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 56: - Death and Strength

My mind was whirling with the proposal that Rise had extended towards me last night, visiting her agency wasn't something I had expected and I really wondered if it would be able to help ensure I managed to get over these PTSD episodes that seemed to be attacking me. Me and Ren stepped into the entrance to school and I quickly started to clear my thoughts so that I would be focused on the upcoming lessons.

"What's this?" A female voice asked. I perked up hearing those words and looked over to see what was going on, I found a group of students gathered around a notice that I was certain had not been there yesterday. "A request to the student body?" She read aloud. I looked over at Ren who shrugged his shoulders, apparently also oblivious as to what was going on at the moment with this request.

"It says they're looking for information. I heard Principal Kobayakawa put it up," Another girl commented. Well, now I knew what was going on here, it seems that Kobayakawa was attempting to pump the student population for any information about us; that probably meant that Niijima-senpai hadn't been able to turn up any hard evidence which was quite the relief for us, but I wasn't about to relax yet.

"Please consult the student council president if you have any details," The first student read. Yeah, Kobayakawa was definitely trying to get information in order to speed up Niijima-senpai's investigation, but I doubt anything would come from this; unless Mishima ended up doing something rather reckless since no one actually on the Phantoms would go and talk to her after what she had said.

"So, we can go to her for anything?" The male wondered. That really wasn't what the request was for, but Kobayakawa certainly couldn't put in writing what he was really looking for, that would be too suspect even to those who didn't believe in our existence. "Why the student council president though? What does she have to do with Principal Kobayakawa?" The student questioned.

"I mean, Niijima-san is his favourite. Maybe that's why he asked her to do it," The second female student suggested. Me and Ren proceeded to share looks with each other and we quickly walked away, I spotted Ren slipping his phone out and I knew he was sending a warning to the rest of the Phantoms so that they were aware of the danger before they accidentally got ambushed by the news.

We continued our walk and settled down into class, Ann came in and looked restless which was no doubt because of the notice; we settled down and the first lesson got under way. Everything was pretty peaceful until my phone proceeded to go off; seriously why did Ryūji have to start Chats when we were in lessons, I quickly pulled it out and opened up the app to see what he was talking about.

Ryūji: Our name did spread a bit thanks to Madarame

Ryūji: But I bet people still wouldn't care if we came out and said we're the Phantoms.

Natsumi: Oh, I bet they would.

Ryūji: Really?

Natsumi: Yeah, the police, the prosecutors, Kobayakawa.

Ren: In other words, all the wrong people.

Yusuke: Certainly, no good would come of tell people our identities.

Ryūji: Maybe they'd at least start treating us with some respect.

Ann: We'd be in prison long before that ever happened!

Yusuke: I can understand why he feels that way, though.

Ann: That's just how things are now, but if we keep doing stuff like this, that will definitely change.

Yusuke: We simply need to devote ourselves to the cause. Our praise will come later.

Ren: Patience is a virtue, especially in this case.

Ann: I'm sure some people out there will understand.

Ryūji: Ugh, I guess we just gotta act like modest heroes for now…

Natsumi: Better modest heroes than famous martyrs.

I slipped it away and could only hope that the blonde punk would be able to keep quiet, his attitude was starting to get a bit worrying in my opinion.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Takemi tapped her painted nails against the desk her computer sat at, she was awaiting the arrival of Chiba for the next meet up and at least Takemi had managed to clear the itch from her mind before the girl's next visit. Thankfully her research into that name hadn't caused any trouble for her drug trial on Amamiya, though he had seemed to realise something, but he never said anything… weird kids, the both of them.

A chime came and Takemi immediately called the girl into the back upon checking that it was the one who she'd been waiting for, Chiba quickly took a seat across from the doctor, with a notebook in her hand which she quickly flicked over to a specific page. As Takemi couldn't technically check up on the boy who the treatment was for, speaking with the middle person for check-ups was the best either of them could do.

