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 74: - Moon, Tower, Devil

"Hey, there's this article making the rounds online. It's called 'Confession of Boy M: A Tell-all on the Kamoshida Abuse Scandal'. That's gotta be Mishima, right?" A student spoke up. I looked over at the source and found two students standing side by side, it seemed that Ohya's article involving Mishima had got out, though people had managed to figure out that the person involved was Mishima, maybe Ohya should have used a different name. Either way, it seemed like a good idea to check out the article myself at some point.

"I read it!" The student next to the first exclaimed. Well at least it seemed like the information was making quite the rounds at our school. "It all sounds so horrible… it's no wonder they consider the Phantoms heroes. Kinda hard to rag on the Phantoms after reading that," The student added on. Being insulted wasn't that big of an issue, but it was clear that Ohya's article had certainly changed people's perceptions of us which would be beneficial once we got down to Mementos.

"You're right. In fact, you might call them superheroes," The first student claimed. I almost felt like blushing at that compliment since it seemed a little extreme to refer to us as superheroes, even if our abilities in the other world might seem like something that was used by a person like a superhero; I just hope that it didn't give someone on the team an unnecessary ego boost, we needed to keep our wits about us.

"That journalist's article has made a big splash. It might be the perfect way to get the Phantoms' name out there. We should take advantage of this," Morgana suggested. It would be a good idea to take advantage of the sudden surge in popularity that had occurred because of Ohya's article, there was no way of knowing how long this effect would last.

"Yeah, getting our name out there might be a good way to influence the public's perception of us," Ren agreed. Right after those words, Yoshizawa showed up and finished the walk with us to school

*Persona 5 Royal*

Mishima was buzzing with excitement all day, in spite of the terrible event that had happened to him recently, the news of the Phantoms most recent actions against another criminal had given him some much-needed energy; all he had to do was wait for this Kaneshiro Junya to confess his sins. Mishima had been surprised to hear of this man since he hadn't known anything about this guy before the Calling Card went out.

"How are you today Mishima-san?" Chiba asked. Mishima lifted his head to look at the girl and felt all the overwhelming emotions he had managed to push into a box came spilling out in a rush despite the fact that he was sitting in the library; but it had been too much when Chiba asked so casually asked about his mental state, so he couldn't really hold himself back from letting it escape from him.

"Terrible!" Mishima exclaimed. His shout had been loud enough to attract the attention of the others who were in the library which caused Mishima to hunch down in embarrassment at the sudden attention that was brought down on him; Chiba, seemingly unconcerned, sat down near him which blocked him from view. This actually allowed Mishima to calm down, so he focused upon the question again. "Did you know that Amamiya set me up with a devil woman!?" Mishima cried. His voice was much quieter than before to avoid getting stared at again.

"Yes, I did," Chiba calmly admitted. Mishima felt horrified with the knowledge that Chiba had been aware of this decision of Amamiya and didn't bother to warn him of what was coming since she had been knowing what was coming to get him with this interview. "Was it really that terrible?" Chiba wondered. She was asking these questions in such an innocent manner that Mishima couldn't marshal any kind of negative response.

"I called her a demon, didn't I?" Mishima questioned. He did have to know if he needed to clarify exactly what had happened, even if he didn't really want to think about the interview which had been very uncomfortable for him despite how he had been able to answer the questions that had been posed to him in a fair amount of detail about the things that he and some of the others had endured.

"Honestly, I think that's a bit much, Ohya-san isn't that bad," Chiba insisted. She had said those words in such a manner that made it pretty obvious that Chiba didn't just know of this woman but must have actually had some kind of contact with Ohya to come to this belief that he couldn't help but very much disagree with her since devil woman was too perfect of a description for the reporter.

"You know her?" Mishima wondered. He was rather curious about what could have possibly happened between Chiba and Ohya for her to assume that the descriptor he used was 'a bit much' but Chiba seemed a touch distant when he asked that question which caused Mishima to feel a little uncomfortable because he was worried about if something had happened to Chiba without him realising it.

