The 5th of July, maybe the 4th. I stayed up late. If you've ever worked under a real deadline then you can understand how overwhelmed I'm beginning to feel.

  "Where the North Wind blows,

  Where the South Wind blows

  Where the East Wind blows

  Where the West Wind blows

  I will be there,

  Watching at

  Perpendicular to the MMO and moon

  Down the twin cranes

  Stand there,

  Look towards the highest floor where the Flicky roosts

  Before they loop around the world

  Text me about the heart!"

  This was too deep of a cut for me finally. Having the title of 'nerd' didn't make every game in the world get downloaded into my brain. I was a Mario fan first, before deciding that platformers were boring and upgrading into real gaming.

  It took a good amount of Google sleuthing to find all the references in this poem. I had a pretty good idea of what the person wanted me to do unlike the first poem and it further proved that this was just a way to filter out most people. But then why have an easier poem as the second? What was the purpose of having a hard then easy poem? That question made me suspicious enough that I wrote it down to keep it in mind after I'd slept.

  First stanza? No clue. Second one? MMO and moon most likely was referring to the puzzles, meaning that it was somewhere between the handprint and store. Believe it or not, I actually got the twin cranes within a minute's thought: there was a restaurant on a corner that served ramen which had two cranes painted on its entrance. The puzzle wasn't referring to mechanical cranes but a feature which had one of the birds' wings chipping off. Easy. I remembered correctly that the restaurant was next to a junction too, which gave the first stanza its meaning.

  Finally we came to the last one that needed me to read through a wiki: what the hell was a flicky? A 'Flicky' is a recurring creature in a bunch of Sonic games. They had their own game that was released some time ago, an arcade minigame where you gathered your tiny birds to save them from the evil cats. Get caught and you get eaten. Like most games released back then, it was technically infinite. Completing all the levels would have the game loop back around to level one where all your enemies would be faster. What was referred to as 'looping around the world' was simply asking for the level that the game ended at.

  None of this information was written online so I watched a playthrough of it. Speaking of real gaming, this is real gaming. Circle round and round a room where you were given a simple, universal goal. No open plains to get lost in or stupid story moments that had people debating whether they were cool years afterwards. Oh! And none of that stupid realism stuff that the Americans are obsessed with! This was pure, undistilled, beautiful gaming to its core. I watched the entire video.

  The last level was 48, by the way. On a street that split off in between two of the clues where there were 'twin cranes' was the number 48 that'd give me the hint. I figured all of this out in my bed. It made me more suspicious. I'm not smart. There was a game going on.

  Before falling asleep, a few attempts into the metaverse navigator brought out way too much. She's a lawyer? Courthouse. Easiest codeword of my life. The dwindling number of places in the dictionary made each attempt easier and easier. I felt pretty confident when falling asleep that I'd be able to figure it out within the next day.

  After waking up I ate and went to school. Most of the day was consumed by the poem. It didn't take too long for me to figure out what their angle was: all the puzzle pieces were in Yongen-Jaya. This wanted me to stand at a specific place for the next clue or to text again. Whether it was high tech with cameras or low by simply watching didn't matter as much as this particular person had set up the situation so that they could get me to reveal my identity.

  But even this was so easy that I was leery about what I could be missing. There was literally a part of the poem admitting that they were watching. What was I missing that made them confident that they could get my identity? None of the explanations made me feel satisfied. Since I couldn't figure that out, I decided that thwarting this attempt was better. No matter how supernatural stealing hearts seemed, I doubted that most people considered that it was genuinely magical. This hacker was somebody obsessed with numbers. They manipulated the physical world.

  After school I said a bunch of names in my bedroom. Only took around an hour. Under an hour? Around an hour. Casino, I whispered while rapidly firing a slew of words. Easiest palace infiltration of my life. I assumed that with my list becoming more refined in each iteration (if your palace is shaped like a silo then you have problems stealing your heart may not be able to fix), it was becoming easier with each infiltration. While laying in my bed I entered Mementos.

  This was my devious plan. They weren't expecting literal magic. It was deviously easy to find the number hidden amongst the sprawl—in my head, at least. Cruel reality swam around me. All those features which I've talked about at various times came together to make seeing particular details feel impossible. Borders of objects swam into each other. My eyes refused to pick apart the dulls from the brights. The particular ridges of the buildings sank into mazes of lines that slowly ran into clouds in the sky. Trying to squint into the particulars ended up making my eyes ache. The need for the Metaverse to be exact yet not exact, unexplainable, kept reinforcing the idea that I was using it for a purpose that it wasn't meant for. Though that was stupid, wasn't it? The world wasn't made for humans to build our stupid cities onto it yet our stupid cities did it anyways. So instead of griping about it, I ignored the growing headache and shuffled through all the details.

