I do not own the Persona series or High School DxD. Everything belongs to their respected owners.

"I'm sorry, guys!"

Futaba apologized loudly as she shut her eyes. Surrounding her were all of her Phantom Thief comrades and friends over breakfast time in the girl's apartment. A few hours had passed since the incident of Futaba, Koneko, and the Fallen Angel known as Dohnaseek. Since it was a bit of an issue that she awakened her Persona, Futaba let everyone know of the incident that had occurred.

Makoto closed her own eyes but was not angry at all. "It's all right, Futaba-chan." She gently said to the hacker of the group. She could understand why the girl was so apologetic. Everyone could understand. "I'm just happy that you weren't really hurt during that fight with the Fallen Angel."

"Really?" The orange-haired girl looked up and saw everyone having a small smile on their faces. The shortest of them all read it as a good thing and smiled as well. "Thanks for not getting mad at me. I thought I might have risked the reveal of our identities."

"Although, this does make it a small issue." Yusuke commented, grabbing everyone's attention. Looking down in thought, he was silent for a few seconds and looked back up. "This certainly means that there is more than one Fallen Angel here. Although we could have easily drawn that conclusion from this Raynare character, Dohnaseek confirms it."

"Aww, crap." Ryuji commented, leaning back on the couch he was sitting on, taking a swing from his cup of orange juice. "What if there's a freaking army of those black-winged guys? Shouldn't we at least be prepared or something? I know that there's Morgana, Akira, and now even Futaba who has their Personas. But just thinking about what could happen is getting ridiculous."

"Being prepared though…" Ann said slowly, thinking about what the male-blonde had said. She then turned her head over towards Futaba who was nibbling on a slice of toast. "Hey, Futaba-chan, can you tell us how you got your Persona back?"

"Hmm… Dunno." Futaba said in a muffled volume with a mouthful of bread before swallowing. "I just felt like… umm… You know how when everyone but Haru was in my Palace? Remember when I gave my little speech? It was kind of like that. It's like I had to be reminded what I had gone through or even had to live through a huge moment of stress before Necronomicon awakened again."

"…Hah?" Ryuji put his lack of knowledge into a blunt word.

"I think I understand what Futaba-chan is trying to say." Makoto voiced her own words while cutting up an egg with her fork. "Remember that last sentence she said, Ryuji? From what I can tell, it may be in a way similar to our very first awakenings or from a sudden burst of emotion. I can't be certain if this is true or not, but it could be a place to start."

"Perhaps it could be." Haru said slowly, putting her dishes in the sink of the place. "Still… this is very complicated. Does that mean that we all are going to have to go through something similar like before? I'm not sure if there are likely chances."

"Either way, this is an issue we all cannot ignore." Morgana stated, pacing around the table while trying to avoid getting his feet caught in anybody's food. "We also know that the Fallen Angels are occupying the area. But we have no idea where their headquarters are or if they even have any. It would be good to know where they live so that we could attack when things turn bad."

"Should we hold our own investigations?" Akira voiced out, listening to the conversation but also trying to come up with a plan. He was the leader after all. He at least had to be organized when it came down to these kinds of things.

"Maybe, but we can't have you, me, or Futaba do it then since it could raise some more suspicion." Morgana answered, stuffing his face for a couple of seconds before swallowing. "Koneko probably would have told Gremory-san what had happened last night. Which will mean that we'll be watched for certain. We'll have to be on our guards even more than usual."

"So not much then." Ryuji commented. Blinking, he watched as everyone slowly craned their heads towards him. "Oh, come on! Don't look at me like that!" He exclaimed. "Most of use have yet to do anything that warrants anyone to follow to be suspicious of us! The only people who should be watching their backs are Akira, Morgana, and Futaba!"

"But we are in the same group, Ryu-chan." Haru reminded, the blonde. Seeing him give off a curious look, Haru decided to elaborate. "We all have been together since we first arrived here. Don't you think they would find it weird that we are slowly regaining our Personas and those factors as put in?"

The male stared at the heiress before sighing. "Alright, yeah, I guess you're right." He stuffed a piece of bacon into his mouth. "Seriously though," He chewed. "Where do you think we should start looking at this rate if we want to know where the Fallen Angels are?"

"Let's think about that after school." Akira got up to his feet, cleaning his plate quickly before putting it into the sink. As everyone else began to clean up after themselves, he looked over towards Futaba. "Oh right. I should probably warn you, Futaba. You're probably going to be in for a very long day."

