Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Somewhere beyond the laws of the world stood a shadowed figure standing above a fireplace burning a blue flame. A cloaked figure stood nearby as he held a book. The individual was reading something from the pages, with a chuckle escaping his lips.

“Good… good…” The individual spoke, turning the pages, a small smile on his face. “Now that I’ve proven that it works, it’s time to carry out this bet.” He placed the book down. Then clapped his hands together and rubbed softly.

He turned his head left to another book sitting upon the fireplace. With a sigh, he picked it up and inspected the cover.

Persona 5 Royal.

God, one of his favorite stories by a mile.

Which made what he had to do even more dire.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. No. That would come later. First he had to prove that their world was worth salvaging. Or else not only would the book cease to exist, but the entire universe would be destroyed. He had to act now.

He put the book down and took a deep breath once more. Time to prove that their world deserved a fighting chance.

The unknown figure began to chant something as he moved his hands in different angles. An ominous blue energy began to build before it spread outwards from his hands onto the book, putting together the gateway into that world.

He concentrated his mind on the individuals that he wished to take from the reality in question, each name went onto the tablet, which the individual had floating nearby.

The energy glowed brighter as he continued his chant, but his chanting slowed down as he heard something that sounded like… flapping?

The individual stopped moving as the flapping got louder. His eyes scanned his surroundings with paranoia before the flapping became loud and a very familiar squawk went off.

“No!” The individual raised his arms as his prisoner came down and interrupted the spell.

*

The end of the barrel was pressed against his head. Fear consumed him as he heard, “Case closed… this is how your justice ends.”

Ren jolted awake with a loud gasp, then he winced hard as he clutched his stomach. No longer inside the interrogation room and back in the attic of Leblanc. His sheets were thrown off to his legs and his upper chest for once was bare of a shirt.

“Ren?” The teen winced as he looked to the floor and found his roommate rubbing his head.

“Sorry, Mona. Did I throw you off?” The teen scratched his neck.

“Yeah, but I was already awake, so I don’t care.” Ren did snort at Morgana’s obvious attempt to act tough. “How are you feeling? Are you alright?”

“Yeah… well, alright as I’m going to be.”

Morgana narrowed his eyes. He crossed the gap to the bed and pounced onto it, taking empty space on the bed so that he wasn’t hurting Ren.

Especially after what happened last week.

“Was it the Interrogation Room again?”

Ren pressed his lips together and looked down at the bed. Confirming Morgana’s suspicions.

“Ren…” Morgana pushed his way onto him and brushed his head against his chin. “You know you can talk to us, right?”

“I don’t want to bother you guys more than I already have.” Ren reached down and scratched the top of Morgana’s head gently. “Especially now.”

“Well, considering that everyone on the team is going out with you.” Morgana pushed his paws onto his chest as Ren leaned back. “I’d say that you need to learn to lean on them. They lean on you most of the time after all.”

“I know…” Ren sighed, scratching Morgana’s head some more. Despite the idea of being off school, this was actually not very fun.

Because he couldn’t see anyone normally. He couldn’t go get ramen or play games with Ryuji… he couldn’t go to Ann’s shoots… he couldn’t go people watching with Yusuke… he couldn’t just be around Makoto and broaden her views… or even be around Haru and her gardening plants…

At least Futaba didn’t have school so she could just come right over to the attic and play games with him. But still, even though he had one, he didn’t have the other five so it still sucked.

“I just… I don’t know…”

“What else is bothering you, Ren?” Morgana backed up and sat down as Ren swung his legs over the bed and put a palm against his forehead.

“Ah, so you’re up, huh?” Ren raised his head and looked at Sojiro, who had made his way into the attic with a glass of water and some ibuprofen. “How are you doing?”

“Better than Shido will be.” He smirked, taking both the pills and the glass from the older man.

“Good to know your mouth is still intact.” Sojiro smirked, bringing a hand to his chin and giving a light rub. “Think you’ll be up to going in and dealing with him today?”

“What happened to me staying low and not getting caught?” Ren teased.

“It’s not going to matter if the police figure out that you're still alive.” Sojiro answered him. “Especially that Akechi brat.”

Ren’s smile faltered as Sojiro said that name. Both Morgana and Sojiro noticed immediately as the boy tensed up.

“Sorry…” Sojiro sighed, realizing that was not a good blow.

“No, you’re okay. If anything, I should be apologizing to you.” Ren shook his head. “Especially because of what he did to you and Futaba.”

“Kid, that’s his fault. Not yours.” Sojiro snapped softly. “You have nothing to blame yourself for.”

Ren shook his head. It was his fault. He was the one who let Akechi get in too close. He was the one that got suckered in because of his backstory. He was the one who gave him the time of day and allowed him to get closer to his home. It was his fault for presenting Akechi with that opportunity with Okumura and now Haru…

His heart hurt again just thinking about their screwup.

Sojiro sighed, then turned around. “Futaba mentioned that the others are coming here after school to see you, but she’ll be here in a minute to keep you occupied. Try and get some rest, okay?”

Ren hummed as the cafe owner went from the stairs and disappeared from sight.

“You should listen to him, you know.” Morgana said, watching Ren move about the attic and get changed. “Since we’re not going to Shido’s palace today unless you say so.”

“You don’t need to remind me, Mona.” Ren sighed, slipping his shirt over his head with a hiss. Morgana looked sad watching Ren try to move around and adjust. Some injuries were more severe than others. And Morgana knew that Ren wanted to pull out of Shido’s palace the way that they did because he still wasn’t at his best.

Vrr-Vrr!

“I think the others might be texting.” Morgana looked at Ren’s phone, screen down on the bed. Ren came back over to the bed, putting his fake glasses back on before he picked up his phone.

Ryuji: How are you doing, man?

Ann: Ryuji. You asked this yesterday.

Ryuji: Am I not allowed to worry about our boyfriend!?

Yusuke: I must agree with Ryuji, Ann. He is our leader and valued person of affection. Such questions are completely normal.

Futaba: Patronizing Inari.

Haru: Are you okay, Ren-kun?

Makoto: Ren?

Ren: I’m here. Groggy. But here.

Yusuke: I assume that you have just awakened.

Ren: A little bit ago. Doesn’t help with all the noise outside.

Ryuji: For real. Can Shido shut up already?

Futaba: Well, for a POS that wallows in his own pride I think you’re asking quite the tall order there, Ryuji.

Ryuji: True.

Makoto: Language.

Ann: Yeah, Futaba! Watch your damn language!

Makoto: …

Haru: You guys are funny!

Makoto: Haru, don’t encourage them.

Ren: Are you guys good to go with going to the palace today?

Ryuji: I don’t think you are the one that needs to ask that, bro.

Ann: Yeah, how are you doing?

Makoto: Ren, if you’re not comfortable, we don’t have to go. We still have two weeks.

Ren: We might as well get some work done. I don’t like the idea of saving it all for the last day.

Yusuke: As long as you feel like it’s your choice.

Haru: If he falters, leave it to me! I’ll take on anything with my trusty axe!

Ren: See? I’m fine.

Makoto: Alright then. We’ll meet up after school and head to the palace.

Ryuji: God, today's going to be nerve racking…

Ren: Also… if you guys see Akechi…

Ryuji: We know dude. Don’t interact with him unless we have to.

Makoto: And if he does, make it seem like we don’t know what happened to Ren.

Ryuji: That too.

Yusuke: For what it's worth, I’ve seen him a few times in the underground walkway but he hasn’t seen me. Whether that is intentional or not, I do not know.

Makoto: I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to do anything to the rest of us yet.

Futaba: Probably because he’s waiting till after Shido wins the election, that POS.

Haru: Why must the news talk about Akechi like he’s a hero of justice!? It’s driving me crazy!

Ann: I know! Just looking at him pisses me off! Who the hell would actually like that guy!?

Yusuke: Ann.

Ann: Oh... Sorry…

Ren: You’re good, Ann. You don’t need to apologize.

Ann: No, I think I do. I just insulted you.

Ren: And I understand that you weren’t thinking about me when you said that. It’s okay.

Ryuji: You sure you’re okay, bro?

Ren: What happens now is Akechi’s fault. Not ours. He only has himself to blame.

Ren: I’ll see you guys later.

Ren: Well five of you. I’ve been alerted that one of you is coming to the attic to play games to pass the time.

Futaba: Sojiro! You snitch!

Ryuji: You’ve literally been doing that everyday until we all get off school!

Haru: See you guys soon!

“Akechi, huh?” Morgana raised a brow to him, finally reading what the team wrote in the chat. “Not Goro?”

Ren closed his eyes and exhaled. “What of it?”

Morgana frowned. “You don’t hate him.” That wasn’t worded as a question, but more as a statement.

Ren shook his head. “I don’t know anymore, Mona.” He laid back on the bed. “It just feels like everything was a lie. That he was only using me. I tear down my walls and let my heart out again and look at what I got for it. Someone with an inferiority complex that takes sick satisfaction in trying to kill me.”

“But you don’t hate him.” Morgana confirmed again. “And I’m willing to bet that he doesn’t hate you.”

Ren shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if I hate him now or not, Mona. He’s an enemy and he’s made it clear that he plans to kill us. I have to protect the team before I even think of trying to stop us from fighting.”

Morgana narrowed his eyes like he was looking for something before he sighed and licked his paw. With him occupied, Ren went into his own mind.

Yusuke’s question while they were on Shido’s Cruiser of Pride did raise a question for Ren though. Why was Akechi willingly working for Shido? For all of his talk about justice and finding the culprit, Akechi at least had a sense of direction… at least from what he interacted with him with.

And after the duel he had with him in Mementos, he thought they were in a good spot. Arséne had been just as trusting as he had been with all the other Personas when he interacted with Robin Hood too… even if they both knew they were lying to them. In that duel he only used his initial Persona, and while he could see the disappointment on Akechu’s face at the fact that he wasn’t using all of his other Personas that he currently had, the detective also reveled at the idea of fighting one on one when they could strike each other’s weaknesses.

And they fought hard. Both Ren and Akechi found themselves on their last leg by the time it was over, and Arséne and Robin Hood worked hard in that battle. Ren didn’t know why but after the thing with the glove and the promise for another duel and everything they did already that he thought…

…No. It didn’t matter what he thought. Akechi still went and shot him anyway.

Besides, even if he admitted that he still liked Gor-, Akechi in some format, the others wouldn’t be okay with it. 

Ryuji and Ann were so angry to learn what Shido and Akechi orchestrated for Ren in the interrogation room. Yusuke had been so disappointed to see what the police had done to him and vowed to slice Shido’s palace to ribbons. Futaba was already running facial recognition on the detectives that carried out the drugging so that Sae could take their careers away on a silver platter, and then there was Makoto and Haru, both clinging to him and doing their best to comfort him.

Ren didn’t need to be a genius to know that Akechi was going to be very much hated from now on. A relationship was definitely not going to work and the others definitely would not let Akechi near him. Especially Futaba and Haru, who Ren believed were completely justified after what he did to them.

Besides, he'd rather have people that he trusted with his life rather than people who tried to take his life.

“Are you alright, My other self?” Ren sighed as Arséne spoke in his mind.

“Of course he’s not, Fool.” Zorro spoke aloud, manifesting ghostly alongside the gentleman thief. “Why would he when that foolish fraud of a detective stabbed him in the back and tore his heart to pieces?”

“Zorro!” Arséne chastised. 

“It’s fine, Arséne.” Ren closed his eyes and pinched his nose. Great. Add insult to injury, why don’t you, Zorro?

