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 72: - Hanged Man, Chariot, Star

Iwai was leaning against the wall of the building he was currently in, watching the woman in front of him pacing like some kind of caged animal that was getting really agitated. Kichō was a stern looking woman with her high cheekbones and thin lips, not helped by the smattering of lines at the edge of her lips and eyes; her deep brown hair was pulled into a bun that seemed to be practically pulling the strands from her scalp, fierce brown eyes that stared dead ahead of her, Kichō was dressed in a smart three piece pantsuit that was two thirds black with the white shirt being the only one not; this was oddly offset by the silver shoes that covered her feet.

"This girl better be worth the effort," Kichō grumbled. She was clearly irritated about what Iwai had asked her to do, but then again, the woman always seemed to be on irritable side, it was just part of her ever present personality; still Iwai had known Kichō long enough that he wasn't about to start poking her in any way, especially when she was wound so much tighter than was normal for the grumpy woman.

"Hey, I'm leaving that assessment to you," Iwai responded. Since he really didn't know Natsumi's capability there was nothing he could do to comment on them, even if it was clear that she was obviously knowledgeable about what was put into fighting abilities and she clearly knew a good amount about archery, since she had a bow and so many books about it or she at least knew what books to look for.

"Well, she's late!" Kichō snapped. Iwai had contacted the girl earlier this morning, but she had yet to arrive which was more than a little concerning even if Iwai tried not to show it; they were at a small archery practice centre thanks to Kichō connections to all kinds of places, but Iwai worried if Natsumi would be able to locate the little tucked away building.

"I'm hardly late ma'am," Natsumi's voice cut across. Iwai had kept his eye on the door, so he wasn't as spooked by the girl's arrival this time, but Kichō jumped and spun around, allowing the two to see each other. "I've arrived after getting some arrows from the storeroom," Natsumi pointed out. She was already dressed in her uniform likely needing to shoot off to her school once they were done here, the bow bag on her shoulder and a quiver of arrows in her hand.

"Let me see the bow!" Kichō insisted. If she was off put by Kichō's abrasive manner, she didn't even show it on her face as Natsumi didn't argue instead swiftly handing the weapon over to Kichō; Kichō proceeded to holding it up and pulled back on the bow a few times. "Hm, yes, the bow has seen some trials, I can feel it. A stronger bow string might help," Kichō assessed. She released the bow string gently and turned to face Natsumi with a scrutinising look in her eyes. "What are you using it for?" Kichō questioned.

"Social activities, I don't have to tell you any more than that," Natsumi stated. Iwai bit the inside of his cheek at how Natsumi seemed to be easily taking Kichō attitude in stride and even butting against her a bit. "Who are you?" Natsumi asked. A fair point since neither of them had introduced Kichō before the grumpy woman had ploughed forward with the examination of the bow.

"Matsumoto Kichō. I'm a curator at a museum and like I'm sure the bald idiot back there told you, I enjoy weapons," Kichō answered. Her tone had changed slightly, the acidic edge it seemed to always carry had faded, of course it was only known if the person listening happened to know Kichō well enough to hear such a thing, she now sounded a little bit more neutral to Natsumi. "Let me see what you can do," Kichō insisted.

Natsumi took her bow back and proceeded to move closer to the edge, where she set the quiver down and looked at the target at the end of range. Natsumi shuffled about a little as she looked about, Iwai pushed off the wall and moved closer to try and figure out what the girl was doing. Whatever it was she was done and Iwai had to try very hard not to blink because Natsumi's hand lashed out to seize an arrow. The hand knocked the arrow and fired it all within a span of a few seconds. The arrow pierced into the dead centre of the target with a dull thud echoing back to them.

But she didn't stop there, instead Natsumi seized arrow after arrow and proceeded to send them flying from the bow towards the target, decorating the centre of the target with a bouquet of arrows. Once Natsumi stopped firing, Kichō hopped over the edge and made for the target, she looked behind the target first then pulled out an arrow and poked the hole a bit before returning with the arrow and putting it back in the quiver. There was a tense look on Kichō's face as she looked between them.

