katana and his masked disappeared with blue frame. "This is my other self!" Goemon held his opium pipe like a sword, swung it down and sent a shockwave to the shadow, destroying the wall behind her in the process. The distorted sky contrast with the bright lighting of the palace.

Noting that the shadow's buff just gone out, Panther instantly followed Fox. "Get ready!" She summoned Carmen, and an orb of red and purple surrounded the shadow, causing her attack to be weakened.

"Show your might, Zorro!" Mona exclaimed, sending a wave of wind toward the shadow.

"I'll show you my resolve!" Majesty rushed forward, slashing Mitsuyo for a few times with her naginata before summoning Oichi. "Queen's Dance!" Oichi threw her hoops at the shadow and jumped, sending another wave of hoops at the old one returned.

"Go forth!" Roi raised his hand forward, his mask disappeared and Napoleon appeared behind him. "Sub Zero Blast!" The rider pointed his sword high, sending a barrage of ice and froze the shadow. Pointing his evoker at the ice-covered shadow, waves of Nuclear energy infused with it and the silver pistol shined in light blue.

With a smirk on his face, he squeezed the trigger and fired. A large blast of nuclear ray traveled in light speed and struck Mitsuyo, breaking the ice and knocking the shadow down.

Grunting in pure rage and pain, Mitsuyo struggled to stand up straight. "I'll kill all of you, you disgusting thieves! DO YOU HEAR ME!" Holding a red and black orb in her hand in front of her face, she crushed it in an instant.

The orb burst and covered her, with a heartwrenching scream of pain, another shockwave struck everyone, knocking everyone back again. "I've had enough! It's MY TURN NOW!"

Before anyone can react to what just happened, the shadow dashed forward in unimaginable speed, impaling Swan's torso with her katana. Her white outfit started to be covered by blood-red.

Widening his eyes in shock, Jester shouted.

"SWAAAAN-"

"Sub Zero Blast!"

"H-huh?!" Snapping back to reality from what just happened, Jester turned to the royal thief, remembering the scene that happened before him. "Wait, ain't Roi just used this a few seconds ago-"

"I'll kill all of you, you disgusting thieves! DO YOU HEAR ME!"

Widening his eyes again at the familiar lines, Jester realized what really just happened to him. "D-did I just see the future agai-"

Feeling the shockwave hit him again, the black thief dashed toward the white thief, knocking the shadow's katana away from her with his scythe. "Just in time..." He said between panting, tightening his grip on his weapon. "I'm not going to let you hurt Swan, no matter what!"

"Fox, I need more speed!"

"Got it!" Fox nodded, summoning the Japanese dancer and buffed his speed.

With no other word said, Jester swung his scythe with incredible speed, sparks flying everywhere from the katana and the scythe. The two continued their duel for a while longer before Jester got knocked down by her, crashing to the wall as he was thrown by the shadow. However, he quickly got up with serious difficulties and Mona quickly healed him.

Fortunately, the two's attack had almost costed every extra energy Mitsuyo got from her move. Panting in exhaustion, she kneeled down, using her katana to support herself.

Taking this as their opportunity, Joker commanded everyone to fired everything they got. "Now!"

"Aesene! Eiga!"

"Captain Kidd! Mazio!"

"Carmen! Maragi!"

"Zorro! Garu!"

"Goemon! Bufu!"

"Moriarty! Wind of Death!"

"Jeanne! White Out!"

"Napoleon! Frei!"

"Oichi! Psi!"

Barraged by everyone's attack, Mitsuyo finally got knocked down hard, signaling the thieve's victory.

"It's over... finally..." Skull breathed, using his knees to support himself. "She's hella strong..."

"Mother..." Majesty took a few steps forward, kneeling down at her mother's defeated shadow. "You're OK?"

Turning back to her earlier form, Mitsuyo gave her a hesitant look before nodding. "I... I'm sorry, my real self's hatred and grief got the better of me..."

"You gave us a hard fight, that's for sure." Roi commented, sitting down on the floor.

"I planned to have a talk with you, princess." The shadow explained, avoiding her gaze. "To make up for those times..."

"You don't need to be sorry for that, mother." Majesty reassured her, lifting up her mask and smiled somberly. "We'll make up for our lost times, we'll find a way."

"Prines-" Mitsuyo paused herself in mid-sentence, leaning closer and hugged her daughter. "I'm sorry for everything... Hifumi." She whispered, voice cracking as her tears started to overwhelm her.

