As we ascended the high root stairway straight into the heart of the cherry tree, cherry petals blew gently around us in a spiralling chilled vortex, accompanied by faint whispers indicative of spirits lamenting their unfinished deeds in life, held prisoner in this limbo between life, death and the afterlife. Faint, lighted balls danced in the sky just above us, all seemingly drawn to this demonic cherry tree which supposedly imprisoned the souls of those it victimized. The branches of the tree were either very dark brown or simply black, and whose tendrils spread like creeping spider's legs. None of this deterred us, however, as we were here for one reason and one reason only: stealing the treasure of the palace for ourselves. We would not leave without it, not after coming this far.

At the top of the stairs, we landed upon a wide platform made entirely of interwoven branches sitting upon the crown of the tree trunk, with eight large branches encircling it reaching up into the air, all covered in a thick veil of cherry flowers whose petals showered us constantly. And floating up above: a pink ball, surrounded by chains and what appeared to be a forcefield.

"Look up there," Marisa said, pointing at it. "Is that it?"

I looked up. "I do believe so. That is the treasure. The core of Yuyuko's distorted desires."

"And if you're right, then stealing it should cause the whole place to cease existing," Reimu said. "Honestly, it's quite the concept. I never would have thought that something like this could exist in someone's mind and cause them to turn evil, like with demonic possession."

"Except the only demons possessing palace rulers are their own," I said to her. "As I said before, distortions like this are born from traumatic or otherwise significant events in a person's life, which affects their psyche in a way which causes them to indulge in destructive behavior, both to themselves and others, and distort their way of thinking so they believe what they are doing is not wrong, is justified, or otherwise not their fault. This distortion has a core - the treasure - which will take the form of an item, whose form will change when we bring it out with us into the real world. This item either symbolizes their distorted desires, or in fact caused them in the first place."

Marisa looked back up at the treasure. "But… doesn't look like something we can just make off with. I mean, it looks like some sort of blob, and there's a shield around it. How do we break it and how do we steal that blob?"

I examined the treasure again. Marisa asked a very good question. This treasure did not look like any other treasure I had seen prior to the Phantom Thieves sending out a calling card. None of them had forcefields protecting them, and they did not have chains around them either. I feared that there was perhaps another step we had to take in order to steal the treasure, such as changing Yuyuko's cognition in some way which would make it vulnerable. But sending a calling card should be able to do that…

"Simple," I told them. "We warn her. The real Yuyuko, I mean."

"Wait, what?!" Reimu and Youmu said in unison.

"Warn her?" Marisa asked. "Why the heck would we do that?! Isn't the whole point of doin' this makin' sure she doesn't know what we're doin'?!"

"For the most part, except for this final step," I explained. "The treasure looks like this right now because she doesn't think her distorted desires are a physical item in danger of being stolen. What we need to do now is return to the real world and send her a calling card - a way of proclaiming to her that 'we know of your crimes and will take your distorted desires without fail.' That will elicit a reaction from her which will cause the treasure to assume a physical form which can then be stolen."

Marisa rubbed her chin, then snapped her fingers and smiled. "A calling card… I see!" She chuckled. "What a classic thief thing to do! I love it!"

"Interesting," Reimu noted. "So we make her aware we're coming, without revealing our true identities. In essence, we're daring her to defend her treasure."

"Precisely," I said. "And like I said, once we do that and come back here, Yuyuko's shadow will be here waiting for us, ready to fight to defend her treasure."

"Eeeeeeehhhhhhhhhh," Marisa groaned. "That's gonna be a hell of a fight, if she's anything like the real Yuyuko. And we don't have any of our normal powers to fight her with!"

"...is she very powerful?" I asked.

"She rules the Netherworld, so of course she's very powerful," Youmu explained. "She can manipulate souls, can invoke death, and possesses enough raw magical power and aptitude to win fights against gods. She's practically a goddess herself, even though she's 'only' a ghost."

"When we fought her during the Cherry Blossom incident, it took me and Seraph working together to beat her, and she wasn't even fighting at full power," Marisa added.

