"AKANE!"

Zenkichi instantly switched to Thief gear and sprinted for the source of the explosion.

"Wolf!" Joker shouted. He motioned to the other Thieves to follow, and they all sprinted after him.

A hole had been blasted in the side of the building's concrete foundations, and within, the Thieves heard the sounds of screaming and flashes of more blue flames. Zenkichi was first to reach the hole, the rest of the Thieves right behind him. Standing within the dust-filled and ruined interrogation room was a short figure in a black hat and coat, flanked by a large, ethereal woman in a simple, old, western-style dress surrounded by blue flames.

Zenkichi's eyes widened as it hit him. "Akane…?" His daughter was wearing a similar outfit to what her Shadow had worn when she had been made a monarch of Kyoto Jail.

Akane spun to face them, and immediately her look of vengeful determination vanished, instead morphing into a smile. "Dad!" she cried aloud, her Persona evaporating and forming a white-rimmed black mask on her face as she clambered out of the hole into her father's arms. Zenkichi immediately knew that his daughter was alright when she threw her arms around him and held on for dear life.

"Whoa there!" Zenkichi laughed as he hugged his daughter back. "We were coming here to rescue you, but it looks like you rescued yourself."

"Look sharp everyone," Joker suddenly barked. "It's not over yet!"

As the dust cleared and Akane released Zenkichi so she could look back at the havoc she'd wreaked, a single figure was visible still crouched on one knee with their arms crossed in front of their head. A barrier seemed to be protecting him.

Akane's eyes widened. "Muraoka…? How-?"

A mad chuckle emanated from the destroyed room. Detective Muraoka rose to his feet and uncrossed his arms. He held up one clenched fist. Contained within it was a hint of gold.

Oracle sucked in a breath. "A Vane of Order!?"

Muraoka's laugh reached its peak volume. "Finally! With this power, I can crush the Phantom Thieves and restore the old order to Japan! I'll start with freeing Owada from jail, then we'll go on to rebuild the empire of Masayoshi Shido! Japan will be restored to its proper order!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Is this guy serious?"

"Ugh, so lame."

"He does not appear to be in his right mind…"

"I guess that's what it looks like when an evil Metaverse battery takes control of someone."

"HOW DARE YOU MOCK ME!" Muraoka screamed, launching himself fists first at the group. Zenkichi snatched him out of the air by the lapels and tossed him aside towards the front of the building. Muraoka skidded across the grass almost all the way to the Monabus before he ran out of momentum.

Wolf turned back to the rest of the group. "Would now be a good time to teach Akane the ins and outs of Persona combat?"

"Go for it," Oracle told him. "That guy's a total weakling anyway."

A wide grin split Akane's face as she reached behind her with both hands and unsheathed a pair of short swords with straight blades and single edges. Ninjaken. "I'm so going to enjoy this!"

"DON'T F*** WITH MEE!" Muraoka screamed. The ground under him erupted in blood red and inky black as Shadow Matter engulfed his form. A few seconds later, the former detective had morphed into a grinning golden lion, seven feet high at the shoulder. Roaring, the giant Shiisaa spat forward, casting a ball of blue nuclear energy at the father/daughter pair. The two split up and dodged, allowing Queen to step forward and block the blast before it could do any damage.

"Lesson one, Akane," Wolf called out, blocking the Shiisaa's claw swipe with his zweihander, "Most Greater Shadows have elements and attacks that they are strong against and those that they are weak against. The same is true for Persona-users." Akane slashed her blades at the Shadow's flanks, cutting into its hide, but doing little damage. Zenkichi heaved the monster off him, knocking it off-balance. "This Shiisaa, for example, is resistant to physical attacks."

Akane rejoined her father's side. "So should I go for a magic attack?"

"Just be ready to dodge if you don't knock it down."

Akane sheathed her swords, then reached up and removed her mask with a flourish. "Eiha!" Cosette raised her hand and cast a burst of dark purple energy at the shadow, which erupted in the Shadow's face. The Shiisaa screamed and collapsed on the ground.

"Well done!" Zenkichi praised her. "It must be weak to curse magic!" The Shiisaa began to try to get back on its feet, but the duo rushed in, flanking it on either side. Both of them leveled dual revolvers at the monster, causing it to freeze in fear. "Now!" Wolf cried, "All-Out Attack!" Both of them vaulted back a pace before leaping into the air with their weapons drawn. The world seemed to blur around the father and daughter as they pummeled the Shiisaa from every direction at once before returning to the ground in front of the Phantom Thieves. Wolf stabbed his zweihander into the ground and struck a crossed-arms pose while Akane took a knee, backhandedly sheathed one of her ninjaken behind her, and swiped the dust off the brim of her hat with her other hand. The Shiisaa dissolved into ink behind them.