  It didn't take too long before I found the printed words that was painted on a concrete wall surrounding some kind of wire structure. These were the scenes that you found in the city. Incomprehensible parts that may as well have been from another world. Some knew the purpose of the structure while others could recognize it without ever knowing what it did. Don't knock on the rural lifestyle. I knew old air raid sirens and the canals that you shouldn't swim in; not like you guys who could have an orbital death ray built into your backyard without ever knowing about it.

  Anyways, the words said, 'Thousand Knives 48'. It was pretty hard to see. Must've thought that the Phantom Thieves were not glasses people.

  I could've texted this, but I wanted to rub it in. I assumed that the person had organized it so that they could confirm the Phantom Thieves' identity. Was there a bit of vindictiveness? Definitely. You've heard me so far. Imagine getting your plan unraveled by me. That's just embarrassing.

  I decloaked around the corner of the street. Work was done while waiting for a convenient person to manipulate. Buying a drink let me have something pleasurable while doing thoroughly reprehensible business. I had the greatest tool of the insider—the internet. Sitting on a bench with my back to the wall let me easily snoop around without having a curious eavesdropper glance at the wrong moment. Paranoia was to be expected, though let's not encourage it. I'm sure that everyone has their own assumption when they see a hot girl's profile pulled up on a young guy's phone.

  A disturbing amount of information can be found about anyone with the advent of social media. From that patchwork which exists online, things can be extrapolated. Sae is really hot. That's not just extrapolated! I saw that with my own two eyes. Besides that, she's a lawyer.

  Sae is a serious woman whose entire online presence has her in a suit. She prefers a closed-mouth smile than showing off her radiant whites. Eventually I got used enough to the smile that I saw it for the plastic thing that it is. She's single, married to her job from my guess. There's multiple posts that talk about her receiving promotions or being the star legalese-themed name in various cases. Three years ago her father had died. No other mention of a new guardian was mentioned which I could then put together with another piece of information that I got soon after: there was another Niijima.

  It took me a while to recognize the girl. She was familiar, which I assumed was because of her distinctive red eyes. It's from an old post on Shujin's Twitter account, 1 year ago, that I finally recognized her. Standing in front of a group of proud students was her in the exact same blouse that she was wearing during that little spat in the hallway. Still I couldn't recognize her until reading the beaming text underneath: Shujin's new student council takes the gold! If only, Makoto, I joked in my head. If only she had her sister's naturally gray hair, it'd help hide the early grays she was going to get.

  Further investigation brought me to a singular picture of the police force years ago. As far as I could tell, this was the only digital footprint left behind of Jo Niijima. Golden Week's start. 'Thank you for your service,' printed on a gigantic banner draped across the entirety of our precinct. Instead of it being one of those boring pictures where the entire staff stands in front of their work, it's a body of people animated by partying. Kids run around and the cops are eating hot dogs in uniform. If I really wanted then I could close my eyes and imagine it. The sun is hot. The chilled Coca Cola rapidly turns warm. Somewhere in there are two little (relatively) girls who are probably chatting over mediocre food, wondering when it's time to go home.

  I could see the man. His resemblance to Sae was a little uncanny. It stood out even from the distance that the picture was taken at. On the foot of the steps, laughing, was a solid man with deep creases on his face. Most people had their spouses nearby. Not him.

  Kind of fucked up that I learned all this about her when I'd literally apologized the day before. Oh well. One of us was on a righteous mission and another wasn't.

  Time passed as I researched. There were people around. I couldn't differentiate between randoms and newcomers for obvious reasons. Those who were trying to be discreet were very easy to spot though. Each poster was an object of intense scrutiny, feet milling about as if we were at an art gallery. Problem is that these guys were mostly from Shujin. This made sense: those who'd be most interested would probably be Phantom Thieves fans, and the Phantom Thieves had struck down their gym teacher that was perving on them. Making sense didn't mean that I was happy about it though. Asking would have them cower beneath my incisors like I was a predator.

  By the way, in the same vein as realizing that I was cursing more, wasn't I some kind of predator? I've beaten the shit out of more things when most people probably never threw a real punch. Something to think about.

  The lucky break didn't come from a kid coming from another school. Instead it was the same girls who I was beginning to understand were puzzle crazy.

  "Oh, Kurusu-san!" sheep hair greeted.

  Seeing them three consecutive days in a row made me able to pick them out when they approached. Also, what other people in Shujin uniforms would approach me?