"Indeed, if she weren't as lazy as she is she could slam my head straight into the ground," Reimu said. "Not only that, she's extremely intelligent, and can come up with complex schemes and strategies on the fly, can analyze your attack pattern and counter it as hard as possible, and can even read your behavior and movements to predict what you'll do. However, you'd never know that if you only casually knew her, since she's so good at hiding it most people in Gensokyo regard her as a complete, incompetent airhead."

"And we'll be fighting her shadow," I said. "To be honest, I've never faced an opponent quite like this. All my previous targets were regular human beings whose shadows turned into twisted demons capable of using magic, manifesting cannons and gigantic swords, moving at super speed, and whatever other powers their cognitions afforded them. None of them were shadows of people already capable of using deadly magic in the real world."

"So… do you think we may have bitten off more than we can chew?" Reimu asked, just a little nervously. It was the first time I had ever heard fear in her voice.

"Not necessarily," I said. "Her shadow is ultimately shaped by her distorted desires, and some distortions are stronger than others. This could mean that her shadow is, in fact, weaker than Yuyuko herself, and if that's the case then we're actually striking at a weak point the real person can't cover." I paused to think for a moment. "Even so, the shadow's powers are also affected by her cognition. If she can instantly kill people in real life, her shadow might be capable of using instant kills here as well."

Marisa jumped up in shock. "Wait, instant-kill spells exist here too?!"

"Unfortunately, yes," I answered. "If anything, we're lucky none of the shadows here knew any, because quite a few do. We should be very, very cautious when we face her just in case she has those."

Marisa gulped, and I could also see the other two hesitating. "Welp… guess it's a good thing I just realized that revival spell. Seriously, who or what decided I would specialize in healin'?"

"It doesn't matter right now," I said. "All that matters is we have our treasure route. Let's return to the real world for today and-"

Suddenly, the path back out was sealed off by roots and flowers.

"What the-" We all drew our weapons and looked for threats.

"Is this a trap?!" Reimu shouted.

"My, my, you've kept me waiting," came Shadow Yuyuko's voice.

"Yuyuko s- Yuyuko Saigyouji!" Youmu exclaimed.

A flower floated down from above, landed in front of us, and unfurled to reveal our opponent. Unlike last time, Yuyuko was wearing a hat with a hitaikakushi on the front, and a more typical blue-and-white kimono, but still carried a fan similar to what she had before. There were also some phantoms floating behind her. It was clear she was still a shadow, though, by the black mists at her feet and her piercing yellow eyes.

Shadow Yuyuko stepped off the flower and strutted towards us. She inspected her dress. "How dreadful," she said. "That dress was very expensive, and you just had to ruin it by taking all those Will Seeds and degrade it into this peasant's robe."

"It was very unbecoming of a lady, indulging in prurient and selfish behavior!" Youmu shot back, pointing her sword at her. "I'm here to knock the sense back into you!"

Shadow Yuyuko giggled. "Oh, Youmu-chan, you never cease to amuse me, acting all tough but being such a half-baked baby on the inside who will do anything I tell you to, just because you feel it's your family duty to suck up and give me anything I want!"

Youmu suddenly pushed me aside and faced Shadow Yuyuko face-to-face. "Bullshit! I serve you because it's my family's sworn duty to protect and take care of you! And how do you thank us? You never let me teach you swordsmanship, which is one of our foremost duties assigned to us! All you do is sit around and eat, drink and play while I have to do all the work keeping the Netherworld from deteriorating into a lawless dystopia! You're a disgrace to my family, your family, the yama and the spirits of the Netherworld!"

Shadow Yuyuko laughed haughtily. "But what about you? You didn't object when I tasked you with stealing Spring to make the Saigyou Ayakashi bloom. And you still don't object to the orders I give you. Are you truly so spineless to not stand up to me when your ancestors would have never hesitated to do the same?"

Youmu was silent.

"Ah, did I score a critical hit?" Shadow Yuyuko sneered.

Youmu looked down… and chuckled.

