"Well, well, well, disobeying me Akechi!?"

Akechi stood there, dripping with sweat and caked with his own blood, in his tattered clothes, with his shoulder length hair dangling around his face, it made him look completely deranged. It was a stark contrast to the dignified and pristine looking Shido himself who sat there, in his spotless office, scowling at his own flesh and blood.

"I'm sorry" Akechi forced himself to say "I got too eager and raced on ahead... but I can confirm it with you. They are all in your palace".

"I fucking knew it" Shido snapped "Thanks to your absence I had to send a team to deal with our new SIU director, he spoke to me on the phone, while fucking Sae Niijima was outside the door, incompetent fools, seems like I can't trust anybody lately!"

"You never trusted anyone, period" Akechi thought to himself darkly, the mask wearing, fickle, cognitions of people on that ship, proved that much.

Yet Akechi put on his smiling face mask, as he simply replied...

"I know, it can be quite a bother"

"Anyway, tell me you killed a few of them!" Shido snapped at him "You didn't get those bruises from nowhere, right!?"

"Yes, I made clean work of Sae Niijima and a few of the rookies they had with them" Akechi said, lying causally and not wanting to ponder back on his embarrassing defeat, "But the others are stronger than I anticipated, but don't worry. Your palace is well-protected and the shadows and the letter holders should take care of some of the others".

"I know the five people who hold these... letters" Shido muttered "and I'll be able to tell if anyone of them change, after all there's no other way for them to obtain the letters other than killing them or making them go soft, if they go soft they'll be killed on my orders anyway".

"It's a win, win either way" Akechi said "Either they die to the Phantom Thieves, or they die to you. Or they win and can live".

"Yes, I consider it the ultimate test of loyalty to me, those who can't achieve that deserve to die" Shido mused "At this rate, my palace is impossible to infiltrate and stealing my heart? What a joke, before that could happen, I have more tricks up my sleeve"

"Indeed" Akechi agreed "I will rest on this and return to the palace in due course".

"You do that" Shido muttered "But before you do, I want you to take something into the palace with you"

"Something?" Akechi muttered, not liking the way Shido was smiling now.

"Let's just say... they forgot some people" Shido said barely able to contain his excitement, "You'll understand in due course, but I want you to take something along to them, or those that remain, for... demoralisation shall we say?"

"Sounds... interesting, I hope this didn't cause too much trouble" Akechi muttered.

"None at all" Shido replied "Now, hurry up and recover, I want to put this matter to bed, the election is in a few days, I want everything cleared by then, understood!?"

Akechi nodded, before he departed the office.

"Without so much as a thank you, father" he muttered bitterly to himself.

Meanwhile Shido watched Akechi leave, after the election he'd be cleared up as well.

His palace was going to be fine, he'd be the one to lead Japan, that's all there was too it. He had played this game as smart and as safely as he could, eliminating anyone who could have possibly been a link to him, or the Phantom Thieves themselves. Yet, there was that lingering matter, the one who had escaped, his task force had returned after dealing with that SIU director and several others, only to tell him that one of them had escaped...

Shido wanted him dead, it didn't matter how old he was.

He looked at the name on the file once again.

Shinya Oda...

"SETH!"

Joker roared this, as the black dragon spewed a ball of energy at the snake which barely even reacted to the hit, instead many of it's heads were focused on different members of the group, without warning, four heads charged forward at once, each of them aiming at the four main fighters. Joker barely managed to block the one that soared towards him, Panther fired a ball of fire at the last second, saving her a horrible poisoning, Mona however was flung back, the fangs have penetrated his stomach, leaving trails of blood on his fur, as he groaned and clutched the injured area, Skull had managed to use his spiky bat to lay a dent the head aiming for him.

"DIA!" Panther said, almost instantly, a wave of relief came over Mona.

"Thanks, you're so gorgeous Pant..." He began drearily.

"NOT THE TIME MONA!" Skull bellowed, wiping a sheen of sweat from his forehead, he had been hitting the snake with all his force, yet the snake continued to attack them, barely showing any signs of weakness.

"We can't keep on like this!" Panther exclaimed, "It's too damn strong!"

Joker knew this, he was the leader here and had to think of a quick strategy to ensure their victory.

