Chapter 43: Thieves and Robbers

{R}

Thankfully, this time, none of them had anything they needed to do so they could get back to infiltrating Kaneshiro's Palace. As if to make up for yesterday, or perhaps because of the unexpected break yesterday, Ryuji came up to him with Makoto about a combo attack he thought of and their senpai agreed to. That, well, surprised him at first, but as Ryuji described his idea, it now made sense why Makoto agreed.

Considering her Metaverse outfit, it sounded right up her alley.

As he was discussing with Queen about the starter lineup though, she paused and said,

"Joker, do you know of Akechi?"

"Hmm? Yes, I do," he said. "Why do you ask?"

"He's spending time with Rogue. I'm concerned that he might figure out her identity."

"Oh. You saw her hanging out with him yesterday?"

Queen was surprised. "You knew?"

"Yes. Rogue tells me where she goes when she's by herself. I do the same for her."

"And you let her do this?"

"Yes," he said.

Queen frowned. "But it's a great risk if she does. If I found out you were the Phantom Thieves when we were mere strangers, how much more for Akechi? Someone who..." She paused. "Someone who has actual experience with solving crimes and is spending time with Rogue. He could easily figure her out."

Joker was curious about the moment of hesitation, but her concerns took precedence as his own resurfaced. It wasn't the first time his thoughts spiraled to the more...undesirable outcomes, those kinds of situations always at the forefront of his mind when dispensing tactics.

"I know..."

"Then why didn't you tell her to stop?"

Joker remained quiet for a moment as he glanced at Rogue, who was helping everyone else with equipment and inventory. He could feel Queen follow his gaze, waiting for him to speak.

"Because I trust Rogue," he said.

He might not know what Akechi that well, but he knew his sister. She wouldn't be so fond and trusting of the detective without reason. And with what little he knew of him—genuine smiles, easy banter and glimpses of what he actually thought whenever his sister was around—he felt it was deserved.

However, it didn't changed the fact he wasn't that close to Akechi...yet.

So Joker turned back to his strategist. "But you can keep an eye on them if you want."

"What?"

He smiled. "Were you expecting me to tell you to stop worrying?"

Queen flinched. "Um, I..."

He chuckled. "It's fine. Rogue keeps telling everyone it'll be fine with Akechi," he said. "But your worrying's understandable, and I want you to decide for yourself if he's a threat. So I won't stop you from being wary."

He needed to be cautious after all, for everyone's sake, seeing Akechi was after them. He had to consider every posssibility, even if he didn't necessarily want to. With Queen's reservations, it meant a better chance at spotting anything suspicious about the detective.

"All... All right then."

However...

"Just..."

"Just...?"

"Just at least be open to the possibility that Akechi might be like us in some ways too."

Because just as much as Rogue's fondness for him could cloud her judgement, he didn't want any possible dislike towards him hunting them to cloud Queen's either.

Which seemed to be the case since she actually offended to being compared to the detective. "Like us? How?"

"That people assume things about him because of his reputation, like how people assume things about me and Rogue at school."

Especially considering Skull and Panther had been influenced by those rumors, even if they were among the doubters.

The strategist grimaced. "Oh..."

Joker gave a reassuring smile. "Come on, let's go," he said so that she needn't say more.

But of course their conversation didn't go unnoticed. So as they were readying to enter, Rogue leaned towards him and said,

"Is Queen all right? Me and Skull are worried."

Joker smiled. "She's okay. Just worried."

"Oh good. All right then." Then she went to whisper Skull the same.

Joker chuckled. It was nice seeing everyone care for Queen already despite their rough start.

(A)

Akira groaned, the Palace taking a lot out of her with all the fighting they had to do in the cramped space that was the bank hallways. Otherwise, it wasn't too hard. There had been security cameras, but their Third Eye showed that they had a range they could avoid, and they were able to shut them down thanks to their power sources being littered all around instead of one generator deep inside the Palace. They had also found the Palace's first Will Seed, explaining to Makoto what they were in the process, and weaknesses were found even quicker now that they had another member with another element specialization and yet another person to guess the weaknesses.

Speaking of their advisor, they had found a safe room in a large central room with many stairs leading out of it, another security room, and a giant door that looked like a bank vault, the one their map told them led deeper into the Palace. After Makoto gave a suggestion and discussed it, they all decided that, since it was Sunday tomorrow, they would spend the entirety of it finishing as much of the Palace as they could, preferably maybe even finding another map, not that Akira was that hopeful.

Despite their exhaustion, when she and her brother returned to Leblanc, they still got the same meal, drink and dessert ready for Ms. Kawakami when she came in tonight. And it was a good thing they did, as she was even worse off then them.

At least they were taking a break, unlike her, who only seemed to do it because they insisted.