Morgana frowned at his Persona. “Zorro, I thought we agreed on being nice about this?"

“That honor is not deserveable to that false detective or that fraudulent Robin Hood!” Zorro huffed, crossing his arms. “I am going to be so upset until we finally tear their spoiled rotten egos to pieces!”

Arséne huffed and ruffled his wings. His silence was enough for Ren to know that he had a similar thought process about Robin Hood. That persona dared to act like he was something to trust too. He wished that the archer was in sight so that he could drop an Eigaon on him.

But alas, patience was going to be at the forefront of Arséne’s mind.

“Man, what is taking Futaba though?” Morgana frowned and looked around. “She’s usually faster than tha-,”

A harsh rumble went through the area, then escalated into a series of shakes that grew louder by the minute, making Ren clench the bed hard, and then wince from the pain that he was still in.

“What the hell!?” Ren heard from downstairs. “Kid! Are you okay up there!?”

“Sojiro!? What’s happening!?”

“An earthquake by the looks of it!” The older man said before Ren heard something crash down below. “Shit!”

Ren pushed himself off the bed, only to fall over and the trembles continued growing more violent by the minute. Morgana fell onto his rear as well, unable to stand up straight.

“What’s happening!?” Morgana yelled, “There wasn’t even a warning!”

“Look! Out the window!” Arséne yelled, pointing out the attic window. Ren lifted his head just enough to see what his Persona was talking about.

And his eyes widened comically. “What…”

There was a white orb in the sky that was growing brighter by the second. Almost like it was expanding and coming close-,

Oh shit.

“HANG ON!” Ren grabbed Morgana as the white light burst into the attic window, consuming the two Phantom Thieves and their Personas in a bright white light.

*

There was a moment where Ren didn’t understand what happened. A moment where all ground was gone and he felt like he was levitating. But after a moment, the bright light died down and Ren managed to open his eyes.

But as he opened them, things still didn’t make sense.

Around him was nothing but a pure white void, no means of buildings or landscape around. The ground itself was cracked like the desert floor, but the air was neither hot nor cold. Looking above him was the source of light, bright to be considered daytime around them, but nowhere near as bright as the sun.

“Ow…” Ren looked down to his chest and saw Morgana, still in cat form as he rubbed his head then looked up and around. “Wha… where are we!?”

“Kid!” Ren snapped his head to his right, seeing Sojiro coming right toward him with Futaba in tow. The older man let out a sigh of relief as he came in close. “Thank god. You’re okay.”

“Ren!” Futaba immediately leaped into his lap, earning a wince from the teen as Morgana jumped off. “You’re okay!”

“Gonna take more than that to take me out, Futaba.” Ren chuckled, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Futaba stiffened for a split second before she went into her mischievous giggle. Sojiro looked down at them with a frown for a split second before he scratched his head and chuckled.

“Wait. Ren!?”

“Ren! Hey bro!”

Ren turned his head again to see Ann, Ryuji, Yusuke and Haru coming right to him. All of them dressed like they were going to school and looked relieved to see him.

“Ah! What a relief it is to see you alive.” Yusuke sighed peacefully.

“Hey guys.” Ren smiled back, glad to see most of his team safe. Futaba got off him and allowed him to stand up, dusting himself off and fixing his hoodie. “What happened to you?”

“That light sucked me up the minute I left the house!” Ryuji said, frustration on his face. “And it was right as I was saying goodbye to mom too!”

“I was literally getting off the phone with Shiho when that all happened!” Ann huffed, ruffling one of her pigtails. “I didn’t even make it to the train!”

“It was a bright and terrifying flash that consumed my dorm room as I was finishing my newest painting.” Yusuke brought a hand to his head and threw his other hand out dramatically. “Now look where we stand! A vast expansion of nothingness around us that gives off a feeling of emptiness! No exit in sight for miles…”

…Everyone was silent as they deadpanned at Yusuke. Sojiro was taken aback though, not used to the artist’s dramatics.

Haru giggled. “Yusuke, never change.”

“Oh, I don’t plan to, majestic Beauty Thief.” Yusuke put a hand to his chest as he looked at her with admiration. Haru blushed, allowing a laugh from Ann and Futaba and a chuckle from Ryuji.

“Wait! What about Makoto!?” Ann's laughter cut off the second her brain pushed that nugget inside. Everyone turned to her with wide eyes. “We all got sucked into this place from different points of the city! Couldn’t she have been sucked in here too!?”

“I’m here!” Everyone turned to Makoto, who was walking towards them with her sister, Sae. “Good to see you guys are safe!”

Ren exhaled softly, glad to see the final member of the team alright. Ryuji and Ann both hugged Makoto in relief as Sae came up to the others puzzled.

“Good to see that you’re alright, Amamiya.” Sae said, offering a small smile though she looked around paranoid.

“Let me guess, a bright light sucked you up too?” Ren looked amused, earning a sigh from the older Niijima. Makoto came over and hugged him tightly, earning a return hug from her boyfriend.

“Yep. Was getting ready to leave our apartment when all of a sudden the earthquake hit and consumed Makoto and I in the flash.”

“Now isn’t that something.” Sojiro chuckled. “All of us are stuck in the same place and unable to understand how we get out."

Sae sighed. “And here I thought the weirdness would end with the Metaverse.”

Ren shook his head. “Apparently that didn’t stick.”

“Senpai!”

Ren whipped his head around to see another face coming to him. Kasumi Yoshizawa.

“Ah. Yoshizawa.” Ren smiled, bringing everyone’s attention to the redhead. “How are you doing?”

Yoshizawa looked troubled. “Um… not that well honestly… I mean I was waiting in front of BLEEP and then all of a sudden, I was sucked up by this white light before I could BLEEEEEEP and then-,”

“Ow! Stop! Ow!” Ryuji covered his ears as the two ear piercing sounds passed into his eardrums. Yoshizawa stopped talking with wide eyes as everyone else followed his lead.

“Senpai?”

“Yeah, Kasumi. How about you don’t say that again!” Ren rubbed his ears with frustration.

Kasumi frowned. “Um. You know that’s not my name… right?”

Ren blinked with confusion, lowering his hands. “What?”

“Yeah. My name is Sumire Yoshizawa.”

"No." Ren frowned. "Your name is Kasumi."

She shook her head. "No, it's Sumire."

“I thought Sumire was the one who died? You said this yourself!”

Kasumi, or rather, Sumire was puzzled. “No. We talked about this. You also saw it for yourself when we went to BLEEEP.”

“Ow! Stop it!” Ryuji screamed. Sumire put a hand to her mouth, then looked around with wide eyes.

“Where is that sound coming from!?” Ann looked around with wide eyes, rubbing her ears from the newest censor.

“Is it cutting off my voice when I talk about something from January?” Sumire muttered, but it got caught by Ren, Morgana and Futaba.

“I’m sorry?” Futaba looked at her wide eyed. “Did you say January!?”

Sumire blinked. “Yeah…”

“But it’s the last week of November!”

Sumire frowned. “No, it’s January.”

“Ah! There you kids are!” The gang turned to see an older man in his forties walking with a kid. The guy seemed glad to see the Phantom Thieves though as he walked up to them. “Glad to see you’re alright.”

“Yeah…” Ryuji frowned. “Who are you?”

The man blinked. “I’m sorry? Do you not remember the Bleeep?

“Jesus Christ! Ow!” Sae cursed, tired of that loud sound going off. The man and the girl blinked incredulously at what just happened.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Ren asked, making the older man blink. “I have a feeling we’re not from the same time period.”

The man sighed. “Okay, well. The name’s Zenkichi Hasegawa. I’m an investigator to Kyoto’s Public Security Branch.” He turned to the girl beside him. “This is my daughter, Akane.”

“Um… hi Phantom Thieves.” Akane mumbled, completely shy. But her words made everyone look at her wide eyed.

“You know about us!?” Ann gasped.

“Yeah… Dad joined you guys' just last month.”

“WHAT!?” The Phantom Thieves shouted as one.

“Wait! Does that mean you have a Persona!?” Ryuji stared at Zenkichi with wide eyes.

Zenkichi gave a smile. “Yeah. Got a codename and everything else there too.” All of a sudden an unfamiliar being spawned in above Zenkichi.

“What has happened for all of you to have been brainwashed?” The unfamiliar Persona spoke, crossing his arms and speaking with anger.

The others that had Personas jumped seeing the ghostly figure, only for Zenkichi to sigh. “Valjean, come on. Work with me here.”

“What a mesmerizing design.” Yusuke framed his fingers as he stared up at Valjean.

Zenkichi chuckled. “Yeah. You thought so the first time too.”

“Well, unfortunately.” Morgana said after clearing his throat. “I believe you guys might be from a different period of time than us. It appears that the same is with Yoshizawa, so you guys might be in the same boat.”

Zenkichi sighed as Valjean disappeared from reality. “Really? And after everything that happened this summer too?”

“Where did you come from if you don’t mind me asking, Hasegawa-San?” Makoto asked.

“Around the first week of September… which I’m going to assume is not where you guys came from.”

“Nope. We come from November of what I’m going to assume is the year before you.” Ren answered.

“Well, this is quite the development.” Ren and the others turned again, now seeing an older man in a business suit walking beside a woman wearing an eyepatch and using a cane to walk. “Good to see you again, Phantom Thieves.”

“Really!? Another person we don’t know but also knows us!? Come on!” Futaba frowned.

The man blinked, taken aback. “I’m sorry? Do you not remeber the-,”

“Sir.” Zenkichi cut in for them. “Just tell them who you are. Trust me, you’re not alone on this front.”

The man took a moment, trying to understand what was going on, but he looked at the slightly downed expression on Zenkichi’s face before he sighed. “Okay then.” He fixed his tie. “Well my name is Toshiro Kasukabe, and well… I guess you could say I used to be in the running for Prime Minister but dropped out for reasons that I’m sure is going to cause problems for you if I talk about it.” He eyed the landscape around them warily.

Good. Someone knew not to open their mouth and cause loud ear breaking noises.

“Okay then…” Yusuke crossed his arms. “And I assume you have a Persona as well?”

“Yeah. Ernisto.” Toshiro coughed then gestured to the other person. “This here is Eri Natsuhara.”

“Pleasure, Phantom Thieves.” Eri tapped her cane as she gave them a smile. “Toshiro has talked so much about you… well your future selves anyway.”

“Um, just a question.” Futaba raised her hand. “Where do you two come from?”

“Around late April. Why?”

“Okay…” Futaba fixed her glasses. “So, we’ve got most people here from the same time frame of November except Sumire, Zenkichi, Akane, Toshiro and Eri, who are apparently from several different moments in the future... Great.”

“Wait. You're all from November?” Toshiro was surprised. “So, you guys haven’t taken down…” He stopped and looked up. “You know what, I’m going to stop right there.”

“Thank you!” Most of the Phantom Thieves shouted, having their hands already raised to their ears in preparation.

“Okay, so now that we’ve established that we’re all in some sort of temporal distortion…” Ren fixed his glasses. “Where do we go here? I mean it doesn't look like there’s anything for miles.”

Honk! Honk!

“How about you get inside this minivan?”

“Huh!?” Haru turned wide eyed to look at a white minivan that pulled up. A lone woman was sitting at the steering wheel and waving to them.

“High ho, Phantom Thieves!” The woman shouted and waved.

“What the heck!?” Futaba blinked. “Another person who knows us!?”

