Disclaimer: Persona 5 Characters except Fujin Katsuo belongs to Atlus, this fanfic has no commercial purpose.


Akira: Everyone. Hideout. NOW!
Yusuke: Is there something wrong?
Akira: Just go to the hideout, try not to send texts for the moment.
Ann: That sounds serious.

As soon as I read the chat, I followed his instruction by not responding if he warned us about something important. The worst had yet to come. When we finally gathered around, we started discussing the emergency.

"So, what's the problem?" I asked Kurusu about that worrying behavior.

"Someone sent me messages knowing all about us," the leader said. I didn't like that tone.

"And with all about us, you mean…?" Sakamoto was perplexed.

"All of us! Our identities, stealing hearts, Medjed, all those things! Look at those messages!" Kurusu showed us his phone with messages from someone named "Alibaba," which he wanted us to steal someone's heart. Things didn't look good for us. No, things now became so fucked up.

"Considerin' he mentioned stealin' hearts, he knows, doesn't he?" Sakamoto said, astonished like everyone else present.

"Seems so…" Makoto was worried.

"How were we found out?" Kitagawa asked.

"He may have traced our chat log…" Makoto assumed.

"How careless of us…" The artist blamed himself for it.

"Dammit..." I murmured. Never crossed my mind the possibility of someone discovering us through the messages. Those were mistakes from an amateur.

"But how would he have known all detail with just that?" Makoto said.

"Do you think that there is another cause?"

"Like what?" I asked Kitagawa. "There so many ways of being discovered, and we don't know exactly how that happened."

"Yeah. I'm not sure why, but that's the feeling I get." Makoto still looked even more worried.

"Hey, is it that easy to look at someone else's chat log?" Takamaki asked.

"I don't know much about it myself, but… it's probably not impossible, I think?"

"How's it done?" Ryuji asked with an angry tone.

"Maybe they extracted our phones' data?" Makoto made an assumption. It was most likely.

"Still, why's Akira getting an error when he tried to reply?"

"Perhaps the receiving end doesn't exist?" Makoto responded to Takamaki's question. It was simple. There was no chance for us to communicate until Alibaba would contact us first.

"That's possible?" Sakamoto asked. Curious and shocked.

"Don't ask me everything. I told you that I don't know much about it."

"Wait. Might this be what is referred to as hacking?" Kitagawa got a clue. Not that changed anything, though.

"Then, does that mean this guy's a hacker!?" Sakamoto shouted.

"I don't get high-tech stuff! What does this all mean?" Morgana seemed entirely distressed by our conversation.

"An unknown hacker contacted us!" Takamaki said.

"I see. I don't really get it." Morgana struggled. It was pointless to explain to him all that stuff that might not be helpful at the moment.

"Then, is this person Medjed?" Kitagawa asked. He did a cautious tone.

"I doubt it, considering he says he wants to deal with them. That is, only we take his words for face value." Makoto was right. It was impossible to trust someone offering us a chance to defeat Medjed.

"True..." The artist added.

"Hey… Wouldn't it be great if we got this guy on our side?" Sakamoto suggested, but everyone gave a stranged look at the punk. Makoto outright said it for us.

"But we know nothing about his identity at all. We can't trust him."

"I don't think it's a bad deal, though…"

"Even if Alibaba turns out to be a criminal? I am not helping anyone of that sort." Kitagawa said, very smart as most of us knew the dangers that Alibaba could impose on us.

"Oh, right. That wouldn't be good…" Sakamoto recognized.

"The 'I've prepared the necessary' tool part makes no sense either," Morgana commented.

"Could this just be a prank?"

"Does that sounds like a prank to you, Takamaki?" I said, both furious and afraid.

"He knows an awful lot for it to be a prank." Makoto reaffirmed. She began to interpret the situation as she gave her usual gesture of touching her chin.

"If he knows who we are, won't we get caught?" Takamaki wouldn't stop worrying.

"No. If he wanted to report us, I think he would've done it already."

"Whoever this hacker is, he must have an agenda. What exactly is his deal?" I said it until Kitagawa commented.

"He must have some sort of objective of his own. He did offer us a deal, after all," the artist said with such reassurance. "I'm certain he'll contact us again."

"There's no telling when he'll do so, though… It'd be best if we stay together. If something happens, we can act at once." Makoto's idea was reasonable.

