Good Day Readers! Obviously, I do not own anything connected to the Persona series in general or Persona 5 specifically, I DO own Chiba Natsumi and Anais Ouvrard, along with Natsumi's immediate family members and the original Personas that will be showing up on occasion.

To RosyMiranto18, yes he is indeed Natsumi's uncle, you can probably guess how much she hates that.

I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy

Chapter 63: - Forced Intel Gathering

When I met up with Ren and Morgana that morning, Ren didn't say anything, instead he simply pulled me right into a hug and held me there for as long as he could without making us late. One of his hands cradled the back on my head while the other was wrapped securely around my shoulders so that I couldn't pull away, until there was eventually no other choice but to do so.

Our journey to the train station resulted in me having Morgana draped across my shoulders before he needed to slink into a bag when the train arrived, though it was my bag this time instead of Ren's which was quite a surprise. We kept moving at a steady pace towards school with Ren occasionally shooting me looks but he said nothing and steady simply knocked his hand against mine every so often.

"Don't you think all that blackmail stuff is insane?" A voice spoke up. It was coming from the vending machines, so I turned to look over at the source and saw two students standing together. "I didn't think it had anything to do with me, but there are even victims in my class…," The student carried on. Gods, it seemed the mafia's influence was growing, we definitely needed to do something about this issue.

"Oooh, I know all about that! These guys supposedly come asking if you want an easy, high paying job but then if you say yes, you get dragged into some real shady stuff. The teachers or student council prez'll do something about it though. People're real worried," The girl with the first one spoke. Though she did speak rather fast, at least the words were easy to understand, but it was worrying to know that this much information was spreading about.

"Oh, are you talking about that posting? I wonder if she was serious about it," The first student admitted. Niijima-senpai was definitely serious about getting rid of that problem given that she was blackmailing us. "I heard she knew about Kamoshida and the sexual harassment… she prolly won't do much to help," The girl added on. Now I wasn't going to listen to that kind of talk about someone who was actually trying to do something unlike that blasted heap of a principal.

"You're wrong," I called. The two girls jumped in surprise before looking over at me, while I stepped slightly closer to them although my expression was blank. "Niijima-senpai is investigating the issue already, I spotted her in Shibuya the other day and asked her, she was also clueless about the sexual harassment, so don't go spreading that nonsense around," I chastised. I didn't like that rumour running around so I was putting it to an end now.

"Sorry Chiba-san!" Both girls exclaimed. They both took off towards the school, I stared after them trying to figure out why they had run away like they did since it was a bit weird; a small breathy sound escaped from behind me, so I looked and saw that Ren seemed to be attempting to hide his laughter and failing to do so before embracing it and linking his arm with mine.

"You really are intimidating," Ren commented. Was that why those girls had run off? I could tell, so simply followed along as we continued into the school and quickly took our seats, though as I suspected right around the moment our lesson began, my phone proceeded to go off. Ann subtly looked back at us with an exaggerated expression of exasperation on her face as Ren softly shook his head; but we all retrieved our phones and quickly looked at what Ryūji was telling us.

Ryūji: That Iida guy's here.

Ann: I'll try and ask him about it.

Ren: Good luck.

Ann: Leave it to me!

Ryūji: That level of motivation actually makes me a little more nervous.

Natsumi: Stop that Ryūji.

Natsumi: Or you risk making Ann nervous.

Yusuke: In any case, let us know if you learn anything.

Unfortunately, despite Ann's eager energy, Iida managed to get out of the room when our break rolled around which prevented the blonde model from being able to talk to him.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Once the school day as over, Ann managed to corner Iida before the boy could leave the classroom, which was quite lucky for us; although since I was concerned about how well Ann's acting would go, I drifted closer to them. Ren apparently had the same idea since he also moved as close to them as possible while ensuring that Iida didn't get spooked by what we were doing to them.

"…and so I really need some money right now," Ann claimed. Huh, she actually sounded pretty convincing this time, I wonder if she had been practicing in order to avoid sounding like a pre-recorded wooden voice. "Can you tell me about this easy part-time job? I'm sure you know about it, Iida-kun. Please!" Ann pleaded. She was shooting him very wide blue eyes that kind of made me think of a puppy.

"You don't need my help. A girl like you could probably get a job anywhere, right?" Iida insisted. That wasn't exactly wrong, Ann was very personal and easy to talk to which might at least get her a job in some kind of customer service business if she wasn't a model; although it seemed like Ann hadn't been expecting this answer to come up.