"I ran into her a few times," Chiba admitted. Well, at least Mishima could relax knowing that she was okay, but her response did seem a little confusing since it didn't exactly explain why she disagreed with Mishima's words. "But I'm serious, was the interview really that bad, plenty of people are talking about it at school," Chiba pointed. There did seem to be a pretty intense look in her eyes as she stared at Mishima which actually forced him to really think about what had happened during the interview that felt like so much more like an interrogation.

"Honestly, despite how pushy, overbearing, intimidating, drunk, and a lot of other things that Ohya woman was, I really think it was a good thing," Mishima agreed. He had really thought about the incident and he had to admit that it had really been much better than he had thought and to be fair, Ohya had been attentive to each detail and asked very probing questions to identify what had happened. "I mean, this way everyone will know about the Phantoms and how they're definitely helping people!" Mishima exclaimed.

"So, it was worth it?" Chiba asked. Mishima had to take a moment to think about it, really think about what he really thought of the interview; Ohya's questions had sparked some pretty intense emotions that caused them to pause every so often so that Mishima could recover, something that normally only happened when he spoke to Maruki-sensei. There had also been the bit about Suzui, that had been perhaps the only moment when Ohya had been absolutely serious and utterly silent.

"Yeah, I guess it really was," Mishima agreed. The information was out there now, people knew what had really happened to him and all the others, there could be no denying what Kamoshida had done; especially towards Suzui who had suffered the most, Ohya had hidden her name just like his but it was pretty obvious who had done the interview, most people didn't seem to have figured that bit out about Suzui yet, which was both a relief and quite horrifying to know that no one at school had figured it out yet.

"How have you been getting on with the other requests?" Chiba wondered. Mishima was grateful for the change in topic as he wanted to pull away from the way his thoughts were going; plus it would be good for him if Mishima was able to get some more advice about his Phan-site which would hopefully get some things cleared up as much as possible, since things had been happening that Mishima wasn't too sure what to do about it.

"Okay, I guess. Some of them are just really hard to know what to do about, but I've actually set up a private message board which some people are using to talk things about with. I don't know if they know each other, but amazingly some of them managed to resolve their own problems just by talking to each other," Mishima admitted. But he knew his tone and face weren't going to be showing any kind of positive emotion that one might have usually expected.

"You don't look too happy about that," Chiba noted. The girl was incredibly perceptive about what was going on and Mishima didn't bother to fight down the smile that came onto his face although he was certain that he had a touch of bitterness to the facial motion despite how much he tried to hide it as he thought about what to do with the current problem that he was currently facing.

"Well, it's just that my Phan-site is meant to be about promoting the Phantoms and allowing people to ask them for help, not talking to other people and solving their own problems that way. Doesn't this diminish the Phantoms' powers?" Mishima argued. Chiba would be bound to understand what is going on and help him resolve it easily.

"I wouldn't say that, after all they dealt with that criminal running the phishing scams lately," Chiba pointed out. That was true and it was absolutely brilliant to see them striking at someone so insidiously evil, but Mishima started to think that Chiba wasn't going to be giving helpful advice. "You're doing good work by allowing people to not rely on mysterious strangers and unknown events to overcome issues," Chiba claimed. But they needed the Phantoms, didn't Chiba realise that yet? The Phantoms were the ones who were really changing everything, not ordinary people. "Sometimes the greatest power is one we find in ourselves," Chiba insisted.

"Really?" Mishima questioned. He didn't believe that kind of thinking, after all it wasn't like he had any kind of strength or power within himself, all he could do was work the Phan-site and keep Amamiya updated on the requests being sent in; Chiba was a much stronger person than him, so she probably did have this kind of power, perhaps even Amamiya did have it as well.

"That's what I believe," Chiba stated. The bell proceeded to ring, indicating that they had to get back to class now, which Chiba quickly responded to by rising to her feet and grabbing a hold of her bag. "You choose what you believe," Chiba added on. With those parting words, Chiba proceeded to walk away from Mishima leaving him to think about the words that Chiba had spoken to him.