The woman frowned with confusion, but Zenkichi closed in and tapped the door. “Good to see that you’re alive as well, Ichinose!” He leaned closer to her ear, “But also, don’t say anything related to anything that happened over the summer because you’re just going to break their ear drums.”

“Oh…” Ichinose blinked, then she gasped. “Is this one of those time space anomaly things?”

“Apparently so…”

“Oh, I love those!” Ichinose looked excited for a reason that Zenkichi would never understand. She looked over his shoulder. “Well, climb on in people! There’s plenty of room for all of you!”

The group minus Zenkichi and Akane eyed each other silently then made to get in the van.

“So where exactly are we going?” Sae asked as Ren pulled open the van door. They started climbing in the van single file, ending with Sojiro, Sae, Toshiro and Eri in the very back, Ren, Ryuji, Yusuke and Makoto taking the middle row and Ann, Haru, Sumire, Akane and Futaba squeezing into the first row. Morgana took a seat on Ren’s lap and Zenkichi got in the front seat with Ichinose, who turned the key again and began to drive.

“Well, I’m glad you asked, stranger!” Ichinose looked over her shoulder, then lifted up her phone. “Sophia. Care to explain it to them?”

Her phone chimed as a bright red-haired girl appeared on screen. “Hello, Phantom Thieves!”

“Wha!?” Futaba was taken aback. “You, how are you, what!?”

“Whoa! Is she an A.I!?” Ann gasped in amazement.

“I don’t know how this is possible but your design is majestic!” Yusuke complimented, staring at the A.I.

Sophia looked heartbroken as she looked down to the corner and Ren felt a knife go through his heart just by looking at her sadness. Clearly, she was also from the future and knew most of them in some capacity. But he didn’t know what to say to cheer her up.

Ichinose seemed to have that handled though. “Oh, don’t worry Sophie! I’m sure we’ll get their memories jogging in no time!”

Sophia blinked. “Really?”

“Come on, Sophie.” Zenkichi smiled as he took the phone and held it up for Ichinose. “I’m sure they’ll remember you in no time!”

Sophia brightened up at that. “Okay! I’ll make sure of it!”

“So, on that note.” Ichinose kept her eyes to the front. “Case to share, Sophia?”

“Yes! There is a black structure of some kind off in the distance,” Her words drew everyone to look out the front to see some kind of black object slowly getting bigger. “It is the only thing of note within this void that has some kind of importance.”

“Is it the only thing or just the one you know of?” Sae asked.

“No. It is the only thing of note in this void. I have scanned the rest of the space that we inhabit and it doesn’t appear to be anything else but a wasteland.” Sophia answered.

“Are there others within this void as well, Sophie?” Zenkichi asked, keeping his eyes ahead.

“Correct. Any other lifeforms appear to be already at the structure. I cannot gather an exact number of the individuals but there is a large number.”

“Jezz…” Ryuji scratched the back of his head. “How many people got sucked into this thing?”

“We won’t know until we get there.” Makoto brushed her lap. “Hopefully there are some answers to this mess.”

“But what could have dragged us in here?” Ann messed with her pigtails. “Could it be something to do with the Metaverse?”

“I can’t feel anything similar to the Metaverse…” Morgana said, sitting up straight as he watched the road. “Hopefully we won’t need our Personas any time soon.”

“Whatever it is, it seems keen on us specifically.” Haru looked troubled. “But why?”

Ren was silent as the others began to debate how this happened. He had a feeling in his gut that the white flash happened for a reason, but he wasn’t so sure he was confident in why this was happening. Something dragged them here. Something flicked them from their spots in time and thrusted them into this white limbo. The only question now was what and why?

Ren had a bad feeling of what was to come.

Chapter Text

“Holy hell…” Ryuji muttered, putting his head forward on the seat in front of him. “How long are we going to be in this car?”

“Still got a good chunk of time before we get there.” Ichinose said from the front, earning another whine from the blond.

Zenkichi narrowed his eyes. "Still looks like we got almost an hour on this whole thing..."

“Whoa, what are those?” Ann gasped as she looked at the window. Others followed her gaze and were met with disbelief.

Around them were black and blue treasure chests that appeared to be locked. A singular keyhole on the front, but otherwise, it looked like a classic chest from the pirate movies… despite the fact that they were locked diagonally into the ground.

“Treasure chests…?” Makoto was confused. Ichinose did turn slightly to avoid another chest in their path.

“That color scheme is definitely a choice…” Yusuke looked interested. “Can’t say it’s a bad one though…”

“What are all of these doing out here?” Haru asked.

Ichinose’s phone chimed as Sophia appeared again. “Those, Haru, appear to be containers of some kind. I do not know what is in them but some of them have signs of life.”

“Wait! You mean people are trapped inside them!?” Haru was alarmed.

Sophia frowned. “That… I’m not so sure.”

Morgana nodded grimly. “Yeah… I’m picking up some bad vibes from some of these chests. Probably would be best if we don’t touch them.” Futaba translated for the three people that didn’t understand Morgana.

Sojiro rubbed his neck. “God… what the hell’s going on here?”

Ren was curious about that too. Especially because these treasure chests appeared to be hiding something dangerous.

*

The drive felt like an eternity. But soon enough, they reached their destination.

And it was here as they were getting out of the car that the assembled party finally got a look at who was already here. There was a huge horde of people not looking their way until the engine cut off.

“Hey. Aren’t those…” Morgana narrowed his eyes.

“Shujin uniforms….” Makoto noted before she went wide eyed. “Wait…”

“Is that the entirety of Shujin!?” Ann blinked comically as Haru opened the van door.

“Oh my god, it is!” Ryuji was wide eyed as he saw the different teachers and the track team.

Ren froze, staring ahead at something in the giant horde of people. No. The void didn’t bring them here too!

Makoto was the first to notice Ren’s anxiety. “Ren? What’s wrong?”

“They’re here…” Ren’s hands went stiff in his lap. He was one of the few still in the car beside Futaba and Sojiro, the latter looked where he was looking and realized what was wrong.

“Shit.” Sojiro scratched his head. “Them.”

“Sojiro?” Futaba tilted her head as she remained in a crouch.

“Okay, Ren. What do you want to do?” Sojiro looked at him with a mix of anger and protectiveness.

“I’d rather not interact with them if I can help it.” Ren said, not removing his eyes from the two individuals in the crowd.

Sojiro nodded. Then he looked at the other Phantom Thieves… well the ones that were currently dating Ren. “You see those two over there?” He gestured to the older couple that was trying to speak with Kawakami.

“Yeah?” Ryuji raised a brow.

“Don’t let them talk to Ren unless he wants to talk to them.” Sojiro frowned. The others looked back at him alarmed before the dots clicked.

“Oh…” Ryuji was angry, his fists balled up. “Yeah. I got you, Boss.”

“How cruel of this void to bring them here.” Yusuke was furious. Makoto reached for Ren’s hand, giving it a soft squeeze.

Zenkichi came over and patted his leg reassuringly. “Hey, I can help detain them if you want me to.” He lifted up a pair of handcuffs.

That got some laughs as Ren grabbed the hoodie and tossed it over his head, covering his wild black hair from view. Though he gave a small smile. “Thanks, Hasegawa-san, but I think I’m going to just pretend they don’t exist.”

Zenkichi nodded, put the cuffs away and then got back, standing close to Sojiro as they scanned over the crowd.

Ann snarled almost animalistically. Her blue eyes locked on a spot in the crowd. “He’s here too.”

The others caught sight of the person immediately, being hounded by several Shujin female students and trying his best to keep his facade up.

“Goro Akechi…” Makoto clenched her fist as she stared at the false detective with hatred in her red eyes.

Ryuji balled his fist tighter and clenched his teeth. His anger reached its peak before he snapped. “What was that thing I was supposed to do about Akechi again?”

The others looked at Ryuji. “Uh, don’t engage unless you have to.” Ann answered.

“Screw it!” Ryuji marched at the fraudulent detective.

“Ryuji! Wait!” Ann went to follow him.

“No! I second that!” Haru looked bloodthirsty as she followed after Ryuji.

Akechi didn’t get a chance as someone grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him to turn around. While confused for a second, he saw who grabbed him.

“Oh, Sakamoto?” Akechi was wearing his detective prince mask. And that pissed Ryuji off.

POW!

“Ah!” Akechi yelled as Ryuji punched him in the gut, the teen winced as Ryuji stood there with a frown.

“Whoa! Sakamoto! What are you doing!?” A female student shouted as all eyes took in Ryuji and Akechi.

“Something I should have done a long time ago!” Ryuji growled as he went for another punch on the detective. This time Akechi went to block him only for Haru to roll up and slap him in the face.

“That was for my father!” Haru snarled.

“I’m sorry, I don’t…” Akechi coughed as Ryuji landed another punch on him. No. They couldn’t have figured it out. He had been so careful. 

Ryuji kept punching, earning more sounds of protest from the crowd around them as they didn’t understand the gravity of the situation.

“Alright. Break it up. Break it up.” Makoto cut into the crowd allowing herself in as the others backed off.

“Ah! President Niijima! Finally!” A student shouted.

“Please help Akechi-kun!” A female student cheered.

But Makoto’s frown turned into a dark smirk. “Oh, no.” She turned to Ryuji. “You’re doing it all wrong.”

Akechi blinked. “Wha-,”

Bam!

At the speed of thunder, Makoto slammed a fist right into Akechi’s stomach. The teen went wide eyed as the attack hit, then fell to his knees.

Her punch started up the chaos again. Some people wanted Makoto, Ryuji and Haru to leave Akechi alone, while others seemed more on the side of watching the fight play out or knowing something wasn’t right. Some were cheering on the fact that Makoto Niijima herself was involved in a fight.

“Niijima-kun! Stop this right now!”

Makoto froze, then turned her head as she saw something unbelievable.

“You…” Makoto snarled.

“How the hell!?” Ryuji blinked wide eyed.

“How are you…” Ann blinked, and most of the people around them seemed to agree with them as the person showed himself. Or rather themselves.

Principal Kobayakawa and Suguru Kamoshida. The former was incredibly angry while the latter just looked confused.

“Let him go this instant! What do you think you’re doing attacking a celebrity!?” Kobayakawa acted angry, staring at Makoto like she was something to be bossed around.

Makoto went furious, but before she could speak, Sae put a hand on her shoulder.

“Makoto. Back off.” Sae soothed, giving a stank eye to Akechi. “He isn’t worth it. Even though he deeply deserves every inch of it.”

Akechi swallowed hard. Yep. They knew.

Makoto released Akechi’s coat and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Kobayakawa looked smug about bossing Makoto around again.

“Besides, I’ve got a better person we can beat up, Makoto.” That smugness went away as Sae turned to him. “Like this so-called principal who held a letter of recommendation over your head to do his dirty work.”

Kobayakawa was now sweating bullets as the older Niijima stepped closer and fixed her sleeve. “N-n-now! I asked her to do it! I didn’t blackmail her into any-,”

POW!

Sae didn’t give him another word as she slammed a fist into his face. But unlike with Akechi, the crowd of students just roared in agreement, watching Sae tear into Kobayakawa. Makoto and Ryuji just stood back and let it happen, smug smiles on their faces as the prosecutor went to town on him. But with them busy, Haru immediately went back to attacking Akechi.

Ren shook his head as the group descended on the principal like a pack of wolves before he turned his head and stiffened.

Iwai was giving him a smirk, standing beside Kaoru, then raised his hand and gave him a salute. “Sup.”

“How are you doing, Ren?” Kaoru asked, a smile of recognition on his face.

