Phantom Files Book 2: Rise Of The Monarchs

by sithlorde1988

The sequel to Persona 5-The Phantom Files. A few years after Ren returns home, the Phantom Thieves find themselves drawn back into the Metaverse once again out of nowhere after a mysterious app surfaces with the powers to access the Metaverse. Can the Phantom Thieves stop a mysterious new group of individuals called Monarchs? Better summary in chapter 1! BOTH STORY AND EDITS DONE!

12. Arc 2 Finale: Festivals and Seminars

A/N: sithlorde1988 here, with another chapter of Phantom Files, Book 2: Rise Of The Monarchs! Odds are better than fair that this should be the final chapter of Arc 2, despite last chapter being the fight with Shadow Natsume, along with some other surprises I threw in for good measure during said fight. So we'll see if that holds up or not. But in any case, let's get on with the disclaimer for now, yeah?

Disclaimer: I, sithlorde1988, do not own the Persona series in ANY way, shape, or form (excluding the OC Kusa/Draconis and any other OCs that might show up in the story, all of whom are created by and therefore belong to me unless I state otherwise), and the ownership credit for the Persona series belongs to Sega, Atlus, and to an extent Koei Tecmo (at least insofar as Persona 5 Strikers, and potentially all other spinoffs, like Tactica, Phantom X, the 'Q' games, the 'Dancing' games, and the 'Arena' games are concerned), so all credit to them!

Anyways, with that done, let's get on with the chapter! I'll try to have a longer A/N if I remember after the chapter, so keep reading for that after the chapter! And now, here's Chapter 12!

Chapter 12: Comparing Notes, Festivals, and Seminars? Final Days in Sendai! Phony Overlord part 5

(Shortly after the end of chapter 11, outside the hideout, with Ren and Morgana)

After a bit, Ren and Morgana exchanged a nod before they met up with the others, gathering them inside of the RV...

(Inside the RV, with Goro, Sojiro, Futaba, Morgana, Haru, Ann, Makoto, Sumire, Sophia, Ren, Ryuji, Yusuke, and Kusa)

"So, we're all together now, for the most part, then?" Yusuke said to break the awkward silence that hung over the group after most of the group realized that Goro was in fact not only alive, but standing in the room with them. Kusa nodded and spoke up.

"Correct, Yusuke. And just to get it dealt with now, YES, Goro is alive. But it's a rather long story on why none of you were let into the loop on that until now. And I don't know if we have quite that much time to kill while we wait on Zenkichi to make contact with us, so I hope you can forgive us if we hold off on it for the time being." Kusa said as Makoto blinked at the last part of Kusa's words and spoke up.

"I didn't realize you'd met Zenkichi before our run-in with him earlier, Kusa." Makoto said as Kusa spoke up.

"Yes, I've met him a couple of times prior to that, actually. Once when he came into Leblanc after I got back to Yongen-Jaya to catch up with Sojiro, and again more recently when I helped him deliver Natsume's calling card. Nice job on it, by the way, Yusuke. I only had to add a small postscript to it at the end to let Natsume know we were all here, but otherwise you did great." Kusa said as Yusuke smiled and spoke up.

"Thanks, Kusa. That's high praise coming from you." Yusuke said as Haru frowned and spoke up.

"That's all well and good, but that doesn't explain why Boss is with you guys. Doesn't he have a cafe to run?" Haru asked as Sojiro smirked and spoke up from the driver's seat.

"Nope. I closed up shop for the summer to help you guys out. After all, what good is a Persona-user if they don't pull their weight, am I right?" Sojiro said as Futaba spoke up with wide eyes.

"WHAT!? I still can't believe that you can actually use a Persona, Sojiro. Is this really for real?" Futaba asked in shock. Sojiro nodded and spoke up.

"Yep. But let me tell you, it wasn't a fun time getting it awakened. Both Kusa and I were pretty lucky that I awakened to Kohryu's power when I did, otherwise that deformed sphinx thing that was sent after us would've most likely eaten us both. Not sure why part of it resembled Wakaba, though." Sojiro said as Ren, Futaba, and Morgana all spoke up with wide eyes.

"WHAT!?" Ren, Morgana, and Futaba said as Futaba kept speaking.

"The distorted sphinx version of Mom that appeared in my Palace was in the Jail that you awakened to your Persona in!?" Futaba asked as Kusa nodded and spoke up.

"Yep. However, the bigger shock for me was just WHO the warden of the Yongen Jail ended up turning out to be." Kusa said as Ren spoke up.

"Oh? And who was it?" Ren asked as Kusa and Goro winced as the latter spoke up.

"Would you believe it was my darker side given sentience?" Goro said as Ryuji spoke up with wide eyes.

"Dude, seriously!? Are you trying to tell me that the warden of this Yongen Jail was the effin' Black Mask!?" Ryuji said in shock as Kusa nodded and spoke up.

"Afraid so, Ryuji. And that man is warped as hell. If not for a conveniently placed pile of pillows, he'd have killed both Sojiro and I from how high up we were when we crashed into those pillows. Still can't believe I fell for the old hidden springboard floor panel trick." Kusa said with a frown. Ann spoke up at that point while giving Kusa a sympathetic smile.

"That trick is so cheap, though. But still, I'm surprised Boss has a Persona now, much less that we're all together." Ann said as Kusa nodded and spoke up.

"Yep, we're all together, all right. Actually, before we discuss much else, I think Goro had something he wanted to say, didn't you Goro?" Kusa asked as Goro nodded, speaking up when all eyes other than Mona's and Futaba's were on him.

"I did. First and foremost, I wanted to take this chance to apologize to both Sakura-san the younger and Okumura-san for what I did to them before. I don't expect either of you two to forgive me for taking your loved ones from you the way I did, as frankly what I did was unforgivable. But I still feel that I at least owe it to you to try and apologize and do what I can to somewhat make amends for my past actions if I can. Same for Amamiya-kun the elder over there. I shouldn't have tried to kill him before, much less betray you all the way I did during Sae-san's Palace.

I am so, so sorry for everything I've done to you all. However, I do not at all expect you to forgive me, since as I said already, what I did to you all is unforgivable. I feel the best I can hope for is that you all agree to put our past aside and work together going forward so we can defeat the Monarchs. And that's if you even feel like doing that for me." Goro said contritely as Futaba and Haru winced at Goro's sincere apology before the latter spoke up.

"Umm, to be honest, we weren't expecting you to apologize at all, Akechi-kun. So hopefully, you'll forgive us if we have to take our time and think about how to respond to that." Haru said as Goro nodded and spoke up.

"That's fine. Also, please don't refer to me as Akechi-kun, Okumura-san. I know for a fact that Kusa introduced me earlier as Goro Amamiya. I'm trying to leave my old identity behind in the hopes of getting a fresh start to be able to atone for my sins." Goro said as everyone except for Goro, Kusa, and Sojiro blinked at this, many of the group looking impressed at Goro's determination to turn over a new leaf. Sumire spoke up with a smile.

"You know, that's fair, Goro. And really, if the others can forgive me for lying to them as well as Ren about being my sister for as long as I did, surely they can at least move on from what you did and give you a chance to make amends as best you can. I think that's reasonable enough, even if you did try to kill Ren. But I accept your apologies for that. I'll take Ren's lead on if he forgives you for that or not, though, since it was really him, Futaba, and Haru you wronged the most of us all.

Well, I should say it's those three and to a point Kusa that you wronged, since you did wrong by Kusa-kun as well when you had Loki throw him into that room behind you to try and kill him in Shido's Palace. But the rest of us only have room to be mad at you for trying to set a trap for us, and I don't get to be mad at that since I didn't join up officially until after that trap was set, even if I was there to help spring it somewhat." Sumire said sagely as Ren saw the worried look on Goro's face and spoke up to reassure him.

"I know you think we're still upset with you over what you did, Goro. And to be honest? Some of us might still be a bit upset. But as for me? I forgive you. I could tell you really didn't want to do what you did, but you were doing what you had to do. Besides, I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't forgive you for trying to end me when I forgave Kusa for trying to fight me and basically trying to incapacitate Ryuji before storming off a few years ago. So don't be so anxious, Goro." Ren said kindly to Goro, who weakly smiled at Ren before he nodded and spoke up.

"That's fair. And to be honest, forgiveness is probably more than I deserve after what I've done. I guess you could say that what Shido did to me might have left me a bit damaged mentally, but I do try my best to not let that rule me." Goro said sagely as Futaba spoke up.

"Well, if Kusa can forgive you for what you've done, and given what he's done for you so far, I'd say it's a safe bet that he's forgiven you, I suppose I can try to do the same. Am I thrilled with the idea of making nice with the guy who killed my mom? Not really, but I'll do what I have to for the sake of the team. Besides, you haven't really been that bad to me in the time I've known you personally, other than the time you jokingly threatened to throw me out of a window when I was teasing you and Haru in the Mona-bus during a Mementos run we did near the end of Ren's stay in Yongen." Futaba said as Kusa spoke up.

"As I recall, Ren proceeded to light into him pretty firmly for that afterwards, so I'd say Goro got plenty reamed for it. But it's still bold of you to bring that up around Sojiro, Taba." Kusa said as Sojiro spoke up.

"Believe it or not, I'm not mad at Goro for that. Yes, I'd prefer it if Goro didn't throw my daughter out of a window, but I can understand that she can be a bit of a handful at times, so I can't fault Goro for getting annoyed with her. And all he did was grumble at her a little bit, so I can't be that mad at him for it." Sojiro said as Haru spoke up.

"True. Well, if Futaba-chan and Kusa-kun can forgive you, I can at least put what you did aside in order to work with you. But I'll have to think more on if I can forgive you for what you did to my father. Not to mention how much it hurt when I realized how sadistic and evil you can be. I doubt you could imagine that, since I feel like you'd never have had a crush on anyone, let alone on anyone who turned out to be a murderer with a massive ego. But maybe I'm wrong?" Haru said as Goro smiled and spoke up.

"That's entirely fair, Sakura-san the younger and Okumura-san. All I ask is that we can at least somewhat peacefully co-exist for the sake of the Phantom Thieves. If I'm lucky enough that you two decide to forgive me and let me have another chance to be a proper part of the team? Well, then that's just the metaphoric icing on the proverbial cake." Goro said as Kusa spoke up.

"So, we've agreed that for now, we'll all work together to stop these Monarchs? We can revisit the topic of if Sumire, Haru, and Futaba forgive Goro for what he did to them later. I feel like we should try to have this sorted out before Zenkichi gets back, since I doubt Goro wants him to know about any of this, what with the whole Zenkichi being a PubSec agent bit and all." Kusa said as Goro nodded his agreement, as did the others shortly afterwards. After that, the group settled in to wait for Zenkichi to arrive...

(A short while later, in the RV, with Futaba, Morgana, Yusuke, Haru, Makoto, Ann, Sumire, Sophia, Ren, Ryuji, Zenkichi, Kusa, Goro, and Sojiro)

"Yep, and that just about sums up Natsume's confession." Zenkichi said after he finished explaining what he learned from Natsume to the gathered group, blinking slightly at the presence of Sojiro, who he hadn't expected to be there, and Goro, who he hadn't seen prior to that point. Zenkichi then blinked on seeing Goro with the group and kept speaking.

"Um, am I losing it, or is Goro Akechi really standing in the room with you guys right now?" Zenkichi asked warily, making Goro and Kusa exchange winces as the former spoke up.

"No, you're not losing it, Hasegawa-san. But at the same time, I'd prefer you not address me as 'Akechi', since I have more than a few people who might still have hits out on me, and you never know when people could be hunting me." Goro said as Zenkichi spoke up with a nod.

"Fair enough. My apologies, Goro. I didn't mean to offend. I was just shocked, that's all." Zenkichi said as Morgana spoke up with a slight frown, seeing the awkward tension between Goro and Zenkichi and deciding to change the subject.

"Ah, I see. So, once people friended Natsume through EMMA, they became his fans." Morgana said as Goro scoffed and spoke up.

"Tch, sounds like another case of the sheeples to me." Goro said as Kusa frowned and spoke up.

"Perhaps, but I think this might be a bit more serious than that." Kusa said sagely as Ann spoke up.

"I agree. And it's just like what Alice said." Ann said as Futaba nodded and spoke up from up in the bunk area she'd claimed, where she was stretched out kicking her legs back and forth as she typed on her computer, careful not to step on Morgana's tail, who was sitting up on top of the ladder next to her, right above the head of Yusuke, who'd leaned on the ladder for a lack of other places to sit/stand.

As for the booth seats, one side had Makoto, Haru, and Ann crammed in together, and the other had Sumire, Ryuji, and Ren crammed in together with Sophia watching from Sumire's phone, which was placed on a conveniently located stand on the table next to Ren. As for Kusa, he'd taken to leaning on the ledge behind Ren, allowing him to get a good view of Futaba, who was shyly smiling, presumably out of happiness to have Kusa back with the group. And that left Goro and Sojiro to sit together on the bottom bunk next to Kusa, who smiled at Futaba as he listened to her speak.

"And Natsume's smartphone worked the same as Alice's, too. There wasn't anything off about the EMMA app or the phone itself." Futaba said as Ryuji scoffed and spoke up.

"So we got nothin' again? For real!?" Ryuji said as Kusa smirked and spoke up.

"I don't think that's even remotely close to what either Futaba or Zenkichi were getting at, Ryuji. But I could be wrong." Kusa said sagely. Futaba smirked at Kusa gently rebuking Ryuji, smiling at him as she spoke up.

"Nah, you're pretty much right on the money, Kusa. Also, I never said that, Ryuji. Just like before, there were traces of someone snooping around in there." Futaba said as Ryuji's eyes widened in surprise as he spoke up.

"For real!?" Ryuji said as Kusa leaned in to speak to Goro so only Goro and Sojiro could hear.

"Hmm, maybe you were right to suggest we turn Ryuji's catchphrase into a drinking game, Goro. He certainly says it enough for it to be the basis for one." Kusa said with a smirk as Goro nodded, but Sojiro spoke up before Goro could reply, keeping his voice down so only Goro and Kusa, along with Ren, who had heard Sojiro's voice and was eavesdropping on the trio, could hear.

"I highly doubt that the two of you could handle a drinking game, honestly." Sojiro said with a barely-concealed chuckle as Ren spoke up, giving the trio behind him an unreadable look as he spoke.

"I'm not even gonna ask why you three are talking about drinking games back there. But we'll worry about that later. Back on topic, I believe this is the same as what went down with Alice, for the most part." Ren said sagely. Ann blinked at this and spoke up in surprise.

"Ah, you're talking about how Alice's smartphone was being monitored by someone, right?" Ann asked as Kusa spoke up.

"Maybe it's this EMMA app you all installed? I've always maintained that if another big threat was going to pop up, it'd be a virtual threat. And with apologies to Sophia, since she seems to be quite nice from what Ren and Sumire have told me about her so far, a lot of horror movies have scenarios with AI uprisings often causing big problems. So you can see why I'd be leery of the chance of an AI uprising." Kusa suggested as Yusuke spoke up.

"Perhaps, but I doubt it. But we'll keep an open mind to that possibility. Anyways, moving on. So the same thing occurred with Natsume's phone as well?" Yusuke asked as Goro spoke up.

"So it would seem. But if you asked me, not that you are, but I'm putting this out there anyways. If both of their phones have been monitored, then would it not be plausible that there's a boss that the Monarchs report to, or are getting orders from? And in turn, it's this boss that's monitoring their smartphones?" Goro suggested as Zenkichi spoke up.

"Interesting insight. I think you might be on to something, Goro. Well, Sakura-san the younger? Any idea who it is?" Zenkichi asked Futaba, who frowned as she spoke up.

"Umm, afraid not. Sorry, I got nothin'. All I found were traces." Futaba said as Morgana spoke up.

"I see. So Alice and Natsume were being watched by someone else. Hey, Zenkichi, did the police know about that?" Morgana asked as Zenkichi sighed and spoke up.

"Ugh, I hate how perceptive you are at times, Morgana. No. The only reason we know this guy exists is because Sakura the younger there sifted through Alice's smartphone." Zenkichi said with a wince as Sumire giggled before speaking up from next to Ryuji, who'd ended up squeezing in between Sumire and Ren, much to the slight annoyance of the latter.

"That's Morgana-senpai for you, Zenkichi-san. He can be too perceptive for his own good, and can even be an annoyance sometimes, but he means well and is a good guy deep down, despite being stuck looking like a cat. Hee hee!" Sumire said as Futaba smirked and spoke up while giving Morgana some gentle head pats.

