The smirk Makoto wore as she waited outside of the main school building. He had grown familiar with that smirk over the past week or so. That look like she had scored a victory over him. Usually it was a sign she had caught him staring as she did something to provoke his interest. It was... It had been a very common sight over the past week. Ren had thought of Makoto as a lot of things, most of them complimentary. Before he had joined the student council, 'temptress' hadn't been one of them. But gods above, below and within did it now describe her perfectly in his mind.

Ever since the kabedon incident, a moment that had stung his masculine pride in a way that he never expected to find pleasant, it seemed Makoto had taken that interest as a green light. Any time they happened to be in the same room, whether for concrete reasons or happenstance, she would find a way to draw his eye. Simple things like a single extra button undone on her blouse to expose her collarbone. A sigh with a certain undertone that was more than pleasing to the ear. Or when she had been in a more direct mood, she would allow her skirt to ride up and flash him, or invade his personal space to share a breath on his skin.

She had gotten under his skin. And that smirk. How it widened as his breath caught on seeing it. She fully knew and revelled in it. What a terrifying woman. In Ren's brief but eventful romantic life, he had never been pursued. Girls had been first to profess their interest before. Sumire most recently. But even then once they had done so, they had wanted to be the ones pursued or taken. Not so for Makoto. Every interaction with her felt like being cornered by a predator as prey.

He thought back to all of the times Futaba, Ann, Sumire and even Kawakami were... Unexpectedly appreciative when he got more aggressive. Somehow, he was beginning to understand their feelings in those moments.

"Just a couple of days," she said in that sweet voice in her usual controlled tones, only with a hint of the smugness on her face. "That's all it took before you needed me back on the team. I guess everyone wants to feel needed."

"Help us, Obi-Ma Kotobi, you're our only hope!"

The spell of seductive teasing broken, Makoto could only look at Futaba in confusion. "What?"

"Star Warfare?" Futaba asked. "Biggest sci-fi movie probably ever? No?"

"I prefer crime thrillers."

"Oh. Well, it's pretty good. Old and American though so no sex. Though there was some incest subtext going on in it that was neat."

Ren wasn't sure whether to thank Futaba for such a random interjection. It was weird but that was Futaba, and it did break the spell Makoto had put over him, letting him think clearly again. "Yeah, we do need you," Ren confirmed, "But right now for your body more than your mind." He heard Futaba's snort and muffled laughter. Confused, he ran his words back, "I mean! Because, Satonaka's vault took the form of a dojo so we need someone with legitimate fight training."

The student council president didn't comment on his slip, though her lip quirked upward again. So much for his being able to think straight again. "I see. A dojo? Interesting. I can see the problem. If it's a dojo it would be filled with shadows of a martial bent. Since combat in the Metaverse is ruled by perception and cognition, your fighting ability being based mostly on looking legitimate might be less effective on shadows that could know the difference." She looked to Naoto. "Though I do remember it was mentioned in your files that another persona user was a boxer?"

"Akihiko Sanada, was and is, yes," Naoto confirmed. "Though engaging with him runs into all of the problems we're looking to solve by recruiting Satonaka and Kirijo."

"A short term solution for a short term problem then."

"Right," Ren agreed, but was quick to add, "It will be good to have you fully with us again though, of course. Your planning skills and–"

"Don't worry, Ren," she assured him, "I'm not offended that you want me for my body." She took a half second to enjoy his reaction to her final teasing words, before returning to business. "I notice our Mitsuhide isn't here."

"Shaking his watchers to come here of all places is more of a risk than he's willing to take," Naoto answered. "It's a reasonable concern. The last thing we need is for the government to become aware of what we've been doing."

Ren nodded along with a grimace. "They'll see it as the worst case scenario. The criminal is up to his old tricks again." Akechi informing him that Sae was still in his corner was a relief, but he doubted she would be able to maintain that position if he drew suspicion to himself.

"I admit," Makoto said, looking at least a little relieved, "I feel better knowing he won't be here to do colour commentary on my life. He knows more of it than I'm comfortable with already. So," she continued, a little brighter, "Any thoughts on what to expect?"

"I'd say you'd know," Ann mused, "But then mine only seemed obvious in hindsight. I'm betting... Dominatrix student council president and the submissive student body!"

Futaba squinted, adjusting her glasses as she looked at the unchanged school entrance. "Are we already in the Metaverse then?"

"How would we even know?" Ann played along with the joke.

"Ha," Makoto mock laughed with a flat expression. "I guess we'll see, won't we? Ren, would you do the honours?"

"Beginning navigation."

"... Okay, I was joking before but for real this time," Oracle was the first to speak up, "Did we really do the thing? Because..." She gestured with her newly gloved hand at the completely unchanged school building.

