Sojiro pinches the bridge of his nose. "If the cops come with a search warrant, we've already lost. I can't believe I'm saying this, but you might as well store the airsoft guns here. Less travel time."

"Yeah, practically there's a cap on how much we can make from killing Shadows in Mementos. They do drop cash in fairly large amounts, though, so it would be best to get in an actual session of combat to see how much we can make in an afternoon."

Joker looks over at Ann. "Yes and yes. It's not a palace but it acts kind of like one, and me and Akira can spend time there together with Julie. — damn, we haven't read Sojiro in on the plurality thing, have we?"

She looks at Sojiro. "— basically the Personas we collect act a little like alternate personalities. Also, being team leader made Akira sort of fracture a little and now she can be me. Hi. You probably noticed the different body language, that's not an act."

She sighs. "And thank you regarding the airsoft guns. I was about to ask you if you'd keep them for us, actually. We'll transfer them as soon as practical."

Shiho gives her a small smile and a handsqueeze. "Thought it was you, Joker," she murmurs.

"What? Plurality? Alternate personalities? What does that ev—" Sojiro cuts himself off suddenly, holds up a hand, closes his eyes, takes a slow breath, and then sips his coffee.

After a long moment, he looks back up. "Okay. What's this personality shit?"

"Yeah, I don't blame you one bit. It's absurdity stacked on top of absurdity. I'm sorry you had to find out this way."

Joker sighs. 

"The powers we all have in the other world manifest as a "second self" with magical abilities. They have their own thoughts and emotions. It's sort of as if you've summoned a spirit to help you. All of us can hear our spirits even when we're spending time in civilian life. Generally they urge us to take better care of ourselves and do things that help us. Akira's is named Julie. 

Because Akira has an additional power that lets her have more than one second self, she ended up with... a third self. That's me, Joker. I lead the team on combat and infiltration missions. We can swap who's in charge at will, who we're "being" at any point."

"Basically Akira is in charge of civilan life and I — Joker — am in charge of Phantom Thief life. We're pretty close in temperament, but I'm... more adapted to combat, you could say. I find fighting fun, Akira finds it stressful. That basically extends to the rest of it. Akira is a little more careful, I'm a little more... the kind of person who gets into a staring contest with her guardian."

Sojiro facepalms and sighs.

"Only you, kid. Only you. Well, I'm already counting on your magic to save my daughter, no point in not taking your word for who you are."

"I would honestly not be surprised if tomorrow I woke up as a unicorn and could fart rainbows."

Sojiro laughs tiredly. "Yeah, that would fit with the week you've been having, wouldn't it?" He takes another sip of his coffee.

"Okay. Next steps, next steps—Ah! I forgot to explain the rest of what's going on with Futaba."

"Please, go on."

"A lot happened after Wakaba died. I ended up taking custody of Futaba. At first, she was so depressed she... she wouldn't even talk to me. I kept talking to her, though, and she started opening up to me, little by little."

He sighs. "That's when I found out... Futaba blames herself for her mother's death."

Joker nods. For once, she thinks the best thing to do right now is shut up. 

"She's never told me why. I never asked. I wanted to know why she thinks that, of course, but I decided not to rub salt in the wound."

He shakes his head. "What good that did. A few months ago, she started getting real scared, even when nothing was happening. She'd say things like, 'I hear voices,' and, 'Mom is looking at me.'"

Hallucinations, huh...

"I wanted to take her to a doctor, but she refused. Even when I had a doctor come to the house, she locked herself away in her room. Since then, she's become what you'd call a shut-in. She won't take a single step outside the house, or even try to see other people."

Joker nods. "Sounds like she could really use our help."

"Definitely. Futaba is, well, a unique girl. She's so quick-minded that conversations with her tend to jump from one topic to the next. It seems like she's always coming to conclusions in her head. There's a lot I don't get about her."

He shakes his head, then looks at Joker. "So yeah. Her situation is why I couldn't let you stay in the house. Talking to you kids about helping her is the first time I've really pushed her on what she's willing to do since she moved in. I know hiding from life like this is no way for her to live, but providing a no-pressure environment is all I can do on my own."

Joker nods. "I understand." 

She looks at Sojiro. "We're going to need to discuss Futaba's keywords, but... I think I can guess at them fairly well. I would guess that in her mind, her home is... a prison, a tomb, something along those lines. A place where she's trapped and going to stay forever."

Joker opens the metanav. "In fact, I might as well check those two while I have the thought. Metanav, voice input. Futaba Sakura. Sojiro Sakura's house. Prison."

"Destination not found." Announces the Metanav.

"Futaba Sakura. Sojiro Sakura's house. Tomb."

A wave of violet energy spills from the Metanav, then flickers out.

"Destination found. Out of range for transfer."

"It's as I feared. Futaba fears that she'll die without ever leaving that house." 

Joker stows her phone again. "The good news is that we have the keywords. We'll be able to get in to help her. I expect we'll need her more-active cooperation eventually, rather than just her consent, but we should be able to start exploring her inner world now."

Ann gives Akira a worried look. 

"I'm not sure if I should be happy or worried that you got that so quickly."

Shiho squeezes Joker's hand, shaking her head.

Ryuji just hugs her.