So, of course, the teacher said before she ate the meal they prepared for her,

"Then at least let me do your laundry before I go, okay?"

Ren just sighed and said yes.

Akira wasn't really in the mood to say anything, or move from her spot in the booth to her bed upstairs where it would've been softer. She groaned at the mere thought.

"That's the fifth time you've groaned, Amamiya-chan. What exactly have you been doing?" Ms. Kawakami said, glowering at her.

Shit. She didn't think of her getting suspicious of her complaints.

She was glad her brother had her covered.

"We were exercising with Ryuji."

"Ryuji? As in, Ryuji Sakamoto?"

"Yes. It was pretty intense for us, since we didn't regularly exercise until we came here."

Akira couldn't help but snort and say, "He's got nothin' on Yoshizawa though...ugh..."

She and her brother shuddered at the memory.

So she was more than happy to focus on the surprised Ms. Kawakami saying,

"You're...friends with Yoshizawa-san?"

Akira smiled despite her low energy. "Yup! She's a pretty nice girl."

Ren nodded in agreement.

But then Ms. Kawakami smiled with no mirth and said, "That's... That's good. It's good to hear they have you as friends."

Akira and Ren frowned and shared a look. She was probably beating herself up again. Akira guessed Ren wished they could convince her of not being a burden to others, but he knew she wouldn't exactly be receptive. So he nodded at her and she reciprocated the action. Then she turned to the teacher and said,

"Hey, you done? We got plenty of laundry we want ya to do."

"Oh right. The laundry," Ms. Kawakmai said, perking up and finally finishing her meal.

But despite Ren's doubts, she knew Ren would get through to her somehow. He had gotten her to talk about the truth behind the money after all. Maybe slowly chipping her negativity would make her stop, or at least have her a little better off than before.

Besides, if anyone could through to people, it was her brother.

{R}

Joker was happy to see all of his team raring to go, but, after he and Queen decided on the starter line, he still said,

"Can you wait a bit? I want to use the Velvet Room."

"What?! Come on!"

"Oy, no whinin' Skull. It's not that long anyway," Rogue said.

Queen, understandably, was confused. "Velvet Room? What's this Velvet Room?"

Skull just sighed and said, "Just more of their weird crap..."

Just as his sister went on to explain what she could, he entered the prison, his garb changed to the appropriate set. But upon leaning against the bars, Joker frowned.

"Is...something wrong?" he said. Seeing Caroline pouting wasn't something he expected to witness.

Or rather he hadn't expected it in her home turf, unlike whenever she went out with Rogue.

"Nothing!" the warden in question said, wiping her expression away. "Now, what is it you want, Inmate?"

If he was blunt, he wanted to know what was wrong, but from Rogue's stories—or rather complaints —of the twins, he doubted they would be receptive to any prodding when on the job. So he just requested their usual services. In the middle of it though, Igor chuckled then said,

"It seems you've gotten used to using our services and making the most of them. You must surely be accustomed to infiltrating Palaces by now?"

"Yes."

Or at least Joker liked to think that.

Even if wondering how well he could lead when Queen the strategist, perhaps an even better one than him, made doubts begin to appear, even if he knew they were unfounded.

Or rather he knew his sister would insist they were unfounded.

The prison master chuckled yet again. "Regardless, you seem to making the most of your potential as a wild card. But you can still push it further," he said.

Joker's interest was piqued. "How?"

"Caroline, Justine. If you would."

"Yes Master," they said in synch before Justine flipped through her clipboard.

"Just remember that this isn't mandatory. Consider it...a test of strength."

That confused Joker more than anything, considering that Igor just said he could wield his power better should he do this, but he was too intrigued as Justine now found the paper.

It was a request: have a Jack Frost with Mabufu.

"Oh."

That was easy enough. He had kept a Jack Frost during Madarame's Palace as Rogue had wanted him to keep it, citing "It's just like you. Cool but cute, or frosty and fun. Take your pick". So he ended up keeping it for a while and raised it to max until he used it to make Eligor, letting him have a strong debuffer. Yes, he knew his sister was joking, but he got quite fond of the little fellow because of that. So all he had to do was resummon it from the Compendium.

Though as he showed his Jack Frost and the twins now offered a new fusion method, a thought came to mind.

"What about my sister? If she has Personas you want, will you count it?"

"What? Of course not! This challenge is for you, so you have to do it," Caroline said.

"She may still fuse them regardless of course. We will not bar her from creating such a thing."

Joker frowned. He didn't like that...even if he understood their reason.

"Does that mean she won't have access to triple fusion?"

"Well..."

Their hesitation was all the answer he needed.

"Then either give her a different request or give me another one that'll let her use it."

Caroline stared. "What? You'd take another challenge for her?"

