Morgana curled up next to Rei at her writing desk. "So Makoto-chan's the last holdout, huh?"

"Can't say I blame her." Rei said, sighing. "And, at the same time, I can't tell Shiho-chan's secret. Burakumin…." She shook her head in disbelief. "Unbelievable. A part of me thought we were supposed to be past this."

Morgana made a rather disdainful face. "People who would target someone for innocent acts by their ancestors is a perfectly worthy target for Phantom Thieves. I'm sure Makoto - "

"I'm sure too." Rei said. "But Shiho is terrified, and rightly so. I'm sure the school knows, unofficially, but if it gets out she'll be expelled."

Morgana's hair rose, subtly. "But if we don't, Keino might hurt her family!"

"Morgana," Rei said with hushed exasperation. "Please keep it quieter." She took a deep breath. "And the worst part is, Makoto-chan won't ever figure it out. I hate to say it, but she's had it the best out of any of us." Morgana tilted his head, prompting her to continue. "It's . . . well, the rest of us are all marked out for what and who we are. Transwoman? I've been dealing with stuff like that 'boyfriend' crack for eight years. Ann-chan? Half-foreigner, Japanese features while being naturally blonde, and, not to put too fine a point on it, smoking hot? Heck, I made that mistake until I actually looked at her face. I'm guessing not many people, man or woman, bother." She chuckled. "And you called Ryuji a Yankee yourself, but really, he just did it because he's the type to run with it when others stick him with an unjust label."

"Okay…" Morgana said skeptically "...but how does that relate to Makoto?"

Rei took a deep breath. "Makoto's isolated too, but it's mostly her own doing. She let pursuit of personal perfection get in the way of actually being a person. She convinced the school to make her president of the student council, but that was probably because she's wicked smart and had no connections, so everyone agreed she would be fair. And she has been, to a fault. Everyone trusts her, defers to her...and everyone dislikes her. But only mildly. She's never been on the receiving end of real hate before. She doesn't know what it's like, to know there are people who will destroy you for being you, who make it personal."

Morgana thought. "Can't you explain it?"

"Not really." Rei said with a sigh. "It's...if you know, you don't want anyone to suffer that if they don't have to." She stood up. "Ugh. I'll finish this tomorrow. Good night, Morgana."

When she awoke, it was to her own frustration that she was back in the padded cell. "What is it now?"

"A most perplexing dilemma." Igor said to her, still sitting at his desk like always, deep voice somehow mocking. "You have allowed one ally to stay another's hand. If the situation continues, rehabilitation will be forever out of your reach…"

Rei rubbed her forehead. "You brought me here to tell me that? You know I don't sleep well when you do this, right?"

Caroline suddenly appeared at the door, and Rei jumped away in surprise. "Watch your tongue, Patient!"

Igor raised his hand. "Relax, Caroline. It is a fair point, and I do have more to add." Rei turned her attention to the spirit. "Know you this - another potential ally lies on the road ahead. One who has wielded the power of Persona in the past, an outcast from society like yourself due to her. . . abnormalities."

Rei's eyes widened. "Wait, you mean - "

"You will meet this woman...and you can choose to aid her, or not. To assist her will bring you to great peril, however." Igor thought for a bit. "I would suggest that her aid will not be absolutely necessary for your rehabilitation, but it is your decision."

Rei frowned. "I...see. That...actually is helpful." The bells tolled…

Ann whistled low. She and Rei were on the roof during the lunch break, with Rei hiding behind the HVAC equipment again, although this time she hadn't pulled her shirt all the way open, just loosened the sports bra. "Shiho told you? I didn't think she trusted anyone that much."

"I figured it out," Rei said, sighing. "Please tell me you can persuade her Makoto-chan is trustworthy."

Ann shook her head. "No way. Even if I could, I wouldn't."

"Huh?" Rei felt taken aback. "You trust her with the Phantom Thieves stuff, but not with this?"

Ann twirled her hair, looking nervous. "I...actually don't trust her with the Phantom Thieves either. She's been a total goody two-shoes for the past year and a half I've known about her, and suddenly it's all turned around? I mean, I know it's hard to argue with her having a Persona, but I'm afraid she'll get a guilty conscience."

Rei sighed. "I know what you mean. She came to it more slowly than the rest of us. There's some resentment there, but I do wonder."

