"Shiina, where are we going?" Shouto asked for the millionth time as she dragged him around a shady alleyway.

"To Leblanc," she replied.

"The cafe?" He frowned. "I want you to tell me the truth, not feed me."

"I am gonna tell you the truth," she confirmed. "I just need some help explaining it because trust me... it's a loooong story."

Leblanc was empty when they walked in which was understandable since it was closed. Shouto quirked a brow at the fact that Shiina somehow had access to a closed restaurant, but didn't question it as the man behind the counter addressed them.

"Is he your brother?" Sojiro asked jutting his chin towards the dual-haired boy.

Shiina nodded shortly. "Yep."

"They're upstairs waiting for you," he said before turning to Shouto. "Good luck, kid. Don't feel too bad if you don't get it. I didn't understand it for the first few times."

Shouto blinked in confusion but still said, "Okay." before Shiina pulled him away to the stairs.

"Who's waiting for us upstairs?" He asked.

"My friends," she answered.

He paused, refusing to go up any further. "Wait, your friends as in—"

"—Yup, now come on." She pulled harder, and she had to practically drag him up the rest of the way since he was being so stubborn.

"Shiina, I don't want to—"

They both paused when they heard some sort of scuffle coming from the room.

"You've gotta be kidding me," he heard her mutter. "He actually came? That idiot!"

He was about to ask 'who?', but she had already pushed the door open. He froze at the doorway, his heterochromatic eyes scanning the room. Shiina's friends were all somewhere scattered inside wearing varying forms of panicky expressions. Yusuke, Makoto, Ann, and a cat were all struggling to restrain a gun-wielding Kurusu Akira. Haru and Futaba were working together to try and restrain Ryuji, who was angrily waving around his super megido rod. Even more surprising was the famous ace detective, Akechi Goro, who was trapped in a corner and holding what looked to be a light saber.

Noticing the dangerous looking weapons in their hands, Shouto quickly placed himself in front of Shiina.

"What the hell are you guys doing?!" Shiina hissed, trying to barge through her wall of a brother. "Akira, you idiot, put your gun away! We're in Leblanc! People are gonna get suspicious if they hear a gun go off!"

"What the hell is this?" Shouto asked her.

"An absolute disaster," she moaned in despair.

"Listen to reason, you three!" Makoto tried to pry the gun away from Akira's hand. "You can't start a fight here! Someone's bound to get hurt!"

"Yes," Haru agreed. "Put the weapons away and calm down!"

"Not until he leaves," Akira seethed.

"I'm not going anywhere." Akechi said firmly.

"The only place you're going is to prison! And then to hell!" Ryuji shouted.

Shiina groaned loudly. Everything was going downhill and Shouto didn't even know anything yet. "Guys," she stressed. "Please. Not in front of Shouto."

"Huh?" The mention of her brother finally caught their attention. The three boys turned to him, as if just seeing him for the first time.

"You." Shouto said so quietly that barely anybody could hear him. His gaze hardened as the leader of the Phantom Thieves finally dematerialized his gun (as did the other two boys with their weapons)—

Wait a second.

Weren't Shiina's friends supposed to be Quirkless? And why did their Quirks seem so similar to Shiina's, whose weapons appeared and disappeared in a flash of blue flames like theirs did?

"What the hell are you doing here? Shiina, what's going on?" He interrogated.

"Uh, well, we're the Phantom Thieves?" She said lamely.

Ryuji gawked at her. "Dude, that was pathetic!"

"Oh leave me alone, I'm nervous!" She cried out.

"You're a Phantom Thief?" Shouto demanded. "Shiina, what the fuck are you saying?"

"Hold on, let's not raise our voices here," Makoto tried to placate. "How about you sit down?"

"No."

"Shouto, please? You'll need to sit for this." Shiina insisted.

He huffed, and strode forward to occupy the chair that stood at the end of the table. Fortunately, it was the farthest away from Akira (who he currently saw as the Devil's incarnate). Shiina plopped down beside him, fiddling with her fingers anxiously.

"Explain everything. Now." Shouto ordered.

Everyone turned to Akira for help.

The boy sighed and leaned against the wall. "What exactly do you want to know?"

