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 67: - The Illusory Popess
"A canine!?" Makoto exclaimed. I wasn't that surprised this was how Makoto had reacted in such a manner upon first seeing us in our costumes, it really would be a shock to anyone who was seeing us in ordinary clothes and then to see us suddenly dressed in our Rebel's Armour; all I could be thankful for was that she wasn't screaming.
"It's Fox," Fox commented. He seemed rather dejected at having been called a canine instead of his codename, but it wasn't that unusual of a reaction when it had been such a surprise to see happen; I quickly looked around, there weren't any Shadows nearby like last time but that didn't mean that none were in listening distance.
"Normally I'd say be quiet, but this area is eerily devoid of Shadows," Mona commented. Well, if Mona said so then I could at least relax in that regard, he had a better sense for Shadows' locations than any of us when they were at a distance; of course his words caused Makoto to look over to him which could only lead to one response.
"A monster cat!?" Makoto yelped. There it was. I had kind of figured that was what would some out upon seeing Mona, Ann had reacted the same way and Makoto was much closer to her wavelength of thinking than she was to Yusuke who had been far too calm when first seeing Mona's alerted appearance; I looked over at Mona to see how he would react to that comment.
"I'm not!" Mona exclaimed. He even slumped down when he made that exclamation, however it was likely that Makoto wasn't going to calm down unless she was reassured that she wasn't in any danger, especially since to her eyes the rest of us had proceeded to vanish and where now replaced with a group of masked individuals.
"Mako-chan! Calm down!" I insisted. I reached over to firmly grip her shoulder and this caused her red eyes to dart over to me, with my free hand, I proceeded to lift up my mask as Makoto's eyes widened. "Look, it's just us, okay," I reassured. Makoto blinked owlishly for a moment before reaching up to push and prod at my cheeks as if confirming that what she was seeing happened to be real.
"That's Morgana, the cat that was in Ren's bag. This is what happens when we come here," Panther explained. Makoto's eyes drifted over to the person who had spoken and her eyes widened at the outfit she was wearing before drifting over to the previously insulted 'monster cat', Makoto then quickly looked back at Panther with comprehension on her face.
"That voice… Takamaki-san?" Makoto asked. She stepped back from me and looked around, taking in the strange atmosphere, green sky, the walking ATMs that made her do a double take and stared hard for several seconds, before finally focusing back on the rest of us. "Where are we?" Makoto wondered. Was waiting for that question to be dropped.
"We're inside Kaneshiro's… well, the 'world' inside his heart," Panther explained. We were absolutely going to have to go into more detail about that, as intelligent as Makoto was, I just knew it was unfair to expect her to get the information that we were trying to get across to her with such a basic explanation.
"What?" Makoto asked. I really hope the Shadows stayed away since this discussion might end up taking much longer than any one of us could anticipate happening; I started to look around for an easily defensible location where we could sit down and actually have this rather important conversation while ensuring we were as safe as possible.
"It's another reality in which Kaneshiro's distorted desires have materialised," Fox explained. I kept looking but that was when I noticed something, the floating Palace seemed to be acting rather strangely as it was starting to hover lower in the sky than it had yesterday and it almost seemed like it was being drawn to our location.
"Another reality?" Makoto echoed. Someone decided that was a good moment to point towards the bank and she turned around and spotted the floating Palace. "It's floating in the air!? Th-This is reality!? My goodness," Makoto exclaimed. Well, at least she wasn't having a full-blown panic attack which was a relief to me since we didn't need her panicking herself into unconsciousness. "I'm sorry, it's just… but since this really exists, I can't doubt it," Makoto admitted. At least she accepted it much easier than Yusuke had been willing to when in the same situation. "A reality that one's heart shows… is it like the application of optical illusions in social cognitive psychology?" Makoto wondered. At those words, I sharply thrusted my hands out to gesture to the brunette girl.
"Now do you guys see why I was worried about her trying to uncover us," I pointed out. Even if it wasn't exact, the mere fact that she thought of something as an example was enough to show that my concern was valid about the danger we had been in. "Come on, I'll explain," I insisted. We proceeded to head over to a small alcove in order to talk, before we did, I summoned my naginata and promptly jammed it into the door, preventing anything from coming at us that way.
With the door blocked, I turned to Makoto and began explaining with a great deal of assistance from Morgana and Ren, along with slight aid from the other three. We told her everything each of us knew about this world, about Mementos, Palaces, the heists we'd already pulled, and even our Personas so she'd understand what we had been speaking of earlier.
"I see, so 'stealing one's heart' that may be like overwriting their cognition. I think I kind of get the logic behind it," Makoto admitted. At least she seemed to understand what we were getting at with our words; also, I much preferred the way she referred to it instead of brainwashing – even if it was sort of like that – since we were just returning them to a sort of balance by taking out their evil intentions and allowing their moral compass to start point more northwards than it had before.
"Ain't she more amazing than you?" Skull asked Mona. I don't exactly see how Makoto was more impressive than Mona, Mona seemed to have an almost instinctual knowledge of what was going on in the Metaverse whereas Makoto would have to learn and experience in order to make use of that same kind of knowledge.
"W-We're about the same!" Mona exclaimed. He seemed rather agitated by what had been said, so I reached over and gently rested my hand on Morgana's head in an attempt to comfort him and allow him to calm down while moving my hand around in gentle brushing motions; Panther and Joker were frowning slightly while I couldn't see Fox from my current position.
"Then, does that mean there's an ATM version of myself somewhere in this world too?" Makoto wondered. That question made my hand freeze in place as my entire body went rigid, since the mere idea of going out to search for the ATM that was a representation of my former friend just churned my stomach and caused the other horrifying cognitions to dance across my mind in their twisted glory.
"Yes. But please don't go trying to find it," I pleaded. My voice caught a little as I finally flexed my hand into moving, I looked at Makoto and found she was staring at me with wide and uncertain eyes. "I have witnessed multiple cognitions, including one of myself and they have always disturbed me. This disturbs me more than any of those I've previously encountered," I explained. Makoto's lips thinned but I think she understood my reluctance to engage with the search for her cognitive counterpart.
"Regardless, we can change Kaneshiro's heart and make him confess if we steal his Treasure," Mona reminded. I patted his head, relieved that Mona had managed to drag the conversation back to what we needed to focus on. "If it all goes well that is," Mona added on. That was the one thing we needed to be careful of, no matter how good we got at these infiltrations, it would only take one mistake to mess us up on any heist.