"Huh?" Ann questioned. Her wide eyed look vanished and she rapidly blinked her eyes and I could practically hear the wheels in her mind spinning out of control. "Um… now that you mention it… yes," Ann answered. I shared a worried look with Ren since it seemed like this was going downhill. "So, um… what I mean is…," Ann struggled. Her blue eyes were darting about as she tried to figure out what to say.

"This is going south fast," Morgana worried. I could only nod in agreement to those words since it seemed that Ann had gone and lost the trail of the conversation which could be quite dangerous; losing Iida would end our investigation and we'd need to come up with some other way to get information which would cause a delay in finding the boss, and that we couldn't afford.

"O-Oh, François!" Ann suddenly exclaimed. All of us listening to the conversation were baffled by the sudden French name – where did she get that from? – with Iida and Morgana letting out sounds to indicate how surprised they were. "My cat François got run over by a car… and also has an incurable illness! I need money fast!" Ann exclaimed. That seemed a bit much, using an accident and a disease in order to get information.

"That's not convincing at all," Morgana bemoaned. It was quite a risky play to make since the absurdity could end up making Iida start to poke holes within the story, but when I looked at him, I couldn't see anything that indicated suspicion. "Is she talking about me?" Morgana wondered. That was a possibility, especially since it was a French name for a cat, which could have been inspired by Morgana.

"I-If François were to die; I think I'd die too! Probably…," Ann insisted. I couldn't tell if she was failing or succeeding, this story seemed to be getting a little out of hand and I wasn't entirely sure if Iida was convinced by the story, overwhelmed by what was going on thus unable to process, or perhaps he knew exactly what was happening.

"Come on, don't talk like that," Iida insisted. Okay so it definitely wasn't the last one; his voice had sounded too sincere and kind when he tried to placate Ann who seemed to be struggling with what to say next, I wasn't entirely sure if it was safe to intervene at this moment or if I should even try to intervene just in case I ended up derailing whatever plan Ann might have been coming up with.

"If you don't like it, then tell me about that easy part-time job," Ann pushed. She seemed to have regained her confidence and kept pushing in order to try and get some more information which was a relief for me. "You know something, don't you? I've heard the rumours," Ann claimed. She was doing quite well by managing to focus upon the task that she had set her mind to.

"Rumours? Was it Nishiyama who…," Iida began to speak. Ann cut him off however when she repeated the name that Iida had spoken and even I ended up perking up when that name was said, since it sounded like some kind of lead. "Oh, uh…," Iida stumbled. Probably trying to think of something to say, but we at least had an something.

"Hey, what was that about Nishiyama?" Ann asked. She was clearly trying to pull more information out of Iida which meant that Ren and I would be able to pursue the lead in order to figure out what Nishiyama might know; of course, it would also be best to get all the information that we could out of everyone who knew even the tiniest bit of knowledge about this infernal situation.

"She actually got the momentum back. She's not acting anymore now, is she?" Morgana realised. Our phantom thief expert was quite right about that fact since Ann seemed to have focused herself and was continuing to push on with getting information. "Come on, let's leave this guy to Ann-dono and go look for that Nishiyama fellow," Morgana suggested. With that, the three of us proceeded to leave the classroom.

"I'll see if I can find any more people talking about it," I insisted. Ren nodded his head and he proceeded to break away from me, only to be accosted by Mishima, leaving the two boys behind I moved towards the ground level, hopefully the older students might be able to reveal something before I started to look at my peers; I truly hope that I didn't need to go asking any of the first years, simply because it was too horrifying to contemplate them getting trapped in this horrific situation.

Unfortunately, all I really heard was the same basic information, the police were struggling, people from our school had been targeted and Shibuya was a dangerous place to be. It was rather worrying that this information was so widespread, yet at the same time that was just the bare bones of what I really needed. I was just about to head back up to where the second years would still be lingering when something stopped me.

"Senpai!" Yoshizawa's voice came. I paused in moving and turned around to look at the red haired girl who was darting towards me, I noticed the worried look upon her face and immediately felt worry quickly start to stir within my stomach upon seeing that expression upon her face. Something had clearly worried the young gymnast and she felt the need to find someone that she could trust. "I need to talk to you," Yoshizawa rushed out.

