Chapter 5:

Ryuji and Ann both had a deer in headlights expression. Neither of them could comprehend what they were seeing, but they were at least willing to go along with Kasumi to try to understand the situation.

Ann Spoke up first. "Ok so, this is a world of Kamoshida's desires? Like he wishes the school was a castle?"

Kasumi nodded. "Pretty much, that's how he sees the school, his own personal castle where he can do whatever he wants."

Ryuji was starting to snap out of his confused state. "And he can do whatever he wants to us here right?"

Kasumi grimaced, remembering the state of the dungeon where Morgana was being held.

"Yeah, he needs to be stopped, and this is the place to do it, if we clean up this other world, it will affect him in reality and help all of those students he's hurting."

Ann tilted her head: "What do you mean affect him? Like it will change his personality?"

"Yes, he will lose the desire to treat everyone like shit and will confess all of his crimes."

Ann shook her head. "Why should we be the judge of that, we should try to get evidence of what he's done in Shujin proper and use that against him, hopefully with his job on the line he-"

Ryuji cut her off, furious: "You know he's a piece of shit! If we have the ability to do this, we should, you know the crap he's done to me! What he's done to your girlfriend!"

"Shiho isn't... wait what do you mean, 'what he's done to Shiho!'?"

"C'mon Ann don't play dumb, you've seen the scars Mishima and the boys get from volleyball practice, Shiho ever walk out of one of her sessions in one piece, you think that's due to 'the nature of the sport' every single time?"

"But- she told me... fuck..."

Ann started to cry and Ryuji looked at Kasumi, confused as to whether he could comfort her. Kasumi started to walk over to Ann until a large sound interrupted them all.

"There are the intruders, interrupting our lord as he gives a glorious speech with their incessant bickering!"

A shadow had spotted them just outside the castle and decided to rush the young students, Kasumi quickly took battle stance, before she realized that she wasn't transforming into her thief uniform.

'Damn it, but I've awakened in the past, the time travel reset this too?'

"Hey Kasumi, what the hell is that?!" Ryuji looked on in horror as a shadow in the shape of a Knight rushed them, only to explode into a jack o lantern like creature and prepare a fireball at all three of them. Kasumi quickly positioned herself in front of the shadow.

"Ryuji! Make sure Ann is safe!"

The first fireball was thrown and Kasumi was hit right in the side, knocking her down, she screamed in pain, but this shadow was definitely one of the weakest in Kamoshida's palace so she could definitely recover this one blow, but not any more until she gets her persona.

'Uggh, I feel so useless, stopping Maruki only reset everything, I couldn't properly save my team, I couldn't tell Mako-Chan my true feelings, I can't even save Ann and Ryuji... No! I have to!'

Kasumi felt the unshakable will that she first gained in Kamoshida's Palace rise back to the surface, a mask developing on her face once more. The shadow fired another projectile at her as she ripped her mask off, blood flying off her face and a vortex of wind pushing everything away. She could feel the presence of Cendrillon, and it gave her quite the nostalgic feeling.

"Nice to have you back Cendrillon, now, Hamaon!"

Kasumi instantly used her bless magic to evaporate the shadow in front of her, gaining back some confidence in her abilities and some hope for dealing with the obstacles in her future.

Ryuji and Ann were completely puzzled.

"Are you alright Kasumi-chan?"

"I am now, thanks Ann."

"What the hell was that?"

"I'll explain, but it's not safe here anymore, we should head back to reality."

Kasumi exited the Metaverse with her 'new' allies and did a quick scan of the area, she knew that Maruki found out about them by chance at some point this week, so she wanted to do her best to avoid that. She was also trying to figure out if she should go back in today for Morgana, or try tomorrow with a fresh tank, she could probably pull it off before school or even during lunch.

'No' She realized that a lot has changed with this timeline and if she didn't rescue Morgana immediately something could go wrong. She turned to Ryuji and Ann.

"Hey, how are you two doing?"

Ann still was a bit panicked.

"We should be asking you that! The way you screamed in pain as you got hit by that fire, I can only imagine what that felt like..."

Kasumi gripped her side. "It will heal, I probably should have explained that you can awaken to a power in that world, and that is what you need to fight those monsters, I wish it was as easy as just walking in and changing Kamoshida's heart."

Ann shook her head. "This seems wrong, I mean sure, Kamoshida is a creep and definitely shouldn't be around teenage girls, but forcefully changing his personality, or anyone's for that matter, feels wrong."

