Hanako isn't quite sure how she ended up working at Leblanc.

She's aware of the details, of course. At the meeting they had to discuss her – situation – Ann introduced her to Boss, who already knew the circumstances from Akira. Boss offered her a job because she doesn't have an ID or really anything proving she exists, but it was sort of whirlwind and she's still trying to get her head wrapped around it. Do people really give out jobs like that? She's almost one hundred percent sure they don't, especially to people who don't currently legally exist, even as a favor to someone they know. That's just not a thing that happens.

It's not that she's complaining, really. Having a job is a good thing and she caught on relatively quickly to working in the café. It's just an odd set of circumstances. Boss – Sakura Sojiro, Futaba's father and Akira's caretaker – doesn't know her. Technically none of them know her, really, because she doesn't even know herself. There's no valid reason to offer her a job – better yet, there's no valid reason to help her at all, but here she is.

Working at the café is relatively simple. She picks up the coffee types and ways to brew them pretty quickly, and she's basically the poster girl for customer service. It feels sort of like she used to do something similar, because the scent of coffee is nostalgic – even though she tried some and she absolutely did not like it. She's more of a tea girl, honestly. Or hot chocolate. Or – literally anything that isn't coffee.

Plus, she likes the regulars. They're all very interesting – they have their own lives and tastes and they always come exactly on schedule. The routine of it is so investing to her, watching people go about their lives where she is but a background character. It feels like she's always been invested in other people's lives, and this little café job is perfect for that sort of thing.

It's not all mundane, either. The Phantom Thieves use Leblanc as a meeting place, after all. She's declined to join their rank for now, but she likes watching them interact. They only have one official Phantom Thief meeting between the one about her and now, but after exams are over, at least one Phantom Thief is always hanging out with Akira. It makes her nostalgic for something she doesn't remember, but she's sure whatever it is was nice.

The Phantom Thieves stay busy through the rest of October, but they individually make sure to spend some time with Hanako, which is nice. It'd be pretty boring with no memories and no human interaction. Towards the end of the month, they gain a new member – Akechi Goro, the Detective Prince, which seems a bit ironic. She'd seen him on the Leblanc TV a few times before. He continues openly disagreeing with the Phantom Thieves in public, even as he works with them.

It isn't until November that the Phantom Thieves have any free time. On Friday – the 4th – they head to Mementos. It's explained to her as a collection of humanity's distorted desires, as well as where she woke up. Hanako agrees to go with some amount of reserve, but she's curious just as much as the Phantom Thieves are.

They meet up outside of the subway entrance in Shibuya. Akechi isn't there. She asks where he is – considering he's a new Phantom Thief and this seems relevant – but all she gets are shifty looks and dodgy excuses. She'd probably buy that he's busy, from what she's seen on TV; however, she's an excellent lie detector, so she doesn't. She doesn't call them out, though. She'll figure out what's up in her own time.

Passing the blue door isn't as awful as she was building it up to be in her head – she doesn't get dragged in kicking and screaming by powers unknown, nor does the little girl she's been seeing attack her on sight. In fact, the little girl isn't outside of the door this time. Nothing bad immediately happening doesn't stop the sinister aura of the door from messing with her, though, and she wastes no time in going downstairs to wait for the Phantom Thieves to be ready. Only – she doesn't stop.

She knows she is meant to wait. She intends to wait. Futaba wanted to scan her, after all, and they were going to show her some of the Shadows – she had mentioned they don't look like any of the ones she might've been familiar with. Plus, Akira requested that she stay with them before they went in. Not particularly for her own safety, considering, but for their peace of mind.

And yet, she keeps walking.

The Shadows won't attack her, she knows this.

There's something pulling her deeper, deeper, deeper, so she keeps walking. She walks, and walks, and walks. At some point she thinks she reaches the part where she found the Phantom Thieves the first time, or at least the floor it was, but the layouts are ever-changing and she's not quite sure.

Ever-changing, like. . .

Like –

"Tartarus? What's that? . . . Sounds like a toothpaste."

"You can think of it as a Shadow nest."

Like an upside-down Tartarus.

Tartarus, Evoker, Shadows, Personas. . . if all she's going to remember has to do with this Shadow business, what was her life like before?

Doesn't matter if she doesn't remember it, she supposes.

Many, many, many floors down, she reaches a wall. It appears to be made of stone, with glowing red geometric patterns throughout it. There doesn't seem to be any sort of opening mechanism, but – there has to be more beyond it. There must be. She has to go deeper.

She has to.

There is something down in the deepest depths of Mementos, and she must reach it. There is no other option but to reach it – she will not be able to rest, to breathe, until she is standing in the depths.

It is something warm and comforting, calling and beckoning for her to save it.

She must save it.

She must –

A hand on Hanako's shoulder pulls her out of her trance.

It's Akira. He looks pretty concerned, and she's almost sure she's going to hear a long rant about running off and making them worry – (did she once have a habit of running off in order to expect such a rant?) – but instead his expression just shifts until it is no longer readable. "The Shadows don't attack you."

That is absolutely the farthest thing from what she thought he'd say. "Huh?"

