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queen-ofsunflowers · 2 years

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Literal Theatre Kid Ren, Act 2: Summer in the Desert

Please note that times given in each game -- especially A3! -- have been messed around with a little to make things work out. Relations have also been messed with on some regard to make plot work out.

Chapter 1: After Spring Comes...

This part opens with the clean-up at the end of May in P5R. In addition to Ryuji, Ann and first year gymnast Sumire Yoshizawa, there are additional interactions with Banri trying to pick another fight with Ren as well. Ren, much like before, simply dodges until the rest of his friends to show up to help, with Sakuya dragging the student council president, Makoto Niijima along to help cool things down.

A few days later is when Madarame’s confession takes place. The Phantom Thieves are relieved that their heist went off without a hitch... so to speak, Ren did almost miss closing night of Romeo and Julius because of poor planning and exhaustion on his part.

All that's left is for the Phantom Thieves to relax a little before they find their next target. But summer is around the corner, and with that comes a new troupe for Mankai.

Chapter 2: The Summer Troupe Audition

Prior to Summer Troupe’s audition, there is one P5 event that we have to get through, and that’s a certain field trip for Ren, Ryuji, Ann and Masumi. Yes, it’s time for more characters to meet this colorful cast. Anyway, back on track, social studies field trip to the TV station. One of the TV show’s guests -- a snotty brat as Masumi later notes -- doesn’t leave the best first impression on Ren and the Thieves at all. They think he’s kind of an asshole.

Later on, while waiting for Masumi to catch up, the Thieves discuss what to do after the trip. Just as Masumi rejoins them, their conversation is interrupted by one of the station’s guests -- the Detective Prince, Goro Akechi. Though the interaction is brief, there are two things that Akechi does that the Thieves pick up on. 1: He recognizes Masumi, but where he can’t remember. 2: he brings up something very specific that only Morgana had mentioned. That last one will be put aside for now.

The next day is when it gets interesting because the kids get to sit in a on show’s recording, and that just so happened to be the interview that Akechi is a part of. It’s here that its revealed that he’s working on the Phantom Thieves’ case alongside the police to try and uncover their identities. The conversation soon turns to whether or not the Phantom Thieves are just. Things get a bit worse when a member of the audience is asked their opinion on the subject -- that person being Ren.

To Ryuji’s and Ann’s surprise, Ren doesn’t choke up like they expected him to, considering the last time he had been confronted like this, his nerves got the better of him. Ren stands up for the Phantom Thieves, disagreeing with Akechi and catching the detective’s interest.

Later, as everything ends, Ren is left standing to the side while waiting for Masumi so they could walk home together. He’s honestly standing there trying to figure out why he’s so scared to stand on stage since he was fine with the interview during the station. Maybe because it was not just him being criticized (unintentionally) but his friends, too? ...wait--

Ren’s train of thought is interrupted when Akechi finds him again. Apparently, he liked what Ren had said and the fact that he argued with him when so many other people are unwilling to do so. He wants to keep in contact to have possibly more discussions like the one they had before. Ren agrees, and it’s at that moment that Masumi shows up again. He is just pulling Ren along because of the fact that they have the summer troupe’s auditions to get to. Since Ren is assistant director (technically), he has to be there.

It’s then that Akechi recognizes Masumi after Ren explains Mankai briefly -- he had seen Romeo and Julius. Theatre-goer Akechi is now a thing. Ren invites him to come and check out the new show before he’s ultimately pulled out of the conversation to get to the theater.

Needless to say, Masumi and Ren are the last members of Mankai to get there for auditions.

Chapter 3: The Genius Actor Turning Heads

When Masumi and Ren make it to the theater (Ren apologizing for being late), all the auditionees are there, including Kazunari and Yuki. To Ren’s surprise, the same snotty boy from yesterday is there to audition. This is Tenma Sumeragi, who already has a bad impression with Mankai’s assistant director that Izumi introduces him as. The last person there is one of Yuki’s classmates, a shy boy named Muku Sakisaka.

Either way, as auditions get underway, Ren does have to admit Tenma’s a very talented actor. Though he does remark that Tenma could cut back on all the criticism.

(Morgana does pipe up that Tenma acts the same way as Ren does when confronted with the stage’s spotlight, at which Ren shoves his head back into his bag).

Chapter 4: The Hack

As expected, all four auditionees make the cut. Mankai needs everyone that they can get. When Tenma gets mad about it, Yuki and Ren are both quick to form Team Tenma is a Hack. (Ren honestly finds Yuki’s remarks to Tenma entertaining.)

Though, when it’s brought up by the new Summer Troupe members why Ren didn’t audition when he could have, Spring and Izumi are quick to jump into say that he was busy as Izumi’s assistant and couldn’t. Izumi remarks to Ren later that he should tell the new troupe members about his probation later, but only when he’s ready to. Ren thanks her for covering for him.

Chapter 5: Brewing Move-In Trouble

There is a brief discussion about whether or not Ren’s mother knows that he’s currently staying at Mankai. She does, as Izumi had called her to let her know about the situation after being given her contact info.

(Let’s just say the man who was supposed to be Ren’s guardian got quite the earful, but Izumi’s keeping tight-lipped about who it is.)

When Ren tells Ryuji and Ann about what happened at auditions during school the next day, they are stunned to find that the brat they met on set was movie star Tenma Sumeragi -- who had been there to announce a brief leave of absence. The conversation’s topic changes to their encounter with Akechi yesterday and what he had said about the Phantom Thieves. This gets Ryuji very fired up, talking out loud about how they wouldn’t be acting as the Phantom Thieves if someone else could help them. Ann and Ren are quick to shush him, but they are still caught by Makoto Niijima, who had been snooping around the school for the past few days looking for the Phantom Thieves.

After their brief confrontation with her, the gang goes to meet up with Yusuke along with Masumi and Sakuya, as the Thieves had promised to help move in Summer Troupe during the wrap party for Romeo and Julius. The conversation turns to the Phantom Thieves and the team finds out the two troupe members opinions on them: Sakuya is for the Thieves, and Masumi refuses to comment because while he’s on the fence about what the Phantom Thieves do, they did save his butt in Blooming Spring, and again. He knows who they are, so that has some effect on how he feels about it.

Looking to change the subject, Ren brings up the suitcase and portrait that Yusuke has with him. Yusuke announces that he’s moved out of his own school’s dormitory (where he had been staying after Madarame’s confession). Before even thinking to ask Izumi about it, Sakuya invites Yusuke to come live at Mankai with them.

Chapter 6: The Theater’s Urban Legend

So, the group tries to figure out how to convince Izumi to let Yusuke stay at the troupe’s dorms like Ren on the walk to the building itself. The Phantom Thieves meet the new Summer Troupe, and it’s also brought up that Ann is familiar with Tenma on some scale as the pair have done modelling work together before. She is quick to put him in his place. The rest of the Thieves are also officially given their nicknames from Kazunari.

When Ren and Sakuya try to bring up the situation with Yusuke is about the same time that Matsukawa interrupts the conversation to bring up the fact that Room 203 -- one of the Summer Troupe’s dorms -- is haunted.

With the Thieves in tow, Summer Troupe goes to check it out for themselves (neither of the guys notice that Ann has lingered behind with Izumi at this point). Ren’s Joker side does come out a little bit when it’s time to go into the room itself. And so, with Yusuke, Morgana and Ryuji behind him as if this were a fight in the Metaverse with Shadows, Ren flings the door open...

Chapter 7: The Free Spirit

...and is met with a stranger holding up onigiri. Here the boys were expecting a fight, but nope. They have one Misumi Ikaruga instead... whom everyone suspects is a ghost at first, leading to some interesting reactions. They’re quick to find out he’s normal thanks to Morgana stepping forward. (Misumi can somehow understand Morgana. Ren’s not sure if that means he can understand Morgana figuratively or he can actually hear him talk.)

The guys are quick to realize that Misumi is technically trespassing. Ren is also shocked that Misumi has been living here for weeks and somehow no one noticed, not even Morgana who prowls around at night. When they try to apprehend him, Misumi goes running. The group gives chase, though the only ones who are able to keep up with Misumi are the Phantom Thieves due to all of their work in the Metaverse.

The three boys kind of stun the Summer Troupe and the rest of Mankai with how their moving. Ren eventually catches up to Misumi, tackling him to the ground as soon as they make it to the common room where Citron is making onigiri for lunch with the girls and the rest of Spring Troupe. This is enough for Misumi to throw Ren off of him and snatch the rice ball away.

But still, Misumi is cornered. When questioned and explains he has nowhere else to go, Izumi is quick to invite him to join the Summer Troupe. She also adds that it’s alright for Yusuke to stay at the dorms in Ren’s room. This is why Ann lingered behind -- she asked in the boys’ place.

Yusuke has been officially adopted by Mankai Company, working on painting the sets with Testuro in his spare time (something that Yusuke insisted on doing as an exchange for being allowed to stay at the dorms). Ryuji kind of runs his mouth here, reminding Ren not to tackle people like that, otherwise he could be up for another assault charge.

And just like that, Ren has to explain things to Summer Troupe before everything gets out of hand like it did with Spring. He goes into a bit more detail this time with his explanation, as how it was an accident and how he can’t even remember the guy responsible. Under the guise of third person and a bit of acting themselves, the Thieves promise that they’ll help Ren change his heart when they find him.