"I want to know everything from the very beginning. How all this happened and why Shiina's apart of it." Shouto said firmly.

Akira looked at Shiina, "You warned him that this'll be a long story, right?"

She nodded.

Akira took a deep breath before beginning. "Okay, well it all started about a year ago before I began living in Tokyo. I saved a woman from a drunkard and he falsely accused me of assault. He's a powerful guy with strong connections to the police department, so he managed to get me arrested and put on a two year probation while concealing his involvement."

"Remember this, 'kay, 'cause he'll be important later on." Ryuji said to Shouto, who glared darkly at him. The blonde backed away. "Jeez, moody much..."

"Anyways," Akira continued. "I got expelled from school and after my court hearing, I was forced to transfer to Shujin since it was the only place that would accept me. Sojiro was, er, nice enough to let me stay here during my probation. On my first night here, I fell asleep and was taken to the Velvet Room where I was basically treated like a prisoner by these two lollies and a long-nosed dude—"

"—What are you talking about?" Shouto shoot him an annoyed look.

Akira grimaced, raising a hand. "Just... listen... Igor—the guy with the nose—gave me this long talk about how I was the 'Prisoner of Fate' and that 'destruction awaits me in the future'—"

"—Dude, that's so grim." Ryuji interrupted.

Ann kicked his shin. "Not now, Ryuji!" She hissed.

Akira rolled his eyes. "Igor then asked me if I was ready to fight against the world's corruption. Naturally, I said yes. After introducing me to the attendants—the lollies—he sent me back to the real world. On my first day of school, I met Ryuji, Ann, and Kamoshida. Ann left with Kamoshida earlier on, so Ryuji and I had to walk the rest of the way to school. That was when we accidentally transported ourselves to the Metaverse and entered Kamoshida's Palace."

Morgana hopped on the table in front of Shouto and began, "The Metaverse is—"

"Mona-chan..." Haru said gently. "He can't understand you, remember?"

Morgana stopped swishing his tail. "Oh... That's right..."

"You can... understand him...?" Shouto eyed the cat warily.

Haru nodded. "Yes, but only those who enter the Metaverse can."

"What exactly is the Metaverse?"

"The Metaverse is this alternate dimension that we can enter through the Metaverse Navigator app," Shiina showed him the black and red app on her phone. "It's where we go to deal with our distorted-desired targets, which is basically the corrupt people whose hearts we have to change."

"The Metaverse is where Mementos and Palaces are located," Makoto added. "A Palace is a manifestation of 'distortion', strong negative and corrupt thoughts that warp the perceptions of people into a hazard for themselves and others. It's festered with Shadows, which are basically the monsters the Metaverse. Only the worst of the worst end up with Palaces, which is lead by their Shadow Selves. Mementos can be considered as a Palace for everyone else's hearts. The people there are not as corrupted as those with Palaces, but it's still pretty bad."

"All the people we've targeted had Palaces. Kamoshida was the first one." Akira started. "Ryuji and I had no idea what was going on when we accidentally stepped into the Metaverse. We were suddenly standing in front of a large castle and when we walked in, we were captured and thrown into a cell where we encountered Shadow Kamoshida, who saw himself as the 'King'."

"My loud mouth nearly got me executed," Ryuji sighed, scratching the back of his head. Then he grinned. "But my buddy, Akira, here saved my ass. He awakened his Persona, Arsene and we both escaped and met Morgana, who was also locked up. We freed him and he showed us the way out."

"Personas are entities formed by individuals in the Metaverse who are dealing with feelings of frustration of being wronged or taken advantage of. Should you decide to rebel and take revenge, your Shadow Self would call out to them, forming a mask on your face." Haru explained. "Your eyes will turn yellow, meaning you've successfully merged with your Shadow Self. Ripping off the mask formalizes the contract, causing the Shadow Self to turn into your Persona and take form. The first time's always painful, but you learn to get used to it afterwards. The act of ripping off the mask means you've 'ripped off the mask' that clouded your judgement by making yourself accept your fate."

Accept your fate? Shouto thought, frowning. It sounded really... dark when it was phrased that way.