Ann looked out to the nearby buildings. "Yeah. I don't really have a choice on the Metaverse, but I absolutely won't add in Shiho's secret on top of that. Sorry, Rei, but it has to be her decision."

"I understand," Rei added. "Do you mind looking out. Lunch is almost up."

Ann grinned teasingly. "What, the top's nothing I haven't seen before, Rei-chan."

Rei flushed heavily at that.

Makoto frowned skeptically at Rei. "Okay, so, let me see if I've got this straight? The night you came to Tokyo, you dreamed about being in an insane asylum with two children for orderlies and an old tengu sitting at a desk."

"Yes." Rei said, not liking where this was going. It was after school, and the pair of them were back on the roof, leaning against the corners of the HVAC system.

Makoto raised a skeptical eyebrow. "These orderlies give you decidedly dangerous-sounding medical procedures to increase your powers."

"Yep."

Makoto frowned. "The tengu gives you vague prophetic clues, and now he says someone is being kept captive in this Keino's warehouse?"

"Yeees." Rei sighed. "I know it sounds crazy, but is it any crazier than the rest of this?"

"A bit, yes." Makoto said. "Not as crazy as I'd have thought you were before Kamoshida, but it's still not a good look on you. How's the real medication going?"

Rei glared. "Look, Makoto-chan, that stuff just takes the edge off and lets me function more or less like a human being. It's not like without it I'm seeing or hearing things. I just...y'know, can't get up in the morning."

"All right, all right." Makoto said placatingly. "It's just concern - "

Rei let out one of those low growls that tended to foretell a serious round of yelling. "Makoto-chan, can I suggest that you're maybe not as knowledgeable about this as you think you are? You're very smart, and very good at rote learning, because that's what makes you good at school. I'm good at those things too, but because I've been dealing with mental health, both my own and others' by proxy, since I was in elementary school I've picked up enough to know when people are just following what's considered the common wisdom. I am not crazy, and dealing with mental issues doesn't mean something is wrong."

"And it doesn't mean something isn't." Makoto said. "You might have undiagnosed issues exacerbated by dealing with the Metaverse."

Rei smirked. "There's some evidence for a split personality, is what you're saying? If you want a chat with my Shadow, she's set up in an ice cream shop on the Meta side of Maihama station."

Makoto made a face. "Well, yes, her continued presence is disturbing. What if this Igor entity is somehow responsible?"

"First we would need to determine if he's real, which you've also called into question." Rei said. "If there really is a person trapped in that warehouse, it would go a long way to confirming that. We don't have to commit to direct action against Keino just to look around for a missing person, right?"

Makoto sighed. "I should never have let that excuse get me into Mementos. Fine, you win. Promise me that you won't take this as consent to send a calling card, and I'll give my blessings to other forays into the Palace for the time being."

On her way out of the school, Rei signaled that Shiho should follow her. Ann looked at them quizzically, and Rei gave her the slightest narrowing of the eyes. She and Shiho managed to snag the corner table at a small cafe in Shibuya, where Rei slumped over her tea. "Shiho-chan, I don't see any way around this."

"We're not going." Shiho's voice was so full of disappointment Rei almost broke right there. "Dammit, Rei-chan. I can't tell her. I can't. I don't even want Ryuji-kun finding out, and he's known me long enough he's got to suspect."

Rei gulped. This was about to get even less pleasant than it was already. "Shiho...we are going, but you aren't thinking this through." She glanced about, but no one was listening in. "Think. You're sure this guy doesn't like your family for. . . reasons. Well, don't you think those reasons are going to be on full display." Shiho's jaw dropped. "...And the worst part is that. . . we have to go anyway."

"Wha-no!" Shiho's harsh whisper came with deep, gulping breaths. "You're right, I can't - y-you can't - "

Rei shook her head. "Keino's restrained in the real world by physics, but apparently someone else is trapped in his Palace. If he hates you so much he'd do this in the real world, how bad is the Palace?" Shiho stopped dead, looking like she might simply keel over from the shock. "I know it's a stranger instead of your family, but if it's true, can we really walk away?"

Shiho looked down at her own tea. "...no...but…"

Rei shook her head, pulling Shiho's hand to her to squeeze it. "Shiho-chan, I think you're selling Makoto-chan short. And I think you know that, or you'd never have risked bringing it up to begin with."

"And if you're wrong, it's my life that's ruined this time." Shiho said miserably. "Can't we just leave her out of it?"

