After the calling card had been sent, the whispers and murmurs were only about this situation. Sighing, Ren pinched his nosebridge as he struggled to focus on the class.

How could he pretend to be a normal student when he's going to steal someone's heart right after school? Especially when his life was on the line here, and the only person (or cat) didn't even know would it work or not.

'Thinking about this won't do anything, Amamiya Ren...' Shaking his head to clear the thought, Ren glanced at the cat hiding in his drawer. 'We need to have faith in Morgana...'

Sighing, he decided to keep his gaze to the sky outside, and it almost calmed his mind and took him from the whole business. However, at the corner of his gaze, he noticed Akira staring at him, but his gaze seemed empty, out of focus.

For some reason, the face of Jester suddenly popped up in the delinquent's mind as he noticed Akira's stare. Widening his eyes for a split second, Ren shook his head again to clear the odd feeling. 'Why the hell did Jester popped up again...'

On the other hand, Akira continued texting with Shiho to put his mind off from the upcoming heist. Staring at the leader sitting right in front of him, his mind drifted into somewhere in no time.

'Should I command Shiho to stay behind and just snipe him?' He thought. 'Dammit, I overthink the situation again... I need to trust her, she's not someone who needs overprotection.'

In the midst of those thoughts, time progressed much faster than they thought. Before they knew it, the bell rang, signaling the end of school.


[Kamoshida's palace, entrance]

-Life Will Change plays-

The atmosphere around the castle could only be described by 'tense', a reddish tint painted on the distorted sky, and the moon was visibly larger than before. Even though the sound of siren filling the scene, the thieves were weirdly calm.

Putting his phone back into his pocket, Joker stretched his arms before looking back to his teammates. "Let's go, our objective is the treasure." He said, pulling the edge of his gloves.

Teleporting to the saferoom next to the throne room, the thieves ran through the empty throne room with suspicion. But they still kept going, taking the huge crown from the treasure room.

However, Kamoshida suddenly appeared from nowhere and took the crown from them, smirking as the cognitive version of Ann clung to his side. "I won't let anyone take this!"

"This proves that I am the king of this castle- it is the core of this world!"

"That rat bastard..." Panter growled, releasing the tip of her whips and readied to fight. "That's how he sees me, isn't it?"

"Yo, pervert. Were you waitin' to ambush us?" Skull groaned in addition, narrowing his eyes at the doppelganger.

"I just made it easy to find you," The king's smirk widened. "I'll dispose of you myself. Right here, right now."

"Of course he's not going to let us finish it quick and simple..." Sighing, Joker pulled out his pistol and readied to fire at any time.

"That's our line, you sexually-harassin' d-bag!" Skull exclaimed, cocking his shotgun.

"What a selfish misunderstanding-"

"Misunderstanding?!" Panther yelled, her anger was slipping through her tone. "They why did you have to hide them from others!"

"People around were the ones who kept it secret," Kamoshida chuckled, playing with the crown in his hand as if it's a volleyball. "Adults who want to share in my accomplishments, students who have the drive to become winners-"

However, before he could finish his speech, a bullet suddenly gazed beside him, inches away from hitting his head. "There's some of the worse bullshit I've ever heard, Kamoshida," Joker murmured, shifting his aim at his temple. "You're just shifting blames."

"Shifting blames? It's how the world works!" Yelling, the shadow king gripped the crown so hard, crack started to show on the gold frame. "You're all just naive brats! Including that girl who tried to kill herself!"

"Yeah, Shiho's an idiot..." Trailing off, Panther let go of the thong of her whip, tightening her grip on the handle. "Letting you manipulate her... letting her tried to commit suicide..."

"And I'm even more of a dumbass for not realizing that!" She yelled. "No one needs your permission to live their lives!"

"Drop that attitude, you mediocre peasants!" Kamoshida's smirk turned into a frown, narrowing his eyes at the thieves. "There is no wrong in using my gifts for my gain!"

"That's some bull-effin'-shit, Kamoshida," Skull glared at the king, narrowing his gaze. "You're not a king, you're just an effin' demon!"

