Literally: hell [is] paved with good intentions
Meaning: wrongdoings or evil actions are often undertaken with good intentions; good intentions, when acted upon, may have unintended consequences
Rough English equivalent: ...yeah, you don't need me to say it

The floor above the examination area consisted of dim narrow corridors, much more utilitarian in design than the areas accessible to patients, and small rooms with computers connected to the omnipresent overhead cables. Motivational posters (well, they would've looked motivational to a certain type of person) were plastered carelessly on the walls. Rows upon rows of monitors displayed some sort of abstract data for nobody's benefit. Having little cover to work with, the Thieves ended up getting in fights much more often. To dwell on each and every individual skirmish would be to waste your time, but as a whole they demonstrated two things to Sumire.

The first thing: for a group calling themselves "Phantom Thieves", they seemed surprisingly eager to get into fights as opposed to sneaking past the guards. Before that, Sumire's only experience with Metaverse combat was trailing Crow in Mementos. She had assumed his bloodlust (is that term applicable when your victims don't bleed?) was just something he had developed during his, ahem, former career, but no, in that aspect he didn't stick out that much from the other Thieves. If there was an outlier among them, it was Sumire herself.

And that was the second thing: she was, to use video game terms, hopelessly underpowered. The Physical and Gun attacks of others dealt more damage than her equivalents, and also they could supplement these with assorted elemental spells, while she only had Charge. To her credit, she was also more agile and dodged more attacks than them, but with Mona and Crow having to top up her HP more often than everyone else's combined, she didn't notice that.

"Um," Sumire asked after an nth scuffle with the personnel, "we are not hurting Maruki-san or anyone by fighting all those guards, are we?"

"Nope!" Morgana replied, just a bit too cheery for her liking. "Destroying generic Shadows, ones that don't correspond to specific real people, is completely harmless."

"And h-how can we be sure these don't correspond-"

"The default form of such Shadows is identical to the people they represent, barring golden irises," Goro interrupted her. "The only Shadow like that in this Palace could hypothetically belong to Maruki himself, but since he runs it directly, I don't expect to encounter it."

"Is everything alright, Green?" Haru gave her a concerned look. "You seem a bit overwhelmed. We might swa-"

"I can keep going!" the gymnast reacted with genuine offense.

Ryuji moved closer to the forward team, attracted by the commotion. "C'mon, Green. Take it from a former track team guy: if you overexert yourself now, you won't bring your A-game when it matters."

She didn't reply to that, instead avoiding everyone's glances. "I said I can keep going," she repeated, weakly, then marched forward without waiting for the others.

"I say we humour her until she endangers others," Goro muttered.

"What about endangering herself?" Haru asked.

"We have healing spells for that."

A few more skirmishes later, the group marched past another saferoom and entered a room shaped like a regular hexagon. A small balcony and a staircase led to a row of computers covering all six walls. Two more intimidatingly large stations stood in the middle. A few comically large security cameras were overlooking the whole scene. And just to stress that the place was important, two Shadows, burlier than the mooks before them, guarded the place. Goro pulled out his Nagant and glanced at the team, silently asking for permission. Haru and Morgana nodded, and two clicks of a hammer later, the security guards dissolved into black and red goop. The rear team caught up with the front team and they marched downstairs as a single unit.

"Dead end," Goro stated after a quick scan of his surroundings.

"Not quite," Morgana corrected. "There seems to be a corridor leading deeper into the Palace, but it's blocked off."

He pointed at a few dozen cables, collected into a few bundles. Each cable was twenty-thirty centimeters thick, and covered in semi-translucent light blue insulation – considering the arcs of electricity going between them every once in a while, it was rather shoddy. They flashed periodically, as if pumping something downwards.

"...you all look uneasy for some reason," Sumire pointed out, once again feeling left out.

"These resemble the veins from the Depths of Mementos from a month prior, do they not?" Yusuke said. "Their hue notwithstanding."

"Let's move on," Goro said, trying to not think about the events from December. "Metaphorically, I mean. If there is a corridor behind these cables, there must be something we can do to retract them somehow."

"Maybe these computers can control them," Morgana suggested.

