It wasn’t until sometime after they’d gotten through Shido’s palace and changed his cognition (hopefully) that she even considered asking the question. Sure, she’d had thoughts. Especially after her sister was revealed to have a palace. They were idle thoughts, things she wouldn’t ever remember if she thought them during the day, but at night? When she had trouble getting to bed? She stewed sometimes.

Do any of her friends have a palace?

She’d assumed the answer was no, as they all had Persona, and were all reasonably well adjusted. Obviously they’d all had problems, she knew that even about herself, but she’d never consider anyone of their group to have a palace. Surely they, of all people, would be self conscious about their desires growing distorted like that? The closest thing she could think of was Ann’s obvious crush on Shiho, but that was merely society getting in the way… She’d even had a small crush on Haru before dating Joker, but why bother? She was mostly straight anyway and Japan was a horrible place to be anything but ‘normal’.

It was a quiet night, one where her sister had been in bed before midnight (a rarity for her). Her room, as unmarked and impersonal as ever, was quiet as a… quiet house. She’d say mouse, but she still had a slight fear of non talking cats stemming from being in Shido’s palace. She, herself, was ostensibly studying, but her mind kept straying. Mostly because she hated English so much. Sure, she was good at it, but it took her twice as long to ace as any other subject. Plus, well, it wasn’t going to be of use to her very often. Her phone was silent, with an open invitation to join Ryuji and Futaba for a Phoenix Ranger Featherman S marathon the next day sitting on it. The meta nav app was right underneath the chat box...

Rolling her eyes, she decided to just check. Why not, right? It’d take less than a minute and she’d never have to think about it again. It was silly anyway, and everyone else had probably done so already. Maybe not Ryuji, but even he might be bored enough to do it one day. She started with the most likely.

“Ann Takamaki.” She stated quietly into her phone.

“Conditions not found.” She found this answer was the same for the next 4 she’d checked, though she only had three left to go… Well, two really. There’s no way Futaba could have a second palace, right?

“Makoto Niijima.” She stated her own name with fear, not even knowing what she’d do if the answer was yes, but at the App’s continued denial, she sighed. Only one more left to go…

“Akira Kurusu” She said with a slight smile, knowing that surely he couldn’t…

“Conditions found.”

------

“Makoto?” Akira said after a few rings, voice groggy with sleep, “You do know it’s 2 in the morning, right? Is there something the matter?”

She’d called him immediately, she didn’t think of waiting, or of talking about it with someone else, but she needed to tell him asap. So in her infinite wisdom, she’d called just as soon as she started putting clothing on that were reasonable enough to go outside in, still on the phone in the meanwhile. It didn’t take her long for this charade to fail and for her to fall straight on her butt.

She sighed with frustration and gave up, merely saying as she put it on speaker, “Sorry, but yes there is. Can I come over? I really really REALLY need to speak with you.” She wanted to ask so many more questions, but she also needed to see his reaction to them, and to her news, face to face. She thought of so many things that she had no idea what his palace would even be and she needed to hash it out with him alone. They were dating, he deserved as much.

“Makoto, it’s 2 in the morning. Surely it’s not that important?” Akira whined in a strange voice that he rarely used, “Morgana made me let him out because he needed to check on Mementos and I JUST got back to sleep.”

Unfortunate, but some things were too important. “Akira-kun, I would not call if this was not important.” She got more formal when she got nervous, and she was amazingly nervous right now.

“Are you or your sister in danger from the government? Is this Shido?” Akira asked, more awake and sounding worried, “Shit, I’m sorry.”

“No no, don't apologize. This has to do with the Metaverse.” She’d just finished dressing herself as she said, “I’m on my way there, it should only take me 30 minutes at this time of night.”

“Uh, okay.” Akira said confusedly, “I’ll see you here? I know you don’t need it, because you are always, but be careful, alright?”

“I’ll see you there…” She wanted to say I love you as she hung up but she had no idea if it was soon or not. She’d asked Eiko and all she got was a ‘you’ll know when it’s time’ which was so not helpful. She barely knew what video games were half a year ago! She was a very sheltered human being!

Which was so not important right now, but she really didn’t want to think about anything else regarding Akira.

------

As Makoto parked her motorcycle, she sent Akira a text saying she was there. She really didn’t want to wake up the neighbors, after all.

Akira opened the door immediately, grabbing her coat and saying, “Hey, how was the ride? I started making coffee, I don’t know if you needed any but I don’t think I’m going to sleep the rest of the night so I decided to make some.”

She nodded hurriedly as she blew past him, “Yes, yes. Thank you for being so thoughtful, Akira.” She beelined for their preferred table and sat down loudly, “Sorry for being so sudden, but I needed to talk with you face to face and I know you had plans with Haru on Sunday so I didn’t want to get in the way of those so I…”

He grabbed her shoulder before she started babbling, “Hey, hey. Don’t worry. I’m here, ready to hear you out, and we have plenty of time. Let’s just calmly enjoy our coffee, okay? I’ll be here afterward, you can tell me your dire piece of news then. Let’s just let the calm atmosphere of the coffee shop bring us down, and I can show off my amazing coffee making skills, and all will be cool.”

And as though he were a fortune teller, she was starting to become calm. She shook her head in amazement, “I don’t really know how you can do that, but it’s amazing. Yeah, you’re right. Let’s just enjoy the strange atmosphere of the Leblanc without other customers entrance us.”

Akira laughed excitedly, “I love that you’re secretly funny, by the way. No one else believes me but you’ve secretly got the greatest jokes of the whole team.” He considered something for a second before saying, “well, let's keep that a secret… I don't want to be accused of nepotism.” He winked in a very exaggerated manner.

It was then that the coffee was done, and he was pouring, and they were sitting on either end of their table, just sipping. She was focused on everything else but him, not wanting this great atmosphere to end, but she knew it needed to. People usually didn’t get calm from coffee, but the way that Sojiro taught him to make it… It was incredible. She half wondered if he’d take over the shop once Sojiro retired, though that may be too small of a job for him.

