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

I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.

Chapter 21: - The King of Lust, Asmodeus

"Morning," A sleepy voice called. I was stood at the Shibuya station awaiting the train to school with Amamiya and Morgana, turning around I saw a bleary eyes Takamaki walking over to us, even half asleep the girl still moved with a natural grace. "I still feel a little tired from all that hard work. How about you two?" Takamaki asked.

"I know what you mean. Morgana had to bite my fingertips to get me up in time," Amamiya admitted. Ah, so that's why his fingertips were a little red and Morgana seemed slightly annoyed, then against we had done a fair amount yesterday and the day before which wouldn't have gone away easily, so the new guys being tired didn't surprise me in the least especially.

"I'm fine. But I've also been at this longer than you guys, so I've built up a tolerance," I explained. Takamaki seemed a little put out if the pout on her lips was anything to go by. "Anyway, the next step is the calling card. I know we've got a few days until the board meeting. What do you want to do about it, Amamiya-san?" I asked.

"Let's meet up. The sooner we get this done, the better for everyone," Amamiya decided. Me and Takamaki also agreed about the decision and I quickly sent a message to Sakamoto informing him of the decision right as the train pulled in.

*Persona 5 Royal*

"Alright! All that's left now is to send out the calling card and take Kamoshida's heart!" Morgana declared. He then turned to look at me as we were all huddled underneath the awning over the door to the roof to avoid the heavy rain falling down. "Natsumi, how exactly did you go about doing the Change of Heart last time?" Morgana asked.

"Unlike this time, I had a personal connection to the Palace Ruler and much easier access to the Palace's physical location. I also saw the person quite a bit and did a physical confrontation to trigger a change in the cognitive state that would manifest the Treasure. We need to put this calling card in a place where Kamoshida would see it and become unsettled, which also means the wording needs to be carefully chosen as well," I explained.

"Couldn't we have just sent one at the beginnin' of all this?" Sakamoto wondered. However, Morgana shook his little cat head as he turned to face Sakamoto, although Takamaki and Amamiya also looked confused by this, but something tells me that sending the calling card had a few catches attached to it which would make that an impossibility.

"It's not that simple. A Treasure won't stay materialised forever. Once the impression is gone, the Treasure will disappear. I think it'll last around a day, at most," Morgana revealed. In response to another confusing uncertainty, the other three proceeded to lift their gazes up to me and I immediately threw my hands up in a manner similar to a sign for surrender.

"Don't look at me. I had a Sunday and saw the Ruler in the morning, I used the confrontation then and bolted in that same afternoon. We still shouldn't risk it though," I answered. Sakamoto immediately grumbled about having no time at all. "That's just how it is Sakamoto-san. We need to just deal with the hand we've been dealt," I reassured.

"Anyways, we can send a callin' card right now, yeah? Let's do it and steal that bastard's heart!" Sakamoto declared. We all agreed with this, if the firm expressions on their faces was anything to go by; but there was one thing that I needed to warn them about before we ended up heading in, whether it happened or not wasn't the issue.

"There's something else you need to know," I spoke up. Everyone focused on me as I looked at them. "If we allow the Treasure to be claimed by the Shadow before we can escape with it, the Shadow will… mutate. I don't have another word for it. Anyway, the last time, the Shadow changed and I had to fight it. It was honestly one of the worst fights I had been in, and that's counting the ones from this Palace as well," I warned.

"Then we need to be careful when we head in," Amamiya insisted. His face was stern, but I saw a flicker of what could be uncertainty within his eyes. "We're sending the calling card. We prep it tonight and ensure Kamoshida sees it in the morning, that way like with Chiba-san, we can head in during the afternoon," Amamiya decided.

"Tomorrow's finally the day," Sakamoto breathed. I saw his body untense as his shoulders slumped down, perhaps the knowledge that we were going to be confronting his tormentor at last was making him relax, even Takamaki seemed to slump slightly, if you could call what she did a slump with how elegant it was. All the hard work we'd put in was finally going to pay off and I could at last put this infernal Palace behind me.

"Correct. The effect won't last that long, are you guys worried?" Morgana asked. A resounding chorus of negative answers came from the rest of us. "Perfect," Morgana stated. All of us were far too ready to be rid of the vermin that had infested our school and avenge those who had been wronged by his cruel actions.

"We're going to pull this off, no matter what!" Takamaki declared. Her eyes gleamed with a certain intensity that dared anyone to argue with her, not that those of us gathered here would; Morgana proceeded to ask a rather important question, who was going to craft the calling card necessary to change Kamoshida's cognitive state.

"Leave it to me!" Sakamoto loudly declared. I gave the boy a sceptical look as Takamaki asked why. "Why? Why wouldn't it be me!?" Sakamoto questioned. A lot of reasons bounded around my head at why Sakamoto might not be the best person to author the calling card, but I decided to keep my mouth shut as Takamaki raised an eyebrow.

"This is important. Are you sure you can handle the pressure?" Takamaki asked. Morgana voice his own agreement; Sakamoto declared that he wanted to 'get him good'… whatever that meant? He then started to plead with us to allow him to do it, I still didn't think it was a wise idea to let him script our threat towards Kamoshida.

"Alright. You can write it Sakamoto-san," Amamiya decided. I quickly looked at him and saw a slightly pinched expression on his face, as if already regretting the words he had spoken; Sakamoto paid no attention to this as he pumped his fist and eagerly tore of down the stairs before we could say anything else, all of us peered through the stairwell Sakamoto had darted down.

"I hope we didn't make a mistake," I admitted.

*Persona 5 Royal*

I was sat down at my desk, trying to get through some schoolwork before going to sleep. With how busy we'd been lately, I'd been distracted and it was only going to get even busier after all of this was done, seven days had passed before Ouvrard confessed, so how long would it take for Kamoshida to crack if we were successful. Shaking my head to disperse the thoughts, I tried to refocus on the assignments. Keyword being try, as the moment I started to focus, my phone chirped.

Ryūji: Man, there's so much I wanna write on the calling card. It's kinda tough figuring out what to say.

Ann: Are you sure you're really capable of this!?

Natsumi: Agreed. Even if we have eleven days as of tomorrow, we can't risk anything changing and you guys being expelled sooner.

Natsumi: Also, you better not accidentally reveal our actions.

Ren: Please don't do anything too reckless.

Ryūji: Don't worry, I got it. I even made a logo for us.

Ann: A logo?

Ryūji: Yup. You'll get to see it tomorrow.

Ann: Well, that's worrying.

Ryūji: Anyways, you guys should rest up.

Ryūji: If we screw up tomorrow, we're totally done for.

Ren: We all need to work together to see this through. Especially if Chiba-san's warning come true.

Ann: Yup, I'm sure we can do this.

Ryūji: Just remember, we can't trust any shitty adults.

Ryūji: That's why we gotta do this ourselves.

Ryūji: Anyway, let's pull this off and surprise everyone!