"Of course. She's my sister. I would do anything for her."

And it wasn't fair he got the new service while she didn't.

For some reason, that seemed to shock the twins. He was about to ask why, then continue negotations, when the two shared a look before Caroline said,

"W-Well...if doing this for your sister is going to motivate you...then I guess we can also allow her to use the new services we give you even if she hadn't completed a corresponding challenge..."

"But remember that your tasks will increase in difficulty as you complete them."

Joker nodded. "As long as you help my sister too."

"Then it is a deal."

I am thou, thou art I. Thou hast acquired a new vow. It shall be the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity. With the birth of the Strength Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power.

Hmm? XI? Why does it have the same number as Hunger...?

But that could wait. With that Confidant established, Joker left the Velvet Room, a bit irritated that they wouldn't have let Rogue use that new fusion method had he not negotiated with them. He had thought they wanted to help both of them since they were both inmates.

Unsurprisingly though, his sister noticed his irritation and as they were about to warp into the safe room, she leaned close to him and whispered,

"Somethin' wrong?"

And Joker sighed and explained what happened.

"What?"

They paused as they were teleported inside. Once they got their bearings, Joker said,

"Mmmhmm. I get what they were thinking, but...I wish I didn't need to do that."

"You said it. I thought they were helpin' both of us with our rehabilitation," she said. "Whatever that means."

Agreed. But he said, "Let's just leave it at that, okay? The problem is solved and now we have another to deal with."

Rogue looked ready to protest, but just sighed and said, "Fine. Let's go."

"Finally, you're done..." Skull said.

"Oy! We're doin' important wild card stuff, I'll have you know!" Rogue said as they all got in formation to continue their infiltration.

(A)

It took a bit, but after going through various halls and rooms, including a monitor room, they were able to take down the cameras leading to the security room opposite the locked vault door. It was good timing too as when they neared the room, the two guards had the brilliant idea of talking out loud, clueing them in on the two keys for the vault door.

"Do you think you can steal it from him, Joker?" Queen whispered. "Or Rogue or Mona?"

"No," Joker said, low as well. "It's likely an enemy drop."

"Yes. We won't find it just by searching."

"Enemy drop...?"

"Really? You've never played a video game...?" Rogue said, equally surprised and unsurprised.

She was glad Queen looked sheepish about it rather than annoyed over not playing much before she said,

"Then that means we have to defeat them, yes?"

Rogue and her brother nodded.

"Then let's use the monitor room to lure one away. There was communication equipment we can use."

"Everyone fine with that?"

The rest gave their quiet affirmatives.

"All right. Rogue?" Joker said.

She knew what he wanted. "You got it."

When they were at the monitor room, she was the one to speak into the comms, saying in as close of an imitation of the guards as she could,

"Intruders! Requesting backup of one to cut them off!"

"All right! Now we just gotta wait for 'im," Skull said, excited.

Queen, however, was curious. "You can imitate others' voices?"

Rogue grinned. "Yup. Real handy when me and Big Bro wanted to pull off switching pranks."

"Why am I not surprised you would do that...?" Panther said, unamused.

Joker snickered.

"I see... I guess that's one reason Fantôme is your first Persona..."

"Oh? Figured out he's my first, Queen?" Rogue said, impressed as she checked her own gear.

"It's the only one of your selection that is an outlier. All the others are some sort of being or creature from mythology that could reflect you in some way, but doesn't have the same cohesion you share with Fantôme."

"Huh. Nice. You'd make good competition for a detective, Queen."

To her astonishment, their new advisor seemed upset by her compliment. Rogue would've apologized had her brother not said,

"Here they come! Everyone to their positions!"

She and the others did as told before springing into action. Before long, the light blue oni was taken down and its key dropped. Not wanting the other guard to notice their compatriot taking too long, they quickly went back to security room to fight another purple oni, where they got the other key, as well as another schematic of the Palace. By that point, she had forgetten the unintentional offense as they unlocked the vault door to reveal...

"Dude... There's money all over the floor..." Skull said.

...an office-like space filled with money at the bottom floor, looking almost like a green sea.

It pissed her off.

"So he took all of this from the weak."

And she felt from their link that it made Joker sick.

So she was glad Queen said, "He's going to pay for this."

And she and Joker couldn't help but laugh in amusement and disbelief.

Of course, Queen glared at them for their outburst and said, "What do you find so funny?"

They panicked and stood at attention.

"Uh, we're just laughin' at your pun is all!"

Joker nodded vigorously.

That placated the queen as she turned confused. "Pun?"

Joker said, "You said, to Kaneshiro, someone who is obssessed with money, that you'd 'make him pay'."

Queen stared.

Now everyone else was showing their amusement, chuckling, smiling or otherwise.

