"I don't know," he sighs. "I wonder, though. She died by throwing herself in front of a car, right in front of Futaba, and just before she warned me she might die soon. I... I thought it was a joke."

He looks down, holding his head in his hands.

Joker frowns. "... she said she might die soon? In those words?"

"That's awful..."

He nods. "Her exact words were 'I think I might die soon.' I wish I'd taken her more seriously. I haven't told Futaba this — I didn't want to add more to what she's already dealing with — but it's odd."

"... In the case where she was contemplating suicide, that would mean she had a plan at that point, yes? That she was actively preparing to die."

Joker touches her chin with two knuckles. "If she had a plan, then why the sudden, impulsive form of death? In front of her own daughter, yet? Do you think she would be so cruel as to deliberately do that to her own daughter?"

Joker shakes her head. "It's also just an odd way to phrase it. I've been through some awful lows, but being that frank and direct? With no apportioning of blame?"

She looks over at Shiho. "Would you have said that, in one of your lows, to someone you trusted?"

She looks down, shaking her head, and reaches across to take Joker's hand, lacing her other hand's fingers with Ann's.

"No," she whispers. "If I said anything, it would've been more desperate than that."

Joker takes Shiho's hand and squeezes it.

"Yes. It's too calm. Too matter-of-fact. It doesn't tally with a situation where this is her reaching out to try and save herself. It sounds more like she was resigned to it and... felt it was worth it, somehow."

Joker shakes her head. "It tallies more easily with a situation where she believed she would be killed. The obvious issue with this hypothesis — the very public manner of her suicide, before Futaba herself as a witness — doesn't necessarily stand... if we postulate that her killer somehow had access to the Metaverse."

Joker frowns. "That is a big leap to make on little evidence, but... if there is someone who is responsible for the mental shutdown cases, of which there are dozens... It's possible that Futaba's mother may be one of their victims."

Ann takes a drink of her coffee. 

"... When was this, though? It sounds like it was years ago. Long before the mental shutdown cases started."

Sojiro looks up sharply. "Be careful. Helping Futaba is one thing, but looking into Wakaba's death is too dangerous, especially if we're right. Stay out of it if you can help it. It was about two years ago, and I've managed to keep my head down since."

Joker exhales. 

... She needs to step carefully, here. 

"I chose to take down Kamoshida despite knowing my life and the lives of everyone I brought with me would be on the line. But it's not my place to endanger you, Sojiro, much less your daughter."

She pauses, settles her thoughts. 

"If we're right, though, we may be on a timer. The news about Kamoshida has spread. His sudden confession is clearly metaverse-motivated to anyone who knows it exists, and there are only so many students and staff at Shujin Academy. If there is someone out there committing murders using the metaverse, the fact of its existence is almost certainly a secret worth killing for."

Joker crosses her arms and stares Sojiro down. "You don't believe Wakaba's death was a suicide. And you have strong reason to believe that learning more about her is dangerous. You're protecting me by hiding something, aren't you?"

Sojiro locks eyes with her for a long moment.

Then he sighs, hard.

"Damn it, kid. You're not supposed to be right."

He stares down into his coffee mug, gathering his thoughts.

Joker exhales. 

"I'd hoped I was wrong. But your reactions say a lot. I'm guessing you think someone powerful is implicated. Someone with mundane resources, someone dangerous to cross. There would be a lot of opportunities to enrich yourself crookedly if you had the metaverse to call on."

"Yeah, I do. I want to tell you to stop, to not do any more publicly visible jobs. Just help Futaba and end it there. I couldn't forgive myself if looking into this got you kids killed."

Sojiro groans and shakes his head. "If it's who I think it is, you do not want to piss him off."

"But if Akira's right," Ryuji interjects, "maybe he's already looking for us. Maybe he's already pissed."

"If there is no murderer then it's the same balance as before. If there is a murderer, it's better we find them than they find us. Is it risky? Yes, absolutely, especially if we're fighting an enemy that can use the Metaverse against us. But I feel our chances are better if we act than if we stand still."

She looks down at her hands. "And... if we end up losing in the end, I'd rather have changed the lives of a lot of people for the better in the process than have died to no good end. Kamoshida was evil, but in the grand scheme of things he's a little fish. If we're going to die of this, at least let us have a chance to make a difference with what time we have. Isn't that all anyone ever gets?"

"This is... t-terrifying. It's so big. We're talking about murder here. But... Kamoshida already knew it was us. He'd called us to his office, Friday, and was apparently planning to expel us, and we only stopped him by changing his heart before we were supposed to meet with him."

She looks down at her hand laced with Joker's.

"I'm scared to do this. But our names could already be written down somewhere that the killers could find, and quitting now won't stop that."

Sojiro buries his face in his hands and groans.

When he looks up, he locks eyes with each Thief in turn, finishing on Joker.

"Fine." His voice is tired. "But if you're going up against this... this possible conspiracy, you take every precaution you can, and you get every resource you can. If there's anything I can get that would help, you tell me. If you need a place to meet, you meet here, unless you have someplace you know is safer. Are we clear?"

"Yes, sir." Joker puts a sharpness into the two words that shows she means the honorific every inch. "From here on out, we're all Phantom Thieves. Every one of us is equally imperiled: that means every one of us gets a say. I'm not going to cut you out, Sojiro. I need your experience on my side. That means bringing you in. All the way in."

