Minako Arisato eyed the redheaded rogue warily as the van started to head out. Labrys and Aigis had brought him in with little preamble and no resistance, Yu and Naoto climbing in after him with nary a word between them, merely nodding to her as they took their seats. And so the drive back to headquarters started off in silence.

"So whaddya plannin' on doing with me?" Sho finally ventured to ask.

"Mostly just keeping an eye on you for now until you prove yourself trustworthy," Aigis answered. "We must, after all, ascertain your current intentions showing up in Tokyo now of all times, as well as what you plan to do now that you are capable of summoning your Persona in the real world."

"How'd you block me though?" Sho asked.

"Oracle's handiwork," Naoto smiled. "Something she called 'Persona jamming'. She was able to create a device using a core similar to the Plume of Dusk that was put into you during the experiments that reacted to your particular signature to block you from calling your Persona as long as you were within that building. You can understand why she took that precaution."

"If I'm such a threat, why not just get rid of me?" Sho asked lightly.

"Because that would be wrong," Naoto said flatly. "If you're a Persona-user, you're worth redeeming, because we're the only people who have a hope of protecting the world against the Shadows."

"Hah, you lot seem to be doing a fairly good job without me," Sho muttered.

"We can't be everywhere at once, blockhead," Labrys glowered at him. "Shadows are appearing all over the world. Yeah, new Persona-users are appearing too, but it's still not enough."

"Like that Raptor kid?" Sho mentioned. "Where'd he come from?"

Yu opened his mouth, but Sho never got an answer, because suddenly the side of the van was riddled with bullets. The driver gave a cry and the limo swerved and jumped the sidewalk before rear-ending a nearby parked car.

"Is everyone okay!?" Labrys exclaimed once everything had stopped.

"I am fine, sister," Aigis said. "Athena and my metal body render me almost impervious to physical damage."

Minako ripped off her seat belt with a shout of anger and frustration. "Why is it always something!?"

Naoto shook her head to clear it. "Well, I guess you were right about people coming after you, Sho."

Sho groaned. "Come on, I was joking," he complained.

Aigis moved to slip into the front cabin. "Several attackers. Almost exclusively armed with guns. As I am bulletproof, I will face them."

Naoto cursed. "What do they think they're doing, attacking us in broad daylight like this?"

Otherworldly cries began to echo off the buildings and black figures started to shamble out of the nearby alleyways.

Labrys griped, "Of course. Shadows."

"Yu, keep an eye on that guy," Minato grated. "Naoto, I understand you can use a wide variety of different magical elements?"

"Correct," was the Detective Prince's short response.

"Good." Minako produced an Evoker from the holster on her thigh. "You and Labrys are with me. Labrys, focus on hitting the strongest Shadows with physical attacks. I'll back you up. Naoto, clear out the rabble."

Yu noted, "You're good at taking charge."

Minako smirked at him. "I'm a Wild Card too, remember?" Then she and Labrys burst out of the back of the van onto the street. Without hesitation, the Evoker is lifted to her head and fired.

"Penelope!"

Minako's Persona shone into existence behind her, a tall greek woman wearing an elegant chiton and a himation that was slightly unravelling at the back, standing next to a slender olive tree, her eyes distant and sorrowful. But as she turned her head to look upon the enemies before her, her gaze grew scornful and angry.

"Mamagnara!" Minako chanted, and Penelope stamped one sandaled foot against the ground. Fissures opened up in the road and sidewalk, sending out lances of stone and earth that struck and entrapped several of the nearest approaching Shadows. Leaping out from behind her, Labrys swung her axe with a battle cry and the fury of a thousand warriors, effortlessly shredding half a dozen lesser Shadows with a single stroke. Naoto stepped out behind and summoned Yamato Sumeragi in preparation to fight as well right as a few stronger Shadows decided to show themselves.

Minako spun her Evoker on her finger. "Girls, let's clean up this mess."

Bullets ricocheted harmlessly off of Aigis' body as she stepped out of the van. Whoever these attackers were, they were lucky that she was only armed with nonlethal rounds at the moment. (No need to carry anything too dangerous, as Shadows would see her guns as lethal regardless.)

