First Mate Violet: Hello students, another chapter?! Like, this is the fastest I've ever written for a fandom! Not even my Supergirl fics get this much attention! I guess this gal is enjoying this little arc. Class is now in session!

Persona V: Reversing the Wheel of Fate
Chapter Fifty-Three

[Opening Scene: Brothel of Fraud - Shōgi no Kinboshi Club
Theme of Reversed Arcana: Silence from Revalations: Persona]

The male cognitions ran out of the building as the Phantom Thieves stared at Hifumi, who dropped her arm and let her blade scrape against the ground.

'Arsène? Is this another "Reversed Arcana" situation?' Joker thought as Hifumi slowly approached, her black hair falling over her mask while her golden eyes glowed through the eye holes.

"Yes, her Arcana has reversed," Arsène answered with a grave tone. "She is the Star Arcana, which is driven by hope, self-confidence, faith, altruism, luck, generosity, peace, and joy. When it's reversed, it means that she's lost either her faith, her peace, her self-confidence, hope, joy…."

'The only thing that makes sense is that she lost faith in something…. Could it have been her mother? Or perhaps herself?' Joker thought as Hifumi raised her weapon and re-sheathed it in her parasol.

"Whatever the case may be, Joker, we need to stop her before her persona turns against her and kill her with its power," Arsène told her.

'Okay, any idea on how to do that?' Joker asked as Hifumi's persona, Ching Shih appeared behind her.

"Again, I'm a Persona, not a therapist," Arsène dryly answered.

'Welp, I can see why you're my persona,' Joker thought.

"Zan," Hifumi said as a pale golden ethereal version of Ching Shih fired her pistol, sending another bullet of energy out toward the stage, which was covered by smoke.

"Um, are we going to sit around or are we going to stop this?!" Skull shouted.

Joker narrowed his eyes and said, "Skull, same situation as Panther when she fought us!"

"Yeah, I noticed! Should we engage?" Skull asked.

"Wait on that," Joker said as he slowly walked toward Hifumi with both hands up. "Champ, listen to me, I know that this is upsetting."

Hifumi let out a dark, empty laugh and replied, "Upsetting doesn't quite justify how I feel."

"I know," Joker said. "But this isn't the way. If she dies, we can't change her heart. She needs to live."

"There's no changing a heart as vile as hers," Hifumi spat as she stopped in front of Joker. "Now stand down, all of you, or I'll make you all regret it."

"You will be regretting your actions already!" Madam Mitsuyo exclaimed as the smoke cleared to reveal that the Other Hifumi had shielded the palace ruler with a shield. "Anyone that dares to raise their weapon at Madam Mitsuyo will be captured and executed!"

"Zan," Hifumi ordered as Ching Shih appeared and fired another bullet. The bullet collided with the shield and the light rippled against it, causing the shield to violently vibrate. The shield cracked from the strain of the shockwave bullet but it still held strong.

Madam Mitsuyo laughed and snapped her fingers.

The thirty bunny waitresses on the ground floor and the ten that were on the second floor exploded to reveal Twilight Prostitutes. The Other Hifumi exploded as well to reveal Woman Who Brings Ruin.

Madam Mitsuyo caressed the Woman Who Brings Ruin's cheek and said, "Please, do not kill them. Capture them."

"Understood, mother," Woman Who Brings Ruin responded.

Madam Mitsuyo snapped her fingers and vanished, her body leaving behind a crimson smoke in the shape of a snake's skeleton head.

President shrieked as a Twilight Prostitute appeared on Shadow Makoto's lap. "Leaving so soon?" Shadow Makoto asked as the Twilight Prostitue smiled and claimed Shadow Makoto's lips in a rather sensual kiss which left President both stunned and flustered.

"Forgive me, but I must do battle now. It's been grand, My Lady," The Twilight Prostitue lamented as she floated off of Shadow Makoto's lap and flew down away.

"Great, now I'm annoyed," Shadow Makoto said as she slapped her knees and stood up.

"Where are you going?!" President shouted after her shadow.

Shadow Makoto looked back and said, "Unlike you, Worthless, I have other hobbies I like to indulge in. I was stripped from one hobby. Might as well indulge in the other."

Shadow Makoto placed her right foot on the railing and shouted, "Hey, Ladies and Gents! Before we have a rumble in this club, I have an announcement!"

"Now what?!" Joker exclaimed as he and the others looked up to see Shadow Makoto.

"President?" Lioness gasped.

"Look at her eyes," Panther said. "That's her shadow!"

"Yo, Zu-Zu, Ren-Ren," Shadow Makoto greeted with a cocky smirk. "And hey, would you look at the big brain on Takamaki! You seem smarter this time around!"

Panther's scowled.

