Well, here he was. So far, the plan had went off without a hitch. He was going to fake his own death in order to fool Akechi, the traitor. Now came the hardest part.

Convince Sae Niijima to assist the Phantom Thieves.

The group that she had been hell-bent on taking down.

She entered the room, and sat across the table.

"...I didn't expect it'd be you." she said.

He slowly turned my head up towards her, but the look on her face surprises him. She almost seemed...sad. Maybe regretful? Or maybe she's simply stressed out.

He knew that Makoto managed to talk to her shadow before we left the palace. That must have helped.

"Now it's my turn," Ren thinks to himself. "It's proof that she's not all gone. Even if we can't take her treasure, I can still change her heart. I won't let the others down."

"I'm actually kind of surprised you didn't know until now." Ren said.

"Well, it's not as if any of you go around shooting that you're the Phantom Thieves in public." Sae stated.

"You'd be surprised." Ren thought to himself.

"Now then, why don't you start from the very beginning." Sae ordered. "Tell me everything, and be honest."

He had no choice. He would have to tell her absolutely everything if he wanted her on his side. If a single thing went wrong, he'd be dead.

He would never be able to help anyone else.

He'd never enjoy another cup of coffee.

Never play another match with of Shogi or Gun About with friends.

Never chat with the owners of Untouchable or the clinic.

Never attend another class at Suijin.

Never achieve his dream.

Never see his friends again.

Never see her again…

He remembers one of the first real conversations they had…

"Hey Ren, I think that girl's stalking us." Morgana warned, his body partially hidden by Ren's bag.

"I know. First it was just at school, but now it's here too." Ren replied.

"You know? How?" Morgana asks.

"Focusing in Palaces has made me very alert to my surroundings." Ren responded.

Ren sees the girl drop something out of her bag, and quickly moves to grab it.

"Hey, what are you-"

"Relax. I'll handle this." Ren assured him.

He grabs a Buchimaru-Kun pencil case off the ground, and hands it back to her.

"Oh, thank you Amamiya-San." she said. As soon as those words left her lips, her eyes went wide in shock. "A-Amaiya-San!" she squeaked out.

"Niijima-Sempai, right? Ren asks. "I was looking for you at school, but I couldn't find you anywhere."

"You were...looking for me?" She asked.

"I was having a problem back at Shujin, but I don't think that the teachers would take it seriously if I told them, so I was hoping you would."

She immediately focused, confidence flooding into her. "Of course." She responded. "As Student Council President, it's my duty to assist the student body whenever I can. What can I help you with, Amamiya-San?

He smirks. "Well, lately...I can't help but feel like someone's stalking me."

Her face immediately pales. "S-Stalking? A-Are you sure?" she stammered.

He nods. "I've actually seen them behind me a few times at school, and on my way home. The weirdest thing is that they're not a bully or anything. They're a really cute girl."

Her face goes from pale to bright red. "C-Cute?!"

She hides behind the manga she's carrying.

"Yeah." Ren said, getting close enough to peak over her manga. "Very cute."

He sees a notebook, which would explain why she went to grab a pencil. He also notices the manga she's supposedly reading.

"Buchimaru-Kun and shonen manga? That's quite the combination." Ren commented.

He didn't think it was possible, but her face grew even redder. "The B-B-Buchimaru-Kun pencil case is only due to nostalgia!" she says, a little too quickly. "And this manga is actually quite engrossing!"

"Hey, don't worry, I won't judge." Ren replied. "I mean, did you know that I picked up some cheesy teen drama from the Rental Shop? Bubbly Hills, I think."

"Because I bet you did know that." he thinks to himself.

"Oh, I...I definitely didn't know that!" Makoto asserted.

The only reason he had bought that DVD was because Morgana had insisted that it would raise his charm, which was important for a Phantom Thief.

Seeing the blushing girl in front of him, Ren figured it was great investment.

"So, about my request…?

She finally looked up from her manga. "Oh, I almost forgot! Don't worry, I'll...bring it to the school's attention."

"Thanks." he said. He turned his back to her, walked a few steps, then stopped once again.

"Amamiya-San?" she questioned.

He turns his head slightly, just enough so that she can see the smirk on his face.