We also get the rest of Mankai’s opinions on the Phantom Thieves thus far. Muku and Kazunari both think the Phantom Thieves are pretty cool; Izumi, Citron, Tenma and Misumi are a bit wary about them; finally, Itaru, Yuki and Tsuzuru disagree with them to some extent.

...oh boy.

Chapter 8: Uncertain Etudes

Summer Troupe and Yusuke have now settled into Mankai. The former is starting to get ease their way into acting and improving their skills. Ren, much like the others, is honestly surprised by how good Misumi’s acting is. The triangle lover was on par with Tenma -- a professional.

That being said, Ren’s not so sure what to think about Tenma leading the Summer Troupe. Yes, he’s the most experienced when it comes to the entire cast, but he’s also kind of a jerk. As Yusuke later states, he’s not on par with “our own leader”, referring to Ren. Tenma was brash and abrasive and worked against his fellow actors. Ren, on the other hand, is easy to adapt to situations and work with the Phantom Thieves’ own skills and problems rather than put-down and criticize. That is going to be something that has to change quick, otherwise things are gonna fall apart.

After school a couple days later is when Ren is pulled aside by Makoto Niijima. In privacy, she reveals to him that she had recorded the conversation he had with Ann and Ryuji just a few days prior, including the part about them being Phantom Thieves. Though Ren tries to quickly explain this away and get her to delete the recording, it doesn’t work.

However, she does have a proposition for the Thieves that they should here. Ren takes Makoto to the team’s meeting spot, where she reveals the recording to them as well. Makoto’s proposition is this: so long as the Phantom Thieves can prove that what they’re doing can truly be justice, then she’ll delete the recording and no one else will ever hear it... someone like, she doesn’t know... the company that Ren and Yusuke are now living with?

Makoto is quick to learn that the Mankai Company is just as important to the Thieves as their job itself when they get rather defensive the second it even seems like she would lay a finger on them. (She wouldn’t, she’s bluffing but still, it surprises her.) She doesn’t go any further than that, leaving the Thieves to discuss it on their own before giving away any more details.

Chapter 9: Everybody’s the Lead?!

Ren spends the walk home trying to figure out a solution of getting out of the trap Makoto’s caught the Thieves in with Yusuke and Morgana. They do not find one and are really left with little to no choice but to go along with her blackmail scheme.

Luckily the boys have something to at least temporarily distract themselves with the Summer Troupe meeting they arrive in on. The group is discussing their debut performance and what show that they should do, along with Tsuzuru who needs to get started on the script pretty soon.

Much like their predecessors, Summer Troupe decides to base their show off of the former Summer Troupe’s old shows -- comedies that had everyone in tears with laughter by the closing of the curtain. Given the hard press stuff that they’re currently facing right now with their double-lives, Ren and Yusuke (albeit after being talked into it a little) agree with this idea along with the others.

However, when it comes to the subject of the show, it gets a little harder when everyone in Summer Troupe pipes up that they want to have a leading role. It’s only lucky that Tsuzuru seems to already have an idea in mind about what to do to make that happen.

That’s the problem solved on the Mankai front, but that still leaves a problem on the Phantom Thief front. The thieves (excluding Yusuke, since he goes to a different school), meet with Makoto and tell her that they agree to her terms. They don’t have much of a choice, anyway. It’s either that or be outed. And if Ren is outed as part of the team -- or worse, their leader -- he’ll be sent to juvie immediately because of his probation.

Makoto instructs the thieves to find and change the heart of a yakuza boss who had been pulling teenagers (such as students from their school) into phishing scams. Only problem is that no one knows the boss’s name, which complicates things for the thieves since in order to get into a person’s Palace, they need their full, real name. Makoto gives the thieves two weeks to do their thing and leaves. Unable to argue, the team is left to search for who exactly this man is.

It takes the team a couple of days to find a solid lead. They’re led to Shibuya (let’s pretend that Veludo Way is in Tokyo for sanity’s sake, because I couldn’t find any information on where in Japan it was) and the possibility that high schoolers are being manipulated by yakuza to do some of their dirty work, taken advantage of and having their pockets drained. While they’re getting more information, they still don’t have a name to work with. It doesn’t help that Makoto is hovering over them from time to time like a mother hen.

When it eventually gets brought up that Ren does have contact to someone in the yakuza (it’s Sakyo, and Ren was joking when he said it), the other thieves pressure him a little into talking to him about what’s going on. Ren eventually gives into peer pressure (don’t be like Ren) and agrees to do it. They don’t have another lead, and it couldn’t hurt to ask, right?

Wrong. It hurts. It hurts a lot. Ren manages to corner Sakyo (and Sakoda) outside of the theater while he’s running an errand for Izumi and as soon as the word about the scams in Shibuya comes out of his mouth, Sakyo gets very aggressive. A lot like an angry parent, telling Ren he shouldn’t be getting involved in those things and to not stick his nose where it doesn’t belong. Ren almost believes that its Sakyo who’s behind all of this, until the man slips up in one regard. Ren overhears him and Sakoda talk as they leave, inadvertently giving him the name that he needs: Junya Kaneshiro.

With the name they now need, the Thieves meet up to try and eventually find their way into Kaneshiro’s Palace... which is all of Shibuya distorted into a bank and the main hub is in the sky. Only “customers” of his can enter, which the Thieves are obviously not. Another road block. Dammit.

The next day, they explain the issue to Makoto as much as they can, saying that she can’t help them. They don’t explain why though, which causes a major issue because of something that happened between Makoto and her sister, Sae, the night before -- Sae had called her useless. Determined to do something, Makoto marches off and the thieves follow with concern.

So, because of Makoto, they get caught up in Kaneshiro’s scheme and meet the yakuza face-to-face... and get immediately blackmailed by him. If they don’t pay him three million yen in the next three weeks, he’ll leak pictures of them being there with him everywhere. Knowing they can’t take this risk and fight back in reality, the Thieves take Makoto out of there.

As soon as they’re safe, Makoto apologizes for her recklessness, and says that she’ll take care of the situation. But the Thieves refuse. They had a deal, and they’re going to uphold their end of the bargain. Besides, she just might be their key into the Palace after all.

The Thieves take Makoto into the Metaverse with them, and since she’s become one of Kaneshiro’s “customers”, the Palace allows her and the Thieves entry. As they go through, they explain exactly how they do what they do, as well as the concept of the Metaverse to Makoto. She latches onto the concepts pretty quickly, to their surprise. It took everyone else a while to get it.

Unsurprisingly when they get into the bank itself, they are confronted by Kaneshiro’s Shadow. The Shadow provokes them, laying out the plans that he has for them: he can offer a loan that will allow them to pay off their debt, but with the interest rate of said loan, it will keep them in debt. They would become his pawns -- especially Makoto and her sister, Sae, who would be dragged down with her. When he says that Makoto would be a good girl and let him do this... that’s when Makoto finally snaps.

And now there’s another Persona User on the team. Makoto awakens Johanna, lets loose chaos and the Thieves have to get out of there because Awakenings tend to exhaust the person who undergoes them.

So now, Makoto joins their team, able to fight in the Metaverse and wanting to make her wrong right again. She also begins to serve as their tactical adviser, since the Thieves had mostly been winging it up until that point.

All of this has taken a week, and in the meantime with Mankai, Tsuzuru has been working day and night to get the script for Summer Troupe done.

Chapter 10: The Thousand and One Nights

With Makoto now a part of the team, she has to learn about Mankai. However, she’s already kind of figured this out. The information about Sakuya and Masumi’s performances is public knowledge at this point. She had seen Ren walking to and from school with them, so she assumed that he was a member of the troupe as well. It surprises her that Ren isn’t exactly part of the troupe, when she has noticed he’s a fairly decent actor. When asked why he isn’t on stage, Ren avoids answering the question. He still doesn’t know why he can’t stand on stage despite how much he wants to.

Instead, trying to distract himself from it, he and the team enter the Palace for the day. Makoto is suspicious of what’s going on with Ren but doesn’t say anything more on the matter. Ren’s still thinking about it as he and Yusuke walk home later that afternoon. When they make it back to the dorm, they’re greeted by Summer Troupe and Izumi... and Tsuzuru, who they haven’t seen for a week, groaning and exhausted.

So, Tsuzuru collapses from exhaustion and Ren, like the rest of Summer Troupe, shrieks. Remember, he had arrived at Mankai after Romeo and Julius was written. This is the first time he’s witnessing the end result of Tsuzuru’s writing process. Izumi reassures all the boys that Tsuzuru is just fine. While Ren and Yusuke move him onto the couch, she runs off to get the script from his computer.

When Tsuzuru wakes up, Summer Troupe, Ren and Yusuke are kind of hovering around him to make sure he’s okay. Morgana has also made himself at home on his chest. When asked about the script, he explains that since everyone wanted to be the lead, he went ahead and made the play based around Arabian Nights.

Everyone gets excited, with Kazunari, Yuki and even Yusuke already getting started on graphics, costumes and set designs in their heads. Tenma, on the other hand, is confused a bit by the fact that they’re doing this all by hand and on their own. Ren reassures him that this is the way things at Mankai are done, and he better get used to it.

Matsukawa comes in, interrupting the session with a video tape of the original Summer Troupe for the newer members to take a look at. And it’s thanks to Kazunari’s connections that they’d soon be able to.

Chapter 11: Muku Sakisaka’s Dream

It takes only about a week of Palace exploration before the Thieves are ready to send their calling card. Having Makoto on their side really has been helping out. Ren sets Yusuke and Ryuji to work on making them, spending most of the next afternoon on the task. Makoto has come up with just the right plan to get things in order, but they’ll have to wait for night to do it.

