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 48: - A Day Out

A vicious ringing pulled me from my slumber, I was significantly exhausted after my unexpected trip down memory lane and then running into Elizabeth and her siblings. So, it had seemed rather appropriate for me to simply fall into my bed and immediately start sleeping to recover my strength for whatever was coming the next day. Which meant I was rather angry at being disturbed from my much-needed slumber.

"So help me if that's Ryūji, I'm going to make his next bout of training more painful," I croaked out. I pried my body off the mattress and madly patted about until I found the switch for my lamp, a quick flip allowed soft grey light to light up the room thanks to the colour changing bulb. I grabbed my phone and opened it up to look at the chat.

Ann: Ryūji just let me know.

Ann: Mishima's so insistent on finding our next target that he's gonna start looking in Harajuku.

Natsumi: That's not good, the boy is too overzealous.

Natsumi: Want to tag along to keep an eye on him?

Ann: Absolutely!

Ann: Ryūji's gonna tell Ren so we all might be going.

Natsumi: The more the easier it'll be to keep Mishima out of trouble.

Natsumi: See you tomorrow.

Ann: See ya!

I dropped my phone onto my bed and then dropped my head back into my pillow with a small groan.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Somehow, despite being disturbed, I had actually managed to have a restful sleep and so here I was with the rest of the group. Yusuke couldn't come due to something happening in his high school's arts division, so it was just the five original members of the Phantoms here to make sure that our administrator didn't get himself in some kind of crazy trouble.

"It's so crowded, just like I expected. The perfect place to start our investigation," Mishima stated. He then turned to look at us with a bemused expression upon his face. "But I gotta say, I wasn't expecting all of you to come along," Mishima admitted. I looked at the others wondering what answers they would probably be concocting in their heads as to explain our presence to Mishima.

"I had a photoshoot nearby, so I figured why not?" Ann admitted. She even shrugged her shoulders as if to give the impression that she had decided to come here on a whim; it was probably the best answer to give the boy who had somehow sussed out that Ren was a Phantom Thief, I don't know if he suspected the rest of us of being members but best to avoid rousing his suspicions.

"But why Harajuku, Mishima?" Ryūji asked. At least someone had managed to distract him from our presence here; it did seem a little odd for Mishima to choose to come to Harajuku of all places, I don't see how such a vibrant place could possibly have any target for us to face. There was no Palace hovering over this place so that at least meant there was no Ruler here for us to deal with and everyone seemed perfectly content as they walked around, no one stood out as having a particularly prominent Shadow.

"Well, Harajuku's this big cultural hub, right? People from all over the world come here. So that means there might be all kinds of international villains walking around in broad daylight!" Mishima theorised. I stopped looking around and proceeded to instead shoot Mishima a disbelieving look for what he had just said, as I tried to wrap my head around how he'd come to such a conclusion.

"I'm not sure how that logic works Mishima, surely criminals would try to avoid attracting attention to themselves," I pointed out. Working from that perspective, I certainly wouldn't like to be spotted if I had been accused of a crime and were currently on the run, especially if the possibility of being well known was a danger that would have to be dealt with.

"Yeah, I dunno if I get that logic," Ann agreed. I shot the girl a grateful look that someone else was agreeing with me on the craziness of the logic that Mishima was using to explain why he decided this would be a good place to investigate; it seemed too obvious a place to be for a criminal especially one that might not be native to Japan or even Tokyo in general, those would be the first places any competent investigator would start looking.

"Uh, for example…," Mishima commented. It seemed that he was ignoring mine and Ann's confusion about his actions to instead look out over the crowd. "Oh, check that guy out! He's definitely suspicious! I mean who wears black leather long coats at this time of year!? He's gotta be shady! And all those belts must be supplies so he can tie people up. Oh man… do you think he's an escaped convict?" Mishima theorised.

"No, I'm pretty sure that's just a goth style," Ann coolly responded. I looked over at the guy that Mishima had pointed out and found him casually sat at a table and sipping on a drink, there didn't seem to be any trace of maliciousness as he calmly looked around while enjoying his beverage; he actually seemed rather relaxed and happy.

