Professor Violet: Hello class! I am so pumped for Persona 3 Reloaded. A new trailer just came out and it looks beautiful. I can't wait to try my hand at that fanfic someday. Until then, let's start the lesson!

Persona V: Reversing the Wheel of Fate
Chapter Seventy-Five

[Opening Scene: Shibuya - Old Go-Ryu Clan Building (Morning)
Theme of Looming Danger: Darkness from Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE]

"Well, well, well. If it ain't the movie star?"

Eleonora grimaced as she stared at the black-haired thug with disdain. "Yeah, yeah. Let's cut the greetings, shall we?" Eleonora tossed the suitcase onto the table that separated the two of them. "Here. My payment for the month."

The man smirked and said, "Aww, you don't like talking to me? Nora-Nora? And here I thought we had something special after that night."

"You mean the night I was drugged and blackmailed?" Eleonroa asked.

"Drugged, is such a mean word. I prefer boozed up like the floozy you are," The man cheekily replied.

Eleonora sneered at the man.

When she was drugged and blackmailed, this jerk was the one Kaneshiro had used to put her in such a negative light. But as much as she wanted to reach over and punch the smug man in the face, she refused to rise to his bait.

"I have better things to do with my day," Eleonora stated. "Tell Kaneshiro my next payment for his blackmail will be in two weeks, as promised. Will it be you that's meeting me here next time?"

"Unless the boss says otherwise, it'll either be me or Mori-san," the large man answered. "But, you should hope it's me. After all, you still owe me some service."

Eleonora rolled her eyes, turned, and walked back to the entrance to the barren room as the man cackled, "Aww, don't be like that, baby!" The blonde girl stepped out into the hallway where Makoto and a bat-wielding Ryuji stood on the side and behind the door respectively.

She motioned to Makoto, who slipped her phone into her pocket and then nodded at Ryuji through the crack on the door. Eleonora walked downstairs to where Eiko and Oribe sat. "Let's hope they get a location," Eleonora whispered.

"Must be disappointing that you won't be up there to see him get cracked in the head," a feminine voice cooed.

"Did you guys say something? " Eleonora asked.

Eiko and Oribe shook their heads.

Eleonora frowned.

Then who said that?

And why did it sound exactly like her?

Without warning, a loud noise came from upstairs and Eleonora grinned.

She may not have experienced it, but hearing it was just as sweet.

[Theme of Investigation: Mystery from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment]

"Yeesh, he broke my bat," Ryuji complained as he tossed the cracked bat onto the ground beside him.

Makoto smirked and said, "He does have rather thick shoulders and neck for his big frame. Hopefully, we won't need to talk to him and there is proof on his person. Help me dig through his pockets."

Ryuji nodded, bent down, and helped Makoto search the unconscious man's clothing. Makoto dug around his right suit jacket pocket and pulled out a few pieces of paper. She opened each one and noticed that they all had addresses on them.

Interesting.

Were these to their victims' homes or their hideouts?

Makoto looked further into the man's right front and back pants pocket, and it was then she found a phone.

"Hey, I found a pocketbook," Ryuji announced as he held up a small black notebook. "Has a lot of phone numbers in it."

"Anything of note?" Makoto asked.

"Yeah, looks like Eleonora's number is in here," Ryuji answered.

"Numbers for the blackmailed most likely," Makoto deduced. "Anything else?"

"Nothing, except for a packet of what looks to be like seasoning," Ryuji shrugged. "Seemed sketchy so I used the guy's jacket to fish it out."

"Drugs perhaps?" Makoto asked.

"No telling, but I wouldn't put it against this sleazebag," Ryuji answered. "What about you?"

"Just a list of addresses," Makoto answered. "Could be hideouts or the victims' homes. I'll cross-check with Eleonora to see if her address is on here. I also found his phone."

"Nice. If he's dumb, it should have Kaneshiro's numbers in there. Should we try to wake him up and get some information out of him?" Ryuji asked.

"No, we got enough for now," Makoto announced as she stood up and spat near the man's head. "Grab the briefcase, I'll tie him up."

Ryuji grabbed the suitcase and slung it over his left shoulder while Makoto used the man's tie and belt to bind his wrists and ankles together. "Gotta say, this feels seedy. Never knew you would be down and dirty like this."