“Iwai… Kaoru…” Ren turned to him, then noticed Tae, Chihaya, Ohya, Hifumi, Yoshida, and Shinya standing there as well. “You guys too?”

“Ah! Good to see you, Amamiya-kun.” Yoshida gave him a smile.

Shinya let out a sigh of relief before he came over to him. “Hey, man! You’re here too?”

“Did a white light suck you up too?” Ren fist bumped the kid before he turned to Tae.

“Indeed it did, Guinea pig.” The doctor had a short laugh. “Damn thing scared me too as I was opening up the clinic for the day.”

“I had just set up shop when I got taken out.” Chihaya giggled.

Ohya shrugged. “Woke up shit faced at the bar. Nothing much else after that.”

“I was planning to leave my house but I got sucked up as well.” Hifumi bowed, “It’s good to see you again, Ren. If only I brought the Shogi board.”

Ren shrugged. “Only the more reason to get us out of here.”

Hifumi smiled. “Indeed.”

“Ren!” He turned his head to see Mishima run through the crowd and hug him. “Holy shit! You’re here too!”

“Yeah…” Ren sighed with a smile, at least returning the hug to the bluette boy. “Good to see you too, Yuuki.”

“Yeah, thank god!” Mishima relaxed before he released him. “Good to see you,” He leaned in close and whispered, “and just to be clear, this isn’t one of those Phantom Thief things right?”

“Nope. I have no clue what’s happening man.” Ren shook his head, earning a nod from Mishima, who looked two seconds away from panicking. “But I’m sure I can figure it out.”

“Ren.”

Ren stiffened and lost his smile as the female’s voice made itself known. Then he turned his head to see that he was out of luck.

There they were. The two people that Ren Amamiya didn’t want to see ever again. The two that Ren wanted to just leave and never look back on. The two that made him want to petition Sojiro to let him stay in Tokyo with him.

His parents.

Kawakami looked deeply apologetic and mouthed ‘sorry’ as she walked over to him, but she was behind the other two, who dismissed the rest of the crowd and came over to him.

Ren for his part remained quiet. He fixed his glasses to where he didn’t have to look at them directly, but he did his best to remain calm. Zenkichi looked across the way and also closed in, leaving Akane near Ichinose.

His father, Taro Amamiya, was almost a one to one replica of him outside of his hair, which was black, but was pulled back and not wild at all. He was in a business suit, like he had just been getting ready for work, which due to everyone else here, Ren could assume that he was.

His mother, Aki Amamiya, was half a head shorter than him. She was in casual wear like she was lounging around the house, and was wearing a sweater. She was wearing a pair of red trimmed glasses, and her hair was black and wild.

Ren remained silent as they stopped walking in front of him. He balled his fist as Morgana came out of his bag and poked his head over his shoulder.

His parents caught sight of the animal immediately. Taro sighed. “Back to picking up strays are we? I see you’ve learned nothing.”

Aki scowled. “Ren, get rid of that furball! We told you no more animals after you screwed up!”

Ren’s eyes flared, but he said nothing. Morgana hissed at them over his shoulder, actually making Aki jump from his hostility.

That made him smirk. “I don’t think he likes you two.”

Taro clenched his fist. But Sojiro chose to jump in to spare Ren the trouble.

“Mr. Amamiya.” Sojiro sounded bored. “To what am I owed the pleasure?”

Taro fixed his tie. “Well, I was enjoying another day blissfully free of this troublemaker when this bright light caught us both. Now we’re stuck here and this little-, Hey!”

Ren didn’t even bother listening to his ‘father’ anymore as he walked away. Zenkichi and Iwai both blocked Taro’s advance as he made his way into the crowd to try and find one of his partners for comfort. He didn’t see any of them over the growing chaos, which made him go to find them.

He found Yusuke almost immediately. Dealing with Madarame trying to speak with him, but the artist wanted nothing of it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Okumura, trying to control his daughter once more after Akechi somehow made an escape from her. Thankfully Sugimura didn’t appear to be here otherwise Ren was sure that Haru would be screwed. He saw Ann by Shiho, who looked scared of the fact that Kamoshida was also within this void, though the gym teacher didn’t seem to be in the mood for interaction at the moment.

He took another step until his shoulder bumped into someone.

“Ah! Amamiya-Kun! Good to see you, sorry but... excuse me.” Maruki quickly greeted, then walked away, going in the direction of Sumire, who was chatting with her father.

Ren went still. Just how many people did this rift suck up? And how many different times were these people from? Good god this was getting to be quite the mess and-,

A loud groan stopped all the chaos, making everyone freeze as they looked up at what was in front of them.

And it was here that Ren and the Phantom Thieves got their first look at the black object that Sophia was talking about.

Floating off the ground high in the air was a giant, round, black caldron that was humongous at the size of twelve football fields and could have crushed all of them with one drop if it wanted to. Below it was a giant chasm that was circular shaped, almost like it was meant for the caldron. Around the bowl for miles were more chests, spreading out far away like the others they saw on their way here. 

But the biggest points of alarm were the four waterfalls at northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast of the chasm. The water was flowing, but it wasn’t flowing down.

It was flowing straight up. Going into the sky above them all and out of eyesight.

“What the…” Makoto blinked as she saw the waterfalls. “What is… how are those flowing!?”

“Those are going straight up!” Futaba fixed her glasses upon seeing them. “What are the laws of physics in this place!? Does gravity not exist on those things!?”

Yusuke came closer to the edge and drew his finger along the chasm. He took a moment as Ren came to stand by him. By the time Ryuji, Ann, Makoto, Futaba and Haru came to him, the artist lifted his finger.

“Hmm… Interesting...” Yusuke frowned as he pinched his fingers together. “It’s smooth…”

“Is that an issue?” Morgana asked from Ren’s shoulder, earning a head shake.

“No… but perhaps that's what is confusing here.” Yusuke said as he stood straight up again. “The edge is smooth like it was carved to be that way, not rough or jagged which would imply that this was never meant to be.”

“Maybe…” Ryuji scratched his head. “Maybe that floating bowl has something to do with it?”

“It’s a cauldron, Ryuji.” Makoto corrected him. Then she looked puzzled. “But maybe… that cauldron is supposed to come down here?”

“Ren!” Ren felt his eye twitch before he looked over his shoulder to see Taro coming in with Aki behind him and neither of them looked pleased. “Don’t you walk away from me, dammit!”

The other Phantom Thieves tensed up and frowned as they put themselves in front of their boyfriend. Except Futaba, who stayed closer to Ren. “How about you eff off!” Ryuji snarled.

Taro blinked then sighed. “Really? You couldn’t have befriended a person with manners, boy?”

Ren gave a bitter smile. “Sorry. Guess I forgot that when I blocked you both last month. After all, why would I be worried about your opinions when I wasn’t going to see either of you again?”

Aki flinched. “You what?”

“Oh?” Ren snorted. “You didn’t know I did that? Ah. That’s right. You two don’t give a shit so I decided to just cut ties with both of you and stay in Tokyo. Wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t realize this until I was done with the year. How about that, you poor fucks?”

Taro flared. “How dare you, boy! A better son would be respectful of his parents!”

“An actual mother and father would deserve it.” Ren said coldly, getting both of them to react like they just got shot. Futaba and Ryuji snorted, but Makoto gave them a frown. Haru didn’t resist the giggle.

“How dare you!” Aki came in close, only for Sojiro to intervene.

“How about you three back off and leave each other alone.” Sojiro cut into the conversation.

Taro turned to him in anger. “Did you allow him to stay in Tokyo after the year was done, Sakura!?”

“Yeah.” Sojiro shrugged. “Claimed you two aren’t very supportive. So, I decided to give him some support.”

“Oh, like it’s our fault that he harassed and assaulted a man on the street!?” Taro snarled. Ren clenched his teeth as the man continued. “Besides he’s mine! Not yours Sakura! Don’t forget what I paid you for-,”

“Oh, I’m aware of what you paid me to do.” Sojiro frowned. “I can give the money back to both of you and keep him if it so pleases you.”

“What!?” Aki didn’t like that all. Her hands clenched like her nails were about to break. “No! You don’t get to keep my son!”

“Not your son.” Ren reinserted himself. “Don’t you remember? You two disowned me when I got on the train.”

“You assaulted someone, Ren! How is that our fault!?”

Ren shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know… how about the fact that you didn’t even hear my side and just assumed that I attacked someone on the street like a rabid animal.” He glared as his mother went to speak, “But then again, when have you ever believed me on anything? Oh, that’s right. Never. So shut up!”

His parents looked taken aback and angry at the same time. Ryuji, Ann, Morgana, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, Haru and Sojiro on the other hand looked proud of Ren for telling them off.

“Hold on.” Ren froze as out of the corner of his eye was Akechi, standing next to Sumire and her father. The detective was looking at him with a confused frown. “Now who are-,”

Akechi didn’t get to finish as another loud groan rolled through the white space.

Ugh… Finally…

I have… you… right where… 

I want you…

“Uh, what is that!?” A Shujin student screamed as the voice continued to sound like it was waking up. Ren, Akechi and Sumire frowned hearing the voice, like it sounded familiar.

“I don’t think that’s supposed to happen.” Sae looked startled as she walked up to the rest of them and stood next to Makoto. Zenkichi, Ichinose and Toshiro also pushed through to them as they looked up at the cauldron with confusion. Akane and Eri were soon to follow.

You… what I want…

I want…

…

…

…

REVENGE!!!

The voice boomed before the white sky turned blood red and a dark red pulse boomed its way across the wastelands. There was no time to react as the wave hit Ren, Akechi and Sumire hard before they were surrounded by a bright red bubble that refused to go away.

“Gah!” Ren yelled as he was yanked off his feet. His hoodie fell off his head in the process, and his bag fell off his shoulders to the ground, forcing Morgana to land on the hard ground.

“Ah! What is happening!?” Sumire yelled, being forced off the ground as well.

“Yoshizawa-San, hold on to-, gah!?” Akechi yelled, then coughed as the same fate awaited him. All three of them were yanked off their feet and forced into the air.

“REN!” The Phantom Thieves and his confidants screamed. More so Morgana, Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, Haru, Sojiro, Sae, Kawakami and Zenkichi. Others looked up at him alarmed, including Taro and Aki.

“SUMIRE!” Mr. Yoshizawa shouted trying to reach for his last daughter. Maruki was also very concerned.

“AKECHI!”  Many Shujin students yelled as the three were rocked upwards out of their reach. All three going at high speed towards the top of the cauldron and disappearing inside.

“What just happened!?” Ann yelled, watching in horror as the three disappeared inside. But in front of them, a bunch of mist began to form before it began to present an image.

“What…” Makoto was speechless at what they were looking at.

*

On the other side of the mirror, the bubbles popped and the trio landed inside with a loud thump, causing a splash around them from the goop.

“Eww!” Sumire exclaimed as she looked at the ground, and by proxy her outfit. She waved her hands, causing some of the colored goop to fly off. “What is this!?”

Akechi pushed himself up and dusted himself, then frowned as he saw the different colors of purple, pink and black all over him before he looked around and froze as he looked at Ren.

Ren scoffed now that his disguise had been destroyed. He dusted himself off. “What’s wrong, Akechi? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Akechi frowned. “You…”

“What? Are you looking for a bullet hole?” Ren taunted.

Akechi narrowed his eyes in anger. “I believe there was more than that last time I checked, Amamiya.”

“Then how about I return the favor you ass kissing son of a-,”

“Guys! Stop fighting!” Sumire got between them and forced them away from each other with her hands. Her words cut through their feud like a knife to butter, diverting their attention from each other for a brief moment.