Rei closed her eyes. ". . . At this point, I don't think so. She'll figure out something's up, especially if we send the calling card. That's her condition for looking into it - she hasn't said 'yes', she's just stopped saying 'no.'"

Shiho winced. "I can't get out of this, can I?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

The scene above LeBlanc was just as bad as Rei had feared. There wasn't anything innately wrong, exactly, but the tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife. Everybody had coffee, but that was the only thing unifying them.

Ryuji was standing in the middle of the floor, running through his stretches. Makoto and Morgana had taken up seats near Rei's bed, with Morgana on the floor, apparently discussing general battle strategies. Meanwhile, Shiho was resolutely sitting in front of Rei's television, looking over the small selection of movies as if she was seriously considering putting one in.

Ryuji noticed Rei's arrival first. "Hey, what kept you?"

"I had to go find newspapers," Rei said. "Yes, physical newspapers. We can burn them afterwards."

Makoto raised an eyebrow. "Taking security rather seriously, are you?"

"With the teachers having every legal right to search our phones?" Rei snorted. "With some of the stuff I look up, I do a factory reset every morning. And no, it doesn't clear the Nav." She started setting up the table. "So, we've got a name, we've got a place. Keino's new warehouse is the site of his Palace. We figure out what he thinks of it as, we have our way in."

"That's what the newspapers are for?" Makoto asked. "And how did you get these old ones?"

"Don't ask." Rei said bluntly. "Just be glad we live in Japan. The recycling laws might be a pain, but in America they just throw whatever in there." She pulled one paper out of the stack, reasonably dry, and started reading. "These are from the past couple of weeks. Don't bother spending a whole lot of time on a story if you don't see anything."

The Phantom Thieves quickly got down to it. It wasn't exciting or glamourous work, but with only a few weeks worth of papers at least it went by quickly. Ryuji gave up first. "Man, there's a lotta real boring stuff involved with this, isn't there?"

Ann shrugged. "Well, it can't all be partying and stealing, I guess…" She looked down. "...well, nothing in the lifestyle sections so far. Guess he's not into that sort of thing."

Shiho sighed. "There wouldn't be, would there? He's a businessman." She looked down at her own paper. "Huh, I take that back. Ann, you have the one from last Tuesday? This is just a reprint of the original warehouse story that put me onto this, but it mentions a big donation in the Lifestyle section after all."

Ann flipped through, then looked at the papers she'd already put aside. "...sorry, I didn't see it." A quick bit of cross-referencing. "Oh, yeah. It says here 'Hiroshi Keino, international trader and noted philanthropist - yadda yadda yadda.' She sighed. "It's all about how he basically donated all his profits to a bunch of places in Kyoto."

Ryuji raised an eyebrow. "Gave away all his money? That don't sound right."

Makoto rolled her eyes, but Rei raised a hand. "Which places in Kyoto? It might be important."

Ann scrambled. "Uhm...he's put up torii at Fushimi Inari, both on behalf of Keino Imports and himself...preservation at Nijo Castle, Himeji Castle….uhm...Kokoen gardens."

Makoto blinked. "The torii is common enough, but the rest…"

Rei sunk deep into thought. "The two castles are easy enough - they're both symbols of the old Shogunate. A time when land owners could all but dictate policy on their own lands. I'm not sure how the garden fits."

Makoto sighed. "It's a recreation of a number of different gardens."

Ryuji grinned, and lit up his nav. "Castle!"

"No Match Found."

Rei frowned. "Wouldn't be so convenient as a repeat. Any other ideas?"

Ann shrugged. "Temple? Garden?"

"No Match Found."

Morgana sighed. "Sorry, Ann-dono, but . . . "

Rei flopped back into her seat. "It was an idea."

"...Shoen," Shiho said suddenly.

"Match Found. Navigation will begin when you are in closer proximity."

Makoto's jaw dropped. "An entire manor holding? Those could be huge! It might take years!"

"Probably not." Rei said. "Morgana, check me on this, but it can only actually be as large as he can reasonably conceive, right?"

Morgana thought about it. "That's true, but people can imagine a lot."

Rei made a small gesture to acknowledge the point. "True, but most of it will likely be empty fields. Try to think of absolutely everything between here and Shujin, and I bet you won't be able to remember more than one percent of it with any accuracy. You can shorthand, say, you know the convenience stores will all be kinda the same, but if you had to remember every detail about even one of them you'd be wrong if you don't go in that particular store all the time. So we only need to check the major landmarks."

