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.

To Sodomi, I already said this but thank you for your review and I hope the wait isn't too long in your opinion before the resolution.

I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy

Chapter 81: - Death, Councillor, Devil

Takemi noted down just about whatever she could get about these the facilities that she was looking into; she would need to actually visit the places in order to evaluate each place's capabilities to fulfilling the need of her 'patient'. As much as the punk rock doctor wanted to just sign a piece of paper telling Chiba's friend to go to physiotherapy, she had to leave it to Chiba to convince him to actually start going to this… however she was able to do that was up to the girl.

Creaking sounded and Takemi lifted her head to see that Chiba had stepped into the building, before the doctor could call out, she immediately took note of several things about the girl that was rather different to how she normally was. Takemi managed to school her facial expressions as Chiba moved towards her, Takemi directed her into the back as she stood up, something was clearly wrong with the girl, but Takemi wasn't quite sure what to do about it.

"I think I've got a way to get Ryūji to listen to me about going to see a physiotherapist," Chiba admitted. Takemi had taken her seat as Chiba said those words, it wasn't quite what Takemi had been expecting her to start with; Takemi had thought that Chiba would explain what she was going through that might require medical need. Because Chiba does need something, Takemi could see that; but the true question was if Chiba actually knew that she wasn't well.

"Oh, and what idea would that be?" Takemi asked. She was genuinely intrigued, but the main focus of her attention was on evaluating Chiba's condition to determine what was wrong with the girl, Takemi was still prepared to listen to the words in order to help; but she needed to figure out the puzzle that was Chiba's condition… and very much need to find the solution as to what was wrong with the girl.

"Well, there's a friend of mine that's gone through a serious event that has forced her to undergo physiotherapy. She's the best person I can think of that will explain the benefits to Ryūji," Chiba explained. Takemi didn't say anything, but she figured that the serious event that Chiba was alluding to with such a dark look in her eyes had to be the suicide attempt that was reported. Of course, the girl would be going through physiotherapy after jumping off the building with the kind of height that Shūjin possessed.

"That's good to know, this girl has personal experience that you lack," Takemi admitted. Takemi then remembered something that had happened the last time they met up and Takemi figured it was best if she clarified something that was spinning around my mind. "I also take it that she's the one you asked for the information about massages," Takemi theorised. It would explain why Chiba had asked about specifically about massages that could help with the leg muscles.

"Yes, she is, they've also helped her already. Thank you for that Takemi-sensei," Chiba informed. There was a slight lightness to her now, perhaps indicating that thinking about how her friend was doing better was taking her mind away from something else, that seemed to indicate that whatever was wrong with Chiba had to be a mental problem. It was just that the issues were causing were clearly physical, Takemi could mitigate the symptoms but not clear up the underlying issue.

"Good, I'm pleased to hear that," Takemi stated. Her mind was already spinning as she tried to think about the way to actually help Chiba with the symptoms since she was not anywhere near qualified enough to solve the source. Though there was something else that Takemi felt the need to mention given an odd phone call she had received. "However, I do have to ask if you directed someone to call me recently? I've already asked Amamiya and he said no," Takemi questioned.

"I didn't direct someone to call you," Chiba claimed. Takemi was not really believing her despite how firm her words were. "I did however leave the practice's number with one of my teachers who is suffering from perpetual exhaustion," Chiba clarified. Takemi allowed a breath to escape her as she tilted her head back at this new piece of information.

"Is there something about you that just draws unwell people to you?" Takemi wondered. Takemi dropped her head back frown to look at the girl, it seemed a fair question for the punk rock doctor to ask since the fact that Takemi had learned of a third person that wasn't in perfect health that was linked to Chiba did make her mind wonder. To the doctor's consternation, Chiba only shrugged as a response.

"Well then, if there's nothing else-," Chiba began to speak. However, Takemi leaned forward, she had been quietly patient as they moved throughout these discussions; but with it being obvious that Chiba was either unaware or unwilling to speak up, Takemi had to do something. The disgraced doctor tapped the girl's knee with her clipboard which stilled the girl's attempt to rise to her feet.

"Look, I didn't want to say anything just in case you brought it up but… are you sleeping well?" Takemi asked. Chiba had gone a little tense when Takemi asked this question, but the doctor knew she could not relent, not when someone's health was at risk; she might have been disgraced by that fool, but she was not going to turn away someone who needed her help even if the person didn't know they needed it.

"What makes you ask that?" Chiba responded. At least Chiba wasn't denying it, the worst kind of patients were the ones who refused to realise that they were actually sick, but with Chiba's response Takemi was certain that she was aware of the situation that she was currently in. Takemi wouldn't push into the source without a good reason, but at least she would have some idea about how to curb the symptoms currently being expressed.