"Right, Ryūji's leg has technically healed since he can walk on it, but it's clear that there's not a great deal of bone density nor muscle strength around the affected area. He was able to recall the things he could do before the incident and there's been a marked decrease in his capabilities, now that might just be degrading stamina, but the affected area is also definitely contributing to the limitations on his abilities," Chiba summarised.

"Repairing bone is the most difficult thing, surgery isn't possible since it hasn't broken enough for skin to be pierced and even so, time has passed enough for the bone to finish its' healing back to baseline. The only way to help him is to give him stuff that can help with bone repair," Takemi admitted. Bones, always the hardest thing to repair after the mind in Takemi's opinion, well that was normal conditions; specialised cases were always the most difficult especially when the cause was unknown.

"I've given him information about the kind of foods that he could eat to help with that, thanks to your information," Chiba admitted. That was good, Takemi might be a doctor, but she was also smart enough to rely upon natural treatments as much as mainstream one's; in fact, sometimes the natural treatments were even better than what modern medicine could come up with.

"Probably best for me to look for more sources, there isn't actually any medicine that's made for this type of treatment. Must make sure your friend keeps up with that diet, he can break on occasion but try to have at least three days dedicated to those kinds of meals," Takemi advised. In truth, it really was out of her hands now, all she could do was trust in Chiba and her friend to keep moving towards recovery.

"Um, another thing Takemi-sensei," Chiba suddenly piped up. The sketchy doctor leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms as she looked at the girl, who seemed a little nervous if her twisting fingers were anything to go by. "I was wondering if you could prescribe me one of these two medications?" Chiba requested. She reached into her bag and pulled out a slip of paper which she handed to Takemi who took it with a raised eyebrow, upon seeing the medications, her eyes widened.

"Paroxetine and Sertraline. These are drugs used in the treatment of depression," Takemi explained. She leaned forward and dangled her arms between her legs as she glared at the girl, wondering what she could be pulling. "They're not meant to be given to anyone underage, unless in extreme cases," Takemi added on. She didn't like seeing such medication being advised for a young person to take, especially since Chiba didn't seem to be suffering from depression, she showed none of the signs that set off Takemi's warning bells.

"It appears I might have post traumatic stress disorder," Chiba stated. Takemi's mouth opened as she tried to process that piece of information, the girl still hadn't presented any signs of that mental state. "I had an attack a few days ago and the counsellor I'm seeing believes getting some medicine might be best if I have another attack.

"Except these, take too long," Takemi bluntly stated. A mutter of incomprehensible words escaped the punk rock doctor as she rolled back and immediately tapped away at her computer, thankfully the name of this therapist was on the paper she'd been given, so Takemi was able to check to see if he was legitimate. He actually was, but Takemi was a cynical individual and she didn't particularly feel like trusting this Maruki Takuto just because he seemed legitimate.

"Takemi-sensei, is everything okay?" Chiba asked. The doctor shot the girl a look and found the girl was staring at her with intense green eyes, intense enough that Takemi felt a little uncomfortable; the girl probably didn't mean to make Takemi feel that way, but her gaze just seemed to have a natural heaviness to it that caused the sensation.

"Just fine Chiba," Takemi answered. Rising to her feet, Takemi moved over and began to rifle through the cupboards she had for the object she was looking for, those drugs took too long to really activate and Takemi had the sensation that Chiba needed it to take effect sooner; especially as she wasn't really taking anything like that before hand, the girl was in fairly good health. "Ah, there you are," Takemi muttered. She grabbed the object and turned back to Chiba, holding it out to her.

"What's this?" Chiba asked. Despite the question, she still took the box and turned it around, likely looking for a name before opening it up and finding a single strip of medicine with eight pieces; Chiba sealed it back up and looked at the doctor as she proceeded to take a seat once again across from the girl who seemed to be patiently waiting for an answer to her question.

"It's an antidepressant that I made; it works much faster than typical medication like it. However, you are to only take one as and when you needed it. Don't go popping them like some lunatic," Takemi insisted. Chiba looked down at the box with a curious expression before lifting her head to look at Takemi with a smile on her face.

