Takuto Maruki had barely left his beloved's side for the last two days. Rumi hadn't woken up since Eris had been defeated, and Maruki became increasingly worried the longer he waited for her to regain consciousness.

Takuto's stomach rumbled. He suddenly realized that he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday afternoon, and it was almost noon again today. He cast a longing look at Rumi's sleeping form before getting up from the swiveling desk chair. A nostalgic grin crossed his face. Rumi had always loved spinny chairs. It was one of her endearing qualities.

Takuto's leg muscles let out protesting cries as he stretched them. He was sore all over. That was what he got for sitting in that chair all night he supposed. He groaned as he started to work his protesting muscles, walking out of the room and over to the front door of Rumi's apartment. He wasn't going to be rude and help himself to whatever food Rumi had in the pantry and refrigerator. The idea of making some onigiri flashed through his mind, but cooking the rice would take too long for his starving stomach to bear. He mentally shrugged as he made his way to his car. Takeout it was then.

Rumi almost didn't want to wake up. The trouble was, she wasn't sure whether her dreams or the cruel reality was worse.

The memories had returned. The horrible, terrifying memoires. The man who broke into her parents' house while she was home. Her father trying to fight him, but getting shot at point-blank range. Her mother's screams being cut off a second later by two more bullets. The man leering at her, slowly coming closer as she fled deeper into the house, only saved by the approaching police sirens as the killer broke a window to climb out and flee.

After that, she could barely remember anything. The police pulling her out of the invaded building. Being sent to a hospital, being told she had PTSD. Trying to forget that man's leering face, but always failing, mixed with the omnipresent memories of her parents' dead eyes, her father still clutching the killer's gun, her mother screaming, with a bullet hole in her forehead, and every time she remembered, her body freezing, her entire world going dark save for the visions of the dead as liquid terror filled every vein in her body. Taku's face distorting in horror and grief every time he saw her panic…

Taku.

Rumi's eyes snapped open as she realized the other thing she had forgotten six years ago. The love of her life. Takuto Maruki. Memories of Taku began to flood her mind all at once. Meeting him in college, laughing at his dorkiness, frolicking in a field of wildflowers, his fascination over the human mind, the way she'd squealed and hugged him when he'd gifted her an entire fancy swivelling chair one Christmas…

The proposal, only a month before her parents' murder.

Before she realized, tears were already streaming down Rumi's face. How could she have just forgotten all of that? Four years of friendship and love with one of the most dorky, adorable young men in the world wiped from her mind like they never existed. And only now that the world was slowly falling apart did her memories come back, just to torture her with a reality that she wished remained forgotten-

Takuto's grief-stricken face flashed through Rumi's mind again. He was… pleading, desperately with some unseen figure, god or devil she didn't know. Begging for her healing, regardless of the cost. And Rumi remembered the words she had told him while she was still weak and grief-stricken from the memory of the break-in.

"I… want to… forget…"

He had spent six years without her. And he hadn't moved on. Continuing to stay near to her like a guardian angel even though she'd entirely forgotten him. Alone. All of these emotions welled up within her like a flood. Then she heard her front door open. After a little fumbling about that she could hear through the door to her room, her old fianceé walked into the room, holding a sushi takeout bag with a heavenly smell. His gaze was immediately drawn to her, and his eyes widened with surprise and joyous relief as he realized she was awake.

"Rumi!" he exclaimed, pausing only to drop the takeout bag on the bedside table before kneeling at her bedside. "Are you okay? Do you remember what happened?"

Tears streaming down her face, Rumi slowly reached out and cupped her beloved's cheek with one hand. "I remember," she whispered. "I remember everything, Taku."

She leaned her body towards him and brought Takuto's face down to meet hers, and she kissed him. The two lovers six years divided were whole once more.

With Minako behind the wheel and Haru in the front seat with her, the rest of the members of the strike team had ample space to occupy in the RV. Aigis, Labrys, and Sophia were charging in the back while Ken was stretching his legs a little checking on them, leaving Ren and Naoto sitting across from each other at the RV's small table.

Ren slipped the fake glasses off his face as he looked out the window at the Japanese countryside going by. Naoto had no trouble whatsoever admitting that he was exceedingly attractive, with sharp cheekbones and dark hair and eyes that produced an almost irresistible air of mystery and danger. Naoto unconsciously brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She'd been growing it out ever since the Midnight Channel incident, and the long curtain of midnight blue now elegantly framed her face, much thanks to the fashion sense of a certain idol friend.