However, they didn't expect the shadow would start laughing manically, his feature started to distort. "I'm the one who rules this castle, I'M THE DEMON WHO RULE THIS WORLD!"

Before the thieves could react, a wave of shockwave suddenly exploded from the shadow, knocking everyone back. He laughed hysterically as red aura rushed and surrounded him, and the voice got more distorted as it intensified.

Using their hands to shield from the blowing wind, Joker pointed his pistol at the general direction and fired a few shots. However, none of them hit.

Once the blowing wind quieted down, the thieves were greeted by a giant demon with four arms, a wine glass, knife, crop whip, and a fork was in each hand. Not only that, but the size of the shadow also expanded into inhuman size. The ground shook as he slammed his hand on the ground, threatening thieves' ability to stay balanced.

"I guess the whole break-in to break-out plan is busted now," Morgana commented, holding his bandit sword as Zorro appeared behind him. "We're here for the treasure, let's go!"

Nodding, the mask disappeared as they summoned their Persona, relentlessly attacking the shadow with all they got. Slamming his crop whip, Kamoshida sent a wave of volleyball assault toward Skull, hitting him dead-square on the head.

"Ahh!" Yelping in pain, The ex-runner's face turned into a rage-filled look as he summoned Captain Kidd. "Lunge!"

The Pirate materialized behind him, crashing to the shadow with all its speed and stuffed his cannon arm at Kamoshida's chest, firing a new shot to its chest and exploded.

"Agi!" Following up, Panther laid her hand on her mask and summoned Carmen. The crimson dancer created two giant fireballs and shot them toward the shadow, creating more explosions.

However, once the smoke cleared and revealed a slightly injured Kamoshida, and it threw his golden fork toward the thieves in response, barely missing everyone.

"Silky!" Joker quickly summoned the woman in the red dress behind him, sending a burst of ice attack. However, it only hurt the shadow the same as the other attacks did. "Dammit, so he doesn't have any weakness or anything-"

Before he could even finish, Kamoshida suddenly extended it's tongue and whipped all over the room, knocking everyone down on the ground. "Naive Brats... now you see the difference between us?"

"Yeah..." Ryuji trailed off, getting up with slight limping on his right leg. "I see how you're a fuckin' creep, that's all!"

Healing everyone with a Media, Mona tightened his grip on the sword as he stood up. "We're not going to give it up this easily, right?"

"Of course..." Joker nodded, summoning Obariyon behind him.


On the other hand, on the entrance of Kamoshida's castle, Jester and Swan just arrived with a slight frown. The security level was high, just like how they expected.

"What took you this long, Jester?" Swan sighed, giving her partner a cold glare. "We should be in the throne room by now, but we-"

"Something happened, and it took me longer than unexpected..." Jester mumbled, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "Just forget 'bout it, we have more important business to do-"

"No, I'm not going to leave it alone," She glared again, but her gaze softened for a bit. "But you're right, we have a more important issue to deal with, let's go."

"...Right," Nodding, the duo took off and entered the castle.


Back to the thieves, the battle wasn't looking good for them. No matter how much attacks they did to it, the shadow would only heal itself with the 'contents' in the cup in front of it.

"Man, is he gonna keep healin' with that cup?" Skull grunted, pumping his shotgun. "Joker, we have to do somethin'!"

"I know!" The leader shouted in return, glancing around the room before landing back onto the cup, an idea quickly formed in his head. "Why didn't I think of this earlier?"

Pulling out his pistol from the holster, he pointed at the golden cup and narrowed his eyes. "Everyone, target the cup!"

With that said, Joker pulled the trigger and fired a bullet at the golden cup, creating a small, but a noticeable dent on the surface. And Kamoshdia gasped, "Hey! You don't know what this is worth, so stop touching it! Don't do it anymore, got it? I've warned you!"

"When someone tells us not to do something," Mona smirked at the response, Joker's small experimentation just paid off in a fantastic fashion. "It makes us want to do it even more!"

"And we're so going to do this!" Panther shouted, spraying her Tommy gun all over the golden cup, creating a few more dents and a lot more bullet holes. "And if guns are not enough... AGI!"

Right after Panther's fireball barrage, Kamoshida grunted in rage before extending his four arms toward the thieves. "You're going to pay for the damage you've done!"