"Thank you so much sensei," Chiba admitted. She then proceeded to start packing her things away and Takemi wondered if perhaps she should bring up what she wanted to ask, before brushing it away; there was a time and a place to ask that question and right now wasn't the time to be asking the girl about her familial connections. "I'll see you next time," Chiba bid. Takemi lifted a hand to wave at the girl as she turned to leave.

"I'll let you know when I've got the information you're friend needs," Takemi stated. At those words, Chiba proceeded to turn around and give the woman a warm smile, she already knew who the girl was related to but seeing that smile was like a nail in the coffin as to know for certain just who Chiba happened to be, the smile was identical in every way to that one her friend used to flash her.

"You're a wonderful doctor Takemi-sensei," Chiba stated. Before Takemi could react the assertion, the girl opened the door and left through it, leaving the doctor to silently gape at the door as it proceeded to swing close behind Chiba; once the door was shut, Takemi proceeded to sigh heavily and slumped back in her chair with her lips twisted in a way that Takemi wasn't sure if she was smiling or frowning.

"Huh… your daughter's one heck of a weird girl," Takemi sighed. The doctor then turned her head to look at a picture nestled safely on her desk so that only she could see what it contained. "Then again, you were weird yourself, Cho-san," Takemi admitted. A smile coming on her face as she looked at the picture of her and her friend.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Elizabeth was well acquainted with death, not least because that was what her Wild Card and Betwixt had been forced to face to protect humanity, so she knew that something was very wrong with these deaths that were occurring. The problem was that the sinister presence in Shibuya's train station was doing a good job of masking the other locations and that made it much harder for them to locate the sharp spikes that had been peppering Tokyo related to those accidents.

Elizabeth wished there was a simple way to figure out what had happened to the Velvet Room, but it appeared that nothing was going to be easy for them in solving this insane mystery that had suddenly attacked their lives. All the comfort that Elizabeth could take was that she had kept the Compendium created by her Wild Card with her and enable her to keep fighting whatever was plaguing this city so much that it was basically corrupted down to its' cognitive roots.

"I found some sources!" Natsumi's voice called. Elizabeth, along with Margaret and Theodore all perked up when they heard those words and turned to look at the young girl as she jogged over to them with a piece of paper within her hand. "Bus runaway accident including casualties, bombing at a convenience store, arson within a tunnel, fuel leak at a yacht harbour, an airport bus charging around, a traffic accident, a cyber-attack at the Cabinet Office, a poisoning incident. And most recently an incident at Wild-Duck Burger," Natsumi listed. Elizabeth's eyes widened as she recognised the name of the last place that was mentioned.

"What are all these events, Natsumi?" Margaret asked. It was a little odd that she suddenly came over and listed a group of events that sounded quite serious but ultimately it wasn't anything that they should be concerned with; yet the gleam within Natsumi's eyes implied that there was something more to these events than the attendants could actually think of.

"They're reports of extremely unusual incidents, probably like what happened at the train station. Perhaps if we visit these places, we might have a better understanding of what's going on," Natsumi suggested. Well, that did seem to be beneficial, if they were incidents that were like the train station but away from it – thank Master Igor in Elizabeth's opinion – then they might be able to get a better read on whatever had gone wrong.

"Then let's start with the Wild Duck one," Theodore suggested. A small hum escaped Margaret and Elizabeth turned to look at her serious sister; it had been such a shock when the Velvet Room had been lost but more because of how panicked and fearful Margaret had become, Elizabeth had been worried of course but her elder sister had seemed almost frantic with worry at the incident; quite the opposite of her normal grace and level-headed demeanour.

"Good idea, it's the most recent therefore anything left behind would be at its' strongest, the others we'll check later," Margaret agreed. There hadn't been much left that could help them at the train station, but anything that could have helped was completely overshadowed by the heavy suffocation of the darkness that Mementos exuded which rendered their ability to sense and understand the incident utterly moot.