"Yeah, true. Morgana can be a pain sometimes, but if you can get past that, he's really a good kitty." Futaba said fondly as she gently sat Morgana on her lap so she could run one hand slowly down Morgana's back, giving him a lengthy petting, smirking at the largely involuntary sounding purrs the cat in mention gave off as Morgana nodded and spoke up.

"Ignoring Futaba calling me a kitty, since this isn't the time to scold her for that, I'm going to take what she and Sumire said about me as a compliment. Getting back on topic for now, however. That said, I see. So aside from the fact that they both used EMMA, this mystery observer is the only thing linking Alice and Natsume together." Morgana mused as Kusa spoke up at that point with an unreadable look on his face.

"I wouldn't say that, Morgana. Correct me on this if I'm wrong at all since I wasn't there at all when you guys took Alice out, but wasn't she also an influential figure like Natsume somewhat was? Could it then be plausible that whoever's observing these Monarchs is looking for famous and/or influential people they can manipulate into becoming Monarchs for whatever unknown purpose they might have?" Kusa suggested. Morgana blinked at this and spoke up with a slow nod.

"That's a good point, Kusa. And Alice was very much a famous performer and idol, as well as a fashion icon. So your theory about Monarchs being made out of famous people has some slight merit to it. That being said, if the police didn't know that, why would they assume these two cases were related, Zenkichi?" Morgana asked as Zenkichi spoke up with a frown.

"Good question. Well, these are some very peculiar cases we're dealing with. But mainly, it boils down to the nature of the crimes and the timing." Zenkichi said as Haru spoke up.

"The timing, you say?" Haru asked as Zenkichi nodded and spoke up with a wry smile.

"Yep. All of the Change of Heart incidents occurred at roughly the same time, that being within the last three months. Didn't I tell you?" Zenkichi asked as Futaba spoke up.

"No, I don't think you did. But more importantly, three months ago is also around when EMMA was released. Rather interesting that both people so far who've been confirmed as Monarchs have used EMMA for their evil deeds. Seems like it gives Kusa's theory about EMMA being evil that much more credibility." Futaba said as Zenkichi spoke up with an approving nod, pleased with Kusa's logic as he spoke.

"I could see that making sense. And well, EMMA is being used to perpetrate the crimes, so that makes sense." Zenkichi said as Ren spoke up.

"I dunno about you guys, but am I the only one who wonders if the group that made EMMA could have anything to do with the Change of Heart incidents? They seem shady and mysterious enough for it, if nothing else." Ren mused. Ryuji nodded and spoke up.

"Truth, RenRen! Damn right it does. That company puttin' that thing out is suspicious as all hell. What're they called again? 'Madames'?" Ryuji asked as Kusa laughed and spoke up.

"I could be wrong on this Ryuji, but I'm pretty sure that 'Madames' is a french term for women, so I doubt that's what they're called. I think I recall Goro here once said that the company's name was Madicce." Kusa said as Futaba nodded approvingly and spoke up.

"That's correct, Kusa." Futaba said to Kusa before turning to Ryuji and frowning as she kept speaking.

"At least Kusa gets it. Just so you know, it's 'Madicce', Ryuji! Well, at least you got the 'mad' part right. And somehow, I'm not surprised that Goro there is aware of Madicce's existence." Futaba said as Zenkichi smiled and spoke up.

"Well, at least Goro seems to be rather shrewd and perceptive, as is Amamiya the younger. And for what it's worth, I'm investigating leads on that front as well. Still, we're talking about a major corporation operating on a global scale. You can't just walk in and start poking around without reason." Zenkichi said as Haru spoke up.

"So, you haven't found anything suspicious yet?" Haru asked as Zenkichi sighed before shaking his head as he spoke up.

"Not yet, no. At least, nothing's really come up from checking the individuals involved. If our mystery observer was connected to Madicce, though, then we'd have grounds to conduct an investigation. Hmm, I wonder. Going off of what Amamiya the younger said earlier, do you think there's someone pulling the strings in this case?" Zenkichi asked as Morgana spoke up.

"To be honest? We don't know for sure yet. The incidents are similar, but they could just as easily be unrelated." Morgana said as Zenkichi nodded and spoke up.

"I see. Well, then I guess we'll have to see if the other incidents have any overlap as well. That's one of the basic rules of investigation: find out what the incidents do and don't have in common, then start narrowing things down. So for now, looking into the other incidents is our best bet at scoring a lead." Zenkichi said as Yusuke nodded and spoke up.

"Ah, yes. This is true. We'll have to do what we can for the time being." Yusuke said as Makoto spoke up.

"Good point. And if we look into the other Jails and their Monarchs, we might learn something new." Makoto said as Zenkichi nodded and spoke up.

"Agreed. Then, if we're all done here, I'm heading to Sapporo to see what I can find on our next target. We'll rendezvous on the 8th. I'll contact you the day of." Zenkichi said as Makoto spoke up.

"Three days, eh? Should be an easy trip with a car." Makoto said as Kusa spoke up with a smirk.

"I think you mean with an RV and a car, Makoto. Or am I wrong that this is moreso an RV than a car? Also, let us not forget that Sojiro, Goro, and I drove here in Sojiro's old car, which is now my car. So between you, myself, Sojiro, and Goro, we have four licensed drivers in our group, or rather five, assuming that we count Haru despite her lack of experience behind the wheel." Kusa said as Goro and Sojiro nodded their agreement, as did Haru after wincing at the mention of her lack of driving experience. Zenkichi then spoke up.

"Hey, easy does it. No need to rush. The target's not even in Japan until then. Oh, that's right. Wasn't there a festival happening around here soon? Sendai's famous for its Tanabata festivals. Lots of good food lined up, too, or so I hear." Zenkichi said as Yusuke smiled and nodded before speaking up.

"Yes, that's true. I did see decorations being put up here and there, now that I think about it." Yusuke said as Zenkichi spoke up.

"Anyways, I'll see you in three days. Don't forget." Zenkichi said as he got up and left. After he left, Morgana and Futaba climbed down from the bunk they'd been sharing, the former hopping onto the table to sit next to Ryuji and Ann, the former of whom had moved over to sit on Ren's right while Yusuke took the open spot to Ren's left as Futaba took the seat that Zenkichi had vacated, with Sumire sitting on the ledge next to her.

Because of this, it meant that both Futaba and Sumire found themselves sitting across from Kusa, who was still leaning on the wall behind Yusuke, while Goro and Sojiro remained in the bottom bunk of the bunk bed behind Kusa as Makoto spoke up.

"Well, I guess he wants us to rest up while we can." Makoto said as Ryuji grinned and spoke up.

"Good point, babe. And, y'know, to be honest? I thought Gramps was kind of a dick at first, but it turns out he's actually a pretty considerate guy, huh?" Ryuji asked as Kusa frowned and spoke up.

"You seriously refer to Inspector Hasegawa as 'Gramps', Ryuji? Isn't that kind of rude? Or am I just mistaken to think that?" Kusa asked as Goro spoke up with a nod.

"No, you're entirely correct, Kusa. Ryuji calling Hasegawa-san 'Gramps' is both very unprofessional and extremely rude. But then again, I get the sense most of the others, aside from maybe Ren, Morgana, and Sumire, and possibly Sophia, also do that. And so as such, we can't really be too mad at Ryuji unless we are also mad at everyone else, and that seems rather unproductive." Goro said sagely. Ren blinked at this and spoke up.

"Huh. I'm not sure if I should be shocked at how casual and accepting you're being of that, or worried that you're waiting to tear into us all, Goro. Either way, it's nice to see you again. And before we proceed any further on the subject of festivals, seeing Goro, Sojiro, and Kusa here reminds me that we have a potential new addition to the Phantom Thieves' ranks in Boss. Or were we all imagining Boss using a Persona when we fought Natsume's Shadow before?" Ren asked as Kusa spoke up, his arms crossed as he looked at Ren while he spoke.

"No, that was very much real, Ren. To make a long story short, since there's probably not time right now to get into the full explanation that Goro and I owe Ren, Goro and I wound up in a Jail in the outskirts of Yongen-Jaya not that long ago, where we found ourselves surrounded by a familiar face from Goro's past, who then proceeded to rather forcefully eject me from the Jail. And after I got launched out of the open rooftop of the Jail, the Monarch dragged Sojiro into the mix through an underground portal which had apparently been opened up under his feet from what he told Goro and I later on. Thankfully, the Jail had a conveniently-placed pile of pillows for both myself and Sojiro to land on, so we didn't have painful falls.

Anyways, after a bit, Sojiro and I headed back into the Jail, only for a certain OTHER familiar face from a previous Palace to show up and basically berate Sojiro for what they viewed as his failure to do right by Taba. Needless to say, Sojiro didn't take such things lying down, and ended up awakening to a Persona in a rather epic way, and then he and I worked together to take out the Wakaba-Sphinx once again before we saved Goro there from the Monarch and fought them off, eventually leaving the Jail afterwards. The point is, Sojiro most definitely has a Persona." Kusa said as Futaba gasped and spoke up.

"Are you saying that the distorted version of my mom was brought back by this mystery Jail's Monarch?" Futaba asked as Kusa nodded and spoke up.

"Yep. And we defeated her again, allowing your mom's spirit to go back to her well-earned rest once more." Kusa said as Ren spoke up.

"I see. Well, that's good enough for me. Unless someone has a legitimate reason for why he shouldn't be inducted into our ranks, I feel that Boss has more than earned a place in the ranks of the Phantom Thieves at this point." Ren said as Sojiro spoke up.

"If you think about it, haven't I already been as good as one of you since you and Kusa told me who you all were back when I cornered you two and Futaba about a calling card I found in Futaba's room, on the night that Futaba and Kusa got together, along with Ren and Sumire, as well as Ryuji and Makoto?" Sojiro pointed out as Sumire nodded and spoke up.

"That's true, Boss. You've been an ally of ours for years now. So it seems only right you get to graduate from our ally to being a full-fledged Phantom Thief in your own right now, after over three years of having our back." Sumire said sagely as Goro spoke up.

"Good point. But I'm guessing we'll have to re-assess his code name then, unless we decide that we're going to stick to using 'Coffee Daddy' as his code name?" Goro said as Kusa spoke up.

"No, that was just a temporary placeholder, much like how we used 'Sumi' as a temporary placeholder code name until Sumire accepted her code name of Violet. So I believe he needs a more permanent code name." Kusa said as Goro nodded and spoke up.

"I concur. And after thinking about it, as well as considering how similar Boss' outfit looks to something out of a medieval story, I think a potential option for his code name could be Pendragon, after the last name of King Arthur himself. Plus, doesn't Boss just somewhat give off a regal aura at times?" Goro said as Sojiro frowned and spoke up.

"You're not wrong on either count, Goro. But I believe I already told both you and Kusa that you'd have to get used to calling me by my first name if I'm joining up, since it might look weird for Ren to be calling someone else 'Boss' when he's the rightful leader of the Phantom Thieves. And really, that applies to all of you guys too. If I'm going to be one of you, it seems only right for all of you to be allowed to refer to me as Sojiro, rather than Boss." Sojiro said as the others all blinked and eventually nodded their agreement, even Sophia who was listening in from inside of Sumire's phone. After a bit, Ren spoke up.

"Yes, well, as much as I'm flattered by Sojiro agreeing that I should remain in charge, let's keep on topic. All in favor of Pendragon as Sojiro's code name, raise your hand." Ren said as virtually everyone's hand went up at that point, even Sophia's hand from inside of Sumire's phone. Ren nodded and spoke up.

"Well, seems like it's unanimous. Provided Sojiro doesn't object to it, his code name going forward will be Pendragon. So at this point, let me be the first to formally welcome you to the ranks of the Phantom Thieves, Sojiro. Welcome to the crew, Pendragon!" Ren said as Sojiro smiled and spoke up while shaking Ren's hand.

"Thanks, Joker. Glad to be a part of the team on a more equal basis." Sojiro said as Ann spoke up.

"Awesome! We got basically three more teammates, assuming Kusa and Goro are joining back up full-time." Ann said as Kusa chuckled at Ann's question before he spoke up.

"That IS why we came out all this way to link up with you guys, is it not? So of course we're joining back up full time, sis. But I'll let Goro answer that for himself, since I wouldn't dare speak for him without his permission." Kusa said as Goro smirked and spoke up.

"That's just like you, Kusa. And to be honest, it's that same sense of courtesy you show me that is the reason why you're the only one aside from Sojiro that I'm allowing to call me by my first name for now. Though I suppose I might have to let the others have that same courtesy, if only so people don't look at us weird if they hear everyone calling me Amamiya when we're out in public. Anyways, yes, I plan to remain on this team for the long term, if you guys'll still have me." Goro said as Ann spoke up once more with a closed-eye smile while pumping a fist.

"Awesome, the Phantom Thieves are all together again! Well, since we're all here, should we put on yukatas and go to the festival?" Ann asked as Makoto laughed and spoke up with a closed-eye smile.

"Yukata, eh? Good idea. But to be honest, when I hear the word yukata, I can't help but think of our disastrous fireworks festival that most of us went to four years ago, when we got rained on." Makoto said happily as Sophia blinked at the mention of a fireworks festival. But before she could speak up, Ann spoke up again with a closed-eye smile on her face.

"Right? That's why we're gonna do it right this time! Besides, as I recall, we didn't have Haru, Sumire, Sophia, Goro, Sojiro, Kusa, or Futaba with us back then!" Ann said as Haru smiled and spoke up.

"Count me in! Going to a festival in a yukata sounds wonderful!" Haru said as Kusa winced and spoke up.

"It does, except for the small problem that would be Ren and I leaving our yukatas at home again. And I highly doubt that Ren actually remembered to pack it this time when he came back out to Yongen-Jaya. As for mine, I think Mom sent it back with me when I went back home briefly for a visit about two years ago, but I think I left it at Leblanc like a fool. And I'm pretty sure both Goro and Sojiro, along with probably Ryuji, don't even own yukata.

Also, I still maintain my previous opinion that I was the smart one to give that festival a miss to instead watch it on TV with Futaba over there on the hide-a-bed. Much more comfy, and way less rainy. Plus, I got to see for myself how much of a cuddlebug Taba can be. And truth be told, I'm definitely here for it." Kusa said with a grin as Sojiro spoke up.

"No matter, I can probably buy myself and Goro yukata if needed. As for Ren and Ryuji, they'll have to get their own. And I actually stuck your yukata in the trunk of the car when we left, since I had a hunch that it'd be needed at some point on this trip. You're welcome, Kusa." Sojiro said as Kusa spoke up.

"Fair enough. Actually, if you can pay for yukatas for you and Goro, I can probably pay for Ren and Ryuji's yukatas. And I'm assuming that Sumire owns a yukata already?" Kusa said as Sumire smiled and spoke up.

"That's correct, Kusa. I do in fact already own a yukata, as it happens. Ren's seen me in it before. Fortunately, it was among the clothes I packed before heading back to Leblanc for the summer." Sumire said with a smile as Ren pumped a fist at realizing Sumire brought the yukata he'd seen her in on New Year's Day, about three years ago. Ren then smiled at Sumire as he spoke up.

"Sounds great. Assuming Kusa remembers to buy me and Ryuji yukatas, I'll wear one too." Ren said eagerly. Sumire smiled at the idea of seeing Ren in a yukata as Futaba spoke up, also similarly excited to see her boyfriend in a yukata.

"Then we got a plan. Sophia, find us a shop that sells yukata!" Futaba said as a 'BIP!' from Sumire's phone preceded Sophia speaking up for the first time in a while.

"Got it! I've got four hits. Allow me to direct you." Sophia said as the others nodded and got excited while making plans for the festival. During that process, it was decided that Goro, Sojiro, and Kusa would sleep up in the rooftop tent with Ryuji, Ren, Morgana, and Yusuke, much to both Kusa and Goro's chagrin, as the former had heard from Ren about how Yusuke tends to snore, and had heard more than once from Makoto about how Ryuji tends to snore during the occasional meet-ups the group would do before Kusa had went to go and retrieve Goro from his hideaway.

As it happened, Goro and Sojiro got the sleeping bags on either side of Ren, while Kusa found himself in the bag between Ryuji and Yusuke. Somehow, the group managed to settle into an uneasy slumber for the evening...

(The following evening, at the Tanabata festival in Sendai, with Kusa, Ren, Morgana, Ryuji, Sojiro, and Goro)

"Dude, check out all the booths!" Ryuji said as he looked around the festival while enjoying the feel of the black and white yukata that Kusa had picked out for him, while looking Ren over in his grey and black striped yukata that Kusa also had picked out, while Morgana looked around inside of Ren's bag. As for Yusuke, he'd foregone the dark blue yukata he'd worn during the fireworks festival for a more cream colored elegant kimono with a dark blue obi around the waist.

