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.

As a small note, I will only be advancing Sumire's Rank once during each break between Palaces to reflect how it was in the game, also I will not be advancing Sōjirō's any more until Futaba's Palace has been cleared, again like the game.

I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy

Chapter 76: - Hanged Man, Faith, Fool

Iwai was waiting for Natsumi to show up in his shop, he'd told her that the stuff Kichō had sent over had arrived and she could alter her bow now, there was also the fact that his research for compound bows had managed to get him in touch with some people, again thanks to Kichō. They were willing to help him aid Natsumi in creating this bow without asking too many questions as to why a teenager wanted to use a bow of this kind of calibre.

"Good morning, Iwai-san," Natsumi greeted. He had been facing the door, ever since that day he was never going to be caught off guard again by this girl, even if she wasn't an enemy; anyone who could sneak up on him was extremely concerning, especially given his unfortunately precarious position at this moment with his past wriggling out to cause him problems.

"Mornin' kid, you got the bow?" Iwai asked. He was rather starting to like this whole working on this bow idea, it was kind of relaxing for him especially when he had all these other problems hovering over him; it was completely unconnected and allowed him to actually relax a little without constantly thinking about the danger that was coming towards him.

"Here you are," Natsumi stated. She lifted her case and set it on the counter, allowing Iwai to open it up and see the nisun-nobi contained within it; he pulled it out and set it on top of the case since Natsumi would need to be able to help him with the work that they doing; Kichō decided to send over a lot more than what she initially suggested after more research so both of them doing it would be best.

"Thanks," Iwai stated. He moved over to the stuff, reinforcing the limbs, putting on a plaited string and a reinforced shaft were their objectives for the day. "By the way, I talked to a few people and we might have found a place that'll be willing to let you experiment with creating a compound bow. Apparently, they're really big on customisation," Iwai admitted. He passed the supplies over, Natsumi immediately picked up the string and began to examine it, along with giving it a few tugs as if to make sure it wouldn't fray apart on her instantly.

"Do you need anything for the compound bow?" Natsumi asked. Once done with her experiment, Natsumi began to unloop the string she'd previously been using, likely satisfied with the string that Kichō had sent over for them to use. Although she didn't immediately start to re-string the bow, instead she looked at the reinforcement supplies that they had been set, likely checking them out. Iwai could appreciate her scrutiny; she didn't want to be surprised by something unexpected.

"I'm gonna need some measurements, mainly from your arms to give to the guys making it an idea about the kind of draw length," Iwai admitted. Natsumi nodded her head and proceeded to set the limbs down before looking at the shaft. "We'll need you to find some way to let you practice with the bow for the draw weight before we actually set it, so finding some way to practice beforehand is crucial," Iwai explained.

"Compounds also have a lot of accessories attached to them, right?" Natsumi asked. Her eyes were focused on him, clearly done with the examination of Kichō's supplies; Iwai stepped forward and started to look at the instructions that had been sent to reinforce the different parts. Once done he handed it to her as he thought over what his research had managed to show about the compound bows.

"Yeah, there's rests, bow sights, releases that are non-negotiable. Other good things might be a bow case, a stabiliser, a quiver, a range-finder. We also need to think of arrows since they come with field point tip or broadheads, that'll be depending on what your social activities involve," Iwai explained. As he did, Natsumi's gaze strayed from the instructions as her lips pulled into a frown with each piece of equipment that Iwai mentioned to her.

"I'm starting to think this is going to be an expensive excursion," Natsumi realised. She was right there, it was going to be a pretty expensive experiment Iwai was doing here, definitely not something that was viable long term for him; but this short little stint would be enough for him to handle, monetary wise. "We'll see if my own case and quiver are acceptable just to try and cut it down," Natsumi added on.

"Ren's giving me some extra stuff to sell so I've got some more cash available," Iwai admitted. They were working on the limbs now, each of them focusing on one area, carefully following the instructions, because Iwai knew that if Kichō saw any sloppy work then he'd never hear the end of it from the battle axe; Iwai never realised how lucky he was to keep getting those weird supplies from Ren but it was coming in handy now that he could sell them to oddball collectors, not to mention Ren constantly buying new guns on random occasions which also helped.