It was mostly concealed, but Rogue could see a bit of a blush on Queen's face. "T-That was completely unintentional."

Joker smirked. "Still a pun."

"L-Let's just get going now!"

"Yes Queen!" Skull and Mona said.

That caused a new, but thankfully brief, bout of laughter before she and her brother finally settled to continue their exploration.

The office area's layout wasn't that complex, making it easy to find the second Will Seed as they did the usual: sneak around, beat enemies if they couldn't avoid them, and recruit them if they hadn't gotten them before, getting items and such from destroying the every vase they found along the way.

Soon they found the elevator in the map that led to a large room, where they could faintly hear Kaneshiro speaking with someone in front of yet another elevator, the one the map indicated led to the deepest part of the Palace.

"It's hard to hear from here..." Skull said quietly as they overlooked the Palace ruler speaking with a guard.

"Do you think you can snipe him, Rogue?" Queen said.

"Well, I could try, but I don't think it'd do much."

"Yeah, I don't think so either," Panther said.

"Why not? It's a perfect opportunity to incapacitate him so we can capture and interrogate him."

"He's a boss! One shot's not gonna take him down unless it's a broken attack!" Skull said, "whisper-shouting".

"But we won't know until we try, right?"

Skull groaned. Rogue, however, looked at Joker, silently asking his opinion. Her brother contemplated it for a moment then nodded. She returned it then took out her rifle.

"All right. I'll give it a shot," she said, pun fully intended.

Joker briefly smiled as she expected before he said, serioud, "Just be ready in case this gets messy, everyone."

"You gotta be kiddin' me!" Skull said, but nonetheless brandished his weapon along everyone else.

Rogue laid down on the floor, took a deep breath and then looked through her scope. With steadied hands, she aimed for the kneecap of the Shadow...and pulled the trigger.

BANG.

Tchink!

"The hell?!"

"Intruders!"

"Queen! Charge!"

"Roger, Joker!"

The rider summoned her bike and flew off the balcony, crashing right into the yellow guard. The Shadow yelped but before Queen could even move closer to Kaneshiro, the guard grabbed Johanna's rear wheel. With Queen now busy, Kaneshiro attempted to get to the elevator.

"Oh no you don't!"

Rogue lunged at him from the balcony. But instead of tackling the plump man, she yelped as she was swat away.

"Rogue!" her brother said.

"I'm fine!" she said before groaning as she got up.

"Y-You bastards!" Kaneshiro said and she reflexively flinched. "How did you get this far?! What about my security?!"

There was a crash and she saw that the yellow guard Queen had run over had split into three onis—one blue, one purple, and one gold—and put themselves between them and Kaneshiro and the elevator, which explained why Rogue got batted away.

"Sorry, but that shit's a piece of cake for us!" Skull said, ready to kick butt.

Fox said, "...I wouldn't say it was that simple..."

"H-Hey, finish off these vermin! Keep them away from the elevator at all costs!"

"Got it, Boss!" all three said, the blue and purple onis brandishing their weapons while the tall gold one banged its fists.

"Everyone! Be on your guard!"

She and the others shouted their affirmatives.

Unfortunately, though it wasn't that hard of a fight, taking advantage of mental status effects once again on the new enemy type, by the time they finished, the ruler had escaped.

"Grr, damnit. I hate that he took off while we were fightin'..."

"You can say that again..." Rogue said, the weight of all the running around today crashing down on her as she groaned and nearly fell over.

"You all right?" Panther and Joker said.

"Yeah, I'm fine... Just tired."

That fact ticked her off a bit. They've already dealt with two Palaces and plenty of Mementos missions and still she's the first one to feel fatigued. Not even Queen, their newest member, looked that tired. Though, then again, she was a practitioner of aikido so maybe that was a given...but still, it annoyed her. Was her low stamina a physical problem or was it actually a cognitive one? She didn't know.

Not wanting to dwell on that, she said, "More importantly, what's that?"

"It's a journal," Fox said as he picked it up. "It seems he left it in his haste."

"What's in it then?" Skull said.

Everyone neared the artist as he flipped it open, though each step for her took more effort than it should have. Rogue saw most of the pages were nonsense, or rather about things like transactions and stuff that she didn't want to bother with due to their implications, until Fox landed on one particular page.

"R equals C equals zero, I equals one, H equals two..." Fox read aloud. "What does this mean?"

"The pages afterward have been torn as well. Could it be a code of some sorts?" Queen mused.

"Then we're keeping it. It could help us with the rest of the Palace," Joker said, Fox handing the journal to him at his words.

"Are we going to keep going then, Joker?" Mona said, eyeing her.

Rogue's eye twitched and she glowered at him. "What?"