"I believe in the Phantoms, so I'm gonna make them as famous as possible," Mishima decided. That was what he should be focusing his attention on instead of anything else.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Shiho couldn't help but feel agitated today, it wasn't like anything particularly bad had happened to her, it was more the incidents that had ended up occurring recently left Shiho feeling extremely frustrated especially since it felt like she couldn't move. She'd done some more vigorous exercises recently and it had left her feeling even more weak than normal, but she'd been determined to complete the physiotherapy; especially since Ann had been watching.

The door creaked open and Shiho struggled to get her elbows underneath her enough to push herself upright to see who was coming in; with her legs as they currently were, they might as well not have been there at all. Natsumi slipped through the doorway and she immediately narrowed her eyes upon seeing Shiho struggling, without another word, Natsumi marched over and helped to lift Shiho up onto the pillows properly, before taking her seat on the chair.

"How are you feeling today?" Natsumi asked. It was clear from her voice that Natsumi knew something was up with Shiho before she even asked the question, but obviously Natsumi wanted Shiho to actually say what was going on without assuming anything about her condition. Natsumi would understand why Shiho might be feeling the way that she currently was.

"Awful," Shiho admitted. That was truly the only word that could describe how Shiho was currently feeling at the moment, but Shiho still wanted to talk about what the feeling was like. "My legs feel like they're filled with sand, I don't know if you can understand how frustrating it is," Shiho added on. Even now they felt extremely painful and Shiho felt like she couldn't even move them now despite having been able to rest them slightly after rigorous exercising.

"Maybe not, but I can always listen to you," Natsumi offered. Shiho looked at Natsumi and saw the extremely serious expression upon her facing, seeing how focused Natsumi was actually being about the situation; Shiho knew what was going to happen the moment that she started to talk about this issue and didn't want to immediately launch into it without at least warning Natsumi about what would be happening if she started.

"Alright, but prepare yourself for a rant," Shiho warned. Because that was exactly what would be happening the moment this conversation started, and ranting at her friend was not something that Shiho wanted to immediately do without at least making sure that Natsumi was completely aware of the things that would start streaming from Shiho; Natsumi reach out to gently clasp one of Shiho's hands.

"It's understandable, you've been knocked back to a state much worse than you were before, while you were a top athlete, you're now not a regular person but perhaps a young child, one who constantly needs to be held," Natsumi clarified. That was pretty hard hitting if Shiho was honest as she couldn't really hold in her feelings anymore after hearing those words.

"Exactly!" Shiho exclaimed. If her pitch affected Natsumi, the girl didn't show it, but Shiho couldn't actually bring herself to stop what she was saying. "I know, I did what I did, it was all my own choice even with that dark voice egging me on, but damnit!" Shiho hissed. With how heavy her legs felt, she punched her free hand against the bed. "I feel so weak, so frustrated! It's better than feeling unclean but I just… Argh!" Shiho yelled. She probably sounded so childish, but Shiho just wanted to get it out of her.

"Dark voice?" Natsumi questioned. That drew Shiho out of her swirling thoughts since it seemed like such an odd thing for Natsumi to focus on; when Shiho focused on the ravenette, she found that Natsumi was completely rigid as if something about what Shiho had said caused something to worry Natsumi. Shiho couldn't understand what could have possibly happened to cause Natsumi to be so focused on that specific part of Shiho's rant.

"You won't think I'm crazy, will you?" Shiho worriedly asked. Even though she had let the words escape from her, Shiho couldn't help but think that Natsumi would assume there was something wrong with her despite her belief that they were all a little crazy; the dark voice that had haunted Shiho would be the kind of thing that actually made people really worry, especially if she admitted to everything about that voice.

"No. I've seen my share of crazy things, I won't judge you," Natsumi reassured. Maybe it was the way in which Natsumi so fervently reassured Shiho in a calm voice, maybe it was the way she shuffled a little closer to the bed, maybe it was the way that Natsumi cupped both of her hands around Shiho's own, or maybe it was the look in her eyes; but whatever it was it worked. Shiho opened her mouth to explain what had been going on with that dark voice.