Joker saw the same thing she did, but also couldn't ignore their changed outfits, or the blue door glowing nearby. "This place was really central to your identity, huh?"

Makoto sighed, tucking hair behind her ear in an uncertain and embarrassed gesture. "It would seem so. Ugh, I'm not looking forward to yet another journey of self-discovery. Once was enough."

"Upside," Panther tried to propose to raise her friend's spirits, "It's not gonna be anything you don't know already, right? Compared to the non-thieves, we have it easy."

"That's true," the dark-haired girl granted with a nod. "I suppose I can't complain."

"Not quite what I meant," the busty blonde winced with a smile. "Anyway, this makes it easier for us, right? If her vault is just the school, we've got no problem! Bet the treasure is either in the student council room or the principal's office!"

"A probable conclusion," Ace agreed, checking her gun, "Also possible for it to be in the faculty office just as an alternate location for something considered valuable."

Makoto's eyes widened. "That... Now that you mention it, my memories would classify as a student record, wouldn't it? Student records are kept in the faculty office."

"Good to have some leads before we even go in," Joker grinned, pulling his gloves taut on his hands. "And bonus, this place isn't even guarded from the outside."

"It's weird," Oracle added with pursed lips. "I'm scanning for any enemies and I'm not finding anything on the perimeter at all." She looked up at the building, cocked her head to one side. "Think we can break in closer to the goal?"

"Worth a shot," the leader shrugged, drawing a knife as he moved ahead around the outside of the building.

"Where are we aiming for?" Panther asked.

"If it's the same as the school the entrance is as good a way in as any," Joker reasoned as he ran, "All our potential targets are upstairs. Best option we have for getting in unnoticed is the practice building or the courtyard. We just need to–"

"Wait!" Oracle exclaimed, quietly, halting the group before they rounded the corner of the building. "Do you guys hear that? Sounds like–"

Boom.

It was the sound of a blast, an explosion, but an oddly muted one. Joker's eyes flicked to each member of the group, then peered around the edge of the building. Seconds later, his head returned, a hand covering his mask. "Okay. So... We were wrong about everything. This is what we get for assuming the Metaverse could be in any way normal."

Panther, Ace and Oracle moved to take their own look, Makoto trailing behind. "Woah. That's... Kind of incredible. I couldn't see any of this!"

"So her vault starts just behind the school entrance?" Panther asked, incredulous.

"I guess so!" Oracle answered with enthusiasm. "Check it out!" She waved her hand through from the other side of the wall, the appendage appearing to pass through the wall itself without difficulty! "It's like a wall hack glitch or something!"

"While I admit that's unusual," Ace granted her, "I'm more concerned with what's behind the façade."

She wasn't wrong to treat that as the priority. Behind the false front of the school was an entirely different scene. Not even close to a school, it was more like a prison or police precinct, or some half-baked combination of the two. Wrought iron fences, concrete walls and barbed wire topping all of it. And in the middle distance, as the walls broke but the fences didn't, they could see the glow and smoke of fires, hear more clearly the sounds of some sort of pitched battle.

"So... My vault is some sort of police station in conflict with some other force causing chaos. And the front of it is a school appearing perfectly peaceful." She let out a completely defeated sigh, filled with disappointment and understanding. "Panther, I see now what you meant by 'obvious in hindsight'."

"This certainly changes things," Ace spoke, coming back from around the edge of the false wall. "Is it still worth finding an alternate entrance? I'm not certain there exists any safe passage in that fracas."

"Important question!" Panther exclaimed. "Is this supposed to be a police station or a prison? Because it looks like both and one is way friendlier than the other."

"There's a straightforward path to answering that question," Ace pointed out, nodding significantly at the unassuming front entrance of the 'school'.

Joker let out a frustrated grunt of agreement. "Always the same, always funnelling us through a single entrance. I can't tell if this is her doing or how the vaults naturally form. We know she has influence over them."

"But not how far that influence goes." Ace folded her arms, considering the question. "We know she can beat us to the central room. We know she populates it with shadows that fit her particular ideals."

"No, hold on, that's wrong," Panther interrupted before that supposition could go unchallenged. "Mor– Mona told us about this. Lesser shadows gravitate to strong presences. Before it was the shadow of the palace king. But... I mean, she already won, right? Everyone in Japan already follows her ideals. Doesn't mean all of 'em would be lewd, but a majority sure would."

"Were they like that for the palaces in this world though?" Violet asked, having not been present at all in this reality's Metaverse.

"No," Joker answered, standing and waiting at the bottom of the front steps. "It was... Normal. For the Metaverse, at least. Pretty much the same."