Unfortunately, all cups of coffee must end, and she stared at the cup in disappointment, but galvinized to drop the news.

“You have a palace, Akira.” Makoto stated in a manner that she’d hoped was calm, but it took some effort to get there, so it may have seemed a little forced.

Akira looked utterly confused, as though she’d just started speaking Spanish, so she continued, “I’ve thought about it a few times, but I couldn’t imagine anyone else besides Futaba having a palace. We’re all working through our own things, right?” She stretches her legs out and curls one around him, “But I decided to check tonight. I got through everyone else and honestly, I was more worried that I had a palace than you did. Surely our leader couldn’t have one, right?” She looked down into the coffee cup, hoping that it’d be refilled and she’d be able to stop talking, but unluckily, “So, yeah. I haven’t tried any code words, mostly because, well, I figure you should know.”

Akira, who usually had such a suave and calm manner about him, started sweating. His eyes dodged back and forth, his glasses fogging up. He took them off and started trying to clean them, but nothing he did could. She almost thought he was having a panic attack, and instantly started trying to recall what she’d learned about mental health (when she realized Johanna was a healer, she endeavored to learn a small amount about real life healing, just in case). She saw him take the phone and hurriedly pull up the app himself.

“Akira Kurusu”, he said quickly to the app, and when it told him he had a palace, he closed his eyes. She could tell he was calming down, but she also saw the sight of tears leaking out of his closed eyes, and she immediately went to go sit next to him. It wasn’t until she’d been calming him down for a few minutes that he started speaking again.

“I know why.” He spoke into her lap, “I thought I could hide it. I’d been hiding it my entire life, right? There’s no way it could’ve popped up, especially after I got my persona.” He was still crying, but he lifted his head slightly and continued, “I guess… After we got Shido, it was over. It was all over, and the feelings came rushing back as if they’d never left. It was easy not to think about them when I was focused on saving the country… but now that the country is saved…” His head dropped down, “Now that the country is saved…” He repeated and then said nothing more.

“Hey, please don’t worry.” Makoto had no idea what he was referring to, but she knew he was in a bad spot, “I’m here for you. I know everyone else is too. You’ve helped so many people here in only a year, and done so for the better, but maybe it’s time for you to get helped instead.” She said as she ran her hands through his hair, “Let’s go up to your room to try and relax, okay? We can call everyone in a few hours, we can go into your palace, and we can steal your heart.” Makoto said even softer, “Like you’ve stolen mine.”

------

They didn’t sleep at all, even though she could tell he wanted to, so they waited until 9 to make sure everyone was awake… or should be awake, but it WAS sunday, so sometimes they slept in.

When she posted the message telling them to come to Leblanc ASAP, everyone did respond, but it was going to take awhile for them to all get here, so Akira told her that he was going to take a walk, to clear his head. She waved him away and merely sat up in his room, trying to read anything into what he told her. She could tell he was being purposefully obscure, though of course that was the case, as he did have a palace. Still, it was hard for her to imagine him to have a problem so bad, a desire so distorted, to get a palace.

She watched the others come in one at a time, and they were all wondering what she’d called them for, but she merely shook her head and told them that she wanted to wait until Akira was back. It took an entire hour for everyone to get back, and Akira came in last, looking at everyone with a strange look in his eye. He did look a lot better than last night, however, so it obviously did him a little good at least.

“So, last night, I was thinking.” She started, glancing down at her feet as she did so, “did any of us have a palace?” Everyone’s attention was immediately focused on her, which made her feel even more self conscious. Joker merely nodded at her, though, which gave her the impetus to continue, “I didn’t really think so, but I guess… I just wanted to be sure. I went through everyone else who I felt would be most likely, even myself, but I finally got to the last person. Who did, in fact, have a palace.” She couldn’t actually say the last words, but Akira covered for her.

“Me.” He stated, examining his nails in mock disinterest, trying to hide how much it hurt him to say.

“YOU!?” Ryuji blurted out immediately, hands still on the controller he and Futaba were passing off while they were playing Star Forneus, “No way. What friggin desire do you have?”

Yusuke interjected, “That’s hardly a polite question, Ryuji.”

“Shut up, Inari! This is, this is… This is the main character turning into the final boss! I thought Shido would be the final boss, but it’s you!?”

“Please Futaba, don’t treat this like a game. This is important.” Haru said sternly, “He’s important to us. To all of us.”

Ann, meanwhile, just looked shellshocked. She was mumbling to herself so softly no one could hear it, and Morgana just gaped in shock… Which was a really funny expression to see on a cat.

(There was a part of her that kinda wanted to start a blog in which Mona portrayed a bunch of emotions that cats didn’t usually have, but that would draw undue attention to them…)

Akira sighed, “Please don’t freak out too much. There’s something I’ve hidden from everyone, and I mean EVERYONE. All of my friends back home, my teachers, my parents, anyone else here, EVERYONE. This is… this is…” He tried to come up with the words and failed, instead saying, “Listen, let’s just go in. I already know what my palace is, so steal my heart, just like you’ve stolen everyone else’s.” His face turned into a slight smile, “Funny thing is, I even made myself a calling card. Back when Morgana was gone. I used so much of my free time making that thing, and it turned out pretty great, but I had no idea I’d ever be able to actually use it.”

Yusuke looked startled, “You have artistic ability, Akira?! How can you not say such a thing before!?”

“It’s nothing like yours. It’s just, I can do some online artwork pretty well if I concentrate.” Akira explains gently, “One thing though, it’s pretty… telling. So unfortunately, I can’t let anyone else see it. It’s better than the Kamoshida calling card, at least.” He smiled at Ryuji, who merely rolled his eyes. He scrounged around in his bag before coming across a well worn piece of paper, the same red and black from their regular calling cards, and placing it on his pillow. He smiled and looked down at his phone, finger hovering over the app.

