Good Day Readers! Obviously, I do not own anything connected to the Persona series in general or Persona 5 specifically, I DO own Chiba Natsumi and Anais Ouvrard, along with Natsumi's immediate family members and the original Personas that will be showing up on occasion.

I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.

Chapter 7: - Change of Hearts

I was breathing heavily as I stood in the Velvet Room, feeling my legs shaking madly at the mad dash I'd just made in order to escape from the place within Ouvrard's mind. The musical score seemed to be almost crushed within my right hand given how tightly I was holding it as my naginata twitched and jumped from the trembling of my left hand.

"Well my dear, it appears you have succeed," Igor commented. I continued to shake as I looked over at the old man who was calmly sat at the desk like always. "This Ouvrard's Palace has dissolved. Her Shadow has returned to his true self and you possess his Treasure," Igor summarised. The grin that spread across his face seemed wider this time around.

"But will it be enough?" I wondered. That was the one thing that wouldn't stop nagging away at my mind, no matter what distractions I tried: my shaking subsided as I moved towards the table, roughly dropping down into the chair with my legs stretched out underneath the table instead of curled up near the wood. "Will all of that be enough to stop what she's doing and keep her alive?" I clarified.

"I do not know," Igor stated. I looked at the man with a frown on my face at his answer as Igor folded his hands together. "I have already told you; Palaces are new developments so our knowledge of them is limited. Besides that, it will be up to Ouvrard to decide what to do; to keep living or give up. This is not a decision you, or I, can control. No matter how much that control is desired," Igor explained.

"I get it. I don't like it, but I get it," I decided. All I could do now was wait for Ouvrard to be affected by my actions; Lavenza came over and set two cups of tea down, one in front of each of us. "Thank you, both of you, for all of your help," I admitted. I never would have made it as far as I did without these two people aiding me with their knowledge and experience.

"Of course, my dear. And I am sure that your prior experience will aid you greatly," Igor stated. He proceeded to drink from his cup whilst I gazed at him with a perplex look on my face as a soft 'what?' slipped from my lips as Igor lowered his cup. "Your experience in Ouvrard's Palace will aid you when entering new Palaces," Igor clarified. I felt a chill run down my spine at those words.

"Um… no," I stated. My voice was slightly shaky as I spoke those two words, Igor parroted the second one back at me with a question mark added to it. "No. That place was utterly horrifying! I risked my life fighting that thing Ouvrard had turned into with only Phantom to help me! Until Elizabeth showed up that is. I'm not doing that again!" I announced. Quickly draining my tea, I rose to my feet and grabbed my weapons and the Treasure, with them in hand I swiftly moved for the exit, not bothering to process the shocked looks on Igor and Lavenza's expressions.

"You may not have a choice in the matter Maiden," Igor called. I jerked to a stop at his words and turned around to face the old man with Igor having twisted around in his seat to face me; Lavenza was warily looking between us with a pallor of worry upon her face, but she made no move to intervene between the two of us.

"Is that a threat?" I asked. Igor had been nothing but kind to me, supportive and understanding, so my tone was not the cold steel one might normally expect to be attached to those words, instead it was a cracked one, like holding back tears; I didn't want to lose Igor and Lavenza, odd as our relationship was, but I refused to be controlled by anyone ever again, no matter the cost.

"No, merely a statement of fact," Igor answered. A smile came onto his lips, but it was more sorrowful than the others I had seen before. "I have told you before, that I had prior experience with Betwixt and Personas, through that I realised something. There is likely a phenomenon exerted by people, not too different to gravity, that draws certain people to each other," Igor explained. His words caused my eyebrows to scrunch up as I looked at him.

"That sounds an awful lot like fate," I noted. In truth, I didn't like that word, perhaps it was because of losing my family and how my uncle had treated me afterwards, but the idea of being locked within an inescapable situation, predetermined by some other person, left a bad taste in my mouth. Igor's smile became a bit brighter at my words which made me glad, he didn't look right not being happy.

"Gravity, fate, destiny. As a wise man once wrote, what's in a name," Igor commented. Suddenly a stack of cards appeared within his hand and he proceeded to set them upon the table. "What I am saying Maiden, is merely that you will be drawn to those with the potential to wield Personas and Palace rulers, especially as you are the protector of the Wildcard. The Seven Sins as an enemy and the Major Arcana as comrades and allies," Igor added on. But I didn't understand that last bit, not completely anyway.

