Fandom Persona 5: The Meta War CLOSED

[Anthem]

Hearing the message, Imato did admittedly sigh a bit since he did kind of want to speak to Countess. He didn't exactly know why he wanted to, but ignored it for now and carefully listened where he was supposed to go for this 'hire', making a mental note of it all before he noticed it was time for him to answer the message. "It's Tragedy. I've decided to take you up on your offer love, I'll see you then." Leaving the message simple and short, Imato chuckled a little bit before hanging up. Looking at his phone afterwards, a smirk was still very apparent on his face as his plan played over and over again in his head.

'I hate to do this to the thieves but this may be our greatest chance of getting that needed insider info. This might be the only shot we have, and even then it's still risky...' Imato was genuinely thinking about this decision he was about to make. If this truly was his will or if he was getting shifted in the wrong direction once again... 'No! I can do this to help them... Even if it could cost my own safety.' Determined now more than before, the boy saw his decision was in good faith so that somewhat helped with the slight guilt he was feeling.

"For now, I guess I'll just wait..." Imato thought to himself as he looked up to the sky with a sigh, continuing to sit outside the school since he really had nothing else to do at this moment. He just sat and wondered what actions will happen next, and how he's going to get involved.

 

[Azurian Dream]

A collab with TreasureSniper & Maeve Valor
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The 2nd Funeral
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Spoiler: The Favored Son

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It was just another day in the metaverse. With everything strange going on in this weird dimension, a giant floating bank hovering over the city didn’t seem out of place. A big burly armoured individual could be seen hanging out in the liquor district, drinking an exorbitant amount of alcohol, with his only other companion being his trusty hammer, which oddly enough had it’s own seat.

Each time he finished a bottle, he asked the waitress to bring him another and another and another. Eventually, the behemoth of a man would let out a guttural burp, scaring nearby shadows from the other table. The large man’s attention turned his attention towards the flying palace while gently patting his hammer as if it was a pet. “About time I had some fun. Hehehehe.” he muttered to himself while snickering a bit, seeking to savour this rare opportunity for him to let loose.

The poor ruler had for one reason or another not paid his “protection” fee. Was it because they had forgotten? An error on the accounts perhaps? Or maybe they just didn’t take them seriously anymore. He didn’t know, nor did her care. As long as he got to smash some heads it matters little to him.

The man stood up, loosening his shoulders for a bit before raising one of his hands to the sky, immediately causing the once stationery hammer to fly into his hand, glowing with intricately designed blue runes through its surface. Clouds gathered around the floating palace as the wind began to pick up around the drinking district, forcing the civilian shadows to vacate the area, lest they want to be carried away by the whirlwind.

The large man bent his knees, preparing to make a massive leap only to be interrupted by a sudden message from his comlink. “Thunderlord, finish up your mission. Your presence is required.” A familiar voice of authority spoke into his head, prompting an immediate groan of annoyance. “What? Another dirge? If it’s another one of those small fries, I am not going. It’s bad enough you made me sit through that weakling’s funeral.” Clearly this individual was not one that appreciated this tradition of mourning for the dead, or rather the banished. “Now, leave me alone. I need to let off some steam..”

Once again the man, now known as Thunderlord, turned his attention back to the palace. Ready to cause all sorts of havoc, up until he heard the next sentence. “It’s Fixer. He is no more.” A flash of lightning crackled across the sky, as a storm started forming around the palace. Without a second thought, the man threw his hammer towards the large palace, sending his weapon flying towards the bank at incredible speeds. At first, there was no discernable damage on structure, but seconds later, cracks started forming around the palace, with lightning bolts escaping the crevices as more fissures appeared on its surface. The whole place began to destabilise as it began to descend into the city, prompting the screams of horror from the netizens of the metaverse.

The bank palace crash landed just a few metres away from Thunderlord who just stood there in silence, seemingly stunned by what he just heard on the coms. Raising his hand up once more, his weapon came flying back towards his grip, tearing apart whatever building or shadow that got in between them. “I’ll be there.” Was all he said, as the clouds above the now downed palace began to strike it with multiple bolts of lightning before it exploded, sending debris in every direction. Thunderlord paid no attention to the chaos, simply turning his head away, slowly walking to the opposite direction of derelict of the palace from before.

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Spoiler: The Sirens Song

In a different part of the Metaverse a girl with long, blue hair was applying pink lipstick to herself as looked into a compact mirror in her possession and then put it away with a click before looking back at the shadow that accompanied her out of what looked to be an office space. She wore clothes similar to the rest of the MetaMerc’s attire except her armor showed noticeably more skin than any of the others. She then adjusted her visor and fidgeted with her top to make double sure that it was secure.

“I’m glad we were able to come to an understanding with Mr. Noboru. My client will be very pleased to hear that you will accept the deal. I trust that I won’t need to come back if you don’t accept it…” she patted the cheek of a shadow of an average-enough-looking man in a business suit that looked a bit too… relaxed considering who he was with and how she was openly threatening him. “...or else it might be in a different mood rather than a pleasant one like you experienced.”

With those parting words, she happily began walking away until she heard one of her superiors hailing her over her comlink. “Syren, another funeral will be taking place at headquarters. ”

She stopped walking as a look of concern came across her face. Warily, she responded, “Who is it this time?”

“... Fixer. You are to attend as soon as possible,” The transmission cut off after she was notified, leaving her to take a moment to lament the man’s banishment.

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Spoiler: The Countess of Blood

In the real world Kiku Himura (AKA Countess) sat in the back seat of a car as she had one of her gang members driving her. She boredly looked out a window as she saw precipitation on the bottom half of it from how cold it was outside. With a disinterested expression, she started drawing over the window with a finger making the shape of the skull insignia she has on all her business cards. Once she was done, she finished off the drawing by giving it horns like the ones Tragedy has on his mask. In doing this, it made her smile, remembering the intriguing Phantom Thief she earlier met. l Interrupting her thoughts, her metaverse watch went off with an alert, letting her know that a mandatory meeting was being issued. Kiku frowned at this, having a pretty good guess that this was the much anticipated funeral. This was something that she was not looking forward to all since she knew many people would be pointing fingers and casting blames on others. Such drama was not something that she did not like wasting her time on. She scoffed as she was clearly distraught. Her driver wanted to ask what the matter was, but he knew all too well what talking out of line could possibly mean for him and if whatever it was, was putting her in a bad mood then it was best for him to remain silent. After a bit, Kiku finally said aloud, "drive me to my place, I have something I need to take care of."

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Spoiler: The Singing Priestess & The Mechanical Spider

Fear, panic, desperation, all this, and more emanated off the shadow of the man running in the depths of Mementos left and right bullets would fly killing off any regular shadow that came oozing out to come forth as an ally to the human consciousness. The pitter-patter of something sharp clawing right behind him with a cackling laugh fueled the shadows' need to run with everything it had. Yet right as the train to the next section was clear as day in sight with his hands almost at full grasp with the doors handle he reeled back in terror as a hailstorm of bullets shot around the handle until a perfect circle was made causing it to fall inside the train.

With no way in, the man turned around to find… nothing? There was no sign of what had caused the sounds of claws upon the floor nor that of the source of bullets; there was just a hallway of disappearing shadows and pitch black.

"Ke..ke..ke…," as the man looked up to try and find the new source of sound a blur of red, and grey dropped upon him like a brick with one hand slamming the shadows face down into the ground as a great guest of Garu pinned him down with for mechanical spider like limbs pinning each of his joints down by his clothing. "Are you trying to escape the safety web we made for you, little worm ke ke ke,” a very quietly eerie voice cackled with a hypnotic tic to it.

“Wait no I wou…,” the shadow's face was raised up before slammed down into the ground hard as the clicking of combat boots could be heard halting a few steps from the shadow as a bayonet blade attached to a rifle barrel came into view as the man face was pulled up to view the finely sharpened blade as a second more threatening simply voice spoke.

“Mr. Ogtamo you have been one of the All Father's most well protected “VIP’s” tell me why you would be so inclined to leave your designated “safety” parameters without a warning,” the equally finely sharp voice cut in as the boots started to walk around the pinned man. Awaiting a response the boots halted in their step as the comm line came out of the blue causing the one keeping the man pinned to shift in curiosity.

“I ju…,” the shadow shut his mouth as the bayonet blade impaled the ground next to the man's face by a mere inch.

“Yes?… We will be there upon wrapping up, who was it?... We shall be there post haste. Mr. Ogtamo continued,” the sharp voice demanded.

“It's no secret that the scales of control have been tampered with and the Tulpas were wiped out with one clash EEEEKKKK,” the man released a girly shriek as the rifle shot off a bullet to correct the man's next words.

“Mr. Ogtamo not a single one of our long-term contracts has been compromised, nor have any of our VIP’s ever been neared. Besides, you have no palace nor anything able to be connected to your real self. So where can you go, you pay us we protect, you do as we say you get a splendid life,” the boots finally halted after a full circle around the man each step the only thing to echo other than the facts of her words. “Once upon a time ago, you asked something to happen. The All-Father made so many dark secrets we hold for you with the very hands we stained to do it,” she pointed out.

“Imagine what sour a drink to have someone you did so much for a run just cause of a new skirmish temporarily popping up from a few new flies on the wall ke…ke…ke,” the one pinning him down disturbingly giggled in his ear as the limbs pinned down would start to feel a menacing tear of the clothes signalling the blades getting closer to his flesh. “The All Father rarely handles contracts directly anymore, and to see one of his shiny diamonds try to trip, and flak ohhhh you can imagine he might just make a visit himself to change the services provided from pampered to clawed,” the giggling voice got clearly excited as the bladed limbs halted right at the inch of his limbs.

“Of course ehehehe…. Your right I must have had a lapse of judgement silly me,” the shadow cried in fear, too afraid to even attempt to look at his attacker's face.

“Very good then please see your self back to your safe walls,” the sharp voice addressed as the very blades keeping him pin could no longer be felt. When the shadow got up he could see nothing of his attackers now completely gone catching his breath for a moment a single gun shot rang out causing him to yip and run right on back to where he had come from.

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Spoiler: Things To Come.....

Back at the stronghold. The eulogy was already underway, with far more members of metamers present this time as well as metaverse workers in the background. Maestro was on a podium, reminiscing about simpler times they had with Fixer and the contributions that he has made in service to their faction. Wasn’t just any merc, he was a mentor figure for many of the younger meta mercs that have joined recently. While he may not be as strong anymore due to his advanced age and pre-existing condition, he was nevertheless a source of endless wisdom for youngsters.

Despite what others may think, being a meta merc isn’t always about killing and/or protecting the highest bidder. Strangely enough, they do give a decent amount of their earnings back to the people and whenever merc was banished were often always guaranteed a lucrative retirement based on their contributions, even if they don’t remember it. They weren’t all that bad, but nor have they made the claim to be good in the first place.

But Fixer, he was something else. While he put up the face of a veteran gangster, he was actually one of the more kindhearted members of the mercs, always caring for members of his team. In fact, he was one of the few that openly voiced his disapproval towards protecting Kamoshida, no matter how much money he brought onto the table.

Thunderlord came bursting through the large doors, his hammer and body covered in powerful blue lightning while having a strong smell of booze on him. “So..which was it that got him banished, huh?!” He yelled, pointing the hammer toward the last teammates he was with, which were Hardshell, Countess, and Phoenix. Thunderlord’s hostile stance caused a lot of tension in the room, with Maestro glaring at his insolence. “Who’s the one that did it?! Was it the Baron kid!? Was it him?” his voice became more and more aggressive by the second.

“And you!” Thunderlord turned his attention to one of the other senior members present, Veno, and grabbed him by his collar, pulling the red armoured man towards him. “You were in the area weren’t you, why didn't you help him!?” Veno shrugged at the giant man, remaining his usual relaxed self.

“Couldn’t help it, I had something else to deal with. Besides, he didn't call for reinforcements” He cheekily replied before Thunderlord finally released him and sighed. He turned towards the symbolic coffin with Fixer’s emblem.

Countess remained unflinching even with Thunderlord’s display of aggression towards the three that were with Fixer. She was inwardly intimidated by him due to his threat level being much higher than hers, people around there would learn not to show weakness as best as possible. So to further this show of not letting him get to her, she was the first to speak up. “It was some guy dressed as a priest in green. I believe he’s one of the Phantom Thieves that did this…” She too glanced over at the coffin after stating this. Even in the midst of all this headache, this whole ordeal was giving her, even Countess herself felt a bit of guilt having not paid enough attention on the battlefield to prevent this from happening. She had always felt a semblance of respect for the man. He was always a person she felt was capable and reliable, which was probably why she let her guard down with leaving him to deal with a stranger. “All of us were dealing with the other Phantom Thieves at the time.”

“Ke…ke…ke… your not very bright sometimes Countess all that gluttony of blood going to your head hmmm,” a giggling voice laced into the conversation not exactly insulting the girl, but more pointing at something that within Countess’s rank she should have been able to notice as a highly regarded member high enough to be at the front table. She who spoke was covered in red, and grey with some purple looking like a spider from mythos long forgotten… though most would probably be more attentive to the four extra mechanical limbs on her back, and her trademark disturbing smile adding to her red mask with horns. Well known as one of the new younger Meta-Merc climbing up fast she was simply coded Arachnee.

“All these other Phantom Thieves we can pinpoint the exact moments of when they got their members, and how much they have been growing. This new one though… he came right out of the blue under all of our noses? I think not,” a sharp voice added in from a woman not amused by Thunderlord's crashing in of the funeral yet she clearly had a similar sentiment to his frustration as her body language was not of someone in a good mood with a leg folded, and rifle on her lap with a clear itchy trigger finger. Wearing a kitsune mask with a monocle was another long-term meta-merc WarSong who had been around closely around to have been one of Fixer’s first students when the Meta-Merc had started to expand originally. With the air bringing the question of silence, WarSong continued.

“He was able to go toe-to-toe with Fixer, and while maybe not in his prime he has been in this game way long enough to not be taken out by a new runt,” in her own ire of pissed off nature of this funeral even existing she slammed her rifle up in a sniper position on the table pointing it at Hardshell first.

“I have heard no other reports of this man's existence which leads me to believe either he came out of damn thin air from across our shores,” the rifle moved to point at Countess.

“Or someone is extremely slaking, and had seen him before not reporting it costing one of our most honoured,” she growled moving the rifle barrel to point at Phoenix reminding everyone very fast how much she was one who stuck completely to following the rules laid down by the All-Father. As the Meta-Merc most likely to hunt someone that had broken that written into a serious correction of discipline just like how she would scare, and remind Clients why they were to stay within the parameters given to them.

“We idled by ignoring these Phantoms believing them to be more of a humour even after Haze’s Funeral we found them minorly a threat. With the collapse of the Tulpas another large even fake person group fell. We laughed considering the Tulpa’s a poor excuse of a threat,” her gun was spun in an impressive trigger loop upholstered onto her back.

“Now our reputation, and the trust of our clients, as well as that of our own ranks, bares a crack for our mistakes to begin with. Now we are forced to swallow a hard fact these Phantom Thieves regardless of this personal situation have made fools of us to the masses in the metaverse that we idled by to allow to gain experience,” she pointed out in full truth earning a silence amongst the halls.

“Ugh… look at us all ready to brawl in the House of Goodbye’s… I am sorry Maestro please continue your sermon,” the vehemently genuine apology was directed to the man who Thunderlord had stolen the stage from.

The atmosphere in the stronghold was tense, as always. Thunderlord was always known to be one of the more rebellious members of the MetaMercs, but the All-Father always seemed to be willing to excuse his insolence, much to the annoyance of every other member. “Given the circumstances, I will excuse both of your faux pas.” Maestro’s eyes turned to Thunderlord and then to Warsong. “Warsong. While your dedication to the All Father’s will is commendable, take heed to not to overstep your boundaries. Lest you wanna find yourself speaking on the All Father’s behalf.” While his tone was as calm as ever, his eyes would tell everyone in the room that he was growing fairly weary of all this disruption.
While Kiku’s explanation was adequate for most of the mercs, Thunderlord did not seem satisfied with her reasoning. If anything, it seemed to enrage him even more as his hammer crackled with power. Whether it was the alcohol or pure unfiltered rage running through his mind, Thunderlord would raise his hammer preparing to strike Kiku.

But before he could finish the motion, a bright rainbow pillar of light engulfed the entire assembly. And from that pillar of light emerged three silhouettes, two crows and one menacing figure, covered in a thick cloak of power. His entrance was followed by an immediate silence of the room, with most of the other merc’s immediately bowing their heads in reverence for their Lord and Master.

The Allfather remained silent as he walked into the funeral and took a seat in the front row. “Let us continue the ceremony.” The old kindly man spoke with a gentle tone, sounding more like a sad grandfather than the mastermind of a great criminal enterprise. While Thunderlord was reluctant to listen, thankfully he sobered up enough to know that challenging the All-father’s authority would be a bad idea.

And so from there, the metamercs complied to the usual decorum of these funerals. Some of them were relieved that the All father’s presence had instilled a sense of control and authority in the walls of a stronghold. But at the same time, there was also sense of dread that this figurehead’s presence entailed. It is not often that their boss would be involved in their day to day activities. And even during important meetings and funerals, he would usually utilize his crows as messengers in his stead.

Upon hearing closing statements of the eulogy, the All-Father finally stood up and sighed, before turning to the other the metamercs. “Now then. What was all that bickering about?” His choice of words were relatively mundane, but one would be full to take words at face value.

While most of the merc seemed reluctant to answer him, Thunderlord held no such reservations. “The team, Fixer was with. Someone should be held responsible for his banishment.” Once again, he pointed at the team with his hammer, eager to exact some form of punishment at their failure.

“Hmm. I suppose I could have you all punished for your failure as a team…or one of you could step up, and suffer alone instead…” While he sounded like he was pondering over what to do next, it was more so a test of character and team cohesion. To see where each and everyone of these members stood. “Which one were you prefer, my fellow mercs?”

A few moments of silence fell upon the room as most were just waiting to see who dared to speak next among the three. Countess crossed her arms and tapped her foot in thought of what to do. If no one spoke up then by default they all would be punished but she knew that more than likely, she would get it the worse anyway since she was the one who had the second highest threat level there. If she were to accept responsibility now then maybe, just maybe her punishment wouldn’t be as bad as if she were not to say anything at all. “I will accept punishment… None of us should have let our guard down, but most of all I shouldn’t have. We-... I underestimated those damn new guys,” Countess stepped forward as she said this and gritted her teeth as she swallowed her pride and tried her very best not to say something that would be detrimental to herself.

“Hmm…WarSong, my dear. You seem like you have something to say about this matter. Please speak freely.” Even though he arrived a bit later, it seemed he still overheard parts of the conversation. He knew Warsong was one of the more by the books members of the mercs but at the same time, he wanted to see to what extent she would question his authority, especially in situations which are not as clear cut.

“As you wish All-Father,” War song stood up upon the moment her name was called bowing respectfully to the master of their house before speaking.

“The conversation has led to people believing this is a new recruit of the PT’s. I myself have gone over the footage from those present, and I believe this is false or worse,” she expressed keeping a respective tone more uniformed than most.

“When he was wounded to the brink, unlike the rest who stayed to see it through he retreated. His claim in this felt different,” she expressed in full the first of her experienced theory with how things had played out.

“However, there is a voice to the opposite. This Prophet could have simply retreated because he was a new member. His fighting skill shows he is not as used to overbearing his power in a Persona User fight,” she said, giving the other side a valid point.

“There’s, however, not a single palace, or inch of Mementos we dont keep an eye on even if not on contract so this brings me to the worst fact. Regardless if he is or is not a member of the PT's, how have we missed him at his skill level,” She asked, eyeing the room it was clear to those who had been around a long time what War Song was about to say, and if it was true? Things were about to get very nasty very quick.

“I believe we didn’t. The way he willingly saw his fight through speaks of a fortitude of counter-attack. I think someone amongst our ranks had seen him, and failed to follow procedure costing us information that could have seen this avoided. That is who should receive the punishment that Countess would willingly take for their mistake,” War Song voiced, finishing her thought on the matter not removing herself from her position until the All-Father would deem it so. While most knew Countess was a prior understudy of War Song, and thus could be seen as War Song trying to protect one of her students, what she brought into question had a valid fact… how had this Prophet appeared out of thin air with a willingness to attack them to the brink of death.

On hearing WarSong’s explanation, Countess looked down, going over in her head the points she was making. The words she spoke were that of an experienced tactician when it came to observing the opponent, which in this case was the “Prophet” person. For this reason, Countess had always respected her. Anyone that can threaten someone with a brutal death and make do on that promise were people that she admired.

“I see. Well said my dear.” The All Father complimented the girl’s analytical skills as he sat down and sighed somewhat disappointed by this outcome. “Fixer’s loss will indeed take a heavy toll from all of us. But we will persevere as we always do. However, we will only be able to overcome this hurdle through the communion of efforts.” His eye turned back to Thunderlord and glowed blue for a short moment. The Allfather took a seat once more and lightly clasped his hands together, with a small smile.

“You’re as observant as ever, Warsong. This…”Prophet” has somehow eluded our observation for the longest of time.” Maestro added onto the discussion. “That said…I do recall one of our mercs submitting a profile that was somewhat similar to this “Prophet” But according to Slayer, he finished him off before he could escape.” While that was the contents of Slayer’s reports, they had a hard time verifying the details of this claim, though they didn’t think it was that important at the time.

The All Father remained silent, merely tilting his head and placing his fingers on his temple. In his mind, he already had an idea what was going on here. Countess glanced over at Slayer, putting the dots together and knowing full well what Slayer had probably done and why he was covering up. She remained silent in that regard though. In hopes that doing so would help this tidbit to be overlooked.

“Go on then, son. Do what you gotta do.”

Thunderlord began channelling an intense amount of electricity into his hammer before unleashing a stream of powerful lightning towards countess. However, right before the powerful attack would impact the girl. One of the metamercs who had remained silent throughout this entire exchange would step in between the two, shielding countess from the attack while also taking it. It was Slayer. The man howled in pain as he felt the lightning running through his body, prompting the Thunderlord to stop his attack much to his confusion.

“Slayer!” Countess shrieked and immediately knelt down next to him and checked how bad he had gotten hurt on her behalf. She had a feeling right beforehand that he might do something stupid, and unfortunately for both of them, her prediction was correct.

“Why didn’t you tell us about Prophet, Slayer?” The Allfather spoke to the redhead, revealing that he had known about his little encounter the entire time. “Were you perhaps too ashamed that he had managed to evade you? Or more likely…you wanted to save him for yourself later.” The All Father did always enjoy asking questions he already knew the answers to.

Slayer was on his knees, still recovering from the powerful attack, but even in this weakened state, he refused to back down and maintained his prideful demeanour. “Just…get it over..with.” He simply replied, steeling himself for another round of lightning. He did not fear death. But even so, he would hate to see Countess be punished for his own actions.

Thunderlord raised his hammer once more, preparing to let out another blast of lightning only to have only the All Father’s crow raise its hand to interrupt the process, much to his disappointment. “That will do, son. We wouldn’t want another funeral would we now?” He quipped to the large man, prompting him to lower his hammer grunt of annoyance. “Despite all that has happened between us, I still believe that their continued existence will be…useful to us.” If anything, their activities might allow them to drive up their profit margins by making their potential clients feel more threatened by their activities. And if nothing else, there is also a potential to recruit them. “Veno, I will leave you in charge of brokering some sort of an agreement between us. If all else fails, they will still have their uses even as adversaries. As such, I’d avoid causing any..permanent damage to them. For now at least.” Noone really knows what exactly the All Father is planning, but nonetheless, most of them either had full faith in his wisdom or did not have the power to challenge him.

“As you command my Lord.” Veno gave the Allfather a dignified bow, but this was immediately interrupted by a very irate Thunderlord.

“You can’t be serious!? They banished two of us, you want to make peace with them!?” While most would think questioning the All Father’s command was suicide, he seemed to fairly lenient to Thunderlord.

“Was it not you that put forward a large sum of money for their eventual banishment after a few months?” The All Father retorted, sounding more sarcastic than usual. “Give them one more month. And then..if they have not accepted our agreement. Then, and only then will you have your retribution.” His command this time was absolute, as even the great thunderlord dared not to question this order. “I shall take my leave now. I look forward to seeing how things will play out from here. Farewell, my dear mercs” The Lord of the stronghold bid them farewell as once again he and his familiars were engulfed in a bright rainbow pillar of light before disappearing.

Just when she was about to object to letting Slayer take any more hits for her, if not a pure banishment to be enacted; But thankfully, the gracious All-Father ceased Thunderlord to continue. This gave her time to help Slayer up.Upon joining very early on, they each learned early on that there were risks involved with this job, but even so every now and then they still helped each other out. “You shouldn’t have done that Oniisan. Next time let me take the fall. I can take it… But thank you,” she said in appreciation to her brother before walking away.

Slayer remained silent for the moment before forcefully pulling away from his dear sister. "I didn't it for you." In truth, the merc already had his suspicion that this Prophet fella was the same person as the one he had fought before. But he didn't think too much of it. Afterall, compared to them, that little runt was still a weakling.