"Hunt completed," Wolf toned.

"Fear the wrath of the Phantom Thieves!" Akane cried aloud.

The Phantom Thieves clapped and whooped at the display. Detective Muraoka groaned on the ground. Zenkichi walked over and pried the golden Vane of Order from his grip before returning to the other Phantom Thieves.

"I don't know what this thing is, but I'm guessing it's safer in your hands than anyone else's?" he told them, holding it out.

Joker gingerly received the feather from Zenkichi. "It's called a Vane of Order. A fragment of the evil god we defeated the first time we ended our run as the Phantom Thieves, back at the end of 2016. We don't know a lot about them just yet, but we found a new Wild Card last night who picked one up and awakened to his own Persona when it drove itself right through his hand. Nasty stuff."

Akane shuddered. "Is there a chance it'll make any of us go crazy like Muraoka?"

"They're not strong enough to affect full-fledged Persona-users against their will," Joker assured her, placing the relic in his coat. "We should be fine. The problem is, most anyone else probably wouldn't be. I dread to think what could have happened if someone worse than this Muraoka fellow got their hands on one."

"Still, it's a relief that there's somewhere safe to keep them," Wolf sighed, turning to his daughter once more. Again, he couldn't help but note the similarity to her Shadow's outfit, though now he could pick out the differences. Akane's Shadow had worn a plaid red and black skirt, a red V-neck crop top, red fingerless gloves, black tights with red sneakers, an almost capelike black coat, and a large top hat that seemed to barely fit her. Akane's skirt was solid red, the same color as her crop top, though the latter had a much higher collar than her Shadow's. The sneakers and gloves had been replaced with black boots and steel-plated fingerless gauntlets over deep red gloves. Her tights now completely covered her thighs, and while the coat was largely the same save for the sleeves fitting snugly around her arms and shoulders, the hat she wore was smaller and had a crease down the front and a point at the front of the brim, similar to Wolf's own hat. The black domino mask worn by her Shadow had been replaced entirely, Akane's mask having downward points and silver lining, again similar to Wolf's mask.

Akane noticed her father's inspection and rolled her arms and shoulders and tapped her feet, getting a feel for her new outfit. Her mouth split into a wide grin as she spun about, flashing out a sword and pointing it off into the distance.

"Liking your new outfit?" Wolf asked.

"It's awesome!" Akane gushed, spinning back around and sheathing the sword behind her hip under her coat. "So this is what my image of a rebel looks like?"

"I can't get over how similar it looks to her Shadow's outfit though," Skull remarked.

Ann objected, "Well, it makes sense considering her Shadow was based on her view of the Phantom Thieves and that her spirit of rebellion is similar to that."

"Indeed," Fox continued, framing the younger girl with his fingers. "Although her Shadow's attire always struck me as incomplete, as though it had been cobbled together. The touches with her boots, gloves, hat, and mask go a long way to making her seem like a true Phantom Thief."

"That and the fact that she has a Persona now!" Noir cheered. "You did an amazing job, Akane-chan!"

Akane blushed a little. "Wow, that...that really means a lot coming from you guys. I mean, you're my heroes! And…" Akane didn't get to finish before letting out a long breath and collapsing to her hands and knees out of exhaustion.

"Akane!"

"Akane-chan!"

The Thieves all rushed forward, but naturally Wolf was there first to pick up his daughter in his arms. There was a flash of blue fire and Akane was back in her school uniform. "W-why am I so tired?" she murmured.

"Just take it easy for now," Queen told her. "Everyone goes through a period of exhaustion after awakening for the first time. Your dad will get you home, then when you wake up, you'll be feeling like you can take on anything."

Zenkichi let his own Phantom Thief outfit fade. "Actually, could you all please bring her home? I need to finish things up here and take care of Muraoka and the other perps. You're welcome to anything in the kitchen that you need to make dinner."

"Sure thing, Zenkichi," Violet replied gratefully. "I'd honestly forgotten that we drove five hours here without stopping to eat lunch."

"We'll clean up your house a little too, while we're at it," Noir offered.

"And Joker's making curry! Right, Joker?" Oracle pressed.

"Yes, I'm making curry," Joker relented, helping Zenkichi with getting Akane into the back of the Monabus.

