2026-07-02: Creeping Shadows
- Log: 2026-07-02 Creeping Shadows
- Cast: Hibari Aoki, Ren Amamiya, Futaba Sakura, Morgana (NPCed by Ren Amamiya)
- Where: Back Alleys - Leblanc Cafe
- OOC Date: July 2, 2026
- IC Date: Monday, Dec 03, 2012
- Summary: Hibari comes to Leblanc to talk to Ren about a recent strange change in Mementos. Futaba invites herself over when Ren suggests she can help, and all of them head to Mementos with Morgana to check it out. What they find is a Shadow in the middle of forming a Palace...
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
It's two weeks before exams, and things are picking up. Among the other things going on in her life, Hibari has been spending more time studying...
...but not all her time. She made it down to Mementos on the weekend, and saw something she wasn't sure about. Which is why she has now sent Ren a series of messages; she's got their number, and while she hasn't used it *much* aside from planning their meetups, this is definitely important enough that she's going to break her trend.
> Hello!
> I've got a bit of a problem. Something's different in Mementos.
> It's not something most people would notice - it's about Kenzo. But it's not something I've seen before. He still doesn't have a Palace, but...
> I was hoping it was something your team had seen before. Can we talk? I can get down after class tomorrow.
(Hibari texts in complete sentences when it's important, with no shortening of words that could be misconstrued or misread. You'll just have to deal with it.)
Tomorrow is now today and, as promised, Hibari is heading toward Leblanc. It's a convenient place to meet; if nobody else is around they can talk there, if not there's certainly somewhere in that little neighborhood that will do. For obvious reasons the bathhouse isn't an option, but she's pretty sure nobody will be in the laundry, if there's no other options at all...
Hibari peeks in before she enters to judge how busy it is, but she slips inside with a smile once she can get in. The smile looks a little forced; she looks tired, though not the tired of someone who is panicking about a serious situation. Just the tired of someone who stayed out too late last night and then is paying for it today; she had a lot of schoolwork that needed doing, and while it's Kasugayama and the teachers half-expect the students to not do it, she's actually been trying because she wants to graduate, thanks.
"Hey," she says. "Sorry for the relatively short notice, but I don't know how long this would wait..."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Ren had a busy day yesterday. Nonetheless, they had time to text Hibari back about this serious-seeming issue. The Phantoms haven't yet had a chance to look into Kenzo, but with Futaba's Palace resolved, now's the perfect time to get on that. In its own way, it's good timing.
> Sure. I'll see you tomorrow.
Ren's also willing to text properly when the situation calls for it.
Leblanc was busy in the morning and around noon, but now, after school, it's pretty dead. Sojiro has gone out for a smoke and to pick up some groceries, so it's just Ren minding the store right now. They nod to Hibari when she enters after peeking in.
"It's fine. Sorry we couldn't help you out with Kenzo sooner. We've settled up with what we were handling, so now works out fine." They slip their hands into their pockets as they walk around the counter to join her, still clad in their apron. "So what's this weird thing you found in Mementos?"
Important note: Ren still does not know that Futaba has Leblanc bugged.
<Pose Tracker> Futaba Sakura has posed.
You know who didn't have a busy day yesterday?
Futaba Sakura. Because she doesn't go to school.
That said, she didn't just lurk in her (garbage-stuffed) room. She had gone out and had even walked down to the market and bought, glory and delight, *a kilogram of mandarin oranges*.
She didn't really *talk* to anyone but she *did* it. Did it despite the sudden vampire-in-a-garlic-farm smack in the face of an enthusiastic greeting!
Where'd she get the money? Probably Sojiro.
Half of 'em are downstairs in the Sakura household, resting in a bowl on the kitchen table.
Futaba kept the bag, though. She is currently on orange #5 when something flickers on her control board. Her eyes flick towards it and she pops an orange slice into her mouth while adjusting her headphones.
As she does this, she wiggles the peel, releasing fragrant citrus oils into the rather dry air. (About 30% of the previous peels have been kept in something resembling order. Mysterious ghostly crunchy objects surely await those who may one day muck out her room.)
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
"Ren-kun! Hello."
If Ren doesn't know, Hibari *really* doesn't know. The only thing she knows about Futaba is her name, as Ren asked her if she knew it (she hadn't) and to pass on if she found out anything about her (she also hadn't; she was looking in the wrong city, and it's not like Hibari and Futaba really move in the same circles). If she'd really looked she might have found more, but Ren had only asked the once, it was months ago, and they hadn't indicated it was extremely urgent, so Hibari assumed that whatever they wanted to know about her was long since handled.
It's quiet in here, which is good for Hibari's purposes, if bad for Leblanc's business. It's a small place; many of them live and die on narrow profit margins. But she'd expect it to be busier in the morning, and around lunch and maybe dinner; her instinct isn't exactly wrong.
"It's all right! Not much was happening for a while," Hibari points out, as she closes the door behind her instead of letting it fall closed naturally. "I was hoping maybe we'd be able to do something about him over the break, maybe... but things changed a little bit."