From a different part of the room, Syren stood in silence as the scene unfolded. The fact that these Phantom Thieves had gotten strong enough to fend off four mercs definitely raised some flags in her head already as it was. Not to mention this potential third party somehow was able to defeat Fixer. If they can’t trust their own people to properly report things as they should, then things could get very complicated among the ranks. She had to know more about them to better prepare herself. She had a feeling that eventually she would need to face them as well. Seeing Countess start to leave, she approached her with an amused smile. “So Phoenix tells me that you have taken an interest in a particular Phantom Thief in a special way. Tell me about him Countess. Give me all the deets.” Countess only shook her head with an annoyed expression as she ignored the girl and walked past her. This didn’t deter her as Syren only smiled wider as she walked alongside and went on speaking, “He must be pretty hot if he distracted you enough to not notice that your comrade was getting beat down to banishment.”

This got Countess’ attention as she couldn’t hold in her anger over this ordeal anymore. Her “claw’s” shot out of her forearm, pointing them right under her jaw. Syren’s grin faltered yet still remained on her face as the Countess threatened her. “You weren’t there, therefore you have no idea how things actually went down. So why don’t you skip off before I retaliate and choke you out or something.”

“Is that a threat or a promise Countess? I always knew you’d eventually warm up to me,” Syren slyly replied but made sure not to move an inch to not get hurt by her claws.

Surprised by her sudden flirtation she turned away she scratched at a pillar with her claws as she screeched in frustration. Once Countess was done swiping at the pillar getting her anger out, she retracted her claws and pointed at Syren, “You’re abhorrent you know that? Truly revolting.”

As she tried to walk away again Syren only called back out to her in an entertained manner with a bubbly giggle, “I’m a whore, not abhorrent. Get it right!... But really, what is your opinion of this group?”

Hearing the serious nature of her voice and noticing that she shifted to a tone more professional, Countess decided to stop and give her an answer. “...If left alone, I think they can become a threat. For now, me and I believe most of us want to pay more attention to this Prophet person. We should not underestimate them from this point on though…” This answer seemed acceptable to Syren, though evidently concerning to her as she let Countess be on her way this time. It was then that Countess’ burner phone went off with an unfamiliar number. She had a good guess that it was a certain person that was recently referenced, making her smile, drastically shifting her demeanour. She made her way over to Warsong and in a quieter voice she said, “I’d like to speak with you, we have important matters to go over.”

“Of course it was you Slayer… dammit all why can’t you get over this one bad habit of yourself… D’arc,” the ends of the strings to Warsongs kitsune mask lit up as a powerful aura emitted from a dark purple armour-clad female warrior holding a banner pole appeared. Donning a black stained cape with eyes burning so strong it would feel like they could burn a hole through someone's head. This persona had an impactful effect on people who saw it for the first time with a strong faith in character. With a prominent resounding vibration of the poles bottom touching the ground Slayer would feel a heavy flow of healing magic converge on him not fully healing him just enough to allow him to have his pride to walk without assistance.

Whether or not Warsong felt bad for the man was not apparent on her face as she held a blank expression to it all even during his punishment she showed no sign of remorse or enjoyment of the situation. When it was all said, and done even her words sounded like someone who was both reprimanding, but considerate to who he was. As she was about to leave with the funeral being done she was halted by her prior student Countess who Syren had shouted out some rather vulgar talk to before giving, and receiving a legit serious response.

Having been healed by Warsong, Slayer got back up with renewed hostility against his healer. "I don't need your pity, priestess." Pity was the greatest insult to a warrior like him. He hated it, the way she looked at him as if she was better. But all the same, he respected strength above all else. While he was confident he could make short work of her, the other mercs would likely retaliate with great force if he did. So Slayer did the smart thing and simply walked away.

“Very well… Arachnee please keep Miss Syren busy while I hear out your predecessor,” Warsong instructed, causing the spider themed girl to cackle again as she stood up, bowed to them both, and headed over to keep Syren at bay.

“Kekekeke. Seems things are picking up all of a sudden,” Arachnee smiled devilishly, catching up to halt Syren before she could give further chase to Countess. Sporting her more than disturbing smile Arachnee tilted her whole body to the left like a puppet with eerie jitters of movement from her mechanical limbs.

“Countess, you should never take the punishment for the crimes of others, nor lash out at your fellow Merc… that said that was a good show of your resolve,” she spoke bluntly walking with Countess out into the halls where there would be no interruptions allowing Countess free reign to speak of whatever she liked. “So what do you wish to discuss?”

………………………………………………………………………………..

 

[That Weird girl]

"Yeah sure thing Ogawa-san!" Kasumi said cheerfully, "Thanks again!" The red head watched as the green haired girl left for class. She figured that she should get to class so she did not get behind again and worry her parents and Sougo. Kasumi started walking to her class which was down the hallway when some kids started to gossip about her regarding Kamoshida. "Was she okay with it?" One girl asked her friends and Kasumi tried to ignore them and the rumors about her at school. She clearly didn't ask for this attention but somehow Kamoshida was spilling the beans about his misdeeds and for some reason he looked like he actually had regret. Kasumi couldn't help but feel like the phantom thieves had something to do with it and she did not know she felt about them. They were criminals according to the law and rumors of them making someone's heart change was going around the school and that was pretty scary that they could do that on a whim.

Maeve Valor

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Ann decided to text her friends about the new spring festival happening and see if they wanted to go to it. She felt like they deserved a reward after defeating the pervert king and the meta mercs that helped him. God those Meta mercs were something else...who knew that other persona users existed and would become mercenaries to a palace user for money? That was disgusting and vile and Ann hoped that they would get what they deserved eventually. The blonde girl in currently in class bored as hell and sneaked looking at her phone, she had no idea what Morgana was doing since he had wanted to stay in her warm bed all day, lazy animal!

Panther to everyone
Hey guys, the spring festival is happening and I was wondering if you guys wanted to all go?

Hopefully at least some of them would go so she wouldn't have to go alone. Also she was thinking that Masami would be a good leader for the phantom thieves and wanted to have a leader ceremony. Ann knew that she was too emotionally unstable to be a leader and the rest of the phantom thieves were all over the place with their emotions and stuff. If the thieves could have a leader then they could be more effective in battle and not have to almost die every fucking palace. Ann was tired of disorganization within the team for real and thought that maybe they could all agree on a leader which would be Masami of course.

Also the blonde was beginning to change her attitude about the whole thieves thing and was beginning to atone for her mistakes in the past and now felt like she could handle herself better emotionally. One thing that she was sure about was that the meta mercs needed to be stopped once and for all and she had a feeling the phantom thieves would meet with them soon enough...this time though she would be ready and wouldn't need Baron to help her defeat them.

But one thing that was going to cause a slight hitch in the trajectory was Sae Nijima. It was no secret that the woman was on the case of the phantom thieves and she would have even more evidence about the case involving Kamoshida. The fact that all the targets were in Shunjin academy or threatening the students made it a prime location to investigate. Ann could only hope that Sae would never find out about the phantom thieves true identities.


------------------------------------------------

If any of the thieves or Baron decided to come to the Cherry Blossom festival there would be a lot of people walking down the street. Tons of shops around that sold trinkets and food if anyone was hungry. Cherry Blossoms were a special flower to the Japanese people and there would be celebrations and dances happening. Ann and Morgana were both sitting on a bench near the entrance, Ann was drinking a pineapple soda while Morgana was munching on cat food which was favored for some reason. Morgana had a collar around his neck in case he got lost even though he was more than capable of finding his way back to Ann or the others. "Man this so boring," Morgana sighed, "why we can't we just go back to that buffet?"

Ann looked at the cat, "Well, because Tragedy almost got us into trouble...and we are just teenagers." Morgana smirked at Imato's little scene with that rich guy and how he successfully flicked a blueberry at the man, the only credit he'll give Imato. Morgana then looked around for the other thieves and hoped that Kaizen would not follow him here and see him hanging out with his friends. No im using them Morgana thought to himself trying to not get attached to them but the time Masami saved him and asked him if he was ok was in his head. He was used to being hated and treated like shit and did not know what friendship was.

"Getting too soft Morgana?" Kaizen's words echoed in his head and Morgana didn't know what to think now. Was being on the phantom thieves better than getting soft? The cat knew that he finally felt happy in this group.


Maeve Valor Nellancholy Anthem Azurian Dream TreasureSniper

 

[Maeve Valor]

Masami thought it was a great idea for everyone to get together for the Cherry Blossom festival in a more casual setting unlike the last time the thieves had celebrated their victory. She felt much closer to everyone now in such a short amount of time, she thought that spending time like this with them wouldn't hurt. Though Masami did feel a bit bad that Sougo couldn't join them this time around even if he wasn't a Phantom Thief member. When she received Ann's text message, she wanted to invite him as well since he had previously stated that he'd be willing to accompany for other events that weren't Phantom Thief related; But she quickly disregarded the thought and knew that it would greatly raise suspicion if she invited him out of the blue. So with content, she decided not to pass along the message.

Spoiler: Serve, Set, Spike

Not many people volunteered to be part of the clean up crew for the festival. In fact, Kamoshida had to nominate most of them to take part working at the stands like the track, gymnastics, and volleyball clubs. One saving grace though was that Masami didn’t have to feel his stare on her the whole time since he had to rotate every now and then making an appearance at each of the clubs he coached for.

Masami knew she was on the brink of finding something useful, she just needed to give Kamoshida a little push. She heard rumors that if there is a student that shows an eagerness to play a certain role in their sport of choice, then he will often want some sort of incentive in return. She planned that day to personally approach Kamoshida and request to be an outside hitter on the team instead of just the Libero like she has been assigned thus far. She wanted to pretend like she gave a damn about getting a scholarship around the sport and seem like she wanted to boost her credibility by changing her position. Hopefully, he would take the bait and try to offer her a deal of some sort.

As Masami was passing out trinkets and flyers with a cheerful expression, one of the girls next to her whispered over to her, “Great, he’s coming back. And he’s looking right at you Ogawa-san. I’m telling you, you should really watch your back. I’ve heard… things.”

“Oh? What kind of things?” Masami inquired, but she already knew what the answer was going to be.

“N-nothing. Forget I said anything,” as expected, the poor girl shrank back and moved away to pass out her set of objects at a different area. “I refuse to end up like that,” Masami thought.

The pervert king was excited to hear that Masami was wanting to get a scholarship in one of the sports that he was coaching. He could blackmail her if she refused- oh it was a good day! The first thing that Suguru did was always find out how to take advantage of people because they were beneath him and they did not win anything like him. He loved his trophies like they were his children and if anything happened to them then he would truly suffer.

“Hey Ogawa-san,” Kamoshida greeted the girl with a smile which was not very warm and full of bad intent, “so you want to be on the volleyball team? Well I think I can find a position for you…” Kamoshida had her in his clutches now and she could not escape him if she tried. Although he had heard rumors about these so-called phantom thieves going around trying to bring justice to Tokyo which was laughable since this was the city of crime.

Kasumi glanced at Masami while she was cleaning the trophy case and had a little concern for her since she knew Kamoshida would use her. The amount of bad things he did and got away with was astounding and the principal knew but just ignored it. Sougo had always told Kasumi to stand up for herself and not let him take advantage of her but yet Kasmi didn’t because she loathed herself. She stopped cleaning and watched the interaction between the two. A lot of students were listening, thinking Masami was a fool and that she would regret this decision quickly. But they did not know she was doing it for a phantom thief operation and there was no way they could know about that. Masami slightly smirked at first in knowing now that Kamoshida was going to take the bait and probably pull one of his usual stunts that he has done with other students in the past. What that stunt exactly was, she did not know yet. But no matter what it was, it was one step closer to getting what she needed since joining the club. Her smirk quickly shifted into a soft smile to the teacher as she conveyed the actions of a giddy student. “Really Kamoshida Sensei?! That’s great to hear! What position is it? When can I start? Oh I hope I didn’t take that spot from someone else, did I?” She asked the questions in rapid fire excitement.

She was well aware that others were watching. Another thing she was hoping for was that since so many others were witnessing him, someone would directly warn her at some point. At that point, Masami would try to convince them to come forward and admit all the wrongdoings he has done to them. Maybe if she got together with enough people willing to be more open about it, it might make a difference.

“Oh no you didn’t take anyone’s spot,” Kamoshida said smiling, “I think that you would be a great serve specialist Ogawa-san you seem like you would be a heavy hitter am I wrong?” Kamoshida clasped his hands together with anticipation that the girl he had his eyes on would be in his grasp. Now this was where he could play her into his pocket and make her beg but he did not know that she was planning this.

"You definitely aren't wrong at all! I’ve been told that I can deliver a mean spike,” she maintained her grin.

“You can start tomorrow,” the pervert said as he looked at her creepily sizing her up and down, “I should be going back to my office.” Kamoshida turned away and walked towards his office with a smile on his face of course.

As soon as he turned away, Masami began to drop her act. She wished that she could leave her post at the volleyball stand so that she could spy on him a bit more. She thought it possible that his office could contain valuable information as well. But she was sure she would have more opportunities to learn more during the quickly approaching time to clean up after the festival was officially over.

Meanwhile Kasumi was cleaning the trophy case trying to make it spotless when she overheard the gossip of Masami becoming Kamoshida’s new play toy. She figured that she better approach the girl and maybe she could help her out.

“Hey Ogawa-san,” Kasumi walked to her and smiled, “so I heard that you are on the volleyball team congrats!”

Surprised by the sudden interaction, she looked back at Kasumi as she went over how much she knew of her in her head. In all actuality, she didn’t know very much. She was a star student involved in gymnastics and she seemed nice enough. Other than that, she really didn’t have anything to relate with her on. Regardless, she still thought this was a good opportunity to get close to a potential victim of Kamoshida. For all she knew, Kasumi might be approaching her to subtly warn her like the other girl earlier was about to. Aside from that, Masami had to act the part as a person with a “real team player” attitude that she has presented herself as so far among the other students in the team. “Wow thanks, that really means a lot coming from you. You are the Yoshizawa-san right? I’ve heard many good things about you,” she complimented, turning her smile to the gymnast this time.

Kaumi smiled at Masami and nodded, “Aw I am flattered by that…thank you very much.” Kasumi still had the idea that she was the star gymnastic sister that the actual Kasumi was. She figured that Masami needed to have a friend since well her reputation was awful in this school like hers.

“And I heard many unflattering things about you,” Kasumi said, “but I don’t really think that you are that bad…its ok people don;’t like me either.” Kasumi held his hands behind her back hoping that Masami would be her friend since she barely had any besides Sougo and Mishima.

Masami was surprised to find out that she had heard of the small rumors spread around of her two-faced nature. She was well aware of these whispers and did her best to keep them at a minimum, but in the end, much like testimonies about Kamoshida, they were just rumors with no evidence on the matter. Words jumping from person to person among the masses who enjoy hearing good gossip.

What stood out even more was what she said next after that, which was how she didn’t think Masami was a bad person. Kasumi seemed like a kind person and she didn’t think the girl would have any reason to lie to her. It was a refreshing feeling to have someone approach her that was genuine in their intentions to be welcoming. In response, Masami still felt a pang of guilt from all the people she had wronged in the past. ‘Heh, if she only knew,’ she thought. By working in the Phantom Thieves she hoped to one day get over this guilt and on this continued path to redemption, Kamoshida was an obstacle she intended to take down.

“Kamoshida is not a very nice man,” Kasumi warned her, “me and Mishima have evidence about him that is pretty telling but it's not very good…” Kasumi said that in a hushed voice to her ear.

Raising an eyebrow at this bit of information, Masami’s interest was piqued, but she wanted to keep her investigation under wraps as best she could while she worked on it. “Really? He isn’t? That’s so hard to believe since he seems so nice and has a reputation with the school like he does. What kind of evidence do you have, if you don’t mind me asking,” She asked, deciding to not inquire about the ‘unflattering things’ she had heard, at least not yet.

Maybe it was her kind naive nature but Kasumi had a feeling that Masami was not a crook like she was made out to be. If only she knew how many people Masami had wronged then she would be upset for sure. Like Sougo, Masami would be hiding things from her like that she was a phantom thief looking to use her help.

“Well he makes me clean the trophy case,” Kasmui said in a hushed voice, “I have to make it spotless or else he gets mad.” Kasumi had a feeling that she wanted to see actual proof of something like a video or something which is something she did not have. “Look, just be cautious when dealing with him,” the girl said and walked away.

As Masami watched the redhead walk away hurriedly, she couldn't help but have a strange suspicion that there was more information the girl was keeping from her, much like everyone else that had to deal with Kamoshida. One thing was for sure, Kasumi acted distressed when she was talking about the perverted teacher. At this thought, it became more real to Masami just how important it was to take Kamoshida down. Kind people like Kasumi were being harassed, beaten down mentally, and potentially physically for some.

Kamoshida was in his office grinning at his trophies eagerly waiting for tomorrow so Masami could be his. His long war against Sougo Agata would be won after he secured Masami and made her quiet. The sly troublemaker would have nothing to bring against him and plus he had made sure to hire meta mercs, who gives a shit about the money? He had loads of it. And there was bigger fish than him to fry like that Yakuza boss who extorted students and others which Masami should be familiar with. Of course he had heard the rumors of her being a scumbag, they were very similar in a way and Kamoshida knew that he could use her past against her to get what he wanted.

Later on, once the festival died down and Masami was helping clean up, she stopped picking up trash to send a quick message to Sougo, assuming he would be interested in how the day went. “Update, we need to talk. Can we go to the team meetup spot?” She messaged, trying to be as vague as possible and was referring to the metaverse LeBlanc Cafe’.

While she was happy to be accepted officially into the main Volleyball team, she felt a certain impending danger that was in store for her the next day. There had to be a reason why all these students were keeping a tight lip on how Kamoshida coached them. Masami reasoned that he was an influential person, but just how influential among the school she did not know. Keeping all this in mind, she thought it would be best to warn Sougo to be on stand-by from this point on if she felt that she needed him to intervene.

“I’ll be there.” Sougo swiftly replied. He wasn’t initially planning to meet up in person with the girl, but since it seemed important, Sougo didn't see a reason to say no. Is this it? Has she finally made a breakthrough in this case? Only one way to find out. When the girl finally arrived at the store, she would find Baron at the workshop bench in the middle of performing maintenance on his gun. He had disassembled it into its most basic components. The small delicate movement in hands indicated that he was experienced in handling small and fragile objects.
But then again, he did used to work at his parent’s watch store. “Greetings, Swan. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” He asked the girl while still staying focused on his own handiwork. The clicking of parts was always satisfying to hear. Especially when it all came together to become a finally crafted piece of equipment. “Is this the part where you blackmail with something again?” He joked, clearly still remembering the previous “business” meeting between the two.

After Masami had walked up the stairs to the attic space above LeBlanc and heard Baron with his casual welcome along with a snarky remark, she couldn’t help but laugh a little at the quip. “I think I learned my lesson last time. Attempting to one-up you a single time was quite enough Baron,” she said as she took a seat on the couch near the workbench as she remembered how he exuded a strong energy that seemed almost tangible in the air after the said time of when she tried to blackmail. No, she definitely would not be trying that ever again.

She briefly glanced at what he was working on before she turned away to look at the wall and began to talk about more serious matters as she furrowed her brows. “I was successful in getting Kamoshida’s attention at the festival today. He accepted me as an official Volleyball team member. I start tomorrow.” Masami then sighed and leaned onto the arm of the couch propped by an elbow. “From what I’ve gathered, whenever there is a new member, he takes them into his office to finalize paperwork… The student’s reactions when they come out of his office vary, so I’m not sure what to expect.”

“Hahaha, I would hope so.” He chuckled, putting away his own guns. He was happy to finally hear that there was a bit of a breakthrough in the Kamoshida’s case. “I am happy to hear that you’ve managed to enter into his “inner” circle. That said, just remember to keep yourself out of harms way. As I said before, you shouldn’t actively put yourself in a risky situation.” In her efforts to push this case forward, she might have cornered herself with a pervert. Not exactly a favorable situation, especially for a valuable member of the Phantom thieves.

Walking over towards the girl, he would invite her to take a seat on the meeting table. He sat down first, taking the center seat as always. “Please take a seat.” As he said that, a shadow version of the owner leblanc came up to serve them coffee. At that moment, Baron slid his mask upwards, partially revealing his face, something he wouldn’t normally do when others were around. “This place serves good coffee. You should give it a try some time.” He was of course suggesting the real Leblanc. Perhaps he could do that in his free time.

Thus far, whenever the group went to LeBlanc, the owner seemed very accommodating. Sure he was a bit gruff at times, but altogether he seemed like a nice person. And if he was a nice person here, she figured he was probably the same way in reality.

“I’ll be sure to give it a try the next time I’m in the area then,” she said as she accepted his invitation by sitting on the other side of the table and crossed her legs. Even though she knew who the person behind the mask was, seeing him somewhat remove it now still stood out to her. Although she did feel a sense of affability in that he felt comfortable to do so around her now.

“So what is it that you need to discuss with me? I doubt that you want me sticking around just to talk about good coffee. Although I guess I wouldn’t mind if that is all. I have nothing more to report,” Masami shrugged with a smile as she leaned forward and placed the palm of her hand under her chin over the table. To her, Baron hardly seemed like the type to waste time socializing with people for recreational reasons.

“Our new terms as partners of course.” he replied immediately while taking a sip of his coffee. “I certainly hope you’re not only working for me because of the fear of being exposed. This is a partnership, and as such should be mutually beneficial.” Baron proceeded to lift a small box and place it onto the table.It had his insignia on it, signifying it as one of his custom piece. “Here…to commemorate our renewed partnership.” Upon removing a lid, she would find a unique revolver with an underslung grenade launcher. On it’s handle was an engraving of a swan, accompanied by the name of the weapon, “Swansong”.

Masami looked down at the gift in awe. She couldn’t remember the last time she received a gift from a friend (even though he considered them partners), if there was ever a time.

“Ogawa-san, what is it do you desire the most in this world?” He was directly asking the person behind the mask, instead of her alter ego. “As long as it does not interfere with my own desire, I’ll be more than happy to help you obtain it, whatever it may be. In exchange for your continued support.” He was willing to buy her loyalty towards the Phantom thieves, and he meant every word that was said. Was this faustian bargain? Or was it something else?

“Baron, I… don’t know what to say,” she stated as she carefully picked up the gun, weighing it in her hand and letting the light of the room shine off of the metal as she was looking over the details, wondering how long it took him to work on it. Everything about the firearm from the type of gun it was down to the aesthetic of it seemed to somehow fit her perfectly. She very much liked it and had a feeling that she would end up loving it after testing it out next time she had the chance to use it.

At his sudden question and explanation following it she looked up at him still slightly stunned. "That's a difficult answer… If I were to answer that honestly before becoming a Phantom Thief, I'd say that I always wanted a normal life as a teenage girl. Now…," she said as she put back the gun in the box. "It would be to assist in the livelihoods of some people that my parents have wronged in the past. I believe I’ve come across a docket made by them of such people that were affected by them,” She said evenly as she looked over to her partner. The look on her face showed that she had previously thought for a while on this topic, and she had made the decision to go along with this as her goal.

“I see….very well…I shall assist you in your path to redemption.” Sougo smiled as he took another sip of his coffee. Masami really had come a long way from her swindling days. But ensure that she continues this rehabilitation, she would need some support. “And how exactly do you plan on helping this people? Through monetary means perhaps? Or did you have something else in mind?” Its easy to pretend that money will solve all problems, the truth is it doesn’t. And whether Masami liked it or not, there are some people who might be too far gone for her to help.
“And what about the people you can’t help with money? What will you do for them?” It was a difficult question to answer, but it’s best to think about such things now rather than later. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. That is something Baron had learned from his previous experiences.

As Baron was bringing these questions up, Masami slowly started to droop her head down as she understood the points he was trying to make. “I have to do something though!” She slammed a fist on her leg. “Do you really think I haven’t thought that the damage done might end up being too great for some of these people? Of course I have. But something needs to be done.“ With a resolute tone in her voice, she looked back up to the person across from her, one of the few people that has seen her vulnerable like this. A person she has begun to trust. “I can’t just let this go knowing that I could have at least tried.”

She calmed herself, letting her hand unclench itself before continuing, “So I am going to go about this, one case at a time. I will assess their situation to see what I can do to help, to the best of my ability.”

"If that is the path you desire to follow then so be it, I will assist you to the best of my abilities where I am able to…however…" Sougo had finally finished his coffee, and placed the mug down before he continued his sentence. "There will be those who do not wish your assistance, and would instead prefer some form of retribution. I know some people would prefer such a thing."

Sougo warned the girl that such an encounter would likely be inevitable. Considering that a metamerc was already sent to her parents it was only a matter of time before she would become the target of someone's vengeance. "If such a situation arises. You must prepared to do what must be done." Sougo sighed, hoping that this little talk was enough to prepare her to make tough calls, both inside and outside the metaverse. "Now then, if there is nothing else. I think it's time for us to take our leave."

Masami nodded, taking his advice though not taking the gravity of what retribution would mean for her own well-being. That was the one thing that had not occurred to her until he mentioned it, and planted fear within her, hoping that such a situation would not occur. “Right…” She said standing up, and looked down to the box, picking it up. Seeing it now, reminded her that she now had friends that could help in this new mission she had set for herself. At this thought, her mood lightened a little bit as she turned to Baron. “But before I go… Thank you for the gun,” she said with a genuine smile. “Sorry, no kiss this time for this thank you but… you can call me Masami if you want now. You know, to commemorate our renewed partnership,” a slight blush began to creep onto her face when mentioning the last time she thanked him.

Sougo was caught off guard by her gesture of thanks. While a kiss for some was far more intimate, in Sougo's eyes, the permission to call someone by their first name was infinitely more meaningful. As such, it only fair for him to reciprocate the offer.

