I wasn't sure what to expect when we defeated that Surt shadow and entered the elevator, but what we found at the top was beyond words.

"Where… are we?" Yusuke asked.

"What a change of scenery," Akechi remarked. "We were just in a science lab, and now…"

...and now we were in some kind of garden, full of flowers, crystals, tree roots and stone statues of Rumi. And all around, people, with smiles on their faces, floated up into the sunlit expanse. I had to wonder: was THIS Maruki's ultimate dream, his ideal reality for everyone?

"What on Earth is going on?!" Sumire said.

"I'd say Maruki believes anyone who undergoes his 'treatment' winds up feeling downright rapturous," Akechi answered.

"So he actually thinks he's sending them to paradise?" Morgana asked. "...hmph. Maruki must really be convinced he's doing the right thing."

"Dr. Maruki…" Sumire sighed. "Mona-senpai, the Treasure's above this room, right?"

"Yeah, I think we're close," Morgana replied.

Of course, being physically close to the Treasure didn't mean actually getting up there was going to be easy. Not only were there shadows in our path, but there were many staircases with gaps, gaps which could only be filled by activating color switches which shone lights causing roots to grow and allow passage. However, further complicating things was that this also created impassable root barriers which had to be cleared by turning off the same lights. It was somewhat easy to figure out at first, until we saw where the blue Will Seed was: on the other side of a bridge and three barriers which had to be cleared to actually get through to it, meaning we had to turn the switches on and off in such a way as to essentially strand ourselves once we were there, and only then could we claim it.

We approached the Will Seed's door. "Huh," Futaba remarked, "doesn't look like it's being defended…"

Suddenly, a being splashed from the floor.

"...yeah, I knew it wasn't gonna be that easy. The Blue ones never are," she said.

"Wait a minute," Haru pointed out. "Is… that?"

"What the fuck are you all doing here?!" the being screamed. I couldn't believe it either. This was Seraph/Reimu, one of those girls from several weeks ago, or at least a cognitive copy of her. "If you think you're going to get your grubby hands on this thing, I have no choice but to kill you all!"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Ryuji exclaimed. "What is SHE doing here?!"

"It's not actually her, Skull," Morgana reminded him. "This is only a cognitive copy of her."

"Interesting," Akechi thought. "Perhaps that encounter the two had back then had such a profound effect on his cognition that it caused her to appear here again."

"I am under oath to annihilate rulebreakers!" She lifted up into the air and spread her wings, a demonic left and an angelic white, pointing her gohei at us. "It's time for all of you to go straight to Hell!"

"What's with the aggressive language?" Ann asked.

"There's no time for questions," I said. "Get ready, everyone!"

Out of all the Will Seed guardians, Cognitive Seraph proved to be the toughest one by far. Her strategy was rather simple: blast us all to bits with Blazing Hell, Megidolaon, One-Shot Kill and Riot Gun, not to mention trying to whack us with that gohei which had the nasty side-effect of sometimes killing anyone not immune to Bless, which we established after she killed Akechi and we had to revive him. Only after some trial and error did we confirm an Ice weakness, and even then taking her down was like trying to bust down a steel door with a rancid, moldy fish. Finally, after twenty minutes, we finally struck her down and claimed the Will Seed for ourselves.

"Hoooooly shiiiiit," Ryuji wheezed. "What was up with her?"

"I agree that was incredibly rough," Makoto said. "We could have easily all died right there…"

"The real Seraph, or Reimu or whatever the hell her name was, did almost kill him, in his own palace no less," Akechi said. "So it's no wonder the cognitive version of her would be a very lethal opponent."

"I still can't help but wonder who those two girls actually were," Sumire said. "They claimed to know Akechi-san in real life, but…"

"I've been wondering that as well," Futaba added, "so I went online to do some research. I tried matching their names to every database I could find, but found no matches or records of anyone named Reimu Hakurei or Marisa Kirisame anywhere. However, when I dug deeper I discovered that the word 'Hakurei' sometimes pops up on occult sites, both on and off the dark web."