"By the way, Niijima-Sempai." he says. "You'd probably enjoy that manga a lot more if you weren't holding it upside down."

He continues walking, hearing a gasp and shifting paper behind him. He chuckles, and walks away.

He smiles at the memory, and all the others he's made throughout the year.

With as much determination as he can muster on his bruised face, he looks Sae right in the eye.

"Ok. I'll tell you everything."

He hadn't expected her to immediately believe him, but it wasn't until he started explaining to her that he realized how insane he must have sounded.

*SLAM*

"Is this a joke to you?!" Sae yelled. "Personas?! Other worlds?! Shadows?! You expect me to believe this?!"

"But it would explain the mental shutdowns, wouldn't it?" Ren argued.

"Are you saying that you caused them?"

"No. But someone else could have."

"Are you really going to try to shift the blame onto someone else?!" Sae snapped.

Ren sighed. "This is going to be a long day." he thought to himself.

"And then the SIU director started started saying evil things to himself again." Ren continued.

"...How did you know about the parts you weren't there for?" Sae countered.

"Well, I, um…"

Wait, that was actually a good point. How did he know that?!

"Oh, well, they injected me with some kind of truth serum." Ren offered.

"Those don't make you psychic." Sae argued.

"Well-"

"And don't even try to tell that you're a psychic." Sae interrupted. "Those don't exist."

"I know one. Well, technically she's a fortune teller."

She crosses her arms. "Of course you do."

*SLAM*

"Don't be ridiculous! Sae spat. "Are you saying that your new ally was Makoto?!"

Out of everyone, Ren realized that hiding her involvement would probably be the hardest out of everyone. At one point, they had even had her take data from Sae's laptop.

"I'll need to avoid answering her directly." Ren thought.

"You're really clueless, aren't you?" Ren chided.

"Back there, was she running from the police as well?!" Sae asked.

"Why don't you ask Makoto?" Ren suggested.

Sae's eyes narrowed. Ren wondered what he had done wrong this time.

"Makoto? Not Niijima-Sempai? That's a rather familiar way of referring to her. " Sae questioned.

Ren cursed under his breath, realizing his slip up.

"I-Is that really important right now?" Ren stammered.

Sae continued to glare at him for what seemed like forever, before finally speaking.

"It might be important." she said. "But I suppose what's more important right now is that you tell me more about your other targets."

"I didn't have enough money to ride the train after I got ripped off 100,000 yen, so I was stuck." Ren explained.

"So then how did you get to school that day?" Sae wondered.

"My cat told me about his secret stash and spotted me for the train ride." Ren explained. "Later in the day, Fox and I pooled our money together so that we could share a small fry at Big Bang Burger for dinner."

"..."

"Is something wrong?" Ren asked.

Sae sighed "This is going to be a long day." she thought to herself.

"Did I, or, my shadow, rather, really wear something so...revealing?" Sae mumbled.

"Yes. Yes they did." Ren responded.

"And was there a reason that you went to such extensive detail about it?" Sae grumbled.

"I was told to be as meticulous as possible."

"Are you sure that you aren't just trying to annoy me?" Sae asked.

"It might be a little bit of both." Ren admitted. "Truth serum, remember?"

*SLAM*

"Don't you realize the situation you're in?!" Sae yelled "You must think you're real clever, don't you?!"

"Well, my friends and girlfriend seem to think so." Ren responded.

Sae raised an eyebrow.

"You have a girlfriend? Is she involved with the Phantom Thieves?"

Ren thought carefully about his response, but quick enough to not arouse suspicion.

"She doesn't know where I am right now. She's...probably very worried about me."

Technically not a lie. The others only assumed he was being interrogated in this underground area at the moment. Obviously, they couldn't confirm it, even if it was true.

Sae shook her head.

"A girlfriend? Really? Out of everything you've told me today, that's probably the part I believe the least."

"And then I was brought down here, and someone came to interrogate me, and told me to begin from the beginning."

Ren cleared his throat before speaking again.

"And then I told them that it had all began with a train ride t-

"Stop talking." Sae interrupted. "We're done."

She stood up from her chair.

"How long have we been sitting here?" Ren asked.

"About an hour." Sae responded.