"There was this, presence in the back of my mind I guess you could say, it kept whispering dark and dreadful things to me, pushing and prodding me until eventually I gave in and jumped," Shiho admitted. It was still terrifying knowing what had been going on inside of her head during that moment leading up to her jump. "The creepiest thing was that it sounded like my own voice," Shiho added on. When she spoke those words, Shiho raised her head to look at Natsumi and went immediately still at what she saw.

Natsumi had gone unnaturally still, as if something had deeply disturbed her when hearing those words, her entire body was stiff as an entire statue and Shiho was sure that she wasn't even twitching a muscle; her eyes were completely wide and her mouth was slightly open. The grip around Shiho hand had suddenly tightened which was a little painful, but Shiho shook it away to focus on her friend.

"Natsumi?" Shiho asked. It was truly worrying that Natsumi had reacted in such a manner, a manner that was so strange to Shiho that it didn't really made any sense about why it had happened to her friend; Shiho twisted herself as best she could and reach over with her other hand as far as she could, hoping to snap Natsumi out of this strange trance that she'd randomly fallen into. It worked, but an intense expression appeared on her face and she shuffled so close that Natsumi was almost off the seat.

"Do you still hear it, the voice?!" Natsumi asked. There was a seriously extreme expression on Natsumi's face and Shiho was absolutely certain that a pleading tone had entered into Natsumi's voice that was completely different to how she normally sounded. Shiho didn't understand why this had suddenly happened, but hopefully Shiho would be able to reassure her and get Natsumi to relax once more.

"No, it's weird, but ever since I've been speaking to Ann and especially you, I haven't heard it since… actually since the day you encouraged me not to give up," Shiho admitted. The moment Natsumi had encouraged her and Shiho held that day close to her, the voice hadn't come back to haunt her like Kamoshida continued to do so; hopefully one day he too would be gone, but for now Shiho was happy to not have her own voice mocking her so much.

Suddenly she was hugged. The sudden lunge made Shiho sway back slightly before she recovered herself and managed to wrap her arms around Natsumi; not that it stopped how much confusion that was pulsing through Shiho at the suddenness of the hug she had just received. Shiho looked down at Natsumi's head since her face was pressing against Shiho's shoulder and she seemed completely limp except for her arms which were tightly holding Shiho.

"Natsumi?" Shiho asked. She was really trying to puzzle out what had caused Natsumi to suddenly hug her; it wasn't that Natsumi wasn't kind or friendly during her visits, it was more that hugging wasn't exactly the kind of thing that Natsumi normally did, shoulder pats and clasping of hands was about the extent of Natsumi's shows of physical affection, so this was rather extreme – especially with how tight it was – for the ravenette.

"Don't ever forget that, okay. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, promise me that you won't forget the promise you've made to keep fighting," Natsumi pleaded. There was a very heavy note to Natsumi's voice when she spoke those words; enough that Shiho thinned her lips into a frown and she responded by tightening her own grip upon Natsumi to return the sudden hug with the same kind of intensity.

"Of course I won't forget it," Shiho reassured. With that promise, Natsumi's arms loosened and Shiho proceeded to do the same, Natsumi returned to her seat and turned her head away, but Shiho still saw the girl wipe away some tears. When Natsumi turned back to look at her, her normally serenity had returned but Shiho was more convinced that was actually an act, that Natsumi wasn't as composed as she like to appear.

Shiho didn't say anything about it, they kept talking about other things, like massaging to help Shiho's legs get better and feel less heavy. But it still weighed on Shiho's mind, even long after Natsumi had left.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Ohya Ichiko was having a reasonably good day to be fair, she had managed to finish up and get the article about the Shūjin incident to her editor so that it could be published. As a result, a lot of people had been talking about her recent project, that gave Ohya some real breathing room to actually work on what was more important; she had to, for the sake of Kayo, no matter what it took to do it.

"Good evening Ohya-san," A voice called. Ohya looked over and saw Natsumi had arrived, the girl was a pretty weird one and to be fair, Ohya was more than a little suspicious of her after Ohya had run into her; the reporter wasn't entirely sure if it had been chance that they ran into each other or if someone had set her into Ohya's path, either way she was going to find out the truth.