"We'll make it go well! Everyone'll notice us for sure if we take someone like Kaneshiro down!" Skull declared. As much as I enjoyed Skull's upbeat enthusiasm, I still wished he would focus on the important part of why we were engaging in this rather dangerous activity instead of the one he seemed more focused upon pursuing.
"Our justice will also become resolute," Fox agreed. I wouldn't disagree with everyone taking a bit more faith from this incident, well the ones within our group at least, since we had been rather shaken by the loss of support and the obstacles that decided to pop up against us when trying to even access this Palace.
"Think we'd be able to give courage to those in need if it happens!?" Panther wondered. It was quite a likely outcome considering how we had been able to do such a thing after collapsing both Kamoshida's and Madarame's Palace, it had only been the condemnation of us by Akechi that caused people to turn against us or at the very least be drowned out.
"I'm certain it will. Kaneshiro's victims are more widespread than anyone else's, those people will realise someone is fighting for them," Joker agreed. That was really the reason why I had guessed that taking on a criminal should be the next appropriate step for us to take; but I think that everyone was missing the point at this moment.
"Whether they recognise us or take hope from us doesn't matter. What matters is stopping Kaneshiro, he needs to be stopped before he hurts anyone else," I pointed out. Everyone focused on me as I proceeded to push myself up from my sitting position, we couldn't get so focused on our other objects that we lost sight of the main goal, protecting others from the suffering that we had endured ourselves.
"For the sake of those in need, huh," Makoto remarked. All of us proceeded to focus on Makoto who was looking at the ground. "You sound like my father," Makoto commented. I shook my head at Panther, stopping her from asking the question she was about to, as Makoto lifted her head up. "You want to go to that bank, right? Let's go then. If I've become a customer of that bank, then they'll have to let me in," Makoto insisted. She strode towards the building which had actually lowered itself closer to the ground and then a ramp extended down to Makoto's position.
"It came to us!" Skull exclaimed. It was such a relief to see that we could now actually get into the Palace that had seemed like an unconquerable force only yesterday; the power of changing one's cognition was more than a little frightening when faced with the evidence of how it could actually be physically – kind of – manifested to our eyes.
"Just as Ren and I calculated," Mona cheered. With the way in now open to us, we walked up the ramp and through the iron gate to find trees with yellow leaves lit by lamp lights, other cognitions moved around us some going in and out of the building while others mindlessly loitered about doing nothing; at least none of them were broken or collapsed… that had been deeply unsettling to witness.
"You know how you can use your card to get into banks during afterhours?" Makoto asked. I don't think any of us did, at least I didn't and no one else seemed to understand from the perplexed expressions they each bore. "I thought that I'd be able to get in since I have the same identity as such customers. I'm Kaneshiro's source of revenue, after all," Makoto explained. Fox claimed this made sense, I'm just relieved that it was actually working to get us inside the Palace.
"But wow… this place is huge," Panther commented. I looked at it and found that the building was rather large, perhaps bigger than the castle in height and maybe even wider than the museum in appearance; that meant more ground to cover, more enemies to face and more places to search for the map to the Treasure.
"I rarely gotta go to the bank, so… this's makin' me kinda nervous," Skull admitted. Joker reached over to pat him on the shoulder as he looked at the massive building staring us down, he seemed a little unnerved if I was honest; I didn't know if they had banks or some kind of thing like that out where he lived but I doubt they were anywhere near as big as this one was, so it was no wonder he seemed a little unnerved.
"Being in a bank with costumes like this is so obvious, we're totally robbers," Panther claimed. I… well I really couldn't argue with her since we were obviously going to stand out with the kind of outfits we were wearing and I'm sure anyone would assume that we were here for nefarious purposes given the masks covering our faces.
"It seems there will be Shadows, and a lot of them, from here on," Mona warned. Yeah, I could feel my skin prickling at their presence hovering over us like an axe now that we were here; it makes sense that they were heavily focused within the actual Palace as opposed to the ground level we'd been wandering around.
"Huh? What's that about?" Makoto asked. Oh yeah, we had forgot to mention the actual ordinary Shadows that proceeded to attack us whenever we found our way into this world; I guess we didn't want to worry Makoto with something that seemed unnecessary to explain how this world worked, but it had been a bit of an error for us to omit them from the explanation.
"Enemies attack us here," Panther explained. That was pretty much all that needed to be said about them, we could explain the actual complexities of the Shadows at another point in time, for now we needed to focus on the main problem at the moment; Makoto seemed to understand Panther as a hardened expression came upon her face.
"I see, I've trained in aikido. Don't worry; I can defend myself," Makoto reassured. And where these any other enemies, as in physical world enemies, then I'd be perfectly fine with letting Makoto have at them since she was very good at her chosen martial art; but these enemies were beyond anything Makoto could have prepared for.
"Not here you can't," I refuted. Makoto looked at me with a frown as I summoned my naginata and pulled my bow off my back. "Shadows can only be harmed by our Rebel's Weapons or the ranged weapons we bring in here so long as they're convinced that they're real. Your fists will do nothing against them, since you don't have armour either, you'll take serious blows that could greatly damage you in the physical world," I warned. Makoto frowned but at least she seemed to understand. "You stay close to me at all times," I insisted.
"Alright Natsumi," Makoto agreed. I was relieved that she was listening to me and putting her safety first. "We have to go in from the front, don't we? I'm an honorary customer, so I better act like one," Makoto decided. Quite against how we normally operated, but we definitely need to do it this time around. "I will be useful to you guys," Makoto promised. I hope we could dissuade her of that mentality since it seemed rather harmful for her to be carrying it around. "Well then, let's head inside," Makoto encouraged.
"Fan out guys! Mona, I want you to scout a head for danger! Skull and Fox, remain behind to cover our escape! Panther, me and you will cover the sides! Amazon, stay with Makoto, her safety is your priority!" Joker ordered. Makoto looked at him in surprise, but everyone took up their positions and we then proceeded to enter the building; immediately two Shadows in tactical gear charged at us.
"What business do you have here?" A Shadow demanded. That was no surprise since we were rather different to the customers they typically dealt with; I could only hope that we'd be able to avoid too much of a conflict since Makoto would simply be put in danger, better to avoid it at all if such a thing was possible.
"I had a feeling this would happen," Panther commented. Makoto moved to take a combat stance, but I gently settled a hand on her shoulder and shook my head to stop her; we couldn't risk antagonising these Shadows right off the bat, I'm very glad that the others had moved for their ranged weapons or summoned their Rebel's Weapon on mere instinct at having a Shadow so close.
"I'd like to speak with the bank president," Makoto requested. She tried to keep her voice even and calm, but I could hear the underlying tension and anger that she seemed to be burying as much as she possibly could, given the situation; hopefully Makoto would be able to get through to the Ruler and we could have a way to reach a Safe Room or explore the other places of this Palace.