Before the cat could react, her brother said, "We'll go down the elevator and see if there's a safe room,"

And so they did just that.

As they descended in the elevator, it was then she noticed the music was...actually quite good. What sounded like bag pipes playing for the chorus had her bopping her head to the melody. She ignored the fact that somehow the mind of such a twisted man made such a catchy tune. It was a bit of a consolation that Joker also found it very good, vibing with the music alongside her despite its origin.

They were thrown off their grooves when Mona said,

"Hey, look...!"

She, her brother and the rest of the gang followed the not-cat's suggestion and gasped.

"W-What the hell?! Are these all vaults?!" Skull said.

What the hell indeed.

Below them was a large circular room, one that rivalled any sports stadium and then some, filled to the brim with rings upon rings of vaults. The only thing that "seperated" each ring was the hallway inbetween that allowed passage into the vaults and the retrieval of their contents.

"Just how messed up is this guy?!"

"Very," Joker said, grave.

"We're supposed to check all of them for the Treasure?!" Panther said.

"I sure hope not," Rogue said. "There's gotta be like some records or something for this place we could look at. No way Kaneshiro remembers all of this stuff."

"Hey, maybe that notebook has them?"

Joker shook his head. "I don't think so. Even though they're clearly recording his transactions, it's too small and not professional enough to be actual records."

The fire and lightning specialists groaned at this.

Their nuclear advisor however mumbled,

"Hold on, this distinct shape... Could it be...?"

Fox said, "What's the matter?"

"If my prediction is correct, we won't need to check all the small vaults."

"Really?!" the blonds said.

"That is, I hope," Queen said. "I'll explain why once I've confirmed my theory."

Rogue and Joker couldn't help but chuckle at the two becoming dejected again, Fox unperturbed the whole time, while Mona said,

"I seriously hope so too..."

To their luck, there was a safe room beside the elevator. What also was nearby though...

"Huh? What's this?" Skull said.

...was some sort of number pad.

As soon as the blond neared it, the device said,

"The lock is currently engaged. Please enter the requisite PIN."

To say the least, they quickly guessed the PIN thanks to Panther's knowledge of English. She easily read that the plaque above the number pad had "RICH" on it while Queen's smarts meant she remembered that all those letters were on the journal earlier. So Joker typed in zero-one-zero-two and the vaults moved like a shoji, revealing a gap that allowed them into the next hallway. And that wasn't the only thing it revealed...

"Money... I need more money... I must get richer! As long as I'm rich, anything is possible..."

"That voice! It's Kaneshiro! Is he watching us?"

"That doesn't seem to be the case. It sounds more like the voice of his heart. I guess all he thinks about is money after all."

"So he blackmails people outta their money and it's still not enough? What a douche..."

Well, now they knew that this definitely would help them progress further and they knew what to look for if they needed more clues for later PINs. So with that, they left the Palace, with plans to go two days from now, tomorrow being reserved for rest.

She and Ren agreed they would still get Ms. Kawakami's meal ready tonight and call her despite their exhaustion. They could only imagine how tired she was compared to them.

[G]

Akechi sighed in relief that the shoot earlier finished. As much as he appreciated his popularity increasing, the last thing he wanted was any breaks in his image of "Detective Prince", and being late to school was one such tarnish. But if he was early, that meant...

He smiled.

...ah yes, as expected, Akira and Amamiya-kun were there. Perhaps he could play up his fatigue to gain their sympathy. At the very least, he knew they would joke about it with him, whether it be good ones or not, and that would endear him more to—

He frowned.

Upon closer observation, their heads were hung lower than usual, their gazes were downcast and—two signs that were most telling—their cat was risking being spotted to comfort them, with the typical shine in Akira's eyes now dull.

"Are you all right?" he said as soon as he stood beside them.

He was thrilled to see Akira smile at him despite her mood, but the fact that it was one tinged with concern irritated him, unwanted memories coming to the forefront that he had to beat down and lock away again as she said, her tone unfortunately matching her expression,

"Hey, Akechi..."

"Is something at school bothering you again?"

He swore if those stupid teachers and students kept going on with their inane inadequacies, he'd—

"Uh...well..."

Akira glanced at her brother, seemingly asking something with just a look as he nodded and then she said,

"Our...teacher collapsed last night. We visited last night and thought she'd stay and rest, but she was discharged this morning and well..."

"You worry she will collapse again," Akechi said, finishing for Akira when she lost her energy.

"Uh huh. We're trying to think of how to get her to stop but, well..." She gave a hollow laugh. "...she's almost as stubborn as us..."

"I see... I'm sorry to hear that. I hope she recovers," he said by default.

He wasn't sure exactly why this would upset them—no, actually he did. They worried for her health. What he didn't understand was why they were going so far.