"It was never a Quirk," Shiina told him softly. "When Endeavor came at me screaming that day, I panicked and accidentally summoned Tullia. I had no choice but to lie and say I had gained a Quirk. In actuality, I'm still Quirkless."

"We all are," Futaba confirmed.

"So you're all... Quirkless...? Wait, Amada also uses a Persona. So is he—?"

Shiina nodded. "He's also Quirkless, but he's from a different, er... group(?) so he uses a different summoning."

Shouto sat back, looking down with confused eyes. Shiina and Sojiro weren't kidding when they warned him of how confusing this all was.

"After we returned to reality, we headed straight to school. Turns out, Kamoshida was completely unaware of his Palace. He then made Mishima spread rumors about me and my probation," Akira said.

"And now the whole school thinks he's some sort of bad-boy delinquent," Shiina giggled.

Akira couldn't help but smirked. "Yeah, they're terrified of me."

"Though you look harmless, you are a force to be reckoned with." Akechi admitted.

"I am," Akira agreed. "After that, Ryuji and I returned to his Palace a second time where I found out about the physical and sexual abuse that Kamoshido inflicted on the students. And then we ran into the cognitive copy of Ann..."

Said girl flushed red with anger and shame. "It was absolutely disgusting!" She shouted at Shouto who was terribly lost. "He only thought of me as a sex slave, so that's how my cognitive copy acted! He made my life a living hell... Everyone was spreading rumors that I was sleeping with him when I wasn't...! I was just his... favorite victim... He kept forcing himself on me... And then one time he even asked me to... to visit him in his house... I was too sickened to say anything... But because I kept rejecting him, he... r-raped my friend as consequence and she tried to commit suicide..."

Shouto's hardened glare faltered to a sympathetic expression. He absolutely hated those who hurt women and after witnessing the physical and sexual abuse Endeavor would commit on his mother and the damages it made on her mental health, he truly worried for Ann and her friend.

"He sexually assaults the female athletes while physically assaulting the male ones and labeling it as 'training'," Ryuji growled. "He sabotaged other sports teams so the volleyball team would remain superior. I was in the track team, and while he was coaching, he purposely goaded us which led me to attack him. Big mistake, 'cause then he beat the shit outta my leg and broke it. He claimed it was out of 'self-defense' and the school let it go 'cause he was Principal Kobayakawa's favorite."

Shouto bit the inside of his cheek. Physical abuse being hidden as 'training'? That sounded painfully familiar...

"After his crimes were confirmed to me, Morgana suggested that we make him admit his wrongdoings by stealing his Treasure, which is the source of the Shadow Self's corrupted heart. Stealing it leads to them admitting their crimes." Akira explained. "Kamoshida threatened Ryuji and I with expulsion, so we quickly went to work with stealing his Treasure. That was when we accidentally dragged Ann into the mess without us knowing. We only found out later on, when she was captured by him. Ryuji and Ann awakened their Personas, we secured a pathway to his Treasure, then went back to reality to give out the calling card, which would make the host feel threatened and make their Treasure take a physical form."

"Once the Calling Card was done, we went back to Kamoshida's Palace and finally defeated him." Ann said. "We didn't kill him though, because killing him would inflict a mental shutdown, and we needed him alive to confess. After his Shadow Self agreed to repent, we waited a few days before the real Kamoshida admitted to the school of his wrongdoings. The expulsions were dropped and he was taken to jail."

"That was the first target... The next was that famous artist..." Shouto mumbled, still trying to register everything. But one important question came to mind: Where did his sister come into all of this?

"Madarame," Yusuke spoke in a grave tone. "I was his pupil... In fact, I was the only pupil that stayed with him. Everyone else was either cast away or if they were lucky enough, they willingly left. Behind his kind and public image, was an amoral and greedy con-man with a bloated sense of self-importance. He was going through years of artist's block, so he resorted to extorting his pupils to maintain his fame. Once he was done... using them, he'd throw them out. I only stayed with him because he raised me after my mother, one of his pupils, died. After I was taken into his Palace by Ann, I soon awakened my own Persona. While there, I found out his famous painting 'The Sayuri' was actually painted by my mother. He stole it from her and admitted to letting her die while she was suffering through a seizure..."