Hibari leans against a bar seat without quite sitting. She will if Ren does, or move to a booth. "So... I was down in Mementos on the weekend," she says, without more preamble. "I go down sometimes - you know I'm a rumourmonger, right? I trade information, and some of that information is supernatural. So I spend some time in Mementos, because you can find out things there; some of the Shadows, the ones that act more like demons, can be negotiated with. It's a little safer than doing it with demons in Sumaru even though they're a little less useful, too - well, the details don't really matter, that's not what I came to talk about."
(Ren can tell she's a little agitated even though she looks like her normal self because Hibari doesn't usually go for run-on sentences and overexplaining like that.)
Hibari lets out a sigh that puffs out her cheeks for a moment. "Anyhow, I usually check on Kenzo's Shadow - I mean, I don't go to fight it or anything, I just make sure nothing's changed. But this time something has. The - pocket, I suppose. You know, the little area of distorted space that's just *theirs*? It feels different. I don't really know the right words for it, but the entryway feels... stretched, like it's going further. I didn't want to go in alone."
Hibari fidgets, a little, by brushing back a little bit of hair and tucking it behind her ear. "I was hoping you had seen something like that before. Because I might be a Navigator, but long-distance scanning isn't really my specialty... shorter-range is, and I could probably *sneak* in, but it seemed dangerous. And if I had to guess..."
"Nobody really knows how Palaces form exactly, right? They're areas of cognitive space caused by distorted desires. I'm wondering if this is how they start, bubbling up from Mementos to attach to a place, like that bank." Hibari is very carefully not talking about Eiji. "Or if he's just getting more powerful otherwise. But I don't think I can confirm that one without backup in case something goes wrong."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Yesterday was Sunday, Futaba!!
...In all fairness: she probably didn't notice. Days tend to blur together when you have nothing to distinguish them with, huh?
And in fairness to Hibari, it has been handled since then. It turned out to be a delicate affair, so since she hadn't known anyway and never mentioned anything, Ren never said anything more.
They nod her on too as she gets right into it. "Right," they confirm, and fall silent again. They know about Shadow negotiation--they do it fairly often--and nod again. She does seem jittery; she's definitely rambling more than usual.
"Stretched?" they echo, frowning. "Hmm." They shake their head, and as she continues, they rub a lock of their bangs between their fingers. "You might be right... We haven't ever seen the in-between period before." They tuck their hand back into their pocket. "We just met a navigator-type. She's shy, and new to her Persona, but I could try asking her for help."
<Pose Tracker> Futaba Sakura has posed.
oh true.
But yes, the days blur together.
This is an unfamiliar voice and she's speaking with Ren on friendly terms. Interesting. Futaba does not interrogate the curious feeling that arises within her, because she's listening and she's feeding mandarin orange pieces into her mouth. Wak wak wak wak wak wak wak.
Mementos! What the hell is Mementos, exactly? A note is filed in Futaba's mind. She keeps listening. Shadows that act 'more like Demons' what on earth! Is that Dark Side website *not* an ARG? Another orange slice is fed into her mouth.
She checks on Kenzo's Shadow?
Something has distorted?
*The little area of distorted space that's just theirs???*
Futaba has been listening with an orange piece half into her mouth for several seconds.
Then Ren speaks up.
Ren's phone buzzes shortly after they finish their sentence.
> Got it.
> Launching!
Futaba stuffs three spare oranges into her coat pocket as she pulls it on. Sonic control head part - DISCONNECT! Shoe equip - GET! Key equip - GET! Lock main vault door! Featherman... GO!
The walk is easier this time. It helps that, much like the previous time, there isn't anyone coming by -- this time there isn't even a bicycle that happened to blast down at the worst possible moment.
However... it is a meaningful distance, which means that there is time enough for Ren to check their phone or for some more words to be exchanged. Call it three minutes from when Futaba deploys to when she actually reaches the door, including the pulling on shoes part and hunching her shoulders to push past a sense of growing unease in the pit of her stomach. And at that point:
jingle
GOH GOH GOH GOH GOH GOH GOH
Futaba Sakura, on the scene.
She is looking steadfastly at the ground, other than a brief lifting of hte head to confirm the location of various objects and individuals - mostly Ren. And that's also when Futaba turns her head to look at the Sayuri, which seems to surprise her enough that she leaves the door open for long enough that a cold breeze washes in.
After this, she walks deliberately forwards, *past* Hibari, *behind* Ren, and stands directly behind them, rendering her briefly invisible. ... Not invisible at all. ... She's just smaller than Ren.
Futaba puts an orange on the bar and nudges it forwards enough to roll approximately past Ren and towards Hibari.
"..."
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
Hibari, Futaba might notice in the first few moments when she's trying to identify her, has an accent by Tokyo (or Sumaru) standards; she, too, is from Inaba, and while Ren may have lost the country sound, Hibari hasn't ever made any real effort to train herself out of it. It's not really *strong*, precisely, but it is *there*, and if you're listening for it you'll notice.
If Ren had asked again, Hibari would have spent more time on it. But they'd only asked in passing, at the end of another conversation, and it wasn't even the only name they'd given her... so she hadn't. And though she was aware that the Phantom Thieves were up to something - she spends enough time with Ichika and Tsubasa to know when they're busy - she had not asked what, precisely, they were doing.
