The Music of Freedom

by DemonSessama

Chiba Natsumi is trapped in a living hell and isolated from the rest of the world, though the latter is a choice of her own making, but a stumble into a bizarre world too strange to be real unlocks a power within that sings for her freedom. With this power Natsumi finds she can no longer be silent over cruelties committed and finds she might not be as alone as she believes she is.

59. Chapter 59

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 59: - Hot Pot Party!

The day after the TV station trip and I still felt exhausted, not that Ren looked any better when I met up with him on our walk to the train station, it got even worse when we found that the train was too crowded today for either of us to sit down. Though I think if I did sit, then I'd probably end up falling straight to sleep… school was not going to be fun, but hopefully I'd be awake for when we met up with Yusuke later.

"Did you catch any of that student detective on television yesterday?" A female voice asked. I looked at the source of the voice and found that it was a woman who happened to have rather heavy make up on, I couldn't understand why people enjoyed plastering a heap of chemicals on their face in such ridiculous quantities.

"Ah, on that talk show? It was simply dreadful," Another woman claimed. She was rather loud since I saw several people away from me and Ren look over to see what was going on. "How can anyone seriously suggest supernatural beings are stealing people's hearts?" She questioned. There hadn't been anything about us being supernatural going around so where the heck had this woman got that idea from. "That… child is a phony. There's simply no way that these phantom thieves exist," The woman declared. That was a little rude, Akechi might have an opinion I disagree with but to call him a phony was a bit much.

"Unfortunately, my precious children all think they're real and worse, that this detective is amazing," The make up woman whined. Better that they were idolising someone like Akechi than someone truly repulsive or outright evil. "Children are far too impressionable to see such vulgar content on TV," She added on. The way people's minds work does sometimes baffle me, I would hardly say that such a program was 'vulgar', also the woman does realise she can control what her children watch if their young enough.

"Looks like people still don't think we're real," Morgana complained. Ren petted Morgana on the head, but there wasn't much that we could do about this situation, it was up to the people as to whether they chose to believe in us or not; I certainly hadn't seen any way in Mementos to effect a grand change upon the general public so all we could do was keep trying our best.

Once the train came to a stop, we got off and made our way towards school, at least the weather seemed cool enough for me to feel rather relaxed, at least that was until I heard people ahead of me and Ren talking. I was probably going to have to deal with everyone talking about yesterday's event until something else happened to draw their attention away from it; please gods let that be soon.

"I can't believe we were on TV yesterday, with Akechi-kun! It was like a dream come true," A loud girl claimed. This was likely a prelude to the situation that would await us at school. "I can't believe a high schooler moonlights as a detective. He's just like the Detective Prince," She added on. That seemed to snag Ren's attention as he perked up suddenly and focused on the girl, that was an interesting reaction since he hadn't seem to make one when I'd used that title the first day we met Akechi. "He's smart and handsome. He's almost too perfect!" The girl squealed. Not that fake tone he used; it was highly discomforting for me to hear.

"We had front row seats. I could practically reach out and touch Akechi-kun! I was so nervous!" The girl beside her exclaimed. She sounded too excited, also that was highly unlikely since there was still a sizeable distance between her and the boy. "He was really working that uniform and without seeming like a snob. He's a natural at public speaking. I hear he's an orphan who grew up poor. It's part of what makes him so amazing!" The girl fawned. I blinked my eyes upon hearing that fact, I knew not everything about celebrities was true, but it was quite interesting to have something in common with the boy if it was true. "He wants his last high school memory to be capturing the Phantoms. This isn't a game to him!" She added on. Oh boy, that was a problem for us.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Break time had come and we'd pretty much agreed by Chat to meet up in the courtyard – sans Yusuke obviously – but it did feel like we needed to talk about yesterday. I was currently with Ann who was getting some snacks, though I think this might have been stress pushing her to eat as opposed to her natural sweet tooth kicking a craving into existence; once Ann had her snacks, we proceeded to head for the courtyard and were immediately greeted by our resident loudmouth.

"-we wouldn't be doing stuff as the Phantoms to start with!" Ryūji snapped. I sighed heavily at his words, we were just lucky that no one else was around to hear those words, both of us quickly walked over to the two boys and Ann promptly slapped Ryūji on the back of the head. "Ow," Ryūji complained. Ann proceeded to lean against the table while I stood between her and Ryūji.

"You're being way too loud," Ann warned. I nodded my head in agreement, we needed Ryūji to finally understand that constantly blurting out about us being the Phantoms was going to get us in trouble; we'd been lucky so far but one day it would come and bite us if Ryūji kept going on like this. Ren had an unimpressed expression on his face as he looked at Ryūji who was rubbing the back of his head.

"Who cares? Everyone's talkin' about this stuff anyways," Ryūji pointed out. While that may be true, it's the content of what he was saying that was the real concern. "It'd just be more suspicious if we were whisperin'," Ryūji added on. It seemed that Ryūji wasn't getting the fact that he was being overtly loud; I proceeded to pin the blonde with a look as I propped a hand on my hip.

"Maybe, but could you not yell about our social activities in public when someone is actively trying to expose us," I responded. I made sure to put heavy emphasis on certain words as I continued to try and bore hole through Ryūji's skin; as for our Electricity wielder, he was twitching in place and seemed deeply uncomfortable at having me staring at him with such intensity.

"She's got you there Ryūji, at least tone it down to normal speaking levels," Ren insisted. I looked over at him and saw that our leader was smirking slightly, a breath of relief rushed from Ryūji once I looked away, so I shot him one more look with a raised eyebrow which caused him to squeak slightly before I decided on backing down and relaxed, Ryūji proceeded to focus his attention on Ann who had been eating her snacks the entire time.

"Hey, you really just gonna keep eatin' and eatin' and eatin' those things all by yourself!?" Ryūji commented. As if in answer to this question, Ann simply kept eating the food she had brought with her with only a slight flick up of her eyes to show she had heard him. "Gimme some!" Ryūji demanded. Ann swallowed and proceeded to put the carton on the table top while a cheeky smile spread its' way across her lips.

"Sorry, just ate the last one," Ann admitted. I couldn't be sure if she had done this with the intent of teasing Ryūji, but the blonde's response of slumping over and sighing heavily as if he was enduring something terrible was rather funny and did manage to lighten the tense atmosphere; at least until a sharp growl from Morgana made all of us focus on him and we saw the disapproving look he was giving us.

"You guys are too laid back. The police are getting involved now, you know," Morgana warned. His words caused the tense atmosphere from before to return and we shared a slightly concerned look; the fact that the police would be coming after us now was very unsettling to me, ignoring the supposed genius detective boy who might be hunting us down, having people with enough persistence on our trail would be difficult if not outright dangerous.

"So, you think it's true? We'll be okay if we keep doing this… right?" Ann asked. I could see the worry on her face as she spoke those words, there wasn't anything I could really say in response to that, simply because I didn't know; if we were even more careful than right now, we'd probably be okay but there was only so much caution we could use before someone became suspicious of us.

"We can't let the cops scare us out of bein' phantom thieves," Ryūji insisted. There was that fact as well, if we were put off by the police coming after us then more people would end up suffering as a result of us being frightened off; but there really wasn't a way to argue for or against the current situation that we were stuck within.

"But… what about that weird guy from Madarame's challenge. Isn't there a lot we don't know?" Ann asked. Before any of us could respond to those words, a sudden clicking sound came and we all spun around to see Niijima-senpai standing there with her phone out; a queasy feeling sprang to life in my stomach at the thought of what she might have heard before taking that picture.

"The hell?!" Ryūji exclaimed. He seemed more surprised than angry for once but that was unlikely to last for long if Niijima-senpai stuck around, I could sense Ren shuffle closer to Ryūji probably on the precaution that the blonde might potentially explode at our upperclassman which would land us in some unnecessary trouble.

"You four seem to be having so much fun. I'm a little jealous," Niijima-senpai claimed. I focused my attention on her with a steely expression on my face as I tried to puzzle out what the girl could possibly be up to with the sudden appearance and the picture taking that she had performed; she was clearly plotting something, but the real question was what.

"Are you snooping on us again?" Ryūji asked. That was quite clearly what she had been doing, this entire time so it wasn't that much of a question as an accusation that the blonde was making. "We said before, we don't know nothin'," Ryūji reminded. I don't think she had bought such a response the last time and she definitely won't buy it this time around; we had to tread carefully now.

"Why do you think I'm here to question you? Could it be that you're hiding something?" Niijima-senpai questioned. Oh great, she had likely already been suspicious but now she was extra suspicious after the words Ryūji had just spoken. "My ears are always open to the troubles of my peers you know," Niijima-senpai claimed. A hiss of air escaped from behind me and I looked back to see Ann with her blue eyes narrowed into a harsh glare.