Makoto said "It's worth a try, I guess. But not tonight. We don't have time to get over there."

"Tomorrow, then," Rei replied.

That morning, Rei saw Akechi on the platform again. She glanced down to Morgana. "Hey, uhm...can I get some privacy again?"

Morgana looked up at her. "Are you sure? I mean, he's the enemy, isn't he?"

"I won't say anything specific," Rei countered. "Sorry, just...I feel like I need at least one friend not directly connected to the after-school job." Morgana thought about it, then nodded and quickly made himself scarce. Easy enough for a cat.

Rei made her way across the platform. Akechi was standing there, seeming to ignore her. She stood next to him, as if about to get on the train at the platform he was waiting at. She didn't bother disguising her voice with no one else around. "Goro-kun?"

"Amamiya-san," Akechi said. Rei winced visibly at the formality. "You should be more careful about dropping your disguise. I don't know Amamiya Ren beyond a case file."

"You didn't give Rei your contact info," Rei countered. "And you have no need to be on this platform unless you want to talk to her."

Akechi seemed to think about that. "True enough. Do yo...does Rei wish to speak to me again?"

Rei suppressed her annoyance. "She does. Somewhere quiet after school?"

"You almost make it sound like a date." Akechi said with a small laugh. "The cafe from last time. Will that be satisfactory?"

Rei nodded. "I will relay your message."

Rei saw Haru lifting up a fertilizer bag as she entered the school. Rei did a double-take on realizing it was not a small bag. She wouldn't have had trouble with it, but Haru seemed to be hauling it around like it was full of cotton balls. Smiling to herself, she walked over to help. "Okumura-san?"

"Oh, Ren!" Haru sounded delighted. "Don't worry, I've got it. But if you want to accompany me up to the roof..."

"Certainly." Rei gave her a slight smile and grabbed the small box of gardening tools nearby instead. "How are you this morning?"

Haru shrugged under the bag, even more impressively. "It's fine."

Rei blinked. Something about the tone of Haru's answer seemed off. She slipped into what she had started to refer to as Thief's Sight, the special perceptive powers that Igor had gifted her with. Haru was doing her best to conceal it, but there was a slight hitch in the movement of her left leg, and a very careful makeup job over one eyebrow concealing a cut. "Okumura-san? Was there an accident?"

Haru shook her head. "I'll be okay."

Rei frowned. "I do not wish to be rude, but you are injured."

Haru stopped dead for a moment, before continuing up the stairs. "I'm surprised you noticed, Ren-kun."

"Very little about the condition of my friends escapes me." Rei said. "However, if you do not wish me to pry I won't."

Haru sighed. "I said I'll be fine. It was an accident, nothing more."

Rei smiled. "So long as that's the end of it. However, you should take care of that. I can handle one bag of fertilizer."

They switched loads and continued up to the roof. Once there, Haru put the tools down. "Is Rei available after school?"

"I'm...afraid not." Rei said with an internal groan. "She has work tonight. However, she will be happy to spend time with you tomorrow, I imagine."

Haru grinned. "It's nice to see family, even distant family, get along so well. You know her schedule that well?"

Rei shook her head. "No. I just know my cousin well enough that anything short of actual obligation wouldn't prevent her from spending time with you after you helped her, if you need it."

"I'll be there."

Akechi probably hadn't planned on this. Rei was made up, like she always did these days, and had her hair down. What was somewhat different was the attitude. Instead of sitting across from the older boy, she had plunked down in the booth next to him, almost but not quite uncomfortably close. A few girls in the cafe had recognized him and were glaring at Rei, but she evidently was intent on paying it no mind.

However, she wasn't saying anything either. "Rei-chan...not that I don't enjoy your company, but you realize I'm quite busy with my consulting business…"

"Sorry." Rei said. "I just...I'm having some trouble composing my thoughts."

Akechi chuckled. "I see...why not just start from the beginning?"

Rei pretended to think about it, but then shook her head. "I'm working with some of my other friends on a . . . start-up business, I guess. Makoto-chan had an idea to help us all make some extra money, but we don't want to talk about it until we know no one will steal the idea."

Akechi shrugged. "Then...what's the issue?"