"We defeated the old man, and he agreed to repent." Ryuji continued for him. "But before we left, he told us about this one asshole," he aggressively shot Akechi pointed looks. "Who was lurkin' around his Palace. Like a creep an' shit. All he could tell us was that the bitch wore a black mask. Anyways, we stole the Treasure and left."

"The Treasure took form of the real Sayuri once we returned to the real world. I gave it to Sojiro-san so he could hang it on display at the entrance of the cafe. Did you see it?" Yusuke asked with a pleased smile.

Shouto nodded. "Yes... the woman and the baby... Is it you and your mother?"

He nodded. "Keen mind, you have. Yes, my mother painted a portrait of us, but Madarame copied it and hid the baby in order to give it a more... 'dramatic' effect."

"Our third heist was Kaneshiro Junya..." Makoto said while rubbing her forehead.

"Ugh," Ann made a face of disgust. "That sleazeball..."

"Before you go on," Akira interrupted. "Our class went on a social studies trip to a Japanese television studio."

"Oh right," Ryuji grinned. "That trip was boring as hell, but Morgana had the brilliant idea of going to a nearby pancake place."

Akira smirked and roughly smacked Akechi's shoulder. "That's where we met dear Akechi here. He also wanted to get some delicious pancakes."

Shouto furrowed his brows. "But I thought you said only people who have entered the Metaverse could understand Morgana."

"Shoot, he figured it out faster than we did..." Ann moped.

"We'll come back to that later..." Akechi trailed off.

Makoto nodded in agreement. "Principal Kobayakawa tasked me with the job of investigating the possibilities of the Phantom Thieves being amongst the student body. I couldn't refuse him, so I took the task seriously."

Akira snorted. "'Seriously'?" He said. "Makoto, you have the stalking skills of a child."

"She followed him everywhere with her head shoved in a book," Ryuji sniggered.

"Oh Makoto," Akechi chuckled. "I expected better from a Niijima."

She quickly turned red. "Be quiet! I've never stalked anyone before, can you blame me? Anyways, you weren't so smooth either, Ryuji, so I wouldn't talk!"

Shiina snickered. "You and your loud mouth, dude."

Ryuji groaned and covered his shamed face.

Makoto calmed down enough to continue, "I blackmailed Akira, who I strongly suspected as a Phantom Thief. I then gave him a recording of Ryuji loudly proclaiming his identity as a Phantom Thief and Ann's reply came afterwards. If it hadn't been for Ryuji..." She smiled in amusement. "I never would have known."

"You guys are never gonna let that go..." He grumbled.

"I wanted to know if they truly were just or not, so I gave them the chance to prove me wrong. If they did, I would delete the recording." Makoto said. "I requested for them to investigate an unknown man with yakuza connections who was extorting money from several Shujin students."

"Yakuza?" Shouto repeated, glancing over at Shiina.

She patted his shoulder. "Relax, I was still in middle school at the time so I wasn't involved with them yet."

So the school had an abusive volleyball coach and there was also a member of the Yakuza who was targeting the students. I really should've tried harder on getting dad to send Shiina to a different school... Shouto thought, stressed.

"We met a journalist, Ohya Ichiko, who leaked Kaneshiro's name to us. With it, we were able to enter his Palace," Makoto explained. "Also, for us to enter a person's Palace, we use the Meta Nav. But first we need to find out the target's name, location of the Palace, and what they see it as."

Shouto nodded in (somewhat) understanding.

"They weren't able to find his Treasure since the bank that acted as the Palace's main body was too high up in the air. So... I made the foolish decision of searching for Kaneshiro instead, with Yusuke, Ann, Akira, Ryuji, and Morgana following after me... They took a picture of us in the club, surrounded by beer and alcohol and threatened to spread the photo through social media. In order to keep that from happening, he made a deal with us: we had to bring him 3 million yen in three weeks. I felt terrible... so I joined them in their next heist. His Shadow Self gloated about how he was going to prostitute me and my older sister. I was so furious that I awoke my Persona. Like the last two times, we sent him a calling card, defeated him, and stole his Treasure. Before we left, he warned us of another third party that manipulated the Palaces and Mementos for their own ends without caring for the consequences."

Everyone looked towards Akechi, who sighed heavily.

