the world offers itself to your imagination - LunaChi_KuroShihone (2024)

(Izanagi's low crackling thunder was a comforting presence while Yu tried to not feel betrayed by what Igor's told him, his persona remarking that Yu should keep a cool head and that they could resolve this. At least one between the two of them was positive despite the situation.)

Lavenza was sitting next to him, her blue dress and little butterfly hair-accessory catching the morning light and giving her an ethereal glow, her expression severe. She kept glancing outside, marvelling at the scenery, and Kurosawa kept glancing at her but not asking questions. "My oldest sister has left for the real world before," Lavenza had said to him, after Yu had stepped outside of the Velvet Room where he, Igor and Margaret had discussed the current situation. "I will join you, Truth-Seeker, both as an ally and because I worry for my Trickster."

She had been angry then, he could tell -- not that Yu could fault her for it. He had arrived in Inaba in the early hours of the morning after a routine check-up in Ayanagi, and gone to the Velvet Room immediately after leaving his things at Dojima's. It was bizarre to not be inside of his limousine or Ren's prison after the summer, the Velvet Room instead taking shape in the neutral night-club-like configuration. It had made the hairs on the back of his neck rise, because that generally meant that the Velvet Room was taking an even more neutral stance than usual. "Greetings," Igor had said, his usual grin not present.

"What is going on in Tokyo?" Yu had asked, point-black.

"Something that is outside of our jurisdiction as attendants," Margaret had muttered darkly, before she'd sighed at Yu's dumbfounded expression. "We are merely beings who provide aid to humans as they carry out their will; you have to be the ones to determine the path and actions to take. This is a matter brought forth by something that falls outside of the boundaries of the Velvet Room's existence, and interfering in it could have severe repercussions." She adds, softly. "Our hands are metaphorically tied; there is a balance that isn't allowed to be broken due to rules set forth by those who created this place, and we are not allowed to interfere in matters outside of human cognition's bounds."

"But-," Yu had stammered, shocked at the blunt dismissal. "But what else could it be but cognition that caused Tokyo to become a blackout zone?"

Igor had sighed, deeply, before he had stood up from his oaken table to walk towards the direction Yu had come in from, his back turned to the human. "...what is happening is a product of altered cognition, certainly, but the one who set it in motion is a creature much older than you or I. The path to humanity's future has become littered with too many possibilities to count -- the Throne stands empty and is ready to be claimed, and the Trickster's defeat of the God of Control alerted outsider parties that had been happily ignorant. A game has been set afoot where the Velvet Room is not allowed to interfere, because it cannot see the outcome." He explains. "The human responsible is but a pawn, in the end, someone with the potential to become a persona user who has been caught."

"... on the day the God of Control fused Mementos with the real world, the merging was undone. Despite that, the two worlds are still attempting to return to their previous states, a year later." Margaret had resumed. "Just like how it happened with the fog in Inaba and the artificially-created Dark Hour in Iwatodai. Usually the real world resolves the discrepancy by pushing the metacognitive one back to reassess itself, but this time it hasn't been totally undone yet, which is why Shadows still can pass easily between the boundary."

The Operatives had noticed the influx of shadows, yes, especially potent at the height of Masayoshi Shido's election and while EMMA had wrecked havoc on the phone network last summer, but that still didn't explain what exactly was happening in Tokyo.

Yu had said as much out loud.

Igor had turned around, eyeing him. "Maruki altered the cognition of the masses by meddling with the waystation Mementos. He is able to control individual people's cognition and impact everyone's cognitions to affect reality itself, an ability that could belie a persona -- I cannot say when he gained this ability, or how he has managed to exert its influence inside of the real world, but what happens is if this actualization continues, the masses as a whole-- the actual waystation will merge with the real world again. if that were to happen, anyone trapped within the actualization would never be able to awaken to the original one."

"This 'Maruki' is the one responsible for this?"

Igor had inclined his head. "Yes. I am afraid that the God of Control's defeat has been but a single flap of the butterfly's wing that has caused humanity's future to fall outside of the bounds of guidance the Velvet Room can offer. The Throne is ready to be taken and many are vying for its power -- it is quite possible that Maruki's benefactor talked sweet poison to assure his compliance while guiding him along in his powers, not unlike what the Usurper had done to the Trickster in amusem*nt. The world is in an unstable condition currently, so beware, Seeker of Truth. You may not like what you will find."

And then Yu had been unceremoniously booted out of the room, blindsided by the how much and how little information he'd been given at once. And then Lavenza had followed after him with an expression so angry he couldn't do anything but agree to let her accompany him.