"Be that as it may, my fate is still mine to decide. No matter what," I affirmed. With that, I pulled open the door and stepped through it back to reality; a heavy sigh escaped me and I felt the tension from being in the Palace drain out of me… right up until a hand landed on my shoulder. "AH!" I screamed. I also hopped forward, twisted around and dropped into a stance, before it sank into my mind as to who had spooked me.

"Hello Natsumi-sama," Naomi greeted. Seeing the one individual I knew that hadn't been cruel to me despite being connected to my uncle caused all the tension to leave my body once again and this time, I went as far as to collapse onto the ground with great big gasps escaping me. "Natsumi-sama! Are you okay?!" Naomi exclaimed. She knelt down beside me with a worried look on her face as her hands hovered near me, but she clearly didn't want to breach any lines I didn't want her crossing.

"I'm fine… I just heard something, grabbed my bow and came to check it out," I lied. Even though it left a horrifically sour taste in my mouth, I knew that I had to, otherwise Naomi would start asking questions and telling her about Palaces, Shadows and everything else would make me sound unhinged enough that she'd probably consider taking me to the nearest psychologist and who knows where it would go from that.

"Well, everything looks fine now," Naomi reassured. She seemed to hesitate on giving me a hand, so I made the choice for her and gripped the hand causing the woman to blink her eyes in surprise, but she still helped to support me as I regained my footing. "Natsumi-sama, what are you holding on to?" Naomi asked. Since she was holding my right hand, Naomi clearly meant my left hand which held the Treasure; I looked down whilst trying to figure out how to explain it, but upon seeing it my eyes widened in surprise.

Instead of the musical score that it should have been, my hand now contained what appeared to be some kind of recorder. It was a dark grey colour with the typical buttons that were used to operate the object, it seemed that there was something already recorded in the object. Curious, I proceeded to press the play button; immediately a familiar voice began to ring out, a bit chaotic and bouncy but it was definitely my voice with it being younger and obviously untrained yet so full of enthusiasm and love as it sang an old anime opening that I must have enjoyed back then… something I had lost since this recording was taken.

"Is that… a recording of your voice? Why do you have such a thing Natsumi-sama?" Naomi asked. So, I wasn't hearing things, this really was a recording of my own voice, which meant that this recording had been the source of Ouvrard's distortion; that caused a queasy feeling to nestle within the pit of my stomach at the implications, it was probably a good thing that I had stolen her Treasure.

"I just happened to find it, no idea why I'm holding onto it though. Maybe the thing I'd heard had spooked me so much that I ended up forgetting about it when I came to check on it," I explained. Another lie to add to the unease in my stomach since that hadn't happened at all, but Naomi seemed to buy the lie as she shrugged her shoulders with a gentle smile on her lips, she then turned to the house and moved towards it with me taking off after her.

A fair amount of time has passed, proving how long I'd been inside of the Palace, yet Naomi didn't seem to realise that I had been missing which meant that she had likely been working late over with my uncle. Naomi did stuff for my uncle probably acting as a secretary sort of individual, but the exact details were things that I didn't want to know and Naomi didn't feel like sharing either not that I blamed her.

I returned my nisun-nobi to the chest and then entered the kitchen, Naomi was looking around with a perplexed look on her face and I quickly figured out why, Ouvrard, or rather her lack of presence. After all, Sundays rarely ended this early, it normally kept going until after the sun had started to dip below the horizon; unless she was distracted with setting up concerts for my uncle to show me off at, still her lack of presence was abnormal to say the least.

"Seems Ouvrard isn't here now," I commented. Naomi nodded, but I saw that she looked relieved, likely to not have to deal with the tension that stretched between the two of us. "Sit down and relax Naomi-san, I'll cook for tonight," I offered. I felt lighter after dealing with Ouvrard and at the moment, I wanted to repay Naomi for her having to suffer at the hands of a fair amount of tension between me and Ouvrard over the last few years.