  "Still doing the riddle?" I asked.

  I was sitting on one of the only benches as an attempt to look casual. In my lap was my phone that had Sae's information pulled up in another tab. Her sister was right there. The irony was not lost on me.

  They were both still in their semi-uniforms. Most likely they did their obligations in school then hurried right over. The satisfaction that people could feel over puzzles was mystifying but it was nice seeing that Makoto wasn't a soulless automaton who got turned off when not doing work related to school.

  "We are," Makoto admitted. "We're still stuck at the same part."

  Okay, so let's say what was going through my head at that moment. What was the harm? They were normal people. It'd partially help me and partially help them. Maybe that would take out the joy of figuring out a puzzle, but that would still be a positive for me. It's not like I'm Makoto's greatest fan just because I said sorry.

  "If you need a hint, then go over there and look up," I said, pointing where they should be looking. "There's a two digit number there. It's important for later once you get more of the puzzle completed."

  I'm not kidding you. One of Haru's legs bent, the toe touching against the ground. One hand covered her mouth while the other crossed behind her back.

  "Are you leaving the mystery to us? We're fine with getting the whole answer spoiled! It's been long enough that we'd rather have it over with."

  I stared. Someone was doing that kind of thing in real life. And pulling it off. It's like when you do poses in the mirror that you saw from your favorite show and cringed looking back at the memory. No, she pulled it off. And that was horrible. I think that I stared for a bit too long because Makoto was giving me a flat look when I refocused.

  "Treat it like a present. The part I'm spoiling you'd literally never get." I tapped a finger against my lips. "Oh, one of the lines is mentioning an MMO called 'Yogurting' too. I think that you can figure out the rest on your own. Honestly I'd recommend looking it up at this point because the lines you two are having trouble on, everyone else has figured it out."

  "You're giving this out for free? " Makoto asked.

  The way that she looked surprised actually annoyed me. "What's the use of me keeping it? You two are more into this than I am."

  She continued staring as if trying to find an alternative reason until giving up with a gracious smile. "Well, thank you. We'll figure out the rest from there."

  I waited until they were already down the street.

  "No, thank you."

  Pulling up the text felt like loading a bullet in the chamber. They were staring up exactly where it was.

  Me: Thousand Knives. Is that what you wanted?

  It didn't take long for it to come.

  81-3-4913-0337: You sent others in your place. I'm annoyed.

  I smirked, quickly typing back. Renaming them was another vindictive comeback. Walking while texting isn't something that I do. I found myself back in the attic while typing my responses.

  Me: You're some hacker. It wasn't that hard to believe that you were watching through a camera.

  Idiot: And you believe that I didn't get a peek at you?

  Looking around my attic was depressing. There could've very well been a camera planted there. By Akechi, by Sojiro, by my—look, I've already talked about how I don't trust many people.

  It's embarrassing to admit that's why I started the next layer of cleaning. Everything was slowly dissected to double-check that there were no cameras. Dust started being kicked up until it looked like a fog descended onto the room. Light beams led straight to my snarky remark.

  Me: Nope!

  Idiot: Now you're making me not want to give you this.

  Me: A request?

  Idiot: Not exactly. This is merely to make sure that you're the real Phantom Thieves. Unless you can give me a peek into your message history so I can see your group chat?

  Past the tarp nearest to the staircase were more boxes and random crap. It was the culprit of all the dust bunnies. Nudging it produced clouds. My eyes were watering and lips stinging with the little specks that were getting stuck onto my face.

  Me: Let's say that we don't use our phones to organize.

  Idiot: Who doesn't?

  Me: The Phantom Thieves. Exactly so we don't get any hackers revealing us.

  Idiot: Fat load of good that did with Medjed. But don't worry. You won't have to think about them if you can complete my final request. At this point, there's somebody whose heart I need you to steal. Can I just give you a name?

  Piling all the tools up wasn't a fun process. Smarter people would organize them ahead of time. I just shoved them, big and small, all into one corner until the tarp underneath this section came loose. That sack of dirt was thrown to the center of the room so I could deal with it later.

  Me: A name is all I need.

  Idiot: Youji Isshiki. Family name, Isshiki. Given name, Youji. Steal his heart and then we can talk.

  Me: Is there a reason that you want him targeted?

  Idiot: He's scamming his family members. Is that not a person who the Phantom Thieves would target?