She was still angry even while wondering at everything around them as they sped along the highway. "I'm afraid I am not at my full potential right now," she said after they passed the usual exit towards Iwatodai. "As master Igor no doubt informed you, our hands are currently tied. The Velvet Room is bound by word to not go against Master Philemon's orders, even if Master Philemon is not around anymore." She balled her hands into fists, and all at once it hit Yu how young she looked, compared to her siblings. "I sadly do not know much about the situation, as my time split apart at the Usurper's hand has corroded parts of my memories, and I am still regaining them."

Yu sighs. "That's okay, Lavenza. I've a feeling that we can use any help we get. ...are you at least able to tell me if the situation in Tokyo can be resolved? Not if it will be, or how we could go about it, just if it can?"

She smiles softly, some of the tension loosening from her form for the first time. Yu can see Kurosawa glance periodically at them from the rearview-mirror in worry, though he's professional enough not to say anything. "If the selfsame will of rebellion burns within my Trickster still then I believe he will be able to break through whatever actualization Maruki has layered over Tokyo. He will need any aid he can get once he has succeeded in doing so."

Mitsuru stares, aghast at Yu and the little attendant, Lavenza, after they'd relayed Igor's usual cryptic advice.

Or, well, his nonexistent cryptic advice. "'The Throne stands empty', what does that even mean?" She asked, and Lavenza flinched. The girl had offered her help, which Mitsuru was glad about -- Elizabeth was free-roaming but would sometimes come by headquarters, out on her own Journey and on a quest to save Arisato's life. She was currently somewhere out-of-country if her memory served her right. There had been a moment in time, in the past, where Mitsuru would've jumped at the opportunity to do the same, and she believes that Yukari and Aigis would still try to do it, but after leading her Operatives for almost a decade she can understand Arisato's sacrifice for what it was. Trying to save him would only diminish the great favor he was doing for humanity.

"...I believe that it is a position of incredible power, able to influence the Metaverse as a whole, but I cannot say anything else." Lavenza said. Mitsuru sighs before eyeing the attendant as she continued. "Please believe me when I say that the Velvet Room's inaction stems not from malice but from an inability to guide you to a path of victory. Imagine a train following along its tracks: it must arrive at its station, and sometimes the tracks split and sometimes they take detours, but in the end they almost all lead to the same place. Even if the train is delayed, unless the train were to completely forget what its destination is, it will arrive at the station sooner or later."

Mitsuru and Yu nod.

"Now imagine not just a few branches in the tracks but a whole forest, each track splitting and each split splitting again. The train does not know which track to take, and so it leaves its fate to the conductor. Will they arrive at their station? The train does not know."

The persona users are silent. Artemisia brushes against Mitsuru's worry. "...the train is the Velvet Room and the conductor is us, in this analogy?"

Lavenza nods. Mitsuru sighs. "Well, in that case: it's time to take this train to its next destination."

"Which would be us making it into Tokyo?" Yu asks, receiving a nod in return. "Why are we at a radio tower near Saitama anyways?"

Mitsuru motions them to follow her, approaching the van she commanded for herself. Inside, Sophia's new (temporary) shell was sitting, connected to as many computers and screens and monitors as the shell could sustain without burning out. Creating the same kind of body for her as Aigis and Labrys had was difficult due to their limited resources, but letting the AI stay inside of the phones had seemed cruel, so Sophia had agreed to the compromise of a simple mechanical shell. It was nowhere as sophisticated as the ASW's build, but better than the phones.

Yu made a noise of surprise while Lavenza looked around in wonder before walking up to one of the monitors. "...this shows the spread of Maruki's actualization?"

Mitsuru nods. "As of today, the actualization borders Hachioji and Machida. All of Tokyo City was engulfed the first day we noticed the abnormalities; taking into account how it has spread until now, it will be a matter of two weeks until Okutama is contaminated and all of the metropolitan area of Tokyo is unreachable."

"We've insufficient information how the... actualization, yes? How the actualization will start spreading afterwards. It's possible that it will increase exponentially to the land it covers, which would mean all of Japan will be trapped inside in four months' time." Sophia says, turning towards them with audible whirrs and clicks. She blinks and smiles. "Hello, Yu. Hello Miss Lavenza; it's nice to see you! However, if the spread stays the same as now, it might take up to a year to cover all of Japan."

Mitsuru glances at their resident Velvet Room attendant and remarks dryly that they wouldn't have such luck. Sophia shrugs to the best of her abilities before turning back to the screens. "No new news from Oracle, Miss Mitsuru. There has been no indication if she received your message yet."

"I've only stepped out for half an hour, Sophia. Keep up the good work, we'll leave you to it. Narukami, Lady Lavenza, after me please." Mitsuru steps out, her two companions at her heels, before she closes the door to the van.