"Alright," I agreed. However, one look around the slightly crowded hallway and the looks that people were shooting us, I figured it needed to be relocated. "I think we should move somewhere else first though," I suggested. Luckily for me, Yoshizawa nodded her head and we proceeded to move away for some peace and quiet; I led Yoshizawa out into the courtyard and found that we were suitably alone. "What did you want to speak to me about? You seemed rather worried," I wondered.

"Oh, hello Chiba-san," A mature voice commented. I turned around to see Haru-senpai standing there, she looked quite calm as opposed to the expression that was currently resting on Yoshizawa's face. Speaking of the red haired girl, she was peering at Haru-senpai with a puzzled expression on her face which wasn't all that surprising since it didn't seem like the fluffy haired upperclassman had a lot of friends.

"Haru-senpai, nice to see you again," I greeted. It had seemed like she wasn't around much, so I hadn't been able to speak to her since our first initial conversation, I then noticed that Haru-senpai was blinking slight at Yoshizawa. "Ah, Haru-senpai, Yoshizawa Kasumi-san, Yoshizawa-san, Haru-senpai," I introduced. I gestured between the two girls as I spoke so that they were properly introduced to them.

"Nice to meet you," Yoshizawa greeted. She proceeded to bow to the older girl much like she did to me and Ren when she first met us, Haru-senpai on the other hand simply smiled ever so lightly but I almost felt as if she was forcing the smile; no, it wasn't forced as the smile was genuine, simply that this smile was one that could be easily forced and was probably the one that Haru-senpai just defaulted to when she didn't know exactly what to do.

"It's lovely to meet you as well," Haru responded. Her tone was gentle and kind, she even proceeded to hold out her hand to Yoshizawa, the gymnast proceeded to blink slightly to look at it before reaching her own hand slightly which allowed them to meet; the two shook hands before releasing the limbs. With that, Yoshizawa immediately spun around to look at me with that intense expression on her face.

"Anyway, Yoshizawa, what has you so worried?" I asked. I wasn't entirely sure why she had decided to come with me the issues, but since she had then it was important that I listen to whatever concerns had driven her to seek me out; Yoshizawa's eyes darted to Haru-senpai which caused me to sigh slightly at her action. "Haru-senpai's a good person, whatever is going on won't get you in trouble with her," I reassured. Haru-senpai proceeded to turn a little pink in her cheeks, but it was the truth of how I perceived her, there was something warm about Haru-senpai that I'd felt in our first meeting.

"Okay senpai, um… the other day I saw a couple of students in our uniform talking to some rather suspicious looking men in Shibuya. There was something about a job, one that was supposedly easy, but I got spotted so didn't hear much more than that," Yoshizawa admitted. A cold feeling slithered its' way across my bones at hearing that, to know that my underclassman had come so close to the mafia's operation without knowing the full danger terrified me.

"I've also heard some disconcerting rumours," Haru-senpai spoke up. I'm amazed that nothing cracked in my spine with how fast my head snapped over to look at the auburn haired lady. "Just bits and pieces from other students, but they seem to be implying that some sketchy people are forcing others to deliver something for a sizeable sum of money," Haru-senpai revealed. Things were definitely spiralling more than before if the information was this widespread.

"I'm aware of the issue that's happening, probably a little bit more than either of you but-," I began to say. But at that moment, my phone proceeded to go off, I pulled it out and quickly checked, but upon noticing it was the group Chat, I knew I had to look. "Excuse me for a moment," I requested. Without waiting, I took three steps back and quickly proceeded to start looking through what was being said.

Yusuke: Have you found anything out.

Ryūji: Nada.

Natsumi: A little.

Natsumi: Ann's still grilling Iida as far as I know

Yusuke: I have tried looking into this high paying part-time job myself.

Yusuke: People seem to be talking about it here as well.

Yusuke: Supposedly a man will talk to you in broad daylight over on Central Street.

Ren: The time is new info, but the rest lines up with what Nishiyama told me.

Ren: He said the man claimed it takes ten minutes and works best for those who don't stand out.

Yusuke: Your job is to deliver a small envelope he hands you.

Natsumi: High paying, mafia, small envelope.

Natsumi: I think the picture's become clearer.

Ren: Yeah, and it's worse than I thought.

Ryūji: You two must see somethin' I don't 'cause I'm stumped.

Ryūji: Anyway, I'll keep lookin'

Yusuke: I will contact you again if I learn anything more.