"You're really that hungry for a good letter of recommendation? Of course you are," Ann sneered. Everyone focused their attention on the model as she took a couple of steps forward while her hands tightened into fists. "Nobody would take on your annoying job if they weren't," Ann added on. Something had clearly set off Ann, but I couldn't figure out what it had been from Niijima-senpai that could have done it, even the student council president seemed baffled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Niijima-senpai asked. She sounded very concerned but also furious at the words that Ann was speaking to her, a quick look at the two boys showed that they were rather confused by what was being said as well; Ann had never said anything to us about Niijima-senpai and she hadn't seemed particularly against her the last time we interacted or whenever she was brought up, it was a rather strange development.

"You're student council president, right? Wouldn't you have known about Kamoshida?" Ann accused. My eyes widened hearing those words come from Ann, because there was absolutely no way that it was true, there couldn't be chance of Makoto having been aware of what had happened; Niijima-senpai's eyes widen as a horrified expression came on her face.

"Of course not! He honestly was a good teacher until that day," Niijima-senpai admitted. She looked down, probably feeling shame at having been so completely fooled by that scum, I really don't know how anyone as smart as Niijima-senpai could have been so fooled by that monster, surely she should have seen something suspicious was going on with how wounded the volleyball team was.

"Oh, but you always take the teacher's side. That's what a good council president does, right?" Ann mockingly asked. I didn't like the way that Ann was treating Niijima-senpai, I don't know where she had heard this information about Makoto knowing the things Kamoshida was doing but Ann should have told us before hand; as for Niijima-senpai, she snapped her head up to pierce Ann with a glare.

"Then how about you? What did you do for your friend?" Niijima-senpai demanded. That was a low blow, my mouth dropped open as I looked at Niijima-senpai, unable to believe that she had actually attacked such a soft spot for Ann. "You were much closer to her than I was, so how did you help?!" Niijima-senpai demanded. Ann flinched back at those words and I heard an angry sound echo from behind me.

"There wasn't any way to help! By myself, I couldn't do anything for her!" Ann yelled. I saw the tears burning in her eyes at the way she must have felt recalling the way her own inability to act had caused Shiho's current condition, I saw an angry expression start to form of Ann's face and I knew she was going to let out more ridiculous accusations; despite her tears, I wouldn't allow her to say any more of that nonsense.

"ANN!" I roared. This startled the blonde and she turned to look at me with wide, watery eyes, but I wasn't about to soften up; the nonsense that she had heard needed to be stopped here and now before Ann when too far. "Don't you dare accuse her of even knowing that stuff!" I snapped. I knew they wouldn't understand why I was acting this way but now wasn't the time to explain it to them.

"Natsu-chan?" Ann questioned. It hurt to hear Ann sounding the way she did, like I'd just slapped her, instead I turned my attention to Makoto who was staring at me with wide eyes; I marched up to the student council president and violently stabbed a finger into her breastbone with a furious look on my face. When Makoto tried to step back, I quickly wrapped my hand around her shirt to stop her retreat.

"As for you, you didn't do anything!" I snarled. Niijima-senpai's eyes widened as I kept my grip tight so that she couldn't run away from this bit of knowledge. "A blind person could have seen that something was wrong with the volleyball team, but I never once saw or heard of you doing anything for them. 'A good teacher', Kamoshida was scum and it was easy to see… but apparently only I saw the truth and at least I tried to help," I stated. With that, I released my grip and took several steps away from her.

"If those phantom thieves are out there helping people… I'd root for 'em no question asked," Ryūji admitted. He sounded strangely calm which was a little unlike him especially given how heated me and Ann had become. "They gotta be more dependable than some people I know," Ryūji accused. I shot Ryūji a look for that comment and the boy quickly stepped behind Ren while giving me a wide eyed look.

"Just make sure you show up to your classes, alright?" Niijima-senpai insisted. She sounded hurt, as if the words three of us had spoken had harmed her on some level, she proceeded to turn and walked away from the scene, likely wanting to put distance between us and her after what had just happened; I felt myself start to calm down, not liking how I had lost control of myself.

"You know what I asked earlier, about whether we'll be okay if we keep this up. I take it back. I'd be ashamed to let it end now," Ann decided. Despite how things had happened, it was a relief to see that Ann had recovered her determination to keep going with our social activities; hopefully nothing bad happened because of Niijima-senpai's decision to keep looking into us.

"Hell yeah. It's about time we find our next target too," Ryūji agreed. With that we proceeded to leave the courtyard, both blondes put distance between me and them – not that I blamed them – thankfully Ren stayed close by and pressed his hand against my own as a way to comfort to me, as we walked I saw Niijima-senpai standing alone and looking extremely isolated in that moment.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Once the school day ended, we proceeded to leave the school and headed back to Shibuya where we found Yusuke already waiting for us with a grim expression on his face. I could only assume that this was connected to the darn interview from yesterday, something told me that was going to be haunting us for a while.

"Comments are coming in at an alarming rate. However, negative ones seem to be more prominent," Yusuke remarked. I can't say I was exactly surprised by that, but it was rather disheartening too, any support we might have had was either being drown out or had completely evaporated. "'A criminal group with unknown goals that does whatever it wants in the name of justice'. Huh…," Yusuke read. Well, that was insulting, we were vigilantes at worst and we didn't do 'whatever we want' only what was necessary.

"It's prolly 'cause of Akechi… TV's got some crazy sway," Ryūji admitted. It was more than just TV, Akechi himself possessed a great deal of influence due to his pre-established fame and supposed 'charisma'; I personally didn't see what was so charming about an individual who was rather fake if one paid close enough attention to his voice, it was clear to hear.

"He's free to deny our actions, but being cursed by his influence is another thing entirely," Yusuke lamented. It was certainly a difficult thing for us to combat given that we had no way to safely counter Akechi's statements with our own words; we'd be opening ourselves up to retaliation and demands about our identities which was something we'd be unable to reveal without serious repercussions.

"Just when we were starting to get people to believe in us too," Ann bemoaned. The people who had started to believe had been caused to lose faith because of the words shot against us; it was either they were convinced to turn against us, or they had been frightened into silence by the vast negative feeling targeting our actions now.

"All we gotta do is take down another hot shot, yeah?" Ryūji suggested. I don't think that would cause much of a change, in fact depending on who it is then we'd probably only end up drawing in more trouble towards us; we needed to be absolutely careful in how we chose the next person who's heart we changed, it was best if we didn't rush into this choice.

"Well, do you have any ideas who this next 'hot shot' could be?" Yusuke wondered. I was curious to know if Ryūji had located anyone who could be a potential challenge for us to face, everyone proceeded to look at the blonde punk to see what his answer would be; I think we all had an idea when the boy slumped down in a dejected manner.

"I ain't got a thing yet… damnit, this is real irritatin'," Ryūji admitted. He proceeded to rise up and looked at Yusuke with confusion in his eyes. "By the way, what's up with that luggage?" Ryūji wondered. It was a curious thing as I focused on the objects gathered at the painter's side, I'm not sure why he happened to have luggage since he was meant to be out of the shack already.

"Oh, I decided to leave the school dorms," Yusuke admitted. We all proceeded to look at the boy, wondering what the boy could possibly be thinking by leaving his place of residence. "They were not only filthy, but too noisy as well. No true art could come from such a place," Yusuke claimed. I suppose that would be the primary thing for Yusuke to be thinking about given his manner.

"What are you gonna do then? You can't go back to that shack, right?" Ryūji asked. I really hope that wasn't the case, even with Madarame locked up, that place would only hold memories that now had to be tainted by the revelation of how Madarame had truly view Yusuke which would likely only mean that the boy would be in quite the negative environment and I can't imagine it was conductive to any creative energy.

"I was planning on staying at Takamaki-san's, I mean, Ann's house," Yusuke admitted. My eyes widened in shock at these words and one look at Ann proved that she had no idea about this event happening. "I've even prepared a thank you gift. I hope it's to your parents' liking," Yusuke revealed. The artist seemed completely oblivious as to the gaping mouth that showcased Ann's shock, before she finally snapped herself together.

"WHAT!? There's no way that's gonna happen," Ann decided. Yusuke was somehow shocked by Ann's reaction and even claimed it was 'impossible' which caused me to reach up to the bridge of my nose and pinch it slightly in order to supress the headache and I could feel was already forming at the craziness that was Yusuke's unusual thought process.

