The final chamber. Ren half-expected getting in that their prize would be something indistinct, something they couldn't touch without going through a specific sequence of actions to make it appear. Such would be the case if this space were naturally occurring, but it wasn't. It was artificial. Futaba's memories, her psyche, her life, it was put here in a place dear to her but separate. A place she was comfortable, but beyond her reach. That existence bled out into the cognitive world, a stray soul that couldn't help but leak into its surroundings. As a result, it created this world, this pseudo-palace vault. And then the enemy reached into this Futaba flavoured section of the metaverse and twisted it to suit her purpose.

But at the core of it all still sat that stray soul. Quietly waiting to be claimed.

"It's kinda pretty," Futaba observed, walking around the pedestal it sat on to get a look from every angle. The glow of it lighting her face.

"Would that be narcissistic?" Crow felt compelled to ask. "After all, it is her."

"Flock off, feather-face." Said feather-face raised his hands in surrender as Futaba turned to her boyfriend. "So if I take this I'll remember the life that you remember?"

"Pretty much," Joker answered, half wanting to give some sort of comforting gesture. But it was her choice in the end and he would love her either way.

Not that there was much doubt as she reached out to touch the orb of light. Without any more encouragement than that, it leapt into her hand then dove under, the glow of it rolling under her skin until it suffused the entirety of her body, then faded again.

"Is that what happened to me?" Joker asked. He had intended to ask Ace but she was still rather distracted, so his eyes instead turned to Violet.

Who nodded. "Yes, I think so. It was a pretty tense moment so it's hard to remember it clearly, but yes, it looked a lot like that."

"Huh." One grunt of acceptance. That was the redhead's reaction to getting a lifetime of alternate memories.

"You okay?"

"Fine," she shrugged, pursing her lips. "It wasn't really– Woah!" With a flash, her school uniform changed into her skintight phantom thief attire, her glasses to red goggles. "Yeah! Guess I'm back in the game!" she announced with a fist pump before her grin fell. "Oh. We should probably leave. This place is gonna fall apart without a me here to hold it together."

Joker nodded, smiling just a little from the knowledge that every bit of her was present and accounted for. "Let's go, back the way we came."

What once would have been a mad dash to the exit was nothing of the sort this time. Why was that? Well aside from the fact that everyone present was well acquainted with the concept of escaping a collapsing distortion, there was also the fact that unlike the collapse of a palace, this vault seemed to be failing much slower than they were used to. Slow enough for Joker to wonder about it as the group engaged in a swift jog back to the entrance. The more things like this happened, the more things seemed easier than they should be, the more it felt like a trap.

He didn't mention it to the others. It wasn't important at that moment. But out of the corner of his eye as they passed through the entrance chamber he saw Sachiko. Watching them with a motherly, conflicted smile on her face. An expression he couldn't comprehend.

And then they were out. And all at once, the vault collapsed, beginning at the middle and them spreading outwards until the entire structure was falling to pieces. As the group watched, as the metaverse distortion became unsafe, the return to the real world began. Obscuring their view of the vault's final destruction.

"You have returned to the real world. Welcome back."

"Uh... Wow."

Distracted from his thoughts of the interfering goddess, Ren turned to see what Futaba was talking about. Seeing Naoto in... Well, considering what happened to her normal clothes in the vault he probably should have expected it. She was entirely nude, the tatters of her uniform and underwear left behind in the metaverse. She carried herself with a little more confidence, an arm covering her nipples, her other hand obscuring the view of her genitals but not quite covering the slight sheen of wetness from her recent activities.

"It's fine," Naoto assured them with a weak smile that said it wasn't really, but that she would cope. "It's a strange experience, feeling like I should be mortified, but also seeing this as only a moderate inconvenience."

"Still," Sumire couldn't help but ask, "Weren't you pretending to be a boy?"

"I was," the detective nodded. "Quite honestly that might be the most significant part of the inconvenience. I intended to reveal my true gender soon. My first life got over my reasons for hiding it, wisdom I still carry with me now. This would just be..." Intentionally or unintentionally, her arm shifted causing the softness of her breasts to jiggle with the movement. "A less than ideal method for revealing such a thing."

"And yet she seems in no hurry to cover up," Akechi noted.

"Well we're right outside my house anyway, you can borrow some of my clothes!" Futaba volunteered. "We're about the same height. But there's no way I have anything that could cover your giant boobs."

"They're not giant!" Somehow that comment was the thing to bring the flush back to her face. Not being naked in the street. Being told she had a large bust.

