"This place looks pretty creepy," Arisu noted as I led her and Shen to Untouchable.

"It'll be fine," I told them. "Iwai-san is a little scary, but as long as you appreciate guns to some extent, he's mostly okay."

Shen looked a little skeptical. "I don't really like guns. They're too bulky, too noisy."

I shrugged. "Well, I don't really care for them that much either. But maybe we'll be able to find something for Arisu at least that'll deal more damage to Shadows. Heck, you never know what you might find. After all, he does have a fair selection of melee weapons."

But as I opened the door, the first thing we noticed was the pair of shady guys who were confronting Iwai-san over the counter. "...how the Phantom Thieves would react if they lost their primary weapons manufacturer," Iwai was saying.

The two shady guys visibly flinched at this statement. "You're bluffing," one of them said quietly, as though he didn't quite believe it.

"Problem, Iwai-san?" I asked him, leading my friends up to the counter.

"This isn't any of your business, kid. Get lost," the other thug ordered in a voice he probably thought was intimidating.

I gave him a bored look, raised my right hand, and snapped my fingers, summoning a ball of fire above my fingers. The two shady guys' eyes widened as I leaned back against the wall of the shop and started to play with it, tossing it between my hands. "I'm not entirely sure if this matter is my business, but when you talk to me like that, I certainly want to make it my business."

The two thugs were clearly frightened now, and they started to back away. "The offer still stands," the first one told Iwai.

"Said it before, and I'll say it again," Iwai countered. "I've got a good thing going here, and I don't need your deal."

The man made a noise of frustration before turning to leave, before evidently realizing that my friends and I still stood in front of the door. I glanced at Shen and Arisu, neither of whom looked even the slightest bit afraid of the two potentially dangerous men, and closed my fist around the fireball, extinguishing it. Arisu and Shen stepped back and away from the door, allowing the two men to hurry out of the little shop of guns. I briefly caught one of them mutter under his breath, "...damn kids so terrifying these days…" before the door slammed behind him.

"Well, kid," Iwai said to me once they were gone, "I have to admit, that was actually pretty good timing."

"Don't sweat it," I told him. "I've got a couple of friends though who would like a look at your stock, see if there's anything they fancy."

"Feel free to look," Iwai told me. "You at least know the difference between a shotgun and a rifle though now, right?"

"Shotguns fire shells loaded with shot or slugs," I answered promptly, "and rifles fire bullets."

Iwai smirked at me. "Heh. Looks like you're not hopeless after all. Just this once, I'll give you a small discount, both for being that kid's friend and for your assistance earlier."

"Much thanks," I told him before turning my attention to my friends. Arisu was looking at several model rifles, while Shen was looking at a display of knives with a displeased expression.

"You prefer something longer, right?" I asked him.

Shen sighed. "Yeah. Everything in this shop is too… modern for me. I prefer the classics. Swords and lances and bows."

"If you're looking for a ranged weapon, would a boomerang be better?" I asked innocently.

Shen glared at me. "Don't even start with the boomerang jokes. I got them all the time back in middle school. And I will not repeat them now because middle schoolers are very crude and stupid."

"I feel that," I told him. "For me, it was grade school that basically everyone paid attention to me for all the wrong reasons. I was always the most booksmart person in the class, but I also had no idea how to make friends with anyone. Once my family moved to Japan and I started going to middle school here, I decided to just settle for being ignored."

"Hence all the 'I don't exist' jokes, right?"

"Yeah. Something like that."

Shen suddenly grinned at me. "Well, on a somewhat lighter note, remember the day we met and I didn't know you were a Persona-user?" When I nodded he continued, "Well, one of the girls who started talking to me after school that day admitted she was interested in you."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Was it for me or just my flashy powers?"

Shen shrugged. "I dunno. You'll probably just have to ask her."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What's your game, Yang?"

Shen rolled his eyes at me. "You do realize you'd be able to get more friends if you just tried, right?"