Naoto couldn't help but think of how each of her friends had changed over the years. Chie now an officer, Yu and Rise collaborating with their work, Yukiko now managing her family's inn full-time, Yosuke juggling college and working at Junes with Teddie, and Kanji…

Naoto sighed as she thought of her boyfriend. Ever since the Midnight Channel incidents, Kanji had been growing more and more comfortable showing his true self, both in his actions and his appearance. He'd stopped dying his hair of course, but the return to glasses hadn't lasted long before he switched back to contacts, citing that he felt weird with them on. And now that his hair wasn't styled like a punk and he'd stopped wearing skull shirts, the broad-shouldered young man was even manlier than ever.

Naoto smirked at herself. Before she met Yu and his friends, she never would've been caught thinking about boys or appearances. She would've been completely absorbed in detective work, assisting the police in cases, reading detective novels…

Ren glanced over at her. "Detective Shirogane? What are you thinking about?"

Naoto allowed herself a soft smile. "Mostly about how things have changed in the last few years. Before I met Yu and the others, I was totally absorbed in detective business, so obsessed with getting all the officers I worked with to take me seriously that I neglected almost everything else."

Ren smirked at her. "And now you're about to work together with a thief and convicted criminal. Ironic enough for you?"

"Heh. If you say so. Although considering all the charges on you were either overturned or cleared outright, I would hardly call you a convicted criminal."

Ren flashed a sharklike grin. "I'm bad to the bone, girl. Let your guard down and I'll steal your heart too."

Naoto looked at him sardonically. "Can you please not?"

Ren held up his hands in surrender. "I was joking, don't worry." He put his hands back down and glanced back at her again. "You know, now that I'm actually comparing you to Akechi, it's really no wonder people called him your successor."

Naoto grimaced. "I don't really like being compared to Goro Akechi. Especially since so many people did it when he was still around."

"I feel you there," a new voice cut in. Ken Amada slipped into the seat next to Ren, Koromaru laying his head on the young man's lap for Ken to pet. "Back at Gekkoukan, a lot of people seemed to think that I looked like Akechi, and they were comparing me to him all the time. It got really annoying after a while."

"Still, Ren," Naoto continued, "of all of us, you were the one who met with him. What was he like?"

Ren's face darkened ever so slightly as he recalled. "If I were to describe him in one word, it would be confident. He almost always held the utmost confidence in everything he did, right up until the end, to the point where he was actually really arrogant at times, especially after we learned his true colors. It did help him stay safe from suspicion for a while, even though his actual plans needed work."

Naoto nodded along. "When he first made a splash, his deductions always seemed off to me. They made sense on the surface, but too much of them was based on leaps in logic that had nothing to support them."

Ren nodded. "I'm sure you know by now that he worked for Shido as the Black Mask, his personal Metaverse assassin who initiated psychotic breakdowns and mental shutdowns in anyone Shido told him to. Well, he also gave it away when he first met myself, Ann, and Ryuji, and he heard Morgana talking about pancakes."

Naoto blinked and looked over at the black cat snoozing on a seat on the other side of the RV. "So you knew he was the culprit from the very beginning?"

"I mean, nobody realized what that moment meant until months later," Ren replied. "Although you can bet that we teased him mercilessly about it when he joined us to stop Maruki's fake reality. Needless to say, pancakes soon became his new least favorite word."

"Wait, he joined you!?" Ken demanded. "But he was a killer!"

"I didn't say we forgave him," Ren retorted. "Our goals happened to align. He wanted to end the fake reality as much as the rest of us, maybe even more, because he wanted to move on. Back when he confronted us in Shido's Palace, he cursed me for being better than him even though I was just, and I quote, 'some criminal trash living in an attic'. But even after all the curses and the attacks and even trying to personally murder me, when we were faced with Shido's cognition of him and a swarm of Shadows, he sacrificed his life on the other side of a watertight bulkhead door to let us get away. And then when Maruki remade the world and brought him back, he hated it. He didn't have a goal to strive for anymore, and my team and I were the only ones who knew the real him, and we were enemies.

"So yeah, when we resolved ourselves to fight Maruki, he was with us from the start. We were enemies, yeah. But if he had made different decisions, he could have been just like me," Ren finished quietly.

"What do you mean?" Ken asked.

Ren looked Ken in the eyes. "He had two Personae. Robin Hood for his lies, and Loki for his hatred. While we were infiltrating Maruki's Palace, they fused into Hereward, but for a while he had multiple Personae. Just like a Wild Card."

Naoto's eyes widened. "You mean he could have been…!?"

Ren nodded somberly. "Yes. And that's the real tragedy of it all. If he had chosen a different path in life, he would have had all the potential in the world. He could have done anything he wanted. Who knows, he might have even joined us in the Phantom Thieves as a member and a friend. But he was so focused on getting revenge on Shido for siring him and then discarding his mother that he forsook all of that."

Ken visibly flinched at these words. "Did you know how my mother died?" he asked quietly.