"Well it might just be a relative size thing, but it looks like Ann has competition for biggest in the school." And as always, Futaba decided tact was for other people.

By this point Ren wouldn't even try to deny or hide his erection as the embarrassed girl pressed her arm tighter as if that would hide more. Instead it pressed her arm so her breasts molded around the limb and into each other. It just made the view more enticing. "C-Can I just get those clothes please?"

"Sure, sure. Follow me."

The two girls walked into the house. Ren did his best not to look like he was looking even as he continued to very much enjoy looking. For trying to look so masculine, the detective had some amazing curves. He shook himself as he looked to those remaining outside with him. "So," he looked at Akechi, "Trap?"

"I think the term is reverse trap."

Slowly, both boys' heads turned to look at the redhead. "I meant the vault, Sumire."

Her eyes behind her glasses widened, her face frozen. "I knew that."

"Right," Akechi sighed with all the patience of a man ready to be thoroughly done with the day. "Yes. Trap. Though we have not nearly enough information to do anything about it at this juncture. I would say it's even impossible to say whether things being so easy for us was to lull us into a false sense of security as with the final enemies we faced, or to make us overly paranoid about what she may be planning." A smirk crossed his face, a glint in his eye that showed just a hint of the madness within him that never went away. "I must admit, the prospect of facing someone else, a worthy opponent, does strike me as a thrilling one."

"Of course it does," Ren sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Oh don't pretend you don't feel it too, Amamiya," the supposedly reformed assassin pressed. "The chance to test your wits, skills and strength against a force greater than you? I imagine you felt like you would never experience such a thing again. And yet," he spread his arms wide, "here we are. You should enjoy the moment while it lasts, Amamiya. It's what I intend to do."

"The thought of what you might do 'enjoying the moment' is a worrying one," the thief spoke flatly.

"Don't worry," Akechi reassured him in an entirely less than reassuring way. "I'll play nice. After all, there are more interesting games for me to be invested in right now." The brunette checked his watch, offered a bow that only seemed sarcastic. "I have somewhere to be, so I shall see you another time. Amamiya. Yoshizawa. Please give Sakura and Shirogane my regards."

The two watched him go, feeling less than at ease about everything he said. Though that wasn't exactly a change from the norm. "I should head home too," said Sumire. "Kasumi wanted to watch our most recent practice tonight."

"Alright," Ren acknowledged with a nod. "Thank you for helping with this, Sumire. It really means a lot to me."

She gave him what he could call a pretty smile, but he noticed it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Of course, Senpai! Talk to you tomorrow?"

He nodded again, and she bowed as she gave her final goodbye. Once again Ren was alone with his thoughts for the moment and he couldn't not think about the two of them. Their reasons, motivations for why they were so willing to help.

Akechi was... Well, it would be nice to believe his motivation was as simple as he portrayed it to be. The phantom thief wished it were so easy to assume Akechi wanted only to fight for the real world but... This was also the real world. Akechi must have known that just as well as Ren did. And the motivation he had just given. That the former assassin enjoyed competing against a truly superior force. It was true, but it was also a very shallow reason to engage in activity that would end in his own death.

In that sense... It was actually quite reassuring that Xochiquetzal could listen in on everything they did. What, was Akechi a double-agent again? Was he going to go and tell the enemy all of their secrets when they were already known? No. But... That didn't at all stop him from being a double-agent waiting for the right time to sabotage them.

And Sumire... Sumire presented a wholly different set of uncertainties. She had lived this before, allowing someone to blind her to the truth, to give up on a life without her sister, first as an illusion, then a fragile change to reality. But this time it wasn't a paper-thin facade, nor a flimsy dream. It was real. Sumire as far as he could tell was living the life she wished she had, a life without the pain and regret that had once crushed her.

But she still remembered it. How it could have been.

And she was fighting to bring that back.

That was the question. The dilemma at the heart of her assistance. She was helping, but was it what she really wanted? Was she holding onto the pain, the regret, using it to shield herself from the thing she wanted more than anything? Ren wouldn't deny even he was somewhat tempted to acquiesce, to give in to this new reality just for the easier happiness it presented him. He couldn't imagine what it would be like for his dearest wish to be right there when all he had to do was accept it.

He would need to talk to both of them. Privately. Get a feel for their thoughts, their feelings on everything. Hell, he would do it for everyone, everyone they bring back. They would all need help to adjust.

Thinking of, he turned and headed into the Sakura home, followed the hallway to Futaba's room. Entered without knocking as had become a habit.