"But my phantom thief senses are tingling! Don't you think he's suspicious, Amamiya?" Mishima asked. Mishima glanced back at our leader who had a kind of dazed look on his face but managed to focus upon hearing Mishima call out his name, but it seemed like he might not have been paying attention to the question if his blinking owl eyes were any indication.

"You're uh… tingling?" Ren asked. He seemed deeply confused by the words that Mishima had used – not that I blame our leader – to describe his suspicion of a seemingly innocent individual who was happily enjoying his surroundings without any sign of discomfort or darkness; I really think that Mishima might be stretching his suspicion of the individual.

"Well, I mean, 'cause I'm the Phantom Aficionado Website admin, and-," Mishima began to explain. But his eyes widened suddenly as if coming to a realisation and he stopped talking all of a sudden, we looked at each other with confusion. "Look, that's not important! You know what I mean!" Mishima exclaimed. Honestly, I really didn't know what Mishima could possibly be meaning with his words.

"If you think he's that suspicious, then go talk to him," Ryūji suggested. Mishima was freaked by this suggestion while I proceeded to give the blonde punk a raised eyebrow at his words. "You're the one who's all hyped up about this investigation, right? So hey. Go up to the guy and ask 'Yo, Captain Trenchcoat! Sorry to bother you, but are you an escaped convict?'," Ryūji added. That was likely to anger even the most placid person and depending on the temperament of the one being accused… well Mishima might get hurt.

"You've got to be kidding! He'd have that belt around my neck before I even finished talking!" Mishima panicked. He was quite right that something dangerous could happen to him if he made such a random approach and accusation to someone simply minding their own business; besides, the more I look around, the more it became obvious that such manner of dress wasn't all that unusual.

"It's normal to see people dressed in unusual clothes here," Ann admitted. She even waved her hand about to draw Mishima to the existence of other unusual kind of styles that were on display here. "Honestly, I think it's kinda cool. Like they've got the confidence to wear whatever they want, you know? Like… nothing's gonna keep them from expressing their own style," Ann commented. A smile upon her face as she said those words with a bright warmth upon her face.

"Cool or not, they're definitely not lettin' anyone hold them back," Ryūji complimented. It was quite something, that they were brave enough to dress how they wanted to without caring about what people might think of them for dressing in such a manner; it was something that we should probably all be capable of learning from, to be as true to ourselves as possible.

"What do you think about unique fashion like this, Ren?" Ann wondered. Everyone turned to focus their attention upon the country boy, I noted that Ren was continuing to stare around the shopping centre with wide grey eyes, occasionally resting on a building or person that seemed to have caught his eye before turning to gaze back at the rest of us.

"I'm getting culture shock," Ren admitted. We all proceeded to laugh at his admission which caused Ren's lips to spread into a wide smile and he soon started to join in our laughter; it felt so good to actually be able to enjoy myself with other people after so long of being isolated, just to spend time with all of them without worrying about other things interfering with our enjoyment. Ann eventually calmed down and proceeded to focus upon Mishima.

"Anyway, no more judging people here by how they look. If they're wearing what they want to wear, that's something to admire," Ann lectured. She lightly poked him in the chest as she said those words, a smile on her face showing she wasn't really mad. "Heck, I'd say it means they're honest. Not like people who seem nice on the outside, but turn out to be terrible," Ann added on. Something we were all too familiar with given Kamoshida and especially Madarame most recently.

"Never judge a book by its' cover, as the saying goes," I spoke up. First impressions might matter when it comes to things like job interviews or other such things, but you can never really understand someone from just a singular meeting; I much prefer to have multiple conversations with someone before deciding what I actually think of them as opposed to making a snap judgment.

"I guess you're right," Mishima admitted. He did seem mollified by what Ann and I had said, it wouldn't do for Mishima to put himself into such dangerous situations because of rash judgments he made based upon how a person looked, especially if he was going to keep getting involved with trying to find targets for us by going out and looking for them instead of letting the Phan-site collect those reports; it might be doing more, but it put him in increased danger and we wouldn't always be around to pull him back if he went too far.