"Yeah," Panther agreed. "I mean, Kamoshida was more like this but that was Kamoshida."

Joker shuddered as he remembered this alternate final battle with Kamoshida's shadow. It was... Panther refusing to kill him had been a much closer run thing and with good reason.

He shook off the unwelcome memory. "Inconclusive then. Maybe she's letting her influence over this place flow freer without Yaldabaoth in the way. Which lets the shadows' desires come out clearer and more explicit?"

"Even if she has full control of them, which I doubt but cannot dismiss entirely," Ace continued, "We have yet to see her influence the structure of these places. Each has had an internal logic that fit their owners."

"Like the middle floors of Panther's not existing," Oracle added in support.

"That puts my mind at least a little at ease," even if he wasn't entirely sure, none of them could be sure with so little evidence for any of it. "Makoto, you ready? You have no persona so we need you to–"

"Keep myself safe," she rolled her eyes, "I know." Somehow sounding condescending while acceding to being a powerless tagalong.

No point playing coy with a precinct/jail, Joker threw open the doors with a flourish of his arms. The doors shoved open wide revealed the same thing as trying to sneak in had. The inside was very much not the school, no matter how the outside resembled it. The entranceway was entirely bereft of shoe lockers, instead replaced by a... More western police reception. Joker, having had experience of the local variety, noticed the difference immediately. A lot more space for one thing. And the desk officer behind what looked like bulletproof glass was another clue. Guns weren't impossible to find in Japan but no one who had one would dream of taking a crack at a police station for any reason.

"I don't care what your problem is, we've got issues of our... Own?" The desk sergeant leapt out of his chair. "You! You're with those thugs, aren't you?! Get on the ground now!" he ordered as his hand moved to his radio. "Wait... Commissioner?" he asked as his hand halted, looking directly at Makoto. "Commissioner, is that you?"

"Of course she's in charge," Oracle muttered.

"That's right," Makoto confirmed with a smirk. Entirely undeserved given the last time she had been given permission to enter a Metaverse hotspot.

"Not gonna pick a fight this time?" Joker teased her, glad to get one up on her after her constant teasing. The slight blush of her cheeks was the colour of vengeful joy.

"Commissioner! What are you doing here?!" the desk sergeant asked in mild panic as he came out of the reinforced booth. "I thought you were coordinating the response to those escaped prisoners! And... Who are these... Miscreants?" the shadow asked with obvious suspicion.

"Is that any way to talk to your superior?" Makoto asked archly.

In a snap, the shadow went from suspicion to quailing in fear and apology. "I'm sorry, ma'am! I overstepped! Shall I kiss your feet as an apology for my disrespect?" The shadow began breathing heavily in a disconcerting fashion.

"That's for me to decide," she answered, not missing a beat in response to the unusual question. "As for them, they're... Criminal informants," she answered his first question with a smirk at the group's leader. "I called them in to help quell the unrest. Speaking of which, what's the situation?"

"I don't know ma'am!" the sergeant shadow answered. "Last I heard you went to deal with it personally."

Makoto nodded. The thieves watched the wheels turn in her mind, looking for a way to get more information without raising suspicion. "And what about... Secure storage?" she finally landed on, receiving an encouraging nod from Ace. "Is it still secure?"

"Yes, ma'am!" the shadow answered stiffly. "Well, as secure as it can be with the radicals having the key. We have it under guard as per your orders."

"Good. And the stairwells?"

"Yes, ma'am! No one gets up to the third floor without your say so!" the eager to please officer promised. "May I... May I kiss your feet now, ma'am?"

"You may not," she refused him sternly, "Back to your post."

The shadow seemed to shudder in ecstasy, his knees wobbling, groaning out a "Yes, ma'am," as he returned behind his desk.

"Well that was informative," Makoto said quietly as the group moved into an adjoining hallway, with no particular goal but getting out of sight.

"I'll say," Oracle agreed with enthusiasm. "Makoto's dommy mommy energy drawing in all the sub shadows."

"Oracle," Joker sighed. "That's not it."

"You're right. It's more of a strict teacher than dommy mommy."

"Can we get back on task please?" Ace begged.

"I was," Oracle defended herself with her arms folded. "If these shadows'll do whatever Makoto says we've got this in the bag, right?"

Ace opened her mouth to protest, then closed it again. "That's actually a valid point," she admitted.

"We have a location for the target," Joker listed, "We know it's guarded. We know it's locked up with the 'radicals' having the key. Seems our objectives are pretty clear."

"Get the key, get to the vault," Violet agreed.

"We have a cover until we take a run at the vault proper," Joker reasoned. "Let's make the most of it. If they're fighting these radicals, we should avoid all of that and see if we can swipe the key ourselves."

