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 Guest, thank you for your review

I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy

Chapter 77: - High Priestess, Emperor, Strength

Makoto had requested for Natsumi to come and help her with some stuff during the break, Makoto didn't actually need the help, it was just a thinly veiled excuse for her to talk to Natsumi. Makoto hadn't finished getting everything together yet, besides she was planning to hold off on actually giving Natsumi that for a certain day that was going to be coming up very soon. The door to the student council office opened and Makoto turned around.

"Hi Mako-chan," Natsumi greeted. Despite her attempts, Makoto noticed that Natsumi seemed rather… strained, might be the best word, as if something was bothering her quite a bit. "I'm sorry about the last time we met up," Natsumi apologised. Makoto's eyes widened and figured that must have been what Natsumi was so concerned about and it saddened Makoto that she actually thought she needed to apologise for something like that.

"Don't be, I'm actually relieved you told me," Makoto admitted. She moved over to Natsumi and rest a hand on her shoulder, just to try and encourage Natsumi that everything was fine, but the strain on her expression didn't leave; actually, it hadn't changed at all and Makoto was a little concerned as to what could be causing Natsumi such visible discomfort.

"Yeah, well there's something I want you to tell me," Natsumi insisted. She walked around Makoto towards the desk and set her bag on the floor before turning to look back at Makoto with her arms crossed, the student council president was curious about what Natsumi intended to ask her. "Why were you so hung up on being useful?" Natsumi asked. Natsumi didn't mean for it to happen, Makoto knew this, that did not stop the flinch that ended up coming over Makoto's entire body.

"I wasn't sure if the Phantoms were good or bad when I was looking for them before talking to you," Makoto began. Natsumi nodded her head in understanding, but remained silent, clearly trying to let Makoto work her way through this. "I tried to talk to Sis about it, wondering what dad would think about them and… she got so angry at me, called me useless, that I ate at her life," Makoto admitted.

"Hell," Natsumi breathed. She looked horrified, no doubt Natsumi had never even considered that there was anything that would cause Sae to say such words, Makoto had been so shocked that she had struggled to find the words to argue against those stinging accusations. "That does not sound like the Sae-kun I remember," Natsumi stated. Makoto understood the shock; her sister had changed just as much as Makoto and Natsumi had.

"I know, I think dad's death hit her very hard and she never quite recovered from it," Makoto agreed. She picked up a few papers as she swallowed the heavy lump that seemed to have lodged its' way into her throat. "She's done so much, working long hours to provide for both of us, taking care of me when I needed it, doing everything she can to ensure my needs were met," Makoto defended. Makoto had to figure something out that would explain why Sae had done such a thing to her.

"That doesn't give her the right to say those things to you!" Natsumi yelled. Makoto jumped at hearing Natsumi's vehement rejection of her defence, there was a very familiar emotion burning in Natsumi's green eyes, familiar enough that had it been another situation, Makoto would have been smiling. "If she's been working long hours then you've probably been doing all the housework… gods I hope you haven't been cooking," Natsumi added on. She had clearly been distracted by the idea of Makoto's cooking, but given what her recollection would be, it didn't surprise Makoto.

"I'm not that bad anymore, Hikaru might let me in the kitchen if he was still around," Makoto tentatively insisted. She had only spoken in such a manner because she was worried that mentioning her brother might end up setting Natsumi off into another crying mess; Makoto was relieved and surprised when Natsumi simply let out a laugh at the suggestion with a big smile on her face.

"Not likely, he never forgave you for burning that cake… and the roast potatoes… and the soup," Natsumi revealed. Makoto had hunch down at the reminder of the disastrous incident that had seen Hikaru chasing Makoto out of the kitchen with a wooden spoon. "Seriously how do you burn soup?" Natsumi asked. A bit of a smile came onto Makoto's face at the question.

"Talent," Makoto suggested. They both laughed at the remembrance of the events that they used to go through, once they were done with their laughter, the two of them set to work on sorting out the paperwork so that none of her colleagues would get confused as to why the work hadn't been done since that was why Makoto had come into the room in the first place despite her flimsy excuse.

"I really have missed talking to you," Natsumi admitted. Makoto looked at Natsumi and saw that there was a smile on her face with an almost wistful quality to it; seeing such an expression did pluck at Makoto's heart because it was something that Makoto understood, they had used to have such a strong friendship.