  Sojiro's balding head peeked over the final step, already with a glare on his face. It melted once he got a good view of the room. Let's not pretend that ten minutes is enough to wade through the cesspool half the room was subsumed in. There were knick-knacks, tools, dust, dirt, and rat droppings that had been left there to be forgotten. What did that mean for me since I was shoved there? This isn't some metaphorical thing. I'm pretty sure this is the closest you can get from trying to forget someone existed by having them spend most of their time there.

  All that I had finished was making one corner of the room look neater at the expense of making the rest of the room dirtier. Sojiro started coughing as he entered the haze, taking off his glasses and hiding them.

  "Huh." He ascended the last step and smoothed his apron. "Huh."

  "What?" I asked, irritated. I could already sense what was coming.

  "You're…" he looked towards the Sayuri. I think that was his first time seeing it. Whoops. "...cleaning."

  "Yeah. It's uh," I paused, continuing our streak of awkward silences, trying to think of something more profound to say than, "kind of dirty in here."

  He nodded, probably trying to think of something more profound than, "yeah."

  When Sojiro left, I punched in Isshiki Youji's name. It didn't bring anything up. I started organizing the tools while thinking of the next steps.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  There were now two palaces, a person claiming they could deal with Medjed (and now that I had a moment to think, I wasn't taking their threats to destroy Japan nearly as seriously as it deserved), grinding alongside flower picking, and I had work the next day, and I was already wasting the second part of the day by cleaning my room.

  Oh, and finals were approaching. Guess I was not studying ahead of time!

  Abusing a family was bad but it wasn't bad enough to create a palace. Therefore I had no method of actually stealing this person's heart. An impasse had widened between me and my goal. It's only that I was taking this seriously that made me think of alternative methods, namely that the Fake Thieves had either stolen the hearts of normal people or were going around in real life threatening them.

  What was going on? What method were they using? It wasn't as if I had a smorgasbord of options to glance through. Only directly entering palaces and Mementos were available to me. Either they were doing something wonky with these or had another method to change the average person's heart. I just wasn't sure. Beating your wife—as an example that sprung in my head for no reason at all so don't read too deeply into it—was evil, yet I had trouble finding a way that it alone would create an alternate reality. These crimes that I'd dealt with so far had been reality-warping in their effects. Maybe there were miniature palaces being created in another part of the Metaverse. Maybe there were entire blocks of palaces that only certain magic could enter. I didn't know!

  It was immensely frustrating that two different avenues of being a Phantom Thief were locked to me right when I made my intention clear. There was a guillotine held over Japan. Out of curiosity, I checked on the stories about them.

  Turns out that Medjed had escalated when I wasn't paying attention: July 31st, they'd initiate "the Cleanse". Every hacker like this is the corniest person ever, I swear. Didn't mean that I wasn't convinced they'd do something. And it put a little more context on why the hacker would be offering to deal with Medjed.

  At this time I was on my bed with a giant junk pile in the center of my room. My forehead lightly, repeatedly thumped on the pillow. I think that my thoughts at the time went something like: holy fuck, this is getting a little bit too complicated for me. Should've stopped when I was ahead. Couldn't say that I was bored anymore but that boredom was replaced with pure stress.

  I needed a way to work out the frustrations.

  "I'm going to work out. Be back soon," I said to Sojiro as I walked out the front door. He said something.

  I took the train across town. I bought another drink. I spent some time on the curb kind of staring into nothing. While wandering I saw some politician on the street talking about nonsense. I went on another train and came out around the vicinity of the place I was pretty sure was supposed to be my target. Looking it up confirmed that she was working there a year ago. Are there multiple courthouses in a city? I don't know, dude. Infiltrating the courthouse would be the most ironic thing ever and I thought that it was the most morally justifiable thing ever. It's like karmic retribution against the system that made my life like this, working through me by turning me into a vigilante superhero with the methods to do this kind of stuff in the first place.

  I had a few pit stops to make so I visited the stores around the area. Without a good lay of the place I couldn't really dedicate my remaining scarce funds too hard. The Metaverse didn't check for the quality of what I bought probably. My thought process was that since it was a realm based on cognition, it only made sure that the items correspond to the public's perception of it. Sometimes a genuine katana would do worse than a fake katana which had cool handle guards. That's my logic. Why didn't I replace my knife then? Money, dude, and I'm stupid enough to find where illegal fireworks are sold but not enough to buy an actual knife.

  Eventually I found a place selling things for cheap. My new tools were happily sitting in my back after I got a bunch of them. The low-quality plastic felt brittle, ready to crack if I mishandled the poor things. Every fantastic movie had a scene with chattering teeth. If there wasn't a scene with one, then it could only be great. They were less expensive than the gigantic fireworks, more annoying, and had a reference in the public consciousness. Movies and animations propagating these things as irritating would amplify their power was the line of logic that I used. Having these things improved my mood because that's what carrying around silly things intended for a serious use did.