"Ann-dono is absolutely right. After all, I look like a cat but I'm actually a dashing, noble gentleman!" Morgana chimed. The feline had popped out of the bag to finally join the conversation, a bit unusual for him to have not interjected earlier but that might have been because of Mishima being with us; Mishima looked over with a raised eyebrow at the sight of Morgana's presence.

"Now that I think about it, it's kinda Harajuku-ey to walk around with a cat in a bag," Ryūji commented. It did actually seem like the kind of thing you'd see in such an unusual place as Harajuku, certainly no one was staring at Morgana as they walked passed, taking that fact in stride, which might imply that animals in bag or other kind of unusual placements much have been slightly common to this place.

"True! He's like a really specialised fashion accessory," Ann agreed. I stifled a chuckle at her words as I wondered how exactly how Morgana would take being called an accessory by the girl that he was quite charmed by; I looked over at Morgana in order to gauge exactly how he would be reacting to the words.

"Is… that a compliment?" Morgana asked. His brilliant blue eyes blinked in confusion for a few moments before a slight purr proceeded to emanate from him and he dipped his head to look at Ren. "I guess you're lucky, Ren. You can get popular just by having me around," Morgana gleefully stated. Well, at least he seemed accepting of being called an accessory, allowing me to relax slightly since he wasn't going to get upset.

"So, Mishima… I take it you didn't actually have any leads," Ryūji pointed out. Mishima led out a sad and dejected 'nope' as a response, that meant that there was no reason for us to stick around any longer; but I actually didn't want to leave yet, Harajuku felt so lively and free unlike Shibuya, so I wanted to stay and enjoy myself for a little while longer.

"Yeah, figures. Well as long as we're here, let's have some fun," Ann suggested. If it was possible then I'd probably glowing from the smile that came onto my face at someone actually suggesting we hang around for even a little bit longer, I'd never actually visited Harajuku before today so it would be nice to wander around and see what this place had thanks to the cultural melting pot atmosphere of the area.

"Then let's get Ren dressed up!" Ryūji declared. He seemed extremely keen to get this decision underway; Ren proceeded to shoot the blonde punk a wary look before glancing down at himself with a questioning gaze, as if silently wondering what was wrong with his current attire, before shooting another worried look at Ryūji as if he expected something to become clear with that look.

"Natsu-chan too!" Ann agreed. I proceeded to mimic Ren in that moment, shooting my friend a baffled look before glancing down at my own outfit; an elbow length sleeved blue blouse, paired with a knee length dark blue-black skirt, black tights, and blue canvas shoes, a handbag was over my shoulder which contained the essentials that I needed to come here. Was there something wrong with my outfit?

"Oh, and Mishima too. Maybe Ann can get rid of your weird anti-Harajuku prejudice," Ryūji added on. That didn't really allow me or Ren to relax since it seemed our two blonde friends were getting too into the idea to force the three of us with dark hair colours to be turned into dress up opportunities; Mishima spun around with a panicked look on his face.

"Huh?! Me too!" Mishima exclaimed. He seemed quite spooked by the possibility of being forced to dress up, then again, I don't think me or Ren were any better as Ren's own face looked panicked and that was probably the exact same expression that I happened to be wearing; I really wanted to figure out if there was a probability of escaping from this situation before things got crazy… well crazier.

"Don't we get a say in this!?" I questioned. I didn't want to end up dragged into the insanity that would likely happen if Ann and Ryūji decided to keep going down this path, it wasn't that I didn't trust them but I'd always been pretty basic in picking my clothing out; so long as I liked the colour and it fit then I was perfectly happy to wear it… but something in my gut told me that the model I'd befriended wasn't going to let that slide.

"Actually… if I've got any hidden talent for fashion, this'd be the perfect chance to discover it," Mishima admitted. Well, it seemed that one of us was agreeing to be turned into a fashion project; I sent a worried look at Ren who also looked concerned about what was going to be happening to us if we didn't stop this conversation thread.