It barely took any time at all for the gang to get back to the Hasegawas' place and get Akane in bed so she could sleep off her awakening exhaustion. Morgana offered to stay with her until she woke up, so the rest of the Thieves went back downstairs to clean up and make food. Ryuji and Makoto together manhandled the furniture back into place while Haru used her psychokinesis to clean up broken bits of glass and ceramic. Ann and Sumire swept and dusted, Yusuke sketched, and Futaba coached.

"Put your back into it, Ryuji!" Futaba called out as he and Makoto worked to put the table back into an upright position.

Ryuji grunted with exertion. "Don't distract me! I don't wanna drop this thing on my foot!"

"Futaba, if you're not going to help out here, then go help Ren in the kitchen," Makoto told the orange-haired hacker.

"But Ren already kicked me out of the kitchen," Futaba whined. "You saw!"

Ren called over his shoulder, "I'll let you back in, Bug, on the condition of no sampling."

Futaba stamped her foot and pouted. "Meanie."

Akane began to stir as a warm, savory scent began to waft up from downstairs. Her arm twitched as her eyes fluttered open. Something furry was lying on her bed next to her. Akane turned her head and looked right into the sky-blue gaze of a yellow-collared black cat.

Akane smiled, sat up, and reached over to pet the cat behind the ears, to which it purred contentedly. "Dad told me about you," she said to it. "Morgana, right? The not-a-cat who's guided the Phantom Thieves since the very beginning?"

Morgana shook his head to make her withdraw her hand, meowed in a confirmatory sort of tone, and was then engulfed in a flash of blue fire. Morgana shifted into a more anthropomorphic shape, big-headed, bipedal, and wearing a utility belt and yellow neckerchief. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Akane," the not-cat said with a bow.

Akane giggled. "You really can talk! Man, must be so useful to the Phantom Thieves to have a member that can turn into a cat."

"And a van," Morgana added. "I handle the Thieves' long-range transportation."

"Wow! Can you turn into a human too?"

"Well…" Morgana looked downcast.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot. You still want to become human, don't you?"

"Yeah. I'm not at that level yet," Morgana admitted sadly. Then he brightened again. "But, at least while the Metaverse is combined with the real world, it should be easier for me to figure out how to become human, what with me being able to transform while I'm in the Metaverse and all. Now come on, let's get some food before the others eat it all."

Akane's stomach growled obnoxiously. "Yeah, I don't think I've eaten anything since I was kidnapped last night."

"Well," Morgana told her, shifting back into cat form, "that's about to be rectified!" Morgana scampered over to the door, jumped on the handle to open it, and pelted down the stairs. "Hey guys! Akane's up!"

"Right on time!" Ren's voice echoed up from the bottom floor as Akane descended the stairs. The scent of curry in the air was almost overpowering. Akane's stomach growled harder, much to the amusement of the older teens in the kitchen and living room. "I just finished putting all the curry ingredients together," Ren continued. "Go ahead and serve yourself. Seems like you really need it."

"No fair!" Futaba whined. "I've been under torture smelling it cooking all this time, but then she wakes up right when it's finished and gets the first helping?"

"She just got kidnapped, awakened to a Persona, and defeated her first Shadow," Ren countered. "Even if that weren't the case, you still wouldn't be going first. Or did you forget that you sampled half the ingredients before they went in the pot?"

Futaba pouted as Akane served herself and extra-large portion of rice. "Spoilsport."

Zenkichi walked in right as the gang was finishing dinner. "Hey, everyone. I hope you left some food for me."

Ren waved a hand at the kitchen. "There's plenty left. Go nuts."

"Much appreciated," Zenkichi thanked him and went to put down his briefcase and pick up a plate.

"We were just getting done telling Akane-chan about all the ins and outs of being a Phantom Thief," Ann told him.

"So what do you think, Akane?" Zenkichi asked as he began to pile curry on his plate.

Akane grinned past her last mouthful of curry before swallowing. "I haven't felt so free since before Mom died, if ever."

"That comes with the territory," Sumire told her. "It's as though, now that you've awakened, you can see yourself more clearly and be proud of who you are, isn't it?"

"Exactly!" Akane crowed. "Honestly, it's going to be a struggle to keep myself from changing into my Thief costume all the time."

"Please do make an effort to contain yourself," Yusuke warned. "You are able to use some of your Persona's powers even without your Persona or Thief attire, and sometimes it can burst out when you are excessively excited or distressed." He tapped his glass of water as an example, and its contents immediately froze.