"The rest seem to be from April and before, so they're definitely older," Natsumi agreed. She was doing so much to help them and if Elizabeth was honest, she seemed much more comfortable and happier when compared to how she was when they met inside that Palace, there was a sparkle to her eyes that had been absent back then. "I'll take you guys to the place where it happened, let's see what we can find," Natsumi decided.

To reach it, they had to go by train which meant that Natsumi had to lead them through the train station which none of the siblings liked if the tension bleeding from their shoulders was anything to go by, the moment they got out a collective sigh of relief escaped them. Natsumi kept guiding them to the restaurant that Elizabeth recalled from her tour of the physical world one time, as they looked at it something clicked into place in Elizabeth's mind

"Hmm, interesting," Theodore commented. The elder of the two could only nod her head in agreement, the scene before them was quite interesting when compared against the train station which was quite intriguing; Natsumi's suggestion to visit the other accident sites were bearing more merit before they'd even begun to look into it, even without their eyes the Betwixt were filled with impressive instincts pertaining to the other world.

"The darkness present in this area is less oppressive, but more than that…," Elizabeth acknowledged. There was something quite different to it that Elizabeth was slightly struggling to put into exact words as she stared at the building; hopefully her serious sister would be able to fill in the bit that she was missing out at the moment.

"It's also different to what we felt at the train station," Margaret added on. Yes, there was that difference and as Elizabeth focused upon it she finally found what the difference was and that set the woman on edge; something like this felt almost too familiar to her and it was starting to itch at her mind with increasing persistence that was starting to become annoying.

"How is it different?" Natsumi asked. All three of them turned to look at Natsumi who was giving them an inquisitive expression, they definitely needed to keep the girl up to date on what they discovered with anything that was found otherwise it would only prevent Natsumi from helping and her help was proving immensely valuable already.

"There's something more… concretely sinister, I suppose is the best way to describe it," Elizabeth admitted. That was certainly the way that it felt after taking the time to observe it, Elizabeth gripped her compendium, wishing for Minako's strength to bolster her in light of this unnerving revelation of what was staring them dead in the face.

"Essentially, while there was a sinister feeling at the train station it was a bit more like smoke, there but amorphous, hard to touch let alone see if you aren't looking for it," Theodore explained. Natsumi's expression gave nothing away as she looked between the trio of siblings as she waited for them to finish the explanation they were giving.

"But this, there's a definite shape to the darkness that hangs over this place, like it's a bit more real, almost as if it's encroaching on this world," Margaret finalised. Natsumi's expression hardened as those words were spoken, clearly she understood that this wasn't a good thing for them to be dealing with; Elizabeth had never seen anything like this, whether as her time as an attendant or afterwards.

"Um, excuse me," A voice asked. They turned to see a boy standing behind them, he was looking between them with a confused expression on his face as he looked between each of them for some kind of understanding, Elizabeth had to wonder how long he had been there. "Are you talking about the nude chef selfie?" The boy asked. Elizabeth blinked her golden eyes as she tried to understand what the boy could possibly be referring to.

"Yeah, they're psychics who seem disturbed by the incidents that have been going on so came to Tokyo to investigate. Can't recall how I got swept up in this mess but I'm showing them around," Natsumi answered. This was exactly why a Betwixt was so necessary, she was able to come up with a convincing enough explanation for what they were talking about, which took the pressure off the siblings.

"Okay," The boy commented. He was still staring at them quizzically and Elizabeth wasn't entirely sure if he had bought the reasoning that Natsumi had given, it seemed reasonable but perhaps it wasn't enough to convince the boy; a sudden clearing of a throat drew their attention and Elizabeth found it had been Margaret who was looking at the boy. As for the boy, he seemed to flush a little red at the focus that she was giving him.

"What do you know about the incident?" Margaret asked. Hopefully that would cause any suspicion the boy had to be diverted otherwise they would probably have to deal with whatever his suspicions of them ended up bringing down; the boy straightened up slightly and focused upon Margaret at bit more intensely but with something about him that seemed slightly saddened.

