[Note: This arc takes place between Futaba's Palace arc and Okumura's Palace arc. Some dialogue may be changed for the sake of the flow of the story.]

Hey, y'all! Name's Lykos, a new writer here. I decided to make this story because a) I needed a writing outlet, and b) I love Persona 5. There's nothing else to say at this point, other than if you like the story, be sure to follow me and this document. I'll try to upload frequently.


Ren shook his head, the fog from the drugs somewhat clearing, before looking at the woman sitting before him. She was Sae Niijima, famed prosecutor, and the sister of Makoto Niijima, one of his teammates. Ren's explanation of the story so far had softened her quite a bit, however she was still hesitant about believing him. Considering the line of crimes he had supposedly committed, it was better to be safe than sorry.

After a brief bout of silence from her, Sae looked back at Ren, her arms crossed as she leaned back in the steel chair. This whole debacle of Palaces, the Metaverse…it was all very, very strange to her. Thus, she decided to continue as she always did, asking questions to try and ground herself in…whatever the kid was saying.

"So, the Phantom Thieves only stole the heart of Futaba Sakura? And Medjed was in turn defeated by her real-world hacker abilities?" The woman summarized. "This does correlate to the facts as we know them…" She murmured to herself, before looking back at Ren. "If you are telling the truth, then Wakaba Isshiki didn't commit suicide. Did a third party target her life with the goal of destroying her research?"

"Yes, they did." Ren said slowly, rubbing the cuff marks that were still on his wrists.

"Wakaba's death was two years ago…" Sae mused to herself, putting a hand to her lips as she recounted other details stemming from this development. She mentally kicked herself for realizing it now. How could she not have realized sooner? Her death was caused from a mental shutdown, however many claimed that it was suicide due to her raising her supposedly ungrateful daughter. "Does this other Metaverse user that Madarame and Kaneshiro mentioned really exist?"

"He does."

Sae let her hand drop, her arms crossing. "Earlier, I briefly mentioned those psychotic breakdown incidents that have alarmed the public. All of a sudden, people would lose consciousness or become violent. A situation as incomprehensible as that can't be explained away as 'troubled social conditions.' I suspect that these cases were connected to a larger, man-made plot. The method involved always muddled the explication, but your story has virtually confirmed its viability. Although, I wouldn't have expected a new criminal to come to light from your testimony. What did your group think of this other Metaverse user?"

"We suspected that he was the true culprit." Ren said without missing a beat.

"How self-centered of you," Sae replied, not even bothering to hide her disdain of the statement. "The Phantom Thieves tamper with people's hearts without asking consent. How is that different?"

"Even though those people caused more harm than good?"

The kid did have a point, as much as Sae hated to admit it. As much as both of them knew that what he and his group were doing wasn't considered "pure justice", their targets were always ones that have done truly horrible crimes. Regardless, despite that fact, Sae was determined to get everything she could out of this boy. "Are those incidents because of you or someone else? Either way, I will get to the bottom of this. Now, let's move on to your next crime."

Sae turned the page of the case file to reveal a few documents, along with a picture of a young woman, a few years younger than her by the looks of it. Milk chocolate skin, jet black hair, and a pair of glasses highlighted her otherwise seemingly plain figure, which was clad in a lab coat, jeans, a simple long-sleeved shirt, and white shoes. Looking at Ren to gauge his reaction to the woman, and finding nothing, she spoke again.

"Alessia Orimura. Head of the company Nervana, which had been the cause of several scientific breakthroughs over the past year or so. Even I had heard of her claims when there were people who were brought in as a result of trying to smuggle documents." She began, before slipping out another picture, showing a young man, most likely around Ren's age, with the same chocolate skin as the woman, however he sported a shock of silver-grayish hair.

"And Rocco Orimura, her nephew. According to some reports, he was brought in to live with her following his parents' sudden deaths in a car accident. I'm sure you know him rather well, considering we believe him to be one of your accomplices." She continued, looking back at Ren with a cold glare. The boy did not respond, although she did notice a faint glint of anger in his eyes that had come up whenever they had discussed one of his targets.

"Similarly to Kaneshiro, Alessia's crimes were well hidden from the police, be it through conventional or unconventional means. What was unique about Alessia, however, is the fact that despite countless claims against her practices, she seemed to get off scot-free, regardless of how severe they were. Money laundering, abuse of lesser workers, even neglect of her nephew…" She faded off, a quiet rage of her own showing, before regaining her composure. "What made you decide to target her? How come you were involved with him–" She gestured to Rocco's picture. "–so frequently?"

"Explain everything." She said, leaning back in her chair. She knew that she was in for yet another tale of the boy's escapades, yet she didn't seem to mind…or maybe it was just Ren's imagination.