"As you wish, Masami-san. I will refer to you by your first name when we are in more casual settings. And if it pleases you, you may also refer to me by my first name as well." He spoke while nodding in approval of her decision. He had a small but noticeable smile on his face. But much of it was obscured when he slid his mask down.

Baron made his way to the stairs, but not before stopping by Masami and putting his hand on her shoulder once again."As always, good work out there. I'll be counting, Masami-san. Please do not hesitate to contact be if you need any assistance. No matter how trivial the matter may be." It was indirect way of saying he was willing to hang out with her more. Though in hindsight she might have trouble catching that. And just like he left the area in the next second.

Masami wasn't too surprised when Sougo returned the permission to call him by his first. It was only common courtesy, but she still couldn't help herself from smiling at the gesture and once again she that strange feeling in her gut while she was in his presence. And just like last time, she pushed these feelings down to deal with on another day. For now, she needed to focus on being mentally prepared for the next day and so, she too left the cafe.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kamoshida waited for Masami to enter the gym, he was going to leave soon but he still wanted to toy around with her. No more dealing with pesky Sougo Agata anymore and he could start new in another place and get away with more abuse. Kamoshida almost wanted to laugh at Sougo in his face as he won! “Ha Agata!” Kamoshida said out loud to himself, “You lose…you always lose because YOU ARE FUCKING LESS SUPIERIOR THAN ME!” Kamoshida took a breath to calm down as he had an intense hatred of Sougo.

“Uhhh Kamoshida-sensei?” A student asked.

“I’m fine,” Kamoshida said to him, “get back to practice.”

After getting ready for practice, Masami walked into the gym that she had become familiar with for practice, but today was different in the fact that she was now training with the others officially as a club member. When she arrived, she decided to make small talk with the other girls until practice started and Kamoshida gave orders. Considering he was not that far away, Masami decided she would pry for answers this time when conversing with the others. So she settled for idle chit-chat. "Alright, you ready to really give it your all today? I sure am!" She said cheerfully to one of the girls.

"Um, right, Ogawa-San…" This overenthusiastic nature seemed to put off her and some of the other girls and they in fact weren't looking forward to practice. None of them acted like they really enjoyed the sport, which Masami had always found strange.

After watching practice going on Kamoshida decided that he would talk to Masami privately and get the swindler on his side against Sougo. Yeah he was not that stupid…Masami’s past seemed to hang around like a horrible friend still and he was not going to let her make amends. They were both shitty people or at least Kamoshida thought so.

“Good form Ogawa-san,” Kamoshida said walking up behind her smiling at her looks and body, “I would like to talk with you after this…something important came up.” Masami would probably be sad that he is leaving or she was good at acting like she was into him.

“Thank you Kamoshida-senpai! And no problem, I’ll make sure to stick around afterwards to speak to you,” with a bright smile Masami nodded as the hair in her short ponytail flicked up. She was unsurprised with how he wanted to speak to her privately. With it being her first day, she of course expected something like this to happen.

As Volleyball practice proceeded, she became increasingly anxious about the prospect of having to meet Kamoshida after practice. Aside from finalizing the paperwork to be part of the team, she didn’t know what else he could possibly want to talk about since he mentioned that “something important came up”. This curiosity plagued her mind all the way up until practice ended and Masami helped put the equipment away before approaching the coach with caution.

“I will be taking my leave from this school soon,” Kamoshida said to her, “I know this is unexpected news but I got a better offer somewhere else.” He was going to escape this school unpunished.

“Ogawa-san I think that you know what you can do for me,” Kamoshida said smiling at her, “a swindler like yourself probably is used to using your looks.”

Alarms went off in Masami's head, piecing together that he most likely was implying that he wanted her to do something very much indecent with him. On top of that Kamoshida had shockingly confronted her about being a swindler. Ex-swindler or not, her history would always be there with her. It was just unfortunate that it had to bite her back right then of all times. The rumors he had heard could have no substance behind it, so Masami played dumb. "Kamoshida-sensei, I'm not sure what you're suggesting, but I can't believe you actually believe those awful rumors of me. I thought you were kinder than that to discriminate against me like this," Masami pouted as she clasped her hand behind her back. Not having much faith in this act anymore, she thought it was possible he still might try to make an advance on her. Worried about this while still keeping her naive demeanor up she secretly pressed a button on her watch, sending a distress signal directly to Baron.

Seeing the distress signal coming from his partner’s phone, Sougo sprang into action, immediately making a beeline towards the pervert’s office. The students and staff members nearby were confused as to what he was in such a rush for. One of the students even went as far as to theorize he wanted to go to the bathroom. Once he got close enough to the area, he slowed his pace and instead followed a more covert path of walking, silently making his way towards the office. With no one else around, he placed his ear on the door to eavesdrop what was going on in there.

“Don’t play coy with me,” Kamoshida said to the girl smiling, “I know that Agata probably set you up to this…” The pervert laughed, “you two are definitely much closer than I thought-” Kamoshida walked over to his window and gazed outside watching the students.

“You know that you have lost already,” he said, turning to face her, “you cannot prove the abuse to anyone…I might have to file a complaint about you Ogawa-chan.” Kamoshida sighed, “shame, you are pretty attractive but you are working for Agata.”

“Shit, shit, shit! This is bad, this is very bad,” Masami thought as she realized that she can no longer put up this act. What’s worse was that she told Sougo her and Kamoshida would most likely be at his office, so it might take a bit before he understood to come to the gym. She needed to think of something to distract him until then.

“Now just hold on. I can’t be reported, I still have a clean record. Surely we can work something out,” the true version of Masami spoke, trying to bide some time before thinking of a way to improvise some more. It was starting to look like lying was the only way she could get out of this, as usual. “What if I told you I can get evidence that Agata-san cheated on the votes when he became class vice president. He has confided in me for doing so and has spoken of contacts who helped him accomplish it. If I can get you those names will you keep my name clear?”

Masami looked away as if she felt bad for offering such a thing to the teacher. “As much as I don’t want to do this to Agata-san, I also don’t want my name to be sullied and any chances of getting into a good college to be taken.”

“Good girl,” Kamoshida said when she mentioned getting dirt on Sougo. He had no fucking idea that people liked him that much. He grinned at Masami and thought that Agata was going to be done once she gave him the proof he rigged the election. “I will not report you if you bring me proof of this,” the pervert said to her,”but if you dare lie to me swindler…well.” The look on his face said it all.

It took everything in Masami's power not to respond back infuriated with an insult. She instead held her tongue so that she didn’t push him to end up reporting her. “I can assure you… I won’t do anything,” she said, admitting defeat to this argument. Her best bet was to play into this lie as best she could until the Phantom Thieves were able to change his heart. In the meantime, she had to act like she was on his side. “I’ll continue coming to practice and let you know what I find, getting what I can out of Agata-san for you.”

Kamoshida seemed satisfied with the arrangement but, being the pervert that he is, he couldn’t help but push for more. “Good..yes very good.” His lustful gaze looked at Masami’s fine figure. His hands couldn’t help but twitch a bit, like a bad itch that needed to be scratched. Slowly, Kamoshida took a few steps towards the girl, knowing that it was a secluded area.

But before he could go do anything indecent to the girl. A loud knocking can be heard from his door, much to his surprise and annoyance. “Tch.'' The gym teacher immediately went towards the door and opened it. “What is it?” He questioned as he opened the door angrily only to be greeted with sight of an armored Baron. “What the hel-” Kamoshida was immediately knocked out by an immediate and very personal gut punch. The large teacher fell to the ground, his wind completely knocked out of him.

“Let’s go. We are done here.” Baron spoke to Masami in an uncharacteristically serious tone. Lingering for a bit, he took out his gun and pointed it at the unconscious man. He was pondering over ending things right here and now. But such a finale would not satisfy him. For all that he has done, his punishment must be more severe. Holstering his gun, Baron left the scene without saying anything else.

Upon arrival to the entrance of the banner showing where the festival was being celebrated in the area, Masami would be seen wearing a black yukata with thin white stripes patterned throughout the fabric in large squares and wore a green obi belt. Her hair had a braid made into it and was put up into a loose bun with a white flower to one side pinning it in place. After a bit of looking around she finally spotted Ann and Morgana and approached them. "Hey Ann-chan, Morgana-san. Thanks for the invite, hopefully the others come as well. It's nice to get away from training and palaces for once. Seems like it's been damn too long since the last break we got."

Once some time had passed as they waited for if more of the other members would join, Masami thought back to the odd way Ann has been acting lately between suddenly leaving the interrogation with Sougo and just throwing her gun away, leaving the palace right afterwards. Ann seemed upset about something, that much was certain. Since Morgana was still here and possibly more of their friends were on their way, Masami wanted to be discreet about asking her what was wrong. "You guys... I know I haven't put myself out there to you both all that much but if either of you ever wanted to vent or get something off your chest, I'm always available to hear you out... I'll even be fair and do the same if I'm ever in a rut." Even though the statement was directed to both of them, Masami was looking right at Ann when she said this. "So consider yourselves lucky, cause I don't usually lend an ear to listen to other people's problems. I usually make the problems for them instead," she smiled with a ominous joke, making an attempt to lighten the mood.

That Weird girl

 

[Anthem]

Continuing to sit by his lonesome, Imato took the moment of silence as a chance to calm himself and think this little plan of his through a little more than he had so far. While there was no turning back considering he already called Countess about potential recruitment, the possibilities of what might be possible filled his mind. The risks this plan of his had seemed too great, especially with how it may change the view his friends have of him-

Then Imato's phone buzzed upon recieving a text, thankfully removing him from the downward spiral his thoughts were sending him on. The festival was a great opportunity for the team to bond more and just actually have some simple fun. The white haired boy put his phone down for a few moments, simply just thinking once again before a decision was made. Imato grabbed his phone once again and texted back a simple but intriguing message:

'I'll be there. Don't expect to see "M-San" though.'

---

Imato stood at the entrance to the festival, surprisingly dressed up in the correct attire for the occasion. His choice of attire was a crimson yakata that faded to white scales near the bottom of the article of clothing. He also wore a simple black haori, to bring the look all together. He started to roam the ground, recieving old looks from some of the other Shujin students, since no one had ever seen him even bother with activities like this so to them it was odd. It didn't take long for the boy to spot where Ann, Masami and Mona were though he didn't walk up to them right away.

'Just act cool and show them who you are, who Imato is... Not Tragedy, not M-San.' Giving himself a pep talk within his mind, Imato waited for what seemed like a good time before approaching the currently small group. "Ogawa-chan, Ann-chan, I must say you two look rather well today! And I suppose you're not too bad Mona, maybe not as annoying as usual." Trying to be dead obvious, Imato grinned while hoping his voice and his knowledge of Morgana would give away who he was to Ann and the little cat. Considering Masami had already known Imato's identity by this point.

 

[That Weird girl]

"I appreciate it Masami-chan," Ann said to the green haired girl and she meant it. However though before she say more, a boy arrived and greeted them. Ann knew this kid from school and wondered why Imato would come to the festival with them. But then he started to acknowledge Morgana which made Ann looked at him surprised that he was in fact Tragedy without the mask. "Makage-san?" Ann grinned at his reveal, "so that was you the whole time? Wow...." She was a little shocked because Imato was often the one who got into fights at school and would be the last person she would expect to be a thief alongside Shiro. But she guessed that like Shiro and her he had some chains to break free from and work on his rehabilitation.

"You finally decided to show yourself," Morgana commented to Imato, "you know you surpassed my expectations." The cat chuckled but was glad that Tragedy had trusted them enough to show his face to them. Morgana was beginning to like him even if he did punt him at Kamoshida but Mona would get him back for that. "Yeah and you look pretty good too," Ann said to Imato talking about how nicely dressed he was. She had a boyfriend but that didn't mean she couldn't admire other people's beauty like Masami and Imato.

"Are we waiting for Lady Shiro?" Morgana asked them having trouble sitting still, "I think that she should be here soon of course if she's not cracking some poor dudes skull in." Morgana joked because Shiro almost cracked his skull in back then for not helping the thieves.

Maeve Valor Anthem

 

[Maeve Valor]

From Imato's prior text, she immediately understood that he was going to fulfill his end of the "deal" and no longer wear a mask around the other thieves. So when he approached the trio, she was unsurprised as she chuckled a bit at Ann's perplexed expression in trying to piece together who it was. Morgana and Ann then proceeded to compliment him whereas Masami decided to be a bit more casual and teased while crossing her arms, "You guys are giving him too much praise. Don't want it getting to his head now." She shen looked to Imato and said with a smile, "But really, it's nice to be able to talk to you without the mask. We'll do our best to make sure that your newfound trust won't be in vain."

Imato didn't seem the type that liked to dwell on sentimental things like this so Masami changed the topic by taking out her phone to look at the time and said, "Anyway, hopefully Shiro does show up. She might be busy though; she never messaged back in the group chat whether she'd come or not." She then remembered the venture she had with her and Baron a couple of days ago and thought that it was possible that she might be helping her "sisters" get situated by getting their things together with them.

Spoiler: Shiro's Sidequest

In the headquarters of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, within the Equal Employment, Children, and Families Bureau, there was a cramped office with a large desk. And behind that desk sat a thin, tall man in a pressed black suit, his hair so solid as to resemble a flat rock sitting just above his glasses. A few stacks of paper sat on his desk, nothing other than a plaque announcing his name and position accompanying them.

Koichi Yamada

Director of the Equal Employment, Children, and Families Bureau ​

Director Yamada tented his fingers, his eyes bearing not a hint of malice as he scanned the teenager before him.

“Ah. Mr. Akiyama. You’re five minutes early. I like that. And to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

“Ahem.” Shiro eased into the chair opposite the Director, biting her tongue for the moment. “I have...information about certain cases involving runaways and disappearances that occured within the last 15 months.” She withdrew her hand from her pocket, unfolding a sheet of lined notepaper with the official information of her “sisters” written on them. Full names, birth certificate numbers, the addresses of the homes she had taken them from, or from which they had run away before being taken in by her... “I am willing to divulge their location to your department.” She bit her lip, unused to negotiating with someone in power, letting them set the terms. “On the condition that they not be charged for any misdemeanors and be placed in adequate foster homes.”

“Hm.” If Yamada had any particular opinion, he didn’t show it as he took the paper from the desk, scanning the information offered to him. “Ah. So it’s you. You’re the head of that little gang of miscreants. Running around, playing Robin Hood, getting into fights, creating problems for all manner of decent folk while being too childish to commit any profitable crime. It’s just as well.”

“I-”

“Mis-ter Akiyama.” The Director enunciated firmly. “Should you bring these children to me, two things will happen. Those that can be linked to any manner of misdemeanor will be...remanded to the custody of the appropriate correctional facilities. The others will be returned. To the families they belong to. Should the police find you, and they eventually will, the same will happen. AND any parents who want to will have every right to press charges against you for abduction.”

“...” Shiro’s fist clenched under the desk.

“This meeting is over.” The Director folded up the paper Shiro brought, tossing it onto the KIV stack on his desk. “You are excused, Mr. Akiyama. I advise you to consider your next move very carefully.”

Shiro was barely out of the building before the Metaverse app was open in her hand. Time to go to work for some people who really needed it. Before entering herself, she fired off a single text.

“Baron. I am about to seek out a target in the Metaverse. The Shadow of ‘Koichi Yamada’. Come if you please.”

Her body burned with the strength of her spirit as her helmet formed around her head, and the environment melted into that of Mementoes. Little seemed to have changed amidst the cubicles and desks, as though even the man's Shadow would hide among red tape and bureaucracy.

While Sougo was still busy cleaning up the aftermath of the Kamoshida case, he always made some time to check on his phone to see if there were any interesting developments. The next thing he knew, he had received a text from the most unexpected person. Shiro. After all this time, she had finally taken up his offer of assistance. Considering she was one of the prouder members of the team, second only next to Imato, this was truly something he could not have foreseen. But nonetheless, he stayed true to his word. And replied to her text almost immediately.


"As you wish. I'll be there shortly."

Though he was confident that he could handle this shadow regardless of her help, he believed that it was important for the teammates to build trust among one another instead of fully relying on some like him. Based on the debrief that Masami had provided him about the previous fights, Shiro seemed to have a certain fondness of protecting her, so he thought it would be appropriate to get her involved in this small-scale operation.

"Swan, I need your assistance in this operation. Come and meet me at these coordinates. Heartbreak will also be present."

Just as agreed, Baron would make his appearance, armed with his usual set of weapons, apart from one extra gauntlet. "Good to see you finally taking advantage of our mutual arrangement. And here" detaching the gauntlet from his own arm, Baron would reattach the metal gauntlet to Heartbreak's arm. "Try squeezing that trigger." Baron was of course referring to the trigger mechanism near her palm. Once she had activated the mechanism, the gauntlet would rapidly extend and unfold, quickly forming a large circular shield. "Seeing as you're one of the team's frontline, I'd thought you'd need something to prevent extensive damage to yourself." The shield was a finely crafted piece of equipment. Despite being made of metal, it was fairly light and well-balanced, preventing it from feeling cumbersome to use. "Now then, what can you tell me about the target?"

As Masami sat in her room reading a book, the silence was broken by a message that was received from Baron which that in of itself interested her as she set down her book. Most of the time now if either them needed to meet up to discuss something important then he would just message her as Sougo to say so. But since this was from Baron, she knew already that it must have something to do with Phantom Thief business. When she read the message, it only confirmed what she suspected but yet made her curious on what this meeting was about that would involve only Shiro and her helping. Nontheless she still responded with messaging back, "Sure. I will be there soon."

Right after she had informed him, she made her way to the coordinates given and made sure that no one was around before pressing the app icon on her phone and entered the Metaverse. As she headed in, the black feathers of her mask fluttered. Once there, she heard the familiar voice modifier of Baron speaking as he asked her about what the target was. Immediately just from this question, she deduced that if Baron didn't have a target for her and Heartbreak then that must mean that she was the one who probably needed help with something. But with what? What was the cirsumstances? "You're the one that has a target for us this time Heartbreak?"

"I've held the line well enough so far without something like this." This was probably the first time Baron had gotten something for her specifically. Frankly, she was quite relieved to see he was in a better state after his uncharacteristic outburst towards Kamoshida the other day. Perhaps the strain of holding the ship from outside was what had gotten to him. But even so...he wasn't quite a member of the Thieves himself, a distance that he contributed towards enforcing as well. She wasn't sure how their association would continue or end, though he certainly wasn't deserving of hostility. "Worry not." She extended the shield to emphasize her point. "I will continue to shield us."

As for Swan... "...Yes. I am grateful for your presence on this day, if you deign to accompany me." She narrowed her gaze, looking through the open visor of her helmet over the cubicle walls and low ceiling of the "office". Thrud's movements would be restricted in such a space, and an ambush was likely. "There are people counting on me to do the right thing for them. Once upon a time...they needed my help. My guidance to survive outside the homes that cast them out. But I can't ask them to stay with me forever. I can't take away their future. So the last thing that's standing between them and a new life...are the Director's rules. The laws he follows..."

As if on cue, a warbled, mechanical version of the Director's voice spoke. "Ah. Come to see me again, have you?" Even here, the voice had no contempt. Its position was entirely one of protocol, adherence to the rules that kept society going by helping those who "deserved" it and ignoring those that didn't earn it. "But you forgot to schedule your appointment! How about you fill out these forms, and bring them to my secretary?"

Massive stacks of paper arose in the corridors like brick walls, blocking off several paths that would have led to the "Director's" desk.

"Do you believe these will impede me?" Shiro cursed under her breath. "I think not." She set her lance and shoved it into one of the stacks of paper, allowing the heavy weapon to wedge in and pull it down-

"Such violence!" The "Director" gasped in mock surprise. "Do I have to inform security?" Reams of red tape gushed from the paper like blood, wrapping around the lance and dragging it away.

"You...bastard!" Without even waiting, Shiro took off through the maze, searching for the way through to reach her target. Several featureless mannequins in office wear sat at their desks, clicking away and barely acknowledging her as she ran past. While they didn't attack just yet, it was clear that they could erupt into lesser Shadows and mount an assault on the intruders at a moment's notice.

"I am glad you like it." Baron mentioned offhandedly as checked his own equipment, preparing to move out. "As with any personal request, I'll help you get your target, but you'll be the one responsible for the final blow." It was only fair after all. Wouldn't want to rid her of the satisfaction of changing the target's heart. And from there, Baron followed the girl from behind, prepared to strike down anything to got in their way.

Noticing that the location was lot more..constricting than usual, he knew he would be at somewhat of a disadvantage if he were to rely on his buster sword. "Hmm had I known it'd be so constricting, I would have brought some explosives." Baron joked while listening to what Shiro had to say with regard to the reasoning for taking this target. "I see. That's quite commendable of you to have such a noble goal. I know a lot of people who would not be so utilitarian with their powers." It is said that when given a vast amount of power, people would show their true selves. And from what he can see, a lot of people are not as pleasant as they seem.

As expected, she greeted the target shadow with some.. choice words. Not how he would go about it, but then again, what does it matter? It all will end the same way regardless. Seeing her react to the shadow with almost immediate violence was not unexpected. Given the situation, he can't say he wouldn't have reacted the same way. But seeing her immediately charge in like that was..not optimal. "Could you at least warn us before running off?" Baron questioned her tactics, but given her current threat level, she should be able to take care of it. "You go on ahead, Swan. I'll keep his lackeys...distracted." Taking out his gun, he would fire a few shots into the ceiling, immediately getting the attention of all the mannequins within the vicinity.

Being immediately surrounded by an army of faceless mannequins, they would eventually reveal their true form, a collection of different demons and yokais from all sorts of folklore. None of which even approach Baron's threat level. "Heartbreak. Hold still for a moment." Baron spoke through the coms, communicating to his teammate as he combined his pistols into his signature sniper rifle. Using her current location as reference, Baron would fire a powerful golden-charged shot into the horde of shadows. The large beam of power would melt through not only the shadow horde but as well as the walls of paper, coming somewhat close to Shiro's location, though she would feel the heat from it, she was at a safe enough distance to not take any actual damage from it.

"That should give you a clear path to the centre. Swan will be there to support you while I thin out his lackeys." Separating his guns, he playfully twirled them before holstering. The shadows were stunned and panicked, but a few stronger security guards arrived, temporarily restoring morale, and regrouping them to surround Baron. "Just like old times." Baron cracked his neck and readied his fist, preparing to unleash an untold amount of pain on these shadows.

In hearing Shiro's explanation for what they were doing there to help her with, Masami had a resurgence of respect towards the team member. Even before properly making her acquaintance in the strange way that they did, she always heard rumors of her gang. It must have been difficult for her to come to this decision and try to do this for her sisters. At the mention of her sisters being able to start a new life, this motivated her more since she knew all too well how important such an opportunity would be to someone. In response to Baron's compliment, she nodded in agreement and said to Shiro, "If this means getting those girls the second chance they deserve, then let's get to it. You have my full support with this mission."

Soon afterward what she assumed was the director spoke to Shiro and summoned a maze to impede them from getting to him. Unsurprisingly, she jumped into action after the director's taunts, but Masami thought it was the best course of action to act fast. Because the shadow knew of their presence, there was no need to do anything else besides a full frontal assault. But since Shiro took off already, she didn't even give Masami a chance to respond before Baron told her to continue onward with Shiro. "Right."

Even so, she waited until he shot down a good chunk of the shadows that were present before she ran in the same direction that Shiro went. It seemed that though the paper walls' outer layer was damaged from the attack, the bloody, red inner layer remained stationary with little damage taken to it, proving that the thickness of this maze was quite the fortress. As she looked around, she realized that she already lost Shiro. She could see on her watch how far away she was and in which direction, but that wouldn't be able to tell her the correct way she went within the maze to get to her.

Based on classic problem-solving when it came to mazes, Masami decided to go with the "Right-Hand Rule" method and ran down the path only going right hoping to eventually run into Shiro. She also knew that if the shadow was able to summon the maze, then it was possible that he could manipulate it to constantly change so to test this and make sure that she didn't go around in circles, she took out a chakram and ran it along the right wall of paper, ripping it slightly as she walked to keep track of where she had gone. After a while of walking hurriedly, she would suddenly see a sharp pillar of paper come from one of the walls, making her jump more forward to evade it. Following that one more would start to come at her as she jumped and ducked around them as she used her Tetrakarn ability to form a magical barrier around her. At one point a pillar would have struck her if not for the barrier taking the damage for her and knocked her at the end of the corridor. This forced her down another path and coincidentally this landed her to finally meet up with Shiro. "We need to think of a plan cause what we're doing obviously isn't helping us. He probably is gonna continue giving us the run-around."

“Your insight has proven useful, Swan. Let us seek out our target.”

The prior actions of her comrades had granted Shiro two insights.

The first was that the “office” was organized into concentric circles, or at least multiple layers. The marking Swan left had shown that. The Director’s Shadow was content to let them run around one of the outer layers, while barring them from breaching further in.