"The person who did it was my mentor, but he never acted like that before. He was always so serious and dutiful regarding his work. He'd never do something so… bizarre or harmful to the restaurant," The boy explained. It certainly seemed like he was saddened by the actions that had been taken by the man who took this nude chef selfie… what ever that was, as it went completely over Elizabeth's head.

"Was there anything about your mentor that seem extremely unusual beside his odd behaviour?" Theodore questioned. Unusual behaviour could be a sign of something completely normal happening but there was something about this sudden change in mental state that was itching at Elizabeth's mind, as if she should know it from somewhere.

"Yeah actually," The boy answered. He had been thinking after Theodore's question and had suddenly perked up as if he remembered something that agreed with the question. "He claimed that he couldn't remember doing anything like that and seemed horrified to learn what he'd done," The boy revealed. For some reason, that string of words sparked the connection that had been annoying Elizabeth and she felt her eyes widen.

"Thank you for your aid young man, hopefully we can get to the bottom of this," Elizabeth rushed out. With that she grabbed Natsumi and dragged the girl away, Elizabeth knew her siblings were following them, but her mind was buzzing with what she had learned; once they were in an area devoid of other people, she twisted around to face them. "It's similar to Apathy Syndrome," Elizabeth hissed. Theodore's own golden gaze went wide as he understood what had so unsettled Elizabeth before narrowing with understanding.

"Yes, I concur sister, this does bear a deal of similarity to Apathy Syndrome," Theodore agreed. The two of them had seen what Apathy Syndrome could do to a person, how it could so violently change their personalities into almost exact opposites of how they had been before the condition caught the people within its' claws.

"And you two are going to need to explain that," Natsumi pointed out. Elizabeth knew that she was right, Margaret knew the basic details but not all of what had happened when they had been responsible for the Velvet Room; it was gone now, thanks to the actions of Minako and her precious friends, so to hear something like it had crawled back set of many of Elizabeth's warning bells.

"Seven years ago, in Tatsumi Port Island, Shadows were capable of attacking people during a very specific time of the day. When that happened, people would end up losing all ability to care, they'd stop eating, sleeping, caring for themselves and eventually they'd start spouting out mindless ramblings, extreme cases saw them hospitalised. When they were cured, none of them could remember a thing during their time under that condition," Elizabeth explained. The Great Seal should be holding, it couldn't be happening again, could it?

"It does sound similar, it also bears some similarities to the mental breakdowns, something has to be causing this to be happening," Natsumi noted. She didn't seem frightened by the knowledge, instead it seemed as if she knew it; suddenly her expression hardened as if recalling something unpleasant. "Or someone is causing it," Natsumi muttered. Elizabeth raised her eyebrows, curious as to why Natsumi assumed that someone was behind this incident, and perhaps the others.

"Whatever the cause, if you continue to fight in the other world, you'll reach your answer," Margaret insisted. That had been the case with all of them, the other world provided the truth for the other two groups of Persona Wielders and perhaps those before them as well; Natsumi nodded her head before proceeding to look down at the watch that she had on.

"I better get home, it's getting rather late," Natsumi admitted. The girl quickly bowed to them and proceeded to run off, the three attendants waved the girl goodbye before turning to look at each other, hard expressions on their face; their discovery was useful, but it was also extremely disconcerting to be made aware of this unusual connection to the past dangers that had come.

No matter what, Elizabeth needed to check on the Great Seal, if it was weakened or broken then Elizabeth knew they were in for much more danger than before and that Natsumi needed to be made aware of the danger. If it was unchanged then everything was fine for them and Elizabeth could stop worrying about a repeat of seven years ago, but the similarities was still unnerving.

"Now that she's gone, we need to do figure out how to better detect the strangeness that is pervading the city," Margaret stated. Elizabeth could certainly spare time to focus upon this strangeness that kept occurring, but not for long, only until they had a clear idea of how to understand it.