Akechi jabbed a finger in Ren’s direction dangerously. A venomous glare on his face. “This isn’t over, Amamiya.”

Ren shrugged. “Not by a long shot, Akechi.”

“What is this stuff?” Sumire looked over herself to see the different patches of paint all over her uniform. 

Akechi turned away from Ren and crouched down, gave a sniff of the liquid on the floor. Then he frowned. “Is this… paint?”

Ren looked around, trying to make sense of what was happening right now. Most of the inside of the cauldron was covered in thick blobs of paint making it look like someone just went nuts with no clear direction. It was all over the floor and on the walls, which Ren could already guess were not going to be able to climb on to get out.

“It appears that you’re in a pickle.” Arséne spoke within his mind, trying to make sense of what was going on. “And yet, we still have no answers for what is happening… brace yourself.”

“Remain calm, my dear. Panicking will solve nothing.” Cendrillon soothed inside Sumire’s mind.

“What could have brought us here… be on guard, Goro.” Robin Hood sounded confused, but also intrigued inside Akechi’s mind. Loki just remained quiet, like he usually did unless he was called upon.

Meanwhile, the trio just continued to look around, trying to think of something to get out. But they didn’t get to think about that for long.

A giant blob of pink paint near Akechi began to twitch and move, bringing the trio’s attention to it as it continued to shake violently.

Ren put a hand in front of Sumire, while Akechi braced himself for trouble. It didn’t seem like they had access to their Personas so they were definitely at a disadvantage.

The blob erupted as a giant white brute like monster jumped and roared as it rushed the trio. Around them, other similar, but smaller units, tried to jump them from other angles from the puddles. But Ren, Sumire and Akechi just launched into self defense, launching punches and kicks that forced them all back, crashing into the paint and dissolving into the liquid.

“What was that!?” Sumire moved her head frantically, panicking even harder.

“Why do they look familiar…?” Akechi mumbled to himself. Both of them were so caught up in their own thoughts that they didn’t notice the bird-like paint blob moving across the floor behind them.

Everyone watching on the mirror tried to scream for them to turn around, unfortunately for them, it was a one way mirror, which made it impossible for Ren, Sumire and Akechi to hear them, but they could hear the trio.

Only Ren noticed it, as he turned his head just in time to see the blob jump into the air, lose its paint disguise and ready some kind of attack from its beak.

“Look out!” He shouted, pushing into Akechi and Sumire just in time to dodge the blast as he himself went into a flip, turned mid flip, then landed in a backflip with a hand down in the paint. Sumire backflipped as well, while Akechi stumbled, but turned around as the trio looked to where the attack came from and then up.

Ren just got even more baffled by what he was looking at.

Flapping its wings was a pink parrot-like creature with a gold necklace with blue gems around its neck. The bird was clearly not friendly as there was a pink energy foaming at its mouth before it shut it off and flew higher off the ground.

“Finally…” Jerri laughed darkly. “Now I can have my revenge…” Her eyes turned sadistic. “Now… Die, meddling humans!”

She dived right at the trio, aiming for the kill once more.

Chapter Text

Ryuji was so lost.

As if this whole mess wasn’t weird enough, now Ren, Akechi and Yoshizawa were miles high in the sky and getting attacked by some kind of weird parrot that claimed to know the trio. It didn’t help that the bird had minions that could be used to her advantage.

“What is that thing!?" A student yelled on the ground. “And why does it want them!?”

“Why does the delinquent hate Akechi!?”

“What did the delinquent do this time!?”

Of course, the fact that Ren, Akechi and Yoshizawa were getting attacked by a talking parrot was driving the crowd crazy, trying to make sense of what was going on.

“Ow…” Morgana rubbed his head, climbing out of Ren’s discarded bag. “Why did that have to be so mean?”

Ann scooped up Morgana in her arms as she watched the mirror.

Iwai whistled, an impressed look on his face. “Damn. Kid’s got some moves. Look at him dodging those guys.” Yoshida and Sojiro nodded alongside him. Ren just continued to dodge and move his way around the bird and her minions, especially the brutes, though his movement was clearly being hindered by the paint.

Futaba cackled. “Mwhehehe! Can’t touch him, clowns!”

“I’ve waited a long time for this, Joker.” The Phantom Thieves froze as the bird said that on screen. “Now I can take my revenge on you for foiling my plans!”

Ren for his part, frowned with confusion. “Not sure what you’re talking about. But I’m going to kindly ask you to shoo before I get my swatter ready.”

Jerri, for her part, was actually taken aback. Then she snarled. “Trying to dismiss me as forgettable, are you? Die!” 

She began to fire once more, aiming right for Ren on each blast, but failing to get him. Around them, Akechi and Sumire were beginning to slow down and struggle with the forces.

“Did she say, ‘Joker’?” Ann blinked.

“How the hell does that bird know that!?” Ryuji was alarmed. 

“We’ve got to get up there…” Makoto tried to think of a way. But no one was able to fly, and that thing was miles high in the sky… how could they…

“I’ve got this.” Ichinose smiled before she looked down at her phone. “Sophia! Try coming out into the void! I have a theory!”

“Okay!” Sophia hummed a short tune then looked like she was focusing. In a flash, Sophia disappeared from the device, and popped out in the void in human form. Some people gasped at the A.I’s sudden appearance.

“It worked!” Sophia raised her hands. Ichinose nodded as she put her phone away.

“So there is cognition here.” Ichinose noted with a smile. “Good. There is a chance to turn this around.”

“Whoa! She’s able to stand here!?” Futaba was amazed. “How!?”

“Oh!” Ann clapped her hands together as she stared at Sophie’s outfit. Morgana climbed off onto the floor. “It looks so fluffy! Can I floof it?”

“Request denied.” Sophia said without a change in face. “I am neither a child nor a pet.”

“Aww…”

Ichinose giggled. “What can I say? Sophia is one of a kind!”

Zenkichi smiled. “Good.” Then he turned to Ichinose, puzzled. “But… how is she going to be able to-,”

“Go! Activate armor mode!” Sophia exclaimed as jet boosters appeared on her back and two cannons appeared on her shoulders.

“Jeez!” Ryuji shouted as he looked at the guns.

Ichinose giggled again. “I might have made some… upgrades to Sophia’s coding that would affect her appearance in the Metaverse if it ever returned.”

Zenkichi blinked, then chuckled. “Alright then. At least we have a plan.” He turned to Sophia. “Sophie, you’re going to need to get up there and help them!”

“Understood!” Sophia saluted before she crouched. “Blast off!”

There was a sound of panic or awe from the crowd as Sophia took off, flying high and going to the top of the cauldron at top speed. All eyes returned to the mirror as Ren let out a scream.

“Ren!” Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba and Haru yelled in horror as they saw Ren, Sumire and Akechi trapped on the floor in paint. They were forced to kneel and stuck in a massive blob of paint each.

Jerri laughed evilly as she slapped her wings. “Oh how it feels to finally get my revenge! Soon, I will make you three submit, then use you to kill everyone in this void, and then I will restore myself to your world and destroy it!”

“I don’t even know who you are, you crazy bird!” Ren exclaimed. Jerri blinked at that.

“What… how dare you continue to mock me!” The bird snarled.

“...I’m pretty sure I would remember a talking bird considering this teeny little factor of, oh I don’t know, BIRDS DON'T TALK! And I say this as someone who knows a talking cat!” Ren deadpanned at her, making Sumire giggle while Akechi smirked. The Phantom Thieves did laugh at that from the other side, causing a chain reaction that made most of the crowd laugh. Even Morgana laughed at the bird.

Jerri snarled. Then she scoffed and ruffled her feathers. “No matter. You’re all going to be servants of mine going forward anyway.”

The paint began to consume the trio, despite their attempts to fight back.

“Come on, Sophie…” Ichinose muttered as others began to panic around the Phantom Thieves, watching the trio get corrupted.

“Get off him!” Sophia shouted from above, drawing everyone's attention as she came down from the sky and fired her cannons from her shoulders and her arms. Large sound waves blasted outwards, colliding with Ren, Sumire and Akechi and blasting the paint off them.

“Eew, now it’s in my hair!” Sumire was uncomfortable as she could feel the paint along her ponytail. Ren and Akechi gave similar complaints as they felt it in theirs, sticking the hair together in thick blobs.

“No!” Jerri gasped as the paint went away before she snarled at the newcomer. “You meddlesome vermin!”

Sophia landed in front of Ren, her jet boosters disappeared and her arm cannons got replaced with hands holding yo-yo’s. “No one hurts my friends! Especially not Papa!”

“PAPA!?” The entire crowd was just confused except for Zenkichi and Ichinose.

“Oh, right…” Ichinose laughed, then turned to the thieves that could hear her. “Sophia kind of imprinted on Ren. He might as well be her dad in the future.”

“Whoa…” Ryuji was amazed. Makoto, Ann and Haru awed with adoration while Futaba cackled. Yusuke and Morgana just smiled proudly.

Jerri snarled. “No matter. You want to die first!? Fine! Minions!”

Around them, the paint blobs stretched back to where they were, then began to spasm as more minions of all sizes came crawling out of the holes. Sophia showed no fear as each one came out, tossing her yo-yo’s around and waiting to move.

Then she got impatient. “Go! Pandora!”

Ren covered his eyes as Sophia summoned her Persona. He was taken aback as he watched the Persona with a block head answer her call and annihilate the surrounding legion with Bless attacks.

Jerri snarled. She flapped her wings faster like she was ready for a dive. Sophia just stared the bird down.

“Take this!” Jerri snarled as she began to fire blast after blast of energy from her mouth. Sophia dodged with grace, before she took off into a run, leaving Ren, Sumire and Akechi with the legions that were closing in.

“Any reason why she called you Papa, Senpai?” Sumire exclaimed over the chaos.

“Sumire, you act like I know that answer when she comes from a future I haven’t lived in!” Ren punched another legionary off his feet. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

But it wasn’t to say he didn’t like it… it just sounded strange in his ear.

“How about we talk after we escape this feather brained nuisance!" Akechi yelled, getting tackled into the paint by a brute. He kicked the monster off, before he pushed himself up into a sit up position, breathing heavily.

Meanwhile Jerri remained focused on Sophia, who continued to trade blows with the bird, pink energy to her Bless magic. “Just die already!”

Sophia didn’t listen, only continuing to dodge and fire attacks rapidly. It was after a moment where Jerri realized exactly how to take out the A.I.

Her eyes turned right to Ren, who was busy with trying to subdue several legions with the self defense that Makoto taught him. Then she grinned. Sophia followed her target’s gaze before she gasped.

“Fine!” Jerri turned and aimed an attack at Ren. “You’ll die first instead!”

“REN! LOOK OUT!” The Phantom Thieves shouted. But once again, they went unheard.

Sumire and Akechi turned as they saw the blast. “Senpai! Look out!” Sumire screamed.

“No!” Sophia dashed from her spot right at Ren as the bird let off the attack, firing a solid pink beam right at the teen, who had just managed to turn to see it coming.

But before he could brace himself, Sophia got in the way and pushed him out. But in the process, she got caught in the blast and got sent backwards, tumbling through the paint as she was tossed into the wall of the cauldron.

Sophia let out a whimper as she struggled on the ground, her systems failing her as her restoration protocol began to kick in.

“Sorry… Papa…” Sophia managed to get out before her systems shut off. She fell into the paint hard, her blue eyes now blank and her body deactivating.