But the reason didn't matter to Akechi.

What mattered was that they were upset.

Perfect chance to cheer her up.

Let's cheer her up. She needs it.

And he had a free afternoon.

So he said, "Perhaps we could spend some time together this afternoon? Maybe you can come up with something if you get your mind off of it for a bit."

As he hoped, some of Akira's shine returned in her eyes.

"Yeah sure. I'd like that. What about you Big Bro? Wanna hang with us?"

At this, the older Amamiya smiled for the first time since he arrived. "No, I won't. I was planning on checking with Kawakami. See if I can convince her to at least take it easy, and you know we have no idea how long that will take."

Akira nodded. "All right." Then she said to him, "See ya this afternoon then?"

Akechi smiled. "See you this afternoon."

As if on cue, the train arrived just then and the siblings, after Akira gave him a chocolate of course, boarded their line to their school.

Akechi, however, still had about a minute until his arrived and he ruminated while he looked at the snack in his hand, deliberating on how he would spend the coming afternoon with Akira.

{R}

"See ya at home, Big Bro!"

"See you at home, Aki. Enjoy your time," he said, smiling fondly.

"You bet I will!" his sister said as she rushed as fast as she could without causing much of a ruckus.

With that farewell and Aki occupied, he made his way to the faculty room, hoping Kawakami would still be there. Thankfully, she was indeed in the faculty room, and the few others that were there were busy with papers. Despite knocking on the doorframe and asking for her to let Kawakami know he was here without surprising her, his teacher was startled by his appearance and said,

"What are you doing here?!"

"I have something to ask," he said normally before lowering his voice. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm... I already told you, I'm fine. They wouldn't have discharged me in the morning if I wasn't."

Ren wasn't amused. "And you could get worse again afterwards if you push yourself."

As much as he regretted making Kawakami flinch and ashamed, the last thing he wanted was...was seeing her in a hospital bed for even worse reasons than just collapsing from exhaustion.

"About that...I need to talk to you to tonight. Could you...?"

"Only if you promise not to do anything else between the end of school and when I do your favor."

She turned wide-eyed, and Ren could feel her irritatation and worry.

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

She kept up her annoyed look but still sighed and said, "Fine. Just this once."

"Promise?"

"... Promise.

Ren nodded, satisfied. "I'll see you later then, Ms. Kawakami. Thank you," he said and left, relieved it didn't take too long.

"I hope she keeps her promise," Mona said.

"Me too."

But now he unexpectedly had his afternoon free.

They still had enough supplies for another trip, so he didn't need to do anything for their trip tomorrow. Perhaps he could spend some time with the others if they were free? ...Though it was probably best he didn't do anything with Ryuji. He wanted to rest his muscles, not exhaust them, and he knew his friend would likely want to take the opportunity to exercise despite yesterday.

"Hey Ren."

"Lady Ann!"

Ren jerked from the sudden call but turned to the blonde with a smile and said,

"Hello Ann."

Well, at least until he noted the concerned look as she said, unsure,

"Are... Are you all right?"

"Yes. I'm fine," he said, confused.

Ann wasn't convinced. "You're sure? You looked...pretty down when you came in this morning."

Oh... That was what this was about.

Ren smiled again. "I'm fine. I'm just worried for Ms. Kawakami and wanted to check on her, that's all."

"Ms. Kawakami? Well, I did notice she seemed more tired than usual, and that's saying something with what she's usually like...but is it really that bad?"

He frowned at the reminder. "Yes, it is. She collapsed last night from exhaustion," he said, low and unthinking.

"What? Really?" Ann said, astonished.

He nodded. "That's why I wanted to check. Thankfully, she's fine, and she promised to rest." For the afternoon anyway...

The blonde sighed in relief. "So that's why you were worried..." she said. But them she eyed him. "Wait, how did you know she collapsed?"

It was only then did Ren realize his slip.

Damn it.

He was grateful Mona was still with him.

"The reason why is private between Ms. Kawakami, him and Akira, Lady Ann."

"Huh? Akira? She knows about this too?"

Ren nodded. "I...can explain a bit somewhere else, but not much. I promised Ms. Kawakami not to tell anyone without her permission. That's what I did to let Aki know."

"Oh, okay..." Ann said, a bit disappointed as she glanced in the general direction of the teacher's room. "I hope she gets better soon."

Ren expression turned flat. "I'll make sure she will if she doesn't."

For some reason, Ann giggled in amusement at his look, but before he could give much thought to it, she said,

"Speaking of getting better...do you want to come with me to see Shiho?"

Ren smiled and nodded. "Sure."

"Then I'll be leaving you two then."

Oh right. Hospital rules.

"Sorry Mona," Ren said.