"Oh? How so?" Morgana asked.

"Apparently, there's this abandoned shrine, not far from Joker's house in Chino, actually, called the Hakurei Shrine. It's rumored that anyone who wanders near it disappears, never to be seen again, so the area's fenced off. Obviously, that doesn't deter people from getting in and smearing it with graffiti, but even that has a tendency to mysteriously disappear. Furthermore, there's several accounts on different sites that share the name 'Violet_Detector' claiming to have visited a place called 'Gensokyo,' a place claimed to exist within the 'Great Hakurei Border,' and they even post pictures they claim were taken there, showing things like youkai and monster girls. I determined these were all the same person through simple IP tracing, to a phone belonging to one Sumireko Usami, a third-year at Higashifukami High in Yokohama."

"Higashifukami High," Yusuke said. "I recall taking part in an art competition there when I was a first-year at Kosei."

"Their track team also won nationals the year Kamoshida broke my leg," Ryuji sighed.

"Usami-san," Makoto mused. "Perhaps I could try reaching out to her at some point."

"We can discuss that later," I said. "Right now, we need to get to the treasure room, and put an end to this false reality."

"Good thinking, Joker," Morgana nodded. "Let's head up."


We managed to create a path to the staircase leading up to the hallway hanging over the garden area. At the top was a safe room, and right next to it, a room like the ones elsewhere in the palace which held videotapes showcasing Maruki's memories, and how they led him to become a palace ruler. "There's a TV over there," Morgana noted, "and it looks like there's a tape already in the player.

Akechi sighed. "This again? I really hope this is the last one."

"The tapes seem to be growing more and more recent, though," Makoto said. "What do we have in store this time?"

"Only one way to find out," I said, turning the TV on and hitting play. The scene opened up to show Maruki inside an office, in front of a professor sitting at a desk looking at a report. "Hmmm…" the old man grumbled. "So, what brings you back here, after all these years?"

"That's a comprehensive study on the research you tried to shut down 'all those years' ago," Maruki replied.

"I know how to read," the professor shot back. "What I meant was, why are you bringing this to me now?"

"Oh, this is just a quick visit out of spite," Maruki said. "I wanted to show you, in person, that I found the 'concrete evidence' you had discontinued my research over!"

"So it appears," the professor nodded. "I'll admit you've impressed me on that point, at least… but such praise does nothing now - all this discussion is in the past. Why can't you just let it stay there and move on?"

"Ah, no can do, professor," Maruki said. "Cognitive psience has made too great an impact on this world to be abandoned like that."

"What are you saying?" the professor asked.

"The psychotic breakdown incidents, the sudden changes in heart in adults that the Phantom Thieves claim to make… I'm nearly willing to call these events 'concrete evidence' of cognitive psience in action. How about you?"

"...!"

"And the one person pulling the strings in the background of this, congressman Masayoshi Shido. He seems to be confessing to all sorts of crimes now that the Phantom Thieves have changed his heart. Years ago, Shido took notice of my research, stole it away from me, and made others develop it for his own gain. Not only that, he used cognitive psience somehow to induce the politically motivated psychotic breakdowns. Now… you're heavily involved in that series of events, aren't you?"

The professor, clearly panicking, spoke up, "what are… What are you planning on doing with me?"

Maruki shook his head. "Oh, nothing at all. As I said before, I only came here out of spite. That paper - my work - is going to change the world.

"'Change the world?'" the professor scoffed. "And where's the money for that? Where's the power to do it? You're no Shido! What can someone like you actually do?"

"That paper there is just the first step," Maruki replied. "I've learned how to change the cognition of not just an individual, but all of humanity! And I WILL do it, no matter how long it takes!"

"Gah, enough of this drivel!" the professor shouted. "Get out of my office, and don't show your face here again, hear me?!"