"Yeah. So, somewhere we can wait and hide for long hours…" Takamaki was lost in thought.

"How about Leblanc?" Makoto quickly replied.

"That sounds like a good idea. Let's go." Kurusu gave us the prompt to leave. We took the line to Yongen-Jaya and sat a little far from each other in the same subway cart. We couldn't know who would be listening or even watching us. No one would talk until we could be safe in private. Such paranoia was just like six years ago. I never liked that feeling back then, and I still didn't like that now. How long all that lunacy between Medjed and Alibaba would last? I hoped only by the end of the summer, but who could tell? There must be a plan not involved with our unwanted benefactor.

I tried to keep myself calm during the trip, but the pressure began to rise. None of those guys behaved any more worried than me. How was that even possible? Guess they never got the experience of looking one's own shoulder. I kept doing small breathing exercises. Sometimes, I tried to pull my lighter and then doing some tic by opening and closing it. Too bad that I wasn't allowed to lit my lighter while still boarding the train. How stressful. I decided to continue reading that Cognitive Psience book. Just a couple of pages before finishing it up.

It was quite a confusing book. Psychology wasn't much my topic of interest as I tried to understand it. The book proved to be tricky, and I read tougher ones. What kind of person would be able to keep up with all that stuff? Probably with a doctorate because no way in life, I could ever learn more than that.

Anyway. We finally arrived at Leblanc. Once inside we saw an old man with stylish clothes and an apron reading some papers. Was he Kurusu's guardian? The man wasn't paying attention to us until Kurusu got closer, making him finally notice us. "…Oh? What's with the big group?" He said with surprise.

"Good evening," the blond girl greeted him. "We were thinking about putting together plans for our summer."

"Hm? Are those new faces I see?" The man looked at Makoto and me.

"It's nice to meet you. My name is Niijima Makoto. I hope we're not a bother." She cordially presented herself.

"She's our student council president," Sakamoto added.

"What about that guy behind you? He doesn't look like a student." the cafe owner began to focus on me.

"Sorry, where are my manners? I'm Fujin Katsuo. I already graduated from Shujin, but I'm helping those guys with school-related stuff. It is my pleasure to meet you, sir." I introduced myself as well. Not very formal, though.

"Niijima…?" The old man mumbled.

"Is something wrong?" Makoto asked.

"…Nah, it's nothing. A student council president and a graduate, eh? I'm stunned. I hope he's not causing you two too much trouble. I'm Sakura Sojiro, but everyone just calls me Boss." He made a confident smile until he focused his sight on our leader. "By the way, that was addressed to you. This old man'll get going and leave you kids be. All right, the store's all yours." Boss left the letter on the table before leaving the store.

From the impression I got, he looked like a reasonable man despite the circumstances. Pretty rare to find someone very compliant. I imagined him to be someone strict due to Kurusu's record. At least he left us alone so we could talk about any business in private.

We accommodated the stools and table like the last time we were at Leblanc, with drinks and snacks all over. We started to talk about random stuff until Sakamoto tuned the local news.

"We have late-breaking news on Medjed, whose notoriety rose since their statement the other day," the reporter said. "Just moments ago, a new message has been released on their website. They have announced their victory over the Phantom Thieves."

That couldn't be good.

"Medjed also warns any Japanese citizens who praised the Phantom Thieves to stop doing so. We will report any further actions by Medjed as they arrive." The reporter was done talking.

Takamaki and Sakamoto took out their phones, but he started to whine about it. "Oh, come on! It's in English!"

"That's your problem!" I yelled. I looked at the blond girl and asked with a more civilized tone. "Would you read it for us, Takamaki?"

"Let me see…" She started to translate the article for us. "The Phantom Thieves remain silent at our question. This proves that we are just. People of Japan, wake up. You must not worship the Phantom Thieves."

"What!? That's bullshit!" Sakamoto shouted. He stomped the table out of anger.

"Keep listening," Kitagawa told the punk.

"We will discipline any who worship them. The punishment is the confiscation of possessions. We are Medjed. We are unseen. We will eliminate evil." Takamaki was done reading it. "…That's what it says." The reactions were far more bitter.

"What does that all mean!?" Sakamoto wouldn't stop yelling.

"They're saying that they'll target sympathizers of the Phantom Thieves," Makoto replied.