"Guess we don't really gain anything by helping the cops," Panther mused, stretching and limbering up in expectation of a lot of activity coming up. Looking askance at the wanted posters on the wall. "Hey, look, apparently the 'Commissioner' is a wanted woman too," she pointed to the relevant poster. The image of Makoto looking back at them with an irritated, furrowed brow.

"That's... Odd," Ace thought aloud, accidentally matching poster Makoto's expression. "Is there perhaps significance? Most of these posters are far less distinct."

"We won't figure it out just standing here," Joker pointed out, "And we shouldn't anyway. We have our objective. Let's get to it." He didn't have a map of the station, but he had developed a very good sense of direction from traversing the occasionally Escher-like palaces of the Metaverse. The battle with the radicals was happening in what resembled the courtyard area of the school. Which meant... "This way," he led the others through the mildly labyrinthine hallways. The first exit out that they found was less than ideal. Heavily fortified by officer shadows, guns drawn and barricades in place. Not the best route for staying undetected.

They moved on to the other exit on the north side. Far less conspicuous. On the fringes of the battle underway rather than in the middle of it.

Even so, Joker looked out and cursed under his breath. "Makoto, are you okay?" he had to ask. This was a representation of her, after all. Well, not exactly her, but a her that was largely the same.

"I don't believe so," she answered, though even so she looked out at the ongoing battle with uncertainty. She was as aware as anyone that this somehow represented her state of mind. And the battlefield outside... It was madness. Overturned and burning vehicles, weapons and bodies strewn over the ground, the dirt stained with dark ichor from the shadows wounds.

"I have a little experience seeing places like this born from personal turmoil," Ace cut in. "It's not literal. It's symbolic. So, conflict may manifest as a conflict. The severity often doesn't matter all that much. It merely represents that particular concept."

"Right," Makoto nodded, collecting herself. "It's all subconscious, so it's closer to dream logic."

Pushing past the worry for her, Joker took a more careful look outside. Putting the carnage out of his mind, he plotted a path that should let them bypass a majority of the fighting. "Come on." Pulling open the door, he darted out, staying low to avoid notice. The team followed him, Makoto kept between those capable of fighting, Ace put in charge of keeping her safe.

"I found her! I found her!" Joker stiffened on hearing a muffled shout. Looking in that direction he cursed himself for missing the figure hidden by the flames of a wrecked APC. The figure was... Well, he looked to be some sort of raider type? Bare chested save for the leather straps criss-crossing his front. And his head... Covered by a leather mask with only eye holes. "I found the stuck up bitch! Die! For the rebel queen!" The shadow burst into a Take-Minakata. The butchered god bound in ropes made... Far too much sense for a figure such as that.

It was quick work to take it down, something it even helped them with. Its main skill appeared to be harming itself to harm the thieves in turn.

Suffice to say, the thieves would have some questions for Makoto that most of them probably wouldn't ask by the time this was all over. In any case, the self-harming masochistic shadow was dealt with.

"Change of plans," Joker announced quietly, dragging the team back into the shadows. "We need to get closer to the fighting."

"What?! Why?!" Panther demanded. "No judgement but gimps are not my scene!"

"Nor mine," Makoto agreed. Everyone present looked at her with sincere doubt. "What? They're really not!"

"Niijima's kinks aside," Ace drew them back to the more urgent facts, while also levelling an accusation at the same time. Efficiency. "Remind me, what was the codename chosen for you?"

"Queen," Makoto answered with narrowed eyes.

Ace smirked. "I see. Yes. Joker, I believe you and I have the same hunch."

He nodded. Led them not into the thick of the fighting, but further around the outskirts so that they might get a better look at the centre of the conflict. "Oracle, do you see a path?" It was getting a little much judging such things unassisted.

"Yeah, hang on, just... Okay, a fight just ended over there. It should be clear if we book it."

Hasty movement in that direction brought them to a position where they could see the entrance to the precinct. See the officer shadows on the defensive. The raider gimp shadows attacking.

And behind both sides. "Is that Makoto?"

Sure enough. Sat on a chair of two officer shadows was an imperious Makoto in a police dress uniform, one leg crossed over the other. Unruffled and unperturbed by the chaos before her. Completely in control. Then opposite stood another Makoto, dressed in a skintight suit, covered by leather and spikes. Her Queen attire, though lacking the mask which allowed the thieves to see the vicious and excited expression she wore. Unlike the imperious police Makoto, she was standing. Though like her more orderly counterpart she was using one of her underlings as furniture. A gimp shadow was on hands and knees, acting as a footstool for rebel Makoto to use for a heroic pose to rally her men.

"I think we've found the source of the conflict," Ace spoke quietly.