Makoto went over to him and grabbed him from behind, head resting on his shoulder, trying to give him strength. Everyone else decided to come over as well, and they all gave him looks of support, of solidarity. He looked around at everyone and smiled a peaceful smile, as though he were happy his dirty laundry was getting aired to all of his friends, and said the words.

“Akira Kurusu, Television Studio!”

-----

The first thought Makoto has is that it seems very familiar. The building resembles the TV studio the 2nd years visit, and the only reason she can tell it from the real thing is the crazy sky and the people, which resemble the masked people on Shidos boat, though they aren't nearly as substantial as them. The masks, however, all seem very familiar… They are all the masks that Joker himself has used in the Metaverse, all of the different Personae he could summon.

The most important part, however, is the fact that everyone is in their phantom thieves outfits except Akira.

“You obviously don't see yourself as an enemy, do you?” Mona asks as he swings his scimitar around.

Akira, cool as ever when in the Metaverse, says “I was expecting that. In fact, I'm also expecting not being able to help at all.” He turns to her and asks, “I nominate you to act as leader in my stead, Queen.”

She instantly reddens at the remark (unseen under her mask) and says, “R-Really? Surely Skull or Panther or Mona, they have seniority…”

Skull pipes up, “Yeah, but you're the smartest of us… plus you are the Queen, after all.”

At everyone else's nods, she merely says “Well, I guess you are all decided? I will lead this group to the best of my ability.” She bows regally and she gets bows back… though she can tell Skull wants to laugh. She starts looking around for a back way, but Akira merely starts walking to the front door. She and the rest start following immediately, worry in their eyes.

-----

It looks familiar as well, though the person behind the reception desk is clearly a shadow guard. Akira stands behind the line and waits for the receptionist to call him.

“Next!” She yells in a harsh, strange voice, looking at her computer. When she finally notices him, though, “oh sorry! You know you can just go on up to the top floor, the director and producer have been waiting for quite a while!” She points to a nearby elevator and stamps his arm in addition, “That’s a stamp that will allow you to get to all of the floors. Not that you should right now, you need to start filming and you don't even have your outfit on!”

Akira stares at the mark, and he starts rubbing it in frustration. It won’t come off, however, and he laughs at himself, in a strangely cruel manner. He stares at the elevator instead and says, “Phantom Thieves… my best friends.” He starts walking to the elevator, “I hope that I see you guys at the top.” He hits the button and it pops open immediately, with scientific markings and strange symbols, “Queen, I believe in you.” He disappears into the elevator, and he leaves without looking at them once. Everyone else starts looking at each other with looks of worry.

Queen, meanwhile, clears her throat and says “Let's start! Mona and Noir, you watch our back. The rest of us will hunt for that stamp.” She states as though she's led the group the whole time and everyone starts following her lead, buoyed by her decisive words.

She talks to the receptionist, who is back to barely paying attention to the outside world. At her frequent glass tapping, she asks “What? I'm busy.”

“How would we get to the top floor?”

“Well, you clearly aren't actors, so you need to get certain pieces of paper to get to each floor, so after you get each paper you need to come to me and I’ll give you access,” She states with a drawl, “You only have access to the bottom floor right now, but there are ways of getting the papers.”

Skull notices it first, on their hunt around the strangely empty first floor, a big set of doors with one open and a sign that says ‘Audience Entrance’, and they go in there.

The door leads to a room with a bunch of shadow people in tiny auditorium chairs. They all seem entranced, and they’re all watching the stage, that shows a doctors office. There’s only one actor, a female doctor that seems very familiar, but she does seem to be staring at a strange stand with a balloon on it that has Akira’s face on it.

“That's where Akira gets all of our healing items!” Mona says excitedly, “Same doctor too! The sexy Tae Takemi.”

They take seats, not before Panther smacks Mona, and start watching. As soon as they all sit down, the play starts, as though the doctor was waiting for all the seats to be filled.

“Looks like you’re dying.” The doctor asks with a cold tone, staring at a clipboard, “I mean, it’s to be expected right? I gave you all those chemicals, none of them approved for tests on RATS, let alone humans.” She drops the clipboard onto the nearby table and says, “but I do have to thank you, you have some worth after all prisoner! You helped me solve this disease, and it’ll give me so much fame and prestige that I’ll be able to open my own hospital! Maybe I’ll even get a few statues, even!” She shivers in excitement, “I’m glad that little girl died so I could rope you in.” She stops talking for a moment, as though the balloon is saying something back, before recoiling in disgust.

“Are you kidding me? Help you with that?” She asks, still shocked, “How dare you ask me to do something so disgusting. You’re the leader of the Phantom Thieves, why don’t you just steal like the shitty teenager you are?” She walks off the backdoor of the stage set, and as though it was a switch, the crowd starts clapping.

“Did that really happen?” Queen asks, slightly worried, “Is he dying? I doubt it, but she does sound pretty convinced.”

“I hope not.” Panther similarly looks sick, “She sounds pretty horrible.”

Futaba shakes her head hurriedly, “No way, Takemi is a good doc! She was the only person I'd see besides Sojiro IRL before you guys stole my heart, plus she sells those medicines we use constantly at a loss.”

Queen shrugs, mystified (but glad), “She had a stamp, though, so maybe we need to talk to her?”

They make their way to her trailer, the shadows not even close to the level they were at Shido’s Palace, and open the door.

“Hey, the prisoners posse!” Tae states coldly, “Do you even know who Joker is? I doubt it, all you did was ask for help without offering any in return, as though he didn’t have any problems. As if he didn’t have any opinions at all, like he was just a blank slate. Have you all, even ONCE, asked him why his parents basically kicked him out? Why no one from his home town even acknowledged his existence? No, you were too busy whining about your art. Your multibillion dollar business.” She shook her head in disbelief, “In your stupid fucking track team bullshit!”

She turns into a demon and they easily best her, but her words ring a sour note for the rest of the group. She picks up paper the shadow left behind and without looking turns to the group, “Does anyone else worry about that? I know I certainly did…”

“Hell yeah.” Skull pipes up, “Shit, he’s just so smooth and amazing that I just assumed he was all good, you know? He helped me figure out this shit with Kamoshida, and my own personal shit with the track team, and I couldn’t even bother to ask if he was alright?” He starts stomping angrily and glancing around at everyone else, looking like a particularly despondent dinosaur.