Confusion took over the hacker's face at her leader's words. "What do you mean by that?" She asked curiously.

TakeABreak

So, this was what Akira meant.

Sitting in the middle of the Occult Research Club's room after school, Futaba was awkwardly sitting on a couch next to Koneko as the rest of the members were standing up and around her. Such an act reminded her of an interrogation.

"How many times do I have to say it?" Futaba said in a slightly whiny voice, already getting tired from having to repeat herself. "I don't want to join your peerage thing."

Rias let out a loud groan as she dramatically slumped down in her seat at the chair to her offer. Standing next to her with an amused look was Akeno while Kiba couldn't help me smile at the interaction between Futaba and his King. Issei meanwhile had a confused expression on his face.

"Uh, Buchou, why are you constantly pressing Futaba-san about this issue?" The brunette of the group asked curiously. "She says that she doesn't want to join. Can't you just stop it at that? I mean, it doesn't look like she's going to change her answer."

Rias was unable to reply to Issei as she sprung back up as if she were pulled by a set of strings and pointed. "Come onnnnnnn. You'll get awesome Devil powers. You'll be able to use you summon much more effective!"

"Are you going to teach me how?" Futaba asked.

That managed to shut Rias up. "Umm…"

"Boo," The orange-haired girl said in a disapproving tone, pointing a thumb down to add to the effect. "Minus 50 convincing points. You're already in the negatives by a large margin. I have no idea how you're going to win me back."

Considering that Koneko had asked her to come here, Futaba stayed glued in her spot rather than just bolting out of the door due to not wanting to be in the room at all. Considering how she already knew everything Akira knew with everyone else, Rias thankfully skipped to the point the red-head wanted to make.

But it was just so annoying to try and get that woman to leave her alone.

"Koneko-chan! Gremory-san keeps bullying me!" Futaba tattled, much to Rias' shock, to Koneko. "Tell her to stop!" She continued to drawl out.

"I'm not bullying you!" Rias answered.

"Yes, you are!" Futaba exclaimed back.

"No, I'm not!" The red-head replied.

"Yeah-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

A single finger was eventually raised and made the room fall silent. It was by a small hand judging by the size of the thin arm. Slowly looking over towards the source of the arm, Futaba had to move her head to the side while everyone else just moved their heads a little bit. In their eyes, Koneko had a flat look as she was staring and pointing at Rias. "…No." She stated before looking back down to some cookies that were on a plate and began munching on them again.

Futaba grinned while sticking her tongue out to Rias. "See?" She asked smugly while hugging Koneko. "She told you to stop."

"No, she didn't!" Rias exclaimed.

"Yeah, she did!" Futaba countered.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Hah!" Rias said triumphantly, folding her arms in superiority. "You just agreed that Koneko told me to not stop!"

"But you agreed that Koneko-chan told you to stop before that!" Futaba bickered back.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"…" Koneko continued to nibble on her snacks, undisturbed and undistracted.

Everyone one else in the room meanwhile just stared at the bickering of Rias and Futaba while Koneko sat silently in the middle of it all. "Are we even a part of this conversation anymore?" Issei asked, pointing at the three sitting down.

TakeABreak

The sound of a wooden dummy being beaten echoed through the surprisingly empty school gym.

Echoes of impact bounced around the walls. Each strike was crisp and perfect. The speed in which each sound came was fast, but also took its time at the same time. Every couple of seconds, one would be louder than the previous ones. Hit by hit, they grew louder. Pausing, there was only a second of silence before the banging of wood resumed once more.

Akira focused a bit as he began to slowly have his body remember of the Wing Chu katas he was taught back in the sport gym in Shubuya. Staring at the three upper, wooden points of the dummy, he struck the neck of his target while having his arm stiff against two of the wooden limbs. Lifting his foot to hit one of the lower wooden part, his left arm hit a higher limb as his right struck the face.

With a couple movements of the arm, Akira slightly lowered his body as both hands now struck the dummy's chest. Each strike was precise and tense yet flowed easily.

Sweating, Akira felt the drops or water run down his uncovered chest since he knew that the workout was going to be a bit intense by his own standards. "Wow, Akira, your body is really starting to remember those katas." Morgana commented, sitting on top of the head of the wooden dummy. "Guess it's all coming down to muscle memory, huh?"