Because the boys are there, Izumi pulls them and Muku -- who had just gotten home -- into go grocery shopping with her as soon as they’re done. Since Ryuji will be leaving with Yusuke to meet Makoto that night, he’s kind of staying for dinner that night, too. Might as well help where we can.

With the four boys, how much Izumi buys isn’t that hard to carry between them. The whole time they’re out, though, Ryuji’s glancing over at Muku with a serious expression that Ren’s not really seen on him before. Ryuji brings up the fact that Muku stands favoring one side more than the other. He does the same thing because of his leg and what happened to it. Talking about how he used to be on the track team to Izumi coaxes Muku out of his shell somewhat and gets him to talk about how he used to run track, too.

Ren doesn’t miss how devastated Ryuji looks when its soon revealed that Muku had gotten hurt. He had been expecting it, but Muku’s also younger than him. His dream got crushed pretty quickly.

So former track stars bonding over career-ending injuries? And how they were able to bounce back from crushed dreams by finding something new (Muku with acting, and Ryuji with the Phantom Thieves)? Yes. Ryuji becomes Muku’s favorite among Ren’s friends. Ryuji’s adopted him as a little bro and encourages Muku to go on with his new dream. He’ll be rootin’ for him.

Ren thinks it’s very sweet. He, Yusuke and Morgana tease Ryuji about it a little, but it’s mostly in good nature. Boys being boys, ya know?

Chapter 12: A Bumpy Reading

Yusuke and Ryuji spread the calling card throughout Shibuya under Makoto’s direction to make sure that Kaneshiro sees it. And see it he does, because the Treasure has taken form when the Thieves storm the Palace. And much like before, they are confronted by Kaneshiro’s Shadow self. A fight takes place, and our Thieves are victorious.

Before Kaneshiro’s Shadow fades away to rejoin with its self in reality, he does let slip about something that the Phantom Thieves failed to realize: there’s someone else using the Metaverse for their own gain -- a man in a black mask. They’re the ones behind the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns that have been happening in the news.

The Thieves are unsure about this, not knowing if Kaneshiro was telling the truth or not, but it does seem plausible. Yusuke can briefly recall Madarame’s Shadow mentioning the same, but since the Thieves were in such a hurry to get to the theater that night, he’s unsure.

Makoto also gets to meet the rest of Mankai, albeit briefly, after the fight, since Morgana was injured coming out of the collapsing Palace.

Speaking of the theater, with the weight of Kaneshiro’s threat and no one blackmailing him anymore, Ren is able to peacefully return to working with Izumi for the Summer Troupe’s show -- Water Me! As the troupe reads through the script, Ren’s there to help them where they struggle, primarily with Muku, since his voice is so quiet, and he has a hard time projecting. That also leads to a bit more spite between Ren and Tenma since Muku is trying his best. Not everyone can be professional actors like Tenma, as both Ren and Yuki are quick to remind him.

Needless to say, there’s a lot of tension with Summer Troupe that’s not gonna go away anytime soon mostly stemming from Tenma. Izumi’s trying to keep the peace, and while Ren should be helping, he isn’t. It’s only Morgana pointing out that by arguing with Tenma is making things worse that gets it through Ren’s head. They need to find a way to work with each other rather than against each other.

Chapter 13: The Secret to Solidarity

A few days go by, and Kaneshiro confesses to his crimes, getting arrested in the meantime. As much as the thieves want to relax, they have a few things to deal with. There’s the possibility of another Metaverse user messing around in the cognitive world, and as Makoto reminds them, final exams are coming up, too. On top of that, Ren is still having issues with Summer Troupe. For the most part, he’s getting along with all of them except Tenma. Ann suggests letting him cool off since he’s never acted on stage before, but Ren’s not too sure. Putting his foot down isn’t working like he had hoped. Maybe it was time for another approach...

Though, the topic is quickly changed to something a bit more upbeat: a celebration of their latest victory and Makoto joining the team. Last time, they celebrated by going to see Romeo and Julius, but since Water Me!’s debut isn’t until the last weeks of August, there’s not much that can be done. Instead, the team suggests a fireworks festival that they can go to with the rest of the Mankai Troupe if Ren wants. Maybe it would be good bonding for them in the long run.

They’ll have to figure it out in the meantime, since Ren and Yusuke have prior engagements: Ren working with the actors and Yusuke helping with Testuro’s set designs. Ren asks the troupes about it when he gets to the practice rooms, getting ‘yes’s all around. Although, there’s one person from Summer Troupe that’s missing...

Tenma is brooding like an angsty teenager outside in the dorm’s courtyard while Ren helps the rest of Summer Troupe with their acting. The only one really out there with them is Morgana, who had wandered out of the practice room to go bother Tenma -- at least that’s what he thinks. It’s an interesting sight to see Tenma venting to the cat about the others’ acting, and how he’s being treated like the bad guy in this scenario.

Tenma only stops when he sees that Sakuya’s caught him in the act. It’s awkward, but Sakuya soon breaks it by making conversation and saying hello to Morgana. He tells Tenma how exactly Morgana came to live at Mankai -- he’s not the company’s cat. He’s Ren’s specifically. The story Ren had told the troupe about him being a stray that he picked up isn’t something that Tenma expects from the delinquent assistant director. Thought after thinking about it, it starts to make sense. Sakuya also tells him how much fighting there was with Spring Troupe originally, just like he’s going through with Summer Troupe now. He even goes as far as to explain how everyone acted upon learning about Ren and his criminal record. it was pretty bad.

Sakuya explains to Tenma all that they did to help mend the rifts and even help each other build their acting skills and improve them. When he gets to the Stage Sleepover that they did, it gives Tenma an idea to do the same.

Izumi is the one who later extends the invite to the fireworks festival to Tenma when he goes to her to talk about his idea. He’s unsure but is kind of surprised that Ren asked him to come. Maybe Ren wasn’t trying to fight with him like he thought after all...

Chapter 14: Summer Camp

The week of finals for everyone comes and goes, and soon it’s time for the fireworks festival. Ren’s surprised that Tenma shows up along with the rest of the company, and the Phantom Thieves on top of that. It’s a pretty big group, but everyone seems to be getting along and having a good time.

...that is until a storm hits and the fireworks festival gets cancelled. Everyone has to rush back to the Mankai dorms, getting absolutely soaked as a result. The Thieves spend the night when the rain shows that it’s not going to let up. All in all, the change in celebration was still good even if it doesn’t go as planned... for a while.

Kazunari gets a call that Ren happens to overhear. It’s something of him trying to calm someone down who’s obviously panicked. When he gets caught, it’s explained that the person Kazunari was talking to was his mother. There was some stuff going on back home that she called to let him know about. He reassures Ren that he’ll be fine staying and rehearsing, that it was just a little something. However, considering the state Kazunari was in while talking, Ren’s not so sure.

Things get a bit worse when there’s a news report on Medjed -- a hacktivist group that’s seeking out the Phantom Thieves. As of right now, the Phantom Thieves aren’t sure what to do about them, either. For now, they have no choice but to stay on their toes since their leader is about to get an extra week of his summer break.

Oh yeah, did I mention that Tenma’s idea was a summer training camp? Thanks to the sway he has and Izumi’s talking to the school, Ren gets dragged along for the ride as the assistant director. The Phantom Thieves are to keep an eye out for any possible activity, and they’ll act on whatever happens when Ren gets back in a few days. (Makoto is in charge.) Despite initial plans to leave Morgana with Spring Troupe, the cat manages to sneak his way in Ren’s bag anyway. He’s not going anywhere.

As usual, though, with rehearsal, Tenma’s still got something to say, no matter where they are. Well, at least his criticism is pointing out specific things now, not just general statements. Things are finally starting to flow on the theatre front.

Chapter 15: Crossing the Line

With the Phantom Thieves looking for things on Medjed... The Thieves can’t find much, and they’re starting to wonder if it was all just an empty threat. They really hope that it is but promise to keep looking.

And here Ren thought things were getting good for Summer Troupe. That evening though, he’s swiftly proven wrong. Izumi assigns the cast the task of making dinner with her and Ren. Tenma’s starting to nitpick again. He may be getting better with the Summer Troupe during rehearsals, but offstage is a whole other thing entirely.

It all comes to a head when Tenma yells as Kazunari, calling out his relationships for being shallow, as well as Kazunari himself for being fake to please them. Tenma storms out after realizing what he said. Ren, deciding to take action when he eventually doesn’t return, deposits Morgana onto Kazunari’s lap and follows.

Chapter 16: A Leader’s Role

Ren finds Tenma brooding on the steps outside, and when asked what he’s doing out here, Ren simply replies he’s here to make sure that he eats and hands him a plate of curry. Though Tenma protests, he eventually does start eating. Remembering what Morgana had told him a while ago about working with Tenma rather than against him, Ren decides to break the ice, leader-to-leader (unknowingly so on Tenma’s part.)

To his surprise, it actually does work. He and Tenma have a decent conversation with each other. At the end, Ren suggests that Tenma try what he had been told before: work with everyone rather than against them. Balance out the negative with the positive. They are a team, after all.