Then, right as the professor finished speaking, the world began to flash red and distort, as if someone nearby used the MetaNav to travel to the Metaverse. Maruki looked up in confusion, before looking outside…

...outside… red sky, bones in the landscape… wait, did this event transpire on…

"Wha… what is this?" Maruki exclaimed.

"Hmm?" The professor looked outside. "What's your problem now?"

"Huh?" Maruki was puzzled. "You… you don't see this?! The sky just -"

"The time has come…" came a mysterious voice.

"This voice?" Maruki turned around, and freaked out. "Wha?!"

A strange being materialized, looking like a cross with tentacles coming out of it and coiling on the floor. "The time is finally at hand… I am the other you, dwelling in the realm of mankind's hearts."

"The other… me? Wait… the realm of mankind's hearts… A-are you telling me, this realm is..."

"You may have no knowledge of it, but I have been at your side for much longer than our current meeting. Finally, your reality and the Sea of Souls from which I came have truly become one in this moment. Now, the time for your unjustly persecuted ideology is at hand. I am thou, thou art I…" And just like that, the being disappeared in a white flash.

"...!" Maruki gasped. "That's it… I… I finally get it. To think it'd be so… heheh…"

"Hey! What are you mumbling about?!" the professor demanded. "I told you to get out!"

"...yes, I'll be on my way. Finally… Now, I can finally…"

"...Shido!" Ann said.

"To think he was the one who stymied Dr. Maruki's research..." Yusuke said.

"Y'know," said Futaba, "I've been wondering ever since we saw the earlier video, do you think there was some kinda connection between my mom's research and Dr. Maruki's?"

"After he crushed Maruki's chance at researching the field," Akechi added, "he had his own pawns do it for him instead. Although, I doubt Shido's researchers knew anything about the subject in the way Maruki did. That sounds exactly like the kind of plan that man would scheme up…"

"That bastard!" Ryuji exclaimed. "...wait, now's not the time to get pissed about that."

"There's another thing about that video nobody's mentioned yet…" Morgana said. "That being that appeared near the end was most likely Maruki's Persona."

"And the day it happened," I said. "Based on the red sky and the bones across the skyline, that meeting took place around the same time Yaldabaoth merged the two worlds together. That must have allowed Maruki's Persona to appear before him and fully awaken to its powers."

"Excellent deduction, Joker," Morgana replied. "As you've all seen for yourselves, a full awakening to a Persona can't happen unless you're within the Metaverse. That would mean Maruki really did awaken to his Persona in that video.

"And at the same time, he attained the ability to meddle with Mementos, and control the cognition of the masses," Makoto said. "So it is just as Lavenza had told us…"

Haru frowned. "The sheer number of coincidences necessary for this to happen is just…" She looked up. "And what about those two girls, 'Reimu' and 'Marisa?' Could their appearance also be because of this?"

"That's… really hard to say," Morgana admitted. "Literally all that we know about them are their names, their alleged Metaverse codenames, the fact that they're Persona users who possess colossal amount of power outside the Metaverse as well, and, most of all, that they somehow know Akechi, or at least someone with his name, appearance and memories. How they got into this palace, or why, is a complete mystery."

Akechi shook his head. "I don't believe that's relevant right now. Now that we have a better grasp on past events, let's just walk over to the treasure room mere strides from here and get out of this place."

"For once, I agree with 'ya man," Ryuji said. "Today's just been waaaay too long."


Past the record room, we made our way down the hall, up a small set of stairs, and through the door. Considering how close we were to the Treasure, and considering the importance of this deepest, highest point in the palace, I was surprised to see the door wasn't guarded. If Cognitive Seraph was supposed to be the palace's greatest champion, technically we didn't have to claim the blue Will Seed, or any Will Seed for that matter, and we could have easily skipped her. Perhaps if not there, then we would have faced her here, I guessed.

Given the aesthetic of this part of the palace, somehow it didn't surprise me what we found on the other side of that golden door, especially given what was engraved above it: "Psientific Model Eden."