The detective sat down by one of the stations, glanced at the screen, and immediately surrendered – his computer savviness began and ended on deleting emails from thirsty fangirls, whatever was in front of him was much more complicated than that. "Uh, can anyone present make sense of this?" Nobody spoke up, as expected. "Fucking hell," he thought out loud. "Oracle would've made sense from this mess."

"Who?" Sumire asked. "Oh, you mean…" No names in the Metaverse, she remembered. "the F-girl?"

"Correct," Yusuke nodded. "She was the Phantom Thieves' navigator and remains a living proof of Clarke's third law."

"...of what?"

"She's an immensely skilled computer expert," the artist rephrased his point. "She exposed a group of malicious hackers that threatened the Phantom Thieves back in summer, and hijacked most Japanese television broadcasts with little effort in December."

"And also played a crucial part in preventing me from assassinating Joker," the detective lowered his head in shame.

"And we can't get in touch with her in any way?"

"Well, she's living with me and Goro," Morgana replied, "but-"

"Then what are we waiting for?" she interrupted him. "Let's go get-"

"Out of the question," Goro snarled, then collected himself as the gymnast recoiled, "I mean, I would rather avoid that."

Ann stepped forward to explain: "Oracle wasn't broken out of Maruki's reality yet, and judging by our experiences, doing so will force her to relive her past traumas all at once. And she's been through a lot."

"And if it isn't obvious already, I caused most of these traumas." The detective lowered his head, ashamed. "Maruki's a cunt, isn't he? You either uncritically accept his rule or get every single past hardship thrown in your face."

"It was an unintentional side effect."

The Thieves recoiled in random directions, startled by Maruki's protests coming from some unseen loudspeaker. Well, almost all of them – Goro was too preoccupied with his guilt to be intimidated. "As unintentional as the regret chambers, I assume," he said, still staring intently at the floor.

"Okay," for a moment he sounded apologetic, "I admit, they were a mistake and I crossed a line, but…" Aaand the moment was over. "You know what? I don't need to explain myself to a two-faced assassin."

"You can explain yourself to everyone else present in the room," Haru countered. "Or are the Phantom Thieves as a whole damned by association now?"

That was enough to make the therapist pause and choose his words more carefully. "Er, I… I have a lot of respect for you," he replied, "but in this particular situation, I believe you're making a mistake. I am honestly trying to help everyone."

"Of fucking course-

Goro remains silent for the next ten minutes or so.

Ugh. Finding himself unable to finish the sentence on account of Maruki messing with the narration again, Goro just gave the camera the double bird.

"Continuing this conversation right now is pointless," Maruki proclaimed. "Let's consider this roadblock a brief break for you to give my reality another go. Though, should you find it unsatisfying enough to return here…" His tone turned sour. "Please don't traumatize your step-sister again, Goro."

The detective sprung up from the chair, furious, and attempted to scream obscenities at the camera. Realizing he still doesn't have his voice, he instead pulled out his Nagant and fired the four bullets he had left at it. Finding the quietness of the gun unsatisfying, he threw it angrily at what remained of the machine and slumped back in the chair, hiding his face in his hands.

Ann went to fetch the discarded revolver. "He did evil things and so it's totally alright to treat him like shit, I suppose," she muttered to herself, displeased. "Mona, can you try that spell you used back in the Velvet Room?"

"Diego, Me Mutudi, if you please." The bishounen's Persona manifested and pointed his rapier at the ceiling. Everyone got enveloped by the silence-dispelling effect. "Crow, can you talk now?"

The detective replied with a prolonged irritated groan.

"What's the plan now, Crow-san?" Sumire asked

Goro looked at her. "Step one, discuss the plan somewhere more private."

"Can that be step two?" Ryuji piped up. "I'm kinda hungry and I thought we might eat the 'yaki Green brought."

"I won't lie, I'm somewhat insatiate myself." The detective pulled out the boxes from hammerspace. "Anyone else?"

Everyone grabbed their boxes, leaving the one labelled 'CRW' in the detective's hands.

"Celestine?" Ann's Persona manifested in front of her. "Can you make a small-ish flame to reheat these?"