It felt more like a hundred hours to him…

"What you've told me wasn't good enough, even assuming that it was all true."

He had been afraid of this. He had intentionally been vague about the identities of the others, not wanting them to be discovered.

"So I want to make a deal." she said.

"A deal?" Ren asked, surprised.

"Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, Yusuke Kitagawa, Futaba Sakura, Haru Okumura, and…"

She hesitated, but only for a moment.

"Makoto Niijima. They were all members too, weren't they? And I'm sure you had others helping you. If you tell me who they are, then it might help lessen your sentence.

"A plea deal. Of course." Ren thought. "It'd be much easier to convict the others if they had his confession."

So there was no way he would confess.

"No", Ren lied.

She shook her head. "Then what about Goro Akechi?" There were rumors that he was working with the Phantom Thieves."

"I can't have him suspect anything", Ren mused to himself.

"Not one of us." Ren said.

"Why are you doing this?" Sae asked. "You were sold out by one of your teammates. So why? Just how close are the Phantom Thieves to each other?"

"Thick as thieves" joked Ren. "Although I guess we bicker sometimes."

He recalled another memory, this one from Mementos.

"Oracle, what have I told you about hacking into government networks?!" Queen asked, worry seeping into her voice.

"Come on, just one more?" Oracle pleaded.

"If you don't stop, I will turn this car around!" Queen scolded.

"Then perhaps we could stop for ramen after we get back?" Fox suggested.

"No way. Inari!" Oracle yelled. "We should get some sushi instead!"

"Fatty tuna!" Mona yelled excitedly. "Get some fatty tuna for me!"

"That reminds me. Noir said. "My vegetables should be ready by now."

"That's great, Noir." Joker added. "I'll help you plant some new one's later."

"Thank you, Joker!" beamed Noir.

"Well...I suppose we could grab something. We haven't went out to celebrate as a group in a while." Queen said.

"For real?!" Skull exclaimed. "Man, this is goin' to be awesome!"

"Yes!" Oracle cheered. "It's sushi time!"

"Excuse me, but I do believe that I asked for ramen first." Fox argued.

"Shut up, Inari! No one cares about your dumb ramen." Oracle bickered.

"What did you say?!" Fox asked, seemingly in disbelief. "You would compare mere sushi to a complex dish such as ramen?!"

Joker chuckled at their silly argument, before offering his own suggestion.

"You know, I heard of this nice place that sells crepes." Joker offered. "What do you say, Crow? Want to come?"

"Huh? Oh, well, I was actually just going to have an apple for lunch." Crow mentioned. "I'm very busy today. Maybe another time."

"Oh, I'll come, Joker!" Panther said. "I love crepes! Especially with chocolate or creme!"

"Don't you already have enough crepes?" Skull questioned. "We should have something more special!"

"Actually, I agree with Panther! Let's get crepes!" Mona gushed.

"Oh come on! You don't even eat crepes!" Skull yelled.

The Phantom Thieves spent the rest of the Mementos trip talking and gushing about what they were going to eat for lunch.

Ren wasn't sure how they had gone from talking about hacking government networks to food, but the memory still brought a smile to his face.

He wouldn't trade his friends for the world.

So he'd have to think of something.

"I'm sorry." Ren said. "But I could never sell them out. I can refer to the other members as their code names, but for the non-members, I'd rather just tell you about what I did with them, not who they are. And I want to stress that non-members had no idea about all of the members and methods of our group when they were helping us.

He desperately fought the effects of the drug, trying to convince himself that what he was saying was technically true.

They did know that he was a Phantom Thief.

But they didn't know who the others were, or how they changed hearts.

After he had said those words, the room was filled with an eerie silence.

He hoped.

He prayed.

That she would accept. Because this was the best he could come up with.

Sae sighed. "You're really not in any position to be making deals, you know?"

"Please." Ren begged, and for the first time, he let the desperation show in his face.

15 seconds.

It took her roughly 15 seconds to respond.

The longest 15 seconds of his life.

"I suppose..." She said, just loud enough for him to hear. "...that will do for now."

She sat back down.

Ren thanked whatever Gods were looking out for him.

"Now then, tell me about your...confidants."