Those markings combined with the wounds from Baron’s gunfire led to the second insight. The walls of paperwork were fully under the Shadow’s control, being able to move and shift in response to their attacks, confiscating any of their weapons if they were careless, and moving to patch holes in their defense. But at the same time...each individual segment couldn’t “heal” very fast, and the red tape that they bled did not flow freely through the air like the tendrils or feelers of some alien monster.No, the red tape that sought to entangle them dripped and flowed along the ground like wiring, bypassing the barriers that blocked the Thieves in place. Flowing back to the leader at the center of the maze, as if it was his lifeblood... Not to mention the fact that the cubicle walls had taken some preliminary damage based on their efforts so far...but couldn’t move or be replaced in the same way. Naturally, the most obvious ways to overcome this was to break through, layer by layer, taking advantage of the barrier’s imperfect healing...but there was no guarantee they could win by attrition. Shiro may have been stubborn, but she certainly wasn’t as foolish as she might come across. Not if she had survived on the street up till now.

Instead, she chose to test her hypothesis. Taking out another Hell Magatama, she shoved her fist into one of the stacks of paper. The red jewel shook, seeming as if it was about to erupt with fire... “How boorish!” The Director voiced his disapproval. “No regard for proper procedure. Did you intend to blast your way through?” The magatama extinguished instead of detonating...and it was carried away by a stream of red tape, leading all the way back to the Director...

“Ha, as I expected.” Shiro couldn’t help but smile behind her visor. “Follow it, Swan. I’ll be right behind you.”

Blue fire pooled around Shiro, bringing her a sensation that was familiar by now. “Let us make the most of this, Thrud.” The armored valkyrie burst forth, her resolve renewed. The current conditions left her little room to fly straight to the Director, but that wasn’t all she could do. In response to her sudden appearance, several of the mannequins bristled, exploding into the form of Omoikane.

“HAVE. A. SEAT. SECURITY. IS. ON. THE. WAY.” The hovering, brain-like creatures launched several beams of electricity towards Thrud...only to have them flow harmlessly over Thrud’s armor.

“My apologies.” Shiro sighed.

“But this meeting is urgent.” Thrud wound up...and punched the Omoikane through the cubicle walls. Just as she expected, several stacks of the “paper” split off, flowing like red blood cells and platelets to patch up the unexpected “wound”, though not before Shiro and Thrud slipped through the opening. “Baron! Direct your ire towards the walls! Not the paper!”

"As you wish." Having decimated a majority of the shadows in the outer area of the maze, Baron would slowly make his around the edges of the cubicle walls, tearing them apart with a buster sword at Heartbreak's behest. Baron stabs his blade into the surface of a wall and begins dragging it across the length of a group of cubicles. He kept his momentum constant, running through shadow after shadow.

He was quite familiar with playing as a distraction for the group, while he was fairly confident that he could tear apart this entire area and kill the shadow himself, which would defeat the entire of this operation. He wanted Shiro to learn that she didn't need to do everything herself and that she had friends that she could lean on. Afterall, they were supposed to be a team, even if it was just Masami being present.

After tearing through a significant portion of the outer walls, Baron began to notice the more durable red tape around the main structure that violently tried to entangle, albeit unsuccessfully due to the gap in the threat level of the shadow and himself. Seeing this as a way to track the location of the main shadow, Baron grab hold of the red tape, wrapping it around one of his arms as he slowly walked through the walls and towards the source. However, this shadow's structure was also relying on another type of filter, something that resembled the antibodies inside a body.

The sound of chains could be heard from Baron's comlink as he eventually realized that the shadow goons that were present were not the only thing they needed to worry about. "Heartbreak, Swan. You're gonna have to go forward on your own for a bit. " Baron informed his teammates that there would likely be a delay before he could assist them once again. Baron cracked his neck as he came face to face with likely the most feared shadow in mementos, the reaper. "Let's see if you're as good as I remember."

Masami was impressed in seeing where her logic was at from testing the red tape to get a closer look at what happens when items get confiscated. As she saw the hell magatama take off in one direction she smiled at the breakthrough with a nod, "Nice job Heartbreak."

She then listened to her and ran down alongside the path that the red tape had taken the item down. As she followed it sticking to the plan, she'd hear Heartbreak and Baron causing chaos each elsewhere until the chiming of chains were heard amongst them all. She paused wondering if she should go back to help, until Baron assured them that he could take care of it. Trusting in his capability, she moved on hoping that Heartbreak would be able to catch up soon. The item that was confiscated soon went out of sight, proving itself faster than her. But she noticed that the red tape glowed slightly down the path to continue guiding her a bit longer looking like it will eventually fade out. Unfortunately for her, a stray shadow somehow was able to approach her and summoned back up no less, making a total of four star-shaped shadows, the Decarabia, appear in her way. Masami growled clearly frustrated as she didn't stop.

"I would say get outta the way, but it's too late for that now." She threw her chakrams at the farthest left and right Decarabias, slicing them cleanly in half. By the time she reached in front of the other two her chakrams had bounced back, returning to her so that she was able to swiftly cross slash at the remaining enemies, letting them spew out blood before disappearing as she continued on her way without wasting more time. But by this time, the glowing had faded away. Swan scoffed as she fished around her person to grab another item and placed a Psych Bomb for it to be awkwardly consumed. She then followed the item which led the way to their destination.

While the maze might have seemed endless and impenetrable just a few minutes ago, that swiftly seemed to be no longer the case as Thrud's rampaging rapidly put holes in the formerly-organized landscape, faster than the red tape and paperwork could patch up. And Swan, leading the charge, would soon find herself at the center of the maze, where the Director's Shadow sat hunched over its solid, wooden desk. "Hm, now that's troubling. Despite my warnings and my prior leniency, you have committed extensive vandalism of official property, assault on staff, and to top it all off, trespassing on my office!" Standing to its feet, the ordinary human figure soon became wreathed in shadow, grabbing the desk before it and hurling it straight at Swan before clutching its head.

"Rrrgh...I was content to let you run around until the proper authorities could collect you, but since you have shown your continued insistence in breaking the law...I will have to take corrective action myself!" While Swan would likely be able to dodge the flying desk, the Director's Shadow proceeded to emit a large shockwave, blowing away the nearest walls and everything else in the vicinity, including the surviving Shadows that were sent flying and screaming in alien tongues. As the fluttering papers and debris cleared, it would soon become evident that the area surrounding the Shadow had been blasted into a shape resembling a round arena, giving the Thieves' Personas quite enough room to work. And the Shadow itself had regained its form, adopting the guise of Hokuto Seikun.

"Do not consider this punishment." The Shadow sighed. "Only a necessary step for the preservation of law and order." It breathed in, and exhaled a swarm of icicles that shot forwards, hurtling towards Swan..

Thunkthunkthunkthunkthunk

The solid projectiles bounced off harmlessly as Shiro finally caught up, diving forward and deflecting the lot of them with her new shield. "My apologies, Director." Shiro frowned. "But we'll make this exception, one way or another."

As Thrud landed next to her, Shiro set her stance. "I am ever thankful to have you at my back, Swan. Now let us finish this, before Baron has too much trouble with his little diversion." The Shadow seemed to be quite durable against elemental magic, but some well-placed physical attacks could shatter its defenses...

After evading the desk and witnessing the maze change shape giving more space around them, Swan took this time to bring out Scheherazade as she appeared from a pool of dark abyss on the floor with her usual ominous, shining smile. In seeing the ice that formed around the shadow, Swan started to get worried since she knew that her and her persona didn't fare well against ice or water based attacks in particular. When the icicles were suddenly going to close in on her, she instinctively guarded herself with her chakrams held in front of her as well as her persona preparing herself to most likely get very injured by this attack. Thankfully, Heartbreak caught up to her right in the nick of time as she blocked the icicles from reaching her with ease. In response to thanking Swan she smiled back and said, "Don't thank me yet. But nevertheless you're right, we need to take care of this asshole first."

Swan took into consideration that the maze seemed to be an extension of himself somehow and how earlier when they were using magatamas on it, the maze seemed resistant to it. This led Swan to the conclusion that elemental magic wouldn't do much good against this shadow. Relying on only physical strength would be challenging for Swan, but she needed to do what she could. She let a chakram fly at Hokuto Seikun and then had Scheherazade charge in at him. The chakram would then hit the block-like, frozen surface of the shadow, creating a deep notch in it before bouncing back. Scheherazade then swiped at the chakram so that it could return back to the shadow, creating yet another large chip from the outer layer he had wearing before the weapon finally returned to Swan. Following this, Scheherazade lifted her claymore and made a horizontal slash at the director.

"Agh!" The Director's composure seemed to falter for just a bit as Swan mounted her assault. While its magic was powerful, it certainly seemed to be unable to stand up to a sufficient physical assault.

"Is that how it shall be, Director?" Shiro scoffed.

"We shall take you on then. En garde!" Shiro and Thrud moved in opposite directions, aiming to form a line perpendicular to Swan's position. Still deprived of her lance, Shiro leveled her gun, trusting her hands to stay steady and her aim to be true, as she coordinated her attack with Swan. She braced herself and pulled the trigger, unleashing a hail of bullets that chipped steadily at Hokuto Seikun's icy barrier. Thrud lunged in from the other end, her wings swooping and striking like the tail of a scorpion. Each blow from the pointed tips of her wings was like an icepick, gouging holes in the barrier. They could soon expose him for a fatal blow, if not for..

"Enough!" The talisman in the Shadow's hand flashed for a moment, activating a Tetrakarn barrier that gleamed orange for a split second. Just long enough to repel Thrud and Swan's physical attacks, launching them back several meters away

"Your antisocial behavior ends here." The Director shook his head. Several other Shadows leapt into the arena, taking the form of demons like Nata Taishi, Eligor, or Kin-Ki.

"I'll even give you a head start if you want to run. But you're too prideful for that, aren't you?" The talisman that the Shadow had held up earlier seemed to have turned dull. It would be a while before it could defend itself in that way again. Or maybe the Thieves should make sure it never does.

Baron's theory was unfortunately proven correct, the reaper was still too much for him to handle. Weaving in between the gunshots and elemental blasts, the masked man would throw a cluster of smoke bombs into the made reaper's face along with a few mysterious powders and liquids he could find in his utility belt. Thankfully, whatever he had thrown out disoriented the reaper enough to allow him to get away.

"Team, I've managed to get away. I'll rendezvous at your location as soon as possible." Baron's voice spoke into the comms once more before disappearing again. Tearing through the maze-like before, Baron would track the two teammates' locations, shooting a grappling hook onto the topside of the walls of the maze, he started walking on top of the cubicles. This wasn't the most efficient way of traversing the place, but it was the most entertaining for him.

Eventually, he would end up right above the area where the duo was fighting. Immediately assembling his guns into a sniper rifle configuration, he pointed his rifle towards the opponent, looking through his scope, waiting for an opportune time to strike. "I have him in my sights." Chambering a special round, he immediately aimed at centre mass and pulled the trigger. While the bullet itself dealt negligible damage, the spell "debilitate" would instantly be cast onto the crystal-like shadow, significantly weakening it's base stats. Before long, more shadows began to emerged from the other side of the arena, seeking to help their master. Thankfully, Baron began opening fire on them as well, this time using live ammunition, killing anything that got in the way of this climatic showdown. " I'll give you two some covering fire while you guys clean up." Baron was confident that with their current threat levels and skill sets, they were more than a match for such a foe.

Just when Swan thought that they were making some real headway with bringing down the integrity of rough barrier, Hokuto Seikun furthered his defense by using the Tetrakarn skill to counter them all. As Swan and Heartbreak were forced back by the ability, Scheherazade stabbed her claymore to the ground and sunk her shadowy feet down to the floor to prevent herself from being pushed away as well. Upon seeing the backup that was brought by the direct, Masami got back up to ready her weapons for further use. It was then that Baron thankfully shot down the shadows that were about to charge in at her and Heartbreak. "Understood," Swan said after Baron let them know that he would continue to cover them as they focused on the target.

Afterwards, the shadow seemed to have felt that it was a good time to gloat to those that were opposing him. His taunts only made Swan scoff and respond with, "You say that if we stay we are prideful, but what you didn't mention is that if we leave then we are cowards. But what do you know?" Masami again swirled a chakram at Hokuto Seikun, but this time it stuck into the surface of his defense as it cause a few cracks to spread. Scheherazade followed up by bringing her claymore down onto the weapon, separating a large chunk to fall from him. At the same time, Swan ran up to him as she picked up the large, sharp chunk of crystalized layer that had just fallen.

"You're just a pencil-pushing adult that hides behind a desk filled with rules and regulations unlike Heartbreak who is willing to face problems like you head on. So from where I'm standing, you're the coward!" The large icicle Swan picked was being used as a battering ram as she charged at the shadow, aiming at the largest crack he had and stabbed there, making the barrier finally break apart.

"Kuh..." As Baron finished off most of the backup and Swan took the chance to break the barrier, Shiro had a split second to catch her breath. Breaking through the maze was tiring, even more so than this battle. But this was the opportunity she needed, and it was time to strike. Gathering all her strength, amplified by her presence in the Metaverse, Shiro broke into a sprint.

"ToryAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" A battle cry escaped her lips as she launched into the air, carrying her momentum into a flying kick that allowed her to slam her boot firmly into Hokuto Seikun's chest, sending him bowling backwards. Faced with the blunt, shattering impact, part of his robe unraveled into red tape, losing its grip on Shiro's confiscated lance that promptly soared into the air. Not missing a beat, Shiro grabbed the loose weapon. Thrud's jets ignited as she grabbed her master under her arms, carrying her forward.

"This is it!" The sharp tip of Shiro's lance hooked into the intact shoulder of Hokuto Seikun's robe, carrying him further back at jet speed

CRASH

The weapon cracked the wall beyond, pinning the Director's Shadow firmly. The creature was subdued, not destroyed. But quite close to it. Landing on her feet, Shiro tread cautiously towards it, raising her visor. "I command thee thus: You shall return Shirome Akiyama's call. You will agree to her terms. And you will ensure that the children in her care are as safe as you can ensure in their new homes." Even in this moment, she felt the need to justify herself. "She...she did not do this to absolve herself. She did it so their future wouldn't be dark like hers."

"..." Hokuto Seikun nodded, acknowledging her will before vanishing in a cloud of shadow. Soon after, the little segment of Mementos that had bent to its will dissolved as well, returning the Thieves to the same familiar tunnels

"I..." Shiro turned to Swan. "...thank you for coming with me today. I...and they, owe everything to you."

Her next few steps faltered from her exertion, and she fell resting against her lance. With her free hand, she unhooked her helmet and dropped it beside her as she looked Baron's mask in the eye. "And you...I say this not as one of the Phantom Thieves. You're a good man. I did not want or need anything from you of all people before this. But today...I owe to you as well. ...Thank you."

As Thrud faded away, returning to Shiro's mind, she almost seemed to glow gold for a moment. Shiro's efforts had proven herself today: she had confronted an adversary for her own goals, but just as much for the sake of others. She changed a heart not only through courage, but also compassion, and gratitude. Perhaps this heralded a greater change.

The shadow's defeat was inevitable. Had Shiro failed to do land the decisive blow, Baron would have done so for her. Thankfully, with her determination and Swan's assistance, such help was unnecessary.

Wiping out the remaining shadows with a few well placed shots, Baron would jump down from his vantage point, landing right next to the two ladies. "Well done. As always." Baron congrutlated the duo once more in their display of strength and determination. Seeing Shiro not only pick her own targets but showing a willingness to lean on others was a pleasant development. As she thanked Masami, Baron was just about ready to leave until Shiro stopped and thank him to

Baron turned around, only to be greeted by Shiro unarmored visage along with words of praise he never he would hear from her. Baron was momentarily stunned a for a bit, staying silent and motionless. "All part of our agreement. No thanks needed." Baron did his best to hide his bemusement of the whole situation under his usual guise of professionalism. "And worry not, when the time is right. I too will remove this mask. But until, all I ask is we continue to cooperate with one another." Baron extended his hand to Shiro, hoping to solidify this mutual agreement in a more official capacity.

Shiro's act of selflessness in changing the heart of the director for the sake of letting her Sisters go to better homes had really inspired Masami. Since then, she had started looking into some of the names on her parents' prior targets list. She knew that it was going to a long and arduous process, but the fact that she now was starting to look into some of these people made her feel like she was once again taking a step in the right direction.

That Weird girl Anthem Nellancholy

 

[Nellancholy]

Shirome Akiyama took a deep breath of the warmer, fragrant spring air as she walked to the festival grounds in the Shujin Academy tracksuit one of them had managed to find. It wasn't exactly the best, but it was what they had. There were a few welcome days of rest since her latest little escapade, and she'd spent some time dealing with the uncertainty of her sisters once she broke the news to them.

She had not heard the voice of the Director since that day, nor seen his face. But the results of her effort were plain as day to see, when his secretary called her up and got her to pass on the location of what remained of the warehouse. In a few days more the Department of Welfare would pick them up and...hold them somewhere cleaner, safer, before they got placed. That would be...the best thing she could do for them. The...duty she felt for them would be discharged just like that. And what about herself? Well, she'd have more time to figure that out once that was done with.

---

Morgana would promptly be surprised by a girl's voice popping up behind him. "Aha, you must be Morgana!" Yui, a girl no older than 12 or 13, trotted over, petting him on the head and stroking along his back. To her eyes, he was nothing more than an ordinary cat, and neither would his voice mean anything to her...probably. "And...you're Lady Ann, right?" Yui turned, focusing her gaze deep into the eyes of the blonde. "Banchou said you were pretty...well, she used the word 'preening' and 'airhead' instead, but..."

"Yui!" Gomi interrupted, coming up behind her and resting her hand on Yui's shoulder. "Shiro said...not to call her that anymore. Better get used to it." She looked over the group, eyes narrowing in an approximation of caution. "So you're the guys Shiro's been hanging out with. I could get mad about that and throw a fit like Amane did, but I get that you helped Shiro get into the Director's head..." She probably didn't know that was literal. "...so I guess thanks for that." As relieved as they seemed to be, the younger girls certainly couldn't shake off their worries about those of their former friends who had abandoned the group, especially after Himura's attack the other day.

"There you are." Shiro arrived, the rest of the group in tow. None of them were dressed any better. "Stick close, let's not get lost here." The pompous, ironically proper tone of voice was entirely absent. Shiro took a moment to make eye contact with the rest of the Thieves as well. "What? I'm...taking the kids out." Her expression was dry. "One last time before..."

"We go to new homes." Yui nodded, unaware of the phrasing that made them sound like puppies or something.

"Well, either one of you takes the lead today, or my sisters will." Shiro exhaled, turning and looking straight at Masami, exchanging a knowing glance with her. "How are you holding up? Don't push yourself too hard."

That Weird girl Maeve Valor

 

[Anthem]

A grin was on Imato's face as Ann and Mona slowly put two and two together, figuring out just who he was. The compliments from the two just added fuel to the smile, though as Masami first spoke he rolled his eyes. A small nod then came from him. "Don't worry about the whole trust stuff, if I had any doubts I wouldn't have agreed to our little deal." Taking a moment, the brute recalled just what made him stop wearing the mask. The deal that he made with Masami.

Spoiler: Removal of the Mask

Imato would groan as he woke from his slumber to the sound of his alarm, and would start to get ready for the day ahead of him. Being ready to go as quickly as usual, the teen bid farewell to his parents before making the trip to Shujin once more. Though Imato’s stride was quickly stopped as he remembered something vital that would be going on for the next week or so. With a small smirk, he would take out his phone.

M to Masami : “I presume you’re going to start hunting for my identity, Ogawa-chan. I wish you good luck as I’ll ensure this won’t be an easy task for you. I’ll give this little game a week, let’s see what you can find by then.”

Imato chuckled under his breath before getting ready for this challenge, tying his hair back and putting his hood on to prevent his abnormal hair color from being seen with ease. And after some thought, he would enter a general store to get a couple more items to help him conceal his identity. Walking out with fake glasses on and a walking cane, his look completely changed from what it usually was. Satisfied with these changes for now, Imato would continue his way to Shujin with a small smirk still plastered on his face.

Still feeling groggy, Masami dragged her feet to the nearest vending machine at her place. She ran a card over a platform on the vending machine to promptly receive some much needed coffee and just when she thought she couldn’t be in a crankier mood, she felt droplets of rain begin to sprinkly across the surface of the entrance to the subway station. Masami growled slightly in frustration until she felt her phone vibrate. Curious about who would message her this early, she looked at her phone.

Masami was never a good morning person, but at seeing the message before her, it was able to
put a mischievous smile on her face. She didn’t bother to respond and put away her phone. “A week huh? That’s doable.”

As she took the subway station and approached Shujin Academy, she thought of what she wanted to do first. It would not be efficient if she just scoured the school on foot looking for M, so instead she decided to go in an equally practical direction with this and look through the school year book.

While entering the school, her peripheral vision caught the image of a person with their hood on, glasses, and a walking cane. ‘Strange, I don’t remember seeing a tall blind person coming to school before. I wonder if…. No, he wouldn’t be that much of an imbecile to pull something outlandish like that.’

As Imato made his way into the school, he quickly made his way to the bathroom on the first floor and took off the glasses, throwing the cane away as well. He would look at his hair and decided to keep it tied back since it was a hairstyle he wouldn’t normally wear on any occasion. With that he decided to walk around before classes started, though he made sure to keep his head down. Was this a bad idea? Yes, but did he care? No, he wanted to see what ‘Detective Masami’ was going to do in her situation.

He walked the halls and listened to various students speaking of things happening in the school, such as assembly happening within a few days. Though info like that was of no use to Imato at this moment since he didn’t know how he could use something like that to his advantage, if he could at all. ‘I need to find something to do so I can blend in, I’m starting to stick out like a sore thumb even though all these people are also walking around…’ Imato thought to himself before remembering that he could go to his locker and ‘sort’ his belongings for now. So as quick as he thought of it, Imato went to his locker and started going through his bag and the locker, while also keeping an eye out on the passersbys.

After spending her free time on her first day scouring through the year book, she was shocked to a surprising amount of students that dyed their hair white. Altogether, there were seven potential suspects as to which one was M which seems simple enough to her. All she needed to do was approach each of these students and rule them out one by one. Seven people to investigate within seven days was plenty of time for her, but she was never one to procrastinate. The first one she decided to look into was a person by the name of Horiuchi Yoshito. And after looking at the index in the back showing all places he was mentioned in the yearbook, she found out that he was in the Judo Club.

For the rest of the first day, she spent her time gathering intel on when the Judo Club met up and where. After school, she changed into her gym clothes and decided to run the track so that she was in the area near where the Judo Club took place. She had hoped to bump into them when they got done with their session.

The Judo Club would finish their session and would start getting ready to leave for the day as many of the members had other things to do either at home or before heading there. Horiuchi Yoshito seemed to be one of the people packing their things and preparing to leave the school grounds. Horiuchi seemed to be quite the socialite and well liked among his peers as he had almost talked to everyone as they left. Soon enough he was ready to leave as well, and started to walk along the track to the exit. Unknowingly to him, a certain student was headed his way with more than a few questions.

Imato was still in the school after hours, having decided to sit back in the library for a while. While he wasn’t studying, he was reading various topics within various pieces of literature with a small smirk on his face. ‘She’s passed me a few times today and hasn’t noticed once. Going well so far…’ Imato thought to himself before standing and putting his hood up, thinking it was a good time to exit the school grounds. So he would flip open his phone and would start to mess around on the device as he walked off the school grounds, still not worried about the challenge.

Masami watched as from the corner of her caught sight of white hair that belonged to someone exiting the room the Judo Club was being taught in. She smiled to herself as she continued running along the track, letting the wires attached to the earbuds in her ears bounce with each step and she had her phone ready, hanging loosely in her pocket.

As she was about to run past Horiuchi, she let her phone drop out of her pocket, landing next to him and making herself trip to keep from stepping on her phone. “Whoa!” With that, she slightly bumped into him, but ultimately and purposely face-planted into the dirt of the track.

“Owwwch, I think I sprained my ankle,” the green haired girl muttered to herself as she sat up and then looked up at the boy. “Oh! I’m so sorry for running into you like that. That teaches me not to bring my phone while running right?” She said jokingly and smiled up at him. At this point she would now be able to clearly look over his physical features in comparison to M.

Horiuchi would stumble back as the green-haired lady bumped into him, he almost fell onto his bum but was able to keep his balance thankfully. He turned to see the girl that was on the ground as he scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, you really shouldn’t. You’re going to end up actually breaking something if you continue that sort of activity.” He said as he put his stuff down and with a sigh, helping the girl up.

He seemed to have a similar build to M, being slim but seemed to also have a bit more muscle definition due to his activities. Horiuchi also seemed to be a lot more calm than M usually was, not constantly going up and down with one or multiple emotions. “Thankfully it seems like nothing was broken, unless you hurt your head on the way down.” The boy would look over to the phone the girl dropped, picking it up and handing it to her.

“Anything else you may have dropped on your run… Or fall?” Horiuchi said with a small smirk.

After assessing the boy, Masami came to the conclusion that he seems a bit too put together to be Tragedy. Not to mention, he wouldn’t make such a light-hearted joke like that. Coming to this conclusion, Masami grabbed her phone from him and then stood up, dusting herself off. “No, I don't think I did. But thank you!” She smiled at him before she continued running a couple of more laps before she was sure he was out of sight. With that, her time looking into the mysterious M-San on the first day was done.

The next day, she focused on two more people to look into. The first being Tomio Umemoto, who was in the art club. The second one was Kichirou Sunada, a member of the Shogi club. That in of itself didn’t seem like something he would be interested in, but then again, she couldn’t rule anything out just on a hunch. She needed to see the person for herself and get a good read on him, in order to officially cross him off the list.

