When the Cat Dragged In the Trickster

Chapter 1 Chapter Text

Morgana liked to claim he was struck by Ann's beauty the first time they met, but honestly? She thought his heart was stolen the moment the transfer student came up to her desk between classes, hushing all the students demanding to know why she had a cat in her desk (which, what had Morgana been thinking, just waltzing into school like that?!) The room fell dead silent as Amamiya glanced at Ann, then looked directly at Morgana. "He's helping you, right?" Amamiya asked. "Being here?"

It took Ann's brain a few seconds to restart, both overwhelmed by the questions already tossed at her and not quite sure what this latest question meant, especially coming from the transfer student of all people. Then it clicked--Amamiya thought she'd brought a pet to school for comfort, after Shiho--

"Um, yeah!" Ann answered quickly, not wanting to think about that too much. She just needed to make sure she didn't get in trouble and Morgana didn't get the teachers sent after him, even though he'd probably boast he could evade them all. "I--I'm really sorry, everyone, I know he's a distraction..."

"He's not," Amamiya said, cutting her off from asking if everyone could keep it a secret this once, pretty please. No, instead he turned to cast his gaze on their schoolmates. "He's more quiet in class than most people here. I'd hate if anyone gave you trouble over him when he's not bothering anyone."

As his eyes swept over the classroom, other students looked down at their desks. He stood there for a minute longer, as though daring anyone to object. Even Ann felt a little nervous, wondering what he'd do if someone did talk back to him. But the moment passed, and he sat back down in his seat behind Ann without another word. No one questioned Ann about the cat in her desk after that. No one said anything to the teacher as the next class started, either. Morgana had the blessing of the transfer student, and that was final.

Morgana was starry-eyed the entire rest of the day. "He's so cool!" he told Ann in a hushed whisper, craning his neck to try and peek behind her. She smiled at him and then zipped her lips to make sure he knew that cats in desks shouldn't be talking, because the teacher was in the room and she couldn't very well talk to Morgana about Amamiya right now when he was behind her. While her new guide to the Metaverse was obviously impressed, she had to wonder if he realized Amamiya had been able to shut down the clamor so easily because everyone was intimidated by the broody student with a criminal record. She thanked Amamiya at lunch, because it felt right, but she was a little wary that he might expect more than words as a show of gratitude. Luckily, he didn't seem to be interested in even talking beyond a short "it was nothing", and she let the matter drop there. She was already turned back around in her seat when he murmured something else.

"I'm sorry about what happened with Suzui."

Ann's hands clenched on top of her desk, Morgana's blue eyes shifting to her with concern. She didn't know what to say to the transfer student's words, and didn't try for long. She had other things to think about right now. She needed to concentrate on avenging Shiho.

Half a year later, so much had changed, but some things stayed the same. Morgana still thought the transfer student was cool, for one. That much was clear when Mona came strolling through the entrance of Mementos with Amamiya on his heels. This time the transfer student wore a black trench coat, tiny white-and-black domino mask, and a rare smile, though that shrank when Ann pointed right at him. "You!"

She couldn't really help it. They'd known that if Morgana was fulfilling Phansite requests, he must be accessing the internet with the help of a human, so they'd expected there might be a plus-one accompanying him when they staked out Mementos. She just hadn't expected that human to be Ren Amamiya, of all people. The guy had been requested on the site himself no fewer than four times.

...Actually, on second thought, she totally should have anticipated that Morgana would want to team up with Amamiya given half a chance. He'd never completely lost his interest in the boy who sat behind her, after all. And it wasn't like they'd ever actually needed to change Amamiya's heart, despite the calls for it--he didn't show up on the Nav at all. Ann had hinted to Mishima that there was no point forwarding those requests after the first three times, but the Phansite admin had been a little slow to catch on.

Amamiya's smile started to return as he seemed to sense that Ann had nothing to follow up after her exclamation. "Me," he said smugly, shoving red-gloved hands into trench coat pockets, and okay, she'd probably be a little co*cky too if her rebellious will had given her a nice coat like that. Or just given her pockets, really. But the attitude was so strange on him, a complete change from the sullen student who sat behind her at school or the bland barista with less character than Leblanc's walls. "Interesting meeting you here, Taka--"

"NO NAMES!" Morgana shouted at the same time as Ann, and she was a tiny bit gratified to see him give Amamiya a light swat on the leg. Even if he was upset with the group at the moment, he was still looking out for them. "I told you, that's one of the first things about being a Phantom Thief!"

"Thought you quit the team, Mona," Ryuji drawled.

Morgana puffed up indignantly. "You guys wouldn't even be a team without me!" he said. "I'm starting a new one! Me and this--" He gestured at Amamiya, but seemed lost for words for a few seconds. "--Phantom! Phantom and I will take the treasure of that mafia boss's distorted heart!"

"Then what are you doing in Mementos?"

"More importantly, is his codename really 'Phantom'? Sorry Mona, but knock-off names are just lame." Futaba shook her head in disapproval.

"That's notthe more important thing, Oracle," Makoto groaned.

Even Amamiya glanced down at Morgana. "...That's what you're going to call me?"

Morgana was growing increasingly frazzled. "I-it's--you wanna go back to 'frizzy hair'?!" he asked. "It works for now! You can come up with your own when you get your persona working right!"

"Hm?" Futaba took a cautious step towards Amamiya while still staying behind Makoto and scanned him up and down with curiosity. "That's weird. What's that about--"

"We're getting off-track!" Haru shouted. Coming from the fluffy-haired brunette, the protest was so surprising that Futaba stopped and snapped her mouth shut. "Mona-chan, please come back. I'm sorry I didn't realize how you were feeling before. I should have paid better attention."

Haru was right. Amamiya wasn't their priority at all, even if Ann was curious about how he could have a thief outfit without a persona. (Unless he'd bought those clothes and strolled through Shibuya station looking like that. He really didn't seem like the cosplaying type, but--who knew? She was already seeing a new side of him today.) She looked away from him to focus on Morgana, who seemed thrown by Haru's outburst. "I'm sorry too, Mona. We all are. That conversation got really out of hand."

"Wait...you mean...you guys are here for me?" Mona looked so astonished by that, it was kind of sad. It shouldn't be surprising they'd try to patch things up, right? They were friends. "You do need me, is that it?"

They didn't need Mona, they wanted him--but Ann didn't try to make that distinction at the moment. She figured once they were home she could try to start chipping away the idea that he hadto be the most useful and most knowledgeable of the Thieves to be one, but first was just getting him to come back home. She turned to Ryuji. "I think Skull has something to say, too."

In less than a minute, Ryuji proved she should not have passed the baton to him that time. To his credit, he started out civilized enough. Keyword: started. When he ended with "What does it matter if you're not human or useless!" and laughed, though, Ann saw red. Ryuji could be a little thick sometimes, but he wasn't stupid. He knew what he was doing.

Sure enough, Morgana looked furious. "So that's how it is, huh? Fine! Phantom!" the small thief yelled. "Let's ditch these losers!" He backflipped onto the railing between the platform and the tracks, then backflipped again and transformed midair, landing on the train track rails as a bus. "If you guys don't have the skills to catch me, then you can forget about me coming back!"

"Shame," Amamiya murmured as he followed Morgana. "Thought you guys were serious."

"Huh?" Ann said.

With a rustle of his leather coat, Amamiya was standing on the railing himself. "Well, your loss. My gain." He smirked down at her. "Bye, Catgirl!"

"It's Panther!" Ann yelled at him, but he'd already flipped off the railing to land beside Morgana, quickly climbing into the driver's seat. He must have floored the gas pedal, because Ann had only seen Morgana tear off like he did now during Palace collapses. The van disappeared down the darkness of Mementos, leaving the Phantom Thieves in the dust. They tried their best to follow: Makoto even summoned Johanna. But in the labyrinthine depths of Mementos and with the duo's headstart, Morgana and Amamiya easily shook them off by going down one turn at a crossroads and doubling back as Makoto went down the wrong path--and when she realized her mistake and tried to give chase again, Amamiya tossed a smoke bomb out of the van window. The others caught up as Makoto was still coughing from the thinning smoke, Johanna leaning as she braced herself with one foot on the ground. Amamiya and Morgana had long escaped. The trick was harmless in the long run, but Makoto was annoyed as hell.

So was Ann, though she tried to keep focused as they regrouped at Mementos' entrance and returned to the Shibuya station of the real world. "Okay, we know they're going back to Leblanc," she said. "Let's just talk to them there."

Yusuke shook his head. "Are we trying to convince Morgana to return, or antagonize him further? Amamiya not only works there, but lives there as well."

"Yeah, that's how I know they'll be there."

The artist looked faintly chagrined. "Ann. You know I will always be grateful for you intervening in my life alongside Ryuji and Morgana. However, at the beginning..."

"...You were pissed off we were coming to your house and stirring up sh*t," Ryuji finished when he trailed off, catching on.

A humorless smile twisted Yusuke's lips. "That's one way to put it. During the times we frequented Leblanc over the summer, Amamiya never seemed quite at ease with his boss, who is also his guardian, and who is alsomost likely unaware of Morgana."

Ann sighed. That seemed right--Amamiya had intervened for Morgana when he first showed up at school; she had a hard time imagining he'd make Morgana fend for himself on the streets. She also doubted he'd asked permission from Sakura to keep a cat above a cafe. Otherwise Futaba probably would have known all about Morgana's new partner beforehand. "So basically, going to Leblanc to talk things out would just blow up in our faces by putting Amamiya and Morgana on edge about getting in trouble with Sakura-san. Good call, Yusuke." She pursed her lips. "We can always talk to Amamiya at Shujin, obviously, but I don't think he's bringing Mona to class." Morgana was quiet enough that the teachers hadn't caught him, but he wasn't thatquiet. She would have heard him.

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Haru pointed out. "It might work better to talk with them separately about the situation. Amamiya seemed to want us to reconcile with Mona-chan. At least before certain...choice...comments were made." She smiled at Ryuji.

The dyed blond took a step back. Haru had a gift for balancing a smile between pleasant and menacing, and she was walking that tightrope right now. "Hey, I know I ain't the only one who got sick of waiting for Mona," he said defensively. "And then he just comes waltzin' in with that attitude, and why are we the ones who have to apologize when--wait. Who're those guys with Amamiya?"

With that timing it sounded like an excuse, but Ryuji said it so earnestly that Ann took a chance and looked through the crowds anyway. Where Ryuji was looking actually stood Amamiya, facing two guys in their twenties or maybe early thirties. Amamiya looked relaxed with the usual slouch in his shoulders, but Ann knew something was wrong because Morgana was standing up in her classmate's schoolbag to stare at the two men, his small body rigid.

"Those two... I've seen them approaching teenagers in Shibuya before," Makoto murmured in a low voice.

"They're awfully bold to accost a student in the station," Yusuke said, his arms folded tightly. "Should we...?"

Ann glanced in Futaba's direction. The hacker's eyes were wide behind her glasses as she took in the loudly-dressed strangers. Anything like a confrontation might get ugly for a bit, and the girl had just started to venture out of her room; Ann didn't want to expose her to a scene that might make her backtrack and shut herself up in that 'tomb' again. But Haru had a hold of the younger girl's hand, and Ann trusted Haru, so she turned back to Amamiya--

Who was already walking away from the adults, and they from him, though the taller one called something over his shoulder as a parting shot. The whole thing looked surprisingly anticlimactic for a teenager being harassed by yakuza, so casual that no one in the crowd seemed to have paid any attention to the interaction. Too casual, when Morgana stared after the men for a minute longer before ducking down into the bag.

Chapter 2 Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"We saw you with two men at the station yesterday," Makoto asked. "Do you know them?"

Amamiya hadn't brought Morgana to school with him; Ann had been able to tell that just by a glance at him and his schoolbag in the morning. But he had agreed to meet with her and the others on the rooftop after school when she asked, and she'd texted the group chat so that Ryuji and Haru and Makoto would know they were good to talk. Yusuke and Futaba, unfortunately, would have to be given an update afterward.

Makoto had decided the best way to start the meeting was with a probing question, apparently. Amamiya didn't seem to agree. Seated at one of the chairs left out on the roof with his feet kicked up on a desk while everyone else stood, he looked like the picture of boredom. He'd shown a passing interest in Haru's vegetable garden, but now his eyes rested on the new fencing around the roof with a detached blankness. When he spoke, it was not to Makoto, but to Ann. "You said you wanted to talk about Morgana."

"We do want to talk about Morgana," Ann said with a firm nod. "But those men worried us. Did you get caught in the mafia's racket too?"

"No."

The one-word answer made it clear he didn't plan to say any more. Undeterred, Makoto shifted to another line of inquiry. "Understanding Morgana's current actions means we should understand his partnership with you. Why did you decide to become a Phantom Thief?"

Amamiya seemed to be considering his answer until he actually went and said it. "...Sounded fun."

"Fun...?"

"That's...not how I'd describe it," Ann said slowly. That kind of answer made her wonder if he had a screw loose.

As did the smirk he shot at her. "Probation's pretty restrictive, you know," he said, leaning and tipping his chair back. He'd looked so deferential in his uniform at Leblanc when he served drinks to the group during summer break; now he looked like he expected them to listen to any orders he might make. "I break a rule and Boss starts breathing down my neck. I get expelled and it's juvie for me. Hell," he continued, warming to the subject, "I could do absolutely nothing, but the Phantom Thieves start up and Miss Stalker Council President here shadows me until she decides to be a thief herself."

That last thing...must have been when Makoto was also tailing Ryuji and Ann, and the model was certain she'd heard nothing about this. She glanced at Makoto and was rewarded with the sight of the third-year flushing. "I--Principal Kobayakawa told me to, given your interactions with--how do you know I followed you?" the brunette stammered.

Amamiya made a face of disgust. His glasses being off, tucked into his polo's completely unbuttoned collar, only made his glare sharper. "You held your magazine upside down. More than once. Anyway," he said as Makoto covered her face with her hands, "if I'm going to come under suspicion as a Phantom Thief, I might as well have the fun of being one. I've done a few changes of heart with Morgana already. Your methods...pretty thrilling. You get to dirty your hands where no one can see."

"That'swhy?" He just wanted to be able to hurt people where he couldn't get in trouble for it?

"The hell? That's effed up," Ryuji told him. "If that's your reason, no wonder you don't have a Persona. Your Shadow's probably all sorts of screwed up!"

Amamiya chuckled. "Your app says I'm not distorted, though."

Haru stared at Amamiya, her jaw clenched tight for a few seconds before she finally spoke up. "No, it's...possible to have some violent desires and not be distorted. We know that's true. But," and her voice sharpened, "you haven't told Mona-chan this, have you? There's no way Mona-chan would have chosen to be your partner if he knew that was your motive! He believes in the honor of Phantom Thieves!"

Haru was right. When they first found him, Morgana had been a little callous, not caring if Kamoshida lived or died. And Ann hadn't minded that. But when Nakanohara came back to ask the Phantom Thieves to look out for Yusuke, Morgana had started to soften, realizing that even people with distorted desires could still care about others and have others care about them. He'd been quick to reassure Yusuke and Haru that neither Madarame nor Okumura would be harmed by their change of heart.

Ann couldn't imagine that Morgana would choose someone who just wanted to hurt Shadows as his partner. Morgana's interest in Amamiya had persisted despite learning about his record of assault, not because of it. And... even if he did have a criminal record, the way her classmate was gloating didn't seem quite right either. Why was he being so antagonistic now? He'd thrown that smoke bomb at Makoto yesterday, but that hadn't been to hurt her--depending on what tools Morgana had him crafting, he could definitely have thrown worse.

"Please, answer Haru's question," Makoto said; while everyone else was getting upset by Amamiya, she had regained her calm composure. Mostly. She was glaring at him now. "Is that really your only reason? For fun? What have you told Morgana?"

Amamiya sighed, looking off to the side somewhere in the distance as he wobbled his chair back and forth. "Don't act superior. You guys can't be all that serious yourselves if this is how easily you break apart. As far as Morgana's concerned, I don't have to tell him much. I'm all he has. He'd be completely alone without me. People like that are vulnerable. Easy targets."

"Hey..." Ryuji's voice was tight, shaking with anger, and Ann glanced to see his hands were balled into fists. "What are you..."

"...Saying? Isn't it obvious?" Amamiya smirked at Ryuji. "In just days he's proved how useful he could be for me. A guide who can bring me into the subconscious of the city and all its inhabitants, who's showing me how to manipulate them and can help me track people down... There are a lot of possible ways to take advantage there. And all I have to do for him to think I'm some 'noble thief' is act like I care about him more than you guys did."

"Don't you dare use Mona-chan! Give him back!" Haru shouted, but Amamiya continued on. He was talkative today.

"That'll be even easier now that you dropped the bar so low--"

Ryuji cut him off by slamming both his fists on the desk. The legs of Amamiya's chair banged against the ground as he straightened to attention, any trace of lazy amusem*nt gone. "Listen, asshole," Ryuji growled. "Mona might be throwing a tantrum right now, but he's still our friend. You, messing with him? Ain't happening."

"That's right," Makoto said. "If this is your true nature, we'll do whatever it takes to get Morgana back."

Amamiya's true nature...was acting like he cared about Morgana, only to use him...?

That seemed really off. Just plain wrong. Then why...

The transfer student was watching Ryuji carefully, but his grey eyes flicked to Ann for a second. "Not going to yell at me too, Takamaki?"

The question startled her from her train of thought. "What? Oh." ...She had to take a shot and see if she was right. "It's weird. I don't know what your angle is, but I do know you're trying way too hard."

That got nearly all of Amamiya's attention on her. His sharp features were way less intimidating when he blinked in confusion like that. "...That so?"

She nodded, feeling more confident now. "Yeah. You're telling us you'd only act nice to Morgana because he's useful, but he always said you seemed happier when you noticed him in class. And...sometimes, I looked, and I thought he was right." Morgana's description might be self-congratulatory--to Ann the difference could be as small and vanishing as a twitch at one corner of the mouth--but it was true that Amamiya sometimes paid more attention to Morgana than anyone who actually belonged in the classroom, up to and including the teachers. "You didn't know what he could do until this week. Aren't you helping him because you like him? So...I don't get what this is. Are you trying to get us worked up for Morgana's sake?"

Her classmate was quiet for too long for her to think she wasn't right.

Ryuji caught on to the non-reaction and stared at Amamiya. "Wait, so you're just messing with us?" The bleached-blond's tone was both incredulous and indignant. Amamiya covered his mouth, but his chuckle was still audible. "Hey!"

"Amamiya..." Makoto sighed. "You agreed to a meeting for a chance to provoke us?"

Amamiya leaned back in his chair again and slid his hands in his pockets. "Seemed the quickest way to tell how you feel," he admitted without shame. "I'd say it worked, Prez."

"Then... you won't hurt Mona-chan?" Haru asked.

Amamiya shook his head. He'd stopped laughing, but he still looked pleased, though his face straightened as he answered Haru. "No. And I won't let him get hurt by anyone else, either. So," he said, looking up at Ryuji. He was frowning now. "Sakamoto. You really think he's just throwing a tantrum?"

"Well...yeah," Ryuji muttered, but he looked down at his feet. "Comin' in all 'I'll take the boss' treasure!' when you guys are doing small time stuff in Mementos...he's just mad Futaba showed him up and trying to act all big."

"Your investigation hit a dead end, from what Morgana says. You need keywords. He doesn't. We've already been to the Palace," Amamiya announced. Ann's eyebrows rose in surprise, and she could see that the others were startled, too. "We're certain it belongs to the boss...but we couldn't get past the threshold or find out the man's full name."

"Does that mean you know a part of it?" Makoto asked. Her tone was a little too intense, but Ann couldn't find it in her to blame her. Trying to find the identity of the highly private mafia boss had been driving them all crazy--part of the reason their last meeting as a complete team had gotten out of hand before any of them realized.

"Yep. As well as location and distortion. Make up with Morgana and I'm sure he'll be happy to tell you those things himself," Amamiya said. "He thought he might be able to get the first name and complete the package if he sought out shadows with similar distortions in Mementos to question. That's why we've been there. Looking for small fry with aspirations like their boss, but not so far along they have their own Palace yet.

"But yeah, Sakamoto, you're right. He is trying to impress you guys. Doesn't want his friends thinking he's 'useless'."

Ann grimaced. Obviously Amamiya hadn't forgotten Ryuji's insincere apology from the day before. Morgana himself had probably taken it to heart.

Ryuji was biting his lip. He opened his mouth to say something, but snapped it shut again with a sigh.

"Kind of a f*cked up thing to say. I nearly refused Takamaki's request to meet today for that."