It’s also during the conversation that Ren reveals something to Tenma that none of the other members of Mankai (or even the Phantom Thieves actually) know: prior to being expelled at his old school, Ren was a part of the drama club. He used to be something of an actor. However, one day shortly after he got arrested, he was confronted by the rest of the members while rehearsing about what had happened. Ren really wasn’t able to get a word in edgewise as the rest of the club kind of went off on him, which turned into a huge load of nasty things about him and his performances (a great deal of nasty comments that stemmed from his arrest basically that weren’t true and it just kind of evolved into them tearing Ren down.) He hadn’t found the nerve to be able to step on a stage since, which sucked because he had forgotten how much he loved acting until he began to help out at Mankai.

Ren has no idea that Tenma keeps that confession in the back of his mind.

Chapter 17: An Awkward Approach

During rehearsal the next day, it turns out that little chat with Ren actually ended up paying off in some regard. Tenma actually apologizes for the way that he acted. He also tries to balance out his criticism by pointing out the positive qualities to the Summer Troupe’s acting, raising them up a little while helping the change what they need to.

Ren’s phone starts going off during their lunch break. When he checks, he finds that he doesn’t recognize the account trying to contact him at all. It’s a user going by the screen name ‘Alibaba’. At first, he thinks that it might be Tenma (primarily because it’s his character’s name) but Tenma’s right in front of him and not on his phone at all. Alibaba’s replying to him in real time.

To make matters worse, this Alibaba knows about Ren’s identity as a Phantom Thief. They promise not to leak this information and even help them if Medjed decides to make a move so long as the Thieves change someone’s heart for them, going as far as to “prepare the necessary tool” for the job. When Ren tries to respond, all he gets in return is an error message.

Chapter 18: Summer Memories

As soon as rehearsal ends that afternoon, Ren’s cornered by Muku and Kazunari, who noticed he seemed a little off after lunch. Ren reassures them that everything’s alright before ducking away to contact the rest of the Thieves about Alibaba.

Over video chat, the group tries to figure out what exactly to do. All they manage to figure out are two things. The first is that the “tool” Alibaba was talking about was a blank calling card for them to use. It had been dropped off at the Mankai’s dorms and addressed to Ren. Yusuke was lucky enough to get to it before Spring Troupe could’ve. The second is that Ren’s phone possibly was hacked, which is how Alibaba was able to contact him in the first place.

Things get worse when Medjed posts another threat on their own website, saying that they’ll target those who sympathize with the Phantom Thieves if they continue. Knowing how certain members of Mankai (the first person that comes to Ren’s mind is Kazunari, who has shown before that he is an avid supporter of the Phantom Thieves) feel about the Thieves, it is cause for some worry. If Medjed tries to go after the troupe, then the Thieves are definitely ready to fight. There’s just a lot of confusion going on right now.

Izumi then chooses to knock on the door to draw Ren back out, saying that there’s a group activity he needs to be a part of. Makoto suggests that they continue their discussion when Ren comes back tomorrow and after a good night’s sleep has cleared their heads. The meeting comes to an end.

As it turned out, Matsukawa bought some fireworks for the troupe to light up since they missed out on the fireworks festival a few days ago. That was the group activity Izumi was talking about. Kazunari and Misumi want Ren to join them since the fireworks festival was his idea (for the most part) so he deserves a chance to make it up, too. With some urging from Morgana, Ren goes to light fireworks with everyone outside. Even in the midst of everything, he deserves to be an actual teenager sometimes. As a treat.

Chapter 19: On Love, Summer Edition

More teenage shenanigans thanks to Kazunari. That is mostly the subject matter here when Ren catches him texting someone during the meeting that Summer Troupe (and himself by default since he’s stuck bunking with them during this trip) has before they go to bed. Kazunari is rather anxious to hide the message, saying that he was texting a girl.

When a few of the others pester him about it (Muku primarily, Yuki wants out of it and Misumi and Tenma are just curious), Kazunari turns the topic on its head and asks them about their love lives. It doesn’t really work out as planned, as everyone is so busy that they don’t have time to date or are too shy to ask anyone out. This sort of devolves into the boys staying up talking all night. As Ren later notes, Kazunari was repeatedly checking his phone, texting someone until they all passed out.

In the end, though, by that morning, everyone’s tired from the lack of sleep. Morgana is disappointed in the entire Summer Troupe and Ren.

Chapter 20: Good Material

The afternoon that the Summer Troupe and both directors return home, Ren gets another message from Alibaba. They’re asking why Ren and the Thieves haven’t acted yet, despite getting the calling card that they were sent. First, as Ren explains, he’s not even home yet, and secondly, he points out that the Thieves need a name in order to steal someone’s heart. (It’s how the MetaNav works. A name, location and distortion at minimum are needed for a Palace, only a name for Mementos.) After thinking about it a moment, Alibaba gives them the name: Futaba Isshiki.

Alibaba goes on to add that if the Thieves don’t change her heart, then they’ll expose their identities to the police. Ren panics, but before he can get any more information or ask anything else, Alibaba cuts him off, and all Ren gets is error messages. Needless to say, the Thieves meet up at Mankai as soon as Ren gets back.

From what the team can gather so far is that Alibaba wants them to steal Futaba Isshiki’s heart. Since the calling card was sent to the dorms, they know where Ren lives. They also managed to hack Ren’s phone twice. It might just be a prank, or a test that the Thieves are being put through especially since they weren’t given a reason to steal Futaba’s heart in the first place. Regardless, they decide to proceed with caution and try their best to find out who exactly Futaba is.

Ren goes to the one person whom he knows has connections with everyone to see if he can help in some way -- Kazunari. However, when Ren asks about whether or not Kazunari might know Futaba or someone who does, Kazunari does a complete 180, going from willing to help to shutting down Ren almost immediately. There’s a moment after the outburst before Kazunari returns to normal, quickly apologizing before taking his leave. Both Ren and Morgana agree that whole thing was very suspicious. Ren’s starting to think that Kazunari might know something about Futaba after all.

Without much of a clue as to what’s going on with Futaba and with Kazunari being no help, the Thieves are left to ask around to see if they can find any information about Futaba on their own. They come up with nothing... until the end of the day as Ren walks home with Yusuke in defeat. That would be until they come across a rather shocking scene: It’s a woman arguing with Kazunari. This woman is Prosecutor Sae Niijima -- Makoto’s older sister. And she is just going after Kazunari, talking about having his parents’ parental rights revoked over his younger sister -- a girl named Futaba. Sae wants something that one of Kazunari’s relatives worked on that could be related to the psychotic breakdown case she’s working on -- something called cognitive psience. Kazunari eventually yields on the threat that his parents would lose custody of his sister.

Sae leaves, thanking him for this information. It’s only then that Kazunari notices that Yusuke and Ren were standing behind him. It’s awkward, because they overheard certain parts that Kazunari didn’t want them to hear. Yusuke and Ren try to get some information out him, wondering what’s up, but Kazunari is quick to shut them down. He’s not giving them any answers anytime soon. This does affect his performance a bit during rehearsal that evening.

It makes matters worse when that is the practice that Yuzo -- a former member of the original Mankai Troupe -- decides to shadow and give his critique on. While the rest of Summer Troupe is torn into for the same reasons as they get torn into in canon, there’s something else that Yuzo finds to tear into Kazunari about -- being distracted. Kazunari apologizes for it but doesn’t say anything on the matter about what bothering him even when asked by Izumi about it. Ren, however, has a pretty good idea.

Chapter 21: 8 MM Video

The next day after school, Ren and Ryuji take what they overheard between Kazunari and Sae right to the rest of the team while the rest of Summer Troupe rehearsing for their debt collector (Sakyo). After all they heard, it sounds a bit suspicious that Kazunari would keep shutting this down whenever Futaba gets brought up, especially considering how open he is. They suspect that his parents might be abusing Futaba, but if that were to happen, Kazunari isn’t the type of person to keep it hidden. Nor is Tsuzuru, Ren notes, as the two seem to know about each other’s home lives in some regard.

Before they can decide how to continue further, Alibaba contacts Ren again, asking why the change of heart hasn’t taken place yet. With the Phantom Thieves there to help him through the conversation a little better this time, Ren does his best to get information out of Alibaba about Futaba -- trying to ask questions to help figure out her keywords if she does have a Palace. It’s all a flop, and when Ren asks if they could meet Alibaba face-to-face to discuss this whole thing a bit better, Alibaba shuts down the idea super quickly. They call the deal off, saying that they’ll help the Thieves with Medjed with no strings attached and demands they stop looking for Futaba. The error messages return when Ren tries to stop them.

And that’s pretty much that. Still trying to wrap their heads around what just happened, the Thieves pretty much chalk it up to a prank on both Alibaba’s and Medjed’s parts, the logic with the latter being that they haven’t sent out any new threats in the past few days and haven’t acted upon the ones they’ve already made. But Ren is still left with a lot of questions and work to do, since Water Me!’s opening night is now a month away. It doesn’t help that Sakyo shows up to rehearsal too to remind the company of their debt and how well they need to do with this show too in order to pay it off.

Still curious about Futaba, Ren and Yusuke try to ask Kazunari a few things. Emphasis on try, because they barely get a word in edgewise since Kazunari’s finally got his hands on the 8 MM video player he was trying to get a few weeks ago so the Summer Troupe could watch that tape of the previous Summer Troupe.

Both of them are still so wrapped up with the mystery at hand that they don’t notice the boy in the video who looks very similar to the man threatening to shut down Mankai now.

