Meanwhile, with Mallory…

When Mallory winced and groaned a little and opened her eyes, she remember what happened to her and Akira back in the café in Kichijoji and that she agreed to go with Paul/Yog-Sothoth, Estes/B'gnu-Thun, Kenny/Gathanothoa and Ariana/Kassogtha in exchange for Paul/Yog-Sothoth sparing Akira's life before she cautiously look around and saw that she's lying on a single-sized bed inside a small cell room with a locked cell door in front of her in some sort of basement before she heard and saw a door opening inward in front of her and saw both Kenny/Gathanothoa and Ariana/Kassogtha walking into the basement and stopping in front of the cell door and staring at Mallory with smug looks on their faces.

"Well, look who's finally awake, Kassogtha. Good morning and did you have a nice sleep, host of Lythalia?" said Kenny/Gathanothoa smugly to Mallory.

"Humph." snorted Mallory rudely and tonelessly at Kenny/Gathanothoa before she look away from him and Ariana/Kassogtha.

"Now that you're awake, it's time we take you to see our leader and mother of us all, Sabinae Ogura. She's been waiting and looking forward to seeing you, Caelum." said Ariana/Kassogtha casually to Mallory before she take out a key, unlock and open the cell door and beckoned Mallory to come out.

"Who is Sabinae Ogura and she's the mother of the "Old One" being living inside me? Even more bad news for me." thought Mallory as she scowled and narrowed her eyes at both Kenny/Gathanothoa and Ariana/Kassogtha before she got off the bed, stepped out of the cell room and follow them out of the basement, long a long hallway past windows to their left and several closed tatami doors to their right until Kenny/Gathanothoa, Ariana/Kassogtha and Mallory stopped in their tracks in front of another closed tatami doors with Paul/Yog-Sothoth and Estes/B'gnu-Thun standing side by side in front of the doors and Mallory watched as Paul/Yog-Sothoth and Estes/B'gnu-Thun nodded at both Kenny/Gathanothoa and Ariana/Kassogtha before they glance at her.

"Go on in and see Sabinae-san, little girl." said Paul/Yog-Sothoth emotionlessly to Mallory as he and Estes/B'gnu-Thun step aside to allow Mallory entry into the room where Sabinae Ogura is.

"Humph." snorted Mallory more rudely and tonelessly at Paul/Yog-Sothoth before she open the tatami doors, went into the room and glance in silence at the pale-skinned, long black-haired, black-eyed cold-looking woman named Sabinae Ogura wearing a long sleeve black dress with a long dark red and black stripe scarf around her arms and behind her back.

"So, you must be Mallory Ananu Caelum, the new and current host of Lythalia, an "Old One" and one of my daughters. Welcome back and it's nice to meet you. I've missed you a lot and I'm Sabinae Ogura, the host of Yhoundeh. Come a bit closer so I can get a better look at you." said Sabinae as she introduced herself to Mallory before she told Mallory to come closer for her to look and Mallory did so reluctantly and worriedly and once Mallory's close enough, Sabinae's hands swiftly shot out, grab Mallory's face tightly and yank her close.

"… Hm, at least and glad to see that you're not as sullied as I thought and feared when you're with that Keiko Amamiya wench or any of those thieving friends of hers and now that she's dead and gone thanks to Junko Sakurai, you're officially free from her, my estranged one." said Sabinae/Yhoundeh smugly and coldly to Mallory about Keiko's demise by Junko's hands.

"H-How could you say such callous words about Keiko Amamiya!? She was my friend…" snapped Mallory in anger at Sabinae/Yhoundeh for talking bad about Keiko, which angered Sabinae/Yhoundeh before she drew back her right hand to backhand Mallory's face very hard, making her cried out in pain from the slap.

"How dare you talk back to me like that? Be quiet and know your damn place, host of Lythalia! Yog-Sothoth! B'gnu-Thun! Get in here and take her to the ritual room to awaken Lythalia now!" snapped Sabinae/Yhoundeh furiously at Mallory (who stay silent in fear of her as tears glisten in her eyes) before she called out and gave an order to Paul/Yog-Sothoth and Estes/B'gnu-Thun, who came in and obeyed her order before they grab and take Mallory out of her room toward the ritual room.

XXXX

Back in Leblanc…

After Goro help patched Keiko's bruise wounds up with ointment and bandages and managed to console and calm Keiko down and reassured her that they'll get Mallory back, they stood up, make their way downstairs where their friends (except Mallory), Sojiro, Sae and Samson is waiting for them and Ryuji, Ann, Morgana, Yusuke, Aglaia, Makoto, Keith, Futaba, Haru and Jason smiled in joy and relief at seeing both Keiko and Goro returning safe and alive before they surround and enveloped both Keiko and Goro in a huge group hug.

"Hey, you two!" said Ryuji happily to both Keiko and Goro.

"How've you been, Keiko?" asked Ann.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking, Ann. But I can't help feeling that I could've and nearly died for real if the plan to fooled "Junko Sakurai" didn't worked and after being in the Metaverse for quite some time before Goro and Sae-san came and help in getting me out of the police station." replied Keiko.

"Yeah, what she said, everyone." said Goro as he nodded to them.

"Yeah, we know what you mean and we're really glad to see you back with us safe and alive, Keiko." said Aglaia.

"I agreed with Aglaia-chan, Keiko-chan." said Haru in agreement with Aglaia.

"It truly is a relief to see your face, Keiko." said Makoto in relief to Keiko.