Her targeting systems quickly identified her targets as she activated the automatics in her forearms that had replaced the far more impractical finger guns she had initially been installed with. A spray of rubber bullets erupted from the guns, the low calibre and minimal firing power of the shots hopefully dealing minimal damage while still dealing enough to suppress the targets.

Short cries of pain were heard as Aigis fired, followed by the sound of more than one gun clattering to the ground. Most of the firing ceased, but just as Aigis was planning to move in and restrain the attackers, a spray of bullets suddenly struck her in the face. The force was sufficient to knock her head back a little, but otherwise proved ineffective at doing damage to anything other than her temper. Aigis wasn't entirely sure why, but for some reason she found herself thoroughly irritated by the attack to her face.

"Athena," Aigis suddenly chanted, summoning the warrior goddess to her side. Athena swiftly charged, attacking a group of thugs hiding in a nearby alleyway and proceeding to bash them about with her shield and spear. The group hiding in the other alley answered by tossing grenades at her. Aigis swiftly dodged out of the way of the explosives, but then one of them, thrown a little too hard, arced clean over her head and hit the front of the van.

In an instant, Athena was back at her side, shield raised to block the resulting explosion and shower of shrapnel. But before she or the attackers could recover, someone emerged from the smoke and shrapnel. Someone tall, armed, red-haired, and absolutely livid.

"THINK IT'S FUN TO SHOOT PEOPLE WHEN THEY'RE DRIVING, EH?" Sho screamed. "YOU F***ERS, I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"

Screaming bloody murder, Sho raised his sabers, which he'd somehow retrieved, and charged into the alley after the attackers. More guns went off, but they were quickly followed by Sho's laughter and several cries of pain.

"Sho! Get back here!" Aigis tried to yell at him, but her protests went ignored. She was about to give chase, but then she remembered: Yu had been in the van as well. Making a split-second decision, Aigis sprinted back to the totaled van and ripped open the side to look for Yu, finding him bent over his seat and coughing. Aigis dashed inside and moved to pick him up and carry him out, but Yu waved her off.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he assured her. "Blast just left me a little dizzy." He shook his head to clear it and asked, "Where's Sho?"

"He charged off after the attackers," Aigis reported.

"Idiot," Yu grated. "He might resist physical attacks, but even he isn't bulletproof!" Yu lurched to his feet. "Go after him. I'm fine. I'll help the others handle the Shadows."

Aigis still wanted to protest that he wasn't fine, but she agreed that Sho ought to take priority. So instead of continuing to argue with him, she nodded briefly and left the ruined van to once again survey her side of the battlefield.

The alley she'd had Athena attack had several knocked-out thugs with automatic weapons and angry red welts from Athena's attacks and Aigis' rubber bullets. The thugs in the other alley were also incapacitated, but they were almost all in some state of bleeding out on the ground. A trail of blood and bodies traced to the road on the end of the alley before ending abruptly at a few sets of tire tracks.

Sho was nowhere to be found.

"What do you mean, no?" Shen protested.

I groaned and pressed a hand to my forehead. Why was this guy so stubborn? "I mean, it's an absolutely terrible idea for you to fight Shadows barehanded when you don't even have a Persona."

"I'm not going to be fighting barehanded," Shen insisted. "I have a Jian at home."

I grit my teeth, but even I could admit that one Chinese sword was better than what I had in terms of weapons. "Alright," I finally relented. "I was planning on going on a hunt in the alleys around my neighborhood after school today, so if you bring your sword to my house sometime this afternoon, we can try a few things as long as you promise to let me handle anything too dangerous."

Shen's triumphant grin was immediately shut down by my deadly serious tone. He gave me a mock-serious salute. "Yes, sir! I will follow all your orders, sir!"

I laughed and punched him in the arm. "Just eat your lunch, dummy."

"Are you planning on hunting Shadows?" came a new voice. The newcomer to our lunch spot in the courtyard was a girl with long black hair with the ends dyed dark purple, her leggings a similar color. She had the style of a traditional Japanese beauty, but her eyes were focused and serious. "If you're planning on teaching him how to hunt Shadows, then I want in as well."