"The next target's me!" Futaba exclaimed.

"They... targeted you?" Shouto blinked.

She nodded. "Yep! Do you remember hearing about Medjed? Well it all started from there! I contacted Akira anonymously through the alias 'Alibaba'. I asked him to steal someone's heart and in exchange, I'd take care of Medjed. If he refused, then I'd leak his identity to the media. I even left them a calling card in Leblanc to show them that I was serious. I asked him to steal the heart of 'Sakura Futaba'—me, by the way."

"The info she gave us about herself was lacking, so we asked Sojiro for more details since we found out that they were somewhat related, but he refused..." Ann sighed. "When we asked Alibaba for more details, she abruptly canceled the request. Things were calm for a while until Medjed declared an all-out-war on us so we had no choice but to track her down. Makoto was the one who figured out that Alibaba was Futaba, so after we met her, we managed to collect enough data on her to enter her Palace."

"It was friggin' Egypt, man!" Ryuji complained. "Sand everywhere, sun glaring down on us... We were roasting alive!"

"The main part of her Palace was a pyramid," Yusuke clarified.

"My Palace was unlike the others," Futaba muttered. "It wasn't born from corruption, but my severe depression and belief that my mother hated me... You see, I thought I was nothing but a bother to her since I was always trying to get her attention and drawing her away from work... I thought I drove my mom to commit suicide... "

"But that's not true," Akira said firmly. "We found out that her mother was a researcher of cognitive pscience, which is a study on one's perception of reality. She was basically studying the Metaverse itself... She had a lot of important data on it, which prompted a certain someone to order a mental shutdown on her."

"They forged a suicide note," Futaba bit out. "And my relatives blamed her death on me... For so long I believed them... But those terrible adults only wanted to keep my mom's research for themselves. Somehow, I managed to enter my own Palace and overcame my feelings of self-loathing and realized that I was being manipulated into believing a lie that practically ruined my own life... Because of that, I awakened my Persona and helped the Phantom Thieves defeat the cognitive copy of my mother."

"You were out for days afterwards, which truly worried us," Yusuke sighed. "But then after she woke up, she admitted to being the original Medjed and hacked into the fake Medjed's website and prevented them from 'cleansing' Japan's economy."

"The fifth target," Shouto spoke up. "Okumura Kunikazu. You killed him. Why?"

Haru winced. "We didn't kill him!" She cried out. "I would never kill my father..."

Shouto's eyes widened slightly. "You're his daughter...?"

She nodded her head. "Please believe me, I didn't kill him. I-I entered his Palace and targeted him, but I only wanted to give him a change of heart. We never killed him..."

"While we were on a field trip to Hawaii, our principal was hit by a car in the middle of the crosswalk." Makoto stated grimly. "He was killed via mental shutdown though, by someone we didn't know yet. After we came back, we saw that the Phan-Site had numerous requests for us to target Haru's father next. We agreed to do it because Okumura-san seemed very suspicious to us. A lot of his competition were taken out, either due to mental shutdowns or psychotic breakdowns."

"Tell them about how I met Haru," Morgana chimed.

Haru nodded. "I met Mona-chan later on. He accidentally got me dragged into my father's Palace. He came alone because he and Ryuji had a fallout, and he decided to leave. He was easily overwhelmed by all the Shadows there, but I managed to awaken my Persona. However, it lacked the full power that the Phantom Thieves had... When Mona-chan told me what he was attempting to do, I decided to work with him because my father had forced me into an arranged marriage with an abusive and controlling man... It took me awhile to join the Phantom Thieves, but I finally did after they helped me in the Palace. Though I only wanted to get out of my marriage, I found out about the horrible treatment my father gave towards his workers, which fueled my resolve to truly change his heart. We successfully did, and he agreed to repent. We left the Palace and a few days later I watched him die on live television..."

"He had a mental shutdown," Akechi said softly. "Which I caused. I was watching them fight Shadow Okumura the entire time and once they left, I shot and killed him, triggering a mental shutdown that would come a few days later."

Shouto stared at him with wide eyes. "You—you killed him?" His body tensed up, ready to attack, grab Shiina, and run. Out of everything he heard, this was the most shocking. One of them was actually a killer.