The next day, Ren takes a break from rehearsal, going out with the rest of the Thieves to redo their celebration over stealing Kaneshiro’s Treasure and Makoto joining the team. They don’t make it very far though, as the whole fiasco with Kazunari, Futaba and Alibaba is still weighing heavily on their minds. Things get worse when they run into Akechi outside the subway station.

Akechi grills them a bit about the Phantom Thieves -- saying that it’s suspicious that those with ties to the Phantom Thieves’ cases are hanging out together. (i.e. going to the same school that Kamoshida taught at, and how Yusuke was Madarame’s student.) Thought this is easily thrown off thanks to Makoto and Ren acting fairly quickly, Akechi does leave them with something rather important that they regret overlooking: Medjed has declared war on the Phantom Thieves. And upon checking their website, they find out that this is true. If the Thieves don’t turn themselves in by August 21st, then Medjed will conduct a “cleanse” of Japan, destroying their economy in the process.

The team is in deep shit, and kind of need Alibaba’s help to stop Medjed. The only issue is that they have no idea who they are. Their only connections are to Futaba, who they know is related to Kazunari. However, since he’s being so fucking stubborn when it comes to talking about Futaba, it’s going take something major for him to actually open up. The only thing that they can think of that would work happens to still be saved on Ren’s phone because hindsight is 50/50.

The team make a choice and ask Kazunari to meet them in Ren’s attic. It’s there that, in order to get the information about Futaba out of him, they show him the messages that Alibaba had sent Ren. In the process, this also outs themselves as the Phantom Thieves, but at this point, they don’t have much of a choice.

Kazunari is kind of stunned for a moment because holy fucking shit, these kids are the Phantom Thieves what the fuck-- but as soon as that wears off it hits him about what had actually happened. The day before Alibaba asked Ren to change Futaba’s heart was the day that he had stayed up with the others talking and texting someone. This other person was Futaba, who had been having a pretty bad episode while their parents were out and since after moving out Kazunari checks on her... I think you can see what happened. Kazunari stayed up with her until it had passed. After all this sinks in, the Thieves explain that they need Alibaba’s help, but aren’t sure how to contact them. Since they know Futaba and Kazunari knows her, they were wondering if he knows who Alibaba is. As it turns out, he does because Alibaba is Futaba herself. It’s the handle that she goes by online while she’s hacking.

When asked why the hell Futaba would want the Thieves to steal her own heart, it’s when Kazunari’s own breaks a little. He takes them to meet Futaba, as his parents are out and won’t be home until late. At his home, they meet Futaba -- albeit briefly, as because the moment she spots them, Futaba panics and zips back up to her room. Once Kazunari calms her down (as there was a storm going on that knocked the power out as soon as they arrived) he returns to the team.

To explain what just happened, Kazunari tells them Futaba’s story. Futaba is Kazunari’s younger sister through adoption. They’re related through their mothers since they were cousins, and his family took her in after her mother died two years ago after throwing herself into the street in front of Futaba’s eyes. Since they had always been close, Kazunari was the one who was mostly there for her afterwards. It was why he and Tsuzuru became friends -- since Kazunari knew the latter had multiple siblings of his own and asked him for help. Togethers, they helped Futaba open up again... until a few months ago, right around the time that Spring Troupe formed. Futaba began experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations of her dead mother. She locked herself in her room, refusing to speak to anyone and it’s taken so much for Kazunari just to be able to call her and text her to check in every night. He was afraid of what would happen if he said anything about it because of what was going on with his sister. He just wanted to protect her. But her pain had distorted her world, and as much as she wants to get rid of these feelings herself, she can’t.

The team promises Kazunari that they’ll help Futaba after they uncover that she does have a Palace of her own, and he in turn promises to keep their secret. Besides, he’s been on the Phantom Thieves’ sides since day one and is partially responsible for the thought of having them steal her heart being put in Futaba’s head with how much he talked to her about them.

And now, the Phantom Thieves seek out to do what they had formed their team to do in the first place: to help people who couldn’t help themselves.

Chapter 22: Photo Shoot

With a promise under their belts to fulfill and a desire to save Futaba, the Phantom Thieves get to work as soon as possible. Unfortunately, a new Palace means that Ren’s going to have to skip a few rehearsals to actually go. You think that it being summer break now too would help. Nope! Just a few more days to rehearse. But luckily, with Kazunari now in on the Phantom Thief secret, it gets a bit easier to make excuses for his absences. Well, his and Yusuke’s, but it’s always been easy for Yusuke. While the photoshoot for promotion material is going on that day, Kazunari uses the excuse that Ren’s running an errand for him to explain away his absence.

Because Kazunari showed them where Futaba lived, it isn’t hard for them to go and visit her. ...even if she is still hiding in her room and only speaking through the hack she has on Ren’s phone. But even this method is enough for them to get the keywords that they need to enter Futaba’s Palace -- “Futaba Isshiki”, “Futaba Isshiki’s House” and sadly, “Tomb”. This leads directly to her Palace -- a pyramid in the desert.

Although at first the Thieves aren’t seen as a threat, that quickly changes after a run in with Futaba’s Shadow -- who in this world is a mummified pharaoh. It becomes apparent fairly quickly that Futaba isn’t in control of her own Palace after the Thieves hear the disembodied voices that have been plaguing Futaba for quite some time -- all of them shouting, calling her a murderer, etc.

They are then promptly kicked out of the Palace for the time being. Their hideout is also changed to the Mankai Company Theater, since that’s the one place that they can all easily meet up at without an issue. Ren decides to keep what’s going on inside Futaba’s Palace from Kazunari for a few reasons. A) it’s very personal and it’s probably best that Futaba tell him herself and B) it’s going to make him worry a lot more than he already is.

Speaking of which, Ren and Yusuke return to the Mankai dorms just as the photoshoot for Water Me! is wrapping up. Yusuke takes his time complimenting Yuki’s handiwork on the costumes while Izumi takes a moment to introduce Ren (and Yusuke who’s not really paying much attention at this point) to the photographer, Omi Fushimi. When Omi expresses and interest in taking a look at the theater before heading out, Izumi sends Ren with him while she handles rehearsal.

Ren’s a little nervous about being with Omi alone, mostly because he doesn’t know him, but he warms up fairly quickly when Morgana takes to the photographer. If he has a gold star in Morgana’s book, then that’s usually good enough for Ren (even though he’s still on the fence about Sakyo, who has the same thing.)

Ren takes the chance to invite Omi to come and see the show when the latter expresses something of an interest in the theatre. By the time they’re done, Ren has an idea in mind that he might just put into motion later, after Futaba’s Palace is taken care of and after Water Me! ...he just needs Izumi’s approval, first.

When he gets home, Kazunari’s ready to update the website with the pictures from the photoshoot earlier. The only change he makes is at Tenma’s request, removing the latter’s image and name since he doesn’t want to rely on that for publicity.

Chapter 23: Posturing and Idolizing

A few days of exploring the Palace do not do much to help ease the Thieves’ mind about Futaba’s situation. Through their infiltration, they’ve managed to discover quite a bit that Futaba was keeping locked up. It all comes back to one conclusion: that Futaba believes that she was the one responsible for her mother’s death, since the “note” she left behind claimed that she should’ve never had Futaba in the first place. To make things worse, Futaba believes that she should die for such a thing. This is something that the Thieves choose to keep from Kazunari for the time being, because as before, it would probably make him worry about her even more than he already is.

However, their last day of infiltration is also the same day that the flyers for Water Me! arrive. Each of the Thieves gets a stack to distribute on their way home from the Palace, which is fairly early in the afternoon for once. Ren does manage to get one of the flyers to Futaba thanks to Morgana’s help, with the cat crawling in the window with the flyer in his mouth to drop into her lap. He’s hoping that it might do something to help her feel better, even if it’s only temporary.

The team splits off into separate groups of two to get the word about the show as widespread as possible. Ren and Ryuji pair up, with Morgana accompanying Makoto and Ann teaming up with Yusuke since as soon as they’re done, Ann’s going to help him with Futaba’s calling card this time. They’re going to steal her heart tomorrow, and there’s nothing that’s going to stop them... besides the mental door blocking their way, but that can be solved easily by getting Futaba to open up her bedroom door in reality.

So, Ren and Ryuji are passing out flyers when they come across a pair of familiar faces doing a street act. It’s Tasuku and Haruto, whom they had run into during Blooming Spring while investigating Madarame. A bit curious, the boys watch their performance. While they are fairly good, Ryuji does remark that the fan service that Haruto pulls off kind of sucks if they think that’s all it takes to pull in tickets.

And this gets Haruto’s attention. Haruto v. Ryuji: Round Two, let’s go.

Haruto recognizes the boys, and immediately starts dissing the Mankai Company again, calling them nobody actors and the like. This does get under Ren’s skin, as most of Haruto’s insults seem to do. It’s also here that they finally get the message to Haruto across that the boys are not actors. Ren’s the assistant director, and Ryuji’s just a volunteer helping out. A volunteer who keeps trying to fight Haruto with ever snide comment that the latter makes.

Even with Tasuku and Ren trying to step in to get both to back down before they literally start fighting each other (a fight that I should note, Ryuji would win due to Metaverse experience), it takes God Troupe’s director -- Reni Kamikizaka -- to actually get Haruto to calm down. In turn, Ren’s able to reel Ryuji back a little. Though fairly calm and open with the two, Reni’s mood changes when he sees that they’re passing out flyers for the Mankai Company. The one that they handed him is immediately torn up, much to the boys and even the crowd’s shock. He promptly leaves with his troupe members in tow, and Ren and Ryuji are left wondering what the fuck just happened.