"You're right. I've been deluding myself for far too long. I swore to serve you and be by your side." She looked back up, then over to me, then back at Shadow Yuyuko. "But thanks to this guy, and my friends, I realized that also means standing up to you and putting you back down the right path which you have strayed from. You've changed, Yuyuko-sama. You didn't used to be like this. Where did the Yuyuko who used to be the kind, effective master of the Netherworld go?" She thought for a moment, then held her sword to Shadow Yuyuko's neck. "That's it. You're not Yuyuko-sama. You're a bastardization, a congealed mass of lies and sin impersonating Yuyuko-sama! And guess what, bitch. I'm here to strike you down and take that Yuyuko-sama back home where she belongs!"

I was practically grinning ear-to-ear with pride. Pride in having helped Youmu reach this point and realize the darkness before her she was blind to previously. And it was obvious Reimu and Marisa were similarly proud of the half-ghost samurai warrior.

"...hmph!" Shadow Yuyuko snapped her fan closed and stowed it. She then stepped back onto the flower, before holding out her arms and floating in the air. "I have no need for trash such as yourself. I should kill you all right now… but on the other hand, that would be a terrible waste of people who have provided me so much amusement. Thus, I propose a game: a fight to the death, may the best one win!"

Just then, the whole tree began to quake, and Shadow Yuyuko began to draw huge quantities of energy into herself. "Hehehehehehehe!" she cackled. "Make no mistake: you all don't know what you have walked into. This is my tree, my castle, the place where I make all the rules! I have over one-thousand years of commanding spirits and terrible magical power under my belt!" She smirked. "I'm not some fairy-tale princess who needs a Prince Charming to rescue her! I'm the master of the Netherworld! And I'll teach you all not to fuckwith thisprincess!"

We stepped back. Shadow Yuyuko went black, and her shape grew, twisted and bent.

"This is dangerous… get back!"

Her shape continued to grow and distort. Then, two bony, clawed feet touched down onto the ground. A bulging, bloated belly exposed itself. Two clawed arms, each grasping a large fan, materialized. Then, finally, the head, monstrous with bulging eyes, a gaping mouth with razor-sharp teeth, and Yuyuko's pink hair and hat. A flourish of white butterflies fluttered up around it, before it roared so mightily the tree quaked.

It was difficult to believe: Shadow Yuyuko had turned herself into a fearsome, gigantic Preta. Rather fitting for a literal hungry ghost possessed of gluttony.

"What the actual…" Marisa muttered.

"What is… this?" Youmu said.

"Ahahahahaha!" Shadow Yuyuko cackled. "I'm gonna make all of you my next meal!"

We drew our weapons and called our Personas. I felt myself slipping into psycho mode a little bit as well. "Let's see you try," I dared.

Reimu glanced over at me. "Awaiting orders," she said.

I closed my eyes to focus for a second, before giving my instructions. "Let's scout her actions so we can establish her strategy, then move to counter it as much as possible. Marisa should be on standby to heal everyone else, but don't be afraid to attack yourself if you can."

"Got it," Marisa affirmed.

"Alright, then. It's showtime!"


Shadow Yuyuko's first actions, aside from simply trying to kick, claw and bash us, included breathing fire (and thus forcing Youmu to have to hang back and try to attack from behind, as she was weak to fire) and whip up strong winds with her fans. Already, she demonstrated her cleverness by mixing the two, spewing a fireball then whipping it up into a fiery vortex to throw flames everywhere, making them harder to dodge. However, Reimu quickly found that firing a shot into her mouth using Kikuri would make her flinch, giving us an opening to attack and hack away at her.

"Grr… persistent little pests!" she yelled. "Looks like I'll need to call in some help!" She raised her fans, causing two spirits to spawn in. "Now then," she ordered them, "attacking them at random won't do us any good! We have to be methodical in our approach!" She scanned around, and focused on Marisa. "There! Start with that one, the one that's healing them!"

Marisa grunted. "Shit, they're targeting me now." She summoned Mima. "Well, guess what chumps! Imma tear you to shreds!" She directed a Frei attack at one of the spirits, knocking it down. She was just about to rush in when Youmu stepped in, holding out her hand.

"Allow me," she said.