"Yoshizawa-san, Haru-senpai, please try and avoid Shibuya, especially in broad daylight, for the time being," I requested. I put my phone away as I said that; it might have been reckless, but I didn't want either of these two gentle souls to be wrapped up in such a dangerous situation. "The thing you were worried about involves those things, you both do slightly stand out, but I'd rather be safe than sorry," I warned.

"Of course, Chiba-san, luckily I don't go to Shibuya often," Haru-senpai reassured. I was deeply relieved to hear that, while I'd typically question how someone living in Tokyo didn't go to Shibuya often, it wasn't something that needed to be spoken about since it just kept her safe from the danger for the time being; I could ask later if it ever seemed necessary.

"I'm there more often but I'll try to avoid it, thank you so much senpai," Yoshizawa stated. That was the more worrying aspect, I'd need to make sure that I checked up on Yoshizawa every so often to ensure that she remained safe from being harmed by these savages that seemed to be running wild in our city. With the two ladies warned, I proceeded to turn around and walked away from the two.

Winding my way back through the hallways, I tossed around the knowledge that we had gained, knowing that it was definitely drug smuggling worried me quite a fair bit since this just upped exactly how much danger the victims were within. Whoever these mafia thugs were, we needed to immediately be more careful than before; soon I reached the door to my classroom and I pushed open the door in order to slip inside and see what was going on.

"Please tell me about the job or else my beloved François…," Ann pleaded. Well, it seemed that Ann hadn't quite managed to get any more information out of Iida than when I had left, also Ren had returned to the classroom as well; I walked over to him and saw that he seemed determined given how he was moving towards Iida and Ann.

"She's still doing that?" Morgana asked. It was definitely apparent that Ann was carrying on her story of needing to treat her cat to try and get the information that we needed to find our target. "Alright take over for her," Morgana insisted. Yeah, it was probably best for us to take over this conversation since we might be able to pressure Iida into spilling the secrets that Ann wasn't able to convince Iida to admit.

"Ann-chan, it's alright, we'll take it from here," I reassured. I walked over and gently settled my hand upon her shoulder, this caused Ann to stop talking and she looked back at me, her expression seemed rather drained and she was almost breathing heavily; the toll of the efforts to gain information had clearly deeply affected Ann's mental state, it was definitely a good idea to try and get Ann to rest.

"Iida-san, we'd like to talk to you and I hope you'll tell us the truth," Ren requested. He was standing closer to the boy, clearly making sure that Iida wouldn't be able to run away from us, which given Ren's undeserved reputation would probably be a likely outcome. Iida seemed a little concerned as he focused upon the dark haired boy.

"Amamiya? Chiba?" Iida questioned. His eyes cut between the two of us as I noticed that he seemed to be a little uncertain of being confronted by the two of us. "Come on, both of you as well? I already told you, I don't know," Iida insisted. He seemed very worried about us figuring out about what he happened to know, he even tried to move away from the rest of us. We couldn't let him do such a thing.

"Nishiyama told me everything that happened," Ren revealed. That revelation caused Iida to jerk to a stop and he whipped around to stare at Ren with wide eyes, this clearly showed that whatever Ren had learned from Nishiyama was something that he didn't want others to know; Ren was completely relaxed despite the almost wild look that seemed to be creeping into Iida's expression.

"He did?! That bastard… damnit!" Iida cursed. His eyes narrowed sharply which showed how angry he was at other people knowing whatever had happened, but to have gone as far as to call someone a 'bastard' was quite rude in my opinion when it was undeserved unlike whenever Ryūji used that insult on the Rulers or people's Shadows; it seemed Ren didn't like it either as he proceeded to move closer to Iida with a rather intense aura rolling off of him.

"He's worried about you, that's it," Ren insisted. I do have to wonder why Nishiyama hadn't tried to tell anyone – unless he was Niijima-senpai's source – about what Iida had ended up involved in; unless of course Nishiyama happened to be scared of something happening to him or Iida if he went to anyone with some kind of influence to try and help them.

"Shit… well, if you already know about it, fine…," Iida relented. At least he had now relaxed which would make this conversation just a little bit easier, though he looked around warily at the surrounding. "But I don't want to talk about it here. Let's go somewhere a little quieter," Iida requested. It was probably a good thing for us to find somewhere for Iida to finally relax and actually start talking.

