Literally: to look oneself in the eyes
Rough English equivalent: to live with oneself

Goro chortled. It was not a chortle of a villain about to bombastically proclaim that the hero has foolishly walked into his trap, it was closer to how one would react to a mildly amusing image they've just seen online.

"What's so funny?" the cognition growled.

In response, he slicked his hair back and held it in place to mimic Maruki's hairstyle. "I have placed a powerful foe in your path. It's a guy whose ass you kicked a month ago."

"A talkative one, huh?" the cognition's smile got somehow even more deranged. "We'll see how witty you'll be with my sword in your throat."

Goro put his hands on his cheeks. "Aw, look at 'im!" he said, in a tone reserved for cute dogs. "Who's an edgy boy?"

"DIE!" The cognition charged forward and tried to slash the real Goro, who sidestepped the attack without much issue.

"You can stay on the sidelines for now," he said to the team, reaching for his cane. "I'm gonna take him one-on-one, just to prove a point."

"I will paint this platform red with your blood!"

"You know it browns as it dries, right?"

"Ooh, this will be fun," Haru pulled out a large plastic container. "I have some carrot slices I didn't eat during the previous duel, anyone wants some?"

"No thank you," Ryuji muttered, reaching for a half-full soda bottle. "Your veggies are too flavourless for me."

"Pah, picky eater," Yusuke grumbled, then shoved a fistful of carrot into his mouth.

The cognition sprung towards Goro, who once again dodged without much issue. He managed to trip him with the hook of his cane, but an unseen force field prevented him from falling off the platform and onto the tracks, in front of a speeding subway train.

"Well, that was worth try-"

"EAT LEAD!" The cognition took aim and fired his pistol repeatedly, until the slide locked back, indicating he was completely spent.

Goro nonchalantly spat out a stray bullet that ended up in his mouth. "Come on, Maruki dug through everyone's memories to get this costume, but didn't get the bit about me resisting Gun attacks? Also, I shoot with my left." In one smooth motion, he dodged another slash, put the cane away into hammerspace, and pulled out his PDW with the same hand. "To wit:" He wrapped his right hand around his left, like it was a pistol, and pulled the trigger, putting all twenty bullets in the cognition's torso. It dealt some damage, but not enough to slow him down.

"Why not the Nagant?" Makoto asked.

Goro allowed himself a brief glance. "The trigger's too heavy. I won't get a-" He dodged a thrust. "-an accurate shot quickly enough."

"How hard can it be to hit someone point blank?"

"Skull," he put away the empty PDW and pulled out the cane just in time to block an overhead slash, "I promise," he kicked the cognition in the crotch to get some space, "I'll give you my revolver," he sidestepped and thrusted his weapon in the cognition's face to disorient him, "and we'll see how accurate you're with it when I try to bludgeon you."

"You can't evade me forever!" he snarled.

"Maybe," Goro replied. "But I've got seven other people that will finish the job if I fall." He grinned. "You've lost one way or another."

"Taking you with me will need to suffice then."

Sumire turned to the group. "Was the real Crow-san so…"

"Edgy?" Ann suggested.

"…ruthless?"

"Yup."

Goro turned to the group. "I wasn't that bad!"

"I mean," Makoto joined the conversation, "you literally told us you'd kill us one by one so the others could watch out!"

He didn't react fast enough and the cognition finally managed to land a hit on him – namely, he thrusted a sword into the side of his stomach, and yanked it out for extra damage. Sumire was ready to join in the fight, but Makoto stopped her, wanting to see how the situation would unfold.

"Ha!" The cognition for one seemed content with himself. "What do you say to this, you chatty cunt?"

In response, he leaned against his cane and showed his right hand to the cognition, with thumb, index and middle fingers unfolded. "Three words:" He folded his thumb. "Persona." Woland manifested above him and healed his injuries. He folded his index finger. "Get fucked."

The cognition charged forward with an incoherent battle cry, but Goro stepped to the side and swung his cane so that it connected with the cognition's head. The helmet gained a few small cracks from the force of the blow.

"Argh, why?" he snarled, taking a blind swipe. "Why do you even fight? It will all decay and rot one way or another! There's no meaning, no purpose to anything!"

"You're right," Goro replied, inching away with his weapon at the ready. "Which is why you're supposed to carve your own raison d'etre. Defeating you one-on-one is as good a goal as any."