Kasumi couldn't respond, because this is an issue she couldn't fully convince herself that the Phantom Thieves were 100% correct in.

Ryuji broke his silence. "Umm, would we be able to fight and look cool like you if we unlocked that power you had?"

Kasumi smiled. "Yes, of course, I'm sure you two could."

Kasumi decided to take a different approach. "Ann, Ryuji, I'm sorry for showing you this out of the blue, but to be honest, Kamoshida does scare me, and I wanted to do something about it, but I understand the hesitancy Ann. If you ever do want to go back in this world feel free to let me know. "

Ann and Ryuji nodded. Kasumi took out her phone and pondered.

Ryuji looked perplexed, "Hey what are you planning on doing?"

"Right, so I have to go back in to help someone, its unrelated to Kamoshida, just happens to be wrong place, wrong time."

"Take me with you! Maybe I can get one of those cool powers too!"

Kasumi grinned. "Sounds like a plan."

Ann looked conflicted. "I saw what they did to you and you prioritized saving us, even if I was fully on board with this, I would just be one more distraction for you, but please, come back Ryuji, both of you. We don't need any victims because of Kamoshida."

Kasumi's heart ached, she knew that the next few days were going to be tough on Ann, she just hoped she could minimize some of that pain, but the first step was getting her cat back.

"Ann, take care, I'll message you when all this is done, thanks for going by with this out of the blue."

Ann smiled and exchanged contact info with Kasumi. "I know I just met you, but I don't know, just have the feeling that I can trust you, maybe just a strong confidence?"

Kasumi nodded and parted ways with Ann as Ryuji went with her into the Metaverse. She quickly led him through some of the vents and staircases, until they reached the dungeon. Ryuji was flabbergasted by the sheer amount boy's volleyball members that were down there, being tortured in inhumane ways.

"Hey Kasumi, if this place represents Kamoshidas desires or something, does this mean he wants to do this to the dudes in real life?"

Kasumi lowered her head. "Yeah, Kamoshida really is a monster, he just wants to see these guys suffer, I will never understand why he treats all of his students like inferior beings."

"Wait, all of them? I don't see any of the girls here... OH SHIT!"

Ryuji came to a realization about the girl's volleyball team. He started mumbling to himself:

"That would explain why Suzui's bruises look the way they do... FUCK! SHIT! WHAT AN ASSHOLE!"

Kasumi could only nod in pain, and not just for all that these volleyball students have gone through, but their loved ones have had to witness their suffering all for a shred of success. Kasumi was beyond grateful she had good gymnastics coaches growing up, She couldn't imagine the young woman she would be today if she had grown up surrounded by Kamoshidas.

The two of them were interrupted by a voice slightly further in the dungeon.

"Hey! You two don't sound like guards, over here! Please!"

Kasumi, doing her best to avoid growing a massive smile at the sounds of her loyal companion/pet, directed Ryuji towards the noise and they were met face to face with an adorable, walking, talking cat.

"A Cat!?"

"Hey blondie, don't call me a cat! I am Morgana!"

Kasumi was overjoyed to hear this banter again, she was starved for any sort of normalcy. She figured once she's out of the palace she should let Ren know that Morgana was safe.

"Hi Morgana, you don't seem to be from this place given all of these shadows wandering it."

Morgana smirked: "Yes exactly, why would they lock me up otherwise? Will you help me get out of here?"

Kasumi turned to Ryuji: "You good with setting them free?"

Ryuji nodded.

Kasumi walked over to the bars and kicked off the lock, then she and Ryuji freed Morgana.

"Thanks, hey you seem to be useful Ponytail, I like you, follow my lead and we can get out of here! By the way, the name is Morgana!"

"I am Kasumi"

"And I'm Ryuji!"

Morgana started to run towards the staircase but he and the others were then met with a herd of shadows who had heard the commotion and gathered to stop them from escaping.

"This looks bad guys!" Ryuji exclaimed in fear.

"Mweh heh heh, don't worry, I'll use my Persona!"

Morgana stepped forward and pulled out his weapon and had Zorro appear behind him, ready to strike. Kasumi walked right next to him and in a swift motion removed her mask and pulled out her firearm and took out one of the shadows instantly.

"Cendrillon, use cleave!"

Kasumi took down another shadow, and Morgana shot one down with his slingshot.

"Wow ponytail, you're incredible! I could use someone like you."