"Excuse me, but do you have an appointment?" A Shadow questioned. That was probably something that couldn't be demanded naturally by the people who walked into a real bank; but we really didn't have the luxury of waiting until this egotistical Ruler would be willing to see us, I couldn't think of what to say, yet Makoto didn't possess such a problem.
"I need to talk to him. Now let me through!" Makoto demanded. She was being quite fiery as opposed to how she had acted previously, but that was actually more in line with the memories I could recall of her which caused a small smile to make its' way onto my face at seeing the determined nature that she happened to possess.
"Let them pass," Kaneshiro's voice commanded. Makoto realised who it was as Skull and Fox briefly discussed banks having presidents, Mona led us forward as we walked further into the bank, I looked around trying to figure out if there was any way we could move away from the Shadows in order to explore a little more without putting Makoto into any danger.
"Please wait," A voice called. We looked back at the Shadow that had called for us and I felt a tension immediately thicken over the rest of us as I started to slowly reach for Makoto. "Reception is to the right, towards the back. I strongly advice that you do not attempt to go elsewhere," The Shadow informed. I breathed out in relief and pulled my hand back as we went in that direction, following further directions from Shadows to reach deeper into the bank but never able to deviate.
"This place is gigantic, to think such a large bank is just floating in the sky," Makoto commented. She seemed to almost have a wonder-like quality to her eyes as she gazed about at the place, she had found herself in; I think it was only the memory of our current predicament that kept her from falling into some kind of daze as she kept moving forward at a steady pace.
"Well, I guess anything goes in a Palace," Skull admitted. He was right about that, we'd likely encounter other crazy Palaces the more we did this, soon enough we reached the reception room and stepped inside, the thing that instantly drew my eye happened to be the massive pile of money sitting on the table inside which we all ended up flocking around.
"How many beef bowls could I eat with this?" Skull wondered. I don't think even Makoto could count that high, because there was a very large amount of money on this table and depending on how cheap the beef bowls were then it would likely stretch for a very, very, very long time. I was more concerned as to why there was such a large pile just sitting here in this room so suddenly.
"Unauthorised entry, property damage and other disturbances," Kaneshiro's voice came. I stepped closer to Makoto as I waited for the Ruler to show himself. "That comes to three million yen in total. You're here regarding that, correct, Miss Beautiful President?" He carried on. We turned and saw a TV screen holding three Shadows, two in security gear and one in a silver shirt, this one turned around to reveal Kaneshiro's Shadow. "It must be quite tough gathering so much money. I'd be willing to give you a loan, you know," Shadow Kaneshiro claimed. Interestingly, his Shadow had violet skin, the silver shirt was actually part of a business suit and he had a moustache, the hair was black and had a bang covering the right side of his face.
"You gonna call it off then?" Skull asked. Oh, I did not think that was going to happen, this guy liked to gather up as much money as possible and hated parting with even a tiny fraction of it, if his actions in the club were anything to go by; he wasn't going to call it off at all and I'm betting that the loan was simply another way to entrap the poor fools who actually agreed to such a thing.
"No, a loan. The interest rate is ten percent a day," Shadow Kaneshiro revealed. The moment he said that my eyes widened in shock, because while the sum he demanded for repayment in full was already ridiculous enough the ten percent he would tack on each day until he was fully repaid would be almost like wrapping a noose around someone's neck, it was practically a death sentence… a sentence others had already suffered as I recalled the broken and crashed cognitions.
"Ten percent interest a day… um… uhhh… that means… one day is…," Panther stumbled. Likely trying to calculate the amount of money, it was probably a good thing that she wasn't able to work it out so quickly since the revelation was quite a sickening thing to know, but there was no reason to keep her in the dark, or any of the others to be fair.
"Three hundred thousand yen," Me, Ren and Makoto answered in unison. I could probably have heard a one yen coin drop in the silence that followed that revelation, the sheer absurd amount of money that he was demanding when he'd already forced a gargantuan sum upon us was ridiculous; I was starting to doubt this was a distortion born of Greed at all, this was something else entirely.
"There's no need to be alarmed," Shadow Kaneshiro claimed. We had every right to be alarm! He was practically bankrupting us before we could even try and pay back what he'd forced on us, not that I'm saying we were going to; because like any of us were wasting money on this scum, but the fact that he was operating like this was harrowing for the people who didn't have our abilities. "I have a more manageable option for people like you," Shadow Kaneshiro added on.
"That was your plan from the beginning, wasn't it?" Makoto demanded. I was certainly starting to think that was indeed the case, he knew exactly what string to pull in order to force these situations to go the way he wanted with just about anyone else except for our group; I could see why Iida was so scared now, why so many of the cognitions were terrified or had just given up all together.
"Quite the impressive insight, Niijima-san. Or should I say, the younger sister of the beautiful prosecutor Niijima Sae?" Shadow Kaneshiro commented. My eyes went wide hearing him say that; I shouldn't be surprised that he knew this kind of information since Niijima wasn't exactly a common name, but to have figured out that Sae was Makoto's sister without seeing the two of them spoke of something else.
"How do you know that?!" Makoto demanded. I looked at the brunette and saw that she had gone rather pale, almost as if she was afraid of what Kaneshiro was doing with information that he shouldn't have a hold of without some significant connection to Makoto or Sae, or some other route of information that we didn't have a hold of.
"Please don't underestimate our intelligence network," Shadow Kaneshiro requested. So, he wasn't going to be giving up any scrap of information about he had come to learn that titbit and probably whatever else he might know that he really shouldn't. "My, what wonderful goods have come falling into my lap," Shadow Kaneshiro claimed.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Panther snapped. She clearly wasn't happy about what was going on, then again, I felt the same way and even moved to position myself in front of Makoto despite Shadow Kaneshiro not even being in the same room as us, I just didn't feel comfortable allowing him to look at Makoto anymore with the things he was saying.
"Young women are such great assets. They lack strength, be it social, physical or mental. It's as if they only exist to be devoured by the strong. That just might be the rule since the dawn of history," Shadow Kaneshiro claimed. I felt a fury burn through at those words, we were not weak people; there were plenty of stories of smart, cunning, strong, kind, just simply capable women – some of them young – who had done good and bad in this world for many centuries. Kaneshiro didn't know a damn thing if he thought young women would just get devoured by others.
"You truly are despicable," Fox sneered. I was glad to hear someone else speak up, I quickly looked at Panther and found her glaring hellfire at Kaneshiro while her hands wound tightly in her whip, it seemed she was barely holding herself back; not that I entirely blame her since I wanted to lash out this fool for saying such things to us.