Akira nodded, grabbing a towel and wiping himself off while taking a few sips from his water bottle. He was fast when learning these kinds of things or even getting used to them. It only took about four days to get used to the dummy and another couple after to master the katas back in Tokyo. He could assume he was just that kind of guy that could adapt.

"Sitri-san coming in from behind."

Hearing Morgana, Akira turned his body around and indeed saw the student council president walking towards him. At the same time, the two Phantom Thieves noticed that there was no company with her. It was either that she actually came alone, or they were in hiding just in case they needed to ambush him.

If Akira had to say, he did not expect seeing Sona. "Hello, Sitri-san." The Persona-user nodded his head nonchalantly in the student council president's direction before taking another swing of his water bottle. "Never thought I'd see you here."

"I see that you are busy improving your body, Akira-san." Sona stated, eyes slowly trailing up and down his body. From what she could observe, Akira had well built despite him looking pretty skinny. Maybe it was because of the clothing he wore it made him look thin. So far as she could tell from the exposed skin, he was well-toned as well with a fair amount of muscle that would be appealing to most girls.

Keyword being most.

"You also seem to handle your katas against the dummy fairly well." She commented, having a bag slung over her shoulder as she adjusted the strap.

Akira looked over towards the wood that he was beating. But his eyes were staring at Morgana. Since the cat was watching what was behind the boy the entire time but also observing his fighting, the cat should have been able to see Sona watching them. "Yeah, he's pretty good with it." Morgana answered.

Sona simply nodded as Akira turned back to her. "Right. But I think you prefer to skip the small talk and move onto the reason why I am here." She stated.

"Not really." Akira shrugged his shoulders. "Small talk is usually a good way to understand someone at first or get closer with them. That way if you accidentally say something they do not like, they won't be as angry as they would be towards you as before."

"…Debatable, but thank you for the advice." Sona felt her glasses slipping down a bit so she had to readjust them. She reached over towards her bag and pulled out a laptop that she had stored inside. Opening it, she began to type in the password. "What I wanted to talk to you about was this."

Turning the laptop screen over towards Akira and Morgana, the two of them saw the home page to Phan-Site.

Things just got a bit more complicated now. "…What is it?" Akira asked, attempting to play dumb. Hopefully, he could get away with it and throw Sona into a loop. He didn't want to reveal his or anyone else's identity yet.

But it seemed that Sona was not as dumb as he hoped she would be. Then again, maybe it would be better that way. "From what I can tell, it is called the Phan-Site. An online webpage with several conversation threads and also talking about what sort of achievements they have done." She stated, causing Akira to continue to stare onwards. "Not only did this website appear just last year, but also in Tokyo… Where I remember that is the city where you and your companions all came from."

"Oh yeah…" Akira trailed off, as if remembering. "The reason it's called Phan-Site is because it's inspired by the name-"

"Phantom Thieves of Hearts." Sona finished for Akira, still holding a straight face but an unreadable glint was in her eyes. "I know. They're fairly known around the world if I am correct. Due to that group, there had been several incidents where people acted extremely foul but suddenly began to confess what they have done, apologize, and even seem to compensate for what they have done. There are a few actual significant events though…"

Gesturing towards a nearby bench, she walked over towards the wooden seating as Akira and Morgana followed her. As the two Phantom Thieves looked at one another while taking their own seats, Sona had already grabbed a second chair that was nearby and set-up her laptop on top of it. "Suguru Kamoshida, a former professional athlete and Olympic volleyball champion, former volleyball coach of Shujin Academy; he admits that he sexually harassed and abused his own students." She pulled out a photo of the teacher and placed it down.

"Ichiryusai Madarame, an artist who was really plagiarized his own pupil's work while abusing them." She pulled out a picture of the former con-artist next.

"Junya Kaneshiro, a crime lord who even the police had trouble managing to arrest the man due to lacking evidence… until he confessed his acts of blackmail and turned himself in to the police." She put the photo down.

"Kunikazu Okumura, father of Haru Okumura, the former-president of Okumura Foods. He confessed at a press conference of his maltreatment of his employees… But then soon dies in a very disturbing fashion." With a frown now, she slightly narrowed her eyes towards Akira while putting the picture down.

"Then there is Masayoshi Shido, former politician who had been attempting to run as the next prime minister of Japan. He, however, confesses many crimes that he has committed before the broadcast had to be shut off."

