Back in Leblanc….
"Maly!" yell Keiko with a sorrow look on her face as she saw and felt her Aeon social link with Mallory turned completely dark grey and lifeless and could swear that she heard Mallory screaming too while Samson briefly widened his eyes in realisation at feeling the awakening and returning of Lythalia.
"So it's done and she's back, huh?" thought Samson blankly in his mind.
"Keiko! What is it, what's wrong!?" asked Goro worriedly to Keiko.
"You said Maly's name! Why, is she alright!?" asked Akira anxiously and concernly to Keiko about Mallory.
"… I just felt the Aeon social link that I had with her is all dark grey and lifeless now, Goro, Akira-kun." replied Keiko sadly to them and the others.
"No, Maly…" said Akira with a sorrow look on his face at hearing what Keiko just told him and the others about Mallory.
"Come here, Keiko." said Goro as he put his arm around Keiko and pull her close for a consoling hug.
"And on to our next story, the snap election for the House of Representatives. Discussion is swirling around potential nominees as the deadline for candidacy announcement nears. Candidates will announce on the 23rd of this month, while voting will be held on the 18th of next." said the male newscaster on the TV standing on the cabinet.
"Elections, huh? Eh, don't matter to us. It's not like we can vote in 'em yet anyways." said Ryuji with a bored look on his face.
"Why don't we resume our conversation?" suggested Makoto.
"Yeah, we will, Makoto. Now that we're all well-fed and well-drank." said Keith as he nodded at Makoto while Sojiro turned off the TV so he can joined in on their conversation.
"Well, the Phantom Thieves're back together! We can finally take it to Sakurai, the ones backin' her and her "allies" and find and take back Caelum, Keiko's best friend!" said Ryuji with an excited look on his face.
"Have you figured out who's behind all this?" asked Sojiro.
"Yeah, I believe we do, Sojiro-san. Right, everyone?" said Keiko.
"Yep, Big Sis's right. Sakurai accidentally let that slip after the murder. She said, "Shido-san"." said Futaba.
"Shido… That name again…!" thought Keiko with a concern look on her face.
"Shido… Feels like I've heard that name somewhere." said Ryuji.
"Yeah, the name sounds familiar somehow…" said Aglaia.
"Seriously? You youngsters memories are that bad that you all can't remember who this "Shido" person is?" thought Samson in disbelief in his mind at them.
"He is unmistakably a man of power if he had such strong connections to the police." said Yusuke.
"Shido… Could it be Masayoshi Shido?" said Sojiro.
"Bingo! You deserved an expensive cigar for remembering, Sakura-san." thought Samson happily in his mind at Sojiro.
"…Who?" said Ann with a confused look on her face at Sojiro.
"I believe he's a politician… Remember, Ryuji? You said his speech was too loud." said Makoto as she glance at Ryuji.
"For real!?" said Ryuji with a surprise look on his face.
"It's certainly possible that Shido is the mastermind…" said Sae with a small nod of her head.
"Huh?" said Yusuke as he glance in confusion at Sae.
"Do you have some kind of evidence?" said Haru.
"If you do then please tell us, Niijima-san." said Akira.
"Nothing material. However, there are various conditions which align with that possibility. First, he would profit from damage done to the current administrator by the psychotic breakdowns. He's maintained a negative stance toward the Phantom Thieves and has gained tremendous popularity. On top of that, he'll most likely become the next prime minister if he wins this upcoming election." said Sae grimly to them.
"No…" said Ann as she shake her head.
"That must be his reason." said Keiko.
"Did he set us up with that election in mind?" said Yusuke.
"If he did then he's a terrible man, Yusuke." said Jason with a cold look on his face.
"A terrible man indeed." thought Goro in agreement with Jason.
"If he is behind all this, that would be in stark opposition to his honest public image." said Sae.
"So his current position and popularity is just him benefiting from the mental collapses…" said Makoto with a cold look on her face as well.
"We'll make him have a change of heart, no matter what it takes." said Haru with a serious look on her face.
"Mom…" mumbled Futaba.
"Shido, huh?" sighed Sojiro as he closed his eyes and shake his head.
"Sojiro-san?" said Aglaia concernly to Sojiro.
"What is the matter?" said Yusuke.
"I had a feeling he was wrapped up in all this. Just based on the connections I had from my previous jobs… I think the one who crushed Wakaba's research and confiscated her materials was probably either Shido or Sakurai and her "allies". From the moment Wakaba died… I had a hunch he was involved. But there wasn't anything I could do, so I choose to protect Futaba and went into hiding." said Sojiro sadly to them.
"Why didn't you say that sooner!?" demanded Futaba.
"You guys and girls would've definitely gone after him if I had. He would've just killed all of you, no doubt. That's what he usually does to people who get in his way." said Sojiro concernly to them.