“No!” The Phantom Thieves and most of the crowd shouted watching the robot ‘die’.

“It’s okay!” Ichinose held up her hand as she looked at her phone, which showed Sophia’s reboot process at 20%. “She’s just rebooting to repair the damage! She’s okay!”

Most of the crowd relaxed at that. But not the Phantom Thieves or the Confidants. They were still worried about Ren.

Ren’s eyes went wide as he stared at Sophia’s ‘dead’ body. A wide mixture of emotions were going around inside him as he realized what happened.

Sophia, a robot that claimed to know him so much… she just… she just…

Anger was such a beautiful thing sometimes.

“Well we can’t let her sacrifice be in vain, can we!?” Arsène roared in his ears, demanding justice for their future comrade. Ren closed his eyes, exhaled, then slowly began to stand up tall, anger visible all over him as he clenched his fists.

“Senpai…” Sumire was taken aback, watching Ren take a stand. Akechi raised a brow.

Jerri chuckled at her dirty trick, boasting how she had just killed the only thing that could stop her revenge before she noticed the teen getting up in anger. Her face went into bafflement as he stood tall in the name of vengeance.

Before she could open her mouth, blue fire erupted in Ren’s hands, then began to spread all over him.

“Whoa! What’s happening to the delinquent!?”

“What’s he doing!?

“Whoa! That actually looks really cool!”

The Phantom Thieves froze with realization as the crowd voiced their confusion. Was he about to…

Ren growled as the fire continued to spread. He clenched his fists as tight as he could before he lunged at Jerri. “Come! Arsène!”

The blue fire erupted as the gentleman thief manifested into the caldron. A loud demonic roar escaped the persona’s throat as a ball of Curse magic appeared in his claw-like fingers.

“Ravage them!” Ren snarled as Arsène chucked the Eigaon, missing Jerri yes, but also destroying a good chunk of the horde.

The blue fire burned away as Ren stood before everyone now as Joker, his mask gone, but in his full suit and all.

“What the hell!?”

“How the hell did he do that!?”

“Hey! That thing looks sick!”

“Can I have one of those?”

The Phantom Thieves let out a breath of relief… despite the feeling of anxiety about that secret being out in the open, as Ren’s Phantom Thief attire manifested once more. The confidants just blinked as they looked at Ren’s change of wardrobe. Mishima was geeking the hell out realizing the significance of the outfit. Some were impressed, while others were taken aback. Taro and Aki just blinked at their son and were completely lost.

With Arsène floating above as Ren inspected his new knife, Cocytus, twirled it around, then slashed a brute that tried to get close. Then he pulled out the Tyrant Pistol EX, ignored his bafflement for a second and shot that same brute to death.

Sumire clapped. “Let’s go, Senpai! But since you did that… that means I can do this!” She took a dramatic pose, stomping the ground and pointed a hand out to the sky like she was trying to grab something. 

“Come! Cendrillion!”

A golden hue appeared above her before her Persona made its descent from the light, making contact with Sumire before the same blue fire consumed her and transformed her into Violet.

“Yoshizawa’s got one too!?”

“Holy shit! That looks so cool!”

“Hey! Those two look identical!”

Mr. Yoshizawa blinked, watching his only daughter’s outfit change before he exhaled in relief at the giant creature that was protecting her. Maruki frowned looking at the Persona, not understanding anything about what was going on with Yoshizawa. 

Sumire, now Violet, inspected the Sword of Sinai II and Sahasrara EX before she got into a stance.

Akechi blinked at both of them, then sighed as he stood up and fixed his paint stained glove. “I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to do this… so be it!” The red beak mask appeared on his face, before he reached up dramatically and ripped it off. 

“Come! Robin Hood!”

Once more, blue fire erupted as the famous archer manifested behind Akechi, golden bow in hand. The detective stood before him, dressed in that white prince attire that he used to fool the Phantom Thieves.

“No way! Akechi-kun’s got one too!?

“That looks kinda goofy!”

“Oh my god, that works so well for him!”

“Are we doing this or would you rather use Loki?” Robin sounded annoyed, and Akechi was not up for his attitude right now.

‘No! I have an image to keep, dammit!’ Akechi snarled in his mind as he pulled out the Hinokagutsuchi II and Ancient Day weapons, frowned at them for a second, and then shrugged. ‘Just stop holding back!’

Robin Hood sighed tiredly before he tossed his bow up from his right hand and caught it with his left, now using his dominant hand for the first time in… ever. He raised his right hand and clenched his fist, Almighty energy building within.

Jerri snarled. “It doesn’t matter what tricks you pull out of your bag! I will accomplish my goals and end your miserable lives!” She waved her wings up. “Kill them all! Now!”

Sophia booted back up with a gasp, regaining all attention on her.

“Sophia?” Ren blinked as the robot got back up.

“Restoration process is complete!” Sophia chimed with a smile. “Time for some payback!”

Ren smiled, then nodded. He turned back to Jerri, who was still angry, but now looked uneasy.

The legions began to surround the trio as Sophia closed in. They backed up from the hordes, only stopping when they bumped into each other.

Ren and Akechi flinched as they made contact, then looked over their shoulder to look at each other silently from the north and south angles. Sumire stood west, while Sophia stood east, each with their eyes locked on their foes.

There were issues between the two of them. Ones that weren’t going to be so easily fixed. But at least both of them could recognize the bigger threat right now.

They were rivals… and also enemies… and perhaps in another life, they could have been something more…

But here? They were allies with the same goal. Nothing was going to change that.

They gave each other a silent nod, raising their guns up, then focused on the horde in front of them and aimed for their targets.

The battle began once more as Ren and Akechi both fired a shot, taking out two brutes with one bullet. Arsène and Robin Hood followed their lead with an attack of their own, annihilating much more.

*

Morgana gasped as a lightbulb clicked in his head. “That’s it!” He looked up at the rest of his team. “I have a plan guys!”

Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, Haru, Zenkichi and Toshiro looked down at Morgana. 

“What’s the plan, Mona?” Ryuji asked.

“Um… are you talking to a cat, Sakamoto?” Mishima raised a brow.

“Not now, Yuuki!” Ann snapped, pointing a finger at him, making Mishima raise his hands in surrender.

“I’m just going to say it’s risky… but it might be our only shot at helping Ren! I don’t see another way!” Morgana pleaded.

Makoto only nodded. “If it can get us up there, then I say we go for it.” Her approval got the others on board.

Morgana walked away from the group before he took a gamble. Concentrating everything he had, he jumped up and yelled, “Transform!”

In a puff of smoke, Morgana went straight from cat form into car form.

“What the heck!?”

“Did that cat just turn into a car!?”

Sae sighed. “You guys might want to get going if you don’t want more questions.”

“Get in!” Morgana yelled, earning a nod from the Persona users present before they began to climb in. Zenkichi was about to climb into the front seat when a hand grabbed his wrist.

Sojiro was giving him a serious expression. “Protect them.”

Zenkichi blinked, then smiled. Funny how the last time he saw this man was when he was eighty-sixed from Leblanc’s curry. Now he was being entrusted with making sure the kids came back safe. 

“I got them.” Zenkichi nodded.

Sojiro nodded back, then let go. Zenkichi turned to Akane, who looked worried. “Stay with Ichinose, Akane. Your old man’s got a fight to win.”

“Go get 'em, Dad.” Akane smiled and nodded. With that, Zenkichi climbed in and closed the door. Toshiro said his goodbye to Eri before he joined the group.

“What’s the plan, Morgana?” Toshiro asked as everyone strapped in. He sat right next to Zenkichi as the PubSec officer sat in the driver’s seat.

Morgana was silent, and the Phantom Thieves inside the car were a little unnerved by that. Then he said, “Just hang on.”

“Mona-Chan?” Haru was worried. “What are you-,”

“Zorro!” In a flash, Morgana’s persona spawned outside the car, drawing more gasps and screams at his presence, and began to wave his fencing sword around in a circle, slowly drawing a wind current around the van that began to lift it off the ground, then tilt backwards so that the car was facing upwards. The wind picked up and the car was pulled back like a slingshot…

“Hey, Mona…” Ryuji sounded squeaky as he grabbed the seat in front of him.

“Morgana! What are you doing!?” Makoto’s anxiety climbed as she clenched her fists, then grabbed the dashboard.

“He’s not…” Yusuke began to realize with slow dawning horror in the back row with Haru.

“He is…” Futaba curled up into Ann in the middle, already figuring it out. The blonde hugged her in return, not excited at all.

Morgana exhaled. “Go!”

Zorro did one last wave before he thrusted forward. At the speed of a cannon, the Mona-bus was fired straight into the air, going way higher than the caldron.

“HOLY SHIT!” Ryuji yelled, glued to the back of his seat.

“WHY ARE WE GOING SO FAST!?” Ann screamed.

“Whahooooo!” Haru giggled as she stuck her hands up like she was on a rollercoaster.

“I think I’m going to be sick…” Makoto looked ready to barf.

Zenkichi held onto the wheel for dear life as they began to dip forward. Then fall forward into the caldron.

“Shoot! I should have thought about this part!” Morgana’s voice came from the dashboard.

“WHAT!?” Everyone inside the van shouted.

“Forget it!” Toshiro shouted over the chaos as he took the wheel from Zenkichi. “Just think of something, Morgana!”

Morgana took a second, then gasped. “Everyone! Call on your Persona!”

The Phantom Thieves took a second to process that command, then closed their eyes and focused on their power. Morgana did his best to keep himself up right as they were miles up in the air.

The team opened their eyes as one, their eyes going yellow before the fire began to burn.

*

“Shoot them dead, Robin Hood!” Akechi commanded as Robin fired off a Megidolaon on a horde.

Sumire was dancing around the arena, hitting different enemies hard and fast as none of the enemies could match her speed.

“Go!” Sophia shouted as she annihilated each shadow that tried to hit Sumire. None of them saw it coming until it was too late as Pandora one-shot each and every one.

Ren was playing his own game with some of the brutes, dodging and ducking under their arms and legs and making them hit each other before he backflipped away and grabbed his mask.

“Take this!” Ren yelled as Arsène tossed out Marakunda on the brutes, tearing their defenses to pieces. The brutes groaned in recognition before the Phantom thief pulled out his gun and aimed. Arsène stood above him, channeling another Eigaon before he chucked it.

The second the orb went flying, Ren fired a shot, encasing the bullet in Curse magic that crashed into the debuffed brutes. The horde could only scream in agony as the attack destroyed them.

Jerri snarled as her minions continued to fail her. But as she was about to summon a new wave to keep up the pressure, she heard a whistling wind sound from above.

Ren, Akechi, Sumire and Sophia stopped what they were doing as the Mona van dived down from the sky, ready to crash into the parrot.

The driver’s seat door flew open before Makoto, now dressed as Queen, jumped out and dived with her fist raised back. Zenkichi, or Wolf, followed her lead with the great sword out and ready for slicing.

“Hyah!” Makoto yelled.

Jerri screamed before she flapped her way out of the path of Makoto’s punch. The advisor of the team crashed into the caldron floor in a kneel, paint splashing around her and sliding off her suit, before she raised herself back to full height. Zenkichi on the other hand landed on a brute that tried to sneak up on Ren, slicing it in half before it could attack.

Another individual jumped from the car at blinding speed, coming right down towards Ren and dashing past as he sliced another brute to pieces.

Yusuke, now Fox, chuckled as he sheathed his katana. “Not much of a challenge, are they?”