"Ah! Natsumi-sama, you don't h-," Naomi began to protest. She moved towards me with a hand stretched out towards me as if she was attempting to stop me, but I easily moved out of her reach and clasped my hands around one of her own as I gave her a gentle smile, which caused the woman to jerk to a stop as she stared at me with wide brown eyes

"Please, Naomi-san, let me," I requested. Naomi's lips pressed together as I pulled my hands away and turned to the kitchen to head inside; it had been too long since I helped to cook but I'm sure I would pull out some old memories and follow a simple recipe… but as I gathered up the ingredients, worry gnawed away at my heart like a ravenous beast.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Several days had passed, days without any solid information about what was happening with Ouvrard's condition. She hadn't shown up at all over the course of those days and neither me or Naomi had any manner of contacting her, only my uncle could do that and I was a little wary of approaching him in order to ask about Ouvrard. So, for the time being, I was on pins and needles waiting for the results, but Naomi was enjoying the freedom of not having to deal with the tension.

It was currently a Sunday which meant that I had no school, thankfully as the atmosphere in Shūjin was getting worse, a brown bag swung slightly beside me which was filled with a few new releases to light novels that I enjoyed reading. Reaching home, I opened the door – I'd disposed of the Treasure recording device the day after I went into the Metaverse – and stepped inside only to see Naomi stood there with a panicked expression on her face which caused my muscles to bunch up.

"Y-you n-need to c-come to th-the fr-front r-room," Naomi stuttered out. She was abnormally concerned and that caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand on, swapping my shoes and dropping off my books as quickly as possible, I walked to the front room door and entered, only to freeze up when I saw the person who had likely unsettled Naomi so much.

Sat on the couch with his fingers laced together like Igor did – but with an aura completely opposed to the master of the Velvet Room – was a tall, bald man with a small black goatee resting on his chin; he wore a business suit made of a white buttoned shirt with black pants and a jacket, over his eyes were a pair of orange-tinted square glasses but I knew the colour of those eyes were the same brown as my mum's eyes.

"Uncle… to what do I owe the afternoon visit?" I asked. My back was ramrod straight as I sensed Naomi nervously hovering over my shoulder, my uncle looked at me before slightly gesturing to the chair that was across from him. "I'll stand, thank you Masayoshi-ojisan," I responded. My tone was tense as my mind spun with why? Why had my uncle suddenly returned to the house? He normally never came before it was practically pitch black outside, therefore what was the purpose of his visit?

"I'm here about Ouvrard-san," Uncle Masayoshi spoke. Naomi gasped slightly as my eyes widened in surprise. "She suddenly came to me, after several days of complete silence and, in a blubbering mess, begged to be released from her job here. She kept saying something about how she had destroyed your singing, Natsumi. Tore away your ability to sing with true passion. She was utterly regretful about her actions and wished to be dismissed from her post immediately," Uncle Masayoshi explained.

"Good," I stated. Venomous steel coated that single word, but it was present enough for me to feel Naomi's shocked eyes boring into me as Uncle Masayoshi stared at me with wide eyes, allowing me to faintly see the brown of his irises. "Singing was something that I deeply loved, but she then took it away from me. I want her gone, so she can never come back to this building and leaves my voice alone," I insisted. My expression was made of stone as I stared at him, not wanting him to see how relieved I was that Ouvrard was still alive after I took her distorted Desire.

"Very well then," Uncle Masayoshi spoke. He proceeded to stand up and I heard Naomi scuttle out of the way and I stepped back from the doorway as my uncle moved towards it. "I'll make sure to send someone down in order to replace Ouvrard as soon as possible," Uncle Masayoshi stated. My eyes fluttered rapidly before I curled one hand into a fist at his words, I wasn't about to let him slip some other music teacher into my life just to force me to entertain him and his cronies, no matter what.

"I don't need anyone else uncle. I hate singing now, I refuse to sing ever again. Ouvrard took that from me, so I won't be using my voice in such a manner ever again," I responded. Of course, what I wasn't saying was how much I hated him as well for allowing Ouvrard to be brought into my life in the first place; Uncle Masayoshi stopped moving and turned back to face me, my eyes were hard as I stood as if prepared for a fight against the man who was focused solely on me.

"Natsumi," Uncle Masayoshi breathed. He couldn't hide his expression of shock after my words, I'd been quiet and reserved because of him, because of what he did to me three years ago; but now, with Phantom's words ringing within my mind, I was standing firm against him refusing to give in to his demands, refusing to be let my voice be taken by anyone anymore.

"I am being very serious Shido Masayoshi," I vowed. Using his full name and dropping the uncle to show just how serious I was about this vow I had made to protect my voice. "No more singing instructors in my life. I'm leaving singing behind now so I will never perform again, not for you or anyone else in the world. My voice is mine and mine alone with no interference from anyone," I reasoned. Uncle Masayoshi remained silently as he and I stared at each other in a silent contest of wills.