"I'm eating mine cold." Goro popped open his box, revealing an okonomiyaki cut into six pieces, three of each decorated with streaks of mayo and the others decorated with thick Worcestershire-based sauce. On each piece was a small ivy leaf, like the one on his peak hat, made with the sauce of the opposite colour. He still thought it was unnecessary flourish, but fuck it, it felt nice. "Green?"

"Y-yeah?" she recoiled.

He smiled. A well-practiced, soft smile – which didn't make it any less earnest at the time. "Thank you for the meal."

Having finished their meal, the group made a beeline to the nearby safe room and left the Palace, and then the Metaverse.

"So," Sumire asked, as they marched to the nearby train station, "what's the plan now? If we can't approach Oracle-senpai, who can help us?"

"Mishima, maybe?" Ryuji suggested.

Another unknown name. She was feeling more and more like a piece added to a puzzle that was already completed, glued, and hung on a wall. "...who?"

"Yuuki Mishima," Ann explained. "He's attending Shujin with us, and started the Phantom Aficionado Website when the Thieves became a thing."

"He doesn't have a Persona, which means we will have to escort him," Goro added "He doesn't seem to be as good as Futaba, but he has some computer literacy, is already aware of our identities, and I didn't murder either of his parents."

"Yeah, about that…" Morgana said. "In November, right after Akira got arrested, he mentioned his dad being admitted to a hospital."

Cold sweat went down the detective's back. This wasn't him, was it? There were some people he had dealt with right after seemingly killing Akira, but none of them shared Mishima's last name. "What… what happened to him?"

The bishounen cracked a smile. "A near-terminal case of ligma."

After a split second of relief, Goro grabbed him by the lapels and snarled at him: "I will punt you like a football, you mangy little-"

"Alright," Ryuji got between the two and forcefully separated them, "if there are no real reasons not to, we're asking Mishima to help us." The group stopped dead in their tracks, and the athlete remained between the detective and the bishounen to make sure they wouldn't throw hands again. "Erm…" Something clicked in his head. "Does anyone have his number?"

"Nope."

"I don't."

"Apologies, I don't possess it either."

"Crud. We're gonna talk to him at school then."

"At school?" Sumire raised an eyebrow.

"Well, after the holiday period ends."

"But that's on Tuesday!" she protested. "We're just going to… sit on our hands for the next few days? Can't we look him up on social media?"

"When I tried that with Akira, I got insta-blocked," Ann said. "This is a touchy topic, and it'd be best if we approach him carefully in the real world and gauge his reactions."

The gymnast wasn't convinced. "But we have a deadline!"

"We do, but it's lenient enough that we can spend a few days idling," Goro countered. "And besides, Morgana and I will need to spend some time on our own stuff."

The bishounen gave him a curious glance. "What stuff?"

"As Sumire has said, the third semester begins in a few days. It would be nice to prepare for it."

Ryuji rolled his eyes. "Psh, you're such a nerd."

"I meant more in terms of piecing together our school situation in Maruki's reality, to avoid suspicious behaviour." Beat. "Are you even attending school?"

"I'm in Shujin with the others, I think." Morgana scratched his head. "Yeah, we'll need to check."

annT: is there a reason why you created a second group chat without sumire
blonde_blur: something bugs me
blonde_blur: and i dont wanna discuss it with her
blonde_blur: cause shes already insecure as is
spring_loaded: What is it?
blonde_blur: we all got our personas at different times
blonde_blur: but when we got them they were roughly as strong as all the others were at the time
blonde_blur: except sumires
blonde_blur: and maybe goros?
CattyKittyCat: hes an edge case
annT: lol
ak56: Fuck, I laughed.
blonde_blur: mona stop dunking on goro for a moment
blonde_blur: and tell me why sumires weaker than us
CattyKittyCat: tbhidk
CattyKittyCat: i thought the awakening adjusts the persona to the other users in the vicinity
CattyKittyCat: but sumire awakened with goro around and she's still behind us power-wise
annT: so what
annT: she awakened improperly or something
annT: can you even awaken the wrong way?
CattyKittyCat: maybe?
CattyKittyCat: goro had two personas forced on him or something
CattyKittyCat: its not an exact (p)science
spring_loaded: Okay, but what does it change?
spring_loaded: Even if we'd be heartless enough to focus only on how she benefits us,
spring_loaded: she's powerful enough to not be a hindrance to the infiltrations, and remains useful outside of combat.
AcrylicRonin: The okonomiyaki was the most wonderful meal I have eaten in a while.
AcrylicRonin: I am sorry to say this, Goro, but you are no longer the best pancake-maker of the Phantom Thieves.
ak56: D:
blonde_blur: spring_loaded: yeah, yeah, of course
blonde_blur: im just thinking out loud
blonde_blur: its not like she messed things up so far