"You better be ready, Kaneshiro! We're gonna snatch your Treasure from you!" Skull claimed. I could feel that we were rallying to take this man down even more than before; hopefully there was some way we'd be able to ditch the Shadows while leaving Makoto somewhere safe – preferably the physical world – to allow us to push deeper into this Palace.
"Don't make me laugh, you petty thieves," Shadow Kaneshiro insulted. I figured he'd say something like that to us after we stood up to him. "My citadel has the highest security installed in it," Shadow Kaneshiro claimed. Where we meant to be intimidated by that? I couldn't really tell and before I could figure that out, multiple Shadows spawned into existence in front of us. "Anyone will do anything for money. I'll rob you of your lives as easily as I breath air," Shadow Kaneshiro claimed. He then began to laugh and I did not like the way he implied he had plenty of goons to throw at us. "Get them!" Shadow Kaneshiro ordered.
"Protect Makoto!" Joker ordered. Immediately the others reacted while I pushed Makoto further away from the danger, the others pretty much threw the chairs or in Skull's case, kicked the table at the Shadows, it perfectly cleared our space, which was good because the Shadows were fine and turned into their proper forms. "What have we got?" Joker asked. There were three of them, all towering over us and all carrying weapons, one was purple with it looking almost mottled, black hair like substance on its' head and was covered in green clothing, the other two were red with a horn sticking out and blue clothing with white edging.
"Two Oni and Sui-Ki! The Onis are resistant to all Physical Skills! No weaknesses! Sui-Ki is resistant to Ranged Skills and Electricity, it Drains Ice and is Weak to Nuke!" I answered. I also tacked on in my head that Oni resonated to the Velvet Siblings and Sui-Ki to Mishima, I'd need to tell Mona later but focused myself upon the fight that was coming for us.
"It's Kaneshiro-san's orders! Eliminate them at once!" One of the Shadows commanded. We had to finish these lot off quickly and escape from here; otherwise, any of their attacks could strike Makoto at any point and endanger her. I wished that we hadn't brought her into this danger despite how much we needed her in order to access the Palace, if Makoto was hurt then I'd never forgive myself.
"Makoto! You want to be useful! Take this!" Joker ordered. He passed back a lot of our medical supplies to Makoto who scrambled to hold it all, but she successfully did so. "The purple marked stuff is for Soul Power, the green marked stuff for Life Force, give whatever we ask for over immediately!" Joker explained. Makoto nodded her head and knelt down to carefully sort it out instead of just keeping it messily in her hands.
I quickly dragged my mask of and used Phantom to quickly weaken one of the Oni. As the only ones without a weakness, it was best to hit them with my newly learned Samanda to give us all an edge. Fox proceeded to utilise his Sukukaja on Joker. Joker pulled of his mask and behind him manifested a bird, with a feather pluming form its' forehead, a deep red colouring with a purple underside, a long set of tail feathers. I sensed it was called Ho-Oh and it linked to Faith which meant this was Yoshizawa's first linked Persona.
A powerful charging sensation came and I couldn't help but flinch backwards as the Nuclear power of Ho-Oh proceeded to bombard Sui-Ki and dropping it to its' knees. Joker quickly Baton Passed to Mona, allowing a fierce gale to whip up around all of our enemies. Unfortunately, an Oni used that chance to strike, lashing out a wide area attack.
Joker hissed and lunged backwards; his mask flashed just as he threw himself over Makoto. She squeaked in surprise, but it worked, I blocked them the best I could while the others countered in their own way or got hit in some cases. As for Joker, I barely caught the glimpse of what looked to be mirrors, before the attack was sent flying right back at the group of Shadows.
Skull quickly acted by having Captain Kidd ram the boat into Sui-Ki. Panther followed up next by using Dormina on one of the Oni which successfully hit. Mona used the opportunity provided to use Magaru on the entire group, successfully knocking down the sleeping Oni. Morgana quickly passed to Joker who used his Ho-Oh's Freila to deal massive damage to Sui-Ki. He then swapped over and used a humanoid woman in a purple dress to attack them all with a Gravity spell.
With that attack, Sui-Ki was jolted back to its' senses and I sensed a deep well of cold growing, the only upside was that it was a single target this time, but I was the target. I quickly dodged out of the way, but a shard of ice still managed to catch my ankle, sending me sprawling across the ground. Thankfully, Makoto came over to me and rubbed some of the healing medicine on the wound, sealing it up swiftly.
It was enough for me to tackle Makoto to the ground, out of the other Oni's way before she could be hit by its' attack. I lifted myself up and used Samanda on the second Oni. Panther quickly allowed Fire to spread among the entire group. Fox brought Goemon out to utilise Giant Slice on the Sui-Ki as Mona used Magaru to hurt all of them.
That was how it continued, primarily using multi-target Spells we knew would work as Fox, Skull and occasionally Joker using single target Skills on Sui-Ki. We used whatever Support or Ailment skills we had, with Joker bringing out a rather scary, red, demonic looking creature called Flauros for that particular Spells set. Eventually with one last Nuke Spell, the enemies were defeated.
"The first squad's been taken down! Send in backup! The target is still alive! We must deal with them at once!" A voice echoed. That did not sound good at all, especially with the ominous comment about doing things for money that Shadow Kaneshiro had happened to leave us with before the attacks had started.
"The target is still here! We need more backup! Don't let them escape! We must take them down!" The Security Shadow bellowed. Two more Oni showed up, this was definitely starting to get annoying since we were being pushed into a corner by the repeated attacks coming at us so persistently; having Makoto so defenceless was not helping matters either for that moment.
We did everything we could to repel them as much as possible using what capabilities we could on them; but the moment that we managed to defeat them presented us with another problem immediately afterwards. A third attack came, still only two Onis but we couldn't keep going with this constant wave of attacks coming at us so relentless.
"What the! There's no end to them. Have they really been hired with money!?" Mona wondered. I don't think that was the important part that we actually needed to consider at the moment since us being surrounded was more dangerous than anything else. "We're in trouble at this rate! Let's run!" Mona insisted. We turned, Joker and Mona grabbed the supplies while I grabbed Makoto and we ran out of the room before the Shadows could react.
"Why did the security guards turn into monsters!? And what were those supernatural powers!? Could those have been the Personas you mentioned!?" Makoto questioned. I understood why Makoto was asking such questions, but now really wasn't the time; Joker drew out a smoke bomb and quickly threw it towards the Shadows stomping towards us.