In the case of Kusa, he'd put on his own dark green silky yukata with gold dragons lining it, as well as a silver obi tied around his waist, along with his dark green sandals he'd put on to match Yusuke's dark blue, Goro's black, Ryuji's white, and Ren's dark grey sandals. Morgana, being a cat, didn't have any sort of yukata or sandals on. Yusuke nodded and spoke up with a closed-eye smile on his face.

"As one might expect from Sendai's Tanabata festival. It's quite lively here." Yusuke said as a 'BIP' from Sumire's phone, which she'd left with Ren so Sophia could wait with the guys, indicated Sophia speaking up, showing that she still wore her same outfit and had no trace of a yukata on her whatsoever, much less sandals.

"Apparently, the locals call it 'Tanabata-san.' And it's said to have originated from back in Date Masamune's time." Sophia said as Kusa blinked and spoke up.

"I'm sorry, did you just say 'Tanabata-san'!? Isn't '-san' a term that's usually applied only to people, and not to things? Or am I wrong to say that? Also, I'm impressed with how smart you are, Sophia. For an AI, you're not so bad." Kusa said with a wry smirk, not expecting the fun fact that Sophia had given. Sophia smiled and spoke up.

"Thank you, Kusa. I'll take that as praise, so as a result, I appreciate your praise!" Sophia said as Ryuji smirked and spoke up.

"Masamune, huh? Hey, that's the dude from the statue, huh?" Ryuji said as Yusuke frowned and spoke up.

"Excuse you? Ryuji, he is not a 'dude'. He is Lord Date Masamune, the One-Eyed Dragon of Oshu." Yusuke said as Kusa smirked and spoke up.

"Heh, impressive. What's next, Lord Masamune has a retainer named Kitagawa, the One-Eyed Samurai of Yongen?" Kusa joked as Ryuji hung his head and spoke up.

"Geez, Yusuke. What are you, his retainer or somethin'? Also, right Kusa? I could see that!" Ryuji said with a grin after hearing Kusa's joke as Goro sighed and spoke up.

"Are you really that hopelessly naive, Ryuji? Kusa was clearly kidding. But then again, I don't think Yusuke's ever traced his family tree back that far. So for all we know, there actually could be a Kitagawa that was alive when Masamune was who served as his retainer." Goro said as Sojiro spoke up.

"But there's no way to know for sure without looking back through Yusuke's ancestry, and I doubt we have time for that right now." Sojiro said. At that point, Morgana did a closed-eye smile and spoke up from Ren's bag.

"There are so many booths. It's hard to pick what to see first. What do you think, Ren?" Morgana asked as Ren spoke up with a smirk.

"As tempting as both yakisoba and a shooting gallery sound, I think it's obvious that we have to check the masks out first. After all, Ryuji's got a Featherman mask on his head right now." Ren said, pointing towards the orange mask with a yellowish-orange beak on top and a black visor with a grey facemask under the black visor on the side of Ryuji's head while waving the fan in his free hand in a fanning motion as Yusuke nodded and spoke up.

"Ah, yes. Perhaps it's our experience with them in the Metaverse, but they always manage to catch my eye." Yusuke said as Ryuji grinned and spoke up.

"You're tellin' me. I already bought one. Reminds me of when I was a kid." Ryuji said. Kusa grinned at that and spoke up.

"Well, well, would you look at that? Given the mask on his head, I'd say that Goro more than likely thought the exact same thing." Kusa said with a smirk as he pointed towards the dark grey raven mask on the side of Goro's head, which was ironically also a Featherman mask. Goro frowned and spoke up in a rather dry tone of voice while crossing his arms over his chest in a rather irritated manner, drawing attention to the dark blue yukata he was wearing that had a black obi with a dark-red sash tying the yukata together, along with black sandals.

"Can it, Kusa. You have no room to talk, considering the fact that I saw you looking at one of those black and white yin-yang type masks, along with dragon masks." Goro jabbed at Kusa, who shrugged as he spoke up.

"Eh, you're not wrong. I thought it'd be neat to wear a mask in the real world for a time." Kusa said with a shrug. Ryuji spoke up with a grin, pleased with Kusa seemingly agreeing with him.

"Truth! Kusa gets it! Speaking of which, ain't those guys here yet?" Ryuji asked as Ren spoke up.

"And by 'those guys', I assume you mean the girls?" Ren said sagely. Morgana gave Ryuji a closed-eye smile and spoke up.

"It takes time for a lady to get ready. They're not unrefined apes like you and maybe Ren." Morgana teased as Kusa frowned and spoke up.

"Morgana, be nice! I don't see Ryuji trying to have a go at you, so you don't get to take cheap shots at him, and damn sure not at Ren! Otherwise, I agree that it takes a lady plenty of time to get ready. After all, more often than not, a lady has to make herself presentable so she can truly shine like the precious and breathtaking Treasure she no doubt is." Kusa said sagely, making Ren smirk as he knew who Kusa meant with his remark, before frowning as Ryuji spoke up with a glare at Morgana.

"Who you callin' an ape? You're the unrefined one, ya furball!" Ryuji said as Morgana hissed at Ryuji and spoke up.

"Oh, yeah? Well, this furball's got claws, ya bonehead!" Morgana said as Kusa spoke up.

"I'm going to step in right now before one, or even both of you, does something you'll regret later. Besides, I doubt very much that Sojiro and Goro want their first Tanabata festival with us to be marred by you two juveniles being at each other's throats. So try and get along for now if you can, yeah?

And the both of you should be very glad that I'm the one breaking you up instead of Makoto. I remember the last time she had to break you two up, because it wasn't at all a pretty picture, especially considering what she did to you two afterwards." Kusa said sagely, making Goro have to stifle a laugh at the very low-key burn Kusa had slipped into his rebuke of Morgana and Ryuji. Morgana and Ryuji, for their parts, huffed but sighed as they turned away from each other with a huff as Goro gave Kusa a grateful smile as he spoke up.

"Thank you. If you hadn't stepped in right then, I was probably about to have to get really irritated with Ryuji and Morgana." Goro said as Kusa spoke up with a nod.

"No problem, Goro. That's what family is for, to step in for one another when needed." Kusa said wisely. Goro nodded understandingly as Ann's voice was heard as the girls walked over.

"Sorry for the wait!" Ann said as the guys turned to see Ann, Futaba, Haru, Makoto, and Sumire wearing yukatas. To Ren's shock, each of the girls had foregone their usual yukatas and instead picked out new yukatas to wear.

Ann was wearing a dark pink and white yukata with a brown and green obi ted around her waist, while Futaba had a mostly green, yellow, and white yukata with a red and black obi tied around her waist.

Meanwhile, Haru had a cream-colored yukata with pink and purple floral patterns on it and a teal obi tied around her waist with a yellow sash, Makoto had a dark blue yukata with white flowers on it, and a red, yellow and light blue obi tied around heir waist, and Sumire had a very eye-catching black yukata with red hearts along it that was tied together with a pink obi and a red sash, bringing out her red hair and red eyes very prominently, to Ren's approval.

For his part, Morgana's eyes widened as he saw Ann in her yukata as he spoke up.

"Oh, Lady Ann! You look absolutely gorgeous! But to be fair, you all look great in those yukata! I bet even Lady Sophia, were she able to do so, would look very radiant in a yukata." Morgana said, seemingly remembering that Sophia was there mid-way through his praising of Ann's yukata and adding her in to pacify her. Before Sophia could speak up to reply to Morgana's praise/compliment, Ann beat her to it with a closed-eye smile.

"Hee hee! Thanks, Morgana." Ann said as Kusa frowned at Morgana before speaking up, both unsurprised and slightly annoyed at the ever-present simp tendencies that Morgana seemed to have.

"Still simping for Ann, eh Morgana? I guess some things never change. Though I will say that the 'Lady Sophia' bit you put in at the end is definitely a new one for me." Kusa said sagely as Ren smirked and spoke up.

"It is new. Sumire and I are pretty sure that Sophia has something of an itty bitty infatuation with Morgana. We're not sure if it's just puppy love, so to speak, or if she's well and truly taken with him, though. Speaking of which, you look incredible, Sumire. Very sexy." Ren said, aiming the back part of his response at his smiling girlfriend, who blushed prettily before she spoke up with a shy smile.

"Aww, you're just trying to flatter me, Ren. But thank you. It's nice to see my Senpai noticing me, though. Hee hee!" Sumire said with a giggle as Kusa laughed and spoke up.

"And there's the usage of 'Senpai' I expected to hear from you, Sumire. Nice to see that's also still the same. But Ren's not wrong that all of you ladies can rock the heck out of those yukatas. Especially you, Taba. I thought I was the one who looked sexy in green, but I'm not ashamed to say that you've more than got me beat there. Damn, you can make a yukata look unbelievably sexy, Taba. Just putting that out there." Kusa said slyly as Futaba blushed prettily after the last couple of sentences Kusa had said and spoke up.

"Oh, come on. You're just saying that, Kusa. But thank you. I'm glad you noticed." Futaba said happily, a rare genuine smile on her face, much to Sojiro's amusement and pride. Haru then spoke up.

"Sorry for the delay. Tying the obi took quite some time." Haru said as Ren smiled and spoke up.

"For the sake of not getting slapped, I'd say it was definitely worth the wait, if only because we got to see the rare sight that is the twin pair of gobsmacked looks on Kusa and Goro's faces, to say nothing of how badly Makoto seems to have broken Ryuji." Ren said teasingly, subtly elbowing the gobsmacked Ryuji in the stomach lightly to get him to stop gaping at the girls with his jaw dropped while waving his hand fan around as Makoto gave a closed-eye smile and spoke up.

"Thanks. It means a lot, hearing that from you. And I can forgive Ryuji for his reaction here, since I know he's not used to seeing pretty girls in yukatas this close." Makoto said teasingly. Yusuke gave the girls a closed-eye smile and spoke up.

"Absolutely picturesque. You've brought us a much needed air of refinement." Yusuke said appreciatively as Goro spoke up with a frown while giving Yusuke and Morgana both rather pointed side-glares.

"Oh? And am I to take that to mean that you don't consider either myself, Ren, Kusa, or Sojiro to be refined?" Goro said, his reply sounding vaguely offended. Ryuji frowned and spoke up.

"As unlikely as this is, I agree with Goro here. According to someone, we're about as unrefined as it gets, even though I disagree." Ryuji said, giving Morgana a pointed glare as he spoke, making Kusa speak up.

"All right, calm down, both of you. As much as I like seeing you two agree, I don't think Yusuke was saying we're all unrefined. He was moreso probably suggesting that the girls' outfits merely gave the refinement level in the room a generous boost, so as to further augment the existing levels of refinement already brought to the group by the presence of myself, Goro, Sojiro, and even Ren, Ryuji, Morgana, and Yusuke. Morgana is just being an instigator when he says you're unrefined, Ryuji. Ignore him, man." Kusa said wisely. Ann spoke up as she saw Ryuji's yukata.

"Oh, is that a new yukata on Ryuji? Wow, that looks really good on you, Ryuji. Even better than your school uniform!" Ann said kindly as Ryuji hung his head and spoke up.

"You don't gotta try'n make me feel better!" Ryuji said while hanging his head as Futaba smiled and spoke up.

"You made a good choice with that mask, though. Yellow's a good match for orange this season. I bought a water balloon, myself! You gotta get one when you go to a festival." Futaba said as Kusa had to hide the wince on his face at his girlfriend's mention of balloons before he spoke up.

"Yes, well, not all of us picked the same things. Much as you bought a water balloon, Ren bought a hand fan, and Ryuji bought a mask, plus I even managed to find and procure this rather nifty necklace." Kusa said, holding up the rather elegant if subtle silver necklace with a platinum dragon charm on the end that sat around his heck, resting comfortably against the top part of his yukata. Ryuji saw the water balloon in Futaba's hand and spoke up.

"Water balloon? Oh, you meant a 'yo-yo'. Kinda ironic that you got one of those, since that's usually Sophia's weapon of choice." Ryuji said as Yusuke spoke up.

"No, isn't that called a 'water yo-yo'? Also, that necklace looks rather fetching on you, Kusa." Yusuke said as Ann spoke up.

"Wait a sec, I thought it was 'yo-yo balloon'." Ann said as Futaba winced and spoke up.

"No, pretty sure I'm right. With apologies to Kusa for mentioning them around him, I'm pretty sure it's a water balloon, and not a yo-yo or water yo-yo." Futaba said as Kusa noticed the small round object in Futaba's hand that was shaped like an oversized yo-yo. Morgana spoke up at that point.

"Eh, what do you call it, Ren?" Morgana asked Ren, who spoke up.

"Despite the fact that these don't look like them that much, what Futaba is holding is most closely related to a yo-yo balloon. Though I think I recall Doctor Maruki referring to them as mini punching bags once, so I don't think there's one singular right way to refer to them." Ren said sagely as Ann gave Ren a closed-eye smile as she spoke up.

"See, told you! Water balloons and yo-yo's are two totally different things. So it's gotta be a yo-yo balloon!" Ann said as Makoto spoke up.

"Hee hee, it looks like everyone's having a good time." Makoto said as Sumire giggled and spoke up.

"Well, everyone except Kusa, who I can clearly see flinching slightly every time someone says the word 'balloon' around him." Sumire said as Kusa frowned at her and spoke up with a rare petulant tone in his voice, much to the collective amusement of Ren, Goro, and Sojiro.

"Hmph. Excuse me for being a bit leery of balloons. You'd be the same way if some insensitive friggin' asshat inflated a head-shaped balloon and let it float right up into a fan while you were watching so you saw what looked like a head-shaped balloon bursting in front of you." Kusa said huffily as he crossed his arms and reluctantly sighed as he realized how harsh his previous response had been before giving Sumire an apologetic look as he kept speaking.

"No, that's not fair of me to snap at you like that. I'm sorry for biting your head off just now, Sumire. It's just that, as much as I don't like admitting to something like this, the truth is that balloons are actually sort of a touchy subject for me. I know they shouldn't be, but they really are. I'm trying to not react when I hear one mentioned or see one, but it's kind of an ingrained instinct by now, so it'll be something that I probably struggle with getting over for quite some time." Kusa said with a sigh as Makoto smiled before speaking up while giving Kusa a reassuring smile.

"That's understandable, Kusa-kun. After all, we all have various things that we struggle with. That said, we should have a little fun ourselves. Why don't we check out the food stands and get something to eat?" Makoto suggested as Haru smiled and spoke up.

"Sure. I was starting to get hungry since everything smells so good." Haru said as Futaba smiled and spoke up as she looked around.

"Oh, look! They've got all the staples! Yakisoba, yakitori, shaved ice, and more! They've even got konjac skewers! Those are huge in Tohoku!" Futaba said as Goro and Kusa exchanged confused looks at the last two things Futaba had mentioned. Goro then spoke up.

"Tohoku?" Goro said as Kusa spoke up.

"Konjac skewers?" Kusa said as Sojiro spoke up, reminding the group of his presence in his crimson yukata with a black obi in the middle with a red sash as well as black flames along the robe.

"I'm sure those will be explained later, you two." Sojiro said, getting understanding nods from Kusa and Goro as Ann spoke up.

"Well, what are we waiting for!? Chaaarge!" Ann said as the group headed off while Morgana looked at Ren and spoke up.

"Come on, we should get going too. Come on, I'm starving." Morgana said as Ryuji pumped a fist and spoke up.

"Hell yeah! Let's start from one end and get one of everything!" Ryuji said as Goro spoke up with a smirk.

"Do be sure to pace yourself, won't you? Otherwise, you might end up making yourself sick from overeating." Goro said as Kusa smirked and spoke up.

"That's a good point, but real talk? It wouldn't be the first time he's done that if he does do it, Goro. Or did I not tell you about the time that Ren, Ryuji, and Morgana all got physically sick from overeating when we had the buffet together over at the Wilton once about three years ago? Except for the part where I almost had to beat the shit out of some ignorant effing pricks who were talking smack about us, and about Sojiro by extension, it was a pretty fun time, all things considered." Kusa said as Ren and Ryuji frowned at Kusa, the latter speaking up.

"Shuddup! You and Ann totally cheated by pacing yourselves that day." Ryuji said as Ren spoke up.

"To be fair, he and Ann had a rather dicey run-in too. I seem to recall hearing a story about an incident where some bitch gave Ann and Kusa a hard time over a plate." Ren said as Kusa spoke up.

"Huh? What are you-? Oh, wait, that's right. I'd almost forgotten about that stupid bitch. She's lucky I don't hit women, or I'd have probably broke her nose for trying to blame Ann for something that she herself caused. And to think, I had to hear that after having to deal with at least a half-dozen people muttering about how we likely don't get many chances to eat good food at home, which I take as an insult to Sojiro, as well as our mom, both of whom are people I care about quite a bit." Kusa said huffily as Sojiro smirked and spoke up, amused at Kusa's admission about caring about him.