Everyone else stayed silent, but they all had their own looks of forlorn. They’d all hung out with Akira, spending time on their personal problems and asking him to do things without doing them in return. Sure, they helped him in the Metaverse, but they were all looking out for each other then. It wasn’t the same and they all knew it.

Queen shook her head, “We can apologise to him once we get up to the top floor. Let’s get this to the receptionist.”

They head out the doors and back to the waiting area, Queen handing the paper to the receptionist, who looks interested in a second before shaking her head.

“You have to say it, I can’t read.” She says bizarrely, having been staring at her display the whole time.

Queen actually looks at the writing for the first time, and her face turns sad, “The prisoner is only there to solve people’s problems.” The receptionist stamps her arm quickly, and turns away.

“If that was the first floor…” Fox trails off, but they all worried for their leader.

------

The elevator opens to the top and he’s immediately set upon by a shadow in a earpiece and a clipboard, angrily gesturing at him as though he can’t hear. He frowns and the shadow starts pulling him into a small room, where another shadow is waiting.

This shadow is actually a cognition of Ohya, with a makeup brush in hand. He sits down on the chair she’s pointing at with some apprehension, and she immediately starts working as though Ohya knows how to apply makeup professionally.

(She doesn’t, and he knows this because she’s complained to Lala-chan more than once about how much better she is at makeup and how envious she is)

“So, how are you doing?” Ohya asks, and he immediately tenses, knowing what these cognitions are like. When she notices, however, she frowns, “I’m not here to berate you, you know. Obviously I’m part of this palace, but I really want you to take the treasure and destroy it.” She smiles brightly and says, “You gotta think positive!”

He frowns and says, “Well, I’m a little worried about what they’re going to find. I mean, these are my secrets. I know plenty of everyone else’s but they don’t know any of mine. I’m a little worried about what they’re going to think of me.”

Ohya rolls her eyes, “You haven’t even tried! It’s not like you couldn’t, you know. You didn’t even have to start with the big one, either. You could’ve told them about your parents, or your cousin. Even some of your friends!” She considers something before saying, “Well, your ex-friends anyway. They haven’t called since you left, right?”

He nods guiltily, “I suppose not, but it’s not like I’ve tried to reach out either. I did get arrested for assault, after all, and I didn’t even bother trying to argue my case.” He shook his head as though remembering something, “It is a little strange that my parents haven’t even contacted me, even though we don’t exactly like each other.”

“If you ask me, that sounds like…” She puts down the makeup brush, “Well, that sounds like someone isolating you without your permission! You are right, your parents surely would’ve contacted you by now.” She looks at the mirror, “I’m done, by the way! You look positively radiant!” She grins easily, “There’s someone in the next room over that’ll go over the script with you, so you have fun!”

He sees his reflection in the mirror, she doesn’t seem to have done anything at all. She can see him staring, however, and shakes her head angrily. She comes over to him and grabs his hands.

“You don’t have to keep things bottled up, you know.” She has such a strange look on her face, one that reminds him of the fact that she’s a shadow, “Please, please! Let someone in. No one did anything to your friends back home, you guys just fell apart because you couldn’t reach out, and when you don’t reach out yourself, they don’t reach out. I don’t want to see you isolate yourself again…” She fades away as she finishes, her caring eyes the last to fade.

------

They notice the giant doors after a quick run around, another sign advertising the audience. They don’t go in as quickly as they did the first time, and sit down immediately rather than hesitate. She notices that it’s set in his room, though it’s quite different in scope, being much bigger in real life. She also notices that the actors are none other than his home room teacher, Kawakami, and the person who sells them guns, Iwai. They’re both dressed in black, Kawakami in a strange looking maid’s outfit, and Iwai in a leather trench coat that makes him look like a yakuza member. Instead of a stick, a stuffed doll wearing his Metaverse clothes and a picture of his face on a printed out piece of paper is laying face up. It looks like Ryuji wants to say something, but she hushes him.

“I’m so grateful you changed the minds of those parents.” Kawakami says with very little emotion in her voice at all, “I would’ve done anything for you in return, but you asked for this?” She pulls out a whip, “You’re a very strange... person.”

“Right?” Iwai says, smoking a cigarette, “You protected Kaoru, and I was all set to teach ya how to modify your guns yourself, or even just to give you bigger discounts. Instead, you ask for me to punish you?” He puts out the cigarette into the doll’s chest, a small speaker putting out tinny screams, “Well, I’m not going to say I don’t enjoy doing this too.”

Queen glances at Mona and he nods, they both realize the screams are those of Akira’s, of the many bruises and burns he’s gotten while in the Metaverse.

“I mean, considering what you are, this is probably the right idea.” She says with a tiny bit of emotion, “Your desire to be punished is obvious. You don’t tell anyone anything, you live with your pain all alone, and you do your best to protect everyone in Mementos.” She starts with the whip, screams crackling, “So instead of us helping you with all your problems, you’ve decided that we need to punish you.”

Iwai looks around and wonders aloud, “I mean, it’s probably easier than facing your problems head-on, so I can’t exactly fault ya.” He pulls out a gun that makes Mona, Ryuji and Ann gasp, “In fact, you want me to finish with this, right?” He waves the gun around, “I mean, you would’ve rather gotten killed by the Reaper or something, but… beggars can’t be choosers.”

Iwai lowers himself to the doll’s height, and says softly, “Sorry, kid. I’m gonna miss ya.” He pulls the gun onto the doll’s eyes and shoots. The crowd starts stomping their feet and grinning as the shadows escape into the back.

“Does… Does that mean what I think it means?” Oracle asks, almost white anywhere her outfit isn’t, “There’s no way!”

“That was the… first gun.” Mona says with concern, “The first gun he ever used. In Kamoshida’s palace.”