"Fine, very well," Uncle Masayoshi grumbled. He then turned and proceeded to walk out of the building, causing me to breath a heavy sigh of relief as I felt my legs slightly give out underneath me, causing me to lean into the wall as Naomi rushed up to my side, with a proud smile on her face and I allowed a grateful one to lightly touch my lips.

*Persona 5 Royal*

At a brisk pace, I moved down the hallway of Shūjin practical building, it was after school, but I had offered to take stuff to the nurse's office since I had felt a bit more freedom after awakening Phantom and stopping Ouvrard. Sadly, the nurse hadn't been there, so I was looking for a teacher to speak to in order to get the stuff inside since it didn't seem wise to leave it lying outside the office where anyone could grab it, it was currently hidden but could probably be found if someone looked hard enough.

I moved up the staircase when an odd sound reached my ears, this caused me to pause and frown in response to its' occurrence. Pushing my legs into a jog, I rushed up the steps and turned the corner; I saw that only the P.E. teacher – and someone who gave me the creeps – Kamoshida Suguru and someone I'd known since middle school, Mishima Yūki, were up here but Mishima was sprawled on the floor.

Mishima was of average height or shorter, with brown eyes and spiky, blue-tinted black hair, black eyes and a relatively average face according to other people but that face was rather injured, he wore the standard winter uniform though without the blazer and with the shirt untucked, the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and the suspenders were off his shoulders, he wore white tennis shoes with green accents; his left arm was bandaged quite heavily. Kamoshida on the other hand was unnatural tall with a lean yet muscular build, brown-black eyes, neck length unkempt black hair and thick eyebrows with a broad and square jawline. He wore a white shirt and black track pants with double white stripes, around his neck was a red timer and a whistle. There was a strange intensity to Kamoshida's eyes as his left hand rose up whilst being curled into a fist.

My eyes flew wide as I realised the purpose behind that move. Grinding my teeth together, I flew over like an arrow loosed from a taunt bowstring as the fist started to descend towards Mishima who flinched but didn't move beyond that. I reached the two of them and wrapped my hand firmly around Kamoshida's wrist, halting the movement and causing both of them to call out my family name.

"Is everything alright?" I asked. It might have been an odd question to ask after what I'd just seen, but jumping to conclusions was foolish and I also wanted to hear how they responded to that question; one thing was clearly obvious enough for me to know it as truth, and that was that something suspicious was going on.

"Everything's fine Chiba. Mishima fell so I was just about to help him up," Kamoshida answered. He leered at me in such a manner that I wanted to scrub myself clean with volcano heated water; Kamoshida then tried to pull his hand free, but my grip was strong and he failed, which surprised him if the widened eyes were anything to go by.

"Surely an open palm would work better than a closed fist," I chastised. That intensity from before came back to Kamoshida's eyes and now that I was close enough, I realised that it was anger; in response I shuffled my feet out slightly to widen my stance as a steely glint had no doubt entered my eyes given that Kamoshida flinched away from me slightly.

"It's okay Chiba-san!" Mishima exclaimed. I tore my eyes from Kamoshida to look at the boy, seeing a desperate plea on his face; internally I frowned at his words, I released my grip on Kamoshida's wrist and extended that hand to Mishima. He took it and I pulled him up onto his feet whilst positioning myself in front of Mishima so that Kamoshida couldn't do anything to him without going through me first.

"Damn brat! Who does she think she is? Getting in the way of my fun!" Kamoshida spat. My eyes widened, although this was not at the words that had been spoken but instead it was focused on Mishima's lack of a reaction to those words; I cast a glance over my shoulder and through my hair, seeing Kamoshida holding the wrist I'd grabbed as an eerily familiar haze seemed to settle over him.

It was the same haze that I'd seen settle over Ouvrard and it explained a lot, like my discomfort around him and the strange atmosphere that permeated the school. Plus, there was the fact that the volleyball team, which Kamoshida coached and Mishima was a part of, always seemed to be bruise and weary in a way that had struck me as abnormal.

'I guess Igor was right.' I thought. One of my own teachers was likely in possession of a Palace and if he was abusing the students then I couldn't ignore it. 'I guess I'll have to steal his Treasure.' I decided. With that thought in mind, I turned away, grabbed Mishima's hand and walked off; after finding a teacher I knew what my destination outside of the school was and it wasn't home; it was Mementos.