Closing the phone, I turned back to my work. Determined to get something done before I turned into my bed for the night.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Suffice to say, Sakamoto had managed to get the calling card churned out and stuck up on the school notice boards. Although it wasn't just the one, no I had counted over fifty of the things plastered on the notice board and they were not capable of being miss with their eye catching red standing out against the blue felt and plain white papers already there. Naturally everyone was abuzz with talk about it.

"Sir Kamoshida Suguru, the utter bastard of lust. We know how shitty you are and that you put your twisted desires on students that can't fight back. That's why we have decided to steal away those desires and make you confess your sins. This will be done tomorrow, so we hope you will be ready. From, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts," Takamaki read. All four of us – plus Morgana – were stood together with me, Takamaki and Amamiya holding cards in our hands, turning it over I saw the 'logo' which consisted of a sharp-toothed grin, masked eyes akin to Morgana's mask and a top hat a la Arsène, with 'TAKE YOUR HEART' scrawled beneath it.

"What did you think of my masterpiece? Not bad, eh?" Sakamoto asked. I kept my head tilted down so that Sakamoto wouldn't see the utterly unimpressed look on my face, apart from the name of the group and the fact that he had used kanji cut outs instead of his own handwriting, it was horrendous. "I looked up a bunch of similar stuff online for reference," Sakamoto admitted. I wondered why none of that similar stuff had convince him to write it more… eloquently, I guess.

"Um… yeah… I know what you wanted to say, but… it sounded like an idiot trying to be an adult," Takamaki deadpanned. Her face was utterly unimpressed as she flipped the copy of the calling card that she had in her hand; Sakamoto in response allowed his shoulders to slump down and I glanced over at the other two members with Morgana lifting his head up to look at Sakamoto.

"Your logo's a little lacking, too," Morgana pointed out. It really was, it seemed kind of childishly done if I was honest, nothing that was going to inspire intimidation and fear in a person like we kind of needed to do in order to ensure that the Treasure managed to manifest itself in the Palace; overall, the impact wasn't the greatest.

"It certainly isn't something I'd be intimidated by if I was given something like this," I admitted. Sakamoto looked as if he was going to wilt into the ground at my words, they might have been harsh, but I wasn't about to lie about how I perceived it; I could only hope that it would still work the way we hoped that it would on Kamoshida.

"Okay, y'know what? Th-that ain't true! Come on Ren, back me up," Sakamoto protested. All of us looked at Amamiya, wondering how he'd react to suddenly being called upon, Amamiya's response was simply to turn his head away, allowing his glasses to hide his eyes. "Hey!" Sakamoto complained. He slumped down as he said that word.

"Who's responsible for this!?" Kamoshida's voice demanded. I pivoted around in order to see him, finding that he had arrived behind the gaggle of students at the notice board; Morgana practically meowed his happiness over how Kamoshida was reacting, claiming it was basically proof he knew what the calling card meant.

"I think it's hittin' him pretty hard," Sakamoto gloated. The fact that Kamoshida was being so heavily affected smacked of his cognition being altered, especially when he got angry enough to start accusing all the students gathered of the crime of putting out this card; the students did the wise thing and proceeded to scattered like dust on the wind away from the angered man, which meant when he turned around, only the four of us were there as Morgana stuffed himself back inside the bag.

"Was it you three!?" Kamoshida accused. His face was twisted into anger as he looked at us, Takamaki ducked her head down, but I saw the rage upon her face as her hands twitched and jumped despite the slow and deep breaths she took, to control herself. She was doing so well in controlling herself from reacting to her tormentor's presence.

"And what if it was?" Amamiya challenged. His voice was soft, his words almost vanishing but there was an undercurrent of hidden strength within those words and Kamoshida easily heard them; Kamoshida called it garbage and claimed that soon the two boys would be expelled, I also didn't like the way that his eyes lingering on Takamaki or myself as his eyes darkened with that wicked distortion of his. A sudden haze pressed itself onto Kamoshida as his Shadow took shape.

"Come! Steal it, if you can!" Shadow Kamoshida started. Just as quickly, the Shadow's haze faded away returning my attention to the physical world; I looked over at the others and found that they had wide eyes and stunned expressions on their faces… no way? Could they have somehow experienced what my eyes showed me? Could the Meta-Nav had done that since we were technically inside of the Palace?

"It had an effect, I'm certain of it," I stated. Just to be sure that they were all aware of the development, Takamaki proceeded to ask if the Treasure had appeared and whether we would be able to seize it today; Morgana had popped back out of the bag after Kamoshida stormed off and his intense blue eyes focused upon Takamaki's concerned expression.

"It's not just 'today'. It's only today. The impact of seeing a calling card doesn't last long and it cannot be repeated. This will be our one chance to steal the Treasure," Morgana warned. Sakamoto was certain we had enough time, now all we had to do now was get through the rest of the school day.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Inside the Palace, Panther marched over to the nearby wall and slammed her hand against the surface, forcing the doorway to manifest and we all darted through. We adjusted our weapons and armour, getting comfortable as Joker gave out some new armour to Skull and Panther which quickly fused to their outfits. Panther spun the Breeze Ring around her finger which would grant her the Garu Spell as Skull clenched and unclenched the hand which bore the Breath Ring which increased his Life Energy. Joker had the Crystal of Lust which gave a higher-level healing ability with only Mona lacking an accessory but he'd been certain he wouldn't need one.

"Our only objective today is the Treasure! Let's go!" Mona declared. We darted out the Safe Room and quickly made our way towards the Throne Room, but instead of needing to climb that horrific statue like before, we found the doors were wide open and a quick peak inside proved that there was nobody – no Shadow, no cognitions, no knights – stood there.

"What the hell's goin' on here? The door's just sittin' open and there aren't any soldiers around," Skull questioned. A fine question, but perhaps all of the soldiers had been deployed in order to patrol around in response to our calling card; I noted more of those grotesque statue decorations lining the carpet leading up to the throne's dais, blooming roses spread their petals over the room from the balcony above us.

"This place is probably undermanned now that they all got assigned elsewhere. Either way, we win as long as we can steal the Treasure! Let's keep going!" Mona insisted. We charged towards the stairs at the back, easily making our way to the room where the treasure was held and inside, we were confronted by a ridiculously massive king's style crown.

"Aww yeeeaaaah! The Treasure has appeared!" Mona cheered. Skull immediately commented on its' ridiculous size. "What do you think!? It's just as I said! Now we can steal it!" Mona cheered. He seemed incredibly excited about the Treasure's presence. "Ahh… this shine brings tears to my eyes," Mona sighed. Weirdly excited about the Treasure's presence.

"It kinda pisses me off," Panther stated. None of us could fault her for that particular feeling. "Why's it so pretty? Isn't this Kamoshida's desires?" Panther asked. Ah, that made sense, it was an absurdly shiny object to be staring it… actually I think my eyes were starting to go a bit blurry from the light reflecting off the metal portions of it.

"You kind of answered your own question there, Panther. The crown represents Kamoshida's Desire to be seen as a king, someone who rules over everyone," I clarified. However, we were all distracted by the highly unusual purr like call of 'T-Treasure' that escaped Mona; I looked down and practically saw stars within his eyes.