Queen hasn’t said a word, and she can’t think of anything TO say. She’s never gotten any indication that he disliked himself in such a manner, and the fact that the show ended with the gun…

“I’m… not sure what it means.” It seems like she’s found her voice after all, “What I do know is that we all care about him. We’d do anything for him, just as he’s done for us. So if he’s feeling this way, we need to… change his feelings. Dull them, I don’t know. All I know is, we can’t stop now. We need to rescue him.” She wants to say more, but the words dry up.

Panther, who’d been shaking with fear, as though someone else had also entered her mind unwillingly, “Queen… Thank you. Akira made a good choice when he made you leader, haha…” She trails off and quiets. She’s no longer shaking, but she still looks as though she wants to cry.

Queen knows the feeling.

They made their way back to the trailers, the guard shadows still not giving them any problems, and knocked on both of their doors. They both came out, glowing, and Iwai’s coat was gone, revealing a Yakuza tattoo.

“Hey, look. Joker’s dumb team here to save his dumb face.” Kawakami states drolly, her own caring seemingly gone by the wayside, “Looks like they do care about him. Funny, huh? It’s real funny they don’t even know him and are coming in to save the day like they’re fueled by the power of fucking friendship or something.”

“Once you learn the truth about him, you won’t.” Iwai says simply, another two cigarettes in his mouth, “No one will. That’s why he constantly thinks of dying to a hard shadow. Oh no, he accidentally gets killed by Shido’s shadow. He gets all these people crying at his funeral and wishing he wasn’t dead and not knowing him fully. If you did, if everyone did, the only people at his funeral would be his parents, and that’s only because ITS PROPER!” He yells as he transforms.

They best them easily, and Queen grabs the paper they leave behind. Noir hasn’t said anything since they started watching that scene, merely staring off into space, but she decides to speak.

“I’ve… thought about that myself.” Noir states quietly, “Especially in Sae’s casino. I was with friends for the first time in my life, but it still didn’t feel real, you know? My dad had been the one constant in my entire life, and despite the fact that his desires became distorted, even though he tried to push me on that lowlife, I still loved him. So when he was gone it destroyed me.” She sits down on the tiled floor and closes her eyes, “I remember once, some demon coming at me, thinking ‘finally! I can go back to him, we can be together forever in heaven’. Then Akira saved me, and he gave me this look that I didn’t realize at the time, but it was a… look of solidarity, I guess.” She starts crying, “I have to save him, we have to save him. He’s helped me so much, helped us all so much. We can’t do anything about the outside world, but we can stick with him and love him so that he’ll never feel like that around us ever again.”

Fox pulls her up and embraces her, and they all follow suit, crying. It’s not until Panther starts laughing, and says, “We look like the world’s most inappropriate masquerade party!”

It’s not that funny but Noir starts laughing, which makes Oracle start laughing, which made everyone start laughing. It was sorely needed; even though Joker is trapped up there, she might have suggested going home and regrouping tomorrow, but they know they’re there for each other. They need to bring him home, no matter the cost.

They go down to the reception area and she starts to hand the sheet to the receptionist, before remembering that they’re forced to read it. So she merely states, calmly and without fear, “The prisoner wants to die.”

She gets another stamp and they move on, even more anxious to get to their leader and show him the caring that he’s shown them.

-------

Akira stares at the door, hesitating at the door knob. He doesn’t know why, it’s probably another cognition that’s friendly and wants to help him, but there’s still a strange feeling as he turns the knob and opens the door.

To find a cognition of Goro Akechi, in his regular clothing but wearing the mask he wore as a phantom thief.

“Hey, Akira.” Goro says cheerfully, as though there’s nothing strange about the situation and he’s merely enjoying another cup at Leblanc’s, “I hope you’re ready to perform, it’s almost showtime.”

“You’re dead.” Akira states with a calm he doesn't’ actually feel, “You saved us.”

Goro nods thoughtfully, “Of course, you must be traumatized.” He picks up the script and recites, “I just want to help you become the person you’re meant to be~~”

Goro acting like nothing’s the matter is pissing him off, “Stop acting like this! You saved us all, you didn’t even ask, and there’s nothing we could’ve done to help you.” He breathes through his nose as though he’s a bull, “We’re planning a funeral for you, you fucking asshole!”

Goro throws the script away, “I apologize for my rudeness. I merely hoped we could ignore this, but it seems like we should discuss this.” He sits down at a nearby table, “Why does my death affect you so? I highly doubt I’ve affected everyone else that much.”

“You… you’re a wild card. Same as me.” Akira states as he sits on the opposite side of the table, “You could’ve been the one to change Shido’s heart, to help society.”

Goro shakes his head with a heavy hearted smile, “Oh no, I really couldn’t. My childhood wasn’t stable, not only from my mother’s abuse, but because I couldn’t connect to anyone. I certainly got good at pretending, but that just makes me a sociopath. It’s almost like someone purposefully made my life shit and that made me a shitty person. I didn’t really care what happened to anyone until the end, and I think you know that.”

“We could’ve helped you! I could’ve helped you!” Akira yells, hands on the table, “We could’ve stopped him together!”

“Now now, you’re repeating yourself.” Goro reprimands, “I think you know full well that I was unsavable. What is this really about?”

“When we left the boat that night, I wish it would’ve been me.” Akira closes his eyes, “You didn’t have to die, you had your whole life ahead of you. You could’ve been a fantastic detective, fixing society so that what happened to you as a child could never happen again. Instead, you die so that we could all live… but who decided your life was worth mine? Worth all of ours?”

Goro got up from the table and walked over to him, standing him up and hugging him gently. As he cried, Goro murmured into his ear, “I did, obviously. Not only because I was saving a bunch of people, but because I could’ve stopped Shido before you even got involved. I felt guilty, I killed so many people. It was the right call, and I think you know that.”

As he stopped crying, and retreated, Goro merely hugged him again and said, “Plus, you only have suicidal thoughts because you don’t think anyone will accept you. You need to accept yourself, and you need to stop expecting the worst. It’s not healthy, you know?” He smiles gleefully, “You know what is healthy?”