Friday, January 6th, Evening

"Sumi!"

Sumire didn't even get to enter the house before Kasumi greeted her with a glomp. "My little hero's back! Tell me everything! Did they like the 'yaki?"

The gymnast gently nudged her away. "Let me in first, okay?" she smiled awkwardly, taking off her coat. She hung it on the hook on the front door, swapped her shoes for slippers, and walked to the kitchen with her sister. There was a bowl of instant ramen on the table. The noodles have absorbed most of the liquid at that point.

"We're gonna need a new kettle, by the way," the other twin said, pointing at the melted heap of plastic on the table. "Dad will get one when he gets home from work." Sumire stopped by the fridge, grabbed some homemade soy-sauce-based tare, and poured a tablespoon into the bowl, then stirred it in with the chopsticks. Kasumi sat by the table, opposite her. "Come on, I'm waiting for the stories. Anything cool happened?"

"Not really," Sumire replied. "We fought some magic security personnel and hit a roadblock." She slurped up a few noodles with a sad expression. "I wasn't helping too much."

Kasumi wasn't convinced. "You're self-effacing again. I'm sure they at least liked the food you brought."

The gymnast stirred her food, avoiding her sister's gaze. "Yeah, they did. Though they said it was unnecessary."

Yeah, that didn't happen, she thought to herself, but knew from (the real Kasumi's) experience that vocalizing that thought would make the situation worse. "Um…" She tried to pull on a thread to get her to talk more about what happened, but didn't have much to work with. "What was the roadblock?"

"Some slurp thick cables. We think they can be controlled and retracted by some of the computers around, but no active Thieves know enough about computers to do so."

"So what, you gave up?"

"No." Sumire gripped her chopsticks a bit more tightly. "We'll come back there, when everyone goes back to school and we can get one of their friends to come with us and look at the computers. Because apparently we have time."

Kasumi raised an eyebrow. "And you don't?"

"We do, apparently, until the end of the month, but…" she paused, "we were told about that deadline by some vaguely human guy living in a magic blue shapeshifting room. And even he admitted he can't be precise with it. You see why I'm concerned."

"Alright then, is there any way to speed things up?"

Silence followed – Sumire wasn't sure if it was a good idea. "Well… Goro has a step-sister now. She was the Thieves' computer expert before Maruki's rise to power."

"But there's a reason why they can't approach her now," Kasumi guessed.

Sumire slurped up another noodle. "Yes. Apparently Goro killed her…" She added up scraps of information. "her mom, I think. And she's now back alive."

"Hm." Gears turned in Kasumi's head as she was about to come to a wrong conclusion. "So it's less about them not wanting to approach her and more about Mr. Atoning Assassin not wanting to bring back bad memories."

"Probably."

"But you could try and talk to her."

If I could afford to get this animated, Sumire's change of expression would've been accompanied with a dramatic sting. "Wuh-what?"

"I mean, what's stopping you? She's hanging out in that cafe in Yongen, isn't she?"

"I-I-I don't think I could do that?" she stammered out. "Y-you, maybe…"

Kasumi responded with a chortle. "Last time I tried to talk to someone, I got my nose broken. You're the less socially inept one."

Sumire looked elsewhere. "I'unno…"

"You want to be useful to the Thieves, don't you?" Kasumi smiled innocently. "This is a perfect chance to prove yourself." She reached over the table and patted her on the back. "Come on. I believe in you. You can do it."