Amamiya was right that it had been pretty messed up for Ryuji to say. At the same time, Ryuji had already had Haru upset with him about it, and that had probably been enough. Amamiya getting on his case about it now wasn't going to help things. "Hey," Ann spoke up. "It's not going to happen again. We've already talked about this--"

"No we haven't," Ryuji interrupted. "Not really." He rubbed the back of his neck. The look on his face was dark. "Ha... it's kinda annoying Mona figured out a different way to investigate. Sounds like it could actually work, too."

It did sound plausible. Futaba was the more precise navigator, but Morgana had always been able to tell when one of the shadows they were looking for was somewhat close by and was able to ignore other distortions. Not only did he feel the stronger tug of a Treasure manifested from their calling card, but he'd once described different types of distortions as having different kinds of smell to him... would he be able to find shadows of the gang's members because they shared a distorted way of life?

"But you want to stop any more victims from getting hurt, too," Haru said.

"Yeah, I do. And I know it's sh*tty, but I was happy thinking he was just as useless as me."

...What?

"Hold up, what?" Ann turned to Ryuji, shaking her head. "You're not useless--where is this coming from?"

She really didn't get it, or the weary look her friend gave her before he looked down again. "Ann, c'mon. I've been benched more and more since, well, since we got more people." He mumbled the last part, looking guilty. He had to feel bad about bringing it up in front of Makoto and Haru. Both of them had joined only days apart, one after the other, bringing their number up for four to six (now seven with Futaba) and starting the practice of splitting the growing group into two smaller teams, one taking point while the other hung back in case things went wrong.

"You're not being 'benched', and I put you in back because I know you'll look after the others--"

"--And 'cuz of my leg."

Ann bit her lip and immediately realized her slip when Ryuji glanced up and winced. He was the only one in the group more transparent than her. "That's not the main reason," she protested. "I just don't want you straining yourself too much. It's dangerous if we need to run and you can't." It'd already happened once before, and it could have gotten him killed.

"That only happened one time, and that's why I picked back up on training! Seriously, if you can't trust me to fight, an' that's the only thing I'm good for 'cause we all know I'm an idiot, why--"

"You're not an idiot!"

"Volume, both of you," Makoto stressed, looking toward the door of the rooftop stairwell. "Ryuji, you aren't stupid. You just don't always apply yourself."

Ryuji took a deep breath, looking like he was desperately trying to hold in an outburst, though he did make an incredulous gesture at Makoto. Ann knew the brunette meant well, but 'apply yourself' and 'try harder' had always been some of the most useless things teachers had told her. Before the ex-track runner might have let anything out, they were interrupted by Amamiya's chair scraping back as he stood.

"Right, sounds like you have some other issues to work out," he said in a dead-sounding tone, not looking at any of them. "I'll leave you to it. All I care is that everyone in your group honestly wants Morgana back."

"We...!" Haru faltered in what could have been a passionate declaration. "Ryuji-kun, you do want Mona-chan back, right?"

Ryuji shifted his weight and rubbed the back of his good leg with the other foot. "I don't...want him stayin' gone," he mumbled. "It's just..."

Morgana and Ryuji sniped at each other quite a bit, and just like Ryuji had picked up on Morgana hating being called a cat, Morgana had picked on Ryuji's intelligence. ...They all did, sometimes. It could be frustrating when Ryuji let his mouth race ahead of his brain, but if he'd been feeling useless too, like Morgana... Ann knew she was the leader only by default, because at the start it'd been just her and Morgana and Ryuji and she'd spent a good part of the time in Kamoshida's Palace playing tie-breaker between the two, but she still felt like she'd let them both down. This had probably been brewing since then, since April, and she was only realizing now? She could make excuses about being worried about Shiho and preoccupied trying to juggle all the things that were necessary to do to balance the Phantom Thieves and her modeling career and school, but those seemed like flimsy justifications.

"We'll work things out," Ann promised to Ryuji. If he was willing to patch things up with Morgana, Morgana could be persuaded to play nice too. And she'd have to watch her temper better. She knew she'd been bad about snapping at people lately, and she had an uncomfortable feeling Ryuji had gotten the lion's share of it without her realizing.

"...Yeah." Ryuji gave her a nod before turning to Amamiya. "'Kay. We all want him back, and I won't say any stupid sh*t next time. That good enough for you? Can you help us talk to him again?"

Amamiya eyed him for a long moment. "Sure. Seven tonight, Mementos. We'll go in first, so don't come too early. If you're ten minutes late, we'll be gone."

"That's straightforward enough," Makoto said. "But I still don't understand your intentions here, Amamiya. You had to have some reason to partner with Morgana. Do you mean to join us if he's willing to come back? Is there someone's heart you want to change?"

He made a face as he pulled his glasses off his collar and put them back on to wear. "Was that your reason?" he asked. "Mona is the one person I like at Shujin. He's safer with a partner. I'm just filling in."

Huh...in the end, it was as simple as him liking cats? Or, well, sort-of-not-really cats, in Morgana's case. "Thanks," Ann said. "We really appreciate it." He could be less prickly about it, but still. She'd been worried about how Morgana was surviving on his own until yesterday.

"Yes, thank you, Amamiya-kun!" Haru chimed in.

Their words seemed to genuinely throw Amamiya off-guard a second time, or maybe it was just how easily Haru had added the casual honorific onto his name. "It's a little early to be thanking me," he said, fiddling with one strand of his disheveled bangs between finger and thumb. "If you guys can't make up with Morgana this time, I won't feel any pity for you. You can go ahead and bike Mementos."

"That's not it." Haru shook her head. "You were there for Mona-chan. I'm glad he's not alone."

Amamiya's face didn't change as far as Ann could see, but she got the feeling he was deliberately trying to hide any expression he might make as his gaze ducked further away, his hand still blocking part of his face. "I'm out of time," he said finally, moving toward the stairs. "Remember, seven tonight."

The door banged behind him as he left.

"Oh...I hope I didn't embarrass him," Haru said quietly. Ryuji snorted, though he tried to hold it in when Ann made a gesture. As funny as it was to see the transfer student flustered in a rare change, it wouldn't be good if he caught that and got mad right after he'd decided to help them have a civil meeting with Morgana.

"I don't think he was expecting your sincerity," Makoto said. She touched her chin, brow knitting in thought. "His only motive is to help Morgana, huh? I thought there would be more to it than that."

"I think we can believe it. He's the reason Morgana gets away with hiding in my desk during class," Ann said.

"Yeah, but I always thought he freaked your class out just because he could. Nope, the transfer student's a secret softy, and Morgana's weird crush is mutual. Well, one crush is."

"Ryuji," Ann groaned. Morgana was always so innocent about his crush on her that she didn't find it too much of a bother, even if the 'Lady Ann' could get cloying. That didn't mean it wasn't awkward when others brought it up.

Although, even more awkward was the grin Ryuji gave her, fleeting compared to how he usually laughed it up when he teased. ...She guessed that was natural, given everything that had come up while they were talking with Amamiya. Ann took her phone out to check the time. They had nearly three hours before seven. "Makoto, Haru, can you guys make sure Yusuke and Futaba get to the station on time tonight?" Those two could both have issues with getting to meetings sometimes, although for very different reasons, and this was too important to have anyone running late.

"I'll get in touch with Yusuke-kun, and Mako-chan, you help Futaba-chan?" Haru offered.

Makoto nodded. "That's fine by me. Let's plan to meet up at the station ten minutes before the hour."

Plans made, the two third-years went down the staircase, leaving Ann and Ryuji alone. The silence between them lasted only five seconds before Ryuji couldn't take it anymore and gave a gusty sigh, stretching his arms. "That didn't go too bad. I'm gonna kill some time at the arcade--"

"Actually, why don't we get beef bowls? My treat," Ann offered. "I think we need to talk. Just to make sure we're good!" she added quickly, since Ryuji had immediately pulled a face like she'd told him to eat dirt. "You were there for me when I really needed someone, Ryuji. If I've been making you feel bad, I want to apologize."

Ryuji laughed sheepishly. "Geez, don't make it sound so serious," he said, but he gave her a small smile. "...Sure, guess I'm hungry. Let's go."

Notes:

Morgana: so it really seems like all my friends don't need or want me anymore
Ren, who was abandoned by all his friends half a year ago: hold my ten cans from the vending machine, I'm going in
I was a little nervous about this bit since I know...people definitely have opinions about this little arc in canon...I'll basically just say 1) I feel like both Morgana and Ryuji needed to make some apology (Ren is definitely siding with Morgana in this ch. but he'll be more balanced later on) and 2) the argument should be wrapped up fairly quickly in the next bit anyway to focus on the thieves being curious about Ren.
Lastly I kind of was rushing to post the first time and I realized I forgot to say this is a concept from the p5 kink meme! I made one attempt at filling it there but I can't honestly say I recommend reading that because it'll probably just confuse. Some ideas that I mentioned there are still being used (like the Palace order switching), others aren't. Giving it a second try now that I've thought over the idea more.

Chapter 3 Notes:

I'd like to say this chapter took as long as it did because it's much longer than the previous chapters.
That's not why it took so long. It took that long because I kept writing and rewriting the very first scene. 2/3s of this actually got written over the last two days, which is kind of impressive for me. This feels like a very talky chapter, and parts of it feel rough, but well...there were points I wanted to make sure I hit, and I can't think of how to edit this further at the moment, and it's already been long enough. So I'm punting it out.

Chapter Text

Ann had gone to the hospital with Shiho after she fell, but she'd come back to the school the same day, after the doctors had told her Shiho had gone into a coma. That Shiho's chances of waking up were...not promising.

She'd come back too late for classes; the last period had just ended. No matter. The only thing on her mind had been to find Kamoshida, and once she did, she'd decide what else she was going to do. She had only this vague idea that if he wanted her so badly, she could probably get him alone. If she didn't reveal what Shiho had told her before she fell unconscious, he wouldn't suspect any bad intent, right? She could cry crocodile tears. She'd already cried enough real ones. Make him think he could play the concerned teacher for her, make him think he even had a chance. He was older than her, taller and stronger than her, but if she could take him by surprise--by a staircase--by something sharp--or something heavy, something she could smash into his face--

Ryuji had found her before she got the chance to do something stupid. She remembered being surprised he was even talking to her, considering they'd stopped talking half a year ago, and then snapping at him to leave her alone and not snoop for gossip. The look of hurt on his face--Shiho had been, not quite friends, but friendly with him, before Kamoshida--had gotten her to mutter a quiet "sorry". She'd still expected him to take the hint and leave her alone.

Ann still wasn't sure if he'd guessed what she was thinking, or if it was as simple as him wanting to make sure she'd be okay, but Ryuji had brushed off her attitude and said he'd walk her home if she'd let him. And she'd told him she had something to do at the school, and he'd told her the administration could eff itself, and she agreed one-hundred percent but he didn't understand and he wasn't going away. Finally Kamoshida's name had spilled from her lips in frustration. Just what that scumbag had done. And Ryuji had been horrified, and then he was angry for Shiho with her, ranting about--Suguru Kamoshida, lording over Shujin Castle--

And they'd ended up in Kamoshida's Palace. Armored guards had grabbed and dragged them separate ways. The rest was history: seeing and hearing from Kamoshida's shadow what he truly thought of both her and Shiho, awakening to Carmen, and blazing her way out. Hearing Ryuji yelling from the dungeons and freeing him along with a cat-shaped thief who insisted that first, he wasn't a cat, and second, he knew a way that all three of them could get revenge on Kamoshida.

If it hadn't been for Morgana, maybe she would have ended up trying to hurt Kamoshida in the real world anyway. She still wasn't completely sure what she would have decided if forcing the teacher to confess his sins and live in shame and guilt hadn't been an option. But Ryuji had been the one to make sure she wasn't alone that Friday, or Monday either, when he went back in with her armed with nothing but a fake gun to scare shadows. Sure, Ryuji had his own reasons to change Kamoshida's heart, but he'd also kept texting her over the weekend, checking in, probably making sure she wasn't channeling Carmen by burning down the school or something equally crazy, and the only reason for him to do that was because he cared. (Because really, if someone burned Shujin down over the weekend for reasons that weren't an emotional crisis, Ryuji would probably just make sure no one was stuck inside and then grab some food to grill over the embers.)

She'd known since then that she could count on him, and she said as much over beef bowls. ...Without going into all the details out loud, since they were in a busy restaurant. "I've been relying on you since April."

"It...doesn't really feel like it?" He looked uncomfortable, frowning at his bowl like meat had betrayed him somehow. "I've been training, but..."

He was stuck on the whole 'benching' issue, wasn't he. Ann sighed, picking at a piece of food with her chopsticks. "Sorry. I got scared when you fell that time, and I guess I've been overreacting." Shiho still hadn't woken up yet when it had happened, and the thought that she and Ryuji could have both died because of Kamoshida had kept Ann awake a long time that night. But...that was a few months ago now, and she knew he'd been running more. Maybe he'd needed a bit of extra consideration at first--she didn't remember him complaining about her keeping the excursions in Madarame's Palace shorter, trying to be a little smarter and not wear out either him or Yusuke--but at some point it just got to be coddling, didn't it? Of course he'd hate that. "Okay. As soon as we get the Palace open, you're taking point with me. Show me how all that training's paid off!"

That got a small smirk out of him, and she smiled and finally popped the piece she'd been toying with in her mouth. She chewed and swallowed it in the same time Ryuji wolfed down two gulps of his beef bowl.

"...Hey, um. Is there anything specific you want me to say to Mona?" she asked in an undertone. "I knew you guys argued a lot, but I didn't realize how serious it was."

"'Cause it wasn't, at first. Guess it built up. I'll hash it out with him, we can handle it."

"Hmm." Ryuji and Morgana did not have a track record of settling arguments on their own. But maybe Ryuji was trying to step up? If he meant it, Ann didn't want to second-guess him. Plus, she'd just popped another forkful of beef in her mouth. She nodded while chewing through it, hoping Ryuji wasn't looking for something more eloquent from her.

"Is Amamiya-kun not in today?"

The question came from down the counter; the speaker was a middle-aged man with a receding hairline and white gloves he'd set aside to eat. His red and white polka-dotted tie was a nice touch to an otherwise plain suit, though not exactly trendy. Ann watched as the lone employee in the restaurant gave a negative (despairing) response, then turned back to Ryuji. "I thought he was talking about Shujin Amamiya for a second," she said to explain her distraction.

"Doubt it. Doesn't Amamiya work at 777 on top of working for Futaba's old man? And that florist gig." Ryuji frowned. "Though 'Amamiya' ain't exactly common..."

Ryuji seemed to be mulling on something for a few minutes, his brow furrowed as his jaw worked on tender beef strips. "It's going to be weird now that he knows, you know? I thought Makoto'd lost her mind for a minute when she asked if he wanted to join, but it might be just as weird with him notjoining."

"Yeah," Ann agreed. "Maybe that's why she asked?" Before Amamiya, Mishima had been the only person outside the Phantom Thieves to know any of their identities, and he only knew Ann's and Ryuji's. They'd been too obvious with Kamoshida, but that didn't mean everyone else deserved to have their covers blown. But Amamiya knew every last one of them now, after their meeting in Mementos. "...It's probably not an issue," she said. "He cares about Morgana, and Morgana doesn't want to rat us out. Besides, he was just acting back at school. Remember what he said that time at the tv station?"

Ryuji snorted so hard she thought he might suck noodles up his nose. "Oh, yeah, right. 'They do more than the police'. They shoulda pointed a camera at Kawakami-sensei right then. Her face was priceless!"

"Ryuji," Ann said, trying to gesture for him to bring the volume back down, but she was starting to giggle herself. It'd been such an out-of-the-blue statement, especially since the cameras hadn't even been pointed at Amamiya. Annhad been selected out of all the Shujin students to give her opinion on the Phantom Thieves, and her stomach had clenched and started playing jump rope with her intestines because what if she accidentally gave something away with her answer, there was a detective right in front of her and Morgana had already told her something was strange about him, when the universe intervened in the form of Ren Amamiya deciding that his own opinion needed to be heard, his usually quiet voice raised loud enough to carry. The tv hosts had been flummoxed, though Goro Akechi recovered after a surprised second to challenge Amamiya's position with some questions. Ann had just been glad to get out of the hot seat...even if Akechi had still approached her after the program with an offer of treating her sometime as a form of apology, rather tactlessly noting that he should have realized, there being victims of Kamoshida's among the students, he stood a chance of calling on one and inadvertently pressuring them on an emotional subject.

(...She'd taken Akechi up on the offer, after some deliberation. Because free crepes. But also because Morgana insisted on the need to 'gather intel' on a possible rival.)

"But...I don't know," Ryuji sighed. "He said that, yeah, but he shut Makoto down hard when she brought up the idea. If he really liked us, don't you think he'd be a littleinterested? 'Less I just pissed him off that much..."

"...Why don't we ask him about it?" Ann said. "After we make up with Morgana. You're right, it is kind of weird." She'd tried to put that moment in the tv station out of mind as much as possible, considering how mortifying it had been, but now that she was thinking about it again, Ryuji had a good point. It seemed like a change in attitude. Hopefully not so much a change he'd decide to snitch on them, though.

She waited until they were done with their meals and out of the restaurant before asking a question rattling around her brain. "What if he'd said yes to Makoto, though? Would you want him to join?"

Ryuji gave her a look like--well, like she'd lost her mind. So that was probably a 'no'. "Ann. Are you for real right now?"

"He's not going to! He didn't want to. I'm just asking. If he had. It's not like we have rules for 'this is how you join'." They'd just sort of...ran into new members. And been blackmailed into them in some cases.

"Kay, rule one, you need a Persona," Ryuji said, ticking off a finger. "Rule two, don't make people uncomfortable? You really think Futaba and Haru would be okay teaming up with a guy who assaulted a stranger? I had a reason with Kamoshida, and it was still stupid of me. Amamiya didn't have a reason at all."

"Yeah..." The witness testimony in his court case had been pretty damning. Amamiya had just up and shoved the man to the ground without any provocation. "The app says he's not distorted anymore, but..."

"If it was just me, then sure. Maybe he's really a decent guy now. Well, half-decent. Can't count how many times I've spotted him eavesdropping on people at school." Ryuji rolled his eyes. Then he frowned. "We could use some extra firepower on the team. And there's been a few times he seemed all right. Like, back on the rooftop--I kinda see why Monamona thinks he's cool."

"But you'd be worried for Futaba and Haru."

"Yeah. Well, everyone, but especially those two. They deserve to feel safe on the team, you know?"

Ann nodded. "You're right." It was probably for the best that Amamiya didn't want to be on the team. They'd have to stay on good terms with him, but if they were lucky that'd be as simple as being on good terms with Mona.

But Ann felt the blood drain from her face when, at 7 pm, they stepped into Mementos with the other Thieves. She could hear Ryuji's voice from up ahead, even though he was standing right next to her.

"--he's still our friend. You, messing with him? Ain't happening."

"Oh sh*t," Ryuji said beside her, his face paling under his skull mask. "He recorded us? But where was the phone?"

"In his pocket, or the desk he sat at--does it matter?" Makoto snapped before rushing ahead to the changed station entrance.

"Queen!" Haru ran after her, and everyone else followed.

Amamiya and Morgana were at the electronic turnstiles, the smallest thief sitting on the turnstile as Amamiya slouched against it, holding up his phone. Most phone features didn't work in the Metaverse, but you could play back audio and video already stored on the phone, and 'Phantom' was entertaining Morgana with the conversation they'd had on Shujin's rooftop.

Or at least, he was until they ran in. The smile Morgana had vanished in an instant as he spotted them, his curled tail flaring straight in surprise as he jumped up. "You guys...!" He glanced down at the phone, still playing in Amamiya's hand, then up at them again, seeming torn--but he jumped off the turnstile, transforming into a bus with a huge and heavy clatter. "Phantom! Jump in!"

Amamiya made no move, not even to stop the playback. Morgana rattled irritably. "Phantom...! Let's go!"

"What the hell, man?! You make a big deal about us making up with Mona just to blackmail us?!"

Ryuji's yelling was met with a bewildered scowl from Amamiya. "Blackmail?"

"Why did you record us?" Makoto demanded.

Now Amamiya did back up toward Morgana, but he still looked confused. Yusuke raised his voice. "Skull, wait a moment! Is it possible this is a misunderstanding?"

"Please, let's calm down!" Haru chimed in.

Ann raised her hands in a placating gesture. Hopefully Yusuke was right, and they could rein this back in before they had yet anotherchase through Mementos... or another blackmailing incident. "We've had a few bad experiences with blackmail. Can you just delete that? Pretty please?"