So Futaba remains a mystery! For another few minutes, anyway.
"Stretched," she agrees. "Like there was more distance... or that the other side was bigger? That was my first guess. I don't think it's really big, though. It's definitely not so big as a Palace, but it might be a little more than a dead-end tunnel. Like an intersection or a roundabout or something." This is probably just as incomprehensible as the rest of the talk about Mementos to someone SPYING.
"So it's nothing you've seen before either? Huh..." She frowns. "I guess I'll have to sneak in after all. Danzaburou can probably keep me out of sight. I don't really want to assume, but I wouldn't mind assistance, it's dangerous to go into those by yourself. But you said you knew another Navigator? I know of a couple, but they're not the kind of person I can ask for this - "
The door jingles.
Hibari immediately stops that line of conversation as she glances around at the breeze, to see if it's anyone she knows. Her first impresion of Futaba is small, red-haired - in a different way than Hibari, who clearly has naturally dark hair but has dyed it an ombre down to a vibrant red near the tips. Big glasses. Nobody she knows.
(From Futaba's point of view, Hibari is equally unknown. She's a mid-height, heavier-set teenager with the aforementioned dyed hair, currently wearing a green top with a bit of ruffle around the sleeve under an open jacket and a pair of wide-cut pants. Ren has seen this outfit before; it seems to be one of her go-tos when it's a bit cooler.)
She turns back to Ren and covers, because she doesn't know Futaba *knows* anything: "So how's your curry cooking coming along?" This is half a real question and half so she doesn't say something when someone is clearly listening in, as Futaba walks past her, rolls an orange at her...
Hibari reaches to stop the roll, resting her hand and reaching out to plant one finger on the orange so it doesn't drop off the bar. That's all she does on that front. "Ah... Hello? Were you looking for Ren-kun?"
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
It's not so much lost as ditched, but same difference, really.
Ren nods again, eyebrows furrowed as they consider this information. "We'll definitely want to see it. Don't worry--you won't have to go by yourself," he says firmly. "If you need to go right this second, just let me get Morgana and--"
Ren's phone buzzes. "One sec," they tell Hibari as they pull it out. Their puzzlement is clear on their features, and they look back at her. "By sheer coincidence, that was the person I was just talking about. Her texts don't make any sense, though. One more sec."
They text back:
> ?? Launching what?
> Did you mean to text someone else?
There isn't a response right away. Ren ultimately shrugs and tucks their phone back into their pocket, looking back at Hibari as she comments on some Navigators she happens to know. ...just in time for the door to open, the bell to jingle, and Futaba to walk in.
Ren stares at her, astonished. "Futaba?" they utter. "What are you doing here?"
...
...
...
That's Futaba staring at the Sayuri, then walking past Hibari and Ren to hide behind them. They look over their shoulder at her as they nudges that mandarin forward on the counter.
Ren continues to look utterly baffled. However, they pull it together and look back at Hibari. She asks about their curry, and they offer her an awkward smile. They know she's trying to cover for the conversation they were just having, and it's not necessary.
"Uh, so anyway, this is Futaba Sakura. Futaba, this is Hibari Aoki. You're both Navigators, and Hibari needs help with finding the Shadow of a guy who screwed her over. Are you, uh... up to help?"
The timing of her texts and subsequent arrival seems a little too perfect to be a coincidence. Yet how could she have possibly known to come over at this precise moment? All they can do is ask what they were going to ask anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Futaba Sakura has posed.
Futaba's orange-red hair is not the work of nature or god. She did it herself. It probably messed up the sink for a couple of days. That's life for you. (Ren may note that she had a hint of roots going on which has subsequently disappeared... perhaps from the oranges?) (No, she did a touchup.)
At Ren's question to Futaba, Futaba answers, "Walked," which happened before she went and hid behind 'em.
At Hibari's question to Ren, there is another "..." from Futaba.
(There is nothing unusual about the orange. Maybe it's not one of the absolute most perfect examples of a mandarin orange? But the fact that you can't put it on Pinstagram doesn't mean it's not delicious or laden with scurvy-preventative vitamin C.)
'Are you... up to help?'
"... yuppers," Futaba replies.
A second or two passes.
Futaba leeeeans to the side of Ren, actually crouching a little. Hibari can see her glasses glint a little as she looks out from behind Ren's bicep.
There's a little shifting around.
"How long have you monitored the target's Shadow?"
This is enough of a sample of vocal material to give an impression of *Futaba's* accent, which is pretty generic -- she has lived in the metropole of the great nation of Japan her entire life, leaving aside a couple of brief excursions, after all. She also sounds weird; poor inflection, more like she's mumbling but turning up her own volume.
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
"I wouldn't mind taking care of this quickly," Hibari agrees. "I don't know if it's still changing - I only saw it yesterday. I haven't even gotten ahold of the others from Sumaru yet. But I'd hate to leave it until, say, during exams - and find out it's an emergency that we have to deal with right now!"
We, not I, because Ren made that offer. Which Hibari is extremely grateful for.