"Dodge, everyone!" Joker shouted, and the four thieves instantly leaped away from the incoming attack. However, Skull's leg suddenly gave up and he collapsed, unable to carry on as one of the hand grabbed him and squeezed.

"Skull!" Widening her eyes as he yelled in pain, Panther didn't waste another second as she rushed toward Skull, sliding and avoiding as many attacks possible. "Don't you dare to hurt him!"

Meanwhile, Mona and Joker exchanged a glance before nodding to each other. Without any word, the pair dashed and emptied their range weapon onto the cup, gaining the shadow's attention. "Shitty BRAT!" The distorted King yelled, swinging his knife desperately to protect the cup and unintentionally released his grip on Skull.

Quickening her pace, Panther jumped and fired her grappling hook. The hook attached to the wall nearby and pulled, sending herself into the air and caught Skull before he fell onto the ground.

The two fell onto the ground and rolled to aside, the Scarlet thief summoned Carmen and cast Dia, giving out a breath of relief as Skull's feature relaxed. "Skull, you're okay?"

"Yeah... Hurt likes a bitch, but a lot better now. Thanks, Panther..." Skull trailed off, standing up with a slight limp. "You're the one who gonna pay for it, Kamoshida! Captain Kidd!"

The pirate quickly materialized behind Skull before lunging forward, smashing the shadow right in the head and knocked it off balance. Taking this as her opportunity, Panther also summoned Carmen and sent off another barrage of fire at the unprotected cup as Mona and Joker released their Persona.

"Zorro, show your might! Garu!"

"Bicorn! Lunge!"

The black swordsman and the black horse attacked in unison, finally shattering the golden cup into smithereens. Recovered from the sudden attack, the King looked at the pieces before staring at the thieves with rage. "No way... This was from when I won the national..."

Without a word, the four Persona-users quickly rushed forward and surrounded him, aiming their guns at the king. "You think you can get away from doing such a thing? Do you realize who I am?!"

"I am Kamoshida! Don't you get it?!"

"Yeah, we do," Joker deadpanned, tightening his grip on the pistol. "Not that we're going to care, so what?"

"Bullshit!" The shadow growled. "I am above everything in this castle!"

"You're the one who's spilling bullshit," The leader frowned.

"I am Kamoshida! I'm the king here!"

"King... what a joke..." Trailing off, Skull smirked before quickly returning into a scowled face. "Now you're just a pathetic loser."

"We came all this way to steal your heart!" Panther added. "Will you just give it up and hand it over?"

"Silence! I won't let the likes of you have this!"

"You still have the energy to say things like that?!" Mona questioned, glancing at Joker beside him. "Then we're going to up our game as well!"

Nodding in return, Joker narrowed his gaze before commanding the thieves. "Let's do this! All-Out Attack!"


Back at Jester and Swan's side, they weren't able to teleport to the furthest saferoom and was forced to reach the throne room on foot. However, with the King busy fighting the other thieves, the duo encountered no guards on their way.

"And no one's here too, lucky," Jester smirked as he scanned the interior of the tower. Other than the scarlet tint on the room, there was not a single guard in the visible area.

"I won't call it lucky," Swan deadpanned, wasting no time and ran toward the stairs. "C'mon! We had wasted too much time just to get to the throne room!"

"Yeah..." Trailing off, the Victorian-looking thief quickly followed her and dashed. "So we can't teleport to the saferoom when Joker and his team are fighting the shadow, what kind of stupid logic is that..."

"Complaining won't do anything, you know," The thief in white sighed. "And now they're publicly fighting, do you think saferoom would work anymore?"

"I know," Jester sighed, adjusting his tophat. "It's just... tedious to go through the whole palace to get there-"

However, before he could finish his word, a large explosion suddenly rang through the whole place, causing the tower to shake violently. Struggling to keep their balance, the duo glanced at each other before dashing in full-speed. Whatever was happening in the throne room, it's not looking good right now.


Back in the throne room, rubbles and dust filled the space around the thieves as the shadow did its killshot. "Holy shit..." Trailing off, Joker coughed heavily as the dust cleared, revealing a disappointed Kamoshida.