Ren looked at him carefully. "No, I haven't."

"Back before the Shadow Operatives, when they were a high school club called S.E.E.S., the team was just Mitsuru-san, Akihiko-san, and Shinjiro-san. Shinjiro-san… his Persona was artificially induced, so he had a hard time controlling it. One day, he lost control, and it rampaged into my house, and my mom was killed. Everyone thought it was an accident, didn't know what had happened. But I'd seen it happen. I knew he did it. And I wanted revenge.

"Shinjiro-san hated himself for what he did though. He left S.E.E.S., dropped out of school, even went so far as to take experimental drugs to suppress his Persona, even though they were slowly killing him. He didn't rejoin the team until Akihiko-san told him I'd Awakened, and he did it to protect me, to make up for what he did that night. Then, one night two years after he killed my mom, I faced him alone, and I was going to kill him for what he did. And he just stood there and took it, everything I accused him of, right up until Takaya, the leader of Strega, showed up and shot him. Shinjiro-san threw himself in the way of another bullet to save me before the rest of the team got there. With his dying breaths he told me to stop seeking revenge and make my life matter for something. And, after hearing you talk about Goro Akechi… I think it's finally hitting me just how right he was."

Neither Naoto nor Ren really knew what to say to that. The journey to Osaka continued in silence.

I took a deep breath and inserted my key into the translucent blue door in the Shibuya alleyway. Stepping through, the Velvet Room was the same as it always was when I came here alone, with Igor at the head of the room and Saraiah standing at attention by his side.

"Welcome," Igor greeted me. "Do you wish to make use of our services?"

"I would," I confirmed. "I think I am ready to fuse a new Special Persona."

Igor looked at me with interest, while Saraiah could barely contain her excitement. Igor asked, "Are you certain that you wish to perform this act? If the fusion fails, you will lose every Persona you commit to the process."

I gave a resolute nod. "I am."

Saraiah stepped around the table to the seal in front and motioned for me to join her at the dais. "No one has ever done what you're about to do, Kenzo-kun!" she squealed. "This is going to be awesome! I know you can do it!"

I smiled back at her. "Thanks, Saraiah." I took a deep breath. Saraiah held out my bluestone hourglass, and I was surprised at how much of the Bluestone in the bottom vial flooded back up to the top section. The seal lit up, and I selected the Personae I planned to fuse: Kodama and Hua Po. One for the Arcana, and one for what would hopefully be the correct element.

Igor addressed me again. "You must focus on your internal image of your Star Arcana and its place within your heart for the fusion to proceed. Be warned though: the fusion will fail if your image is misplaced."

I looked back at him. "Let's do this."

There was a glow of blue light as the two Personae appeared above the seal: the white, wispy figure of the Kodama, and the fairy with butterfly wings that was the Hua Po. I took a deep breath as I mentally prepared myself for what I was about to do. Summoning a Special Persona was not something one did lightly. The Persona that would result from this fusion would be one conjured from the deepest depths of my soul, the very foundations of my existence. Just thinking about what that meant was mind-boggling to me, but I had to do this. Summoning these Personae wouldn't just be a power boost. It would be a journey to figure out who I was as a person.

A light rose up from the seal and began to swirl around the two Personae. As it grew brighter, I closed my eyes and focused on my Star Arcana. Hope, faith, purpose. A young man soaring through the sky looking up with wonder as the twilight began to fade and the glorious aurora blazed to life above. With him all the way, the one who gave him such wondrous sensations.

A chord was struck in my soul as I hung on to that sensation. Even with the process still incomplete, I could feel that something had been done right. But even with that knowledge, the fusion was already beginning to struggle. Both of the Personae I had sacrificed were weak compared to those of the other Wild Cards I had met, fragments that were not very closely tied to myself. I stubbornly tightened my grip on the feeling. I refused to let go just because I met a little resistance. And a few moments later, the chord of the new Persona's fusion evened out and began to pulse like a new heartbeat in my soul.

As I opened my eyes, both Personae had dissolved into flame and the resulting tongues of fire had cycled down and were absorbed together. And ever so slowly, the new Persona began to take form. A sleek black leg formed first; scaled and reptilian, with four sharp claws. Another like it, followed by a booted human foot and another human leg that was replaced with a metal peg. The sleek, black body of the dragon formed next, along with the torso of the man standing next to it, clothed in black leather and dragon scale armor. The dragon's wings formed and then its head, and both the man and the dragon had piercing green eyes. Finally, the dragon's tail, and one fin was severed and replaced with a bright red prosthetic, mirroring the severed foot of the man who stood next to it.