Rei sighed. "A disagreement on where to draw lines. One of us. . . it's definitely not illegal, but she wants to do some stuff that's probably not actually very safe. And another one is being more cautious, but that's not good either."

Akechi grinned. "Well, if it's not illegal, the only thing I can think of that would be within your abilities and resources might be some kind of courier service. I should warn you that such things are regulated."

Rei did her best to look crestfallen. "Really? We weren't going to use vehicles, so I figured on foot we were relatively safe. The idea was more. . . well, carrying messages back and forth, especially between schools." She was thinking faster now. "I know a smartphone's more convenient, but it turns out I'm really good at spotting people in a crowd. Did you know you're being followed?" She threw that last bit in almost casually.

Akechi jumped as his brain caught up. "What, you mean the fan club?"

"No." Rei's voice went quieter. "Two guys in a car across the street. Tinted windows, but if you look at just the right angle it's open a crack. I barely caught a glimpse of one of them in that pedestrian mirror over the crosswalk."

"Amamiya, that's. . . that's incredible!" Akechi's jaw dropped. "They are, indeed, tailing me, although it's for my protection. After speaking to you here I'll be meeting a contact." He grinned, leaning back. "So, you're not looking to evade the police so much as school authorities. I could see how such a system might be detected, and I'm unsure of the market, but if nothing else it will be good practice for a career in espionage or law enforcement."

Rei grinned. "And now you see the problem. This isn't going to work if I can't get everyone on the same page of what's harmless business and what's crossing the line."

Akechi sighed. "I'm afraid I don't know how much help I can be. As I said, you might want to look into regulations, but since you won't be using commercial vehicles for this I suspect catching you will be beneath police notice as long as you deal honestly. But . . . "

"Thanks, Akechi-kun." Rei interrupted. "I have to figure that out for myself and explain things in a way both parties will accept, if I'm in charge."

"That seems likely," Akechi said, leaning back. "Of course, I work alone so I don't know much about such things."

Rei grinned. "Oh well. Let's get some tea."

Rei stepped off the train at the industrial train stop, far off the beaten path, with entirely too much sweet tea in her belly. She checked her phone for directions really quickly, then moved on before the workers in the district started moving through for shift change. The buildings here were all plain concrete, or occasionally aluminium, affairs, generally somewhat dilapidated as though no one were ever expected to visit, except on an inspection. The one bit of reasonably good news was that the streets had plenty of lamps, and they were starting to come on.

No sneak attacks from rough sorts. Not in this part of Tokyo, anyway, Rei thought to herself with some satisfaction. It was reinforced when Shiho and Ann came up beside her. Shiho was wearing a bright pink hoodie and track pants, while Ann had selected a red sweater to go with hers. Rei glanced at them, and nodded, without bothering to speak. They were going to stick out like sore thumbs anyway. Especially with Morgana following behind them.

Suddenly, Morgana spoke up. "Anyway, we need a code name for Ann-dono."

"Panther," Ann said.

Shiho grinned. "Ann and I talked about it awhile ago."

Makoto was at the place, still in her school uniform, along with Ryuji in his. Although it was so unrecognizable as such that it probably counted as trying to not be obvious. "Right, so. . . we're going to need a better answer than walking. Taxi next time, probably."

"Too expensive." Shiho said. "Sorry, but I don't have a slush fund to raid like Rei does. Even if we make up the cost. . "

Rei nodded. "Makoto, business casual. You can probably pass as an intern or something. Look up another business nearby. Maybe Ann too. The rest of us will need to look like part-timers or something." They approached the Palace. "Anyway, this here's the place." It was, at the moment, a construction site. The skeleton of a massive, blocks-wide warehouse had gone up, with Tokyo Bay visible beyond it. The standard array of bulldozers, cranes, and men were at work, with stacks of piping, concrete, and rebar arrayed everywhere. Men were busy, and no one was taking notice of them. "We're all in agreement?"

No one shook their heads or said anything, so Rei pushed the button on the Navi…

The world shifted with only a twinge of pain. When their eyes cleared, the Phantom Thieves stood on the edge of a massive farmland. It extended out to the horizon in all three directions before them, with every plot laid out in a perfectly square rice paddy, with tall stocks of the staple grain growing out, interfering with the workers moving through them. Only, they weren't farming the rice.