"Tch... You're useless," The shadow said to the slave next to him, slamming his whip as he called a new slave. "Next!"

Before the thieves could realize, Mishima suddenly appeared from nowhere and rushed to its side with a volleyball. "I-I'm sorry, King Kamoshida! I-I have it right here!"

"Too slow, Mishima!" The distorted king shouted, slamming its fork to the ground. "Worthless chump!"

"Mishima?!" Skull yelped, using his club as his leg's support. "H-how..."

"Wait, what?!" Panther followed, widening her eyes in surprise. "Why's he here?"

"This piece of shit sees everyone as his slave, no wonder Mishima is one of them..." Joker trailed off, panting heavily as he tried to regain strength.

"This is just Kamoshida's cognitive version of him, don't worry," Mona reassured them, narrowing his eyes at the volleyball in Mishima's hand. "Everyone! Prepare for another super attack!"

Without a word, the thieves quickly guarded themselves against the attack. They didn't know if it would be enough to let them survive another shot, but it's now or nothing!

"Good, Mishima!" Shadow Kamoshida commanded, slamming his whip again. "Now pass it to me! Don't tell me you can't even do something as simple as that!"

Hesitantly nodding, Mishima passed the ball to Kamoshida. And the shadow did another Gold Medal Spike, the ball slammed onto the ground and exploded, knocking everyone back and ruthlessly slammed onto the wall behind them.

Landing with a hard 'thud', Joker tried to get up but failed. "...D-dammit..." He murmured, staring at the shadow as it snickered at the scene in front of it.

"H-how are we going block another attack..." Mona trailed off, quickly summoning Zorro and heal everyone as fast as possible. "This is not good..."

"I know it... I can't go all-out with Mishima providing the backup." The shadow slammed its whip again, and Mishima quickly ran away from the scene. "Next slave, get out here! Hurry up with my damn ball!"

Before the thieves could realize, a cognitive version of Shiho suddenly appeared from nowhere with a volleyball. The worst thing was that... she was wearing bunny-looking underwear, with highly-sexualized makeup and a pair of bunny ear.

"King Kamoshida, I've brought you your ball," the bunny girl said with an overly sweet tone, smirking slightly. "Ju~st like you asked."

"Now there's a good girl, Suzui," Kamoshida laughed. "Yeah, all women should obey like this! Ain't that right, sweetheart?"

"N-no... You've got to be kidding me!" Panther yelped, her eyes widened in horror and shock as she struggled to get up. "W-what's Shiho doing here..."

"That's not the real one, Panther!" Mona yelled, still trying her best to heal everyone up to an acceptable state. "Calm down!"

"I-I know... But it's just..."

"Even Suzui too..." Skull groaned, tightening his grip on his bat. "You've gone too far, you fuckin' piece of shit!"

"W-what are we going to do, Joker?" The feline asked, his hand unintentionally shivered as Kamoshida readied for a final kill shot. "We can't just try to guard ourselves, it's going to kill us nevertheless!"

"I hate to say it, but we have to target Suzui..."

"W-we're t-targeting Shiho?!" Panther yelped, looking at the leader with wide eyes. "I-I don't k-know if I could-"

"Then leave it to me, okay?" Skull cut her off, clutching his eyes shut as he tried to ignore the pain from his right leg. "I don't want to do this too, but... Dammit..."

"I don't know if I could do this as well..." He sighed, roughly shaking his head to try to clear his mind. "After hearing the story from Ichijo... it's just..."

"Guys! It's not the time to hesitate!" Mona yelled back, glaring at them. "Our life is on the line here!"

"I told you guys, I don't want to do this as well-" Before Joker could even finish, Kamoshida suddenly slammed his whip, and cognitive Shiho passed the ball with a small smirk.

"Let's end this, once and for all!"

"Dammit, it's too late..." trailing off, the leader turned to his teammates and shouted. "Guard!"

Shielding with their arms, the thieves waited for the kill shot to land and explode. Time seemed to slow down as they waited for the attack as the light started to cover their sight...

However, the explosion never struck them.

"J-Just in the fucking time..."