"Simply put, you have very apparent dark circles under your eyes, there's also an unwell pallor to your skin, you seem sluggish and there's a lack of your usual energy," Takemi explained. Chiba allowed a mirthless curl of her lips to appear on her face, that was rather unsettling to see in Takemi's opinion, but she reigned in her facial expressions to try and ensure that Chiba didn't react to them.

"Yes, I don't sleep well at this time," Chiba admitted. The way Chiba had phrased that comment, there was something about it that made Takemi know that she wasn't talking about this time of year in regards to the season, but it was something else; Takemi didn't know exactly what Chiba thought was so special about this time of the year, but she had a sneaking suspicion that she needed to confirm.

"Is it a thing that always happens around this time of year?" Takemi questioned. Chiba stiffly nodded her head, making sure that Takemi knew exactly what was bothering Chiba was something that needed just one more question to be asked. "Ever since three years ago?" Takemi added on. Takemi fixated her eyes upon Chiba as she waited for a response.

"Yes," Chiba whispered. That was all the information that Takemi needed, she stood to her feet quite swiftly and moved towards the storage for her medicines; a quick little root through allowed Takemi to seize a hold of a small packet and she swiftly returned to Chiba. The punk rock doctor held it out to the girl who hesitantly took the box.

"Sleeping medication, take it for however long this state lasts," Takemi insisted. She really wanted to tell Chiba to go and see that therapist she had apparent connections with; but Takemi's gut instinct was warning her that pushing this situation might result in some more resistance towards Takemi. All she could do was hope that the medication would be able to help Chiba with her sleeping issue.

"Thank you, Takemi-sensei," Chiba admitted. With that, Chiba slipped the medicine away and proceeded to leave the room, Takemi breathed out a long and heavy sigh while rubbing the bridge of her nose, she could only hope she had done enough.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Given the persistence of my fellow Phantoms, I decidedly did not want to be around any of them today, not even Yusuke who hadn't attempted to bother me about the situation, but he had seen me on one of my better days. Therefore, I was heading to one of the few places I was unlikely to be interrupted. I hated this, hated the build up to the seventh of July and I knew the actual day would be the worst.

"Are you okay Chiba-san?" Maruki-sensei asked. He had taken one look at me when I stepped through the doorway, I have no clue what possessed me to think that coming to Maruki-sensei was a good idea, he was unlikely to simply allow me to slink away from here without having me answer questions. Trudging over, I dropped into the seat quite heavily, as if all energy had decided to abandon my legs.

"No, I am not. I also do not want to talk about it, please," I requested. That request was probably the only way for me to avoid having to talk about how much I hated all of this situation; ever since noticing the first of this month, I'd been in this state. I wish there was just some way to speed up time and get this week over with so that I could go back to how I usually was instead of constantly worrying the others.

"I see, well I'm not really sure what we can talk about then?" Maruki-sensei admitted. I had been extremely unfair to Maruki-sensei by coming in here and taking up his precious time, he would have been better off by being allowed to actually attend to the people who he could help. But here I was being very selfish.

"Neither do I… I just feel so tired of everyone asking me to talk about it," I admitted. I pulled myself forward in the chair, intending to grab my bag and leave the room, hopeful I'd be able to dodge the others and just make it home until the night finally came. But my plan was stopped when a hand gently pressed against my own; I looked up to see Maruki-sensei staring at me with compassionate eyes.

"Why do you not want to talk about it?" Maruki-sensei wondered. I furrowed my eyebrows since it seemed he hadn't understood the thing I had said only a few moments ago, my very pointed remark about not wanting to talk about this. "I'm not asking what is burdening you, I ask why you don't want to talk about it," Maruki-sensei explained. Oh, I suppose that was a different thing when put like that, I leaned back into the chair and tried to think about how to explain it all.

"It hurts," I admitted. That was the very core of why I hated talking about the issue that I was dealing with. "Every time, this build-up to that day rolls around, it hurts. I don't want to think about it, I just want those infernal twenty-four hours to be over and done with as fast as possible," I explained. It was probably needed to give as much information as possible, but I also didn't want to elaborate too much.

"Do you think it would be best for you to have time off from school until that day is over?" Maruki-sensei asked. The mere suggestion of that possibility made it feel like my entire body had ended up turning into stone, because I didn't want to do that; I was genuinely terrified of having time off around this point of the year, no matter how unwell I might actually end up becoming.