"I appreciate you being offended on my behalf Kusa. But let's not forget that haters are gonna hate. Not much we can do about that, I think." Sojiro said sagely as Yusuke nodded and spoke up.

"Indeed. It feels as if we're forgetting the spirit of Tanabata doing this, though I have no objections." Yusuke said as a 'BIP!' from Sumire's phone, which was still with Ren, preceded Sophia speaking up.

"I want to see more of the festival too. Show me how to catch goldfish, Ren." Sophia said as Ren nodded, heading off with Morgana and Sophia to do just that, while Ryuji, Kusa, and Yusuke headed off in a different direction with Goro and Sojiro to walk around and check out various stalls. By and large, Ren felt he had had fun with everyone at the festival...

(A little while later, back outside the RV, with Morgana, Kusa, Yusuke, Sojiro, Ryuji, Sumire, Sophia, Ren, Goro, Haru, Makoto, Futaba, and Ann)

"Mmm! That was sooo gooooood!" Ann said as Futaba spoke up.

"Tell me about it! Konjac skewers, Ishinomaki yakisoba, zunda cider, and so much more. I think I even saw Kusa munching on some food too, which is rare since he usually has a different palate to the rest of us for the most part. Yet he was scarfing down those round things with the black wrap rather happily." Futaba said as Kusa spoke up.

"Hm, what do you mean by round things with black wrap, Taba? Oh, wait, I get it. Are you referring to that rice ball stand I noticed? I still can't believe that I actually found one of those, truth be told. They might not seem like it, but they serve some insanely good rice balls. Probably the only time I've managed to polish off more than 3 or 4 rice balls in one sitting. I think I ended up getting through like seven of them this time? Pretty good for me." Kusa said as Goro smirked and spoke up.

"Right, because you're so refined and prim that you don't eat anything you don't like. Or am I wrong when I recall that you were the only one in our group who didn't really have much of a taste for seafood?" Goro teased Kusa, who huffed and spoke up.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Goro. You're no better, though. I seem to recall a time when you refused to even come near me while I was eating some chocolate rice balls. Now, you wouldn't think chocolate and rice would go together that well, but you'd be dead frickin' wrong. Those two things are sooo freakin' good together. Especially when the cook melts just a bit of butter into the rice before mixing it with the chocolate. Hoo boy, we're talkin' absolute chef's kiss of perfection right there." Kusa said eagerly as Goro huffed and spoke up.

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. I'm not a fan of sweets. Big deal." Goro said as Haru smiled and spoke up.

"That's okay, Goro. I'm not that much of a sweets fan myself, even if I do enjoy them from time to time." Haru said comfortingly as Goro nodded and spoke up.

"Thanks, Haru. That's quite comforting." Goro said gratefully as Futaba smirked and spoke up.

"Mwehehe, looks like Haru's getting Goro to warm to her. But in all seriousness, we basically ate our way through Sendai!" Futaba said as Kusa spoke up.

"Pretty sure that's an exaggeration, Taba. But to be honest? I'm way too stuffed and also too lazy to really care right now." Kusa said contentedly as Ryuji grinned and spoke up while clapping Kusa lightly on the shoulder.

"Truth, Kusa! We totally ate our way through Sendai, and it was amazing as hell! Gotta hand it to old man Masamune, he was one cool dude." Ryuji said as both Goro and Yusuke gave Ryuji affronted looks, but it would be Futaba who rebuked Ryuji first when she spoke up.

"That's 'Lord' to you! Did I do it right, Yusuke?" Futaba said as a wide-eyed Yusuke spoke up in surprise.

"Wha? Am I that predictable?" Yusuke asked as Kusa smirked at the sight of Futaba coming to Yusuke's defense and spoke up.

"Nah, man. That's just Futaba being her usual quirky, yet conscientious self. I think that's her way of saying she likes you, truth be told. But don't read too much into it, since I think that's just her way of saying you and her are cool." Kusa said sagely. At that point, a 'BIP!' from Sumire's phone, which was presently in Ren's hand despite Sumire standing next to him, preceded Sophia speaking up.

"Catching goldfish seems difficult. Is there some sort of secret to catching one?" Sophia asked as Makoto spoke up with a determined look on her face.

"Try to stay calm, then strike without hesitation. The trick is to catch them once you've read their movements." Makoto said as Sojiro spoke up.

"That, and also make sure you're not being too rough in your own movements, since if the nets are what I remember them being, they're very delicate and not meant to be used roughly, so it's both a matter of timing, and of finesse." Sojiro said as Kusa nodded his agreement and spoke up.

"Well said, Sojiro. Also, some people are just more naturally predisposed to being good at catching fish than others, as Ren will vouch, since he managed to effortlessly catch more fish than Sojiro and I did combined the day the three of us went on that fishing trip about three years ago." Kusa deadpanned as Sojiro nodded his agreement and a grinning Ren spoke up.

"Hey, can I help it if I'm a natural angler, Kusa? After all, I'd have to be a hell of an angler if I landed this sexy little spunky red-headed beauty right here, wouldn't I?" Ren said smugly as he jerked a thumb towards a blushing Sumire, who pouted and spoke up.

"Should I be offended that you're referring to me as if I'm a fish right now, Ren? Or was that supposed to be a metaphor?" Sumire asked as Kusa laughed at Ren managing to potentially offend his own girlfriend while complimenting her and spoke up.

"Pretty sure it's both, Sumire. But I'm also pretty sure that Ren meant it as a compliment, though he can correct me on that if I'm wrong at all." Kusa said as Ren nodded his agreement while Haru spoke up.

"Wow, that's impressive, Mako-chan. I always forget that you have such honed hunting instincts." Haru said in surprise. Sophia nodded and spoke up.

"I see. Well, no matter. We'll get it next time, Ren." Sophia said as Ren nodded before his phone went off as Sophia kept speaking.

"Ren, you're getting a call from Zenkichi." Sophia said as Goro blinked and spoke up with wide eyes.

"Zenkichi's reaching out already? That was fast." Goro said in surprise. Kusa spoke up with a nod.

"Seems like it, Goro. But I'm not surprised that he'd be motivated to work hard." Kusa said sagely as Ren answered his phone.

"Hello? Ren Amamiya's phone, Ren speaking." Ren said as he answered his phone, hearing Zenkichi's voice on the other end as he put it to his ear to listen.

"Yo. You guys having fun?" Zenkichi said as Ren spoke up.

"We're enjoying ourselves, yes. But how about you?" Ren asked, deciding to be social and ask after Zenkichi, who smirked and spoke up.

"That's good. As for me, I'm working. Moderately, anyway." Zenkichi said as Ren smirked and spoke up.

"Oh, yeah? Whatever happened to 'workin' hard or hardly working?', Zenkichi?" Ren asked teasingly as Zenkichi spoke up.

"Ha, ha. Very funny. But, listen. In all seriousness, I wanted to ask you guys a favor. I'm already investigating here in Sapporo, but before you leave Sendai, I'd like you to stop by Toho University. Tomorrow, there's gonna be a session at the Mount Aoba campus." Zenkichi said as Ren spoke up in confusion.

"A session, you say? Like a class session?" Ren asked. Zenkichi spoke up with a nod.

"Pretty much. The CEO of Madicce is holding a lecture there." Zenkichi said as Ren's eyes widened in surprise as Zenkichi kept speaking.

"I'm still looking into them at the moment, but the more info we have, the better. I'd like you to attend the lecture in my place." Zenkichi said as Ren spoke up with a nod.

"All right, seems reasonable to me. After all, you're living up to your end of our agreement rather well, so we should be pulling our end where we can." Ren said sagely. Zenkichi spoke up in a relieved tone.

"Good. I'm glad you get it. And just so we're clear, don't draw any unnecessary attention to yourselves. Just go and see if the CEO says anything strange." Zenkichi said as Ren spoke up.

"Okay, and what else can you tell us?" Ren asked professionally. Zenkichi spoke up.

"I at least have a name for you. His name is, ready for it? Akira Konoe. And he looks like a capable CEO, I'll give him that. Anyway, I'm gonna be counting on all of you. And again, try not to get too carried away, all right?" Zenkichi said as he hung up on his end, making Ren shrug as he put his phone back in his hand as Morgana spoke up.

"So, what did he want?" Morgana asked as Ren proceeded to break down Zenkichi's call for the others. Ryuji frowned and spoke up.

"Wait, so let me get this straight. This guy's runnin' the company that made EMMA?" Ryuji asked as Makoto spoke up with a nod.

"Seems like it, sweetie. The way I see it, this might be a good opportunity to learn something new." Makoto said as Yusuke frowned and spoke up.

"Hmm, good point. I suppose we'll find out at the lecture tomorrow morning." Yusuke said as Futaba spoke up.

"Guess break time's over, along with getting to revel in having the group all together. Time to get back to work!" Futaba said as Kusa nodded sagely before the group dispersed to get rested for the evening...

(The following afternoon, at the lecture hall of Toho University, with Sojiro, Haru, Ann, Makoto, Sumire, Sophia, Futaba, Kusa, Yusuke, Ryuji, Ren, Morgana, and Goro)

"And as you all know, life is just an ongoing series of daily decisions. What's for breakfast? What should I wear today? Every day begins with these insignificant little dilemmas. But then there comes a time to decide your field of study, your place of employment, who you're going to marry. And it's these choices that matter. Yes, people are always looking for the 'best choice' or the 'correct answer'.

Madicce seeks to provide it, for everyone, through the power of AI. EMMA is a state-of-the-art AI designed to integrate itself into our everyday lives. By gathering and analyzing extraordinary amounts of data with perfect precision, EMMA can help everyone make the 'best choices'." The CEO of Madicce, a easygoing man with brown eyes and brown hair that was styled in a very stand-out hairdo that vaguely reminded Ren of the hairdo that Maruki's friend Shibusawa had worn his hair in on the occasion that Ren had gotten to meet him while having lunch with Maruki about three and a half years ago, as well as a button up dark blue blazer, a white undershirt, black jeans, and brown leather shoes, said as Morgana spoke up from inside of Ren's bag.

"Hmm. Given what we just heard, I'd say 'Capable CEO' seems pretty spot-on." Morgana said as Haru spoke up, having heard Morgana.

"Wow, I'm impressed. He's so composed. He's practically overflowing with confidence." Haru said as Goro frowned at this, his eyes narrowing distastefully as he looked at the CEO currently giving a lecture, making Kusa smirk from in front of him as he heard the low growl coming from Goro when Haru had mentioned the CEO overflowing with confidence. Sojiro spoke up.

"He does have a way with words, doesn't he?" Sojiro said as Haru nodded and spoke up.

"Yep. Look how clearly he states his company's outlook and principles. He's got everyone's attention." Haru said as Makoto spoke up with a frown.

"You're right, Haru. He's not saying anything particularly suspicious, though, that I can see." Makoto said as Kusa spoke up.

"Not at first glance, no. But if you can read between the lines of what he's saying, you can see how hard he's trying to sell EMMA to people. Not to mention, that hairdo and outfit of his practically screams 'Discount Tony Stark' to me. And I get the sense Goro agrees with me." Kusa said as Goro spoke up.

"You're lucky that I've read my fair share of comic books, Kusa. I think outside of maybe Futaba, I'm the only one who even remotely gets that reference. But you're not wrong to say that this guy does have a certain aura of scumbaggery to him if you think about it, even if he's not outwardly projecting it." Goro said bluntly as Futaba smirked and spoke up.

"Mwehehe, are you sure you're not just biased because Haru was singing his praises a moment ago? It's not a crime to be jealous, after all." Futaba said as Goro blushed subtly in embarrassment as he spoke up, not seeing Kusa grinning widely next to him after hearing Futaba call him out on being jealous.

"Wh-What? Me? Jealous? Don't be absurd." Goro said firmly, not seeing Kusa lean over to whisper into Futaba's ear as he spoke.

"He totally is jealous, but he won't admit it. I'm calling it now." Kusa said as Futaba nodded her agreement as she spoke up.

"True. Well, thanks to EMMA, Madicce's stocks have shot way up. You can bet they're one of Japan's biggest enterprises right now. That said, I feel like a company with this much going for it wouldn't have much to gain from changing people's hearts with EMMA." Futaba said as Yusuke spoke up.

"Perhaps, but that doesn't change the fact that EMMA is still a key factor in the Jails. It is through EMMA that people are allowed access." Yusuke said as Makoto nodded and spoke up.

"Right. Madicce is connected to all of this one way or another, be it directly or indirectly, whichever it might be." Makoto said as Morgana turned to Ren and spoke up.

"Hey, Ren, do you think there's a real culprit behind all of this, like some kind of mastermind?" Morgana asked as Ren thought about it and nodded as he spoke up.

"I do. But at the same time, I'm not sure exactly who this mastermind could be. But I think we can all agree that someone had to have given those Monarchs their powers, since I very much doubt that they gave themselves their powers." Ren said as Morgana nodded and spoke up.

"I think so too. Even if we beat the Monarchs, change their hearts, and free everyone's Desires, the Jails don't disappear right away. There's gotta be something keeping them here." Morgana said as Makoto blinked and spoke up.

"I see. So you're saying the real culprit is the one doing that?" Makoto asked as Morgana spoke up.

"I don't know, to be honest. But do you remember how even the Monarchs themselves didn't know much about EMMA?" Morgana asked as Yusuke spoke up in surprise.

"That's right. Now that I think about it, Alice and Natsume said the same thing in their testimonies." Yusuke said as Morgana spoke up.

"Exactly. And if that's the case, then the Monarchs might not be the only ones manipulating EMMA." Morgana said as Haru spoke up.

"Which means it could be someone at Madicce manipulating EMMA." Haru said as Makoto spoke up.

"Or our mystery observer. After all, who says that our mystery observer and whoever's manipulating EMMA aren't one in the same?" Makoto said as Kusa spoke up.

"Perhaps. But I still maintain my stance that EMMA could be doing this herself and is evil." Kusa said as Goro spoke up.

"I agree, but at the same time, you have to admit that would seem rather outlandish and hard to believe for most." Goro pointed out. Futaba spoke up.

"Kusa has a point. It could conceivably be EMMA itself, or it could even be our head honcho down there. After all, we never ruled him out as a suspect." Futaba said sagely. Yusuke spoke up with a nod.

"True. Or it could be someone completely different entirely." Yusuke said as Goro groaned and spoke up.

"And who would that be, Yusuke? That chick that was monologuing the other day at the beef tongue restaurant?" Goro asked dryly as Ren spoke up.

"Aha! I knew you three were there! I heard Kusa name-drop Goro's name while Ichinose was talking, and Goro's not that common of a name that I can recall." Ren said as Kusa winced and spoke up.

"You heard me? Oops. I thought I was quieter than that. My bad, Goro." Kusa said sheepishly as Goro spoke up.

"It's fine, I figured that Ren would probably be the one to catch us sooner or later." Goro said amicably. Ryuji smirked and spoke up.

"I like how non-chalant you're bein' about this, Goro. And yeah, well, we just gotta stick to what Gramps was tellin' us, right? All we can do is keep solvin' cases and collect more info. As long as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts do what they do best, we'll set this shit straight." Ryuji said as Kusa spoke up.

"Ignoring the fact that we also go by the collective alias of the Phantom Crew, I agree." Kusa said as Ann spoke up with wide eyes.

"Wow, Ryuji. That was pretty insightful. I'm impressed." Ann said as Makoto spoke up with a closed-eye smile.

"I'm impressed with Ryuji too. He's right, after all. And in that sense, attending this lecture is a valuable use of our time. Let's make sure we pay attention all the way to the end." Makoto said as Goro spoke up.

"Fair enough. But do try not to hold it against us if Kusa and I both spend the time paying attention while thinking of ways to make this true culprit suffer when we find them." Goro said dryly as Kusa nodded his agreement, getting a fond smirk from Futaba and a reluctant groan from Makoto as the group listened to the rest of the lecture. Once it was over, and the group was the only ones left in the lecture hall, Ryuji sat up and stretched with a yawn as he spoke up.

"Yo, how long was I out for? So, what'd the dude say?" Ryuji asked as Ann groaned and spoke up.

"Ugh. Can I smack you?" Ann asked as Sumire giggled and spoke up.

"What's stopping you from smacking him, Ann? Pretty sure you already aren't shy about smacking him anyways, assuming Kusa wasn't exaggerating about all the times you've open-palm smacked Ryuji, that is." Sumire asked with a sly smile as Kusa smirked and spoke up.