Each 'paddy' was home to cows, horses, or even chickens, wandering around and eating the rice. Every few seconds, the cry of a dying animal would go up from somewhere, and then workers dressed like medieval peasants would rush to the animal's side. They gutted, skinned, and butchered it in seconds, far faster than possible even with power tools, and then they would carry a painting or some other valuable artwork to a nearby cart, along with sackfuls of what could only be paper money, for it to be hauled off.

Skull looked distinctly ill. "Look...look at the water." Joker did, hesitating. It was red with blood and floating excrement. And it smelled even worse, like the acids they used in the science labs. "Man, is this how he sees his employees?"

"How are we supposed to find anything?" Panther groaned, holding her nose.

Queen grimaced. "Eyes on the horizon. There have to be buildings."

Joker looked behind them, noting the tall hedge. Then her eyes caught someone approaching, a large man dressed in a samurai's armor. "Hide." she hissed, jumping into the bush. Everyone followed suit, and the guard passed by without even a glance despite the fact that he should have seen them from a mile off. "...okay, guards exceptionally bad at guarding. That'll help, anyway." She turned and looked to the horizon again. "I'm seeing...a castle, and four granaries."

"Castle," Angel said.

"Which granary is closest?" Queen said at the same time. They stopped and looked at each other. "I want more information," Queen said in a level voice. "Sure, he's twisted, but is he actually dangerous?"

Angel looked fit to spit nails. "Queen! Look at what he's making them stand in!"

"Which only tells me he's an elitist." Queen countered. "A lot of people in history thought of their workers as lesser people. I need something. . . something concrete."

Joker finally snapped. "We're not here to do any heart-stealing today regardless." Both Angel and Queen looked at her, shocked. "Even if he were. . . I dunno, doing medical experiments on their eyes while dancing around in a onesie and cackling about blood pain murder blood pain death we literally couldn't take the Treasure, Angel. This was always a scouting mission. On the other hand, Queen, you're deliberately avoiding the issue by not wanting to go to the place most likely to have more information. We're going to the castle because it's our best bet, unless we hear something that tells us otherwise on the way."

Joker checked her phone as they slogged through the brush. Forty minutes. With the powers of the Phantom Thieves, they were making good time, or so it looked.

Then she glanced at the horizon again. In irritation, she pulled her dagger and quickly slashed a crude symbol for 'leg' into the bark of a tree. Skull gave her an odd look. "Testing a theory. Not sure it'll do any good. Keep going."

After another thirty subjective minutes, they hadn't passed the mark again. But the landscape hadn't changed either. Nor had the smell. "Morgana, can you sense anything?"

Morgana sighed. "Yeah, I don't think we're getting anywhere. We're going to have to use the paths."

Joker groaned. "Dammit, the smell's not so bad out here." She glanced out. Seeing no guards, she stepped out onto the dirt round surrounding the farms. Everyone followed as she swallowed to avoid throwing up. "Ugh...we've got to find some way to deal with this."

"Joker, don't you think you're exaggera-ulp!" Angel started to say, before the odor finally reached her nose. "This is disgusting!"

Queen sighed. "You're both being children."

"I grew up near farm country, Queen," Joker countered. "This isn't natural." Queen looked like she was about to protest, despite turning a little green herself, when Joker's phone rang.

Skull, who wasn't looking as bad as the girls but still wasn't great, frowned. "Wait, thought our phones didn't work here."

"They don't," Joker said. "...I'm gonna answer." Trying not to breathe, she pushed the button. "Greetings," she said, trying to drop her voice to Ren's pitch while holding her breath, which just resulted in a high wheeze.

A female voice with an incredibly thick Osakan accent answered back. "Hey, ya picked up! Yeah, managed to hack your phone, or. . . well, somethin' like that. It's a little hard ta explain and I'm not sure how it worked myself."

Joker froze, the miasma of the holding suddenly forgotten. "Who is this?"

"I ain't no one ya heard of," the voice responded. "And I didn't hack yer phone, exactly. More like I sent a message with my Persona, and your phone picked it up."

Joker looked around. Queen and Shiho both nodded. Joker returned the gesture. "Okay. Why?"

"I got a message for ya," The woman said. "Problem is...uhm...I'm kinda in the warehouse, and I can't get out. Ya can make a portal ta the real world from where you are?"

"Not a portal," Joker said. "But I can grab you and pull you through. Can you lead me to the spot that corresponds to where you're being held?"