"The Shadows. They don't attack you. You walked right past all of them."

Well, of course they hadn't. They won't attack if they're scared of you – this is what she had gathered from last time, after saving the Phantom Thieves. She's too high-powered for the Shadows to believe she is worth attacking. It is, in fact, one of the reasons she doesn't want to join the Phantom Thieves. If she fights their battles for them, what happens when she regains her memories and presumably leaves? "They're scared of me," she says.

He gives her a considering look. "Higher up, they're scared of us too. Down here. . ."

She'd thought it obvious that she's just more powerful than they are. Too high powered for how far they are in Mementos right now. Something tells her she's been through something like this before – "something" being her recollection of Shadows and Personas and Tartarus – and it's clear she's reached the end of her journey. The Phantom Thieves have not. After all, if they must reach the depths of Mementos like she must, they still have a little way to go. She can feel it in her bones.

Futaba moves in front of Akira and gives Hanako a once-over. "I did a scan of you while we were following. You're way OP. And you have two Personas. Did you know that?"

On the list of things Hanako felt were important the last time she was here, knowing how many Personas she has was not amongst them, so yes but no. Now that she thinks about it, she can feel them. It's not as if she has magically gained a Persona in the time between Mementos visits – she has been aware of the presence of both this whole time, but it's been more of a background buzz than a focus.

(She was aware of Messiah, of course. The other one just didn't come to mind.)

"Last time I only noticed the one, because I wasn't really paying attention. But there are definitely at least two," Futaba continues. "Which means you have the same power as Joker."

Hanako reaches into the depths of her mind to feel her Personas. "Messiah and Orpheus-Telos," she states for Futaba.

What she notices more than anything is that some are missing. Ones she had Before – "Before" being before she died or whatever happened, not before she woke up, because at this point, she's at least a little sure she died. Really, she has to have, because that's the only logical explanation for the sheer stricken terror on Amada's face when he saw her.

(Futaba hadn't managed to find any information about Amada other than his name – Amada Ken. His school record is just as blocked off as Gekkoukan's had been. Hanako finds this to be a correlation.)

The only way she can think of to explain the missing feeling is that she has a certain number of slots and most are empty. Which just sounds absurd, so she doesn't bother mentioning it. Really only Akira might understand, but it's not particularly urgent that she's missing Personas. It wouldn't accomplish anything for them to know – it is not as if she can magically gain them back. Instead, she looks back at the wall, where her hand lay resting against the center. "I need to get down there."

Akira gives her another appraising look and beckons the rest of the Phantom Thieves from where they had been hanging out near the stairs – likely hanging back at his orders. "Mona, what's down at the depths of Mementos?"

"I've never thought about it," Morgana states thoughtfully. "Something to help me regain my memories."

"So Savior's need to be down there might be for a similar reason?" Akira asks, shooting a glance at Hanako's hand, which is still pressed up against the geometric wall. Oh. She lowers her hand and turns to fully face the Phantom Thieves.

(Are they really going to keep calling her Savior?)

Morgana pauses to think about it, then nods. "To regain her memories? Maybe."

Cool. Now she triple has to get down there.

Does she need the Phantom Thieves in order to go to Mementos? Is that a thing? So far, both times she's been, they've either taken her in or taken her out. That doesn't particularly set a precedent for her being able to do it herself. "Would I need to be Phantom Thief to go lower?"

Morgana's still staring at the wall in front of them as he replies. "I think if we've unlocked it, you can go down. But we might have to be in Mementos with you. . ."

"Joker does solo missions sometimes," Futaba pipes up. "With me as a guide. We can go down as far as we can as a group. So, you'd probably only need one of us if you need us at all."

Oh, good. "Would I need one of you to actually enter Mementos?

Futaba holds her hand out. "Phone." Hanako hands it over, but she can't imagine why – if her old phone doesn't work in the Metaverse, why would the new one? She's proven wrong seconds later when Futaba powers it on and opens the app menu to inspect it. "Not with this new phone. We enter through an app – this one, see? The Metaverse app. You just need to know how to use it."

Akira takes lead of the conversation again. "Well, we can head back up now. We got the requests done, so there's no point in staying now that we've scanned Savior and got some training in."

They really are going to keep calling her Savior. Unbelievable. It sounds so pretentious. And cult-y. She hates cults. (All reasonable people hate cults, of course, but she feels hers to a particularly strong hate.) Admittedly, though, she has no idea what she'd call herself if given the chance, so maybe Savior really isn't that bad.

There are chimes of agreement from the rest of the Phantom Thieves and they all start heading upstairs, at which point Hanako finds out something interesting.

Morgana can turn into a bus.

She's not even that surprised, really, it's just –

Isn't this like that Studio Ghibli movie?

. . . She decides not to voice that thought.

"We don't usually walk in Mementos unless it's necessary," Ann says. "I'm surprised your feet aren't killing you. It might be a tight squeeze but since Crow isn't here. . ." she trails off at that, but herds Hanako into the cat-bus nonetheless.