"DIE!" he screamed, then charged.

"Later," he responded, once again stepping aside and taking a swing at the cognition. The attack did even more damage than the previous one – a large chunk of the black helmet cracked away, revealing most of the cognition's face. Goro could've sworn his eyes weren't that red. "No more fooling around." Blue flames enveloped him, changing his costume to the white-red-and-gold one. "Robin Hood!" The called Persona manifested above him and the lenses of his 'mask' shined. "Divine Judgment!"

Not bound by the usual turn-based conventions, the attack hit the cognition instantly. "Gah!" As expected, it did tremendous damage, enough for him to drop to his knees.

"Is he gonna surrender now?" Sumire asked.

"I wouldn't count on that," Goro replied.

The cognition shot them a venomous glare, then charged again. Goro attempted to repeat the maneuver from before, but he ducked underneath the swung cane and ran towards the other Thieves. Not expecting him to pull something like that, they were taken by surprise when he pulled Sumire closer to himself, twisted her arm behind her back with his offhand, then put his sword to her throat.

"Help," she whimpered, too scared to scream.

"What do you say to that, huh?!" he snarled, his eyes darting between Goro and the rest of the group.

The Thieves all reached for their weapons, ready to unleash hell, but Goro had his already out, and beat them to the punch with a two-handed overhead smash to the skull, strong enough to completely shatter what remained of the helmet – which the cognition couldn't block with both hands occupied. Sumire spotted an opening and bit down hard on the sword-holding hand's wrist.

"Gah!" The cognition dropped his weapon. "You fucking-"

He didn't finish, on account of a cane hook grabbing him by the neck. Goro all but threw the cognition away from Sumire, who promptly retreated behind other Thieves. The cognition tumbled across half the platform before finally stopping to a halt in a heap. With difficulty, he raised his head and noticed Goro putting away the cane and picking up his serrated sword from the ground. "You just made the last mistake of your brief life," he snarled.

The cognition wasn't intimidated. "Put that thing down before you hurt yourse-"

You know, dear reader, good and evil are negotiable to an extent, shaped by the wider context and available options. A shift from villainy to heroism isn't a one-eighty change of personality, and actions done before and after a tipping point do not have to differ that much – and especially if the target of such action is deemed deserving of sufficient retribution.

My point is, what Goro did to the cognition was so brutal I went on a navel-gazing tangent to avoid describing it. Most Phantom Thieves closed or covered their eyes, with Haru and Makoto as the outliers, watching it with a mixture of shock and awe, shoving carrot bits into their mouths like popcorn in a movie theater.

The curbstomp ceased only when what remained of the cognition dissolved into black dust, leaving the real Goro alone, breathing heavily, trying to regain composure. He stared at the slightly bent sword in his hand, then tossed it away, disgusted.

"Do you need a moment to calm down, Crow?" Makoto remarked.

"Is Su- is Green alright?" he asked.

The group turned towards Sumire, who still didn't dare to open her eyes. "She's shaken, but there's no physical harm."

"Pathetic." He got up and rubbed his eyes. "This should not have happened."

"I'm sorry, Crow-san!" she pleaded, on the verge of tears.

"Wha-" Realization. "No! That's not what I meant!" She marched up to her. "I'm angry at myself, for underestimating that piece of shit and getting you scared like this!" He grabbed Morgana's hat and pulled out a handkerchief from its brim.

"Hey!" he protested.

"It'll clean on its own." Goro handed it over to Sumire. "I apologize. This shouldn't have happened."

"I guess we all owe you an apology then," Makoto added. "We didn't protest when Crow took on the cognition by himself and got caught by surprise when he pulled that stunt. It's not your fault and nobody claims otherwise."

"If you need a break, it's not a problem," Ann added.

"It's… it's fine." Sumire, not willing to dirty Morgana's handkerchief, wiped her tears off with the back of her hand. "I can keep going." She marched to the other side of the platform. "Let's just leave. If that was the enemy Maruki-san warned us about, we're right at the end."

The group followed her, not willing to let her stay alone, and walked up the escalators. To their surprise, the path ahead completely ditched the subway aesthetic – a black corridor with light blue details on the walls, gray tiles lighting up when stepped on, and the pipe with cables from earlier visible in the distance. The aforementioned corridor led towards a room filled to the brim with computers. Screens surrounding the group were showing snapshots of various levels of Mementos.