Kasumi and Morgana managed to defeat all of the shadows and they started heading back towards the exit, Ryuji felt terrible that he couldn't help them and just had to watch. Morgana decided to give them a lecture before they left the Metaverse.

"Hey you two, this place isn't safe, so I hope you weren't just wandering it for fun! Why were you both down here in the first place?"

"We were planning on doing something to change the asshole this place revolves around!"

Morgana pondered for a moment.

"Ah, you two are after a change of heart, well that is doable here, you just need to get to the core of their palace and steal the treasure!"

"And once we do that, that should affect Kamoshida in real life!"

Morgana was very impressed by the girl in the ponytail. "Yes exactly, you catch on quick miss! If you're ready we can go after the treasure and change the heart of Kamo-Whatever."

"It's Kamoshida peasant!"

The three intruders were to busy discussing their next plans to notice Kamoshida and a good amount of Shadows gathering around them, two of the shadows struck Kasumi and held her down to the floor, while another slammed Morgana with ease and proceeded to restrain him as well, Kasmoshida stared down Ryuji while all of this occurred.

"No Need to restrain this one, even If he had two good legs!"

Ryuji felt an immense rage flow through him. Kamoshida was just going to kill these new friends, especially the girl who was helping him with his foolish revenge mission? He had to do something…

"You no good, condescending, entitled ASSHOLE! You think that you can do whatever you want to the boys and girls at Shujin, in your trademark shitty way!? I will tear you apart!"

'I see, glad you finally understand, are you ready to set sail and conquer this life?'

"Let's go, Captain Kidd!"

Ryuji seamlessly used his persona to strike down the shadow holding Kasumi, as she quickly rose back into action and freed Morgana. The three of them started to tear down shadows while Kamoshida panicked and ran towards the safety of his throne room. Ryuji tried to pursuit but was stopped by Kasumi.

"He's gotta pay now!"

"Ryuji think this through, we're both exhausted and he is going to be more on alert now than in a day or two! We regroup, and then we can take him down!"

Ryuji decided against chasing after Kamoshida.

"Ok, let's get out of here!"

All three of them ran towards the entrance and Kasumi sent them all back to reality. Kasumi was glad that in all that chaos, Morgana came back with them, she missed sleeping with her cat by her side.

The exhaustion of awakening personas had finally gotten to Kasumi and it had overtaken Ryuji as well. Ryuji suggested that they exchange contact info though.

"Hey so, I still don't fully understand any of this, but what I do know is that we're friends now, you stood up for me and I'm more than willing to return the favor. Hell, we might even be siblings now."

Kasumi nodded. "Hey Ryuji, I imagine that couldn't be easy for you, but thanks for standing up to Kamoshida and saving us, trust me, I know what its like to have to stand up to someone who ruined your life, it hurts so much but you did the right thing, thank you."

Ryuji smiled. "Just gotta look out for my fellow outcast! I'm gonna head home, but let's take that bastard down for good soon!"

Kasumi nodded, and she felt the power of the Chariot Arcana slowly grow inside her.

"Oh and Cat, thanks for your help too!"

Morgana hissed. "I am not a cat!"

Ryuji laughed. "Then why do you look exactly like one now?!"

Morgana craned his head around to look at his new form.

"Danm you Ryuji!"

Ryuji and Kasumi got a few more laughs in before Ryuji departed, leaving Morgana to jump into Kasumi's bag.

"You will take care of me, since my plan was to stay in the other world, but I guess i could hang out with someone as strong as you!"

Kasumi pretended to sigh. "Guess I should think of something to tell Sojiro..."

Kasumi happily got onboard the subway and took it over to Yongen-Jaya, glad with her progress, having four friends within the first few days of arriving in this timeline? One who was brand new to her, it was amazing. Ann and Ren still had their hesitations on joining the group immediately, but she was sure they would come around. The former gymnast sat back and relaxed as she got closer to her home, where she could get a much needed rest.

As Kasumi approached Leblanc, she felt her phone vibrate, and she noticed a missed call from Ann and then a message less than a minute later asking her to call. She figured she should at least put her stuff down and then give Ann a quick call. She then stepped into Leblanc and encountered a young woman around her age, with hair as red as hers, but loose instead of in a ponytail. The young woman had on glasses as well, she took one look at Kasumi and gave a pained but genuine smile.

"Hey Sis."

Kasumi felt as if she lost all her senses for a moment, she didn't even hear Morgana complaining when she dropped her bag on the cafe floor.