Leaving the classroom, Ren started to move towards the stairs leading upwards, I poked Iida in the back to encourage him to move forward, while staying behind him so that he couldn't attempt to escape from us. We kept moving until Ren reached the area that would lead us to the roof, while Ren stepped closer to the door and Iida followed after him, I settled myself against the wall of the staircase while my legs stretched out across the step to prevent Iida getting away.

"What's up with you two? Especially in front of everyone," Iida questioned. He seemed rather angry about what had happened in the classroom, but I could hardly care since we needed the information that he had to get through the trial Niijima-senpai had set for us; besides if Iida was involved with the mafia, then this would benefit him in the long run for us to take down the boss.

"Basic interrogation tactics are to make the interrogatee uncomfortable, you clearly didn't want to mention anything in front of others, so it was the best way to get you to capitulate," I explained. Iida looked at me with a complicated expression upon his face as I relaxed against the wall of the staircase, it would be easy to stop him from leaving from this position.

"Yeah, I got a job! So what? Isn't that normal! What are you getting at?!" Iida protested. He was glaring at me, but I wasn't all that bothered by his look since it was pretty weak when compared to some of the other glares that had been shot at me; especially when he seemed to be rather scared instead of just indignant like he was trying to sound.

"Not one that's so shady, since it's drug smuggling," Ren coolly stated. The way he said those words must have had an effect on Iida given how he jumped and turned around to face the curly haired boy; clearly, he was not happy about knowing we knew this information but at this moment we didn't have much in the way of leads, so we really needed him to give us the knowledge that he already had.

"H-How do you? I've only told one person about that," Iida questioned. Well, that was interesting then, if it wasn't Nishiyama then maybe it was Iida who had passed along the information to Niijima-senpai but if that was the case, then why didn't the upperclassman actually tell us what she already know? It was a little annoying to be honest. "Of all the people, I can't believe you were the ones to find out…," Iida worried. I wonder if he was really annoyed or just trying to stop us from asking about what he knew.

"Look, Iida-san, I don't care about you. It's the ones higher up the proverbial food chain that has me concerned," Ren reassured. At least Ren was showing that he didn't particularly care about whatever Iida was up to; Iida shifted his weight several times and his change of posture made it seem like he might be looking for a way to escape before finally heaving a massive sigh.

"You're right. They told me that they had an easy part-time job for me and I ended up smuggling drugs… all I had to do was put envelopes into coin lockers and they said they'd give me a hefty pay check. I didn't know what was in the envelopes though! Still, this is what came out of it," Iida explained. He sounded rather dejected to speak those words, clearly showing how unhappy he was about the situation he'd become stuck in.

"Are you being threatened?" Ren asked. We already pretty much knew that the people were sealed within a dangerous situation thanks to the tiny morsel of information Niijima-senpai had decided to give us, but hearing from one of the actual victims would be best, it'd allow us to corroborate the information that we had been given; Iida slumped down with an immensely sad air surrounding him which indicated the truth of the matter.

"Yeah, they started threatening me pretty soon after I got paid the first time. They had pictures of me carrying the goods. Said they'd expose what I did unless I paid them off," Iida revealed. That was horrific to hear, knowing the details made me feel rather sickened about what these people were suffering through.

"Disgusting. They threaten children after explicitly hiring them to perform a crooked deed while keeping themselves safely insulated from the ramifications of their actions. I also bet the price to get rid of the evidence is impossible to achieve without this job in which case they just keep raising it with 'interest' attached," I sneered. They were acting rather cowardly in my opinion, but it certainly put them in a rather secure position.

"You know… why are you even asking me this stuff?" Iida wondered. He was mainly looking at Ren, but he occasionally shot looks at me over his shoulder, but the focus was definitely more on Ren. "Are you just gonna use my job to blackmail me too?" Iida asked. I actually let out a scoff at those words, irritation bubbled within me at the fact that he assumed Ren was going to blackmail him.

"I already said you don't interest me, that's the truth," Ren stated. His tone was dead when he said those words, apparently, he was rather irritated by the suspicion being thrown at him; I pushed off from my position and moved to gently lay my hand on Ren's shoulder, he at least deserved to know that there was someone who knew the truth. Iida wasn't aware of the truth but that didn't mean his words weren't still going to hurt Ren.

