I own nothing. Monika does.

For once, Sayori was incredibly glad to be back at school. After her adventure in her palace, she wished for nothing more than a return to normality. She got a few strange and suspicious looks from the likes of Akira Kurusu and Ryuji Sakamoto. Instead of carefully walking from class to class, she found herself confidently strutting instead. The strangest occurrence of all happened when she went to work as a librarian's aid that day.

"Hey, Mai!" smiled Sayori.

"Hey there. You're looking better." Mai said, with an actual hint of honest happiness in her voice. Sayori took notice of the fact that she wasn't wearing her white bow.

"I'm glad you think so. I really… figured things out." Sayori said, contemplatively.

"Good. I was starting to get real concerned. Glad you sorted it all out." Mai said, with a smile across her face. "C'mon, let's get to work."

Mai-san wants to work? Am I in an alternate dimension again?

"Uhm, alright. Let's get these check-ins sorted, then. Want to get some tea after?" Sayori asked.

"Nah, nah. We got stuff to do. This place needs a good cleaning-up, too. People really need to stop leaving their books around everywhere." Mai grumbled.

Cleaning too? Goodness.

Sayori looked at Mai, slightly shocked. Mai looked over and chuckled. "What's up, Sayori? Afraid of a little cleaning?"

Sayori suddenly unfroze. "Uh, uhm, n-no. It's just you're… acting quite differently today. I kind of like it."

Mai put her hand to her chin, thinking. She looked at Sayori once again. "Hah. Guess I got a bit of whatever you've been having."

"What do you mean?" asked Sayori, puzzled.

"You figured stuff out, so did I. Must've been something we ate." Mai laughed, heartily. Sayori smiled, then began to laugh as well. The two sorted the check-ins through a chorus of girlish giggling.

Who are the Phantom Thieves?

That question burned in Sayori's mind throughout her entire school day. She almost didn't want to find out, considering she was living with a detective. Her finding out would run the risk of him finding out, and then… But the allure of discovering the truth was too strong for her to bear. She had a good idea as to what was the answer, but getting a confirmation wouldn't be easy. So, she decided to force one.

Ann Takamaki. Sayori was sure that she was the girl in the red suit. No other girl has hair and eyes like her. Plus, she didn't even bother to mask her voice. There was no doubt about it, "Panther" was Takamaki-san. If that were the case, then it was pretty clear who the rest of the thieves would be. Sayori decided to tail her once she left school. There was a chance that she would find the other thieves that way.

As it turns out, detective work of this sort is rather boring. Takamaki-san didn't get up to much once school ended, instead opting to browse the underground mall for what felt like hours to Sayori. But then, Ann got a notification on her phone. Sayori watched as Ann read the text with a smile on her face. Something was up.

Ann stepped off of the subway, Sayori not too far behind. She had had quite a bit of trouble hiding from Ann in the cramped subway train. Somehow, her red hair had not given her away. Regardless, she followed Ann to her destination. Standing there were a few familiar faces. Akira Kurusu, his cat, Ryuji Sakamoto, and Yusuke Kitagawa. Part of her wasn't shocked that they were involved, but another part of her didn't want to believe it.

My friends… they've been inside my heart? Now they know all of those things about me…

The group started to discuss something. Sayori, trying to catch a few words of their conversation, stepped closer.

"Sayori… Palace… Shadow…"

This confirmed it. She had found her Phantom Thieves. However, as she carelessly leaned in further, she also found herself attracting the attention of said Phantom Thieves.

"Uh, Matsu-chan? What's up?" asked Ryuji. He clearly became nervous upon seeing her.

"I knew it! I knew something wasn't right. My intuition never fails." Ann said with questionable confidence.

"Sayori? Whatever is the matter?" added Yusuke, concerned. Akira merely looked at her with a smug look on his face.

Sayori decided to go direct. If she was wrong, then nothing would happen regardless. No sane person knows what palace or a Persona is. If she was right, then she'd finally have her answer.

"Why were you in my palace? Why were you trying to change my heart?" she said with resolve.

The thieves froze upon hearing the question. I've got 'em, thought Sayori. Ryuji, ever the quick to act, looked toward Akira and whispered, "Dude, what do we do?"

Akira looked towards him with a smile. "We tell her the truth. After all…" He looked towards Sayori once more. "After her performance yesterday, I think she deserves to know. Welcome to the hideout, Matsu." he said, stretching his arms out as if to display the corner of the room as something spectacular.

Sayori listened to his command and moved closer. She was now part of the group.

"Well, I already explained to you the basics of what a palace is. Plus, you have your own Persona already, so that doesn't need an explanation. I suppose the only thing left to explain is why we were in your Palace." Akira said. "You know about the Phan-Site?" he asked Sayori.

"I've heard about it. I haven't really checked it out myself, though."

