If there was one thing I hadn't expected when my mom finally let me walk downtown again, it was being stopped by a former Velvet Room attendant outside a bookstore.

"Why, hello there," she had suddenly said to me, suddenly popping up out of the blue. I flinched and spun around at her sudden appearance. Her silver hair, blue outfit, and golden eyes were all very distinctive, and I'd seen that sort of pattern before…

"Normally I'd note that it's usually not very easy to sneak up on me, but now that I realize you're from the Velvet Room, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."

"Oh, the Velvet Room?" she queried. "Not I. After all, it has been quite a while since I left."

"Left?" I asked, casting my thoughts back to that night. "Ah, then you must be Elizabeth, correct?"

"Indeed," Elizabeth answered. "And since you know of my former home, I assume you must also bear the power of the Wild Card? Tell me, which of my sisters is your attendant?"

I struggled to remember her name. "Ah...I think it was Saraiah?"

Elizabeth giggled. "Oh, Saraiah. You're going to have quite a bit of fun with her. She can get up to a fair bit of mischief, you know."

"I gathered that much," I remarked. I neglected to mention that Elizabeth seemed just as mischievous. "So, Elizabeth, what brings you here?"

"Oh, I was simply hoping to peruse a nearby collection of grimoires on all manner of ancient civilisations, bird varieties, and different strains of European pastas, but I noticed a strange aura about you, and wondered what it was."

I frowned and reached down to pull the fingerless glove off my right hand. "Could this be what you were sensing?" I held up the hand, the golden Vane of Order still embedded in my skin.

Elizabeth scowled. "A fragment of my master's bane! You dare to leech off of this boy?" She paused as if the Vane was answering her. "How dare you! If you weren't tied to his soul, I would rip you out and cast you straight back into the Sea of Souls!" She leaned over to poke a finger at the gold feather, but it sparked and repelled her hand. A flash of pain shot through my hand, and I retracted it reflexively, grimacing.

Elizabeth continued to stare at it. "How very curious. The nature of this bond...can I use this...but the soul's desires...can it work?"

"What are you doing?" I asked nervously.

Elizabeth shot back to an upright stance and flashed me an innocent smile. "Oh, don't mind me. Did you know that birds' feathers used to be scales that changed to be long and hairlike?"

"I wouldn't be much of a dinosaur fan if I didn't know that," I told her.

"The evolution of feathers is quite a fascinating topic, yes. Do you think that birds enjoy pasta as well?"

"Okay, that was random."

"It's not random. I'm hungry."

"I didn't know that until you said it, but fair point." I changed the subject before she could leave. "Miss Elizabeth, why didn't you stay in the Velvet Room?"

Elizabeth momentarily turned to address me again. "Sometimes, you have to know when to give up hope."

"What's that supposed to mean? You could have been attendant to Aigis now that she inherited your guest's power from what I've been told."

"Exactly." Elizabeth walked away.

I shook my head in confusion, replacing the glove on my hand to hide the Vane of Order. I couldn't help but wonder what kind of person her guest had been to have such a whimsical, loopy attendant.

Rise loved this song. Her fans adored it as well, judging by how loud they were cheering. Ever since she'd returned to the showbiz after awakening to her Persona, she'd gradually begun to feel lighter, happier, like a mask had melted away and left behind her true self. That came with the territory when it came to accepting one's Shadow. And ever since that year, she'd put everything she had and everything she was into her work as an idol. And now that she wasn't just playing a part that had been decided for her, she could display her true self in all its glory. Her fame and popularity skyrocketed, especially after Sapphire was released. She'd poured her heart and soul into every note and every word of that album.

Rise spun with the microphone as she danced, her skirt flaring dramatically as she gesticulated with her free hand. Ever since the Metaverse had merged with the real world, she'd felt Kouzeon clearly within her, lending her strength, giving her courage. And even more so now than ever before, with every dance step, she felt the embrace of her lover.

Yu-senpai, darling, she thought at a break in the lyrics, This is for you! And she launched into the bridge, dancing her way towards the home stretch of the song's performance.