The man flicked a sword hilt in one hand, and a blade sprang out of it and burst into flame. "Thou who would look upon thine enemy and see thine own heart in his eyes. Speak my name and take me into thy soul that we may protect thy bonds together."

Relief and triumph flooded through me. Saraiah was bouncing up and down with joy, and Igor's smile was somehow even wider than usual as I uttered the name in my mind.

"Dragon Rider."

"Are you sure you'll be fine?" Sumire's dad asked his daughter.

"There aren't any Phantom Thieves in Osaka," her mom agreed.

"It'll only be for a couple of days!" Sumire countered. "And then I'll be headed to Inaba, which has its own team of Persona-users. Mom, dad, you have to stop worrying about me so much. I can take care of myself now."

Her parents still looked hesitant. "What's the matter?" Sumire asked. "Why all the sudden concern about Shadows?"

Her dad answered, "We recently got a message from your aunt in the Philippines. They've been having a lot of trouble with Shadows in their area, and your aunt is thinking of sending Asahi and Nanashi up to live with us where it's safer."

Sumire's eyes widened. "Really!? That's amazing! I haven't seen them since…" she trailed off. Her parents both knew what she was thinking.

…since Kasumi died.

Sumire set her face with determination. She got up from the couch and walked over to hug her parents. "I get why you're worried about me," she told them quietly. "But I can't stop now. Now that Kasumi is gone, I have to live for both of us, and I'm not going to let a few Shadows get in my way."

Sumire's dad patted her on the back before releasing the hug. He smiled at his daughter. "With that kind of resolve, I'm surprised you're not a Persona-user yourself."

Sumire desperately restrained herself from laughing.

If only you knew, Dad.

Makoto had a new respect for her leader and boyfriend now that she was in his place. He'd been not only directing his teammates and fighting Shadows at night while acing his college classes in the day, but he'd also made it his mission to know about everything going on in the Thieves' Den at all times. He knew how many items they had in stock, the state of everyone's weapons, the status of each and every one of Futaba's secret projects, and most impressively, the personal schedules of everyone on his team. And now Makoto was expected to take his place while he was away.

How the heck did he do this every day?

Upon making it back to Sae's apartment, Makoto groaned with relief and flopped down onto the couch, Sae sitting nearby with an amused expression on her face. "Long day?" Sae asked.

Makoto groaned. "I have no idea how Ren does it. He somehow knows everything about the Thieves' operations, crafts tools and items himself, keeps track of everyone's weapons and healing items, and somehow manages to juggle his academics and fighting Shadows like an expert. And now that I'm taking over for the week, I can barely keep up!"

"Oh? Don't tell me you're giving up already."

"I never said that!" Makoto shot back, her slouched posture immediately straightening as she reacted. Then she caught the amusement in Sae's eyes. "Oh, you were provoking me deliberately, weren't you?"

"It seemed the best way to get you out of that rut before you fell in too deep," Sae answered. "You never could resist a challenge, Makoto. I might not have been the best sister to you in the past, but I do pay attention to you."

Makoto's posture relaxed again. "It's really good to have you back, sis. To have you supporting me in what I want to do with my life, and especially giving your approval of my relationship with Ren does more for me than you know."

Sae smirked at her. "I'll be honest, when I first learned you two were dating, if I had seen any indication that your relationship with him might turn out bad, I would have insisted you leave him immediately. But after seeing how he treats you, I honestly can't say anything other than you managed to land one of the most selfless and good-hearted young men I've ever met." She made a face. "Even if I still think he can be a cocky little bastard at times."

Makoto laughed. "To me, that's just another of his endearing qualities."

Sae got up from the sofa to bring her coffee cup back to the kitchen. "So long as you're safe about it, I don't care what you two get up to together."

"Okay, sis," Makoto replied. A second later, she caught on to what Sae was implying and immediately turned bright red. "Sis!"

Ren groaned and cracked his neck as he stepped out of the camper. The trip to Osaka had been a long one, but now they were there. It hadn't really changed much since last year, but that was to be expected of almost any town or city really.

Haru shut the door of the RV. "Really brings back memories of last summer, doesn't it?" she asked.

"You bet," Ren answered. "And now we're here to do the same thing we did last time."

Minako came around from the driver's side and joined them. "Naoto's going in to the hotel to handle our reservation. In the meantime we can grab Ken and wake Morgana and the droids before heading in ourselves." She opened the door so as to lead them into the back again. "Good thing I don't have to deal with Sho on this trip-"

There was a groan as a scarred redhead extricated himself from the top compartment and tumbled down onto the floor. He cracked all his joints before standing up. "About time the trip ended. That was starting to get real uncomfortable." Turning, Sho noticed the three of them standing there staring at him, Haru looking concerned, Ren looking like he wanted to laugh, and Minako looking downright furious. "What?"