Needless to say, trying to brush that experience off, Ren and Ryuji continue passing out flyers, making their way around to a new spot as they go. However, this also leads to another run in: Muku and Yuki, with the latter being harassed by a couple of junior high boys. Ren recognizes the uniforms that boys are wearing as the same ones that Muku and Yuki do. They go to the same school.

Ryuji’s ready to fight a couple of middle school brats after hearing what the boys are saying, but Ren holds him back while Yuki handles the situation calmly and without much of an issue. He even flusters the boys, handing them a flyer and sending them on their way. It’s only once the boys are gone do the two teenagers make their presence known, startling Yuki in the process.

It’s when Ryuji compliments Yuki on not lashing out at the bullies that kind of changes things a little. He was younger but stayed calm the whole time unlike Ryuji would’ve. He was pretty mature for his age. It gets Yuki to tear up a little, having not expected it.

As Muku and Ryuji calm Yuki down, Ren feels like Ryuji’s a bit closer to Summer Troupe than he is at this point. The four of them pass out the rest of their flyers together, and head home. After all, tomorrow it was go time.

Chapter 24: Kazunari’s Opinion

It’s time to steal Futaba’s Treasure and for the Thieves to fulfill both their promises to Futaba and Kazunari. It turns out to be a bit easier to get Futaba to open her door than expected, even if she does end up hiding in her closet. They manage to coax her out, even for a moment. But that moment is all that they needed. It’s also here that they plant a seed of doubt in Futaba’s mind over whether or not she actually was responsible for her mother’s death, and a bit about the MetaNav. They leave the calling card with her, and after she reads it, they enter the Palace.

The trouble they run into is... it’s not what they expected. At all. For one, behind the door in the Palace is nothing but an empty coffin. And normally when stealing the Treasure, they’re attacked by the Palace’s Ruler -- their Shadow. But in this case, the entire top of the pyramid is taken off by a giant sphynx that the Thieves struggle fighting against since it’s hard to reach and too fast for them to bring down. The beast is absolutely wiping the floor with them.

No one is sure whether what happens next is a blessing or a curse. When the Thieves told Futaba about the MetaNav, they weren’t expecting her to have it on her phone. They especially weren’t expecting her to follow them into the Palace, either. Her Shadow makes the seeds of doubt from earlier start to grow, making her truly wonder if she was responsible for what happened. It’s at this point that the Thieves and the beast notice her. And Futaba realizes the sphynx shares her mother’s face.

Yeah, the monster that they’re fighting this time isn’t a Shadow. It’s a cognition -- more specifically, the cognition of Wakaba Isshiki, Futaba’s mom.

Thanks to the reassuring words of the Thieves and the urging of her Shadow to open her eyes, something... interesting happens. Much like wit the Thieves, Futaba starts to get a headache, speaking with her Shadow and forging a contract with it -- much like how the Thieves have done with their Personas upon awakening them. And like that, Futaba’s Shadow is engulfed in light and transforms into a UFO-shaped Persona that immediately pulls Futaba into it. Unlike the other members’ Personas, Futaba’s Necronomicon is... special. It’s not used for combat, but rather support and navigation. And it’s thanks to Necronomicon’s set of skills that the team is able to bring the cognition down.

The cognitive Wakaba returns to normal, and Futaba finally gets some closure over her mother’s death. It’s also when she leaves the Palace that the Thieves realize something. Futaba herself was the Treasure. And Since both Futaba and her Shadow are gone now... yeah, they absolutely book it out of the Palace before it collapses on them. It didn’t go as usual, but they still accomplished their goal. Futaba’s Treasure is gone, her Palace is gone and her heart is changed.

Ren takes to calling Kazunari to share the good news when something... The Thieves realize that Futaba hadn’t returned to her room. When she left the Palace, she collapsed outside of her house. Awakening her Persona, even if it was in a different way, took a bit out of her. That on top of having her heart changed... yeah. And Kazunari hears all of this. Without much context.

So, it’s not much of a surprise when he shows up to check on her and see what the fuck just happened. To the Thieves’ surprise, after spotting his sister, he’s relieved. Futaba passing out like this has happened before, usually when she’s used up all her energy without “recharging her batteries” so to speak. She’ll be fine in a few days. All that’s left is to wait. ...and hope that Futaba’s awake to deal with Medjed because they’re still a problem, and there’s no other hacker that can get the job done in time. But they’ll be fine. They have a good few weeks until their deadline.

...right?

...yeah... Futaba’s out like a light for a WHILE. The days fly by until there’s only one more week until opening night and only a few days until Medjed’s deadline. The Thieves (primarily Ren and Yusuke) have been working on the show to keep themselves busy and trying to keep Medjed off of their minds.

It’s here that Ren brings up another suggestion to change the show’s pacing, much like he did with the sword fight in Romeo and Julius. Though, it’s a bit simpler this time in the case of playing up the action sequence a bit more. Though everyone seems concrete in their opinions on the matter, Kazunari is bouncing back and forth with his own opinion. And he’s their tiebreaker who can’t make up his mind. This irritates Tenma somewhat, who snaps at Kazunari to just have his own opinion rather than backing off everyone else’s. This brings rehearsal to an end and returns tension to the air.

Chapter 25: Starting Tomorrow!

With tension in the air again, Ren decides to try his best to set the record straight before things escalate like they did last time. He calls Kazunari to the attic to talk with him and Yusuke and find out what’s up.

When he asks what the trouble was during rehearsal, Kazunari explains a bit of why he couldn’t make up his mind. Which is strange considering how stubborn he was about not letting the Thieves know about Futaba in order to protect her, and how stubborn he was when it came to how the play’s photos looked.

There was some truth in what Tenma said a while ago. When in middle school, Kazunari had trouble making friends to the point where the only person he could consider one was Futaba. Upon getting into high school, he scrambled for as many friends as he could, which lead to him only saying what others wanted to hear so he wouldn’t be alone. That’s something he doesn’t want with Summer Troupe or with Mankai in general. He trusts them. Eventually, even just talking to the two teenagers is enough for Kazunari to make up his mind and change his people pleasing ways.

On the flip side, Ryuji’s out on the street after checking in on Futaba for Kazunari when he runs into Tenma. Ren’s already told the Thieves about what happened, so this sort of leads to Ryuji talking about what happened that morning with them. He kind of gets why Tenma would get so pissed -- he would too -- but there’s something ‘bout it that doesn’t make sense.

Tenma’s just sort of ticked off that while Kazunari has opinions -- bringing up the photos as an example -- he doesn’t speak his mind when its important, like with the scene. They need to talk with each other, something that Ryuji brings up when he remembers that’s what Ren always tells them when in combat. That’s similar, right? But it’s hard to say what you want when a bunch of people talk over you. That’s something that Ryuji gets from personal experience due to the incident with Kamoshida a year ago. Yelling ain’t gonna do jack. You gotta just act sometimes, and make sure that you’re louder than the haters.

Kind of like that little voice in Tenma’s head that makes him be a prick. Mostly it comes back to talking to Kazunari rather than just shouting like that. That’s what Ren’s taught Ryuji anyway. Besides, Kazunari’s a good guy. If he feels really strongly about something, he’ll say it.

i’m not gonna lie, i just really wanted ryuji and tenma to interact for a bit, it’ll be refined later. ...and ironically later, ryuji’s gonna need to follow his own advice, but that’s for act 3.

Chapter 26: Trouble at Home

The next day, Kazunari states his opinion on the action scene. He wants to do it. Thanks to Kazunari breaking the tie, that’s what they decide to go with. Tenma even apologizes for yelling and that he probably should’ve just talked to Kazunari about it rather than snap. With the air somewhat cleared, rehearsal goes smoothly. Everything’s starting to come together.

...that is until that evening when Tenma’s manager shows up at the door. Apparently, Tenma’s parents found out about the show, which is strange considering Izumi had called them to fill them in on it the day that Tenma auditioned. The truth comes to light. The person that Izumi had talked to was Tenma’s manager, who serves as Tenma’s guardian when his parents are away. However, his father is back in the country and is not pleased to find out that Tenma turned down a movie offer to do the show.

In order to talk to his father about this, Tenma has to briefly return home... with his manager urging the troupe to find a replacement. But Tenma’s stubborn and there’s no way he’s letting that happen. If worse comes to worse, he tells them to let Ren take his place -- probation or not, he’s the only one that they got. The thought of performing in front of a crowd full of eyes focused on him and his every move, just waiting for him to slip up sets Ren’s anxiety skyrocketing.

He really hopes that Tenma can convince his father to let him stay.

A few days go by, and dress rehearsal is getting closer and closer. There’s no word from Tenma until one night, Kazunari rushes in with news. Tenma’s updated his social media to say that he’s joined the troupe, talking about the show in detail despite not wanting to advertise it previously. It’s thanks to this that the rest of the show sells out in an instant. However, the troupe can only hope that this means Tenma’s gonna return to them soon.

Chapter 27: School Arts Fest Memories

The clock ticks into late in the night with no word from Tenma. The troupe is worried until Tenma walks in through the door with a noticeable black eye from his father. Ren rushes to dip into the first aid supplies from things that he’s gathered in the Metaverse to help try and ease the pain, as well as help the bruise heal faster.

Apparently, the black eye was because Tenma had walked away from the movie deal without saying anything first. He had a long talk with his father afterwards, eventually getting him on board. This all ties back to Tenma needing to do this to take the next step as an actor.