"Natsumi! Great to see you!" Ohya greeted. The girl could easily be putting on a façade, Ohya refused to accept anything about her at face value, but she wasn't going to let on to Natsumi about her sudden change in opinion about the girl; she didn't really have any reason to be suspicious of her but the suddenness of a girl with her connections showing up in Ohya's life was too strange.

"You're drunk?" Natsumi asked. Ohya couldn't believe what she was asking, after all there was no chance that she was drunk, she had barely even started to have a drink after all, the bar didn't look anywhere near as wavy as it could be some days and there were only two glasses in front of her… or were there actually four of them. Ohya wasn't entirely sure thanks to the dim lighting that hung over them.

"No, I'm not! Imma little tipsy!" Ohya protested. She turned away from Natsumi in order to locate Lala-chan, she had to be here somewhere, Ohya leaned back while lifting her drink into the air slightly. "Lala-chan! Water for Natsumi!" Ohya insisted. As she yelled, Ohya felt herself began to wobble, until a hand suddenly settled between her shoulder blades while another gripped the hand holding her drink so that it didn't spill any further.

"Two waters Lala-san, someone needs to sober up," Natsumi insisted. Ohya frowned at that, the girl didn't need to go and get Lala-chan to agree to that, after all the woman was always looking for any excuse to ensure that Ohya was filled up with more water than booze; it also wasn't helped that Lala-chan seemed to have taken a shine to both Natsumi and Ren.

"I'm not drunk," Ohya repeated. She was not about to get sober at any rate; Natsumi heaved a sigh and somehow managed to pry the glass from Ohya's grip before sitting down and covering the top of it with her hand. Ohya frowned – although she suspects it came out more as a pout – and lunged to get it back, but Natsumi had quick reflexes and lifted the glass high into the air; to make it worse she tipped it slightly to the side. Her expression said she was willingly to spill it to stop Ohya from getting it.

"I'd believe you if you weren't about to catapult out of your seat from swaying so much Ohya-san," Natsumi commented. Ohya huffed a sigh at those words and shuffled back into her seat at those words, Lala-chan came over with two glasses, neither carried the scent of any kind of alcohol; Ohya would have to deal with it as Lala-chan took the glass Natsumi held and ensured it was firmly out of Ohya's reach.

"Alright," Ohya huffed. She was being ganged up on, so there was nothing else she could do but have the water, besides it was probably best for her to have a slightly clearer head than normal; she was going to be probing Natsumi for information just to see if she happened to know anything about what was going on with her coming to Shinjuku like she had, taking pictures was a useful cover.

"I heard about your article regarding my school," Natsumi commented. So, she was already pressing into Ohya's work, honestly the reporter couldn't even be insulted by it since it was a pretty clever way to get Natsumi's own investigation started, but Ohya was on to her and wouldn't be about to give up anything without prying some information out of Natsumi first. First would be establishing exactly what she was looking for from Ohya.

"Ah, yeah, your boyfriend set me up with a really good source of information for that tip about Kaneshiro," Ohya stated. She didn't know if Ren was dating Natsumi, but she'd seen them together enough to make it a possibility, though this was more to gauge how Natsumi responded. "Interesting that not even a few days after that, the infamous Phantoms go after him," Ohya added on. Ohya needed to know if the Phantoms were why she was here or if it was something else.

"Ren isn't my boyfriend, we just happen to live in the same area," Natsumi informed. Ooh, she was good, Natsumi hadn't even batted an eyelash about the boyfriend question or the mention of the Phantoms; so, either she was a good actor, or it was the truth, that Ren wasn't her boyfriend and she genuinely didn't care about the Phantoms. Not that anyone was really genuine in this cesspool city.

"Well, I learned quite a lot that even I didn't know about what was going on in Shūjin. It sounds like it was horrible for the volleyball team," Ohya admitted. Had Ohya been a more honest woman, she might have actually felt like being sick, but that had stopped being the case for her a long time ago; it wasn't that she didn't sympathise for Mishima or the other victims, but that was the horror of living in this world.