Peeking through from his hand, Joker looked and saw two figures standing in front of them, panting heavily as they took the blow for them. Even though the dust and rubble hid their feature from the thieves, but he already knew who they were. "...Jester? Swan?"

The figure on the right, Jester nodded in response. "Yeah, no shit... Sherlock..."

However, Swan's eyes only locked on her cognitive self standing beside the shadow. "...So this is how he sees me..." She murmured, tightening her grip on the whipsword. "No wonder... That's why I never saw her..."

"Swan? Don't tell me-"

Before he could finish, Swan took out her sniper rifle and shot her copy in the head, right between the eyes. Lowering her rifle, she sighed. "I'm sorry, I just had to do this."

"...Yeah, I can see why..." Trailing off, Jester turned around and glanced at Joker. "Are you guys going to stand here while Swan and I do all the work?"

"O-of course not!" Mona shuttered. "We need to get the crown from its head!"

"The crown... so that's the treasure," Nodding to himself, the Victorian-looking thief took out his grappling hook from the second holster. "But I don't think you can handle Kamoshida with a member missing..."

"Yeah, we're already in a tough battle," Mona nodded. "If we're like this in a full team, what would happen if we're only three people fighting-"

"Then I'll do it," Jester interrupted him, pulling out his grappling hook. "Swan, stay here and keep Kamoshida's attention away from me, okay?"

"Y-yeah," The thief in white hastily nodded.

"This also goes for all of you too," He said, turning around and faced the thieves. "I know we're not in good terms before, but I'm trusting you guys as well."

With that said, he fired his grappling hook into the ceiling above, pulling him into the air. Quickly snapped out from the slight shock, Joker glanced at Swan with an uncertain expression.

"You heard Jester, we have to keep Kamoshida's focus away from him," Pulling the charging handle of her rifle, Swan quickly fired a few rounds before dashing forward.

"...I guess there's no other way but to follow them," Sighing, Joker twisted his knife to hold it from the back of his hand. "Jack-O-Lantern! Agi!"

"Right... " Reaffirming his grip on the steel bat, Skull quickly followed and ran at full speed. "Jester, you better get this crown from him! Captain Kidd!"

"We have no choice but to put faith in him..." Panter trailed off, looking down at her whip for a moment before following them. "We have no choice but to follow you, right?"

On the other hand, Jester landed on the second floor with ease. However, a few shadows suddenly emerged from the ground, marching toward him. "You've gotta be kidding me..." He murmured, his scythe reappeared as he stared at them and took out his revolver. "So that's why we haven't encountered any guards on the way."

"Not that it could stop me."

Taking off at full speed, he leaped over a lone shadow before slashing it in half. "Moriarty! Eiha!" Summoning his Persona, he turned around and shot another shadow's mask while the Persona sent out a burst of Curse energy, shattering two shadow's masks and they dissolved into nothing.

Turning back at the other shadows, Jester continued his dash toward the crown with Moriarty following him. However, there are still too many shadows for him to handle alone. Being knocked onto the wall aside, he groaned as he limped slightly to get up.

"Goddammit, I guess I'm not going to finish this the easy way, right?"

Tightening his grip on his scythe, he Decided to dodge past as many shadows as possible, only using his revolver to stun the few shadows who were unavoidable. Seeing Kamoshida's crown in his grappling hook's range, he glanced at the wall opposite to it and smirked.

Without a word, he leaped onto the wall and dashed for a few steps before jumping off. Firing his grappling hook and attached to the giant crown, he smirked and pressed the trigger again, pulling himself toward the crown.

Releasing the hook and let the momentum carried him on, Jester kicked the crown off from the king's head. Firing the hook again at the ground near to the thieves, he pulled himself back to the thieves with a swift backflip.

"NOOO!" Shadow Kamoshida screamed, dropping the glass cup as he panicked. "My... my precious..."

"Good, Kamoshida's shaken up!" Mona beamed.

"Well, here's our chance," Jester smirked, glancing over his shoulder at Joker. "It's your call, Joker."

"Right..." Pulling the edge of the crimson gloves, Joker readied his dagger and hardened his stare. "Everyone! Let's do this!"