But then, right before the final chorus, the cheers were replaced by screams. Dark figures had suddenly appeared at one of the side entrances to the stage, barging in and almost breaking the doors down. There was a gurgle as the largest one shuddered and dissolved, splitting into a trio of smaller, but no less powerful monsters. Scared fans scrambled to get away from the Shadows, prompting them to cry aloud and advance on the retreating fans.

"Oh, do we have some uninvited visitors?" Rise's voice suddenly interrupted with a slight giggle. "Allow me to take care of them! Persona!"

Rather than the Shadows, every eye was now drawn to the stage as Risette smote the air in front of her and blue fire erupted around her. A figure of a six-armed goddess in a white dress, several silver satellites swirling around her emerged just behind the young idol, adopting a combative stance.

"Sing, Kouzeon!"

The silver satellites spun faster as they began to open up one by one, revealing tiny blaster cannons that began to open fire on the Shadows, seemingly from every direction at once. Five lesser Shadows disintegrated before the remainder recognized her as the primary threat and moved in to attack the stage. Risette pointed their way, and Kouzeon sang, releasing a sonic wave that slammed into the three Greaters and pushed them back, stunning the lesser Shadows behind them and making them easy targets for Kouzeon's satellite blasts.

Rise smiled. The combat form for Kouzeon she'd learned during the events of the P-1 Grand Prix was paying off.

The first Greater Shadow reached her as Rise laid her hand on the microphone stand. The Onmoraki demon lunged and spit fire, and Rise twirled around the stand, dodging elegantly out of the way and striking back with a roundhouse kick, sending the demon stumbling back. The other two, a Cait Sith and an Obariyon, moved to attack as well, but Rise was already in their faces. Her attacks weren't as strong as her friends', but she had learned more than a few tricks since the Outbreak.

Two of Kouzeon's satellites spun into her hands as she tossed the microphone in the air. Dancing out of the Shadow's reach, her hands slashed through the air, spinning magic from Kouzeon's satellites. A blast of wind smote the Cait Sith, and a charge of lightning floored the Obariyon. The attacks weren't very strong, but even in combat mode, Rise was still a Navigator. She was more than capable of identifying each Shadow's weakness and casting the appropriate element their way.

Behind her, the Onmoraki tried to prepare another attack, but was disintegrated by another laser as Rise deftly caught the microphone out of the air and sang into it. Kouzeon amplified the call into a sonic blast, washing over the two downed Shadows and reducing them to nothing.

There was a moment of silence as the audience processed what had just happened. Then like a great wave, they all erupted into cheers. A minute later, the music picked up again, and Rise sang the final chorus of her song, stepping right back into her idol role as though nothing had happened, only now Kouzeon was mimicking her dance in reverse behind her, the satellites around her spiraling and weaving around the Persona's six arms.

Stretching one arm up towards the heavens for the final words of the song, Rise called to the power within her for one last display. This was the last song of the event, after all, and she was going out with style. As the last notes were struck, she cried aloud once more.

"Persona!"

Kouzeon erupted into a column of blue flame that spiraled down towards the young idol, and began to be absorbed into her chest. As the last remnants of her Persona's flame entered her heart, there was a little starlike twinkle, and then it was gone. Rise suspected later that her hearing might have been damaged from the cheers that erupted from the crowd at that display.

After that night, Risette's popularity tripled yet again.

Akihiko Sanada smirked as he watched the horde of Shadows, both lesser and Greater, charged towards him and Chie. He shrugged his battle-cape into a more comfortable position and raised his MMA-gloved fists. They were nothing but small fries.

"Try to keep up, Satonaka!" he called to the girl before charging in with a ferocious battle-cry.

"Right behind you, Master!" Chie cried aloud, dashing in alongside him.

Together, the two of them waylaid the Shadow horde before them, Akihiko's strikes and Chie's steel-toed kicks sounding off with incredible force every time they landed. A roundhouse from Chie effortlessly split the head of an Andras. Akihiko's punches snuffed out an Onmoraki's flame breath and shattered its body against the side of a building. Lesser Shadows were trampled entirely, not even getting a chance to so much as raise their weapons.