I blinked. "Say what?"

Shen leaned in and whispered, "Wait, who is she?"

I whispered back, "She's the class representative, Arisu Fukuda. Some of the rumor-spreaders call her 'Storm Girl'." I turned to address Arisu again. "May I ask as to why?"

Arisu glanced at the ground, her face a mask of frustration. "My walk to the station from my house has been getting more dangerous lately," she explained. "The Phantom Thieves don't always get all the Shadows in my neighborhood when they do nightly patrolls, and…"

"You've been attacked," I surmised.

"A couple times," she admitted. "Even if I can't get a Persona of my own, I have to learn to fight them."

"Why not just ask one of your parents to drive you to school?" Shen asked.

"I can't do that!" Arisu rebutted, though she didn't offer an explanation this time. Was she just being stubborn, or was there a deeper issue…?

I decided I'd find out in due time. So I stated, "The school entrance faces an alleyway. We meet there with a weapon of some kind at five. There's always at least a few Shadows that spawn around the school in the evenings, so we'll start with them. Understood?"

Shen nodded to me, and Arisu brightened a little. "So you'll teach me?"

"You and this guy," I gestured to Shen right as the bell rang to signal the end of lunch. "I hope we get along."

Arisu gave us a determined nod and left for class.

"You agreed to teach them?" Ren asked.

"Yep," I told him. "Safer than letting them face their problems on their own."

At the moment, I was talking with Ren and his parents, Yu, Akane, and Futaba in the Great Room of the Thieves' Den on the ground floor, where we'd had the welcome party before my Awakening. Which had just been on Monday, and today was only Friday. Wow, this had been an eventful week.

"No sign of Scarface though, Silver Head?" I asked Yu.

"I'm dying of laughter at your continued use of that nickname," Yu deadpanned. "But no. Fuuka and Labrys are still looking, but we have no idea where he took off to or ended up, so we're still searching."

"That's a problem," Ren remarked. "That guy's dangerous, and we definitely don't want any organizations to get their hands on him."

"Well, there's not exactly anything you can do until you find this 'Sho' person," Kazushi said. "In the meantime, all you have to do is prepare for when he shows his face again."

"Thanks, Dad," Ren told him.

"Well, on a lighter note," I changed the subject, "You'll never guess where my class voted to go for the school trip next week."

"Where?" Ren asked.

"Hawaii, like Ren's class?" Akari asked.

Futaba looked up from the project she was working on and met my eyes as I let out a melodramatic sigh. Then we both said simultaneously, "Yasoinaba."

"What!?" Yu burst out, utterly incredulous. "But there's nothing there!"

"I tried telling people that, but did they listen?" Futaba griped. "Nooooo."

"'It's where Risette is from!'" I mimicked some of my classmates. "'And her fianceé sometimes lives there too, and so does the rest of their team! I wonder if we'll get to see them fight Shadows!' Pfft. Morons."

Akane had broken down giggling. "They didn't!"

I sighed again. "They did."

"Well, if anything, it could be useful for us," Futaba mentioned. "We get to see where the Investigation Team fought Shadows in our free time, maybe have some chats as fellow Persona-users? Could be useful for you at least, Kenzo."

"I'm aware," I told her. "Still, while I am certainly anticipating several people complaining about there being nothing there, a small countryside town seems a lot less stuffy than an unfamiliar city."

"Aaaand, done!" Futaba cheered, holding up her newest creation. It looked like a metal shackle welded to a circuit board with a Vane of Order wired into it.

"What is that?" I asked.

"One of your ideas, Kenzo!" Futaba crowed. "A brand-new kind of Summoning Catalyst called: The Shattering Shackle! Or a prototype anyway."

"How's it work?"

"Okay, first, you put it on," Futaba told me, walking over to me and closing the shackle around my wrist. It was laughably larger than my scrawny frame. "Then, you imagine summoning a Persona…" she trailed off as if prompting me.