"You might want to also try reinforcing the limbs as well in order to do refine the bow as much as possible, but there isn't much anything else I can think of at the moment, if I learn more, then I'll called Munehisa," Kichō stated. With that, she turned on her heel and marched out of the room likely to leave the building with Iwai staring after her and Natsumi doing the same thing before turning to face him.

"Your friend is rather intimidating," Natsumi acknowledged. That was putting it mildly if Iwai had ever heard anyone describe Kichō, but most people also used a lot more crude words to describe Kichō so it was actually kind of nice to hear someone using such a mild-mannered way of referring to the grumpy woman; who he really did care for a great deal, despite how they might act towards each other.

"Kichō's been that way ever since I knew her," Iwai admitted. To fair, a part of Iwai wondered if her acidic tongue and general grumpy attitude was some kind of armour against the world; it wasn't like she hid herself, but Iwai could understand why Kichō acted in such a manner purely because he knew that Kichō hadn't had what could be described as an easy life.

"How do a gun designer and an historian get to know each other?" Natsumi asked. It was probably the most innocent question that Natsumi could have asked, she asked nothing else beforehand about him and yet she decided to ask this question; Iwai officially decided that Natsumi was one of the weirdest people he ever met since she decided on such an unimportant question in the long run.

"I've known Kichō for years, she's probably the closest thing I've got to a sister," Iwai admitted. There was no risk to admitting this, even if someone did try to do anything to the grumpy woman they'd be in for a surprise, Kichō was more than capable of protecting herself; besides, Natsumi wasn't really that dangerous… well not as dangerous as some of the people Iwai knew, that would be kind of impossible.

"What do you think of her suggestions?" Natsumi asked. She clearly focused on what she considered to be the more important part of their conversation which Iwai was a little relieved for, since he didn't really like talking much about his past, especially his teenage to young adult years; he turned Kichō's advice over in his head as he tried to think of how well it might have work for Natsumi.

"They're pretty valid, but I think they're also stopgap measures. We're gonna want to do something a bit more drastic," Iwai suggested. That was what he really thought, something told him that Natsumi needed as strong a bow as possible for whatever these social activities of hers happened to be; it wasn't something that a stronger bowstring or reinforced arms could ensure would be long term.

"What do you think we should do?" Natsumi wondered. Iwai wasn't exactly sure why Natsumi would ask for his advice, but he wasn't intending to let her down when she had asked him such a question; there was something he could do as he tossed the information around his head as he tried to think about what to do to ensure things worked out alright for the girl's bow.

"Well, since you won't take a gun, maybe we can do something else. How does a compound bow sound?" Iwai suggested. It was the best thing that he could think of to ensure that the bow would work out as best it could, a compound bow was much stronger than a regular bow… or at least Iwai thought so, he'd probably have to look into that a bit more to make sure it would actually work.

"I've never used one, but it's better than only taking half measures which could end up failing at some point," Natsumi agreed. They could probably take the half measures for now just to ensure that the bow was a little bit stronger for whatever Natsumi needed it for, until he could find a bow that was much stronger than the one she was currently wielding.

"Alright, I'll get to looking at something that could help me make one of those," Iwai decided. If she was willing to agree then all the better for Iwai, he could at least try his hand at something new, guns might be his speciality but there was something about this project that was really getting Iwai's mind spinning with a way to create the bow that Natsumi would be best set to actually use.

"I'll also see what I can learn to help out," Natsumi insisted. Iwai smirked at the way the girl decided to immediately help out, he proceeded to move towards the door so that he could leave the building as Natsumi moved out into the range in order to retrieve the arrows that she had fired off; once Iwai reached the first room of the building, he caught sight of the figure hanging by the doorway.