"Look at this…" Morgana said in awe.

"I see, so this is what Dr. Maruki ultimately wishes for everyone who accepts his treatment," Akechi scoffed. "A thoughtless paradise where man regresses to his primeval, ignorant self to live out his days in mindless bliss…"

"Doctor…"

I put my hand on Sumire's shoulder. "We'll bring an end to this. You have my word."

Sumire looked at me, and nodded. "Yes. We've made it this far, Joker-senpai."

Yusuke looked out at the room. "A Garden of Eden where no one suffers any pain or strife. I… have to admit that is a virtuous vision for the world, but…"

"We've all come to where we are precisely because of our painful pasts," Haru remarked. "If we were to erase all that, then…"

"We've all grown because of our experiences, good and bad," Futaba said. "And I… hate to say this, but we just have to accept that what's happened has happened, and we have to move on and use the things we've learned to make a better future for ourselves."

"Dr. Maruki's been through some really shitty stuff," said Ryuji, "and, uh, I don't really blame him for wantin' to do something about it, but it still doesn't forgive what he's doing now."

"And that 'Seraph' girl may have had the right idea," Makoto added. "Not that I support killing Dr. Maruki of course, but the world would be disrupted in ways no one would like if he were to simply take away everyone's pain. Everyone dies at some point, after all."

"Yeah, but... I… kinda can't stop thinking about everything that happened back then," said Ann. "Something about a 'Hakurei Border' or something, and who those two were, where they came from, and especially how they claimed to know Akechi-kun. They even called each other by codenames, like how we do."

"And they know my codename…" Akechi looked away from us, up toward the room's distant ceiling. "I've been thinking: what if I were just some illusion created by Maruki to satisfy Joker's wish that I survived that day back in Shido's palace, while the real me managed to escape out of either one's notice an now is in some distant place, some fantasy realm, if Oracle is right, where hopes, dreams and legends are thrown into like a trashcan, forgotten and never seen or heard from again? Or, on the other side of thinkable alternatives, what if the idea that I survived, or could have survived, is so unbelievable that a version of me would manifest in that place?"

"There's just too much we don't know," Morgana admitted. "This might be our last job as the Phantom Thieves, but now that I know that this 'Gensokyo' place could actually exist, I can't help but want to look into it, if only so that we can have some closure on what those two girls said that day… Oracle, you mentioned that abandoned shrine was near Joker's hometown, right?"

"Yep," Futaba replied. "On a hillside somewhere east of town."

"Okay… then, maybe when I follow him back home I could go check it out. I can cross in and out of cognitive worlds easily, I don't think a 'barrier between fantasy and reality' would be too much of a stretch for me."

"And I can see if I can meet with Usami-san," Makoto nodded.

"Hehehe," Futaba chuckled. "I guess that means we're switching jobs from being Phantom Thieves to occult detectives!"

"O-occult?" Makoto stepped back. "L-l-let's… not phrase it that way, c-can we?"

"I think meeting with youkai and monsters sounds rather interesting, actually," Haru smiled. "They might be friendlier than we might all think."

"Well, the youkai that Sumireko chick took selfies with certainly looked cute," Futaba added, "assuming they weren't just drunk cosplayers she managed to talk into getting a selfie with."

I looked up at the distant top of the room. "Let's not get sidetracked. We're still on a mission, and deep within enemy territory. Now then… it looks like the treasure is all the way up there."

Ryuji looked up as well. "Oh, COME ON, we come all this way just for the treasure to be all the way up there?! Mona, are you SURE you can't turn into a helicopter or somethin'?!"

"I keep telling you, I am NOT some kind of robot cat!" Morgana argued.

Makoto sighed. "Let's not fight here, you two. After all, it's possible we'll still be able to access it once we send the Calling Card."

"IF there's a Dr. Maruki to send the Calling Card to," Futaba added. "He said he'd appear again by the third to 'hear our decision' but we haven't seen him at all since then."