"Later! We need to flee!" Joker insisted. We all turned and quickly started to run back the way we came with Mona and Joker in front while Panther and Fox were at the sides as Skull covered our backs; we needed to get out of here as quickly as we could simply so Makoto could be removed from the danger she was in. We could continue the infiltration later since Kaneshiro's cognition towards us wouldn't change without further contact being made.
"Hurry Joker! The exit's just over there!" Mona encouraged. We had reached the entrance room and we darted through the teller's area and out into the seating area, we quickly made our way to the exit… only to grind to a halt. For Shadows had suddenly spawned to block our path, we quickly formed around Makoto in a protective circle.
"There's no end to them!" Panther exclaimed. That certainly seemed to be problem we were currently suffering from at the moment, we always seemed to run into this problem in the Palaces of Shadows swarming us right when we desperately needed to escape for some reason or another; footsteps echoed behind us and I already knew who it was even without turning around.
"You seem to be in quite a pickle," Shadow Kaneshiro commented. We turned to see him strolling up to us, these Rulers seemed to have extremely large egos, even more than I would have thought of for people like them to possess; I glanced back and saw that Fox, Skull and Joker were pointing their weapons at the Shadows to prevent a sneak attack coming at us.
"How dare you sneak around, Kaneshiro!" Mona spat. He wasn't exactly sneaking in this case, but I suppose he was certainly sneaking with his methodology of amassing the fortune that he currently had, the only thing that confused me was what he could possibly have need of all that money for. It almost seemed like he was just being wasteful by gathering so much of it in one place.
"Those would be my words. However, I do thank you for providing me with such wonderful goods… it's time you disappear," Shadow Kaneshiro stated. He clapped his hands and more enemies showed up, making our situation even worse. "Managing a bank is tough as it is. So, it's my policy to kill clients who are more trouble than they're worth. Having one impertinent brat disappear is enough to set an example in that other world," Shadow Kaneshiro revealed. Makoto ran through our protective circle towards the main Shadow and I missed dragging her back.
"Please stop!" Makoto cried. He wasn't going to listen to her, they never would listen because their distortions deafened them to anything that might have been capable of actually having an effect on their hearts; we had to focus on escaping from this place with Makoto intact. Everything else could wait for now.
"Oh, I wouldn't damage an asset like you. They're dead men walking, but you'll be just fine," Shadow Kaneshiro claimed. There was no chance that I'd allow Makoto to remain here without some way to help her escape the situation. "Your sister is quite a beauty though. I'll make sure to make her my personal slave. Once I get bored, I'll just sell her off. Oh, poor Sis… she could've been successful, if only her younger sister wasn't so dumb," Shadow Kaneshiro spoke. My teeth gritted against each other at the threat he'd spoken towards Sae.
"My sister has nothing to do with this!" Makoto protested. I agreed but of course all these Shadows were twisted up inside their blackened little hearts so that they just wanted to hurt anyone and everyone who might actually allow them to hurt the ones who they had perceived as having wronged them in some manner.
"Then you better start taking customers tomorrow. All you gotta do is endure it and do as you're told," Shadow Kaneshiro demanded. I gritted my teeth at his words, because I could easily imagine what that set of words was meant to imply was going to happen; I took two steps forward before Makoto threw out her arm to stop me from moving any further.
"Endure it," Makoto spoke. I looked at Makoto and saw she had her head bowed but her entire body was tightly coiled and seemed to be trembling with the strain of keeping her muscles so tightly compressed as they currently were. "Do as I'm told," Makoto added on. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the way Makoto was just repeating the words that had been thrown at her.
"You'll earn three million yen in no time. Although, your life and everything along with it will be a complete wreck by then!" Shadow Kaneshiro gloated. He then started to laugh, I snarled at him and was actually considering finding a way to hurl my naginata at him, because I was really feeling like doing something to one of the Shadows especially Kaneshiro's own.
"I've been listening to you go on and on… shut your damn mouth, you money-grubbing asshole!" Makoto exploded. I jumped a little, because I had never heard Makoto insult someone in such a manner. "Yes, come to me!" Makoto demanded. I looked around and saw that her eyes had turned Shadow gold as I expected, but instead of dropping to her knees, Makoto remained standing and gripped her head tightly, stumbling about with small cries of pain escaping her. At one moment it looked like Makoto was going to fall, so I make to grab her; but Makoto simply stamped her foot hard enough to break the tiles and remained upright, an iron mask appeared on her face. Makoto reached up to grip the mask and tore it off.
"What the hell!" Shadow Kaneshiro exclaimed. Strangely enough, from within the flames I thought I heard a sound that was somewhat familiar, when the blue flames faded, I saw Makoto and her Persona. Makoto wore a two-toned skin-tight suit made of dark blue and black there was a long black scarf around her neck, a dark grey corset-style leather breastplate, shoulder and knee pads with spikes mixed with boots that sport metal heels, and toes and white gloves. The Persona however was silver in colour but seemed to glow with a blueish light that reminded me of Nuke Magic, but the shocking thing was that the shape was that of a motorcycle.
"A Persona?" Fox asked. That was definitely what it was, though I was a bit stunned by the fact that it had taken on the form of a motorcycle of all things; I know Personas were meant to be reflections of our souls, but to know that Makoto's was a vehicle that could carry her as far and wide as she wished… maybe there was a wanderlust in her that none of us had ever realised.
"No, dude… that's a bike," Skull corrected. Seriously? After everything he witnessed prior to the scene before us and he still proceeded to say that to Fox and I know that he was actually being very serious when he said those words; it caused me to hang my head slightly as I moved to rub the bridge of my nose to release the stress just a little bit before anything else.
"It's a Persona shaped like a bike!" I pointed out. Still, it was something quite surprising and not for the first time did I wish that I could have found Igor in order to ask him about why Makoto's Persona was shaped in such an unusual manner; none of the others were and even Rise's had been shaped like a human even with its' massive telescope for a head.
"I can feel it… my 'self'… me! Gun it!" Makoto declared. The bike Persona obeyed as the wheels turned to charge towards the nearest Shadows who Makoto rammed into, I allowed a jubilant laugh to escape me at her actions since it was good to see Makoto actually doing something towards the Shadows that were causing us quite the headache at the moment.
"Wow! Nice!" Panther complimented. I was glad to hear someone else complimenting the events even as Mona freaked out a little over not having seen anything like this, but none of us had seen anything like this before, so it was a new experience all around. As for Shadow Kaneshiro, he seemed stunned but quickly composed him and turned his back on us.