"Confiscation of possessions, hm…?" Kitagawa was wondering the meaning until Makoto began to explain him.

"Perhaps bank accounts or personal information… Either way, it won't be anything pleasant."

"Why the hell are we being singled out?" Sakamoto asked, furious the more we kept learning our situation.

"Because they hate competition, that's why…" I commented. One of the many reasons I couldn't stop hating Medjed's contradictions. I wanted to believe that they were bluffing, but nothing was guaranteed.

"Perhaps all they care about is labeling the Phantom Thieves as crooks. That all this wouldn't have happened had the Phantom Thieves not existed." Makoto added.

"Oh, as if they are the ones to talk," I scoffed.

"That's complete bullshit!" Sakamoto yelled.

"Talk about a troublesome organization that we've been targeted by…" Morgana commented.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Takamaki asked. None of us could come up with a clear answer.

"It's certain we can't do anything about this on our own…" Kitagawa said. Everyone's eyes wandered around the coffee shop in complete silence as if we tried to look for answers. Sakamoto, however, noticed Kurusu's envelope.

"Hey, so what's this letter about? We don't need any more trouble."

"It's rare for you to get something like this," Morgana said.

When the leader looked at it, he noted that the envelope had no names or sender's address. The worst was what was inside the envelope: a red card. He laid the card on the table for everyone to see it.

"A calling card?" The cat asked as he tilted his head.

"Anything else in there!?" Takamaki asked. "Who's this from anyway?"

"There's no stamp on it. Someone must've directly dropped in into the mailbox here…" Makoto took a closer look at it.

"Hold on just a second… Whoever sent this must already know about us. Could it be…?" I interrupted Makoto's comment.

"Could it have been Alibaba…?" Yusuke said it for me.

"That reminds me, he did mention something about preparing the necessary tool… Don't tell me… Is this what he was talking about!?" Morgana confirmed what we feared.

"What the hell's goin' on here…?" Sakamoto frowned.

"All we can do at the moment is wait for Alibaba's orders. Let's brace ourselves and stand by… in case anything comes up."

"Oh, dear…" Takamaki's reaction summed up how everyone felt. I couldn't believe that we were just hitting rock bottom with all that crap about hackers, cyberterrorists, and being exposed.

We called a night, and everyone returned home. There was nothing we could do about it for the moment. The stress kept piling up to the point that I had to ask Lala-chan for the night off. If that madness kept continuing, I wouldn't leave my apartment ever again. What were our options? Accepting Alibaba's offer was out of the question for all we were concerned about. I didn't want to deal with Medjed, neither with that pestering hacker.

I probably couldn't get enough sleep after that.


The next day, Alibaba contacted Kurusu again during classes. He got another offer for us: We change Sakura Futaba's heart, or we would be reported to the police. That was what the leader showed us on his phone.

"We're gonna get reported if we don't do this? What the hell…" Sakamoto was the first to speak about it.

"Sakura Futaba…?" Takamaki said. Almost lost in thought.

"Wasn't Sakura…?"

"It's Boss's family name!" The blond girl reacted much faster before Makoto could say it.

"Does he have any family?"

"Does he?" Kitagawa and Morgana asked the leader.

"I don't know..." Kurusu didn't sound very confident with his answer. Sakamoto seemed disappointed.

"For reals!? How laid-back are you!? Wouldn't you normally be introduced at least? I mean, you are living at his place."

"There must be a reason why he doesn't know that. I mean, look at this way; he is living in the attic of a coffee shop." I tried to clarify. It was undoubtedly odd Kurusu couldn't know much about Boss's home life. But it was such a conundrum. It had to be something.

"Well, his situation does make things difficult…" Kitagawa wasn't sure.

"The calling card was delivered to Boss's house; it'd be more natural to assume this is all related," Makoto explained. "Maybe one of the reasons for that is because Alibaba mentioned nothing about which Sakura Futaba. Perhaps he thinks that the name alone is enough."

"That makes sense," Morgana added.

"I believe it's adequate for us to think that this is the doing of someone close by."

"I see," Takamaki said.

"I don't know how Alibaba got a hold of Akira-kun's smartphone information. However, since he's ordering us through chat, I do feel as though he's taunting us." Makoto made a long face.

"You mean, this might just be a prank?" Sakamoto asked.