He drags him to the door and opens it, “You need to stop by wardrobe, but we need to stop by the refreshments table first. There’s some amazingly fluffy pancakes waiting for us!”

-------

“There’s only four floors on that elevator, right? This must be the last one before the top!” Skull states excitedly as they start going around the palace floor.

Queen, however, doesn’t share in his excitement, “Do you not remember the last floor? How terrible it was? What if this one is even worse?” She doesn’t want to be a downer, but… she’s trying to be realistic here.

Mona sniffs, “Doesn’t matter, does it? We’re this close to saving him!” As soon as he says that, however, they find the giant doors, and he’s much less excited.

Queen strides in, confidence (that she does not actually have) flowing, and the rest follow suit.

She notices this set seems to be much bigger, set near Shibuya Station that they’ve all passed by from time to time. An older man she’s definitely seen doing speeches at the same exact spot is on a similar soapbox, and they’ve upgraded the doll to an actual actor wearing an Akira mask. He’s much taller, however, and muscular, so it’s similarly unrealistic. The actor is wielding a sign that says “NO PERVERSION” and his head is bowed down in shame.

“As you all know, my name is Toranosuke Yoshida, and thank you for electing me into office!” The crowd cheers, “I couldn’t have done it without help, obviously.” He points to the actor and the crowd boos, “I know, right? It’s funny, honestly, that he spent so much time helping me get into office. Little did he know, that my main mission in office is to make sure that people like him get what they deserve!” The actor shrunk a little smaller, and the crowd laughed, “Obviously, we need to fund conversion therapy. There’s plenty of evidence that it works, after all!” He considers something before adding, “well, not really. Electrotherapy sounds like fun, though, right?” At the crowds answers of yes he smiles, “Well, there’s also the option of jail time. We could even throw in a little public punishment as well!” The crowd seemed to like this and he grins evilly, “Maybe they end up dying in jail…”

The actor seems to want to leave, but cannot. Yoshida notices this, “Hey now, you asked for this! You and your little band of thieves, acting like you’re going to fix society… When society needs to fix you! Most of the rest of your team are all normal, except the blonde one, but you, you’re exactly what needs to be fixed! You hang out at Crossroads all the time, extremely jealous of that old crone bartender. You’ve thought of dating many of the older women in your life without considering that had you done so, you would’ve gotten them arrested. You’re a disgusting human being...” The politician walks away as he finishes, and the crowd cheer louder than ever.

Panther, still slightly affected from the previous floor, “No idea what the asshole means. Not at all!”

She quite clearly knows what he meant, and Queen knows it as well.

“Hey, it’s alright you know.” Queen says softly towards Panther, “We’re a team, we all care about each other. We accept each other, for who we are. There’s nothing that could make us not care about you.”

Skull nods, putting his arm around her shoulder, “Yeah, what she said! You’re stuck with us forever, so you don’t need to hide your secrets!”

Panther glances at Skull, then at Queen, and finally at the roof before saying quietly, “Um… I have… kind of, uh, giant crush. On Shiho, that is.”

“Was that a secret?” Fox asks, confused, “I apologize, but I assumed you two were already dating.”

“I only saw the two of you together once, but I could literally see lilies surrounding you both.” Oracle smirks, “Very Octave of you.”

“Shut up!” Panther says with an extremely red face, “I’m trying to be real with you all, and all you’re doing is joking around!”

“Dude, I noticed your crush a long time ago.” Skull responds, and Panther just gives up; if Skull's noticed it, then it must be pretty blatant.

It’s only then that they notice the cognitive Yoshida looming over them, “How touching… if only it were a boy. I mean, society shuns people like you and Joker for a reason! You spend all this time fighting society, but you’re already ‘rebelling’ against society by indulging in perversion!” He says with a self satisfied smile, “It clearly hasn’t worked well for you so far, so why not stop? Why not leave the prisoner right where he is, and live in a just society?”

“Because we’re a team, and we fight for eachother!” Mona responds, “Together till the end!”

-------

Akira isn’t surprised at all when Hifumi is waiting in the wardrobe room, smiling at him like she’s won her exhibition match.

“Hey, you’re almost ready.” She states calmly, “Do you feel ready?”

“Honestly? Not really.” Akira knows who’s waiting for him. It was obvious even before the went into the metaverse, but still... Now that it's ever closer, he's even more anxious.

“Don’t be nervous.” She smiles, “I know this is a little strange, but I think you know the costume.” she pulls out a very familiar outfit and rolls her eyes, “I don’t know why the director insisted on this, it’s quite gauche.”

“I don’t know, I think it’s fitting.” Akira certainly feels like a prisoner most of the time anyway, so it’s not like he's surprised.

“Maybe, but… I think Igor should probably let you wear your own clothes.” She huffs, “You’re the one he chose, why is he punishing you for it?”

Akira looks confused, “Uh, chose? What does that mean?”

“Well yeah! He could’ve chosen Goro, after all. The other one chose Goro, but Goro WAS available.” She putters around and smiles, “Anyway, I think you look very pretty, ready for the screen! Don’t worry about practicing, I think you’ll do well ad-libbing.”

“I wish I had your confidence.” He turns towards the door, but before he leaves he asks, “Should I be worried? I know it’s happening regardless, but…” He thinks of his friends, of his girlfriend. He's thinking of Sojiro, of his parents, of society in general. Mostly his teammates though.

“Nah, come on.” Hifumi sounds happy, “You should know your friends by now.”

------

They finish him off and pick up the scrap of paper. She doesn’t look at it, but she can only think of one reason. She glances at everyone else, and she wonders if they’ve come up with it too. She can certainly understand Joker’s hesitance, at the very least. They’ve been fighting against society this whole time. They’ve been fighting for their leader in more ways than they knew, and maybe more than Joker even knew.

“So, what does the paper say, Queen?” Noir asks, “I’m… curious.”