Marisa thought for a moment, then slapped Youmu's hand, increasing her power. "Go for it!"

"With pleasure." Youmu quickly slashed the spirit, killing it instantly, followed up by her spinning around and delivering a roundhouse kick to Shadow Yuyuko, causing the latter to stagger back.

Marisa then focused on downing the other spirit, but the spirit retaliated with an attack we had thus far not seen: Psi. Now, I knew from the experience that the four pairs of magical elements generally opposed each other. Reimu, being a fire user, was weak to ice, and for Youmu it was the opposite. Since Marisa used nuclear…

"Ah, shit, goddammit!" Marisa fell flat on her face. Reimu immediately rushed to her aid. "Starburst! Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay to 'ya?! I just got my ass beat!"

"Fehehe… fool," Shadow Yuyuko taunted. "Not knowing your weaknesses. You shall pay for your recklessness!" With a wave of her fan, she shot out four, dark cards at each of us. Reimu and I intercepted the ones heading for us with our weapons, while the one aimed at Marisa simply dissipated into harmless smoke when it got within range. Youmu, meanwhile, didn't notice in time, causing the card to hit the ground below her and produce a shadowy circle scribbled with occult symbols.

I realized what this meant.

"Fury, watch out!" I rushed to try and shove her out of the way, but it was too late: the Mudo circle exploded into smoke, causing her to collapse onto the ground.

"NO!" I cried out. I turned back to Marisa. "Starburst, Fury just got knocked out! Quickly, get back on your feet and revive her!"

Reimu helped Marisa back onto her feet, and after shaking her limbs she rushed over to Youmu's aid while me and Reimu kept distracting Shadow Yuyuko. Marisa went over to the fallen samurai and called out "Recarm." Green butterflies manifested and flew into Youmu, and after a moment or so Youmu opened her eyes, jumped back on her feet and bowed. "I'm grateful. Now, let's get back to work!"

We regrouped in front of Shadow Yuyuko, who continued belittling us. "You see? You see? You'll never beat me! I control the cycle of life and death itself! I won't let my centuries of experience be defeated by brats such as yourselves!"

"She's no joke," I said to the group. "It would seem she's as powerful as she claims, and could have even more tricks up her sleeve we don't know of. We need to alter our tactics if we're to win."

"What do you suggest?" Reimu asked.

I scanned the area to see if there was anything we could use to our advantage. I focused on a rather hefty branch directly overhead, connected to the rest of the tree structure only by a relatively thin section of stem. I realized if we could drop it on Shadow Yuyuko and pin her down, we could simply beat her down without resistance.

"Look up at that branch," I said. "If we send someone up there to cut it, we can drop it on Shadow Yuyuko." I looked at Marisa. "I want you to do it."

"Me?" Marisa asked, confused. "But, don't you need me to heal?"

"I have healing as well if I need to use it," I said. "More importantly, it seems as though she only uses her Mudo attack if she downs someone. She can most likely summon an infinite amount of those spirits who can down you, and their Psychic attacks are harder to dodge than her fire breath. Furthermore, you're the fastest and most agile of any of us, and she's more likely to notice if Fury is missing. Therefore, I want you to find a way up to that branch and slice it off so that it drops on Shadow Yuyuko."

Marisa thought for a second, then conceded, "alright, sound like a plan. I'll go up there and drop that branch right on her head. But I'll need a distraction."

"That won't be a problem," Youmu declared, drawing her sword and rushing toward Shadow Yuyuko. "Come at me, bitch!"

"Gah, you just can't stay down, can you?" Shadow Yuyuko grunted. "Very well. I'll make you regret crossing me!" Shadow Yuyuko slashed, stomped, and bit at Youmu, who simply swerved, dashed and danced around the monster's slow, brutish actions, drawing her anger as much as possible in order to make the beast forgo strategy in favor of simply trying to crush her now. Clearly, Youmu was a master of enraging the opponent as much as possible so that she could punish unskilled bloodlust. Me and Reimu jumped into the fight while Marisa quickly dashed off to the side, looking for a way up the branches and roots to the target.