"I mean, look at his demands. Pay me if you don't want me to leak who really are-that I'd understand. But he's telling us to steal someone's heart without explaining why."

"So we're being tested?" The artist sounded skeptical.

"Regardless, I think we should ask Boss about Sakura Futaba once."

"That's probably for the best. There's nothing else we can do at the moment, and Chief might have an idea on what this is about too." Morgana added.

"I'll check the school's roster just in case," Makoto said. Diligent as ever.

"We must make sure Boss doesn't figure out who we are. We'll have to go about this cautiously." Kitagawa said. Cautious like the rest.

"Better get something because we are already wasting time between this and Medjed." I sighed.

Everyone returned home while I headed to work. The fact that we had not much to do for the day was enough to keep worrying. The last couple of days were enough to prove that I might be getting high pressure in my blood. I didn't know it was possible. How can't we solve this? I looked at the news every 10 minutes if Medjed updated anything regarding us: Nothing so far. I could barely accept the kind of situation we got ourselves into from one day to another.

During work, I checked the messages to see if Kurusu got anything useful from Boss. I couldn't get that out of my head for hours.

Ann: Oh, I just remembered!
Ann: Akira, were you able to ask Boss about Sakura Futaba?
Akira: I tried...
Yusuke: So, no results, could there be a reason as to why that was?
Makoto: Hm, Alibaba might be our only hope of defeating Medjed.
Katsuo: I've rather not want to reach that extreme just yet.
Makoto: I wish we could get some info about Futaba out of Boss…
Ann: But trying to force it out would probably have the opposite effect.
Yusuke: To be honest, I owe a great deal to both Boss and Akira.
Yusuke: I don't wish for this to be a source of discord between them.
Ryuji: Yeah, I know just what you mean!
Katsuo: So what can we do then?
Makoto: It's probably best to wait for Boss to bring the subject himself.

Well, nothing we could do about it. Kurusu would gather information for the following day. What a drag...


July 22th. It was another day without anything important about Medjed or Sakura Futaba yet.

We had to be patient with the leader's investigation. Everyone tried to keep the same routine as every day, but no one would stop feeling as anxious as me. That sort of mood was probably contagious. The number of factors against us slowly increased with each day we wasted time doing nothing regarding this. I wished we didn't have to deal with hackers, but somehow, I couldn't stop thinking that none of this would happen if I wasn't with the group. Is it my fault that Medjed is attacking the Phantom Thieves supporters and us? Absolutely not. That shit would happen regardless, and yet, it kept bugging in my head.

After done with my delivery job. I decided to walk around Shibuya to clear some thoughts. That cold sensation that I might have eyes on my back couldn't get any less ridiculous. What could you say regarding that? All I knew was that we were taking things too way slow.

Speaking of slow, when I passed by the street, I saw Sakamoto walking out of the arcade. From what I saw on his expression, not well as if something was bothering him. I hoped that punk hadn't done anything stupid lately. "Hey, Sakamoto!" I shouted while I approached him.

"Yo..." he said, almost low on energy. Seeing him like that started to weird me out. "What's up?"

"Just done with work," I said. "What about you?"

"Hittin' the arcades, but all are busy."

"And that's reason to act all melancholic?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Nah, I just forgot to eat lunch at school..." Sakamoto said as I heard his stomach growling. Was that why he acted too moody? I thought there was something more serious.

"Why you didn't buy a snack or else instead of going to the arcade?" I asked annoyingly.

"I didn't think it... too much shit in my head right now."

"Well, that makes us two now," I looked at my phone for the time. I still got time before heading to Shinjuku. "Anyway, minus well get something before I go somewhere else. I'm hungry too."

"Huh? Are you invitin' me the meal?" Sakamoto said, almost both excited and surprised.

"Don't think yourself lucky, punk. I'm only accompanying. I ain't paying anything for you."

"Figures..." he sighed. "So where should we eat?"

"I was thinking about the dinner down the street. Probably got any special meals at a lower price." I pointed at the place, but Sakamoto didn't look convinced.

"I don't know, dude. That places mostly have soups and stuff, and too many vegetables on the food."

"How old are you, nine!? You shouldn't act too picky if the food has vegetables!" I debated.

"What about Big Bang Burger?"

"I pass..."

"Okay...? Why?"

"I don't like it."

"Now who's picky with food!?" Sakamoto rose his voice.