"First of all, I wasn't exaggerating, Sumire. Ann actually used to smack Ryuji a lot back during the year Ren and I spent living together in the attic of Leblanc. Also, to be honest? I'm sorry, Ann. But you'll have to get in line, since Goro already has first dibs on smacking Ryuji. You can be second after him, though. Wait, never mind that. My bad, Ann. You wouldn't be second. You'd actually be third, since Morgana's second." Kusa said sagely. Makoto spoke up.

"Aaanyways, getting back on topic, we were talking about the lecture. Well, he didn't exactly say anything out of the ordinary. Then again, I wouldn't expect him to trip up so easily anyways." Makoto said as Ryuji spoke up.

"Truth, babe. Well, I'm starvin', so maybe we should head back? That guy was talkin' for friggin' ever." Ryuji said as another voice spoke up from nearby.

"Hey, guys? That stuff you said earlier about Madicce and EMMA, was all of that true?" The group heard, making them look around for the source of the voice as Ann spoke up in confusion.

"Huh?" Ann said as Ichinose walked into view and spoke up, stopping right behind an annoyed Goro's chair as she spoke.

"Are you really the Phantom Thieves of Hearts?" Ichinose said as Goro groaned and spoke up.

"Oh no, is that the lady with the bad monolouging problem? Shoot me into the sun if so." Goro said as Kusa spoke up.

"Be nice, Goro. And we already discussed why that wasn't gonna happen." Kusa said gently but firmly as the others gasped at Ichinose's question and spoke up.

"Wha-!?" Ann asked in shock as Makoto spoke up, being the first one of the girls to place why Ichinose was familiar.

"Hey, you're the woman from the beef tongue restaurant, aren't you?" Makoto asked as Haru spoke up with a gasp.

"Oh! That's right! Ichinose-san, right?" Haru said as Futaba blinked and spoke up in shock from Kusa's lap, where she'd moved to after the lecture.

"Y-You heard all that!?" Futaba asked as Kusa smirked and spoke up.

"Probably. I wouldn't be surprised if she was hiding nearby to eavesdrop on us. Besides, her entire wardrobe kinda screams 'sketchy' to me." Kusa said sagely. Ichinose nodded to Futaba's question as she spoke up with a closed-eye smile on her face, not seeing the twin glares Goro and Kusa aimed at a wincing Morgana when they heard what Ichinose said next as a result.

"Well, the thing is, I'm really good at picking up when a cat meows. Honestly, I found that way more interesting than Konoe's lecture." Ichinose said as both Kusa and Futaba spoke up simultaneously.

"MONA/MORGANA!" Kusa and Futaba rebuked Morgana, who spoke up with wide eyes.

"M-Me!? But you guys are the ones she overheard!" Morgana said as Goro frowned and spoke up.

"Perhaps. But I seem to recall that Ichinose-san said, and I quote, 'I'm quite good at picking up when a CAT meows.' And unless I'm wrong, the only cat here is YOU, Morgana." Goro said as Kusa nodded his agreement and spoke up.

"As much as I hate to refer to you as a cat, Goro has a point here. Sorry, Morgana." Kusa said honestly. Ryuji spoke up with wide eyes.

"Crap! What the hell are we gonna do!?" Ryuji asked as Ren spoke up.

"I think at this time, there's only one thing we can do now." Ren said as Goro spoke up with a deceptively innocent look on his face, even though what he said next had Kusa stifling a laugh, since it really wasn't that funny, despite how non-chalantly and innocently Goro said it.

"We kill her and then hide the body where no one will find it?" Goro joked as Kusa spoke up.

"Goro, I know that I've told you multiple times that we don't kill people as a rule. No matter how much some of our targets might totally deserve it at times." Kusa said as Ren spoke up.

"No, Goro. Kusa is right. We're not killing her. At this point, our only choice is to come clean with her and hope she agrees to keep our secret. If she doesn't, then I'll let you deal with her." Ren said sagely. Goro smirked and spoke up.

"Excellent. I've missed being able to torture peo-err, I mean what? Neigh?" Goro asked as Kusa spoke up while laughing at the reference that Goro had made with his previous question. *1*

"Goro? I love you and all, but you are not convincing anyone with that acting, bro. But you're not wrong to say that it's been a bit since you got to really make someone suffer." Kusa said calmly as Ichinose saw the panicked looks on most of the group's faces and spoke up.

"Whoa, stop, stop! It's all right! Anyways, this place'll be closing up soon. Let's talk outside." Ichinose said as the group followed her outside...

(Outside the university, by the RV with Ichinose, Kusa, Futaba, Haru, Goro, Yusuke, Makoto, Ann, Sojiro, Ryuji, Sumire, Sophia, Ren, and Morgana)

"Wow! To think you guys are the famous Phantom Thieves! Oh, but I see a few faces here that I don't think I remember seeing with you guys at the beef bowl restaurant the other day." Ichinose said as Ren spoke up.

"That's because they hadn't caught up to us at that point. But never mind that for now. Are you sure you've got the right people, Ichinose-san? I think you might have misheard us?" Ren said, trying to hopefully throw Ichinose off the trail. Ichinose smirked and spoke up with a closed-eye smile on her face that gave both Goro and Kusa chills when they looked at it.

"Come on now, don't try to hide it. When you guys mentioned Alice and Natsume, I imagine you were referring to Alice Hiiragi and Ango Natsume from the press conferences, yes? Is it safe to assume those were you guys' doing? Oh, and what was that about EMMA giving people access to Jails? Is that related to everyone's hearts getting changed?" Ichinose said as the group sweatdropped and spoke up.

"She really did eavesdrop on us, didn't she? She heard everything we said." Ann said as Kusa groaned and spoke up.

"Go figure, both times that I fail to check properly for eavesdroppers, we end up getting eavesdropped on. My bad, guys." Kusa said apologetically as Futaba spoke up.

"It's not your fault, Kusa. So don't worry about it." Futaba said reassuringly as Makoto spoke up.

"Um, if it's not too much of a bother, can we ask what you're doing here, Ichinose-san?" Makoto asked as Ichinose smiled and spoke up.

"Oh, I told you at the beef tongue place, didn't I? I'm a researcher at the university. Oh, and for the record? I do not monologue. Also, come to think of it, I don't think some of you have introduced themselves yet?" Ichinose said, shooting an unimpressed look at a sheepish-looking Goro as she aimed the last part of her response at him. Kusa blinked at this but nodded his understanding as he spoke up, hoping to somewhat diffuse Ichinose's ire in hopes of preventing a potential bloodbath.

"That's fair, Ichinose-san. Forgive us for our lack of manners. I'm Ren's younger brother, Kusa Amamiya. The two with me are my older half-brother Goro Amamiya, as well as my girlfriend's father, Sojiro Sakura. Technically, he's moreso her surrogate father, but both Sojiro and I tend to disregard that as both a massive crock of shit and wholly irrelevant since both Sojiro and Futaba consider each other as good as father and daughter, blood-related or not.

And please don't hold a grudge against Goro for suggesting that you monologue. Goro's had a bit of a rough past, so he tends to be a bit jaded and irritable, so he might have taken your tendency to ramble on, like you did at the beef bowl shop, as monologing. So forgive him for confusing rambling with monologing." Kusa said smoothly, getting a nod of understanding from Ichinose while an amused Futaba smirked at Goro as she spoke up.

"Ooh, someone's busted." Futaba said as Kusa smirked and spoke up.

"You say that like it's the first time Goro's gotten himself caught bashing someone by the person in question." Kusa said sagely as Goro nodded his agreement while Haru spoke up next to Goro.

"Oh, you did say that before, didn't you? That's right." Haru said as Ichinose smiled and spoke up, smirking at the trio of wide-eyed reactions that her next remark would get from Goro, Ren, and Kusa as she spoke.

"Fair enough, I'll let it slide this time, Amamiya the youngest. And Goro? Don't let me hear you dissing me again. Oh, and not only am I a professor at this university, I'm also the one who designed the base for EMMA." Ichinose said cheerfully as Ren, Kusa, and Goro all spoke up at once.

"WHAT!?" Ren, Kusa, and Goro all said in unison, unintentionally echoed by Haru, Sojiro, Sophia, Morgana, Ann, Yusuke, and Sumire as well. Ryuji then added his own question.

"FOR REAL!?" Ryuji and a wide-eyed Makoto both asked at the same time, smiling at their synchronicity as Futaba then spoke up with her own question.

"You made the base!?" Futaba asked in shock. Ichinose smiled at the group's reaction and spoke up.

"Oh, I didn't tell you? I specialize in the research and development of artificial intelligence." Ichinose said as Ann frowned and spoke up.

"Uh, are you serious? We definitely didn't hear about that." Ann said as Sumire spoke up.

"Right, Ann-senpai? I'm fairly certain we'd remember hearing about that too." Sumire said. Ichinose smirked and spoke up.

"Oh. I see. Well, now you know. Anyways, around the time I finished developing EMMA, Madicce came to me with an offer to buy it. I was actually pretty tight on money at the time, so I went ahead and sold it." Ichinose said with a closed eye smile as Ryuji spoke up.

"Is this lady for real, you guys?" Ryuji asked as Goro spoke up.

"For once, I have no clue, Ryuji." Goro said as Kusa looked at Ichinose and spoke up.

"Do you recall exactly who Madicce sent to make you the offer to buy EMMA by chance, Ichinose-san?" Kusa asked, having a vague theory occur to him. Ichinose shook her head and spoke up.

"Sorry. I do remember, but they swore me to secrecy about who they are. But I can at least give you a hint, that being that they were pretty high up the corporate ladder, if you catch my drift." Ichinose said as Kusa spoke up with a slow nod.

"I see. That's actually quite helpful, Ichinose-san. Thank you." Kusa said as Ichinose nodded and spoke up.

"You're welcome. Oh, and by the way? That's why Madicce is participating in the lecture today. Well, to be more accurate, the university asked me to reach out to them. I certainly didn't expect the CEO himself to show up, though. I only got invited because of my little connection with the company. Anyhow, yeah, that's how I ended up being there to overhear everything." Ichinose said as Sojiro spoke up.

"Rather convenient, don't you think? Being able to be in the right place at the right time to hear us? If one didn't know better, one would think this was arranged." Sojiro said bluntly, getting nods of agreement from Futaba, Kusa, Ren, and Goro. Yusuke then spoke up.

"Sojiro makes an excellent point. But back on topic for now. So you're EMMA's creator, and Madicce is simply the ones running it?" Yusuke asked as Ichinose winced and spoke up.

"Oh, um, good question. Well, they're definitely the ones running it, but I can't say for sure if that's all they've been doing. I just designed the base. Who knows what Madicce did once I sold it to them for a rather tidy sum of money?" Ichinose said as Ann frowned and spoke up.

"I see. So, you know all about EMMA then, right?" Ann asked Ichinose, who gave the group a closed-eye smile as she spoke up, not seeing the shudder Ren and Sumire exchanged at what Ichinose said next.

"Naturally. It's like my baby, you know? And at the risk of tooting my own horn, it's a reeeally good baby." Ichinose said as Kusa blinked and spoke up.

"I see. Umm, not to be rude, but can we ask you to step over that way a bit so we can discuss what you've told us among ourselves and figure out how to handle what you've told us?" Kusa asked Ichinose, who nodded and walked off to give the group some privacy, while staying fairly close by, as Morgana spoke up.

"Well, this is a sequence of events that just happened. And to be honest? I never would've expected this turn of events." Morgana said as Goro frowned and spoke up.

"Yeeeeah, uh-huh. Sure you wouldn't have. And I'm guessing that if you were in Ichinose's shoes, you totally wouldn't have expected people to hear a cat meowing inside of someone's bag and find that extremely suspect? And you wonder why I have a hard time deciding whether you or Ryuji are the bigger imbecile of the two of you at times." Goro deadpanned as Ann spoke up.

"While I'll admit that Goro is right, I also think he could've phrased that more tactfully. Anyways, do you guys think she's telling the truth about designing EMMA?" Ann asked as Kusa spoke up.

"Who knows? Granted, I do think it'd be a rather elaborate lie to weave just to fool us into trusting her. With all apologies to both of them, I think she's seriously putting way too much effort into fooling our group, when a child could probably fool both Ryuji and Morgana, and maybe Sophia as well. For the most part, she could've just said 'What's that!?' and pointed the other way and half of us would turn around so she could rob us blind like the trusting fools we are." Kusa said bluntly as Haru spoke up before Morgana and Ryuji could do more than sputter at Kusa's shot at them.

"Yes, well, as accurate as Kusa-kun's words might be, I do think it's impressive that the CEO of Madicce came to personally give a lecture. And if she's the one who made it happen, doesn't that mean she has a lot of influence?" Haru asked as Yusuke spoke up with a nod.

"This is true, Haru. And let's not forget the university asked her to attend the lecture." Yusuke said as Morgana spoke up.

"What should we do? She could probably tell us a lot about EMMA." Morgana said as Sumire spoke up with a decidedly un-ladylike scoff.

"Her? Tell us about EMMA? While I have no doubts that she probably could tell us a lot about EMMA, what's to say we can trust what she tells us?" Sumire asked dryly as Goro gave Sumire an approving nod before he spoke up.

"Perhaps you're right, Morgana. However, I have to say that Sumire-san also raises an excellent point. After all, as Sumire just said, who's to say we can trust the info that Ichinose gives us? For all we know, she could be our mystery observer and is faking like she wants to help us to keep us off her trail." Goro said wisely as Kusa spoke up.

"Good point, Goro. But at the same time, do you really think she'd sell EMMA to Madicce if she was the one manipulating it? Sure, it's possible that Madicce lets her experiment with new mods for EMMA as the creator, but I doubt they'd give an outsider that sort of power without some strings attached." Kusa said sagely. Ann winced and spoke up.

"Kusa has a good point. Not to mention, she knows who we are now, thanks to our carelessness." Ann said as Ryuji turned to Ren and spoke up.

"What do you think, Ren?" Ryuji asked Ren, who thought about it and spoke up.

"I think it's risky, but there's not really a safe choice for dealing with Ichinose. That said, I propose that we ask for her help on a provisional basis so as to keep her at arm's length so we can somewhat get a feel for her intentions. Worst case, Goro and Futaba can work together to try and hack info from her if needed to try and determine her goal in all of this. But for now, we have no reason not to trust her to at least some extent. To be honest, this isn't unlike how Zenkichi initially had us backed up into a corner until we played the Metaverse card to broker an unlikely alliance with him." Ren said as Kusa spoke up.

"Gee, why am I not surprised that you keep getting overheard by people?" Kusa asked dryly as Goro spoke up.

"Maybe it's the fact their hideouts are always in a fairly public place, with the exception of Leblanc?" Goro pointed out in a deadpan tone as the others nodded and Morgana spoke up.

"Good plan. And I guess it's too late to cover this up now, isn't it?" Morgana asked as Yusuke nodded and spoke up.

"Good point. Then, we may as well go all in and find out what we can. Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Yusuke said as Makoto spoke up with a sigh.

"Well, it's settled, then. We'll tell her everything." Makoto said as Goro and Kusa frowned and the latter spoke up.

"I don't think Ren said we'd tell her everything, Makoto. But I suppose there's not much of a choice now, is there?" Kusa said as Goro nodded his agreement. Ren then called Ichinose back over and the group filled her in to some extent on what they do and a brief summary of their group's history. Ichinose blinked as she spoke up.

"Is all of that true?" Ichinose asked as Ryuji hung his head and spoke up.

"Right, we know, it's kinda hard to believe, huh?" Ryuji said as Futaba spoke up.

"Hey, what if we just show her, like we did with Zenkichi?" Futaba suggested as Kusa spoke up.

"You showed Zenkichi the Metaverse!?" Kusa asked in surprise as Ren smirked at the rare dumbfounded expression that was currently on Kusa's face before he spoke up.

"I'm surprised that you and Goro didn't catch on before now, especially considering the fact that Zenkichi and Morgana are clearly able to converse with and understand one another." Ren noted in amusement as Goro smirked and spoke up.

"As much as I hate to admit to this, I didn't even consider the possibility that Zenkichi was fully aware of what the Metaverse looks like, but I think we can likely blame that on Makoto or possibly Morgana. That said, I understand that doing that was probably the only way to proceed forward and have a good chance of ensuring Hasegawa-san's cooperation." Goro said sagely as Kusa spoke up.

"True. I think the bigger surprise for me is that I didn't even realize that Zenkichi could understand Morgana until Ren just pointed it out." Kusa said, looking sheepish before a very excited Ichinose spoke up before Futaba could verbally answer Kusa.