"Well, that's where we find targets for our heists. We weren't quite expecting an entire palace to show up, though. Normally, the shadows of everyday people show up in a place called Mementos. You're a special case, it seems. Your distortion was so strong that it created a palace. Here, I'll show you the request that tipped us off." Akira pulled out his phone, tapped a few times, and showed it to Sayori. There she saw a message divulging many aspects of her life that she had only told a select few people. Possibilities raced in her mind as to who could've possibly posted this. However, she decided to forget about it for now. The good that it had brought her outweighed the slight anger she felt towards the poster. As she was still thinking, Akira placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Sayori… what is your idea of justice?" he asked, with a tone of true seriousness in his voice.

Sayori was startled by the question. She had never really thought very hard about justice, despite living with a detective. After a moment of thinking, she attempted an answer.

"Well… I suppose it would be that the strong have the given job to protect the weak. Those who have power need to protect those who are less fortunate. That would be my idea of justice."

Akira smiled upon hearing her answer. "And what lengths would you go to in order to uphold your justice?"

Sayori thought about this as well. She knew in her heart what the answer was. "Whatever lengths possible. If it means helping others, I'll do anything."

He took his hand off of her shoulder, beaming from end to end. Standing tall and firm, he looked towards his fellow thieves, then back towards Sayori. With a strong voice, he asked, "Well then, Matsu-chan… want to be a Phantom Thief?"

Goro could not sleep. He was incredibly tired, but his mind was preoccupied with endless speculation as to what he had come across in Sayori's palace.

Someone is out there, and they've been watching Sayori this whole time. They know about palaces too, and can apparently manipulate them from what I saw… What is going on?

He had made an interesting observation while he was in Sayori's palace, but he wasn't able to give it any thought during all of the action. This entity had given him two notebooks, but he was only to keep one. The other was to be placed backstage. When he went backstage to place down the notebook, he found nothing but an old, wooden stool, almost like a pedestal waiting for something to be placed on it. Something like… a palace's treasure.

Is this notebook… Sayori's treasure? Was the other notebook a fake?

It certainly seemed like something she would be attached to. He had given the inside a few looks already, and sure enough there was a litany of poems, adorable scribbles and various other notes inside. It was in her handwriting, too. Goro finally decided to wake up and do some investigating.

Page upon page upon page of nothing. Just poems, poems and more poems. He knew Sayori enjoyed poems, but he had no idea as to the extent of her enjoyment.

She's an excellent writer, too…

The scribbles in the margins provided even more insight into her mind. Flowers and balloons were present on some, while on others sat thunderclouds and sad faces. Goro began to feel somewhat uncomfortable, as if he was peeking at Sayori during a private moment. Still, for the purposes of detective work, he needed to press on.

What he ended up finding surprised him immensely. Tucked within an organization flap attached to the inside-back cover of the notebook was a plain, white flash drive. There was something written on the label, but most of it was wiped away and illegible. All Goro could read was the first letter, "D", along with a period. Puzzled, Goro plugged the flash drive into his PC. All that came up was an error message. "J:\ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable." He unplugged it and tried a different port. Same error. He was starting to get very very frustrated when, after one final try, a File Explorer pop-up suddenly appeared. Inside the flash drive was one folder, named a strange combination of letters and numbers, MS0xLTEucGM=. There was nothing inside. Goro, despite his abilities as a detective, was not very technologically savvy. He decided that he would ask someone at the police office to help him in the morning.

Akira invited Sayori to his home, Cafe LeBlanc. He had something quite interesting to show her. Sojiro had already gone back home, so they would be alone for the time being. She had seemed nervous at first, the idea of going to a criminal's home behind her own roommate's back made her scared for her friends' safety. So, she had insisted on standing beside the bed with Morgana in between the two as a precaution. Though she had her arms crossed, she had a look on her face of honest curiosity.

"Welcome to the hideout. The others will be here shortly," said Akira. "So, Sayori, wanna see what we stole?" he asked, smiling.

"From my palace? What do you mean?" asked Sayori, confused.

He chuckled as he reached over towards the shelf next to his bed and grabbed a black notebook. A percent sign was on the cover.

"Remember when I told you that all palaces have treasures? Yours is the same. This is what we found backstage. Normally, we'd have to give you a calling card so that you'd know we were going to steal your heart, but I guess since you were already there, we didn't have to." Akira explained, clearly enthusiastic about his occupation. Sayori smiled, not fully grasping the entire situation.

"Funny thing is, there isn't too much written in here. I would've expected it to be filled to the brim. Here, take a look." He handed the book to Sayori. She flipped through the pages, reading the various scattered poems. The contents were incredibly confusing. The handwriting was not her own, and neither were any of the poems. She didn't know what to think. Yet, she couldn't deny the quality of what she was reading. Whoever, or whatever had written this book was clearly skilled.

Is this my mind's idea of what poems should be like? I'm so… confused.

One poem in particular stood out to her.

To decide that which is real,

And that which is not,

Is a distinction I must

Make, but simply cannot.

But despite this, I find

With all that I'm put through,

I know that one thing is real,

And that thing is you.

She looked up from the notebook as LeBlanc's bell rang downstairs. The team had finally arrived.

It is good to be back. We missed you all. Next week will be my very, very late birthday chapter. I hope you all enjoyed this one. Please read, review, and I'll see you all later!