But he gets a text. Hibari lets him handle it, but: "Maybe she's still typing." Another message doesn't come through immediately, so maybe not.
That was then, though. Now Hibari has the *actual* Futaba in front of her.
Hibari recognizes the name: she's the one Ren asked her to keep an eye out for. But she doesn't say that in front of Futaba because some instinct suggests that would make things Awkward, and Hibari isn't particularly interested in a confrontation on the topic; best to leave it, and she can ask Ren later. Was she missing? Was she even a Persona-user at the time? Ren did say that she was new to her Persona.
And shy, which Hibari can tell for herself. She knows that mumbling, though she's not the sort of person to do it herself. Rather than stare directly back at Futaba, she keeps her eye contact mostly on Ren; she can see Futaba fine (or, well, as fine as she's going to get with her hiding behind Ren) through peripheral vision, though she does look straight at her a couple times. Mostly when Futaba addresses her.
Then she laughs. "Well, I don't have to keep it secret then. Hello; I'm Hibari," she introduces herself, though Ren already did it for her anyway. "You're a Navigator too? Hmm..." She seems thoughtful. "Well, I don't know what you know. Are you helping, ah - " The Phantom Thieves, she means, but she doesn't know if Futaba knows about that or just Personas and Shadows. "Joker?"
Hibari answers the question after a few moments. "Months," she says. "Off and on. I've had my Persona for most of the school year, though I didn't do very much with it for a while. "For a while it was places that were hard to get to in Mementos, but more recently I've been able to get to them. There weren't any changes until the last trip; the last one before that was two or three weeks ago." She pauses, counting in her head: "Seventeen days. So closer to two."
She still has the orange. She's rolling it rather than doing anything else, kind of absently batting it between the tips of her thumb and forefinger, held in a wide V. It doesn't roll very far on any of them. There's not THAT much room between her fingers.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
"Extremely good point. Better to take care of this while he's still a Shadow in Mementos than let him form a Palace and now we have to figure out his keywords while busting our chops on finals," Ren agrees.
Futaba... walked. "No, I mean... why now? Hibari and I were literally just talking about you. It's a hell of a coincidence," Ren explains. They don't necessarily suspect her of anything, but it would be nice to know why she chose now of all times to come over.
At least she seems willing to help--even asks Hibari a question of her own accord. Ren's willing to let her hide behind them, at least, while the two of them converse. They appreciate Hibari's discretion, even if it's not necessary here--they'll let Futaba answer what she wants of that too.
Seventeen days... So this is a very recent change. Ren considers this. It might mean they've still got some time, but... they'd rather see it for themself. "Do you two want to head to Shibuya Station now?" they ask. Then they add to Futaba, "Mementos is part of the Metaverse, and it's accessible through Shibuya Station." Among other places, but that's where The Phantoms go. "It's essentially the Palace of the masses--you can encounter the Shadows of people who aren't quite distorted enough to have a Palace there."
It's a fairly far trip for Futaba, so they're not sure if she'll be willing now that she knows that... but they can all take it one step at a time.
<Pose Tracker> Futaba Sakura has posed.
"Nice to meet you," says Futaba to Hibari. A beat passes. "Hm."
She straightens up a little. While still mostly behind Ren - or should we say JOKA? - no we should not - she's not *entirely* behind them and leaning out to the side so much. She fiddles with her glasses, listening. "So the process isn't a swift one," Futaba says, mostly to herself, as Hibari speaks. Except then Ren throws that entire emergent model in the trash!
They're just that kind of guy, the one who can destroy your whole vision in a moment. But in a good way. Or, reasons Futaba further, maybe it's like an explosion when a Palace forms...
"... Right now?"
A beat.
"Shibuya?" Futaba moves a little closer to Ren. "U-um..."
Somehow - SOMEHOW - the mention of Mementos, Metaverse, Shadows, seems to diffuse the tension that just wracked Futaba's shoulders. She takes a deep breath. "-- I can do it," she says in a tone of resolve more than certainty. After this she fumbles around in the pockets of her coat.
Hibari, who has a better angle, can briefly glimpse -- a tiny PC toolkit? -- A flashlight? -- another orange?? -- A wallet with Pochaccho on it, that one makes more sense. Futaba checks it...
"Ready!"
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
Hibari isn't sure how much Ren cares about their exams, but she is pretty sure it isn't zero. And as for her, well, she wants to graduate, she wants to actually be able to get a position in a kitchen - and she's pretty sure coming from Kasugayama is doing no favours, so she actually has to do well.
She makes a slight face. "No kidding. I can probably guess some of it, but I'm not sure *where* he'd be these days, and that's the most time-consuming part!" It's not like she can just drive around and start calling - she'd have to take transit (or ask Ichika for a ride) and either way, that would be time she couldn't do something else in. "So yes, I'd like to go as soon as possible."
Hibari looks at Futaba again. Is it a swift one? "It might not be. I don't know how long it stays like this. I don't even know if this is a permanent thing, or if it's going to change again... or go back the way it was. Cognitive space is weird sometimes." Does it change based on his state of mind? Or, given Mementos is as much of a public space as anything else, does it change based on how other people think of him...?