And Shiina, for some twisted reason, was friends with him.

Akechi couldn't look him in the eyes. "Him and Futaba's mother. I was the one who caused the mental shutdowns and the psychotic breakdowns. It was all me. I did it under order without hesitation."

"You know that I'll have to report you for this."

"There's no need to do that. I'll be exposed soon," Akechi said, before his eyes grew colder. "Besides, taking me down will also take Shiina down. Is that what you want?"

Shouto balled his fists. He couldn't do anything about this murderer since that would get Shiina into trouble too.

Dammit...! He cursed.

"Goro!" Shiina hissed. "Don't threaten him. He's just trying to do the right thing!"

Shouto's eyes widened some more. Not because of how she defended him, but because she called the murderer by his first name.

Shiina, just how involved are you in this mess? Even though most of the Phantom Thieves were decent people, he was still trying to analyze how to get them arrested without getting Shiina arrested as well. But now he wasn't so sure it would be possible.

"I apologize," Akechi muttered. "Please contin... ue..." He trailed off, realizing that the next target was Shiina.

Shiina swallowed thickly, realizing the same thing. "The next person they targeted was, um... me."

"They targeted—?!" His face slowly fell in realization. Her sudden change in behavior was beginning to make sense now...

"It started off with an accident," Ryuji looked down. "We were talkin' about Endeavor and how similar he looked to Shiina. They started joking around about how they could even be related and Ann said something about Todoroki Shiina sounding better than Kiberi Shiina. The Meta Nav activated and that's how we found out she had a Palace..."

"It was terrible for Ryuji," Haru said sadly. "Because he didn't think he'd ever have to target her."

"But I had to," he replied. "Because she was—no offense—but she was corrupt and delusional. She'd talk about you, Shouto, she'd say awful things, so I knew I had to steal her heart."

"..." Shouto stayed quiet. She'd say awful things, echoed in his head. His sister truly hated him and the only reason she didn't anymore was because...

"Her Palace was a dollhouse," Ann said softly. "The Dollhouse of Illusion, it was called. Because she deluded herself into thinking she had a perfect family. It was a really gorgeous place until we stepped inside."

"From there on, things became creepy," Yusuke shuddered. "Ann was correct to say that it was gorgeous, but the air around it was... oppressive. The walls were full of family photos. Yellow-eyed members of the Todoroki family with Shiina always at the center. They all looked happy, but the one thing they all lacked was you. We soon found out that you didn't even exist in the family because you had 'died in the womb'."

Shouto tried not to wince. A Palace was basically a manifestation of a person's twisted desires. Shiina hated him so much that she wished he was never born... That hurt...

"I received their calling card," Shiina continued, unable to look at him. "And I was terrified. I didn't tell anyone about it because I felt like there was nowhere for me to go to. I tried contacting Ryuji but he was already in my Palace. When I returned home after grabbing a snack at Jamba Juice, the Metaverse Navigator app suddenly appeared in my phone and transported me to my own Palace. That's where I ran into... into Touya..."

Shouto snapped his head up. "Touya?"

"Not the real one though," she sighed. "Just the cognitive version. He took me to the rest of my 'family'. It was so weird. Because mom and Natsuo was home, Touya was there, and Endeavor was being nice. They were being so loving and caring towards me, but I got suspicious when I found out that they didn't even know what 'Quirks' were and that you weren't even a-alive! I realized then it was all fake, that my family wasn't perfect, that it was broken beyond repair because of Endeavor... I ran away to the garden where I saw the Phantom Thieves fighting against my Shadow Self which had turned into a huge doll monster... Then she came to me in her real form... I snapped. I realized that I was deluding myself into thinking Endeavor loved me and that you were all to blame for everything wrong in my life. I decided to take revenge against Endeavor and awakened my Persona, Tullia. After we defeated the cognitive copies of our family, I made it back to home and the Treasure took form of the old Endeavor toy that I had you burn."

"After that, she became a member of the Phantom Thieves..." Akira stated. "We didn't want her to at first, because the police and Pros were after us, but she was determined to help."