"Yeah, he got pretty banged up by that Seraph chick," Ryuji said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he were off chillin' somewhere tryin' to rest, or even if he was at the doctor or somethin'."

"It's kind of strange to think about," Sumire added, "that Dr. Maruki is a palace ruler with this much power, but still has things to take care of like a normal person."

"Yeah…" I paused for a second to think. "It looks like we've come as far as we can today. If nothing else, we've secured a route to the treasure. Let's head back to reality for now, and meet back at LeBlanc on the second to discuss our next steps. Oracle, I want you to see if you can track Dr. Maruki's whereabouts so that we can send him a Calling Card; failing that, I want you to prepare another Futaba Cannon as a last resort."

"I dunno if a second Futaba Cannon in a row's gonna have much of an effect, especially in this Dream World of Maruki's, but I'll give it a shot just in case."

"Excellent. In that case, let's head out, and-"

All of a sudden, the door opened and shut behind us.

"What was that?" Makoto said, startled.

We turned around to see who had joined us. I expected a shadow guard, given that this was the Treasure room. Instead, what I saw was two girls, each wearing outlandish dresses with one magenta and the other olive green. The magenta one held a ginger stalk and had brown hair, the other held a bamboo stalk and had light green hair. Both wore Kazaori-eboshi hats, had blank pupils in their eyes, and bore creepy, doll-like smiles.

"Uh… who are you?" Ryuji asked nervously.

"That is a good question!" the magenta one declared. "We are servants of Matara-sama sent to evaluate your strength!"

"What do you mean?" Akechi accosted. "Why are you here in the first place?"

"We don't know," said the green one. "We just serve Matara-sama's will, and don't question her orders."

"What?" Morgana was confused. "Who's 'Matara-sama?' For that matter, who are you two?"

"I am Nishida Satano," the magenta one said.

"And I am Teireida Mai," said the green one. "Together," the two said in unison, "we carry out the will of the great Matara-sama, who is seeking powerful individuals." Mai continued, "...although we don't know for what purpose."

"That's just great," Akechi sighed in frustration. "Look, if you can't tell, we're quite busy right now, so could you two please get out of the way?"

"Matara-sama sent us to test your strength," Satano said. "If we don't do that, she'll be mad."

"Very mad!" Mai parroted. "She is a scary person when she's mad!"

"Test our strength…" I swept my hand. "Is that a challenge to fight?"

The two didn't answer, instead they floated up into the air and started dancing in place, shooting lasers everywhere.

"HOLY SHIT!" Ryuji yelled as he hastily called William out to try and intercept the sudden blast.

"Defense position, everyone!" I called out. All of us scrambled to get out of the crossfire and position ourselves to retaliate. Their lasers, which were amulet-like, quickly filled up the area, and long, needle-like lasers were mixed in as well. Occasionally, they called out attacks, with names like "Bamboo Sign: Bamboo Crazy Dance" and "Myouga Blessing: Forget Your Name;" these telegraphed even tricker and harder to dodge laser patterns which did things like generate delayed rain-like lasers or homing amulets which came from behind. Both possessed regular Metaverse attacks as well, which they mixed in with the bullet waves while we were distracted: Satano used Psychic attacks while Mai used Nuclear ones. Mai could also cast Heat Riser on them both, while Satano could bestow a Concentrate-like effect. In any case, the fight was fast and frantic, and as they danced, so did we practically have to dance ourselves just to dodge the endless waves of ordinance.

"They just keep coming!" Ann squealed. "Oracle, do they have any weaknesses?"

"I just finished the analysis," Futaba said while dodging lasers. "Use Psychic attacks against the green one and Nuclear attacks against the pink one!"