"You've managed to contact the Phantom Thieves?" Yu asks, but she merely shakes her head.

"We've received a short text from Oracle yesterday that short-circuited my phone. It was dated back three days ago to the 27th. My phone acted as if the sender had been in a dead zone, and the calls still ping back with a cannot connect signal. No-one's made it inside the actualization yet -- Hasegawa is monitoring the situation here with me, Kikuno, Kanzato and Kotone. I've sent Naoto to Hachioji with Yukari and left Aigis and Aki in charge." Mitsuru sighs. "I want to complain that so many more things seem to happen to the Phantom Thieves as a persona group than to us, but that would be highly hypocritical. You're lucky that Inaba only really had the one event and then the tournament where we met."

Yu snorts and even Lavenza's lips turn up slightly, so Mitsuru and Artemisia count it as a win. "This is the message by the way," she adds, holding out a sheet of paper. "The insides of my phone literally melted, so my sim card's with Sophia right now."

This is Alibaba. this mssg was sent as mail, text, over cloud and on sns, local from Jongen o. t. 27th, at 0003 military time. don't know how it'll reach u. I hope it'll reach u. All the T. 're acc. for, currently only Fool 1 & 2, Chariot n. me are in action. My school therapist has fulfilled evryn's Desires. Dunno if monitored. Justice is on our side for real. Mom has been making pancakes in the mornings. We've been having out-of-body experiences & some Alters have been going separate ways. We'll be having a sssn on 31st to help a friend. Will try to cont u until then. B careful.

Yu stares at the message, and even Lavenza furrows her brow. "This is atrocious penmanship," she complains. "What do half of these words mean?"

Mitsuru huffs in amusem*nt. "It's a very shoddy cypher for Oracle, though I can only guess that she is simply hoping that it reached us. I am... worried by the implication of some of this."

"You don't say," Yu frowns. "What does she mean by 'alters'?"

"Oracle is implying that the persona are not with them anymore, I believe -- an alter is what split personalities are referred to as in DID. I do not know if this means they are currently unreachable or something else -- her comment about Fool one and two leads me to believe she meant Amamiya and Arsene in a separate context." Mitsuru frowns. "Hasegawa's more worried about her casually mentioning her dead mother and detective Akechi -- that's who we presume Justice to be, who is also responsible for murdering said dead mother."

Yu stares.

"The connection between her therapist and Maruki and the capitalized desires and the actualization is obvious at least," she adds, dryly, "so it might be possible that Maruki is fulfilling desires and bringing back cognitive copies of the dead, if that is possible."

Both humans turn to look towards their resident attendant, Lavenza's gaze fixed on the letter. "...it is possible, yes, though incredibly energy-consuming. It is also possible that Maruki has inexplicably found a way to turn the persona back into shadows, which might account for their separation." She frowns. "I cannot be certain of any of these assumptions, though I do know from personally talking to my Trickster scant two weeks ago that Maruki is indeed a therapist at Shujin. He found it amusing how the school tried to do something for the student body's mental health a year after the wile palace ruler was taken to jail."

"That's all well and good," their resident wildcard adds, "but they're going to meet with Maruki tomorrow to help a 'friend' -- do we have context for that? -- and we're no closer to figuring out how to enter the actualization, are we?"

"..."

Ren was kind of having a Not Good Time. That was already part and parcel of everything ever since Maruki happened, but he was having a considerably worse time right now. The active thieves -- Futaba, Ryuji, Akechi, Arsene, Zorro and a sceptic Necronomicon -- were currently sitting inside of the Sakura family living room with hot cocoa at hand and a frosty reception towards each other. Robin Hood was materialized and leaning against a wall. Shiho remembered and had stayed back to talk Ann around, and only the Velvet Room knows how Haru, Yusuke or Makoto were dealing with things, because they've been ignoring him the past days. Morgana was staying out late and leaving early in hopes of avoiding Ren. Mishima at least seemed to have gotten his act together, because the phansite was being actively monitored again, currently down for server maintenance.

"So what you mean," Futaba started, "when you said 'our bodies are dying' is…?"

Arsene, pressed close to Ren's side and with his right hand in Ren's lap, degloved and cold, grinned without humor. He was wearing the necklace Ren gifted him. "I believe that our bodies are unable to support our essence, in a sense, and are deteriorating quicker than Maruki is able to sustain them. Because we art not human, and yet he has tried to turn us into ones." He cants his head into Zorro's direction. "Zorro has weak lungs, 'Nomi is erratic and neurotic, Johanna cannot walk, my limbs have frostbite. Milady has a bad leg, Kidd apparently suffers from osteogenesis--" Ryuji nods, "-- and I do not know what is wrong with Carmen or Goemon, but if the pattern continues, something certainly has to be. Oui?"