The scowl stayed on Amamiya's face, but it lessened slightly, and at least he stopped backing up towards the Mona-bus like he was going to drive off. "How many times have you been blackmailed to assume--there. Deleted." He held up the phone as though to show the proof.

Futaba raised her hand. "I blackmailed the Thieves before joining! Needed help, didn't know how good they were yet. Mind if I take a look at your phone? Just to verify."

Amamiya's hand tightened on his phone. "Aren't you a hacker?"

"She will only verify you deleted it," Makoto said firmly. "...Please, Phantom? Just so we can have this meeting without any misgivings."

"I didn't agree to this meeting," Morgana said sullenly, rocking on his wheels. "Phantom...did you set me up?"

Amamiya backed up another step and slouched against Mona's black frame. "If you want nothing to do with them, we can drive off. They wouldn't stand a chance of catching us." Amamiya reached with both hands into the pockets of his trenchcoat, stashing his phone inside, and pulled out--

"Whoa, whoa whoa, why do you have that many smoke bombs?!" Ryuji demanded.

"Like crafting 'em," Amamiya answered simply. That was not nearly an adequate justification for him holding six smoke bombs, but Ann found herself focusing on the fact that he couldfit six smoke bombs in his pockets. She needed pockets. Pockets were clearly one of the marks of a rebel! Why couldn't her subconscious clue in?! "Like using 'em, too."

"Phantom..." Makoto sighed, her hand over her mask as though he was giving her a headache.

The transfer student smiled lopsidedly as he squirreled most of the smoke bombs back into his coat. Two smoke bombs remained in his right hand, dancing between his fingers as he toyed with them. "I'm not a blackmailer, Prez. The recording was so Mona could hear how you felt for himself. Take my word for it and focus on who you came for."

"...Very well," Makoto said, though Ann had known her long enough to hear the skepticism in her voice.

Amamiya remained still, watching the Thieves in front of him, but his words became directed to the bus behind him. "Mona. Listen. Your plan for finding the mafia boss is clever. It's also avoiding the point. If these guys aren't worth your time now, they won't be later." Yusuke scoffed at the declaration, and Ann frowned. He didn't have to phrase it that way.

Morgana seemed to get offended at that as well, though, and Ann wondered if Amamiya was being provoking on purpose; the same tactic he'd used on the rooftop, but now to get Mona riled up for their sake. "They're worthy! Worthy rivals! That's why we should beat them!"

Still resting against Morgana, Amamiya lowered his voice, the next thing he said too quiet for Ann to hear. But there was no missing the way Morgana sank on his car frame, his tires bending out cartoonishly.

"But, they won't..." Dimmed headlights flickered to the Thieves before focusing on Amamiya again. Ann strained her ears to listen, but even so she couldn't hear any of what Amamiya was saying, just snatches of Morgana mumbling back to him. "No, it's... ... ...a monster?"

Huh? What was Morgana saying about monsters? Ann opened her mouth, wanting to call out and ask him to talk to them already, but Amamiya spoke up louder that moment. "Then you've got me," the transfer student said, patting his side in a reassuring manner. The almost big brotherly image was ruined when Amamiya looked their way with a smirk. "And we've got smoke bombs."

"Uh..." Did he really want to use them that badly?

"Ugh, the smoke bombs again?" Ryuji complained. "Mona! You wanna tell me off or what? 'Cause I'm listening right now, so this is the best chance you're ever gonna get! Just talk to us!"

"Skull..." Morgana seemed to sink even lower on his frame, if that was possible--his underside looked like it could scrape the ground. "You were right, though."

"Huh?!"

"I'm not going to repeat myself! You said you were listening!"

"I think that's exactly why your words took him by surprise," Yusuke observed.

"Yeah, what Fox said!"

"Oh yeah?! Well--well..." Morgana had briefly rallied, but the fire went out of him again as he realized they weren't actually having an argument.

"Mona-chan," Haru said gently. "You have to explain yourself if you want us to understand."

Ann nodded. "Come on, Mona."

Morgana's headlights lowered to the ground. After a brief silence, he finally gave up the bus form, returning to his two-legged Metaverse form as Amamiya straightened up. He still wasn't looking any of them in the eye, though.

"We should split up," he started.

"We made a deal for me to teach you to be Phantom Thieves, and you'd help me explore Mementos so I could return to being human. But...I've taught you all I know. You don't need me. There's no point in you risking your lives for someone useless like me. And there's no reassurance I'll return to being human. It might be that I... I never..."

The last sentence was mumbled, and Morgana seemed unable to bring himself to finish it. Instead, he regathered himself to state: "The deal's run its course. That's why it just makes sense for us to split up."

Amamiya looked discontent with Morgana's words, but he didn't say anything to contradict them. The brief silence was broken by a light scoff by Yusuke. "Who said we're exploring Mementos for you? I find the depths of the human heart quite fascinating, even at their most grotesque."

But Morgana shook his head. "There's no need to dance around the subject."

"Mona-chan, you should be honest with your feelings. You don't actually want to split up, do you?" Haru asked.

"...I don't have a reason to stay, though. I'm not like you guys--if I can't even become human, and I don't have anyone to save or take revenge on--I just don't fit in. I don't belong."

"Mona," Ryuji said. His voice sounded thick, and Ann glanced at him as he crouched to meet Morgana at eye-level. "I wasn't right. I don't know if you think I got some fact right or whatever...that ain't important. What I do know is that you don't need a reason to stay. That's not what being a team is about. You want to stay with us? That's all the reason you need. Doesn't matter who or what you are--'cause you and me? We're both punks who steal treasure from sh*tty adults. So why don't we do it together?"

Morgana looked like Ryuji had zapped him with a weak zio, blinking at him for a few seconds before he averted his eyes again, self-conscious. "Just because I want to...is that really good enough?"

"Of course it is, Mona," Ann said. "So, what do you say? Wanna come back to the team?"

"Y...yeah!" Morgana seemed to have to push past some embarrassment, but once he did, the words came out loud and clear, and he ran over to them. "This team is...it's where I want to belong! I want to stay with you guys forever!"

"How refreshingly honest," Yusuke said with a smile.

"See, Mona? That wasn't so hard," Ryuji teased.

"It was hard! I thought...but I was wrong," Morgana admitted. "And...thanks, Skull. That was pretty cool of you. And you stuck up for me when Phantom pretended to be a bad guy, too." He smiled a little, looking over his shoulder at Amamiya. "Rather devious of you."

Amamiya bowed with a flourish. "I was born to play the villain's role."

"...You're kind of a ham, aren't you?" Ann asked.

Morgana started to say something, but then Futaba was scooping him up in a vigorous hug as Makoto tried to tell her to settle down. Amamiya smiled at the commotion, and Ann laughed when Morgana protested vocally but resigned himself to the hug with suspicious speed. For the next few minutes, her attention was solely on Morgana and having him back, and on everyone else's reactions. Ryuji and Morgana bantered a bit, but they were both in good spirits, and it was staying playful. Futaba rocked on her heels once she let Mona escape her hold and hummed happily while Haru took Morgana into a new hug, though a much less restrictive one--this time his feet stayed on the ground. Even Yusuke looked quite pleased. He also looked like he was considering a composition as he watched Haru and Morgana. If he did make a painting to commemorate the moment, the only dark spot in the scene would have been Amamiya. He'd shrunk back to one side, slouching against the wall as he toyed with his phone...

...And his trenchcoat and mask had disappeared, replaced by his school uniform. Ann looked around in confusion--yeah, they were still in the Metaverse--before approaching him.

He looked...sad, though his expression quickly shifted to neutral once he looked up and caught her approach. "What is it?"

"Uh... Are you okay? You're--" She wasn't sure how to say it and instead just gestured from his head to toe, directing him to look down and figure it out for himself.

"Phantom!" Morgana had noticed the issue now too and was bounding over. "You dropped your thief clothes again?" He sounded like the disappointed parent of a grade schooler still mixing up which foot each shoe went on.

"This isn't the first time?" Ann asked. "That's weird. It's never happened to any of us." Was it because he couldn't use his Persona right?

"Looks like I did," Amamiya said, choosing to answer Morgana first. He gave a shrug. "...Don't need it anymore. You're back where you belong." He turned his attention back to Ann. "It's happened before. Probably because I was just filling in."

"What do you mean, filling in?" Morgana asked, his voice raised in surprise. He must have been caught off-guard since that part of the rooftop discussion hadn't been in the recording.

Amamiya paused at that reaction, then put away his phone to focus on Morgana. "Mona, it's fine," he said reassuringly. "You're back with your team, and you can carry out your plan with them. Sorry you spent so much time trying to teach me, but I think it's obvious by now I'm not going to awaken to a Persona."

"Ugh--not with that attitude, you won't!" Morgana said, slapping his paws over his face. "Phantom, you just need more time! You'll find it in yourself!"

"I'm not going to come back here on my own." The neutral expression on Amamiya's face was cracking; the glance he shot at Ann looked honestly bewildered. "I can'tcome back on my own--"

Chapter 4 Notes:

this chapter has made me want to duct tape every character's mouth.
there's a version of this chapter where the PT chat section is 10x longer and Ren makes Makoto want to wring his neck and she has to remind herself of why she believes he deserves a fair chance. there's a version of this chapter where Ren gets Ryuji upset and the in-person meeting is derailed. there's been a LOT of waffling about how to foreshadow/hint at things.
I'm very much a pantser over plotter. My bad.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

[Phantom Thief Chat]

MN: Let's discuss schedules. Would Tuesday work for everyone?

RA: I was going to work since I've been blowing my jobs off. Guess I could be out another day though.

AT: This coming Tuesday, right? Works for me.

RS: I'm not busy.

HO: I can make time!

AT: ...Yuuuusuke?

FS: I'll ping him.

YK: I'm available.

YK: Could you 'ping' me with something less...jarring, next time? A piece by Sadao Watanabe, perhaps.

FS: No. Featherman tells you to spring into action.

AT: Okay, so Tuesday works for everyone.

FS: I didn't say if I was available!

RS: We already know Tuesday works for you! Every day works for you!

HO: Do you have something scheduled on Tuesday?

FS: No, but thanks for asking.

HO: ...You're welcome.

MN: Another question for you, Futaba: have you kept your room clean since we last met in it? Your place is the most convenient place to meet, since you and Amamiya live in the same neighborhood.

FS: Oh...

FS: Idea!! Attention, everyone!

FS: Let's hold the meeting in Ren's room!!

RA: Let's not.

FS: Come on! I've never seen the attic above Leblanc!

RA: There's nothing to see.

MN: Futaba... how bad is your room?

FS: It's not bad! My lifestyle is just incompatible with hosting events!

YK: That's putting it mildly.

FS: Shut it, Inari. Don't pretend you'd be any better.

RS: Oh man, and we spent so long cleaning it...

MN: A second sweep...might not be so bad?

AT: Hopefully...

RS: Don't volunteer me again!

RA: Fine. Use the attic. Mona says it has more space for people, anyway.

HO: Oh, that sounds nice!

RA: I guess.

MN: Thank you, Amamiya.

FS: Ehehe! Time to scope out the part-timer's natural habitat!

RA: ...

AT: You're totally going to make him change his mind...

Luckily, Amamiya did not take back the offer even after Futaba...being herself, so on Tuesday Ann went straight from school to Leblanc with Ryuji. Futaba was just outside the cafe's doorway and jumped up from her crouch when she saw them approaching.

"Party members have arrived! Time to start the mission!"

"Morgana's already in there, isn't he?" Ann asked. And, well, Amamiya was technically a 'party member' now too, but given how long it had taken Futaba to warm up to them, she couldn't blame the girl for being a little nervous.

"W-well, but, now it's a full party! Right? Close enough. Open sesame!"

Sojiro gave Futaba a small smile as she walked in, and it stayed on his face as he looked over Ryuji and Ann following behind. "So you really are hanging out with Ren today, huh? Kid's always working, so I wasn't sure he was making any friends."

Given Amamiya's reputation at school, Ann was sure there was plenty of room for doubt. She didn't think he had any friends either, given what he'd said about Morgana being the only person he liked in Shujin. "I don't know if we're friends yet, but he is in the same class as me," she said with a smile. "And Futaba wanted to get to know him better, so I thought we all should!" That was easy enough for her to say with a straight face, since it had...mostly truth to it.

Sojiro gestured towards the stairs. "Well, he's up in the attic. You guys want anything to drink?"

"A soda'd be great, thanks," Ryuji said.

"Coffee for me! With cream and sugar, please," Ann said.

"Sojiro! I want the Mocha Matari! Give it just a dash of cream!"

"Alright. It'll be a few minutes. Can you ask the kid if he wants anything?"

"Aye-aye!" Futaba bounded over to the stairs...and then waited for Ryuji and Ann to follow her before going up the steps. Ann smiled.

"Ren! Sojiro wants to know if--whoa! It's so empty."

Morgana had been right about the attic Amamiya was living in: there was a lot of floor space for people to move around, even with the table the transfer student was currently setting up for the meeting, placed in front of an old Leblanc booth. He was dragging four chairs into place around the other sides of the table for extra seating as the girls and Ryuji looked around, bewildered. There was a desk, bed, a plant, two storage shelving units, one full of heavy bags--were they coffee beans for the cafe, Ann wondered?--and a big cardboard box, the other empty, and...that was it. There was a lot of space for people to move around easily not just because the space was so big, but because there was so little in it. No decorations, no laptop or gaming console, nothing like that. If Ann didn't already know it was Amamiya's living space, she would never have guessed someone actually slept here; she would have thought the bed had just been chucked up here for storage.

...Maybe it had been chucked up here for storage, because it looked like it was propped up on a bunch of crates. That was a little worrying. And the attic was so jarring after Futaba's room had been so chaotic and messy, full of things (not that Ann could say too much there--her room was much the same, if not as extreme), and besides the garbage she'd let build up during her depression, they'd all been nice things: her crazy computer set-up, with multiple monitors and fancy chair, the starry curtain, the Featherman figurines and more from other shows and video games... Sojiro was guardian to both of them, but their rooms were like day and night. No wonder Futaba had sounded so surprised. Even though Amamiya was only here for a year, Ann had expected something more...hospitable.

"It's not empty! It's got just what we need." Morgana had been on top of the desk past the table for the meeting, and now jumped neatly down from it, padding across the floor. "See? Pretty convenient for meetings, isn't it?"

"Uh...yeah!" Ann said. She couldn't help thinking Futaba was right, though. Morgana was putting a very positive spin on things. "And it's really...clean, too. Thanks for having us over, Amamiya."

"Sure it's clean, there's nothing in here," Ryuji muttered. He looked around again, then turned to Amamiya, who was watching them silently now that he'd finished arranging the seating. "I don't get it."

Amamiya co*cked his head. His bangs were getting pretty unruly with how they fell over his eyes, giving him a rather careless appearance. "Get what?"

"Hold on!" Futaba said. She pointed at Ren. "Coffee order."

"...I'm not picky. Surprise me."

"Hm." The petite girl put a lot of emphasis into that sound, like she was already evaluating him. "Seriously, where's your stuff? I know you have clothes at least."

He used his foot to tap the cardboard box on the bottom shelf of the storage shelving unit in response.

"Hm." Futaba was frowning a bit, now, and Ann wasn't sure if she was bothered by the barren state of the room or just disappointed that 'the part-timer's natural habitat' was less interesting than she'd hoped. But then the girl grinned mischievously. "All right, I'll let Sojiro know to give you a big surprise," she announced, bounding down the stairs.

...Oh boy. At least she seemed to be somewhat comfortable with him?

Now that Futaba wasn't interrupting, Ryuji picked back up on his line of thought; Ann could tell he'd been stuck on it for a bit as he meandered through the room, looking all around, even up into the bare rafters. "You're working a whole bunch of jobs, ain'tcha Amamiya? But you've got nothing here. What do you spend it all on?"

"Drugs."

That answer stopped Ryuji dead in his tracks. "For real?!"

"No he's not for real!" Morgana huffed. "Come on, Ren. You better not make jokes like that when Makoto's here."

"Oh, so it was just a joke...haha," Ann said. Who made jokes like that?

Amamiya shook his head. "I'm saving it. Planning to move from my hometown after graduation next year."

"To Tokyo?" Ann asked curiously. Had he come to like the city?

"I was thinking Osaka or Nagoya."

"Those are both pretty far from here," Ryuji commented, and Ann didn't miss how Morgana looked rather sullen at that, glancing away from them all.

Amamiya, on the other hand, sounded satisfied as he said: "Even farther from my hometown."

...Okay. Ann was going to take a wild guess and say him getting himself arrested for assault had resulted in a lot of burned bridges. If he'd even had those bridges to begin with. Probably not a good topic. Focus on where he was going, not what he was leaving. "But, is there a particular reason you're interested in those two?"

"They're big cities where my record might not get dug up every month."

Nope. Nope, still bad topic, especially because Ann knew, right away, that he had to be thinking of the Phansite. Every time his name had been posted, his record became a hot topic in the following comments, and the rumors around Shujin had a habit of popping up on the site, given where most early Phans came from.

Ann bit her lip, shifting her weight on her feet. "Um...I know this doesn't fix what's already happened, but the administrator for the Phansite recently agreed to delete any more posts about you. It took a while for us to convince him because he doesn't know about the app, so I guess he had trouble believing that we know you aren't distorted when people keep suspecting you, but still... I'm sorry we weren't able to persuade him sooner." She was bothered by the way Mishima had finally accepted it, too. He'd said something about disappointing the public too many times hurting the Phantom Thieves' fame, which...yeah, they did want a good reputation so that they could inspire others to speak up against abusers when they could, but the more immediate issue with Amamiya was that he'd already been punished and seemed to have reformed. ...Besides his habit of creeping up on people and eavesdropping, but then, most of Shujin's student body had a tendency to gossip that was just as bad. The Phantom Thieves were for criminals who hadn'tbeen caught. Plus, with Amamiya's record leaked, he just caught way too much flack. One of the posts about him had been because he'd gotten top score of the second-years on exams. Yeah, Ann had been surprised to see his name up there herself the first time, but whoever had assumed he had to be cheating and needed a change of heart was incredibly petty.

"The last accusation cost him a job," Morgana muttered. "Remember last time we were window-shopping at the mall, you even said it'd been a while since we'd seen him working at Rafflesia?"

"Oh no," Ann muttered.

"How's that our fault?" Ryuji asked.

Ren raised an eyebrow. "No one said it was. If I was blaming you guys for that, I wouldn't agree to work with you. But when someone posts about an unknown person assaulting elderly people near the mall, and another person responds that there's a mall employee who's been arrested for assault... people draw their own conclusions. I became bad for business. My manager was honest about why she was firing me, at least. That she didn't want to think it was me, but the suspicion was driving away loyal customers."

"You...arestill working at Triple-7, right?" Ann asked cautiously, wincing in anticipation of what Amamiya might say. "I remember someone named you as the person abusing cats, even though it wasn't true..."

"He would never," Morgana said firmly.

She was relieved when Amamiya nodded. "I got some questions from coworkers, but I told them I got stuck using an old name tag and my name was actually Mao Tomokawa."

Ryuji snorted. "Wait, that worked? How'd you get that bullsh*t by them?"

"The manager backed me up and got me a new name tag. Said I was the only one who actually kept the counters clean enough and he hated cats anyway, so he didn't care what I did to them. So he's a piece of sh*t, but he kept me on, so..." Amamiya shrugged and shared a look with Morgana.

"He's a huge piece of sh*t," the cat-shaped thief said flatly. "But I guess you take what jobs you can get." Getting up from his haunches, he turned to Ann. "Actually, I wonder if the manager would come up in the Nav."

Ryuji rolled his eyes. "Mona, not liking cats ain't evil--well..." He paused, and when he started again, he sounded a little more thoughtful. "Not liking cats is pretty normal, but being okay with someone abusin' 'em is kinda messed up."

Yeah, that did seem pretty messed up. Ann wasn't sure they had any grounds for a change of heart, since the animal abuser had been dealt with, but maybe Morgana was worried the manager would hurt cats too. A negative result would be reassuring. A positive result would mean maybe there was something to investigate...after they had figured out the whole knotty issue with the 'Bank of Kaneshiro'. "Do you still not have the app, Amamiya?"

"No."

"Hm..." She really wished they understood how the app worked better. For now, she fished her own phone out of her purse, opened the MetaNav, and held it out to him. "You want to see if he comes up?"

Amamiya took it from her hand, brought it up just close enough to his face for it to catch his voice, and enunciated clearly: "Kiyoshi Takagi, Triple-7 store manager."

"Candidate not found."

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmm." The drawn-out sound made it clear Morgana wasn't quite satisfied, but after some thought, he decided: "Well, I still think your manager's lousy, but at least he's not distorted enough to cause problems himself."