  The courthouse could be described as imposing if I were carted here at any point. Truthfully it hardly had a character. It was a modern building in a sea of modern buildings. I went out of sight when entering the Metaverse. The world started twirling around like I was in a whirlpool. First came the streaks of light which somehow were brighter than the sun which stood behind it. Then the sun exploded, an aura of colors expanding outwards like a spill.

  It was definitely a casino. There aren't any around here which made it modeled after those that you saw in movies set in America. Just take the model of a hotel and glue on a bunch of gaudy American-themed decorations on top of it. Boom. Justice, apparently. Neon lights formed the silhouette of a lady with a cowboy hat holding a scale far above me. I've heard that all kinds of debauchery happened inside of these places. It epitomized sex, drugs, and flash. Violence too. Definitely was going to bring the violence if it was missing from the place.

  Even with my eyeballs which had evolved to become computer-proofed, the flashing lights seared deep into my vision. Purple floated alongside in a gigantic block that wouldn't be blinked away even when I ducked into shadows. Anything that put itself between me and the monstrosity was cherished. Roman-styled pillars (which I feel the need to mention that we need to break free of this stuff as a society if they're appearing in this many palaces) and hedges surrounding the place let me easily sneak around until I found a roof access. There were immediate quirks that I was quick to note.

  People were everywhere. Absolutely nothing stood out from the faceless suits which ambled about except that they ignored the only kid that was running around the area. If you didn't know that Japan banned casinos then you may have been tricked that it was reality. The typical strangeness of the Metaverse wasn't as pronounced either. I felt like myself. I felt the ground.

  Out of costume, I was able to run my hands alongside the hedges. A feeling of nostalgia hit me. I remembered the gardening that I did with my parents. I slammed down on my own foot. It hurt.

  Stretching out my feelers had me cautiously use the roof access. A pipe herded me to a door. Entering the palace itself had my costume appear. I stood on a vantage point where I could see the whole palace, alongside the thing that had started making that ringing sound in my ears. The shadow strutted its hips around, freely allowing me to look down its shirt from my position. Bunny ears flopped around as it wandered. The glasses on the plate that it was balancing were never given out. Whatever was inside that bunny girl was dangerous enough that all the alarms in my head were blaring. I felt confident that it was only slightly more scary than the one in Okumura's palace despite not having much practice in gauging their actual threat. The shadows were exactly the type that I was worried about. One brush from the bunny girl and I'd be pushing up daisies. This could be taken as a joke but I'm being dead serious here. My magic instincts said that there was serious power here that I couldn't mess with.

  In one palace, I couldn't get past the first room. In another, the shadows were even stronger. And then another I couldn't even access. The Phantom Thieves that everyone is so scared of, everybody.

  But you know what? I was getting sick of feeling things that were way stronger than me. Grinding needed to be done. Remembering the last time that I'd visited Mementos brought back horrible memories. Not only was it a matter of how much money (and probably XP) that the shadows gave me, the travel time had to be considered too. How inefficient that it was stuck to my head. My teeth were subtly gritting. It's not a matter of looking for a shortcut; I didn't want the next few weeks dedicated only towards going back and forth in Mementos.

  I was sulking when a voice came from below.

  "You there. Come down. Now."

  I froze up like a mouse caught in the cat's sightline. My head inched downwards until I had locked eyes with the palace's ruler.

  Hopping down was imperative. Either I disobeyed the person who could squash me or I rolled over like a dog. Was this even a question!? If she asks roll, I roll. If she asks kill, I kill. Anything for milady, the woman clad in black, floppy hat nearly blocking her eyes wrapped with a thick application of black makeup. This was not some weird fetish thing but a manner of survival.

  Speaking of fetish, I know that I'd made a joke about how attractive Sae is earlier, but it bears repeating that, damn—yowzers. It nearly feels inappropriate mentioning it here, but let me tell you how she was dressed: a very wide-brimmed hat curved down to cover half of her face. The shadow's normal yellow eyes became more striking beneath a thick cover of black makeup. A spiky choker led down to a very bold (that's putting her immodesty modestly) dress that had a mesh revealing nearly her entire front, and I could tell you later that it wasn't covering much of her back either. The silky black material ran by the corners until it met up right above where her yin-yang was. Everything too risque was covered but, guys. I'm a guy. If you hadn't noticed, there was more to her shadow that escaped in attention. If you hadn't noticed, since this was her internal world, she agreed with me that she's smoking.