"You're the impossible one," Ryūji commented. I had to agree with Ryūji, while he might be unaware of Ann's parents being abroad, I was still struggling to comprehend just how he had come to the conclusion that Ann or Ann's parents would allow him to even enter their home especially when Ann's parents don't know him and the whole nude painting debacle that had happened would be fresh in Ann's mind.

"But I spent everything I had on these delectable Japanese sweets," Yusuke revealed. He even lifted up the box and held it out to show it to us, I'm certain that sweets weren't going to smooth things over, even when taking into account the fact that I'm sure Ann could live off sweets with no consequences; Ann's expression became one of annoyance as she glared at Yusuke some more.

"That's not the issue here!" Ann snapped. I nodded my head in agreement since it most certainly wasn't the primary issue, Ann heaved a large sigh while shaking her head at the painter. "Seriously though… what're we gonna do about him?" Ann asked. She turned to gaze at the rest of us, likely hoping we'd have some kind of answer to give her about this situation.

"Not my place, me and my mum have got enough hard work housing just the two of us," Ryūji immediately decided. I couldn't blame him for that decision, it would put an unfair imposition on Ryūji's mum to have her housing Yusuke and so suddenly; Yusuke nodded his head as if accepting this and saying nothing about the lack of a father which Ryūji was probably grateful for, there were only two options left them.

"I suppose that leaves mine and Ren's places," I spoke up. Everyone proceeded to look over at us as I said those words, I glanced out the side of my eye at Ren who looked a little nervous at the prospect of bringing someone over. "Although Ren's might be slightly difficult," I admitted. Sōjirō was a kind man but I wasn't sure how he really felt about Ren and that might make him unsure about bringing in one of Ren's friends.

"If it's all the same to you Natsumi, I'd like to see Ren's place before making a decision. Your… dwelling is eerily cold," Yusuke admitted. I focused my attention on the painter and blinked my eyes in surprise at his words; my house was cold? I wonder if something was wrong with the heating… but I hadn't had it on when Yusuke came over, so maybe the insulation, but I didn't feel any kind of chill permeating the house.

"Yusuke would be welcome to stay at our place. It's dirty but at least you'll have somewhere to sleep!" Morgana declared. Everyone focused on the cat with Yusuke taking on a relaxed expression compared to his slightly uncomfortable one from before; in contrast to this Ren looked like he was panicking slightly at the cat's words.

"I think there's a problem you're forgetting Morgana, we need Sakura-san to agree to taking Yusuke in," Ren reminded. It did seem that Morgana had forgotten about the barista needing to approve this decision to let someone stay over; we'd only really know the decision once the man himself was asked, though I can't be sure if Ren would be able to ask given how worried he seemed to be.

"Also, why are you calling the shots?" Ryūji questioned. A valid question to pose since it wasn't like Morgana could be the one asking to let Yusuke stay there, so it didn't make sense for him to be the one that was bossing Ren about regarding this situation; hopefully nothing uncomfortable would happen once we got around to having that conversation with Sōjirō.

"Yeah, don't you two live in a café? I've been wondering about that for a while," Ann admitted. Ren nodded his head to confirm what Ann had said, he'd come clean to the others about where he lived after I reassured him it was fine. "How about we go there now?" Ann suggested. The others seemed intrigued by this proposal and I wasn't any better. "We can have a party to celebrate Madarame's Change of Heart!" Ann declared.

"Oh, good idea! We can make it a welcome party for Yusuke too!" Ryūji added on. We had been discussing having something like this, so it seemed like a good idea to get it underway, besides it was rather nice to be able to celebrate the success of our heists with a little group meal; hopefully this one would go much better than the Wilton Hotel incident.

"Alright, alright. Since you two are so hyped up, we'll go," Ren commented. With that the two blondes walked off, I stayed back as did Yusuke, both of us were looking at Ren who almost seemed to be developing a headache if the scrunched eyebrows and squeezed eyes were anything to go by; Yusuke cleared his throat which pulled Ren's attention to him.

"Sorry to cause you trouble," Yusuke apologised. Ren shrugged his shoulders, probably not blaming Yusuke for the incident, if Yusuke was truly uncomfortable at the dorms, then it was probably wrong to force him to stay there; Yusuke then grabbed a hold of his luggage. "By the way… I prefer sleeping on a futon," Yusuke admitted. He then walked off passed us

"It'll be up to you to convince the chief," Morgana declared. He seemed quite proud of himself but if the dark look that Ren shot him was anything to go by… well it was probably a wise idea that I had taken two quick steps away from them in order to give them enough room to move about in without getting me caught in the crossfire.

"Way to throw me under the train Mona!" Ren chastised. He then shook the bag violently causing the human turned cat to exclaim, all I could do was pat Ren on the arm to show him some kind of support. "We'd better catch up to the others before they end up getting lost in Yongen," Ren insisted. We quickly tailed after our friend and managed to get on the train with them.

Once we safely arrive at Yongen, it was up to me and Ren to lead the others to LeBlanc, judging by their expressions, they quickly realised why me and Ren were always together when we got to the turn that caused me and Ren to split up. None of them said anything as we continued on our way to LeBlanc, upon entering the mingling scents of coffee and curry wrapped around us like a warm blanket.

"Ah, what a nice smell," Ann complimented. It really was, the coffee scent had a kind of earthen quality to it while the spicy tang of the curry didn't clash with that earthy scent, instead it melded incredibly well, giving LeBlanc a very unique aroma to it that was very comforting, a place for perfect relaxation if one was stressed.

"This place looks so outdated… I can't say I hate it though," Ryūji admitted. He was looking around with something akin to intrigue within his eyes, the café was indeed a bit more old-fashioned looking than more prominent cafés in Shibuya, but I think it was actually quite homely, places like Big Banger Burger always felt a little distant and almost sterile in its' atmosphere.

"People refer to that as 'retro'," Yusuke commented. Retro, old-fashioned, vintage, same words in the end; still it was nice to know that Yusuke was appreciating its' appearance from how he was looking at the surrounding area. Sōjiro apparently finally realised there were people present as he proceeded to turn around to face us.

"Hm? Who're they?" Sōjirō asked. He was looking between me and Ren with a quizzical expression on his face, while he was aware that me and Ren were friends, it was apparent that Ren hadn't brought any of the others over to visit since then; Ren scratched at the back of his head seeming a little nervous about how this conversation was going to go.

"They're mine and Natsumi's friends, Sakura-san. Sakamoto Ryūji, Kitagawa Yusuke and Takamaki Ann," Ren introduced. Sōjirō proceeded to raise his eyebrow at his admission before looking over the three who we'd brought with us, as if carefully scrutinising each of them but I couldn't read anymore from his expression apart from that quality.

"Ren has really helped us a lot lately," Ann claimed. She had a happy grin on her face as she said those words; but when I looked at Sōjirō he had a smirk on his face as if he found those words funny, but then again if he was judging the boy by his reputation then it was no surprise that he wasn't exactly believing the words that Ann had just spoken.

"Heh, I bet you're the ones doing all the helping," Sōjirō commented. Ann's expression fell when she heard those words and proceeded to give the barista a confused expression; I still didn't understand the relationship between these two, it had seemed to be warming up in recent days, but I was still a little befuddled in all honesty.

"No, really. He's been great," Ann insisted. Her expression was very serious when she said those words and it caused Sōjirō's eyes to widen in surprise at how vehemently Ann was being about this fact; his expression smoothed into a neutral one as he gestured towards the chairs that were situated in front of the counter.

"Sit down, this round'll be on the house," Sōjirō commented. He then turned his cutting gaze to look at Ren with a firm look in his eyes. "You're helping though," Sōjirō insisted. Ren gave a simple salute and quickly darted off upstairs, likely to change; the rest of us quickly settled ourselves down on the chairs as Sōjirō listed what we could have while making my own coffee before I even ordered.

We enjoyed the coffee with Ann and Yusuke appreciating it, Ann even remembered reading about LeBlanc in a magazine which is actually how I found this place. Ryūji on the other hand, didn't like the taste and after having a sip of Ann's immediately gulped down his entire glass of soda. Sōjirō was actually enjoying the scene given his laugh and admitted to having not drunk coffee as a child.

"These are your friends, yeah? Go on and take them up to your room. No need to stay down here," Sōjirō encouraged. Ren seemed a bit uncertain at this, but Ann insisted she see it. "It's only an attic," Sōjirō warned. Even I hadn't been up there, it had seemed a little like invading Ren's privacy to just go up without invitation and I didn't want to pressure him into taking me up there, somethings we simply didn't want other people to see.