"So have I," Makoto agreed. Hopefully, Makoto and Natsumi would be able to rekindle their friendship now that they were able to talk to each other and would be able to chat with each other more often thanks to both being members of the Phantoms; it still amazed Makoto how her life had changed… she still needed to do something about the principal's demands to locate her teammates.

"Have you been up to anything I wouldn't expect?" Natsumi wondered. Makoto looked at Natsumi as the girl handed over the papers that she had managed to sort through; as she thought about anything that really warranted being spoken about, Makoto proceeded to finish sorting the papers together into a proper pile that would be easy to understand when it came back to look at them.

"Only going down to the arcade with Ren, I want to get a better understanding of others in the school and show that I'm not what they think of me. It was actually quite fun," Makoto admitted. She hadn't expected to have such enjoyment when taking part in that shooting game; Ren had been looking at her a little weirdly at first, but he seemed to enjoy himself at the end of it.

"Have you tried chatting to some of the other students?" Natsumi wondered. To be fair, Makoto had actually attempted to do such a thing, that was the whole reason that Ren had even started to help her out because he had witnessed her rather miserable attempt to actually start a conversation with other students.

"It didn't go so well," Makoto stated. Her expression was no doubt pinched as she recalled the incident that had led to them going to the arcade in the first place, it had gone well but Makoto still wished there was some way for her to understand the rest of her classmates at the very least if she couldn't connect to the other pupils.

"You can't give up, that will never let you get better nor is it like you at all," Natsumi pointed out. Makoto focused on her friend and saw the reassuring look that Natsumi was giving her. "I'm not saying you have to befriend everyone in school, just find one or a few people you can chat with about things," Natsumi encouraged. Makoto felt a little better at hearing those words since it did make sense that she should keep trying to do something.

"Thank you Natsu-chan, I'll definitely keep trying," Makoto agreed. What worried Makoto, however, was that the strain hadn't completely left Natsumi and as the girl left to return to her class, it had returned in full force.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Yusuke had been asked to come to Natsumi's house for some kind of meeting, he wasn't entirely sure, but her message had a sense of urgency normally lacking outside of anything related to their activities as the Phantoms. Especially since it had referenced their previous conversation which was curious to Yusuke since he had not expected it, though in light of his recent disaster at the lake perhaps he needed this.

"Okay, I have a little bit of a crazy idea," Natsumi greeted. She had rushed out the door quite soon after he arrived and Yusuke took notice of two things immediately; one was that Natsumi interestingly enough had a camera hanging around her neck which wasn't something he saw her normally with. But the second was the more concerning aspect, Natsumi looked deeply uncomfortable, as if there was something on her mind that troubled her beyond any kind of reasonable excuse.

"What is your idea?" Yusuke asked. He hoped that his question would distract her from whatever was causing her such distress, this was something different to when Makoto had been in danger, but Yusuke could not quite pinpoint exactly what was causing it; Natsumi proceeded to grip the camera which caused Yusuke to focus his attention upon the object.

"Well, my little sister liked photography and I keep doing it in her memory, so I was thinking that we go around to places and I take photographs of them. Then we discuss what each of us felt while looking at the scenery," Natsumi suggested. Yusuke was saddened to hear the tone that Natsumi's voice took when speaking of her sister, but her suggestion was something that interested him.

"Can I ask why?" Yusuke wondered. He had nothing against doing this because going to different sceneries and taking them in was something he intended to do with Ren anyway; but he was curious as to what trail of thought Natsumi must have been following to come to this decision. Natsumi didn't seem annoyed by this as she released the camera and focused her attention back on Yusuke completely.

"Perspective, the more you broaden your perspective of how other people view different scenes then the better I'm sure you'll become as a painter because you'll be able to convey things better," Natsumi explained. Yusuke could admit that he had no issue with the words that Natsumi and spoken and after the lake incident, he definitely needed to learn how to perceive the world better.

"Very well, it seems reasonable," Yusuke agreed. It would not be a bad idea for them to go down this path and try to see where it led them, if it did not work then they would be able to move away from it quite easily. But – and Yusuke preferred this option – if it did manage to work then this would be another avenue that they could follow while he pursued his own focuses with Ren to better understand other scenes.