He blinked, Naoto blinked, as their eyes met. The tomboyish detective having found some satisfactory baggy pants but was still very much topless. Holding a shirt that looked like it might tear if she were to try to put it on.

"Ah," she uttered, cheeks turning slightly pink.

"Skipping a bra?" Ren asked both girls.

"Pfft," Futaba puffed out a breath, "I barely wear bras, you know that. We tried both of mine and neither of them even came close to fitting."

"It's fine," Naoto assured her, "I can go without. It will be... What's the word. Liberating!" she tried. Ren could practically hear the 'humiliating' spoken directly underneath the word. The detective slumped slightly. "This will all take some adjustment on my part. Dressing as a woman in a world where women dress quite differently to what I'm used to. But I can cope." She pulled the tee over her head and slid her arms through the holes. "How do I look?" she asked both of them, turning to be appraised by each in turn.

Words suddenly became difficult for Ren. As expected, the shirt was far too small for her bustline. The fabric stretched terribly over her chest and pulled up the hem as a result, revealing far more of her midriff than it was designed to, the bottom of the shirt looking like an inverted V. It would have been basically see-through if not for the design on the front. A videogame controller with the thumbsticks strategically positioned where the nipples would be. The entire effect of the look was... absurdly lewd. Not helped at all by the lack of bra being very visible from the prominent peaks atop her breasts.

"Getting a craving for some Mario Party right now," Futaba muttered, staring intently at Naoto's thumbsticks.

"What?"

"She means you look..." Ren didn't know where to go from there. Fine? Well, Ren wasn't going to have any complaints about it but that wasn't the point. But as he looked in Futaba's closet at her pile of other shirts, each as small or smaller than that one... "You look good. Maybe a jacket over it?"

The detective's eyes narrowed. Yeah, he wasn't getting away with a fib like that. Reaching into the closet he pulled out a baggy jacket that he hoped would somewhat fit. Taking it from him, she shrugged it on. It didn't cover as much as either of them would have liked but it would have to do. "Thank you for this, Futaba."

"No biggie," the redhead waved off the thanks. "Just make sure to give 'em back when you're done with 'em."

"Yes," the bluenette agreed with a smile and a bob of her head, "I'll have them washed and returned to you by Monday."

"Unwashed is fine, no need to put yourself out... Neeheehee..."

Ren gave his girlfriend an unimpressed look for her unrepentant lasciviousness. Though seeing she was still so open about it was unexpected. Regardless, he returned his attention to Naoto. "How are you feeling? After..."

She let out a hum, short and acknowledging, like she knew the question would come and that she was just satisfied that it had arrived. "Drained. Definitely drained," she answered with confidence. "I'll likely be going right to bed when I get home. Otherwise I... I feel I should be candid for the sake of our enterprise and yet..." Her flush grew heavier.

Ren tried not to notice or at least not pay too much attention to how the points jutting out of her shirt grew sharper. "If you'd rather not say, that's fine."

"No, no, I should. A little embarrassment is a small price to pay for vital information." She took a deep calming breath as she sat on Futaba's bed. "It... It was thrilling. And immensely satisfying. In that moment after I was charmed, there was nothing I wanted more in the world than what that shadow gave me. I loved every moment and a part of me wants to try it again."

"Some sort of lingering effect?"

She shook her head. "I don't believe so. It just... It felt that good. While I was inside it, there was nothing else I needed to think about, to worry about, just to enjoy what it was doing to me." Her thighs rubbed together unconsciously. "And I very much did."

"Sounds like fun," Futaba spoke up with a grin.

"It was. I believe that's the danger of such tactics. We will need to be careful from now on."

"Maybe you need to show me, give a demonstration of what it's like?" the redhead asked with waggling eyebrows.

There was a half instant of hesitation that Ren couldn't help but notice before Naoto responded with light laughter. "Even if I had the inclination to accept, I feel I've had enough of that kind of excitement for one night."

Futaba seemed to believe that about as much as he did, but Ren was happy to take the polite no as a firm one. "Thank you for telling us. It's good we can all know what kind of threat that kind of tactic can be."

"Yes, well, I think it's time I," she rose from the bed and all three could hear the strain of fabric with the movement that slowed her right down, "... Very carefully make my way home. Once again, thank you for the clothes, Futaba. Ren."

"Take care, Naoto."

"I'll walk you out!" Futaba volunteered, remembering her manners at the last possible instant as she chased the other girl out of her room. A moment later she was back, looking at her boyfriend awkwardly. "So... I guess we should talk about stuff?"

"How are you doing?" he asked gently.