"Gotta do what you have to do to bring justice to the voiceless," Makoto replied. "Even if that means playing by their rules and being smooth criminals."

"Did you just reference Michael Jackson?" Ryuji asked.

Makoto grinned.

"Damn, I'm liking you more and more." Ryuji then stared down at the man and said, "Sorry man, looks like you've been struck by some smooth criminals."

Makoto chuckled and said, "We've got what we needed. Let's go."

[Scene Change: Metaverse - Unknown Palace (Outside)
Theme of Unknown Palace: Gentle Madman from Persona 5: The Royal]

"What the hell?" Mona whispered as Joker stood before a large, towering structure of glass and gold, which had a golden sphere in the middle of a glass globe that depicted the earth's continents with telescopes extending from it.

"A Palace?" Joker whispered as he gazed at the structure. It was beautiful in a strange way.

"Joker! The girl!" Mona announced as he pointed down a long white slope that sat past the gate they stood in front of. Joker looked ahead to see Sumire. She was staring in his direction. She then turned her head and walked ahead.

"We need to get her before she's attacked," Joker declared. He grabbed Mona, jumped over the gate, and made his way to the long white trail. He hopped on top of it and slid down the slop as Mona screamed in alarm.

Joker jumped down to the floor and raced toward the building, where he saw a glass tube with a console beside it. "Must be an elevator," Joker deduced as he stared at the console. Thankfully, the elevator was pretty straightforward.

He pressed the key and waited for the elevator to come down before he entered it. "Sorry for grabbing you like that, Mona," Joker apologized as he sat Mona on the ground.

"Hey, no worries. But I gotta know, how do you know that girl?" Mona asked.

Joker frowned as the elevator doors shut and began to rise to the higher floor he selected. "She was my girlfriend once. She betrayed me. Simple as that."

"And yet, you're still going to save her?" Mona asked. "Why?"

"Blame my hero complex," Joker replied, mimicking something he once told Mishima, except with none of the humor. Truthfully, Joker felt exhausted. He hadn't really gotten the time to rest since he, Fox, and Pawn were saved from Mitsuyo's palace.

And with the exhaustion his body felt after Madarame's palace and questions of his team's earlier conversations still buzzing in his head, he really just wanted to sleep for a week.

He just hoped the rest of his team was getting the rest they needed.

The elevator doors opened and the pair walked out to see a white staircase leading them to their next location. "Well, there's our way. Hopefully, we can find your ex-girlfriend. Think we can get further in?"

Joker narrowed his eyes and noticed in the distance on the third floor, there was a large silver door. "That door might be our way. Come on," Joker answered. The two ran up the staircase and into what resembled a research lab. The two ran up the white ramp that led to the second floor but when they went up the next ramp, they found it unfinished.

"Hey look, there's a hook over there," Mona noted as he motioned to the white ceiling ramp. "This looks like a good time to get you another PT tool." Mona reached into his little utility belt and pulled out a black gun with a three-pronged metal hook at the end.

"Introducing, the Phantom Claw!" Mona announced. "I meant to give this to you at Kamoshida's palace but things went crazy. Not only can this bad boy help you repel to higher locations and swing to other locations, but it can even pull shadows to you. Nifty, huh?"

"Kinda like Batman," Joker said with a smile as he observed the gun. "Thanks. Mona. This should take combat to a new level." Joker lifted the phantom claw and fired it at the silver hoop, where it snagged the hook.

Mona jumped on Joker's shoulder and instructed, "Now, all you do is move your finger off the trigger and it'll automatically pull us up."

Joker followed Mona's instructions and released the trigger, which caused the two of them zip up to the higher ramp, where they landed. "That's going to take some time to get used to," Joker admitted. "But this is great."

"Let's keep going," Mona instructed.

Using the phantom claw, Joker moved from ramp to ramp until he finally slid down to the third floor, where he landed in a crouch. The two rushed through the door and found themselves in a large room, where the red-haired girl stood.

"The Shield of Gorin…." The red-haired girl chirped with a teasing tone as she turned around and grinned. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Joker was immediately on guard. Something was different about Sumire. The way she carried herself, the playful tone. This was not like the Sumire he knew. Not to mention, her eyes were glowing with a bright blue light.