"That girl is hiding something," Kichō stated. Iwai wasn't surprised that his sort-of friend hadn't actually left the building completely, she had obviously had something that she felt the need to say to Iwai without Natsumi overhearing them; but the words she said did caused Iwai to give the woman an unimpressed look.

"Like you or me are ones to talk about hiding things," Iwai pointed out. It was a bit like the saying 'pot calling the kettle black', after all both Iwai and Kichō happened to carry dark secrets with them, secrets that came from pasts neither of them particularly wanted to have come back and revisit them; the woman heaved a pretty heavy sigh as she pushed herself off the wall she had been leaning on.

"I know, I know," Kichō admitted. The woman started to stomp towards the door with Iwai trailing after her. "But you got out of that kind of danger for Kaoru-kun's sake, I don't want you getting dragged into something dangerous," Kichō stated. Iwai didn't tell her that he might already be in danger, but he didn't want to worry Kichō unnecessarily, she'd got herself out of her own hellhole and didn't need to be dragged into his issues.

Hopefully he'd be able to handle that particular issue without ending up dragging Natsumi into the mess, Ren was at enough risk just playing his stand in.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Ryūji wasn't entirely sure what his head felt like at the moment, everything Ikeda-senpai had mentioned the other day was bouncing around inside of his mind still. The track team was coming back, that information alone had surprised Ryūji, but to know that they were coming back had been something he felt really happy about. At least up until he'd been told who was leading them, that left a pit in Ryūji stomach that no amount of meat could fill.

At this moment, Ryūji was just trying to put it out of his mind for now, especially since he and Natsumi had gone up to Ogikubo but the weapons master had been pretty insistent on training. Well, Ryūji saw nothing wrong with that, since it had been the tradition before the track team got shafted by Kamoshida. What was surprising this time around was that Natsumi had actually joined him.

She wore a green tracksuit instead of her haori and hakama combo which had stunned the blonde punk at first, but she did point out that outfit had been for weapons only, not general P.E. stuff. Every so often, a sharp beep would go off, causing Ryūji to sprint away from Natsumi as fast as he could until another beep sounded which caused Ryūji to steadily slow down and lightly jog back to meeting up with the still running girl.

It was a pretty tough workout, but it was really helping Ryūji's stamina which was still awful despite the training he kept doing with Ren when he could at the gym; eventually they came to a stop once they had done a good chunk of distance. Since there wasn't a gym or any kind of training facilities, they didn't really have anywhere to shower off, but Natsumi had apparently been prepared as she retrieved two bottles of water and used one to clean off as much of the sweat as possible.

Ryūji copied her actions and once as clean as possible, once done he guided the dark haired girl to the ramen shop, while they both took careful drinks from two completely different water bottles, Natsumi was scary prepared at times. They reached the shop and Ryūji ordered for both of them, hoping that Natsumi would be fine with it, but ignoring spice the girl didn't seem averse to eating much… Ryūji wasn't too sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"I ran into one of my old senpais the other day, from the track team," Ryūji admitted. They would have a bit of a wait for the food and Ryūji figured that maybe opening up to Natsumi might help organise some of his thoughts to actually made sense, or maybe he just wanted to hear a third opinion since he already had Ren's own. "He went and apologised to me for not stick up for the team since he was our leader," Ryūji explained.

"That was nice of him," Natsumi commented. It had absolutely rocked Ryūji's world, he had known that the track team blamed him, hated him even with how Nakaoka and Takeishi had treated him that made sense; but to know that one of the former members was actually regretful for his own actions, well Ryūji still couldn't really understand how he had come to that decision even after hearing it explained to him.

"Yeah, but I figured he was just looking out for his future since he needed Kamoshida for a letter of rec, even though he learned the bastard was never going to do it," Ryūji explained. A small sigh escaped Natsumi and Ryūji realised that Natsumi had actually been getting at something else; before she could speak, the ramen arrived so they paused their conversation long enough to snap the chopsticks apart.