The one thing that I wanted to avoid was being alone, even if I wasn't talking to anyone, I would hate the feeling of isolation that having time off from school would give me. School was a good reason for me to drag myself out of the house and anything else wouldn't give me such a reason – especially when I was purposefully avoiding most of the people who knew me well by now – to move.

"No, school is a good distraction, it's always there in the back of my mind but doing things helps me to ignore it for some time. Being out of school, away from doing anything, with only my thoughts… it wouldn't be good for me to do that," I explained. The isolation would be suffocating, I couldn't bear it most of the time when this week ended up having a Sunday in the middle of it or near the end; I was very lucky this time around, but that might have been more to do with the people in my life.

"Alright, no time off," Maruki-sensei agreed. I was incredibly grateful that he had managed to agree with me in allowing me to get away from being forced out of the school due to what was going on inside of my head. "I'm not really sure what to do in order to help you. This is quite a difficult position to try and deal with," Maruki-sensei admitted. There was really nothing that he could do for me at the moment, I just needed to get through the remainder of the week without thinking about it too much. That was the only way for me to cope… but the presence of Tanabata decorations almost made it impossible to forget at times.

"It's alright Doc, you don't need to help me out, there only a couple more days left," I admitted. I doubt there was anything that anyone could do to help me out of this situation, all I needed to do now was keep moving forward through each sluggish moment of the last two days before finally getting past this torment. "And I've got some sleeping medication that might help," I added on. I could only hope that Takemi-sensei's medicine would be enough to deal with the sleeplessness that I had to deal with.

"But you're clearly not doing well, there must be something I can do," Maruki-sensei pleaded. He was such a kind person, to constantly worry about other people, but I didn't see the need to force him into helping me when I'd be fine on the eighth. I gave the man a strained smile since helping me was kind of an impossibility at the moment, anyway he had much more important things to worry about besides me.

"I don't think there's anything you can do. It's not like you can resurrect my family after all," I stated. With that I left the room, there wasn't much point in remaining any longer as I was certain that my friends had proceeded to leave the school which would allow me to make a quick escape from any sort of scrutiny; especially since if it happened to be Ren, Morgana or Makoto when I was just trying to go home.

The main issue I had now was what to do with the remainder of my day as going and staying at my house was not something that I was looking forward to, but the fact was that I deeply wanted to avoid talking to any of the ones who knew me. It was that thought that gave me pause when I got outside the building, there were very few people I could be around who wouldn't ask questions; but that didn't mean that there weren't any of them that I could talk to.

Even if I could talk to Sōjirō, then he would definitely know, even if he wouldn't push to hear what it was, Iwai had likely closed his shop down by this time, I was not in the proper head space to help Margaret and her siblings. Hifumi I'd already spoken with, but there was someone that I could talk to that would be unlikely to read me so well, especially with the dim lighting of the place that we would speak in. With my choice made, I picked up my pace to reach home much quicker, I could at least occupy myself with doing something that might be appreciated by Ohya until it was dark enough.

*Persona 5 Royal*

Ohya made sure she was sober this time – much as she hated it – since she needed to remain in control of the conversation when Natsumi decided to arrive today; Ohya had been quite surprised when Natsumi asked to meet up. The reporter was curious as to what the girl had wanted to talk about, Ohya was still trying to understand what Natsumi could possibly be searching for by coming to her, but Ohya was determined to figure it out.

"Good evening Ohya-san," Natsumi greeted. Ohya turned to face the girl as she stepped into Crossroads, Ohya needed to steel herself and remember what conversations she needed to avoid with Natsumi to avoid setting the girl off – the suicide attempt and the principal so far – Ohya had to be careful in how she continued to extract information from Natsumi, especially since there was a lot she had to figure out.

"Heya Natsumi, come on over," Ohya greeted. Ohya needed to remain open to the girl so that she would be willing to open up to Ohya when she proceeded to start questioning Natsumi to get the information that she needed. But Ohya noticed something that had been missing last time. "You brought your camera today?" Ohya wondered. It was an interesting thing that Ohya hadn't expected since Natsumi didn't have it the last time she'd been here.

"Yes, since you were interested in the pictures the other day. I've been taking a few more recently, so I brought them for you to look at," Natsumi explained. That was interesting and Ohya wasn't exactly sure what she should make of it; the pictures had been what led to them meeting and yet Ohya assumed that they would never come back since Natsumi was just hanging around Ohya to get information out of her.