"Ann-dono, Ann-dono! Help me get all fashionable too!" Morgana pleaded. And there was someone else not helping us, at Ren's slumped shoulder I could tell that he had pretty much given up any chance of escaping this situation which caused me to deflate slightly as I realised that there was probably no chance for escape and that I might as well just resign myself to the madness that was coming.

"Alright! We can squeeze in a trip to the pet shop for Morgana!" Ann decided. I proceeded to give Ann a concerned look since Morgana had made it very obvious that he disliked being addressed as a pet, even though that was probably the only place that we would find anything that would even be appropriate for Morgana to have baring any handkerchief that might be lying about.

"I'm not a pet!" Morgana protested. I rolled my eyes at this response since I had expected him to react like that, Ren proceeded to quirk his lips into a small smile at the reaction that Morgana had given; in fact, as I looked around, I saw that Ann and Ryūji also had smiles on their lips at our healer's reaction. The only odd one out was Mishima who was giving Morgana an odd look as he cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"You know, Amamiya… sometimes it sounds like your cat's really joining in on the conversation," Mishima admitted. All of us proceeded to look at each other as we tried to come up with an answer to what Mishima had just spoken, we couldn't actually tell him that Morgana did understand us since that would just baffle the poor boy – and potentially leak more secrets about the Phantom Thieves if Mishima decided to start nosing around – Ren however seemed to relax. Our leader raised his hand and proceeded to run a finger over Morgana's head.

"Morgana's so intelligent it wouldn't surprise me if he understood every word we were saying," Ren stated. Mishima shrugged his shoulder as if accepting this explanation and the rest of us proceeded to smile in relief at this event; we wouldn't need to run the risk of potentially being outed now that Ren had covered for us regarding Morgana's speech capabilities.

"Then let's get going! Just follow me, I know a place!" Ann declared. She seemed to have brightened up quite a bit, while I would have been fine with just wandering around it seemed like dressing up was on the agenda as Ann hooked her arm around one of mine which left me with no way to escape from this situation and looking back so that Ryūji had grabbed a hold of Ren in a similar manner with Mishima left on his own since he wanted this to happen anyway.

"It's all on you Fashionista-san!" Ryūji decided. With that, we were quickly dragged into the shopping hub of Harajuku with Ann happily pulling me into the building as Ryūji and Mishima worked to herd Ren inside with big smile on their faces whenever I managed to glance back and check on our leader who was looking a little paler than normal.

Once both of us were inside the building, Ann set out on a mission with a glowing smile on her face. As much as I'd rather not be twisted into some kind of dress up party, I couldn't deny that it was kind of fun to see Ann looking so happy. Ren suddenly let out a snort then clamped his hand over his mouth, I looked over and saw he was staring off to the side and when I followed his gaze, I saw why. Ryūji and Mishima seemed to be going a little crazy and were pulling off the weirdest clothing styles or patterns and trying them on.

An annoyed groan echoed and I looked over to see that Ann had returned with two sets of clothing draped over different arms, although she was giving the other two boys an impressive stink eye. Ann set the clothing onto different chairs and then lifted one piece up. It was a grey long sleeved shirt but it looked like something that could be worn in all types of seasons instead of just Spring or Autumn.

The fabric was held up next to Ren's face and Ann lightly bit her lip as she seemed to be scrutinising the clothing and Ren quite intently. Suddenly, Ann sharply nodded her head and separated the shirt from the pile and gently folded it up onto another chair that was nearby before moving onto a different item, this one a bright red jacket that Ann seemed to treat rather different quite swiftly judging by how soon her eyes narrowed in distaste and the way she practically dumped it onto the chair in a heap.

Such a trend continued for a bit as Ryūji and Mishima continued to run amok in the shop, both of them trying on insane or ridiculous styles then disappearing for a few minutes only to return. Ann would hold up each piece of fabric to scrutinise against Ren and either accept it or reject it with no input being given from Ren. Occasionally Mishima and Ryūji would return bearing other clothing and offer it up to Ann like they were attempting to make some kind of tribute. Ann scrutinised and then made a choice, she would then bundle the duo up with Ren's rejected clothes and they took off to return them to hangers; I noticed that most of the colours were kind of light shades of blues, greys, browns with some blacks and dark reds and blues scattered among them.