"Oracle! Have you found it's weakness yet!?" he inquired, managing to dodge yet another head that was aimed directly at him.

"Hang on! Scan almost complete!" Oracle yelled back, "Okay... okay... GOT IT!" She suddenly exclaimed "Joker, it's weak to Psychokinetic attacks!"

"Oh great, first Fox and now Noir, I should have brought them along" Joker growled, but he couldn't exactly leave and call for the Beauty Thief, they'd have to play around this, he summoned his multi headed persona once again.

"HECATONCHEIRES!" he bellowed, as he devised a plan of action.

"SKULL! MONA! DISTRACT IT!" He ordered "TWO OF THE HEADS WILL COME FOR YOU AND THEN...!"

"WE'LL HELP TOO JOKER, TAKE IT DOWN WHILE WE GET IT'S ATTENTION!"

Joker whipped around and wanted to scream "NO!" but it was too late, Mishima had already ran directly onto the battlefield, as a hungry head turned in his direction and prepared to strike, before it could, Ohya herself had leapt out in the opposite direction, another head turned her way, Joker had seconds to react.

"PSY!"

It hit the head that was targeting Mishima, it fell back with such a force, the one aiming for Ohya was thrown off balance, it ended up crashing into a wall, as the Journalist ducked, bits of debris and a cloud of dust engulfed her form.

"PSY!"

The already weakened head that hit the wall, made a jolt of pain and snake like hiss, two heads were down.

"MONA! NOW, GET RID OF THEM!" Joker bellowed.

Mona understood instantly, the nifty cat sprang through the air, cartwheeling and slicing his curved sword through the conjoined bodies and the damaged head, with a splattering and a final hiss of pain, the two detached heads dissolved into black sludge below the main body, however that wasn't the end of the attack. Because from the detached heads, a rancid smelling dark purple liquid squirted all over the restaurant, the second it hit Ohya and Mishima their skin began to bubble and melt on the spot, as they roared in pain.

"GET THEM OUT OF...!" Joker said to Skull, before he felt the wind get knocked out of him, one of the head's had barrelled into his body and a sharp pain in his arm told him, he'd been poisoned, the pain seemed to intensify in those moments...

BANG!

A hiss of pain, the snake's yellow eye burst, as Joker (coughing up blood and feeling his body burn) managed to gasp "PSY!" as the physic attack sent the head shooting backwards, Mona's quick sword removed another head, as more of the burning blood, burst from it's deformed body.

"You okay!?"

Looking behind him, Joker could see it was Sojiro who had stepped up and fired the gun he had been handed into the snake's head, nodding (and taking Sojiro's outstretched hand) he rose to his feet.

"DIA!"

The pain was gone, yet Joker could see it wasn't looking good.

Oracle had thought fast and had placed a shield between themselves and the snake, Skull had managed to drag Ohya and Mishima out of the madness, and although Panther's healing spells had repaired their skin, the blood loss had still happened. Both were pale and unconscious.

"The idiots!" Joker snarled, what they had done, had been brave. Stupid but brave.

But with two people already out cold, it was clear to see how powerful Ooe really was. Oracle wasn't that physically fit and Joker knew she couldn't keep this shield up for much longer, sure enough a pained squeak of "30 SECONDS, JOKER... THAT'S ALL I CAN MANAGE...!" from her, confirmed how much time he had.

Think. Think. Think!

Once the shield had gone, no matter how many heads they cut off, that liquid would turn them all into molten sludge, he knew one order he had to give.

"PANTHER! WHEN ORCALE SHIELD GOES, PUT ALL YOUR POWER INTO HEALING!" He commanded.

"GOT IT!" She replied, she was already doing this, but knew now it was essential.

That was an obvious answer though, 10 seconds had gone... he had 20 left...

It was then he remembered Yoshida, he turned just in time to see one of the loose stumps (which had nearly ran out of blood to spurt everywhere) flail wildly and smash into the roof above where the politician was slowly getting to his feet, he looked up, just as chunks of the ceiling to this restaurant fell on top of him.

"YOSHIDA!" He yelled, but he knew it was futile to try and save him now, as the politician disappeared under dust and rubble...

Dust and rubble.

10 seconds left...

An idea sprang in Joker's mind.