Her right hand grabbed her left arm as she looked away from him. "Can we cuddle?" He didn't answer with words, just pulled her in and went down to the bed with her, laying the both of them down. She hummed happily, shuffling to get as close to him as possible, pressing herself into him. "Hmmm!" She smiled, nuzzling into his neck.

He didn't push again. Just let her come to talking in her own time as he ran fingers through her hair.

"I thought... With how everyone was reacting, how everyone was talking about how things had changed... I thought there'd be more," she admitted finally.

"Nothing much was different for you?"

"Mm-mm," she shook her head. "I remember... How Mom never brought anyone home. How Sojiro told me he and her weren't like that, even though in this life she had him over a bunch of times. I guess maybe in that world they really weren't, because everything was so much more... I don't know, sheltered when it came to sex?"

"Could be."

"Hmph... I remember... Ann was nicer to me from the start. How that really helped to have a girl like her be all accepting of me right away, pushing me to get out there. And it's weird that I miss that even though we're still friends and now you're dating her and... Urrrgh!" she let out a frustrated groan as she pressed her face into his collarbone.

That was something else Ren wanted to ask about but it could wait. "Anything else stand out?"

"It was way way way harder to get good quality hentai. And almost all of it was censored! How am I supposed to masturbate to a bunch of squares! And porn games? Forget about it! Half of 'em were gutter trash garbage and the other half were C-tier at best! Oh, that reminds me," her head popped up giving him a serious look. "The new Rance game is coming out on Playstation next month. We gotta play it together."

"Okay, but I thought you hated that series after they made it more tame for the console release?" She had complained about it to him. At length. According to her they had 'ripped out the soul of the series' by toning down the more hardcore kinks for a mass market appeal.

She had expressed this rant while showing him Street Fighter X Taimanin. A game that definitely did not hold back on the sexual aspects of the latter franchise. That day was an... Experience. Watching Chun-Li get her ass fucked almost to breaking point by an ogre was not something he was ever likely to forget.

She snorted. "Well yeah, it's gonna be super lame but I still have to play it so I can bitch and meme about it online."

"Of course you do." Much as a lot of what she enjoyed was incomprehensible to him, he still loved his little nerd goblin. "I feel like we're getting off track."

"Not really," she shrugged in his arms as she slid down to rest her head on his chest. "I don't really... Feel all that different. About anything. I remember what it was like in my other life. I remember all the things I loved in that other life. My collectables and manga and all that stuff and I wasn't ashamed about any of it. But for some reason... I was super ashamed of watching porn. It's weird that it's hard to express the reason why. I guess with how it was treated, it was all so restricted and secretive and censored. You barely even saw characters kiss in anime most of the time, it was crazy. So... I guess I just took that as seeing sex as dirty and wrong."

"Compared to this world where you're a lewd gremlin."

Despite his joke, her eyes turned up to his, filled with sincerity. "I like sex," she expressed honestly. "It's fun. And I love you. And I can show you that, and you can show me that. It feels amazing to be with someone and feel how they feel about you, you know?"

"We did that in the old world too."

"And we had to treat it like a dirty secret!" she complained with sudden passion. "I don't want that! I don't ever want to act like I'm ashamed of how much I love you and how I want to show it!"

"So we don't," Ren answered as though it was the simplest thing in the world. "We don't have to act like how anyone else wants us to. That includes gods. We find a way back, a way to reverse this, and then we be how we want to be."

His lover didn't answer immediately. And he worried he knew why. "I trust you," she said finally. "With everything. I always have. If you think that's the right thing to do, I'll help. Just... Promise you'll never be ashamed for being with me?"

"That could never happen."

-(-)-

A familiar sensation. The inherent strangeness of waking up in a dream. It was expected for him after successfully rescuing one of his comrades' old selves. He remembered every victory of the phantom thieves had led to a visit to the Velvet Room. To a conversation with a long-nosed man who it turned out was his true enemy all along.

But this time, as he opened his eyes, he didn't see the blue of the Velvet Room. Instead, his eyes were greeted by a familiar sight, though one he had only seen once before. A comfortable and luxurious room decorated in reds and yellows. The walls marked with pictographs that he couldn't translate.

It seemed his victory wasn't followed by a visit to the Velvet Room. But it was still a meeting with his enemy.

"Ren Amamiya," he heard the woman purr his name. His eyes found her striding toward him in such a way as to show off her legs, her body barely covered at all by her near transparent negligee. "When the time comes to act it seems you hardly waste any time at all, do you?" Her smile was warm. Motherly. But hungry.

And here in a world of dreams, all alone, he couldn't do anything at all.