Chapter Text
“Morgana?” Makoto said.
The cat remained still on the bed, piercing blue eyes staring at her.
Makoto couldn’t hide her joy. “I’m so glad you found me.” She took a step toward the bed, but he quickly jumped away.
Morgana hissed, “who are you?”
“Oh. Of course.” Makoto composed herself. In her excitement, she’d forgotten that Morgana likely wouldn’t have any memory of her. “My name is Makoto Nijima.”
Morgana looked at her in surprise. “You can understand me? How?”
Makoto decided that the best way to proceed was to be completely honest. He was already familiar with the Metaverse, so he’d be more receptive to the unusual and unbelievable than anyone else. Plus, hiding the truth from him would only make him less trusting.
“Yes, I can. We were never one hundred percent certain, but we believed it was a question of cognition. Once we saw you in the Metaverse and heard you speak, we knew you weren’t really a cat.”
Morgana considered her answer. “Who is we, how do you know about the Metaverse, and how have you been following me and hearing me talk without me knowing?”
“It’s probably easier if I start at the beginning.” She sat down on the bed. Morgana hopped off it to the desk and sat. He made a glance toward the window, likely checking out his escape path. If Makoto looked closely, she could see a slight outline of a paw print on the glass. She guessed that he’d somehow gotten into her room through the window.
“I first met you in June. June of 2016.”
Morgana cocked his head. “That doesn’t make sense. That’s two years from now.”
“When I met you, you were working with a group of other humans. You called yourselves the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. You had been stealing the hearts of bad people and forcing them to confess their crimes. I learned what you were doing and joined the team.
“In December, we went into Mementos. We had been trying to get to the bottom because you were convinced that you’d find something there. You said you couldn’t remember how you became a cat, and that Mementos would have answers.
“Instead, we found a being. Yaldabaoth. It called itself a god. It said that the people of this world don’t want a choice. Don’t want free will.
“We fought it. We- We didn’t win. One minute, I was fighting against Yaldabaoth. It rushed at me, and then, I woke up in my bed five days ago.”
Morgana looked at her for a long time, absorbing what she had said. After a few minutes, he spoke.
“You say you were helping me get to the bottom of Mementos?”
“Yes.”
“And I was working with others?”
Makoto played to his pride. “You were our guide into the Metaverse. You taught us everything we know.”
Morgana couldn’t completely hide his happiness at that. “You seem to know a lot about the Metaverse. But I’m still not certain that I believe you. Let’s pretend for a minute that I do. What are you planning to do?”
Makoto stood and opened her desk drawer. She rummaged around for a moment, extracting the checklist from where she had hidden it. She laid it flat on the desk next to Morgana for him to look at, crossing two items off the list.
- Get access to the Metaverse
Find Morgana- Make contact with Wakaba Isshiki
- Save Wakaba
or, save Futaba from her uncle
- Find out if Sis has a palace yet
- Steal Sis’ treasure?
- Contact the other Thieves to see if they remember anything
- Ann
- Futaba
Haru- Akira
- Ryuji
- Yusuke
- Rescue Yusuke from Madarame
- Steal Madarame’s treasure
- Find out if Kunikazu Okumura has a palace yet
- Save Haru from his abuse
- Steal his treasure
- Stop Kamoshida and Kaneshiro from preying on Shujin students
- Steal their treasures
- Determine whether Akechi is involved in the conspiracy yet
- Neutralize Akechi
- Stop Shido
- Save Wakaba
Morgana gave Makoto a dry look. “You’re rather organized, aren’t you?”
“I was the team’s strategist,” Makoto said with a mixture of pride and embarrassment.
“And I’m certain that I was the leader. I know the Metaverse best after all,” Morgana puffed up.
Makoto shook her head. “Actually, Akira was the leader. He had a power he called the wild card. It let him use multiple Personas. You were definitely his right-hand man,” she added, seeing Morgana’s deflated look.
“Of course, you know about personas. I wouldn’t have brought you to the Metaverse if you didn’t have one. Multiple personas though? I’ve never heard of that before.”