"I see… well, even if you were planning on doing that, I don't have any money I could give you," Iida stated. He was shifting uncomfortable, probably realising what he had just done to Ren. "If either of you is really interested in that job, try heading over to Central Street. That's where they told me about it…," Iida advised. Well, that was at least some information we could use to figure out what to do. "I-I told you everything you want to know, right? Can I go?" Iida requested.

"Sure," Ren agreed. He nodded his head in the direction that would lead Iida back to the rest of the school, our discussion was done now and we could share the information with the rest of the group so that they could know what we'd learned; when Iida turned to walk away, I figured I could at least give him some advice to hopefully avoid ending up in something similar to the situation he currently found himself in. I reached out and gently tugged on his elbow to stop him from walking away from us.

"Word to the wise, Iida-san. If it sounds too good to be true then it usual has hefty dangers attached to it," I warned. Iida gave me a look for a few long seconds before pulling his elbow free from my – admittedly – loose grip and proceeded to head down the stairs. At that moment, my phone and Ren's proceeded to go off so we both quickly pulled them free to see what was happening.

Ryūji: How'd it go?

Ryūji: Did Ann's acting help at all? I'm thinking prolly not.

Ann: It went perfectly, I think!

Natsumi: Ann delayed him long enough for us to gather intel.

Ren: So, yes, it helped to keep him around.

Ren: It's drug trafficking, by the way.

Yusuke: So, they ask you to deliver drugs.

Ryūji: That's serious.

Ryūji: I just searched for 'Shibuya drugs' and got tons of hits too.

Ann: So, they're making people traffic drugs, then threatening them.

Yusuke: That must be what I heard people talking about in Shibuya.

Yusuke: They seem to be going about this quite openly during the daytime. What bold methodology.

Ann: I would've imagined they would do it at night… I wonder why they chose the day.

Natsumi: The police are more vigilante at night because that's normally when suspicious actions are going on.

Ren: Plus, they have a better access to students at that time of the day as well.

Natsumi: Whoever is in charge is smart.

Yusuke: I see.

Yusuke: Yes, more students will be out during the day, while the police will be more cautious at night.

Ann: Ryūji, you're over in Shibuya now, right? Do you see anyone like that there?

Ryūji: Yeah, I'm at Central Street. It's tough to tell though.

Ryūji: I mean, there're just way too many people. The goddamn rain's not helping out either.

Yusuke: It's getting rather late. What should we do Ren?

Ren: Everyone head for Kichijōji, we'll meet at Penguin Sniper to discuss this.

Ann: Got it, I'll see you guys there.

Yusuke: It does seem best to pool our knowledge.

Ryūji: Plus we get to relax by playing darts!

Natsumi: I'll fill Niijima-senpai in on what we know.

Descending the stairs, I quickly made my way towards the student council room figuring it was the best place to start with looking for the upperclassman I was looking for. A quick knock confirmed that someone was inside, I proceeded to open it up and found Niijima-senpai sat at the desk with a scattering of papers decorating the surface, her head raised to look at me with a curious expression on her face.

"We have a lead. Though I'm frankly irritated that you left out important information," I stated. Niijima-senpai's expression didn't change much beyond the isolated raising of a singular eyebrow; I don't know if she was honestly confused or if she was simply acting as if she had no idea about what I was referring to.

"Important information?" Niijima-senpai questioned. I almost felt like rolling my eyes, I don't know if she was truly ignorant as to the key details that Iida had provided her with or if she just wanted to play coy; the girl I knew three years ago was certainly not the type to act this way, but three years was a long time and I don't know all the details of what she had been through.

"Yes. The fact that Iida was a victim of this phishing scam, he gave us information on how to contact someone connected to the mafia. He claims to have told someone and I'm betting that was you, which means you already knew about the propositioning in broad daylight," I stated. Niijima-senpai's expression didn't even shift, I wonder if she had expected us to learn this and there for didn't care about passing it along. "You didn't tell us which frankly speaks of intentional sabotage or at least negligence in this task," I added on.

"Should I have given you this information?" Niijima-senpai asked. I took a deep breath just to make sure that I didn't completely lose my cool at her seemingly innocent question, we could have at least sped up our investigation by a single day; it might not seem like much, but one day could certainly be the tipping point for whether we succeeded or fail depending on how difficult this could end up being.