"Your Persona's element is curse," Ren informed her. "Just like my original Persona, Arsene, and his evolved form, Raoul. Without using your Persona, you will be able to summon bolts of disintegrating curse energy and shrouds of darkness." For his own example, he wadded up his used napkin, tossed it in the air, and disintegrated it with a tiny bullet of curse energy, summoned at a snap of his fingers. "Cool perhaps, but also incredibly dangerous. So be careful."

Akane's expression was deadly serious as she nodded. "I understand."

"So what are we doing next, Zenkichi-san?" Makoto asked.

Zenkichi took a seat next to his daughter, across from Ren. "We were able to find all of Muraoka's accomplices with little difficulty. Muraoka himself won't be getting off lightly either, though he seems very confused as to what happened after he found that order feather thingy a couple days ago."

"It's called a Vane of Order, Zenkichi," Ren corrected him. "But go on."

Zenkichi continued, "I tried to leave out as much as I could about the whole situation. The Vane of Order and Akane's awakening especially. Considering the latter though, I don't have much confidence that it's going to stay secret for long. There's also the problem of Akane being a target because of my affiliation to the Phantom Thieves. As such, I have requested Commissioner Kaburagi to have me transferred back to Tokyo Prefecture."

"We're moving back to Tokyo?" Akane asked.

"Better now than any other time," Zenkichi said. "The semester just ended, right? If we wanted to transfer you to a new school in Tokyo, now would be the time. And in Tokyo, not only will it be easier to train you to use your Persona, I'd also have more time to spend with you at home because I wouldn't have to drive as far for work. What do you say?"

"Let's do it," Akane said without hesitation. "It'll be a little sad to say goodbye to Mom and all my friends, but now that I have Cosette, I have a duty to learn to use and control her power. And if we can do that better in Tokyo than here, let's do it."

Monday morning two days later, the Phantom Thieves plus Akane were all in the attic of Leblanc preparing to enter their new hideout. The Kirijo Group had really come through with the secret door, restoring the wall of the attic so you couldn't even tell that it had been taken out and a door installed.

Ren walked up to the bare wall and pushed. The wall slid back and out of the way, allowing the Phantom Thieves to access the next door building.

"Daaamn, that's cool," Ryuji said.

The inside of the building was bare, dark, and in need of a little maintenance, but it had a total of four floors of rooms of varying sizes, constructed of old hardwood and concrete. The Phantom Thieves began to explore, already planning out what they would be doing with each space.

"This room will be perfect for my computer stuff!" Futaba exclaimed from one of the bottom floor rooms.

"I wonder what we're supposed to do with a lobby if we're going to be entering from Leblanc's attic," Yusuke remarked.

"We're going to have to clean out the entire building before we start moving anything in," Makoto noted practically, drawing a line in the dust on a counter.

"I wonder how much furniture we're going to have to haul up through Leblanc to make this place liveable?" Ann mused.

"Any ideas what we want to do with this big room where the secret entrance is?" Ryuji asked.

"Regardless, you can count on me to provide funding for all the furniture and equipment we're going to need," Haru assured everyone.

"Are we actually going to be living here?" Akane asked.

"Probably not," Zenkichi answered, "considering I've already got a new apartment set up."

"Hey guys!" Morgana called from the stairs. "The stairs have rooftop access!"

The Phantom Thieves climbed to the roof of their new hideout and looked out over the city of Tokyo.

A grin split Ren's face. "It's absolutely perfect."

A flash of blue later, and he was in his Phantom Thief attire. Behind him, his team followed suit, one by one shifting into their own costumes. Akane stepped up to Joker's side in her own Thief attire. "So is this the part where I get a codename?"

"You already have something in mind?" Joker asked.

Akane nodded. She posed dramatically, placing two fingers on the brim of her hat, her other hand on one of her swords. "From now on, as a member of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, you may know me as...Raven."

Joker's stark white grin split his face. "Nice choice," he complimented her.

"That fits so well!" Violet cheered.

"Welcome to the Phantom Thieves, Raven!" Skull congratulated her.

"So," Joker interrupted their cheers of welcome, "Raven. Practical Lesson number one. As you know, as Phantom Thieves, we have greater strength and speed than normal people. However, this sort of thing takes a while to get used to. So, for the next several minutes, you will be getting used to your enhanced physical capabilities until you can jump across the street to that roof over there. Like this."

And he demonstrated with an elegant flip off the edge.