"Get back over here, you little roach!" Shadow Yuyuko yelled, reaching for Youmu and trying to eat her, but Youmu just kept dodging and parrying. "I will put you back in your place as my servant and slave!"

"I won't allow it to happen," Youmu shot back. "I am a Konpaku, born from a lineage of skilled and capable warriors. I won't allow my honor and that of my family to be sullied by a purveyor of sin such as you!"

As we engaged Shadow Yuyuko in close combat, I saw out of the corner of my eye Marisa jumping up from behind one of the eight large stems onto its top, then jumping up toward a tangle of branches to which she hung on with her arms. She was making progress, that was good. We just had to keep attacking Shadow Yuyuko so that she wouldn't notice Marisa was missing.

At one point, Shadow Yuyuko did manage to summon some more spirits, and revealed another trick: she could eat these to restore her health. We had to take these out quickly, lest she endlessly recover the damage we were doing. Fortunately, my Makami also had Frei, allowing me to knock them down and use the opportunity to get in free hits.

"I'm the queen of the Netherworld!" Shadow Yuyuko bellowed. "This is MY domain! I command thousands of legions of spirits! All I have to do is point at where I want them to go, while I enjoy my endless supply of delicious snacks and tea!"

"Then I'll just have to cut that bloated belly open and reclaim all that food you squandered all of the Netherworld's funds to force me to buy!" Youmu countered. "I won't let up my assault until one of us falls!"

"GAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shadow Yuyuko laughed. "You foolish child! Your decades of life have nothing on my millennium of influence on the politics of the afterlife! Allow me to show you!" She continued her assault, whipping her fan, breathing her flames and also throwing out the occasional instant kill when she had the chance - in addition to Mudo, she also had Hama, it's Bless-type counterpart. At one point, a Hama amulet shot straight toward Reimu, but it too disintegrated before impact, similar to the downed Marisa having blocked Mudo. I realized the two of them had to be immune to the respective types of instant kill, and perhaps Bless for Reimu and Curse for Marisa overall. If that were the case, it would definitely be a huge boon for our team, since they could tank them for the rest of us to no ill effect.

We kept on attacking Shadow Yuyuko. As tired as we were getting, our efforts were paying off, since the more we wounded her the slower, less accurate and powerful her attacks became.

"I won't lose to mere rodents like you!" Shadow Yuyuko bellowed once again. "That's it, I'm gonna summon my lackeys again and-" she scanned around, eyed the three of us, and realized none of us were the person who was weak to Psychic attacks, that being Marisa.

"Bah! How did I not notice she was missing? Where did she go?!"

"Looks like the Ordinary Witch wins the day once again!" Shadow Yuyuko looked up and caught sight of Marisa for just long enough to see her extend her knifes and turn into a black flash which cleanly sliced the branch off at its weakest point, causing it to fall right on top of the monster's neck and pin her down to the ground, tongue out and dazed. Marisa touched down on the ground next to us, tipped her hat and smirked.

We strutted right up to Shadow Yuyuko, who was now entirely at our mercy. "Damn you all!" she cursed. "How DARE you do this to a princess such as I!"

Youmu walked right up to her, so close that the monster's breath blew her hair back slightly. The glare in her eyes was one of absolute, seething contempt which could burn a hole straight through a person, soul and all.

"My ancestral blade, Roukanken, was forged by youkai and unmatched in its power. It can kill evil spirits. And now, I shall exorcise you, vile monster, and take back my master!" She then reared back with her blade before thrusting it straight between Shadow Yuyuko's eyes, causing the monster to spasm, blood to gush from the wound and shadowy mist to erupt and scatter from its body as it shrunk back down to the delicate-seeming ghost princess, signalling our victory.


We stood there, the four of us. We watched Shadow Yuyuko turn back into a person, lying there on the ground under the fallen branch. Weakly, she pushed herself up, panting and with tears under her eyes.

"Hah… so, in the end, even my great power was not enough… all that food, all those luxuries… all those came at the cost of the Netherworld's integrity… in the end, my efforts amounted to nothing." She sobbed lightly, having now seemingly come to her senses.

"Yuyuko-sama…" Youmu walked up to her, and offered to help her up.