"Yes," I bluntly stated. This conversation was clearly going nowhere so it was time for me to leave this room before this conversation went somewhere I didn't want. "If you attempt to stop us from doing this then I'll stop you," I warned. With that, I turned and stepped out of the room before she could respond; my old friend she may be, that didn't mean I would allow her to threaten my new friends.

*Persona 5 Royal*

The journey to Kichijōji was quite sedate which was good for me given how stressful the gathering of information had been, upon arriving at Penguin Sniper, I paid the fee and quickly spotted the others who were all gathered by the dart board. This place seemed like a lovely location to actually relax with the billiards table and dart board, plus the low number of patrons would make our conversation easier to have without risk of being overheard. We quickly sorted out a game of darts with Ann stepping up to take the first shot.

"We have to find them tomorrow for sure. This is the only lead we have right now," Ann stated. That was a pretty accurate way to sum up our current situation, we had the information needed to actually start hunting for our target; that meant we had to start looking as soon as possible for everyone's sake and to eliminate the blackmail Niijima-senpai had hanging over our heads. Ann threw her dart and it landed in a single six area.

"Yes, it is high likely that this part-time solicitor is somehow related to our larger goal," Yusuke admitted. Any kind of leads was one that we had to chase up even if it ended up going into a dead end. "If we tail him, he may lead us straight back to his boss," Yusuke suggested. That was certainly a viable possibility for us to do, especially if it was our stealthy Morgana who was sent to tail whoever approached us. Yusuke had taken Ann's place and threw, earning a twenty-two.

"He talked to Iida and Nishiyama over at Central Street, right?" Ryūji asked. That did seem to be the place that was the site of this dark business, I just couldn't believe that such a thing was taking place in such an open and busy area without anyone say or do anything; it was quite the sickening feeling that pulsed through me at this knowledge. Ryūji managed to get a bull's eye which was quite impressive.

"Yes, that's where they are meant to be, but following is too risky," Ren disagreed. He proceeded to stand up and plucked a dart up, easily spinning it between his fingers; I was curious as to what Ren had been thinking for us to do instead of trying to follow the person back to wherever the base was located. "It might be safer to try and bait them out into taking one of us to the boss," Ren insisted. That seemed like a fine idea, Ren threw the dart and it pierced into the triple twenty section.

"In that case who should do it?" Ann wondered. I rose to my feet and moved to take my place at the dart board; Ren's question was something that we needed to think about, it had to be that we chose the best person possible in order to draw the person in a much as possible. Iida was probably a fine example of who they were looking for and I proceeded to throw the dart at the board.

"Me," I coolly stated. The dart sailed through the air and buried its' tip into the double nineteen area, it was satisfying since I'd never played darts before, it was actually quite relaxing to allow the world to fade away to just focusing upon the board without worrying about anything else. I proceeded to turn to look at the others who had yet to respond to my statement to play as bait.

"Woah, Natsumi, are you sure about that?" Ryūji asked. His expression was wide eyed and his hand was twitching slightly as if he wanted to reach out and do something to try and find a way to stop me from going through with this plan of mine; but this was something that needed to be done if we wanted to succeed.

"I quite agree, why does it have to be you?" Yusuke wondered. His expression was much more composed than Ryūji's absolute shocked one or Ann's expression that seemed like she was on the edge of bursting into tears given how worried she looked. Yusuke was frowning heavily as he looked at me while I stubbornly avoided looking at Ren given that I could feel the presence of his glare towards me.

"They're looking for people who don't stand out, which automatically cancels out Ann-chan and Ryūji for their blonde hair which causes them to stick out," I stated. It was pretty much the only thing I could think of, plus it would make sense as police wouldn't focus on those who were able to blend in with the others which made them perfect for being made into drug couriers in the mafia's eyes.

"But me and Yusuke don't have that issue," Ren stated. His words caused me to look over at him and I saw that – as I expected – he looked rather angry at hearing the suggestion of me putting myself in danger; I suspect he would have been angry if anyone else had offered but I could only hope that he would understand all of my reasons for putting myself into the danger zone as opposed to the others.

"Yusuke's looks are fine, but they want people who are desperate for money and who can be easily controlled. Yusuke's personality is… fiercely opposed to anything that irritates him which will probably put them off," I explained. Yusuke didn't seem to take offence to this and even slightly inclining his head to silently agree with my words.