"I can help with the cost, since this is for me then it makes sense for me to provide something to getting the supplies," Natsumi insisted. Iwai finished his limb and used the opportunity to look up at Natsumi and was quickly confronted by the dead serious expression that was on her face; there was no way that he'd be able to get her to not do such a thing from the fierce look that she happened to have.

"Alright, you've got that stubborn look on your face," Iwai agreed. They moved on to doing the shaft, although only Iwai worked on this section since he didn't want too many hands involved which could potentially cause something to go wrong than when they'd been working on different sections entirely; Natsumi on the other hand focused on the string and once he finished reinforcing the shaft, she deftly restrung the bow and proceeded to step back.

"Okay, I've finished it," Natsumi commented. Iwai looked over the bow just to make sure that everything seemed fine, not that he was entirely an expert, he probably should have waited for Kichō to be available to do this, but oh well; figuring it was better to leave the analyse to the only person in the room that actually knew what she was doing.

"It looks good, how does it feel?" Iwai asked. Natsumi didn't answer, instead she immediately picked the bow up and held it between her hands, she removed one then replaced it and removed the other; Iwai didn't know what she was doing, but she seemed satisfied. Natsumi returned her hand to the bow and quickly set herself in the same stance from the archery field and drew back on the bow string despite there being no arrows.

"Good, I definitely think that it's improved, enough to be noticeable, but we'll have to see," Natsumi admitted. She relaxed the bowstring and dropped her hand, Iwai trapped a tape measure and stepped around the counter; the gruff man furrowed his eyebrows when he saw her shaking her left hand as if it was hurting. Iwai quickly guided Natsumi on what to do and took her wingspan measurement.

"I'll send this information off and then we'll go to these guys the next time you're available," Iwai stated. It was the only thing they could do at this moment; they would need to visit the shop he'd found and leave it in the hands of the people who actually knew stuff about compound bows, Natsumi quickly packed up her bow and put it on her shoulder.

"Got it," Natsumi agreed. She turned to the door and pulled it open but stopped before she actually left. "And thank you, Iwai-san," Natsumi admitted. With those words, Natsumi stepped out onto the street, leaving Iwai staring after her in surprise.

*Persona 5 Royal*

I had mulled over the decision that I needed to make for Yoshizawa's sake for some days, eventually I decided that I might as well just go for it and see what Yoshizawa thought of the idea. She had to go somewhere immediately after school but that allowed me to go to home and start getting what I needed ready. When a knock came on the door, I quickly headed for it, hopeful that this idea of mine would help.

"Good afternoon, Chiba-senpai," Yoshizawa greeted. The girl was smiling brightly, which was a good sign after what had happened the last time she had been here; the only thing that concerned me was how long that smile would stay on her face once I actually went and make the suggestion, but I could hardly back out now that she was here.

"Afternoon, come in, to the dojo," I encouraged. I stepped aside and the red haired girl entered the building, she remembered the way that she needed to go which left me to trail after her as she stepped in and watch as she stared at the collection of weapons once more; I decided to let her do so, unlike last time, as all I could do was wait for her to finish her observations.

"This is quite marvellous, but why do you have so many fake weapons?" Yoshizawa asked. She turned towards me once she was finished looking around, her eyes were still wide and they were shining almost, not that I could tell what the emotion was; at least her interest in the weapons was there, which might make my suggestion much easier for her to accept the proposal I was going to make.

"Samurai heritage, my dad believed I should be trained. He was also a bit of a collector," I explained. Yoshizawa seemed intrigued by this information, but I didn't want to get into the details since that would derail the whole purpose of this visit. "But we're not here for me, but for you," I reminded. Yoshizawa seemed to snap out of whatever she had been sucked into upon seeing my dad's collection.

"Yes, what was the idea that you had to help me?" Yoshizawa wondered. She seemed to be buzzing with considerable energy at the prospect of what my idea was; I was still a little nervous about explaining it to Yoshizawa since I had no way of anticipating how she would react, the others had a need to learn but not Yoshizawa, which is what made this so difficult.

"Simply put, you can't move away from gymnastics because of your scholarship, but your sister's death is weighing heavily on your mind," I pointed out. Yoshizawa shifted slightly, clearly uncomfortable at the mention of her sister. "So, I was thinking, what if you learned a new discipline, with no link to your sister, but one that you could fold into your gymnastics routine," I explained. This caused Yoshizawa to focus upon me with a shine in her eyes that indicated she was listening to me a bit more intently than before.