"Got it," I said. "Get busy, Queen and Noir!" Once we figured out their weakness and started exploiting them, we got much more breathing room into land things like debuffs, physical blows and status effects; they still recovered quickly enough to deny an All-Out Attack and retaliated with more power. Later on, they let up somewhat on the lasers but started tossing Sword Dances, Riot Guns and Megidolaons around as well. Given how much Cognitive Seraph had drained us, we were running out of energy very quickly and I had to find moments to chug coffee and throw curry around just so that we could keep up. Somehow, we managed to force them to the ground in the end, and we wasted no time holding them up.

"You are all very strong!" Mai said cheerily. "Matara-sama will be pleased!"

"Who is Matara-sama?" Akechi asked harshly. "What is your purpose for coming here?"

"Yes, Matara-sama will be very pleased!" Satano said. "Now she will shower you all with her blessing for when the Fateful Hour strikes!"

All of a sudden, a door opened up on Satano's back, and before we could question why a powerful vacuum sucked us all into it. I could hear someone scream "whaaaaaat the shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" as we were pulled in.


We were ejected out the other side of the door into a space where we all floated weightlessly. Countless doors with different places on the other side of each opened and closed all around us.

"Owwwww," Ann said in a strained voice. "What WAS that?"

"And… what is this place?" Yusuke asked.

"Wherever we are, we're not in the Metaverse anymore," said Morgana, who had turned back into a cat. Indeed, all of us were in the street clothes we all showed up in front of the palace wearing. "Still, this place is…"

"Really effin' weird," exclaimed Ryuji. "How do we get outta here?"

"What an unusual realm," Yusuke said, making a frame with his fingers. "I wish I had brought my sketchbook."

"Now's not the time for that!" Ann complained. "We're just - AAHHH!"

"This is - we're floating!" Makoto exclaimed. "We're… FLOATING in a… space!"

"Whoawhoawhoa," squeaked Futaba, who was flailing her arms. "I can't control myself!"

"It seems you've been cast into the Land of the Backdoor," said a female voice.

"Who said that?" Sumire asked.

We heard one of the doors open behind us, and turned around to find a woman with short blue hair, a Santa cap and a cat-smile sticking her head out of it. "Welcome. I trust you were all sent here by those two dancers?"

"Er, I mean, who are you?" Ryuji asked.

"Me?" she shook her head. "I'm a being who doesn't actually exist, not in your home reality."

"What is THAT supposed to mean?" Akechi asked.

"One could say this place is a realm in between realms," the mysterious lady said. "I will say that one of these doors right near here will lead you back to your world. You can figure out the rest. Adieu~"

"Wait, come back!" Ann pleaded, but the woman had already shut the door. When Ann tried to open it, a different girl came flying out, one with blonde hair, a mob cap and a purple dress.

"Wait… you're not that woman from before!" she said in shock.

"...who are you?" the girl asked.

"Wha- HUH? I mean - I'm Ann Takamaki, who are you?"

"I'm Maribel Hearn," the girl replied.

"Mari… Merra… ugh, can I just call you Merry? What IS this place? Where are we? None of this makes any sense!"

"Well… if I had to tell you, it's a realm between realms," Merry said.

"That's literally what the other chick told us!" Ryuji shouted.

Merry shook her head. "I can't waste time. My door is over there, and I can't be late." She floated off toward another open door. "Have a good day. I hope I don't see you all here again."

"W-wait!" Ann chased after her, but the door shut behind Merry and floated off at a high speed.

"Augh, this place makes no effin' sense!" Ryuji said in frustration.

"I agree," Haru said. "The sooner we leave this place, the less exasperated we'll all be."

"That one chick said the door back to our world is near here," Futaba said, "...but, can we really trust her?"

Ryuji shrugged. "Guess we just gotta check doors 'till we find one that goes back to the palace or LeBlanc or whatever." A door floated by him. "Like this one-"

He opened the door, where all of us saw, on the other side, a businessman facing away from us. More importantly, we saw Godzilla's giant head on the other side of the glass window roaring.