By the sounds of it, Futaba hasn't been to Mementos before, and she's a little nervous - Hibari takes it as nervousness about Mementos, not going all the way to Shibuya, which ultimately isn't *that* far away. "The entryway is safe," she promises. "And Danzaburou - that's my Persona - he's good at keeping people hidden. Generally they don't bother me, as long as I don't bother them - but as soon as we get into a fight the stealth stops working quite as well," she adds, for Ren. The Phantom Thieves can drive past Shadows in Morgana; she can just sneak on by, but once they *start* fighting, they're going to get attention...
"...So we won't do that," she says, standing straight. Hibari picks up the orange, tosses it up in the air, and catches it with her other hand. "If you're ready, let's go, then."
And indeed they do! (Hibari brought the orange. It ended up in her jacket pocket at one point along the way.)
Once they're at Shibuya Station, Hibari pulls out her phone, which may seem a little incongruous at first. "Stay close to me," she says to Futaba. "Like I said, the first floor's safe, anyway... but we'll just get out of sight." There are lots of places you can enter Mementos from Shibuya; you just have to pick your spot so that nobody gets in with you.
Well, except for people she intends. Like Ren and Futaba.
One ripple of black and red later...
Mementos is Mementos. This *is* the top floor, so it's only moderately creepy by Mementos standards, and there are no Shadows here. You could lie to yourself that this was a perfectly normal train station if you really wanted to - you'd be wrong, but it's at least feasible, before the tracks get weird...
Inside Mementos, Hibari is different.
She's replaced by a masked figure in a long coat, something that has perhaps more in common with a spy or a different kind of classy thief; her coat resembles a trench coat belted around her waist, open below that and accompanied by black leggings and high boots. And she has a mask; almost but not quite in the style of Fox's, but broader, showing either a raccoon-like badger or a badger-like raccoon. It is, of course, a tanuki - or an older word for it, usually used for badgers these days, a mujina.
Mujina tugs her gloves straight. "Right," she says. "I can take us straight there. It doesn't seem to have moved since last time, at least..." Then: "Are you holding up okay?" If this is Futaba's first time... well, best to be sure.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
"Yeah. If you're ready," Ren tells Futaba. They wait for her to process--and the mention of the Metaverse ironically seems to help steel her. Soon, she's resolved and ready.
Ren nods to her and to Hibari. "Then let's go."
They'll of course head upstairs real quick for Morgana and to trade their apron for their shoulder bag; they shoot Sojiro a text letting him know that they need to pop out somewhere with Futaba. Sojiro returns by the time the three are ready to leave, and Leblanc still has someone to man the shop.
(Sojiro seems quite amazed that Futaba's going out, not just in general but with a girl he's pretty sure she doesn't know. Amazed, and honestly pretty happy.)
"We'll keep the both of you safe," Morgana says from Ren's shoulder firmly. The four of them head inside as Hibari activates the Meta-Nav...
Ren and Morgana, too, are different. One is now a cool customer in a long black coat and a white domino mask; the other is a tiny monster cat with a bandana for his neck and his eyes. Futaba's already seen Joker and Mona before, though.
"Works for me," Joker tells Mujina. They glance at Futaba when she asks after her; they and Mona are also interested in that answer.
<Pose Tracker> Futaba Sakura has posed.
GET EQUIPPED
WITH
ITEM M(organa)
"... Right," Futaba tells Hibari with a nod, sort of looking up at her as if the ground has a gravitational pull on her eyes (other than the one it has on everyone else.) "Hidden..."
Which is most of what Futaba says... until Sojiro's there.
"Back later," she tells Sojiro, waving a coated arm (hand held inside) on the way out... and to...
THE TRAIN
Hibari can probably tell that the train, even if it is not quite peak fishpacking, is stressing Futaba. Ren certainly knows because Futaba basically presses against them. Morgana may also know, but since he's in the bag, she can't just reach in and squish his face.
He's safe. For now.
In the famously crowded Shibuya station, Futaba seems even more pressed, but it seems like they're not actually staying *in* the crowds, and when she sees Hibari has brought her phone out, she brings out her own, but before she can do more than have her hand on it...
...
"So this is Mementos..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRUfcp8Ba6g
The goggled head of Futaba - she has not, it seems, taken on a mantle of her own - looks at Hibari. Towards and a little up. Unblinking red lenses point at her. She can see her reflection in one if she looks close. "... Ah! I get it!" An actual exclamation point.
What does she get? She doesn't specify. Either way, her head turns to sweep that red gaze over Morgana and Ren - no, Mona and Joker - and from the slightly slack way her mouth is hanging open, she's seeing them with new eyes.
A couple of seconds goggling later, Futaba says, "Aah-- Yes! I'm just building up experience, so please look out for me until I can complete the tutorials!" This mostly at Mujina. Another swing back to the other two, back up to Hibari.