"MONA, ACT AS BAIT!" Joker ordered "MAKE THE HEADS AIM FOR THE ROOF! WE'LL USE THE COLLAPSING RUBBLE AS COVER!"

"NICE THINKING!" Mona bellowed back "Then what!?"

"WE'LL USE THE DUST CLOUD TO COVER OUR ATTACK!" Joker explained "THEN WE'LL HIT IT WITH EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT!" he turned towards Sojiro, Nagisa and Chihaya at this point, "YOU'LL LAY DOWN A SUPRESSING FIRE, UNDERSTOOD!?"

All their guns were drawn, they understood this straight away.

"We'll shoot!" Nagisa said, determination in her eyes.

Joker nodded, he was...

"TIME'S UP JOKER... ARRGGGHHHHHHH!" Oracle screamed, the last of her energy gone, as Promsethus vanished and the orange haired girl, fell to the ground, not moving a muscle, sapped of all energy.

"NOW!" Joker exclaimed.

Mona leapt into the air and predictably the heads dived straight at him, he was able to dodge the first three as they became lodged in the ceiling but the fourth caught him off guard, rather than bite him, it slammed him across the restaurant and the small cat was flung into a wall. Hitting it with such force it left a mini crater, the now unconscious cat fell to the ground.

"Shit" Joker snarled, but it had appeared the plan had worked, because as the heads dislodged themselves from the ceiling, they brought tons of rubble down with them, quickly retreating backwards as bits of stone and masonry crashed everywhere and a large dust cloud sprang up, making him cough and obscuring his vision, Joker knew he had to adapt fast, or they'd die.

"NOW SKULL!" He said, as himself and his friend charged forward, he was aware of himself using the Psychokinesis waves to weaken the heads, while Skull's bellows and the sound of his bat tearing through flesh indicated that by brute force alone, he was cutting through them, as he felt the pellets of red, hot blood land on his arm, he gave the order to regroup and he and Skull were able to shield themselves behind the wall of rubble that separated themselves and the snake.

"HOW MANY DID YOU GET!?" He asked of Skull.

"ABOUT TWO I THINK!" Skull replied, he looked exhausted and Joker could only wonder how much more of this he could put up with. Mishima and Ohya were currently next to them, shielded in the shadow of the rubble. While Sojiro was moving Oracle and Nagisa and Chihaya were firing away blindly into Ooe's shadow form, their bullets probably weren't harming the snake at all, but providing a distraction while Joker and Skull caught their breaths.

"Look at my mom, being a badass!" Skull raved, his eyes bright and smile wide, as he beamed at his mother in pride, however before he could allow himself to stare for too long, he shook his head and muttered "Mona's out, right?"

"Yeah" Joker replied, as he did, Panther herself came to heal them, like Skull, she looked exhausted.

"That things putting out waaaaayyyyy too much firepower!" she exclaimed "If it wasn't for my healing spells on you, you'd be dead right now, or seriously hurt"

"Then we need to take it down, quickly, we can't take too much more of this" Joker said, "Skull another of couple of seconds and we'll do the same thing again, we need to wear it down..."

"Understood" Skull panted.

Joker allowed himself a second, this battle seemed unwinnable, but so many others had done as well, they'd do this.

They'd get this letter and save this country.

"Okay, three, two... one, NOW!" Joker exclaimed, as he and Skull leapt up from behind their cover and went to charge at the thing once again.

and that's when everything went wrong.

It knew.

It wasn't a mindless snake, as the battle had progressed Ooe had been watching their movements and knew Joker was the leader giving them the orders. Ignoring the blonde boy next to him, five of the heads struck Joker at once all from different angles, he had no chance to block them all and felt fangs tear into his body. Roaring in pain, he was flung backwards over the rubble and next to Panther, Ohya and Mishima. Panther instantly set to work on healing him...

But then looked up, to see five snakes pressing their bodies flat and coming directly towards them.

"CRAP!" Panther exclaimed, in those last seconds she set up a feeble shield, as the force of the impact destroyed the floor beneath them, the last thing Joker saw before the world went black, was those glowing yellow eyes.

Panther's shield absorbed a fatal impact, but broke many of her bones in the process. The blonde girl felt herself fall into an abyss, the force of the bodyslam was that great, they had fallen several floors below the restaurant, leaving holes in ceilings and floors, before they landed somewhere and the last thing Panther saw before the world went black, was bits of Shido's palace about to fall on top of her. Ohya and Mishima had fallen with them, all four of them now buried beneath a mountain of rubble, several decks below the restaurant.