"That is… problematic," Robin Hood interjects, carefully. The lone persona shuffled awkwardly around as everyone stared at him.

"Yes. It means we have another time limit to keep in mind." Akechi interjects, and Ren finds it incredibly amusing how he goes to his persona's immediate defense even though he couldn't have been caught dead doing so back while he pretended to be a member.

Futaba whines. "But are we talking dead dead or just mostly dead? As in 'go back to the user's psyche' dead or 'get yeeted into the sea of souls' dead?"

"I can see that your way with words is as eloquent as ever, Oracle." Akechi deadpans, and Ryuji groans as they start sniping at each other.

"We just gotta hope that enterin' the Doc's palace gets the persona back to regular, right?"

"You just have to hope that doing what gets what back to regular?" Wakaba asks, and everyone whips around to stare at her, Robin freezing where he is. She just walked into the hallway, coat still on and keys in hand. A sudden thought occurred to Ren: if someone regular who was dead realizes they shouldn't be alive, will they die? He glances at Akechi, white as a ghost, and at Futaba and Necronomicon, frozen in their seats next to each other. Wakaba seems none the wiser, taking off her glasses to clean away the fogginess as she walks into the living room.

Robin Hood still isn't moving, and Ren isn't sure if he's worried about dematerializing and making a noise or if he hopes she can't see him. "...gets what back to regular, Futaba? If its a problem I could maybe help you out?" She puts her glasses back in place. "I am something of a scientist myself, even if cognitive research is a... soft... science..." She stares at Akechi, twitching violently, and then her gaze snaps to Robin Hood and Wakaba's knees start to wobble. "You-- what- how-- what--"

Wakaba's knees give out and she starts falling, and the next thing Ren knows is that Arsene's hand is gone while he rushes to her side, Zorro to her other, and they're guiding her to sit down on the space Ryuji had occupied, who scoots over to sit on the ground by Ren's feet. Futaba and Necronomicon are bei her (their?) mother's side at once, Futaba in a panic. "Mom? Mom? Are you okay? Do you feel-- how do you feel? Everything is under perfect control, don't worry-!"

Wakaba blinks, and Ren's holding his breath. Arsene and Zorro are kind of hovering over her. "I- know you," she says, towards Akechi. He's tense but doesn't deny it. "You- how do I know you."

Akechi sighs. "Your research on cognitive science had proven to be of valuable information for Shido-san. Your refusal to cooperate with him instead of your previous benefactors lead to him taking some more… drastic measures to attain your work."

Futaba's dead mother stares at him, lets the words sink in while her gaze travels to Robin Hood and then to the others inside of the room. "...then that being behind you is an Apparition? It should not be able to exist outside of the Manifestations of Thought; there should be not enough thought-matter to support it existing. Unless…" she muttered, brilliantly connecting the dots. "That is a Representation -- I've never seen one in person before, and all of my knowledge is based on questionable anecdotes so I've only rarely mentioned them, but if its essence is bound to… but then why can I see it without--" her hands go up to her glasses, before Wakaba shakes herself. "But I remember you standing before me with a gun- I was so angry, I-"

"I killed you for your research," Akechi says, without apropos, and Ryuji whirls towards him with a what the eff, dude?! even while everyone else tenses. "I found your shadow -- your apparition -- and killed it, and you died to a mental shutdown. You should be dead," he continues. "As should I." Akechi falls silent. Wakaba is still staring at him, uncomprehending.

"Is that true, Futaba, Nomi? Am I supposed to be dead? ...is that why you've been avoiding me lately?"

"Mom, I--" Futaba starts, helpless. Necronomicon looks at her, still without their memory, but places a hand on Futaba's shoulder in support. Zorro is moving silently out of the room and towards the kitchen with Arsene, taking all of the empty mugs with them. Robin is silent. "...yeah. You threw yourself before a-- car, and I've been living with Sojiro ever since. I even took on his last name. It's been around five years already, oh god, and I missed you so much--" she throws herself at Wakaba, who catches her on instinct, and then Futaba's crying into her dead mothers shoulder while her mother's dead killer is sitting uncomfortably in the same room, and Ren feels kind of out-of-place right now.

He makes pained eye-contact with Robin Hood before they resume their silent vigil. After a few minutes, during which Arsene and Zorro come back with actual alcohol in hand and give everyone a shot of straight-up absinthe without anything to soften it. Ryuji takes a sniff and then discreetly leaves it on the table, and Ren sips at his, but Akechi and Zorro just down it in one go without making a face. Necronomicon ignores it completely. Arsene drank about half of the shot glass before grimacing and putting it aside, and Robin is eyeing the drink in envy.