"A lot of people were hurt because of Kamoshida," Natsumi acknowledged. Ohya looked at her and well, Ohya was really struggling to read the girl, she looked affected but there was just something off about her that Ohya just couldn't quite put her finger on. "I looked at the article and it was rather captivating," Natsumi carried on. That caused Ohya to smirk at bit, if she got Natsumi to keep asking via articles she wrote about with Ren's help, then Ohya would be more likely to get some answers out about her.

"Hey, I wouldn't be a good reporter if I couldn't get people to read my articles," Ohya pointed out. Though, nowadays her articles were fluff pieces, baiting articles to get people to look at them… she hated writing such things. "He did mention a girl whose name I kept out for her privacy, but it sounds like she got the worst of it," Ohya stated. Natsumi tensed up and her hands curled into fists which intrigued the woman. "That seems to have struck a nerve," Ohya realised. What was so special about that particular individual?

"She's a friend, I don't like thinking about how she suffered because of a self-centred individual," Natsumi explained. When Natsumi spoke, she had gone even more tense and her eyes were closed tightly, as if in pain; and it really looked like the girl was hurt by it, Ohya tried to steel herself so that she could keep asking, but clearly this was too tender a subject for Natsumi to actually talk about.

"Fair enough, though I am curious," Ohya spoke. Natsumi seemed to come out of the shell she had unwittingly drawn herself into when the conversation had focused on her friend, good, Ohya made a mental note to avoid that button in the future. "Why on earth did none of the teachers do anything?" Ohya wondered. Even after speaking to Mishima, it continued to bug her and he hadn't a clue as to an answer for that question either. "Personally, I think it has to do with the principal," Ohya admitted. A bit of scouring had produced some eerie information about the man and Ohya wanted to test how Natsumi would react.

"Yeah, I certainly know he was hiding everything because of how much he sucked up to Kamoshida," Natsumi agreed. Well, that was an interesting morsel of inforamtion, so Natsumi had known that Kobayakawa was up to something, but her phrasing showed she had no amount of respect for the man. "But how did you come to suspect that about Kobayakawa?" Natsumi questioned. Ohya hid her smirk by taking a sip of the water once more, really feeling the clarity come to her mind as she did.

"There just wasn't something adding up about it all," Ohya answered. Ohya wasn't about to give out any information about her informants, not to anyone but least of all to a girl she was suspicious of. "Do you know anything about him at all?" Ohya wondered. It would be interesting to see if Natsumi had any deeper connections to the man give what she had learned.

"Ha!" Natsumi barked out. The fierce bitterness and venom in that sound made Ohay lean back and even Lala-chan startled from her spot a little away from them, Ohya worried she'd made a miscalculation just now. "I couldn't be paid to breath the same air as that slime," Natsumi claimed. The ferocity with which she said those words would have convinced a younger Ohya, but the one in front of her wasn't buying it… well she wasn't buying it completely.

"Fair enough. I hope you won't mind if I ask you a few questions in the future," Ohya warned. She wanted to brace Natsumi for the fact that this could end up happening again, so far Ohya didn't think she had made any kind of misstep, but she couldn't be too careful, not against someone with the kind of connections that Natsumi was in possession of.

"Just so long as you let me ask you a few questions," Natsumi answered. Ohya agreed, she had to if she wanted real information, Natsumi checked her watch and to be fair it was actually rather late, the girl had better get a move on if she wanted to get to still be able to attend school without being suspected of something fishy going on; Natsumi got up and proceeded to leave.

"Were you interrogating her, Ichiko?" Lala-chan asked. The woman had moved over to look down at Ohya with suspicious eyes, but Ohya wasn't going to feel ashamed of what she had done just now, she needed to do this and nothing was going to stop Ohya from hunting for the information she needed. No matter the source, no matter the method, Ohya Ichiko would get her answers.

"Do you know who Chiba Natsumi is?" Ohya asked. Lala-chan frowned and carefully shook her head, of course Lala-chan wouldn't know, it had only been because Ohya was sure she'd heard the family name before that had led her to this knowledge. "Let's just say, she's no ordinary girl," Ohya commented. Not with being Shido Masayoshi's niece.