"WOW! It really does exist! I mean, how else could you explain all this!? So, EMMA functions as the entry point here, huh? No, that's absurd. But if I consider the possibilities your story opens up, so many doors open up to me." Ichinose said as the group sweatdropped as Ann spoke up.

"Uh, for real? She believed all that?" Ann said as Sumire frowned and spoke up.

"Seems like it, Ann. But to be fair, I'm pretty sure we're suspecting her of possibly being evil here, not of being an idiot." Sumire pointed out as Ichinose spoke up.

"Oh, you have no idea how FASCINATING this is! What an incredible development!" Ichinose said as Ryuji laughed hollowly and spoke up.

"Haha, sure. Uh, well, I guess this is good? At least we don't gotta go through the trouble of convincin' her." Ryuji said as Makoto spoke up.

"True. Um, Ichinose-san? Do you have any idea why EMMA is serving as an entry point to the Jails?" Makoto asked as Ichinose laughed and spoke up.

"Oh, no, I couldn't tell you. To be honest, I'm surprised this other world even exists. There's no way I could've thought up a way to get in if I didn't even know it existed to begin with." Ichinose said as Futaba spoke up.

"Yeah, that figures you wouldn't know about it. Wait, hold up. So that means that if you didn't add it, then that function was added later?" Futaba asked as Ichinose spoke up.

"Hm, I wonder. Anyways, a world where people's Desires are stolen and their hearts are changed magically. Hmm, wow, so many questions. Oh, wait, maybe I should be heartbroken here, shouldn't I? My baby is being used for evil, after all." Ichinose said as Kusa coughed what sounded suspiciously like 'do you even have a heart?' under his breath so that only a grinning Goro heard him. Ren then spoke up.

"Anyways, I think that since we're more or less on the same page where it comes to EMMA, it then follows we should try to help one another out if we can." Ren said. Ichinose then spoke up, not seeing the identical sweatdrops on Sumire, Futaba, and Kusa's faces at what she said next, nor the identical deadpan glares on Goro and Ryuji's faces.

"Ooh, I like the sound of that. Super phantom thief-y!" Ichinose said as Sumire looked at her phone where Sophia was hiding and spoke up.

"Okay, you're never allowed to say 'thief-y' again, Sophia. Ichinose-san officially made it creepy and uncool." Sumire said so only Sophia could hear as Kusa spoke up.

"Who even says thief-y? I didn't know that was a word?" Kusa said with a frown. Ichinose blinked and spoke up.

"Oh, is it not a word? I was sure it was? Well, either way, I'd be glad to help however I can. And I can't say I don't feel kinda responsible for all of this. More than anything, though, I think I'd die of curiosity if I didn't get involved! So, what do you need me to look into? Say the word, and I'm on it." Ichinose said as Ren spoke up.

"What happened to EMMA after you sold it? I feel like that's the most important thing to figure out, since if we can figure that out, we might be able to figure out how EMMA's able to access the Metaverse via Jails." Ren said wisely. Yusuke nodded his agreement and spoke up.

"Indeed. I agree with Ren. We'd be very interested to know exactly what kind of changes EMMA went through thereafter." Yusuke said as Ichinose nodded and spoke up.

"I see. Basically, you'd like to know the secret behind this new version of EMMA. And if someone's responsible, you want to know who." Ichinose said as the group nodded and Futaba spoke up.

"Oh, hey. We found some of those mystery junk parts out there, didn't we? Maybe if she takes a look at 'em, we'll learn more about that world." Futaba said, ignoring Goro and Kusa both mouthing 'mystery junk parts!?' under their breath as Ichinose spoke up.

"Ooh, so you're gonna give me a bunch of neat stuff to analyze? Yes, that's excellent, just wonderful. In fact, I'll even buy them from you, as research materials." Ichinose said as Kusa blinked at this and spoke up with slightly widened eyes, his tone one of clear skepticism and surprise.

"Buy them!? I didn't know being a professor was that lucrative of a job?" Kusa said in surprise as Goro spoke up.

"You raise a good point, Kusa. However, we're being bold in assuming it's just her professor's salary that she draws from for her finances. After all, who's to say she didn't take a bunch of shady deals on the side when selling EMMA?" Goro pointed out wisely as Kusa nodded his agreement and Makoto spoke up.

"Yes, well, thank you for that input, Goro! Well, if this is going to be a deal, then we'll need to provide something as well. Hmm, but what?" Makoto said as Ichinose spoke up with a closed-eye smile that had both Goro and Kusa's hackles raised as she spoke.

"Nonsense, it's fine just the way it is! My inner researcher is just squealing with delight! So, what do you say we seal the deal?" Ichinose said as Ren spoke up.

"Here's to working together." Ren said after pondering his response for a moment. Ichinose spoke up with a closed-eye smile.

"Okay! Looking forward to it!" Ichinose said as Ryuji spoke up, having an idea.

"Oh, yo. If she specializes in AI, maybe we should ask her about Sophia, yeah?" Ryuji asked as Ichinose blinked and spoke up, her reaction drawing a skeptical glance from both Goro and Kusa as she spoke.

"Huh? Sophia?" Ichinose said as Sumire glared at Ryuji and spoke up in a strangled yet irritated whisper so only he could hear.

"Yeah, real good idea, Ryuji! Have Ichinose's sketchy self poking around inside of Sophia and potentially give her an open invitation to do who knows what to her. Real smart." Sumire said as she huffed and crossed her arms as Ren spoke up.

"I think Ryuji meant well. He probably wanted to help Sophia figure out how to get her memories back." Ren said comfortingly as Sumire sighed and nodded before handing Ren her phone, at which point he turned it so Ichinose could see the screen as Sophia came up on it and spoke up with a 'BIP!'.

"Hi, I'm Sophia, humanity's companion. Nice to meet you, Ichinose." Sophia said as a confused Ichinose spoke up.

"This is the AI you call Sophia?" Ichinose said in confusion and kept speaking.

"Huh, how about that. It's nice to meet you, too." Ichinose said in a decidedly less excited and upbeat tone than she'd been previously using, getting looks of surprise from the group as Ryuji spoke up with wide eyes.

"Who flipped the switch on her!?" Ryuji asked as Kusa spoke up.

"Good question." Kusa said as Ichinose saw the skeptical looks aimed at her and spoke up.

"Oh, no, it's just that I've got so much on my mind right now after all you've told me, so I guess even I'm a little confused." Ichinose said as Makoto spoke up.

"In a nutshell, Sophia's an AI we met in the Metaverse. Is there anything you can tell us about her?" Makoto asked as Ichinose spoke up, her next words making Sumire and Ren both wince.

"No, can't say I know anything about her, unfortunately. That said, is there any chance you could send me her code later, though?" Ichinose said as Sumire spoke up.

"Why would you need that?" Sumire asked as Futaba spoke up before Ichinose could answer Sumire's question.

"Huh? Oh, sure! No problem!" Futaba said as Ichinose nodded and spoke up.

"Great! Here, I'll give you my contact information!" Ichinose said as she held out a phone to Futaba, making an uneasy Kusa speak up.

"As long as that's all you two are exchanging." Kusa said with a warning look at Ichinose. Futaba then exchanged contact information with Ichinose, who spoke up once more as she looked at the group with a smile on her face.

"Well, then! I'm excited to see how this all develops! See you around!" Ichinose said as she walked off, after which Ryuji spoke up with wide eyes.

"Uh, that just happened. Welp, there she goes." Ryuji said as Futaba spoke up with a frown.

"Yeah. Still, it would've been nice if she'd known something about Sophia." Futaba said as Sojiro spoke up.

"True, but I get the sense from her reaction that she didn't have a clue about her." Sojiro said as Kusa spoke up.

"That's assuming she wasn't faking that reaction, Sojiro. After all, I already get the sense that she's a passable actor. But I don't know exactly if she's pretending to want to work with us or not. I just know my hackles were raised near the end there." Kusa said honestly. At that point, a 'BIP!' from Sumire's phone preceded Sophia speaking up.

"I'm okay as long as I can stay useful to you guys." Sophia said as Morgana frowned and spoke up.

"Well, guess that takes care of that, huh guys?" Morgana said as Ryuji spoke up.

"Hm? Oh, yeah! I totally forgot after all that just happened, but we're headin' to Sapporo next, right?" Ryuji asked as Morgana spoke up.

"Yeah, we should get going. Zenkichi's waiting for us in Hokkaido." Morgana said as Kusa spoke up.

"True, but first, we should sort out the driving rotation. After all, that can't be good for Makoto's back to be the only one driving the RV. And I think that we can trust Sojiro to drive the convertible with a couple of us while at least one of the other drivers, on a rotating basis, rides in the RV so that Makoto can be able to have someone to tag out with if needed. To be honest, I propose that for this trip to Hokkaido, we have Yusuke, Ann, and Goro ride with Sojiro in the convertible while I join the rest of you guys in the RV for the trip to Hokkaido. Any objections?" Kusa said as everyone nodded their agreement. Sojiro spoke up at that point.

"Good, seems like it's unanimous." Sojiro said as Goro then spoke up.

"Agreed. I guess in that case, Yusuke and Ann should follow myself and Sojiro to the convertible? Also, due to Sojiro's rule about only women sitting in the shotgun seat, Ann gets the front seat while Yusuke and I will most likely have to squeeze into the backseat together. Meanwhile, Kusa will join the group in the RV for the trip to Hokkaido. And then as we proceed, we can rotate out which one of me and Kusa joins you guys in the RV, along with which two get to ride with the other of us and Sojiro in the convertible." Goro said as Ryuji pumped a fist and spoke up.

"Hell yeah. Hokkaido, here we come!" Ryuji said. After the group went back to the car and the camper, Morgana looked at Ren and spoke up.

"Next stop, Hokkaido! Time to say, 'Goodbye, Sendai!' Anything you didn't tick off your list while we're still here? This is your last chance. Well, let's hit the RV once you're good and ready." Morgana said as Ren nodded, before his phone went off with a private chat from Futaba, which he opened up to view.

"Heyo! Can I borrow you? There's something I wanna do before we go. I shall await you at the entrance of the Mount Aoba park shrine!" Futaba sent as Ren closed his phone and shrugged, deciding to take a sec to consider his options. After a bit, he realized that most of the group was scattered around the map, so he went around to talk to everyone, starting with Ryuji, who was over by some shops. Ren approached Ryuji and spoke up.

"Yo, what's bonkin', bro?" Ren asked Ryuji, who grinned and spoke up.

"Yo, RenRen! Good timin'! I'm thinkin' of hittin' up a ramen joint before we roll out. Apparently, Sendai's all bout the spicy miso ramen. Dude, can you believe I never heard of it that way before the trip? You should grab one last bowl for yourself if you think you'll miss it! But man, do we really hafta leave already? We were so bushy, I feel like we barely got to do anything here, for real. I get that we're all back together now and on a bit of a schedule, but still! Anyways, I'm definitely lookin' forward to our next stop, though! After all, Sapporo is THE place for ramen!" Ryuji said as Ren spoke up.

"I'll think about it, Ryuji. But I still have to talk to most of the others right now. So maybe later?" Ren said with a shrug as he kept moving. After a bit, Ren found Ann in the Sendai Station and spoke to her.

"Hey, sis. What brings you here by yourself?" Ren said conversationally as Ann turned to face Ren and spoke up.

"Oh, hey Ren! All the signs and posters of Natsume are already gone. It's like he was never here. I wonder if that means he never actually had anyone in his corner to begin with?" Ann said before a 'BIP!' from Sumire's phone, which Ren was still holding onto, preceded Sophia speaking up.

"Wait, please hold on. That is not the case, Ann. I've found a number of posts online where people are supportive of Natsume." Sophia said as Ann spoke up.

"Oh! In that case, I think he'll make it just fine in the end. And who knows, maybe he'll publish another book at some point? I'd be willing to give it a read if he does. And I recall Kusa and Yusuke also said before they'd be waiting to appraise his work for themselves if Natsume does write another book. I think that for all that he had to observe most of Natsume's actions from a distance, Kusa really did empathize with Natsume, if only as a fellow aspiring writer. Hm, although, on second thought? I'm not so great with print. Think I'd still be supportive if I waited for the movie version to come out?" Ann asked as Ren spoke up.

"That's an option. Or, if you prefer to hear the words read to you, maybe you can ask Shiho to read it to you if you do get whatever book Natsume makes. Worst case, I know you could probably convince Kusa to do it, since I recall once he had Futaba eating out of his hands when he read to her." Ren said as Morgana frowned and spoke up from inside of Ren's bag.

"First of all, it was Sumire and not Futaba who was read to. Secondy, that was YOU that read to your girlfriend, Ren! Kusa's said more than once he prefers to do his reading to himself. And Sumire, who you read to, fell asleep on you because your voice was so relaxing and soothing to her. Or so she said when I asked about it before. Granted, she may or may not have also called your voice deep, alluring, and sexy, but I refuse to echo such sentiments aloud about a fellow male." Morgana said as Ren shrugged and spoke up.

"Oh, that's right. My bad." Ren said as he kept moving, eventually finding Yusuke at the entrance of the Arcade and speaking up.

"Oh, hey. Fancy seeing you here, Yusuke. What's up?" Ren said as Yusuke looked up and saw Ren before speaking up.

"Ren? What a coincidence. Look, bro." Yusuke said as he held up a Tanabata decoration in one hand and spoke up.

"It's beautiful, no? It may be a standard tourist souvenir, but I find it still has a certain elegant charm." Yusuke said as a 'BIP!' from the phone in Ren's hand preceded Sophia speaking up.

"Agreed. Apparently, these festival decorations are not solely for display, Yusuke. I read online that individuals may write down their own wishes and tie them to the branches. Common wishes include the happiness and success of family and loved ones." Sophia said as Ren spoke up.

"Oh, really? Is that a fact? Perhaps we should take advantage of that if we can before we go." Ren mused as Yusuke spoke up with wide eyes.

"I see. Very informative, Sophia. Well, in any case, what say we display this one in the RV, Ren? You agree, yes? After all, considering how wishes and desires are one in the same, it would make a rather fitting souvenir for our trip." Yusuke said as Ren spoke up.

"Uh, if you say so, Yusuke. I trust your judgement." Ren said as he accepted the 'Tanabata Decoration' key item from Yusuke. Yusuke then smiled at Ren as he spoke up.

"Thank you. Also, I've been thinking. Money, power, fame, all of these are what warp a person's true desires. And that is what makes staying true to one's heart so important." Yusuke said as Ren nodded and kept moving, spotting Haru further into the arcade and walking over to her before he got her attention by speaking up.

"Oh, hey. Didn't think I'd find you here, big sis. What's up?" Ren said to Haru, who turned and smiled as she spoke up.

"Ah, it's you, Ren-kun! Good day, little bro. I had a great time at the festival yesterday. Then again, I think everyone did, even Goro. In fact, I haven't had that much fin in a good, long while. And all of the food was great!" Haru said as a 'BIP' from the phone in Ren's hand preceded Sophia speaking up.

"I noticed everyone gorging themselves more than usual. Was the food especially delicious?" Sophia asked as Haru smiled and spoke up.

"Well, it was good, but i think it was the lively atmosphere and the fact that everyone was together that made it so easy to get a little wild. The dazzling lights, the colorful decorations, the roar of the drums and the crowd my head buzzing from all the laughing going on, and more. All of these things came together to make a once-in-a-lifetime moment." Haru said as Sophia smiled inside of Ren's phone and spoke up.

"I see. And so, I got it. Fun things make for special memories." Sophia said as Haru nodded and spoke up.

"Exactly. Also, this is probably the last we'll see of the Tanabata decorations for the year. We should take lots of pictures!" Haru said as Ren nodded and spoke up.

"Good idea. Now to find and speak to Sumire, Kusa, Goro, Sojiro, Makoto, and Futaba." Ren said as Haru smiled and spoke up.

"Funny you mention them, Ren-kun. I'm pretty sure I saw Sumire and Kusa-kun heading down that way to explore the shop a bit, and I'm pretty sure I saw poor Goro being dragged around by Sumire to carry her bags for her. Something to do with her way of punishing him for what he did to you?" Haru said as Ren winced and spoke up.

"I see. Goro, you poor fool. What sort of fresh hell have you invited upon yourself?" Ren said as he kept moving, eventually finding Kusa and Sumire a few stores down from where he'd found Haru, both looking at stuff while Goro was visibly saddled with many bags as a result of getting the job of carrying Sumire's purchases. Ren spoke up to get their attention.

"Well, well. I didn't think I'd see you three together, and especially not with Goro being the bag carrier. What's up with that?" Ren asked as Kusa spoke up.