“I haven’t read it yet, but I want to ask what everyone else thinks it says.” Queen states as they enter the elevator, “I have my own theory, but I was just wondering if anyone else knows.”

“Um, no idea.” Skull says, “It must be pretty big, right?”

Queen hits the button and nods, “Joker hasn’t told anyone this. Literally anyone, and we’ve only known Joker for a year.”

Oracle stares at the walls and says, “This is a molecule, right? I wish I knew more about biology!”

Noir hadn’t actually studied the walls before this, and she says slowly, “Yes… it seems familiar. We learned what this one was in third year, right Queen?”

“We did.” Queen answers, “It was one of the first things we learned when we started the Biology section.”

Immediately, Noir gets it. She glances around, reading more of the symbols as she says, “Oh. That does make sense... I can't imagine how big that desire is.”

“Hey, let the rest of us know!” Mona yells, “I certainly don’t know anything about Biology!”

Noir looks at Queen and Queen sighs, “Joker… Joker’s a girl. She’s a woman born with the wrong parts, as they say.”

“Oh my god.” Panther gasps, “Really?”

“It makes sense, doesn’t it?” Noir says, “All three of them made reference to perversion. Japanese society certainly doesn’t treat people like… her, very well.”

“That’s an understatement.” Queen states, “They’re pushed to seedy underbellies, they’re pushed to just hide their relationships and pretend they're single. Everyone is so concerned with appearing normal that anything that isn’t ‘normal’, according to them, is shunned. So many other civilized countries have gay marriage, treat people with respect even if some citizens disagree, but we just let them go by the wayside.” She’s clenching her fists as they leave the elevator, “It’s horrible.”

“I agree.” Fox states calmly, “I once caught two of my male classmates in the broom closet, and they were so scared of me outing them that they offered me 10000 yen.” He smiles guiltily, “I didn’t take it, but I did ask if they could treat me to dinner.”

Oracle rolls her eyes, “Inari, you’re pathetic sometimes. Joker would cook for you anytime you need it… That’s just how she is.”

Skull grins, “I don’t really get it, but whatever, right? I want to do right by Joker, whatever it takes. Whoever she is.”

“I think… I think we should get going.” Queen smiles at everyone, “I think our leader’s hidden herself from us long enough, right?”

“She’s helped me so much.” Noir states with a sad smile, “She’s been there for me when I was at my lowest, and now… now I want to be there when she’s at her lowest.”

“She made it so I could leave the house.” Oracle says quietly, humor gone, “When Sojiro realized it… When we all went out to get sushi… She made him so happy. She made me so happy.”

“She helped me avenge Shiho.” Panther says a little loudly, “She helped me punish the perverted asshole who pushed her to do what she did. We’ve fought against society, AND WON!” She shouts, “We can do it again!”

“Well said, Panther.” Fox smiles, “I’ve been so preoccupied with finding beauty that I failed to realize the beauty right under my nose. Our glorious leader, evolving from blue caterpillar to a beautiful pink butterfly.”

“What are we waiting for!?” Skull yells, “She’s probably waiting for us, right?”

Mona nods, “It’s time to find her treasure, to change her heart. We owe her that much, at the very least.”

Queen squares her shoulders and rushes over to the receptionist. She finally looks at the paper and grins.

------

“The Prisoner is a girl.”

He hears a familiar voice from the monitor, but he doesn’t have time to think, as his shadow is here, in the final room. Wearing a female school uniform, wearing makeup that looks like it was applied by a five year old, and looking absolutely miserable… and just like him. He’s sitting on a chair, staring at his hands, and Akira can only sit in the chair across from him.

The shadow jumps when he sits down and says, “Hi! I’ve been waiting for you.” The shadow smiles cheerfully, in a total reversal from the mood beforehand, “I’ve been waiting for a very long time, you know.”

Akira can only look at his hands in response. He speaks to his hands, “I’m sorry to keep you waiting, rehearsal took a while.”

The shadow laughs, “I don’t mean that, you silly! I’m talking about your whole life. I’m talking about when you gained cognition of yourself and wished you were someone else.” He quiets down and says, “Something else.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Akira knew that this line of defense wouldn’t work at all, but he had no other ideas.

“Are you kidding me right now?” The shadow shakes his head, “Fuck off with that bullshit. Don’t you remember when you were 7, and asked why you and Mari-chan had to be separated in school?”

He does, and he responds automatically with, “Yeah. She was a girl, I was a boy, we had to have separate gym. I didn’t like that, she was my best friend.”

The shadow shakes his head, “That’s not the reason. Not the whole reason, at least. You wished you could be where she was, because she was a girl. Not because she was your friend.”

Akira knew this, and still responds with, “I was 7, I didn’t know how the world worked.”

The shadow jumps out of the chair in frustration, “Do you want to go down every single memory you have of that separation, and hating every minute? That would take literal days.” The shadow sits back down, “Please stop trying to hide.”

“Hide WHAT!?” He in turn got angry, “What am I hiding, you stupid shadow?”

“You’re a girl, you dumb fucker.” The shadow rolls their eyes, “So am I, for the record.”

Akira couldn’t say anything for a second, the panic escalating in his mind. He stared at the shadow, and he could see it changing, hair distorting and turning slightly red.

“That’s impossible. I was born a boy, and I am a boy. There’s no changing it.” Akira responds sadly, “Regardless of how I may have felt.”

“WHY. ARE. YOU. DOING. THIS.” The shadow barks, disbelieving, “You’re such a sad, scared little bitch. I can’t believe that YOU beat Shido. I can’t even believe you saved that girl from sexual assault.”

“I saved that girl from Shido because it was the right thing to do, and I saved the country from Shido because it was the right thing to do.”

“This isn’t?” The shadow is more angry now, “This is exactly what you’ve been fighting as a phantom thief. You’re fixing society!” She stares deeply into his eyes, “You’re saving yourself.”

“I’ll disappoint everyone!” Akira shouts at his shadow, “My parents, my friends, society! I’ll die alone, no one at my funeral, and that’s how it’ll work if I start down the path you want me to!”