Shadow Yuyuko looked up at her. "Youmu-chan… I'm sorry."

"Do you see now?" Youmu said to her. "Do you see what your gluttony has done to me, the spirits and everything else in the Netherworld? All of us suffered because of your laziness and unending hunger, while you shirked your duties as the Netherworld's administrator."

Yuyuko started to cry. "It's because… it's because I never got to enjoy my life when I was alive!" She collapsed down onto the ground, absolutely sobbing. "Don't you understand the hell I was put through back then?! Every one of those goddamn sharks wanted to use me and my spirit manipulating powers as a weapon to kill entire armies! Everyone called me a freak and a monster because of my powers! I couldn't live a normal life and enjoy normal things because of that! That's why I had to kill myself, even if it meant turning my back on my only friend!"

Youmu knelt down and consoled her master. "But she didn't abandon you," she told her. "Yukari-sama is the reason you have your position to begin with. She didn't want to lose you. To do the things you're doing… you're letting her down, Yuyuko-sama! Don't you remember when you were the kind, diligent caretaker of Hakugyokurou that everyone looked up to? You finally found a place where people love and respect you, away from those bastards and their selfish politics, and you're squandering it! You gained the trust and loyalty of my family! I don't want you to squander it!" She hugged Shadow Yuyuko tightly, and cried, "please, I don't want to lose you, Yuyuko-sama!"

Hearing those heartfelt words made me realize just how tortured Yuyuko's life really was. Not only that, but… it made me feel sympathetic. Like me, Yuyuko was used as nothing more than a tool by power-hungry tyrants. The pressure and seeming powerlessness of it all made her commit suicide; I almost did. And like me, she eventually found a new life in a place where she could be loved and respected. I was used to thinking of distorted hearts as nothing more than things to be terminated so their scum could be removed from the Earth. I never once stopped to consider the myriad reasons in each person's life that led to those distortions manifesting in the first place, as much as I preached to my team that I did.

Just a little bit, I felt a ray of light penetrate my cold, hardened heart which felt abandoned by the world around me.

Once Youmu and Shadow Yuyuko had their moment, they got back up. Youmu stepped back, while Shadow Yuyuko held her hands together and smiled. "You're such a funny girl, Youmu-chan. Cute and yet so committed to your training. I'm sorry for not letting you train me in the way of the sword; I will allow you to resume your lessons. You made me realize how much I kept latching onto my past, making up for things I could never have instead of being grateful for what I have now. And that includes you, Youmu-chan."

At that moment, the treasure floated down, and the barrier around it shattered.

"The treasure," I said. "It's free now."

"The palace will disappear if we take that thing, right?" Marisa asked.

"It should, but…"

It was then that Shadow Yuyuko walked up to it. "To be honest, I wasn't sure if my gambit would work…"

"Gambit?" I asked.

Shadow Yuyuko shook her head. "At some point, I realized what I was doing was wrong. I realized I needed to stop, but I didn't know how. It was like an endless labyrinth of sorrow and sin in my heart." She felt the treasure. "This represents my heart, and the chains are the distortion. As long as the shield was around it, I couldn't do anything to heal myself." She then smirked and chuckled. "But nobody said I couldn't half-ass my fight against you so that I would lose and be forced to have my heart changed by you."

I jumped back in shock. "Wait, what?"

"Did you truly believe that my most powerful form was a mere Preta and not something more befitting my power and aptitude? The truth is, I'm far more powerful than you all realize, and could have easily killed you all if I so chose." She then turned around, pointed at the fallen branch and blasted it apart with Megidolaon, proving her power as well as the fact that she could still fight. "But, that was not my intention. I held back my power, and you all won fair and square. That is what I set out to do, and it is the outcome I have achieved."

"That kind of scheme is very you," Reimu said. "Always three steps ahead of everyone else. No wonder Yukari was able to get them to make you ruler of the Netherworld. Now put those skills to use and stop lying around eating fried chicken all day."

"A shadow facilitating their own change of heart… truly fascinating," I thought.