"What the-"

"Ooooh," Futaba smiled, "isn't this the scene in Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah where-"

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" I shouted. All of us scattered, and a moment later a blue stream of atomic breath shot out the door into the burgundy abyss beyond, before the door slammed shut and slipped away.

"Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit," Ryuji squeaked like a baby. "We almost got our asses fried…"

"Let's… be more careful opening these doors," Makoto said. At that moment, one happened to drift by her. "*sigh*... guess I'll try this one." She opened the door, to find a room with nothing but a claymation girl sitting in a chair facing away from Makoto, before she turned around and glared at her with a distorted face.

"EEEEEYYYYYYAAAAAAHHHHH!" Makoto screamed, slammed the door shut, and immediately came over and clung to my leg. "I'msosorrysosorryI'msorrysispleasesaveme…"

"You were saying?" Akechi snarked.

"Uh… that's two in a row we've struck out," Sumire noted. "Should we really keep going?"

"Well, we're not getting outta here until we try one of these doors and it leads us back," Futaba shrugged. She floated over to a third door and tried it. "This one had better have Sojiro on the other side with a hot plate of curry-"

There was no curry, and no Sojiro. Instead, our eyes were "treated" to the sight of Donald Trump on the toilet, on his phone presumably Tweeting something.

"...huh?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Futaba slammed the door and turned around blushing. "Ewewewewewewewew brain bleach please!"

"Somehow, that was more horrifying than the other two," Akechi sighed.

At that moment, yet another door came up behind me. This one actually looked like the front door to LeBlanc, and I could even see the inside.

"Be careful, Ren," Morgana cautioned. "That might not be the real LeBlanc."

"Yeah, for all we know, some crazy bitch with a flaming sword's gonna pop out and fry us," Ryuji gulped.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," I shrugged. So I tried the door, and walked inside. The others followed me in. When we entered, the familiar scents of coffee and curry wafted into our sinuses, and Sojiro was behind the counter cleaning a glass.

"...Sakura-san?" Sumire said, shutting the door behind you.

Sojiro turned around. "Oh-hoh! You kids surprised me! I must not have heard the bell ring."

I turned around and opened the door. Outside was not that 'Backdoor' place, but instead just the familiar, snow-dusted back alley in Yongen I'd come to know all too well.

"I'll make some coffee for all of us," I said. "After today, we need it."

"I could go for a drink if I were old enough," Futaba grumbled. "Buuuut I'll settle for Ren's better-than-Sojiro's curry!"

"Wha- that's not true!" Sojiro exclaimed. "My curry's the best! I taught this kid everything he knows!"

"Well then, why don't we have a cook-off?" I said, tipping and looking over my glasses.

"OOOH, a curry cook-of!" Futaba said excitedly. "I'll judge!"

"I'll admit, curry does sound very good right now," Makoto admitted. "And while we're here, we can also catch up on our studies."

Ryuji hung his head low. "Oh, c'mon, we almost got killed by Godzilla and walked in on Trump on the toilet, can we not talk about homework?"

"Hmm?" Sojiro was puzzled.

"Oh, it's nothing," Ryuji shrugged.


Later that night, after everyone else went home, me and Morgana laid in bed staring at the ceiling.

"We have to wait for Dr. Maruki to come to us, don't we?" Morgana asked.

"Seems like it," I nodded.

Morgana curled up. "Still, it feels like we're left with more questions than answers. Like who Reimu and Marisa are, those two dancers and their 'Matara-sama' master, that whole entire 'Backdoor' place… there's just so many things I want to uncover as a Phantom Thief, but I don't have the time, the information or even the context."

"When we go home, we can look into that Hakurei Shrine together, I promise."

"Hehe. Come on, I don't have to be reminded that you have my back. I've trusted that you will for a long time." He yawned. "Well, let's get some rest. We have a big confrontation ahead of us, after all. Let's do our best to be ready for it."

"Mmm-hmm…" I said drowsily as my eyelids failed me and the world faded to black.