I opened my mouth to object, but I stopped myself. I remembered Ren's words that bonds would make my Wild Card powers stronger. So instead of complaining that it wasn't that easy, I just told Shen, "If you're willing to help me with that."

Shen grinned at me. "Anytime, mate. Just give me the word and I'll come running. That's what friends are for, right?"

"The same goes for you," I told him. And as I'd hoped, I heard Saraiah's voice in the back of my mind once again.

I am thou, thou art I...

Manifest hast been thine vow...

Reforge thy soul and seize thy future with thine own hands...

The birth of the Magician Arcana shall give thee the power to open thy wings to freedom...

When the voice ended, Shen's eyes suddenly widened as he caught sight of something on a different shelf. "Hey! Now this is more my speed!" he exclaimed, picking it up. The device appeared to be a sort of crossbow that strapped onto a person's arm. The straps were velcro, and the bow was plastic, but it would still probably be effective against Shadows.

Arisu and Iwai-san looked up from discussing Arisu's new rifle at Shen's shout. "Going for that?" Iwai-san asked. "You know that's just a prototype. It only takes three shots at a time yet."

"It'll still do for a ranged weapon for me for now," Shen insisted. "I admit, I don't really care for guns, but this crossbow is definitely my kind of thing."

Iwai shrugged. "Fine by me as long as you got the money. Judging by how the Phantom Thieves kept coming back every time I started bringing in new models, you guys are going to probably be wanting new weapons as you get stronger, so I'll make sure to have upgrades in stock next time you guys come through here."

Shen grinned from ear to ear. "Thank you very much, sir!"

Iwai looked at me. "How's Kojima these days, kid?"

I gave a fake grimace. "He's a sour old man, but he made me a set of claws, and agreed to teach me to smith on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"Heh. He hasn't changed," Iwai laughed as he accepted Arisu and Shen's payments.

The bell above the door rang softly behind us as someone new entered the shop. "Hey, Dad!" came a youthful voice belonging to a soft-faced young man with scholarly glasses. He was about my age, and came alongside a friend, another young man who seemed to be even scrawnier than me, with thin, short brown hair and dark eyes. He looked around with interest, though his expression was mostly dead.

Iwai-san's face brightened as he noticed his son. "Kaoru! Who's your friend?"

Kaoru motioned to the thin boy. "This is Akio Fujita. He's a friend from school."

Fujita bowed to Iwai-san. "Good to meet you." His tone was formal and quiet.

"Feel free to look around," Iwai-san invited. "These guys were just finishing up."

"Dad, there's no need to kick them out-"

He came up short as I let out a short laugh. "You walked in just as we finished paying. We got no problems with getting out of your dad's hair. Besides," I turned back to my team, "we should use what time we have to practice before tonight's Shadow hunting session."

Fujita did a double take and Kaoru choked at my words, but Iwai-san just nodded solemnly. He looked over at Shen, who was running his hands and eyes all over his new arm crossbow, taking in every detail. "You need me to teach you how to use that thing, kid?"

Shen pressed the trigger at the back of the weapon, producing a loud click as the mechanism released. He grinned at Iwai. "Nah, I think I'm good."

That afternoon, I received a text from Ren that Mitsuru-san had called a meeting of Persona-users and to come to the Thieves' Den because the conversation would involve me. Naturally, after that conversation, I was off to Leblanc, and as it so happened, I met someone on the way.

"Nice to see you again, kouhai," Sumire told me.

"Likewise," I answered. "I heard there was a big Shadow fight in Yongen yesterday."

Sumire made a face. "Yeah, that was annoying. Mostly because that whole fiasco also managed to pull a lot of Shadows out of hiding. I told Ann and Ryuji to go on ahead while I dealt with them, but somehow they still didn't make it in time."

I winced. "And let me guess, fighting those Shadows was also annoying?"

