"Hello again, Phantom Thieves," Alice greeted the thieves as they approached her in the large room where their first battle took place.
"Jackie is checking the area. He's trying to locate Kitsune-Kun so..." Alice glanced at Yusuke. "... you'll all be safe..."
The artist kept a blank face. Everyone else had the same skeptical look aimed at him, but he didn't notice. Just then, Jack came running in, looking exhausted and flustered. Alice faced him, but still spoke in her soft, polite tone.
"Did something happen, Jackie?"
"The prison has warped a lot since yesterday! Prince Akira must really be losing himself! It's gotten so much scarier down there!" Jack squealed.
"The Anesa in the real world can't be doing anything, right?" Ann asked.
"I wish I put a camera on her! Then I could keep an eye on—" Futaba was cut off.
"I took care of it," Yusuke gripped his katana and took a few steps toward the doors.
"Anesa won't cause any trouble. Let's hurry on, shall we?"
The thieves stared at the artist with suspicion, but began to following behind him. Mishima pulled Ryuji back a little and spoke softly.
"What do you think he did?"
"I don't know..." Ryuji looked back at Yusuke and bit his lip.
"Hopefully it's nothing bad..."
————
"Help... s-somebody..."
Anesa's tears ran dry an hour ago. The ropes were practically cutting her bare skin by now. She made many desperate attempts to free herself, but slowly began to give up. No matter how much she tried to cry out, her voice went unheard in the city noise. Countless people wandered past the mouth of the dark alley way, and not one noticed the girl completely naked and tied up, with her body in the worse position.
"Please... c-can't anyone hear me...?"
Her throat was dry, causing her voice to be hoarse. Her glasses had fallen off God knows when so she could barely see anything, and pain thundered in her skull.
All Anesa could remember was returning home after exploring the shopping district. Erin was at work, Jaehyun took Pico to his house, and Yusuke and Akira were at the art studio. After a few seconds in her home, Anesa heard her phone ringing. An anonymous text was asking her to come to a place in Shibuya—it said it was a male from the club that wanted to get with Akira and needed more information. Anesa went right away.
Then she was walking down a dark alley, in search for the person in question. Then she felt something hard make impact with her head.
Then the rest was black.
She tried to pull free from the ropes once more, but had no strength. Every time she so much as thought of moving the pain in her head increased. Now she sat there, praying someone would save her.
That was when she heard the footsteps...
"Whoa! Look here, isn't she pretty~?"
Anesa could make out the silhouettes of two adult men coming toward her. She tried desperately to close her legs or cover her chest, but the ropes wouldn't let her.
"Looks like a high school girl... what a turn on~"
The tears came back. Anesa trembled and tried to cry out, but her voice had left her. She felt warm hands touch her skin and winced.
"Don't worry, sweetheart. We'll be good to you~"
She could smell the strong scent of alcohol; these men were drunk. No matter what she did, she couldn't break free from this fate.
All she could do was sit there...
————
"Oh my god!!"
On the other side of the doors was a long, confusing twisty hall full of portraits of grown men and women with plaques below the frames. Apart from the portraits, everything else was in shades of gray.
Ryuji put his hands over his face after crying out.
"Ohhhh, ohhhh god... this place is gonna make me motion sick..." He moaned.
"Hey, keep it together, Skull!" Morgana snapped at him.
"Don't let the illusions get to your head. You'll surely lose yourself if you let the prison get to you," Alice said calmly before walking down the hall with Jack beside her.
Makoto studied each of the photos as they walked. Each person looked like they were in bad shape, with old, messy looking clothes and dirty faces, yet they all kept bright smiles.
"I feel like I've seen these people before..."
"Geez, look at this lady!" Morgana pointed to one photo. "She's got so many scars! She looks tough!"
A voice suddenly filled the air.
"Kizana Futaro... She always watched me when dad was busy... she'd play music on her guitar and sing me so many fun songs... she died trying to collect money from a client when a gun was pulled on her... I miss her..."
"Akira...?" Yusuke spoke softly.