"I didn't say it at the shop. My Persona is Necronomicon. ... Um... You'll get it when we get in," Futaba continues, shaking her head. "It feels like this isn't quite deep enough to..." TO WHAT
"I can see everything here, even outside of ... nice..." Then Futaba reaches behind herself, messing with the straps and lowering them to reveal her face (complete with glasses). She looks up at Mujina, at Joker, at Morgana... Then the goggles com back on. "So you've got a stealth field... how close do we have to stay? Five meter radius? Twelve? Is it a passive effect?"
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
Hibari knows Sojiro less well, though they've at least met, given she's been to Leblanc when he was there before. It's clear he knows Futaba too, and she puts two and two together on the power of family names to get an answer that isn't exactly correct, but is at least in the right neighborhood.
Hibari wouldn't be Hibari if she couldn't put a lot of bits and pieces of fragmented data together, after all...
The trip isn't bad by Hibari standards. There's always the danger of being bothered on the train, but moving in a group helps, and Hibari isn't as prone to it as some people anyway (she knows Ichika has problems sometimes). She is somewhat protective of Futaba, though, when she detects the discomfort. There's not much else she can do on that front - she can't make it less crowded, nor can she make Shibuya Station less crowded. At least there are out-of-the-way places once they're inside; anywhere works to get into Mementos, so hallways that get less traffic are easy enough to take.
If Hibari had not seen Morgana - Mona - before, she'd be surprised by him, too. As is, well, they've met and she gives him a slight nod of acknowledgement when they're in Mementos - accompanied by a smile, just visible under her mask.
"Will do," Hibari says, brightly, to Futaba. "Mine is Danzaburou, a tanuki lord. Or mujina, which is why I go by Mujina here." She reaches up and flicks the edge of her mask. "And if you see little tanuki that 'feel' like part of my Persona, that's normal." Futaba may have goggles. Hibari has allies.
She's not sure if this part is weird, but... "I did some research about him," she admits. "It makes sense that he's good at illusions and mirages, and my Persona is. And he's a commander of other tanuki, so... that makes sense too. I don't know if it's that way for everyone."
Is it passive? "It really isn't," Hibari says, a little ruefully. "It's pretty easy if I'm alone, but I have to work at it for more than just me. But it's something I set and then it's a lot easier to maintain... it'll break if you get too far away, or if you make a fuss that gets the Shadow's attention even through it. It's not invisibility, they're just not going to pay attention to anything too out of the ordinary. There's enough of *them* around that I think they just don't realize we're not other Shadows while we're just moving around."
She pauses. "I actually *can* do invisibility," she adds. "For a while. But with four people, I'd definitely tire out way before we got to where we're going! So let's not make enough of a fuss that we need it; I'll only do that if we need to run."
And, indeed, Hibari both knows where they're going and is as good as her word. Mona might want to help with driving, because otherwise they have to do it on their own two feet, but Mujina knows where they're going so there is at least no significant backtracking (though she does make a wrong turn once or twice when the path is a lot less straightforward than usual).
"We're getting close," she says, some floors later (they may indeed have had to take a train to get down that far, too). "Just down this path - "
All of them can feel it, honestly. Hibari expects it; to the others it looks like one of those warped and twisted train tracks that, all warped, exits into a black-and-red portal. And it *looks* just like any of those portals; Ren and Mona, certainly, have seen plenty when they have to do Mementos missions. But Hibari is correct; this one feels different.
Futaba can get a little more than that. Like Hibari says, it feels stretched, almost like transiting to a new area of Mementos, but not quite. And there's more power on the other side, though it too feels distorted, almost uncertain, like it wasn't being *used* for anything yet, only twisting the shape of Mementos by its presence.
"You see what I mean?" Hibari sounds worried. "It's like there's something on the other side that isn't like the others. It's not a Palace - I tried the program. But it reminds me of the way into one, a little; like the path to get up to that flying bank."
She pauses, then says for Futaba's benefit, "Don't worry too much about that. It's gone now." Sorry, no flying bank for you!
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Morgana...
...doesn't not wish he could help Futaba more, but...
...it's just as well that Ren is willing to be her meatshield, both in Leblanc and on the train. They glance back at her frequently, both concerned and fond when she presses in close. "Just a little further. Stay close," they murmur, as if she weren't already doing that, but now it's like she's doing it because they encouraged her to and not because she's scared and trying to lean on them.
It helps that Hibari's pitching in to give Futaba some people-shade too, blocking her off from Unknowns and Mobs. It might be tense, but eventually they do make it to Shibuya Station, and from there, Mementos.
"Oh?" Joker utters when Futaba says she's working on the tutorials. They're not quite expecting a coherent answer back, but at least she's been prompted. It looks like seeing them and Mona now is a different experience from when she was still in her Palace. Which makes sense. She would've still been on the euphoria of her Awakening.
"I'd like to know too," Mona says, paws folded, when Futaba interrogates Mujina about her Navigational abilities. "When we were rescuing Phoenix, we were focused way more on finding people than hiding them." He is... not quite a Navigator, but he was the closest The Phantoms had until...
...well, Futaba hasn't joined the team officially yet, any more than Mujina has. He still is. He's still useful. Isn't he?
He and Joker both nod as she explains. Invisibility, huh... That's one hell of a convenient ability. Too bad it's too limited to be useful for a larger group.