Sumire let out a little growl at the memory. "Some of them were angels. Angels block my Bless magic. So yeah, that was really annoying to deal with." Sumire exhaled to get the negativity out of her system before brightening again. "Well, enough about my problems. How've things been going with your team?"

"Well enough, I guess," I answered. "Shen and Arisu are both smart and pick up on Shadow combat fairly well. I also took them to Untouchable a little while ago to pick up some new weapons. Though considering we've got the school trip coming up on Wednesday, we're not going to have much of a chance to use them."

"Oh, right, that is coming up, isn't it?" Sumire remembered. "Ren-senpai and the others got to go to Hawaii. My class got to go to Okinawa. Where are you going?"

I gave a little groan. "Yasoinaba."

Sumire looked a little confused. "Why?"

"Apparently, Risette and her fianceé live there, and that's where they first learned to fight Shadows."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

Sumire looked incredulous. "But it's the school trip! You should go somewhere more exciting!"

I gave a very exaggerated shrug. "Heck if I know what goes through people's heads. Though if you ask me, we should blame the rabid Risette fans who are hoping beyond hope to get a glimpse of her fighting Shadows while we're there. And she's not, she's going to be on tour this week. I checked."

"I mean, I have to be there on Thursday and Friday for a gymnastics competition, so maybe you could bring Futaba and your friends and we could hang out and discuss Shadows after I'm done on Thursday," Sumire suggested.

"If you guys are comfortable explaining you're members of the Phantom Thieves to them, sure," I told her as we turned the corner down the alley to Leblanc. I opened the door for her and we walked in to find Boss conversing with a goateed man in a baseball cap.

"Look, she gave me the passcode, I have it here somewhere, I just can't find it!" goatee-man was saying desperately as he frantically scrolled through his phone.

"Look, if you're not going to order and insist on causing a scene, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Boss told him.

"No no no!" goatee-man cried even more frantically. "I swear I have it! I'm just so bad at remembering things, so I wrote it down and now I can't remember where I wrote it down! Man, Yuka-tan is going to kill me…"

"Trouble, Boss?" Sumire asked, stepping up to the counter with a blinding smile.

Goatee-man looked at her like she was a lifesaver. "Oh hey, miss. You heard what I was talking about, right? Could you help me out here please, you know what I mean?"

Sumire turned to him, her smile even more blinding. "I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about, good sir."

Goatee-man's posture slumped as though he'd just been walloped on the head by something heavy. "Lord almighty, why are girls so cruel?" he said to himself.

There was a sound of running footsteps from the stairs and a woman with caramel-colored hair came dashing out of the side room. "Junpei, you moron!" she immediately started scolding. "Do you never learn!?"

"Y-Yuka-tan!" Goatee-man stammered. "H-hey! You mind helping me out here? Because I forgot the passcode and-"

"Yeah, I was watching," the woman said, "and I was sent down here to get you because now that these two are here," she gestured to me and Sumire, "we all need you to get up here so we can start the meeting already! Also, I can't stand you continuing to stand around being pathetic like this any longer."

"Hey, gimme a break for being scatterbrained, okay!?" Junpei shot back. "Chidorita's expecting practically any day now!"

While they continued arguing, I went over to Boss. "Sorry to barge in like this," I told him. "We were just looking for a game of cards."

"Aha! That!" Junpei shouted triumphantly, pointing at me. "That was the passphrase!"

"No duh, Stupei!" 'Yuka-tan' admonished him. "It's not that hard! Gah, just get over here." She grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him over to the stairs.

I frowned. "I hope they didn't act like that on missions," I remarked.

"I'd say they've probably had that relationship for a long time now," Boss noted. "You guys should probably head on up as well. I'll make sure you're not disturbed."

"Thanks, Boss!" Sumire told him before we both went up the stairs ourselves.

Futaba was waiting just inside the entrance to the Thieves' Den with a massive grin on her face.

"Alright, what did you do this time?" I asked her.