"Well, thanks Natsumi," Ohya stated. There didn't seem to be any reason that Natsumi would do this, nor a valid excuse for Ohya to refuse, so she took the camera. Ohya activated the camera so that she could look through the pictures; a park, a church… they were basic landscapes or buildings but Ohya noted many where taken today in succession. "You really are quite good at this… oh," Ohya spoke. She had just been looking to keep conversation going when she came across a rather different picture, it was rather old but there was something else that stood out about it. "This was taken by someone else," Ohya claimed.

"Really?" Natsumi wondered. Natsumi moved a little closer to look at it, so Ohya proceeded to turn the camera so that she could see it; Ohya focused on the girl to figure out what she could possibly be thinking about it as she looked at the picture. Natsumi face suddenly softened but it was blackened by a sadness that was old, but still very present. "Oh, that must have been Mirai," Natsumi realised.

"Your sister, right?" Ohya asked. The moment those words escaped her mouth, Ohya regretted it, because Natsumi flinched back quite violently which made Ohya frown at the action because she had now stepped on another button to avoid since she needed to keep Natsumi open. "I… err… saw your family's death while looking through old articles," Ohya lied. She hoped it would be enough for Natsumi open up again for Ohya to dig for information.

"Right, sorry. I just wasn't expecting such a question," Natsumi admitted. Ohya shuffled back and tried to think about how to get the conversation started again without upsetting Natsumi anymore; especially since Natsumi shuffled in place on her stool while her head was turned downwards, clearly showing her discomfort. Ohya turned to look at the picture that was taken from a girl she had never and would never meet.

"Your sister looked like she had talent, it's a shame that she never got to shine," Ohya stated. It was quite clear to see that this girl was very different to her sister, Ohya got a sense of love for taking pictures just from this one image that she didn't feel coming from the ones taken by Natsumi. It was quite a difference between the individuals who had used this camera.

"Thank you," Natsumi whispered. Ohya looked at the girl and saw a small and soft smile curling on her lips, Ohya internally breathed a sigh of relief since it seemed that the girl had managed to open up again after Ohya had gone and stuck her foot in it; Ohya proceeded to push the camera back to Natsumi and was ready to get her focus back on gathering some information out of Natsumi and not getting distracted by this girl.

"Now then, I'm still working on my next article thanks to Ren, but I was wondering if I could ask you something," Ohya wondered. She needed to get everyone focused and moved passed the very awkward family drama that had happened; Natsumi seemed to agree with Ohya, as the girl looped the camera back around her neck and faced Ohya with a very intrigued look within her eyes.

"Well, I don't really know what help I could be, but I'll try," Natsumi agreed. Hooked! Now Ohya just needed to think of a way to get more information, Ohya couldn't just lunge in with the political questions that she desperately wanted to ask; no, she needed to be smart about this. Which meant there was one other route that Ohya could use to get Natsumi comfortable for when those questions came.

"Great. Now since I'm writing about the Phantoms, I'm curious to know what you know, given that you are from the school where they all started to appear," Ohya stated. Natsumi nodded her head in understanding but remained quiet as if waiting for the question that Ohya was going to deliver to her. "I've heard about the bulletin board that was set up," Ohya began to prod. The reporter needed to be careful with which questions she asked to not over play her hand.

"Oh, the Phan-site," Natsumi commented. The girl had surprisingly brightened up when that question was asked, Ohya raised an eyebrow and even Lala-chan gave her a look as the woman moved passed to keep doing her work. "Sorry, I'm friends with the administrator and that's what Mishima shortens it to," Natsumi apologised. Well, that explained why she had called it something like that.

"Catchy," Ohya admitted. It was certainly easier to say than the mouthful that the actual website's title was. "That's where people put out requests to have people change their hearts. But why do the Phantoms use such different methods for Kamoshida, Madarame and Kaneshiro," Ohya wondered. It was something that was bugging her about the weirdly different methods that were being used.

"Who knows, maybe the Change of Heart process requires more famous, or in Kaneshiro's case infamous, people to have a much more obvious warning unlike smaller scale individuals," Natsumi suggested. That drew Ohya's attention and she mulled it over in her head, each of the more major criminals had the calling card posted in a rather public space that caused many people to see it which prevented it from being hidden by any of them.

"Interesting theory," Ohya muttered. Almost too intriguing, Natsumi had been able to come up with that answer almost too quickly if Ohya was honest, which meant she had either thought about it a lot before this conversation; but her lack of interest from before didn't mesh well with that angle of thought. The other possibility was that Natsumi knew that theory was more than just a simple theory.

"Now then, did you happen to see anyone who could be involved with the Phantoms," Ohya wondered. That got her a look and Ohya froze up, the look was empty, there was no twitch of a facial muscle to indicate what Natsumi was feeling and her eyes were extremely blank as she stared at the reporter in an eerie silence with a cold feeling radiating from Natsumi. Ohya was starting to panic that she had ended up over playing her hand.