"What's that, Ren? You wanted to know why Goro got stuck being the bag carrier? Oh, that's just Sumire's idea of a punishment for Goro. Apparently, her logic is that if he's so sorry, he can start by being the girls' subservient minion for a while as a start to repaying the debts he owes them. Then again, I think this is just her excuse to have someone carry her bags for her, as well as get revenge on him for trying to kill you before." Kusa said as Sumire huffed and spoke up while giving Kusa an unimpressed glare.

"Suure, just because I took advantage of Goro offering to make himself useful to try and start making up what he feels is his debt to the group for what he put us through, that means he's now the subservient minion to us women. No wonder you wanted to be a writer, Kusa-kun. You've got the imagination for it, if nothing else." Sumire said as Goro spoke up.

"I was just trying to make amends to the others, that's all. I'm no one's servant, though. If that were the case, I wouldn't have turned on our father before, Kusa." Goro said as Kusa spoke up.

"I stand corrected. Annnyways, I take it you're making the rounds once more before getting us ready to head out, Ren?" Kusa asked as Ren spoke up.

"Pretty much. Once I'm done speaking to you guys, I just have to find and speak to Makoto, Futaba, and Sojiro." Ren said as Sumire spoke up.

"Oh, yeah? Luckily, I thought to ask about where everyone was going before Kusa and I headed out this way. That said, I'm pretty sure Sojiro went to look at souvenirs at the shrine by the RV last I heard. And I believe Futaba was waiting for you near the shrine as well. As for Makoto, I think she was hanging around by the RV." Sumire said as Goro spoke up.

"Still, who'd have thought it'd take the matter of the Monarchs to bring us all together again? Also, is it bad that I feel kinda bad for how things played out for Natsume?" Goro asked as Kusa spoke up.

"Not at all, Goro. Despite what he did, Natsume had it pretty damn rough in my opinion. I mean, the man was just trying to make his name known as an author. Did he choose a bad way to go about it? Absolutely! That doesn't change the fact that what his editors were doing to him was entirely fucked up, though. But they got theirs with the backlash from Natsume's press conference after his change of heart.

Supposedly their stocks went way down after it came out that they were just using Natsume to get rich, and that they fixed the Soukaisha Awards in order to market Natsume more. If true, very much deserved. Those scumbags have no respect for writers if they're willing to defile something as coveted and revered as the Soukaisha Awards just to line their own pockets. Good riddance to greedy bastards." Kusa said as Goro smirked and spoke up.

"Couldn't have put it better myself, Kusa. Oh, and Ren? Unless you're volunteering to share my fate, I'd suggest you hurry up and save yourself while you still can." Goro said as Ren nodded and kept moving at that point. After a bit, Ren got back to the shrine, and saw Makoto by the RV, walking over to her and speaking up.

"Hey there, big sis. Surprised you're not off shopping or something." Ren said as Makoto spoke up.

"I already did all my shopping that I wanted to do. Shouldn't we be going? Next up is Hokkaido. Make sure you've taken care of all your last-minute shopping and sightseeing. If you'd like, we could even train for a bit in the Jail. A little workout before a long car ride can do wonders." Makoto said as Ren spoke up.

"I'll keep that in mind." Ren said before he found Sojiro over by the souvenir shop as Sumire had said he'd be.

"Heh, are you also here to look at souvenirs, Sojiro?" Ren asked Sojiro, who blinked before speaking up as he noticed Ren.

"Oh, uhh, yeah. I wasn't totally just looking at them or anything." Sojiro said as Morgana spoke up.

"It's not a crime to want to see souvenirs, Chief. We all have things we like, after all." Morgana said as Sojiro frowned and spoke up.

"Good point. Oh, wait, I almost forgot that I was able to understand you now. Looks like that recording Kusa played me before that had your voice in it while we were in that Jail worked. Also, I wouldn't have thought Kusa to be cruel enough to make you recreate that old internet meme of cats and cheeseburgers. I think the exact words were 'I can has cheeseburgers?' or something like that?" Sojiro said as Morgana blinked and spoke up with wide eyes.

"Ah, yes. You can understand me now, can't you? Heh, I still can't believe that after all that happened three years ago, it took another Metaverse incident, along with a bit of quick thinking on Kusa's part, to finally make it so that you can now understand me, Sojiro." Morgana said as Ren spoke up.

"Yes, well, I'm not surprised that Kusa found a way to make Sojiro able to understand you. Now Futaba can't give bad translations of you anymore." Ren said as Sojiro spoke up.

"Yes, well, as amusing as Futaba's sense of humor can be, isn't she waiting for you back at the shrine entrance?" Sojiro said as Ren blinked, recalling the private chat Futaba had sent and speaking up.

"Crap, that's right! She did ask about that. Thanks for reminding me, Sojiro! Sorry to cut and run like this, but I gotta go." Ren said as Sojiro nodded his understanding before Ren headed over to Futaba and spoke up.

"Hey, little sis. So sorry to keep you waiting like that. I had to talk to everyone else, and you were the last one on the list, since I saved the best for last." Ren said as Futaba spoke up with a smile.

"Yo! There you are, Ren. Also, I'm surprised you didn't save Sumire for last if it's best for last. Anyways, I wanna get a picture in this cutout board before we head out. After all, this is a great photo-op, so it'd be a real waste not to. I've gone ahead and called Inari over, too, so you should join in! Come with me, big bro!" Futaba said as Ren thought about it and nodded his agreement while speaking up.

"Sure, that sounds fine to me." Ren said as Futaba smiled and spoke up.

"Hey, thanks! Then, let's start makin' some memories!" Futaba said as a familiar laugh from nearby got Ren and Futaba's attention as an equally familiar voice spoke up.

"Hold up. What's this about makin' some memories?" Ren and Futaba heard, both turning around in time to see Sumire and Kusa walking over, a weary looking Goro trailing behind the two with several bags on each arm. Ren noted that Goro's expression quite clearly seemed to scream 'shoot me into the sun'. Ren turned to Kusa, who had spoken up previously, and spoke up.

"Apparently, Futaba wants some photos with this cutout board while we're here. I figured there was no harm in it and agreed. Apparently she also invited Yusuke over." Ren said as Kusa spoke up with a nod.

"I see. Well, the more the merrier, right? If nothing else, I'll join in while Goro gets to finish carrying the bags to the trailer and being relieved of his burden. Do not ever piss Sumire off, Ren. That girl is both very creative in her paybacks, and has a seriously scary vindictive streak in her." Kusa said with a shudder, recalling Sumire's previous remark to Goro about having a long way to go before he could begin to call his debts repaid. Kusa wisely chose not to voice the fact that Sumire had threatened Goro with a maid outfit at one point, since he knew, or at least he hoped, she was joking about that. Sumire giggled and spoke up.

"Don't worry, Kusa. Ren knows better than to cross me. Besides, he's been nothing but good to me, so I have no reason to be mad at him." Sumire said as Futaba spoke up with a smirk.

"Mwehehe, as it should be." Futaba said as Yusuke joined the group in time for Sumire and Goro to head back to the RV so Goro could set the bags down, at which point Sumire thanked Goro for his help and told him he was free to go for the time being, to which Goro nodded and promptly went inside to lay out on the bottom bunk and catch his breath for a bit while Sumire went back out to join Ren, Yusuke, Kusa, and Futaba at the cardboard cutout in time for Futaba to speak up.

"Okay, without further ado, now that all of us that are partaking are here, it's time to play 'Who looks more like Date Masamune?'!" Futaba said as she spoke up.

"For our first matchup. In the blue corner, we have the warrior of weirdness, the quirky man himself, Inari!" Futaba said as Yusuke spoke up.

"That's fine. Hm, not sure what this is about, and I don't follow, but I'll do my best." Yusuke said as Futaba spoke up.

"Anyways, in the red corner, we have the cornerstone of cool, the master of management, it's Ren!" Futaba said as Ren shrugged before Yusuke spoke up as Ren turned the phone in his head to face Yusuke so Sophia could see the game too.

"Oh? How's this?" Yusuke said as he posed behind the samurai part of the cutout, which was next to a woman with black hair and a similar colored yukata to Makoto's New Year's Day yukata. Futaba spoke up in surprise.

"Ooh! Whoa, this is crazy! You really do look like him!" Futaba said as Morgana popped out of Ren's bag to watch, laughing at Yusuke as he spoke up.

"Mwehehe! Lookin' good, Yusuke." Morgana said as Sophia spoke up from the phone in Ren's hand.

"Hmm, it's like he's wearing armor. How interesting." Sophia said as Ren spoke up with a nod.

"Indeed. It's also very artistic, and in that sense, very Yusuke." Ren said sagely. Yusuke blinked at Ren's words and spoke up.

"Really? Is it? I can't tell from where I'm standing." Yusuke said as Futaba spoke up.

"Hmm, there's still something missing, I think. Hmm, but what? Oh, I know! That's right! Ren, you get the other one!" Futaba said as Sumire and Kusa exchanged wide-eyed looks at what Futaba had said before both burst out laughing as Sumire spoke up.

"Seriously? Did you just ask my boyfriend to stand behind the cutout of a woman wearing a dress, Futaba?" Sumire said around her giggles. Kusa spoke up.

"If he does that, does that count as Ren crossdressing, or would it not, since it's the cutout wearing the dress and not Ren?" Kusa said teasingly as Ren huffed and flipped Kusa off as Sumire frowned and spoke up.

"REN! Don't do that around Sophia! I don't want her learning that." Sumire rebuked Ren, who sighed and spoke up.

"Yes, Sumire. Sorry for setting a bad example for Sophia." Ren said before reluctantly walking over and standing next to Yusuke behind the other cutout, making Futaba, Sumire, and Kusa all burst out laughing at the sight of Ren posing behind a cutout of a woman, along with Goro, who chose that moment to come join the others. Goro then spoke up with a sly smirk.

"Damn, Ren. I knew you liked to be bold, but I didn't know you liked to dress as a woman. Still, I must say. You can pull it off rather well, I think. Is there a cat-sized cutout we can put Morgana behind so he can get in on this too?" Goro said jokingly as Kusa spoke up.

"I don't think they make those in Morgana's size, Goro." Kusa said with a smirk as Futaba spoke up.

"Ahaha, here comes the princess! Cuuute couple!" Futaba said as Kusa grinned and spoke up, trying not to laugh as he saw Morgana poking his head out from behind Ren periodically as he photo-bombed Ren by batting his shoulders with his paws.

"Careful, Taba! We don't want Sumire getting jealous of Yusuke, after all. Unless you want to be the one to tell Togo-san that her boyfriend got murdered because Ren's girlfriend got jealous of him and Ren posing together and killed him with a cardboard cutout." Kusa said as Goro spoke up.

"My mistake. Also, isn't that cruel and unusual punishment for the cutout to be used as a murder weapon?" Goro said as Yusuke winced and turned to Ren while speaking up.

"Umm, Ren? Is it just me, or are we being exploited for Futaba's entertainment?" Yusuke asked Ren, who shrugged and spoke up.

"Technically, we're also being exploited for Kusa, Sumire, and Goro's entertainment as well. Besides, it's not like it's the first time someone's tried to make us look like a couple. Or did you forget that time that those people saw us on that boat together and got the wrong idea?" Ren said with a smirk as Yusuke nodded, recalling the time in question, when he'd accidentally confused a brother and sister who happened to be sharing a boat together for being a boyfriend and girlfriend. Luckily for Yusuke, Ren had been able to diffuse the situation before the brother tried to attack Yusuke. Yusuke then spoke up.

"Good point." Yusuke said as Ren spoke up.

"Besides, I feel like it's worth it to bring up group morale. So don't worry about it, bro." Ren said to Yusuke, making Kusa smirk as he discreetly snapped a photo of Ren and Yusuke posing together in the cardboard cutout and sent it via private chat to Ryuji, who fell over laughing as he saw the portrait of Ren and Yusuke behind a cardboard cutout together, drawing Ann and Haru's attention as the three were together at the time, and they also giggled when he showed them the photo. Sumire smirked at Kusa and spoke up.

"Sending the others the photographic evidence? Make sure you send me a copy so I can tease Ren with it later. After all, he makes such an adorable woman. Hee hee!" Sumire said with a giggle. Yusuke spoke up with a shrug.

"Well, if you say so, Ren. I just hope your girlfriend isn't about to emasculate you with those photos Kusa took of us." Yusuke said as Ren blanched and spoke up.

"Kusa did WHAT!?" Ren said with wide eyes, making both Kusa and Sumire burst out laughing at the mortified tone of Ren's voice. Even Futaba giggled and spoke up.

"Right, right! Yeah, looks great! But maybe you could get a little more into the role." Futaba said as Yusuke spoke up with a closed-eye grin.

"I see. Like this?" Yusuke asked as Futaba spoke up.

"Awww. Nope, not even close. Look, Inari, you're Lord Date Masamune. As ruler of the Tohoku region, everyone's throwin' mad respect your way. You gotta own it!" Futaba said as Yusuke spoke up.

"I see. In that case, then perhaps like this!" Yusuke said as he tried a different expression, making Futaba cutely stamp her foot childishly as she spoke up.

"No, not like that at all! You think you can win the respect of your people like that!?" Futaba said as Yusuke spoke up.

"Rgh, I see. Then, how about something like THIS!?" Yusuke said as he put on a fierce scowl as he posed once more, making Futaba blink at him in shock as both Kusa and Sumire blinked at this, along with Goro, who spoke up.

"Umm, am I the only one here who thinks Yusuke's expression is just creepy right now?" Goro asked as Kusa slowly spoke up.

"Nooo, not at all, Goro. I think that expression might be right up there with that sadistic freaking smirk you sometimes have." Kusa said as Goro spoke up.

"I see. That's very-HEY! Are you trying to say that Yusuke's scarier than me?" Goro said, looking offended. Sumire giggled and spoke up.

"Of course not, Goro! No one could be as scary as you. I remember that one time you glared at Ren so hard, you nearly made poor Morgana wet himself in fear. And his face was so adorable when he passed out afterwards. Hee hee!" Sumire said as Kusa laughed at the twin shouts of 'EXCUSE YOU!?' that were clearly heard from Ren and Morgana behind the cutout, making Sumire giggle even more as Goro spoke up.

"Oh right, wasn't that the time Ren and I tore that one Shadow apart after it tried to murder us both? Good times." Goro said as Kusa shuddered and spoke up.

"Maybe for you, Goro. But might I remind you that some of us were chained up to a damn wall during that whole sequence of events, and couldn't have enjoyed it even if they wanted to?" Kusa said dryly. Goro spoke up.

"Ah, that's right. I forgot that was happening when you were Maruki's prisoner. My apologies for bringing up a painful memory like that, Kusa." Goro said as Kusa forgave Goro before turning to the speechless Futaba and speaking up.

"Hey, you okay over there, Taba?" Kusa said to Futaba, who winced and spoke up.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm okay." Futaba said to Kusa before turning to Yusuke as she kept speaking.

"Sorry, Inari. You actually kinda freaked me out." Futaba said as Yusuke blinked at this and spoke up.

"Um, OK? I didn't mean to scare you, Futaba." Yusuke said as Futaba forgave Yusuke before Ren and Sumire posed together behind the cardboard cutout while discreetly holding hands behind the cutout, after which Kusa and Futaba did the same as Ren took photos of the two. After a bit, Futaba got Ren and Yusuke to pose together behind the cutout again, around the point that Sojiro walked over and spoke up with a frown.

"Um, why the hell do you have Yusuke and Ren both posing behind that cutout? And why do you have Ren posing as the woman!? That's totally emasculating!" Sojiro said as Goro spoke up with a straight face, making Sumire and Ren both stifle laughter at what Goro said next.

"I don't know how to tell you this Sojiro, but I think your daughter might be a closet psycho or sadomasochist, not sure which." Goro said, making Kusa and Sojiro both frown at Goro after his remark. Despite the awkward moment, Ren noted that everyone present had had fun at the photo stand-in, even Goro, who'd reluctantly posed once or twice inside the samurai armor, where it turned out he made for a surprisingly fierce and impressive samurai as everyone attested to, including Haru, who'd chosen that point to return to the RV and saw Goro posing behind a cutout before shocking everyone by posing with Goro briefly. After the posing and photo ops, Futaba spoke up once more.

"Oh, big bro! Listen up! This Kuon Ichinose seems like a pretty big name in the AI field. So, she's a computer expert who can apparently blow off the whole world around her during a rant with ease. The verdict of an ex-shut in? Sounds like she might not be the most social butterfly in the garden." Futaba said as Sumire spoke up.

"Says the girl who still struggles with crowds." Sumire said teasingly as Goro spoke up.

"I still say we would save ourselves a lot of trouble if we got rid of her. But I respect that you guys want to try and make an alliance with her. So I'll follow your lead on this, for now. But I reserve the right to say 'I told you so' later if she turns out to be evil." Goro said as Kusa spoke up.