"Not as fascinating as you, young man, leading Youmu-chan and those two in here to free my corrupted heart. You truly have a special talent."

Shadow Yuyuko then grasped the chains around the treasure, and in one swift motion yanked them off, causing them to shatter in all directions. Almost immediately, the white ball of light grew unstable, before exploding into trails of light which shot up into the sky, scattering and spreading all throughout the palace. In the cherry tree, where we were, they consumed the petals and branches. It was obvious, now, that the palace was disappearing.

Shadow Yuyuko floated up into the air, arms outstretched. She bowed at us, "it's time for me to leave this place. I look forward to our next meeting, you and the real me." She then disappeared into the light. Around us, the light burned through the floor, creeping at our feet like veins before eventually, everything around us was consumed in vast whiteness.


When the light died down, we found ourselves back on the path. It was sunset, and white snowflakes scattered about.

"Man, that was rough," Marisa said, shaking her arms out. "And here I thought goin' down and fightin' Okuu was crazy."

"I doubt this even comes close to when we fought Utsuho," Reimu said, "but still. Going into someone's mind and fighting their distorted desires? Who would've thought?"

I dug out my key and tried to say the keywords, but there was no response. "It seems we can't go there anymore," I said. "Her palace is gone for good."

Youmu looked at me and asked, "so, does that mean Yuyuko-sama had a change of heart?"

"Yes. Once a palace is gone, the effect on their cognition is profound. However, it may take some time before it becomes apparent. The Phantom Thieves explained to me that, depending on how severe the distortion was, their targets would remain withdrawn for several days before confessing their crimes while they contemplated the weight of their actions." I looked back at the Netherworld portal. "Still, this all was very unexpected. That infiltration did not at all go like their infiltrations."

"Yeah, none of that stuff about a callin' card ever happened; Yuyuko just came right the heck outta nowhere and attacked us. And we never got that treasure, either, it just exploded into lights in the end," Marisa said, a little glumly. "Ah, well, at least it wasn't a total loss: we still got tons of loot and loads of cash… What do shadows do with yen anyway?"

"The way Yuyuko acted at the end bugs me as well," Reimu said. "She said she wanted her heart changed, but she still fought us…"

"Yes, that was very strange as well," I thought. "My best guess is that she subconsciously knew what she was doing was wrong and wanted to change her ways, but her conscious mind didn't quite agree with it. Either that, or she couldn't change her heart alone; she did say that the shield was preventing her from removing the chains distorting her heart, but she seemed aware that it would break if she failed to defend it, hence why she intentionally put up less of a fight. If she didn't want the change of heart, she could have easily killed us; that attack she demonstrated after the battle is one of the strongest there is, and with our current level of training we wouldn't have had much hope of surviving it." I shrugged. "Regardless, our mission is a success. We removed the distortion from Yuyuko's heart, and hopefully she will change her gluttonous ways."

"It was definitely a heck of an experience," Marisa smiled. "But… maaaaaan, am I sore after all of that runnin' around and fightin'." She turned to Reimu. "Do 'ya mind if I crash at your place for the night? I don't feel like flyin' all the way back to my house 'cause of how achey I am."

"I don't mind at all," Reimu said, "it just means you'll be there early to help me start setting up the New Year's celebration." She turned and asked me, a little more nicely, "and as I said before, you're free to come help if you can. I would definitely appreciate it. We didn't have any real major incidents this year other than with Kosuzu that one time, so I promised everyone I'd make this year's celebration even more exciting to make up for it."

"I'll definitely try," I nodded. "And if nothing else, I'll certainly be there for the actual celebration."

"Just a warning, you might be the only guy there," Marisa smirked. "And there will be lots of alcohol and drunk girls tryin' to hit on 'ya. Sure you still wanna come?"

"I doubt it would be anything I haven't dealt with before. Remember, I used to evade throngs of fangirls all the time."

"Yeah, but try doin' it when an oni has 'ya pinned down on the floor," Marisa joked.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure no one lays a finger on you. If they do, I'll throw them out," Reimu assured me.