"Ah, man, that bitter taste just won't leave my mouth," Ryūji complained. Ren waved his hand for us to follow him, he set off to the stairwell at the back, Yusuke then stood to his feet but instead of leaving right away, he turned to look at the barista and gave the man a short bow, but it still contained plenty of respect towards the man, this caused me to smile.

"Thank you very much for the drink," Yusuke stated. Ryūji also rose from his seat and moved to leave the café area, he seemed a bit despondent over the lingering taste that the coffee had left behind in his mouth but that should teach him not to drink it when he couldn't handle the taste just because Ann said it was nice and Ann had proven herself capable of handling it quite dark.

"Up these stairs! Oh, and thanks for the soda!" Ryūji commented. The two boys walked off and then me and Ann rose from our seats, it would be quite interesting to see what the room managed to look like, attics weren't typically clean but Ren's clothes always looked spotless so I figured it wouldn't be dirty up there.

"So you're uhh… Ann-chan huh, that's a nice name," Sōjirō commented. Both me and Ann stopped moving as we proceeded to look at the barista who had a soft smile on his face, I noticed he was softer towards girls than boys but not in a creepy or distressing manner, merely that his tone was more gentle to them. "You got a boyfriend?" Sōjirō asked.

"Nope. Never have, either," Ann answered. She sharply shook her head when she said those words, after what had happened with Kamoshida and how everyone had treated her, I couldn't say I was surprised by that admission; but one day, I hoped someone saw just how amazing Ann was and that whoever this person was managed to make her happy. Perhaps if we managed to turn Morgana back into human form, he'd be able to do just that.

"Hey, you gotta get up here! This place's freakin' insane!" Ryūji called. It seemed that we were being summoned quite intently by the Electricity wielder, so we had better head up before Ryūji ended up getting more excited; Sōjirō proceeded to encourage us to head up the stairs with a warm smile on his face, clearly indicating that we weren't going to kept back by him now.

"Oh, right. Thank you for the coffee!" Ann stated. I proceeded to move away from the counter, only to come to a halt when I saw that nestled on the booth nearest the stairs up, was Morgana still within Ren's bag; a small groan escaped me as I realised that not a single one of the boys had remembered to bring the feline up with them.

"Seriously, they left the Mona-bag," I commented. I reached out and grabbed the bag to lift him up and walked away, seriously I can't believe Ren and Yusuke had forgotten; certainly Ryūji I could believe, but the other two seemed much more aware of their surroundings so they at least should have remembered to take him.

We ascended the stairs and I was met with a room not like I had expected from an attic, for one it was rather clean in truth, plus the structure looked very sturdy and unblemished. It was tall enough for us to comfortably stand in, there was a table, a plant, two bookcases, a set of shelves, a workbench, another table with an old TV on it and obvious a bed. Otherwise, it was a little empty with only a few of decorations on the shelves such as a ramen bowl, a swam boat and a doll that I swear looked like a Jack Frost.

"See? Ain't this crazy?" Ryūji asked. I couldn't exactly see what the boy was so hyped up about, the room wasn't all that unusual looking; in fact, it was pretty similar to my bedroom, minus the workbench and plant of course, the bed looked like it could be in better condition but overall, it seemed perfectly fine with how it looked, nothing 'crazy' about it at all.

"It's cleaner than I thought it would be," Ann admitted. The punk was shocked by this revelation of Ann's opinion while I nodded my head in agreement with those words, this only caused Ryūji to give me a dumbfounded look while I set the Mona-bag on the table and unzipped it enough for Morgana to pull himself out of the bag.

"Well, sit wherever you'd like," Morgana encouraged. All of us proceeded to do just that and settled down onto various pieces of furniture; Ann took the couch while Ren sat on the bed, Ryūji leant against the workbench while I took the actual stool at the workbench and Yusuke remained standing. His phone was in his hand and an unhappy expression upon his face.

"We're all over the news," Yusuke commented. That much was evident from what I had found and all of it was deeply concerning from what could be seen. "Even those who previously believe in us have been influenced by the comments made on TV," Yusuke warned. This was definitely not good for us; I doubt it would cause Mementos to be cut off at the lower levels but certainly people would stop trusting us to help them with their issues.

"This is all that effin' Akechi's fault!" Ryūji exclaimed. I proceeded to give the boy a harsh glare as he was definitely endangering us now, we were right above a café with the window of Ren's room being open in order to allow some cool-ish air to rush in and help cool the terribly hot room down; even if he was technically right with his words, it wasn't worth blowing our cover over.

"Keep it down!" Yusuke snapped. I looked at the artist and found that he was giving Ryūji quite the impressive glare of his own. "We don't want anyone hearing us," Yusuke added on. I nodded my head in agreement with those words as it was quite dangerous for us to say anything too loudly given our current location and the presence downstairs.

"True, the café is still open and it has a fairly regular influx of customers. And that's ignoring Boss' presence entirely," I warned. Even if it was slightly safer for us to talk about our activities at the moment compared to being out in the open like when Ryūji normally blurted out secret information; one wrong loud word and Sōjirō would be up here quick as a whip and hear the wrong thing which could lead to any manner of mess.

"At this rate, we're just going to worry everyone instead of giving them courage," Ann worried. That did seem to be the most likely outcome of our current scenario, if we kept being seen as this unhinged group that just did whatever we wanted wherever we wanted then no one would take heart from our actions and stand up against the evils that were writhing through our society.

"We need to find a way to make our rightfulness known to society," Morgana stated. All of us focused upon our healer, hoping he'd be able to explain what he was hinting at. "We need to think about our next move, you were planning to discuss that today," Morgana added on. I leaned forward slightly and pressed the tips of all my fingers and both thumbs against each other.

"In that case, I think we need to carefully choose our next target," I admitted. It was something that needed to be brought up now that we were somewhere relatively safe and now that I'd given it some more thought, initially it hadn't seemed to matter who we went after; but this whole incident with Akechi required us to change our perspective on whatever action we had to take with our next target.

"We already took down the perverse teacher at an important school with a famous past and a vain famous painter, what more can we do?" Ren wondered. He was looking at me with an intrigued gleam within his eyes and I saw that all the others appeared to be curious about this comment that I had made; I pressed the tips of my fingers against each other as I tried to think of how to word it so that no one got confused.

"In short, I think we need to target someone that no one could argue needed to be stopped. Basically, a known criminal," I suggested. This was the best way for us to prove we were trying to help people; if we stopped a criminal even the police couldn't touch then not only would it keep many people safe then everyone might be able to start trusting us again and that trust would enable us to help them, perhaps even better than before.

"Okay, I think I get where you're coming from Natsumi, that would certainly help us prove that we're trying to do the right thing," Ren agreed. I was glad that someone understood my though pattern, but Ren seemed really good at being able to interpret other people's intent from their words; his Wild Card aspect probably helped but I think his generally kind heart was the main reason that he was able to think so flexibly.

"It's not like we're just gonna stumble upon some important target though. Especially a crook," Ryūji commented. Unfortunately, his words rang true, an important target was easy if we focused on those in the limelight, but the difficult bit was determining if the accusations were true; a criminal, however, was a whole different issue since anyone that influential would be hiding themselves so they were only a rumour. "You guys don't know anyone, do you?" Ryūji asked. A negative came from the other two as I shook my head, we all turned to look at Ren.

"I've only heard the barest of rumours about something, but I can't even tell you what that something could be," Ren answered. Ryūji slipped down onto the ground, apparently not happy about hearing that we essentially had no leads, this was quite the pickle we were in; we certainly couldn't wait for someone to post a request like last time which meant finding them ourselves which was always tricky.

"Whaddya think, leader?" Ryūji asked. All of us turned our attention to Ren, waiting to see what he had to say about this situation we had found ourselves stuck in; as much as I understand Akechi having his own opinion, we certainly were 'cursed by his influence' as Yusuke said, since our job had suddenly become so much harder with people closing themselves off from reaching out to us for aid thanks to his words.

"I've seen nothing on the Phan-site to help and the news really doesn't give much information. I think…," Ren admitted. All of us leaned forward slightly, as if we were determined to catch whatever Ren happened to say. "We need to relax. Getting ourselves all wound up trying to find a target will only hamper us when we actually find one. I say we take our time while looking for information, anywhere we can find it," Ren advised. It was sound advice to be fair.

"That makes sense, we'll just have to take each day as it comes," Morgana agreed. That seemed to be all we could do at the moment, wearing ourselves to the bone searching for a target would be no good, since we wouldn't be able to fight properly and if we ended up in the same situation as the previous times, then having a deadline to contend with would only cause us more stress.