In six minutes flat, the entire horde was exterminated. The few Shadows that tried to get away were shot down by the officers behind the rampaging master and student. Only one Shadow remained.

"Councilwoman Aneko!" Akihiko shouted. "Give it up already!"

"Never!" the Corporeal Shadow spat. "That seat is mine! MINE! I earned it through my hard work! I was willing to do whatever it took to get it! I WON'T LET ANYONE TAKE IT FROM ME!" The giant green-clad fairy thrust its hands at the pair, blasting wind magic in their direction. Akihiko crossed his arms and withstood the blast while Chie vaulted out of the way.

"Come, Caesar!"

"Come on, Haraedo-No-Okami!"

The pair's Personas immediately emerged behind them, the Roman emperor and the Shinto goddess emerging in twin flashes of blue flame. Chie hung back, opting to go for a power charge, while Akihiko took point to distract the Shadow.

"Zionga!" He cast a mid-level lightning spell, opting to save his more powerful strikes for a time when he could be sure he would hit it. The Shadow grimaced at the damage, but didn't fall, instead retaliating with a burst of blue energy. Akihiko cursed as he skipped back from the attack. None of his team had ever encountered nuclear attacks before, and he wasn't eager to see if he was weak to them or not.

"God's Hand!" Chie screamed, both her and her Persona slamming a fist against the ground. A golden fist was summoned directly above the Corporeal Shadow and descended as swift as a meteor. The Shadow dodged the powerful blow, seemingly without effort. Chie grit her teeth in frustration. That was one of her strongest attacks, and it would be costly for her to try for it again without a healer on their side to cure her exhaustion every time she used a physical attack skill.

There was a burst of pink as a Psychokinetic spell hit the green-clad fairy in the side, knocking it down. "Oh, that was lucky," Noir said happily as the axe-toting Phantom Thief skipped out of the dust. "She must be weak to Psychic attacks."

"Thanks for the assist," Akihiko told her. "I assume your lot are familiar with All-Out Attacks?"

"Naturally," Noir smiled.

"Then let's get to it!" Chie screamed, launching herself forward. Akihiko and Noir were right behind her, pummeling the downed Corporeal Shadow with everything they had. It wasn't quite enough to defeat the Shadow, but they still did a massive amount of damage.

"Mind if we take over from here?" Akihiko asked.

"Oh, I don't mind," Noir replied. "I'm the one who interrupted. Sorry, by the way."

"No problem, she was giving us a bit of a headache anyway," Akihiko returned. He swung his fist and advanced on the dazed Shadow.

Less than a minute later, it was all over. Noir reconvened with Akihiko and Chie as the other officers guided the now dazed and powerless councilwoman into a police car.

"What's the story behind her?" Noir asked.

"Mostly just another case of someone going a bit too power-hungry for their own good," Chie remarked. "She used to be part of Shido's conspiracy, did all sorts of shady favors for them in return for promotions, but then when it all fell apart, she suddenly found herself in a place where she could easily lose her position if she didn't straighten up. She's basically been holding onto her position by the nails the entirety of the last year."

"It's always a tragedy when something like that happens…" the Thief said solemnly.

"Good show back there hitting her Shadow's weakness, though," Akihiko complimented her. "Without that, that fight might have dragged on for ages."

"Your thanks is appreciated, though considering how easily you all handled the Shadow swarm, I doubt that it would have been too difficult for you," Noir replied. "I've never seen anyone move the way you two can! Joker can pull off some truly incredible feats, but even he doesn't even compare to the raw strength you two just displayed."

"Well, despite being apparently a lower class of Persona-user, we've still had years to train our bodies," Akihiko explained. "I've been all sorts of places, been in all sorts of fights, faced death on many occasions."

"I can tell by your scars," Noir commented, gesturing to his bare chest.