"So he's one of those type of people, huh? Just the type of people that Yhoundeh, Yog-Sothoth, Bgnu-Thun, Gathanothoa and Kassogtha like to have within their control." thought Samson as he mentally sigh in his mind.
"Originally, I was looking into the mental shutdown cases. It was then that I accidentally stumbled upon government research regarding the psychotic breakdowns. So I tracked down the whereabouts of that research data and met with the associated parties. Boss was one of those parties. I would have never imagined all of this was connected… The mental shutdowns, psychotic breakdowns, Shido, Sakurai and her "allies", and even the Phantom Thieves actions…" said Sae with a disbelief and slightly tired look on her face.
"Way back when, Shido keep saying he was going to be prime minister one day. Nobody believed him though…" said Sojiro.
"What's going to happen to this country if Shido becomes prime minister? What about the world?" said Ann with a worry look on her face.
"Most probably this country and then the world will become chaotic if Shido does become prime minister." said Samson calmly to Ann.
"No, that'll be beyond bad for us…" said Keiko, worried as well.
"The issue is simpler than that. This is nothing more than yet another selfish adult trying to impose his will on the public." said Yusuke grimly to them.
"We gotta expose that rotten bastard!" snapped Ryuji with an angry look on his face.
"Yeah, we'll do it like always!" said Morgana in agreement with Ryuji.
"Then let's check the Nav!" suggested Haru.
"Masayoshi Shido, the guy runnin' for Prime Minister…" said Ryuji to the Meta-Nav app on his phone after he take it out of his right pants pocket and got a hit on it. "Got a hit! Well… duh. It ain't a surprise he had one." added Ryuji as he suddenly stood up from his seat.
"Where would the location be?" said Yusuke.
"…What kind of things go through a politician's head?" said Ann with a confused look on her face.
"I always think of dirty money and shady actions." said Futaba.
"What a coincidence. So do I, Futaba-chan." said Jason with a smile on his face.
"What does he do? And where? We don't got a clue about this guy's life." said Ryuji as he sweat-dropped a little.
"His palace must be somewhere that politicians frequent. Any ideas, Keiko-chan?" said Makoto as she glance at Keiko.
"Hm, how about the "Diet Building"?" suggested Keiko as she think about it and it's a hit on the Meta-Nav app on Ryuji's phone after he type it.
"We got a hit!" said Ryuji with a surprise look on his face.
"Well done, Keiko." said Goro proudly at Keiko.
"Indeed. You must have quite the Devil's Luck to be able to guess right on your first try, Keiko Amamiya." thought Samson in surprise and slightly proudly at Keiko for guessing right.
"How arrogant must he be to think himself the ruler of the Diet Building?" said Yusuke with a cold look on his face.
"Our next target's the big-shot politician Masayoshi Shido. We're gonna do this, right?" asked Ryuji as he sat down and glance at each of them.
"Of course we're all doing this. He needs to be stopped and so does "Junko Sakurai" and her "allies" and we need to rescue and take Maly back." replied Keiko with a determined look on her face.
"I agreed with you, Keiko-san. We're getting her back." said Akira in agreement with Keiko.
"None of you are against it?" asked Ryuji again to them.
"Of course." said Ann.
"He will be a worthy opponent." said Yusuke.
"We'll showed him that he shouldn't have underestimated us." said Keith.
"Let's win this, together!" said Haru.
"Time for revenge!" said Futaba.
"Then it's unanimous!" said Morgana.
"All we gotta do now is figure out what he thinks that Diet Building place is." said Ryuji.
"I'm sure we'll be able to figure out what he thinks the Diet Building is, Sakamoto-kun." said Jason.
"So, that's the app that allowed me to enter the Metaverse." said Sae with a small nod of her head after she saw the app on Ryuji's phone.
"An old fart like me can't wrap his head around all this Metaverse stuff…" said Sojiro with a tired look on his face.
"Heh, you, an old fart? You've no idea…" thought Samson in amusement in his mind at hearing Sojiro calling himself an old fart.
"We'll have to deal with this before election day, December 18th. That means we need it done by the 17th." said Makoto.
"It's best we hurry before they discover there's no body in the morgue." said Yusuke concernly to them.
"Should we start tomorrow then? We can meet at the Diet Building after school." suggested Ann.
"Yeah, good idea, Takamaki-san." said Jason as he nodded at Ann.
"But I can't go out…" said Keiko with a sad look on her face.
"That's right. You can't because you're supposed to be "dead" and your friend is with the enemies, Keiko-chan." said Keith sadly to Keiko.
"Kawakami-sensei said that she and her friend went back home for "family reasons"." said Ann.
"That's what I told the school." said Sojiro.
"Thanks for the help, Kawakami-sensei." thought Keiko gratefully in her mind at Kawakami-sensei.
"Don't let 'em find out you're alive then, all right, Keiko? This whole thing'd be for nothin'!" said Ryuji seriously to Keiko.