"I bet that moron Sakurai don't even know we tricked her yet!" said Ryuji with an amused look on his face.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks to Futaba-chan's brilliant plan and thanks to all of you helping out together." said Keiko gratefully to them.

"Y-Yeah, you're welcome, Keiko-san." said Keith as his face turned red a little before he quickly look away due to Goro and Makoto noticing and scowling at him.

"Still, how'd you pull this off? Isn't Keiko considered to be dead?" asked Sojiro in concern and confusion to them.

"You weren't told anything? I heard my sister and Akechi-kun brought her here though…" said Makoto with a surprise look on her face.

"That's right, we did. But Sae-san and I didn't have enough time to tell Sojiro-san about it." said Goro.

"That's true. They just showed up in a car, rushed into my café and this Akechi guy just bring Keiko straight up to her attic room to help patched her up while your older sister stay downstairs with me and my guest there." said Sojiro as he and the others glance at Samson (who's still sipping and enjoying his cup of black coffee).

"Now that you mention your guest, what're you doing here, Sagan-san?" asked Goro suspiciously to Samson.

"Enjoying my coffee, obviously, Akechi-kun." replied Samson in a deadpan tone of voice at Goro. "And as for what I'm really doing here, that's after all of you are done explaining everything to Sakura-san and Niijima-san before I say anything, Akechi-kun." added Samson casually and calmly to Goro (who grumbled and fumed a little at him).

"… Anyway, it was right after they announced she had "died" too. Almost gave me a heart attack and also, what happened and where's her friend and my other young charge, Mallory Caelum?" asked Sojiro concernly to them about Mallory.

"She… got taken by them, Sojiro-san." replied Keiko sadly to Sojiro.

"Are you serious? Who took her… Wait a minute, are you talking about the ones that's being watching her for quite some time, Keiko?" said Sojiro more concernly to Keiko.

"That's right but I think Amamiya-san prefer to talk about after she and all of you explained everything, am I right again, Amamiya-san?" said Samson.

"… Yes, Sagan-san." said Keiko in reluctant agreement with Samson.

"Yeah, we'll tell you what really happened now, boss." said Ryuji as he glance and nodded at Sojiro.

"We wanted to make our enemy believe the leader of the Phantom Thieves was dead." Makoto started explaining to Sojiro.

"What?" said Sojiro with a more confused look on his face.

"What we did was make that enemy kill her fake in the Metaverse." said Makoto.

"H-Hold on a sec! Enemy? Fake? What're you talking about?" asked Sojiro.

"The true culprit behind all these incidents set us up. Our true goal was to find out. determine and learn their identities." replied Yusuke.

"True culprit? I see… So you guys and girls were going up against someone." said Sojiro as he furrowed his eyebrows.

"Not just against someone. But against a lot of someones, Sakura-san." thought Samson dryly in his mind.

"It was Junko Sakurai, or whoever "Junko Sakurai" is. You and your boyfriend and your friends knew beforehand that she was the traitor, didn't you, Keiko-san?" asked Sae as she glance at Keiko.

"Yes, I do, Sae-san." replied Keiko as she nodded at Sae.

"Sakurai herself gave us the chance to strike back if Akechi didn't lend a hand in spying on her. She made one fatal mistake." said Ann.

"Couldn't you have just said from the beginning that Sakurai was the real culprit?" said Sae.

"If that's something that we can simply bring up and tell you straight away, we would but we can't because we couldn't have you suspected Sakurai except Akechi since he knew his way in and out of the police station so he can save Keiko-san because he knew about her plan to kill her, Sae-san." said Keith as he shake his head a little.

"Keith's right. Besides, neither you nor the other investigators except Akechi-kun would have believed something like that, would you?" said Makoto.

"… True, you and Keith-kun got me there, Makoto. So Akechi-kun's pretend to know nothing about Sakurai's plan and Sakurai herself isn't who she say she is and that her journalist skill is nothing but a farce to hide her true intention to gather intel on the Phantom Thieves. Not even I would think that she's the true culprit… In other words, you left her alone on purpose… That was a bold move." said Sae.

"A bold move indeed." thought Samson as he take another sip of his cup of black coffee.

"God, I can't keep up with any of this stuff… Uhhh, so what was this mistake Sakurai make? What did she do?" asked Sojiro as he scratch the back of his head a little.

"She slipped up in regards to Morgana's voice." replied Ann.

"You mean our cat?" said Sojiro as he glance in confusion at Morgana.

"Our cognitive view on Morgana change and now we can hear him talk like a normal person in the real world. And in the Metaverse, he can change into something else, Sojiro-san." said Keiko.

"Yes, exactly as Keiko said. Morgana can talk and change into something else in the Metaverse." said Ann.

"… Sorry, was that supposed to be a joke?" said Sojiro.

"No, it's not a joke, boss." said Jason as he shake his head.

"Oh! Our apologies. That's completely true." said Haru.

"You surprised?" chuckled Morgana.

"Does that mean… he said something just now as well?" said Sae in surprise to them about it.

"But you don't understand him, do you? That's how it was for all of us at first too." said Ann.

"Yeah. It's just too bad that Haru and I missed seeing each reactions of you all to hearing Morgana talk for the first time." thought Jason slightly sadly in his mind.

"When you're in the Metaverse, Mona talks like a normal person. Once you hear that and your brain realizes he can actually talk, you start to understand him in reality… It's a change in cognition! Most likely!" said Futaba excitedly to them.

"Thanks to Sakurai's lame acting, we figured out something was up." said Ann as she, Ryuji, Morgana, Goro and Keiko think back about where they meet up with Goro and Junko and found out about her mistake in the TV station's hallway.