  Makes you wonder about Madarame in retrospect. Kamoshida and Sae both knew what they had and flaunted themselves. Madarame kind of looked sickly in his palace.

  "How amusing. You actually came. I was expecting for you to follow your nature but here you are."

  "Here I am. Why am I here?" I asked.

  She chuckled. Her arms moved around enigmatically as she spoke. "Are you asking me? You are currently in my palace looking for my treasure. You are a Phantom Thief who wants to change my heart. Are you alone though? Where is the rest of your posse?"

  Speaking meant admitting guilt. Instead I did a more productive response in ignoring that. "You're being pretty open."

  "Let me continue to be a good host: the treasure is on the Manager's Floor. It's the highest point of the building."

  "How would I get there?"

  "By using a member's card to use the elevator. That's enough information for you to go forward. I want a fair game, one that is fully transparent."

  "So one that isn't at all? What the catch?"

  She didn't answer, walking to the elevator and using her own card to enter. The glass tube let me see the platform ascend until it left my sight.

  A shadow telling me that a 'fair game' was up ahead didn't inspire confidence. This was no longer Madarame's palace and I learned from it. Not only moral rules, I had a new toolset that could be further expanded. I had pushed that one to its limits, changing his cognition and introducing new elements that I wasn't sure would work.

  I went back outside with my fingers crossed. Climbing over the pipe that blocked me from the rest of the rooftops gave access towards the whole rest of the world. Very few shadows were present up there. They gave special care not stepping onto the multicolored glass ceilings that emitted beams of light so bright they looked nearly physical. It wasn't a fantastic place to sneak around but it gave me plenty of room to maneuver. The lights genuinely were so bright from below that I was pretty confident standing behind them hid me. No giant things were left laying around however so I needed to find one back inside.

  The ground floor of the casino was a panoply of sights that I couldn't fully describe. The other palaces were gaudy in different ways. 'Gaudy' in this place meant having things plastered from ceiling to floor all with the intention of trying to grab your attention. Lights, paintings, advertisements, machines, beautiful architecture all worked together in a melange that just made the place look tacky. Oh, and most everything had some kind of gambling theme. Black and red with gold accents made the color palette of the place. In every moment imagine having your senses assaulted (though the song that was being sung throughout the whole casino was pretty catchy) and you already have 50% of the place. To further the assault were playing cards that rained down in most of the rooms.

  It didn't take very much effort finding the backrooms. Each of these doors were marked by posters that were exclaiming general casino terms. 'Success!' written in glaring orange. 'Winner take all!' proclaimed an ugly yellow. The employee only rooms had a much more tolerable light level. Pipes blowing the cards that were spewed outside randomly stuck out as beams from wall to wall. I watched the first one, mesmerized. Cognition, man. Never get tired of seeing the crazy stuff that people think of. They're fine with having a casino smack dab in the center of Tokyo but it's too much to imagine that endless cards are coming from nowhere. Inside the casino's walls could've been a card factory if I were dedicated enough to explore.

  The shadows patrolling down there were just as scary as those outside. These ones were thankfully not wearing bunny costumes—better for my heart—but more normal guard uniforms. I'm not sure how good at stealth that I've gotten after traipsing through the Metaverse. At the very least I was taught patience, waiting behind cover for ten minutes before charging ahead first chance I was given. Traveling took a lot of time. The hallways were very tight and didn't have many hiding places.

  Each of the items that were left around were tested for their weight. The waiting cart was okay. Laundry bins were even lighter. It was the potted plants, pot larger than I was in some cases, which made my arms shake in stress as I picked it up. Mentally I added weights to the to-buy list as I stumbled towards the nearest laundry bin. The weight made the little squeaky wheels creak in irritation.

  Sneaking back wasn't interesting. I'll just say that it was hard and took a long time.

  Getting the plant to the roof wasn't interesting either. Keeping the soil inside ended up being a challenge that wasn't very fun. Some of it spilled over and messed up my hair. It was much harder doing this and I don't want to relive it.

  Standing outside gave me another view of the city. That's one of the only good things about these palaces. The plant was next to me like a lover at the end of a movie. I wrapped my arms around it and shifted it around until I was satisfied. My heart was hammering out of my chest. Get this wrong and I definitely could die. The ceiling window could also break. I'm not entirely sure how palace ruler Sae would've reacted to her property getting abused.

  Some are imagining that I had my sights on a poor schmuck who was patrolling below me. Wrong. There were two at the front door but I had no guarantee that they'd die from this. I wanted them to sustain the most damage that they could since there was only a single try. It's not like this was inconspicuous. Potted plants don't rain.