"Let's start with Yoyogi Park, it's a place I frequent a lot so we can primarily focus on you while there and then we can do new places later on," Natsumi suggested. With those words, Natsumi set off and Yusuke follow after her and they returned to Shibuya, but the path Natsumi took him on was different to one that he had taken before, they soon arrived at a park, but Natsumi did not stop moving and instead brought them to a grassy knoll.

It was quite a nice view and Yusuke immediately set to work, raising his fingers to frame the scene as the afternoon glittered off the water in a radiant wave that would have been blinding if he looked at it directly. Suddenly spouts of water shot up into the air and remained so for several moments, leaves were tugged from their branches and danced across the scene before both of them proceeded to vanish from view.

"Alright, that's one picture taken," Natsumi's voice echoed. He barely paid the words as he continued to look through his finger frame as he took in the lovely place that lay before his eyes. "Kind of glad to know you're doing that," Natsumi admitted. He broke out of his trance and turned to see Natsumi smiling at him which caused him to drop his finger frame and properly facing her.

"It is a wonderful place, such a transient place where beauty is fleeting and quickly extinguished," Yusuke admitted. But the moment he said those words, the smile proceeded to slide off of Natsumi's face, but she didn't look unhappy despite the lack of a smile; instead, she looked a little uncertain, as if she didn't know exactly how to react to Yusuke's answer. Something Yusuke himself was currently feeling at seeing her expression change.

"Why do you think it's fleeting?" Natsumi asked. She was peering at him with those eyes of hers that made it feel like Yusuke's entire existence was being carefully peeled back; in a way Yusuke wished he was the one with such eyes, if only so he could peel back to understand what had Natsumi so on edge for some strange reason, he knew it was nothing to do with him at the very least.

"I suppose it was the way the way the waterspouts and leaves moved at times, they were there so quickly and then gone in the next," Yusuke explained. He wasn't entirely sure how to go about condensing his viewpoint into words that could be understood, not because he didn't believe Natsumi could understand him, but because he wasn't sure that he could properly explain it to her in words.

"I feel serenity when I'm here," Natsumi revealed. That jolted Yusuke as he saw Natsumi turning her face away from him, clearly not realising how much she had shaken Yusuke's perspective with just a few words, just like back at the lake, just like the gallery. "When I come to this place, it's one of the few places I ever truly felt at peace after my family's passing before I met you guys," Natsumi explained. She continued to stare out at the scenery, seemingly in a whole different world.

"I… I see," Yusuke muttered. But how could he? He had assumed once more that the world he was gazing out at was the world that everyone else saw, how was he ever going to learn that this wasn't what a real artist should do! A real artist needed to capture the world properly as it truly was while considering the viewpoints of all the other people to make the painting whole, the continued colouring of his viewpoint so that he got things wrong was only going to make his art worse, not better.

"Yusuke don't panic. I don't expect you to feel the way I do," Natsumi reassured. She had moved over to him and carefully lowered him down to the grassy land that they stood on, she was right in front of him and clearly trying to make sure that he didn't completely fall to pieces like he very much wanted to at the prospect of forever being stuck in the slump he had found himself trapped within.

"But how can I ever learn if my perspective is so different to everyone else's," Yusuke feared. If he remained blind to the real truth of the world, then how could he ever truly manage to escape the slump and actually paint something that was as heart capturing in its' beauty as Sayuri had been for him; there was no escape that he could see for himself, not a single way out of this prison he was snared within.

"Try to be in my shoes, don't just look Yusuke," Natsumi insisted. Yusuke looked at her, completely confused by her words, but she gave no answer to him and instead chose to cover his eyes with her hand and a gently grip on his hand with her other encouraged him not to lean away to escape. "Feel, hear, smell. Use all your senses," Natsumi encouraged. Yusuke swallowed thickly, not understanding, but deciding to at least try something, trusting in his fellow artist.

He focused primarily on his sense of hearing since that would be the one that would help the most, yet as he heard the gentle whistling wind moving around him, his free hand fell down to gently press against the grass and feel its' odd texture that couldn't be put into words. There was also a scent on the air that drifted around him as he could surprisingly still picture the layout of Yoyogi scenery quite well, his memory wasn't bad, but he also couldn't believe how accurate it was.