Seeing the final photo being placed down, Akira noticed that Sona's narrowed eyes with a frown accompanying it was still on her face. "There was one thing in common when it came down to these six incidents… a calling card which the Phantom Thieves used to warn their victims that they were going to 'steal their hearts'… And they were successful it seems by having them all confess what they had done."

Akira slowly waited for the reason to why Sona was not looking at him nicely.

"However, there is the issue of Kunikazu Okumura." She said. Akira immediately knew what the issue was, but if she suspected him being a Phantom Thief however was a different issue. "His death…" She looked up to Akira. "What did you do to him, Akira Kurusu… A member of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts."

There it was. The words he was looking for came straight from her mouth. It still surprised him though. A slightly alarmed look was worn on his face. He thought about trying to deny her accusations. His mouth slightly opened, but then it fell silent. Should he really lie to her?

"While I am lacking the proper amount of evidence and proof, it is simply a conclusion that makes a bit more sense to me rather than anything else I could come up with." Her look lost a small amount of anger and slightly became a bit pleading. "I ask that you do not lie to me. This is an issue that is extremely important to me and the safety of the students of Kuoh Academy."

Looking down towards Morgana, it seemed the feline also had the same reaction. But he too was silent. Sighing, he looked at Sona before answering. "How did you find out?" Akira asked her, deciding not to lie. Sona had trusted him, giving him the information that he needed so far related to the Devils, Angels, and Fallen Angels. It was about time he had shown the same amount of trust to her.

"With all of the research I've done." Sona commented, her face giving off suspicion once again as she folded her arms. "You transferred over to Tokyo due to unknown reasons. Due to this sudden change in education places, you attended Shujin Academy last year. But that year was when the Phantom Thieves appeared. Not only that, but I believe that it also involves the power of your Persona. Since Morgana said that they are not Sacred Gears, it made me then think about what they were. But then it made me think while searching, how were the Phantom Thieves able to change the hearts? That question led me to the hypothesis of a Persona being related to such cases."

She closed her eyes for a small moment before opening them into a glare. "But I digress. What did you do to Kunikazu Okumura to have him die like that? Why did you need to kill him at all?"

"We didn't." Akira answered.

"You're lying." Sona replied.

"I am not." Akira countered, narrowing his own eyes back in defiance. Watching Sona open her mouth, he waited for her voice to deny him again. But she didn't. She instead chose to close her lips. Taking the silence as a means to continue, that's exactly what he did. "We managed to steal his heart. But while he escaped, something had happened… Someone else had killed him."

"…Are you trying to shift the blame?" Sona questioned.

Akira sighed, almost feeling like he was back in the interrogation room with Sae Nijima when he was captured. "I'm telling the truth." He stated, looking directly at Sona's eyes. "You can think I am lying, but I am not." He didn't let her reply. "The persona who killed Okumura was Goro Akechi."

Sona blinked. "Goro Akechi… The Detective Prince?"

He nodded. "He was a Persona user as well. With his power, he murdered many other people before, being the cause of many metal shut-downs and people suddenly going insane. All of it because of Shido. Shido used Akechi as a hitman to cause incidents that would eliminate the competition to be able to take over as the prime minister of Japan."

"…" Sona listened with patience. Yes, she could choose to doubt Akira's words and immediately have him and his friends taken into the Underworld or even the police to have them charged by the law. Although there was the issue about evidence once again. But she felt like she should give the boy a chance to explain. "Then, if I may ask, how did the Phantom Thieves steals hearts and Goro Akechi kill Okumura-san?"

Akira thought about it for a moment. He could easily explain how he had done it. But then that led to a problem. He had no evidence. The Metaverse Navigator app had disappeared when Yaldabaoth died in turn. "…I have nothing to proof that I am telling the truth though." Akira warned.

To his surprise, Sona nodded her head slowly. "I at least expect you not to lie." She stated. "I will be the judge of your words however."

Akira nodded in thanks. "There is something called the Metaverse, which involves individual cognitions." He really wished Futaba was around so that it would be easier to explain it all. "Using something called the Metaverse app, we could enter a person's cognitive world depending on who they were. When entering, we could see the world as the person would see it from their own eyes."

Sona raised and eyebrow. "See the world as the person would see it?"

He nodded his head. "Right. For example, Kamoshida viewed Shujin Academy like his own castle. Inside all girls were obedient sex slaves while all students of the volleyball club were jailed and painfully trained." He paused to let it sink it.

"What does that have to do with stealing hearts and the death of Okumura-san?"