To get close to the Art club, she figured that if she delivered supplies to the classroom, there wouldn’t be any suspicion. To do as such, she scouted for the supply closet until she found it. When no one was looking, she tried to pick the lock, but it proved too sturdy for her. Suddenly, she heard footsteps coming in her direction so she walked a ways from the door and casually stood, looking down at her phone.

Due to it being the second day, Imato had sent another text to Masami to mess with her and hopefully to throw her off as well. 'Day two, Ogawa-chan. And you haven’t gotten anywhere close to finding little ol’ me. But again, good luck!~’ He smirked at the text before going through his day rather easily, without any problems.

Later that day when the clubs were meeting, Tomio was dashing through the halls as he was trying to get a million things done before the day was over. “So much to do!!” He groaned with his somewhat high pitched voice as he was making his way to the supply closet with a key lent to him by a teacher. He would see a female student somewhat close to the closet, but wouldn’t think much of it. Tomio whistled as he opened the closet, and started to grab some supplies.

When Masami heard the boy approach the supply closet, she glanced over, pleased to see the very person she was going to set out to search for. “Maybe M-San wishing me luck actually worked today,” She thought to herself as she put away her phone and waited until he walked into the closet, scrambling for supplies. She then casually walked to the closet acting like she was about to close the door before noticing he was there. "Oh! I didn't realize you were in here, I didn't even notice you walk in here. I just saw that the door was left open and I know how important it is to keep the supplies locked away so that's why I almost closed the door on you," she explained with a smile as she observed his reaction.

Tomio would look to the girl that started speaking to him, it seemed she had almost closed the door but was confused to see that it was the girl that was on her phone. “Yes it is rather important to keep these supplies safe, especially from troublemakers that roam on the campus after hours.” The boy had gathered all the supplies the club needed onto a cart for ease of movement. “Now get out of my way, as I have things to do Miss.” Tomio said to Masami as he forced her to move by almost running her over with the cart of supplies he had gathered from the closet, which he promptly closed while giving Masami a stink eye. He would then start to leave from the area to the art club’s meeting place, leaving the green-haired girl there.

Seeing how rude Tomio was, Masami didn’t take too kindly to his attitude. When he walked past her and finally took his eyes off her, she swiped the keys from him without raising suspicion. After he was out of sight she threw the keys in the room and locked the door behind her so that later on, he would be blamed for leaving the keys in the locked room. After that was taken care of, she walked away thinking, “As much M can be rude, it’s never without reason. I get the feeling this isn’t him either… On to the next one.”

Towards the end of the day, she decided to be more direct and just walked into the classroom that held the Shogi club members. When she walked in, a couple of students were already in an intense game of Shogi. The room was on the quieter side as everyone seemed so focused on the moves that were being played. She got comfortable being among the other spectators as she saw the person she wanted to look into as being possibly M was one of the two people partaking in this riveting game of Shogi. Kichirou Sunada seemed deep in thought, assessing the board before making his next move, and it was a very strategic one at that; positioning his bishop to take down a knight while simultaneously ensuring the other knight would be taken out next turn as well. This was all it took for Masami to know that this wasn’t M. Tragedy was a brash person that liked to attack things head on. He didn’t strike her as a person that would look into things two moves ahead and think before acting. With that, she walked back out of the room with a sigh and mentally crossed Kichirou off her list.

Finding his day to be rather simple with no potential run-ins with Masami so far, Imato would chuckle under his breath as he thought day two would be one where he didn’t have to do anything to hide his identity. The boy would stand up from his spot under his usual tree / resting point, cracking his knuckles and stretching out before looking to the sky. ‘Yep, time to get home so Mom and Dad don’t get on me for being out too late into the night, especially when there is school again tomorrow.’ He thought to himself as he picked up his bag and looked at his flip phone to make sure he hadn’t missed any important texts while doing his classwork. Seeing nothing of importance, Imato started to make his way out of the school without much worry in mind.

Though just as one would predict with his luck, the day would not be so simple for Imato as he thought it would be. As he was walking out of the school, due to the lack of attention he had on where he was walking, the tall boy would end up crashing directly into a fellow student who seemed to be leaving at the time. “Oh cra-” Before he could finish the profanity, Imato fell back and crashed into the ground behind him. He would put his hand behind his head in pain as he screamed profanities within his mind, but all that could be heard in reality was him just hissing at the pain.

Looking up to see who he had bumped into, Imato’s red eyes widened as he saw the green-haired student he had been trying to avoid all day, Masami Ogawa. Scrambling to his feet in an awkward manner, as much as he hated apologies, Imato would bow and feign sincerity. “I apologize Ogawa-san. I wasn’t looking where I was going-” The boy said before realizing a mistake he had made, saying her name even though the two had never interacted in reality before. He just hoped the girl wouldn’t notice and would be on her way.

Masami immediately picked up on this. After Masami bumped into him and took a couple of steps back, she realized who it was exactly that ran into her. It was none other than one of the people on her list of white-haired students… Imato Makage was it? What intrigued her even further was his response. He had addressed her by her last name despite having never actually met the boy. A smirk played upon her face as she reached a hand out to him, “It’s no trouble at all… Do I by any chance know you? How do you know my family name?” Her smile remained unchanging as she asked directly how he knew, carefully observing his behavior to this inquiry.

In the background, an announcement was being transmitted over the intercom throughout the school. "Just a friendly reminder, tomorrow there will be a school assembly at 2:00 PM. All students are required to attend as requested by staff and student council members. Thank you," the message cut out.

Imato would feel panicked to his core, like all the work he had done to keep this challenge going was for nothing. Though he still had a few tricks up his sleeve, and remained calm on the outside. “Well that can be simply answered, we’re in the same homeroom. I thought it would be good to know everyone so I may have done a bit of snooping to learn names.” The boy explained, while he was lying through his teeth, he made his voice seem kind and almost innocent which would help his lie… hopefully. In his mind, he was probably screwed either way.

Her smile only widened as she responded with, “Snooping huh? Now why would you want to do that? That’s being a bit paranoid don’t you think? Now… are you just gonna sit there or are you gonna let me help you up?” She leaned forward a bit more at this offer as she gestured to her hand for him to take.

It was then that the cloudy sky started to expend from the precipitation in the air as it began to rain. Masami looked up slightly with a forced frown, “Huh, the forecast today said it wouldn’t rain and I didn’t even bring my umbrella. What a damn tragedy isn’t it?” She looked back to him hoping to pick up some sort of response from his reaction.

Imato rolled his eyes as he took her hand and stood up, but he stayed in a bit of a slouched stance to not seem as tall as he actually is. “Thank you, I suppose.” He looked to the sky as the rain started to fall down. “I suppose you could call it that? I just call it bad luck at this point…” The boy sighed as he pulled out his umbrella from his bag, having been prepared since he actually kept some track of the weather.

“You can walk with me if you wish, I’m headed to the subway like most.” Imato explained as he started to walk. He kept space for Masami if she wanted to walk with him, but had enough room for himself at the same time so he stayed dry-ish under the umbrella.

Masami widened her eyes not expecting the offer. If he really was Tragedy why would he want to spend any more time than necessary around her and risk her becoming more sure about his identity. This perplexed Masami as she warily accepted with, “Um, sure. Thank you.”

As they continued walking she began to wonder if she maybe was quick to judge and perhaps her initial suspicion of him being the right person was possibly wrong. He didn’t seem to react to her saying his code name, so that threw her off a little. She looked over to him as she kept going back and forth in her mind as to whether her assessment was correct or not and decided to test him further. “So… I’ve been hearing a lot of the Phantom Thieves around school. Do you think they are just?”

Was this Imato’s plan? To trick her into thinking he was just another failed cause to look into by doing these polite gestures and walking with her? Not even he knew, but all the boy could do was hope that it would work out for him as they made their way to the station. He looked over as she asked about the Phantom Thieves and would look back to where he was walking with a small: ‘Hm.’

“I can’t say to be honest. If they’re doing this to help the public then sure, but if it’s some sort of revolution to benefit only them? Then no.” Imato shrugged as he answered her, keeping his faux personality rather believable. He had to act like someone he wasn’t, which he hated to his core but kept the act going since it was working for him so far. Every trick up his sleeve is going to be forced to play against someone like Masami.

She couldn't point out what it was, but he seemed off. His words seemed average, a normal answer for a normal student. It contrasted with the paranoid person she had just accused him of being. She decided to question this part further. "So, back to you snooping… are you some sort of creep or something?" She asked with a serious look, trying not to laugh before saying more.

"I mean I've had admirers in the past but none as timid enough to have 'accidentally' bumped into me and then casually ask to walk with me to the station. I'm flattered but sorry, you're not my type," she couldn't help now smiling as she tried to get a rise out of him. The real Tragedy wouldn't just let her outright call him a coward, let alone accuse him of being an infatuated stalker.

Imato would blink a few times, trying to process what he had just been accused of, and was annoyed to say the least. "What?! I'm sorry if you even thought of that Ogawa, but you couldn't be further from the truth." He attempted to keep his cool but was now embarrassed due to her stupid claim. His pale face turned a slight red due to the embarrassment of her even considering such an idea!

"You know… Maybe you can walk the rest of the way on your own." Imato would move the umbrella, allowing the rain to pour directly onto Masami. He would then quicken his pace, using his free hand to flip the bird towards the girl. "Have fun getting soaked, mosshead!" He exclaimed as he walked away.

Masami wasn't too bothered by the rain and never broke her smile as she chuckled to herself, seeking refuge to walk along the sides of buildings to shield her. If it were any other circumstance, she would be mad about the name-calling and being left out in the rain, but at this moment she got the annoyed reaction she wanted from him. She even prompted him to use an obscene gesture which Tragedy had been known to use as well. She now felt better about her theory with him being Tragedy. She didn't want to call in her victory now though. She had to be sure. There were still three more students that had yet to observe, but she also didn't want to waste any time if Imato was indeed Tragedy.

On the way back home she was deep in thought until she began to hatch a plan… and it started with attending the school assembly.

The next day was said day, the assembly would be happening near the end of the school day so afterwards students could be on their merry way. Imato was somewhat stuck in thought due to his run in with Masami the day before. Did he give himself away by the way he acted? Or was it believable enough that he had no connections at all? He didn't know at this point.

Without much trouble sneaking around the normal part of the school day, the boy was ready to go to the assembly and leave with another day closer to victory for him. That is, if he could get through the assembly without any form of problems, or anyone trying to find him out.

The plan was simple, all she needed to do was make sure that all their phones were on. Which was actually easier to make sure than what she thought it would be. Masami made sure to get to the auditorium that always held the assemblies as early as possible so that she could identify the remaining three suspects along with Imato when they walked in. Luckily, with the other three they were your average teenager that took out their phone momentarily when they weren’t in class. On the other hand, she hadn’t seen Imato enter the auditorium yet to make sure he had his phone on. Even if he didn’t that wouldn’t matter all that much. Considering that with her plan, if she called M’s number during the assembly and none of their phones rang, then by process of elimination, Imato would be the one since he would be the only one she didn’t check to see the status of the phone. Soon before starting, Masami would make her way to be seated towards the back so that she can get a good view of all four people within the room.

When the time had come, Imato entered the auditorium rather late so he could keep close to the exits even if it made him look a little more suspicious. Keeping an eye out for anyone potentially snooping about, the boy was unsure if he should even be here but he knew if he didn’t come that would have made him look worse or put under higher suspicion. His paranoia was going off the charts with the possibilities of what could go wrong with his plans here. ‘God damn it, calm down Makage! You’ve done good so far, you can survive a little presentation!’ Imato would slap himself and calm down, leaning against the wall and waiting for the presentation to start. The faster this starts, the faster it ends and he can get out.

As the assembly began, Masami every so often would continuously do a headcount to keep tabs on the four white-haired students. The presentation was the usual type of assembly where some members of the student council tried different ways to motivate students to show school spirit and encourage people to volunteer helping for events or join certain programs.

After sufficient time had passed and it was well into the presentation, Masami took out her phone and glanced down to discreetly look for M’s number among the Phantom Thieves’ message group. With one click of the button, she smirked as she waited to see for any reactions. “Now where are you M-san” she whispered to herself.

As the presentation continued, Imato’s nerves would calm down from their original high as he hadn’t noticed anything that could be potentially hazardous to his identity. Though he didn’t like that he couldn’t really take the chance to glance around at the crowd to try finding Masami, to make sure she wasn’t up to some sort of antics. Thinking that he was probably safe either way, the white-haired boy wouldn’t think much of it until…

Bzz Bzz. Bzz Bzz.

‘My phone… Oh, that little-’ Imato quickly moved to prevent any more vibrations from coming from the phone, before taking a quick chance to exit from the auditorium while the teachers were distracted. “Shit shit shit-” He mumbled as he exited the room, trying to get out of the school. Where would he go after that? He had no clue, and if anyone were to follow him they would probably catch up rather quickly.

As she did a quick glance to the four people, her eyes landed on Imato, barely catching sight of him making his way out of the room. “I knew it! It was him. I should learn to trust my instincts more often,” she thought as her smile only grew. After this she said to herself, “Got ya’.” With that she swiftly weaved her way around people with ease. Years on the streets swindling from people helped in that she knew how to disappear into a crowd and work her way through them. Since she too was still in the back of the auditorium, it also made it so that she was able to walk out of the room without any issues and gave chase to him. When she finally caught up to him she stopped and yelled over to the frantic boy, “How unfortunate, forgot to turn your phone off Makage-san? Or should I call you Tragedy? Oh right, in the real world you would rather be called M-San.”

Imato would stop in his tracks as he heard Masami behind him, calling out that she found out who he was and who Tragedy was behind the mask. With a small, defeated sigh he would turn around to face the moss-headed girl with a small smirk as he gave her a slow clap. “Well, I suppose you have caught me, Ogawa-chan. Though it did take you much longer than I thought it would, I suppose I overestimated you?” The white-haired boy would taunt, using his confident act like he usually did around the thieves, or in general whenever at school. “Though I guess I’ll allow you to call me by my regular name.” Imato taunted once more, though inside his mind it was just internal screaming along with Loki laughing at him.

Masami raised an eyebrow yet still seemed entertained as she laughed a little at his haughty behavior even though she called him out. “Sounds like you had faith all along that I would find out who you are within the allotted time then. That in itself is reassuring, even though you SAY that you overestimated me Makage-San,” she pointed out smugly as she approached him more instead of talking away from across the hall.

“M-san never really fit you anyway,” she teased as she started to wonder about something else. Over the past couple of days, along with investigating the people she suspected to be Tragedy, she also researched what she could on who they were. This included not only of course what clubs they were into, but also their background regarding their families. Given, she didn’t have that much access to that sort of information; but for Imato Makage in particular, she wasn’t able to find out anything with his family name. Meaning that his family was not rich, so that leaves the question again: why keep his identity hidden? “So… back at the buffet you said that you had the mask on because you didn’t trust us at first… I now think that is only partially the truth, so mind telling me your other reason for why you have been hiding your identity from us? I mean all of us share the same risk by trusting each other,” she asked as she crossed her arms, interested in his answer.

Imato rolled his eyes at her smug remarks, did he think she would eventually find out who was behind the mask? Yes, but he wouldn’t let her know that much. As Masami started to pick away at what he said to her in the past, he couldn’t help but be surprised by how much thinking she had really put into this little investigation of hers, it only lead him to wonder how much more she really knew or what she had learned about him in the short time. Though he would think it was impossible for her to find anything more than a little bit, considering his family was just another name in Japan, nothing special.

“Well look at you being a damned good detective, I suppose you’re right about the mask…” Imato admitted that he did only partially give reason to why he decided to hide his identity from the other thieves, and hell, the reason wasn’t that much of a good one. “While I did hold little to no trust in the thieves at the beginning, I also had taken what Baron said to heart. I kept myself hidden from the chance of being found out so the few people I did care about wouldn’t get further dragged into a mess of mine.” As he spoke, Imato thought about his family since they were the ones he was protecting by hiding his identity. “If something were to happen to them… Well, I wouldn’t know what to do. Without them I’d have no reason to stick around I suppose.” As he admitted his thoughts, he looked at the ground while thinking of what he would really do if he had lost it all. He didn’t know… not a single bit.

Masami paused for a moment, trying to comprehend what she just heard come from Imato as she looked away in thought. In the end, the best she was able to say with a distant expression was, "I see… this is one thing we differ in then. I wish I had the same luxury…" With the last sentence she stated in a quieter tone. Unfortunately for Masami she could not understand that level of dedication enough to go to such lengths to protect their family. If she were in a dire situation where it meant either her parent’s lives or hers, she knew without a doubt she would sacrifice them with the drop of a hat. Such love and sense of fealty was foreign to her, even though she herself had always wanted a bond like that. Perhaps one day she would feel that way, but currently she only felt a selfish sense of jealousy for the boy and had an awareness of this emotion.

To combat this sentiment she decided to change the subject and ask with a fake smile to distract him from the envy she truly felt, “Anyway, of course you’d have a reason to stick around you idiot. You’d have us, you’re friends.” She hoped she was able to successfully avert his attention as she wondered where his actions would go from here. “So is that it? Are you finally going to come to the meetings without that damn mask on?”

Imato frowned a tad when Masami talked about her not having the same luxury, his suspicions of her hiding something must have been true. But he wouldn’t mention it quite yet, only when he figures out the best way to answer without sounding rude or insensitive.His frown did turn to a smile though when she considered all the thieves to be his friends. “Yeah yeah, I suppose I can talk to you lot a little bit more. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a hassle to do so.” Imato joked a little before nodding to her question, taking the mask out of his bag and looking at it a good little bit. “Yeah, no more hiding behind this damned smile anymore.” The white-haired boy would snap the mask in half and throw it aside, letting go of the damned thing.

He would then look over to Masami again and lightly punch the green-haired girl’s shoulder with a small smile. “And I know it’s random but if you ever need someone to talk to, I guess I’ll lend an ear. That’s what friends are for, right?” Was he still going to mess with Masami and give her subtle insults? Yeah, but Imato decided that this would be a good way to somewhat connect more with at least one member of the team.

“I’ll keep that in mind… Makage-San. The same goes for you. See you at the next meeting,” Masami gave a rare sincere smile before turning to leave. Even having gone through two palaces and training in Mementos with this group, she still found the feeling of friendship to be odd to say the least. She then thought back to Baron’s words about leaning on each other and stopped walking to give a side glance back at the white-haired boy. She knew that if these people were truly becoming her friends, she should spend time with some of them outside of school more often. It wasn't like she had anything better to do with her time now anyways now that she didn't have a "quota" to meet. “Actually… I don’t do this often, but do you want to ditch the rest of the assembly and go to a ramen shop? I know where there’s a really good one in Ogikubo," she asked with it being painstakingly obvious that she was not used to asking a friend to hangout like this.

Imato would nod and give a small wave before watching for a moment as Masami turned to leave the scene. While he was still somewhat hesitant of opening up, he knew it would be required to forge deeper bonds with the other members of the team. Without those bonds, combat on the field wouldn’t evolve to further help them all so he didn’t mind this change to ensure said growth. As he was about to leave as well, he would turn his head as the green-haired girl spoke about going to a ramen shop. “Ogikubo? Yeah, why not. I guess I’ll even pay for your food as a little reward for finding out who was behind the mask.” He smiled a bit once again as he readjusted his bag and set off for the shop alongside Masami.

Surprise was the best way to describe what Imato was feeling as he saw a young girl suddenly appeared and started to pet Mona. His surprise only grew as the young girl seemed to know who Ann was to, by name and everything. Though his surprise faded away as the title 'Banchou' was spoken, he then confidently guessed that they were part of Shiro's sisterhood. As surprise faded away, laughter came from the white-haired boy as Ann was described as an airhead.

His laughter stopped though as Gomi had made her way to the group as well, correcting the young Yui. He blankly listened for a few moments without much reaction until Shiro arrived, rest of her group following. Not wanting to seem rude, he would just nod as Shiro spoke. Since Shiro's group would be with them today for the festival, Imato attempted to be friendly.

"Well, today ought to be eventful. Ya know?" Imato asked Gomi, deciding to talk to her since he didn't know who to really talk to. The fool then realized he had failed to introduce himself. "I'm Imato by the way. I doubt Shiro mentioned me but if she did, she probably used the name 'M-san'."

 

[That Weird girl]

Morgana was indeed startled when the little girl started to pet him and said his name. How did she know him? The cat then noticed Shiro and put two and two together that the little girl was with Shiro. He enjoyed getting pet and purred a little bit even though he would NEVER admit to being a cat. Ann smiled at the little girl as she seemed to know her name and even called her lady Ann. When she said that Banchou said she was pretty the girl nodded liking the compliant and then the comment about being described as and airhead came out and she frowned. But she could not appear like that in front of a little girl so she nodded, "Yeah...thats me." She shot a glare at Imato that would hopefully burn through his soul, not literally.

Morgana laughed at the little girl calling Ann an airhead, god he wished he could use a phone. Record this moment forever and treasure it. Ann flicked Morgana on the nose when Yui wasn't looking and Morgana yelped. "OW!" Morgana complained at the blonde and turned his attention to Shiro and the rest of her gang. "Oh your name is Imato?" Morgana asked Imato because the little cat did not know about his real name. Ann rolled her eyes at the little cat for not ever paying attention to their classmates at anytime.

"I guess we can start-" Ann got up from the bench and began to walk inwards towards the festival. However she stopped as she saw a massive crowd of tourists coming through and sighed. This was going to be a really busy festival wasn't it? Well hopefully they could stay all together without losing each other....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kasumi was on her phone texting Sougo and asking if he wanted to come to the festival with her. She was thinking of asking him to get on a boat with her to see the Cherry Blossom trees up close. But her plans were interrupted as she bumped into a White haired boy and she looked up and looked embarrassed. "I am so sorry...I wasn't looking where I was going and was on my phone." She paused and saw Masami and waved at her then turned back to Imato.


Hopefully the white haired thief would excuse her clumsiness. She did not want any trouble and...it was all her fault! Maybe if she had not been so idiotic she would not have bothered him at all. God she blamed herself for this inconvenient.


Nellancholy Maeve Valor Anthem TreasureSniper

 

[Maeve Valor]

As the number of people in their group grew suddenly, it was uplifting to see Shiro's sisters here with them now as well as seeing Shiro herself act... different. She couldn't quite place what it was about her demeanor that has changed, but whatever it was it brought a heartening feeling to Masami. Like herself, Shiro seemed to be going through a change for the better, just not in the same way. When Shiro addressed Masami on how she fared, she only smiled and jested with her by saying, "I should be telling you that Shirome-san. I would imagine you're going through a lot as well. Not to mention you've been showing up to school more often on top of it all... But to answer your question, I've been doing fine... And for the first time in a while I'm actually doing great all things considering." With this statement it was the first time she had called Shiro by her first name, giving an underlying sense of mutual friendship that she felt was earning since the last time they went on the mission together.

"But enough of this chit-chat, you're right. Let's all get going before all the stands with the tasty food get too crowded, I'm starving," Masami said as she thought by this time it was already well passed the time where Ann mentioned she wanted to meet up at. She assumed that Isao was too busy to show up and meet up with the rest of them so she went ahead and was about to take the forefront on where they should go first, but was interrupted by a light, familiar voice. She looked in the direction of where the voice came from and much to her surprise she was met with the bright and cheery Kasumi waving at her.

Catching onto what Kasumi previously said to Imato, she chimed in to speak with the very apologetic girl, "Hey Yoishizawa-san, it's alright. This guy probably will bump into many people himself with how tall he is." She then looked around and noticed something, "Oh, are you here by yourself? You can join us if you want. Actually let me start by introducing you to who you bumped into. This is Imato Makage. Makage-san, this is Kasumi Yoshizawa."

That Weird girl Anthem Nellancholy

 

[TreasureSniper]

While the Kamoshida incident had just about fizzled down, there were other things that were beginning to worry Sougo. There's been an increase in pickpocket cases around Shujin, much to his annoyance. And despite the best efforts of students and law enforcement, the perpetrator remained at large. While he would normally entrust finding out more about this pickpocketer to someone trustworthy like Masami, he didn't want to ruin their little victory celebration. After all, they all deserved it. And so, the task fell on him and him alone. A simple pickpocketer shouldn't give someone like too much trouble, or at least that's what he thought. Once again, he took some time to meticulously look through his paperwork for any useful information about this "person". While using the metaverse was fairly tempting, it would be difficult for even him to track this person down considering pickpockets were a dime a dozen.

Sougo sighed in frustration, envying his peers who were able to enjoy their school life, while he was stuck here, doing paperwork that no one else wanted to. Well, if nothing else, he would at least be able to take out his frustration on the scum of society. Having been extra diligent with his reports to Maruki, he had some free time to now deal with this bastard. Having finished school, Sougo made his way to the area with the most cases of pickpocketing to lay out a trap. Putting on his pair of headphones that weren't even functioning, he walked around for a bit. He even made the effort of making himself look on the rich side, wearing a luxury brand jacket that he bought but never used. It wasn't quite his style, but it does make him look like a pompous rich kid, a perfect target for a pickpocket right?

Diving into a crowd of people, he traverses through the tsunami of people at a slow pace, his eyes focusing on his own the complete look of an oblivious student. While the chances of catching the exact pickpocket were rather low, based on the information he had on hand, whoever that thief is, they would never be able to resist a target like him. A few more minutes had passed as he finally manage to cross the entire crowd of rush houses and sit down on one of the open area benches.