  Dodging around the rooftop until I got an isolated shadow was easy with my magic vision. Finding the right one didn't take long and all I had to do was take deep breaths in preparation. Deep first, deep second, then exhaling as long as possible. I'm pretty sure that it was a meditation practice. The ringing grew louder the closer I got.

  "Hey!" I pointed to the guard. "You look like a turkey!"

  His arm was thrown back. "What did you say, you little shit? I'll have you pinned up above my fireplace!"

  We ran. Despite feeling strong enough to level buildings, he didn't run any faster. Glancing back every so often to stick my tongue out made him follow as furiously as when he began.

  The edge quickly approached. I leapt off. The guard ran to the edge, looking down at the crowd.

  "Where'd you go?" he bellowed.

  It took him a second too long to realize that I didn't fall straight down. From the ridge my hook was hanging, letting me get the clear sight of his head still poking down. The mask ripped off.

  Bicorn formed behind him. My Persona's head lowered down until its horns were scraping against the roof. The shadow screamed in rage as he was lifted onto Bicorn's back. Raising its back by balancing on its front hooves had the shadow deposited on the ground far below.

  I leapt back onto the rooftop. Aiming a potted plant was completely impossible. I just did the thumb rule, sticking it up to guesstimate that it's somewhere, then pushed.

  The shadow had actually split apart into multiple shadows when it collapsed on the ground. They looked dazed, not expecting for the vase to smash on one of their comrades. For good measure, a firework landed on its back and rolled down onto its head. Screams came from the civilians as the explosions popped holes through the body. When the explosions receded, there was no shadow left.

  My world felt like it was falling. Nearly falling off the roof, I leaned back to fall on my butt. My neck hurt from the quick snap. I felt dizzy. It wasn't a bad dizzy. An overwhelming feeling sprouted in my neck. It trickled down to my stomach and made me feel like throwing up. 'Power' was just abstractly talked about in shows because there probably wasn't chi in real life. Power felt like my flesh had turned into water. Standing up made me ripple. My head was swaying around. My organs were trembling. It felt awesome! All of this was awesome! It may have sounded bad but it was great! The greatness nearly made me forget that the whole palace definitely knew where I was, and very soon would be getting surrounded.

  I staggered back to the staircase that I had come up. Feeling came back with each step. By the time I was at the edge my running had come back just in time to see the squadron of shadows that were running up. The crowd was running; the ringing had dulled, yet remained present. Killing a single shadow didn't put me on their level.

  My feet were thrown over the rail. Frustrated screams came from behind me. I fell. I rolled. I ran. The world flushed. I was back in reality. I was sweating.

  I wanted another drink. So I got one. Then when I made sure I was alone, I started celebrating by hollering from the top of my lungs. Then I ran away before a cop investigated who was making the racket.

  Went to Okumura's palace after. Felt out the interior and was surprised that the ringing had disappeared until I really focused. Didn't see the girls when I came home. I talked to a homeless friend. Maybe I was thinking about studying. I wound up one of the teeth toys and laughed in one of the adjacent streets to Leblanc.

  Inside of home kind of made me feel weird. Sojiro had yelled at me the previous day then left with that complicated greeting when I was cleaning up earlier that day. Place was mostly empty. Coffee smell. Dark. Near the end of closing time, a person sitting at one of the booths. Blazer unbuttoned. Shirt loose. Sleeves bunching up around her arms. In front of her was a shogi board. And tea.

  Her eyes had a more slitted quality than many others. Emotion hardly came through. Her face was free of blemish. Skin felt patched together of good particles. Can't explain much, because her sitting there felt as though a ghost had visited upon Leblanc. Contrasting decos sat across with the modernish coziness having trespassed onto a pure Japanese beauty.

  "Ah," she said, catching my attention. "I was wondering where you may have been at this hour. You look exhausted. Were there weird sights when you were out?"

  Deciding that this was a better use of my time than wasting my youth studying, I slumped in the seat across from her. I think that Sohiro let out a sputter. Bet he didn't expect that I knew a girl like her even in my dreams.

  "It's getting absurd if anything. Some politician was practically begging people to take him seriously. Some people were gambling right next to the courthouse." I breathed through my nose at the joke. "Anyways, who are you? I honestly thought that you were the school prez at first but your hair's…"

  My hand spun around my head. It was meant to gesture that Makoto's own 'do was some tomboyish roughness evened out with a braid wrapped around her head; her own 'do was of the stereotypical Japanese culture that it could communicate Japanese-ness through merely existing on a few women's heads in the entire country.