The portrait of the woman changed. Instead of smiling, she now wore a blank calm expression with her eyes shut. The plaque beneath the frame changed from her name to 'R-I-P'. Then the portrait faded way and showed the woman happily playing a guitar while young Akira sat at her side singing along.
"Another memory..." Ann said.
"Oh!" Makoto exclaimed. "I do know these people! They're members of the White Inu clan! My dad worked on that case when I was little and he always had his files on his desk. I remember seeing mugshots of these people all the time!"
"Yes. Akira was quite close with the people of the clan because his father was around them so much," Alice said. "Everyone called them bad for their dangerous crimes, but some of them were really good people. Some of the members took the stuff they stole, and they gave it to people in need,"
"They were practically family for the prince! His real family was so horrible to him!" Jack cried.
"I get that..." Futaba dropped her gaze. "Jaehyun did say Akira's family blamed him for his parents death..."
Makoto put an arm around the young girl. Haru had wandered ahead a little to see the other portraits. Then one caught her eyes.
"Guys, look at this one!"
The others rushed over to Haru. There was a large portrait, much more grandiose than the others, of a handsome young man with deep black hair covering a small part of his face. Sitting in a chair beside him was a beautiful woman with short black hair and glasses, and in her lap sat a smiling little boy with fluffy black hair. The plaque read 'Jonathan Kurusu and Byul Soojung'.
"Is that... Akira's parents?" Yusuke said.
"Look at him... he's so happy..." Ann said softly.
The voice came back.
"... I'm sorry... please come back... please... I won't act out again... "
The portrait changed. The couple had expressionless faces with their eyes closed, much like the woman, and the little boy had his hands over his face and was crying. In a flash the portrait faded away to another memory:
Little Akira, at age seven, was standing in his underwear while his father took photos of him, on the verge of crying and averting his eyes from the bright camera flashes.
"I don't wanna do anymore pictures, I wanna stop!" Little Akira was whining.
"Stay still! We stop when I say so!" His father, Jonathan, yelled.
"Noo! I wanna stop!"
Little Akira tried to run only for Jonathan to grab him and pin him against the ground.
"I fucking told you to sit still!! Why is it so fucking hard for you to listen?! Do I have to use force—DO I?!"
Little Akira was crying now. Jonathan stared at his son's face enraged, then it slowly faded to sorrow.
"God...! What am I doing...!" He backed away from Little Akira, starting to sob. "I'm so sorry, Aki... daddy's so sorry..."
"Holy shit..." Ryuji said quietly, nobody else could speak.
Yusuke stared with wide eyes, feeling as if he were about to cry but no tears fell.
"Akira...?"
The ground trembled a bit beneath them. The sound of enraged yelling rang out loudly causing Alice and Jack to cower behind the Thieves.
"What is that?!" Ryuji cried.
"Kitsune-Kun! He senses our presence!!" Jack cried.
"He'll surely put us in the cells with the other Personas!" Alice squealed.
Yusuke was unfazed by the commotion. A distorted, but familiar voice passed through his head; it started silent but quickly became louder.
"Yusuke... Yusuke... my angel... my savior..."
"A... Akira..."
"Please... I'm scared... I'm lonely... please hurry and save me..."
"Akira... my prince..."
Yusuke's hands shaked and his legs became weak. Pain surged in his head and to his stomach causing him to groan and lean against the wall. Mishima was the first to notice his strange behavior.
"Fox, are you ok?!"
Yusuke grabbed both sides of his head and panted heavily. The voice was calling him. He felt his Persona's power ignite inside him and he returned himself to his feet.
"Akira... Akira... AKIRA!!!"
He thrashed and collapsed to the ground. Ryuji hurried over and grabbed Yusuke's shoulders.
"Dude! What the hell is wring with you?!" He cried.
"Fox, what's happening?!" Morgana yelled.
Yusuke grit his teeth and shoved Ryuji away before screaming a loud war cry that caused everyone to cover their ears.
Then Yusuke suddenly took off...