"Damnit… we're never gonna prove Akechi wrong at this rate!" Ryūji hissed. A sudden violent rumbling echoed through the room and all of us immediately focused on Yusuke, because I'm absolutely certain that is where the sound originated from; Yusuke seemed a little embarrassed if the faint blush on his cheeks was anything to go by.

"What the…," Morgana wondered. Not that I blame him, that was one vicious sounding growl to suddenly erupt from the painter, I wasn't entirely sure what to make of Yusuke's stomach suddenly making such a sound, but I figured it was probably safe to say that it wasn't a good thing for him to be sounding that hungry.

"Sorry… I haven't eaten anything since yesterday," Yusuke admitted. My mouth probably would have lost its' connection to my upper jaw if it was possible, that was the level of my shock at hearing that Yusuke had essentially starved himself for potentially over twenty-four hours depending upon when Yusuke had that last meal yesterday. Plus, there was another matter that befuddled me completely.

"And you spent all your money on that box of sweets!?" Ann questioned. Her eyes were wide as she realised that those sweets were exactly why Yusuke was feeling so hungry; honestly, I wasn't sure whether to face palm in disbelief at the insanity or lecture Yusuke about being more conscientious of just how much money he was throwing away on things that didn't need to be bought… I shouldn't have encouraged him to buy music.

"Dude, how much did you have?" Ryūji asked. A fair point, I'd given him some of the Shadow money I'd collected the other day to buy some music because it seemed like he was budgeting himself, but now I realise that I should have asked him what he was up to with the budgeting, especially since he went and did something crazy like this!

"Anyway, since we can't magic up a target right away… how about we focus on the party instead, since that'll mean food and it's apparent that someone needs to eat," I suggested. I was feeling peckish myself, but it was nothing compared to the hunger that must have been gnawing away at Yusuke's innards; at least this issue was one that could be remedied quite easily.

"Oh yeah! I think I found something!" Ann exclaimed. All of us focused upon the girl who seemed to be grinning brightly in contrast to the grim atmosphere that had swallowed us previously. "Isn't that a portable stove?" Ann asked. Low and behold, it was a portable stove and looked to be in good condition from what I could see. "Can't we make hot pot on it?" Ann suggested. It was fairly reasonable to ask that since the stove did seem designed for such a meal.

"That sounds great! I've heard that eating hot pot together bring people closer!" Morgana agreed. I wonder exactly where he could have heard such a thing, then again who knows where Morgana goes when he leave me and Ren alone for our meet-ups, the human turned feline could have over heard any kind of information on his little journeys to wherever in Tokyo or it came from his lost memories; either way it was a very family orientated meal… something I had been missing for over three years.

"Anything with meat's fine by me!" Ryūji announced. Somehow, I knew this to be true, then again when I recall just how much meat Ryūji had inhaled during the dismal buffet we had gone to it wasn't that much of a surprise that he enjoyed it so much; it seemed that everyone was getting into the energy of actually having a party now that we were focused on food instead of targets and Akechi.

"I only ask that we finish it off with porridge. Extra parsley, of course," Yusuke requested. That was a bit of an odd request to make, I can't exactly say I've ever heard of anyone having porridge after hotpot, but it also didn't sound too bad either; though the parsley did kind of throw me a bit, I can't really recall what my family used in hotpot apart from probably the standard ingredients.

"So, what do you say?" Ann asked. She was looking between the two of us, but I could see that Ann was a bit wary of me, not that I blame her given that we hadn't exactly spoken after the way I had reacted to her accusations at Niijima-senpai; I only shrugged my shoulders in response since I wasn't overly bothered about anything we had, I wasn't a particularly picky eater just not anything super spicy.

"Fine by me. Though I'd rather finish it with udon," Ren admitted. This seemed to surprise Yusuke, but Ryūji chastised him for complaining when he had no money, a fair remarking from the blonde as Yusuke really had no room to complain since he technically couldn't contribute to the making of the hot pot that had been decided as our meal.

"Ryūji, you and Yusuke go buy ingredients. Ann, Natsumi and Morgana will set up a table. I'll check if Sakura-san has a pot we can use," Ren decided. All of us stood up as Ren pulled out some yen from his pocket. "Here's money for the ingredients," Ren stated. He held it out to Ryūji, probably realising Yusuke wasn't good with money, the blonde took it and dragged the artist with him down the stairs with Ren following shortly after which left me and Ann alone except for the keen eyes of Morgana silently watching us.

"Subtlety thy name is not, leader," I muttered. He had clearly planned for this to happen, not that I could blame him since this did need to be a private conversation, but he certainly wasn't being quiet about what he wanted to happen between me and Ann; still, at least he was pointing out that he expected us to talk and finally clear the air after the courtyard incident earlier today.

"What do you mean Natsumi?" Morgana wondered. I looked over at the cat and found that he was giving me a perplexed look as if he didn't understand why I was saying the words I had; I was surprised that he didn't realise that me and Ann needed to clear the air between us after I had suddenly yelled at her the way I had.

"Ren wants the two of us to talk. About the incident in the courtyard," I clarified. As I said those words, I turned to focus on Ann who shifted her weight a little, almost as if she was uncomfortable to be left in a room with me; not that I could really blame her, I just hoped that she'd be willing to listen to me about what she deserved to hear.

"Yeah, well… I," Ann began to mutter. Her blue eyes darted around briefly before she turned to face me properly and her hands curled into fists despite there not being any actual aggression radiating from her. "Why did you snap at me like that Natsu-chan?!" Ann demanded. She did have a right to that answer since my actions were rather out of character.

"I doubt she knew at all what was going on, or did you have proof that she did know?" I pointed out. That was the thing that had bugged me about Ann's accusation, she had sounded so certain but everything I knew about Niijima-senpai implied that was an impossible thing for her to know; I proceeded to move over to the table and I started to drag it over. Soon enough, the blonde girl came over and hooked her hands under the opposite edge of the table and together we moved it over to the couch.

"I heard some people talking about it," Ann admitted. At hearing that explanation, I almost lost my grip on the table, I managed to resecure it, but Ann still felt the sudden jolt that would have rushed through the table when my grip slipped; she gave me a confused the look, but I didn't respond. Instead, I moved to set the table down and she followed which ensured that no more accidents would be had involving the table.

"Really?" I questioned. I had to actually know if she had believed what were essentially rumours from how she described it, although the model was giving me another confused expression. "You believed the words of other people?" I clarified. Ann nodded her head to confirm that I was right which caused me to sigh as I turned to where the stove was. "After all the lies spread about you and Kamoshida, I'm surprised," I explained.

"Well, how do you know she didn't know Natsu-chan?" Ann asked. I hefted the stove into my arms and walked back to the table which I carefully set the object on, Ann on the other hand and brought over a chair and set it on one side of the impromptu table that we were creating; I turned to face Ann so that she would hear what she wanted to know.

"Easy. Because I knew Niijima-senpai at one point," I answered. With that I turned around and found a bench – I don't even want to know why there's one here – and pulled it out from where it had been stuffed; no sound came from the other two in the room, so I turned around to look at them and found both were staring at me with rather large eyes.

"What?" Ann asked. She sounded completely befuddled by the words that had been spoken but they were the truth, I brought the bench over and carefully set the bench on the side of the table that was parallel to the sofa; I sat myself down on the bench as memories from some time ago began to bubble up within my mind.

"Do you recall the friend I mentioned, that was Makoto," I revealed. Ann's mouth opened in shock at my words, but I continued to plough forward so that Ann understood everything. "My mum and her dad worked in similar circles and we only lived a few houses away from each other. Makoto was a childhood friend of mine," I explained. Almost immediately after those words, Ann surged forward and wrapped me in a tight hug, pulling me close and almost squeezing the air out of me.

"Oh, Natsu-chan I'm so sorry!" Ann exclaimed. I reached up and patted her arm in order to reassure her since I was currently lacking the ability to breath let alone speak; thankfully Ann seemed to realise I was struggling and promptly released her death grip which allowed me to suck in a gasping lungful of air before I finally managed to respond to the words.

"It's fine. We drifted apart after my uncle took me in since we didn't go to the same middle school. But I'm certain that Makoto would never have allowed something so heinous to actually be happening if she knew. Unfortunately, it does seem that she was being ignorant about what Kamoshida really was," I reassured. Ann didn't seem happy to hear those words as she pulled back fully from the hug.

"Still, it must have been hard for you to hear us bad mouthing her all this time," Ann stated. I gave her a quick side hug before the boys returned, me and Ann proceeded to use what we had learned at the food cooking – after we got through the crepes – to prep the ingredients before putting them into the pot; once the cooking was done, Ren pulled the lid off which allowed copious amounts of steam to rush out before we got our first look at the meal.