"At that point, nearly everyone feared and hated the Phantom Thieves," Akechi said. "That was when I stepped in and offered my help. I showed them proof of them teleporting to and from the Metaverse, and they had no choice but to accept me. I advised them to target Makoto's sister next, Niijima Sae. She's a co-worker of mine and a prosecutor. However, it was all a trap to get them killed."

Akira smiled bitterly. "Akechi wanted to capture and kill us after we changed Sae's heart, but we figured out his real identity as the true culprit a few days beforehand. So we planned a counterattack behind his back. Shiina, Yusuke, and Makoto sneaked into the interrogation room I would be placed in since it was also apart of her Palace. They confirmed that it didn't look any different than the one in reality and their clothes didn't change. Ryuji quickly placed an empty briefcase to act as Sae's fake Treasure."

"We purposely let Akira get captured by the police and Pros," Futaba grinned. "It was part of the plan, after all. We brought Niijima-san into this too, by making her turn on the Meta Nav without her even realizing it. Because of that, Akechi went into Akira's interrogation room and killed his cognitive copy instead of the real one."

"The police department lied and told the public that he had killed the guard and then pulled the gun on himself," Haru frowned. "When in reality, it was Akechi who killed the guard and the fake Akira."

Shouto was beginning to trust the 'ace detective' less and less.

"We told Sae of the plan and she agreed to sneak Akira out of the police department." Shiina said. "That was when we found out who was ordering Akechi to do all the killings: Shido Masayoshi."

"The politician?" Shouto furrowed his brows.

She nodded. "Yup. The bald guy."

"He's also my father," Akechi grimaced. "That was the only reason I cooperated with him at the time. I wanted him to acknowledge me... and then kill him. I loathe him because he abandoned my mother when she fell pregnant with me. She committed suicide and I was stuck in the foster system. When I learned of my father's identity, I sought him out and made myself useful. I killed people and made them go insane in the Metaverse and in reality, I went and 'solved' their crimes."

"So you're a murderer and a fake," Shouto glared.

He tried not to wince. "Yes. I guess I am..."

"Shido's the reason I was arrested too," Akira added. "He was the drunkard who fell on his ass and falsely accused me."

"His Palace was the absolute worst," Ann spat. "It was a large ship, and all of Japan was underwater. The only ones who survived were those who supported him and his corruption."

"It was where I was trapped too," Shiina told him, and Shouto listened with rapt attention. "We needed to collect these Letters of Recommendation in order to enter the room where the Treasure was in. It took us hours and hours to get, and we didn't leave the Metaverse until we collected them all."

"That was our biggest mistake," Yusuke whispered. "We were too hasty. Too impatient. We should've divided the days out more..."

"We were dead tired after collecting the final letter, and we were about to leave when Akechi appeared..." Makoto trailed off.

"We fought," Akechi said in a hollow voice. "I tried to kill them... To just end it all. I'm like Akira, a wildcard. I have more than one Persona. My second one, Loki, has the power to make people psychotic."

"Psychotic breakdowns..." Shouto murmured.

Akechi nodded in confirmation. "That is the ability I used to make them have psychotic breakdowns. When I was losing against the Phantom Thieves, I made myself go berserk..."

"He was a bitch to beat," Ryuji admitted.

"A truly formidable opponent." Yusuke nodded. "It took all nine of us to defeat you..."

"After I recovered from Berserk mode... Shiina... I guess, slapped some sense into me. I longed to be wanted... But I was too blind to see that I already was. We were all beaten and tired... Shiina helped me up and that was when the cognitive me appeared. Turns out Shido was planning on killing me after the elections were done. And then he pulled a gun on me. Shiina was nearby, and I didn't want her to get hurt. I tried to get your sister back to safety, I really did, but she's so stubborn..." He chuckled fondly. "My cognitive gave me the choice to kill your sister and her friends, but I refused. I shot him instead, and then shot the locking switch on the wall which sealed me and Shiina off from the Phantom Thieves."

"All hell broke lose afterwards," Shiina shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself. "Shadows were hunting us down everywhere we went. We crawled through the vents to get to the other side of the wall, but we were discovered so we had no choice but to hide out in a supply closet."

"Shiina lost consciousness a few minutes before that. It was terrifying for me. Her breathing was slowing down..." Akechi whispered.