"But then everyone's gonna think you're like 'hands off my boyfr-"

*WHACK*

I should probably leave those two to do their own thing, I thought to myself. I told Youmu to check back with me if she noticed anything strange with Yuyuko, before heading back down the path to the village myself. The sun had set by the time I returned to the shop. I helped Masato prepare dinner once again, before cleaning up the shop and heading off to bed.


When I awoke, I saw I had been summoned to the Velvet Room once again. I stood up and walked up to Igor. Lavenza and Rika were also there, clearly expecting me.

"Welcome back," Igor smiled. "It would seem you have achieved a great accomplishment today, taking down the Fortress of a person beset by gluttony."

I tilted my head. "Explain to me: what exactly happened back there in her Palace? Or… is that the right term? I've noticed you have been calling them 'Fortresses' up to this point?"

"It would seem the labyrinths in people's hearts in this land are different in nature than the Palaces you are used to," Lavenza told me. "No doubt you saw it when you faced Yuyuko, where the core of the distortion was wrapped in chains and shielded by a powerful barrier. It is as if these people are imprisoned by their own distorted desires and need to be released. Hence, the term 'Fortress' would seem to be more appropriate in this case."

"Back in the Pal- er, Fortress, I suppose, after we defeated her, Yuyuko said something about intentionally losing so that her heart could be changed. I theorized this was due to her, in fact, wanting her change of heart but not being able to effect it herself. I wonder: how is such a thing possible? In my experience Palace owners seemed too distorted to want such an outcome…"

"I do agree it is strange," Igor said. "But perhaps it was due to her nature or own sense of justice and values. It may do you good to investigate other Fortresses and formulate your own answer. As always, we will aid you in your efforts to that end."

Find other Fortresses and come up with my own answer to the question… frustrating as it was, Igor did have a point. Taking down one Fortress was unlikely going to give me all the details I needed. If we could find and take down more - and there were almost certainly more - that might be the only way for us to see how deep this rabbit hole went. Doing so would also expose me to other parts of the strange land that was Gensokyo, as so far I had only seen a small portion with my own eyes. I also had to expand my connections - in other words, make even more friends, a big ask for some like me who was virtually friendless.

I also started seriously wondering if I was going to end up as a harem anime protagonist. It seemed all the important people I had met and heard about so far were women with magical powers, so it didn't seem very far-fetched.

"Very well," I bowed. "I will do my best in finding the answer."

"Hey, we ain't giving you orders or anything," Rika said. "This journey's all yours. We're just here to help. Speaking of which…" She got closer to me, eyeing me carefully. "You hidin' somethin' in there?" She asked.

I was confused for a moment as to what she meant, before remembering the Jack Frost with Mabufu I had on my person. "As a matter of fact, I do." I held out its tarot card, causing it to appear in front of me, doing the little dance Jack Frosts were prone to doing when idle.

"Hm… HMM…"

"...excellent! You actually found it!" Rika cheered. "See? You've got some talent in you. And I'd like to help you realize your potential. That's why I'm gonna reward you for bringing me stuff on my list. I'll work on your first reward right away, and I'll have it ready by the next time you come here."

"What kind of rewards can I expect to receive?" I asked.

"Oh, you'll find out," Rika smiled. "I'll give you a hint, though: they're all ways in which you can make your Personas even more powerful."

"Indeed, it would be wise to help her," Lavenza told me. "The foes and trials you will encounter going forward will only continue to grow more challenging. Harboring stronger Personas within you will grant you the strength to overcome them."

I looked back at Rika. "Alright. Then, it's a deal." I stuck my hand out, and Rika excitedly shook it.

I am thou, thou art I. Thou hast acquired a new vow.

It shall become the wings of rebellion and breaketh thy chains of captivity.

With the birth of the Strength Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power…

"Alright then. Time for the next request. Let's see… ah, yes! Bring me an Archangel with Media!"

"Archangel with Media… that might be difficult," I said.

"It'll prolly be easiest just to fuse it," Rika suggested. "I'll stop you immediately if you create it so we can check it off the list." A bell rung. "Well, guess your time's runnin' up! See you around!"

"I'll see you all again soon," I replied, walking back toward the door, now with more questions than I had answers.