"ALL-OUT ATTACK!"

Without a word, all six of them instantly dashed at full speed. Using the surrounding as leverages, they mercilessly struck Kamoshida in incredible speed, not even eyes could make out who's in the blur.

Landing with their backs facing the shadow, they snapped their fingers as Kamoshida's body exploded in black goo, signaling his defeat.

"TAKE YOUR HEART!"

Once the battle was finished, Skull was about to pick up the shrunk crown when the fallen king suddenly took it and ran. The thieves instantly followed him into the treasure room, where Kamoshida squirmed in fear, sweats filled all over his face.

"Nngh..." The King shivered as he looked for a way out. Unfortunately, the only way to escape was a bottomless fall from the balcony.

"What's wrong? Not running away?" Panther gritted, staring directly at his eyes as she approached. "Why don't you run? Aren't you a great athlete?"

"It's always been like this... All those goddamn hyenas forcing their expectations on me...!" Kamoshida yelled, clutching the crown tightly in his embrace. "I'm doing this all for them! What's wrong about demanding a reward for that?!"

"Now you're makin' excuses...?" Skull asked with disgust visible on his face. "We'll do something about that distorted heart of yours."

"Even if those 'goddamn hyenas' forced their expectation on you," Joker plainly stated, his hand hovered over his pistol. "That doesn't change the fact that you're a fucking pedophile."

"The game had already been set, Kamoshida," Jester said as he stared right into the king's eyes, spinning his revolver in his hand. "Just hand it over."

"Hrrgh..." Kamoshidaonly grunted in frustration and fear, not even dare to move a bit.

"Scared?" Panther murmured as she stepped forward, a strangely calm look on her face. "Right now, you're seeing the same view that Shiho did. I'm sure she was scared too...except she had no choice but to jump..."

"..." Swan couldn't help but bit her lips, trying her best to keep her anger in check. However, she's failing to do so.

"What will you do? Will you jump?" The crimson thief asked, and the red dancer materialized behind her. "...Or would you rather die here?"

"Do you want to finish him off?" Mona asked, crossing his arms. "It's your call."

"No, please wait! I beg you...Just forgive meee!" Kamoshida begged, sweat overflowing as he squirmed further in fear.

"Shut up. I bet everyone told you the same. But you…" Panther said, clenching her hand tight, and two fireballs appeared in Carmen's hand. "You took everything from them!"

She yelled, firing a fireball at his direction. The fireball narrowly passed him and hit the ground, barely grazing his face.

Slumping, Kamoshida threw the crown to them as Joker caught the crown easily and examined it with a plain expression. "I accept defeat...You want this? Take it."

"Panther... You'll decide his fate." The leader said with a serious look.

"Go ahead and finish me off..." The king whispered, clenching his eyes with a single tear running down his cheek. "You do that...and my real self will go down too..."

"You have that right since you've won…"

Clenching her hand, Panther fired a large fireball to him. The others were shocked and yelled in surprise. The fireball hit the ground next to the king, only blowing his cape. He looked up slowly with wide-eyes, still in disbelief about how he was still in one piece.

"If his mind shuts down, he can't admit his crimes." Panther stated as she recalled Carmen, the red mask appeared back on her face.

"You're kind, Lady Panther..." Mona trailed off, smiling at her choices. However, they were surprised by a sudden voice behind them.

"He may have the chance from Panther, but not from me,"

With a cold glare, Swan stepped right in front of Kamoshida, her whipsword drawn and readied to strike. "This garbage of human being doesn't deserve any forgiveness."

Widening his eyes, Jester instantly ran forward toward her. "Wait a second, don't do it Swan!"

"N-no! Please don't do it!" Kamoshida screamed in despair, frantically shaking his head. "Please! I've admitted that I'm lost!"

"You know, you admitting that you're lost..." She trailed off, raising her foot as high as possible. "...Is not enough for me."

Without a word, she kicked the spot between Kamoshida's leg as hard as possible, enjoying the scream of the king. "This is for what you've done to me," She murmured, just loud enough for him to hear. "And this is for what you've done to Akashi and Akira!"