"Looks important," Sumire remarked. "Your tech guy should take a closer look."

Goro pointed at the exit. "We'll fall back to the nearest fast-travel point and-"

The blue door materialized in an unoccupied spot next to them. "Forgive my tardiness," Lavenza said, holding up a porcelain cup. "That boy traversing Mementos – Jose, I believe – invited me to a tea party and I lost track of time."

"It's okay." He turned to the team. "If we have a fast travel spot right here, I can fetch M alone. You stay here, just in case Maruki spawns an evil Noir or something."

Haru smiled. "What makes you think I'm the good one?"

Giggling at her joke, Goro disappeared in Lavenza's door. Ann reached for a deck of cards. "Okay, who wants to…" She noticed Sumire giving Haru uneasy glances. "You know they were kidding, right?"

"Noir likes brawling with Shadows as much as the next guy, but she's a sweetie." Ryuji vouched for her teammate.

"We exaggerate her bloodlust for comedic effect," Yusuke added. "It's an inside joke."

Another one, Sumire thought. "If you say so…"

The group sat in a circle and Ann shuffled her cards before handing everyone seven each and then put one in the middle. After a few cards were added to the pile, she turned to Sumire. "I'll say it again: if something bothers you, talk to us. We don't bite."

She stared at the green three in front of her and placed a red one on top. "I feel… out of place. The Thieves are this… well-oiled machine and I'm just a third wheel, flapping about in the wind." Pause. "Yeah, the metaphor fell apart, but you understood what I meant."

"Oh, come on," Haru smiled. "It's not like we all started as best buddies for life."

"Yes, yes, I know, Crow-san-"

"It's not just him", Morgana interrupted her. "I threw a hissy fit and created a splinter faction 'cause Skull dared to mock me after I dunked on him too many times to count."

"I blackmailed Panther into posing for a nude," Yusuke followed up.

"After an abusive teacher… hurt my friend," Ann sighed, "I ended up giving Queen grief for it, as if she had any power over the situation. Honestly, all things considered you joining the team went smoothly."

"Other than that time I accidentally killed Crow-san," Sumire muttered, disappointed in herself.

After a beat, Ryuji piped up: "I mean, so did Joker. There was an argument, he threw Crow's handgun on the table, the thing fired and Crow had two more holes in his skull."

"And I…" Haru lowered her head. "I deliberately tried to kill him. I… acted out on incomplete information, assumed the worst, and didn't step down to clear the misunderstanding."

"And if M is to be believed, my sister tried to strangle him when Yalbadaoth manifested last month," Makoto added. "We don't approve of that, we don't want that to happen, but the point about you joining the team with comparatively little drama still stands."

"Many crows in one place are called a murder, many murders of one guy are called a goro," Morgana chuckled at his own bad joke.

Sumire remained unamused. Everyone has played a card already and she ended up putting a blue zero on a blue three.

"You can leave the Metaverse at any time."

What little remained of Sumire's self-worth at that point shattered to a million pieces like a smashed car window.

"Fox!" Ann shot Yusuke a glare.

"I did not say she's unwanted here." Yusuke glanced at Sumire. "To the contrary, you are welcome among us and you will remain welcome among us. It's just that your discomfort is obvious to even the most socially inept, and I wanted to remind you that you can always let us handle the situation. Nobody will hold it against you and we can remain friends afterwards."

Cue silence. After a few seconds, Sumire responded "I dunno. I guess I… don't really like the idea of taking the easy way out again. Leaving now would bother me more than staying and sticking out."

"That's fine," Ryuji said. "Just remember what I've told you about overexerting, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah."

A few more cards were placed on the pile. "Green?" Haru piped up. "Could I ask you for a favour?"

"Yeah?" They don't really need what I can provide, Sumire thought. They just play nice to spare my ego.

"You might have noticed that Crow's healing items are on the sweeter side," Haru went on. "Could you prepare something savoury to counterbalance that?"

"The okonomiyaki were exquisite," Makoto added, "but we'd be interested in something that we could snack on mid-combat."

"Hm." A few ideas popped in her head. "I'll see what I can do."

"Crow can spare some money for ingredients," Makoto suggested. "Don't be afraid to get fancy, Shadows drop a ton of money."


Mishima was brought over a few minutes afterwards, and after fiddling with one of the computers for a bit, he turned around to the group. "Alright, does anyone want a status update?"