And surely enough, his bait wallet was gone. Heck, even his real wallet was gone. Thankfully, he had anticipated this and had already emptied his wallet of anything important, keeping it instead in a locker in the school. But both of his wallets were special, having tracking devices on them. Additionally, they had a honey trap on them as well, a small plastic slab that contained a gold coin which also obscured the tracking device on it.

It didn't take long for Sougo to track down the bastard that stole his wallet into a shady area, a dilapidated shop that's frequently used by unsavory characters as shelter. There was only one person there, an adult male with a hoodie who was too busy trying to break open the case of gold coin to notice him. Against most people's better judgment, he chose to confront him directly. "You're gonna come in quietly?" Sougo didn't really like the idea of criminals getting away scot-free and had had a history of beating gangsters and petty criminals before he turn over a new leaf. But old habits die hard, besides, no one is going to mind the broken bones of a criminal.

The criminal stood up and turned to Sougo, revealing his creepy-looking mask, much to Sougo's amusement. The young man cracked his knuckles and prepare himself to lay down a classic beatdown.

---

The next day, Sougo came to school with a few bandages and plasters all over his body. When questioned about it, he would just say that he fell off his bike in an accident, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Who would've thought that some random pickpocketing bastard would give him one of the toughest fight in his life. This criminal was fast, an experienced combatant who was likely operating at the peak of human capabilities. Well at least in the real world. He even managed to get away with his loot intact.

He thought about asking the phantom thieves to track this guy down, but then again, that would rob him the satisfaction of putting this guy in his place. Besides, now was not the time for serious talk. Everyone else was in a celebratory mood so why shouldn't he be as well? Seeing a text from Kasumi did put Sougo somewhat at ease, even giving him a small smile. While he was still in charge of lot of things during the festival, he did have enough manpower to delegate it to someone else. Spotting Kasumi's bright red hair, Sougo walked over to the group, surprised to see that it was composed of the people he knew about the most.

"Wow, quite the group you guys got here." He spoke in his usual carefree tone while waving at all of them. " Thanks again, for your "help" with the Kamoshida case, your contribution is much appreciated." He gave the phantom thieves a wink, knowing full well that only they knew how things were really done behind the scenes. "If you ever need any help, please don't hesitate to contact me." As always, Sougo made sure to let them know that he was on their side, more than most of them know at least. He briefly turned his head Imato, noticing he had finally removed that ridiculous thing. "Good to see that you finally decided to drop the Mask, Chunni." Making his way to Morgana, he would give the cat a loving head rub, gently pushing his hand against his soft fur. "And I am happy to see that the school therapy cat is being taken care of." Despite what others may think, the cat was quickly becoming a very popular figure in school. It even had its own social media page full of funny photos that Morgana may likely never see.

"Now then, is there something you wanted to do, Yoshizawa-san?" After all, the only reason he came here at first was to see her, he didn't expect her to bump into everyone else and a part of him didn't want her to. It's not that they were bad people per say, but they do have a habit of getting into trouble, and he wouldn't know what to do with himself if she'd be accidentally dragged into one of their escapades. Such taunts tend to haunt him every now and then. "Perhaps you wanted to eat something first? We've increased the budget on food for this year's festival so there should be something for everyone this time." But all the same, he wanted to make everyone feel like they were being included, even the friend's of Shiro who he wasn't too familiar with.

 

[Nellancholy]

"Huh?" Gomi blinked at being addressed by Imato-san, or as he put it, "M-san". "Uh, nope." The green-eyed girl blinked. "Don't think I've ever heard of ya." Still, he was part of the group, and Shiro seemed to be fairly tolerant of him (a somewhat uncommon quality), so he was probably fine. "Just because she hasn't talked about you doesn't mean we can't be in the same place, right?"

"Some people just like their secrets." Shiro interjected dryly. "Imato-san gave me little to tell. And speaking of which..." The sight of the scheming and surprisingly cooperative Agata-san being nicked and bruised in places was a new thing to witness. Maybe someone had finally given him something to shut his mouth up when he couldn't do it himself. Still, he was a collaborator of sorts, even if he was very far from the same side as the Thieves. Well, as long as he wasn't in trouble on their account, he could get beaten up any time for all she cared. "You look poorly, Agata. I hope whoever did that doesn't disturb your peace here as well."

"Hm..." Yui turned from Morgana to glance at Yoshizawa-san instead, and so did Shiro. Now her, she knew barely enough about. Seems the main reason she was here was thanks to Masami working with her more closely on the volleyball team, especially after Kamoshida was...dealt with. It had been some time since Shiro had led anything close to a "normal" life for her age, going to classes, trying to make friends...all because her family didn't believe in her leading life a certain way. But that was in the past. So... "Good seeing you here, Yoshizawa-san. I'm sure you'll have a good time with...us, here." It was the least she could say. But she couldn't shake off the idea that there was something strange about her...

"Yui, here." The gang closed ranks around Shiro, almost like the "military" formation they were used to. "Come on, let's have a good time tonight. My treat." As it were, that little treasury box the gang had been keeping may as well empty in the next few days: soon they'd be wards of the state, and eventually members of new families...and Shiro would remain to look out for herself first. And enjoy they did, on their best behavior to avoid any...blemishes from ruining the deal that had been painstakingly struck with the Director. First order of business was always food. A skewered sausage here, cotton candy there, an ice cream scoop elsewhere...

Something like a smile was on Shiro's face, albeit a sad one.

Anthem TreasureSniper That Weird girl

 

[Anthem]

"I suppose so-" Due to him being in a conversation, Imato wasn't expecting to get bumped into so he admittedly stumbled forwards just a tad when he was bumped into by Kasumi. His natural instinct made him think that it was a punk he had previously dealt with, so he turned ready for a fight to shortly follow. Though upon seeing that is was the red haired girl, he changed his tune quick as to not seem rude or hostile. "Don't sweat it, not the first time it's happened to me." Not wanting the girl to feel bad, the white haired boy tried to quickly show that there was no upset emotions from him.

Though this state of calmness was quickly interrupted by Masami's quick reply to Kasumi, while the green-haired girl was correct it didn't mean Imato liked the comment. "You little-" Grumbles came from the boy before he sighed and gave a quick wave to the younger of the two, a small smile on his face. "Nice to officially meet you, Yoshizawa-chan." Imato didn't really expect so much activity so soon but didn't complain, he never enjoyed large groups but since it was for building bonds with the other thieves and people in general... he was willing to endure it.

This resolve of his was quickly test though as none other than Sougo had joined in on what seemed to be an ever growing group of people. Hearing the carefree tone the student council president had grinded Imato's gears, finding it annoying rather quickly. 'Lovely... and here I thought this would be a nice little outing with the others. There's always something.' A sigh came from the boy as the rather harsh thoughts went through his mind. Needless to say that the next comment from Sougo concerning the mask Imato use to wear, annoyed the boy further. "Call me that one more time asshole, I swear to whatever god there is..." The white-haired boy obviously mumbled this as to avoid any actual conflict since this was supposed to be a nice event to relax and have fun. Though that didn't stop red eyes from giving a near-death stare for a couple of moments.

The mention of food brought Imato back to reality as his stomach lightly grumbled, he was ready to get moving and cheat on his usual diet a bit. "You all do as you like! I'm grabbing some sweets!" Announcing rather proudly, the thief then started to make his way over to the vendors with some of the sweeter foods that the festival had to offer.

 

[That Weird girl]

Kasumi relaxed as Masami's friend group seemed to be pretty nice. One of the girls Kasumi did not know greeted her with a kind greeting making Kasumi bow at Shiro as a sign of appreciation. "Thank you I am excited to meet Ogawa-san's friends, who are you?" the red head said grateful for Masami offering her to hangout with them. "Its also nice to meet you too Makage-san," Kasumi said to Imato and bowed, she was glad that he did not get angry or anything because of her bumping into him. It was true he was tall but Kasumi could tell he did not like Masami calling him that and made a note of not to tell him he is tall or anything. She was going to tell Masami who she was waiting for when Sougo arrived. She did not expect him to know these people and the mention of the Kamoshida case made her raise an eyebrow at the group but she did not say anything about it and brushed it off. She wanted to forget that creep.

Sougo also told them that if they needed help then to come to him which made Kasumi wonder what relationship they had. From what Sumire had always said he wouldn't just help out anyone randomly. So Kasumi knew that there was something Sougo was leaving out and did not know if it was to protect her or just to keep her from ruining the plan. Sougo always had a reason to do things, Kasumi/Sumire wasn't that clueless about her close childhood friend and how he acted but she knew that deep down he meant well even if it seemed bad. Kasumi's heart skipped a beat around Sougo and maybe it was Sumire coming out for a second. But the red head did not want that to happen and wanted to continue being her dead sister to cope with trauma.

"Yes Agata-san," Kasumi tried to hide her blush "I would like to ask- actually food sounds good!" She decided to switch what words she would say because she was nervous. The red head smiled and walked to the food stands trying to not focus on Sougo the whole time and the part about them going on a boat together made her stomach weak. She looked behind her at the group as she went to a food stand wondering what to get, off course with her appetite she could probably put this guy out of stock. But for some reason she was not feeling that hungry and couldn't eat.

"Not hungry Yoshizawa-san?" Ann asked raising an eyebrow at her, "or do you need some yen?" Kasumi looked at the blonde and shook her head, "Nope I am good thanks..."

"Ann Takamaki," Ann said and smiled at the red head. Kasumi. smiled back taking out some yen from her purse to get some food from the vendor. She hoped that Sougo would not ask her what was wrong because she could not lie to him.

Nellancholy Maeve Valor Anthem TreasureSniper

 

[Maeve Valor]

Putting together that Sougo was accompanying Kasumi for today's event she was a little surprised at this. Not to mention the state he was in, which she wasn't going to even inquire on that. He was a person that could take care of himself, so she didn't even bother. Although what was on herr mind that she assumed he would be too busy with student council vice president duties, but he was setting that aside to hang out with someone? It wasn't too hard to believe considering he was a popular person, but it still struck her as odd. As much as she wanted to believe that he was a good person, she knew that there was typically a reason for everything he did. Not knowing the nature of their friendship, she considered this little outing as no exception. Did she have information or had ties with people he needed to know more about? Was this some sort of publicity stunt? Be nice to the girl who was one of the prime victims of Kamoshida's career to be the good graces of the other students? It would make sense since more and more students have been seeking people to blame on how he got away with the things he's done for so long and who turned a blind eye. Whatever his reasoning for being around her was, she hoped that it wasn't to exploit her in some way. The girl has been through enough already between dealing with Kamoshida and being pressured to be better in gymnastics.

Masami stood behind Sougo facing away as she acted like she was looking over a menu that was posted above the person running it. She then addressed him, not talking as loud and opening with a light jest while Ann and Kasumi were introducing themselves to each other. "I don't suppose she has tried to blackmail you too has she?"

"...Your intentions with her better be good. She's obviously been going through a lot recently." With those few words Masami felt that she made her point, being a bit protective for the well-being of this new friend. She briefly paused to let him respond before walking away and went up to Ann to hold out her arms, offering to take Morgana. "Come on Morgana, wanna share some Inari Sushi with me?"

She then called out to some of the others in the group. "Oi, Yui, Gomi, want some Dangos? I know Shirome-san said it was her treat but I doubt she'll argue with me if I cover for this one. And if she does argue, I don't mind fighting her in order to help spoil you guys today," she smirked.

Nellancholy That Weird girl TreasureSniper

 

[TreasureSniper]

Seeing everyone get along was a nice change of pace. To think that Shiro of people would treat him in a somewhat friendly manner was unexpected but not unwelcome. "Yea, I had a little accident yesterday, but it wasn't that bad considering I am still here." Truth be told, it was one of the first few times he actually bit off more than he can chew, it was probably one of the do more dangerous things he has done in real life. A small miscalculation was all it took to tip the scales. But such was the life of a complicated individual like him. "Relax, Makage-san, I am not here to pick a fight with you." He reassured him that he was just there to have fun. And what better way to do it than with a group of people he had closely worked with?

"Now that's a first." Yoshizawa not hungry? Such things were impossible in this, even with Maruki's tampering. Walking to one of the stalls, Sougo would order a large portion of fried squid, eel and fish. The order was large and some of the staff members had to help Sougo move the extra containers onto their table. "Come now, no reason to be shy eat up. That goes for all of you as well." While it wasn't exactly as good as the buffet last time, it was still staggering to see all of that food being stacked on one table.

After "delivering" the food, Sougo talk some time to listen to Masami's concerns while biting into one of the takoyaki balls. "Not that I know of. " Sougo was clearly enjoying the food, but he was a bit confused about what exactly was Masami implying about what exactly he was doing. "Only the best." Sougo smiled, passing her a tray of the takoyaki balls. "Try some, they are good." With Masami preoccupied with Morgana, Sougo turned his attention back to "Kasumi" wondering what was the cause of the sudden shift in attitude. "Is something the matter? It's not like you to be...not hungry." he joked. Well, maybe she just had a really bad stomach ache or something. Regardless, it was a nice feeling to take a break from being a student council member, even if it's just for this short moment.

Nellancholy That Weird girl Maeve Valor Anthem

 

[Nellancholy]

I don't mind fighting her in order to help spoil you guys today,

At the mention of fighting, Shiro briefly felt a certain sense of amusement towards the notion of Masami trying to...challenge her in that way. She could have phrased it a bit better, but Shiro got the point well enough. Of course she shouldn't stop them, not that she wanted to. For the past year or so, the group had been...sparse on socialization with others. The older ones never went anywhere except places which would give teens part time jobs, and the younger ones didn't get to be seen by daylight a lot, lest they be taken by the authorities.

Point was, soon they'd be going back to school. Making proper friends, getting their life back on track. Of course she should smooth the way by any means she had.

"Certainly, go right ahead." Shiro pursed her lips. "Don't make her regret offering..."

"Yeah sure, you got it boss- Shiro." Despite her general assertiveness today, even Gomi had waited for her approval purely out of habit than anything else. Walking with Masami and some of the others, she clasped her hands behind her head as she walked. "So uh, Masami, right? What's the deal with you and Shiro? Thought you might be joining us after she had us stake out the Order's office in Ginza for you. I mean...what got you guys working together with whatever it is, more than she stayed looking out for us?" Her question was delivered without resentment, but she sought an answer nonetheless.

Yui, on the other hand, seemed content to remain with Shiro, taking in the festive sights.

"So, what's on the itinerary otherwise?" Shiro glanced around at Ann and Sougo. "Spent some of that budget on fireworks? Got the Cultural Club to practice their dances?" Shiro exhaled. "Just...I want them to remember this night for a while."

That Weird girl TreasureSniper Maeve Valor

 

[That Weird girl]

"Oh hell yeah!" Morgana yelped as he lept into Masami's arms with the promise of sharing sushi with her. He did not really pay attention to what was happening with Shiro and Masami or that strange red headed girl. He only assumed that she was there because of her friendship with Sougo and Masami and was not a person of interest yet. The cat wanted some sushi really bad since that was his favorite food ever and when Sougo bought a giant portion of fish, fried squid, and Eel he drooled a little bit. Hopefully not ruining Masami's clothing. Morgana listened to Gomi talk to Masami for a little bit and he begin to piece together what was happening between Shiro and Masami, it was quite easy to see. But unless he wanted to get smacked he would not say anything about it.

Kasumi chuckled at the joke Sougo made and nodded. She did not know if she should tell him that she liked him because there would be a chance of rejection but there also could be a chance that he says he likes her back. Kasumi grabbed a pair of chopsticks and grabbed a piece of fried squid and popped it into her mouth and chewed it as it was very good but for some reason Kasumi was not that hungry. "I am just not that hungry. how is the student council going?' She asked him trying to change the subject about her acting strange.

"You alright Imato-san?" Ann asked the white haired boy seeing him being silent and worried that there was wrong something with him. She wanted her friends to have a good time at the festival because they all deserved it for working so hard. Ann looked at Shiro when she asked the question and shrugged having no idea about the cultural dances or fireworks since she kinda just invited them and went last minute. Classic Ann...but she did understand that Shiro wanted them to have a good time at the festival. "Don't worry they will," Ann said to Shiro and looked at Sougo, "right Agata-san? You could afford fireworks and stuff right?"

Anthem Maeve Valor Nellancholy TreasureSniper

 

[Maeve Valor]

Thankfully, only a bit of drool from Morgana landed on Masami's yukata as Gomi and her were almost approaching a food stand. After hearing Gomi's questions, it only just then dawned on her, just how much Shiro giving in order to help their little part of the world be a better place. Not only was she putting her life on the line as a Phantom Thief, but she was also giving up precious time with her sisters in order to train and infiltrate palaces. She could only imagine how confusing it has been for the girls to see their boss leave them constantly. Feeling a bit sympathetic for them now, Masami shook her head and briefly looked at Morgana, wondering if it was okay to say what she was about to say around him. Finally making her decision, she sighed and spoke up, "Shirome-san is only a good friend whom I greatly admire. I do recall her having interest in the possibility of joining... but there were some things that I needed to see things through to the end regarding my life at home... Not too long ago I was a swindler that was forced by my con artist parents to steal money for them... Now they are behind bars atoning for their crimes and I now live in peace in a supportive environment. I even got myself a part-time job."

Spoiler: Il Nero Special

Il Nero cafe wasn’t as popular as its rival, but it was arguably just as good in the coffee department. The charisma and charm of the old man that ran the place certainly helped put it on map. Good coffee alone wasn’t enough for you to survive in this industry. He had built a reputation, and time and time again, this old man has proven that he still had what it takes. The place was a good venue for small business meetings and business discussions. Something he often took advantage of to network the right people together.

But today, the business was the least of his worries. With the paperwork settled, today was the first day this man’s lovely niece would begin staying at his place. He had already prepared a nice comfy room in the basement of the cafe. While it used to be a storage area, he has since turned it into a comfortable extra bedroom, usually for special guests and emergencies. He wasn’t too sure what exactly kids her age would like, but from what he could remember she liked greenish things, to most of the stuff in her room her some form of that colour. He even included a random plush toy that he thought she would find cute.

While he didn’t know too much about his niece, he believed that she deserved a chance to get away from her sad excuses for parents. He was often fairly vocal with them about how he disagreed with the way she was being treated, though that quickly earned a bad reputation among their side of the family, where he was often told to mind his own business.

Everything seemed to change so suddenly after her parents turned themselves into the authorities and confessed to a slew of crimes they had committed. Among the list of despicable things they admitted to, the abuse that Masami suffered at their hands was part of it. Due to this coming to light, anything that involved Masami was thankfully thrown out and chalked up to her just being a victim; although they did make it abundantly clear to her Masami that her involvement would still be on record… just in case. She didn’t really fault them for that though. If she were the investigator she’d do the same and keep an eye on the daughter of the two elusive charlatans.

Following their arrest, Masami was temporarily placed at an orphanage while still attending school until her case was reviewed by a social worker to look into her adoption hopefully by another family member that will give her the chance at a normal life. Masami didn’t let anyone know about the changes she was going through in her life, but this was mostly because there was nothing really for her to say. She only hoped that she wouldn’t be given a home elsewhere so that she could continue being a Phantom Thief. If such a thing were to happen then she would of course tell the others what has been going on in her life. They deserved to know if she were to suddenly leave.

Even though she didn’t have much privacy at the orphanage needing to share a room with some girls around her age, Masami still felt much more at ease here than she ever did at home before changing her parent’s hearts. She honestly felt like this place was the next chapter of her life. Masami assumed that no family member, no matter how distant, would be willing to take in a girl with a background like hers. To her, she figured that on paper she must seem like a walking train wreck waiting to happen. But much to her surprise someone did accept her case and started the paperwork on adoption.

At the most recent meeting with her social worker when she was told that her uncle Soichi Isurugi was wanting to adopt her, the question ‘why?’ was the first thing that came to her. Considering the animosity her parents had against him and how they always told her to steer clear from him, she wondered what his reasoning was. And this was something she intended to find out upon her arrival. She didn’t remember much of him, but he seemed civil so at least she didn’t need to worry too much about him. At least for now until she had a good grasp on who he was as an individual.

With a duffel bag and a suitcase full of her things, Masami was dropped off at the coffee shop that her social worker told her to meet with her uncle at, Il Nero Cafe. It was briefly mentioned that he owned the shop, but even then she wondered why they were to meet here. She then shrugged it off and thought that maybe he intended to take her to where she would be living after his day working at the cafe. Warily she opened the door to the cafe as a bell was heard upon her entering. She looked around the place until her eyes landed on the recognizable man behind the counter. “Um, hi Isurugi Ojisan.” Masami didn’t know how to properly approach him in this situation and she didn’t want to seem rude unless she was given a reason to be so she greeted him with a bow of appreciation, letting her duffel bag slump over her.

Isurugi stood at the brewing station, brewing his last two coffees of the day. His eyes were as focused and serious as ever, though that silly fedora did make it difficult to take him too seriously. Upon seeing Masami enter the shop, his eyes only briefly wandered away from his coffee making process before returning his attention to this last brew. It had to be perfect no matter what! This was the most important order of the day! There was an awkward minute of silence before he finally finished his work, putting two cups of coffee at the counter.

Isurugi breathed in deeply before exhaling with deep sigh, finally turning attention to the girl,“Ah Masami-chan!” He greeted her with excitement, gesturing to her to take a seat. “Please, make yourself at home…cause technically this is gonna be your home.” It is not too common to stay inside a place of business, who owns this specific lot anyways, so it was much easier this way for her. “It’s been far too long since I last saw you! Did you get taller? I bet you got taller!” He put his hand over her head as he tried to estimate what was her initial height the last time he saw her. “How have you been? How’s school? Everything alright over there? No nasty rumours being spread about you I hope!” He wasted no time in bombarding the girl with question after question before seeping a bit of his coffee. This batch had an exceptionally rich flavour, though Masami might not be a fan of the bitter taste.

“I heard about that big incident that happened in your school. You didn’t get hurt did you?” He had taken the liberty of following the current events of the school and was rather surprised to see that it was currently involved in a huge sexual harassment case, with Masami being one of the listed victims. “And here I thought Shujin was one of the better schools. Anyways, Can I get you anything to eat?”

Masami practically almost jolted from the sudden outburst of the man when she walked in. With how kind he was being, this only confused her more as to why her parents were so at odds with him. Perhaps it was exactly because he was too kind of a person that didn’t want anything to do with him? Maybe it was a form of jealousy? Regardless, she had to remind herself not to let her guard down around him just yet.

The rapid fire line of questioning stunned her momentarily since she didn’t know exactly where to start. That was until he mentioned the Kamoshida scandal that had come to light at the school. She found it interesting that he even looked into her school in preparation for her adoption. On the face of things, he seemed to be a very considerate guardian that wanted to do his best. Before answering, she put down her things and then sat at the counter in front of one of the cups of coffee that he had just made. “I am well and no, he didn’t hurt me… To be honest, at one point I thought he was going to, but it didn’t get to that point thankfully. Aside from that ordeal, I still think Shujin is an excellent school and I think it will only be better after they have officially replaced Kamoshida as well as Principal Kobayakawa. As for the rumours… yes there are some that have been going around such as Kamoshida having actually done something to me. But that’s fine, I can handle a little gossip. For the most part it doesn’t bother me, just a minor annoyance,” she said, speaking evenly as she picked up the coffee and slightly blew into it before taking a sip. When it came to the rumours, if anything they helped her image. Now that she was playing the victim card, any rumours about her being a swindler had since been erased, leaving people to only think of her as a student that had been harassed.

Her eyes widened slightly and at first it seemed like she was going to complain about the taste, but she then took another sip of it. “This is really good! What do you call this one?” she exclaimed, enjoying the deep yet tastefully organic flavour of the hot drink. “Oh… and what did you mean by this place technically becoming my home?”

“I am glad to see that your tastes are more well refined compared to the usual kids your age. It's just our usual expresso. Though the coffee beans are sourced from Italy.” That said, he has been trying testing out new suppliers lately but so far his old one has remained the most consistent in terms of quality.

“That's good to know, Masami-chan.” He paused for moment before taking another sip of his coffee before turning to the girl with a mores serious look. “Masami-chan, know that you are in my care now, please don’t hesitate to tell me if you ever need help, alright?” Placing his hand over her shoulder, he wanted her to know that he was someone she could trust, to look after her best interest. His parents were not the best role models, but that stuff didn’t matter to him anymore. “I am not that strict of a person, but I do like to be informed about your activities. So just give me a heads up you’re gonna be late for dinner or anything of the sorts alright?” Transparency is key here, he didn’t want her to feel like she just in another prison like what her parents did.

“As for your new home, come with me.” Isurugi gestured to lead her to the basement and right into her new room. Despite being underground, it was well ventilated and fairly spacious. It was really cleaned out, so there were no remnants of it being a storeroom. It had a desk paired with a chair, a shelf and a nice comfy queen size bed with green sheets. And of course the piece of resistance, a plushie of a sponge-like monster. “You'll be living here, right under the cafe. Don’t worry about the noise, it’s sound-proof, I made sure of that!” He gave her a wink of assurance. He knows how loud cafes can get.

“Now in terms of allowance. I can give you about 6000 yen a month. It’s up to you how you want to spend it, but I’d recommend saving a part of it! Feel free to get a part time job if you want more money, or…you could even work in my cafe!” Isurugi seemed strangely supportive of this idea.