Right. It wasn't...great...that the manager had turned a blind eye to what could have been his own employee abusing animals, but considering Amamiya wasn't the guilty party anyway, it had worked out for the better, hadn't it? He hadn't lost that job. "Yeah. One less heart we need to change." She lifted her hand for Amamiya to return the phone.

He started to extend his hand to hers, but then he paused. The phone was close enough that Ann could have just taken it anyway, but the way he was hesitating...

"Is there someone else you think might be distorted?" she asked. "You can check if you want."

But Futaba came up then, and Amamiya put the phone back in Ann's hand. The orange-haired girl was taking the stairs one at a time, carefully, since she was carrying three coffee mugs and a soda can on a tray. Ryuji came over to take his can, then pointed at the cups. "Which one's Amamiya's?" Futaba nodded to one, and Ryuji took it and handed it to the other boy, who instantly brought it to his lips and took two steady swallows. "Whoa. No hesitation, huh?"

Everyone watched Amamiya as he paused in drinking, waiting for him to give some indication of the 'surprise'. But he just hummed. "I thought so. Boss is too straight-laced to let people mess with his coffee."

"The surprise is...there's no surprise!" Futaba grumbled. "He scolded me when I tried to add a special ingredient."

"Can you tell which blend he used?" Morgana asked curiously.

Amamiya took a small sip to taste it again. "The Mocha Matari."

"Ding-ding!"

"So mine is too, right?" Ann asked, taking her cup from Futaba. That was what Futaba had asked for, and Ann hadn't specified a blend herself. She liked the occasional cup of coffee, especially if it was from Leblanc, but she wasn't into it enough to know the difference between beans. Futaba nodded that she was correct, and Ann took a curious sip. She didn't think she'd had this one before, but--ooh, there was a little hint of chocolate in the flavor. A little spiciness, too, but the cream she'd asked for mellowed that nicely. "Mm." She'd have to try to remember this one.

"Can I try some?" Morgana asked. Ann looked around for something she could pour a bit of coffee in, but Amamiya was already taking the tray from Futaba and kneeling to the floor, angling the tray so that the small bit of coffee he poured pooled in one corner without spilling. Morgana took a curious lick, then recoiled with his mouth open in disgust. "Ack! Bitter!"

"Uh, yeah," Ryuji said. "Coffee's always bitter." He cracked the tab on his soda.

"Not this bitter!" Despite the complaint, Morgana lapped at the drink again. Probably trying to prove he could handle it, since Amamiya had drank without fuss.

Futaba giggled. "Boss put a lot of cream in Ann's cup. That's the kind of coffee you're used to, isn't it, Mona? He didn't put any in Ren's."

...True. Despite being made from the same blend of beans, it was obvious at a glance that Amamiya's cup was much darker than Ann's. No wonder Morgana had been surprised. At the same time, Ann noticed the easy way Amamiya kept the tray balanced for Morgana with one hand while still drinking his own coffee. Even if it was their first time sharing coffee, it was obvious they'd gotten used to eating with each other already. "Hey, Morgana," she said. "How did you two become partners? You said something about pulling Amamiya into the Metaverse by accident."

"You sure it wasn't on purpose?" Ryuji asked, looking skeptical.

"It definitely wasn't on purpose," Amamiya said between sips, and Morgana's fur went up a little.

"It was an accident, but it turned out alright!"

"You were face down on the ground."

"I--we're waiting for the others," Morgana said. "We're only telling this story once."

"Oh man, now I gotta hear this," Ryuji said, grinning. Futaba looked intrigued too.

Luckily, they didn't have to wait too long. Haru and Makoto came up the stairs after a few minutes, Yusuke trailing behind. "Sorry, everyone," Makoto sighed. "I got held up by another student council member after classes, and Haru waited for me..." She paused as she took in the attic. "Oh...this is...different."

"Really?" Yusuke said. "It seems quite ordinary to me." He immediately proceeded to one of the chairs Amamiya had set out, perching in it comfortably.

"It has a rustic charm," Haru said, and Ann hoped Amamiya could tell the brunette was being sincere because, coming from anyone else? Ann sure would have thought it was sarcasm. The third year's face lit up as she spotted the plant in the room. "Amamiya-kun, you like plants?"

"The plant was here when I got here. I just thought it'd be a shame to let it die."

"You even got fertilizer for it!" Haru poked at an empty packet lying nearby the plant. "I was surprised to see such a large and healthy plant up here, but it looks like you're taking good care of it!"

Amamiya scratched the back of his neck. "Thanks."

"Haru, sit down! We're going to hear how Mona and Ren teamed up!"

Makoto perked up when Futaba said that. "Oh, really?" She quickly took a seat in the booth, where Ann joined her. It was kind of second nature for Ann to sit by Makoto during meetings at this point; Ann might be the leader in fights, but Makoto as Student Council President was definitely better at making plans and keeping things orderly during meetings, and Ann relied on that. "This should be interesting."

Morgana jumped up to the table. He'd never looked so torn about having everyone's attention before. When Amamiya took a seat behind him--but not at the table, instead at the last chair at the crafting desk--the feline looked over his shoulder. "You're part of this story, you know. You don't want to help tell it?"

"You don't want me crafting more?"

Morgana co*cked his head, then laughed. "Okay. Show everyone how fast you are! We still have a Goho-M, so...mmm. Element and Force Sets. Make those!" As Amamiya set to crafting, Morgana turned around with a smirk and settled down to start talking. While most of Ann's attention was on Morgana, the fast work of Amamiya's hands did catch her eye sometimes, and Yusuke seemed completely fascinated.

From how Morgana told the story, they had actually found each other the same night Morgana had (temporarily) quit the Phantom Thieves. Morgana had gone to the train station. At the time he was still trying to formulate a plan to take down the mafia boss on his own and had only come up with a vague idea of seeing if he could hear any rumors from the shadows in Mementos, considering the influence the man held over the city at the moment. Little did he know he was being followed.

"Ren thought I was lost, even though I was walking very purposefully," Morgana said.

Amamiya didn't even look up from his crafting. "You could have been following a good smell. I didn't know you weren't an ordinary cat yet."

"So you were worried for him," Ann said. "You really are a cat lover, huh?"

"Nah. Cats are nice, but Mona's special."

Morgana's chest puffed up. "So since he was following so closely behind me, I pulled him in after me when I crossed to the Metaverse. I didn't even know I could bring others with me! Maybe with time I'll be able to hone it to a pinpoint precision!"

He looked around for support. "Maybe..." Makoto said obligingly. Everyone else waited for him to continue the story. Had they just...partnered up right then? It'd make sense, but that couldn't be the whole tale.

"Monamona. Where's the part where you end up on the floor," Ryuji prodded.

The cat sighed. "Goddammit, of course that's what you focus on."

"Damn straight it is! Come on, 'fess up!"

"...Okay. Keep in mind for this next part that someoneis very quiet sometimes," Morgana said, sliding a look over at Amamiya. "Silent as a shadow. Mum as a mouse."

"Oh, right, you said you didn't realize Amamiya was there at first," Ann recalled.

Morgana nodded. He looked a bit guilty.

"So he goes down into Mementos on his own, and leaves me at the entrance," Amamiya volunteered when Morgana kept saying nothing.

"Oh my god, Morgana."

"Mona! You didn't!"

"I didn't know he was--!" Mona was in the middle of protesting, his voice rising, when Amamiya shushed him. He immediately closed his mouth and waited a moment, angling his head to point one ear down, seeming to listen for Boss before he started again more quietly. "Sorry. I didn't know he was there. So...yeah. I went down alone."

"I didn't say anything because I was too surprised. Thought... I didn't know what to think."

Amamiya had stayed at the entrance for a few minutes, processing Morgana's Metaverse form--understandable, because that gave everyone a surprise the first time--and that he didn't seem to be in the normal Tokyo station anymore. Eventually, he went down too. Alone.

Makoto was holding her head in her hands at this point, and Ann didn't blame her. "I'm...kind of amazed you're alive, Amamiya," the blonde said. "You really walked through Mementos alone?" But he wouldn't have had anything to protect him. No Persona, and without Morgana having shown him how to use his spirit of rebellion yet...

"Strangest thing: I never got attacked." Amamiya set aside the Elements set he'd completed, then reached for more tools. "Got the devil's luck, I guess."

"You are really quiet, so you'd attract less attention than most," Morgana said. "Still, it was pretty miraculous."

Eventually, he'd managed to catch up to Morgana. Impressive when Morgana had warped ahead to a rest area and Amamiya was on foot, navigating the maze of tunnels for his first time, but it helped that the thief had worn himself out over the course of fleeing and fighting multiple enemies and was collapsed. Face down on the ground. In the middle of Mementos.

At this point, Haru had her hands steepled in front of her mouth, her eyes wide, and even Ryuji looked upset. "I thought this was going to be a funny part, Mona. Ah, man."

"I mean, it is kind of funny. It was dumb of me."

Morgana had roused when Amamiya picked him up and carried him out of concern. He'd been tempted to go back to sleep at first, being so tired. He felt surprisingly safe, given the circ*mstances.

And then his ears picked up on a sound that was very, very, very unsafe to hear in Mementos: chains rattling and coming closer. They'd been on the floor too long. Morgana had jolted wide awake, and Amamiya had gotten a crash course on driving the Monabus with the Reaper in the rearview mirror.

"...Lady Ann?"

She had also buried her face in her hands now. The alternative was yelling, and Boss was still downstairs. "You two are the biggest morons ever," she muttered once she felt marginally calmer. She could have never seen Morgana again. The desk behind her could have gone empty for the rest of the school year. And she would have never known why. She probably wouldn't even have connected the two. "Not only did you nearly die a few times, but you decided to go back by yourselves?"

"I was trying to convince him not to when I followed him back the day after." Amamiya set a few balls, the completed bombs of the Forces set, down on the desk very carefully so that they rolled as little as possible. "At some point he got the idea in his head about training me as a way to pay me back. When he said we'd have to take baby steps because of my inexperience, I thought, 'Good. He won't go that far down again.'"

Yusuke made a small sound of acknowledgment. "So you were keeping him safe not just as a partner, but as someone he had to take consideration for, since he wasn't taking any for himself."

"I wasn't going to go that far down again anyway--" Morgana's protest suddenly cut off, and Ann looked up to see Haru had leaned over the table to pick him up and place him in her lap.

"Mona-chan, even if you didn't know Amamiya-kun was there, you were far too reckless. Were you really that desperate to prove yourself?"

Morgana slipped out of her grasp to bound back up on the table. "I just--I slipped up! Even I make mistakes sometimes. It's not going to happen again."

"Do you promise?"

"...Yeah. I promise."

"Hey Mona. Question," Futaba spoke up for the first time in a while. She looked bothered. "Even on your own, you must have been kind of deep for the shadows to give you that much trouble. Where were you?"

"It was the last floor of Chemdah before the gate. There are more greedy shadows on that path, so I focused on it. We went down to the gate to Kaitul to escape the Reaper, then warped back to the entrance to leave Mementos."

"Right, makes sense." Futaba tapped her fingers together and glanced over at Amamiya. Hunched over at the desk, the guy didn't seem to notice, but Ann did. Chemdah was the third path. The first path of Mementos was super short, but to walk the next two paths...even without counting the rest areas and gated floors, that was at least ten floors. It...really was strange that he'd gotten through all those floors unscathed, wasn't it? Morgana called it a miracle; Amamiya called it the devil's luck. But could something like that be just chance?

Makoto seemed to share the same thoughts, from her skeptical look, but then she adopted a more neutral expression and cleared her throat. "Well. I think it's safe to say we're all very grateful neither of you were seriously injured, and let's agree right now that solo Metaverse explorations are never to be attempted again."

"Agreed," Ann said. "I know sometimes it's tempting to go for reasons besides targets, but even if it's just training or art inspiration, I really don't want anyone down there alone. Amamiya... thank you. I don't know how in the world you got down that far on your own, but Morgana would have been in a lot of trouble without you. So, let's talk about what we're going to do today, as a group. No targets just yet." They'd take on targets next time, assuming all went well today--Morgana thought Kaitul and the path beneath it (Akzer...something, Ann could never say that one right) might be even better for finding members of the mafia, and his logic seemed sound and simple enough: the deeper they went, the more messed up people's shadows got. Both those paths were deeper than Amamiya had been yet, and if he was going to act as negotiator, he'd be center action during fights. Morgana seemed confident in his ability, but they needed to make sure he could work together with the whole group. Since the duo had spent the most time in Aiyatsbus, they'd start at the rest area there for familiarity's sake and work their way deeper instead of just warping straight to the lowest rest area. When Amamiya didn't even have a Persona, Ann wanted to play it safe. "But maybe you'll figure yours out tonight!" she said to him. He'd been quiet during the discussion, focused on his crafting, despite most of the conversation being centered around him. It was awkward.

"Maybe." He didn't sound very enthusiastic about it. He only smirked when, with a small click, he finished a second Element set, raising the Frozen Spray for Morgana's inspection.

"Not bad, not bad!" the feline praised. "See? He's quick! My best student yet."

"Hey." Ann pouted. Not that Morgana was wrong; three sets in the time they'd been talking? Amamiya was faster than her--she was a little clumsy with her fingers, to put it mildly--and faster than Yusuke, who was more skilled but could get way too caught up in making sure things were just so. She mostly pouted to see Morgana flail and quickly tack on that allhis students were good. His fluster got an amused smile from her quiet classmate, and then Amamiya started to gather up the Element and Forces sets, and lockpicks from a stash he must have created earlier, smoke bombs, the Goho-M... He had a good stash to start their expedition with. All prepared.

Or not. When they entered Mementos, nearly everyone was in their Thief costumes right away, as usual, but Ann caught a flash of blue fire in the corner of her eye and turned to look at Amamiya. He was wearing his thief outfit as well, but judging from how Morgana was standing with his hands on his hips, it seemed it hadn't been instantaneous for him as it was everyone else.

Futaba was already looking him over, a finger tapping on her cheek. "Phantom, you focus on your spirit of rebellion when you come in here, don't you? Consciously?"

"...Yeah. It's automatic for you guys, huh?"

"Mmmhmm. So, have you been thinking about anything specific when you come here? A trigger phrase of some kind?"

"Not a phrase." Amamiya frowned, looking down. "...The ATMs in that Palace. And Morgana." The feline thief hmphed softly but nodded. "And...a mistake I don't want to repeat."

"A mistake?" Makoto prodded. Still looking at the ground, the transfer student didn't respond right away, his eyes dark and stormy.

Yusuke chose that moment to be as blunt as ever and ask the question that sprang to mind. "Do you mean the assault?"

Ryuji smacked his hand over his face. Amamiya's eyes widened behind his domino mask, and for a second Ann could have sworn she saw a strange glint in them as he stared at Yusuke. "No! I didn't--I..." He paused and looked away again. He shoved his hands into his pockets, but Ann could see the tension in his arms and had a feeling his gloved hands were balled into fists at the moment. "...I wasn't talking about my arrest," he said. "I...was asked to help once. Told, really. I didn't. And someone got hurt."

Huh. It was kind of surprising for someone who'd assaulted a stranger out of the blue to care about someone else getting hurt because they didn't get involved, but then, Amamiya was no longer distorted. He'd rescued Morgana, after all.

"So you want to save those victims," Haru said. "That's a commendable attitude, Phantom."

"...No." He shook his head. "It's easy to say. There's nothing to commend unless we succeed."

Futaba was quiet for a moment, contemplative. "So, your outfit didn't appear right away. Were you thinking of something else this time?"

Amamiya turned to her. He brought his hands out of his pockets to tug at his gloves before answering. "'Don't screw this up.'"

Morgana sighed and patted Amamiya's arm, being much too short to pat his shoulder. "You're such a rookie still. Just relax, you'll be fine. You've got us with you."

The transfer student didn't seem entirely reassured by that, but his muscles slowly relaxed as he settled down. After some brief discussion to work out who would fight alongside Amamiya first, they warped down to the path of Aiyatsbus and piled up in the Monabus for a drive.

Notes:

Canon Morgana about his meeting with Haru: I am never going to tell this story, because I know it'll make me look bad. I guess Haru can tell it, but I'm definitely not volunteering it. Besides, I've already repaid her plenty by teaching her!
AU Morgana about his meeting with Ren: ...I don't want to tell this story...but Ren needs all the good press he can get...so...you guys get to hear it ONCE and then please god let it die I already know I screwed up bad
(Seriously, do Morgana & Haru ever recount exactly how they met for the others? I can't remember them doing so and it really seems like something where everyone would go "holy sh*t Mona" lol)

Chapter 5 Notes:

If you're wondering why the word count jumped about 10k, it's because I've lost control of my life.
All I can say is buckle up. This is a Mementos trawl. It may be slightly bumpy. (Also: Kaitul will have differences from canon in its description. This is due to the Palace order swap. And also please overlook any oddness in persona/shadow descriptions lmfao I started playing Royal while writing this and got tripped up a few times by the changes.)

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Morgana and Amamiya fought on their own first, the two of them, since the shadows in Aiyatsbus weren't too difficult and Makoto wanted to see how they fought together. Ann felt weird being a spectator, but at least it gave her some time to process the fact that Amamiya's choice of weapon was a knife, which, unfortunately, brought to mind one of the many rumors floating around school about him. She'd always assumed before that the rumor about him carrying a knife had been invented by someone who wanted to gossip about the 'transfer criminal'. No weapon had been mentioned in the court records, after all. But here was Amamiya, using a knife just like Makoto used her well-practiced aikido and Haru used an ax because she loved chopping firewood.

He had to fight shadows somehow, though. If his choice of weapon had been anything else, it would have meant as much as her whip or Yusuke's katana or Ryuji's rod: not much at all. If he happened to have... some kind of previous experience using knives, then it was okay because he was a good guy now! That experience would only help them in fights.

She bit her lip. That sort of logic didn't really make her much feel better, since it begged the question of what he might have done with a knife to get other people talking.

Ryuji gave her a side-glance, then leaned in. "You thinkin' 'bout that knife rumor too?"

Makoto was close enough to overhear (which wasn't too close, but it was Ryuji talking) and shot both of them one of her sharp looks, always a little scarier when she was wearing that steel mask. But then she sighed. "Why couldn't it have been nunchucks?"

Ryuji cracked up laughing. "Nunchucks?"

"Anything besides knives," Makoto clarified.

Ryuji still kept laughing, and Ann couldn't help a giggle herself at the mental image of Amamiya wielding nunchucks in his trenchcoat. The look would make no sense in terms of style. But then Amamiya's head turned their way, and she nudged her friend with her elbow. "You're--we're distracting Phantom."

"Oh come on. He wouldn't get distracted if the guys on this floor were a real threat," Ryuji retorted, but he did quiet down as Morgana called out to Amamiya, prompting the dark-haired teen to aim his pistol and shoot down the last succubus they'd been fighting.

"Good job, guys!" Ann called, and polite clapping started from behind as Haru applauded. After a few seconds, Ryuji let out a whoop. Amamiya looked over to them, but didn't say anything. If he was making any expression, it was hidden by his domino mask. Then he turned away and crouched to help Morgana with his favorite part of a battle--scooping up the yen shadows often dropped when they fled in defeat.

"Mona has fought the enemies on this floor dozens of times," Yusuke pointed out to Haru.

"Yes, but Phantom's new! We should encourage him."

"He's acting like it's no big deal too," Ryuji groused. "So, Queen? What's your verdict?"

Makoto was still frowning. "Phantom's movements were rather...hesitant in this fight, even though he's already had some training with Mona. He fights competently enough that with Morgana's experience, they kept the upper hand, but given what he said earlier, he's likely feeling nervous. We need to be mindful. The nerves are most likely because he's still new to fighting Shadows, but it's not going to help if he overhears us discussing rumors." She paused, glancing over at Amamiya again to make sure he wasn't paying attention. "And in regards to that particular rumor, knives are a common weapon. There have been enough rumors about him that one seeming to have a grain of truth could be pure coincidence."

Ann nodded. That logic made sense, and she wanted to believe it, but.... "Queen, you're giving this a lot of thought yourself, aren't you?"

Makoto grimaced. "I really wish he used anything else. Since there is, of course, the possibility of it being more than coincidence."

"Let us take on some more fights!" Morgana exclaimed as he bounded over, Amamiya trailing behind him. "Until the first rest area. We're just getting warmed up."

"Phantom?" Ann asked.

Amamiya nodded. "We can handle it. No sweat."