As she let me and Sumire into the Den, Futaba said to each of us, "Well, I know you know about it Kenzo, since you were the one who came up with the idea, so Sumire, are you familiar with Doctor Who?"

Sumire looked confused. "No."

My eyes widened. "Did you do what I think you did?"

A sudden cry of "WHAT THE HELL!?" erupted from the downward stairs. The voice sounded like it came from the Junpei guy from earlier. When we got down there, it was pretty clear what he had exploded about.

The meeting room was absolutely massive now, so massive in fact that the door leading to it from the stairs appeared to be freestanding away from the wall. There was still a big table in the middle and a screen on one wall and a series of couches around the edges of the room. But the room's dimensions had now more than tripled, such that I would have believed it if someone had said that the ceiling was as high as the third floor. Also, the entire room was covered with some combination of black, red, and white, with a gigantic Phantom Thieves logo covering the wall opposite the door.

"Futaba, what have you done?" I asked her.

"When you mentioned the whole 'bigger on the inside' thing, I thought it would be a good idea to test it out by making the meeting room bigger so it could hold more people," Futaba explained cheerily. "Did I do a good job?"

"I'd say you went a little bit overboard, Futaba-chan," Sumire said gently, still staring at the massive space.

"How the hell did you do this?" Junpei demanded, coming around from the back side of the door, which was apparently a blank wall since it was no longer set into the wall.

Futaba gave a mischievous giggle. "A magician never reveals her secrets."

The woman who'd been scolding Junpei earlier told him, "It's not like you would have been able to understand it, anyway."

Junpei dropped his head a little, looking like a sad puppy. "Yeah, good point."

Ryuji came up to the group gathered around the door. "I feel ya, man. Most of the Metaverse stuff makes no sense, but this shit? Worse than rocket science, I swear."

Mitsuru called out, "Now that everyone seems to be accounted for, can we be seated and begin this conference? We have much to discuss."

And so, everyone in the room gathered around the big round table in the center and made introductions. Mitsuru's Shadow Operatives were the oldest team, consisting of Mitsuru herself, Minako, Aigis and Labrys, and Police Chief Sanada, as well as the actress Yukari Takeba, sports coach Junpei Iori, professional hacker Fuuka Yamagishi, and, rather oddly, college student Ken Amada, and his very old dog, Koromaru.

Next came Yu Narukami's Investigation Team. Aside from Yu, Rise, and Naoto, I was also introduced to Yosuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka, Yukiko Amagi, Kanji Tatsumi, and a bear mascot costume called Teddie who… was a Shadow who gained a consciousness? I didn't really understand that part, but neither did anyone else, so I let it go.

Of course, I had already met everyone in the Phantom Thieves, but Ren, Morgana, Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, Haru, Sumire, Zenkichi, Sophia, and Akane still introduced themselves for those who hadn't. And finally, there was me, representing myself and my own fledgeling team, and Sho, who was there for the sake of keeping him in the loop and out of trouble. As such, he was seated directly between Aigis and Labrys, who would be keeping an eye on him throughout the entire proceedings.

Mitsuru began the meeting by saying, "Our efforts in interrogating the men captured by Ren-san and Naoto-san earlier this week have borne fruit. Their organization is based out of Osaka, and deals primarily in the weapons industry. According to information compiled from several of the interrogated suspects, the higher-ups of this organization for some reason want to harness the power wielded by Persona-users, but as you might expect, all of the members of the well-known teams would be difficult at best to get to, so they attempted to reach out to those who were less well-known. In particular, the squad that Ren-san and Naoto-san apprehended earlier this week were instructed to approach Sho Minazuki with an offer upon tracking him down, and then if he refused, to take him back by force if necessary."

Sho made a rude noise. "As if those incompetent ass-gents could have ever stopped me."

Mitsuru shot him a glare. "Fuuka-san, if you will."

Fuuka stood, smoothing her white dress. "I have already gathered a certain level of intelligence surrounding this group. Sandā Arsenal. They're not a terribly big organization, but they did have ties to Shido's conspiracy back when he was still in power. They are also suspected of smuggling guns illegally, but there isn't sufficient evidence to prove this, so they were never prosecuted."