The woman paused for a very long time. "Ah...I think so. Lemmie try this." A moment later, the Meta Nav lit up with a new way marker. "There, ya get that?"

"...got it," Joker said. "Okay team, this just shifted from Recon to Rescue."

Unfortunately, the Thieves quickly discovered that what had looked like a neat farm grid from the edge quickly turned into a series of paths cut at random between the rice paddies, with clean water being carried by irrigation ducts occasionally cutting across the path. The air seemed to clear, briefly, as they approached these.

And then there was the problem they hadn't counted on. The heat. It was only April, but the sun beat down relentlessly, heating the stinking field to levels generally not seen outside of the world's worst deserts, at least in nature.

Angel grimaced. "If this is the warehouse, it's like they don't even run the air conditioner."

Queen raised an eyebrow. "That can't be true." Angel looked like she was about to snap. "No, I don't mean - Angel!" Angel had stepped up into Queen's personal space, and looked like she was about to go for her spear. "Angel! This is what he wants to do! He has to run the AC, and he can't just turn it on full blast either, because it would destroy the artwork."

Angel stepped back with a sigh, visibly releasing her anger. "That's true in the old warehouse, Queen. This is the new one they're building. Did you read the article?"

"...no." Queen shook her head. "Right, individual climate control chambers so the merchandise, so the workers can suffer?" Angel nodded. "Fine. I'm not saying 'yes' just yet, but let's see what this mysterious woman has to say."

Rei put her hand up to her mask, trying to pinch the bridge of her nose through the hard material. "Will you two knock it off? We all get it, but right now someone needs our help, not your disagreement!" By the end she was shouting, and even the workers had stopped to stare at the group. "Aheheh…." She turned to go like nothing had happened, only to see Panther leaning over one of the clean water channels. "Panther!" Her tone turned from annoyed to terrified. "What are you doing?"

"What?" Panther asked. "I'm thirsty! This outfit doesn't exactly breathe, like, at all."

"HALT!" The voice of one of the samurai called out across the fields. "Who said you could take a break?"

Joker cursed. "Scatter!"

"Are you crazy? Scatter where, into that stuff? I don't wanna touch it!" Skull shouted back, pulling out his shotgun.

Joker groaned. "Go for the mask!" she amended. Then the Shadow was on top of them.

The Shadow's blade slashed with speed that told Joker that someone in their group had watched far too many period dramas, and likely anime. She had to scramble backwards to stay clear, hoping that the others were doing likewise. I am the Phantom Thief Joker, I have a lighter weapon and greater skill than any Shadow. She told herself. My speed is that of the night itself. This oaf can't match me. She finally whipped out her dagger between the Shadow's strikes, and managed to lock blades with it. She didn't say anything else, just slipped in and kicked off the mask with a single arching motion over her head.

The Shadow dissolved…but instead of a single creature it became an entire horde of little hands, or possibly animated gauntlets, that split into separate swarms quickly and surrounded them. Morgana summoned Zorro instantly, trying to blow them all away at once, but to little effect. "CARMEN!" Panther's dance partner spun about one of the piles, and fire appeared. While it scorched the swarm of Shadows, a few sparks found their way into the pool of alleged water next to them, and it immediately lit up.

Joker was about to call out a retreat, when her lungs seized up. She fell to her knees, hacking and coughing at the noxious fumes. The screams from the workers pounded on her ears like actual hammers, and she fell to her knees, along with the other Thieves. Rei felt her mask start to dissipate, unable to breathe. A voice came from her phone. "Hey, hey?! Ya out there?" Rei tried to gasp out something, anything, but every time she tried to breathe she coughed and nearly threw up at the same time. Her lungs and stomach were burning. "Oh, this is gonna be a problem."

For several seconds, nothing else happened. Then the mysterious voice called out from the phone again. "ARIADNE!" A tall, robotic Persona flashed up out of the phone's screen. It had extremely long blue hair, and silver skin in the shape of a woman with an hourglass figure, obviously made from metal plates and covered in vents. It looked around, gestured, and a number of thick ropes shot through the fog. Rei barely managed to grab onto her phone tightly as she was yanked clear, flying over several paddies and deep into the maze.

Air returned, and with it Joker's mask and outfit. She coughed several more times. "Ev...everyone okay?" Everyone made groaning noises, and Joker concluded they probably were. She turned her attention to the phone. "Th..thanks."