Ren didn’t get a chance to say anything before two more people landed beside him. Ryuji, now Skull, and Ann, now Panther, dusted themselves off before the former gave Ren a thumbs up.

“Sorry we’re late to the party!” Ryuji grinned, resting the mace on his shoulder.

The Mona bus landed onto the ground with a thump, with Toshiro at the wheel as Haru, or Noir stepped out of the van with her grenade launcher ready. Futaba, now Oracle, took only a second to get out before she went straight into Necronomicon. Toshiro climbed out and fixed his tie as Morgana transformed back to his metaverse form.

Morgana clenched his paws. “Aw, yes! Now I’ve got my fighting skills back!”

Toshiro closed his eyes. ‘Are you with me, Erina?’ He thought to himself. He hadn’t really had this conversation since that day in the Kingdoms…

“Call upon my name…” Ernesto responded back. “And I will always be by your side…”

Toshiro smiled as two brutes tried to jump him from the front. “Very well.” He opened his eyes with fury and pointed a palm out. “Ernesto!”

In a flash. His Persona answered the call and pointed its gun-like feet at the hordes. The gunfire rained down hard, piercing holes in all before they faded from existence.

Akechi blinked, then sneered at Ren. “So, you had more allies than you let on, Amamiya?”

Ren deadpanned at him, already annoyed. “I don’t know who Kasukabe, Hasegawa or Sophia were before this point, Akechi. Yoshizawa on the other hand went by Kasumi when she was apparently Sumire, and I’m still not up to speed on why the hell that was the case.”

Akechi kept his glare. “Her name was never Kasumi, Amamiya. It was always Sumire.”

“Well, get in line on the confusion train because I don’t know, okay!” Ren snapped.

“Both of you stop arguing!” Makoto yelled, cutting between both of them, “Besides, in case you couldn’t tell, we have another problem to worry about!”

Makoto’s words brought both boys up to the bane of their current predicament. Jerri was flapping her wings in the air, eyes scanning over each and every one of the assembled members before she growled under her breath at Toshiro.

“So… my master truly did fail when it came to you, Kasukabe.” Jerri had a smug smile as she said that. 

Toshiro narrowed his eyes in confusion then gasped in realization. “You mean…” he raised his eyes to the ceiling remembering to keep his mouth quiet before he sighed and brought a hand to his forehead. “Of course. Him.”

“I take it you're talking about this thing’s master?” Ren turned to Toshiro, who nodded.

“Regardless.” Toshiro fixed his tie. Returning his attention to Jerri with a smug smile. “I suggest that you surrender.”

“Yeah!” Ryuji pumped his fist. “You couldn’t take on our leader when it was just him, Akechi and Yoshizawa, and you’re not going to stop us now! You lost!”

“I haven’t lost yet, pathetic human!” Jerri sneered. She waved once more, summoning four brutes and an army of small legions, all carrying guns. “Minions! Kill them all!”

Zenkichi snorted, completely amused. “What is this? Some kind of watch party? Let’s take them down, Joker!”

Ren flashed his knife. “Go!”

His command triggered the others, launching into combat with the enemies around them.

*

Through it all, the crowd was in a state of various emotions. Shock. Confusion. Amusement. Excitement. They raged through all of the assembled students as they watched the delinquent and the other Persona users launch into combat.

Many of the students found themselves mesmerized by what they were watching. Seeing mass hordes of enemies go down with such unnatural powers was setting them off like fans at a football game.

The confidants had their eyes locked on Ren. Watching the usually silent boy move with deadly precision. Some like Sae and Sojiro though had their eyes on the other members of their family, and their faces the second Makoto and Futaba summoned their Personas were absolutely hilarious.

Akane was just in awe the entire time. Her dad had actually sat down with her and explained the change of heart case to her just recently, and while she was still dealing from the fact that the Phantom Thieves themselves had been inside her room, she was awed watching them work.

Though her father’s outfit did seem a little weird to her… that powerful being he had was not.

“Strike them, Valjean!” Zenkichi yelled, using Valjean to attack the horde with Agneyastra. 

“Joker! Watch it!” Ann yelled, pointing the machine gun right at the shadows trying to kill him before she opened fire, blasting them away from her leader.

“Thanks!” Ren snapped his fingers. “Odin! Ravage them!”

The powerful god of Norse mythology appeared, raising his spear high and summoning Wild Thunder. Powerful lightning raced through the hordes, synergizing with Ryuji, who sprinted at a brute and jumped into the air before he chucked the Uknosavara down on the brute, slamming it against the floor and killing it in one hit.

A brute tried to jump him, only to get run over by Makoto, using Johanna to ram right into them and toss them away with a single swerve.

Yusuke had his gun trained on the bird, doing his best to try and snipe Jerri out of the air. The bird kept moving too fast, making the thief annoyed as he put his rifle away and took back out the Ame-No-Habakiri sword and went into combat with another brute.

Akechi’s eyes remained on the bird as he swerved around a brute’s punches. He snapped his fingers, summoning Robin Hood to fire a Kougaon at the bird, but sadly for him, the bird continued to dodge every attack.

It was really starting to piss him off.

But clearly, Kasukabe had his own problems with the bird as he kept having his Persona try to blast Jerri out of the sky. And with the bird distracted with Kasukabe, Akechi kept his focus on the declining numbers.

Then he thought of an idea.

“Sophie!” The detective yelled, earning the A.I’s attention.

“What is it, Crow?” The A.I kept throwing her yo-yo’s down on her enemies and if Akechi didn’t have respect for her combat abilities and the fact that she saved his ass a little bit already, he would have made fun of it.

“Do you still have those sound wave projectiles?” Akechi asked, keeping his eyes locked on the duel in front of him.

“Yes. In fact, it is programmed to recharge their ammo when I get a perfect catch on my weapons!” The girl sounded so happy to say that, Akechi had to actually resist the urge to smirk.

“Try and aim for the paint blobs!” Akechi gestured to the giant blobs. “Let’s see if we can cut off her reinforcements if we start playing cleanup!”

“Ooo, Crow’s actually got a solid strategy! If only his entire career was like that!” 

Akechi felt his left eye twitch as he heard Futaba say that. Yep. She knew the truth. He wasn’t sure for how long, but based on the fact that Ren stood here alive and breathing, he had a feeling they all knew the truth.

The question was how long they knew…

Ignoring his own thoughts, he slashed down the foe in front of him and turned to Sophia, who was getting cornered by brutes.

A disgusted feeling went off in his chest before he snapped his fingers. “Robin Hood!”

The archer appeared once more, throwing a Megidolaon down on the brutes, each one dying thanks to Ren’s Marakunda that he managed to shove down on them before the attack hit.

Sophia only chimed happily. “Thank you, Mr. Crow!”

Akechi fought the urge to sneer, only keeping that false prince-like smile. “Can you start taking out the blobs?”

Sophia blinked then turned to the big pink one out of the corner of her eye. “I don’t know… Let’s see!” She raised an arm, the yo-yo went into her sleeve and was replaced with a cannon once more. She aimed and fired, a bright blue sound wave going straight for the blob.

Like a ticking time bomb, the blob reacted violently before it exploded. The area it was before became devoid of paint, almost like a plant that was slowly dying.

“Damn! That thing exploded like we were playing Mario Sunshine!” Futaba’s voice rang out before she returned her gaze elsewhere.

“Yay! It worked!” Sophia raised her hands and hummed once again.

Akechi smirked. “Good. We have a chance to take advantage.”

“Do we have a plan, Akechi?” Ren turned his head, shooting a brute in the forehead.

Akechi scoffed. “Well, if you were paying attention you would know.”

Ren turned to Akechi, annoyed. “Oh, we’re still doing this now, are we?”

Akechi glared, but before he could open his mouth, Zenkichi put the Gram great sword between them.

“Enough! Both of you!” Zenkichi interrupted them before he turned to Akechi first. “I don’t care what your problems are,” He turned to Ren. “Nor do I care why this is going on now! We're in the middle of a fight for our lives! Either we work together and survive or we all die! Make your choice!”

Akechi had to bite back the impressed smirk at Hasegawa’s, or rather Wolf apparently, words. “Simple. Sophia here is going to blast the blobs to pieces to cut off Jerri’s reinforcements. Our job is to keep killing them and removing that bird’s numbers so she can’t summon more.”

Ren twirled his knife. “There. Is it that hard to say?” He ignored Akechi’s annoyance and turned to Zenkichi. “Take Sophia and start taking out the blobs. Anything tries to take her out, you take them out.” Once he got a nod from Zenkichi, he turned back to the others. “Go all out! Keep up the pressure!”

“You don’t have to tell me, Joker!” Toshiro fixed his tie and pointed at Jerri again. “Ernesto!”

The Persona answered the call once more, doing its best to try and blast Jerri out of the sky. The bird kept flapping, only now much more frantically as Ren, Akechi, Ann and Haru also joined in on the attack, guns trained and doing their best to blast her. Morgana remained in support, healing Toshiro whenever his health ran low.

Makoto on the other hand took Ryuji, Yusuke and Sumire on a bloodbath. They raced around, killing every last one of the legions with their combat abilities, slowly draining their numbers. With Jerri too distracted to notice, Sophia went straight to blasting each and every last paint blob that was spawning monsters, playing cleanup inside the cauldron. Zenkichi remained in front of her like a shield, slicing and killing every legionary that tried to kill her.

And soon enough, their efforts began to pay off.

Jerri snarled and raised her wings. “Minions! Kill them all!”

The Phantom Thieves except for Ren tensed, but nothing happened. Jerri, caught off guard by the lack of numbers, looked around and gasped. The cauldron had far less paint in it now, thanks to Sophia obliterating every last blob inside.

“Cleanup complete!” Sophia chimed, doing a small hum.

Ren chuckled. “Looks like you’re out of soldiers.”

“No…” Jerri’s eyes widened. “No, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!” She snarled furiously. “No matter! I still have one last trick up my sleeve! Time for me to go all ou—,”

Bang!

“AH!” Jerri exclaimed as a bullet hit her right in the chest. It worked like a pepper ball so it didn’t penetrate, but the bird still screamed in pain.

The Phantom Thieves all turned to Zenkichi with wide eyes as he had his revolvers pointed up at Jerri, being the culprit who shot her.

“Dude, what?” Ryuji was taken aback.

“What?” Zenkichi shrugged, though he was clearly taken aback from his tone. “Are we really going to let her power up? That’s such a stupid cliche thing to do!”

They all blinked at that, then thought about it.

“You know what? You’re right!” Ryuji grinned, then pointed his shotgun up at the bird. “Screw you!”

Bang!

“Ah!” Jerri screamed again.

“I see.” Yusuke raised his rifle with a smile.

Bang!

Haru giggled as she aimed her grenade launcher high.

Boom!

“Ow! Stop this at once! I command you!” Jerri snarled, trying to act tough through the pain.

Ren smirked, then raised his pistol. “Yeah, no.”

What happened next was an array of gunfire as the Phantom Thieves all grabbed their guns, or in Toshiro’s case, had Ernesto keep firing, and unload the mags onto the bird. Jerri could do nothing as she fought to stay afloat, trying to stop the Phantom Thieves from taking her out.

Once she heard the click-click of the guns, she thought it was over.

But it wasn’t.

“Arsène! Eigaon!” Ren shouted, starting the onslaught with a hard Curse attack. The others followed him with an attack of their own, comboing off each other right after the other.

Jerri fell to the ground once the onslaught was over… wings sprayed against the floor as she wheezed from the indescribable pain done to her body.

Ryuji panted. “Did we do it?”