Futaba and Wakaba separate, teary-eyed, and Futaba makes a face at the absinthe while Wakaba debates for a moment before taking the offered glass and downing it. She puts it down with a soft thump, before turning back to the round. "So. I'm supposed to be dead, my killer is supposed to be dead, what else have I missed out in five whole years?"

"Right, so." Ren blinks as she whips towards him. Seemed like his time to shine. "So. What happened -- the short version, at least -- is that Shido was manipulating politicians left and right by using your research on cognition to induce mental shutdowns via Akechi over there to get rid of his opposition, unknowingly playing into the hands of a bigger threat called Yaldabaoth that was using the metacognitive bubble of the Tokyo citizens' collective unconscious to manipulate everything behind Shido. He took over a place called the Velvet Room -- too long of a story, ignore it -- and set up a game between Akechi and me by posing as my benefactor. I'm, uh." Ren pauses. "I was sent to Tokyo on probation under false claims of assault and Boss took me in. Anyways, so-- my friends and I stumbled into Mementos -- the metacognitive bubble -- by fake chance and started using our power to steal the hearts of the distorted and wicked to better society. We took down Yaldabaoth, had Shido confess, not in that order, and then half a year later we took down another almost-god with new allies and here we are."

"..."

"..."

"That was a very… succinct summary," Akechi comments, going for a second shot of absinthe.

Ren blinks. "The times I had to explain all of it over the course of the past week was just... too often, shut up. Oh, wait -- so what's going on right now is that our school therapist, Dr Maruki, somehow managed to influence and control cognition and he's using his abilities to quote-unquote 'better' the world starting with Tokyo, only he's been bringing back the dead, letting shadows -- apparitions, again -- run around and he managed to sever or suppress our connection with our representations, actually called persona. And he tried to help a girl get over the death of her sister by having her believe she's the dead sister. That about sums it up."

"You know, if you say it like that it does sound highly improbable," Zorro remarks. "But all of it is true. Technically Arsene, Necronomicon and I should appear as nonhuman as Robin Hood does, over there." Zorro points at Robin Hood with his second absinthe, having foregone the shot glass for a whole bottle. He takes a hearty swig out of it. Arsene, still next to him, makes a deeply offended sound.

"...hello. It has been an ongoing problem that they do not," Robin mutters, shy in the way Valjean had been at first with strangers. Not everyone was as comfortable as Arsene with just interacting with outsiders.

"I do not remember any of this," Necronomicon mutters, "but by my calculations all of them are sadly correct."

Wakaba's expression softens at her adopted child's discomfort before she blinks. "'Robin Hood?'"

"Oh, yeah," Futaba mutters. "You don't know much about persona. Shadows and persona alike are born from the human unconsciousness, so they represent characters or archetypes or stories based on human literature and culture and stuff. Persona are more individual, but anyways -- that's Akechi's personal interpretation of Robin Hood, the book of Necronomicon is mine, Diego 'Zorro' de la Vera, Spanish vigilante, is Morgana's and Arsene Lupin, gentleman thief, is Ren's. Ryuji's over there is the pirate William Kidd, but Kidd doesn't remember so he's not here right now. Together, we're the Phantom Thieves of Hearts!" Futaba cheers, before calming down again. "...yeah. They're kind of the real deal but also not? Arsene, how did you explain it once?"

Ren's persona hums a not-thrum. "We art personalized copies of how our humans view a certain concept that resonates with their soul, given existence when needed. We art not real people in the human sese, for some of us in the literal sense that we are based on a literary figure -- I was written by Maurice LeBlanc, for example -- but our experiences with our humans is real enough." He pauses. "… though technically speaking we count as real human people right now. I believe."

Wakaba blinks. "Oh. All of this is-- fascinating. Forgive me--" she glances between the human-persona and Robin, "-- but you're quite literally my life's work, so--" She takes a deep breath. "No, wait, focus, Wakaba. Right. So you're planning on confronting this Maruki? ...don't look at me like that, I have eyes, Futaba, you've always been too headstrong for your own good."

All of them are silent for a moment. "...tomorrow, yeah," Ren admits, slightly squirming underneath her stare. "We've got to save our friend from him, at least, but we're unable to enter his palace -- that is, his personalized manifestation of thought -- without his explicit blessings."

"...and we still don't know if the human-shaped persona will turn back into regular persona once we enter," Akechi points out.

"Technically they should be classified as shadows right now, I think…" Futaba mutters, sotto voce.They ignore her and Arsene snorts at the fake detective's remark.

"At this point I simply want to punch the good doctor in the face," he mutters, and Ren hums in agreement.