"No problem," the woman on the other end said worriedly. "That set off alarms over on the real side. Had ta call up Ariadne and send her through."

"For real? You've got a Persona?" Skull's eyes were wide.

"Yep. Long story." There was another pause. "That got ya real close, but we're gonna have ta get outta this place another way."

Joker forced herself to her feet. "Let's go."

Joker's jaw dropped as she turned the last corner and noticed a small fortress. Literally, it was about twenty meters high, but basically consisted only of a single tower. "...okay, so we basically can't see anything on the field itself from far away. Super." She glanced left and right, but the guards were apparently still responding to the fire. They stepped inside...and the world shifted to a normal warehouse room, with boxes stacked up neatly all around them.

Skull's jaw dropped. "Wait a sec, ain't this the new warehouse, the one he ain't built yet?"

Morgana groaned. "Palaces don't have to be that straightforward. I'm guessing this one's both, somehow." He closed his eyes. "Okay, good news is that the distortions are almost gone in here. Shadows don't see the inside of this place at all, so they can't come in.

Joker promptly shut the door, and the smell shifted from hideous to merely stale. Then she went through her pouches, until she found what she was looking for. "Panther?" Some lit incense later, and the place was almost bearable. "Good." She checked the Meta Nav. They were right on top of it. "Oh, good, this is the place…." She paused. "Lady, we can see into the real world from here. I don't see you."

"Ya need ta come through," came the reply. "Sorry, you're just gonna have to trust me."

Panther glanced around the room nervously. "Joker, this doesn't seem right."

Angel nodded. "Yeah. Even I don't think Keino's this kind of monster."

Skull smacked his fist into his hand. "I'll go. Joker, ya can't risk yourself like this for a stranger."

"Why not?" Joker said in an almost resigned voice. "That said, there will be cameras. I need to change." She thought for a few seconds. "Uhm...there's not enough boxes for me to change behind," she said, her cheeks coloring noticeably. Angel rolled her eyes. "I'm sensitive about it, okay?"

Panther put a hand on Angel's shoulder. "Shiho, don't push on this one. Okay?"

Morgana grinned and suddenly Zorro was kneeling next to some boxes, providing an additional privacy screen. Joker smiled gratefully at him and stepped behind. Then she concentrated, and was Rei again. She quickly wiped all the makeup off her face, then pulled out a pair of long jeans, a T-shirt, and her binder. It wasn't bandages now, but a proper sports-bra like affair in flesh tones that very specifically did not match her flesh. Rei gritted her teeth, pulled off her top and proper bra, and put the offending article on on, then pulled on the shirt over it. She followed it up, after several deep breaths, with the pants. Finally, she grabbed the bandana from the 'Desperado' escapade and put it on, before adding her glasses.

Angel gave 'Ren' a look as she stepped out. "Jeez, you act like that's physically painful."

"It is." Rei said. "I can't wait to be back in my Phantom Thief outfit."

Queen frowned. "Joker, if you get caught…"

"...I get caught." Joker said. She took a deep breath, reached into her pouch for a bandanna to put over her head...and returned to the real world.

The warehouse was, indeed, warm, but as Makoto had predicted there was a distant rattle of an ancient climate control system. The overhead fluorescent lamps should have lit everything brightly, but only one in four was turned on. In the gloom, Rei could barely make out that the upper shelves were simply rack after rack of hooks. Sitting in each one was a canvas-covered object, leaning against rusty iron poles. The ground floor had larger boxes, each with a prominent lot number painted on the outside.

"Great," The woman said. "Break open lot 82669345."

Rei's jaw dropped. "What?!"

"There's a crowbar right over there!" Rei felt her heart nearly stop as it fully hit her what she was about to do. She grabbed the implement and opened the large box. Packing peanuts spilled out onto the floor, and then, Rei realized, so did a number of other things. Limbs, or rather parts of limbs, that had been torn completely apart at each digit. Several irregular-shaped lumps followed, larger, rounded all around. She mentally started arranging the pieces and realized they made up a girl. She almost screamed before the second incongruous thing hit her. There was no blood. Wires, metal, and a faint smell of plastic, but that was all. "C'mon, hurry up!"

"..." Rei tried to get it together. ". . . were you in the box?"

"Yeah, I'm in the box!" The robot shouted at her. "I'll be able ta see ya when you get it open." A head with blue hair and empty glass eyes rolled past Rei's foot.

"...we have a problem."