Ann wondered if he wasn't posturing, but the next few battles backed up his words. The hesitation of the first battle melted away during the next as Amamiya moved more fluidly, and he and Morgana showed good coordination in the fights following: faced with one of the cavalrymen Ann loathed (not only had they sucked up to Kamoshida so hard in his castle, they were strong against her fire), Amamiya drew the shadow's attention to him by making the first attack and then did his best to dodge the retaliating sword, retreating in one direction while taunting the shadow with a smirk, until Morgana had slipped around to the shadow's back--at which point Zorro walloped the armored knight clear off its horse. Amamiya and Morgana closed in on the fallen knight for a hold up.

"That's not a lucky punch anymore," Makoto commented. "That's a rabbit punch."

"Rabbit feet are lucky?" Ann offered, trying to give her friend a light-hearted smile. She was a little distracted; Amamiya had dodged most of the swings of the knight's sword, but one had connected, tearing open his trench coat's sleeve and letting blood drip from his upper arm onto the ground of Mementos. It probably wasn't too bad when Amamiya could keep his pistol trained on the shadow, but it needed to be taken care of sooner rather than later.

"It's not called a rabbit punch after the feet..." Though the brunette seemed to think better of explaining the term, instead watching as Amamiya demanded more yen from the shadow. Once he was satisfied, he tilted his head to indicate the shadow was free to go. With it gone, Morgana bounded over to heal him, the wound sealing closed and vanishing. Good.

The duo managed to gain the upper hand quickly in most of their fights, with only the cavalrymen giving them anything close to trouble, and Amamiya was an aggressive negotiator. He was getting a lot of yen for them not being very far in. Sometimes he pushed hard enough that the shadows got angry and called more backup, but Morgana and Amamiya still finished the battles long before Ann could get worried they might need reinforcements themselves. At the first rest area, Amamiya slouched against the outside of the small train station shelter while Morgana cupped both paws around a thermos of Leblanc coffee and sipped carefully, not even drinking half before he screwed the thermos' lid back shut again. They'd been the only ones fighting, and both looked ready to go, so Ann stood up from the seat she'd taken and clapped her hands once to get everyone's attention. "Okay. So Skull and Fox, you're fighting too now. Mona, Phantom, Skull's going to take lead, so follow his orders."

"What?" Morgana asked. "Why Skull?"

Ryuji shot him a look. "Why not me?"

Ann interrupted before they could start anything, glad she had a reason all ready. "Because, Mona, we already know Phantom can work with you. You two have been coming here on your own, and we all saw you've taught him a lot! But we need to know he can work with all of us, when someone else is telling him what to do."

"...I guess that's true," Morgana acknowledged. "All right, Skull! We're counting on you."

"Dude, we're in Aiyatsbus." Ryuji shook his head, though he did look more relaxed than a moment before. "It ain't a big deal."

Yeah, really. If anyone besides Amamiya had trouble with the shadows in Aiyatsbus when they were fighting in their usual numbers, Ann would be seriously worried there was some personal issue she hadn't been told about. With a four-man team, the only possible difficulty she expected would be ego clashes over leadership, but Ryuji honestly seemed like the best choice. Letting him give the orders right now would hopefully let Amamiya show he could work with people besides Morgana, and prompt Morgana to get along with Ryuji since he wanted Amamiya to do well, andgive Ryuji a small confidence boost, since he seemed to need it.

...Hopefully. Besides, Yusuke had never expressed anything close to an interest in taking command.

Futaba started summoning Necronomicon and supervising battles from overhead, but she might have done that more because she was bored than because it was needed. The guys had it in the bag throughout the rest of Aiyatsbus. Ryuji kept the orders simple--mostly he wanted Amamiya to stick by Morgana so he could be healed quickly if he got seriously hurt. Besides that, the transfer student was told: "keep stabbing shadows, you're good at that". With Yusuke's ice, the cavalrymen turned into a joke, and both Ryuji's and Yusuke's physical attacks further trivialized all the other fights. There were one or two scraps that tempted Ann, knowing the shadows were weak to her fire, but they either were weak to other elements too or had vulnerable spots where good old bullets did a lot of damage. The guys didn't need any help; more and more shadows were catching on to their rampage and fleeing at the sight of the Monabus. Close to an hour in Mementos, and Ann hadn't used Carmen once. It felt weird...though not necessarily bad, considering she usually left the spooky subway feeling burnt out.

Amamiya's performance was solid. The smoothness of his coordination with Morgana wasn't as noticeable with two more people in the group, but Ann noticed him distracting a shadow before it could hit Yusuke. Ryuji rushed in when Amamiya let himself get cornered in a different fight, and seemed to rib him a little for it after the shadows were defeated; Amamiya's blank face said he didn't see the humor, but they at least didn't end up bickering the same way Ryuji and Morgana would have. What would happen when Makoto was added to the mix remained to be seen, but for now, Amamiya seemed to do fine fighting with a team.

As the group was crossing the passage between Aiyatsbus and Chemdah, Ryuji suddenly stopped in his tracks, turning to where Amamiya was bringing up the rear. "Hey, Phantom," he said. "You saw how we all summon our Personas, right? The masks disappearin' and all? We had to rip ours off the first time."

"I didn't," Futaba piped up. "Then again, I got my Persona a bit differently from everyone else."

"Yeah, you and Mona are the weird ones, I guess." Morgana put his hands on his hips at that, but didn't interrupt as Ryuji turned his attention back to Amamiya. "So since Mona already showed you how to get the mask--why not rip it off?"

"Oh...that does make sense," Ann said, surprised. "Have you tried it, Phantom?"

"It'd be nice if it were that easy, but there's no way it'll work. His persona doesn't feel strong enough yet," Morgana sighed.

"Hm." Amamiya raised a hand to his face as everyone watched curiously, holding the rim of his mask between thumb and forefinger. He pulled. At least, his arm moved like he was pulling--the mask didn't budge at all.

"Your energy is not nearly intense enough," Yusuke criticized. "Skull's choice of verb was quite apt. To rip and tear, throwing all caution to the wind. The moment of awakening is overwhelming...you can no longer content yourself with the role others decided for you, or the false face you have molded to present to the world, and you will accept no less than to tear yourself free, and show all your true self...!" Yusuke grabbed his own fox mask and yanked it off as if to demonstrate, making Ann shy from him as the air temperature dropped several degrees with Goemon's appearance. "Oh, my apologies, Panther," the artist apologized in a much more subdued tone, replacing his mask. The persona vanished.

Amamiya tugged harder with the one hand. His mask still refused to seperate from his skin, instead just tugging it around by millimeters with the motion, testing its elasticity.

"Way harder than that, Phantom," Ryuji said. "The first time? Feels like it's superglued to your skin or something. Everybody's face gets real bloody the first time. Right, Panther?"

The blonde nodded. While no one had seen her awakening, something she considered a blessing given the godawful cognitions that had provoked it, she'd seen everyone else's. With the exception of Futaba, Ryuji's description was spot-on. "It's pretty painful, so maybe you shouldn't if Oracle and Mona can't feel anything. Don't hurt yourself for no reason."

"But if he gets worked up trying to pull it off, maybe it'll get him in the right mindset!" Ryuji argued, winding up an arm. "The mind follows the body, y'know?"

"You know, I hear that saying reversed just as often," Makoto pointed out.

"Both ways have some truth to them," Futaba said. "Brain's just as physical as the body, after all, even if people don't like to think of their thoughts and dreams all being stored in a lump inside a jar."

A lump? "Oracle, ew." Ann made a face.

"Exactly!"

Amamiya gave the mask a few more tugs, with both hands now, and it looked like he was pulling pretty hard. But after seeing all the others awaken, Ann could just tell it wasn't going to happen. "Guess I'm not feeling it yet," he finally said, letting go. "You have to get mad, don't you? Not just 'worked up'?"

"Yeah, 'mad' is a better word for it," Ann said.

Makoto nodded. "I was absolutely livid when I awakened."

"There's a reason we call her 'Queen',' Ryuji chipped in. "She put her foot down and put a crater in the floor with it."

"Noir's was quite impressive as well," Makoto said with a smile at her fellow third-year. "She opened up with a barrage of gunfire."

Haru's cheeks pinked beneath her black mask. "I couldn't disappoint after you had all supported me so much," she said. "And...though I love my father, I was truly angry with his plans for me."

"I bloodied my fingers as well as my face," Yusuke said. "My fury with my former sensei was such that I clawed the floor."

"I'm sure my awakening was spectacular as well!" Morgana piped up.

"Couldn't have been as good as mine," Ryuji ribbed him. "I got to knock that jackass off his high horse for a bit."

Ann noticed Amamiya glancing her direction and looked away. If he was expecting her to say something about her own awakening, he was going to have to be disappointed. She really didn't like talking about it. He hummed softly. "So you all want me to flip out."

It was not quite a question, but his tone was just skeptical enough for it to register that in trying to figure out his persona, they kind of were asking the transfer student, infamous for having an explosive temper, to absolutely lose it. ...They hadn't seen even the tip of that short fuse yet, though.

Futaba answered without hesitation, bunching up her fists in front of her chest as she nodded encouragingly. "Yeah! Get mad!"

"I don't know if I would use the phrase 'flip out'," Makoto said more cautiously. "That makes it sound... We all had reasons for our anger."

"...Let's see if I can find a good enough reason, then," Amamiya said with a brief smile. "Guess I'll need a good enough target, too." He walked on to the first platform of Chemdah.

"Hm..." Morgana co*cked his head at Amamiya's back, then looked up at Ryuji. "Hey, hey. Skull. How about we start doing more negotiations again instead of just pummeling the shadows? It'll be good for getting items and money, and Phantom isn't as familiar with these ones. I'm curious if we can get more names."

"Names?" Ryuji looked confused at that. "Well, I do wanna see what all your fussin' over him's about. Don't get me wrong, he's decent in a fight. But you've been talking him up an awful lot."

"Nyehehe... then this'll be perfect."

It didn't take too long for everyone to see what Morgana was talking about. Like in Madarame's Palace, there were petite winged girls with pink and yellow wings--not the same as the fairies that were in Aiyatsbus, but just as easy to shoot down with bullets. This time when the guys surrounded the shadow in a hold-up, Amamiya didn't make demands, at least not at first.

Instead, they just...chatted. The shadow still looked frustrated and angry, but Ann could hear curiosity in the questions she asked Amamiya, small talk questions that were kind of absurd given the brandished weapons. She asked where he would take a date; he said he'd treat her to dinner and then go on a walk in the park. She said that she heard human men tended to pester girls they liked, and asked if that was why he was 'bothering' her; Amamiya smirked and told her "It could be".

"You're such a tease," the shadow scolded, but her tone was light-hearted, her expression almost a mirror of his. "Though I guess I'm not so different...Oh!" She seemed to catch a second wind and fluttered back up using her wings. Ryuji and Yusuke both tensed, but Amamiya and Morgana seemed to have expected it, their weapons staying steady. "Now I remember! I'm not from here, I'm a shadow from the Sea of Souls! My name is Hua Po. From today on, I..." The shadow's bird-like, chirping voice trailed off as she stared at Amamiya. "I'm you," she tried again, sounding confused, "But you're not me? I thought we had a connection."

"We do," Amamiya said. "Can I have something to remember you by?"

Those seemed to be the magic words; 'Hua Po' started to rummage through her small cheongsam, producing two plant balms. "Be sure to remember me!" she told him firmly. "If you don't, I'll forget all about you!"

Amamiya nodded, and the winged shadow vanished into the darkness. There was silence for a few seconds, during which the transfer student took a pocketbook out of his trenchcoat and opened it at the back, before Ryuji blurted out: "Dude. You're not gonna flirt with the mafia guys' shadows, are you?"

"You think I'm their type?" Amamiya looked up at Ryuji and batted his eyelashes. "Do they like nubile juvenile delinquents?" That got an instant recoil from the bleached blond, and a frown from Yusuke. Even Morgana scoffed at his new pal's quip, seeming to find it in poor taste. Ann couldn't say she cared much for it either. Amamiya snorted, returning his attention to his book. "If the shadow flirts, I flirt. It's just a matter of giving them what they want. So no, I doubt I'm going to be flirting with any mafia members."

...He wasn't saying for sure that he wasn't going to flirt with them.

"She was trying to do something there," Futaba mused from within Necronomicon. "Hua Po. I haven't seen readings like that before, and what she said was an awful lot like... 'I am thou, thou art I'."

"Oh, yes!" Haru piped up, eager to support Futaba--or maybe just to get away from the previous subject. "Milady told me that when I awakened."

"As Goemon said to me," Yusuke mused. "Then...was she trying to become his Persona?" He looked back to Amamiya again and perked at the movements of the pencil the transfer student had produced. "Are you drawing?" he asked, already walking over to see for himself.

The motion of Amamiya's pencil slowed as the artist stopped behind him, hovering right over his shoulder. "Do you mind?" Amamiya asked.

It seemed a little hypocritical, considering how often he spied on people at school. Though, even if he didn't respect others' privacy, he usually left a buffer of personal space that Yusuke was not currently giving him.

"Not at all," Yusuke replied. "I can see at a glance that your style is that of an amateur's, but you're quite adept at capturing the details of various shadows, especially considering the adverse conditions we encounter them in. If only Mementos had better lighting..."

For a minute, Ann worried about how far Yusuke was pushing his luck, especially since he'd upset Amamiya earlier by inquiring about the assault. The transfer student was staring at him. Then Amamiya seemed to realize the truth everyone else already knew: Yusuke was immune to social cues. His domino mask pointed back down as he went back to drawing. "Better lighting would help," he agreed mildly.

"You've been drawing shadows, Phantom?" Haru asked. "May I see? You must be pretty good if Fox says so."

"Is that what he said?" But Amamiya nodded. "If you want. Come over here, though, I'm not passing it around. Boss wouldn't let it die if I lost my probation diary."

"A probation diary...should you be drawing shadows in that? What if Boss checks it?" Makoto asked.

"He does. He'll just tell me to stop drawing weird sh*t in it again. It's not like he'd recognize any of these."

"Can I see too?" Ann asked curiously, walking over, but then she stopped. Futaba had already swung Necronomicon to float over the two boys, her persona lowering the navigator down in a cradle of mechanical tentacles until she hovered over the shoulder Yusuke hadn't taken over, and both those shoulders were hunched now. Was Amamiya feeling crowded now?

"Oh! Those look nice, Phantom."

"Thanks." He moved toward Haru to let her see better, conveniently also moving away from the dangling redhead and looming artist.

Yusuke did not seem to mind too much, his curiosity sated, but Futaba pouted. "Hey, wait...!" Her persona set her down on the ground. "It looks like you have names for all the shadows in Aiyatsbus."

"He does! He's had conversations with them like what you saw with that Hua Po fairy," Morgana told her. "Well...minus the flirting, for most of them. But a lot of them say they remember being from somewhere else besides Mementos, this 'Sea of Souls', which makes sense. I know Mementos wasn't always around. And they give him their name. It's like... like they just remembered it, and they're afraid they're going to forget again." The excitement faded from Morgana's bright blue eyes at that last part.

"Because of the distortions in Mementos?" Ann asked. "It's messing with their memory like it did with yours, isn't it?"

"Yeah. That's what it seems like."

"It makes me feel a little bad for them...I know it's been hard on you."

"Sometimes... but they still deserve a trouncing when they pick a fight with the Phantom Thieves," Morgana said loftily, and Ann wouldn't argue that, especially remembering the last time she'd gotten hit with a Bufula. "Anyway, that's not the point!" the feline thief exclaimed, the energy in his voice picking up again. "The point is that Phantom's only been down here a few times, and he's been able to appeal to all those shadows! He's really adaptable. That same skill will come in handy when trying to get information out of human shadows."

"But have you two actually tried negotiating with a human shadow yet?" Makoto asked.

Morgana nodded. "We tried with the requests. Most didn't want to talk, but he got one to give up fighting and accept the change of heart! We also found one guy who's part of the mafia, so we tried talking to him, but..."

"...'But'? Did something happen, Mona-chan?" Haru prompted.

Amamiya was the one to answer, snapping his pocketbook shut and slipping it back into his trench coat. "That was the other time I dropped my thief outfit. Nothing bad happened, but Mona insisted on cutting talks short as a precaution." He looked down at Mona. "I still think we should try again with him. It was going well before that. He'd probably give us the full name."

Morgana slanted a look at Amamiya, his blue eyes narrowed slightly. A few seconds passed, as if they were having a silent exchange, before Morgana shook his head. "No. Not if we can help it. Part of being a Thief is knowing when to back off and take another approach. We don't know how your unmasking might have influenced him, so it's safer to start over with a fresh target."

"We should first figure out why Phantom is losing his thief outfit at times," Makoto said. "I suppose twice isn't too often, but it's still concerning. Can you think of any common factors between the incidents?"

The transfer student rubbed the back of his neck, looking off to the distance. He didn't answer...long enough that Ann didn't think he was going to. So, if he couldn't think of anything, maybe they should try thinking of theories. They did have more experience, after all. And Ann felt confident she finally had the hang of most things about the Metaverse. A lot of it boiled down to how a person thought and felt, so... "The time it happened and you were with us," she said slowly, "I remember you looked sad. You thought Mona was going to leave, so could you have been upset enough for it to mess with your rebellious spirit?" Amamiya looked taken aback, so Ann rushed to explain better: "You said it yourself. People who are alone are vulnerable. You were talking about Mona, but that's been true for you too, hasn't it?"

Amamiya rolled his eyes. "Panther, you were the one to figure me out," he said. "I was acting. Also called bullsh*tting. Don't think too hard about a lie spun on the spot."

Okay, he definitely seemed to be offended, and now Ann felt peeved too. Why did he have to be so prickly? Even if he had been improvising for his act, she knew he'd been speaking the truth in that matter. People were more vulnerable on their own. All of the Phantom Thieves had been alone, and they'd saved each other by reaching out.

Luckily Yusuke spoke up, his voice cool and dispassionate while she still felt heated. "You don't deny that you were alone, though."

Amamiya shrugged. "I have some acquaintances. But you all know my social life at school was dead on arrival. So, yeah. There's that." He swept a hand out to point at Ryuji. "Skull's isn't much better--"

"Hey!"

"--and he doesn't seem to have any problems with his thief outfit."

"Heeey, guys?" Futaba spoke up. "I want to theorize too, but we havebeen standing around here a while. If you don't want to say 'hi' to the Reaper--"

Morgana popped into his bus form the second the word 'Reaper' came out of the girl's mouth. Ryuji had been fuming, but the sudden transformation got a snort out of him. "Wow, Mona. Scared much?"

"Shut up! I got shot at last time! Just get in!"

...Hearing that did not make Ann feel much better about how the 'daring duo' of Mona and Phantom had been tackling Mementos on their own. Thank God that was over. She slid into the front row with Makoto and Haru, while Futaba and Yusuke went to the middle. Amamiya and Ryuji took the third row Morgana had created for the first time tonight, calling it 'the proof of my character growth!' Ann wasn't sure it worked like that, but then...no one knew for sure how Morgana did what he did. And it was definitely better than the alternative of having only two rows, one of which would have had to fit four people.

Once they were driving, Futaba deemed it safe to talk again. "So...hm. How to figure out what's causing the problem...Don't suppose you have any deep-seated traumas you want to talk about, Phantom?"

Haru winced besides Ann, and the blond silently shook her head. It was a valid question, she guessed? But Futaba probably didn't have "counselor" as a career in her future.

"...No."

"Fair enough. There's no way we have a bond at a sufficient rank yet." Futaba bounced in her seat. "Oh! We should do friendship boot camp with Phantom! Like you guys made me do!"

"This isn't summer break, Oracle. We don't have much time for social outings," Makoto said. "The blackmail incidents with students are getting worse by the week."

Haru frowned. "That's true, but...that week was fun. And I think it's important--ah, not to get Phantom to discuss traumas or anything like that! You'll do that if you want to, if you...have them, because we really shouldn't presume--um. I just think it'd be helpful for getting you comfortable with all of us. Maybe we could do something after this matter is resolved?"

"I'll be busy working."

"Of course! We'll accommodate your schedule."

"...Very busy." And he was very obviously brushing Haru off.

"Ah." The brunette's shoulders drooped. Morgana's engine took on a small grumble as they continued to navigate through the darkness.

"Sorry. I just don't see a need to pretend...I'm only going to be here six more months, anyway."

"Why would that make it pretend?" Morgana broke in. "We'refriends. Right?"

Amamiya only gave a quiet "Mm," so soft that it would have been drowned out if anyone else had started their own conversation. He didn't offer an explanation for why it was different. Had...he been expecting Morgana to just forget about him after getting back with the group? He'd made it clear that any bonds he had in his hometown weren't strong enough to keep him there past high school.

Maybe he'd never really had friends before. He did give off a strong vibe of being a loner.