“All the rest of us only had one,” Makoto said. “Well, that’s not entirely true. Some of ours evolved eventually. My Johanna eventually turned into Anat. We didn’t know why that happened either.”
Morgana turned back to the checklist, looking over it again. “Tell me more. Who are these people? Why do you need to stop Kamoshida, Kaneshiro, and so on?”
“I wasn’t one of the first members,” Makoto explained, “so I can only give you what the rest of the Thieves told me. At first, it was just Akira, Ryuji, Ann, and you. Kamoshida is the gym teacher at our school. It turns out he’s abusing students, and one of Ann’s friends attempted suicide.
“Akira and Ryuji met you in Kamoshida’s palace.” Makoto omitted the fact that he’d been in a cell at a time. “You stole his treasure and Kamoshida confessed. After he went to jail, you all decided to keep stealing the hearts of criminals. You wanted to make the world a better place.”
She continued her story, telling Morgana everything she knew about Madarame’s palace and Yusuke joining the team, before continuing to her story and Kaneshiro’s palace. She spent nearly an hour going over each palace and each member of their team, Morgana paying close attention.
Makoto concluded her story, “I love them all. They’re like my family, and the idea of not knowing them hurts, but they all went through so much pain. Futaba’s mother died. Haru’s father died. Shiho tried to commit suicide. Ryuji was labeled as a punk and his running career was ruined. Akira’s life was practically destroyed by Shido.
“If I can change things so they don’t have to go through that pain, it’ll be worth it. Even if I don’t get to know them this time around. That’s why I want to get into the Metaverse. If I can do that, I can steal everyone’s heart again and stop most of these things from ever happening.”
Morgana gave her a sad look, clearly affected by her story. “What are you going to do about Yaldabaoth?”
Makoto sighed. “I don’t know. When we fought him, he just seemed so unbeatable. We’d faced hard fights before, but it felt like nothing we did hurt him at all.”
Morgana considered things for a moment. “At the least, it sounds like we have a few years before he becomes a problem. And if you’re telling the truth, we definitely need to beat him so I can get my human body back. I’ll help you.
Makoto cheered internally. One of the most important steps on her checklist. Was about ready to get checked off. “Thank you, Morgana,” she said sincerely.
“So, what’s next on your checklist?”
Makoto picked the paper back up and looked over it again. “We used an app on our phones to access the Metaverse. I lost it when I came back in time, but it automatically installed on our phones when we first entered the Metaverse. Step one would be to get that back so I can get in and out when I need to.”
She steeled herself slightly for what she was about to say, “then, I need to see if my sister has a palace yet. “
Morgana gave her a serious look, “you mentioned that she had a palace back in your time. It’s surprising that you have a persona if your sister is distorted enough to have a palace.”
Makoto chuckled sadly, “I wasn’t always on the Phantom Thieves’ side. I was against them at first. But when I saw people abusing school children with my own eyes…” she trailed off.
“And my sister wasn’t always bad. Our father died and she had to become my guardian. At some point, her drive to succeed must have turned into something worse. I’m just hoping it hasn’t gotten to that point yet.”
“You said you stole her treasure two years from now? Even if she has a palace it likely isn’t as big as it was back then.”
“It was the second-largest we faced,” Makoto told him.
“Then if she has one, we’ll just have to steal her treasure before it gets any bigger,” Morgana said in an encouraging tone.
Makoto smiled, happy to have someone in her corner again. “Right! But I also need to make sure I save Futaba’s mom. She’s researching a subject called cognitive pscience that’s tied to personas and Mementos. I went to Sojiro and gave him a cover story to get Futaba’s phone number.”
Clearly, priority number one is to get access to the Metaverse again. That will only take a few minutes after school with Morgana. I might as well check for Sae’s palace while I’m at it. No reason not to put in Kamoshida’s, Kaneshiro’s, and Okumara’s names at the same time, just to get them in the app.
And regardless of what Sojiro said, I’m definitely reaching out to Futaba.