"Uh, the cat's actin' awfully excited," Skull pointed out. As if we weren't already aware of this, but as if to make us even more concerned, Mona – calm, collected, insightful, sneaky, methodical Mona! – threw himself at the crown with a ridiculously cat like sound escaping from his throat and he started to rub himself on the crown, meowing the entire time.

"I'm certain that's not catnip," Joker commented. I could only blink my eyes in flabbergasted shock as Mona continued his meowing tirade and rubbing act; Skull even demanded he stop while calling him a stupid cat, that seemed to shock Mona out of whatever weird as heck trance the Treasure had sucked him into and he hopped off the crown back to our feet, his ears pressed flat against his skull and an embarrassed air boiling around him as his front paws pressed against each other.

"Oh, um, yeah… forgive for displaying such an insolent sight in front of two ladies," Mona apologised. He seemed really embarrassed and had he been in a human form, his cheeks would have been as red as Panther's suit; Panther asked what was wrong with him to suddenly act in such an out of character way. "I couldn't stop it either… to think I'd be drawn to human desires this much. Doesn't that prove that I'm human!?" Mona declared. He'd seemed embarrassed before but now was completely cheerful.

"How should we know!?" Skull challenged. Thankfully, Mona's brain was back in working order and he quickly had us gather around the crown in order to carry it out of the Palace. "All you do is bark orders. Still, that was easier than I thought! I thought for sure there'd be some insane trap or that crazy transformation Amazon warned us about, or something," Skull commented. We gathered around the Treasure and found its' weight was enough that it took the four of us working together to hold it up.

"To think it'd go so well… I've even found four Persona users in the process. My judgment was correct. I made the right choice in making a deal with you!" Mona claimed. As he did, I felt a prickle in my sensed, as if something pliant had grown stronger in that moment, something between Joker and Mona; shaking my head to dislodge this I started to move along with the others to get out with Mona guiding my steps since my back was to the stairs.

"Go, go! Let's go! Ka-Mo-Shi-Da!" An airheaded voice cheered. We had got passed the throne's dais when it came and I recognised it instantly, having become more familiar with the owner in recent days than before; a bark of 'Move!' escaped my lips as I dropped the crown and grabbed Panther who'd been stood to my left, pulling her out of the way as Joker did the same to Skull while Mona bolted to safety beside us by his own legs. All of this in time to avoid a volleyball slamming towards us, courtesy of the scum we'd come to stop.

"I won't let anyone take this!" Shadow Kamoshida declared. He's jumped down, landing between throne and crown, which had now shrunk down to a more manageable size as he held it within one hand, tossing it up and down as that stupid cognition of Takamaki charged over and threw her arms around Shadow Kamoshida; the real one stood next to me visible gagged at the sight. "This proves that I am the king of this castle. It is the core of this world!" Shadow Kamoshida declared.

"That rat bastard. That's really how he sees me, isn't it!?" Panther cursed. The cognition had one arm draped over Shadow Kamoshida's shoulder, while the other drew nonsense shapes over Kamoshida's cape covered chest; Skull called out to the Shadow, rightly calling him a pervert, and accused him of waiting to ambush us.

"I just made it easy to find you. I'll dispose of you myself. Right here, right now!" Shadow Kamoshida declared. A sneer twisted up his face as he spoke those words, making that face of his look much more fitting for a beast like him than his normal expression came anywhere close to being, I gripped my naginata tightly, ready for the fight to come.

"That's our line, you sexually-harassin' d-bag!" Skull spat. However, Shadow Kamoshida claimed that this was a 'selfish misunderstanding'… considering we were looking at the true core of that depraved, moral-less, disgusting thing posing as a human, nothing about this was a misunderstanding; we knew exactly what was going on here.

"How is it a misunderstanding!?" Panther shrieked. Her eyes burning with fury as she glared at Shadow Kamoshida. "You were doing things, awful things, that you kept a secret from others!" Panther accused. Yet the Shadow didn't even bat an eye, he simply tossed the crown up into the air and caught it again to repeat the act, seemingly unperturbed by the accusation levelled against him by the most harassed of all his victims.

"People around me were the ones who kept it secret. Adults who want to share in my accomplishments, students who have the drive to become winners… they willingly protect me so that we all may profit from it," Shadow Kamoshida claimed. Skull immediately demanded to know what this profit was. "There are too many imbeciles who don't understand that! Including naïve brats like you and that girl who tried to kill herself!" Shadow Kamoshida ranted.

"You're right," I admitted. I could feel the shocked gazes of the others staring at me and see the one on Shadow Kamoshida's face, gods I loved throwing these guys off. "People did protect you so they could leech off of you and what you promised. But, me and the others here and Suzui-san, none of us are like that. We'll drag your secrets to the light and force you to come clean! You will pay for the crimes you have committed!" I declared. Thrusting my naginata forward so that it pointed at the man, whose sneer returned with intensity.

"Amazon's right. Shiho was a total idiot… letting you manipulate her, trying to commit suicide… and I'm even more of a dumbass for not realising it!" Panther declared. She pulled out her whip and violently cracked it as she dropped into her stance. "But no matter what kind of fool someone might be… they don't need your permission to live their lives!" Panther proudly declared. Smirks came to rest on the boys' faces as they face our enemy with their own stances set.

"Drop the attitude, you mediocre peasant! There is no wrong in using my gifts for my gain!" Shadow Kamoshida snapped. He clearly didn't like seeing people stand up to him, but he was going to have to deal with it, since we weren't about to stop any time soon. "I'm a cut above all other humans!" Shadow Kamoshida declared. Oooh, that sentence irritated me more than anything else of the drivel that came out of his mouth, it sounded too close to some nonsense I swear I'd heard my uncle speak.

"'Above'?" Panther commented. She even allowed a haughty laugh to escape her. "You mean beneath. You're a goddamn demon obsessed with your sick desires!" Panther spat. However, at that moment, a dark red glow surrounded Kamoshida and I sensed a swell of power coming from him as the man began to chuckle maliciously.

"That's right! I'm not like you! I'm a demon who rules this world!" Shadow Kamoshida declared. He pulled the cognition of Takamaki close as the red aura surrounded both of them, when it faded Shadow Kamoshida had changed appearance. The Shadow had become a large naked pink demon with multiple arms and legs as well as a thick purple tongue about as long as he was, while wearing his Treasure as a crown and sitting on a monstrous throne with living eyes. At the sides of said throne, lay gigantic golden balls which had chained student slaves connected to them. He wore a red cape on his back, with multiple medals hidden within it and carried golden eating utensils in his lower arms while his upper arms held a riding crop and a wine glass containing wine and the Cognitive Takamaki. In front was a golden trophy with blue… legs, I think, stuck inside of it.

"Oh… that's big," I commented. This was much larger than the form that Shadow Ouvrard had taken when she stole back her Treasure, I quickly shook my head and focused on giving out the necessary information. "Don't expect any weaknesses from me, heck I don't know if Ailment Spells will work. Stick to attacks and maybe see if Kunda-type Spells will work on them," I advised.