Ryuji sighed next to him. "It ain't like we all gotta be friends to work together, anyway. Buuut, gotta say, you're missing out. Noir's a pretty sweet girl, and Oracle's cool. And they're both willing to give you a chance."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Futaba thumped her head against the back of Ann's seat. "Panther, say something! You guys made medo friendship boot camp."

Ann sighed. "We can't make him do something he doesn't want to..." She could sympathize with Futaba's frustration; of course the younger girl would want to know more about someone whose living situation was entangled by strange circ*mstances with her family. And Ann hoped Haru didn't feel too hurt about the brush-off. She knew Haru believed sincerely in the potential for rehabilitation. She kind of had to, given what her father had done. But even if Futaba had protested and worn ridiculous masks at times, she had wanted to get out of her room. Amamiya wanted to work with them and was okay with hosting meetings, but was digging his feet in over the idea of making friends. Which honestly wasn't that different from how Morgana had been early on, always insisting them being a team was part of a 'deal'. It might be annoying, occasionally off-putting, and it was something that would hopefully change if he was sticking around, but Ann didn't want to turn it into a dealbreaker when he was otherwise helping them. "And Queen does have a point. We don't have time now, not when so many people are in trouble. I know you want to get to know him, but give him time to settle in too, okay?" Hopefully, the prickliness wouldn't be an issue after some adjustment.

"Hmph. Okay."

The awkwardness after that conversation was thankfully broken when they sighted the stairs to the next floor down. As they kept progressing through Chemdah, Amamiya started to use the tools he'd crafted to hit the enemies' weakness when the others couldn't, calling out a short warning before whipping a molotov co*cktail at a laughing snowman, or letting fly the cold glare of nuclear energy against a towering demon. He also continued to negotiate--the snowman gave his name as Jack Frost, and the demon called itself Shiki-Ouji. He really did have a knack for talking to the shadows. Whether they were quick to anger, down in the dumps, shy outside of the fight or...strangely flirtatious... he usually knew what to say to them. He knew how to say it too, his voice cold or soft or quiet for the right delivery, his body language shifting with the shadow's mood. Even Mika would have been impressed. He wasn't perfect--occasionally Mona stepped in to cajole a shadow himself, and there was one that got pissed off enough to start fighting again--but most were quick to take a liking to him. So much so that they seemed to be trying to become his Persona, too, though all the attempts ended in frustration and items given for Phantom to remember them by, the way Hua Po's had.

"Are they trying to join him because he doesn't have one yet...?" Makoto mused as she steered Morgana around a wide turn. "Maybe it's confusing them?"

"I don't think it's that," Morgana said. "He has a persona--or, well, at least a shadow. It's only that he can't use it yet. Most of you guys had an encounter or two with shadows before your awakenings, too, and they didn't show any interest. Something about Phantom is special."

Ryuji sighed. "Yeah, yeah. Think your crush on him is talkin' again."

"What?!" The bus jolted in Morgana's indignation. "What nonsense! I only have eyes for Lady Ann!"

"Mona!" Ann called out. "Codenames."

"A-ah--Sorry, Panther..."

"Um, Phantom," Futaba said. Ann twisted around in the front, watching as Futaba tucked her legs up on her own seat, against her chest. "What's your take on it?"

Amamiya's bemused expression shifted into nonchalance as he shrugged. "I just tell them what they want to hear. Shadows aren't so different from people. They've already decided what they know and what they want, so if you're going to appeal to them, you get a sense of what those things are and play the part."

"Is it normal for you?" Ann asked. "Doing that with people, too?"

"Of course," he said. "You do it too, right? You have a mask like me." There was a glint in his dark eyes as he tapped his domino mask.

Ann mirrored him without thinking as she touched her own feline mask. "I guess that's true," she agreed. "But there are still people I take my mask off around to be myself." Even Morgana thought he was acting with him...there was really no need to.

"You saw earlier how trying to take my mask off went for me."

"Ah--um, yeah?" Ann laughed. "I think we just jumped from figurative to literal..."

Then again, they were in the Metaverse. A lot of the physical stuff wassymbolism made literal.

"Panther." Yusuke's face was quite earnest as he called for her attention, distracting her from that thought. "We're nearing the end of this path. If it's not too much trouble, could I switch out? I believe Queen was going to be next."

"Are you getting tired?" Ann asked, concerned. Near the end of Chemdah, some of the shadows were starting to land harder hits, but Makoto and she had been helping when they needed healing between battles. This should still be pretty easy for them. "You did eat today, right?"

"No--I mean yes, I did eat. That's not it." Yusuke looked faintly embarrassed at the question, but still eager. "Seeing Phantom draw, I feel the urge to draw as well, and it would be easier to focus on that task in the reserves."

...In hindsight, Ann really couldn't be surprised that seeing someone else do something artistic made Yusuke shift into creative mode. She turned to Makoto. "You ready, Queen?"

The brunette was focused on driving, but she had an indulgent smile. "Of course," she said. "But Fox, even on the reserves, you still need to be vigilant. Don't trip on the tracks again."

Futaba guffawed at "flat-footed Inari" while Yusuke scoffed at her rudeness. Ann shook her head at their already routine bickering and focused on Amamiya.

Who was eyeing the back of the driver's seat until he realized someone was paying attention to him. He briefly glanced to Ann, then directed his gaze out of the side rear window.

Right. Amamiya and Makoto... didn't have any problem with each other, not off the bat. They'd been perfectly civil at the start of the dive into Mementos, and they continued to be civil, though they didn't talk too much.

Amamiya seemed to be saving all his words for the shadows, most comfortable lingering near Morgana or, when there was more time between battles, Yusuke. Morgana would break down their last fight, praising what Phantom had done right and telling him what he needed to work on, then warning him about what to expect from other enemies in Kaitul. Yusuke, mostly absorbed in his sketches, would go into one of his stream-of-thought lectures on either art in general or the aesthetics of Mementos. Though the two were otherwise very different, apparently both could be perfectly happy with a conversation partner who let them talk most of the time and only spoke at key moments.

"Though, I have been striving to broaden my horizons," Yusuke was saying energetically. He'd switched seats with Ryuji over time and was now sharing the rear with Amamiya. "Understanding others' viewpoints may help me find new inspiration, and yours may be very different. What did you make of Mementos? Your first impression, before Mona may have colored it with his explanations."

"...Thought I was dreaming."

Speaking of key moments, that sounded interesting. Yusuke looked thoughtful at Amamiya's response, frowning slightly as he turned his head to look out the window and consider Kaitul's dark orange-red ambience. "The Metaverse is rather surreal in its appearance. However...to think you were dreaming all that time? We're still not as far down as you walked," Yusuke pointed out.

"A long dream." Amamiya gave a dry laugh. "Mona yelling at me woke me up. But because of that, before...I even thought it was a strange dream, but at the same time, it wasn't a startling one. I guess my dreams lately haven't felt all that different from this."

"Really? Are dreams like that common for most people? Perhaps that would explain why my attempt at portraying Mementos did not draw interest..."

Ann was pretty sure the reason Yusuke's painting had flopped was because it had been completely depressing, but she didn't want to say that. That would lead to Yusukebecoming depressed again. "I don't think dreams like that are common for everyone," she said. "My dream last night was about free double-stuffed crepes at the crepe shop. Maybe you're not sleeping well, Phantom?"

"He doesn't sleep enough," Morgana complained. "He doesn't eat well either! You can afford better food, Phantom!"

Ah. The days away had been long enough for Ann to start forgetting how picky Morgana could be about her taking care of herself--apparently the nannying tendencies had transferred over to Amamiya. She shot the other teenager a sympathetic look. Amamiya looked embarrassed now, fiddling with his hair as Morgana got started on how "humans need to eat more than cup ramen and curry". He was saved by Yusuke mentioning mushrooms as a nutritious option, since he'd found some at the local park which were edible, at which point Morgana's engine sputtered in outrage, Ann had to jump in to make sure everyone understood "winners don't eat wild mushrooms!", and Haru told Yusuke they would be going grocery shopping together after they were done in Mementos for the day.

More than once, Ann had wished that Morgana would babysit Yusuke in the dorms and make sure he ate right. But having known both of them this long, she was sure that even if Morgana could sneak around student-filled dorms, it would still end in some kind of disaster, like the two of them fighting tooth and claw over Yusuke's wallet inside a thrift shop. Nope. Besides, it sounded like Amamiya genuinely did have some habits he could improve on...but she couldn't talk. Her vice was indulging in those sinfully sweet double-stuffed crepes.

They were midway through Kaitul when Morgana started running out of gas--not for his car form, but for Zorro's magic. The mental exhaustion was obvious with him getting crankier, and when he and Ryuji had both been doing pretty well today, Ann didn't want to see it end in a fight. So at the rest area, she gave Mona's big bobble-head a gentle rap with her knuckles, making him look up at her. "Mona! You seem tired. I'm swapping you out."

"Mmph..." Something was obviously bugging Morgana, his tail swishing irritably. But he was smart about pacing himself, at least when he wasn't hung up over proving his worth, and he nodded. "You're taking my place? Okay, Panther. Knock 'em dead."

She smiled for him. "Will do! Skull, Phantom, how are you both doing? Either of you need a break?"

"I'm good," Amamiya said.

Ryuji stretched, cracking a joint in his neck. "Got a few more fights in me. You taking over for crowd control?"

Ann nodded, then explained what that meant for Amamiya's sake. He looked confused, and it'd be important for them fighting together. "Carmen can put a shadow to sleep, or try to confuse all of them. Mona and Skull and I had to worry a lot about controlling how many shadows we fought at any one time when we were getting through Kamoshida's castle, so by now it's an old standby for us to put the toughest shadow to sleep and chip away at the others. If I tell you I'm targeting a shadow for some Zs, leave it alone, focus on the others." She probably wouldn't need to do it too often, but he was still inexperienced. Better to play it safe.

"Got it."

"You know," Haru said, "Having been through two Palaces now, I have to say, I really admire you three for making it through one by yourselves!"

Makoto nodded. "True. It's very impressive."

"Thanks! It was a total disaster," Ann said. Morgana snorted and Ryuji laughed while both third-years looked taken aback. "No, seriously, it was. You heard the rumors back then that Skull and I were getting expelled, right? Around the midway point, we were so desperate for at least one more person to join us, we tried hitting up every girl and guy on the volleyball team to find anyone who might be willing to fight against Kamoshida in the metaverse. We were vague about that, of course, but we were asking a lot of leading questions about the abuse, and Kamoshida had figured out I wasn't going to be his little 'princess'. Plus, we'd kiiinda raised the security a lot the last time we'd been in the Palace. So he was already in a pissy mood, and when us asking questions got back to him, he blew up. Our recruiting attempt did nothing but blow up in our faces."

"None of them wanted to help you, huh," Amamiya murmured. His arms were folded as he looked away, slumped forward in his seat.

Ann shook her head. "No, it's not like that. They were scared. As far as they knew, we only would have gotten them in major trouble with Kamoshida. After all, look what almost happened to us. And...what had already happened. But threatening us was his mistake. After that, we had even less reason to quit. And in the end, we did beat him." They'd only beaten him a day before the board meeting and had nearly died a few times in the process, but her friends probably wouldn't enjoy hearing that part.

"We beat that bastard," Ryuji echoed before standing up. "C'mon! Let's get moving again."

Their newest member had no issue with the old 'crowd control' strategy. But he got himself hurt by one of those elephant men that repelled physical attacks, because he apparently forgot that bit when he realized he was out of happy bombs. He tried slashing at it, leading to him getting bowled over and Ann having to heal a nasty gash streaking across his face after the battle. Morgana might have been out of energy for spells, but he wasn't too tired to remind Amamiya: "You have to be careful, especially when you don't know the shadows as well. Pay attention. No one else was attacking, not even Skull. How are you feeling?"

"Stupid," Amamiya mumbled, and Ann snorted a laugh. Amamiya didn't seem to mind that, cracking a crooked smile. It was kind of cute, except for all the blood.

Then Makoto added, "You're too aggressive in your fighting," and Ann had a front row seat to Amamiya's small smile dropping off the face of the earth. The way his arms, currently propping him up, tensed. His lips twitched as if barely holding back a retort before firming in a line.

"'Aggressive'." he finally said in a measured voice. "As opposed to? Fighting passively?"

"Defensively," Makoto answered. "You don't have a Persona yet. There's no need for you to try to attack every shadow when there are other roles you can take in a fight. You've needed more healing than Skull, and he's been using attacks that require physical energy."

"Hey, it's fine," Ryuji said. "I've made the same mistake of bashin' something that turned it back at me. Pretty sure most of us have done it."

"I don't mean to be harsh, but the injuries have been a pattern, and the shadows only get tougher the deeper we go. Better to say something now than have him get badly hurt or even taken hostage."

Ann winced at that. Hostage situations could get very, very ugly, the shadows ruthless with whoever they took as a bargaining chip. She didn't want Amamiya to find himself in that position.

"Part of it is his thief outfit isn't protecting him as well as everyone else's does," Futaba added from Necronomicon. "I don't think it's bad enough to keep us from going down to Akzeriyyuth, but--uh...Queen has a point, that it would be better if Phantom was a little more defensive..." She trailed off timidly.

Amamiya was looking away from everyone, his brows furrowed, his eyes catching some of the orange light in Kaitul. "They're just saying the same thing as Mona, right?" Ann asked. "There's no need to get mad. Just be a little more cautious, okay?"

"Right."

...Is what he said, but the chilliness in the bus ride following was not from Morgana's air-conditioning. Ann wondered if Amamiya would be an ice-user like Yusuke whenever he awoke to his persona, because the two guys could definitely compete for standoffishness when they weren't happy.

He'd been fine with Morgana criticizing him, though... Was it because it'd been Makoto, even though he said he'd be fine working with her? Or was it how she did it...he'd seemed to take issue with being described as 'aggressive', the same way pointing out Ryuji's short temper could be the quickest way to set off the blond sometimes. (Though, most of the time Ryuji was perfectly willing to acknowledge it as a fault, even poking fun at himself for it.) She couldn't remember Morgana pointing out any mistakes as a matter of temper: just inexperience or, at worst, inattention.

"Okay, Phantom," Makoto said at last. "I'd like to apologize for tailing you during my investigation. I don't think I have yet, and that's rather remiss of me."

She'd apparently decided Amamiya's problem was with her. There was a brief silence, but when Ann was about to turn in her seat to look at him, Amamiya said, "Apology accepted."

"I'd also like to explain myself, because my impression is that you think I suspected you solely based on your record, and am still judging you by that. That's not the case. It was a pain in the neck trying to tail three people, and Panther and Skull were much stronger leads. If you had not had any connection to them or Kamoshida, I would have dismissed you out of hand and focused on the two of them. ...Not that it was right to tail them, either."

"Yeah, and you already apologized to us for that," Ryuji called from the backseat. "I don't get what you're talking about, though. He hadn't been here long enough to really know either of us or Kamoshida. Or did someone blab about him stickin' up for Mona?"

"Apparently Kamoshida was the one to leak his criminal record. He used a member of the volleyball team. That's what I was told, by a source I think is reputable enough...and really, he makes the most sense as the culprit. He's the only faculty member who would have benefitted from the scandal. There was also talk about two different confrontations in the hallway between Phantom and Kamoshida." She steered around a corner, stepping on the gas to zoom past a distracted shadow. She waited until it was safely in the distance to start talking again. "And I want to be clear that knowing everything I do now, I'm certain Kamoshida was the sole aggressor, but at the time it seemed possible Phantom had figured out his culpability, which would establish a motive. And then, of course, yes, there was Phantom stepping in for Panther in both the classroom and the tv station."

"You thought he was defending me at the taping?" Ann leaned forward. "I thought he just really wanted to say something on tv."

Makoto shot her a quick glance before looking ahead again. "Did you watch that show when it aired?"

"Noooo way." Ann laughed sheepishly. "I was still mortified. I froze up so bad."

"Skull?"

"I don't wanna listen to that stuck-up detective anymore than I have to. What are you getting at?"

"What am I getting at? Phantom, were you only motivated by a chance for fifteen seconds of fame? Because you weren't in center, but you were in frame before standing up, and you looked quite worried for Panther. Then you stand and give an answer controversial enough to conveniently draw all attention away from her." Makoto sighed. "Just...I'm sure there's an innocent explanation for that too, and I know you didn't deserve the suspicion, but I want you to understand that I did have some reasoning for it. Your record only contributed in that Kamoshida had used it against you. And I'm.... sorry he did. It's a major failing on the school's part. You should have been able to have a normal student life as part of your rehabilitation. Maybe then we'd all be more comfortable with each other."

"A lot of things would have been better without him," Amamiya acknowledged. "It would have been nice to be just another student."

There was a moment of silence in the bus as everyone seemed to consider that. Ann was trying to envision it. If Amamiya had come in just like a regular transfer... she doubted he would have been Mr. Popular, but transfer students always drew some curiosity. He could have used that, maybe made a friend or two. Be a little happier than he seemed to be. Ugh. Of course Kamoshida would feel the need to mess with a student who hadn't even stepped foot on campus yet--

"Dude," Ryuji said. "So Kamoshida screwed you over too. sh*t, Phantom's the one we shoulda tried recruiting. Panther, why didn't you ask him?"

"I didn't know!" Ann said indignantly, turning around in her seat to shout at the other blond. "What would I have even said to him back then? 'Hey, I know you're new in town and everyone's talking trash about you, but the gym teacher's a total jerk, wanna go to another world and help me set him on fire?'"

"'Where do I sign up?'" Amamiya said without missing a beat. She gave him a dry look.

"Uh huh. I think you would have needed a tiny bit more convincing. ...I hope you would have needed more convincing." But it would have been nice to have had one more person when they were fighting Kamoshida. Getting that stupid crown away would have gone so much more smoothly, not even touching the entire trek up the tower before that. She leaned against the top of her seat with her arms draped over it, considering him. "Hey. So...why did you speak up at the tv station? Were you really worried about me?"

He slouched back in his seat, fiddling with his hair. "...Yeah. You looked uncomfortable."

Ah. The same reason Akechi had used as an excuse to apologize to her after the recording. She really needed to work on that, then. "Well, thanks! It really saved me from a jam. I'm just kind of surprised. As far as you knew, it wasn't that big a deal. And after you'd already helped me with Mona, too."

"Your friend was really kind to me." She was confused who he meant, since all her friends in Tokyo were right in the bus with them and he could have just used their codename, but it became clear when he continued: "We only talked once before. Before her accident, but she asked me if I was okay, even though it was obvious she was going through a lot of trouble herself."

...Worrying about others before she worried about herself? Sounded like Shiho. Ann remembered her saying something about Amamiya back then, too. But she didn't realize they'd talked. Or that Shiho had apparently made an impression on him, even during the worst week of her life.

"I didn't repay her kindness, so...I had to at least help you."

"You weren't exactly given a chance to," Ann said, and was embarrassed to hear her voice wobble. She ducked her head, too conscious of everyone's attention on her. "S-sorry. Skull can tell you, I can turn on the waterworks real quick when it's about Shiho."

Ryuji nodded. "That or the flamethrowers."

"Hehe. Then I'm making someone else cry," Ann murmured. She lifted her head and smiled at Amamiya. He looked uncomfortable, but it was alright. "Thanks. Really. She'll be happy to hear you remember her for something nice like that." Way better than the stigma most people would have associated her with.

"Is she doing okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah! She moved after finishing her physical therapy, but we still try to call each other every day." Given how long they'd been in Mementos already, she might miss the call tonight, but she'd definitely catch up with her friend tomorrow. "She said it was awkward transferring in the middle of the school year, but one girl's been really nice and helped her catch up."

He looked so relieved to hear that, like a huge weight had dropped from his shoulders, and Ann propped her chin in one hand as she mulled over her thoughts. It said a lot about Shiho that she'd made such an impression on him, yeah...but it also said a lot about him, that he'd remember one conversation. That he'd helped Ann because he thought she was uncomfortable. That he'd taken the time to help Morgana patch things up with the group, and was still helping them.

And she knew, she knew people weren't all bad or all good and some were two-faced, but she still could not, for the life of her, square all those acts with the guy who might have carried around a knife and had assaulted a man for no apparent reason less than a year ago. Whether he was aggressive or not--it just seemed too far out of character still, the same it would have sounded if someone had accused Ryuji of those things. She wasn't sure if the question would upset him, but... "Did you have a real change of heart or something?"

"What?"

"It's just--you are prickly as a cactus sometimes, and you like to eavesdrop on others' conversations," and was a little too comfortable with lying for Ann's liking, "but otherwise...you're a really nice guy. And I know people do change on their own, but you seemed to have completely changed before you even came to the city."