"Looks good!" Ryūji exclaimed. It did actually look rather nice, we all called out our thanks for the food and quickly set about dealing it out so that the bowls were filled with enough, Yusuke got the first serving since he was technically starving; the rest of us soon ladled some of the meal into our own bowls of whatever we wanted to have.

"Quick, I want some, too!" Morgana insisted. The human turned cat seemed quite excited by the prospect of sharing in the meal with the rest of us; Ren quickly complied with the request and proceeded to place some of the hotpot into the bowl for Morgana, Ryūji reached his chopsticks out and snagged a piece of meat that had still been within the stove.

"Hey!" Ann snapped. I looked over at the blonde, wondering why she had suddenly made that exclamation when all Ryūji had done was grab a piece of meat, there were some more still in the stove. "I was gonna have that meat!" Ann protested. I repeat, there was still meat in the stove, Ryūji looked at Ann for a few moments before stuffing the meat into his mouth and eating it.

"Early bird gets the worm!" Ryūji teased. Ann looked ready to punch him, so I settled my hand on Ann's shoulder to stop her from doing that and then proceeded to whip a chopstick into the space between Ryūji's eyebrows; the boy flinched and rubbed at his head while the others broke out into laughter at the sight while I pointed the remaining chopstick at the blonde.

"Be nice Ryūji," I chastised. With that out of the way, we proceeded to continue eating in peace as we occasionally made some comments; but for the most part it was calm and I felt incredibly at ease something which I normally only felt when moving through my katas. It was as if a sense of peace had come to rest over me the more that we moved through the meal until eventually the stove was empty.

"I can't eat another bite," Ryūji groaned. Morgana wheezed out his own agreement, his tiny cat belly bulging with the food he'd eaten despite him lying on his side it was still quite prominent to see just how much the food had filled him up; thankfully the rest of us weren't so encumbered by the feast that had just happened even though we hadn't gone through with the whole plan that Yusuke or Ren had suggested.

"That was delicious Ann-dono, Natsumi. I'm sure you'll make wonderful brides some-," Morgana complimented. But a big yawn suddenly escaped Ann before either of us could respond to his comment; I glanced over at Ann who rubbed her eyes a little as if hoping to stave off the exhaustion that might have been hanging onto her.

"Sorry, I'm gonna have to borrow the sofa," Ann apologised. Ren waved his hand as if brushing away the apology before giving Ann a reassuring smile, clearly he had no problem with Ann taking an impromptu nap on his sofa; Ann gave our leader a smile but it did seem to be a little more on the sleepy side as opposed to her normally more vibrant smiles.

"You can use me as a pillow if you want Ann," I offered. Ann looked at me and brightened up, though my lap was hardly better than the cushions of the couch, it at least would be something for Ann to use that might make her feel more comfortable, plus it was my way of extending an olive branch towards her, even though we'd bene able to hash things out, I was still worried.

"Thanks, Natsu-chan," Ann agreed. She then dropped her head onto my lap and I saw her eyes immediately close, a sense of relief washed over me at seeing that our conversation earlier had managed to repair our relationship before it ended up breaking a part into nothing; I didn't want to lose one of the few friends that I had in my life.

"What's wrong Yusuke?" Morgana asked. I looked over at the boy and saw that he actually seemed to be rather unhappy about something despite the fact that we hadn't said or done anything that I could think of to have made the boy so unhappy about whatever it was that had happened; it was such an odd reaction for the artist to have so suddenly.

"We haven't finished our meal. What about the porridge, or even udon?" Yusuke wondered. The mere prospect of attempting to eat more food actively caused a lance of pain to slice across my stomach and I'm plenty sure that a deep grimace curled its' way across my face at the thought that danced across my mind since it was so deeply unpleasant.

"I think we're all too full to have any more, Yusuke. Maybe next time," Ren explained. That was very true, I might not have a bloated belly like Morgana did, but I was also convince that if I ate anymore then I was probably going to burst. Either that or I'd just end up releasing the food in a rather unpleasant manner and nobody would want to deal with that issue, nor should they have to.

"She's asleep already?" Morgana questioned. It had been quite a surprise for her to suddenly fall asleep as quick as she did, but Ann had seemed more tired than she usually did which meant there had to be another cause; I was just glad that she had actually decided to take a nap after she eaten, she certainly seemed in need of it.

"It'd be weird if she wasn't tired. We should let her sleep," Ryūji encouraged. It was a good idea, the whole Madarame heist and then the incidents with Akechi and Niijima-senpai back to back most likely drained Ann; especially since she had been worrying about whether or not to continue as a part of the Phantoms which meant the mental stress was greater on her than the rest of us.

"By the way Ryūji, how do you know Ann?" Yusuke asked. All of us focused on Yusuke with Ryūji's eyes furrowing as if he couldn't figure out the answer to that question, I did think Yusuke was actually asking how they had initially met but the way Yusuke had phrased it did make it seem a touch odd since he already knew how Ryūji and Ann knew each other.

"Huh? Oh, we went to middle school together," Ryūji answered. That was something the rest of us had been aware of after the whole dolphin debacle – I still think that was sweet – but Yusuke seemed intrigued by the knowledge that Ryūji and Ann had known each other for a decent number of years; Morgana twisted to look at the blonde boy.

"What was Ann-dono like back then?" Morgana asked. I don't think she was any different from back then and I had the best connection to know that information, though I think she might have been a bit happier and more relaxed but only because she didn't have a certain pig disguised as a human looming over her and Shiho would have been safe and healthy as well.

"Not so different from now, once we got to high school, we ended up in different classes and stopped talkin'… I don't think she had many friends. I mean, she grew up overseas, plus there's her looks. The popular kids hate her; the quiet ones stay away," Ryūji admitted. At least Ann had Shiho back in those days and now, she had us to be there for her as well.

"I see… so what about you three?" Yusuke asked. All of us looked at each other in confusion before focusing on the painter whose expression was completely relaxed as he looked at us. "This is a great opportunity to get to know each other better. You know every detail of my past at this point. It's only fair you tell me every detail of yours," Yusuke explained. It was fair, his past was an open book to us, so he deserved to at least hear the rest of it.

"So, you got nothin' to lose, huh?" Ryūji asked. that did seem to be what Yusuke was thinking. "Alright, I'll tell you. It's just a normal story about a rotten kid though," Ryūji decided. I didn't like the way that Ryūji was insulting himself by calling himself a rotten kid which he wasn't in any way. "My dad left when I was young… ever since then, it's just been me and my mum. I was actually tryin' to get a track scholarship so I could make things easier for her. In the end, I just screwed it all up. Turns out I'm a pretty bad son, huh?" Ryūji mocked himself. Ren and Yusuke looked rather uncomfortable hearing the way Ryūji just casually insulted himself. "Back when I was a first year, my mum got called out to school for me raisin' my hand at Kamoshida. All the teachers kept houndin' her for what I did, but she just stayed quiet through it all… I'll never forget the look she had on her face though… on the way home, she… apologised to me. For bein' a single mum and all. Even though it ain't her fault," Ryūji revealed.

"So that's what happened…," Yusuke realised. He seemed quite upset to hear that story, not that I blame him since I didn't like the way that Ryūji had seemed to talk down about himself during that explanation with terrifying consistency. "They say at school that everyone is equal, but in reality, that's a gross oversimplification… I understand how you feel," Yusuke admitted. Too true, all of us here, along with Yoshizawa and Niijima-senpai were fine examples of how differently we were treated by our peers. "What about you Natsumi?" Yusuke asked.

"My life was fairly normal, I had good parents and two siblings, one older and one younger," I began. My gaze remained focused on the table top as I gently tapped the Velvet Room's song out on my leg. "But three years ago, they died in a car crash. I was taken in by a relative who brought in Ouvrard after finding out about my singing capabilities," I explained. I wasn't entirely sure how much detail to go into about my past, so I didn't know what else to say next.

"You're leaving something out," Ren commented. I looked over at the boy who was giving me a steely look, Ren was the only one who knew all the details of my past. "You can trust them, you know that Natsumi," Ren insisted. He was right that I could trust them with what happened, plus I did know the details of their own pasts, so they deserved to hear everything important.

"The relative came into the hospital and ordered me not to cry shortly after my big brother passed away. Then nearly everything I had connected to my family was destroyed, especially their photos. All I could save was a few books, my father's false weapon collection and my sister's camera. But because of what happened, I kind of… shut down I guess is the best way to describe it, I just decided to push the world away to stop caring and just be numb to everything," I explained.