I reached into my mind to give Hephaestus a tap, and almost instantly, the shackle part glowed blue and a cerulean holographic manacle formed around my wrist, and I almost instantly felt the urge to pull it off. Before I had time to think, my off-hand wrapped around the ethereal manacle and yanked it off with a sound of shattering metal, and Hephaestus immediately burned into existence behind the couch I was sitting on.

I blinked as the euphoria of using the Shackle to summon Hephaestus washed out of my system. "Wow," I said. "That is a very effective piece of hardware."

"It works!" Futaba cheered. "Nice! Now all I have to do is streamline the design and get the parts to make more!"

"So, who are we going to be giving them to?" Akane asked.

"Only to people we trust," Ren cautioned. "We don't want the wrong kind of person to get access to this sort of device."

"I have an idea for that," I mentioned, and everyone turned to me. "We give each Shackle an imprint of some kind, so that once a person has used one, only they can continue using it. Think you can do that, Futaba?"

"Oh, can I ever," Futaba snickered. "Just you wait. I'll have a couple ready for your new friends in no time!"

"We don't even know if they can-...you know what? Never mind."

Sho hurt all over. He had no idea why he'd gotten so mad yesterday or why he'd thought it was a good idea to jump on top of that car right as it was driving off, but that was what he had done, and now he was bleeding in an alleyway from several scrapes and gunshot wounds. Fortunately, having a day to rest after all the excitement had given his body a little time to recover, and despite his lack of food, his body had still managed to heal some of his injuries since the fight.

Fortunately, he knew where the Phantom Thieves were based now, as well as that the Investigation Team and the Shadow Operatives sometimes frequented the place, so if he was going to find them again, all he had to do was head there. Sho staggered to his feet, using one of his sheathed sabers as a makeshift cane as he staggered out of the alley.

And almost immediately ran into a short-haired woman who gasped at the mere sight of him. "Oh my gosh, what happened to you!?"

Sho grimaced. "Nothing you need to worry about." He turned to head in the opposite direction.

"You look like you just got run over by a car!" the woman protested, grabbing him by the arm. Sho winced in pain, and she immediately released him. "Oh, sorry! Still! I can't just let you run off like that when you're hurt!"

Sho was about to protest when a taxi suddenly rolled over to the curb and parked. A fairly innocuous-looking young man left the car and walked over. "I couldn't help stopping after seeing what's going on here," he said. "Young man, with injuries like that, I really think you should go to a hospital."

"NO!" Sho immediately protested. "Never! I'm not going to-!" he stopped himself. "Anyways, you should both leave me alone. What you don't know about can't kill you."

"That's...wrong," the taxi driver told him.

"Whatever, just leave me alone," Sho told them.

"Do you at least live nearby?" the taxi driver asked. "I can drive you if not."

"No, I…*sigh* I don't have a home."

The woman's eyes widened before her expression was suddenly set with determination. "In that case, there's a small private clinic near my house," she said. "We can get you fixed up there, and then if you want to leave, you can leave. Sound fair?"

Sho was dumbfounded. "Why?"

"I can't just leave you alone if you're hurt," the woman insisted.

"How do you know I'm not a thief? Or a killer?" Sho demanded.

"You're a Persona-user, aren't you?" the woman asked.

Sho froze. "How do you know that?"

"Well, what else could you be?" the taxi driver countered. "Considering that aura you've been leaking the entire time."

Sho looked down at himself. He was indeed leaking a dark blue aura, and his off-hand was starting to emit wisps of curse energy. "Fine, yes, I'm a Persona-user. Which is why you shouldn't get involved. I've got some very dangerous people hunting me, and if you value your lives, you'll leave."

"Well, then it's a good thing we're in the heart of the Phantom Thieves' territory," the taxi driver reasoned. "They'll probably come running at the slightest disturbance."

Sho paused for a minute, trying to rein in his frustration. "You're not going to give up on this, are you? Fine, let's go to your clinic."

The woman smiled. "Good. I'm Rumi Tominaga. You?"

After a pause, Sho relented. "Sho Minazuki."

The taxi driver gave a short bow. "Takuto Maruki. Now come on, you need to get off your feet."

Sho's last thoughts as he was practically carried over to Maruki's taxi was why the heck he was even allowing himself to go along with these people?