"Don't believe all the rumors you've heard. Unless they made me sound cool."

She snorted. "Now I think I'll believe that you're a total dork. But seriously...what happened?"

Amamiya seemed to be considering her as well, and then everyone else in the car, his expression cautious. Futaba was still playing with her console, but was glancing back to his row every so often; Yusuke had closed his sketchbook shut. Ryuji gave him a prodding "c'mon" nudge, while Haru also seemed interested but trying not to be too pushy, the broad brim of her hat brushing against Ann's shoulder as she peeped over the seat. Makoto was still focused on her task of driving, and even she was the recipient of a wary look. "I'm serious, too," Amamiya said. "It's not like what you're thinking." He shifted in his seat, hunching forward. "The night I was arrested...what happened was..."

He trailed off without saying more. He seemed nervous, one hand at his forehead, but she didn't know what to say to reassure him without knowing what he was nervous about. Ryuji seemed at a loss, too, shooting her a look and bouncing his leg where he sat next to Amamiya. "Y'know," Ryuji blurted out. "We kinda know some of the details already."

"...What do you mean?"

"I mean--sh*t, it's just--the first time you got requested, the Phansite admin looked into you. And the record of your trial 'n stuff."

Amamiya rubbed his forehead and cupped his hand over his eyes. "You read the court record."

That wasn't quite right, but it was probably close enough when Mishima had passed the most important details along in text. ...It was interesting Mishima had been able to find the court record, and Kamoshida had used a volleyball team member to leak the transfer student's record. Really didn't sound like coincidence. But it wasn't important right now. "Yeah," Ann said. "We know the witness's account of what happened." Whatever Amamiya had to say, she doubted it'd be any worse than that. He might as well say it.

Amamiya nodded. "Okay. Okay."

He followed that up by staring out the rear window, his lips pressed firmly shut, so something was very obviously not okay. "Hey, guys," Morgana whispered around them. "Shadow ahead."

"Try to avoid it," Ann said to both Morgana and Makoto. The battle wouldn't be too bad, but she wanted to figure out what the issue was now. "Phantom, what were you going to say?"

There was a huge, uneven bump over the tracks, Ann hissing as she was jostled uncomfortably. "Panther, sit down," Queen ordered. They were picking up speed. Ann caught a glimpse of the huge shadow in the rear. Makoto and Morgana had maneuvered around it, but now it was chasing the bus. Great.

"Phantom--" She didn't know what to say, but she wanted to say something to him, not just ignore whatever was going on--but her thoughts stalled when he rubbed his hand over his face and his stubborn mask easily pulled away from his skin, morphing into a pair of innocuous glasses. "Phantom, sit out if the shadow catches us," she said quickly, because it was looking more likely by the second. "Noir, you're up, take his place."

Haru glanced back again, her brown eyes widening as she caught sight of the problem. "Will do!" she said, and Ann plopped down and braced herself just in time for the impact.

The battle actually was a bit tricky, a swarm of the stone statues that liked to inflict despair on people. But they were also weak to psy energy, and Noir was ready to wreak havoc on shadows any day. Especially shadows that reminded her of the pain her father had caused herself and others. Ann was very glad she'd switched her with Amamiya; otherwise, the battle might have gone much worse. Even after it was done, their trial member was still in plainclothes, looking troubled.

"Sorry," he said. "I didn't realize I was getting tired that quickly. I need a break."

Ann frowned. "Phantom, if you're upset enough to lose your thief outfit, maybe we should leave for the night."

He shook his head, then winced. One hand went up to his forehead. Wait. Was he troubled, or nauseous? "Just give me a few minutes to rest."

"Do you have a headache?"

"It's not that bad."

"That wasn't the question. Queen, you have aspirin?" That question was mostly rhetorical. Of course she had aspirin. This was Makoto. Aspirin was dispensed, along with a bottle of water, and Amamiya took both readily enough. So definitely a 'yes' for headache. "You have been fighting a lot," Ann said. "I guess I should've rotated you out sooner to be on the safe side. But...are you really just tired? You clammed up all of a sudden."

"Oh," Amamiya said. "It did throw me off. You already knew the court record." He shrugged. "There's not much to say after that."

"Well, but..." Ann stopped and folded her arms, a little frustrated. He'd never answered the original question of why he'd changed so suddenly, but she didn't want to harass him when he had a headache just because she was curious. She didn't feel great about continuing after he'd lost his thief outfit, but he wanted to keep going...was that okay? They shouldn't have trouble keeping him safe. And Ryuji had spent an entire afternoon in Kamoshida's castle before awakening, and Amamiya had walked down Aiyatsbus and Chemdah before finding Mona. So it wasn't like a half hour to give the aspirin time to kick in should cause any issues. Yeah. If he couldn't get his thief outfit back then, Ann was calling it, but for now she sighed and gave him a nod.

"Okay, Phantom. Take a break."

Notes:

Thanks goes to goodygoody19 for helping this get complete with their encouragement.
A big issue with this fic for me has been that I think of all sorts of things that might come up as wrinkles in the AU and have at times been trying to tackle ALL of them. For example, a few ideas for scenes with different characters ended up not happening, and at one point I was playing with the idea of the Phantom Thieves doing a "question exchange" with Ren at each rest area as a sort of ice breaker and to also cover some questions commenters have posed that I think are really good and should ideally be answered in-fic, but hoo boy. Seeing where this chapter ended up, I am GLAD I eventually axed that idea.
Besides, that sort of set-up only works to answer reader questions if all the characters are going to be honest.

Chapter 6 Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

When Amamiya didn't have a trench coat flapping behind him, it was easy to lose track of him amidst the shadows of Mementos. Shujin uniforms, mostly black with only some white and tiny red accents, didn't do a great job of standing out. After the second battle without him, everyone was loading up into the Mona Car when Morgana spoke up: "Five, six...where's Phantom?"

"Um," Ann said, because she could already see from a quick glance that Amamiya was not in the car, nor could she see him out any of the windows, and she didn't remember when she'd last seen him. Losing someone in Mementos would be a nightmare scenario.

Luckily, Futaba had an answer ready for Morgana: "Behind us. His reading's weaksauce, but it's not far off."

Ann popped the door on her side open and stuck her head out. She had to squint to spot him, but thankfully, Futaba was right. Amamiya was standing near one of the weird alcoves in the deeper floors of Mementos, the ones that were papered over with posters of shadowy cutouts and then barred off. "Hey, let's go!" she called.

Her classmate didn't answer, still staring into the recessed wall. Did one of the posters have his favorite idol on it or something? Morgana honked his own horn. "Phantom!"

That got Amamiya's attention, and he ambled toward the car, stealing a few more glances over his shoulder before his hand shot up to his head and he winced. It must still be bothering him, then. "Sorry," he said as he climbed in.

"Stay with the group," Morgana scolded. "You'll make people worry!"

Another battle later, Ryuji was slinging his pipe over his shoulder while Ann stretched her arms with her whip held between both hands. The dyed blond co*cked his head. "What's their deal?" Ryuji muttered.

Amamiya was looking up at another one of the alcoves. This time Yusuke was at his side, much more visible with his white mask and tail. "These are intriguing, aren't they?" Yusuke asked, indicating the collage inside. "I imagine they're recollections of the posters in the real station."

"The people on them...they're happy."

"Almost mockingly so. It makes for a curious juxtaposition with their framing: they're behind bars, yet jovial."

"Haha." Amamiya grinned, his teeth briefly flashing in the dimness. Ann wondered if the aspirin was starting to kick in, since he seemed in better spirits. Not that she really understood why he looked so amused. "Are they really locked up?"

"Ah!" Yusuke's costume tail wiggled with excitement, something else Ann would never understand. "I see...if you were to consider it from their eyes, the bars are before us...so who is truly free...?"

"You get it."

Ann saw black bobbing around at the bottom of her vision and looked down to see Morgana had joined her and Ryuji in observing the two artists. The cat looked up at her in baffled exasperation. "You know...I don't know what I expected out of those two...but it wasn't this."

Ryuji grunted in agreement. "It's great they're getting along, but does it gotta be about weird sh*t?"

"I guess it's what they have in common?" Ann said aloud, and then realized how that sounded. "Uh--not 'weird sh*t', but art." Considering everything, it was a good thing they could find common ground, even if it was...Mementos imagery? Ryuji was telling the truth that it was pretty weird. She'd just hope they didn't ask her to weigh in on any of it.

Once Makoto finished healing Haru, Ryuji hollered for the other guys to stop admiring the creepy scenery, and the group continued making their way to the end of Kaitul. Amamiya moved to stroll through the open door to Akzerriyuth, but Futaba called him out: "Hellooo? Phantom? You're the last person who should be charging ahead right now!"

Ann nodded. "Your head's feeling better, right? You should get your thief outfit on before we go any farther. The Shadows up ahead are more serious. If you're still not feeling well, we can come back another time. Or...we could talk about what happened earlier."

"You did seem upset," Haru said, clasping her hands in front of her.

"No, it's...fine. My head is better."

Ann sighed. Amamiya wasn't even looking at them.

"C'mon, Phantom," Morgana urged. "You've had enough practice that this should be easy by now." Amamiya turned to him now, paying attention. "Focus on your reason for rebelling. You want to save the victims of that crime boss's racket, don't you? With all of us working together, we'll bring that flying bank down to earth--and him to justice!"

Amamiya closed his eyes, and blue fire washed over his body--a promising start. But where Ann had expected to see a trench coat appear, he instead wore a black t-shirt layered over a white long-sleeved shirt, black jeans, and dark sneakers. A utility belt with a pouch at each side hung off his hips, and white gloves covered his hands. A bright handkerchief was tied around his neck.

When Ann's eyes got up to Amamiya's masked face, she did a double-take. The black bandana with eyeholes tied around his head was familiar, in a way that had her looking at Morgana, who looked just as taken aback, maybe more so. "Wh-what--" The diminutive thief stammered. "What in the world are you wearing, Phantom?!"

Ryuji burst out into surprised laughter. "Don't recognize your own thief outfit, Mona?" Behind him, Futaba was opening up one of her holographic console windows, no doubt for some analysis.

The ensemble really did look like what Morgana's thief outfit might be if he turned into a human. Though, honestly, Ann had always thought Morgana would look much cuter if he turned into a human. Amamiya still gave off a bad boy vibe she didn't think Morgana had in him, as much as he'd probably protest otherwise.

Amamiya gave himself a brief scan, taking in the details of his outfit, before smirking at Morgana. "Lookin' cool, Mona," he said, decimating whatever coolness he'd actually had in the process. Apparently he could be just as big a dork as the original.

"What are you doing, Phantom? You have your own thief outfit! Use that! Don't be a...a... copycat!"

"It doesn't suit you," Yusuke said critically, framing Amamiya between his fingers. "Your hair should be unbound as a rebel; the curls lend you a roguish air."

Amamiya chuckled. "Because they look like they've never been tamed?"

"Setting aside aesthetics for a moments, I've also gotta veto this outfit," Futaba said. She was still tapping at windows, but Ann could see green outlines of Morgana, Amamiya in his normal thief outfit, and Amamiya in his latest getup. "This works for Mona because it's based on his idea of rebellion. On Phantom?" She grimaced. "Total paper shield. At least the trench coat was mostly effective."

That...was a little disappointing. Not that Ann wanted to wear Morgana's thief outfit herself, but she'd started wondering if there might be a way to change hers. The idea of grinding a man under her heel had been appealing for about as long as it'd taken to make Kamoshida grovel. Then it had started to grow old. Her subconscious seemed to be glued to the mental image, though. (She didn't completely hate it...but couldn't she fine-tune it? Maybe she should just be grateful cameras didn't work in the metaverse.)

"Well, then," Makoto said. "While that's a very interesting trick, Phantom, please go back to what you were using before."

Amamiya hummed, fiddling with each of the white gloves at the wrist. "I like Mona's idea of rebellion. Being a hero to the masses. But I guess it's not surprising it doesn't work for me."

"Why do you say that?" Haru asked.

Amamiya smiled at her. "I'm not as cute as Mona-chan," he said, and laughed when that immediately got protestations from Morgana that first, he was not cute, and second, only Noir was allowed to call him that.

"Okay, very funny," Ann said. "But c'mon, let's get serious."

He let the mimicked thief outfit disappear, the Shujin uniform reappearing. "My rebellion..." His head of messy black hair tilted as he pushed his hands into his pockets, his eyes distant behind his glasses.

"Phantom?" Morgana said, his small body shifting from paw to paw uncertainly. "If you're having trouble still, let's go. Don't be stubborn and push yourself too hard."

Ann looked at Morgana with some surprise. His words sounded genuinely worried, even though he'd always shown so much confidence in Amamiya before.

Amamiya seemed startled as well, his lips parting slightly before he sighed. "I'm all right. Don't underestimate me." He closed his eyes, focusing again, and there was another flash of blue fire. When he next stepped forward, his foot hit the platform with the solid click of a heeled boot, the tails of his Phantom Thief coat swishing around his legs as he knelt in front of Morgana. "A Phantom Thief waits for the perfect moment to make a comeback, right?"

The cat burglar's blue eyes had widened at the sudden retransformation, but they quickly settled down as Morgana scowled. "...The perfect moment was thirty minutes ago," he deadpanned.

"My head was hurting then." Was Amamiya pouting?

"Geez. Glad you're feeling better, but enough with the theatrics," Ryuji said. "Let's get moving!" He went on ahead to the first floor of Akzerriyuth, startling Haru into following him.

Futaba chimed in with her approval of Amamiya wearing his own Thief outfit, though she tilted her head at him curiously as he straightened back up on his feet. "Mona's rebellion doesn't work for you, but Mona himself is a pretty good motivator, huh?"

Amamiya glanced to her. "He's a good coach."

"I am indeed," Morgana preened, but then he looked more serious. "So you're sure you're good to keep going?"

Amamiya held out one red glove, the thick hilt of his dagger manifesting in his hold with its sharp, curved blade pointed down at the floor. He nodded. "I'm good."

And that was that. They caught up to Haru and Ryuji on the first floor of Akzerriyuth, and Ryuji finally took a break from fighting so that Amamiya could go toe-to-toe with the tougher shadows. More or less, anyway. He seemed to be taking Makoto's and Futaba's concern about his defense seriously. He still contributed with his dwindling supply of elemental and force bombs, but he was quick to back off if he couldn't exploit an easy weakness. "More cautious," Yusuke noted of his fighting at one point. "Perhaps a touch stilted." Considering Amamiya wasn't being graded on elegance, that was just fine with Ann. He passed as long as he didn't end up smeared across the train tracks.

And pass he did. When they got to the middle rest area, they decided as a group to call it a day. The objective of making sure Amamiya could fight with the group was checked off: he was definitely the weakest of them, but his rebellious outfit was protecting him enough that he could at least take a couple hits, and they could cover for him to make sure he didn't take more than that as long as he was working with them and following directions from Futaba and Ann. He'd shown he could do that. They'd take a day off so he and Morgana could craft more tools, and then on Thursday they'd go in again and try combing Akzeriyyuth for deviant shadows belonging to the mafia.

As they returned to the real world, Amamiya crouched down to let Morgana jump into his schoolbag, and fished his phone out of his pocket. Morgana poked his head over his friend's shoulder as he scrolled on his phone. But then Morgana's head sank. "It's still not showing up?" Morgana asked. "What a wishy-washy tool. You should have gotten it already!"

"It's no big deal," Amamiya told him. But maybe because he'd been talking to shadows and playing along with their moods so long, his voice still sounded more expressive than normal...and what Ann was hearing was disappointment. She felt a little bad. Why wasn't it downloading to his phone? After how easily it'd popped up on everyone else's like bad spam...

Ryuji stuck his head by Amamiya's to get a look at the phone, startling both the transfer student and Morgana. "Huh. Weird. Took Futaba a couple times too, though," Ryuji said. "Not like you should be going in alone anyway, so what's it matter?"

"It'd be nice to know I can get out on my own."

Ryuji pulled a face. "What, you think we'd leave you down there? No way! Even as a prank that sh*t wouldn't be funny. Besides, you know Monamona's got your back."

Ann didn't catch what he muttered under his breath at the end of that, but she thought she could guess the gist when Morgana fluffed up indignantly. "It's not a crush," he said. "We're partners! Comrades-in-arms! What about that is so hard to understand? Ignore him, Ren. You've got a goho-m, and I would never leave you in Mementos."

"That's what I said!"

"You said it in a stupid way."

"It was so nice to see you two getting along today," Haru said cheerfully. Morgana's ears swiveled back a little.

"We're still getting along!"

"I hope so," Haru said, smiling. Maybe promising consequences if they were not. It was very hard to tell with Haru sometimes, which is probably why both Ryuji and Morgana looked relieved when the brunette's attention slipped away from them and she started looking around. Makoto and Futaba were still close by, the younger girl standing close to a wall as Makoto provided a physical buffer between her and other people, but that left one missing. "Oh, where did Yusuke-kun go?" Haru asked. "He really does need groceries if he's been experimenting with mushrooms..."

The reminder of that 'wild mushrooms' comment he'd made had Ann shuddering. Yes. Yusuke needed real food--food they knew was safe--before he decided to go foraging again. Taking a few steps away, she saw Yusuke standing near the Hachiko statue, his height helping distinguish him in the evening crowds. "He's over there, Haru. Better catch him quick!"

Haru giggled but did indeed jog to catch him, because Yusuke could sometimes be as slippery as his code name when he was following an artistic impulse. He wasn't inspecting the statue, though. Instead he was turned from it and framing the station's architecture between his fingers, considering. Whatever he was seeing in it was a complete mystery to Ann.

After they'd all split up for the night, she was walking home when she caught a text from Amamiya, saying Morgana was missing going to school and wanted to start again. Since people would talk if Morgana started appearing in his desk when they thought he was her therapy cat, Morgana could only go to school if Ann was able to meet them at the station in the morning for a quick exchange.

Which they would have to do every single school day Morgana stayed with Amamiya.

...That little furball was so lucky she liked him, because she did agree. Maybe eventually she'd put her foot down and tell him to just stick with her if he wanted to go to school, but she could wait and see how passing him back and forth went. Amamiya took the same line from Shibuya to Aoyama-Itchome, so it wasn't too big a hassle.

Even though they'd just seen each other yesterday, Morgana perked up when he saw her in the station, his ears pricking forward and his paws tap-dancing on Amamiya's shoulder, prompting her to smile. She was feeling much more energetic after a night's sleep to recover from being in the Metaverse, and if she just had to make sure to leave for school by a certain time so that Morgana didn't have to spend most of the day alone, that wasn't too bad.

Plus, Morgana coming back to school could help her out a little too. Exams were coming up again in a few weeks. Morgana would never tell her an answer outright, but hints were considered fair game.

"Morning, Lady Ann!"

"Hey Morgana! Hi, Amamiya," she greeted them, opening her bag and pulling it forward off her shoulder so Morgana could jump in. "Morgana, at lunch we need to call Shiho, okay? Don't let me forget. I wasn't sure what to tell her when you were gone, so I want to let her see you're okay."

"You told her I was gone?" Morgana asked curiously. Ann rolled her eyes.

"Uh, more like she noticed when you disappeared from all our calls. You didn't think she'd realize her cheerleader was missing?" Especially since they usually did video calls when they could.

"Cheerleader?" Amamiya echoed.

"He visited Shiho's physical therapy sessions with me, so Shiho calls him her cheerleader." Shiho had loved petting him as a little reward for herself at the end of grueling physical therapy sessions, and she was one of the few people he'd tolerated it from under the rationale that if that was how he could help her feel better, it was his duty as a gentleman. (It must have been his 'gentlemanly duty' to purr, too.)

Amamiya gave Morgana a quizzical look. "You hate being called a mascot, though. You're okay with 'cheerleader'--?" He cut himself off. "'Cheerleader' has 'leader' in it."

Ann snorted. She'd never thought of that, but maybe it was a small part of why Morgana had accepted Shiho calling him a 'cheerleader' gracefully. Though Morgana protested Amamiya's reasoning. "That's got nothing to do with it! Shiho can't understand me. She can't be blamed for not knowing better."

"Do you want to say 'hi' to her?" Ann asked Amamiya. She'd tell Shiho about him anyway, but maybe he'd like to say something to her himself. "I usually eat lunch up on the roof with Haru. Come join us if you want!"

Amamiya looked surprised before he held up a hand, shaking his head slightly. "I doubt she even remembers me."