"I'm allowed to do whatever I want!" Shadow Kamoshida declared. I focused my eyes on him, determined to find out if I was correct in my analysis of his state of weakness; the bad news, I was right, but that just meant we'd have to keep consistently hitting him as hard as we could at every opportunity to deal damage. But there was something else I found out as well.

"Asmodeus… that thing is called Asmodeus," I muttered. I'd learned that Dantalion was known as the seventy-first demon summoned by the supposed Great King Solomon via his Lesser Key book; could there be a similar history here? Was Asmodeus another demonic figure? And if so, why were these transformations being called by demon names?

"That's where you're wrong! We're going to finish this!" Joker declared. His voice resonated loud and strong within this room and I felt a surge of confidence pulse through me, if we just kept working together like we had been doing, then nothing about this disgusting creature could possibly stop us from winning this battle. The transformed beast didn't like that if his hideous scream was anything to go by.

"You goddamn, no-good, shitty brats! Haven't you been taught not to point at people!? Huh!?" Asmodeus challenged. Mona immediately focused on something much more important, pointing out that the Treasure was now securely planted atop the transformed beast's twisted head; the cat shaped thief even suggested we catch him off guard and steal it, but we'd need to wait until he was sufficiently distracted.

The monstrous Shadow proceeded to crack the riding crop against the ground which caused the chained students to seize volleyballs and proceeded to spike them at me. I spun my naginata around, blade and shaft striking each of the balls. A few were deflected, but a few got through, scoring glancing blows that still burned deeply. Asmodeus suddenly swung his tongue out towards us. Skull barely blocked the blow as Panther dropped below the strike. I jumped over it as Mona flipped backwards. Yet Joker took the blow, a smirk on his lips, the blow seemed to slightly bounce off of him, but he still took the damage.

"Let's weaken him first," Joker insisted. He then tore his mask off, allowing a Persona to appear behind him. It was a tiny individual with a long white beard and white hair, a blue robe with a strip of fabric wrapped around the forehead and a small green leaf held up by its' stalk in the tiny person's hands. "Rakunda!" Joker declared. With that a weakening energy twisted around Asmodeus, causing a smile to appear on my lips.

Whipping my mask off, I brought Phantom out and quickly cast a Makakaja on Panther. The girl unleashed a burst of fire onto the demon. Skull quickly followed up the attack by having Captain Kidd ram into Asmodeus with his boat. Mona quickly had Zorro twist a storm around the pink skinned beast. Our attacks hadn't seemed to do much damage, but we had to keep pounding away at him. It was the only way to succeed in defeating him.

The demon proceeded to leer at Panther which caused the girl to fidget in discomfort. Suddenly, the tongue lashed out with the speed of a whip. It pierced into Panther which forced a scream to escape her lips. Mona immediately summoned out Zorro and had the gentlemanly warrior heal up the blonde. She still seemed unsteady, but that did nothing to falter the brief glare she sent at the demon.

Skull followed up the attack by unleashing a blast of electricity at the beast, causing it to flinch backwards. Joker's mask glowed before he flicked it off, a Slime appeared behind him and proceeded to slam into the creature. I followed up the attack by having Phantom shower Asmodeus with sharp pieces of earth. With the weakened defence then we might be able to succeed much quicker than when I face Ouvrard, especially since he seemed to only be using physical attacks.

Asmodeus suddenly lifted up his golden fork and pierced it into one of the flailing leg looking things. He pulled it out and proceeded to consume it. My mouth unhinged in shock as a green aura proceeded to flow around him and the smoking wounds we had opened up, started to seal. I barely stifled a groan in time as I realised what had happened as the demonic creature made its' repulsive satisfaction known. Those damnable legs were some kind of healing item.

"He healed himself? Is it from eating one of those… things in the trophy?" Mona wondered. It was certainly concerning that this infuriating entity had a way to heal himself, especially so since it was rather repulsive to watch as well as being irritating. "Then we should destroy that first!" Mona declared. Removing the possibility of him healing was an extremely important step and one that we needed to do it fast.

"Mona! Panther! I want you two to keep dealing damage to Kamoshida while focusing on healing us. Skull! Amazon! The two of you and me will strike at that trophy and get rid of it!" Joker ordered. Without waiting he pulled off his mask, causing a little red skinned girl with brown and orange hair in two ponytails, dressed in Chinese looking clothing, with yellow and pink butterfly wings extending from her back. A blaze of fire suddenly surrounded the trophy when the little girl raised her arms.

"Hey! You don't know what this is worth, so stop touching it! Don't do it anymore, got it?! I've warned you!" Asmodeus squealed. He then proceeded to retaliate by swing his knife down towards Joker. However, our leader darted out of the way with a casual kind of grace, a smugly satisfied smirk resting on his lips. The knife had become embedded within the ground quite firmly as the pink-skinned beast struggled to tug it free.

"Nice try ugly!" Joker taunted. This only seemed to make Asmodeus angrier, Joker took advantage of the beast's state and violently swung his weapon across the limb. Asmodeus pulled backwards, taking the knife with him, a howl escaping his lips as it moved. At least Joker had managed to deal damage to the demon and avoid being damaged himself. A breath of relief escaping from me as I refocused myself upon the demon we were here to destroy.

"When someone tells us not to do something, it makes us want to do it more!" Mona cackled. The demonic creature then brought the wine glass over and proceeded to open his fanged mouth to pour some of the red liquid into it – somehow avoiding spilling the cognition of Takamaki into it as well, once finished a fiery aura surrounded him so I used my eyes to immediately check what had just happened.

"We got a problem everyone! That demon just increased its' physical attack strength!" I warned. He would be able to hit harder now unless we can negate that increase. Pulling my mask off, I had Phantom unleash a pulse of gravitational energy at that infernal trophy. Back-to-back healing radiances pulsed from Carmen and Zorro, as Skull unleashed a blast of electricity upon the trophy.

Asmodeus cracked his riding crop and more volleyballs were spiked at us. But this time they were aimed for Panther. She jumped away from a few of them, but more of them caught solid strikes upon her form. The vile beast then swung down his knife at Mona. Lucky for us, the petite cat thief dodged it easily. Joker flicked off his mask and I saw the little red skinned fairy girl that I realised was called Hua Po appear. A blazing aura surrounded Panther, but it was a defensive increase instead of an offensive one.

Skull had Captain Kidd Lunge at the Trophy; I followed up with a shower of rocks. Panther proceeded to blast Asmodeus with fire. Mona followed this up with a burst of wind. It'd be nice if we could get rid of it before Asmodeus decided to heal himself again. More volleyballs were sent crashing towards us, this time striking Skull. He managed to guard against them, but he still took the damage. A pierce from the knife came flying towards me, but I pirouetted out of the way. I stabbed upwards with my naginata.

The move proceeded to injure the demon once more and it pulled back, taking the knife with it. Joker pulled off his mask and behind him another new Persona manifested, this was a green skinned somewhat humanoid looking entity, but it lacked any identifiable appendages like hands and feet, instead they simply ended in stumps, yet one of those stumps carried what looked to be a boomerang, white eyes looked out from its' flat face and a white, tattered cloth was tied around its' waist.