“How dare you!” The shadow is more angry, almost spitting mad, “Your friends are incredible! How dare you assume that of them… They’ll be there for you just as much as you’ve been there for them. How do you think they got to the top?”

He stalls, listening for his friends. He can vaguely hear Skull beating down shadows, Queen yelling out orders.

“Yeah, that’s them! They’re here.” She calms down for a second, grabbing him with both hands and giving him a look of stern determination, “They’ll always be there. They’ll be there when you’re with Tae, giving you the courage to tell her that you want to transition. When you openly stare at clothing you want to wear with jealousy. When you finally get your first dose of hormones. When you’re angry it isn’t going fast enough. When you go out for the first time and it doesn’t go well and you want to die. The second time when it will. When you’re full time, happy. When you’ve decided what you’re going to do, whether you’ve decided to become prime minister or just run Leblanc. When you and Queen get married… hopefully.” She grins with a hopeful stare, “They’ll always be there.”

“Now… please look at me.” The shadow says, and he finally does.

She looks beautiful. Hair dyed the red of their calling card, black roots poking through. Sparse makeup, but effective. A phantom thief tattoo on her arm, showing her utter lack of fear. Ebullient eyes, that speak of her amazing kindness… and her inner Fool. Face filled out the right way, the right fat in the right places. Her body, slim and toned with muscle.

She wants that so much.

She smiles, feeling strangely unburdened, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have denied you so long.”

The shadow grins, shoulders slackened. “Please! I’m just glad we could literally do this in a physical place… Metaphysical place? Regardless, this would’ve been hard to do entirely in your head…”

She smiles, hearing everyone getting closer. Her team is mere moments away, and the shadow seems to be fading away. She wants her to stay longer, for the mental picture to stay longer, but she’s at peace.

She does have one question…

“What’s your name?” She asks as the shadow fades away, “I want to introduce myself to them properly, after all.”

The shadow rolls her eyes good naturedly, “Do I have to do everything? You should know this, at the very least… prisoner.”

As the shadow finally fades from view, she starts laughing.

------

Queen hears laughing as they enter, and she stares, confused.

“Sorry, sorry.” She hears,“I want to introduce myself properly.” She courtesies in her prisoner outfit, “The name is Toriko Kurusu. It’s very nice to finally meet you all.” Toriko smiles gracefully, as though she feels at ease for the first time in her life.

Which may very well be true…

Noir is the first one to talk, and asks, “How are you feeling?”

“Kinda hungry, honestly.” Toriko responds, “Also, utterly free for the first time in my entire life. Angry at society for making sure I never spoke up, angry at myself for not doing it anyway. Excited and anxious.” She sighs roughly, “geeze, I'm feeling so many emotions right now…”

Skull asks quickly, “So I don't really get any of this, and that's kinda on me, but what does this mean? Do you change your body or somethin? How do you do that? Are you going to grow boobs?”

Toriko looks excited and puts her arm over his shoulder as she says, “dude, it's so fuckin crazy. Basically I take these medications that will soften my skin, put fat in the right places, literally grow breasts… they even have a procedure where I can literally get a vagina!” She quiets and says, “but that's way down the road. So at this point, just remember that science is crazy.” She nods and kisses his cheek, blushing as she does so.

He's super red too, but Panther asks, “So, I have to thank you. Even your palace, which is supposed to be about you and your distorted desires, helped us… helped me. It inspired me, I want to ask Shiho out.” She turns a little red herself, “I want to be able to walk with her, hand in hand, and be free. To ignore the stares and just be with her… so thank you.”

“I agree. I'm also looking forward to that…” she hopes she's reading the situation right, “Toriko, I love you. I've loved you for a while now, ever since we started seeing each other, but now it's almost like I get to meet you for the first time.” She grabs Toriko’s hand and looks into her teary eyes, “I want to help you in the way you helped everyone else. I want to know your favorite band, your biggest worry. I want to be there when you tell your parents, when you go out for the first time, looking so pretty… i want to help you when you feel like everything is wrong and you don't want to be here anymore.” Toriko is openly crying in relief, “you're our leader, but you're also our friend.” Queen turns red, “you're also my beautiful, amazing girlfriend.”

“Oh God, the Yuri is spreading!” Oracle jokes with teary eyes, “All of the sudden I feel the urge to kiss Noir, and it's all your fault!”

“Oh my gosh…” Toriko is openly crying, looking happier than they've ever seen her, “This is going better than I could have hoped.” She tries to stop the tears with her arm, but it's not happening anytime soon, “I love you too Makoto. So much…”

“Such beauty!” Fox remarks, “Toriko, I focused on Ann when instead I should've been asking you to be my naked model!”

“Shut up, Inari!” Oracle goes over and hits him in the back of the head, “don't you realize she hasn't even started yet?”

“Of course… but what's more beautiful than change?” He asks rhetorically, rubbing the back of his head, “Toriko already looks beautiful, I can't imagine she'll look anything less than radiant when she finishes.”

Queen pipes up, “I don't want to rush us, but maybe it's time to steal your treasure, Toriko?”

“It's right here actually.” She points to a nearby table with a bottle of red hair dye, “I'm dyeing my hair red, for the record. Doesn't it look like the red we use for our calling card?” She walks over to it and stares, but seems strangely hesitant to pick it up.

She walks over right beside her and grabs in her hand in support. Toriko shakes her head and picks up the bottle, looking forward to leaving her palace. Her head held forward, her eyes clear and vibrant.

“I… I think… well, I think I'm finally ready to actually live.” She says to the bottle, “I realize how fucked up it is to only figure that out now, when I'm literally 17, but…” she glances at her friends, “it's time I stop hiding from the world, and face it head on.”

They hear the palace start to crumble and Toriko laughs, “let's get going! Does anyone else want to try jumping out the window?”

Queen rolls her eyes as everyone else yells in excitement, but they all jump out the window facing the front of the building, laughing like… like they're a bunch of crazy hyenas.

It seems fitting.