"Do I dare ask what is going on?" I questioned. Ann had gone through the entire array of clothing that she had brought over for Ren – I assume that the other chair was for me – with some of it staying while others were dismissed for whatever reason she had decided on; it was all a bit baffling for me to witness and Ren didn't seem any better.

"I'm looking to see if the colours would look good on you with your skin tone, hair and eye colour. It's what happens to me when I'm trying on an outfit, though that does include make-up in the mix as well. I don't know your sizes, so you'll have to help me find those later and pick what you like best out of the clothing. I'll pay, consider it my treat but that's also why I don't what you guys to buy a lot," Ann explained. I nodded my head in understanding, at that moment Mishima and Ryūji ran passed in garishly vibrant colours; Ann's shoulders dropped in disbelief. "Those two are so distracting," Ann bemoaned.

Despite her words, Ann perked up and proceeded to move over to the pile of clothing that she had selected for me. The clothing was more varied in colours; blues, greens, whites, purples – all in different shades – along with pinkish-reds, pale yellows. Tops, skirts, jeans, jackets, and cardigans were pressed against my skin by a very ecstatic Ann as she went through the clothing choices and separated them.

"Right then, you two pick out what you want," Ann insisted. Then a sudden ferociousness seemed to start emanating from her as she twisted on her heels and almost seemed to glare in that direction. "Mishima! Ryūji! Get over here!" Ann ordered. She then stormed after them as if Captain Kidd had somehow joined his elemental powers to Carmen. I shot a glance at Ren who was also looking at me and we then proceeded to break down into laughter.

"Well, Ann's certainly enjoying herself," Ren commented. I nodded my head in agreement and then made for the clothing, I rifled through it and selected a cardigan and skirt while leaving the rest behind since I didn't want to take advantage of Ann's kindness; Ren only selected two items as well as Ann returned and started the process all over again for Mishima who seemed too excited to stay in place too much.

As Ann dressed up Mishima, we all helped out and eventually left the building with laughter and a few bags as we made for the pet shop for Morgana.

*Persona 5 Royal*

I was chopping up some vegetables for my tea when the phone's Chat alert went off, I quickly finished my chopping and set the knife down while twisting the heat on the hobs to the lowest possible setting while still being turned on. I scooped the phone up and quickly moved to check on the Chat, if Yusuke knew anything about Madarame it would be good for us to know as soon as he brought it up.

Ann: Yusuke, any changes yet? How's Madarame?

Yusuke: Nothing at the moment. He's still bedridden.

Ryūji: Wait… you think this was too much for that old bastard's heart?

Natsumi: Unlikely.

Natsumi: We're changing his metaphorical heart, his emotions and morality.

Natsumi: There shouldn't be any effect on his literal heart.

Yusuke: Natsumi is right.

Yusuke: There's no need to worry. His life does not appear to be in any danger.

Ryūji: I hope we didn't eff up on our first official mission.

Ryuji: Can he talk at all?

Yusuke: So far all he's said to me is, 'I'm sorry'.

Yusuke: I haven't been able to speak to him since though. He is in no state to hold a conversation.

Ryūji: For real?

Ann: If he ends up taking legal action against us, our leader will be in big trouble!

Ren: Please don't remind me of my probation.

Ren: I've got very good at ignoring it.

Yusuke: Probation? That would be problematic then.

Ann: Hey, we're gonna be okay… aren't we?

Natsumi: All we can do is hope.

Natsumi: Everything is out of our hands now.

Ren: But everything went the same as last time.

Ren: The fight with the Ruler, the recovery of the Treasure and the crumbling of the Palace.

Ren: We should be fine.

Ryūji: If Ren says so, I'm sure it's true!

Yusuke: I will contact all of you if any progress is made.

Ryūji: Let's just wait for the Change of Heart for now.

Ann: Yeah… well, we'll be waiting for your updates, Yusuke.

'I hope everything is fine, but…' I thought. The memory of Azazel speaking about a black masked intruder surfaced, it was a worry that would continue to needle my mind until the question of who the masked individual was had been resolved.