After that day, Akira was really showing signs of something going on. He didn't come out of his room at all, unless it was to go out, and he didn't go out for long even. He didn't respond to anyone's messages anymore. Everyone knew they had to figure this out quickly. They met up in a different location.

"Has anyone tried to talk to Akira?" Yusuke asked.

"I tried, but he didn't respond," Ryuji said.

"Me too...Mona's been at my house so he hasn't seen him" Futaba said.

"I figured he would be too mad to speak with me after that day, so I stayed at Futaba's place," Morgana said.

"We need to figure this out," Makoto said with everyone agreeing.

"We have his name, we need a place and a distortion," Haru said thinking.

"Hey, I was thinking about it with Morgana," Futaba said. "And I have an idea, he's been acting like something is holding him back," She said.

"Holding him back?" Ryuji said.

"Yeah, he's not telling us his true feelings...it's like he's confined to something," Morgana said.

"Hmmm..how about like a Prison?" Haru said.

No result found

"Confinement center?" Makoto suggested.

No result found

"Jailhouse?" Yusuke suggested.

Result Found

"Alright, now we need a distortion," Morgana said.

"It has to do with a jailhouse, so prisoner?" Ann suggested.

No result found

"Inmate?" Futaba suggested.

Target found, beginning navigation

While the others were doing that, Akira was in his room as he couldn't take the thoughts clouding his head, he needed to clear up his thoughts, and to do so, he decided to go to Mementos by himself.

He teleported in using the app as he arrived, but his clothes didn't change.

"What the..? Why am I still in my normal clothes?" Akira thought as he tried to summon his persona but failed.

"What's going on?! Where's my Persona...?" Akira thought as he tried multiple times, but couldn't. He fell onto his knees, not understanding why it wasn't working.

"Now you lost the only thing that gave you a relation to them. Now your friends are leaving you and you lost your Persona. You're useless to them. Now there's no reason for you to be around" The voices in Akira's head told him as Akira gripped his head. Was it really the end??

Akira let out a sigh, getting up as he teleported back. He had accepted his fate at this point and knew there was no changing it.

Back with the others, who had just arrived in front of a jailhouse, it was fairly big as there was a guard in front of it, in the form of a shadow. They were already in their Phantom Thief clothes.

"What?? Akira already sees us as a threat!" Panther said.

"Most likely due to the incident at Leblanc the other day," Fox said.

Oracle sighed. It was their fault that happened.

"We can't do anything if we dwell on it now. We need to move on and help him," Queen said. "We first need to get through the guard," She said as they headed off.

"Halt! Who goes there?" The guard said.

"We want to...see an inmate," Noir explained. "Akira Kurusu?"

"He had accepted his sentence, so no-one is allowed to see him," The guard said.

"Damnit.," Skull said as Queen got an idea.

"Hey, I got an idea," Queen said to the others before stepping forward.

"My name is Makoto Niijima, I'm the sister of Sae Niijima, the prosecutor. We're here to see him on her behalf" She explained. "She needs to finalize some details with him about his sentence".

"I see, then go ahead, he is the third hallway to the right," The Guard said as he let them in.

"Wow...I can't believe that worked," Morgana said as they headed inside.

"Nice job Queen!" Oracle said.

"Thank you, now let's go," Queen said as they headed to that all. The building seemed to be made of two floors, the first floor had different hallways with cells, and the top floor was unknown at the moment.

"They said he was in the third hallway to the right," Panther said as they headed down that hall. There were 5 cells, two on each side and one at the end of the hall facing them.

"Which cell is he in...?" Skull said, looking through the first one on the right as his eyes widened.

"Woah what is it??" Noir asked.

"It looks like Akira, but he is with someone..." Skull said.

"I think these are memories..." Oracle said analyzing it. "These cells each have a memory of his. We should look at these as they might help us" Oracle said.

They all nodded, surrounding the first cell as they watched the memory being played.

In the memory, it showed two adults, assuming Akira's parents, and Akira, who looked scared. Akira was being yelled at by his parents.

"How could you do this?! You can never mind your own business" The woman said. "Now you have this criminal record?! What would people say??"

Akira attempted to sign something but not before being smacked by his father.

"Akira!" Skull said gripping the jail door.

"Why won't you speak?! You can't you?!" The man said. "First you can't speak now you have a criminal record?! What kind of useless son are you?!" He said as Akira was shaking.

The memory soon disappeared as everyone just stood there in shock.

"That was Akira's parents....Akira had that kind of life at home..?" Ann said.

"How did we never see this..?" Haru said.