"What do you mean?" said Sojiro with a confused look on his face.
"This operation had another purpose outside of escaping Sakurai's clutches. Shido tried to placed all the blames on the Phantom Thieves and deceive the public at the same time. He has ruined countless lives all because he had help from "Junko Sakurai" and her "allies" in tricking, hurting and assassinating people. A mere change of heart is too lenient a sentence for such an abominable criminal." said Makoto with a cold look on her face.
"We'll be making use of the police statement that the leader of the Phantom Thieves committed suicide. Our leader who is presumed dead will come out of hiding to deliver a grand statement. She'll say she has escaped prison, not committed suicide, and was in fact nearly killed by a criminal." said Haru.
"Everyone's gonna flip big time." said Futaba with an excited look on her face.
"Woah. That's such a big and insane plan that these youngsters come up with and I find it… crazily amazing. Now I wish I could see their reactions once they see the grand statement." thought Samson with a surprise then impressed look on his face at them.
"You guys and girls thought through all this stuff too?" gasp Sojiro with a surprise look on his face.
"We're intellectuals, y'know!" said Ryuji smugly to Sojiro.
"That's why you needed such a daring trick as getting captured and appearing to be killed. What frightening teenagers…" said Sae with an impressed look on her face.
"But the true battle has only just begun. We won the first round, lose one of our friends to them but we must still stay on our toes." said Makoto warningly to them.
"Yeah, this ain't the time to be celebratin'." said Ryuji in agreement with Makoto.
"These people try to trap and kill us. There is no end to their inhuman, conniving natures. We will need to be prepared for whatever comes our way." said Yusuke with a serious look on his face.
"Of course we will, together." said Keiko as she and the others all glance and nodded at each other before they all glance at Samson and asked him to start talking and telling them about what he knows and whether he's their ally or not, which make Samson smirk before he began telling them that he's neither their ally nor their enemy, that he's actually the host of Cthulhu, another "Old One" like Junko Sakurai's "allies" and that he could easily saved and bring Mallory back to them safe and sound but he won't do it and let them do it instead (which make Keiko very upset and make Akira very angry at him) before Samson's done talking to them, finish and pay for his cup of black coffee, bade a mocking farewell and good luck to them and left Leblanc and after Samson left Leblanc, Keiko bade farewell and watched her boyfriend, her friends and Sae-san left Leblanc too, went up to her attic room with Morgana, change into her pajamas, take out and spread her futon and pillow on the floor, stared at the empty spot next to her where Mallory used to sleep on before she and Morgana fell asleep.
XXXX
Back with Junko and Shido…
"I've finally made it this far… It's already been two and a half years since I met you and your "allies", Sakurai." said Shido.
"Yeah. Back then, you earned the media's attention as a young politician who could rise up against bureaucracy. Because of that, those who wanted to preemptively deal with problems tried to tie you up with scandal." said Junko.
"To think I would fall for the ruse schemed by those decrepit fools in power. I recall that's when I met you and your "allies", saying that you and your "allies" can help me with the problem. If you and your "allies" haven't told me about Wakaba Isshiki's cognitive psience research, I'd have truly fallen." said Shido.
"With me and my "allies" dark illusion powers, we subject and turned those troublesome opponents into psychotic ones or making them into mental shutdown victims and also get rid of the scandals." said Junko.
"Who'd think that tampering with a person's heart could trigger a psychotic lapse or mental shutdown. And when people like you and your "allies" showed up and helped me, I had suspected there'd be ulterior motives from you and your "allies"." said Shido suspiciously to Junko.
"I see. That's because we find you interesting and that we believed that your ideals needed to be achieved for the sake of this country's future." said Junko.
"Hm, is that so…" said Shido as he raised his left eyebrow. "Regardless, as long as I've the help and power of you and your "allies", I've no need of the research and plugged it so that no one else knows about it." said Shido.
"Yeah, if only Wakaba Isshiki had agreed and complied, she wouldn't have had to died." said Junko with a fake sad look on her face.
"Any suspicions should be snubbed out. Even the smallest doubt must be severed at the root. After all, we had an active Public Prosecutor's Office Director on our side until recently." said Shido.
"True and what a surprise it is for us to find out and know that the director himself would forged evidence to secure his promotion. You should have seen the look on his shadow's face when I told him about it." chuckled Junko.
"This country's affairs have become stagnant. The political world is filled with old men who only act to preserve their own vested interests. The general public has forsaken such political affairs and don't even bother. Only ruin awaits us." said Shido.
"Right." said Junko with a nod of her head, talk with Shido for another few minutes about his Prime Minister plan, about the downfall of the Phantom Thieves and about him him changing the country of Japan before she bade farewell to Shido, turned around and left his office to met up with her "allies" and also meet up with her new ally, Lythalia.