"What discipline would that be?" Yoshizawa wondered. I would have thought that might be obvious given what we were surrounded by, but perhaps Yoshizawa hadn't thought about it, I moved over to the naginatas and picked one up, making sure that it felt comfortable in my hand; I then turned around to face the red haired girl who was staring at me quite intently.

"In short, I'm going to teach you how to wield a weapon," I explained. Yoshizawa's eyes went very wide when I revealed my plan, but she wasn't running out the door in a mad panic to escape from me, so I could only guess that she must have been thinking about it; hopefully she would agree with the plan despite how nervous she looked.

"Huh? How would that help?" Yoshizawa wondered. It probably did seem like quite a bizarre suggestion to make, but if my sessions with Yusuke had taught me anything, then it was that all kinds of inspirations could come from even the most unusual of places; hopefully I would be able to convince Yoshizawa to agree to the idea of training so that she could learn something new.

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but I feel that this might be the best way I can help you. Using a weapon can be a very graceful thing to do," I tried to explain. Yoshizawa seemed a little unsettled, so I figured there was something I could suggest to perhaps ease the uncertainty that she might have been feeling. "Would you like to see?" I suggested. It might at least show there was nothing to worry about.

"Yes please, senpai," Yoshizawa agreed. I nodded my head and directed Yoshizawa to move to the side and sit herself down, I didn't want to accidentally risk hurting her with a swing or strike because she happened to end up in my blind spot as I was moving; I took a deep breath to centre myself as I prepared to start moving through my kata so that Yoshizawa could see what I was suggesting.

It wasn't my typical kata which was good enough for me to work up a good sweat, instead it was a considerably more advanced kata with more flourishes and, well generally it was a bit more showy. But that was necessary, if it was a bit more performative then I might be able to better show Yoshizawa the benefits of my thought process; I put to work what she had shown me as much as I could and eventually came to a stop. My breathing was much heavier than I expected, but the clapping that I heard made it all worth it.

"Oh whoa, that was amazing senpai. This idea might really work," Yoshizawa cheered. She was smiling so brightly that I actually thought that she might be attempting to stand in for the sun; I was just relieved that she was open to the idea of learning how to use a weapon after seeing my display, it was time to move things to the next step.

"Alright then, I need to figure out what weapon would be best for you," I admitted. Looking at the surroundings weapons, I thought over which one would be best for us to try using first, after a few moments I moved over to a pair of Tessen and quickly exchanged my naginata for them. I began to move, gliding the weapons around my body, snapping them open and closed when necessary as I almost felt like dancing through the kata I could wield with this weapon. Eventually I came to a stop and faced Yoshizawa, but she looked incredibly uncomfortable.

"Um… it's a little too graceful, that was always Sumire's style more than it was mine," Yoshizawa revealed. Ah, that wasn't good, I wanted to use a weapon that would enable Yoshizawa to learn some more; but using anything that reminded her of Sumire was absolutely not something that I wanted to do, I was trying to avoid reminding her of any of the pain she was enduring.

"No Tessen then, why don't you try to pick one," I suggested. It might be interesting to see what weapon she would decide to, I snapped the fans closed and proceeded to settle them back onto the mantle; I grabbed my naginata and looked over to see that Yoshizawa was looking at some of the heavier weapons with a frown on her face, likely finding it difficult to pick one out given her inexperienced.

"How about a whip? It's like my gymnastics ribbon," Yoshizawa insisted. She was standing by one with a calm expression on her face; while using a whip might be reasonable in another situation, I didn't really want her to go down this route. We were trying to avoid the things that might cause Yoshizawa any kind of pain and I was concerned that using a whip would cause that to happen.

"Remember, we're trying to pull away from that kind of thinking and you won't learn anything new which is what we really want," I reminded. Yoshizawa frowned at my response, but she didn't argue so I hoped that she would agree, now just to find a weapon that would better fit her. It would be best to find a weapon that wouldn't necessitate much grace, and that it could be used in dramatic movements, since Yoshizawa seemed to like doing that, I moved around the different selections, before coming up to the sword section and my eyes caught on a particular weapon; a rapier.