“Once we get into the Metaverse and check for Sis’ palace, I’ll reach out to Futaba so we can meet. I have to warn Wakaba. She had a mental shutdown before, so either she already has a place or her shadow is in Mementos. If warning her doesn’t work, I guess I’ll have to prioritize stealing her heart before she has a mental shutdown.”
“Do you know when that’s going to happen?” Morgana asked.
Makoto wracked her brain. Futaba, for obvious reasons, didn’t discuss her mother’s death much. Even when she did, it wasn’t like she gave exact dates.
“No. I think she may have mentioned it happening in the summer, but there’s no reason to risk delaying it. After we get into the Metaverse and figure out what’s going on with Sis, helping Wakaba is the priority.
“Plus, my being here is already changing things. There’s no guarantee that something I do once I get into the Metaverse won’t make the mental shutdown happen sooner.”
Given that Akechi is the only person we know of that caused mental shutdowns, he’s probably already active. If I do go to Memntos or Wakaba’s palace, I’ll need to keep an eye out for him. I don’t know how strong he is at this point, but I don’t want to potentially fight him without a plan.
“Have you seen anyone else in the Metaverse?” She asked Morgana. “He’d be wearing a dark outfit and have Loki as his persona.”
“That Akechi guy you talked about? No.”
“I have no way to know, but it seems likely that Wakaba was one of his first victims. He might not know about or be spending much time in Mementos yet. I don’t know how deep into Shido’s conspiracy he is at this point.
“If he isn’t too deep with Shido, we have to consider the benefits of trying to turn him to our side. If I make the changes I want to make, Akira will never make it to Tokyo, and Futaba, Ann, and Ryuji will have no reason to get their personas. I also don’t want to put Yusuke and Haru through that pain again if I can avoid it.
“That leaves you and me. Having his help would boost our capabilities by 50%, and give us access to two more personas.”
Or, Makoto thought, maybe he’s just unredeemable. It’d be nice to have more backup in the Metaverse, but I don’t know that I could ever trust him enough to take my eyes off him.
“So, our plan is: drop by Mementos, find some palaces, and keep an eye out for a potential killer to try to make friends with him? Sounds like an easy day for the New Phantom Thieves of Hearts,” Morgana said with a glint in his eye.
Makoto laughed lightly at his enthusiasm. “That’s right.” She looked at her phone and saw the time. “But for now, it’s getting late. I should make some dinner before Sis gets home.”
Morgana’s face fell so slightly that if Makoto hadn’t known him for some time, she wouldn’t have noticed it. “Okay. I’ll meet you at the entrance to Mementos tomorrow.”
He turned toward the window and looked ready to raise it with his front paws.
“You can stay here you know,” Makoto told him. “Sis can’t know you’re here, but I’ll bring you to school tomorrow like Akira used to. You can get the lay of the land.”
Morgana looked affronted, “I would never stay in a lady’s room. If you knew me as well as you claimed to, you’d know that.”
“Ever the gentleman. Really, it’s not a problem. I’m making fish tonight, and I know you like tuna.”
Morgana paused to consider, but Makoto could practically see his mouth start to water.
“Okay. I accept. I like it extra fatty!”
As Makoto opened the door, she paused. “I am very glad you saw the posters and found me. “It’s good to have a friendly face I can talk to about everything. And someone to help with the Metaverse. I’ll be back in a little bit with the food. Hopefully, I can finish cooking before Sis comes home so I don’t have to try to sneak a plate in her for you.”
As she closed the door, Makoto thought, having Morgana here is a huge help. He’s pretty good at hiding when he needs to be, so hopefully, Sis won’t notice until we can figure out the status of her palace and get that under control.
I’ll need to get some supplies for him, food, and a cat bed or something at minimum. I should also have a cover story just in case Sis does find out about him.
Every time I cross something off the list it just seems to add more things I need to do. She sighed. Tonight, I’ll just be happy I got an ally, and friend, back. Tomorrow, the Phantom Thievery can start again in earnest.