"I mean it was nice that someone didn't blame you," Natsumi clarified. Oh, so that was why Natsumi had sighed, well she wasn't wrong as once Ryūji had managed to get over how surprised he felt that someone wasn't being so hateful towards him for the whole punching Kamoshida incident, well he had felt really warm and happy knowing that not everyone despised him for what he had done.

"It was actually, nice to know that someone wasn't holding me responsible for Kamoshida's actions, heck he even thanked me," Ryūji agreed. He devoured some of the noodles, not wanting the food to go cold while they talked. "He's even running with his university's track team," Ryūji informed. A grin stretching across his face as he remembered what Ikeda-senpai had told him.

"But?" Natsumi asked. Ryūji stopped eating and looked at the girl who finished off a topping before turning to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Something tells me that there's something else going on. Something that's worrying you," Natsumi explained. Ryūji was starting to wonder if those eyes of hers let Natsumi ready minds, because she always seemed to know when he had more to say or was disguising what he really wanted to talk about.

"How d'you do that Natsumi?" Ryūji wondered. All he got as a response was a shrug of her shoulders, implying Natsumi really had no idea herself about that knowing he had more to say ability. "He told me the track team is getting reinstated… under Yamauchi," Ryūji revealed. Natsumi had been about to take another bite of noodles, when he spoke, causing her to freeze and then drop the noodles back into the bowl.

"Yamauchi, isn't he the guy who practically licked Kamoshida's boots, well more than the principal did," Natsumi commented. Ryūji couldn't help the loud bark of laughter to escape him at Natsumi's description, because boy did it pretty much hit the nail on the head as to what Yamauchi was like; once Ryūji managed to calm down he refocused on their conversation, figuring Natsumi would have her own opinion about the situation.

"Pretty much, according to Ikeda-senpai, he enthusiastically volunteered," Ryūji passed on. A sneer curl on his lips at those words, the fact that he had gone as far as to volunteer really made it suspicious that he was clearly up to something; Ryūji might not know exactly what Yamauchi was up to, but it was clearly suspect and the curl of Natsumi's lips implied that she didn't like it either.

"This stinks, he doesn't teach P.E. at all and he was basically another version of Kamoshida. I don't like the idea of letting him advise the track team," Natsumi admitted. Ryūji had used some of the same words the other day when describing Yamauchi to Ren so that his best friend understood his reluctance to let it go; so hearing Natsumi unknowingly parrot them back, even slightly different, was kind of funny to him.

"You and me both, that's why I'm doing some investigating. I've already asked Ren for his help if I need it," Ryūji revealed. He was already decided on doing that, he couldn't just allow Yamauchi's plan to go through without attempting to do anything; even if he wasn't a part of the track team anymore, that didn't mean he didn't care about them anymore, no way was he gonna sit on his hands while something like this went down.

"Well, you know you can count on the rest of us as well, if you need help," Natsumi pointed out. For some reason, hearing those words seemed to loosen a knot in his chest that Ryūji hadn't even known was there, the blonde punk didn't know why those words had needed to be said because he knew he could count on his friends… but maybe it was because someone else was saying it and he wasn't assuming he could rely on them.

"Yeah, I know… it's just I feel I've got to do this; I know I've asked Ren for help but asking for anyone else it… I don't know how to put it into words," Ryūji rambled. It didn't really make sense even in Ryūji head, it wasn't like Ren was himself, so he was already doing it with someone else, maybe because Ren had been there when it went down unlike the others; it was just really difficult for him to explain.

"It's okay, you don't have to. I think I understand," Natsumi reassured. Well, that was good, because Ryūji did not feel like he actually knew what he was trying to say. "You feel this is your burden to bear, just know there are people out here who will be there for you to lean on when you need us," Natsumi added on. Huh, that actually made sense to Ryūji, like this was his fight to face, knowing that the others were there if he needed them was good.