"This is not a shadow, nor is it a cognition. What is this?" Mona whispered.

Joker moved his jacket and pulled out his pistol to point it at the red-haired girl. "You're not Sumire, but Mona says you're not a cognition or a shadow. So then, what are you?"

"Rennie! You really don't know who I am?" The red-haired girl asked with a pout. "I know I haven't been gone for that long, have I?"

Joker took a step back with shock. There was only one person that would ever call him that. But that person…they were killed, right? "No…It can't be…Kasumi?" Joker breathed.

The girl smiled and happily confirmed his guess, "Bingo! Bingo! You win the prize."

"T-That can't be," Joker said. "You were killed saving Sumire..."

[Theme of Sea of Souls: Poem of Everyone's Soul (Arrange Version) from Megami Ibunroku Persona]

"I was," Kasumi revealed as she stared down at Joker with soft eyes. "I don't remember the impact, but I remember seeing Sumire crying over my body before I found myself in the Sea of Souls. I was waiting for something, anything…But then I was called back by the power of melancholy."

"The power of melancholy?" Mona whispered.

"I do not know what happened next, but I remember this intense pain as if I was being ripped apart, and when I awakened, I realized that I was tethered to Sumire's shadow," Kasumi explained. "Not tethered, I became half of Sumire's shadow, stitched together by this strange power…"

"To her shadow?" Joker asked as Mona gasped in shock.

"A soul being bound to a shadow and becoming a part of it?! That's unheard of!" Mona exclaimed.

"While unheard of, it has happened," Kasumi said. "And because of that, because of my own willpower, she hasn't been slain by Shadow Sumire. But the deeper she falls into the lie, the stronger the Shadow Sumire half of me grows and at any moment, it could all collapse, leaving her an empty shell of what she once was and leaving me eradicated."

"I thought that revealing the truth of who I am and what happened to me, would set her free," Kasumi lamented. "And yet, it's only sending her further into despair. And because of my soul being bound to her shadow, I can hear Shadow Sumire's fury and it's causing her flame to go out faster."

Joker noted that tears were falling from Kasumi's (Sumire's?) cheeks."Rennie, I know what befell you, and I know her actions destroyed you but she needs to awaken to her true self before her soul breaks. I'm begging you, please," Kasumi implored.

"How would I even go about helping her?" Ren asked.

Kasumi stared at her (Sumire's?) hands and then clenched them. "She's so lost in her despair that even my voice can't reach her any longer...And as hard as I fight, I can feel her shadow overpowering m—"

Kasumi suddenly buckled as she held her (Sumire's?) chest as if the air was knocked out of her. Joker and Mona looked alarmed and took a step toward her, unsure of what to do. "D-Don't worry, I'm fi—" Kasumi let out a shout of agony as she fell to one knee and a visible pulse of pain flowed through her.

"Kasumi!" Joker and Mona cried as wisps of tiny orange crystal shards floated from her back and into the air. "The remains of her Shadow…It's lashing out again," Kasumi panted. Kasumi looked up at Joker and said, "It's getting so much w-worse…"

Kasumi slowly stood and gasped as streaks of orange electricity flickered against her body. "Sumire…She will not allow herself to accept the truth. Even through her despair, her shadow becomes more powerful and I can't hold it ba—" Kasumi was cut off by another burst of pain, with more crystals flowing from her (Sumire's?) back.

"What do we have to do?" Joker asked.

Joker and Mona looked stunned by this. "What?" Joker whispered.

"A Shadow is a person's true self," Kasumi harshly explained. "With my soul combined with her shadow, it's going to kill her. Even now, I can feel her soul fading away like embers from a dying flame as her shadow and my invading soul wrestle for control…"

Kasumi stood up on shaky legs and said, "She needs to accept the truth for herself…Not be told by me, or anyone else. But the more she clings on to this mask, to my soul, the more she runs the risk of becoming that empty shell…"

"To save us both, she needs to awaken to her truth," Kasumi revealed. "And the only one that can help her do this is you, Ren."

Professor Violet: Until the next chapter.