"Hey! She stole my nickname for you!" Skull shouted as he turned around and pointed his spiked bat at her. "You piece of shit! Only I can call him Ren-Ren!"

"Aww, Sorry not sorry, Sakamoto. Anyways, I have a proposition for two special people!" Shadow Makoto announced.

"Okay, like what?" Joker asked.

"I have Useless chained up behind me, all scared and whatnot. If you guys really care about her, why not come up here and fight me for her freedom?! It'll be just me, myself, and I!" Shadow Makoto spread her arms and said, "Come on, Ren-Ren! Zu-Zu! Which one of you two will it be?"

"Is she talking about me?" Lioness asked.

"Lioness! Joker! Don't come up here!" President's voice screamed.

"Answers that question," Mage mumbled to Fox, who frowned.

"However, if anyone else comes up here…." Shadow Makoto balled her right hand, causing wisps of nuclear energy to float from her fist. "I'm more than willing to introduce you to the ground. And believe me, that meeting will be intimate."

"And what happens if we refuse?" Joker asked. "As you can see, we're surrounded!"

A dark smirk formed on Shadow Makoto's face. "I'll kill her here and now," The shadow answered. "She's already gearing up to die. Do you want to expedite that process?"

Everything was at a standstill.

There were forty Twilight Prostitutes and one strong Woman Who Brings Ruin, just ready and waiting to attack. With Shadow Makoto's proposition out in the open, things were looking dire.

"This is really bad…." Panther said.

"Y-Yeah," Mage stammered. "We're absolutely s-surrounded."

Fox gripped the hilt of his katana while Skull twirled his bat.

Joker and Lioness exchanged a look.

This was a really bad time to be without Mona….

"Enough talk," Hifumi said as she looked at Woman Who Brings Ruin and said, "Zan."

Ching Shih appeared and fired another bullet, which collided with the shadow's chest. Light rippled against the shadow's skin as she vibrated for a moment, only to rocket through the roof.

"Oh no," Joker whispered.

[Theme of Overwhelming Battle: Last Surprise from Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers]

"Let the games begin!" Shadow Makoto shouted.

The Twilight Prostitutes immediately sprang into action, with the ground-level Prostitutes going forward and the second-level Prostitutes summoning fire into their hands.

Joker immediately pulled out his dagger and avoided two swipes from the first Twilight Prostitute to engage with him, and retaliated with a pistol shot to the face. "Lioness! Get President!" Joker yelled.

Lioness nodded and immediately booked it up the stairs.

Panther immediately pulled out her submachine gun and began to fire, halting the movement of three Twilight Prostitutes until she ran out of bullets. She quickly pulled out her whip and slashed all three of them back.

Skull and Fox jumped over the bar counter and pulled out a shotgun and assault rifle respectively. The two looked at each other, nodded, stood up, and began to fire their weapons.

Skull managed to take down two Twilight Prostitutes while Fox managed to fire through two more.

"Oh no!" Mage shouted as he skated into the air with his staff in "gun mode," and fired moonlight shards at the air-born Twilight Prostitutes, taking out two of them.

The shadows immediately focused their attention on Mage and shouted, "Agi!" Several fireballs flew in Mage's direction, but the thief managed to avoid most of them and destroy the others with his moonlight shards.

"Lady Eilistraee!" Mage shouted as he pulled off his mask with his right hand while firing his staff with his left.

With a flourish of blue flames, The Goddess of Redemption appeared behind him and shouted, "Gry!" A Twilight Prostitute was encased with white mist and then sent crashing to the ground hard.

As Mage skated in the air to divert fire, Hifumi unfurled her parasol to block a fireball, pulled out her blade, and stabbed through the head of a Twilight Prostitute that tried to sneak up on her.

Hifumi withdrew her weapon from the destroyed shadow and re-sheathed her blade into the parasol as a voice yelled, "Bufula!"

Hifumi opened her parasol again as she shouted, "Ching Shih!"

Ching Shih appeared behind her, put her hudiedao sword in front of Hifumi, and rapidly spun it, causing a forcefield made of light to appear. The medium-sized chunk of ice slammed into the shield and began to vibrate wildly and then exploded into shards.

Ching Shih, and the shield, vanished as Hifumi collapsed her parasol and held it at her side. Woman Who Brings Ruin flew down through the hole her body created and created another medium-sized chunk of ice and launched it at Hifumi.

Hifumi rolled to the left to avoid the ice, only to see it rapidly spread. She jumped into the air, barely avoiding the spikes of ice that shot out after her, withdrew her sword from her parasol, and attempted to slice the head of the shadow.

The shadow swayed back from the attack as Hifumi landed on the stage. "Mabufu!" The Woman Who Brings Ruin shouted as she launched two more chunks of ice at Hifumi.

"Mazan!" Hifumi commanded.