"--sorry for running late, Wakaba, I had to take care of some things at the cafe--" Sojiro stumbles into the living room, in an amusing if frustrating repeat of before. Wakaba is the one that looks closest to panic right now, but Sojiro just blinks, stares at Robin Hood, stares at Arsene and then at Wakaba, before turning towards Zorro and the half-empty bottle of absinthe. He grabs it without much protest and takes a swig. "Right. I feel like I just woke up into a nightmare. Ren, what the hell is going on?"

With Sojiro also remembering, Ren thought it a tactful retreat to let the Sakura family talk to each other -- they didn't know what effect confronting Maruki would have tomorrow. Best case scenario, they'd be rid of the false reality altogether. Worst case: they didn't free Sumire and everything stayed the same. "My first text message came finally through," Futaba had told him shortly before they'd left the Sakura residence. "Even if it took three days and two corrupted hard-drives. We can push through, but it takes an enormous amount of effort. I'll be sending Kirijo another message tomorrow before we meet with any updates and hope that'll reach its destination without obstacles."

Robin dematerialized and Akechi went into the opposite direction of the cafe, to wherever it was that he's been staying. "You know," Ryuji hummed, once they'd watched him leave. "Unless the doc brought Crow back with money, it's possible that he's just... got no funds to book a room."

Ren blinks. "I hadn't thought about that. But do you really think Akechi would sleep on the streets like some homeless person?"

Ryuji huffs. "I think his damned pride is too big to admit that he needs help, ya'know? He said he can't access Mementos either, right? 'Cuz his phone doesn't have the app anymore? And it doesn't transfer anymore."

Ren nods, and then Ryuji rolls his eyes and takes off, brown hair disappearing around the corner after Akechi. Ren ignored it and simply let him do whatever he planned, going back to the café with the two remaining persona in tow.

Zorro was complaining to Arsene how strange it was that everyone kept seeing them and interacting with them. Arsene's exasperated I know! made Ren think that his pigeon had been thinking about the topic for some time.

(They'd made it to Leblanc with sunlight peeking through the buildings, their planning session cut short with Wakaba and Sojiro's sudden arrival. Zorro took one look at the empty café and then excused himself to go and look for Morgana, countenance a slightly manic edge to it for how long they'd been separated ever since Zorro's remembered yesterday night. Ren winced in sympathy, could see the same pull reflected in Ryuji and everyone else who remembered but was missing their other half. Arsene had brushed against Ren's arm, also looking quite tired, and they decided to forego being productive members of society for curling up and watching a movie on Ren's ancient TV. They went as far as moving it over to the foot of the bed before sitting up against its frame, a spy flick's opening flashing over the screen.

Arsene's fingers curled around Ren's torso as he pressed them closer together, and Ren leaned his head back to glance at his persona's face from the corner of his eyes. Arsene's eyes were staring ahead, unfocussed, his arms trembling slightly. Ren sighed, pressing a kiss to his lower jaw, still unused to the soft human skin. Arsene hummed, turned his head to press a kiss against Ren's temple. Then he wandered lower, pressing a kiss under Ren's eye and then to the corner of his lips. "I will not mourn the loss of this human body," Arsene murmurs, still pressing Ren close to him. "But I shall mourn the ability to kiss thee properly."

Ren huffs, movie forgotten. He grabs at Arsene's hands with his own and squeezes them. "That's still such a weird hang-up to have," he says, softly, because he knows it bothers Arsene. "I've been missing your warmth too, and your wings, and your presence." They're silent for a moment, and Ren watches the first stars appear, so much more numerous in the sky ever since Maruki had created this reality. "Everything will work out tomorrow, you'll see. We're the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, after all."

Arsene laughs.)

Sojiro closes Leblanc to the public the next day, expression severe. Ren is the first one up, even before Morgana for once, so he goes downstairs and sits with the older man over a cup of coffee. "...how're things with Wakaba?" Ren asks, at last.

Sojiro sighs. "She cried after Futaba went to bed, and then had me tell her everything that happened since she died. It was cathartic for both of us, I think. She told me that she's proud of me that I took Futaba in and how I've raised her." He clutches at his own cup. "What do you have planned for today, Ren?"

"You remember Kasumi Yoshizawa, Futaba's friend from Shujin? She's actually called Sumire, and Maruki has her inside of his palace, which is -dangerous if you don't have a persona on you. We'll try to free her with anyone who appears today, and maybe we'll even get him to change his mind?" It sounded strangely hopeful, but Maruki had been a genuinely nice person who was only doing what he did for the betterment of the people, even if it's completely wrong. Ren hoped they could be civil with him, for once.