"Thanks, Natsumi," Ryūji admitted. He really needed to say that, because apart from the girl constantly helping him to improve his running ability and fighting alongside him against Shadows, she was a really good friend, listening to him and never gettin' angry at him for when he snapped or did something stupid, just calmly giving him advice or helping him work through the issues that he couldn't quite say.

"Of course, and thank you for showing me this lovely place," Natsumi commented. They proceeded to focus on their ramen, needing to get it eaten before it ended up going too cold and that would just be an insult to the man that had been kind enough to make the food for them. "Also, I'm glad you know not everyone blames you for what happened with Kamoshida," Natsumi spoke up. That caused Ryūji to pause in his efforts to devour his bowl as he looked at the girl. "Maybe it's time you stopped blaming yourself," Natsumi added on.

"Yeah, maybe," Ryūji breathed. He hadn't really thought about it if he was completely honest, but the fact that someone had been willing to forgive him… well it had shaken the angry view he had held about his former team; he hadn't hated them, far from it, but he also hadn't been completely willing to confront them. Knowing about someone had forgiven him though, he knew that it had done something, something to shift a bit of weight off his shoulders ever so slightly and it made Ryūji feel a little bit better.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Returning to my home, I was curious about what to do for the evening, I suppose it would be fine to do some training. But at the same time, I wondered about whether I could contact Morgana for a little chat about the oddity of the names of the Rulers after they transformed, or maybe go and see Ohya. Sōjirō had seemed a bit distant lately and didn't seem up for talking about anything, while Rise was unfortunately busy tonight so we couldn't meet up. As I was still tossing things around in my head, my phone proceeded to go off, so I quickly looked at what was going on.

Ryūji: Y'know, I've been curious…

Ryūji: What's Kosei like? Is it filled with guys like Yusuke?

Ann: I imagine there are a lot of 'different' people there.

Yusuke: Now that you mention it, I have one very interesting classmate.

Natsumi: Oh, this person must be something to catch your eye.

Yusuke: She is a female shogi player, and seemingly quite the skilled one at that.

Makoto: Are you talking about Tōgō Hifumi? I remember hearing she's a student at Kosei.

Makoto: they say she's the most beautiful shogi player around right now.

Natsumi: But that's got nothing to do with her skills.

Ryūji: Dude, that sounds too good to be true! Gimmie some more info!

Yusuke: I do not know much about her. She is not the kind of person to let others close to her.

Ann: Sort of sounds like Natsu-chan before I got to know her.

Makoto: It sounds like she only focuses on her shogi pursuits. After all, it's said she is a lone genius.

Ryūji: Still sounding like Natsumi, just not as pointy.

Yusuke: However, I have heard she is commonly seen at the church over in Kanda.

Ren: She seems to be quite the diligent individual.

Ryūji: For real!? We gotta go!

Natsumi: Ryūji, if this girl is anything like me then she won't take kindly to a bunch of strangers showing up.

Natsumi: She'll likely stonewall us immediately.

Ann: And if she doesn't, you'll likely get struck down by a bolt of lightning if you're going for that ulterior motive.

Ryūji: That ain't it! This is for the Phantoms!

Ryūji: I mean, shogi's a kinda battle, right? She's gotta know all sorts of insane strategies and stuff!

Ann: Uh…

Yusuke: That is quite the stretch.

Makoto: Churches are supposed to be holy. Don't do this, Ryūji.

Natsumi: Should I go visit the shrine to pray for Ryūji's soul?

Ren: Ryūji, that excuse is paper thin at best coming from you.

Ryūji: Urgh, you guys're gonna pay for this one day!

I slipped my phone away but couldn't exactly get the information out of my head for some reason, on one hand I knew Ryūji was just making up excuses to see a pretty girl. But he also wasn't wrong, if we gained the tactics of a skilled shogi player then we might be able to implement them in our battles, it was something that might be useful. With that thought in mind, I grabbed what I needed and proceeded to leave the house, I ended up running into someone on my way to the station.