"You better earn your keep, or else I'll kill you!" Shadow Kaneshiro ordered. He then proceeded to head towards the back from wherever he had crawled out from; not that we could chase after him due to the Shadows in front us that hadn't been blown away by Makoto's explosive Awakening, proceeding to transform into their true forms of a Sui-Ki and two Onis.
"I will not lose heart again, ever. I will go full speed, nonstop! Right, Johanna!?" Makoto declared. Well, it was nice to know what this Persona was called now, but we certainly had a small difficulty to be facing right now. "Don't get all cocky just because I normally behave myself! I am done playing nice!" Makoto yelled. Someone was certainly geared up for the fight that we were facing down.
"The enemy's agitated! Take them down and make an opening!" Mona advised. That was something that we needed to do, but we also needed to learn what Johanna was capable of before we threw ourselves head first into an unknown battle. "Makoto, you need to look inside and tell us what Johanna is capable of," Mona insisted.
"Okay," Makoto agreed. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply and rhythmically, before allowing her eyes drifted open in an almost lazy manner. "A physical ability, healing, two I don't quite know and two others that feel like what came out of the bird that um… Joker used," Makoto explained. So, she could used Nuke Magic after all, that was an advantage for us certainly.
"Alright! Makoto, you work with me to destroy the Sui-Ki! Everyone else, hammer the Oni into the dust!" Joker ordered. Makoto revved the engine of her Persona – that was going to take some getting used to – as the rest all drifted over so that we were more easily split into the two groups Joker had instructed us to fight as.
Fox quickly pulled off his mask and cast Sukukaja upon Panther since Mona's Ailment, while useful, was only able to make the enemy susceptible to increased damage from Psy Magic. Panther quickly followed up by casting Dormina on an Oni which quickly fell into slumber. I quickly used Samanda before anyone else could move, hoping to give us as much of an edge as possible.
Skull made the first move by blasting both of the Onis with lightning which sent the sleeping one to the ground. When I checked on the other Oni, I was surprised to see that it was crackling with electrical energy which forced it to seize up. Skull quickly darted over to Mona and passed to him. Mona activated his Atom Ring, knocking it right down alongside the other one.
"Let's go!" Mona cried. We all dived in and proceeded to cut and stab into the opponents to the best of our ability before they started to move once more. We darted backwards and set ourselves, as one of the Oni proceeded to unleash the wide melee attack upon all of us. I blocked as many as I could, but two attacks managed to score hits on me. The other Oni proceeded to use the same attack which slashed open more wounds, I gritted my teeth against the pain until Mona quickly used Media on us.
Pulling my mask off, I quickly used Phantom's Samanda to weaken the other one. Panther quickly repeated her Dormina usage on the other Oni and it luckily hit. Fox followed up with Mabufu to strike both of them. Skull and Mona followed up with their own multi-target attacks. But the Onis remained standing still, even if they were obviously getting weakened by the constant attacks from us.
The two Onis proceeded to unleash their attacks upon us once again, it seemed to be the only one that they seemed to be able to use. Either way, I dodged as best I could along with everyone else doing to same thing. Mona quickly patched us up and we immediately dived back into the fight, using whatever Spells we could to deal as much damage as possible to the enemies given that I couldn't weaken them anymore until Samanda's effect ran out.
Soon enough, the Onis finally dispersed into smoke and I quickly pivoted to face the others and saw Sui-Ki was still around. I quickly used Samanda on it right as Makoto rammed into it with Johanna's Frei spell. That was quickly followed by Joker using a much more powerful single target Nuke Spell which finally managed to eliminate it. But of course, another issue proceeded to come up when another round of Shadows proceeded to appear in front of us.
"We know how to get in now. Our objective's been accomplished!" Mona advised. While I completely agree with Mona's decision that it would be best for us to get out of here, the encroaching group of Shadows had put quite the wrinkle into any escape plan we might attempt since turning out backs was an unwise idea and I didn't want to even risk using the Mona-van if there was a chance Mona or the others could get hurt while we tried to pile in.
"But how are we getting out?" Panther asked. It was a reasonable question as even with Makoto and Johanna now hear, we were a little too cramped in with the gathering Shadows that were creeping towards us, we needed to find a way to cut through them; I adjusted my grip and that was when I could practically feel a lightbulb going off inside my mind.
"Crazy idea!" I exclaimed. Some of the others looked at me, but the others wisely watched the Shadows that were creeping closer to us, I quickly turned to look at Makoto. "Let me on," I requested. Makoto raised an eyebrow but shuffled forward enough for me, I quickly climbed on Johanna and held my naginata out so it was aimed over Makoto's shoulder and Johanna's front.
"Oh, that'll work," Makoto agreed. I was pleased to see that Makoto understood what I intended to do, in essence use my weapon and Johanna's speed and manoeuvrability to clear cut our way through the enemy and to safety. "There's only one exit," Makoto commented. I could practically see the grin on her face as she said those words.
"So, you're totally the Fist of the Phantom Star now, huh," Skull suggested. I proceeded to look at him and wondered if he'd taken one too many hits to his Life Force, especially since he was making a joke in a rather tense situation as this; we could do the jokes once we had managed to escape from the situation, but not before.
"Do you want to get smacked?" Makoto warned. I laughed at those words despite how frightened Skull looked. "We're going on ahead, so follow me," Makoto advised. She gunned Johanna and I swung my weapon about to cut down the Shadows as Makoto guided us out the building, I heard Mona transform and follow after us out into the bank's courtyard and right back into the physical world.
*Persona 5 Royal*
The moment we returned to reality Makoto collapsed to the ground, her breathing as heavy and shaky as I'd expect from someone who'd just Awakened her Persona, I knelt down and wrapped my arm around her in order to give her some support. Given that Makoto was exhausted, we retreated to the café, once inside, I set Makoto into the booth and we all followed after her to settle into the seats.
"Man, talk about wild," Ryūji commented. I looked at the boy and found that he was staring at Makoto with a certain gleam within his eyes as he appraised the older girl. "That was no aikido, that was some hardcore ass whoopin'!" Ryūji complimented. It seemed that Makoto's actions had caused a serious change of impression on Ryūji and I felt my lips being tugged into a smile at whatever he must have realised about Makoto.
"I am so not pissing her off… I feel like she'll rip of my arm," Ann admitted. I looked at Ann and found that she was looking at Makoto with wide eyes and seemed to be maintaining her distance ever so slightly which kind of surprised me; but I suppose it would have been a shock to them after how Makoto had been acting previously.