Skull was unable to move, their leader had been taken out. Everyone had been taken out.

He was the only one left.

He couldn't just stop there, he forced his frozen limbs to move, as he swung down at the heads that had all attacked Joker at once, the brute force of his impact and his continued strikes managed to detach another two heads from their bodies, he placed his hand over his face, as the burning liquid started to burn away at his clothes and skin.

"FUCK!" He bellowed in agony, now he knew what it was like without Panther's healing.

He turned his eyes and quickly surveyed the scene, to see that five heads were remaining and three of them were attacking him, the other two were creeping up behind his mother and...

Blindly running forward, he swung his bat just in time, as it was knocked backwards, his mother, Chihaya and Sojiro turned around to see where the head had snuck up on them.

"THANKS SON!" Nagisa exclaimed, managing to fire a well aimed bullet into the stunned head, Skull's used his persona to fire a bolt of electricity at the head which stunned it further, before he finished it off with his trustworthy bat. The nails on his bat were stained with the snake's blood, he felt it in his hair, on his clothes, he was in agony and exhausted, but he couldn't finish yet.

4 heads remained. All four of them were now encircling the final 4 people left to fight them.

Chihaya was out of ammo, as her gun clicked uselessly, Nagisa reloaded (having been taught by Iwai on the front deck, before they had all entered) and lifted her shaking hands to the beast, Sojiro had his gun drew and was using his body to shield Oracle's own. Whereas the four heads lingered there for a couple of seconds, Skull knew all four of them were going to charge directly at him at once. If he was knocked out of battle, then the other three (or four counting Oracle) were as good as dead.

It was his turn now, his turn to save everyone.

The heads struck.

Skull, in a moment of brilliance, span around in a circle, his hand outstretched, as each of the attacking heads felt the end of his bat and withdrew, however before he could celebrate, one of the detached limbs found itself near their cover, like a hospipe it sprayed them with the liquid.

"HOW MUCH BLOOD DOES EFFIN' THIS THING HAVE!" Skull roared, ignoring the agony he was in he shielded his mother and moved them quickly to the left. Sojiro had no time to move and was hit with the stuff, using his body to shield Oracle, the liquid burnt away through his shirt and left his bare back exploding in blisters and cuts.

Chihaya was crawling away, sobbing in pain.

"Ryuji..." came a quiet whisper from his mother.

Skull looked back at her, she was unharmed, two heads were rounding on Sojiro while one was hovering in front of him. While she looked terrified, she was not injured. Unlike him, as he realised he must have looked like he was on the brink of death.

"Mom..." he wheezed, coughing up blood as he did so.

"Ryuji..." she muttered, nearly on the verge of tears "We... we can't go on like this... you can't..." she said, openly sobbing now.

"We'll get out of this mom, I promise" Ryuji said to her, underneath all the sweat, grime and blood he managed to smile back at her, as she hardened her resolve.

Four heads left, there was no way out of this. They'd simply have to do it.

"OKAY, BRING IT ON SHIT-HEADS!" Skull exclaimed, facing them, preparing to remove the head in front of him, as it hissed dangerously...

Nagisa gasped then, realising another head was on her son's left, as he raised his arms to deal with the one in his sights, the other one widened it's jaws and with it's fangs sharpened it leapt towards her son.

She reacted on instinct.

"RYUJI!"

He had no time to react, his mother shoved him to the ground, the snake's jaw's closed around her instead, with such force that tore the woman in half.

Skull looked behind him to see his mother's lifeless corpse being flung around by the vile snake, the two halves of her were leaking blood and guts everywhere, Skull could only watch in horrified silence, as his mother was reduced to a bloody mess in mere seconds, the blood from the snake, melting her body into a red sludge. Within 30 seconds the only thing that was left of her, were her already dissolving hair and bits of her clothes.

"M-m-mom..." he felt himself utter in horrified disbelief.

The snake was rounding on him again, three heads at the ready, while the other one was tearing the skin off Sojiro's back.

Ooe hissed in delight.