As Masami looked around the very spacious room, she took note of just how much thought he must have put into putting together this room as well as the effort it took to set it up just for her. Compared to the small room she had before, this was like a warehouse all for herself. She didn’t know what she was going to do with all this room, but this was a positive issue she had with the room. Everything that he was offering her and asking for practically nothing in return was so jarring to her that she almost felt overwhelmed with it all. On top of it all, he was offering her a job? It was too good to be true. The way she had been raised thus far is that the world doesn’t work like this. As he kept on going on, she just waited for more conditions aside from just letting him know about her activities, but it never came. Was this how a normal guardian was supposed to act? No quotas to be met? No unreasonable demands? No threats? It was hard for her to grasp as she tried to find the words to respond to him with. “Wow… I… would love to work here at the cafe with you… Thank you.”

As she scanned the room, her eyes landed on the small stuffed animal plushie that was left there for her and she made her way to it to gingerly pick it up. To her slight surprise, when she picked it up a tiny squeak was heard. As she inspected the small monster a bit more she couldn’t contain the question that she has had since it was first mentioned that he wanted to take her under his care. “Isurugi… why did you accept me into your home? We have hardly ever seen each other. You know about my history and how my parents… raised me. Anyone else would be afraid that I would stick to my ways as a swindler and steal from them… So why adopt me?”

Isurugi was happy to see that the girl seemed to have taken a liking to the place already. He was slightly worried, at first considering her parents did not exactly paint him in a good light, considering how much he protested Masami’s treatment early on. And seeing the girl pickup the sponge monster to give it a small squeeze did put a smile on his face.

And then came to question, why he was doing all this for a person he supposedly barely knew. Well, in truth there were many reasons, but he doubted that she would understand all of them. Even so, she still deserved an answer. Isurugi smiled, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Let’s just say I know what it’s like to grow up without good parents.” Isurugi's past is always shrouded in mystery, but based on Masami’s father’s own testimony, her grandfather was not exactly the best father figure. The grandmother wasn’t any better. This cycle of exploitation and abuse needs to end somewhere.

People were only young once, and Isurugi didn’t want Masami’s circumstances to tarnish what is supposed to be the happier period of her life. “What your parents did was horrible, and my only regret is that their shameful ways were not exposed sooner.” Isurugi sighed, feeling that he has said enough about her and her parents. “Alright enough about all that stuff. Why I took you it doesn't matter. What’s important is that you’re here now! I want you to live a normal and happy life.” Isurugi always wanted a kid but he always seemed too busy to have any luck with the ladies.

“So, what do you say?” Isurugi was hoping she would like it here. And although he would be busy, he would try to make time for her.

Mulling over his words, she still couldn’t help being sceptical; but for now she knew she had to be reasonable. For all she knew she was only feeling this way due to some post trauma and that was what was keeping her from trusting him. But still… she shrugged his hand off her shoulder slightly with an apologetic look.

“I say we take this one step at a time. I’ll accept your offer working here, let you know when I’ll be out, and accept you as my new guardian, but… please be patient with me. Don’t expect me to automatically become your child overnight. It’s to say the least… difficult for me. Although, I am willing to put in the effort getting used to this environment if you are willing to give me time.” She then put her hand out as if she was making a deal with him, showing just how detached she was from a simple show of affection with a family member. Most would conclude this discussion with a hug, but such a thing didn’t even occur to Masami that this would be a situation that would call for one. Her statement may have been poignant and may disappoint Isurugi, but this was her. This was Masami. If he truly was serious about adopting her, she wanted to show him her true self and give him a full disclosure of where she stood. Even though this hand shake didn’t seem like it, it was her way of showing her appreciation.

Her response was a lot more..robotic than what he expected but then again, those who have come out of abusive homes rarely do so without a few quirks here and there. He wasn’t really sure why she was treating this like a “deal” of some sort, but if this was a starting point so be it. “But of course. Take as much time as you need.” Without hesitation Isurugi shook her hand, though the handshake would be a lot softer than she would have expected, it was a handshake nonetheless.

“Alright then! How about we start teaching you the basics about coffee making then.” He wasted no time in gesturing to come up with him to the coffee station. “Though there is one thing I think you should learn first.” His expression turned more serious than usual. “Smile a little would you! You young people are supposed to be happier! You’ll have plenty of time to be sad later on! Trust me.” He said the last bit with a more somber tone before continuing his way up the stairs.

Masami didn’t quite catch the sadness in his voice, thinking that it was just him taking pity on her like he has been. With a small smile Masami said back to her uncle, “I’ll work on that… I'd very much like to be taught how being a barista works.” She watched as her guardian went up the stairs and took one more good look around the room. She then looked back down at the yellow plushie with a look of embarrassed adoration for the little thing. In a little voice she muttered, “I think I’m going to call you Rothy…” Giving the thing one more squeeze, causing a squeak, she gently placed the small, cute beast back on her green bed before following up the stairs feeling truly content with her life.

She then looked back Gomi and with a serious expression she continued on, "I told you this because this would not have happened if it wasn't for this group she hangs out with. Forgive me when I say that I can't go into detail, but what Shirome-san and I do affects lives like it has affected mine... What we do... it's more important than you and I, it helps society such as getting people like my parents arrested." She then smiled a little at Gomi, "And I'll bet she started this whole venture with you girls in mind, wanting to help make this world a better place for you all to live in. Even if it's only a little bit."

With that, Masami walked to the food stand and paid the owner of it before obtaining some Inari Sushi while telling Gomi, "Alright, let him know which dango you want before we head back."

She then took a few steps away, waiting for Gomi as she shared her food with Morgana and quietly spoke to him, "Hey... I'd appreciate it if you don't mention my past to the others just yet... I'd like to tell them on my own time, okay?" With a frown she looked down at the being that took the form of a cat in her arms. "I'm... sorry that I felt like I couldn't mention it sooner... but these kind of things don't come easy for me to say to just anyone you know? The only reason I told her is because I feel that she needed to hear it for her to understand the importance."

Nellancholy That Weird girl

 

[Azurian Dream]

Collab with TreasureSniper

Spoiler: From Sword to Pen

(The Day of Kamashido's confession)

Well, this had definitely been more than anyone could have expected today even Dascal who had seen the deed done couldn’t believe it. The Phantom Thieves had in fact changed Kamashido’s heart and had turned his lust into regrets unfathomable as he admitted to all his prior crimes upon the school, and worst… its students. After the assembly was done the floodgates erupted with the man naming every single victim he had done unreputable harm to as the news channels vans flooded the school parking lot with the police thankfully barely beating them to the rush.

“So the Phantom Thieves do this in the name of atonement,” Dascal whispered to himself amongst the crowds of rage, and demanded to have Kamashido’s head thankfully the police even beat out the parents of the victims meaning the scenario wouldn't get bloodied which reminded him of Baron’s actions…

As things went nuts Dascal went the separate way from everyone else knowing this song and dance to have no reason to see his steps any further. As he walked the now rather empty halls he went over his thoughts. The Phantom Thieves' targets thus far all had one clear thing in common: they were a direct level of threat to the school. There was no doubt they had to be involved in the school in some way somehow… given what he saw his best bet was they were all students, or prior alumni minus that cat thing… car.

The problem is there was nothing else to go on. He had failed at getting a chance to talk to them and had fought off/banished one of the Meta-mercs himself. That would be an act that he would no doubt pay for in the future with nary a payout in of itself. He did have something though the one called Heartbreak's potential real name was Shiro. He would look into that later with Futaba. Also, the one called Baron was a frequent Metaverse peruse much like himself.

“Ah Souga Agata right,” Dascal’s attention from the monotony of thoughts cut off as he saw the popular school council member just now exiting the principal's office. Though the call out would be random seeing as the two never met he had remembered Futaba’s mention of him as an odd one.

Right after securing victory over his adversaries and saying some choice words to the principal, Sougo was in a very good mood, leaving the office with a genuine smile of excitement about what was to come next. Hearing his name being called out by a non-familiar voice Sougo turned around and greeted this young man. “Yup, that's me.” It wasn’t uncommon for people to know him, after all, he was considered one of the popular kids in school ever since joining the student council.

Taking a look at the young man, he would recognize him as a transfer student, although he has only seen his picture, he has yet to meet him personally, until now. “Ah, you must be a transfer student. How’s Shujin been treating you? I know these...tumultuous times aren’t gonna give you the best first impression, but rest assured, we are all working hard to restore the school into a more conducive environment. Now then, aside from all that, what can I help you with?” As always, Sougo was forthcoming with what was happening with the school, but in true Sougo fashion, he never says too much about what's going on, only enough for the other party to understand where his position was.

Right off the bat, it was an impressive show how the student council members worked. Wasting no time snapping to the utmost, and proper expected business-like response one could give in the sudden situation of the school taking a hit. From that alone Sougo was clearly the type ready to counter a problem with expertise.

“No need for the pitch sale. I already go to school here I swear heh,” Dascal lightly jokes, raising his hands up as if Sougo was about to shoot him.

“Besides I am not someone who is going to get harmed by this explosive turn of events,” Dascal chimed, lowering his hands with a wave at the expert at play’s antics before mulling on how this way to open display would have its own set of negative consequences.

“Too bad this couldn’t have been contained before it got blared on social media. I mean it’s good that the current has been raised, there's no turning a blind eye to it. Yet thanks to being raised so abruptly now all the victims will have to suffer more with their names out in the open like that,” Dascal spoke momentarily looking out the outside window where numerous news vans and police sirens could still be seen. The victims would no doubt have time to finally heal, and that part was good… but it wouldn’t be anytime soon thanks to how Kamashido had done it. Those who were the victims would be hounded, if had this been handled more delicately, and the man not put upon a podium could have helped those now saved to not be labeled, and scrutinized by those hungry to know. Society deemed it necessary to dig into the news of the sins of others. Though to be fair, it was so clearly ignored by those that worked at the school that Dascal had a better understanding of why the Phantom Thieves targeted him… cause they were aware of it, and could see no other option.

“Sorry shouldn’t be lamenting on something that in turn is positive… it's over and done after all. Besides it's not like anyone’s just souring it by rubbing their victory in others' faces after all,” Dascal noted how the Phantoms Thieves had done this act would never be known, or for that matter be realized. It was an intricate situation. Change someone's outlook by battling their conscious self within. Insanely match up to the possibility with what Futaba’s mom was researching about how one could be suggested by outside forces to change themselves on the fly with drastic action taken within forcing the acceptance of another's will.

Sougo stayed silent for a bit, listening to what Dascal had to say about the matter, which is substantial, to say the least. Why was he monologuing in front of him? Was this something all foreigners do, act like they were uncovering a hidden plot? "Ah, you like to think out loud too." A sentiment that Sougo could relate to, though he tended to be very careful about who he did it in front of.

"It is what it is. Though honestly, I wish it could have been settled a lot sooner." He had it during the old times. He would have dealt with Kamoshida himself, and he would not be so merciful. But times change and so must he. That said, he was curious as to what the current public perception is of the phantom Thieves. "Tell me, Marion-San. What opinions do you have of the phantom thieves? The ones that are said to be responsible for a slew of confessions lately." There was no doubt in his mind that even a transfer student like him would have heard about them by now. But even so, he wanted to see what the everyday Joe thought about them.

“Ah, sorry it is rather a bad habit of mine,” Dascal spoke with a whimsy rolling his hand in a circle as a gesture to knowing it was a bad habit. It was here though Sougo brought a very strange, and suddenly out of nowhere question to the table. So much so that Dascal raised a brow to the student council VP.

“That's an interesting question. Though I guess it's very much the rage currently isn't it? Well if I am to go off the rumors… there rather erratic,” Dascal spoke bluntly, having thought about this for a while now.

“Not to insult them of course, there is beauty in that they clearly have no reins to them in my opinion, not one man can command them. They are not bound to rules, nor would I imagine they would take lightly someone trying to guide their actions,” Dascal spoke, going off the found calling cards nature of writing, and the targets breaking down themselves.

“If I am to believe all the rumors, of course, they took down the strange cult, and a gangster kid breaking their grips on many victims. Modern-day robins hoods… but their scoop seems fixated. If they can do as they say and steal one's heart why stay around Shujin academy,” Dascal brought up bringing to Sougo’s attention an extreme flaw of the Phantom Thieves' repeated action… It was now officially starting to make the school seem suspicious, and if the pattern continued no doubt the Meta-mercs or government officials in the know of the Meta-verse would start to expect the Phantom Thieves as legit denizens of Shujin Academy… they would get cornered, and find out quickly if their next target was another problem of Shujin Academy.

“Yet with so many repeated attacks on bad people, there is bound to be comeuppance to it. That alone makes me fear for them… they're going to get hurt for whatever reason soon enough I wager,” Dascal finished his thoughts on his current opinions of their nature in pure essence since his own little non-verbal bash with them.

“To what I think of them directly I couldn't say. They seem so erratic like I said earlier that they really don’t have a nature to them… but I think that’s what might be to their advantage. You can’t predict them, and you can’t control them. No amount of power or physical strength over others can beat that type of calling card to scare those that would abuse their authority or obligations,” Dascal answered with a smirk he had indeed a strange positive opinion of them yet also held a suspicious tone to whether he thought they were good or not… It was hard to say after all why they did what they did.

“So now my turn why do you ask such a question,” Dascal eyed Sougo with a curious glance as to why someone so grounded would be keen on people's opinions on something not grounded.


The boy’s train of thought was an interesting one. Most people would answer in a formulaic way, but Dascal, was completely different, immediately more interested in how the thief's actions would affect them in the long term. It almost sounded like he sympathized with them, noting that whatever glory they may receive now would soon backfire on the powers that wish to maintain the status quo.

His opinion had been quite insightful, spoken like someone who knows and has met the thieves on a personal level. “You know, of all the students I’ve asked about this topic, none have given me such a thought-filled reply as you have.” This transfer student was clearly an intellectual, for him to be all to dissect so much about the phantom thieves by the results of their actions alone without having met or talked to any of them was astounding. But beyond all that, perhaps the most shocking fact was he was able to identify a pattern whereby every target they have gone after so far had something to do with Shujin.

What Dascal had said about the Phantom thieves being erratic was true, since they technically still did not have a leader. Even now, he still considered himself more of an investor than anything else. Though these days he has gotten a lot more involved with their activities and operations. “The way you talk about them, it’s almost as if you’ve met them before.” The boy complimented Dascal analysis, thoroughly impressed by how he was able to break all of that down.

“Well…” and now it was his turn to answer the question. “You could say…I am their biggest fan.” Sougo let out a small laugh, knowing that this was true, from a certain point of view. “They’ve solved a lot of problems this school has encountered. They kinda act as the school’s unsung protectors when you think about it. Which has garnered mixed feelings from some people, including the student council members. Afterall, why rely on people like me when you could just have the phantom thieves solve it.” He had to admit, the reputation of the student council has somewhat suffered since the emergence of the Phantom Thieves, citing the council as incompetent to deal with these problems. “But personally, the only thing I hate about these incidents is every time something happens I need to do a lot of paperwork. So far, I think their actions are overall beneficial for the students. So, until that changes, I will remain a staunch supporter.” Funnily enough, everything Sougo said was true. Though that is far from the only reason he has continued helping them.

“Oh? Well, when something interests me I go all in is all,” Dascal mused in earnest with a soft touch of his cheek with a finger from his right hand while his arms were folded against his chest. Dascal chuckled softly at Sougo’s compliment as he raised a sigh.

“If only. I would have so many questions in earnest,” Dascal responded truthfully having missed his chance belting into an unexpected life or death fray… again as it were with the metaverse that night.

“Oh? I can see that everything they have done paints a picture of justice after all who better to enjoy that than the ones who enforce it as well,” Dascal nodded in understanding the mirage of the truth only knowing of the superficial extent of the answer at hand. Though he did drop his hands back to his side as he fairly pointed out. It was strange cause it almost felt like Sougo was proud of their actions like a parent with a sports kid's success.

“Unfortunately we all have moments when we are useless in a situation though. I do feel bad for you guys having to stomach something unfair. You're set to be able to only accomplish so much so in my retrospective you don't deserve the citation of it,” Dascal expressed feeling for that part of how this damaged the image of the student council… yet in all earnest what could they do when the school they defended turned a blind eye to Kajik or Kamoshida.

“No one deserves to be a stepping stone for another though, and that's something that no one should turn a blind eye to,” suddenly there was a different presence to the aloof Dascal coming off more ominous with a thick poisoned brow. It was clear there was a line to how far others should go with the animosity towards Kajik, and Kamoshida's actions could be felt by Dascal's piercing gaze as he lightened back up with a laugh.

“Sorry, personal opinions and all they can get a bit nasty from time to time,” Dascal apologized for the sudden burst of emotion in his form.

Justice, what a pretty word. To say that he saw everything that has happened so far as some sort of justice was a bit too soft for his liking. Comeuppance and righteous indignation would be far more appropriate. “Enforcing justice huh? You make the student council sound like some sort of a police force.” He said somewhat sarcastically while rubbing the back of his head.

“Yea perhaps. But It never feels good, you know! Students rely on us to represent them fairly in this school while taking care of protecting their best interest.” He fully understood what it meant to be part of the student council. Although he had first only taken the role for its perks and status, he has since become more genuinely invested in it.

Stepping stones is another interesting terminology. Sougo is no stranger to taking advantage of his access to the Metaverse, and he certainly has no issues with stepping on the wicked and vile people of the criminal empires, he made it a point to leave innocent civilians alone. He was mildly annoyed by Dascal’s attitude about this matter but nonetheless did not show it.

“Oh no! By all means, be as honest as you want. It’s actually refreshing to talk to someone who is more vocal and honest with their opinions.” For one reason or another, people tended to be intimidated by Sougo to challenge whatever decision he puts down. And those who don't have a good enough reason to do so will immediately be shot down. “So what brings you to Japan, specifically Shibuya of all places.” It wasn’t exactly the most interesting place to stay at for career opportunities but it was fun enough, he supposed.

“They sort of are if you think about your whole goal is to protect the student body after all you're the first line of defense. You gain much from the positions, and are expected to duel more in kind,” Dascal expressed in the opinion of how those were to see those in Sougo’s position; it was hard to see what others expected of you from the top after all. Yet Dascal didn’t stay on the thought as any further would jab a finger at the fact the student council had been rather silent, marginally raising a finger, or it could have been raising a knife from behind in the shadows.

Dascal hadn't forgotten what Baron had said that night. “Agata send his regards.” While Dascal had originally waved Futaba’s original pin on Sougo that alone brought it to the front of fact. Sougo had connections to Baron, and potentially the Phantom Thieves yet with how he talked it was clear he was directly with the Thieves either… but Baron no doubt was in full affiliation with them. He had kept his head out of that train of thought for a reason playing cards too early was a dead man’s sentence after all.

“True, that is what they expect, and in earnest, you can’t blame them. Not everyone can defend themselves out the door in life. They need a shield while they develop, and for those like you who hold it early you develop as well albeit different,” Dascal mused with a smile to Sougo’s last comment, seeming he wasn’t used to being contrasted and found a bit of entertainment in Dascals words, but there was a subtle notice of annoyance for something he had said. Yet rather impressively it was there and gone in a blink of an eye with Dascal showing no sign of being intimidated by it par the course after all when you freely gave your opinion.

“Shibuya is the epicenter of Japanese current culture. I think one should experience multiple views of life in the current age, and Shujin seemed the perfect spot to experience it,” Dascal answered rather honestly as it had been why he choose Shujin as a cover spot for his real reason non the less what he also said was true as well as he wanted to take advantage of other opportunities.

“Ah…I guess. Aside from the supposed prestige, all I get is a metric ton of paperwork.” Sure, everyone wanted to be part of the student council team, until it was time to do student council stuff. “But yea. Anything to improve your future job prospects right?” And for that short moment, Sougo let down his guise as a professional student council member. Not that it matters too much for him. Since Dascal was being honest with him, he should do so as well.

“I wouldn’t call the student council a shield per say…there are times when we must also go against the students.” He was of course referring to dealing with disruptive behavior and delinquency. Imato immediately comes to mind for his frequent troublesome antics both inside and outside of school. “Honestly I believe that's one of the more challenging parts of being part of this council, to be impartial in the treatment of all students, regardless of who they are. Which is difficult, to say the least. After all, we’re all only human.” Despite saying all this, Sougo does try his best to uphold a generally friendly and approachable demeanor to just about everyone in the school, apart from a few bad actors here and there.

“I never really thought about it that way. But then again, spending most of your time indoors does that to you I suppose.” Wouldn’t Tokyo be a better place for him to experience their culture? Maybe the brochure just looked really nice to him. “Anyways, have you had the time to visit some of the iconic places of Shibuya? If you like coffee I know the perfect place for you to try out.” He was of course referring to Leblanc. It’s been a while since he had been there. Might as well take a chance to visit the place with a new face.

“That’s definitely a positive way to look at it,” Dascal chimed to Sougo.

“Yes, most forget a shield is edged all around comprising an offensive and defensive nature. Some choose to get behind it, and others in front,” the American teen nodded in understanding. It wasn’t odd to hear people clash against what was set up to help them historically it was quite the norm.

“Yep, we all got our own sins, and baggage after all. Different views and ideals cause so much chaos. Yet it’s those very differences that make us who we are. Honestly, it's humorous when you think of it all,” Dascal smiled, finding this conversation surprisingly an interesting small clash in its own right.

“Oh? I am all game due tell,” Dascal chuckled, pulling out a notebook filled with location names, some with a checkmark next to their name and others a blank box.

“Hmm, you wouldn’t happen to know a place called Leblanc, would you? That place serves the best coffee in all of Shibuya, well minus one place but still, they are pretty up there!” It’s been a while since he himself had visited Leblanc. Ever since his old team disbanded, he wasn’t willing to go back there in the wear of awakening unwanted memories. But, given enough time, he’ll probably get over it, hopefully.

All this talk about sins and ideals was amusing to Sougo. Why was the guy so caught up with these abstract concepts? Did he take a literature writing class or something? “Hey you wouldn’t be part of some book club, would you? You seem like the type that likes to think a lot. Ponder over the bigger questions in life.” Dascal really seemed the perfect type of person that would write a book about such things. Though, Sougo himself avoids such things since they tend to get in the way of his job. Hesitation can mean the difference between winning and losing. And if thinking about such things made him weaker, then it’s best he avoided such things altogether.

“Actually I would like to have a friend that works there. I’ve been meaning to try it in fact. Oh? What's the one place if I may ask,” Dascal would ask before raising a brow to the second question with a soft laugh following it.

“No, I am not. I love more so using comparisons to help better explain things on a psychological level. I definitely love reading books, but I don't sit behind them. I actually go out, and feel the world just as much,” Dascal responded the conversation would surprisingly last for quite a while with the two taking on numerous things most would find odd to discuss. By the end though they parted ways.

……………………………………

Spoiler: A Deal Between Ideologies

(Later that night).....
In the Metaverse, late that night at a little shop known as Leblanc was a rather different soft jazz mood setting. The place was surprisingly empty except for two shadows at work: a young orange-haired girl, and an older white-haired man bringing a cup of coffee to a first-time patron. A Persona user garbed in green simply called Prophet just relaxing, and casually sitting at a location the Phantom Thieves, and one other had been spotted frequenting a lot. The unaligned persona user just sat there watching the TV that surprisingly was in fact functioning, showcasing some local news.

“Some exciting news for Aoyama-Itchome master of the Arts Film, and Stage Director of the well-known film industry Kongo Burst, Yua Sakura known for her straight 15 masterpieces in films like the “Sea’s Of Onbo” is set to finish production of her 16 and final film in her contract “Otohime Rouge”. A story on a desperate struggle in space where a stranded woman fights the unknown for one chance to see her love one more time before being lost from contact with humanity forever,” the news would continue to go on about the particular section near the neighborhood being with a prior study being used to finish up some of the special effects shots, and fight scenes were to be divided up with another prior location. Seemed this Director was extremely well known as Prophet had in fact heard of her films before back in the states.

It wasn’t uncommon to find other people in the metaverse Leblanc. It was usually considered a place of neutral ground among both shadows and mercs alike. Baron himself wasn’t worried whenever they did have visitors, since most of his stuff is often hidden behind secret panels and rooms accessible only to him.

Leblanc’s door swung open as Baron entered the building, not paying any attention to the newcomer. He remained silent, taking steps towards his usual sit spot and ordering his usual drink, a mocha. He liked his drink a bit on the sweet side which seemed odd for some, but that was just how he operated. “So…what brings you here…Prophet?” He had been informed about this individual from Masami’s report, about how he bailed the team out in Kamoshida’s palace but also banished one of the bigger players of the meta mercs. The last time he saw him was under the scope of his sniper. Today, one way or the other, he will find out if this individual will be a problem.

“Ah, a name spreads fast once spoken it seems,” Prophet spoke with his robotic voice as he kept an eye on the TV as the ominous entity Baron walked in as casually as an overworked employee taking a seat, and ordering the usual. Taking a sip of some bitter Java tea he let out a soft relaxed huff seemed this Baron was all ready for this meeting which made things easier in earnest.

“The same as why you saved me prior… curiosity,” Prophet spoke having watched The Necronomicon recording of the Veno Vs Baron fight Prophet had recognized the blast of Baron's gunfire. The same as what had smacked Thanatos into next Thursday so many days ago.

“I garnish a thank you for that by the way though I think we can call it repaid in full given prior habits,” Prophet spoke leaving that at just that resolution to bring Prophet straight to the next topic.

“So I guess the next question at hand for me is why do you do this?”