She ends up a little bit squished. She sits next to Makoto – who's driving – in the front seat, along with Ann and Haru, with Ryuji, Akira, Yusuke, and Futaba in the back. (Or, as Ann put it, "Girls up front, nerds in the back. Yes, Skull counts as a nerd. Yes, I'm including Oracle as a nerd instead of a girl. No offense Oracle.") The drive is presumably much quicker than her walk down, but she doesn't remember much from then other than her need to go deeper.

Eventually they are standing back in Shibuya in their normal clothes once more – not that Hanako's clothes had ever changed – and parting ways. Haru helps her speculate on her previous life on the way home, all in good fun, and they come up with some interesting stories based on the memories she does have.

("What if you were in the PSIA as an experiment with Persona-users and you learned something you weren't supposed to, so they erased your memories and dumped you in Mementos?")

("What if I was kidnapped as a baby and lived in Mementos my entire life, and head trauma caused me to forget everything?")

That night, she lies awake and seriously ponders what her life was like before. She knows she'll dream of it – of everything and nothing at the same time – and will never quite piece it together in the morning. Maybe she should start keeping a dream journal instead of a memory journal. The memory journal hasn't done her much good so far.

. . . Well, she supposes that the memory journal can also work as a dream journal, since she only seems to be dreaming of her past. She makes a mental note to write everything she remembers from her dreams down in the morning and turns in for the night.

She does dream, as expected.

She dreams of the color blue.


Blue eyes, unnaturally so, yellow scarf, yellow scarf, yellow scarf –

"Have we met before?"

Blue hair, soft voice, gentle laughter –

"I've never been afraid of death, -."

Blue room, rising, rising, rising –

"Welcome to the - -."

Blue clothes, yellow eyes, silver hair –

"It's a pleasure to meet you."


She wakes up gasping.

Her alarm is buzzing.

Saturday, November 5th, 6:02 am.

She silences the alarm and jots down what she remembers from her dream – which unfortunately boils down to one word: blue. Very soon after that she's out the door and on her way to Café Leblanc for another day at work. She likes working at Leblanc. It's mind numbingly simple, and it gives her time to think about other things. For instance –

Well, everything. Who is she? Who was she? Why did she wake up in Mementos of all places? Why does she feel so drawn to the depths of Mementos? What brought her back to life? How? The list goes on and on, so she never runs out of things to think about while completing her tasks on autopilot.

She looks automatically to greet the next customer when the bell chimes, only to pause. This isn't a regular. It's a police officer who she's never seen before, not even standing out on the street keeping an eye on things. "Welcome to Leblanc! I'll be right with you," she says in her best customer service voice as she grabs a mug and waits for his order. The policeman – around her age (if she knew what age she is), a rugged sort of handsome, silver hair with kind eyes – nods and takes a seat, glancing around Leblanc with some amount of intrigue.

"You worked here long. . ." he pauses and glances at her nametag. "Hanako?"

She taps her fingers on the counter. Maybe he's a monthly regular instead of a daily regular, and she just hasn't encountered him yet. It would explain his interest in her. "About a month. What would you like?"

He looks at Leblanc's frankly impressive selection of coffees before answering. She's not sure if this means he's not a regular or if it means he's not used to having to actually place his order. Boss is out running an errand, so she can't check. "Just a plain black coffee."

The policeman doesn't seem inclined to continue conversation after that, so she picks a basic coffee bean and sets to work. It is an awkward silence that she gently places his coffee in front of him, and in an awkward silence that he sips it. He occasionally steals glances at her when he thinks she isn't looking, but it's not like she has much else to look at. Leblanc isn't that busy on a good day.

The more Hanako looks at him, the more – well, he feels exactly like Amada. Familiar, and terrifyingly so. What was it that had flashed in her head when she saw Amada's recognition? An arcana and a rank. She wipes down the counters and accidentally makes contact with the policeman's hand –

Star. Rank 10. MAX.

She knows him.

She has to know him – this is the same thing that had happened with Amada, who had clearly recognized him. Plus, there's that rank thing again. She doesn't know what it means, but if she's maxed it, she has to know him, right? And that means he knows her. Did he come here exclusively looking for her? Not a regular after all, but someone who sought her out?

Are there people looking for her?

. . . Does she want there to be?

He finishes his coffee, pays, and gets up to leave. He seems to be looking outside at a woman, who sits leaning against the wall opposite the door. If the policeman knows her, what are the chance the woman knows her too? She tries to get a closer look without seeming too obvious.

Red hair, sunglasses, expensive looking clothing. Not necessarily an outfit she thinks any average society person would be caught dead in – the leather jacket and loosely cradled motorcycle helmet make sure of that – but one that is clearly high quality. "Thank you for the coffee, Hanako-san," the policeman says, and begins to walk out.

He's just opening the door when she yelps and rushes forward. "Wait –" he pauses in the doorway and looks back at her with something akin to hope in his eyes. "Do I. . . know you?" It seems almost a foolish question to ask after she says it, but by then it is too late.

The policeman's expression shifts to a softer, more neutral one. He looks at the woman waiting for him, then back at Hanako. "You don't. Not right now. But you will." He turns and nearly makes it all the way out before glancing back at her once more. "Sanada Akihiko. I'll see you soon."