Makoto straightens herself, putting her revolver away. “Seems like it…”

“So…” Ann looked around. “How do we get out of here?”

Suddenly the ground shook wildly with a loud tremor and a creek sound. Most of the Phantom Thieves were knocked off their feet, unable to take the pressure.

“What’s happening now!?” Futaba yelled.

Sophia gasped. “Guys! The cauldron’s coming down!”

All eyes went wide eyed, including the ones outside the cauldron as they themselves witnessed the cauldron begin to fall. Fear ran through the crowd as they watched it begin it’s descent.

“We need to get out of here!” Makoto tried to push herself to her feet.

Crash!

The thieves snapped their attention right to where a giant pillar of water was coming down from the sky. 

“Water!?” Toshiro went wide as he looked to the sky. “Where is that coming from!?”

“We’re gonna drown!” Futaba wailed. “I don’t know how to swim!”

“No! There must be a way!” Yusuke was defiant.

Morgana went silent. Then he exhaled. “Everyone! Get over here! Hurry!”

He immorality transformed into the car, making the others dash their way over and open the car doors. The girls were the first to go in, followed by the teenage boys and then Zenkichi and Toshiro before the doors closed, leaving Zenkichi, Toshiro and Makoto in the front. Ren, Ryuji, Sumire, Futaba and Yusuke squished in the middle and Haru, Ann, Akechi and Sophia in the back.

“Mona-Chan! What are you doing!?” Haru yelled hearing the cat grunt.

“This is not a time to be acting tough, Mona!” Makoto yelled against the passenger window.

“Who ever said I was acting?” Morgana tried to act tough only to grunt some more.

Sumire gasped. “Mona-Senpai! Can you fly?”

“But I’m a car! I can’t…” Morgana huffed. “No. I have to… it’s now or never… Come on… I have to fly!”

More pillars of water came down, as Morgana let out a loud yell in defiance, so much so that the world began to blur white as the star in Ren’s pocket began to shine brighter by the second.

The light faded and all anyone heard was the sound of a helicopter.

“WHAAAAAAT!?” Everyone yelled as they now stood inside the Mona-coptor.

Yusuke looked up at the spinning blades. “A helicopter…”

Futaba grunted. “If you could do this all along then say so, dammit!”

Morgana was equally as taken aback. “W-well I didn’t know!” He laughed. “Now I’m downright priceless to the Phantom Thieves! Hehe…”

“You were already priceless without the helicopter, moron!” Ryuji shook his head with a grin.

Akechi grunted. “Sorry to interrupt your little moment of triumph but… couldn’t you have made yourself just a bit larger!?”

All eyes turned down to Akechi, who was against the floor and underneath both Futaba and Haru.

Haru giggled. “Oh I think you’re in the right spot!”

Toshiro sighed. “Cat, I will never understand anything that you’re able to do, but goddamn did you have impressive timing.

“I am not a cat!” Morgana yelled.

“Um… does someone know how to fly this thing!?” Sumire yelled as the helicopter began to dip forward.

Zenkichi jumped into the driver seat. “Don’t worry! I’m a cop! I know how to fly a helicopter!”

“Well, that’s reassuring…” Makoto smiled as Toshiro got into the passenger seat.

“Yay! Good job Meowgana!” Sophia chimed.

“Don’t call me that! It’s Morgana!”

Ren sat down in a seat, running a hand through his black hair. “Holy hell, was that annoying.”

“But who was that bird?” Sumire frowned, standing up in the middle of the helicopter alongside Ann, Makoto and Haru. Futaba was guided into a seat as Ryuji and Yusuke watched the outside with hands on the bars above. Akechi grumbled as he sat up on the floor.

“She claimed to know you three.” Yusuke said, keeping his eyes on the red sky. “Are you sure you don’t know her?”

“I would know a talking parrot, Yusuke.” Ren slid his mask up to his forehead. “Especially because of Morgana. I don’t know who that bird is.”

“You said this already. We heard you when we were with the others.” Makoto said.

Ren, Akechi and Sumire frowned. “Others?” Akechi asked.

“Oh, yeah…” Ryuji scratched the back of his neck. “So, the entire crowd got this one-way mirror and they kinda were watching you guys inside this thing. They might have been watching us fight…”

“Oh no…” Sumire fell to her knees and covered her face in embarrassment. Akechi swallowed, not sure what to think of that.

But Ren…

“Shit!” Ren cursed, closing his eyes and not wanting to hear the words of hundreds. Dammit! Of all the things! Now he was going to be subjected to more words and slander from Shujin and… his parents… goddammit! Why the hell did this have to happen!?

“Hey.” Zenkichi spoke up, gaining Ren’s attention. “We’ll deal with it when we get out of this cauldron. For now, relax. You fought hard. Take a breather.”

Ren took a moment to think on that, then he sighed as he relaxed in his seat. He didn’t say anything as he looked out the helicopter side, watching water flow down into the cauldron, though not enough to flow into the bottom apparently.

The helicopter continued to climb, making its way forward up the giant bowl to the wastelands of the void.

Whims of Timerri: Criidits

Rin Amarriya as Jokerri

Ryuje Sakemrri as Skullrri

Moriiana as Mone

Ann Takamerri as Panterri

Yusuje Kitajawa as Foj

Majoto Nijjima as Querri

Futaja Sajura as Oracli

Harri Ojumurri as Norrir

Gorri Ajechi as Crriw

Sumirri Yojizawa as Viojet

Zenjichi Hasejawa as Wolj

Sojhia as Sopherri

Toshijo as Toshijo

The crowd gave a round of applause as the helicopter made its ascent to get out of the bowl. But that didn’t last for long as the mirror left the Mona-Copter and suddenly went down to the bottom of the bowl, finally getting a layer of water. The screen zoomed in on Jerri, making the whole crowd confused before all of a sudden, the parrot opened her eyes in a rage.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Iwai muttered, already annoyed.

“Sophia!” Ichinose screamed into her phone. “Jerri’s still alive!”

“Can she even hear you?” Sojiro asked, already worried as the parrot got up.

“Apparently not because she’s not responding!” Ichinose waved her phone frantically.

Jerri stared up at the ascending helicopter before she heaved heavily in anger. Then she let out a loud roar as she took off at blinding speed, full of fire and rage as she flapped so much that you could have sworn she wasn’t flapping evenly.

“NO! I WILL NOT HAVE MY REVENGE SOILED! REVENGE IS MIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNEEEEEEEEE!” Jerri roared at the copter as she raced at it with blinding speed.

“Hey. Do you guys hear something?” Ryuji looked confused for a solid second before the entire helicopter jumped. The occupants all went wide eyed as something forced the Mona-copter to turn sideways.

“AH!” Ann screamed as she, Makoto, Haru and Sumire went tumbling out of the helicopter.

“NO!” Shiho and Sae yelled, fear all over their faces.

“SUMIRE!” Mr. Yoshizawa yelled, scared out of his mind for his daughter. Okumura’s face went extremely pale as he watched Haru fall from the copter.

Jerri, grinning like a psychotic madman, swooped back then. “DIE HUMANS!”

“No! Guys!” Ryuji yelled as he and Ren looked over the edge, watching the four fall as Zenkichi grunted and pulled the helicopter back to normal. They all looked scared out of their minds, trying their best to dodge Jerri as she came in for attacks on the four girls.

Ren, watching with disbelief and fear, tightened his lips in rage and closed his eyes to take a deep breath. Then he opened them, a dangerous fire within.

“Ryuji, Yusuke, Akechi, Sophia! Stay here on the copter and be ready!” Ren ordered, then snapped a finger at Futaba. “Futaba! Sit down and strap in! Zenkichi, Morgana and Toshiro, fly this copter and keep the others safe!”

“What about you!?” Morgana yelled from the dashboard.

Ren snarled, giving all of them a glare that sent a shiver down even the spine of Akechi. “I’m locking the fuck in.”

“Ren! Wait!” Futaba yelled as Ren dived out of the copter after the five.

Sojiro hitched his breath as he watched Ren fall after them in a dive. He heard Aki make a sound as well over the crowd losing their minds at his actions, but he dismissed it as he watched the kid fall after them.

Jerri continued to blast at Ann, Makoto, Haru and Sumire with bloodlust as they screamed and braced themselves through her wild and aimless shots. “DIE! DIE! DIE!”

She was cut off as Ren caught up to them and grabbed Jerri by the throat. The parrot was caught off guard as Ren delivered three solid punches to her face, her peak and her throat before he let her go and kicked her hard. Jerri went sailing into a flowing water pillar with a loud boom and right into the wall of the cauldron as Ren continued his dive for the others.

“Ren!” Makoto yelled in relief as he caught up to them.

“Hang on to me!” Ren yelled over the loud crashing pillars. “Whatever you do, won’t let go!”

While they looked worried, Ann, Makoto, Haru and Sumire latched onto hims tightly, hugging his chest and waist as hard as they could. Ren winced as they gripped his body before he pointed his right arm up and let the grappling hook fly.

“Come! Arsène!” Ren shouted.

The Persona came into reality and grabbed the end of the line before he took off at blinding speed with a single flap of his wings. The four held on as they began to swing sideways like a swing. Ren growled as he dealt with the tension on his body before he yelled at the top of his lungs.

“MAXIMUM EFFORT!”

Soon enough, they began to climb upwards for the swing as the persona pulled them. Arsène closed in on the copter in no time, allowing Ren to get close to the open doors.

“Take them! Now!” Ren shouted. In quick fashion the people inside moved to help as the ones around his waist reached out into the copter, Ryuji grabbed Makoto, Yusuke grabbed Haru, Akechi grabbed Sumire and Sophia grabbed Ann, each one pulling them into the chopper. Futaba remained in her seat, strapped to the chair to prevent further incidents. The second the others were secure, Arsène faded and allowed Ren to grab on to the chopper.

But before Ren could climb in, he got attacked and sent tumbling down away from the copter.

“REN!” Most of the Phantom Thieves yelled as he fell. Most of the crowd gasped or tensed up as Ren fell from the sky.

Jerri, once again the culprit, swooped down with a fiery rage as she stuck her feet out and clawed at Ren’s neck.

“If I’m going down…” Jerri growled, strangling him by the neck. “YOU’RE COMING DOWN WITH ME!”

Ren snarled, an animalistic sound that made him sound like a devil as he grabbed at her legs. “I don’t think so!” The mask on his face erupted again! “Arsène!”

The Persona came back out, smacking Jerri with a back hand right in the beak and sending the parrot flying. Arsène once again grabbed Ren and took off flying into the air, this time being much faster due to the lack of weight. Ren looked up at the chopper…

Just in time for Akechi to point a real gun down at him.

They locked eyes for a second, time slowing down as Ren stared down the end of the barrel. 

Then Akechi smirked.

Bang!

The bullet went flying past Ren’s ear as it soared right into Jerri, striking her right in the chest, making her scream as she went tumbling back down into the cauldron right into another falling pillar of water.

The second he got close, Akechi dropped his gun inside and grabbed his elbow then pulled Ren in. Arsène faded once more as the Phantom Thief went into the copter. Once he was secured, Akechi closed the helicopter door and sat down.

“Fly, dammit!” He yelled to the front. Zenkichi only huffed as he pulled on the lever and made the ascent, making it fly upwards as more pillars came crashing down around them. He swerved and dodged around them all, unintentionally bouncing the other occupants around as he made it to the top of the cauldron.

The cauldron crashed into the chasm with a loud crash sound as the Mona-copter escaped, solidifying its place on the ground once more.