"It's fine. Wish Suzui well for me. I'll see you back at Leblanc."

Once they were in a less conspicuous spot, the not-cat left Ren's bag and the two left for the hospital, where Suzui greeted Ann with yet another tease that Ren couldn't help but capitalize on, to the blonde's chagrin. Despite that, they had fun as they continued where they left off, as well as spoke of new topics, mainly how they both made a new friend in Makoto.

He wasn't the only one having fun though.

After they left the hospital and he parted ways with Ann, by the time he arrived at Leblanc, he saw Aki and Akechi were still up in their room, his sister laughing freely and her friend smiling fondly.

(A)

"I'll be the teacher I aspire to be... That's the right way for me to amends to Takase-kun.

"...from now on, I'm going to protect you too, the both of you. As your teacher, I'll never betray you.

"I'm not going to run anymore. Everything should be fine as long as I talk to them face to face."

Akira smiled, recalling last night as she dug into her lunch with the others, Makoto and Ryuji talking about healthy meals and why the faux-blond didn't seem to make it a regular thing despite his knowledge on food. She was glad Ms. Kawakami changed her mind from switching to a more "suspicious" high paying job to now focus on becoming a better teacher. It lifted her spirits to see Ren happy about it. The worrywart was going to get grey hairs sooner with all the worrying he did. That was likely why Ms. Kawakami asked for Ren earlier, to tell them as soon as possible, because calling both of them would raise suspicions.

But then she felt a stab of distress from one of her links and she frowned, taking a bit to identify which of them it came from.

Big Bro...?

Something bad must have happened while he was with Ms. Kawakami. But what?

"Akira? Are you all right?" Ann said, concerned.

So was Makoto. "Is something wrong?"

It was only a quick burst of distress, so it could literally be anything from stubbing a toe to a variety of serious problems. But with him meeting Ms. Kawakami...

"Just bad feeling," she said.

It was hard enough explaining the Velvet Room. How much more for their Confidant abilities?

"Bad feeling...?"

As if on cue, Ren arrived at their spot in the courtyard, his face particularly blank.

Akira glowered. So that was why it was brief.

"Spill it, Big Bro."

"Ren? What's wrong?" Ann said.

Her brother was startled at their responses as everyone else also turned concerned.

"Uh, well..."

"Don't make me sic Ann on you," she said, half-serious, half-joking.

"What? Me?"

As she hoped, Ren was astonished for a moment before he laughed softly at her words. With that, his blank mask was off, showing the incredibly worried, and guilt filled, young man she knew as her brother.

"Well..." he said, then retold what happened.

"Motherfuckers!"

"Those effin' assholes!"

Makoto looked ready to chastise them for their cursing, but thankfully, instead she said,

"Did you happen to get their first names?"

Ren nodded. "But..."

"But what dude? Let's change their hearts already!" Ryuji said.

"Yeah. Ms. Kawakami will be in trouble if we don't," Ann said.

"But...we were supposed to continue our 'outing' today."

"Then if we want to still finish on time that accounts for unknown factors as well as do this request, it's best we don't take break days inbetween," Makoto said.

"Yeah! Let's do that. What do you say guys?"

"If it means we can change those assholes hearts, then sure. I'll keep my schedule free."

"Me too."

"See? I told you," Mona said, finally popping up. "Your team will back you up on this."

"We just need Yusuke's approval and then we can go," Makoto said.

Akira couldn't help but smirk as her brother stared at disbelief at all of them for a bit, then he smiled.

"Thank you everyone."

"Hey! It's no problem at all!"

With that, using the last minutes of lunch break to call up Yusuke to finalize their change of plans and having Mona send a calling card during classes, once school ended, they were in Mementos, looking for the Takases. They had a bit of a discussion over the Monamobile's driver seeing as Queen actually had experience driving and a license, even if it was just for motorcycles, but Rogue still really wanted to drive. Thankfully, that was resolved quickly enough, their advisor assigned to drive the Monamobile during Palaces, while she drove it in Mementos. The only time Queen could take over was in case of emergencies.

"So this is Mementos...?" said their advisor.

"Yes. We'll can explain more next time and introduce you to Jose if we run into him, but for now..."

"We're gettin' those leeches' hearts," Rogue said.

It was just their luck that they were close to the current bottom of Mementos. Although it seemed to worry Joker somewhat it was both of them together, she and the others reassured him they could deal with two bosses in one fight.

"Our team's bigger now that Queen's here, 'member?"

"Yeah! Let's wipe those smug looks off their faces."

And with that, they stepped close and—

"Money, money, mo—"

Bang!

"—ah!"

"What the hell, Joker?!" Skull said for the rest of them.

Rogue had been more surprised her brother had aimed for the ground near their targets instead of the Shadows themselves.