But Shiho did remember him. Mostly, anyway. When Ann brought up 'the transfer student' during their call at lunch, Shiho didn't look confused for a second but just asked, "What was his name again? Not Miyama, but it had the 'miya'...Amamiya? So he's a new friend now, too?", which made Ann feel a little guilty. She'd gotten to make so many new friends in the Phantom Thieves while Shiho had been in physical therapy, and while at least one girl at the new school was helping Shiho out, she still worried about Shiho feeling lonely. But also...well...Amamiya wasn't exactly a friend, but she had no idea how to explain what was going on with him when it would require explaining so many other things to Shiho.

"Yeah, Ren Amamiya. And, we'll, uh, have to see," she said, tugging on one ponytail. She glanced at Haru, but the other girl was busy checking in on her plants. "He's a nice guy, but kind of standoffish?"

Shiho hummed. "I remember he reminded me of you a little."

"Wait, how?"

"A lot of people thought you were unapproachable, but you've never been like that. You were just a little shy, and the bad rumors took over from there."

There was Shiho with the blunt honesty. Ann wouldn't call herself shy now, but when she and Shiho had met in middle school...yeah. She'd only lived in Japan a few years at that point, even though she'd visited family much younger, and she'd been so self-conscious of having naturally blonde hair and blue-green eyes that stood out in the crowd.

He'd reminded Shiho of her, huh?

"Yeah...the rumors about him have been pretty rough," Ann murmured. Even if he was prickly by nature, it couldn't have helped that he'd gotten requested on the Phansite so many times. She wished she could have convinced Mishima to stop those postings sooner, especially before the last one had gotten him fired. That must have been awful.

"People aren't paying enough attention to how he acts now," Morgana complained, wandering over from where he'd been 'helping' Haru garden. "He's a gentleman."

Despite his carping, Shiho brightened at what must have sounded like simple meowing to her. "Oh, is Morgana with you?"

"I'm here! Hello, Shiho! I heard you missed me," Morgana said, hopping onto Ann's chair.

"He's here," Ann said, flashing the camera at Morgana so Shiho could see him. "I told you he was fine! He just wanted to hide a lot." Or live in a completely different neighborhood.

Again, things she couldn't explain to Shiho without having to explain so much else. Like Morgana being intelligent enough to decide on his own where he wanted to live.

"About that," Shiho said, "I've heard cats tend to hide when they're sick or hurt, and since he started doing it right after getting outside... Are you sure he's okay? It might not hurt for him to get a check-up..."

"No, no, Morgana's fine!" Ann said quickly. She frowned at the feline, who looked guilty when she added, "He really doesn't get how much he worried everyone when he went missing."

"I didn't mean to worry her!" Morgana whined. Which was probably true--he'd just decided to worry everyone else. "Wait, let me show Shiho that I'm fit as a fiddle! Point the camera at me!"

Ann raised an eyebrow but obliged as he jumped down from the chair again, telling Shiho, "I thiiink he's about to do something?" Morgana was certainly crouching like he was about to spring, his butt wriggling with energy.

"Shiho! If I were sick, could I do...this?!" With one last wriggle, his feet scrabbled and he sprinted around Haru and her planters in a lap. Then another.

"Mona-chan!" Haru laughed in surprise.

"Or this!" He jumped up onto one corner of one planter with barely-sprouting seedlings and leapt across it diagonally to land on the opposite corner, then bounded off, and spun himself around in a circle as though desperately looking for new ways to show off. "Or, or--" He suddenly rolled onto his side and seized his tail with both front paws. "Look! I can catch my own tail! Wait, is that impressive? Haru, is that impressive for a cat?"

"I--I'm not sure about impressive, but it is cute," Haru gasped between giggles.

"Auggh, that's not what I'm going for! Okay, okay...wait, I've got it! Watch me, Shiho!" Morgana rolled to his feet and tore off again, Ann just barely keeping him in considerably shaky view. He approached the roof's stairwell and then jumped up on its side, managing to scramble up three-quarters of the wall's height before he started to lose the fight against gravity. He pushed himself away from it and did some sort of...corkscrew flip? Ann didn't know what it'd be called, just that it was over the top and ridiculous, but Morgana managed to land it thanks to having four paws and a tail. He panted for a few seconds and then crowed, "With style and grace!" Ann was sure if they'd been in the Metaverse, Zorro would be out and posing to show off his muscles.

Shiho's eyebrows were sky-high. "Ann," she said. "You have the weirdest cat in Tokyo."

Ann giggled. "You don't know the half of it. Buuuut, at least he seems to be healthy, right?"

"I'm in peak condition!" Morgana chipped in.

"Yeah, I guess!" Shiho laughed. "He must be fine if he can spaz out like that."

They talked for a little longer, and then Ann ended the call so that she could have a few minutes to talk with Haru and eat lunch. Morgana sprawled out on the desks next to the ones the girls ate at, his head tucked on his paws, deep in thought.

"Cats aren't the only ones who hide when they're hurt, though," Morgana said abruptly. "I mean, I'm not a cat anyway, but--Ren's doing that, too. I think."

Ann exchanged a look with Haru. "Did something happen, Mona-chan?" the brunette asked gently. He sighed.

"Nah, nothing new. It's...little things. He didn't dust the attic until I made a fuss about it, but I don't see how anyone could put up with that much dust. He doesn't eat well, and it's not like Yusuke's situation. He has the money. But he's saving it all for this dumb idea of running away--"

"Hello, pot?" Ann asked incredulously. "You met him by running away!"

"Hey, he should know his idea's dumb if he could realize mine was flawed."

That...was actually a decent point. And Morgana was not trying to deny that running away had been a mistake. "All right," Ann said, and let him continue.

"It's just--it's so vague," Morgana huffed. "But he doesn't seem to think there's any problem with it, so what if it's not dumb? If he figured out we could make up by talking things out, why wouldn't it work for him? He really is trying to be a good person. Wouldn't his parents understand that?"

Haru made a discomforted noise in her throat, shifting in her seat. "A criminal reputation isn't exactly something that can be wiped away, even with good behavior. His family may still be angry with him for it. I still love my father, and I want to see him become the father I used to know, but...sometimes I am frustrated with him. Because of what he let himself become." Her hands clenched in her lap. "And I'm under no illusion that, if I had disgraced the Okumura name like he did before his heart was changed, I would surely have been disowned. Amamiya-kun's parents may not be open to talking. Though we'd have to hear more from Amamiya-kun about his circ*mstances to know if that's true."

"And he won't talk to me about that. I'm trying to get him to at least take better care of himself, but..." Morgana sighed. "Maybe I can't be a good friend. I still don't remember anything about what it's like to be human, and...well, I can tell you two, first. There's a chance I may be just a shadow."

Haru shook her head and reached out to gently scratch the top of Morgana's head. "No, you are a good friend, Mona-chan. Be patient. Amamiya-kun might just need more time."

"Maybe..." Morgana sighed. Then his eyes narrowed, and his head swiveled away from Haru's hand as he looked up at her face. "Wait. Seriously? No reaction? Did you not hear the last thing I said, Haru?"

Oh, shoot. Morgana had just told them he might be a shadow. That was huge for him. Even if half the group had already guessed it on their own, they had to have an appropriately huge reaction. "What, that you could be a shadow, Morgana?" Ann gasped. "I think Haru didn't react because it seems so impossible! Like, noooo waaaay!"

"--Lady Ann, there are many things I admire about you, but your acting skills are not among them!" Morgana huffed, glaring at them both. "You both knew? Futaba figured it out, didn't she?! Did you... all know?"

He sounded so vulnerable at that last question, and Haru looked upset herself, frowning heavily. "Mona-chan, no one knows. Even Futaba-chan said it was just a theory. I think the only one who can know for sure is yourself, once you get back your memories."

"Yeah," Ann said. "I think the only reason Ryuji even thought of it was because we found you in a Palace. You really don't act like a shadow."

Morgana blinked at her. Oh. Oh, no. She might have drilled a hole straight to Brazil here. "Ryuji figured it out?"

"Morgana, listen! You don't actually remember being a shadow, right?"

"No..."

"Then Haru's right! No one knows, no one's 'figured it out'. We thought it was a possibility, that's all. It doesn't matter to us." Ann didn't want Morgana to get the wrong idea and think Ryuji had been badmouthing him behind his back. Ryuji had brought the idea up in Kamoshida's Palace, when he and Morgana had been having a rough start and there hadn't really been any trust established yet. Then he'd dropped it. Makoto and Futaba had each thought of the possibility on their own. It...was kind of obvious as an idea, even though it also left some glaring questions. "I mean, none of us can make sense of it anyway. Futaba said it'd be weird since you have your own Persona." She'd said something about how it would have required him to develop an ego on his own? Which, Ann thought he had plenty of ego, but Futaba said she meant a different kind, and between the two of them, Futaba was the one who understood cognitive psience, so Ann was going to trust that the hacker knew what she was talking about. "But even if it turned out to be true, it wouldn't mean you can't be a good friend. To Amamiya, and to us. Okay?"

She put a hand on Morgana's front paw. It was meant to be a comforting gesture, but when Morgana pulled it back and cleared his throat, looking aside...she guessed she'd embarrassed him instead. Whoops. But at least he still seemed relaxed otherwise, remaining between her and Haru.

At last he sighed and rose to his feet to stretch his back. "Ugh. Ren even said it wasn't that big a deal."

"What, that you might be a shadow? He already knows?"

"Yeah. I didn't mean to tell him--it just sort of came out, the first night he took me to Leblanc while I was still exhausted. I was so frustrated about a lot of things...I asked him if he wouldn't feel really stupid bringing me home for the night when I could be a monster and attack him when he was most vulnerable."

Ann sank her head into her hand. Morgana could be such a brat sometimes. "And what'd he think of that terrifying threat?"

"He said he was the bigger monster and would gobble me up if I tried. He's weird like that sometimes."

"Huh. You're not wrong." Maybe they deserved each other.

Haru looked puzzled. "That's certainly...one response..."

"We talked about it more seriously later on, but Ren never seemed to think it was really important if I was a shadow, even after he encountered the ones down in Mementos. Actually, sometimes he seems more comfortable with shadows than people. Which is...I guess I should be happy about that since I might be one, but it just seems..."

He didn't finish that thought before the bell rang to signal the end of lunch, but Ann knew how she'd finish it herself. It seemed sad. "We'll try reaching out to him more, Mona-chan," Haru reassured him, gently scratching the top of his head as she stood. "You keep trying, too. I'm sure he'll understand your intentions in time. He cares a lot about you."

Notes:

Morgana: You don't even know what I am!!! I could eat you.
Ren: I could eat you.
Morgana: **GASP**
Ann: Why are you two like this.
Anyway I made an outline for this chapter and BROKE THE OUTLINE. Partly because it was turning long af again and I wanted to post what I'm...95% sure is done for good. If I allowed myself to tweak until I was 100% satisfied there would probably never be an update again, I gotta cut myself off somewhere.

Chapter 7 Notes:

Ren's POV, for a slight change of pace.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Ren thought he'd gotten the hang of Shibuya station after months of using it, but he couldn't figure out which train he was supposed to get on next. The station attendants were already busy helping others, only sparing him wary glances, and the map from the information booth was gibberish. People were staring at him with cold eyes and jeering masks as they realized he was lost without a clue, and he ducked his head down further, staring harder at the map, hoping it would stop shifting so he could figure out where to go. Then a black blur streaked by his feet, Morgana's white-tipped tail catching his eye before it disappeared into the crowd again. He followed that direction, and found himself in front of a subway track, just as that swishing appendage vanished into the shadow of the tunnel.

He tucked the map away into his back pocket and jumped down onto the track. Risky. A train could come through. He'd be fine, though. He'd just wake up if a train hit him, since this was a dream. He was pretty sure this was a dream, so none of it was real. Unless it wasn't quite a dream, like that room had been. Then the train might hurt. But it still wouldn't kill him...probably?

It was a moot point. There was no train that ran from Shibuya station to Mementos, which Ren found himself in when a shadow cast not by light but by the darkness of someone's mind lumbered over him and the black of the tunnel was lightened by the ambience of the different paths, first red then blue then yellow then orange then violet glimmering on the tracks that overlapped and crisscrossed dozens of other train tracks as he followed them down, down, down, always down, why did they need Futaba to navigate this? Finding the next floor was as simple as giving into gravity.

Though...he hadn't found Morgana yet. Shouldn't he have caught up to him already? He was so far down.

...This wasn't like before, though. Morgana had made up with his friends; was probably meeting with them right now. He didn't need Ren any longer.

Ren found himself in a waiting area, and he realized: if Morgana didn't need him, there was a faster way to get down. He stood patiently in front of the train shelter, waiting, thinking of the cells he'd already passed by and hoping, until a train stopped in front of him.

None of the passengers looked friendly to him even after discarding their masks, but they quietly shuffled in place, creating room for one more without a murmur. It'd be packed, but it would be just one ride. He did it every morning. He could do it now, and he stepped on board, his chest tight.

"Hey, wait up!"

He waited for the doors to close.

"Wait up!"

Once they closed, the train would go down, and...

"Ren! What are you doing?!"

He turned to face Morgana, now in his two-legged Metaverse form, since of course he was the one yelling. Ren was surprised--Morgana should be with his own friends--but Ren didn't try to question it. This was his dream. He could have what he wanted for once. "Come with me," he said.

"He can't," a fellow passenger said. Her silhouette had no details; she was all smoke and disdain, just like everyone else. "You didn't pay the pet fare."

Irritation flared in Ren's chest. She should know better. Hadn't she heard them talking? "Mona isn't a pet," he told her firmly.

Morgana rolled his eyes. "Of course I'm not. Now will you wake up already?! You're going to be late. I toldyou not to stay up making tools."

Ah.

Since he'd already known he was dreaming, Ren wasn't surprised to crack open his eyes and see that both he and Morgana were in bed, the latter swishing his tail in agitation as he stood over Ren, even if the 'over' was only his small head clearing Ren's chest by a couple inches. The light washing over them said it was a little after dawn, and Ren's alarm still ringing on his phone said he wasn't late yet, but another ten minutes would probably do it.

He wanted to go back to sleep for a lot longer than that. His body felt like lead. But the Phantom Thieves would probably have things to say about him not showing up at school on the same day they were supposed to go into Mementos, especially Niijima, and there were enough ways to fall out of Sojiro's good graces without giving the man reason to think him lazy, and he'd have to explain to Morgana.

He shoved himself out of bed and went through the motions to prepare for the day. Ten minutes later, he gave Sojiro a nod and brief "I'm leaving" as he passed the counter. During the first semester he would have stopped to eat breakfast, but things had gotten so tense in summer, when Takamaki's crew was in the middle of changing Futaba's heart and that lawyer had been showing up, that it had been something of a relief the day Boss said he'd forgotten to make the meal. Ren had told him he'd get something himself, and so he had, that day and most since. Usually something small, because he didn't want to spend too much, and sometimes he skipped breakfast completely, but it was worth spending a little of his savings to not worry about Sakura's mood first thing in the morning. The old man seemed more easy-going now that Futaba was better, but...well, if he did happen to be ticked off, Ren knew the ire would get directed at him. It wasn't even a question. Plus, the man approved of Ren being self-sufficient.

And not stopping for food did make it easier to smuggle Morgana past Boss in the mornings.

"I'm surprised you talk in your sleep like that," Morgana said after they'd gotten clear of Leblanc. "'Mona isn't a pet.' Obviously I'm not, so what was that for?"

Ren decided to keep his answer short and simple. "Someone was giving me grief for not paying the train's pet fare."

Morgana scoffed. "The pet fare is demeaning. I'll smuggle on board as a thief should!" he declared. Since he was slung over Ren's shoulder in the schoolbag, he couldn't see how his words made Ren smirk. Morgana might not be a true cat, but his pride was very feline. "Are you ready for Mementos today?"

That was a sobering question. "Yeah." It wasn't an option to not be. The Phantom Thieves' other leads had struck out, from what Morgana had told him. They'd tried investigating on the streets for the mafia boss' name themselves, but his cronies were too close-lipped for them to find anything out. The person who sold their fake weapons had old yakuza ties, so Sakamoto had tried to see if he had any information, but that attempt only upset the store owner, who'd snapped something along the lines that stupid kids should keep their noses out of obvious trouble. Since they relied on the store for equipment, Sakamoto had backed off, probably for the best. The group had then tried contacting Ichiko Ohya to see if she might have information, because she wrote interesting articles about the Phantom Thieves and had given them her business card outside of Madarame's house, but she had never responded. (Ohya would not have worked out even if she had answered; she might write about the Phantom Thieves, but her byline was stuck firmly in the entertainment section instead of crime, and recently she was always working or sloshed or both. Hard to imagine she would know much about a crime boss who'd only just now surfaced as a problem. But Ren hadn't told Morgana that. He might have realized who one of her sources was.)

If Ren failed to help them get the name, it'd be wasting more time until the mafia boss was finally dealt with. More victims. Ren wondered what it meant that the ATMs fell from the Palace in that distorted world. Was the mafia killing people who could no longer pay up? Or was the man in charge aware his threats and blackmail were so devastating that some victims would do anything to escape it, even...

Ren could understand a person being that desperate. If they could be tied to drug-smuggling, their lives had already ended in one sense. It wouldn't matter that they'd been tricked into it, because then people would just ask why they'd been so stupid. Their reputation would be ruined. Their friends would leave them. Their family would be ashamed. And still, they would face more punishment from the law.

It wasn't that he'd make the same decision himself. He'd already been through the judgment, the punishment, the shame and the shunning, and he had a different escape planned. But he could understand the urge to run.

Even if the only way left was down.

"Oh! Ren, Ren! There's the konbini! Let's get breakfast!"

...Right. He had to get breakfast when he had Morgana with him. He ducked into the small store, ignored Morgana's "subtle" hinting at the sushi rolls and grabbed a less expensive egg sandwich for them to split. After they'd left the shop, they took a brief stop in a secluded corner, Ren tearing off a portion of the sandwich for Morgana to eat. There they scarfed their food down. After Morgana had licked his lips clean of the creamy filling and hopped back into Ren's schoolbag, they entered the line to Yongen-Jaya. Ren shifted his schoolbag off his right shoulder and into his arms. He probably wouldn't be able to get a seat, after all, and he'd always been worried about his books jostling into someone close by in the cramped space and upsetting them, and now Morgana could be jostled himself, so it felt safer to hold his bag and be certain it wasn't going anywhere. Not too tightly, though. He could feel within the bag both Morgana's warm body and the tension bunched up in that small frame as they boarded and joined the press of commuters on the train. Morgana wasn't the biggest fan of the train station either, but he was willing to rely on Ren.

It was nice that someone still thought he was dependable after the assault charge. (Even knowing that woman's testimony, which made Ren glad he hadn't tried to tell his own side. Morgana already believed he'd assaulted someone; better he think Ren regretted it than believe Ren was too much a coward to take responsibility.) Morgana even seemed to think Ren was special, which was flattering. Except the shadows kept seeming to think the same thing, and so, too, had the old man, and sooner or later, they all wised up. So would Morgana. The "trial period" would end; Morgana would go back to Takamaki. But if Ren was at least reliable, the Phantom Thieves might still want his help, if only for making tools.

...No, that was stupid. Takamaki and Kitagawa could make tools already. He didn't have anything to offer, after all.

The lighting in the train flickered as it passed under a tunnel, and Ren looked up. Little had changed about the train car; people didn't move much when they were packed in like sardines. Their shadows didn't either, the few golden gazes cast at Ren cold and indifferent. If Morgana was also a shadow, there had to be others like the Phantom Thieves. People who would help each other. But... no one was interested in helping a criminal. The only thing people wanted him for was an easy scapegoat, and here, he had no power, rebellious or otherwise.

He dropped his eyes to the ground again and checked his hold on the bag. Not too tight. Morgana would have complained. Ren took a deep breath, trying to get the bands around his heart to loosen and make the glares vanish from the edges of his vision. Today was too important to let nerves get the better of him. He had to get the name. Whatever happened after...when he was no longer useful...it was going to happen anyway.

And he probably deserved it for not helping Suzui.

Notes:

I kept telling myself to wait to post this as part of a larger chapter that would get to the point this ENTIRE fic has been trying to set up (I think I've learned with this fic I'm not good with foreshadowing), but I have. both gotten and seen elsewhere comments about this fic being discontinued, none of which were meanspirited whatsoever but just make me go "it's noooot I just suck at making up my mind" (I will sometimes write a scene five times, five different ways before figuring out what I want to do with it) so you know, here is the proof that yes I do still want to finish this fic.
Hopefully the next chapter will be out soon so I can stop driving myself nuts over that lol

When the Cat Dragged In the Trickster - Raaj (2024)

Chapter 1

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Chapter 2

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Chapter 3

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Chapter 4

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Chapter 5

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Chapter 6

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Chapter 7

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