"These...all must be memories that are traumatic for Akira...each cell must hold a different memory," Oracle said.

"Then...let us move on to the next one," Queen said, all of them bracing themselves for the worse.

They moved on to the next one, where the memory played.

In the memory, there were two guards and Akira looked like he was being beaten up. It seemed to be the Interrogation Room.

"Confess you, dirty criminal," One of the guards said, kicking Akira who looked so beaten already, hands cuffed.

"Just leave it, we got the stuff," Another Guard said holding a needle with some liquid. "This will make him confess" The guard went to him, jabbing the needle into his neck as he let out a pained gasp, but with no sound at all as the liquid was injected into him, as the guard pulled it out as Akira went limp.

"Now, tell us, who are you working with?" The first guard asked.

Akira shook his head, despite being in so much pain.

"He still won't talk...Guess we'll have to beat it out of you" The Guard said.

The memory ended as Akira was about to be beaten again.

"My god..." Fox said in shock.

"If Akira was beaten that badly during his interrogation, I would've done something," Queen said. She felt horrible he had to go through that.

"Why wouldn't he tell us about this..?" Noir asked herself.

"I...wish we knew, we need to find out," Oracle said as they moved to the third cell.

The memory showed a bunch of boys beating up Akira. They were all wearing the same school uniform, but it didn't seem like a Shujin School uniform

"C'mon you mute freak! Talk!" One of the boys said, kicking him right in the stomach as Akira gripped it. He was on the ground, his glasses off to the side, broken

"Are you sure he can talk?" One of the boys said

"Yeah, he can. I heard that he just chooses to be mute because he's a wimp" The boy who kicked Akira said. "C'mon guys, let's go"

The boys all left, leaving the beaten Akira alone in the alleyway. He couldn't scream for help, as he laid there, helpless and in pain.

The memory soon ended.

"Akira...can speak?" Noir asked.

"He told us it was an accident when he lost his voice, but is that true...?" Mona said.

"Maybe this memory might help us," Oracle said as they approached the fourth cell.

The memory showed Shujin Academy as Akira was walking down the hall on his phone while students stared and whispered things about him.

"That's the new kid right??"

"I heard he came late on his first day, and with Sakamoto-kun. He truly is a criminal, probably doing drugs with him."

"He's done it all, drugs, alcohol, and more."

"Watch out, he might be quiet but he won't hesitate to fight you."

"Wonder how his parents feel about him."

Akira clearly was disturbed at the voices as he continued out of the building

The memory ended.

"Akira...," Noir said.

"I knew he was bullied when he came here, but I didn't think it was so bad," Queen said

"Alright, this should be the final memory. Hopefully, it puts things together" Panther said as they headed to the final cell at the end of the hall.

"Wait, one sec guys, this cell looks different, I'm getting different readings from it," Oracle said.

In the cell, it wasn't a memory, but a boy. Black messy hair with tainted cell clothes, black and white. His hands were cuffed and his legs were chained to the wall.

"Akira?!" Skull said recognizing him almost immediately.

Akira looked up, he had golden eyes which caused everyone to go on guard.

"I-It's his shadow!" Oracle said.

"Wait...guys?! How did you get here...?" Akira said which threw everyone off guard.

"He can talk?!" Mona said.

"Well...I am Akira's shadow, not him. So I can speak" Shadow Akira said.

"What are you doing here chained up? Your his shadow, shouldn't you be running the palace?" Makoto asked.

"Well...you aren't wrong, I am his Shadow, but this is a different palace...Akira is a special guy, you know it" The Shadow said. "Akira can use multiple personas, allowing him to have multiple shadows of himself."

"Multiple shadows? So there's more of you" Yusuke said.

"He only has two, Shadow Joker, and me," Akira said. "His distortions are split between the both of us," Akira said. "Now, before you continue asking me all these questions, let me ask you some questions. What are you doing here?" Akira asked

"We're here to help Akira, we saw all the memories, why would Akira not tell us this?" Panther said

"Simple really, as you can see, I'm bound to this cell. This is how Akira sees part of himself. He's alone and trapped, he feels like no-one can save him and that he will be a prisoner to abuse forever" Akira said.

"Does he not trust us?" Noir asked

"Not that at all, he truly thinks you're his friends. For the first time in his life, he had a similar goal to others. However, he's afraid. Soon he has to leave Shibuya, and with that, all of you, and back to his home. He knows that there's no point in maintaining his friendship, as it soon will be broken" Akira said.

"That's not true! We're going to be there for him. We'll keep in touch with him, we'll be there when he needs us" Skull said.