"Seconded!" Kusa said quickly, getting an amused grin from Goro. Morgana then spoke up from Ren's bag.

"Maybe that means she's similar to Futaba? Well, don't worry about it either way. She's got a whole bunch of new friends now, and friends with plenty of experience breaking through to people!" Morgana said as Kusa spoke up.

"If said experience includes ignoring said people's wishes, then I agree." Kusa said sagely. Futaba smiled and spoke up.

"Good point, Kusa. And Morgana? Hey, don't sell the power of social anxiety short! Although, I will say, a fellow geek is easier than anyone else for me to talk to! Other than Kusa, that is. But him being easy to talk to should go without saying by now since he is my boyfriend and all. C'mon, c'mon, you guys! She's gonna do the Phantom Thieves a world of good, so we should just let her do her thing for now while we get to Hokkaido." Futaba said as Ren spoke up.

"If you say so? I'm not sure Kusa and Goro will let it be that easily, but maybe they will?" Ren said as Kusa spoke up.

"We'll do our best, but we make no promises if she turns out to be evil. How's that?" Kusa asked as Futaba spoke up.

"Good enough. Now listen to this. Did you know TWO MILLION PEOPLE come to the Tanabata here in Sendai every year!? After those crowds we saw yesterday, I buy it! Man, can you imagine if we came here four years ago? I'da been KO'd in an instant. But now? I can even go souvenir shopping on my own, no problem." Futaba said as Kusa spoke up with a smirk.

"Yes, well, if you came here alone, you'd probably be right, Taba. But if I were with you, I don't think that'd happen, if only because I wouldn't let it." Kusa said as Futaba stuck her tongue out childishly at Kusa, who laughed as Futaba spoke up.

"I mean, that is true. And yeah, it's because I know you're all here nearby. But still! By the time this trip's over, I'll be strollin' through the crowds all by myself, whistlin' a little tune!" Futaba said as Kusa smirked and spoke up.

"You keep telling yourself that, Taba. I'll believe it when I see it. But I also have faith that you can do it." Kusa said with a nod. Futaba smirked and spoke up.

"I know you do, Kusa. But you'll see! I'll manage to go into a crowd and come back out, all by myself! And then, you shall cower at the sight of my might! Muahaha!" Futaba said as Kusa grinned and spoke up.

"Yeah? Is that a fact? And here I thought I already cowered for you when you snapped your fingers, Taba? Or am I thinking of the wrong sort of cower?" Kusa joked as Futaba blushed and spoke up.

"GAH! KUSA! Don't bring that up in front of the others! And that's kneeling, not cowering!" Futaba said in mortification as Goro and Ren exchanged horrified looks at Futaba's outburst before the latter spoke up.

"Do we even want to know what Kusa's referring to, Goro?" Ren asked as Goro spoke up.

"I wouldn't think so, no. Sometimes, there are things that you're better off being ignorant of." Goro said wisely as Sumire spoke up with a sly smirk.

"I'm sure it's not anything Ren and I haven't already done twice over." Sumire said sassily as Futaba spoke up while childishly yet adorably sticking her tongue out at Sumire, who laughed at the childish outburst.

"I call lies on you saying that, Sumire! I'm pretty sure you and Ren haven't streaked yet, nor have you two stripped it all off for each other in a bathhouse. So I don't think you're right to say it's not anything you two haven't already done twice over. And no, Goro. I don't think you want to know." Futaba said as Ren nodded. After gathering everyone in the hideout, Ren noticed there was one quest left that wasn't done in the Sendai Jail. He then gathered everyone into the Metaverse to sort it out...

(At the entrance of the Sendai Jail, with Joker, Mona, Skull, Panther, Fox, Queen, Oracle, Noir, Crow, Violet, Draconis, Seeker, and Pendragon)

"Before anyone asks, I brought us here both to train and because we have a request to defeat 3 Lamias by striking their weaknesses. Also, since we're here, I wanted to apprise you all of a change I'm making to our formations. Now that we have so many of us, we have enough for three waves of 4 battlers, meaning Violet won't always be in the front lines any longer. Sorry about that, Violet. Oh, and before I forget, we need to run down everyone's code names for Pendragon's reference, since this is his first time entering a Jail with us." Joker said as the group took turns giving Pendragon their code names. Once that was done, Joker kept speaking.

"Thank you for your cooperation, everyone. That being said, for this run, Group A, which I myself will lead, shall be myself, Panther, Fox, and Noir. Group B, which will be led by Draconis, will be Draconis, Mona, Seeker, and Violet. This leaves Pendragon, Crow, Queen, and Skull to be Group C, which will be led by Queen. And Oracle will move between the groups as a go-between and coordinating our efforts and navigating us. Any objections?" Joker asked as no one voiced any objections before the group got to work.

As the group began the request, they started mowing down Shadows in Aoba Street 1st Ward, during which time Skull hit level 26, Fox hit level 27, and Noir hit level 28. The level ups gave several new skills. Firstly, Skull gained the mid-tier Elec skill 'Zionga'. Secondly, Noir gained the mid-tier Psy skill 'Psio'. Finally, Fox got the mid-tier Ice skill 'Bufula', making him smirk as he spoke up.

"Wow, a new skill! I must try this out soon!" Fox said as Pendragon smirked and spoke up.

"Heh, not bad, Fox. That's a pretty good skill." Pendragon said approvingly as Fox nodded and Kamu Susano-o acquired 'Bufula'. Skull smirked and spoke up at that point.

"Hell yeah, I got a new skill! Whaddya think?" Skull asked as Joker smirked and spoke up.

"Not bad, man. But you've got a ways to go still." Joker said wisely as Seiten Taisei acquired 'Zionga'. Next, Noir spoke up.

"Oh, a new move! Now I can work even harder!" Noir said as Crow smirked and spoke up.

"You say that like you don't always work insanely hard, Noir. And I have to say, I actually respect that about you, that you're always working so hard." Crow said sagely as Noir smiled and spoke up with a giggle.

"Wow, I think that's the nicest thing you've said to me since your return, Crow. Thank you." Noir said kindly as Crow nodded, ignoring the smug grins on Joker and Draconis' faces as Astarte acquired 'Psio'. After eliminating a strong Shadow, Panther hit level 27 and Crow hit level 26, the level ups giving both new moves as Hereward obtained the mid-tier Curse skill 'Eiga' and Hecate picked up the Ailment skill 'Marin Karin', making Panther speak up.

"I've got a new power!" Panther said as Crow spoke up.

"Yeah, a power to brainwash. Should we be worried that Panther's gonna be a Monarch eventually?" Crow joked as Panther frowned and spoke up.

"Shut up, Crow. Joking or not, it's totally rude to call me a Monarch!" Panther said as the others said nothing while Hecate acquired 'Marin Karin'. Crow smirked as he spoke up.

"I call them as I see them, Panther. Also, behold Hereward's new power!" Crow said as Draconis playfully booed the brag and spoke up.

"Crow? That was bad. Like, really bad. However, that new skill is a good one, so well done." Draconis said sagely as Crow scoffed but said nothing as Herward acquired 'Eiga'.

After the group kept moving, they eventually found and defeated a few Treasure Demons, with the ensuing EXP gains from the second Treasure Demons being sufficient to ensure that both Joker and Oracle hit level 30, the level-ups being especially helpful to Oracle, as she got the passive skill 'Moral Boost', which increases the effects of 'Moral Support', making her speak up.

"Ooh, check out my new skill!" Oracle said as Draconis spoke up.

"Heh, it's been too long since I got to hear you banter like this, Oracle. I find myself surprised how much I miss hearing it, truth be told." Draconis said as Joker spoke up.

"You sure it wasn't just her you missed, Draconis?" Joker teased as Draconis flushed behind his mask and spoke up.

"Shut it, Joker! I guarantee you you'd be the same if it'd been reversed and you'd been away from Violet for a while. Shi-err, I mean shoot, I bet you were the same way after returning to her side after three years. Uhh, but that's not to say that I'm trying to swear in front of an impressionable person like Seeker, of course. Apologies for my crass outburst." Draconis said as Sumire nodded approvingly to Draconis correcting himself while Oracle giggled at the display as Al Azif acquired 'Moral Boost'.

After getting enough Lamia takedowns and finishing the request, Joker tagged out Fox, Panther, and Noir, sending them over to replace Mona, Queen, and Seeker in their respective groups, sending Noir to join Group C while Panther and Fox joined Group B. On doing so, Seeker discovered that from leveling up to level 26 during her stint in the back lines, Pithos had acquired the healing skill 'Diarama?', making her speak up.

"Ooh, wow, a new move!? Who knew you could benefit from being in the back lines like this?" Seeker said as Mona spoke up.

"Heh, very nice, Lady Seeker! I knew you could do it!" Mona said as Seeker shyly smiled and thanked Mona as Pithos acquired 'Diarama?'. Once that was done, Joker guided the group out of the Metaverse...

(Back in the real world, in the RV, with Ren, Morgana, Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, Haru, Goro, Sumire, Kusa, Sophia, and Sojiro)

After the group left the Jail a while later following some training, Ren turned in the finished request and used a lot of the proceeds from the Jail run to buy more supplies for the next location. Once Ren was satisfactorily prepared for the next city, he gathered everyone in the RV to start the process of leaving Sendai, knowing that if this city's Jail was any indication, the Jails were only going to continue to increase in difficulty as the group proceeded further into the trip. As such, Ren knew instinctively that the group had to stick together now, more than ever, if they were to have a chance of continuing to overcome the Monarchs...

END OF CHAPTER AND OF ARC 2- PHONY OVERLORD

A/N: And boom, there we go! That's Arc 2 done and dusted! And as most of you can guess, the next chapter will more than likely be another interlude since I usually do those between arcs. And this interlude is one I've been excited to get to type out since it'll delve rather heavily into the particulars of Goro's situation, as well as what he and Kusa have been up to in the three years between the end of Maruki's Palace and their reunion with the others.

So hopefully, any fans of Kusa and/or Goro reading this are excited for that! That being said, not the next arc, but probably the one after, meaning Arc 4, I'll probably reveal the other Phantom Thief (or Thieves) added for the story. However, at this point, I'm not fully decided on who that Thief should be exactly.

Hopefully, by the time this chapter is posted so you can read this A/N, I'll have figured out who the other new Thief (or Thieves, even) will be. Truth be told, I had plans for there to be a third new Phantom Thief added, but those plans ended when I had to scrap my plans to work in a semi-crossover with both Persona 3 and Persona 4, since one of the people who were helping me fine-tune the original Phantom Thieves told me when I pitched the idea to them that apparently such a crossover would be too confusing for the readers. So unless either I decide otherwise, or I get a lot of requests for it, that crossover likely won't happen at this time.

Unfortunate, since I had plans to include someone as a Phantom Thief who, as far as I know, hasn't really been depicted as being a Persona-user in most Persona fics I've read, outside of a couple of Persona 4 based stories, since she's of course a character from Persona 4/Persona 4 Golden.

And it kinda sucks, since she already in theory has the potential lying dormant within her after her run-in with the TV World near the end of Persona 4/Persona 4 Golden. But I'll leave that for the readers to decide, I think. Should I open up the story to being a semi-crossover with Persona 3 and/or Persona 4's casts being involved? Feel free to weigh in on that either in the reviews or via PMs. I'm open to reader input on this.

Similarly, I'm also open to hearing any thoughts/feedback/opinions/suggestions/constructive criticism my readers might have, so feel free to either leave a review or PM me (whichever you prefer, though any reviews I get are appreciated!) those, as I like hearing from my readers either way.

And until next chapter, sithlorde1988 out!

NOTES

*1* - I feel like I've referenced him a lot, but seriously, Chaosinthesky13 has some really funny stuff in his commentary, such as this line by Goro. So all creative credit for this line belongs to him.

Also, big time shoutout to Chaosinthesky13 for his kick-ass let's plays and streams on both Youtube and Twitch (Seriously, if you need something new to watch, or want a streamer to watch on Twitch, look Chaosinthesky13 up! He has a ton of playthroughs/let's plays of many different sorts games, ranging from JRPGS like Persona and/or Tales of all the way to tactics-esque games like Persona 5 Tactica and/or Digimon Survive, as well as several Fire Emblem titles.

Odds are good he has something you'll enjoy on his channels, so go give him some support and views!), and for just being a hilarious guy in general for the most part, his tendency to heap gratuitous amounts of vitriol and even abuse on certain characters *coughMorganacough* notwithstanding. Also, I felt like this was something that Goro might say as a joke with his slightly warped sense of humor.

PHANTOM THIEVES LISTING AS OF THE END OF ARC 2

JOKER (Ren) - Level: 30 Current Personas: Raoul (Level 18), Jack Frost (Level 30), Orthrus (Level 26), Mothman (Level 30), Ame-No-Uzume (Level 29), Kaiwan (Level 30), Lilim (Level 27) Equipped Persona: Kaiwan Persona Moveset: Concentrate (Support/Buff), Mapsio (Psy), Garula (Wind), Diarama (Healing), Bufula (Ice)

SKULL (Ryuji) - Level: 26 Current/Partner Persona: Seiten Taisei Persona Moveset: Zio (Elec), Lunge (Physical), Tarukaja (Support), Headbutt (Physical), Mazio (Elec), Rebel Soul (Passive), Zionga (Elec)

MONA (Morgana) - Level: 26 Current/Partner Persona: Diego Persona Moveset: Garu (Wind), Dia (Healing), Media (Healing), Magaru (Wind), Technical Adept (Passive), Recarm (Healing), Diarama (Healing), Garula (Wind)

PANTHER (Ann) - Level: 27 Current/Partner Persona: Hecate Persona Moveset: Agilao (Fire), Agi (Fire), Tarunda (Support/Debuff), Soul Thief (Passive), Maragi (Fire), Dekaja (Support/Debuff), Marin Karin (Ailment), Diarama (Healing)

FOX (Yusuke) - Level: 27 Current/Partner Persona: Kamu Susano-o Persona Moveset: Bufula (Ice), Freeze Boost (Passive), Sukukaja (Support/Buff), Knockdown Style (Passive), Giant Slice (Physical), Vicious Strike (Physical), Mabufu (Ice), Dodge Fire (Passive)

QUEEN (Makoto) - Level: 27 Current/Partner Persona: Anat Persona Moveset: Frei (Nuclear), Dia (Healing), Rakukaja (Support/Buff), Mafrei (Nuclear), Media (Healing), Sledgehammer (Physical), Diarama (Healing), Freila (Nuclear)

NOIR (Haru) - Level: 28 Current/Partner Persona: Astarte Persona Moveset: Psio (Psy), Evil Touch (Ailment), Snap (Gun), Hysterical Slap (Physical), Technical Adept (Passive), Amrita Drop (Healing), Mapsi (Psy), Gun Boost (Physical)

ORACLE (Futaba) - Level: 30 Current Personas: Al Azif and *REDACTED* Equipped Persona: Al Azif Persona Moveset: Analysis (Passive), Moral Support (Passive), Active Support (Passive), Moral Boost (Passive)

SEEKER (Sophia) - Level 26 Current 'Persona': Pithos Persona Moveset: Kouga? (Bless), Rakunda? (Support/Debuff), Diarama? (Healing), Makouha? (Bless), Media? (Healing), Bless Boost? (Passive), Tetraja? (Support/Barrier), Recarm? (Healing)

VIOLET (Sumire) - Level: 27 Current/Partner Persona: Ella Persona Moveset: Kouha (Bless), Cleave (Physical), Rebellion (Support/Buff), Dia (Healing), Makouha (Bless), Dream Needle (Physical), Kouga (Bless), Recarm (Healing)

DRACONIS (Kusa) - Level: 26 Current/Partner Persona- Malefor Persona Moveset: Double Fangs (Physical), Agi (Fire), Rising Slash (Physical), Media (Healing), Almighty Boost (Passive), Garu (Wind), Megido (Almighty), Vicious Strike (Physical)

CROW (Goro) - Level: 26 Current/Partner Persona: Hereward Persona Moveset: Eiha (Curse), Giant Slice (Physical), Mudo (Curse/insta-kill), Rakunda (Support/Debuff), Triple Down (Gun), Megido (Almighty), Maeiha (Curse), Eiga (Curse)

PENDRAGON (Sojiro) - Level: 26 Current/Partner Persona: Kohryu Persona Moveset: Psio (Psy), Headbutt (Physical), Psy Boost (Passive), Spell Master (Passive), Psy Wall (Support/Wall) Snap (Gun), Dekunda (Support/Buff), Mapsi (Psy)

ALLIES: Zenkichi, Shiho, Ichinose