Ching Shih appeared and fired two light bullets at the ice, which caused the ice to vibrate and then exploded as the bullets pierced through them and toward the shadow.

The Woman Who Brings Ruin flew to avoid each one, causing the bullets to collide against two Twilight Prostitutes, who vibrate and then exploded in a shockwave of light and inky black slime.

"I will capture you for Madam Mitsuyo!" The Woman Who Brings Ruin exclaimed.

Hifumi shook her head and replied, "You'll have to kill me to capture me…."

Lioness ran up the stairs, her sword slicing through three Twilight Prostitutes until she reached the second floor. She slammed her shield against the door, sending it off its hinges, and skidded into Shadow Makoto's view.

"Ah! Hello Zu-Zu," Shadow Makoto greeted as she rolled up both sleeves. "Let's see what's so special about you."

"Release President now!" Lioness said as her sword changed into a spear with a flourish of water.

Shadow Makoto smirked, cracked her knuckles, and charged forward. Lioness held up her shield as Shadow Makoto jumped up and landed a brutal lunging punch to her shield, causing a small explosion of nuclear energy upon impact.

Lioness skidded back from the massive force of the explosion but she caught herself. She spun her spear and followed up with a lunging stab, which Shadow Makoto side-stepped.

Lioness swung her spear to the left, but Shadow Makoto ducked the swing and followed up with two massive jabs, which caused Lioness' glass mask to crack.

Lioness changed her spear to a sword and swung it twice, causing Shadow Makoto to back step twice to avoid the swings and swiftly retaliate with a sharp kick to Lioness' side.

Lioness' body slammed against the wall due to the blow but she managed to duck Shadow Makoto's roundhouse kick that could have taken her out of the fight and dashed back.

Lioness winced as Shadow Makoto pulled her leg out of the wall but kept it bent in the air. "You're a lot quicker than you look, gorgeous," Shadow Makoto praised. "Unfortunately, it will take more than that to take me down."

Lioness narrowed her eyes.

Skull's back hit the wall and then slid down to avoid a ball of fire from a Twilight Prostitue that had cornered him. He picked up a stool that stood beside him, bashed it off the shadow's head, and then followed it up with a boot to its feet.

"Okay, Joker, any ideas?!" Skull yelled.

Joker flipped over two Twilight Prostitutes as he fired his pistol repeatedly to defeat them. He landed on the ground beside Skull, and said, "Other than helping Champ and freeing President, I got nothing."

"Your gut isn't telling you anything?" Panther asked as she skidded to his side, her submachine gun having run out of bullets.

"No, and it's fucked!" Joker said.

Fox sliced through two Twilight Prostitutes and jumped back so his back was against Joker's. "Things are looking very dire. We have no power to summon any of our Personas, and the only one that does is engaging in a firefight in the air."

Joker frowned as Mage landed beside Fox and fell to one knee, heavily panting. "There are too many up there, and I saw more pouring in…. We need a p-plan to escape."

Joker closed his eyes. "The last time this happened, Lioness was the one who set you on the right path, Panther…."

"Yeah…." Panther whispered.

"This might be the same scenario, but except Lioness, it's Beauty Thief that will help Hifumi see the light," Joker said. "And the only way we swing that is getting Hifumi and Prez out of here."

"And what's the part we won't like?" Skull asked as more Twilight Prostitutes flew into the room.

Joker reached into his pocket and pulled out two smoke pellets. It would be enough to cloud the whole room, but even then, there were too many people. "Mage, how many can you cast Magravkaja on?" Joker asked.

"Only four," Mage said.

"Shit," Joker said as he heard Hifumi and the Woman Who Brings Ruin battling behind him. "I have an idea, but I don't think anyone is going to like it," Joker revealed.

"It can't be any worse than where we are now," Panther said.

Joker shook his head. "That's where you're wrong, Panther…."

More Twilight Prostitutes flew through the various break rooms around the large area. Joker looked back to see Hifumi was growing weaker against the stronger opponent and he could hear Shadow Makoto and Lioness on the second floor battling.

Things were getting out of hand, and fast.

There was no time.

"Mage, you're the only one of us that can fly. Get to the second floor, cast Magravkaja to get you, Prez, and Lioness out of here," Joker commanded. He quickly handed Mage one of the smoke pellets and said, "Take the stairs. Go now!"

Mage nodded and glided off as fast as possible. Joker gripped the other pellet and slammed it down on the ground just the Twilight Prostitutes were about to attack.

"Fox, get Hifumi now!" Joker commanded with squinted eyes.

He heard the quick footsteps of Fox run off and said, "Panther, Skull, with me! We need to create an opening for Fox!"

He just hoped this reckless plan will work.

First Mate Violet: Another chapter over. I think that's the last burst I will get. The next chapter will come out soon. I wonder what everyone will think when that chapter comes out.