The Nav informed the team that they had returned to the real world and thanked them for their hard work. But thanks weren't what any of them wanted right now.

"Ryuji!?" Ann called out, desperate for an answer from the blond boy.

As expected, there was none.

"He didn't... make it out..." Haru confirmed, verbalising what they had each been dreading, making the whole thing feel a whole lot more real than it had mere moments before.

"We gotta go back!" Futaba cried. It was fruitless, of course, they all knew that; but none of them stopped holding onto hope that it might be possible, even as Morgana told them it was not. Once a Palace collapsed, there was no going back. They all knew this, but even so...

Ren frantically rummaged through his pockets to find his phone, fumbling with the group's crucial tool and damn near dropping the thing, but he managed to remain just composed enough to keep it from falling. He opened up the Nav, even knowing there was no chance it could connect to Shido's Palace again, but he was desperate enough to try anyway.

As always, the Palace was no longer in the directory. Shido's Palace was gone. And so was Ryuji.

"No," he mumbled. "No no no no, FUCK!" He spiked his phone directly into the pavement, shattering the screen. His now empty hands ran themselves through his hair without conscious direction, so little else they could do but animate Ren's frustration at his own powerlessness. He had a special ability that only ten people, to his knowledge, possessed, and his was special even among them. But even with all that power, there wasn't a goddamn thing he could do in face of what had happened to Ryuji.

Ren was so caught up in this overwhelming stream of thoughts that he barely noticed Futaba crying. Any other day, he would be the first to comfort her, wrap her up in his arms and tell her whatever she needed to hear to make the tears stop. But tonight, it fell to Makoto to put aside her own grief to comfort the group's youngest member.

Ren was the team's rock, ever composed and ready with the exact right words to embolden them, to encourage them, to comfort them. But that rock was crumbling under the immense weight of this tragic outcome, and his friends were being dragged down with him, his own distress only highlighting to each of them exactly how similarly they all felt.

Yusuke let out a quiet, disbelieving laugh, hoping this was all some poor-taste practical joke. He found Shido's treasure on the floor - a legislator's pin, according to Makoto. But for once, none of them cared to contemplate what the treasure's form revealed about the Palace ruler.

"The last thing I said to him was an insult," Morgana mumbled from the pavement, his feline legs drained all energy to keep him upright. "He gave his life to save us and the last thing he heard from me was me calling him stupid. I really haven't changed since October. I'm so pathetic..."

Haru stepped closer and lifted Morgana into her arms. She cradled the cat creature and tried her best to make him feel better, all the while her own tears cascaded down into his matted fur.

"We never showed him h-how much we appreciated him," Ann cried. "A-And now, he'll never kn-know. We were terrible friends!" Ann began wailing into her hands.

No more words were left to be said. Ann was right and they all knew it. Each one of their minds raced with times they had put Ryuji down, done nothing to prevent such, or left him to some horrible fate. And now, as Ann said, they would never get the chance to say they were sorry.

"Maaaaaan, that was close..." said a loud, alienly familiar voice from nearby. "For real, though, why do Palaces gotta explode so much? Can't they disappear normally?"

Ren turned, barely able to believe what his ears were alleging, and his eyes appeared to be conspiring with them to feed him the same lie. There was no way he could be here.

Right?

But, despite how impossible it seemed, no matter how much his brain told him that Ryuji was gone, there he stood, ignorantly looking at them all as they mourned his passing. Before he could stop to think, Ren's legs had carried him the short distance between them and his arms had wrapped themselves around the blond in what had to be the most intense showcase of emotion any of the team had ever seen from their leader. He buried his face against Ryuji's shoulder, the fabric only spared from getting soaked by the vanity glasses Ren used to mask how he was feeling. When the discomfort began to get to him, he tore them from his face like his Joker mask and they joined his broken phone on the ground.

Futaba and Haru were quick to join Ren in hugging Ryuji, Haru taking his other side and Futaba wrapping her arms around his waist. Even Morgana, still clutched tightly in Haru's arms, did his best to hug his teammate with his tiny feline appendages. Ann grabbed him from behind and planted a relief-filled kiss on his cheek. There was no room for Yusuke and Makoto with the other five swarmed around Ryuji, but that was fine by them. Makoto was happy to let the others show their appreciation for him first, while Yusuke was visually taking in every second of it as reference material for a new art piece he was already anxious to get home and work on.

"What's, uh... What's up?" Ryuji asked, cheeks burning, confused by the sudden display of emotion.

"We thought you were dead," Makoto explained, probing for answers everyone else wanted but were unable to ask for.

"What!?" Ryuji seemed shocked by the assumption that he had been killed in the explosion. "Naw, I got blasted out from the explosion. When I woke up, I was lyin' on the grass over there. Had ta hop the fence ta get out here." He looked over his silent friends, eyes resting on Ann, her head resting on his shoulder and making it damp with her tears. "What's this? Your cryin' face is so not cute."

"Sh-Shut up!" Ann exclaimed. "It's your damn fault, you du- dumbass..." Her voice softened as she lost the energy to be mad at him. "Why'd you have to worry us like that?"

"You guys were... worried?" His gaze shifted back to his front, where Ren stood. "Even you, man?"

Ren pulled his head away and fixed Ryuji with a glare through his waterlogged grey eyes. "Of course we were worried. You're my best friend! How could I not worry when you..." For what felt like the first time ever, Ren simply did not have the words.