She squeezes Shiho's hand sharply. 

"I don't expect you to fight alongside us — you've got a café to run, it'd be suspicious if you closed up shop. But everyone needs to be on board with what is happening and fully informed to the best of our ability. You give, you get."

"It's terrifying to think that we could genuinely lose our lives. Akira always said this could happen, but it's different seeing it play out right in front of me..."

Ann puts her hand atop Shiho and Akira's in the center of the table. "But wherever Shiho and Akira go, I'll go too. To stop more people from being hurt like Shiho was. And because I couldn't live with myself if something happened to either of them because I was too cowardly to be there. I'm done with sitting on the sidelines while the people close to me suffer."

"There are four really important people for me in this world. Four people I'd die for. One's my ma. The other three are sitting at this table. Is this shit scary? Yeah. Do I care, if y'all are in? Fuck no."

He puts his hand atop Ann's, Shiho's, and Akira's.

"This is bigger than I ever thought it would get," Morgana adds. "I don't have as much at stake here. No one's going to try to kill someone who looks like a housecat. But you're all my best shot at finding my memories. I can't let this conspiracy kill you, and letting them continue to do their evil deeds is beneath the honor of a Phantom Thief."

They put their paw atop the teens' hands.

"Alright, then. We're all agreed." 

Joker looks over at Sojiro. "So. Here's the breakdown.

"Assets. People first. We've got everyone at this table as front line fighters in the metaverse, and Morgana as metaverse transportation. They can turn into a bus, for reasons that boil down to "My Neighbour Totoro was really popular."

We've got you, Sojiro, to provide a meeting place and a support network. You're also the only one of us who can drive.

We've got Tae Takemi, the doctor at the clinic down the street, who has an informal agreement with me to supply custom medicines in exchange for information about the metaverse and my volunteering as a clinical trial subject to help one of her patients. Takemi knows about the Metaverse and is therefore in danger. She is presently being harassed by one Shoichi Oyamada over a medical error that he made and blamed on her, and as such is "a client." One of our most urgent action items will be to decide if we should bring her in fully. 

We've got an uncertain ally in one Yuuki Mishima, former abuse victim of Kamoshida's. He has divined that we are the phantom thieves, is apparently a fan of ours, and wants to make us famous. He is as of this time completely ignorant of the Metaverse. He is also an important priority. 

We have Futaba Sakura potentially, but that is going to require a lot of discussion with you, Sojiro. She's at risk already whether we like it or not, so it's probably best to focus on helping her before we risk any more public Metaverse jobs.

That's all the people we have.

Goods. Money first. We have a potentially infinite source of illegitmate money in the form of Shadows in Mementos. We also have the legitimate funds of everyone in this room. 

Weapons. We know a high-quality replica airsoft shop in the shibuya district. Its replica weapons are sufficiently lifelike that in the metaverse they function as real guns. We currently possess one model gun for each human combat member of the group, and a slingshot for Morgana: They are stored at Ann's house at present because her family is rarely if ever home and I don't want to be caught with even a replica weapon. 

Medicine. We have a doctor to hand in the form of Takemi, and she is even able to formulate custom medicines for us, which she is able to sell us at normal prices. However, the more we involve her the more dangerous it is for her. 

Tools. We have a workbench in the attic at Leblanc that makes it easy to construct tools for use in infiltration. Of those, we possess a metaverse-capable grappling hook and a good quantity of rope. The combat-ready members of the group all also possess the Metaverse Navigator on their phones, enabling them to transit worlds. 

Powers. All of the combat-capable members of the group possess a Persona capable of magical attacks in the Metaverse. Persona use gradually exhausts the user, but is nonetheless powerful. Morgana and Ann's personas importantly have additional healing abilities.

I personally have an additional ability that allows me to convert Shadows into additional Personas, which I can then combine into more powerful ones using a ritual I can perform while asleep in an internal world only I and my personas can percieve. This can allow me to use healing abilities with the right persona. 

Knowledge. We suspect a conspiracy to surpress the knowledge of the Metaverse: however, we know it exists, and some of its rules. Medicine, fake weapons, supplements, and hormones all have been tested in the metaverse and shown to have increased effect. We have yet to attempt use of fake magic to re7f8l effect in the Metaverse, such as for example crystal magic, astrology, etcetera, largely because products claiming to have such abilities are massively overpriced.

We also have recently learned of a secure instant messenger program through Mishima, which is better for secure coordination."

Akira exhales. "I think I've laid out everything. It's a lot to keep track of, and naturally it would be foolish to keep notes that could incriminate us."

"Wow, that was a lot to rattle off just like that. Give me a minute to process. There's a doctor you've told about the Metaverse and she has a heart to change for us? You can fuse Personas in a personal Palace? I'm not sure I'm keeping up with all this."

"Uh. What's Mementos?", Ryuji asks. "Also, infinite money?"

"Mementos is everyone's shared Palace. It's a Metaverse world that covers everywhere, and has a maze of subway systems — both active and defunct — underground, where general shadows, along with the shadows of people who aren't distorted enough to form their own Palace yet, can be found," Morgana explains.