"A sword?" Yoshizawa questioned. Yoshizawa had drifted over after seeing me come to a stop for some moments in front of this group; I reached out and picked up one of the rapiers that I happened to have on display, I turned towards Yoshizawa as I held the weapon out to her so that she would see it completely.

"It's called a rapier, they're long fine swords, I think you might like this one," I admitted. With that said, I proceeded to move back to the middle so that Yoshizawa would be able to see what I did with it, I didn't really know much about rapiers since I was better at using mainly my naginata but generally Japanese weapons; but I had some knowledge from remembering when my dad showed other schools to help Hikaru get better with his katana.

Taking a deep breath, I moved, swiping the rapier through the air and occasionally lunging forward. One arm was kept behind my back since I didn't need it with this weapon and to prevent myself from becoming unbalanced. I moved my position quite a bit, almost as if avoiding an opponent, while making moves that would block or intercept the enemy's own strikes. If I wanted to help Yoshizawa learn, then I'd need to look up more but I hoped this would be enough; especially when I came to a halt.

"Yes, let's try that one," Yoshizawa agreed. There seemed to be a slightly awestruck expression on her face after I turned to look at her, at least she seemed to be looking eager to begin learning which was what I truly wanted to see; I moved over to her and flicked the rapier around so she could take the handle.

"Alright then, let's get started, shall we?" I suggested. Yoshizawa grinned and almost snatch the weapon out of my hand, I moved over and picked up my naginata so that I could help her as best possible.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Ren was waiting in Yoyogi park, enjoying the gentle breeze that rushed over the trees that decorated the green landscape to capture the leaves and take them into a dance over the sky… maybe Ren was spending too much time with Yusuke if this was how his mind was going. He wanted to do something, but Natsumi might arrive at any moment and he couldn't afford to be distracted by anything given the last time when he ended up getting scared by her for lack of attention.

"Evening Ren," Natsumi greeted. Ren turned to look at his friend and saw that she seemed much happier than some of the other times they had managed to meet up with each other, there was also other notes about her that seemed to show she was actually more exhausted than she typically happened to be when they arranged these hang outs.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Ren wondered. It was obvious she had undergone some kind of physical exertion; Ren was aware that she happened to train with Ryūji and had sparring sessions with Yusuke, but he'd been with the artist earlier and Ryūji was busy snooping on Yamauchi which prevented them from hanging out. Ren would have been concerned if Natsumi didn't seem so pleased for some reason.

"Tired, I was with Yoshizawa earlier, but I'm hoping I'm making progress with her," Natsumi admitted. She proceeded to sit down on the bench beside him, but her words caused Ren to raise his eyebrow, he had been with Kasumi a few times but he just got the strange sense that there was something off about her, as if the Faith Arcana couldn't resonate properly with her; it was quite different to the sensation to the one Akechi gave him, Justice resonated perfectly but there was clearly something being held back by the detective.

"Good, I'm not entirely sure how to help to be honest, so I'm glad you have better ideas," Ren admitted. He was seriously at a loss as to how he was supposed to help the girl rediscover how to perform, apparently her couch thought it better that Kasumi took a break, but Kasumi refused and wanted to rediscover her boldness, to fit back into her own body… Ren wasn't a confident individual, he just hated walking away from what was so obviously wrong.

"But we're not here for Yoshizawa," Natsumi commented. Natsumi's words drew him out of the darkening train of thought and he focused on her, seeing the relaxed expression on her face; for some reason there were certain friends that always brightened up his heart even, those were Ryūji, Sakura-san, Natsumi, and weirdly enough Akechi.

"Not in the least. Now then, we talked about your family last time and the fact you came to Yoyogi Park, but did you always live in Yongen?" Ren asked. He hoped that Natsumi's lightened nature would allow her to open up to him a bit more about her family, they were clearly the best route to allowing Natsumi to regain her heart as it was their deaths that clearly started the fading of her heart.

"No, we used to live in a different area of Tokyo, but if you're wondering about my home, I don't want to go there and it's nothing to do with my family… well my immediate family," Natsumi stated. She had supplied the information so willingly that it was a bit of a surprise to Ren; but he quickly caught on the way she had gone incredibly tense when she mentioned non-immediate family.