"Hey, what are you kids doing over there?" One of the security guards from the Diet Building's front gate approached the group.

Ren snapped his head the man's way suddenly and fixed him with a hellish glare. "Fuck off, buddy, this doesn't concern you."

"Ren!" Makoto squeaked in absolute shock. "W-We're really sorry, sir. We'll be going now." With a bow of unearned respect, she picked up Ren's phone and glasses and began shuffling the others away from the site.

They moved to the diner in Shibuya. The team hadn't gone there together since Yusuke had first joined them back in May. How long ago that now seemed... While it was a tight squeeze, the seven-plus-cat managed to fit into a single booth, Ryuji sat on one side with Ren and Futaba at either side of him, while the others managed to find room on the opposite side.

They would have gone to Leblanc, but they had had a long, rough evening and they would much rather go somewhere closer and then head home for the night. While there was some concern that Ren might be spotted, even with his hood up, he didn't give a damn. Shido was finished, and they had a great victory to celebrate.

While Makoto called over a waitress, Ren's phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out, amazed, to find that the screen was no longer shattered. In fact, it seemed as good as new, perfectly smooth as Ren ran his thumb over the screen. A notification informed him of a new message from an unknown number. He opened it.

"Our master went to great pains to provide you with a method of rehabilitation, Inmate. You would be wise not to literally throw his generosity away. - C&J"

A second notification popped from the same number: "However, the strength of your bond with your companion is commendable. We will let you off the hook this one time. - J&C"

Ren smiled as he put his newly restored phone away. His glasses, meanwhile, were not so lucky. Those would need to be replaced. Luckily, unlike Futaba's, these were just for show. But those could wait, either way.

"Shall we toast?" Makoto asked up the arrival of their drinks.

"Ooh, let's!" Haru agreed enthusiastically.

"To another mission accomplished," Morgana proposed.

"To justice for Ren," Ann counter-proposed.

"That stuff doesn't matter," Ren interjected, once again surprising his friends. "To Ryuji, the best damn wingman a guy could ask for."

"The best friend a man could ask for," Yusuke added.

"Girls too," Ann clarified with a wink.

"I agree!" Haru chimed in.

"Well, I'd call that a unanimous decision," Makoto smiled. "You're the hero of the hour, Ryuji."

"N-Naw, I really didn't do much."

"Ryuji, you literally saved all of us," Ann replied, slightly annoyed. "We wouldn't be here to celebrate if you hadn't done what you did."

"I mean... I guess. But I wouldn'ta' had the confidence an' practice ta go for it without Ren helpin' me out all year."

"Don't bring me into this," Ren chuckled, smiling again for the first time since they'd headed into the Palace. "This is your moment, buddy. Really, you saved us all back there, and you can be damn sure none of us are gonna take you for granted again."

"Aw, c'mon, you guys're-" Ryuji's eyes met Ren's and he saw the conviction within them. He really did mean every word.

"I'm sorry for how I always treat you, Ryuji," Morgana said from Ren's bag, head hung in shame.

"We all are," Futaba added, equally ashamed.

The others remained silent.

"Guys, really, it ain't that big a deal," Ryuji assured them. "I do dumb stuff sometimes, so you guys still bein' my friends tells me you ain't that serious most a' the time. Honest, it really don't bother me."

"Is Ryuji actually the most mature one here?" Ann asked in astonishment.

"We narrowly avoided losing a crucial part of our group today," Ren said.

"Am I really that useful to the Phantom Thieves?"

"I wasn't talking about that group, Ryuji. As useful as you are as Skull - and you definitely are - you matter a hell of a lot more to us as Ryuji Sakamoto." Ren put an arm around Ryuji and pulled him in for a hug. "I love you, brother."

Ryuji grinned. "I love you too, man."

"I love you like a brother too, Ryuji!" Futaba claimed.

"Why ya gotta say it like that?"

As the group split up for the night, Ryuji and Makoto were the last two together waiting for their respective trains. As they waited in the mostly deserted station, Makoto turned to Ryuji and cleared her throat.

"Hey, Ryuji. I just wanted to say that... I know I can be what you might call a 'hardass' with you, especially when it comes to studying... But I want you to know that I only do that because I want you to succeed and have the best life you possibly can."

"Huh? Yeah, I knew that already."

"Oh. That's good. It's just... I know I don't have the best approach to doing that, so I wanted to say that I'm sorry for that. And I-"

Makoto's train of tough derailed as her actual train pulled into the station. Mind aflurry with too many words that might convey what she wanted to say, her body took over for her overheating brain. She stood on her tiptoes and gave Ryuji a quick peck on the cheek. As the blond boy blushed and reached up to touch the impacted area, Makoto hurriedly stepped onto the train, hoping he wouldn't see how much she was blushing as well.

Deciding that her message mattered more than her pride, she turned back and smiled broadly. "I'm glad you're alive, Ryuji. I didn't realise how important a part of my life you were before and... maybe it's inappropriate of me to say, but... I also love you."

"L-Like a brother, right?"

Makoto averted her gaze and smiled cutely as the doors closed between them.

"F...For real?"

So, it's Akechi's birthday, huh? Well, fuck him, let's celebrate the actual best boy of P5 and you're wrong if you disagree.

I reached THAT scene in my latest playthrough (Ren is dating Ann, the only true choice aside from Kawakami) and finally came up with an angle to approach the scene from with Ren's unusually emotional outburst. So, I once again prove myself better at writing than Atlus. A monumental feat, I assure you.