"Joker and I could protect the two of you easy," Mona boasts. Then he backpedals by adding, "Buuut there's no sense in wearing ourselves down on small fry before we find this Kenzo creep."
"We are thieves. Sneaking is what we do," Joker adds.
Mona beams. "Heh, well said, Joker! That's my protégé!"
From there, it's Monabus time. For some reason, Mona seems less thrilled to do this than usual, but he still does do it. He's the only one who can. Joker takes the wheel, and Mujina guides them while Futaba sits in the backseat (presumably). Mementos changes form, so there is inevitably a need for some backtracking, but it isn't too long before the four of them reach their destination. And once they've arrived...
Joker looks upon the stretched, warped train tracks with narrowed eyes. "I do," they say quietly. Joker too pauses at the mention of the bank, then co-asides to Futaba, "Junya Kaneshiro. That was his Palace." Not surprising that a man named 'Money Castle' would have a bank for a Palace... It's almost too on the nose.
Morgana too looks upon the twisting tracks with a furry frown. However, before he can make any kind of analysis--perhaps Futaba has something to say about it.
<Pose Tracker> Futaba Sakura has posed.
Hibari may be more right than the legal truth would suggest. But some bonds are as yet unshown, perhaps unproven.
"Oho," Futaba says as she gazes upwards at Hibari. A single nod. Maybe the mask is helping. It does mean that it's hard to tell how she reacts to the question of looking into one's own legend. "Understood," she states, before swinging her focus towards Joker.
"In-ter-es-ting," Futaba says as she looks at the others. "I'm just figuring out the association between things. A lot of this makes really intuitive sense, but..."
One of her hands comes up and fidgets in the air.
In her view, she's tapping something on a keyboard. "So the cloaking effect's limited by your own endurance... Makes sense. Nothing active's going to just keep going on forever."
The manifestation of an unidentified fantastic object doesn't have the chance to develop right away - for it is time on the Monabus. She doesn't talk a lot on the way in, although her head turns to track Shadows that they slip past.
Around the third floor, she speaks aloud: "Go left. There's a big one further ahead. It's a dead end anyway."
Just once.
And then! They're there! "How deep does this place even go?" Futaba asks, before looking straight *down.* "... Huh. It's like there's some kind of haze..." Then she looks up and over at the mention of flying banks?? Back to Joker, back to Mona! She looks at the indicated space for a moment, but she's distracted. "So you were cooperating even that far back, huh..."
"Or did you just see it in the area?" Futaba asks Mujima with another swing of the head. But then she looks back to the distortion, the twisted tracks, the distorted space. She reaches up to adjust her goggles slightly.
It's horrible, but the view from Futaba's perspective is indescribable. The reds are replaced with soothing greens and blues. The shape and outline of things flickers by, a steady cycling pulsation like a great heart beating somewhere, or like the tide coming in and out in subtly predictable ways. The geometric dynamics...
"You're right," Futaba says. "The cognitive phase-space is distorting. It's actually growing, moving further away from the main 'Body'. I'd estimate it's..."
...
"It's Monday, right? So... I'd say... it'd probably finish in... eleven days," Futaba Sakura says. "That's assuming a non-drastic asymptote in a worst-case scenario," she continues, turning her head to look at the others, "so it might be a little longer."
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
Hibari is perfectly happy to answer questions about her own powers.
"Invisibility - real invisibility - is hard to hold for long," Mujina says, agreeing with Futaba again. "It's like any other Persona 'spell', I guess; it runs out after a while and it wears you down to keep doing it. Stealth is just easier to maintain, most of the time. But if I needed to, I could."
Futaba wants to know if she was cooperating with them way back when... "No, I didn't know Joker then," Mujina shakes her head. "I knew him when he was younger, but I hadn't expected to run into anyone I knew back then in Tokyo." Uh oh, misgendering! But Hibari has never actually been told otherwise. "I knew *of* the Phantom Thieves, and I had some other allies, but I'd not cooperated with the Phantom Thieves yet. That came later." She makes a guess: "If you know Ogre and Phoenix, I knew them pretty well even then. That's how I got introduced to 'Joker', actually, and not just Ren-kun."
"The bank, though - there were rumours going around about it. I'm a Rumourmonger, which probably doesn't mean much to you. It's kind of a Sumaru thing," Hibari explains. "Rumours in Sumaru are a lot more true than rumours other places. So I keep my ear to the ground, and people come to me for the news. Regular gossip and supernatural," she clarifies. "Like, just the other day, I heard that there were haunted books in Seven Sisters' library... and I'm rambling, huh. Anyway, I heard about the bank that way, and since I have the Meta-Nav, I had to poke my nose in, at least a little. But I wasn't involved in the Change of Heart."
"I can find people too," she agrees with Mona. "I mean, obviously! You've seen me track. I'm good at finding things and not being found... getting in, getting out, finding anything interesting or hunting down what I'm looking for. I broke into more than one Palace to look for items and information." That's what she did in Eiji's, getting into some of the more secure areas and passing on the papers she found to Ichika... and what she did in Kaneshiro's, though there she'd only made off with some valuables. If she's been in any other Palaces (or Ateliers), she hasn't ever brought them up.