"Hey! There's a difference between eating quality food and not acting mature towards the meal's content!" I did a counterargument but criticizing each other wouldn't get us nowhere. "So, what's the next option?"

"There's the beef bowl place. Are you up for that?"

"Too greasy, but it is affordable. Beggars can't be choosers, I guess."

"Alright. Then it settles it."

Begrudgingly, we walked inside the beef bowl place and looked at how packed the place was. However, we saw little of the employees around; the punk commented that the restaurant was understaffed most of the time. Shouldn't have already seen it. Sakamoto ordered, shockingly, a large beef bowl with extra sauce. I, on the other hand, asked for a small curry bowl.

"You won't get satisfied with that, dude," Sakamoto commented.

"So what?" I rebuked. "Unless I have money to spare, I'm not expecting to spend too much these days."

"Do you have problems with work?"

"Nah, except that the only problem I have is that my day job is badly administrated!" I sighed. The only thing I could say how I felt was exasperation.

"Calm down! Why so pissy about everythin'!?" the punk asked. Surprisingly, he wasn't wrong. My attitude almost made a scene that the other customers began to turn their heads towards us. I took notice of it quickly.

"Look, I won't justify or anything, but this whole Medjed-related stuff and then with Alibaba pretty much blackmailing us with his offer. I can't stop lowing my guard by this point."

"I know how you feel, but this isn't somethin' to lose control," Sakamoto, strangely, acted a bit more mature than usual. That was concerning.

"How can you feel so nonchalant with this situation? I thought you were the one eager to go against them."

"I'm not calm either, but yelling and being aggressive won't get us anywhere," Sakamoto's way of talking was something I couldn't believe. The same obnoxious teenager was the reasonable one in the conversation.

"Now you start to sound like Kurusu," I scoffed.

"Am I? Well, I suppose he'd help me a lot lately." Sakamoto chuckled. Almost proudly.

"With what he helped you, exactly?"

"He's been helpin' me with my former track team in the past few months. I couldn't say how much he taught me of not losin' my head fast."

"Okay, but what's the deal with the track team?"

"I caused so much trouble to them back then with Kamoshida," Sakamoto looked down, as his voice brought some regrets. "Even if that was asshole's fault, I did the choice of acting reckless and letting other people down for that."

"But all that already in the past, isn't it?" I asked.

"That's right. I said that to Akira. Even if I wished for things to be like back then, there was no point in thinkin' it over. All I can do is moving ahead."

"Way too optimistic, if you ask me," despite not sounding that impressed, I was in actuality. The punk had much more underneath that stupidity; Sakamoto had much to lament and much to thank. I had to admit, I should give him the credit of taking everything much better than myself. Too bad there was nothing for me on being calm in anything.

"Dammit, they are takin' so long for our orders!" Sakamoto shouted.

I took it back. The punk still had a long way to be more mature.

In the end, we ate out bowls while making small talk about unimportant stuff. When I asked Sakamoto's results for the finals, he tried to dodge the topic with blatant lies and excuses. I didn't bother to ask more, but he seriously needed someone to tutor him. I would be damned if he ever asked me to teach him personally. An hour later, we left the place and took different lines on the subway station. By this point, my mind kept going in circles with Sakamoto's conversation. The fact that Kurusu helped him with the people he disappointed and hurt, it was hardly believable that things ended better for the punk. Not everyone can get such luck of being forgiven. At least, not for me.

Sometime later, before starting with my shift, I looked at the chat group for any updates:

Ryuji: Yo, how'd it go?
Ryuji: You find out anything about Sakura Futaba?
Ann: I've been wondering about that too!
Akira: At the hideout, okay?
Ryuji: Whoa-ho!
Yusuke: So you did learn something. Fine work.
Ann: I knew we could count on you!
Katsuo: Good news for once.
Makoto: Akira-kun, thank you.
Makoto: Alright, then let's all meet up tomorrow.

The sound of progress. I should feel relieved after reading what Kurusu said in the chat. However, everyone jumped to conclusions since upon examining the message, the leader's reply was ambiguous than anything else. I wanted to ask again back in the conversation. However, I remembered that Alibaba might be reading our chat log as well. It was smart for Kurusu to leave the details out for now.

Same as the previous day. The most we could do was to wait.


Hope all of you are doing okay this season. Just wishing you Happy Holidays around the world and take care of you and your families at home.