"Shit Natsumi, I had no idea that you were going through that," Ryūji breathed. I looked over and saw that he actually looked rather pale, which was a little concerning since I'd never seen him look like that except for when he'd been pushing himself too far on an exercise; Morgana moved over and bumped his head against my hand as if trying to reassure me, I flipped my hand over and started to stroke him.

"It's quite awful that you had to suffer something like that and at the hands of a relative no less," Yusuke stated. I smiled slightly when I heard those words and felt just a little bit lighter at the knowledge that I had shared what happened to me with the others; but more than that, I was glad that they didn't seem to be looking at me any different than they did before and that had been what I'd been really worried about.

"Well, when it comes to gettin' labelled, nobody's got it worse than Ren," Ryūji admitted. Ren grimaced when Ryūji said those words, but it was unfortunately rather true, Ren had been so unfairly labelled that it made Ryūji's label almost seem like a joke; I really wish there was a way to wipe that deepening frown off of Ren's face.

"Is this about your past?" Yusuke asked. It definitely was, it still angered me to hear about such a terrible thing happening, especially now that the person who had suffered was more than an amicable stranger and instead was a dear friend to me; Ren took in a deep breath when Yusuke asked that question as if trying to keep himself calm.

"Now that I think about it, we never have heard the details," Morgana acknowledged. Me and Ryūji were probably the only ones to know what had happened to Ren, I couldn't help but tighten my hands into fists as I recalled his tale from back in the restaurant, it was truly awful that he had endured such a cruel punishment all because of one individual's pride.

"I already told Ryūji and Natsumi, but I figure you guys should all be on the same page. It happened just this past February; I was heading back to the train station after finishing cram school, my hometown's too small to have one so we all commute to the nearest city to take one. While leaving, I ran across a man who was harassing a woman, he was trying to get her to do something which she clearly didn't want to do; I intervened and pulled him off her, but the man fell over because he was drunk. But then, he started claiming he'd sue me, the woman initially threatened him with something about money, but she backed down when he threatened to make her a scapegoat. When police came over, they seemed to recognise him, called him sir, and he immediately said I assaulted him. The woman agreed with that man's words and… here I am, torn from my family and friend, not a word from any of them in a place I don't know," Ren explained.

"Just listenin' to it pisses me off," Ryūji admitted. He even hit the table top as he said those words, it was quite extreme but hearing this story again really made me feel like I was about to be sick with how awful that man was. "You got an assault on your record just for that?" Ryūji spat. It was quite cruel for Ren to have been slapped with such a label simply for trying to help another person.

"The woman sounds quite horrible as well. She's stayed quiet this whole time," Yusuke commented. I couldn't help but feel that Yusuke might have been being just a bit too harsh in his judgment of the woman, I certainly can't say I approve of the actions that she took that night, but the way it sounds then the woman was being victimised by the man.

"Now hold on Yusuke, what she did is normal," I protested. Everyone focused on me with wide eyes, probably not expecting me to speak out the way I had. "Anyone who says every life is equal is stupid. When given a scenario where you can only save one life, you're going to choose the person you know, a friend or family, over some complete stranger. Not everyone goes out of their way to protect strangers when their own lives are threatened and that is exactly what happened here. This woman might have been the only breadwinner in her family and she had elderly parents or young children to support," I explained. They're expressions were pinched as they looked at each other but no one spoke against me. "I don't agree with her actions, but that doesn't mean I don't understand them," I finished.

"That man is just the kind of person whose heart we should steal! Who is he and where can we find him!?" Morgana demanded. I couldn't agree more, whoever this person was if he possessed a Shadow then he deserved to be someone who had his heart changed after what he put Ren through without even caring about the impact it would have upon the boy's life.

"I wish I knew… but I never got his name and even his face is a blur. I can only remember his voice," Ren admitted. My lips thinned at that description since it was one that I knew all too well how stressful it could be, even if our feelings towards the target in question were probably the direct opposite of each other; Morgana took on a saddened expression at those words.

"You can't remember, huh? Well, it was at night and I'm sure you were in shock, after getting arrested," Morgana realised. I wished there was some way for us to go back in time and stop Ren from having to endure this suffering, it was truly horrible. "I understand all too well the pain of not being able to remember important details of your life," Morgana admitted. Same here, my family's faces were a complete blur even now, so I knew how stressful it could be.

"The victim's personal information is always kept secret. Identifying that man will prove difficult," Yusuke acknowledged. Which meant that we wouldn't be able to access those records in order to find out who did it, it's not like we knew anyone who would be able to help us get that information. "Besides, the courts already made their ruling, didn't they?" Yusuke asked. True, but a ruling wasn't completely set in stone if there was enough to change it.

"Doesn't mean it can't be overturned if enough evidence is dragged up or the victim rescinds it," I explained. Everyone focused on me when I said that, but I knew enough about the legal system to know that there were ways to remove a prior conviction. "But… that won't expunge Ren's record," I admitted. The mark would remain unfortunately and I'm sure some fools would hold it over Ren until he came of age, in which case the records would be washed away… hopefully.

"I can't stand it. This world is so messed up!" Ryūji hissed. No argument from me, it was pretty terrible, I don't know how things were outside of Tokyo, but this city was beyond messed up. "The weak are left to fight for themselves, while rotten adults get away with whatever they want!" Ryūji yelled. We'd unfortunately seem that fact for ourselves, we'd suffered because of rotten adults.

"And those in power don't do anything to help the situation," Morgana added on. It was quite terrible, the fact that those who could and should protect those without power instead just misused their power for their own benefit; ah great, now I was thinking about my uncle which made me want to throw up the food I'd eaten and it was such nice food too.

"Can't we fix this though? Nobody would even know. We just need to show the world what true justice is. We'll make them come to their senses," Yusuke pointed out. It was certainly something we could do with our abilities but there were two issues that Yusuke seemed to have forgotten about which would seriously hamper our ability to actually do anything to help Ren out in this situation.

"Remember Yusuke, we need a name, a distortion and a location. We don't even have the first, so how do you propose we find the location let alone work out the distortion," I pointed out. It wasn't that I wanted to rain on the possibility, but they needed to be reminded of our requirements to do anything. "But I agree, we need to keep fighting, maybe we'll get lucky and run across this man. If he's so important that random cops in an out of the way city know who he is, then I'm betting he's around Tokyo somewhere," I acknowledged.

"You're right Yusuke! Natsumi! That's gotta be what our powers're for!" Ryūji declared. It did seem to be the case; we had gained these powers after rebelling against those who tried to crush us down and prevent us from doing anything, hopefully with our powers we'd be able to stop people like the one who has assault Ren so cruelly and driven him away from his beloved family.

"Sounds good to me, the flashier our mission are, the cooler we end up looking!" Morgana declared. That caused a chuckle to escape me, but I suppose there was no real risk to having a flashy mission as it wasn't like we were going to get caught while in the Metaverse; the only danger to us was the Shadows and we could certainly handle them with ease so long as we remained prepared.

"You've all taught me so much," Yusuke claimed. I wasn't exactly sure what we could have taught him besides our actions within the Metaverse but if he was grateful to us for whatever he had learned then there was no way we could argue with him; a sudden movement came from my lap and I furrowed my eyebrows at the sensation since I couldn't understand why it was happening.

"What're you guys getting all excited about?" Ann asked. I quickly looked down as all the boys proceeded to look over, I saw that Ann's eyes were open as she pulled herself upright to face the boys, when exactly had Ann been roused from her sleep? I felt rather awful about having not done anything to ensure she was able to sleep longer than the brief nap that she had.

"Oh sorry… did we wake you?" Ryūji asked. It had been quite a surprise for the girl to suddenly intervene when all of us had been convinced that she was asleep; granted we hadn't exactly been quiet about our discussions, especially with Ryūji hitting the table top like he had before, that would certainly have jolted anyone out of their sleep if they were light sleepers.

"Nah, not really. I've been up for a while now," Ann admitted. I hadn't even realised she'd been awake; clearly, I was too focused on the conversation. "Still, this weird feeling came over me while I was listening to you guys… it almost feels like I've known you all forever. Do you think it's because our backgrounds are so similar?" Ann wondered. That was a fair point, since most of us hadn't met until this year and those of us who had had been ships passing in the night more than actual meetings.

"Well… it sure ain't 'cause of anything good," Ryūji commented. It was probably true that there wasn't much good to help us bond about our pasts, but maybe that made our bond a little strong; it wasn't what we liked but what had scarred us that allowed us to understand each other, we understood each other's pain and strangely enough I think that's what allowed us to still smile through it all.