Joker proceeded to unleash a blast of wind from the Persona in order to strike the Trophy once more. But this time around something was different. The cracks that had been appearing on the stupid gold plated nuisance with each attack grew larger. In fact, they grew so large that they curled around the entire object and it broke apart into little pieces as the flailing legs proceeded to dissolve into smoke.

"Ack! No way… this was from when I won the national…," Asmodeus whined. His entire posture had changed as well, he slumped down in a defeated manner with his tongue drooping towards the floor in a slimy mess. "You think that you can get away with doing such a thing! Do you realise who I am?! I am Kamoshida! Don't you get it!?" Asmodeus complained. We moved in and proceeded to pin him within a Hold Up, all our ranged weapons pointed squarely at him.

"Yeah, we do. So what?" Joker snapped. The creature claimed us knowing and wilfully doing this was even worse and claimed we would regret this before making a ridiculous proclamation that he was 'the king'. He was truly a filthy and arrogant man, unable to comprehend the fact that people were willing to defy him instead of bowing to what he thought he was entitled to.

"I always saw you as a condescending hotshot, but right now… you're just a pathetic loser," Skull commented. I wonder if it had been somewhat gratifying to the blonde for him to be able to see his tormentor in such a pathetic position; yet if it did, not a sign showed on the boy's face or within his voice. Instead, he kept his shotgun pointed menacingly at the distorted demon, prepared for any attempts to attack.

"We came all this way to steal that! Will you just give it up and hand it over?" Panther questioned. She gestured violently with her gun in the direction of the crown; she was utterly focused on ensuring the demon was unable to move without her blue eyes catching it. The grip on her gun and tight curl of a finger over her trigger showed how serious she was about ensuring he couldn't do anything else.

"Silence! I won't let the likes of you have this!" Asmodeus declared. I know it was childish, but why couldn't he just give up? His healing trophy had been shattered, an increase to his attack wouldn't last for long with five of us chipping away at his life and we had three healers to keep an eye on our Life Energy. In short, he was incapable of defeating us, we were taking that Treasure from him.

"You still have the energy to say things like that!?" Mona questioned. It really was a surprise given that with us surrounding him like we were, but perhaps he was still foolishly believing that his 'kingship' would be enough to save him from us. Not likely in my opinion, I stopped Ouvrard and I would stop him, I knew none of the others were going to back down now that we were here and fighting.

"You haven't got a choice in the matter! We're taking that Treasure and that, is that," I stated. With that, Joker gave the signal for us to move in and we launched into an All-Out Attack. We hacked, slashed, snapped, clubbed, and generally did everything physically possible to deal as much damage as possible to the demon before he began to wriggle around once more.

"I'm the king! If I'm not, then who is!?" Asmodeus questioned. We quickly moved backwards with each of us setting ourselves up to face whatever was coming next. "How dare you keep defying me… looks like I gotta bring out the big guns! Slaves! Bring over you-know-what!" Asmodeus declared. The chained entities were suddenly released and they scurried away, moving passed us without making any attempts to damage us. "Time for my kill shot from when I was active and rockin' it! Kill shot, as in I'll make the kill!" Asmodeus declared.

"Be careful!" I yelled. If this went anything like Dantalion, then he was building up to something big. "He might be preparing for an attack that will bypass all our elemental defences!" I warned. The vile beast cracked the riding crop and screaming for the ball to be brought out immediately; at those words, footsteps smacked against the chequered flooring.

"I-I'm so sorry, King Kamoshida! I-I have it right here!" Mishima's voice sounded. I snapped my head over and found the wounded boy standing there holding a volleyball in hands, bowed over and shaking terribly; the demon proceeded to insult him and flailed about which caused Mishima to duck his head behind the volleyball.

"M-Mishima!?" Skull exclaimed. Panther was rightly confused as to why he happened to be here of all places, but I doubted that was the real boy, his Will of Rebellion was practically a guttering spark so there was little chance of the Meta-Nav latching onto his phone. But honestly, that did nothing to quell the fire that burning within my heart; this vile, deplorable, wretched, nauseating, vicious, arrogant, worthless piece of degenerate filth only proved himself more and more heinous the longer I spent in this Palace.

"Calm down. That's only Kamoshida's cognitive version of him! It's not the real Mishima!" Mona reassured. This managed to settle the rest of them and we could focus back on the attack that was coming. "It feels like he's gonna attack! Keep your guard up!" Mona warned. Each of us raised our arms and in some cases weapons up to cross over our bodies and faces, it seemed to create a shimmery barrier in front of each of us.

"Good, Mishima. Now pass it to me! Don't tell me you can't even do something as simple as that!" Shadow Kamoshida ordered. Mishima lightly tossed the ball into the air before pushing it back up as it fell back down towards his hands. This allowed Shadow Kamoshida to jump up, oh so he could leave that disgusting throne, and slam his now empty hand against the volleyball that I swear got bigger. It careened down with meteoric force and slammed into the ground. It unleashed a wave of super-heated air and shockwave pressure upon impact. Despite the fiery aspect, I didn't feel the typical sensation of one of my weaknesses being struck. The barrier in front of me quivered and rattled, until it finally shattered. The shockwaves and air flooded passed to batter into my form, but it could have been worse; I could still fight. "I knew it… I can't go all-out with Mishima providing the back up! Hey, shit-for brains! Get off my court!" Shadow Kamoshida snapped.

The cognition of Mishima squeaked out an apology before proceeding to run away. If that line of words was anything to go by, then there was every possibility that we would have to deal with that irritating attack once more. We needed to find a way to stop this from consistently happening to us, but that meant we needed to have a strategy meeting. But doing that in the middle of a fight was impossible. Unless…

"Joker, use the smokescreen, we need to talk!" I called. Joker nodded his head and pulled out one. Quickly throwing it at the ground unleashed a billow of smoke that enveloped a wide area. We used this to dash behind one of the statues so that we could safely talk without being attacked by Asmodeus. "We need to find a way to disorientate that creature and weaken him. It'll provide us with an advantage," I advised.

"In that case, it might be an idea to steal the Treasure. Especially since that is what we're after," Mona suggested. He then twisted around to peer out from behind the statue and raised a paw, though the smoke still lingered, I could faintly make out the upper balcony area. "Look! We can steal it from over there!" Mona explained.

"But that's impossible. We'll just-," Panther began to protest. As she spoke, I saw her looking worriedly at the area Mona had pointed out and then at the creature that had lusted after her; however, I cut off her worried words by gently settling a hand upon her shoulder which caused her to clank her teeth together as she looked over at me with a twist upon her lips.

"It's only impossible if you believe it is. We can do this," I reminded. Panther nodded her head in agreement with my words as her lips smoothed out. "As for the one who goes after the Treasure, I recommend Mona. I know he's our healer, but with Panther and Joker present, Mona's stealth capabilities and small shape, he's the best bet to go after it," I suggested. Thankfully the others backed up my suggestion and so as the four of us ran back out into the open just as the smokescreen faded thanks to a volleyball strike, Mona looped around within the shadows.