"Let me guess, you're going to see…," I began to speak. It was pretty easy to tell that Ren was out here with some kind of purpose and the fact that it was so soon after the discussion about Yusuke's classmate did make it seem somewhat obvious, though I didn't want to be presumptive about what Ren's intentions actually where and allowed him to fill in the blanks.

"Tōgō-san, yeah. I thought it might be useful to have her knowledge," Ren admitted. With that we proceeded to head towards the church in Kanda via the train, since there was no way we could walk there within the limited time we had. We arrived at the church and I could just imagine Yusuke would be framing it with his fingers had he been here since it was quite a beautiful structure, we headed inside and I quickly spotted a young woman sat near a box close to the back of the gathering. I can't say what it was, but I felt drawn to move towards her.

"That girl's playing shogi. Maybe she's Tōgō Hifumi, the one Yusuke mentioned. Why don't you ask her," Morgana encouraged. The person I had thought was a young woman was definitely our age, with long dark brown hair with a fringe hanging close to her eyes which were dark green in colour, she wore a red hair accessory resembling a rope with a three-leaf clover. Those knots happened to often be used for omamori, which were used for offerings and prayers. She was wearing a white dress with a chequered pattern consisting of white, orange and blue squares.

"Tōgō-san?" Ren asked. His voice sounded a little hesitant as he called out to the girl, it would be a little embarrassing if I had led us to the wrong person, but I couldn't explain why I had been drawn to this particular individual suddenly. In response to Ren's question, the girl lifted her head to look at us with slightly widened eyes, clearly not having expected someone to called out to her.

"Um… yes. I'm Tōgō Hifumi" Tōgō responded. Well, that was a relief to know, I noticed that she happened to have a shogi board set out in front of her with some of the pieces scattered around the sides of the board; yet there was no one sat across from her which did confuse me a little as to why she was playing the game without an opponent to match against.

"You're playing shogi by yourself? In a church?" Ren asked. It was quite the curiosity that she was doing something like this; I didn't exactly know why she was doing it, sparring against an imaginary opponent was all well and good but I would have thought that someone who was meant to be as good as Tōgō would have someone else to play against.

"Strange, hm? I did receive approval to do so though. Experimenting with new tactics is best to do alone in a place like this," Tōgō insisted. So, it was practice for new moves, still didn't make sense for her to have no opponent otherwise how could she know if the moves worked or not. "Well, I suppose that doesn't sound terribly plausible to someone who doesn't play," Tōgō added on. It seemed she knew that we weren't really practitioners of the game. "Don't mind me, please go ahead and pray," Tōgō encouraged.

"Would you be willing to teach me and my friend?" Ren asked. He proceeded to sit down in the empty space on the other side of the board, I remained standing since it didn't seem appropriate to sit down beside either of them for some reason; I did make sure that I was standing out of the aisle so that other people could come through easily.

"Huh?" Tōgo spoke. She seemed genuinely surprised by the request which made me wonder if Makoto had been exaggerating her skills, but that wasn't like our advisor at all. "Um, you don't necessarily have to learn from me, you know. There are other options… such as playing online," Tōgō pointed out. There was definitely something going on here, which made me wonder why Tōgō seemed reluctant to pass on her skills.

"Maybe, but I think this is the most worthwhile option compared to others," Ren admitted. I looked at Ren, silently wondering if he had actually thought such a thing or if he was just saying whatever might be capable of winning Tōgō over to being open to teaching us; honestly, I was leaning more towards the former since that seemed more like Ren than some manipulative individual.

"Sorry, I just can't," Tōgō insisted. This whole thing was starting to feel a little off, I couldn't put my finger on it, but something about this just didn't feel… right. "Well then…," Tōgō spoke. Ren didn't seem to be willing to move and abandon this just yet and I wasn't about to do so either. "Um…," Tōgō muttered. It seemed like she didn't quite know what to do about us just staying here. "So… you like shogi?" Tōgō wondered.