She tugs at the broad lapel of her coat. "I think I was thinking of old spy movies," she admits, with a slightly nervous laugh. "That or Carmen Sandiego, but less, ah, violently red. It'd clash with my hair," she jokes. "So a thief too, I suppose." That aesthetic is honestly what it most closely resembles. Maybe less flashy than Ren, but stylish in her own way, with a little fur ruff around the collar and a cool look to it.
"But I'm not as good as some at analysis," she has to admit, looking toward the warped tunnel. "That's why I want a second opinion. I know of a couple other Navigators but they're not the kind of person I could ask about this... so I'm lucky to know the Phantom Thieves, and to have met you." That to Futaba.
As for how far does it go down... "Farther than we can," Hibari says, with another sigh. "There's an obstacle in the way. Once in a while it opens up, but there always seems to be more of it, and it gets a little weirder the deeper you go." They're not quite deep enough for the strangest tracks...
It seems that Futaba is one of those Navigators who *is* good at analysis in a way that Hibari really isn't. Oh, she can figure out the basics better than most Persona-users, but her talents lean in another direction than deep study.
Hibari's eyes widen, barely visible behind her mask. "You can tell that? And you're pretty sure?" A beat. "Well, I wanted confirmation. I can't be upset when I get it. But that's... not good news."
She looks at Ren, then, a little worried. "I hate to make a request like this," she says, and it's true; Hibari doesn't like putting other people out. "But you offered. I think I need to ask the Phantom Thieves if they're willing to act, because I can't stop this by myself. Or even the four of us, really - well, maybe if we got lucky." Three, or even two and a half, she thinks, because Futaba declared herself a novice; she might not know how to fight, with a Persona. And Mujina doesn't have the raw power of Ogre, or Tsubasa, or Skull, or Queen...
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Ren also goes by he/him pronouns, and he isn't out to Mujina as genderfluid, so it's fine, honestly. They do nod in confirmation when Mujina corrects Futaba's assumption. "That Palace was a bit of a mess. Lots of other people showed up there... It was a close thing." They look back at Mujina. "The first Palace we properly cooperated in was Kamiya's, and even then Mujina was there because of a friend of hers, rather than because she was part of the team." Ogre and Phoenix are the friends in question, in fact.
Haunted books in Sevens' library? Huh. That sounds interesting... Joker wonders if they could pester Akechi about that sometime. They keep that thought to themself for now.
"Heh--a spy's adjacent to a thief. We'll welcome you anyway, Mujina!" Mona tells her cheerfully. He likes that fur ruff too! ...but not because he's a cat, because he isn't!!
"Right," Joker says, both of that and of having seen Mujina track people down. "You've worked with Ogre and Phoenix before too, I presume." They are all part of the same gang.
Later, Mona opens his mouth to confirm that Hibari's right about her suspicions, and estimate that it'll be about two weeks or so before this distortion gets bad enough to form a Palace--only for Futaba to not only beat him to the punch, but be much more precise about the time limit. "I-I was just about to say that!" he says a touch defensively, before remembering himself and adding, "Good work, Futaba."
It wouldn't be gentlemanly of him to get jealous of a girl he'd just helped rescue... right?
"That's one of the things we're trying to find out," Mona tells Futaba, of the depths of Mementos. He nods to Hibari and adds, "There are barriers every so often, and we've managed to open a few as we've gained notoriety--'we' being 'The Phantoms,' that is--but it's still unknown just how deep it goes."
Joker nods to Mujina. "We already said we'd at least discuss it. You're fine," they say firmly. It's not her fault they all got caught up in Futaba's Palace. "If it's about to turn into a Palace, better to nip it in the bud while we still can."
"We'll bring it up again with the others, but you might want to explain your deal with Kenzo to everyone personally," Mona adds. "Let everyone know what the stakes are for you, and why you want this guy to have a change of heart. You've been an ally of ours before, so it's only right you make your own case to the team. Well, not that I think anyone's going to object, after what you told the two of us."
"The more allies we've got, the better. If this guy's on the verge of forming a Palace, we can't afford to let our guard down," Joker says. "I'll call everyone together to discuss this with you, and we'll go forward from there." They pause, then look at Futaba. "...And you're invited too, if you want. You're not part of the team, but you did help us out just now. I'm guessing you might want to see how this all plays out."
<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.
"They're the ones I usually work with," Hibari agrees with Joker. "Ogre, Phoenix and me; we make a pretty good team, for Mementos, at least." Though one of the times they went was when they got ambushed by ninjas so maybe it's not a perfect solution!
She glances at Mona, but - honestly, Hibari has trouble reading Mona's expression more than most people. He doesn't sound happy, but who'd be happy about an impending Palace?
But there's a little more...
Hibari doesn't like talking about Kenzo. It's not as bad as it could have been, but it's still... well, not the brightest point in her life. She frowns a little. Ren knows, of course. Ichika knows. But the rest...
"I'll do it," Hibari agrees. "Once we can get people together - anyone who's willing and able to help." It's a *real* awkward time of year for some of them, of course, so she's not expecting everybody.
"And thanks."