"Your uncle?" Ren asked. It was the only one that he knew existed, this mysterious uncle of her that caused rage to start prickling within his stomach at the thought of what that piece of filth had forced Natsumi to endure all because he didn't care enough for her to care about her emotions to give her what Natsumi had deserved in the immediate aftermath of losing her family.

"Yep! I want to think about him as little as possible from now on," Natsumi insisted. Her voice was of a much higher pitch than it normally was and her entire body had gone completely tense; if that wasn't a cacophony of warning bells that Ren shouldn't pursue this line of questioning, he didn't know what would make it so obvious that something should just be left alone… for now at least.

"Alright, this might be a little trickier than I expected," Ren admitted. He had planned to see about revisiting the location of where she lived, but if it would more likely remind Natsumi of something she hated, then Ren would need to think on his feet to find out what they could possibly do instead for Natsumi's sake.

"Well, what about your family," Natsumi suggested. That surprised Ren right out of his thoughts and he turned to stare at Natsumi with widened eyes. "You told me a little about them, but I'd like to hear more, we did promise to talk about them and your hometown after all," Natsumi pointed out. She wasn't wrong about that and Ren did feel it was only right that he talked to Natsumi about this since she was opening up about her own situation.

"Yeah, okay," Ren agreed. He leaned back and stared up at the pink, yellow and blue sky as he thought about the people that he had been forced to leave behind. "I don't really know my grandparents, they all passed away when I was too young to remember them, so the only other people I haven't told you about are my kind of surrogate family members," Ren admitted.

"Surrogate?" Natsumi questioned. She sounded genuinely confused about the word that he had just spoken, which was a bit of a surprise to Ren, he turned to look at the girl and found her green eyes were curiously blinking at him; maybe Natsumi just didn't understand the words he'd spoken, so it seemed better to explain it to them.

"Yeah, they're all Izumi-neesan's friends except for one who's mine, but they're really close to all of us, like cousins I guess," Ren explained. A bit of understanding seemed to come to Natsumi as she shuffled that bit closer to Ren, clearly invested in hearing more about his family which warmed Ren's heart, especially since it was something that made him smile just that bit easier than normal.

"Huh, well why don't you start with the friend who is yours and we move from there," Natsumi suggested. Ren allowed a very brought smile to come onto his lips as he thought about his friend; but then a lightbulb seemed to go off in his mind, an idea sparked into existence that caused him to sit up suddenly and make Natsumi flinch back slightly since she hadn't expected the sudden movement.

"We do both, we each talk about a family member as much as possible," Ren suggested. He had a big grin on his face, since he thought it was a pretty brilliant idea that he had just had to try and get Natsumi to talk a bit more about her family since they couldn't actually go to the location of her family home, this seemed like the best way to find some kind of compromise.

"Alright, you win leader," Natsumi joked. She had a smile on her face as he said those words and her hands were held up as if in form of surrender to the idea; Ren didn't think she was against it since there was nothing tense within her body, instead she seemed rather relaxed about the idea, Ren was curious about what had changed so suddenly to made her more willing to open up. But for the time being, it wasn't all that big of a deal, but he could ask later.

"Okay, so I called my friend Nana-chan even though it's not her full name but that'll likely to be what I say. She's younger than me by a few years but there was always some kind of weird bond we had, we just started hanging out first at school and then later when Izumi-neesan and Nana-chan's cousin who she saw as a big brother became friends, she's a really passionate individual when she gets interested and things and cares a lot about her family," Ren explained. He could just hear her happy chiming voice as she talked about… stuff.

"She sounds like a sweetheart, kind of like Mirai," Natsumi commented. That brightened Ren up since it was clear his idea was actually working for Natsumi. "I already told you Mirai loved photography, she was three years my younger and could be a right hellion at times when she didn't have a camera. Whenever I would be singing, she'd start doing something that was meant to be musical accompaniment but just hurt my ears instead and I'd always get mad at her," Natsumi spoke. There was a nostalgic smile on her lips as she stared off into the distance with a glazed look in her eyes.