"You don't have to be me to understand why I think the way I do. That's kind of impossible. But by listening to others, you'll grow as both person and artist and really capture the world you're trying to paint," Natsumi encouraged. Yusuke felt better, he wasn't there yet but he did feel better now that he had done this. For some reason, it made it easier for him to relax as they left the park.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Margaret wanted to flee. She very much wished to escape from the place that Natsumi had brought her to, it was enough to make her feel sick just being here. Mementos was a bleak place, worse than the TV World or Tartarus, there was a terribly oppressive aura that spiralled throughout the entire place spoke of something deeply wrong. Of all the evils that Margaret had seen humanity faced with threatening their end, this by far was the one that felt the most insidious since the Crawling Chaos.

"Thank you for coming Rise-san," Natsumi spoke. The Betwixt's words drew Margaret's attention away from the sickening atmosphere, she focused on the duo who were standing off to the side; Margaret had been quite surprised when the navigator of the Investigation Team had shown up with Natsumi, but the world worked in mysterious ways concerning Persona Users that not even Margaret understood.

"Of course. I'm just shocked your team is running around without a navigation specialised Persona," Rise admitted. She was staring at Natsumi's outfit and gently poking it in places, admittedly the outfit was quite strange, but Margaret sensed a significant amount of power dwelling within it that had been lacking from the other team's armaments when they crossed over to this side; Natsumi did not seem bothered by the assessment her garments were receiving.

"Hopefully we get one soon, otherwise this could be an issue the longer it goes on," Natsumi revealed. With those words, Rise stepped back and proceeded to summon her Tarot Card to her hands; Natsumi cocked her head to the side clearly intrigued by the method of summoning that was likely different to her own. Rise crushed the card and her telescope headed Persona manifested behind her and placed the head device over Rise's head, the older Person user immediately started to scan this world.

"Well, I can tell you that there are eight different zones in this Mementos place, but I can only get a clear view of three of them. Each zone has multiple different floors," Rise explained. Natsumi seemed surprised to hear the number of zones that were present, but the rest of the information was something that Natsumi already seemed quite aware of since she gave no reaction to hearing about it.

"Those clear zones are probably the three we've already visited," Natsumi clarified. Ah, that explained why she perfectly understood the rest of what Rise said, Margaret could not be entirely sure of how often Natsumi had been to this place, given the fact the Other World seemed to have bubbles that were quite isolated from this central mass which was quite strange to Margaret as even the TV World's different areas had been directly interlinked yet Tartarus had nothing of the sort as it was all in one place.

"There's some kind of block that prevents Kouzeon from properly scanning in detail. All I can tell is that the last zone is big. This is really different to the TV World, it's more like that place that popped up in Inaba during the time Sho ran amok," Rise explained. Natsumi raised an eyebrow in confusion at the reference, but Rise seemed to silently convince her to let it go for now which Margaret was glad for since they needed to focus on the current problem.

"Tartarus, though instead of going up, it goes down," Elizabeth remarked. She even proceeded to kick the objects that descended downwards as if expressing quite a bit of disgust with the idea of what was going on; though given Elizabeth's panic when she thought the Great Seal had been at risk of breaking there was nothing Margaret could get annoyed at which was unusual when concerning her vapid sister.

"It certainly shares an eerie similarity to such a place," Theodore agreed. Her brother seemed deeply uncomfortable at the fact that they were dealing with something like this again; it was unusual how it seemed to be both akin to Tartarus and the TV World, yet very different to them as well. As if whatever had formed this version of the collective unconsciousness had somehow learned from those past events.

"You said you've only made it down three levels," Margaret pointed out. She needed to figure out why they had only explored three levels of the eight; whatever blockage had been detected might only be preventing scanning powers and they could head deeper, Margaret wanted to head as deep as possible and find the danger which might just be responsible for the disappearance of her master and sister.

"At the end of each area, there's some kind of barrier, we need to clear a Palace and increase our recognition to get people to accept that we actually exist, until then the barrier prevents us from going deeper," Natsumi explained. That was a valid reason for having only gone down so far, but it spoke of another similarity that unsettled Margaret even more.

"Definitely Tartarus like then," Margaret agreed. Elizabeth nodded her head in agreement, likely recalling how after each Full Moon Shadow was defeated a new section of Tartarus had opened for her Wildcard. "We'll head down, but I don't know exactly what we'll find," Margaret decided. With those words Natsumi stepped forward and reached out her hand.

A flare of blue flames appeared and transformed into a naginata, surprising the group since this was quite odd. But Natsumi did not relent as she guided the group down into the bowels of Mementos. What Shadows they came across were easily dispatched by Natsumi, mostly using her naginata but occasionally moving to her Persona if necessary. Rise used her navigation to guide them, but apart from fighting many Shadows, they returned to the first level with only disappointment.