"And Ren?" Ann wondered. Her voice was a little soft as she made that question, I focused on my friend and saw that she was frowning deeply at the suggestion; I'm sure that Ann was probably thinking of Shiho when she was asking that question, it wasn't like I enjoyed the idea of being in such a dangerous situation but it was really our best bet to get a hold of the person responsible.

"That's a matter of probability, people typically have different preconceived notions of boys and girls. More often, girls are considered weaker and meeker than boys. I'm not saying that's always the case but it's a truth more often than not. Especially the physical strength bit, females typically cannot build up the quantity of muscle mass that males can and certainly not in the same timeframe," I explained. None of them seemed to relax at my words nor did their facial expressions change, but a small hum came from the only voice that hadn't spoken up.

"So, you're preying on the preconception?" Morgana realised. I nodded my head sharply to show that Morgana was on the right track with his words, that was the exact reasoning behind my suggestion; Ryūji cocked his head to the side as Yusuke allowed a breath to escape from him which was quite nice to see that someone else was at least understanding my perspective.

"Exactly! I'm stronger than the average girl, with actual defence training, but my looks will make them think I'm completely ordinary," I confirmed. Ann was still frowning heavily as she looked at me which caused a small twitch to come to my lips at the fact that she seemed so unhappy about my suggestion; but I was going to need everyone's support if we wanted this little operation of ours to be successful.

"Alright," Ren stated. His voice sounded strained and tense, the expression on his face was no better either, especially with him rubbing at the back of his neck the way he was. "We'll hang around in Shibuya tomorrow and feed each other information to let Natsumi lure them out," Ren decided. Our leader suddenly pivoted and focused his attention upon the human turned cat still sitting in his bag. "Morgana, you have an important job tomorrow," Ren stated. Morgana focused upon Ren at those words. "Provide support and look after Natsumi," Ren revealed.

"You got it Ren!" Morgana agreed. A small bubble of warmth grew in my chest at his words and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a small blush decorating my cheeks either, it was very sweet to hear him say such things; Morgana seemed to be taking the assignment quite seriously given the tension within his eyes and the almost violent shish of his tail through the air.

"You do certainly blend in, so it's probably for the best. Ann'd stand out too much," Ryūji agreed. I looked at the blonde and found that he had an easy smile on his face, but his shoulder line was tense; that gave away that despite his reassuring words, he wasn't exactly sure of the choice that we were making or he was worried about me. But the fact that he wasn't speaking up about it perhaps spoke of his faith in me.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Ann responded. She proceeded to shove Ryūji slightly, but just as quickly Ann was on her feet and had moved to stand in front of me while tightly clasping my upper arms in her hands. "Are you sure about this Natsumi?" Ann asked. Her expression was pinched and tight, showing just how pained she was by the decision that I had made.

"Yes. We need to do this," I insisted. I reached my hands up and clasped a hold of her shoulders with a warm smile on my face which I hoped would be able to reassure her that everything was okay for the moment; hopefully I would come back from this situation unharmed if only so that the others wouldn't have to worry about me.

"I have some concerns, but I trust you Natsumi. We'll be there to support you," Yusuke insisted. I looked over at the painter and was quite glad to hear his supporting words; although Yusuke's expression suddenly turned quite dark as his eyes narrowed into a glare at an unseen enemy. "Tricking people and using that as blackmail… these bastards are true cowards," Yusuke hissed. My eyes widened when I heard the curse word that had slipped from Yusuke's lips.

"I think Ryūji's rubbing off on you Yusuke," Ren commented. I nodded my head in agreement, especially since Yusuke seemed like the kind of person who might be too refined to use such crass insults; in fact, as I looked at the other two, I also noticed how shocked they seemed given Ryūji gaping fish like expression and Ann furiously rubbing at her ears which was turning the cartilage quite red.

"Kind of scary to think that people like that are all around us in this city," Ann admitted. Her expression was very morose as she said those words, but I definitely agreed with her as it was quite horrible to imagine that something so utterly horrific was happening within a surrounding that we were familiar, but I think the Palaces were proving just how common these types of atrocities were becoming.

"Well guys, we gotta brace ourselves. We're up against a serious opponent here," Ryūji warned. And to think it was coming from who was arguably the most reckless of the bunch, I think that says something about our situation for Ryūji to be saying those words; it meant we should all be more mindful than we normally were.

"That's why we need to be careful tomorrow," Ren insisted. With our leader's ominous words hanging over us, we finished up our game of darts and soon left the game parlour behind.