"She exudes a terrifying aura that only our weapons master had… I can see why they are friends," Yusuke admitted. I proceeded to give Yusuke a look at that, I knew he'd been talking about me before the last bit, but I still thought it was a bit daft that he thought we had terrifying auras; admittedly I don't think I'd ever seen Makoto that angry before, but had it really been that scary? Well, the wary look Ren was giving Makoto might imply it had actually been so.
"Oh, stop it!" Makoto pleaded. She seemed to have recovered her energy and was sat up straighter how, though she did seemed perplexed by something. "Weapons master?" Makoto wondered. Makes sense that would confuse her, to clear things up I quickly waved my hand to show her it was me; this caused understanding to appear on Makoto's face. "Somehow that's believable, I remembered Daichi-san's weapon collection and the lessons he taught you and Hikaru-kun," Makoto admitted. A smile came onto my face at those words as Makoto slumped back into the seat with a large sigh escaping her. "This is the most exhausted I've ever been these past few years," Makoto claimed. Despite those words, a satisfied smile proceeded to curl upon her lips as if recalling something that she enjoyed. "But… it felt pretty great," Makoto added on.
"Awakening like that… it can be like releasing a burden," Ren agreed. Makoto's eyes opened and she looked at Ren who had a gentle smile on his face, everyone else had agreeing expressions on their faces as they nodded their heads; all of us had been pushed to the edge by something repulsive and finally expressed true feelings that we'd kept inside for so long.
"I never thought I'd become part of the group I was after," Makoto admitted. She seemed to have gathered herself together as she spoke those words; I honestly hadn't expected it when this whole thing ended up starting, but I was very grateful in the end to be honest. "Sis might faint if she found out," Makoto claimed. A laugh in her voice, at those words I couldn't help but chuckle myself as Sae would lose her mind if she found out about this, I was certain about that.
"You mentioned her earlier, as did Natsumi and Kaneshiro's other self," Yusuke pointed out. This stopped mine and Makoto's mirth as we proceeded to look at the painter, but I noticed that Makoto's joy faded away as her expression became something sombre instead and she looked at the table top with her lips pulled into a tight frown.
"She's a prosecutor for the district and she's investigating the Phantom Thieves," Makoto revealed. However, the moment I hear that Sae was coming after us, I felt all strength leave my muscles and I collapsed head first into the table, a pitiful whine escaped from me that had very little to do with the pain pulsing across my forehead and more to do with what we had learned.
"Oh great… not one but both Niijima sisters… could it get any worse?" I bemoaned. My grief with this was the very simple fact, that as smart as Makoto happened to be, Sae was equally as – if not more so – intelligent, which meant that we were at a serious risk of getting caught if we weren't careful and ever came across her… even as unlikely as that may be, it was still a pretty serious risk.
"No need to worry. A normal investigation would never lead them to a world like that," Makoto reassured. She gently patted my back before pulling me upright, although I just collapsed into the plush seat behind me as I closed my eyes, still coming to terms with the revelation that Makoto had decided to dish out. "Then again, it must have been fate for this to happen," Makoto admitted. Her words caused a sigh to rush out of my mouth.
"Our gravity's certainly running at full steam, you're the third recruit we've had since this started as a group project," I admitted. It was such a surprise to have another Awakening; ever since running into Ren, it had been almost nonstop in the meeting people and having them Awaken to their Persona, it couldn't be anything other than what Igor had told me. I opened my eyes only to find that everyone was staring at me in confusion.
"Gravity?" Ren asked. Oh yeah, I had never told them about what Igor had told me regarding the information about what happened to draw us together, then again, I hadn't been expecting it to be so obvious in how it was being executed in swift succession; I leaned forward slightly as I make sure that they were all aware of what I was about to say.
"My mentor once told me that there is a phenomenon exerted by people, not too different to gravity, that draws certain people to each other," I explained. Some of them got it while others seemed confusion by what I was attempting to imply with the words. "It simply means that those of us capable of manifested a Persona, people of like minds and history, are being drawn to each other. And inevitably we'll also been drawn to our opponents," I added on. A small sound escaped from Makoto and everyone looked at her.
"Yes, I know that I can't be like my sister. I had a feeling that there'd come a time when we wouldn't see eye to eye anymore. I'm thankful to have a sister who works so hard, but… there are times I feel sorry for her too. And after hearing my Persona's voice, I clearly understand how I feel now," Makoto explained. Her expression had become pained; it seemed that things had become strained between the Niijima sisters since I last saw them.
"It appears you're not as reserved as you make yourself seem," Yusuke commented. That was quite true, I'd actually always known Makoto to be a little feisty and forthright when we were children, I hadn't known what to think when she'd appeared so demure at school, but I'd figured it was due to what happened to her father instead of anything else.
"I was just doing whatever the adults told me to," Makoto admitted. She actually seemed rather ashamed of what she had just said, I clasped my hand on her shoulder in an attempt to give the girl some support; Makoto reached up to grip the fingers of that hand as a melancholy smile curled its' way onto her lips.
"Won't she be perfect as an advisor? She's fearless and has a sharp mind," Yusuke suggested. Yusuke's words caused the two of us to raise our heads and focus upon Yusuke with confusion plain on my face; Yusuke for his part was calmly looking at Ren who seemed to be contemplating this suggestion that had cropped up.
"Sounds good to me! We've needed someone like that for a while now!" Ryūji claimed. I wasn't entirely sure what Yusuke had meant by the title advisor, but it would certainly be handy to have someone with a good amount of insight and so long as she was supplied with all the information we had about how Spells and Skills interacted then she'd at least be able to take on some of the weight Morgana had been bearing.
"I'd be honoured if I could help out," Makoto stated. She seemed keen to hear the idea and follow through on it, it would also be good for Morgana to be able to focus primarily on healing and navigating alongside reading the Arcana of any enemies he ran across and I wasn't there with him to cover for him; our little human turned cat could do with some of his burden being lifted.
"We had way too much testosterone anyway, so I feel much better hav-," Ann began to speak. A small chuckle escaped me at Ann's commented, but her and it were cut off by a sound that started to emit, as it turned out the source of the sound turned out to be Makoto's phone going off. The brunette pulled it out and looked at the object, a scowl quickly twisting across her lips before she shut it down.
"It's from Kaneshiro. He's reminding us of our debt," Makoto stated. She seemed very annoyed just thinking about him, I was rather concerned about how he had got a hold of her phone number all of a sudden, even if he had been holding Makoto's phone when we barged in earlier. "So, the Kaneshiro over here doesn't know what happened inside the… challenge," Makoto reminded.