"We left the Metaverse, but then we realized something horrible: Shiina and Akechi didn't make it out with us. We've been in the Metaverse for hours on end, using our Personas repeatedly to battle Shadows. We were on the brink of exhaustion after our fight with Akechi. Any longer and we would've lost the energy to use our Personas and continue fighting." Akira said quietly. "Shiina stayed there longer than Akechi, so we knew she was in the most danger. We went back to find them, but we couldn't."

"Akechi and I woke up a few hours later when someone found us in the closet. We fled, but the whole ship was so full of Shadows that wouldn't stop trying to kill us," Shiina said in a shaky voice. "We were so tired and injured... I couldn't use my Persona anymore. We made it to the Entrance Hall, which was full of Shadows, and that was all I could remember."

"I could still summon my Persona, but I could no longer make myself go Berserk unless I received a full recovery. Because of that, Shiina had an idea... It was a horrible one, one that I disagreed with vehemently but she was determined. She wanted me to make her go psychotic, because while in Berserk mode, one would be able to ignore all exhaustion and injuries while becoming ten times more stronger. I did it, and Shiina paved a way to the exit. We made it out of the Metaverse, but she was fully passed out then. I tried to take her to the hospital, but she was already dead... I called 119 and left the scene. I didn't know she was revived until a few hours later."

"We were so relieved to hear that Shiina was alive and well," Ryuji smiled at the memory. "But we soon had to go back to Shido's Palace."

"That's why I needed you to cover for me," Shiina told Shouto. "Because that night, we successfully defeated Shido and stole his heart."

"Now we just have to wait for him to confess," Futaba finished with a long sigh.

"..."

"Was that too much for you?" Makoto asked nervously.

"..."

"Sho-chan?" Shiina said worriedly. "You okay?"

"Sorry," he muttered. "It's just a lot of information to take in."

"Well, we're just glad you're not running to the police screaming," Haru forced a chuckle. "Would you like to stay for lunch?"

He shook his head. "No thank you, our sister is probably done with lunch preparations. I'd like to leave now."

"Yeah, Fuyumi-nee's probably waiting for us," Shiina stood up and stretched. "Whoo! That was a long talk! You sure you ready to head home, Sho-chan?"

He silently nodded and rose to his feet. "Yes. Let's go."

— ❤ —

Shouto was tense and silent the entire walk back, which made Shiina worry for him. While she was glad he wasn't furiously screaming at her, he was being too quiet. When they returned home, he didn't even greet Fuyumi and proceeded to drag Shiina deeper into the house.

He shoved her into his bedroom and gave her the darkest glare she had ever seen. "You've been lying to me. To all of us." He hissed.

She winced. "I-I didn't want to drag any of you into this...! I highly doubted that you'd report me to the police, but I didn't want you to get involved in our plans... You want to be a hero, I knew if that we got caught, your dreams would be crushed—"

"—That doesn't matter," he harshly cut in. "Fuyumi, Natsuo and I, we've all been worried about you. First you've been out for hours on end without any way for us to contact you, then you were shot—which I'm sure had something to do with your Phantom Thieves activities—and then you were killed! Shiina, you're even involved with a murderer! Do you know how much danger you're in?! Do you even care about that?!"

She shrunk under his burning gaze. "I—"

"—And then," he started breathing heavily. "And then I find out that the only reason you give a shit about me now is because you were forced to."

Her eyes widened. "What? Shouto, what are you talking about?!"

He scoffed. "You were targeted by the Phantom Thieves. You hated me so much that you said 'awful things' about me to your friend. I'm not even in your Palace because I was dead there! You're nice to me now because you were forced to get a change of heart! If that never happened, you'd still hate me to this very day!"

"I wasn't forced to get a change of heart!" She yelled out. "I realized and changed it myself, Shouto—"

"—Out." He said firmly.

"W-what?"

"Get out. Just leave. Go."

"What are you—"

"—Just leave me alone, Shiina!" He snapped, glaring coldly at her. He grabbed her by the arm, opened the door and threw her out in the hallway. She flinched as the door was loudly slammed shut.

She stood there, shellshocked as she struggled to gather her thoughts. But only one thing came to her: Now Shouto hated her.