"For the cognitive worlds we enter, those people have what we call Treasures." Akira explained. "Such Treasure is basically the corruption or something within them. Once we are able to steal it and leave the Metaverse, they will have a change of heart and confess what they have done and feel remorse for their actions."

"I see…" Sona placed a hand to her chin. "So that's what you meant when you were going to steal their hearts."

"But you are wondering how Okumura died so disturbingly." Akira asked, getting Sona to continued to stare. "It also involves the use of Personas in a way. Inside their cognitive worlds, there exists another version of them which we call their Shadow. Their Shadow versions are protected by other Shadows as obstacles." He bent forward to make sure to emphasize that the next thing he was going to say was important. "But we can't kill the Shadow versions of the target. If we do, they die. Using our Personas, we fight out way towards the Treasures and then send the calling card before stealing it."

"Let me guess though." Sona raised her hand to silence Akira for just a second. "Something goes wrong when stealing from Okumura-san."

"No." Akira answered, earing himself a confused look from Sona. "When I mentioned Akechi killed Okumura, we never interacted much to know each other to hold a long conversation and he was not a Phantom Thief. When attempting to steal the Treasure, Shadow-Okumura attempted to fight us off but failed. He was still alive when we stole the Treasure and ran. But while running, we didn't know there was one other person in the Metaverse with us."

"Let me guess…" Sona finished. "It was Akechi and he killed this Shadow-version of Okumura."

"Yes." Akira nodded.

Staying silent, the human, the cat, and the Devil and sat patiently. Seeming to be the one who needed to tend the silence, Akira opened his mouth but was cut off by Sona. "This tale… It is certainly a wild fantasy."

"I may not have explained it very well, but I assure you I have been telling the truth." Akira stated.

"So you claim." Sona countered. "But still, thank you for telling me this. I am the student council president of Kuoh Academy after all. It is partially my duty to keep all of the students as safe as possible. With the Phantom Thieves and the incident of Okumura, I didn't want to risk all of you running around if such a case was threatening." She slowly began to stand up. "It is late for the both of us. As far as I know, you are telling me the truth. But I am still curious about the Metaverse, and how your life as a Phantom Thief was. It must have been a great deal for you."

"Being the leader was a bit tough." Akira admitted as he too stood up.

"Oh," Sona commented. "You were actually the leader?" Staring, she looked up and down all over Akira's body. "You must quiet the person to be able to organize your… heists." She put it into thieving terms.

"You could say that."

"I have a couple of requests then if you don't mind." She stated, having Akira raise his own eyebrow as he waited for her words. "Since you are a leader, you must have created many strategies on the fly or before entering the Metaverse. Not only that, but you must have interacted with many people and have a good understanding of them." She waited for him to react and saw him nod. "If you'd like, I am in the student council room every day during lunch due to work or having to play chess. I would find it interesting if I could get your opinion of different decisions I make or even have a match or two against you for the game. In exchange, I could provide you with more information of the Underworld if you ever need it."

Putting a hand to his chin, Akira thought about it. Honestly, there wasn't really any downside to accepting this deal. The more information they could gather, the better. Plus, Sona seemed to be an honest person. It also seemed like she was trying to be a good leader herself and was possibly asking him for his help for doing so. "You got yourself a deal." He held his hand out.

With a small appreciative smile, Sona shook it.

"Thank you for accepting my offer." She nodded. "Now please put your shirt back on."

I Am Thou… Thou Art I-

Hah! It's not a Confidant link! Anyways, yes, I made it so Sona finds out that Akira is a Phantom Thief. But in my opinion, she could possibly actually piece it together if she did enough research and thinking. Plus… I think it's beginning to near the time the Phantom Thieves rise once again… this time towards the supernatural side of the world.

The next chapter… what will happen? HINT! BLONDE PEOPLE!

I have no idea if I got half of that stuff right from what Akira was explaining.

Dear Guest, who has been posting what the weapons are for each of the characters and how they look generally… I do appreciate that you are telling me this, but I've already gone through new game plus and gotten them all (some even on my first playthrough). Not only that, but I'm also keeping the TV on while putting them at different angles so I can get my own descriptions. Example… I think I saw something on Makoto's Judge of the Dead revolver that looked like a modified iron sights when she was performing a hold up with the team. It's those kinds of interesting details that I'm sort of trying to look for.

So, it's okay, you don't have to post such reviews. It's all cool.

No flames please.