"There didn't seem to be much for us to learn," Rise acknowledged. She had only been slightly informed of what was going on, but it seemed she was as disconcerted by the inability to learn anymore from this exploration; Margaret was starting to get frustrated with the fact that nothing they had tried seemed to lead them any closer to the answers that they desperately needed to find.

"I thought we might learn some more, but I guess this was a dead end," Natsumi admitted. The young Betwixt raked her hands through her hair, clearly not pleased with how things had turned out; but strangely enough Natsumi's gaze was not on any of them nor the entrance or exit to Mementos, instead it was pointed directly at a corner of this opening area quite intently.

"Why are you starting over there?" Theodore wondered. It was quite curious that she was focused on such a specific corner, especially when there didn't seem to be anything truly remarkable about such a corner; there were no defining features about it that marked that corner as anything particularly special that would draw anyone's attention, let alone one of Lord Philemon's incarnated children.

"This is where the Velvet Room's door was when Lavenza and I came down here to train before she vanished," Natsumi answered. Those words caused Margaret's eyes to wide and she immediately rushed for the corner, wanting to get closer to this area that might hold the key that they needed. She was not the only one as Elizabeth and Theodore flanked her in order to also focus on this area.

Margaret traced her hand over the area that Natsumi had been indicating, she sensed it almost immediately, the chorus of power that was all about change and evolution, growth from understanding. But it was so very faint as well, Margaret could find no way to pull the door forward into this plane that would allow them to enter the Velvet Room, it was as if it was out of her reach for some reason.

"I… I can just sense it, like it hovers here at times!" Elizabeth exclaimed. That meant that it was still capable of appearing in this space at some points, perhaps there was some kind of requirement that had to be fulfilled… but that didn't make sense. Master Igor would never have randomly barred them, not even Elizabeth with her leaving behind her duties had been enough for their master to evict her from ever entering the Velvet Room.

"But why can't I see it then, it's never there when I come, either alone or with my team. I can only sense it when Joker goes in," Natsumi revealed. That revelation chilled Margaret all the way down to her bones, she couldn't even focus on the odd name that had been used for her Wildcard; instead, she whipped around to face Natsumi.

"No Betwixt has ever been barred from the Velvet Room, this is against the rules!" Margaret snapped. It was not the girl she was angry at, but the situation; Lord Philemon's children were always afforded the highest courtesy of those dwelling within the Velvet Room, to know such a thing had happened was the greatest insult they could leverage against one such as Natsumi.

"Could something be blocking the Velvet Room from Natsu-chan?" Rise wondered. All of them focused on the navigator who seemed to have been temporarily forgotten by the rest of them, but it was clear she had been listening, with a careful ear that allowed her to focus and think over the possibilities of what she had learned from this shocking revelation.

"Perhaps, we've simply never had this kind of issue before," Theodore admitted. Rise nodded her head, but her suggestion was one whose merit could not be denied, there was every chance that the source of the evil atmosphere was somehow attempting to keep Natsumi excluded for whatever reason it might have for doing such a thing.

"This is just getting worse and worse, the more we look into it," Natsumi acknowledged. The girl was rubbing at her forehead as if attempting to ward off a headache which Margaret was almost sure must be forming for herself, despite the fact that an entity like her technically shouldn't be capable of being struck with such a malady.

"We'll see what we can do on our own for now," Margaret insisted. Natsumi nodded, but she did not seem pleased by it; they proceeded to leave Mementos and Margaret immediately saw a weariness press upon Natsumi and Rise, indicating that the two of them were tired from their excursion. The two proceeded to hobble off together and Margaret quickly turn to her siblings, both of them looking as concerned as Margaret was sure she felt.

"There's no one else we can talk to, the Investigation Team and Shadow Operatives are all outside of the city and the other groups won't know who we are since the attendants for them weren't like us," Elizabeth pointed out. That was quite the problem that they faced, they needed more experience and knowledge, but Margaret loathed to leave this city because there was something growing stronger and the eldest attendant feared that if they left, they wouldn't be able to return.

"We have to try sister, no matter what, we have to try," Margaret insisted. Her siblings nodded, clearly rallying in order to figure out what this suspicious thing was that happened to be causing them so much distress.