"Finally showing yourselves, huh?" Asmodeus commented. We stood against him, all of humans ready to stop him; I darted my eyes over to the edge and saw Mona crouched within the shadow of one of the female torso statues that supported the upper area. All we had to do now was distract the Shadow until Mona was in the right place to take that Treasure back with us. "Next slave, get out here! Hurry up with my damn ball!" Asmodeus demanded.

The clicking of heels came and I quickly looked over to see who it was and I felt my stomach plummet. It was Suzui, or at least Kamoshida's cognition of Suzui, and she was dressed in a rather horrifying manner… well it was horrifying to those of us opposing Kamoshida's disgusting nature. The cognition was wearing a fluffy white bikini with matching wristbands and collar, a white rabbit tail and ears, hot pink heels and a crown.

"King Kamoshida, I've brought you your ball, just like you asked," Cognitive Suzui commented. That disgusting piece of filth praised her and claimed all women should just obey his orders, I quickly looked over at Panther to see how she was holding up. Her blue eyes were wide and it looked like she had gone rather pale, the paleness standing out against her red suit and mask.

"N-No way! What's Shiho doing here!?" Panther questioned. Not that she could be blamed given how horrifying it was to witness this sight especially since this was her best friend she was staring at; I moved over and gripped her shoulder tightly in order to snap her out of the horrified state she had fallen into at seeing this filthy cognition. She yelped in surprise but tore her blue gaze away from the cognition in order to look at me.

"It's just a cognition, like the Mishima-san from earlier. Don't get distracted!" I reminded. She swallowed thickly and nodded her head, understanding coming into her eyes as she seemed to be calming down which was a relief to me; we didn't need one of our healers losing her head at this critical juncture of the fight.

"Dammit, even Suzui too! You've gone too far, you piece of shit!" Skull yelled. None of us could argue with his words since it was probably an accurate summary of how each of us were feeling; I truly despised seeming how he thought of my classmates or other students. Seeing my own cognition was horrifying, but this was just a persistent reminder of how badly this thing was distorted.

"You want to see my kill shot again, don't you?" Asmodeus claimed. As if we wanted to witness such a thing, but I suppose it was better that he focus on something so pointless, rather than realising that Mona was currently missing; I just hope the cat shaped thief would be able to sneak around and reach the crown before things got too dangerous for us.

"I know this might hurt, but everyone, trust me!" Joker insisted. The boy then pulled his mask off and had the humanoid boomerang holder – called Mokoi – unleash a Garu spell that violently tore into the cognition. Its' scream was painfully real and I heard a whimper escape from Panther. The cognition of Suzui then slumped to her knees and seemed to curl over herself. "That isn't the real one and a cognition isn't linked to the real person, Panther was fine both times after her own cognition was destroyed and if we eliminate this cognition of Suzui, we stop his attack!" Joker explained.

"Got it! Let me take the next strike!" Panther insisted. Joker nodded his head and darted over to chain their attacks together with a Baton Pass. "I'm sorry Shiho, for everything!" Panther cried. Despite the pain in her voice, she didn't relent as fire spewed from Carmen to slam into the cognition. Another painful scream went up, but she still hadn't dissipated. I pulled off my mask and had Phantom unleash a Gry spell at her and with a final scream, she vanished into smoke.

"Hmph, even Suzui was useless. Looks like I'll have to give her some special instruction later… one-on-one!" Asmodeus claimed. That caused my stomach to roll with a desire to vomit, I choked it down and settled my ice filled gaze upon the beast that we were here to thrash as I tightened my grip upon the naginata I held. Each of the others were also affected by the disgusting comment he made as they also set themselves.

"Kamoshida! I'll never forgive you!" Panther yelled. Skull apologised to Suzui and vowed we would beat him – while calling him a bastard as per usual – Joker said nothing, but his gritted teeth gave away the agitation he must have been feeling. We should be able to stop him now given that we'd stopped his supposed 'kill shot' from being launched at us once more.

"What's the matter slaves!? Hurry up and bring me more volleyballs! I can't serve up my kill shot without any balls!" Asmodeus demanded. However, no footsteps echoed, no voice went up claiming to have the ball, I quickly looked around and found not a single sign of a cognition could be spotted. "Huh? Did I just… am I really out of slaves!?" Asmodeus wondered. I felt an almost wicked smirk curl upon my lips at the fact that he was now exposed.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy this," Joker commented. With that, we unleashed our attacks on the pink skinned demon. Fire, Electricity, Gravity, Earth, and Physical bombarded the beast. He retaliated of course with his tongue and knife. We dodged as much as we could but a few of them managed to spear us. When that happened either Panther or Joker through Angel proceeded to heal our wounds. Joker also utilised Slime, Hua Po and Mokoi to boost our capabilities or Koropokkguru – the little man with a leaf – to weaken Asmodeus.

"Now listen up. This school exists because I'm around. You're the only ones who don't respect me, you know!" Asmodeus snapped. This beast was so deluded that it was actually something that bordered on funny, or it would if there was anything worth laughing about within his drivel. Our school didn't exist because of one individual, and certainly not scum like him, plus he thought we were the only ones not to respect him… he was the one lacking respect, respect of a person's goddamn boundaries!

"And why should we?!" I challenged. Tearing my mask off, I had Phantom slam down more stones upon this filthy demon. "Because you won some medal a long time ago! That's not enough to earn any kind of respect from me! But my comrades have earned that and more! You are degenerate filth and yet treated as someone to praise, while they have better hearts, souls and minds than you ever could and instead get treated like trash. I won't let that kind of injustice continue on! Not anymore!" I declared. Mona was now hanging from the top of the statue just below the railing.

"You're misunderstanding it all! I haven't sexually harassed anyone! They came on to me because they wanted to get on my good side!" Asmodeus claimed. I felt my mouth unhinge at those words, unable to believe the audacity of this man to claim he hadn't committed his horrific crimes; Suzui's suicide attempt was evidence that he was a lying scumbag more than anything else I had. An anguished sound came from my side and I looked over to see Panther, her eyes looked practically aflame after hearing those words.

"Like hell I came on to you! I would never have even looked at you if I hadn't wanted Shiho's dream to come true!" Panther retaliated. She ripped her mask off and had Carmen launch fireball after fireball at the disgusting beast. "And even so, I know Shiho had no interest in you at all! You repulsed her! Especially after you beat her so savagely!" Panther snapped. Carmen kept hurling attacks in response to her other side's violent fury.

"Panther!" Skull bellowed. He darted over and grabbed the girl's shoulders and lightly shook her by them. "I get that you're pissed! But keep that up and you won't be able to clobber him! We gotta do this together! Okay!" Skull exclaimed. His grip didn't relax but he at least stopped shaking her; Panther on the other hand was breathing heavily as tears tumbled down her face, while her eyes kept the burning look in her eyes focused on the wheezing creature we were here to stop.