"Similar, huh… I'm the only one who doesn't fit in," Morgana spoke up. I focused on the feline and found that his head was tucked down with a saddened expression on his face "I don't have any past to look back on… no memories…," Morgana reminded. For some reason, my gut reaction was that this was wrong, something made it so that I was against the very notion of Morgana being made upset by anything; I don't know why but I didn't like seeing him so unhappy.

"Whaddya mean? We could search the whole world and we wouldn't find a bigger misfit than you," Ryūji insisted. Very true, there wasn't likely to be another talking animal who was actually a human anywhere else in this world. "And the reason we're goin' to Mementos is to get your memories back, right?" Ryūji reminded. Those words seemed to perk Morgana up as he looked at us once again.

"I'm sure your past will be just as troubled as ours," Yusuke claimed. Ryūji agreed with him on that, to be fair given that everyone here had something go wrong in their past it wouldn't be too odd to claim that Morgana probably had such an aspect within in his own lost past; that's ignoring the fact that he ended up losing his past in the first place.

"Hmph, we'll see about that!" Morgana claimed. I smiled at his obstinance, but I'm sure there would be something in his past that each of us could understand; our pasts all contained a suffering that we could understand on an empathic level, I hoped that wasn't the case obviously since no one deserved to suffer the way any of us have but there was every chance that it had happened to Morgana.

"I actually feel like I've known Morgana for a really long time too. It's so strange… I can't really put it into words," Ann admitted. That was true, there did seem to be something about Morgana that felt very familiar; of course, I could easily chalk that up to the way his eyes stirred up a reminder of the Velvet Room, but the fact that Ann had it as well was quite interesting.

"You know, I have the same feeling," I admitted. Morgana turned his blue gaze to me and I focused on the cat as I tried to articulate the thoughts into comprehensible words. "Sometimes when I look at you, there comes this feeling that I should know you. Yet I can't recall ever meeting someone with your name. But that familiarity is still there, and very strong as well. I really trust you and have faith in you," I explained

"Look, I'm helping you guys out for my own sake. Don't get me wrong!" Morgana declared. I raised an eyebrow at those words as the others exchanged baffled looks due to his sudden words. "If you don't get stronger, investigating Mementos won't be anything but a pipe dream!" Morgana warned. True, even if we did open up each point, unless we could fight our way through each Shadow that came across our paths then we were going to be in quite the pickle when it came to restoring Morgana's memories.

"That sure was a quick turn around. One second, you're depressed, the next you're actin' all tough," Ryūji remarked. It was quite the swing to make but it also seemed like something Morgana would do, he'd previous done such things; but I was just relieved that he was back to his usual self, Morgana didn't seem like the kind of individual who should be saddened.

"All joking aside… let's take this seriously. We should go as far with it as we can," Ann insisted. All of us focused on the girl, she certainly seemed to have regained the drive she'd previously lost earlier today. "I want to punish those corrupt adults and give courage to people in trouble. Only we can do that!" Ann requested. To go as far as we could, that certainly appealed to me, to show everyone that this city could and should change from its' apathetic nature and start caring once more.

"Ha! You can say that again!" Ryūji encouraged. It was something only we could do, no one else seemed willing to do anything to help the people suffering, not those in power with the ability to do so or those who saw the suffering so obviously yet chose to turn a blind eye; we're the only ones who saw and cared enough to change how things were, to make sure that the people who were suffering knew there was light in this darkness. A message that they surely needed as much as I had needed to meet Igor the day that I did.

"Being a member of the Phantoms will surely help me grow, both as an artist and as a person," Yusuke claimed. He was truly the oddest person in this group, I couldn't conceive how entering into the Palace could help one grow; but being with these marvellously unusual people that I'd been drawn to was sure to help all of us grow as people and find a way to get over the obstacles present within our lives.

"Of course. You're under my tutelage after all. There's nothing we can't accomplish!" Morgana declared. He was certainly sure of himself, but then again Morgana had certainly taught all of us a great deal about how to deal with some of the complexities that appeared within the Palace that I would be oblivious to, I was curious about his knowledge but we'd need to reach the deepest part of Mementos to get Morgana's memories back before I got any answer to that question.

"Well… I hope we can keep this up. We should be alright with you as our leader," Ann stated. All of us focused on Ren who seemed a little surprised by the suggestion that he keep being our leader, but really who else could we trust? His unique ability, undeniable draw, the trust and confidence he inspired; Ren was the perfect person to keep guiding us as we moved down this path to whatever our destination may be.

"Leave it to me," Ren agreed. All of us smiled at this, with Ren as our leader then I was certain that nothing was going to go wrong for us, especially if we remained as united as we currently are; truly we were in a difficult position but nothing a little bit of teamwork couldn't overcome so long as we all put the effort in to doing so.

"Woah, it's this late!" Ann exclaimed. I proceeded to look at the clock that was present and my own eyes widened as well; I hadn't though it was that late but the time was well into the night without any of us realising that was so, I can't believe it had got away from us to that degree, it had only felt like an hour – maybe two – since we arrived at the café, yet several hours had passed in its' place.

"I guess now's a good time to call it for the night!" Ryūji decided. It certainly seemed that way, we couldn't all stay here, there was simply no way this tiny room could comfortably accommodate all of us if we did stay, not to mention that I don't think Sōjirō had enough bedding for all of us to not be on the wood floor. Plus, out of everyone, I had the least reason to keep hanging around given my house's proximity to LeBlanc.

"Oh, that reminds me, Sakura-san said you're free to crash here, Yusuke," Ann revealed. That didn't surprise me in the least, I think the saying 'a diamond in the rough' could be used to describe Sōjirō; he might appear as a gruff and hard individual, but he definitely had a heart that was kind and loving, that was just how he was though.

"That's very kind of him," Yusuke admitted. I smiled at those words, kind seemed like such a weak word to describe Sōjirō but there didn't seem another way to actually describe him; he had a gentle heart despite how much he might try to hide it away, that's why whoever that guy was that kept showing up, I wanted to keep him as far from Sōjirō and whoever his important person was as much as possible.

"Boss is very much like that, he's definitely not someone who you can just look at and assume you know who he is. He's a very kind person, even if he doesn't entirely act like it," I explained. He was such a wonderful person that it doesn't surprise me that he'd be willing to allow Yusuke to stay here; after all he didn't really explain why he'd taken Ren in.

"Hm, I won't be able to sleep unless I take a bath," Yusuke claimed. That was a bit odd, I liked to be as clean as any person but claiming not to be able to sleep without taking a bath was a bit odd, although it might be able to help in getting the food to be digested which would certainly allow Yusuke to sleep easier without that bloated feeling.

"Lucky for you, there's one nearby. I show you," Ren decided. The bathhouse in Yongen was actually quite nice, but I hadn't felt like going there after my first visit, I much preferred the privacy of my own bath compared to the communal bathhouse; although that could have simply been because I was all on my own and the large space made it seem even worse than the more confined area I was used to.

"Ooh, that sounds great! I wanna come too! How 'bout you Ann? Natsumi?" Ryūji asked. While a bath certainly sounded nice, I didn't feel like hanging around for much longer; it wasn't that I didn't welcome their company but more that I actually felt rather exhausted and was just looking forward to my bed, if I had a bath then I was likely to fall asleep in the water… not a pleasant thought.

"You guys go on ahead, I should get going," Ann instead. I chimed in with my own agreement and stood up, grabbing my bag at the same time as Ann took a hold of hers. "Well, good night everyone," Ann bid. We proceeded to leave the attic and walked passed Sōjirō to whom we proceeded to say farewell to as well; we eventually split up at the intersection, Ann would be able to look after herself on her way back home so I wasn't worried about her at all.

I reached my home and quickly stepped inside then locked the door behind me, before I could actually get further into my house however, my phone proceeded to go off. I quickly pulled it out and opened it up to see what was being discussed all of a sudden, especially since it had come on the Phantoms Chat of all places.

Ann: Check out the pictures I took today!

Ann uploaded a picture

Ann: Not bad, right?

Natsumi: Pretty good. Nice lighting

Yusuke: The steam fogged up his glasses… another of the many charms of eating hot pot, I suppose.

Ren: I'm still cleaning them.

Ryūji: Oh man… I keep looking back at this picture and Ren's face is STILL hilarious.

Ann: Oh yeah, Yusuke is still at Ren's place, right?

Ryūji: Don't go making any trouble for him, okay?

Yusuke: Of course. I'd like to think I'm not THAT socially graceless.

Yusuke: All I can ask is a warm futon and a traditional Japanese breakfast.

Natsumi: That's actually asking for a lot.

Ryūji: What she said.

Shutting down my phone, I quickly went through my nightly routine before collapsing in my bed, though strangely enough a weird chill pressed itself on me before I got underneath my duvet.