More and more people trickled into Leblanc as the morning went by, Arsene, Zorro and Morgana coming down half an hour after Ren did, and then the other members of the Sakura residence arriving. By silent agreement, everyone stayed silent about their topic of meeting. Ryuji followed with Kidd and Akechi, who looked marginally less insane after a good night's rest and Mama Sakamoto's famous stew. Ryuji was also sporting newly-dyed hair, and Ren wondered if he somehow roped Akechi into help. Makoto, Johanna and Sae were next, with Mishima in tow. Ann and Carmen. Shiho. Haru, Yusuke, Goemon and Milady.

Once everyone was in, Sojiro locked the door and leaned against it. Sitting behind the counter are Wakaba, Shiho, Sae and Mishima in tacit agreement to not speak up, and Ren shoots Shiho a grateful smile at her previous whisper and urging for them to stay out of it. He glances over everyone gathered, pushing up the bridge of his glasses as his only show of nervousness. "I gather that everyone present today noticed that something's wrong with reality or at the very least believes us when we say it?"

A round of downtrodden agreements, and Ren feels his heart ache in sympathy. Ann didn't look at him. Makoto was gripping Johanna's wheelchair handles in an iron grip, and Yusuke kept glancing at where the Sayuri was usually hung. Milady avoids eye-contact with Arsene. They're silent like that for a moment, and then another, until it's Morgana who speaks up: "...I don't want to become a cat again," he says, looking at his fingers and opening and closing them. "It's nice having thumbs and being able to talk to everyone and be understood, but--"

"Father is alive and happy," Haru adds, just as softly. "The company is thriving and we're looking to open a small homely café in Kichijou." She closes her eyes. "I spent the whole evening yesterday with him because I can't know how today will possibly go." Her eyes open again, and Haru fixes Ren with an indiscernible gaze. "I don't want to give this up. What would you do if I would just walk out of this door, Ren? Or if I would just come with you to get Yoshizawa-chan and nothing else?"

He swallows, "Haru..."

"You are lucky," she continues, voice wobbly, as everyone else is silent around them. "That you don't remember the memories from this reality. You're asking me to be responsible for my father's death again. My family is whole again, as is Futaba's, and Mako-chan's and Yusuke's."

Ren swallows again, Arsene's hand at his shoulder. "I--"

Haru takes an unsteady breath. "Don't pretend to understand. If you'd woke up with your family whole again, none the wiser, and one of us were asking you to do this --" she falls silent, and Ren grimaces internally, at all of the missed and ignored calls by his mother or father, the question by Akira if Ren was able to make it to the now-postponed family dinner. He tries imagining his parents as loving, tries to think back to a time where he could remember them loving both him and Akira unconditionally, and can only come up with events when they'd been children.

He doesn't think he'd have such a hard time agreeing to change reality back in any scenario, but doesn't voice it. "I know this is a lot," he says, closes his eyes. "And I'm not going to pretend to understand. But Haru, if any of you were to walk out of this door," he motions at Sojiro, who frowns but obediently walks away from his spot in front of it, the keys dangling in the lock. "This is probably the only time I'm going to ignore our veto rule and still go after Maruki regardless of how many of you follow me."

"Why?" It's Yusuke that asks.

Ren sighs. "Because as painful as losing this reality will be for all, this isn't what we've fought for as Phantom Thieves -- I don't want our Journey, our victory over Yaldabaoth and EMMA both be meaningless. We fought tooth and nail against both false gods only to let Maruki finish what they started? I won't stand for that."

They're silent again. "I am on the same side as him on this," Akechi mutters into the silence. "Though our first priority should be to save Yoshizawa-san before confronting Maruki."

"We agree with Joker," Futaba adds as well, expression severe, motioning at Necronomicon and herself. Haru glances at them.

"...even if it means losing your mother again, Futaba-chan? Or dying again, Akechi-kun?"

Ren thinks this is kind of an unfair question to ask, going by the tightening of Wakaba's expression, but she's staying out of the discussion while Futaba shudders but resolutely says, "Yes."

A moment passes, and then: "I like being human, but I miss having Zorro besides me more," Morgana mutters, before cracking a wobbly smile. "And all of the people important to me understand me regardless of if I'm a cat or not, so I guess I'm in too."

"I see many of Sensei's former students at the studio and even alive, and it would be a disservice to their memories if I would not put a stop to this lie," Yusuke admits. "It is no little secret that I've still been missing him as a guiding figure in the art world and more, but this… this is a bastardization and a caricature that I cannot stand by any longer. Goemon and I will help as well, as much as it pains me."

"We will help as well," Johanna says, before Makoto could even open her mouth. "What that man is doing is disgraceful and an affront to the heavens. If he thinks playing god in the name of the people is something he can do by means of his abilities, then he will face our wrath, as the others have done before him."

"But--" Makoto tries, and Johanna turns to her and smiles gently.