"Thanks Skull!" Joker called. The boy stepped forward and brought out Slime to land another blow on Asmodeus. "Panther's right though. No one would ever be interested in you. You're nothing but vermin and it's about time you were punished for your crimes!" Joker declared. An angry tone coursing through all his words as his grey eyes hardened into steel. Skull pivoted around and had Captain Kidd slam into Asmodeus with its' boat.

Asmodeus yelled in annoyance before slashing out with his knife, but his attack was so easy to read. I easily side stepped the attack and plunged my weapon's blade into the pink flesh. The demon reeled back in pain at my motion. He recovered and swung his tongue out to slam into each of us. Skull took the hit as Panther dodged. I jumped over as Joker rolled back and darted to heal Skull.

I didn't wait and instead had Phantom unleash a pulse of gravity upon him. Panther quickly followed up my blow with her own fiery blast. I glanced over and saw Joker helping Skull back to his feet. Skull pulled his mask off and had a blast of Electricity be fired off before Asmodeus could react. Joker also unleashed another physical attack against the demonic nuisance. I could only hope that Mona finally got himself into position.

"Is there one less of you? I knew it! Where'd that cat run off to?" Asmodeus wondered. Ah, so he had finally realised that someone was missing from the group who had been attacking him; all I could see was that Mona was now no longer hanging from the top of the statue which hopefully meant he had reached the railing's top. We just needed to ensure that the demon didn't spot the cat before he could execute the plan.

"Beats me, maybe he got scared and ran!" Skull responded. Mona probably wouldn't be happy to hear such a comment, but it would serve to keep the demon's attention focus on us; Joker pulled off his mask and had his Angel unleash a brilliant flash of light to pierce into the demon's twisted body. Mona had climbed onto the railing and threw himself forward, his petite body impacted the crown and sent it hurtling down to the ground.

Asmodeus immediately started to flail about, the wine glass and riding crop dropping from his hands. Those now empty upper arms wildly snatched at the air, but the crown wasn't even close to where he was grabbing. He wailed about losing his 'precious' – why did that sound familiar? – before slumping over in such a dejected manner, it was worse than when we cracked open his trophy.

"I think we can do this!" Panther cheered. And she was right, we jumped in and unleashed every possible level of attack that we could. Surprisingly Asmodeus couldn't even lift a finger to fight back against us. Instead, he simply let us attack him again and again. With a final ferocious fireball from Panther, smoke began to rise to from his form. I immediately waved everyone back and we got away from the demon as it crumpled down and began to dissolve into smoke.

The crown rolled to a stop in front of us and shrunk back down to its' original size. Skull began to walk forward to collect it, when Shadow Kamoshida dived out of nowhere, swept the crown up and quickly rolled to his feet all within a few seconds. The coward then scrambled to his feet and darted to the side, so we chased after him, but he didn't get very far. Instead, he ground to a stop in front of an open window with nothing but the long drop to greet him.

"What's wrong? Not running away? Why don't you run? Aren't you a great athlete?" Panther mockingly asked. Her tone was rather acidic, but given everything this was probably a good outlet for her feelings. Kamoshida stood out on the balcony, no longer flitting from side to side like some demented butterfly yet his back remained towards us.

"It's always been like this… all those goddamn hyenas forcing their expectation on me! I'm doing this all for them! What's wrong about demanding a reward for that!?" Shadow Kamoshida complained. Skull rightly called him out on his excuse making, it was honestly pathetic to listen to him trying to push his way out of the situation, out of having to pay for the crimes that he had committed.

"Scared?" Panther asked. Her tone was icy cold as she spoke, lightly playing with a ponytail. "Right now, you're seeing the same view that Shiho did. I'm sure she was sacred too… except she had no choice but to jump… what will you do?" Panther questioned. She'd moved forward slightly as tension coiled through her body, tension I wasn't a fan off, so I set my legs apart and gripped the edge of my mask. "Will you jump? Or would you rather die here?" Panther questioned. At that moment Panther's mask dissolved and Carmen appeared, a fireball in each of her hands.

"Do you want to finish him off? It's your call," Mona wondered. No! I couldn't allow such a thing to happen, none of them knew the consequences of destroying a Shadow like I did, which meant I had to stop them from following through with such an act; Shadow Kamoshida had started blubbering but I didn't particularly care to hear his words, more concerned about watching Panther's moves.

"Shut up. I bet everyone told you the same. But you… you took everything from them!" Panther cried. The fireballs shot forward and I moved with them, I got in front and quickly set my stance. Slicing through each fireball allowed them to dissipate harmlessly before they became a threat. "Amazon! What are you doing?!" Panther cried. All of their faces bore expressions of shock, especially for having jumped in front of one of my weaknesses, I simply squared myself up, covering the Shadow from view. "Why are you protecting him?!" Panther demanded.

"I'm not protecting him! I'm protecting you!" I responded. All of them blinked in confusion and looked at each other before focusing on me. "I was told, by my master, that killing a Shadow will kill the person it belongs to by forcing their brain to shut down," I revealed. Their expressions slackened into shock as Panther realised the full weight of her actions by the fading pallor of her face. "I want you to be aware of that before you make a move. Because Kamoshida will die. I'm not saying you shouldn't kill him, but can you bear that burden? Withstand the knowledge that his blood will be on your hands. Even if no one but those of us here know about it. You're a kind person Ann, a very kind and genuinely good hearted person. I don't want to see you break because of scum like him, even if it's his death. If you can bear that burden…," I admitted. I then stepped aside so that she had a clear shot at him. "Then go ahead, roast him. I won't deny that he deserves it. But it's up to you in the end," I finished.

"I accept defeat... you want this? Take it," Shadow Kamoshida insisted. He threw the crown so that it sailed through the air and was easily caught by Joker. "Go ahead and finish me off. She's right though, if you do that then my real self will go down too. You have that right, since you've won," Shadow Kamoshida spoke. Panther looked furious, her eyes burning with intense light and another fireball shot forward… and missed the Shadow.

"If his mind shuts down, he can't admit his crimes," Panther decided. The mask reformed back onto her face, an anguished expression could be seen but I was relieved she made the choice she did; I moved back over to stand beside the others, feeling a sensation of what might have been pride blooming within my heart as I looked at the red clad girl.

"I've lost. You're through when you lose. What am I… what am I supposed to do now?" Shadow Kamoshida wondered. How pathetic could he possibly be? Everyone gathered in front of him had 'lost' at some point, we lost people we loved or places to call home – or a whole memory in Mona's case – but we managed to pick ourselves up and move forward. Nothing is through when you lose, only when you give up.

"Atone for your sins," Joker snapped. That was the most appropriate thing for him to do after causing so much pain and suffering, Shadow Kamoshida looked up and I could only hope those words would sink in; we needed the Shadow to re-join with his true self in order to set off the Change of Heart process, but the Shadow had to willingly re-join otherwise it would mean nothing in the long run.

"Alright… I will leave now and return to my real self," Shadow Kamoshida agreed. I practically deflated when I saw the same glow that had surrounded Shadow Ouvrard after I beat her condense around Shadow Kamoshida "I'll make certain that I-," Shadow Kamoshida began to admit. But before he could, the distorted reflection vanished into thin air.