"Sound like your little sister just wanted to play with you," Ren stated. A small snort escaped Natsumi as she refocused on the present and looked back at him, a little bit of him was sad, but the more they kept talking then the better they'd be. "Nana-chan was pretty lonely before her cousin came, her mum died when she was young and her dad didn't seem to be around a lot. I never knew what to do about it except play with her as much as possible," Ren admitted.

"You did the best you could Ren," Natsumi reassured. She reached over to gently pat his hand to let him know she was there and it made Ren smile lightly. "Mirai always ended up getting told off but so did I for yelling at her, then Hikaru would drag us into the kitchen and force us to work together to help him bake something… that always ended up with more ingredients on us than in a bowl because me and Mirai would get back at him for it," Natsumi revealed.

Ren laughed. He couldn't help it, because the imagine of the always so serious weapons master getting into a food fight with her brother all to get back at him for getting her and her sister to start baking was hilarious. Ren was glad that Natsumi so obviously had some happy memories that she could think back on even if she had lost the ability to recall their faces; when he'd heard about that it had sunk his heart right into his toes at the horrifying knowledge.

"I'm actually really happy doing this, talking about them in this way," Natsumi admitted. Ren was really glad that she could feel this way, especially so early on; true Ren had many more people to talk about than Natsumi did, but it might just be the thing that Natsumi needed to help her keep opening up about her family and ensure that she could keep talking about them.

"Then why don't we keep doing it, no sense in stopping whatever is working," Ren suggested. It seemed like it might be the best way for them to keep chatting about her family, the more that Natsumi managed to recall about them then the better that she would be in the end, because Ren was certain that recalling her family would make it easier for Natsumi to see that she still had her heart with her, she'd just hidden it away.

"Good idea," Natsumi agreed. There didn't seem to be anything more that they could talk about now, especially when Natsumi ended up yawning quite widely, so the two of them stood up and proceeded to start heading back to their respective homes. As Ren approached the door to LeBlanc, he was mentally counting down in his mind and didn't bother suppressing the grin that formed on his lips as his phone proceeded to go off before he could open the door. Obviously, it was Natsumi.

"Hey, thanks for today it was really fun," Natsumi claimed. Ren smiled brightly at hearing those words, because the fact that Natsumi found it fun was one of the best ways to lighten things up for her; he could only hope that their continued talks allowed Natsumi to keep feeling that way because she deserved to be happy. All of his friends deserved better than the hands they had been dealt.

"No problem, it was good for me as well, to remember the people I hope are waiting for me," Ren agreed. It had made him really happy that he could keep thinking about them, even though he heard nothing from any of them which was rather painful to Ren; even if he couldn't write back surely, they could have sent him some kind of information about how they and Inaba were doing, maybe news about Izumi who was out of Inaba for her book series.

"By the way, I've never asked, but where exactly are you from?" Natsumi asked. Her words pulled him out of the spiral that he had started going down and it settled him quite a bit, his heart eased at the sound of her voice, his friends and confidants in Tokyo were always able to calm him when his mind started going in those darker directions about his family.

"I'm from Inaba, a really sma- Natsumi!?" Ren began to explain. But he was suddenly cut off when he heard what sounded like choking coming down the line, he was extremely concerned about what was happening that caused the girl to suddenly sound like she couldn't get any air. Ren was halfway up the street towards the intersection where they normally met when she finally managed to get herself under control.

"Fine, I'm fine. Just was kind of surprised to hear you say Inaba, as in the same Inaba that had a string of murders five years ago?" Natsumi asked. Ren was surprised by that, he hadn't heard any one in Tokyo mention the Inaba murders, sure it was five years ago now, but no one had known anything from what he asked about them. Natsumi was the only one who had heard about the incident.

"Yeah, same one," Ren admitted. He was still trying to figure out how Natsumi could have come across the information so suddenly, he knew Takura Productions were in Tokyo, but he hadn't wanted to risk trying to go near it and end up getting Rise and himself in trouble because of the restrictions he was forced under because of that damned man.

"Okay, that is… that's something else," Natsumi stated. Well, that was pretty weird to hear, Ren was just trying to figure out what he was supposed to say in response to that when Natsumi spoke up once more. "I'll see you tomorrow," Natsumi insisted. She then hung up the phone before he could respond to the words which caused him to pull it away and blink at the device in extreme confusion.

'That was weird.' Ren thought.