"Well, I heard somethings and I want to learn to play like you," Ren stated. It was probably best not to deceive the girl with any lies, after all I couldn't really say I liked shogi, but I certainly wanted to see what I could learn from the girl and how best that could be applied to our battles; anything could be useful if we learned to use it properly.

"Like me? You're a bit strange… but thank you," Tōgō commented. She seemed almost embarrassed by the compliment Ren had given her, but it did seem to settle something within Tōgō. "Okay, just a quick game with each of you then. Twenty seconds per move… is that alright with you," Tōgō decided. She looked over at me, likely making sure that I was also on board with this decision.

"Fine by me. I'm Amamiya Ren," Ren agreed. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with such a limited time, granted I can't recall if my mum had ever given me a time limit; it wasn't like she was a professional or anything, my mum just adored board games and played them a fair bit with me and Hikaru, Mirai had been too young to just sit still and learn.

"Sure. I'm Chiba Natsumi," I admitted. Tōgō nodded her head and proceeded to set up the timer so that the games could get started; as soon as the timer started, Ren looked at the pieces with a little bit of concern on his face, he grabbed a piece and carefully moved it forward, as if a little unsure of about where to put it or how far to make it move.

"So, this is your skill level, huh?" Tōgō commented. She sounded unimpressed, in fact her tone had completely changed, she had been demure and rather closed off before, but now she was more vocal and very pointed in her words. The two continued to exchange moves, Tōgō confident and firm while Ren was a bit hesitant and conflicted, often looking at how Tōgō moved her pieces to help. "The dragon which governs the blue sky has fallen into my hands. How do you intend to survive this?" Tōgō pointedly questioned. I couldn't tell exactly what she meant by those words, maybe some sort of special shogi phrase but all she had done was promote the Rook, Ren made his move then allowed the shogi prodigy to take over. "Check!" Tōgō declared. She almost slapped the piece onto the board with that declaration, her face as unyielding as steel. "It's checkmate no matter how you look at it. Please concede," Tōgō insisted.

"Concede?" Ren echoed. Ren seemed genuinely confused by what Tōgō could be getting at with the request, but even with my limited knowledge and hazy recollections, I'm pretty sure that there was no chance that Ren would be able to escape from the entrapment that had won Tōgō the game in only seven moves. That was more than a little terrifying if I was completely honest.

"To concede is an act of admitting that you have lost, with grace," Tōgō explained. I suppose that made sense, rather than keep pushing and trying moves that weren't worth the pieces they cost, it was better to admit your opponent was simply the better. "If you aspire to become a shogi player, I recommend that you take your study of the game to heart," Tōgō encouraged. Fair advice, we'd probably need to do that if we want to learn anything from Tōgō beyond getting our backsides kicked. "Thank you for playing," Tōgō stated. She looked at me and I think that was a hint for us to swap places, which we did.

Needless to say, I also didn't do very well against Tōgō, I did slightly better than Ren but not by much. It took Tōgō seven moves longer to eliminate me, I also managed to capture a few of her pieces and promote two of my own. But the girl moved so fast, it felt like every move I made, she was already at least three steps ahead of me, I was starting to wonder if she could see inside of my own mind to learn what I was doing. Eventually, my King was caught, surrounded by several promoted pawns and one nasty promoted bishop which had eliminated most of my pieces on its' own.

"Well then, that will be all for today," Tōgō decided. Her tone had changed again, she was back to being more demure like she was when me and Ren first walked up to her. "If it's alright with the both of you, may I request another match sometime?" Tōgō requested. That was quite the surprise, I hadn't expected her to want to see us again after we had failed so miserably to provide any challenge.