This "Prophet" seemed a lot more relaxed than he should have been, considering what he had just done. Did he not understand the gravity of the situation? Or was he just playing coy with him? Though he did note he was able to identify him from his gunshots alone. "I saved you because I thought you'd be a potential ally. You helped my team in the last operation and for that, you have my thanks. But you've also nearly got them killed with that virus upload." Baron removed his mouthpiece and took a small sip of coffee.

"So no, I don't think we are even at all. But I'm willing to overlook that. However, defeating Fixer has brought a lot more complications in our operations." He already knew his team was likely no match for Fixer, but would nonetheless have the tools and skills to drive him off along with the others. Had it been anyone else but Fixer, merc would likely not have cared enough. But seeing how things are right now, retaliation was only a matter of time.

"That depends on who's asking." Taking another sip from the cup, he gently sat his coffee down and turned to face the Prophet. "Your objectives may not be in conflict with ours, but I'd like to avoid any more possibilities of unexpected interference from third parties. So the real question is, where do we go from here." Was this man an ally? An enemy? Or something else altogether. He needed to decipher him as soon as possible. There was some level of tension in the atmosphere. A feeling of imbalance and fragility where any wrong words or action can set off a violent chain of events.

“Counter to your claim your teammates Heartbreak, and Swan would have been overwhelmed, and captured had I not interfered. Which would have been avoided if they had actually played stealth. Forcing me to make a choice to act rather than observe so I return to my original motion we are even,” Prophet countered pointing out he had to come out of the blue not only halting two of their members from getting caught not once but twice atop the add on he had to engage with his actions being the ripple effect that gave the Phantom Thieves the edge to hit back in confidence.

“That, and the fact that you had no plan of your own to stop that ship short of ramming into it with your draconic persona so fair to say there was no solid way to handle that scenario that didn't end without a dangerous preamble,” Prophet stabbed quite verbally at both sides on that matter taking the blame but equally sharing it with Baron. Though more notable was Prophet was clearly not going to be pushed into a loop of due’s by Baron, and his reasoning sank Baron's chip to try, and play. Thus both parties had returned to a blank stance with no advantage on anyone's hands at the moment.

“Ah yes. I am aware that I am wearing a target permanently on my head for that play, and more than not they will think I was in collaboration with you. Yet from my understanding, while mine was worse you already grieved them a wound similar,” he mused back yet again balancing the scales on past acts between the two… clearly he had been quite busy interrogating the whole background of what they had been up to since Kajik.

“And yet no one is hunting me at this meaning some other hand has been played to… heck I bet you all will start receiving offers soon if not already. Yet I feel mine is set to a death sentence,” Prophet wagered a guess as to why such a target of bounty had not yet been claimed. Prophet placed his hands together watching the outside passing on by for a minute as both parties took a sip of their respective drinks.

“I guess we can call each other bedfellows at this time. We have both interfered with each other’s fates, but I think we're too weary to say friends just yet so we can indirectly test the waters for now,” Prophet offered up in fair trade.

“I can’t help how Fixer played out had I not extinguished his persona’s connection he would have done so to me, and something tells me you know that so let's drop the act that this was avoidable if it wasn’t me it would have been one of your Phantoms,” Prophet expressed in a business manner much like that of a preacher ironically in a all were equal board.

“Though I curiously wager a glance that you are not exactly a Phantom Thief yourself. Your verbiage and theirs don’t match up. So let's take a step back, are you a Phantom Thief or do you have a stack in them,” Prophet asked bone dry.

“You make a lot of assumptions, Prophet. Some are more dangerous than others.” A combination of the meta-user tone and language was showing an unmatched level of confidence for one reason or another. What exactly was the source of this one’s bravado? Did he believe himself to be strong enough to take on any challenge? But based on the wrongful hypothesis of the situation, he likely has no idea of the true gap in their strength and experience.

Baron remained silent, continuing to listen to the newcomer’s assumptions. Not only was underestimating the capabilities of the Phantom thieves, but he was also underestimating Baron’s ability to quickly reestablish control over the situation should things have gone south. “I would’ve handled it.” Baron simply replied, in defense of the notion that this newcomer’s intervention was some sort of an unavoidable event. While Baron’s strength has dwindled, even in this weakened state, he alone was more than enough to take on the lower level mercs that were present on the field on that day, and then some.

“More likely, someone has claimed you as their target. And pretty soon, you will find yourself facing a very angry man with a very big hammer. He’ll likely go after me first, thinking I am your handler.” Baron was very familiar with the history and relationships that Fixer had with the other mercs. After all, there was a reason why he himself had spared him all the way back during the Matriarch palace. “However, the worst part is, the rest of the phantom thieves would be just as likely to suffer the same fate now…” Banishing Fixer and some of the more important mercs was bound to happen, it was just a matter of when. He had personally hoped that when that time came, the thieves would be strong enough to fend for themselves. Unfortunately due to the Prophet's interference, he had inadvertently pushed that timeline forward. “It’s too early, none of them are strong enough yet. None of them will survive at this rate.” He himself knew that even though he would likely have some problems fighting this man, the others would likely be nothing more than minor inconveniences for him.

The Prophet clearly had no idea of the gravity of the situation he had just created not just for himself, but also for the phantom thieves. And now, he had the audacity to make remarks of them being “bedfellows'' and interfering with each other’s destiny. This newcomer’s grandiose sense of self was starting to get to Baron, but even so, he remained calm throughout the interaction.

He listened again, talking about how if he hadn’t finished Fixer, it would have been one of the Phantom thieves or himself that would have been banished. At this point perhaps it would have been better if it had ended that way. It would give the remaining members more time to become stronger while not garnering as much attention from the mercs. His implication of this being an unavoidable outcome showed Baron his lack of knowledge of the dynamics that operate behind the scenes. “Actions have consequences. You could have walked away after beating him, but you chose to finish him off.”

And now Baron’s line of thought went to a much darker place. Perhaps he could surrender Prophet to the mercs for a temporary truce? But such actions would likely not be approved by his fellow tricksters, not to mention, there is no guarantee that the mercs would accept such terms. Regardless of what he chooses to do, he has to face the fact that this individual by his actions alone, intentional or not, has made things exceptionally harder for everyone involved. There was no clean slate here, no repayment. If anything, the debt had just tripled. “I am their investor.” Baron gave him a simple reply, not feeling that he deserved a more detailed answer until he was ready to settle this debt, one way or the other. He was their investor, and the thieves were his assets. And the Prophet had just become the liability to the group from his actions alone.

“Now… how do we fix this?” The only reason he hadn’t finished him off here and now was because he was much more useful to him as a member of the team. Had he known about what type of trouble he would bring, he probably would have just let Slayer finish him off.

“Of course, one does not get anywhere but complacent if they stay safe. Assumptions as well are to be made to chisel false paths, or no truth will be bared,” Prophet mulled watching Baron’s actions listening to every word/action performed with full attention. Painting a picture of minor understanding with each detail he got from this metaverse user. “Had it not been for that snake you probably could, I have no doubt,” Prophet complimented, even raising a toast to Baron respectfully on that notion before taking another calm sip.

“No doubt indeed. There's always an executioner to play the part,” Prophet noted who Baron expected to play said part. The next words showed clear signs of Baron’s worry yet whether it was for the Phantom Thieves or for his operation was hard to tell at this time. At this point Prophet let Baron continue not interrupting nor adding in any further until the Baron laid all bare.

“I found the Phantom Thieves' actions a little odd in certain ways until now talking to you,” Prophet had a better picture thanks to Baron. The Phantom Thieves more likely than not had started without Baron when dealing with Kajik, were formally introduced/invested with the Tulpa, and were now in full-swing cooperation with Baron at this point. It was a scenario built on a slow hill of trust.

“Though I wonder are they aware that you plan to ram them into the Meta-mercs,” Prophet asked as the mood of tone went deftly silent more likely than not with all how Baron had been chastising Prophet mentally that line in itself would probably derail even Baron for a moment.

“It's quite evident. So do not chastise and chid me with your thoughts when you yourself are orchestrating them to hit a wall of grand magnitude. It’s too early, none of them are strong enough yet,” Prophet quoted Baron clearly aware he had been thinking ill of him.

“The actions I saw from the Phantom Thieves are those not of a war purpose, but felt like those trying to right a wrong…I imagine. Yet none of that is my business in truth,” Prophet paused before placing his cup down having had about enough of the high and mighty talk from the Baron.

“I am aware of what I have triggered, and I couldn't have done it differently at my current level. I was forced to join a situation over my head. Yet In doing what I did they pushed the Metamercs back having done so beautifully after seeing one done in who had haunted them I assume for quite a while,” Prophet pointed out taking a breath to return to a respective posture before continuing pointing out there was a positive to the negative something that Baron ignored in trying to trap Prophet with his cage of words. No doubt he gave quite a bit to the Phantom Thieves and in turn believed them to be his as needed. However Prophet was not the same, and Baron couldn't just sink his teeth in. It was true though that the display of Fixer being taken down had spurred an effect for the PT’s to finally hit hard back pushing back those that had rattled them for quite a while by themselves.

“What hell will be wrought I am sure will be monstrous. The situation wasn’t as under control as one would like though,” Prophet chimed back slowly pushing back Baron’s egotistical glare of control of the situation to a verbal middle ground of understanding.

“Yet what's worse, unknowingly leading lambs to the slaughter… or knowingly leading lambs to the slaughter. Your actions alone lead to this consequence in the chain I just happen to be the poor fool to play its final act for you,” Prophet spoke making it clear for their actions they were indeed both at fault for how things played out Baron for pushing the Phantom Thieves into a scenario they weren’t fully ready for, and Prophet for intervening in that part they could both agree on this was a problem now.

“People aren't chess pieces to be played though Investor,” Prophet made it very clear he understood the gap Baron believe he was unaware of it more so came down to the fact Prophet didn’t let himself get distracted by it, unlike others were might and consequence were Baron's ideals, Prophet clearly countered with knowledge and freedom of will.

“I desire to know all I can, and the metaverse is a garden of untapped potential to me, you, the meta-mercs, and all the other solos and groups we play to that factor of gaining something from it. Yet the Phantom Thieves they do not, and that's what draws my curiosity to them, their genuinely unique I imagine it's what drew you to them as well,” unlike Baron who believed Prophet under him the green-garbed man shared his goals simply and cleanly. He was a scholar archiving, and testing the metaverse yet now he saw someone use it differently, and he wanted to see what new fruit could be born in such a way.

“Clearly though you see me as a product to be used, or I imagine you would have already been done with me offering me up as a bargaining chip like that of a ruler. Yet you see the value so instead of us barking mindlessly in the circles we can dance let's work in the middle of the situation. You want me to be an asset, and I want to learn more about the Phantom Thieves. We both have something the other wants, let's just keep it at that,” Prophet proposed as the ideologies present were never going to make an agreement on how they saw the past situations so instead better to look forward.

“I assess though you’ll want to give them a chance to give their opinion, and if I am found wanting well we can play the cat, and mouse game just like Slayer. Interestingly enough I must admit you acted quite like him when you got your hands on Kamoshida Shadow. One does not forget how that looks when they have been on one side of it. I would ask what your connection to them is, but I feel we are both rather sour with this first meeting that such can be asked under better temperaments.” Prophet nodded in understanding Baron had left quite a sour taste in him as well with this meeting. The two were very opposite of each other, and while it was clear Baron had most of the cards to the situation Prophet was not one to be trifled in the game of words just as Baron was not to be trifled in the realm of power.

“So if they want to give me a chance I will oblige. If not I am sure you will let me know how you plan to wipe me out respectfully,” Prophet said, laying it on the table the best course of action they could take. See if the Phantom Thieves were willing, and if not the Prophet couldn't really stop what Baron planned to do in the following other than struggle to which was clearly what he would do even if to a bitter end.

Prophet’s bravado and courage was questionable, but nonetheless could become a useful asset to the team if harnessed properly. While the current arrangement and situation was not ideal, Baron believed the situation was still salvageable, he just needed to invest a bit more up front capital to correct the course of this journey. “If their goal is achieving justice, then it’s only a matter of time before they clash against the meta mercs. I am merely preparing them for the inevitable.” It wasn’t a question of if, but when. He had already planned out how fast they needed to grow to eventually be able to take on the big leagues.

Hearing Prophet talking about what people are and speaking as if he knew a lot about the Phantom thieves, all of which were likely nothing but assumptions. “You are not a product. You were an investment when I saved you. But now, you have become a liability with your recent actions. Your actions cannot be taken back, and therefore removing you now will do no good for me.” Banishing him now would be a waste. Even if he was a sunk cost, with him being active there would at least be a possibility of him to reduce the debt he incurred with continued assistance and service towards the phantom thieves.

Baron was not phased at all when he heard that Prophet had witnessed his violent indignation towards the perverted coach. It was very likely that they had hackers on their side, based on the fact they had so much access to the surveillance of the enemy. “He got off easy.” Baron replied, fairly indifferent about the matter. Had the target not been in such close proximity to him, he would have sent them to the abyss a long time ago.

He had no qualms about letting the phantom thieves decide if they had additional assistance from this stranger, as long as he stayed within his intended purpose. “Very well. I will arrange an audience with the Phantom Thieves. I will let them make the decision on whether you should be allowed to join their troupe.” His tone was that of a businessman who wanted to build a mutually beneficial network of people. “And what about your partner? Would they be involved in this arrangement as well?” Prophet, despite what he looked like, was clearly not working alone. It was only fair for his “partner” to work as well to compensate for his blunder.

“I see,” the holy garbed metaverse user replied to Baron’s answer about the clash. If anything the Prophet had to give Baron was skilled at dodging, and hiding what he wanted others to know, but regardless it was clear this man had an extreme want to see the Meta-Mercs dissolved permanently the why though was illusive and tight bolted shut. No matter the cost it seemed nothing would change for this man on this topic.

“And yet here I stand a free man. Please don’t get it confused Investor I owe you nothing for my actions are of my choice as are yours. I don’t regret them like you do. I am simply taking advantage of what you have to offer,” this particular line saw the room at its calmest, surprisingly regardless of how Baron saw the situation, a leash around Prophet's throat he would not garner. A businessman mixed with a lime of unwatched justice that was an interesting mix of personality Prophet had to admit, and very cold with calculation. Baron’s comment on Kamashido gave a bit of insight as well… he was connected to the things that happened… so that had indeed been all pent up rage.

“Yes, and no. They will assist at a distance any request of their talent though will have to go through me. Don’t take it the wrong way, but I refuse to place someone talented near your grasp. You're disturbingly tricky with how you attempt to get what you want. I have no doubt you could sell a man the clothes off their own back,” Prophet chuckled, not phased by the topic of his partner she had rammed her persona in to save him after all. Both complementing Baron’s impressive sway of the deal, but making it clear Baron would have their help willingly, and with no chains attached especially when it came to his partner. They were helping to get what they wanted. This was an equal transaction, nothing more, and nothing less. With that all said it seemed finally the topic ended where it should have.

“Wonderous. Then we have a deal.”

…………………………………………………………….
I am thou, thou art I

Thy wills clash in the realm of ideals from the pursuit of the truth,

In shattering the chains of doubt,

An unbreakable partnership bond has been formed,

Between The Judgement & The Hierophant

Thy paths have given new strength in meeting
………………………………………………………………​

“I’ll see myself out then, and hope to have a more befitting chat when we next meet,” Prophet politely tipped his hat before finishing his drink. Having already paid in advance he got up, and left a soft jingle of the door bell to signal his departure out into the vast unknown.

 

[TreasureSniper]

"We have a few performances lined up from the cultural club, including some plays and musical performances. There are also our cultural exhibits which showcase historical memorabilia. Some samurai gear from the Sengoku period and some information about the Meiji Shrine." The cultural club had step up their efforts this year. Due to the number of scandals the school had been involved in lately, Makoto with the help of the silver-tongued Sougo was able to convince the school board of directors that they needed to use this festival to improve their public appearance while also keeping the student's minds at ease.

"The student council has been busy lately. We're still dealing with a lot of the fallout from the previous case. But we are getting there." Paperwork, it's always paperwork. Who's going to read all this paperwork anyways?! It wasn't easy, pooling and delegating their limited manpower across the much grander festival, but somehow, the student council team managed to pull it off. "Of course, there will be a fireworks show at the end of the day. Which reminds me.." He replied to the redhead as he finished up the last of his takoyaki. Unfortunately for the group, he didn't have more time to spare, getting several messages the moment his break had ended. He still had to collect the additional order of fireworks for tonight. He would ask someone else to do it, but it seemed like everyone else was too busy and only he had his own mode of transport as opposed to relying on buses and trains. "You guys have fun now! I have some errands to run. Oh and keep an eye out for any shady characters there have been reports about a pickpocket lately." Grabbing the key from the table, Sougo made his way toward the parking lot. While he would love to stay and spend time with his "friends" his duties here came first.

---

The festival itself went on without a hitch for the most part, but it eventually there was a slew of pickpocketing reports. People suddenly misplace their wallets and other personal belongings. The only commonality between the pickpocketing incidents was a masked individual which wasn't that much of a help considering all sorts of people were wearing masks on this day whether it be for performance reasons or just for fun. However, was responsible for this thievery and was smart and efficient. Never striking the same place too often, only stealing every few hours. It was difficult for the security team to piece together any useful information. The details given by each victim were always different. Their mask described by eye witness was always different from each other, and it seemed like they were always wearing a hoodie, even if they were described to be different colors.

Things were beginning to quiet down at first, with the reports of thievery seemingly dying down as the night drew closer. Sougo himself had returned after picking up the precious fireworks and was busy setting them up at the fireworks launching area with the pyrotechnics team. He had been receiving regular updates about what was going on from the student council chat group. In between doing that, he took some time to message Masami, asking her if she has seen anything from her end.

As everyone was getting ready to find a good spot to sit to watch the fireworks, Shiro and her gang would eventually run into a masked individual who bumped into them with a strangely clumsy walk. "Oops...sorry." the stranger spoke, before quickly disappearing from sight after turning towards the corner that was supposedly a dead end. While the encounter was brief, Gomi would quickly realize that her wallet was no longer with her.

Later on, Imato would give a similar encounter, though his version was a lot more... confrontational. The masked hoodie man would straight up smack his shoulder against his, before turning to face him. Imato would feel as if he just hit a brick wall on his shoulder with how solid the person was. "Oops, how clumsy of me! You alright there buddy?" The person spoke, dusting Imato off, giving him a playful pat on the head as if he was a small kid before eventually running off. He too would feel his pockets were slightly lighter than before as he realized he too had become a victim.

"THIEF!" One person yelled, prompting the mask hoodie man to start sprinting, pushing anyone and everyone out of his way. His movement was swift and efficient, someone who was clearly experienced in parkour and precise movements. When two larger students attempted to halt his advance he was quick to knock them out with a few punches to their guts and faces, before continuing his escape, showcasing his prowess in close-quarters combat as well. From there, the thief began climbing up the stalls, using them as platforms to get to higher elevations where none of the people were able to follow him.

While it was difficult for some people to follow, a certain cat would likely be able to track this mysterious suspect down with their own acrobatics. From there he would see that this person had retreated into a nearby abandoned warehouse. If the Phantom thieves were to enter the warehouse, they would find that the culprit had already unmasked himself, and was sorting through a rather large pile of wallets and other valuable goods that he had collected from the day's crowd. It was a young adult, no more than his twenties. He looked rugged and rough around the edges, someone who hasn't had an easy life, but despite this, his movement and facial expressions imply that he was a rather jovial person. "Wow you guys actually found me! Congrats on that! Don't worry I won't be here for long. So just stay put and let me finish this.." He didn't seem to take any of the individuals present seriously at all, seeing them as nothing more than just kids.

That Weird girl Nellancholy Maeve Valor Anthem

 

[Anthem]

Imato had wandered off from the group during the festival since he was still having a small amount of trouble getting use to being so open with others, he could only play the charade of a sociable person for so long before it grew tiresome. Buying some daifuku to snack on, the white-haired boy sat down by one of the stalls to eat in peace without much interruption. A smile filled his face as he ate, satisfied with the sweet treat as he started to move once more in an attempt to regroup with the others after the small break. Though that plan of his was quickly shot down as it felt like he was hit by an onslaught of force, but it was just the shoulder of some prick that ran into him. Before the hot-headed teen could bark, the masked man acted like he was genuinely sorry even going as far to dust the teen off a bit. This calmed Imato down just as the pat on his head got him riled up again, but not getting the chance to say anything as the masked man ran off.

"Geez, not counting the muscle difference... did I look that creepy to people when I walked around with my mask? Shit-" The boy would start to rub the shoulder that had been rammed into, whistling a little bit as it stung like hell. Starting to walk, Imato only noticed that he had been finessed of his wallet after the only weight left in his pockets was phone. 'Son of a! Where did that piece of crap go-' Like clockwork, the white-haired boy's thoughts were answered as he heard a person in the distance call out "thief". Not wasting any time, he would start to push people in the crowd out of the way as he ran to where the thief had been outed.

Running past two people that looked like they had been knocked out, Imato let out a small whistle before shaking his head. "So this guy gets kicks in stealing and beating whoever gets in his way..? Lucky for me I like a challenge." Just like most people had, the boy lost track of the masked man until his eyes had caught sight of a certain feline seemingly on the prowl as well. A small laugh came from his grin, quickly changing his path to follow Mona and whomever decided to follow the cat as well.

Not even thinking to discuss it with whomever followed, Imato ran directly into warehouse which ruined any sort of chance they had at being stealthy or keeping their presence unknown from the man. Red eyes widened upon seeing the pile of goods before it quickly turned to a scowl that started to observe the wallet thief as he spoke. 'Stay put..? And allow him to finish up and then do whatever he pleases? Hell no!' Imato's thoughts immediately went to the negatives of what could possibly happen if they allowed the man to finish while they just stood there and observed. So in his usual fashion, the boy would rush towards the man with minimal constraint. Moving fast, he reached the wallet thief and started attacking by going in for a general knee to the gut while using his momentum from running for a hopeful advantage. Even if that were to fail, Imato would start to repeatedly punch at the man with various hooks, jabs and crosses.

TreasureSniper

 

[Nellancholy]

"Huh...?" While walking with Masami, Gomi would barely have noticed when the strange man made off with her purse. She should really have known better from the time she spent with Shiro, but understandably her mind was far away from that. On the other hand, the commotion that arose from the thief's lack of subtlety would have alerted anyone.

Why tonight, of all nights? Someone had to come along and cause trouble, always. If only it was just something to do with Sougo, but alas, these troubles didn't stop with him. As Imato charged forward, Shiro broke into a run as well, leaving Yui and the others to trail her for the moment. It'd been a while since she'd had to exert herself like this in the real world, but the movements came quite easily to her. Staying ahead of the police, or gangsters, or whoever thought to pin a petty crime on her in the moment...that had been her life for a while.

Their quarry led them into a warehouse where he chose to peruse the loot he had gathered, apparently assuming he was safe enough.

Imato, however, chose to greet him with a flurry of blows, in response to his nonchalant provocation.

Except for in her foulest moods, Shiro tended not to treat someone who was apparently in a similar situation as her with such open hostility, though Imato's impulsiveness was hardly surprising given his...eccentricity.

"Come on, hold up. I said...hold it!" Shiro exerted just the right amount of force necessary to hold Imato back by hooking her forearm around his elbow before his next punch.

Her gaze turned to the pickpocket. Even a week ago, she'd have been entirely in favor of dealing with him more harshly if she had been stolen from, considering that she was responsible for the livelihood of her subordinates. But now...she couldn't find it in her. No one who could afford otherwise would resort to something as petty, dangerous, and unprofitable as this. Well, probably there were a few people like that out there, but even they weren't as bad as the real criminals who extorted and cheated from the populace day after day.

"That one." She nodded at Gomi's purse. "Take half of what's inside there." It wasn't that much, but it'd probably keep him for a day or two. "The rest..." She couldn't make that call. "If you run now, you won't have to deal with the rest of us. If you stay...my hands are off." She gave him the slightest bit of a chance, though he probably wouldn't take it.

TreasureSniper Anthem

 

[That Weird girl]

"Hey, don't worry your secret is safe with me," the cat said as she had asked him to not tell the others about her past. He could do that. Its not like he had a past to talk about or that he remembered besides being a thief himself. Morgana was going to say something else but then a shady individual bumped into Gomi stealing her purse and then stole Imato's wallet. Alright this was a work of an amateur...Morgana lept from Masami's arms and began to follow this thief not knowing why he did so, maybe it was because the guy made him think of himself? Maybe he cared about his friends? Or he knew that this guy would be a danger if left unchecked. For whatever reason he had the cat followed him into an abandoned warehouse.

"Hey give those back!" Morgana yelled but all the thief could likely hear was meowing. Morgana was actually wanting to stop this guy before he got too out of control and maybe he had a shadow in the metaverse? It was likely since most people with shadows did do crimes and hurt others without realizing it but this guy seemed to know what he was doing so....hmmm tough case. Ann however was deciding what to do, she knew that they could easily kick his butt but there was something more to this guy than met the eye.

Maybe what Shiro did was the right thing to do. Offering half of Gomi's money would probably get him to give up the rest of the stolen wallets and if not then Ann guessed this guy would go to the hospital or get arrested. She was not sure what to do so she just stood by the entrance in case the guy tried to book it.

The most confused person there was Kasumi because she was not used to handling situations like this and without the police what could she do? Yeah gymnastics made her strong but she could not fight this guy because what if he had a knife?

Maeve Valor Nellancholy Anthem TreasureSniper