"Yeah, well, either way, seeing you Phantom Thieves still reminds me how far we all have to go to reach our full potentials. Those of us in the Shadow Operatives still have to learn to fully embrace our relationship with our Personas, while you Phantom Thieves need time to train yourselves to the same extents we in the Shadow Operatives and the old Investigation Team have."

"Regardless," Noir replied, "we'll do it together, and that's what really matters."

Unseen in the middle of the night, a single Phantom Thief made their way towards a small hospital in Setagaya. A whispered name, and a triangular UFO appeared in the sky, sending down a beam of light to transport the Thief into its interior.

Oracle tapped the screens in front of her, hacking reality to the best of her abilities. Soon, her efforts were rewarded, as a quiet stream of green light spread out from the bottom of Al-Azif, moving across each section of the hospital. Within the building, patients recovered their strength and doctors' and nurses' exhaustion was somewhat lifted. It wasn't much, but it was good.

Oracle took a deep breath and moved Al-Azif away, quieting the lights on the UFO Persona and flying low over the buildings so as to avoid detection. The Phantom Thieves couldn't be everywhere at once, but every now and then, one of the Thieves would do something like this, just a random good deed to someone in need of help. Oracle pulled up a holographic map of Setagaya. There were a couple more hospitals in the area she could hit up before she called it a night.

"Wow," Yu said in an awed tone as he looked around the new Thieves' Den. "This is leagues beyond anything the Investigation Team ever had."

"Well, you can thank Mitsuru-san and her team for providing the building and the secret entrance," Ren remarked.

Rise's head moved like she wished she had eight more eyes, trying to take everything in at once. The red carpet, the brightly colored furniture, the plants in the corners, Yusuke's paintings on the walls. "It's like it's straight out of a comic book or a video game!"

"Well, we're glad you like it," Futaba chirped. "We can take you on a tour later if you like."

"Who is this?" came a small, curious voice. It came from a small, adorable red-haired girl in a floofy white sweater.

Yu turned to greet the newcomer. "Hello there. I'm Yu Narukami, and this is my fianceé, Rise Kujikawa. We're friends of the Phantom Thieves, and we're just stopping by for a visit."

"Yu Narukami...and Rise Kujikawa. Okay, I have it memorized," the girl said slowly. "I am Sophia, humanity's companion. Welcome to the Thieves' Den."

Almost as if she was in a trance, Rise stepped forward. Sophia tilted her head in confusion right up until Rise knelt down in front of her and caught the little AI in a tight embrace.

"Mmf! What are you doing?" Sophia sounded indignant.

"I'm sorry, Sophia," Rise apologized, though she still refused to release her. "You're just so adorable that I felt the irresistible urge to snuzzle you."

"Please cease. I am not a child."

"Being a child or not has nothing to do with it."

Yu sighed and laid a hand on Rise's shoulder. "Rise, that's enough."

"Aww," Rise complained a little, but released the little AI girl.

Sophia still looked a little unhappy, but she still said, "Thank you."

"Oh, there you are, Sophie!" came a new voice, this one belonging to a black-haired girl a little taller than Sophia, around high school age. She stopped when she saw Yu and Rise. Her eyes widened. "Y-you're Risette!" She rounded on Ren. "You never told me you guys were acquainted with Risette!"

"Well, it wasn't that long ago that we met," Ren admitted, scratching the back of his head. "Besides, it just never came up."

"No excuses!" the girl spun back around and bowed to Rise. "Hi! M-my name is Akane Hasegawa, I just recently joined the Phantom Thieves, and it's really nice to meet you!"

Rise laughed as Yu looked at his fianceé with adoring eyes. "Nice to meet you, Akane-chan. You can just call me Rise. I'm not onstage right now after all."

Akane stood up straight again. "I saw that video of you destroying those Shadows that interrupted your last concert. It was amazing! I've never seen anyone do those kinds of things with their Persona before!"