"Mom" Skull muttered, his face was hot and it wasn't because of the blood, tears were already pouring from his eyes.

In a few seconds he'd strike.

"ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Skull's scream, almost tore his vocal chords apart, but he no longer cared, Seiten Taisei was behind him and fired a bolt of electricity so powerful the lights (that were left in this destroyed restaurant) exploded in their sockets, the room went dark as it did, one of the heads in this beam was vaporised instantly, the air was static and the force of the grieving bolt of power, hit side of the restaurant at full force, tearing through the wall itself, a giant crevasse opened as the windows shattered and the outside winds swept over the place.

Skull had blown a hole in the ship.

But even that wasn't enough.

The recoil of the bolt was so strong, it sent an already weakened and exhausted Skull soaring backwards, into the earlier hole that Joker and the others had fallen down. Skull was unconscious before he fell, his motionless body landed a few floors above where Joker, Panther, Ohya and Mishima were, yet the last of his energy was gone, he was down and out, his last thoughts before he fell into blackness being that of his mother...

"Mom..." he wheezed before the world went black.

Game over.

The Phantom Thieves had been defeated.

Three heads were left and Sojiro and Chihaya were the last two left, Sojiro had abandoned his gun and was now shielding his daughter Futaba with all the strength he had left, yet he was rapidly losing this fight, as he lost more and more blood.

"No..." he muttered weakly "No... not again... not like Wakaba... not again..."

Chihaya meanwhile had no chance, a spray of poison from Ooe's snake shadow had left her bleeding, but had also (to her horror) melted the bag she had carried on her, all of her tarot cards had been melted, they were all gone.

She was useless without them.

She sat there, accepting her end. This really was it, this was the end...

WHAM!"

A piece of debris hit one of the snake's head so hard, it was crushed underneath it, the final two heads hissed and turned in the direction of the stage, where the projectile had come from, as did Chihaya and Sojiro.

"Now... you'll listen to what I have to say, Ooe!" came a menacing voice, from none other than Yoshida himself.

Yoshida heard the voice inside of him, however just as he stood up, rubble piled on top of him, the shocked politician found himself trapped, barely able to breath, the poison taking hold over his entire system, he couldn't see a thing, his limbs were trapped under the crushing weight.

"I'm going to die like this" he realised.

"No, you won't" the voice in his head reassured him "Believe in yourself".

"Believing in myself won't get me out of this!" Yoshida snapped at it "I'm trapped!"

"That, you are" the voice replied "Trapped by your own doubts and self-pity that have prevented you from reaching your full potential, tell me, are you really No-Good Tora?"

"I..." Yoshida couldn't answer that question, screams and crashes were coming from outside, the sounds were all muffled to him but he could tell his friends were in trouble.

"Well, are you!?"

Yoshida trembled.

"Answer the question!?" the voice demanded "ARE YOU!?"

"NO!" Yoshida roared back, feeling a rage build in his gut.

"Excellent, it's time for you to light the fire of revolution in order to create a new Japan!" The voice exclaimed triumphantly, "You've spent all these years allowing others to put you down, under false allegations and their own shortcomings, why should you always take the fall for them!? How will you change anything the way you are!?"

"I won't!" Yoshida admitted "I never could..."

"But now you will!" The voice commanded "Show them the determination in your heart, show that you are no longer the fool you once were! Show that politician Ooe that you are no longer anybody's punching bag, the years of wasting away and self pity are gone!"

"YES!" Yoshida exclaimed, his body felt light then, despite the crushing weight of the rubble "IT'S TIME I MADE A DIFFERENCE!"

"You will be reborn from this day forward!" The voice roared "Your friends are in danger right now, they have been defeated by Ooe, but you never were! Show him that you still aren't!" the voice demanded "You are Toranosuke Yoshida, you are a determined man who never gave up his dream, but now you will succeed and no longer dream!"

"I'm ready for this!" Yoshida exclaimed.

"Good, now let's form a contract, I am thou, thou art I..." upon this Yoshida felt blinding agony in his head, as he screamed to the high heavens above, yet no one heard him...

"...from this day onwards, you will fight the political stain that threatens to destroy the people you were sworn to serve! Fulfil your duty as a man of the people and... FIGHT!"