"I'm really sorry..."

The other thieves watched them embracing each other in silence, smiling faintly at the sight.

However, Jester bit his lips and looked away, taking his mask off and wiped the tears building up in his eyes. Swan noted his unusual behavior and took his hands to calm him down.

"Thinking about your parents?" She whispered.

He just nodded in response.

Swan bit her lips as she remembered what happened to his parents. Knowing that words won't do anything now, she embraced him in a motherly way, going unnoticed by the other thieves.

After a few seconds, Jester pushed himself from the embrace, smiling faintly while the tears stop building in his eyes. "Thanks..."

Swan just nodded in response, and the two turned their attention back to Majesty and the shadow.

"Even though I had been hesitant on whether giving you the treasure or not..." The shadow released herself from the embrace, taking out the notebook and gave it to Majesty. "But now... I think I should give it back to you."

Majesty took the notebook and observed it, widening her eyes as she remembered what this notebook was. "I-it's father's notebook..."

"I told you that I want to 'forget the past'... But I lied." Mitsuyo said, giving her the paper fan in addition. "Also... I don't want you to forget our past too."

The thief opened the paper fan and saw the portrait of both of them with Mamoru around, wiping tears building up in her eyes. "I'll not forget about it, I promise."

The shadow nodded, struggling to stand up straight and turned to the other thieves. "You're doing this for Hifumi, right?"

Seeing the nod from everyone (Especially from Le Fool), she smiled. "Thank you... for being her friends."

"But there's something else I want you to be careful for." She said, her attitude suddenly changed from thankful to worried. "I know you are doing this for justice.. but not everyone is like this."

"There's someone with power like yours, and he used it to cause havoc and killing." The shadow continued, seeing the thieves tensed from her words. "From your reaction, I think you already know about that person, right?"

"Are you talking about the black mask?" Joker asked. "We heard about him from Madarame's shadow."

"You're right." She nodded, looking down for a moment before glancing at everyone again. "Please, promise me that you'll protect Hifumi from any danger."

Before anyone can say or do anything to respond to her, Fox stood up and nodded determinately. "We'll keep her safe, you don't need to worry about her ma'am."

Mitsuyo nodded with a small smile, gesturing them to the broken wall behind her. "I think you should leave from there... The palace will crumble once I return to my real self, right?"

"Yeah." Joker nodded.

he led everyone, including Majesty, toward the broken wall. Mona transformed into his bus form and everyone entered. Majesty took a glance back to her mother, they smiled at each other and Mitsuyo covered herself in white light, fading out to nothing.

Hearing the palace started to crumble, Majesty jumped into the bus and they drove at full speed, returning back to the real world.


[Real world, PT's hideout.]

Once everyone's back into the hideout, Hifumi reached her bag and took out the treasures they took. She opened the notebook and saw the notes of their endgames, the journals, and a portrait of them.

"Another mission accomplished." Ren sighed in content. "We do need a break after this one..."

"Yeah..." Shiho agreed, crouching down in exhaustion. "But what should we do to celebrate?"

"Last time we had a buffet in the Hilton..." Ann trailed off, furrowing her brow as she pondered for a new option. "Maybe we should go somewhere more expensive than Hilton!"

"No, never." Ryuji deadpanned. "We're not even enough to cover Hilton! Especially with how many we are now..."

"Akira's mouthy allowance is enough, right?" Ann smiled and turned to Akira, only to see that he was fully in deep thought about something. "Akira?"

Akira, on the other hand, was pondering what just happened with his vision about the future. 'I saw the future again... Just like back when Mishima was about to be hit by the volleyball, and when Shiho tried to... suicide...' he thought.


[13th April, a few minutes before Mishima got hit.]

Akira was sitting next to Ann, trying his best to ignore the whispers behind them. However, the screaming from the crowd startled him.

Mishima just got hit from a spike of Kamoshida. His head snapped back and collapsed to the ground. Shivering uncontrollably.

Kamoshida stood there for a moment, staring down at the blue-haired student with a frown before crossing the court. "Hey! Are you all right?" He called out, kneeling next to the boy, pulling him up into a sitting position. He looked out towards the students.

"Someone! Take him to the nurse's office-"

"Yeah... I don't know why, but please don't leave her alone."

'H-huh?' Akira snapped back to reality, eyes darting around before calming himself. "I know... Kamoshida hit on you again?" He quickly responded, his eyes stuck onto Kamoshida, waiting for the moment to change the future.