"Löwenzähnchen, you've been looking out for everyone but yourself ever since Joker has talked to you. Sae and myself have been fine without Maruki's interferences before, and we will be again. As will your darling. And I must confess that I do agree with Morgana in that I miss being Yours."

Their Queen sighs. "Right. Haru?" She looks at her girlfriend. Haru has a wobbly, wry smile on her lips before glancing back at Ren.

"I would've never walked out of the door," she admits. "But you're asking the impossible of us, and I had been so mad for days after you'd talked to me. I just had to make sure," she murmurs. "What Maruki is doing is unforgivable. We're with you as well, right, Milady?"

Milady grumbles an agreement, and Ren feels something inside of him untense. "Thank you."

Haru shoots him a smile.

Ann huffs, next to Haru. "I guess nothing much actually changed for me, even if it was nice to hear from my parents daily and having Shiho next to me -- though I can't believe that Maruki made me forget Ryuji's…" she trails off, a blush dusting over her ears. "I'm mad as hell because of that. I want to punch Maruki in the face for it."

A snort next to Ren, the solemn mood inside of the room broken. Arsene agrees with her statement. "Preferable with one of Queen's gauntlets," he adds, and that makes Carmen crow a laugh. Ren grins at them, before noticing one thief that'd remained silent. He turns to Ryuji, flush high on his cheeks as he's sitting across from Ann.

"What about you?"

Ryuji blinks out of his stupor. "What kinda question is this?? My Ma raised no quitter -- I've been ready to go and kick the doc's ass from the moment we'd talked over ramen!"

"Oh Ryuji," Shiho laughs, and Ren has the pleasure to watch Ryuji's face turn several shades darker again.

"Then I guess we'll go and free Sumire and talk to Maruki," Ren says. "Is everyone ready?"

A resounding amount of cheers was his answer.

Shiho stares at the door. The Phantom Thieves had left, leaving the three adults and her and Yuuki alone. They were silent for a moment, letting Shiho observe them; Sakura was frowning, Isshiki-san looked kind of lost -- she'd found out yesterday that she'd been dead for a while, Shiho couldn't imagine how she must've been feeling. Yuuki shared a glance with her, his laptop and phone already on the counter, open on the phansite. He'd been running interference, adding her as an admin once she'd contacted him two days ago. "I worry that I might still be influenced by Maruki-san; I'd been helping him the whole school year as an assistant." She should monitor him to some degree, he'd said. The phansite was currently down both because of regular maintenance and because a backlog of messages appeared over the week that Yuuki hadn't checked out yet because he'd forgotten that he was running the site.

Shiho saw Niijima glance over the remaining people in the café. "I worry about Hasegawa," she admitted.

Sakura groans. "From what Futaba's told me this morning, he should be in Kyoto, probably unaffected. She contacted that Kirijo lady and put Wakaba and me onto supervisory duty to intercept any messages. Apparently something is blocking the phone network or such."

Niijima blinks, mouth parting in a question, but Shiho intercepts her: "From what I know the others determined that Maruki's reality spreads along the borders of Tokyo; anyone within can be contacted, anyone outside of it cannot. Knowing Zenkichi, he's probably already working on a solution to the problem. Wolf's resourceful."

"He is," Yuuki agreed. "As is Phantom Lady; I'd wish I could contact her to keep me updated."

"I guess you're not resourceful enough with the phone network to know how to send her a message?" Shiho asks, but Yuuki shakes his head.

"That's really more Oracle's expertise than mine, sorry. I know how to set up a webpage and how to run it, but hacking's really outside of my skillset."

"Hacking?" Isshiki asks, and Yuuki flinches.

As does Sakura, which is way more amusing than it should be. "Ah, right. I might've forgotten to mention that."

Niijima sighed before turning her attention towards their little group. "Anyways. Isshiki-san, your knowledge on metacognition could prove to be valuable to all of us; I've read your papers, the Thieves read your papers, but hearing it from the source is quite different than second-hand experience. And Mishima-kun -- Maruki has been operating as a therapist at Shujin, has he not? Any sort of information on him might be helpful." She blinked, glanced towards the door. "Though I belive that Goro would've already researched this, from how I know him," she muttered under her breath before brushing through her hair. "We're all operating on outdated information compared to Amamiya and the others, so we should hurry and catch up."

Shiho agrees, before remembering something. "Niijima-san, have you heard from Akira? Do we know what's going on with him? I worry."

She blinks. "I've only gotten a message where he bemoans Amamiya's reticence to come to a... family dinner."

"Oh."

Sakura sighs. "Goddamn those two and their reluctance to talk to each other."

Shiho has the need to defend them: "They're doing much better than before!"