"Okay, now we run!" I insisted. As if my words had summoned it, a rumbling immediately occurred throughout the entire Palace. "And by the way! The warping doesn't work at this stage!" I added on. Turning, I quickly sprinted towards the doorway that would take us out of the crumbing building with footsteps indicating that the others were quickly tailing after me as fast as they could manage.

We charged through the castle, having reached one of the lowered areas and we darted through the hallway. We dodged out of the way of falling debris, either by arcing around it or jumping over the blockage. Not a one of us faltered in the running as we were desperate to escape, especially since I wasn't keen on finding out what happens when you manage to go down with the Palace… something told me it wasn't pleasant.

"We're gonna die! We're so gonna die!" Panther screamed. I didn't stop moving to chastise the girl for her unnecessary panic in an already tense situation. "Hey! What the-?" Panther cried. A sudden cry came from Skull and then I felt a weight on my shoulder, a quick glanced showed it was Mona – in his cat form?! – resting there, before springing off and onto Joker's shoulder as Skull claimed he was a jerk. Mona's response was a simple meow.

"Argue later! Run now!" Joker ordered. However, at his words, a cry came from behind me, I quickly pivoted and saw that Skull had collapsed to the floor, holding his wounded leg, all of us had stopped moving to look at our collapsed member. I began to move forward with Panther shortly behind me, but Skull pushed himself up and held out a hand to stop our approach to him with a strained smile upon his face.

"It's been a while, so I just tripped is all," Skull reassured. The crumbling accelerated at that moment as the hallway we'd just been through started to collapse at a faster rate; that was enough of a second wind for Skull as he quickly started to run with all of us heading in the same direction towards the exit and safety.

*Persona 5 Royal*

You have returned to the real world. The Meta-Nav chimed, all of us were huffing and puffing – except for Morgana, the lucky fluffball – after that mad dash to escape the Palace, I hadn't realised how much energy Lavenza had saved me when her and Igor had briefly managed to connect the Velvet Room to the Sanctum. Takamaki rightly claimed that whole experience had sucked.

"Look at the Nav!" Sakamoto insisted. I pulled out my phone and opened up the app, only to find that the app showed that Kamoshida's warped Palace had been deleted from the list of destinations; that was a sure-fire sign to me that the Palace had been successfully dissolved, the Shadow had been unharmed so Kamoshida shouldn't suffer a mental shutdown and his desires would be stopped.

"What about the Treasure!?" Morgana asked. In response to the slightly panicked question, Amamiya reached into his pocket and pulled out the Treasure's true form, this time it was an Olympic gold medal; naturally, those who hadn't experienced it were quite confused by the object suddenly becoming something different to what it was within the Palace.

"When Treasures enter the physical world, they revert to their true forms. Much like how Kamoshida viewed the school as a castle, he viewed his medal as a crown," I explained. Morgana agreed and claimed this had been the source of all of Kamoshida's desires; just how obsessed could one guy be with a single past glory?

"An Olympic medal. So that perv kept clingin' to his past glory and couldn't let it go," Sakamoto commented. Takamaki proceeded to ask if Kamoshida's heart had changed but when Morgana only gave her an answer of 'probably' Sakamoto got angry. "Our expulsion's on the line here!" Sakamoto protested. I immediately clamped a hand hard onto his shoulder and pulled him back slightly.

"We're not psychic Sakamoto-san, we can't predict how or even when the Change of Heart might occur. I had to wait an entire week before getting confirmation it had worked, we just need to give it time. Spontaneously re-growing a moral compass after years without it certainly can't an easy process to come to terms with," I explained. The nerves I'd faced down during that week were already wriggling to the surface, but I had to keep my cool for the moment.

"Natsumi's right. This is the first successful attempt for me too, so we only have her experience to go on. However, I can safely say there's no doubt that this has affected Kamoshida's personality quite a lot. The entire Palace disappeared after all," Morgana explained. It was quite the piece of evidence for us to use in affirming that something had managed to change.

"Ugh, I feel all antsy! Ain't there a way to check now?" Sakamoto questioned. I could understand his nerves, I'd been wracked with them immediately after awakening the day after fighting Dantalion – too exhausted and relieved right after to think about it much – and they had only grown more persistent with each passing day as I worried over if I had succeeded.

"I'm worried too, but we can only wait. Perhaps we'll know more tomorrow at school," Amamiya soothed. At least he possessed a level head at the moment despite openly admitting that he was quite nervous himself, but then again we were probably all going to be nervous for some time, at least until we had some kind of physical confirmation beyond the Palace poof-ing out of existence.

"Come on, why the gloomy faces? Be happy! We completed this with great success, you know," Morgana insisted. He was looking at us with what was probably annoyance within his blue gaze, I suppose he was probably the most confident of all of us that this whole event had panned out the way that we planned it to, unlike the rest of us; even I wasn't too keen about having to wait around for an answer to the question.

"Nerves Morgana. None of us know if everything has been settled yet. Once we know what happened, I'm sure things will change. Now, it's just a case of playing the waiting game," I explained. Morgana let out a humming meow as he sat against the ground underneath, likely considering the words that I had said and taking in the expressions of the other three.

"I'm pretty sure it'll be fine. Remember how Kamoshida's shadow said that he's returning to his self in reality? We all know Kamoshida Suguru is scum… still, he did seem to regain his conscience somewhat before he disappeared," Morgana admitted. The others nodded their head, that was one of the few things that made me think we would be fortunate in succeeding on this Change of Heart.

"It seemed so, in which case, I'm sure it worked," Amamiya agreed. Morgana pointed out how our actions had definitely saved some people, which was very true, at least now we wouldn't have to deal with Kamoshida's damned peacocking and hopefully the volleyball team would have some time to rest and maybe even more afterwards.

"Anyways, I guess we gotta wait. It all boils down to what's gonna happen to Kamoshida… or if we're gettin' expelled for real," Sakamoto pointed out. At least now he understood that there was nothing more for us to do until we knew the full extent of what had happened to Kamoshida; all of us proceeded to shoulder our bags as I packed away my bow ready to take back home.

"Let's go home everyone," Amamiya suggested.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Returning to my home, I could already feel the stress and weight of the day pounding down on me. I wanted nothing more than to sink into my bed and immediately drift off, but I also needed food if the very loud growl from my stomach was anything to go by. I moved into the kitchen and set about getting my meal when a notification came in. A quick check proved it came from Takamaki.

Ann: Thanks. I finally got to avenge Shiho because of you guys.

Ann: I'm pretty sure there was no way I'd had been able to do anything on my own.

Natsumi: Don't think so lowly of yourself Takamaki-san

Natsumi: You're stronger than you give yourself credit for

Ann: Still, thank you. I owe you so much.

Natsumi: Just as we owe you.

Natsumi: Defeating Kamoshida was a team effort after all.

Ann: Speaking of which, I should thank the boys too.

Natsumi: Sleep well Takamaki-san, you'll probably need it.

Ann: Yeah, I feel exhausted.

Putting the phone down, I set about silencing the noises coming from my stomach. All I could hope was that everything truly did turn out okay.