Ren let out a deep breath that he didn't even realize he was holding, before starting to speak. "We had just gotten back from our Hawaii trip…"


"Ugh, is it really back to school already?" Ryuji groaned, his hands stuffed in his pockets as he, Ren (with Morgana stuffed in his bag), Ann, and Makoto walked up the steps to Shujin Academy.

"It's not like we were going to stay in Hawaii forever. And even if we did, there would still be our education to worry about." Makoto retorted, one of her hands keeping her school bag steady on her shoulder.

"Your last exams didn't go well, at least if I call correctly." Ann added on, giving Ryuji a levelheaded glare. "You're the last person to be complaining about school."

"I-It was in more of a hypothetical sense!" The blonde stuttered, trying to retract his previous statement, but to no avail.

"Sometimes, you're hopeless…" Morgana muttered, poking his head out of Ren's bag to look at Ryuji.

"There was that special assembly that was supposed to be today, right?" Ren said, trying to steer the conversation out of slightly less dangerous waters. The group passed by a girl that was watering the flowers as they spoke.

"Oh, yeah…wonder what it could be about." Ryuji said, grateful to not have everyone riding his ass…for the time being, at least. "D'you think they're gonna expand the lunch menu or somethin'?"

"Does your brain ever think about something that isn't food?" Ann said, not even bothering to hide the exasperation in her voice.

[The scene cuts to the gymnasium. Idle chatter filled the room, until the vice principal walked up onto the stage. The room quieted as he started to speak.]

"Ahem…we will now begin the emergency morning assembly." He said, before continuing.

"As many of you already know, Principal Kobayakawa passed away yesterday."

Murmurs instantly broke out again.

"I wonder if that suicide note's for real…"

"It happened in front of the police station, didn't it?"

"I think I was passing through there at that time…"

The vice principal continued, "The principal had been working hard to restore peace ever since the incident with Mr. Kamoshida. He only wished for everyone to be able to lead a normal school life, and because of that love…"

A student behind them said to himself, "Hmph. Bullshit…He was covering something up. Everyone's been talking about it."

Ren turned around subtly to take a look at the boy. He looked roughly around Makoto's age, however he looked severely different from the rest of the students. One, his milk chocolate hair, along with his green eyes. However the most shocking aspect of him was his grayish-silver hair, which seemed to glint underneath the pale light of the auditorium.

Ren noticed that the boy was looking at him after a few moments, and he turned his head back towards the vice principal as the murmurs started up again.

"Maybe it wasn't suicide…do you think the Phantom Thieves took him down!?"

"The Phantom Thieves? Do they kill people?"

"I mean, Kamoshida did say he was gonna kill himself to make up for everything he did."

"That would be amazing! Either way, it serves that principal right!"

"Hell no." Ryuji said to the others. "We didn't do jack shit."

"Are people gonna blame us for this, too?" Ann said, her eyes downcast.

"I would like to see everyone live up to our late principal's wishes as proud Shujin students, and…"

Makoto's eyes seemed downcast as well, and Ren knew exactly why.

The vice principal continued, his voice droning on so long that the words started to blend together. Ren only noticed the assembly was over when Ryuji nudged his shoulder.

"Yo, dude. It's over." He said to Ren, then added under his breath, "Finally…"


Ren shook his head at the flashback, before looking back at Sae.

"I had noticed traces of tampering. Does that mean you truly took the data from my laptop?" She asked him, in a bit of surprise as she looked at Ren. "No matter how I think about it, that would've been impossible unless Makoto was helping you…but…she would never do something so foolish…"

Ren's collar felt a little hot at that moment. As it turned out, Makoto was that foolish. She had downloaded some of her sister's data composing of the mental shutdown cases, along with other research, onto a hard drive that Futaba had given her.

"And," Sae continued, brushing the thought aside for now, "is it true that you were completely uninvolved with the Kobayakawa case?"

"We don't kill, Sae." Ren said shortly, brushing a lock of hair from his face.

Sae let out a sigh. "What does this mean…?"

"But, I suppose targeting someone at Shujin again and actually taking their life would be nonsensical."

"I'm not lying to you." Ren said, his hands clenched into fists. Why was it so hard for her to see the truth?

"I have no reason to believe everything you've said," Sae said, folding her arms. "...However, it seems you aren't the type of person who would lie just to protect themselves. I will acknowledge what I must. It's more efficient that way."

"In any case," she continued, "let's move on to the topic at hand."

Gesturing to the folder which contained Alessia and Rocco's pictures, she said, "I recall you saying that you had met Rocco around the time of the assembly. What I did not expect, however, was for him to play an integral part in changing the heart of your next target, in this instance, being her aunt."

"Why did you decide to go after Alessia Orimura, despite the following target, Kunikazu Okumura, having the most popular vote to have his heart changed at the time? What did you learn from her?"

"Explain everything to me."