As a kid, he was acting in a school play. He was already a child star, so that should’ve been easy for him. But the moment that he stepped on stage, he froze and forgot his lines. He just stood there until the curtain closed. It was the first time he had messed up so badly, so it’s stuck with him. With film, multiple takes can be done. On stage, it’s a one-time thing, so if you mess up, there’s no going back to erase your mistake. Being on stage again, he “starts to act like [Ren], freaking out and getting all tense.”

Remember how I said that Tenma wouldn’t forget Ren’s confession to him about being in theatre prior? Yeah, this is where that comes into play when Tenma reveals he has bad stage fright like Ren does. Only Tenma didn’t have an excuse to not step on stage like Ren.

The others -- Ren included -- are floored. Ren didn’t even realize that he had stage fright, but... after what he told Tenma, he guesses that it makes sense. He is afraid to stand on stage again, after all. The Metaverse to him, while like a stage, is different from one, too. There’s no one there to tear him down like his drama club did as soon as they found out about his arrest. He’s wearing a mask, no one can see who he really is. There’s no criticism in that world, and no harsh words... it’s those things that he’s scared of. It’s what’s holding him back. It’s why he won’t stand on stage.

Basically, while Tenma’s fear stems from not giving a less-than-perfect performance, Ren’s comes from the anxiety he gets when faced with negativity and rejection. He’s afraid of being criticized and torn apart like he was before.

With this realization, Ren sort of admits to it. However, he does add in that while he did hide behind the excuse of his probation, Tenma had the courage that he lacked to stand in the stage’s spotlight. He isn’t a coward. He obviously takes pride in his work after all and should strive for the best or even make things better. Ren promises his help later on that night, much like he did with Sakuya and the sword fight. In exchange, Tenma promises to help Ren get over his stage fright so that he can get up there himself. He’s not stupid, he’s seen how much Ren loves it.

“...one step at a time, Tenma.”

Chapter 28: Once Again...

The next morning, Tenma practically gets tackled by the rest of Summer Troupe when they find out he’s here to stay. Ren finds it somewhat hilarious and takes a picture of it. It is later uploaded to both Mankai’s blog and sent to the Phantom Thieves’ group chat.

Tenma explains the business about his stage fright to the others (and keeps tight-lipped about Ren’s in the process.) To his relief, the others accept that part of him. Stage fright or not, they weren’t going to let him drop out so easily. There wouldn’t be a show without him, after all.

Chapter 29: The Secret of the Protractor

With Tenma announcing he’s part of the show, Mankai has become swamped with interview requests to the point where they’ve opened dress rehearsal to the press. It’s a lot to handle, but it has been keeping the Thieves’ minds off of Medjed for about a day or so. The team even steps in for a bit to help so that no one gets overwhelmed with all the work. As a bit of a thank you, they’re allowed to sit in on rehearsal that day alongside Yuzo.

The Thieves applaud the performance, even if it was just a rehearsal. Makoto comments how amazing Misumi’s acting is, especially compared to how he seems to be normally. Yuzo explains that it’s most likely because of his grandfather -- Mankai’s previous playwright. Honestly, hearing that has a few people curious.

Later that evening, Ryuji and Ren take a break from running around all day, accidentally luring out Misumi with the smell of rice. Ren was helping making dinner for everyone while Izumi was busy, and it’s Misumi’s favorite onigiri. ...actually, that’s just part of it. Ren’s been trying to perfect one of Izumi’s curry recipes and Ryuji’s wasting time being his taste tester. It’s here that Misumi’s grandfather gets brought up again.

Misumi’s grandfather is responsible for Misumi being so good at acting by showing him videos of the old troupes and never giving up on him, either. After a suggestion from a friend of his that he used to spend a lot of time with, Misumi’s kept the protractor his grandfather used to write scripts with on him at all times as a memento.

When Ryuji asks about this strange friend a little more, Misumi tells him he hasn’t seen his friend in years, but Ren reminds him a lot of him. And both the boys already feel like they’re good friends to him, too. He wishes for them to be on stage together one day, something Ren’s a bit sheepish about getting on stage (and still working on finding the courage to, he’s let the thieves know about his stage fright, but not the rest of the company). Ryuji... backpedals, but still somewhat considers it, which surprises Ren a little.

Hey, he’s been having fun. Give him a break.

Chapter 30: The Dress Rehearsal

Dress rehearsal just so happens to fall on the same date as Medjed’s deadline. So, Ren and Yusuke wake up stressed as fuck. Even Kazunari’s a bit worried because Futaba’s never recharged for this long. Though, all their worry flies out the door pretty quickly that morning when there’s a knock at the door. It’s Kazunari’s yelp that has everyone running because it’s Futaba, who had walked her by herself with her laptop tucked under her arm and a flyer that her hand is wrapped around.

She had woken up a while ago and wanted to make sure that he knew that she was fine, stop blowing up her phone with texts, Kazu. She came by to see him while doing her work to make sure that he was fine. However, there is the little matter of dress rehearsal. He’s gonna be busy with that all day.

So, Futaba kind of... commandeers his and Muku’s room for the day to get what she needs to do in order to bring down Medjed done. She made a deal after all. Though a little nervous, Summer Troupe and the Thieves leave her in Spring Troupe’s care (specifically Tsuzuru since she already knows him) and head off to dress rehearsal.

The theater is packed with reporters and cameramen by the time the troupe arrives. It’s kind of crazy how many cameras there are. And it’s easy to see that their presence is making Tenma nervous. It’s also easy to see that while he’s up on stage.

Things are made a bit worse when the rest of the Summer Troupe notices Tenma’s nerves affecting his performance. That in turn affects their own. To top it all off, Tenma forgets one of his lines, blanking out on stage. Luckily Yuki takes the reins from there to cover it up, but it’s still a noticeable mistake.

When the Summer Troupe makes it back to the Mankai Dorms, Futaba’s passed out in front of her laptop with her job done. Medjed has been taken care of, and there’s a weight off of the Thieves’ shoulders. They let her sleep in Room 202 for the rest of the night.

...at least one good thing happened today. Because the press, while most were covering the action with Medjed, still managed to get out some articles about the dress rehearsal. And thanks to their performance, the reviews aren’t looking too good. They need to make sure what happened today can’t happen opening night... especially in Tenma’s eyes it can’t.

Chapter 31: My Weakness

Upon hearing the news about Futaba, the rest of the Phantom Thieves rush over to the dorms to check out if it’s true or not. It is, and Medjed has retracted their threat on the Phantom Thieves. Like I said, it was one good thing that happened yesterday. When Futaba wakes up, she’s sort of stuck to Kazunari’s side. Unlike before, she’s kind of realized where she’s at and is surrounded by mostly strangers. Depressed strangers because dress rehearsal sucked. So, before things get worse, the Thieves take Futaba upstairs to the attic to get a little space to breathe, as well as to talk to her about the Metaverse stuff in private.

Unfortunately, Futaba is difficult to talk to. Kazunari had warned them about this prior, that Futaba wasn’t the best socially like he was. But they didn’t expect the hacker to be brushing them off when they ask her most questions. The only thing that she doesn’t brush away is when they ask her to join them, getting only a small ‘yes’ as a reply.

Just like with acting, everyone has to start somewhere. The “Help-Futaba-Open-Up” Plan that the Phantom Thieves come up with is relatively simple. They’ll each spend a day with her and get to know her little by little for the rest of the week. If she’s comfortable enough by the end of the week and pasts the test of spending the last day at the beach, then Ren and Makoto talk about a small surprise they could plan if Futaba’s able to stand in a crowd without a problem. Or is willing to try to. Because of the show’s run being the same week, Ren’s going to be busy all day. To remedy that, Futaba’ll spend the week at the dorms. Though she initially is hesitant and scared, Futaba agrees.

As Futaba notes later that night when she returns with a bag for the week (as well as permission from the director and her parents), everyone is still majorly bummed out by what happened at dress rehearsal. This is evident at dinner later that night. It eventually gets to the point where Tenma walks away from the table, dragging Ren out of the room with him.

Ren is basically dragged out by Tenma against his will to the theater. When Ren asks what the hell Tenma’s doing, he is kind of surprised by the reply. He wants to practice on his own to fix his mistakes so they don’t mess up opening night. And he can’t do that alone, and since Ren did offer to help him, he was the prime candidate. It’s just a bonus that he already knows the show as well as the actors.

We get another nice Ren and Tenma moment here. I didn’t mean for that to happen so much, but it kind of did. Oh well.

So, when Izumi and the rest of Summer Troupe find the two, they’re in the middle of a scene between Ali Baba and Scheherazade -- the exact same scene where Tenma choked earlier. Initially, it’s not taken as it’s supposed to. There’s a lot of teasing from the troupe directed at the two of them for sneaking off on their own. But then, the troupe gets together for one last rehearsal -- ironing out the details before opening tomorrow night.

Chapter 32: The Huddle Engine

Day One of the Futaba Plan as well as opening night for Water Me! has arrived. Makoto arrives to spend the day with Futaba and Yusuke at the dorms while Summer Troupe is scrambling around trying to prepare for the show. Makoto takes Izumi off to the side beforehand to ask her about something. Though Futaba is a bit curious about the matter, Ren and Yusuke quickly direct her away from it.