"Meh, they're a bunch of small fries," Futaba drawled. "I'll admit that they're hiding their real business pretty well, but their security systems were almost laughably easy to crack. And yeah, the gun smuggling was real. Back in the bad old days, they provided guns for yakuza gangs in Tokyo, including Kaneshiro's. Their business is booming even more now that there's Shadows everywhere."

"So what do we do about them?" Yosuke asks. "We can't just go in and start wrecking shop. These are people, not Shadows."

"The plan is for a two-pronged front," Mitsuru stated. "A legal team will be investigating Sandā Arsenal's legal records and analyzing them for discrepancies, while a strike team goes to Osaka to investigate their headquarters. I have already had contact with the respective police departments and cleared us for action."

"In a way, I suppose you could thank those thugs for attacking Minako's team the other day," the Police Chief noted. "If they hadn't made such a blatant move, the department would have been dithering for ages about taking action."

"The mission shouldn't take longer than a week if we're lucky," Minako asserted.

"So now we need to determine who's doing what, right?" Ren asked.

Mitsuru replied, "Indeed. Fuuka-san is going to be handling the legal team, though I am sure she would appreciate Futaba-chan's assistance."

"Anytime," Futaba chirped.

Haru added, "If there are any further resources that I can contribute, you may consider them at your disposal."

"We greatly appreciate that, Haru-chan," Mitsuru smiled at her. "There is also the matter of the strike team. We don't know what will be waiting for us in Osaka, but if Sandā Arsenal is seeking out Metaverse-related powers, there will be no telling what they've managed to gather since the outbreak. So while the plan does involve sending police forces to investigate them, I would also feel safer if they were accompanied by Persona-users, preferably including at least one from each of our teams, so the strike team has access to all our collective experiences."

"Of course, the main issue with that is that we all have jobs and school," Makoto mentioned. "In addition, those of us in the Phantom Thieves, aside from Zenkichi and… I guess Sophia, all have identities to protect as well. So it would have to be those of us who would be able to leave for a week and not have anyone ask questions or," here she threw a look at Ryuji, "fall behind."

"Guess that means I can't join in this time then," Junpei said somberly. "I'd love to get back in the action and all that, but Chidorita's expecting practically any day now, and I gotta be there for her when the baby comes."

"Of course," Mitsuru said kindly. "I had a feeling that would be the case. While we're on the topic, give my regards and congratulations to Chidori-san when you return home tonight, if you would please?"

Junpei flashed a smile at her in reply.

Minako leaned on her elbows on the table, hands clasped in front of her mouth. "Those of us in the Shadow Operatives have a little more freedom, since Aigis, Labrys, and myself all just answer to Mitsuru, so we're totally free to take this mission."

Ken nodded. "I'm practically at the top of my class in college as well, so I think I can stand to take a week to deal with these guys."

"The rest of us have jobs though," Chief Sanada mentioned, "as well as… other events tying up our schedules." He glanced at Junpei. "So we probably won't be able to join in on this one."

Naoto spoke up next, "I daresay Yu and I are probably the only members of the Investigation Team with sufficient mobility at the moment to go to Osaka without arousing suspicion."

Yu shook his head. "People will know something's up if I take a trip to Osaka for no reason. I'm a bit too high-profile, partly because I'm a well-known Persona-user, and partly because of who I'm about to get married to." He spared a slightly apologetic glance at Rise, who beamed innocently back at him. "Naoto had probably best represent our team alone."

"I could go!" Teddie volunteered.

"NO," echoed the rest of the Investigation Team.

"Awww."

"Sorry, Ted," Kanji started, "but well, it just wouldn't be a very good idea because…"

"We'd really need to supervise him to make sure he stays out of trouble," Yukiko continued.