"Well, it's part of the perks of being a navigator and being able to fight at the same time," Rise explained. "When I first awakened to Himiko, my original Persona, I was solely a navigator, finding exploration routes, picking out Shadows' weaknesses, and occasionally providing a little HP or SP recovery. Then, about a year later during an event called the P-1 Grand Prix, I was forced to confront how powerless I was and how much I relied on the others, and it allowed Kouzeon, Himiko's evolved form, to acquire a combat form. It took a while to get the hang of it, but I'm fairly comfortable with how it turned out."

"I never even knew it was possible to have a Persona with multiple elemental affinities unless you were a Wild Card, though," Akane interjected.

"Well, technically speaking, Kouzeon doesn't have an elemental affinity," Rise explained. "Her attacks don't have any particular magical attribute, but when I combine them with my navigator's ability to detect Shadows' weaknesses, I can change her attacks' attributes to specifically target the Shadows' weaknesses. The attacks themselves aren't very strong, but at least I can reliably down pretty much any Greater Shadow."

"So you're basically the opposite of me," Futaba noted. "The only attack I can pull off with Al-Azif is an explosive finisher to an All-Out Attack. But I make up for it by being able to hack reality to provide buffs or protective force fields."

"Don't forget that you can actually fly in your Persona," Rise grumbled. "I'm actually really jealous of that."

Futaba's eyes widened. "Wow. The superstar idol is jealous of me? Man, I've really leveled up since I was a shut-in!"

"China seems to be fighting back against the Shadows, but the crisis seems to be much worse there than it is here," Aigis reported. "Further evidence to suggest that Shadows are more likely to appear in places where people have experienced many negative emotions."

"World trade would all but collapse if China were to go under," Mitsuru stated, gazing at the screens. "As much as China isn't right to deny its citizens basic freedoms, the entire world will be affected if it collapses, same with the United States."

"The problem seems to be dwindling there," Fuuka reported. "The more populous states like New York and California seem to have created organizations in their more populous areas to band together Persona-users so they can protect as many people as possible. Rural areas instead have to rely on local bands of vigilante Persona-users. The government as a whole has yet to decide on an official response to the Shadow crisis, despite declaring a state of emergency."

"And in the rest of the world?"

Fuuka answered, "Several third world countries, especially those which had been ruled by dictators, have collapsed. Many had their leaders turned into Corporeal Shadows. Syria, Sudan, North Korea, all of them are entirely consumed by chaos. Russia is also in danger of collapse. President Putin himself has not been seen in weeks, and we suspect that he has become a Corporeal Shadow but maintains rule of the government despite that."

"I wouldn't put it past him," Mitsuru commented. The world order had been truly upended since the Shadow Outbreak. All the most powerful countries in the world were now struggling to stay afloat, Japan seeming to be the only one unaffected by the change, though as always the Nordic countries seemed to be handling the crisis quite well.

The next few months would be quite the fight to maintain world order.

Takuto Maruki had become a watcher.

Ever since the Phantom Thieves had defeated him and destroyed his Palace and his fake reality, he had resolved himself to make the most of the life they'd given him. He started by getting a new job as a taxi driver. It was humble work, but it gave him the opportunity to collect all sorts of stories. One of which was very precious to him.

He glanced across the street as a short, russet-haired young woman exited the store, her eyes shyly kept focused on the ground in front of her. Maruki gave a sigh of regret. Rumi was functioning in society, but at the cost of her memories of him, and even then she still seemed like she was barely hanging on. She'd gotten worse as the Shadow Outbreaks occurred, as though seeing those creatures somehow twitched something deep within the hidden recesses of her mind.

Maruki clenched his fist. It was his fault she was like this. Him and his impatience and his flawed vision. From how unresponsive she'd been after her parents' murders, he'd thought at the time that he didn't have much choice other than to accept Adam Kadmon's deal, though now he couldn't help but wonder if he'd just been able to wait, he could have been there for her when she finally managed to return to her senses. Instead, now she was alone with a broken mind, and she couldn't even remember why.

Maruki hadn't used Adam Kadmon since the Outbreak. He wasn't even entirely sure he still could. He only knew one thing. He would take care of Rumi, even if she never regained her memories or got over the death of her parents. He would do whatever it took to keep her safe.