"If only Akira could realize that....Next, even if you are here, you are here without Akira's knowledge. He wouldn't be willing to let you steal his heart if you continue like this" Akira said. "You need to tell him," Akira said.

"But what if he doesn't want us to steal his heart?" Oracle said.

"That is true...but keeping it a secret like this won't make it any easier," Akira said. "And finally, I assume you want me to tell you where the treasure is," Akira said

"Do you know where it is?" Yusuke asked

"Not exactly, I was bound here for a long time, but I know Joker will have it on the floor above, in his room," Akira said.

Queen got an idea as she pulled out a lockpick and began unlocking the cell.

"W-What are you doing?!" Akira said

"We want to help you, and this is the first way we can," Queen said, unlocking the cell as the chains around Akira's arms and legs disappeared when the door was unlocked.

"I'm free..." Akira said as he smiled. "I...know you'll be the one to free Akira. I believe in all of you" He said.

"Thanks," Oracle said

"Now, you should go locate the treasure upstairs. Be warned, Shadow Joker isn't like me, he's the stronger distortion of the both of us, and more stubborn. You will have to fight him when the time comes to steal Akira's treasure. But I believe you can do it, we have seen you come this far, and you all have grown strong." Akira said

"Thank you Akira," Noir said with a smile.

"We won't let you down," Panther said.

"Alright guys, let's go!" Makoto said as the group headed off, leaving Shadow Akira there as he couldn't help but smile.

"I hope they can do it..." Akira said

Meanwhile, the others have found the stairs and headed to the second floor. It had a single room at the end of the hallways.

"I can sense another Shadow, similar to Shadow Akira, but much stronger. This is it" Oracle said.

"Alright, let us do this," Yusuke said as Makoto opened the door.

The room was beautiful, it was like a palace, with a chandelier above them, windows on the sides with beautiful curtains. The marble floor was so shiny you could see a reflection in it.

"Woah..." Noir said impressed, but before anyone could continue admiring the room, they heard a familiar voice.

"Well well, I sensed someone else here, yet I didn't expect it to be you," A familiar said from behind the group as everyone turned around to see Shadow Joker. He looked just like Joker, outfit and all, but those golden eyes are the only thing that made them different.

"You're Shadow Joker, aren't you?" Skull asked.

"Oh, you do know! That's good, that means I won't need to explain it. It also means you met Shadow Akira on the floor below, and that he hasn't warned you guys" Akira said with a disappointed look.

"Warn us?" Queen asked.

"Yes, telling you that this is a massive invasion of Akira's privacy and that. He still wants to hold on to that hope that you guys can save him" Shadow Joker sighed.

"We are, that's why we're here. We don't care that he warned us, we're his friends! Skull said

"Heh, always funny as ever Skull. Well if Shadow Akira did warn you but you failed to listen, that means you really are determined. As much as I would like to end it now, I rather see things play out" Shadow Joker said, and in a blink of an eye, disappeared, leaving the group in shock.

"Cmon Phantom Thieves, you secured the route to the treasure, now send that calling card. Then when you come back to steal our treasure, I'll remind you again that there's no hope for us." Shadow Joker's voice called out.

"We should head back then..." Panther said.

"I agree, we need to prepare the calling card," Oracle said as they all headed back, now securing the treasure route.

They soon arrived back in the real world, where they left.

"How should we confront Akira with his calling card?" Yusuke asked.

"We shouldn't draw attention to it, maybe we can disguise it with something else," Ann said. "Oooo! I have an idea, we can pretend we're just giving him an apology gift for the other day"

"That sounds great, let's see what Akira says," Ryuji said as they got their phones out.

Ann: Hey Akira, are you on? Again, we all want to say we're sorry for leaving you out. We promise you it's nothing related to Mementos. We just needed to chat about something. We want to make it up to you, and we all want to hang out at your place. We can just relax, have snacks, and talk, like always. How does this Sunday sound?

Akira was at home, lying in bed after the incident in Mementos. He felt his phone vibrate as he looked at the message on their group chat from Ann.

"Should I...? What if they knew about my Persona, what would they say then?" Akira thought as he sighed. He decided to agree, he trusted them too much, and he needed a reason to get the voices out of his head.

Akira: Sure, that sounds good

Futaba: Awesome!

Ryuji: I'll bring some snacks

Makoto: I can take care of drinks

Akira: Sounds good, see you guys then

Futaba: Hey can Mona stay at my place Akira?

Akira: Yeah sure

Futaba: Thanks!

Akira smiled a bit, some of the thoughts going away, as he relaxed a bit. Maybe things were going to be okay.