After their experience in Kamoshida's Castle and learning about Personas and the Metaverse more in depth, as well as joining the Phantom Thieves, Mash and Ritsuka prepare for their next mission with their friends, all while Tachibana starts acting erratically.


"So, what shall we do after we go back there? Did you guys have anything planned?" - Ritsuka asked, sitting on the roof of Shujin alongside Mash, Tachibana and the Phantom Thieves.

"Well, yesterday we planned to start searching for the route to the Treasure, but yours and Mash's awakenings put a dent on that plan, so I think we'll be doing that today" - Ren said - "Is everyone alright with that?" -

"Sure thing man, we gotta do this before he kicks us out" - Ryuji said as he got up from his seat.

"Very well then. Everyone, prepare to travel to the Palace!" - Morgana said, trying to act like a leader to all of them.

"Wait, before we go, what do with Tachibana Senpai?" - Mash asked, looking at the orange-haired girl.

She, unlike Ritsuka and Mash, didn't awoke a Persona, so she was pretty much defenseless inside the Palace.

"I'll join you, I know I can be of help inside" - she said, determined to go with them.

"Sis, please..." - Ritsuka said, hoping to convince her to stay outside.

"No! I'm going, and that's final, and if any of you try to stop me I'll fight" - Tachibana made her mind, and wasn't going to allow anyone to say no.

"..." - no one knew what to say.

"Fine then, but you won't fight, and you will stay behind us to avoid getting hurt" - Morgana said.

"I'll protect her, girl's gotta watch our backs" - Ann said as she playfully punched Tachibana in the stomach.

With that, Ren activated the Navi and all of them got transported to the entrance of Kamoshida's Castle.

"Wait, before we go in, we need a codename for the new ones" - Skull reminded them.

"Oh yeah" - Panther turned and looked at their costumes - "Anyone has any ideas?" -

Looking at Ritsuka's suit, Ryuji was slightly reminded of someone from royalty, so he said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Ruler!" -

"Ruler... It has a nice ring to it" - Ritsuka said smiling - "Fine then, Ruler it is" -

"And what about Mash?" - Mona asked.

"Pretty obvious, she looks like a knight" - Panther said.

"Shielder" - Mash said out of the blue.

"What?" - Joker said, confused.

"Why that? Knight sounds so much better" - Skull said, confused as well.

"I can't explain why, but I feel like 'Shielder' is somewhat important to me, like a memory that refuses to fade away" - the girl said while smiling a bit.

"Well then, Shielder it is" - Panther spoke, still a bit weirded out by the name.

"Ruler and Shielder... I like that" - Ritsuka, codename Ruler, smiled at his partners.

"Now come on, we have a lot of ground to cover today" - Mona took the group to their safe passage and entered the Palace.

Ruler and Shielder took a moment to look at the castle's decoration, including a, rather unsettling, painting about Kamoshida in the middle of the room in between two stairs.

"That man is so full of himself" - Tachiabana said.

"Definitely, I can't wait to change his rotten heart" - Panther agreed with her.

The Thieves arrived at a safe room previously secured by Skull, Joker and Mona during their visit to save Panther.

"Ruler, Shielder, listen up: These places are called Safe Rooms, where the cognition of the Palace is weaker, we can rest in these areas" - Mona explained to the two.

"Got it, let's go and change his heart!" - Shielder screamed at the top of her lungs.

"I love that emotion, let's go!" -

The Thieves exited the Safe Room and started to make their way towards a kitchen where one of the guards was searching for intruders.

"Do we engage or sneak past it?" - Joker asked.

"Under normal circumstances, I'd say engage, but with Tachibana here, we can't risk it, let's sneak pass" - Mona told everyone, which made Tachibana a bit angry.

She could defend herself and was a better fighter than her brother, and yet she was being treated as a liability.

As the Thieves successfully made their way past the guard, ending up in a hallway where they were accidently spotted by a Shadow, who immediately attacked the group, transforming into 5 small fairies.

"Dammit! Everyone, let's push them back!" - Mona said as he summoned his Persona.

The rest did the same and the fight started.

The Thieves had no problem in dealing with the regular Shadows, but in the middle of the fight, one of the enemies used Zio against Tachibana, which the girl managed to dodge by the skin of her teeth.

"Holy shit, bastard!" - she yelled at the enemy, jumping directly at it and smashing the Shadow into the ground.

"Senpai, wait!" - Shielder screamed, but to no avail.

She grabbed the Shadow and started to punch it over and over again, which was a bit scary to the rest of them, as she only got up when all that was left from the foe was its remains.

"That's that, shall we move on?" - she said, as the others looked at her in fear.

As they continued to make their way through the castle, they spotted a second Safe Room and decided to take a rest for a few minutes, as well as allow Tachibana to clean herself as she was stained with 'blood' from the Shadow.

"I'm surprised she managed to do that, your sister is spectacular, Ruler" - Mona complimented his teammate.

"And scary, don't forget scary" - Skull added.

"Don't tell her that to her face" - Shielder interjected.

"Y'know? Maybe I don't need a Persona if I can just pummel the Shadows into submission, I mean, look at these bad boys" - Tachiaba said as she jokingly flexed her muscles.

"You got lucky that the Shadows that attacked us were weak, but if they were stronger, your move would've gotten you hurt" - Mona stated.

Tachibana looked down for a second.

"That's enough, we still have a lot of ground to cover up, let's go" - Joker said.