"Always..."

"Not good... let's hope that he won't have your phone number at any moment." Akira sighed heavily, mumbled quietly to himself. "That bastard... Think that he is a king of the castle of some sort..."

Seeing that Ann didn't answer her, the persudo-detective kept silent and stared at Kamoshida. And then, the PE teacher jumped and ready to strike.

With no other word said, he instantly got up from his seat and dashed to the playground. Pushing Mishima away from the ball and taking the ball for himself. He quickly served the ball towards the net and jumped, even higher than Kamoshida and strike.

"J...Just in time."


[15th April, Morning]

After yesterday's event insist on Kamoshida and Shiho, Akira only felt tense about what might happen to Shiho. Seeing her walking in front of him, he jogged forward and tapped her shoulder.

"Shiho?"

The volleyball turned around and widened her eyes at the sight of her old friends. However, there's something more that concerned him.

Her eyes were empty, empty like a bottomless void.

"Oh, good morning Akira." She said in a monotonous voice. "I'm fine."

"B-but... you don't look like fine..."

"I'm fine, Akira." She smiled, only to make him even more concerned. "You don't need to worry about me, not anymore."

Before he can say anything, Shiho turned around and continued her walk.

Even though he's more worry about her than before, Akira sighed and continued his walk as well.

He was in the middle of Ushimaru's class when someone suddenly called out. "Hey...What's that...?"

"Enough! This is a classroom!"

"Wait...She's going to jump...!"

Mishima stood up, getting a glimpse through the windows. "Suzui...?" He whispered, eyes wide.

His head perked up in horror, exactly at the same time as Ann. "Shiho?!" The two exclaimed in horror, before running out of the classroom, pressing against the hallway windows.

It was Shiho, standing at the edge of the rooftop, looking down to the ground underneath her.

Akira widened his eyes in fear. "No no no no no no!" He instantly dashed toward the stairs, but the screaming of the crowd startled him, especially the one from Ann.

"don't tell me that I'm too late..." He trailed off, rushing back to the windows to only see... The lifeless body of Shiho.

"NO-"

"You don't need to worry about me, not anymore."

"Huh?" Akira snapped back to reality again, looking at the soon-to-be-dead girl in from him. 'Did I just saw the future again?' He thought.

Now know what'll happen in the future, Akira decided to follow her and skipped those classes. And what happened next... Is history.


[26th May, PT's Hideout.]

"So I did saw the future... but why?" He thought out loud, not noticing the weird look from Ann and the others.

Ann hesitated for a second before tapping his shoulder. "Um... Earth to Akira?"

"What?" He perked his head up, finally remembering that he was still in the hideout. "Oh, what are we talking about earlier?"

"We are discussing how to celebrate our successful mission." Shiho explained, crossing her arms. "You're OK?"

"Wait, ain't we celebrated Madarame's mission by that dinner at my place?" He asked, tilting his head in confusion. "And we're not going to Hilton again, right?"

"Nah, that's too much for us." Ryuji shrugged, leaning his back to the railing. "We've agreed on havin' a hot pot at Renren's place, and you're the only one who still didn't decide to agree or not."

"Hot pot?" The persudo-detective raised an eyebrow for a moment, before nodding in agreement. "Yeah, I'm fine with it."

Smiling at his response, the model clapped her hands together. "Now that's set! We're going to have a hot pot as a celebration!"

"Boss is going to kill me..." Ren jokingly sighed, but he still held a smile on his face. "But let's call it a day, we should have some rest."

The group nodded and separated toward their homes. However, Shiho stopped in mid-way and turned around, keeping her eyes at Akira's back for a while before turning back.

During that battle, when Mitsuyo's shadow was about to hit her and Akira saved her, she felt something different about him.

He's not... familiar.

She can feel that there's not Moriarty inside him.

She felt something else in him, a dangerous one.


And with that, chapter 23 of P5: Another Thief concludes! thank you for reading!

So yeah, Akira can see the future, but only to the tragedy or loss of life that's going to happen. And that's because of that 'it' Mitsuru mentioned.

If you didn't notice, he always said "Just in time" when he changed something from the future. ;)

But, instead of a gift to him... I think this is a curse from the past for him.

And this is going to tied to what exactly happened to him in the past.

Anyway, I hope you would enjoy this story so far, reviews are welcome!