"And it's easier to keep him out of trouble if he stays in Inaba," Chie put in.

"Besides, after that last mess you made, there's no way you're ditching work right now!" Yosuke put his foot down.

Teddie had the situational awareness to at least look ashamed. Rise petted his fur to cheer him up a little.

"I'd volunteer to go in a heartbeat if Makoto wouldn't kill me for neglecting my studies," Ryuji noted, leaning back in his seat.

Ann pounded him on the back. "Yeah, I think I'd better focus on my studies as well, and not just because this guy needs all the help he can get."

"I don't have any studies to keep me from going," Morgana said smugly. He was in his (mostly) human form again. "And I can turn into a bus and a cat. You'll be needing me for sure if anything goes wrong."

"I would volunteer to go myself," Makoto spoke up again, "but I also need to be available here, both to help my friends if needed, and because of my sister. Otherwise, I'm doing well enough in my studies that I very well could take a week away with no issue."

"Then I'll go," Ren interjected. "I've been doing very well in my studies. I can handle being away for a week to kick some asses in Osaka."

"Well, if those guys need to be terrified into submission, sending the leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts would probably do the trick," Kanji noted.

Ren gave him a slightly amused look. "If we really want to terrify them, we should just send Haru."

Haru cocked her head. "I'm not that terrifying, am I?"

All of the Phantom Thieves looked at her with deadpan expressions.

Sumire raised her hand, "On a slightly different note, I will actually be in the area of Osaka for a gymnastics competition in the first half of the week. So you can call on me for that period of time."

"And then you have another one in Inaba after that?" I asked.

Sumire smiled. "That's right. And you're going there for your school trip as well."

That was a surprise to most of the Investigation Team and Shadow Operative members in the room. Yosuke, Teddie, Kanji, and Junpei all gave varying exclamations of "What!?" and "HUH!?" at the same time.

"Wait, you're going to Inaba!?" Chie exclaimed.

"The forest trails and the shopping district have certainly improved to accommodate higher levels of tourism in the last few years, but I didn't think it would warrant going there just for the class trip," Yukiko reasoned.

"Exactly, there's hardly anything there!" Yukari exclaimed.

I cleared my throat. "It's where Risette and her boyfriend live!" I mimicked, "Oh, wow, really? I wanna go there so I can see them! Maybe if we're lucky, we'll get to see them fight Shadows!"

Yosuke tipped forward and banged his forehead against the table before folding his arms on top his head with a groan. Several other people had incredulous expressions, while Yukiko was threatening to burst into laughter. Yu was silent, but looked contemplative.

Yusuke, who'd been fairly quiet since the beginning, put in his two yen: "Well, regardless of how much civilization is in that area, there is a chance of finding scenic environments to appreciate, no?"

"Not everyone cares as much about art as you do, Inari," Futaba told him bluntly.

"Real shame I'm going to be going on tour after tomorrow," Rise complained. "Otherwise I would be more than happy to put on a show there again."

"We've gotten off-topic," Aigis raised her own voice. "Can we return to discussing who will be joining the Osaka strike team?"

"I think we've already more or less agreed to who will be going to Osaka this week," Ren noted.

Sho leaned back in his seat, "Nice. In that case, when do we leave?"

Everyone looked at him incredulously. "After all the trouble you caused?" Labrys asked. "Yer lucky you were even allowed ta come here at all."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Sho told her. "I'm just saying that these guys have gotten really on my nerves, and I want to be on the team that kicks their asses."

Mitsuru let out a breath. "Sho, we will discuss this further. All I will say in the meantime is do your best out there everyone. I wish I could participate in the strike team as well, but I must handle the legal action as the head of the Kirijo Group. Make sure to execute the men who ordered the attack in my stead."

Minako made a mock salute. "As you say, Mitsuru-sama!"

"Good," Mitsuru replied, though I could tell she was holding back exasperation at Minako's jokingly formal response. "Then if there are no more matters to be discussed, this meeting is adjourned."