"You'll have to forgive Ichiko. Sometimes she sees things that aren't really there," Lala-chan spoke up. Now wait just a minute?! What the hell was Lala-chan getting at with those words!? Ohya was barely bothered that it seemed to get Natsumi's attention and break the almost dead-eyed expression she had previously. "Ichiko used to cover politics," Lala-chan added on. At that, Natsumi expression fell, quite hard.

"Thank goodness you don't anymore," Natsumi snarled. Ohya saw Lala-chan's eyebrows raise, not that Ohya was surprised or much better, there was quite the unsettling amount of venom within Natsumi's voice and that was concerning. Ohya had been banking on the girl knowing something about the political world to send her on the right path to getting answers, but now with that venom that she had just heard, Ohya wasn't so sure.

"You… err… don't like politics?" Ohya ventured. She had to be certain as to what it was that caused Natsumi to have such a massively sour opinion, Natsumi sighed heavily and took a sip of her water; Ohya could only assume that the girl was attempting to calm herself down before continuing the conversation which Ohya was quite grateful for given the fury in Natsumi's eyes.

"The politics is not the issue. It's the rotting corpses that spout lies yet never actually do anything for the people," Natsumi explained. Honestly, that just made Ohya's work even harder since Natsumi had no interest in the people who would have the answers. "So, what do you work in now?" Natsumi asked. It was probably best to get away from what was obviously a foul subject for Natsumi.

"Entertainment and Culture, which is a downgrade in my opinion," Ohya explained. Ohya figured it would be best to talk about herself for a little while in order to get the girl settled again before she continued to press for information; Ohya wasn't going to stop until she either had her answers or knew for a fact that Natsumi had absolutely nothing to give her.

"Why do you think that?" Natsumi asked. Natsumi had titled her head to the side as if trying to emphasise her confusion as to why Ohya had this thought; honestly the woman was starting to think that maybe Natsumi really was a naïve girl. Ohya restrained herself from shaking her head at the thought, she needed to remain focused on getting the information that Natsumi had to have.

"Because they're nothing but little fluffy pieces that don't have much content beyond shock bait. Even this Phantoms Thieves issue isn't all that interesting," Ohya explained. Ohya wasn't watching Natsumi as she said those words, so ended up with an eyeful of Lala-chan giving her a very annoyed look. When Ohya turned her attention back to Natsumi, she found that Natsumi seemed rather confused by the claim Ohya had made.

"Really?" Natsumi questioned. The girl seemed almost sheltered in a way, Ohya couldn't really begrudge her that, since sometimes it was better to be insulated from how absurdly cruel this world could be, especially for children. Ohya had to wonder what Shido must have been thinking to have kept the girl so isolated from the world though.

"Yep. There's no way that they're actually fighting for justice or whatever they want people to think," Ohya insisted. It was just how it really was; she'd already told all of this to Ren the other day, but she didn't see any harm in telling the same thing to Natsumi; it might just end up helping these two to stay out of whatever trouble they might end up stumbling into… like Kaneshiro. Kids like Natsumi and Ren were made into quick meals by vicious, rotten fools that seemed everywhere nowadays.

"I suppose writing about politics would give you the perspective that people don't always show their true self to others and have ulterior motives. Which isn't exactly wrong," Natsumi agreed. That was a surprise, maybe Natsumi wasn't as naïve as Ohya had assumed her to be, at least she seemed aware that people were liars. "But sometimes people are exactly what they appear to be. A heroic group are genuine heroes, a charity does want to help people, a random encounter is just coincidence," Natsumi argued.

Ohya tried not to flinch, but she got the strangest sense that last bit was meant specifically for her, but if that was the case, then did it mean that Natsumi knew what she was thinking? There was a heavy expression on Natsumi's face as the silence swallowed the two of them, when Ohya didn't say anything, Natsumi grabbed her bag and proceeded to leave the building. This allowed Lala-chan to give Ohya an extremely unimpressed frown.

"Ichiko, I really don't get why you keep pushing with the interrogation of a harmless kid," Lala-chan admonished. Ohya really didn't need to hear such nonsense; Ohya had to keep pushing the girl, she had connections to the political world and that meant she was one way that Ohya had in order to continue searching for information, to really learned what happened that day to Kayo.

"She's not telling the truth! It's just not possible!" Ohya protested. Because if she really was totally isolated from the politics of her uncle, then that meant it was a complete dead end for Ohya… and she couldn't handle that.