She wasn't much better off, knashing her teeth and clenching her fists as she barely restrained her urges. She really wanted to smash their heads together.

Fantôme growled. "Truly wretched performers..."

Her brother holstered his pistol and just said, tone cold, "We're here to change your hearts, Toshio and Harumi Takase, for your crime of extorting from Ms. Kawakami."

"Huh? Change our hearts...? Wait, you are guys those phantom thieves? Ha! That teacher is so worthless! She should be happy to be a source of income for us."

"She's not worthless!" Joker shouted.

The others were startled.

"Joker..." Panther said with worry.

"Shut up! I was going to use what happened to my son to get back at people!" Mr. Takase said before he and his wife turned into sludge...

...and reformed to two familiar figures.

"Wait...a fairy king and queen? Don't tell me..."

She shared a look with her brother.

"Oberon and Titania."

"I don't like your attitude!" the former said.

"Take them down!" the latter said.

"Everyone! Dodge!"

The team avoided the swings and gusts of the king and queen respecitvely.

But other than that, with hers and Joker's familiarity with Midsummer Night's Dream, it was easy enough to already have a narrow set of weaknesses to guess from and they quickly found themselves right. Before long, the two were almost out, stunned from their weaknesses constantly being targetted, but instead of an All-Out Attack, Joker said,

"Rogue! Showtime!"

Even though she wasn't told what it meant, she could easily guess the intent.

She smirked. "Oh it's on!"

And they both jumped and said in tandem,

"Arsène!"

"Fantôme!"

"As you command!"

Once again, light and dark collided in the center of their enemies.

When they landed, the Takases were done, back in their human forms and, well...

"You're looking down on me too? Deep down inside, you're laughing at me, aren't you...? Name brands... Esthetic appointments... Without them, people will laugh..."

...were rather pitiful, really.

"Do we look like we're in the mood for jokes?" said Joker of all people.

Rogue would've snorted at the irony had he been in any other mood.

The Takases stared at her brother as if only just realizing the truth.

"Oh... You're right... You don't look like you're laughing..."

"You're angry instead..."

"Angry doesn't begin to cover it."

"We're terrible human beings... Our son, Taiki, and his real parents were different... They were high level elites to this big corporation... Always looking at us coldly."

"Was that true?"

"Huh?"

"I said, was that true?" Joker said. "You thought we were laughing at you when we weren't. Were they really looking at you coldly?"

"That's..." Mr. Takase said.

Mrs. Takase answered. "No... Thinking on it, I don't think they were... I don't they ever did."

Mr. Takase sighed. "And Taiki was a good kid..."

"Now will you stop being so obsessed with money and trends? Will you stop extorting from Kawakami?"

"Yes... Yes we will..."

"That was probably the real reason everyone looked down on us..."

With that, they faded into light and left behind a tiny Treasure. Joker took it to reveal a whip of some kind, one Panther could easily use, before he turned to her and their team.

"Thanks everyone," he said.

Skull said, "Hey, how many times we gotta say this? It's no problem."

"Exactly. We're in this as a team."

"We completed the mission and saved another person."

"Yeah. And I'm glad you were able to give them a piece of your mind," Panther said.

"And quite a passionate piece it was. I dared not interrupt it."

Rogue laughed. "Well, this is my big brother we're talkin' about. He's pretty much a drama queen."

Joker also laughed before he took a deep bow and gave a suave smile. "I do my best."

And they all shared a laugh at their leader's antics, Rogue glad he was feeling much better now.

There was just one more thing she wanted to make sure with him.

After they exited the Metaverse, on their way home, she said, "You know Ms. Kawakami's gonna figure it out, right?"

"Yes."

"So you trust her?"

Ren smiled, looking ahead. "Yes."

Akira smiled, looking forward. "Just makin' sure."

"But that did little to stop people from making requests on the Phan-Site, some of them saying their lives were indeed changed by them. It also did little to draw the attention of most people in Tokyo, going about their lives. It was just one of many rumors that circulated around the internet and the city.

Author's Notes: Why is Strength started so late in Refraction? Simple. I forgot about when it was supposed to start. :V And since I didn't want to outright rewrite those earlier chapters...that's why it's only starting right now. Hopefully the Jack Frost thing isn't too convenient of solving immediately as I wasn't really in the mood to rewrite an older scene either to include a Jack Frost just to foreshadow for this. So I did the next best thing, which luckily for me is possible in P5R: Jack Frost being a component to fuse into Eligor, which is a Persona I did have Joker use before, during the Madarame fight, for those who forgot.

Yes. I just had to reference "Price" for the dungeon. I couldn't help it. It's just so good! Plus I sorta wanted to comment about the fact that we get good music to places that I'm "annoyed" have good music.