  A small smile slid on her face. Somehow I had the impression that she wasn't the type to laugh often.

  "I don't blame you for forgetting. It was back at the church a few weeks back? You'd given me some bizarre speech. I wanted to see if this place was nearly as unique as you'd said back then."

  When she said that, I had a sudden rush of something hit me. Holy shit, that wasn't even a month ago. If I had my way, then everything would be tied with a bow by the end of July. That meant within four months I'd have personally defeated four palaces, defeated a gigantic hacking group, evaded the cops' suspicion, and dealt with the fake Phantom Thieves. Within that kind of time frame I was usually more worried about a game getting boring.

  Thinking of it made me kind of dizzy. Beneath the table my nails dug into the cushion.

  "Crap, that was you? Sorry about that again. That was plain weird because I was more stressed than usual. Also have this brain thing that makes it so I can't recognize people well." When her lips pursed, I continued explaining. "I can tell that there's people in front of me and I can eventually recognize people by specific features. For some reason my brain is really bad at combining people together into a face. It wasn't so bad back home because I mostly saw the same handful of people. Don't think I need to explain why it's so annoying here."

  "Goodness, I understand that. Many of the people that I meet in the background of my shogi matches would be offended if I weren't to recognize them."

  Again with that slightly detached cast. A lot of people think that I'm joking when I tell them about the condition. Whether she accepted it or not was literally unknowable.

  I kind of shrugged. "Life, yeah? So I inspired you enough that you just had to see Leblanc for yourself then."

  "Is it strange?" she asked.

  "What?"

  "Coming over to visit this place on something that," her head slightly ducked, looking at me from beneath her eyelids, "wasn't precisely a recommendation."

  "The hell are you asking me that for? I already said that I've become weird too. When you're weird, you're the last person that should be gone to ask if something else is weird or not."

  She stared at me for a while.

  "For the record, I'd come because I need another place to play shogi. A peaceful atmosphere is needed for me to properly focus on studying the game."

  "You sound way more into it than I am. I know how to play but I haven't done it in, like, years now. Still, wanna go? I'd rather do that than studying for the finals."

  Before I could respond, there was a hefty cough coming from the counter. Sojiro had put his hat on and rolled a coat over his arm. The man somehow looked like he shaved five years off every time that I saw him without the apron. Calling him youthful would be a lie. About as youthful and virile as a man of that age could be, despite neither looking as though he works out.

  "As much as I'm glad you're bringing in normal people instead of fractures, it's getting late. You can play all you want during business hours."

  She looked out the window. Even when panicked I could barely tell what she was feeling. An entire playing set disappeared within a few sweeps.

  "I didn't even realize! This place has been perfect for this that I completely lost track of the time!" She bowed to Sojiro. "Thank you for providing me with a perfect venue!" Then she turned to bow to me. "Togo Hifumi. May I have your own name?"

  "Kurusu Akira. You gonna take me up on it? I don't mind getting stomped."

  "If you insist, then approach me when I'm already playing. Perhaps I'll humor you with a chance to show that I'm grateful for giving me an establishment to play at."

  She took out her phone and made a sound that reminded me of a chipmunk. Everything balanced on her person. The phone nudged between her shoulder and ear, the shogi board shoved into her armpit, back slamming against the door as she pushed ahead, with her last hand smoothing down her outfit. That was a woman who was prepared for the working world. Multitasking on that level is always impressive to see.

  Sojiro was out next, looking back at me with a smirk.

  "Everytime that you do something stupid, you turn around and do something I could never expect. I didn't know that you could play shogi. And then you bring in a girl like her. Heh. Never boring around with you kid," he said.

  That affable approach would've been ruined if I mentioned it was because of a video game. For some reason learning things through video games makes people see you differently. Knowing is knowing, I feel. Not that I was arguing that with people.

  "I'm still serious about your attitude. Scream at people again and you're getting sent to juvie."

  I still feel that was a little bit unnecessary to mention.

  I had to twirl around the trash pile in the center of my room to land on my bed. I needed to deal with that. I needed to study. I needed to infiltrate Sae's palace. I needed to think of a way to enter Okumura's palace. I needed to figure out if this person my little benefactor had mentioned actually could have their heart stolen and if they deserved it. I needed to figure out a way to deal with Medjed. I needed to water my plants. I needed to not go insane working. I needed a computer. I needed to figure out how the hell two of my target's relatives met each other. I needed to level my personas up. I was going to work tomorrow.

  My pillow was held over my face as I repressed the urge to vocalize my discomfort. The whole night I was uncomfortably hot.