Futaba ends up spending the day with Makoto and Yusuke in the common area, and surprisingly also with Sakuya and Citron, too. Since she’s going to be staying there for the week, the reasoning is that she should be comfortable around the troupes, too. Though the initial small talk discussion doesn’t do much, there is some ground found once Futaba gets started talking about Featherman. It kind of evolves into the five of them marathoning the show together and Futaba explaining all the finer points of it to Citron. Kazunari is proud of her for stepping out of her shell like this, but there’s no time to relax. It’s only the start of the week, and the show’s opening is that night.

With the messy dress rehearsal, there are more eyes on Summer Troupe than originally thought possible. The thought of messing up again makes Tenma very nervous. But Tenma’s not going alone out there, he has the rest of the troupe to back him up. Kazunari drives this point further with their huddle... which Ren finds amusing, since it involves everyone’s hands on Tenma’s chest for some reason. Though, it does the trick and calms Tenma down.

The Summer Troupe steps out onto the stage and gives their opening performance their all. Although Tenma does trip up on a line, as promised, the troupe is there to help him get right back into the flow of things. The audience doesn’t even notice the mistake.

Chapter 33: Redemption

Curtain closes on Water Me!’s opening night and... Summer Troupe is given a rousing round of applause and cheers. Tenma managed to overcome his fears and the show went off without an issue that the troupe couldn’t resolve.

Much like the Phantom Thieves, Summer Troupe’s become a well-oiled machine. If they can keep up this pacing, then closing night would be spectacular.

...and if Futaba could keep it up as well, then the surprise that Makoto and Ren are planning might just get to happen after all, especially since Izumi pulls Ren aside to give him the okay for it.

Chapter 34: A Tense Closing Night

The week goes by without much issue. The shows have gone pretty well, and Futaba’s slowly starting to open up bit by bit the more time she spends with the Phantom Thieves, as well as the Mankai Company (though Ren is still surprised when the Spring Troupe member she gets along with the best ends up being Itaru of all people... then again, in hindsight, it’s not all that strange).

Eventually, they reach the end of the week. That day marks not only closing night, but Futaba’s final test: the beach trip. It’s only thanks to Spring Troupe filling in for Ren and Yusuke as stage crew that the two boys are able to go on the beach trip in the first place, promising that he and the rest of the team will be back for closing. Without a Palace in their way this time, there’s no doubt that they’ll make it back in time. Worst that can get in their way is traffic or a subway accident at this rate.

Fortunately, thanks to her days with everyone, Futaba actually does a good job handling the crowd at the beach. It’s a day that’s filled with fun, and by the time the sun starts to set, and they need to get heading back, both Ren and Makoto can agree that Futaba should be able to handle another crowd that night.

The Thieves pack up their things, change out of their swimsuits and start to head back to Veludo Way. On the trip back (which Makoto borrowed Itaru’s car for in order to avoid the crowd on the subway, thank you Itaru), Futaba opens up a little bit more about what she remembered happening to her mother. Wakaba didn’t just die, she was killed by someone who wanted her research into cognitive psience -- the very same things that involve the Metaverse, Shadows and the mental shutdowns that are going around. She fully promises to help out the Phantom Thieves in any way that she can in order to find out who was responsible for her mother’s death. She even chooses her official Phantom Thief codename: Oracle.

...Ren’s not sure how he’s going to tell Kazunari about that, but there’s not much time to dwell on it as the Thieves arrive at the Mankai Theater, much to Futaba’s confusion. Makoto goes on to explain that since the team saw Romeo and Julius, shouldn’t they see Water Me! as well? It was all Ren’s idea when he saw the flyer that Futaba was carrying with her when she arrived at the dorms. She should get the chance to see her brother shine onstage after all. This was also why she needed to be comfortable with Spring Troupe. Because of the sold-out seats, she would be standing and watching the show with them.

Futaba is really grateful for that. Kazunari had been texting her and talking about the show a lot, so getting to see it means more than she expected. So, the Thieves take Futaba into the theater while Ren and Yusuke head backstage to meet with the Summer Troupe.

When they get there, they find that Futaba’s not the only special guest that night. Tenma’s parents showed up as well. (Ren gets pissed off at this because while the swelling is gone, there is definitely still a lingering bruise around Tenma’s eye when not hidden with makeup.)

The rest of Summer Troupe reassures Tenma that things will be fine. They had a great run so far. Parents or not, there’s nothing that can stop them from making closing night just as successful. It’s time to prove them wrong about Tenma’s choice. With a little encouragement to calm their nerves, it’s time to step out onto the stage.

As a side note, just about everyone from Summer Troupe has someone important show up to see them: Tenma’s parents obviously came, Futaba’s there for Kazunari, Muku’s old track buddies showed up, the bullies that Yuki put in their places show up to see him and... well, a few old friends that Misumi found the courage to reach out to came to see him, too.

Chapter 35: Curtain Call

It’s taken months and a lot of hard work. Everyone’s grown and changed so much... but now here they are. The curtain rises on closing night and the show begins. The Summer Troupe gives the best performance that they possibly can. Now comfortable in the spotlight, Tenma’s upped it a little bit by adlibbing like mad during the show. However, Summer Troupe follows his flow every step of the way. Everyone’s relaxed and having fun, especially the audience.

When the curtain finally falls, the Summer Troupe is met with a standing ovation. Ren feels a bit bad about not being able to face his fears and stand with them, but Yusuke reassures him that he’ll get out there eventually whether it be the next show or the one after that. They’ll all be waiting to see him.

...speaking of which... they should probably get going. There’s one more surprise for the night, and this time it’s for Kazunari.

Chapter 36: Backstage

While the actors head backstage, Ren and Yusuke sneak out for a moment. They find the Thieves and together bring Futaba around backstage to see Kazunari, who had no idea she was in the audience and had gotten so lost in the performance that he didn’t notice her. As Futaba tackles him, the Thieves congratulate Summer Troupe on an outstanding show.

And it’s not just them either. A few familiar faces (primarily Omi, as Ren talked to Izumi about sending him a ticket if he decided to come and see the show) and a few parents... Tenma’s included. It takes a lot and about half of the Phantom Thieves to keep Ryuji from going at them. They give Tenma permission to stay at Mankai and continue to flourish as an actor before leaving.

Izumi hands over the reins to Ren temporarily while she quickly runs out to do something. Ren is confused about it a bit but says nothing on the matter. The Summer Troupe -- along with Spring and the Phantom Thieves -- head back to the Mankai dorms for their wrap party. There were gears turning in Izumi’s mind. ...and after hearing a comment made by Muku’s parents about his cousin showing up to see the show, Ann gets an idea in hers as well.

Chapter 37: New Recruit

Morgana follows Izumi to keep an eye on her, something that Ren doesn’t really notice until the former two get back to the dorms. So yes, Morgana does bear witness to Sakyo and Izumi’s exchange... and gets a little more information about something Ren has forgotten about at his point.

Chapter 38: A Heat That Never Cools

When Izumi returns with Morgana in her arms does the wrap party get underway. It’s here that Ren openly admits his stage fright when the topic of why he doesn’t get up on stage is brought up again. The Mankai Troupes are understanding about it and are determined to help him overcome it over the course of his remaining time at Mankai, as after his probation is up, he’ll have to return to his hometown.

During the party, Ryuji kind of gets pulled towards the Summer Troupe’s conversations by Muku, Futaba and Kazunari primarily, with Tenma jumping in a bit. And since the only troupe member Makoto really knows is Sakuya (they’re in the same class), she kind of gravitates towards Spring Troupe, leaving the rest of the thieves to bounce back and forth. Ren is relieved that the most important people in his life are getting along so well. And since he knows the root of his stage anxiety, it feels like there’s a weight off of his chest now. He’s feeling better than he has been in a while.

But there’s still the matter of Autumn Troupe to deal with. In a few days are the auditions for the next Mankai troupe, and this time, Ren is helping Izumi with recruitment. While she has someone in mind, there’s an offer that Ren sent out, too. ...but that’s to be discussed in Act 3. Right now, the company’s popularity is growing, so there’s hope that more than just the two people invited come to audition.

Oh yeah, there’s a few more things to talk about, too. Later that night, after the party is over is when Morgana tells Yusuke and Ren what had happened when Izumi left earlier

Izumi met up with Sakyo and invited him to audition for the next troupe, much to Ren’s surprise. Apparently, he had been in the old Summer Troupe video that they had seen, but since they were so wrapped up with figuring out who Futaba was at the time, neither Ren nor Yusuke really noticed. There’s also a little more to it that Morgana’s keeping from Ren, but all he’ll say about it is that he was right about Sakyo, seeing as the cat would greet him by rubbing up against his leg. Sakyo never showed signs of hating it, so he kept doing it. Ren gets a bit annoyed.

...when Morgana has a nightmare later that night, once again keeping his mouth shut about it, he gets a bit more annoyed but whatever it was seemed to freak Morgana out. Ren chooses the high road and soothes Morgana back to sleep.

Meanwhile, Ann’s walking home from the wrap party when she finds a certain someone flat on his back outside the station after getting his ass kicked by someone that he underestimated. She snickers as she stands over him.

“You didn’t think before you leapt again, huh Banchan?” “...shut up, Ann.”

Act 1 | Act 3 | Act 4

#persona 5 #persona 5 au #a3!#a3 act addict actors #a3 au #literal theatre kid ren #ren amamiya #akira kurusu #ann takamaki #ryuji sakamoto #makoto niijima #futaba sakura #tenma sumeragi #yuki rurikawa #muku sakisaka #kazunari miyoshi #misumi ikaruga

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