"That's right, but his Palace will be affected if the real Kaneshiro's cognition changes. We can't be lax," Morgana warned. That was the one thing we couldn't afford to be given how careful Kaneshiro seemed to be in this world and that security would certainly be translated into the protections littering the Palace that we'd have to face down; if he ever got worried then it would cause us a serious headache.
"It seems it'd be best to avoid unnecessary contact with him until then," Makoto stated. That was pretty much the safest option we had present to us, lucky for us it was highly probable that Kaneshiro would be find with allowing us to remain unwatched since he didn't have a clue about what we were capable of doing, thinking we were just ordinary teenagers.
"Three weeks left, huh," Ryūji commented. A sombre atmosphere appeared over us as Ryūji adjusted himself, the longer deadline was a boon since it would allow us to take the Palace as slow as we wanted; but I couldn't really advise going too slow, otherwise we'd probably have Kaneshiro start poking around to figure out what we were up too if it went on too long.
"There's that security system too," Yusuke reminded. That would probably be the most worrisome part of the whole Palace, the first two Palaces didn't have anything other than Shadows and even the Museum had been fairly easy to overcome once we had the right tools at our disposal; but a bank created from perhaps an overly cautious mind was more than a little concerning to be facing down.
"But if we pull this off, it'll definitely be great!" Ann cheered. Her words and the energy she exuded caused the tension that had been gathering over us to disperse; after all she wasn't really wrong since it would definitely allow us to cause a great thing to happen if we were successful in stealing Kaneshiro's Treasure.
"We'll crush him like a fly. I'll make him regret making me angry," Makoto seethed. It seemed that Kaneshiro's actions had popped the proverbial cork on Makoto's bottled up emotions and he was enduring the full brunt of her fury, not that he didn't deserve it; still we needed clear heads, so I reach over to grip both of Makoto's shoulders and forced her to look at me.
"Breathe Makoto, if you get angry then we'll be worse off," I warned. Makoto looked uncertain, but she seemed to understand my reasoning and proceed to start focusing on her breathing, ensuring deep slow breaths that I could see were taking the tension away from her; I turned to look at the others, wanting to know what the next step in our plan was and everyone else was the same way.
"Given how Makoto knows aikido, I won't need to train her, but we still need to take her down in training for some practice and to polish up her capabilities," I advised. Ren nodded his head in understanding; it was the most sensible thing for us to do even if it did take a day from us, but we needed everyone to be up to the fights coming. "We might still be able to go into the challenge later on though," I suggested.
"No," Makoto insisted. Everyone focused on her and I saw a fire burning in her eyes. "I understand you're only thinking of me Natsu-chan, but we need to move fast on this, I can train in the challenge even if it is more dangerous," Makoto insisted. I looked at Ren, it seemed like Makoto was going to be rather stubborn about this and I didn't know how to get her to understand our perspectives.
"Normally I'd agree with Natsumi, even with the need to act swiftly, but since you're normally so level-headed Makoto, I'm willing to bend on this. But the moment you start becoming a liability, we're coming back and you'll go to training, regardless of any personal feelings," Ren decided. It was the best way to balance both the opposing viewpoints that Makoto and I possessed; hopefully things went smoothly for us.
"First we need to secure a route to the goal like always," Ann stated. It was best to go over our basic movement structure for Makoto's sake, also it served as a good reminder as for what our priority needed to be while moving through this Palace; everyone seemed to be galvanised by the prospect of actually getting through the Palace now that we knew what was coming.
"You guys are finally starting to get used to this," Morgana praised. After going through two Palaces, I would certainly hope that we'd be getting a better idea about how to perform these heists of our; but hearing Morgana put it so bluntly then I knew he was certainly seeing our mounting knowledge that was happening.
"I'll be waiting for the call to meet up," Makoto stated. With that, we proceeded to split up for the day.
*Persona 5 Royal*
Returning to my house, I leaned against the door and allowed a breath to rush out of me as I let the stress of the days drop off my body since we had managed to get into the seemingly impossible Palace and gained a new ally. Neither the tingling ache in my legs or the fact that Kaneshiro was blackmailing us didn't irritate me since with three weeks we had plenty of time to pierce through the security system that Kaneshiro had been boasting about and with seven of us, that made the fight much easier especially with Makoto's brains on our side. My phone suddenly went off, so I pulled it out.
Ryūji: Damn, motorcycles are cool
Ryūji: I wish my Persona was like that
Yusuke: Yours' is on a ship though.
Ryūji: Dude, you kidding!? Motorcycles are way cooler than dumb boats!
Ryūji: It'll be just like the song! 'I'm a phantom, on a steel horse I ride'.
Natsumi: Just be glad it doesn't cause tingling in your limbs.
Natsumi: That is my first and last ride on Johanna.
Makoto: Are you okay Natsu-chan?
Natsumi: I'm fine, likely because it was a Persona and not a Shadow.
Natsumi: But leaping onto a motorcycle that exudes Nuke power was not my brightest moment.
Makoto: Very well.
Makoto: Also Ryūji, don't say such things. And for the record, I am most certainly not 'wanted'.
Ann: Honestly, I'm mostly just surprised you know how to ride a motorcycle at all, Niijima-senpai.
Ryūji: Do you got a licence?
Makoto: A regular one, yes.
Ryūji: Niceee… I can't wait to get my hands on one too.
Ren: You don't have one already?
Ren: I got mine when I turned sixteen in my first year.
Makoto: May I change the topic for a moment?
Yusuke: What is the matter?
Makoto: I'm sorry everyone.
Makoto: I know I'm not in any position to be saying that. I truly do…
Makoto: However I must apologise.
Makoto: It was my actions that dragged all of you into this mess.
Makoto: On top of that, I misunderstood your true intentions in this.
Makoto: If only I could have realised what was happening to Suzui-san too…
Ann: Come on, we don't need to talk that now.
Yusuke: It seems there are still lingering issues on everyone's minds.
Ryūji: Now's not the time to be talking about that shit thought!
Ren: No. This is the time.
Ren: Doubts, insecurities, uncertainties. All of these weigh heavily on our minds and can affect our judgment out in the field.
Natsumi: Ren's right. We need to have a clear head and heart when operating for our heists.
Natsumi: Let me just say this Mako-chan.
Natsumi: Shiho knows who to blame and is blaming him. Just visit her and apologise when you can.
Natsumi: Just know you aren't to blame for what happened to her.
Makoto: Natsu-chan…
Makoto: Thank you.
Ryūji: Anyway, don't we gotta be doing something about Kaneshiro.
Ann: He's right.
Makoto: I'll do my best not to slow any of you down.
I put my phone away and made for the kitchen, food and then sleep seemed like a good idea so that I would be well prepared for when tomorrow finally came.