Raising her boot again, she mercilessly stomped on his private area again. Then again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

As the pained scream filled the entirety of the throne room, Swan finally stopped her assault and coldly watched Kamoshida squirming in pain and fear. A satisfied smirk crept onto her face, only hid behind the edge of her mask.

"Holy shit..." Skull gasped, widening his eyes at Swan's act of rage. "That was effin' brutal..."

"Ouch..." Joker coughed, uncomfortably moving his legs. "That was really painful to watch..."

"Swan..." Jester trailed off, unable to find anything to say.

"...I'm not killing him, don't worry about it," Swan clutched her fists before walking back to his side, her voice was faintly cracking. "N-now I don't want to see his square face in my life anymore, let's go."

Sighing, the Victorian-looking thief glanced at the thieves."...I guess we'll leave the rest up to you guys, we're just crashing the party... or the heist... whatever."

With that said, the duo left the throne room before the thieves could react, and they returned into the real world with a grim look.


[Aoyama-Itchome, alleyway]

"You've returned to the real world, good work."

Putting his phone back in his pocket, Akira glanced at Shiho beside him. Even though most of her feature was mostly hidden by the shadows, but he could see that her body was shivering.

"...I..." She choked, burying her head into her palms. "...W-we finally did it..."

Biting his inner lips, Akira hesitantly patted and caressed her head. What could he say? "Yeah, we did it... all of us," He murmured, a faint smile crept on his face as he watched the sky above.

Even though there's only a glimpse of the sky, but it was clearly sunsetting.

"Maybe we should go somewhere else to take a breather," He suggested, removing his hand and gave her tissue to wipe her eyes. "Besides, maybe the sunset would look great."

Shiho didn't respond, just nodded.

With nothing said in between, the two walked to the station in somewhat comfortable silence. Even though they didn't know what would happen afterward, but Akira convinced himself that he needed to believe them. He glanced at Shiho beside her, her eyes were clearly reddened from the crying, but the old gloomy look was gone.

'Right, everything would definitely be better, at least she is,' He thought, the memories of Kimiko suddenly surfaced in his mind. 'But... if Kimiko is still alive...'

"But thinking about the possibilities is pointless, Akira..."

Noting his sudden mumbling to himself, Shiho gave him a confused look. "Akira? What are you talking about?"

"...Nothing," He answered, shaking his head. "Just something-"

"It's Akashi, right?" She interrupted him, stopping as they reached the station. "If she didn't commit suicide, how would she react to this..."

"You're half-right," Akira admitted with a nod, giving a long sigh as he remembered. "But there are Naoko and Shinji too... When Kamoshida gives himself in..."

"You want to tell them?" Shiho asked.

"I can't, even if I want to," He answered, shaking his head again. "They're now both in Kosei, Naoko still hates me to the guts, and Shinji... he's probably the same as well."

"But nothing would stay the same forever, Akira," She sighed. "Just... maybe their attitude would change. After all, it's been a while now."

"...Yeah."

With that said, they continued the way to the park. Now the battle was finished, and Kamoshida's heart was supposedly changed...

They were nervous, nervous of what to come. But... there's nothing they could do.

And now, the waiting began.

(To Be Continued)


Preview:

The king of Shujin has been defeated.

As the wait begins, anxiety and nervousness grew among the thieves.

However, with a sudden visit, Akira is faced with a new choice.

As his old friend is involved.

Next Chapter:

"The Wait"

Stay Tuned!


With that, Chapter 9 of P5R: Another Thief is done!

It's been a really long wait, right? Well, this whole chapter is the hardest one I'd ever written. It's because I'm not that good at making fight scenes, and the few times I had to rewrite some part of that battle.

If you've read the original version, you would see how different the two battles were. But the funny thing is that, this version of how Jester and Swan entered the fight IS the original idea.

And yes, I did change the battle on top of how Royal changed it. I've read a lot of P5 fanfic while writing this chapter, and reading the same boss fight over and over again is really boring. So here's some more original attacks and changes to shake things up!

The next chapter would be somewhat a filler to take some time between the battle and the confession (or I'll put the confession on the later part of that chapter).

All and all, I hope you enjoy the story so far! Reviews are welcome!