"Why? I'm not against it but neither of us was a challenge for you," Ren pointed out. That was pretty much the stance that we could both take, Tōgō had so soundly defeated both of us in a very short number of moves, so it was quite the surprise that she was willing to play against us again when there seemed to be nothing to gain from doing so.

"From you, I feel a gambler's spirit emanating," Tōgō admitted. She had gestured towards Ren when she said that before turning to look at me. "As for you, it is a warrior's heart that I sensed," Tōgō continued on. Huh, she was a very insightful individual, as I suppose cultivating Personas was a bit of a gamble. "Which is strange, since both of your styles of play are those of novices, one far more inexperienced than the other," Tōgō admitted.

"Sorry, I'm a beginner," Ren admitted. He had an awkward smile on his face when he said those words, honestly that actually made a lot of sense as to why he had been so hesitant with his moves, he clearly knew the barest minimum about how to move the different pieces but I don't think he knew much more than that.

"I haven't played in many years," I revealed. I at least knew a little more thanks to my mum, but against someone who clearly knew more and had continually practiced, that little bit just wasn't going to be anywhere near enough for me to actually provide a challenge. Tōgō's expression morph into one of horrified shock, which made me wonder if she had been going at us with a higher skill level than she thought was necessary.

"Huh? Oh I-I'm sorry," Tōgō apologised. She seemed pretty worried about the fact that she had utterly destroyed the two of us, but I don't think that was necessary, if anything, this just proved that she lived up to the stories that had been told about her which meant learning from her was worthwhile; in fact, it might be even better than that.

"It's fine, it's not like we told you," I reassured. She didn't need to have felt bad about what she did, it was perfectly fine for her to have proven how capable she was; I just hoped that me and Ren would be able to make use of the skills she clearly possessed once we learned how to make them actually applicable in our battles as the Phantoms.

"However, I will instruct the both of you under one condition," Tōgō admitted. It was nice to hear that she was willing to continue mentoring us, though the condition she requested did have me furrowing my eyebrows in confusion, what could we possibly give this capable shogi player? "The both of you must become my playing partner so that I can research new moves. Is that agreeable?" Tōgō requested. Ah, fair enough then, it was certainly better than playing by herself.

"Sounds good to me," Ren agreed. There really wasn't any need for us to say no, in fact learning these new tactics of Tōgō's might give us more of a leg up when facing off against other Shadows, since they wouldn't be known to people thus would be unlikely to have any kind of impact on the collective unconsciousness.

"I'm fine with that, it should be interesting," I complied. I was probably going to have to thank our blonde punk for actually suggesting that we meet her – even if he had ulterior motives for doing so – this could massively benefit us in Mementos or Palaces. At my words, a small smile proceeded to curl its' way onto Tōgō's face which was quite the surprise since she hadn't smiled at all previously.

"That's precious. Well then, it's a deal. I'll teach you two how to play and you'll assist me with my new moves," Tōgō confirmed. I sensed that sensation again, informing me this was the person connected to the Star Arcana. "Okay, let's end here for today," Tōgō insisted. With that I proceeded to stand up as Ren moved closer to the aisle. "Oh, Amamiya-san, Chiba-san… I'd like to thank you both once again for today," Tōgō admitted. Tōgō also stood to her feet and faced us. "Before you head homes, would you like to exchange numbers with me? There's no obligation, of course" Tōgō asked.

"It would make it easier to remain in contact with each other," Ren agreed. We pulled out our phones and quickly exchanged numbers with the shogi prodigy, it had been quite the inspired idea for us to come to this place so that we could start learning; I could at least pass on this information to Makoto so that she knew of these tactics when she was the one whose group I was in instead of keeping them to myself.

"Let's see… ah, yes, both went through," Tōgō confirmed. That was good to know, I tucked my phone away with the new information safely stored "I'll let you know if I come up with any new strategies," Tōgō reassured. With that, me and Ren proceeded to leave the church and our new associate behind.