"Uno," Goro shed his second-to-last card. "Hit me."

"As you might have guessed already, the computers here scan Mementos and alter cognitions one-by-one," Mishima explained. "The estimated ending time matches the early February deadline you mentioned before." A sigh. "The good news is, this station can be used to control the cables, and should be able to retract the ones blocking you in the palace. The bad news, I need the root password to do that."

"Can you hack around it somehow?" Makoto asked.

"I don't know," he replied. "I'd probably need a few more days to investigate. Dig around for weak spots in the system, or maybe a way to bypass this thing altogether."

"Can't you, like, write a program trying out every password?" Ryuji asked. "I mean, one-character ones, then two-characters, then three, etcetera?"

"I can, and I did already." He pointed at the computer with his thumb. "It was simple enough. The thing is, as the passwords you're guessing get longer, the number of options grows to the point that you'd need millenia to get through them."

"And we have three weeks," Ann remarked.

"Honestly," Mishima went on, "I'm only giving the brute-force approach a go because the script was quick to write. Maybe the admin password is short enough that we won't need to try anything more complex, but I doubt it."

"Like 'Rumi'?"

"Yeah, a name of someone close to the-" Mishima realized Goro was now looking past him at the screen and turned around. The script has output: "Password: Rumi" into the console and finished operating. Still not believing that this had somehow worked, he sat back down and pressed a few buttons on the keyboard that materialized in front of him. "Holy mackerel, I'm in," he blurted out, too befuddled to come up with a less cliche line.

The group got up and circled him from behind as he navigated to the control panel. "Alright, the cables blocking you are lowered," he announced, as a video feed from Maruki's Palace confirmed that the path was now clear. "Do you want any more changes done?"

"Better not, for now at least," Goro commanded. " A small change is more likely to go under the radar and less likely to force him to react immediately."

"Fair enough." Mishima navigated to a different section of the control panel. "And to make sure he won't undo that the moment he notices, we're gonna change the root password." He moved away from the keyboard. "Everyone, type in something."

After some fiddling involving generating a random permutation, the password was set to (inhale) startingblockiaijutsuroundhousekickhalfwindsormoisturizerskipjacktunasomersaultchrysanthemum24573186!.

"So yeah, that's all," Mishima noted down the number and got up. "Can I go now? This place is giving me the jibblies."

"You go ahead," Makoto proclaimed. "I want to have a word with Crow in private."

The group agreed and left, and she and Goro sat down on the desk, opposite each other. "I assume you're now taking charge of the team, after my inexcusable fai-"

"Stop talking," Makoto interrupted him. "We had something like this happen a few times over the past year."

"You're pulling my leg."

"Thief's honour," she did a scout salute. "A few times a mook Shadow took a downed person hostage and, for some reason, demanded money for their release. Not fun, but nothing worth a dress-down. And, again," she sighed, "if anyone else called you on showboating early enough, you'd stop. If it's on someone, it's on all of us."

"If you say so." Goro avoided her gaze. "I still feel personally responsible."

Makoto smiled. "Then I have an opportunity for you to make up for it."

"Yeah?"

"You know how Green wants to cook some healing items for us? Go with her to shop for ingredients. Spend some time with her, alleviate her insecurity."

"I, uh," Goro was taken aback, "I don't think it's a good idea. I'm not the social support guy, I'm the bludgeon-to-death guy."

"First of all, don't pigeonhole yourself like that," she countered. "And second of all, I feel your shortcomings here will work in your favour. If you two will be awkward together, she might realize she's not an outlier."

"Hm." He pondered about it. "It makes sense when phrased like so. Fine, I'll do it."

Considering the conversation concluded, he got up from the desk and headed towards Lavenza's door, but Makoto gestured at him to stop. "One more thing, if I may."

He turned around. "Yeah?"

"Why were you holding back during our duel?"

"I… wasn't?" Beat. "Are you comparing it with what I've done to cognitive me?"

"It was a heck of a show."

"I don't think these two fights can be compared, you know." Goro felt flustered by how impressed she seemed. "We had mutually agreed ground rules, and they included no weapons, putting me at a disadvantage." Beat. "And it's not like there was anything at stake. Not even a dissatisfaction of failure. There's no shame in losing to someone as skilled as you."

Makoto chuckled. "Is that what you tell yourself to spare your ego?"

"Every day since the Engine Room."