"YES, COME TO ME... TOKU!" Yoshida screamed, knowing the name of his persona instinctively, unable to move his arms, he felt the mask planted on his face, however with a gust of air, the rubble was flung from him, moving his damaged arm, he reached up and tore it from his face, as heavy winds whirled around him. When they settled, Yoshida was no longer, No-Good Tora, as his persona Toku, stood behind him.

His persona took the form of an old man, wearing large black robes that made him appear three times the size and height of Yoshida himself, the robes themselves looked fit for a shogun and the way his persona stood there had an aura of superiority to it, Yoshida himself had a bowler hat perched on his head, an black blazer, a brown buttoned waistcoat, a white-shirt underneath that and a red tie, with his trousers being the same shade of soil-brown that his waistcoat was. He looked down to see he had two similarly coloured gloves on his hands and in one of his hands a kind of cane had appeared.

"This is my persona... my true self..." he muttered in awe, he lifted the cane (which looked a lot like a walking stick) as he did, he noticed his persona behind him withdraw a sword the height of Yoshida himself. The sword mirrored the movements of Yoshida's cane, he felt the air move with the movement of both cane and sword.

A scream caught his attention, twisting around it's then he saw Chihaya moments from her end.

Reacting instantly he swung his cane as the sword behind him sliced through the air, the force of it sent a large piece of rubble barrelling towards one of Ooe's snake heads which flattened the vile thing. Ooe's remaining two heads turned towards him.

"Now... you'll listen to what I have to say, Ooe!"

"Yoshida!" Chihaya yelled in warning, as the remaining two heads tried to attack him from different angles, Yoshida swiped his sword wildly as a gust of wind and dozens of pieces of debris kept the heads at bay and the previously lethal dollops of blood from this snake were blown away from Yoshida due to the winds emitting from his sword. But despite this, the heads kept up their pursuit, his awakening had cleansed his previous wounds, but it wouldn't be long before they were onto him again.

"All I'm doing is keeping them in place!" Yoshida exclaimed, he had to think... raw wind-power alone wouldn't be enough, the most obvious answer would be to used the debris, fallen tables or whatever else was lying around to crush their heads like he had just had done to save Chihaya, but he had caught it off guard. Now they were on guard, it wouldn't be that easy.

It was then the answer hit him.

"OOE! COME AND GET YOUR TREASURE!" Yoshida bellowed, he ceased the gusts of winds and dropped his cane to the side, as the snake heads leaped at him, at the last second he leapt backwards and quickly ducked under the second head, leaping backwards again, he drew his cane and began to twist it, as the snakes continued their pursuit. Yoshida kept on twisting and twisting, forming a circle in the air as the heads leapt over each other in order to get to him, dragged the other bled out, detached heads with them, it's whole body moved forward.

The force of the wind however, was causing something of a mini twister, the outside winds were certainly helping this process, soon the snake heads were entangled together, as Yoshida smiled, he had them where he wanted them. Before they could detach themselves, he swiped his cane once again...

"IT'S TIME TO SILENCE THEM, TAKU!" Yoshida roared.

A cascade of heavy rubble fell directly on the struggling heads, as the final heads were crushed the whole thing melted into a black sludge.

"It's over!" Yoshida exclaimed, a smile on his face, he had done it! He had really done it! The Phantom Thieves who he had backed all this time... well he was no longer backing them. He was one of them. Like his persona had told him, the time for dreaming was over, now was his time to actually do something!

However In his momentary high, he failed to grasp how bad the situation was.

He first noticed the cat, Mona, as he looked around the destroyed restaurant, he was lying there unconsinocus, picking the little thing up, he shook it slightly.

"Hey... Hey! Are you okay!?"

Mona felt himself stirring back into life, he could barely move his body, but he could see that it was Yoshida who was holding them and judging by his clothing and the persona behind him...

"Y-you had an awakening...?" he asked weakly.

"Yes, I managed it, Ooe has been defeated" Yoshida mused, as he pulled the letter of recommendation from one of the newly formed pockets "We have the letter Mona".

"Thank God" Mona said, "What about the others... are they okay?"

It wasn't a pretty sight.

A terrified Chihaya had to recount it all to them, Nagisa's death the defeat of the Phantom Thieves, Skull's grief that tore a hole in the ship and how Yoshida had only managed to defeat a severely weakened form of Ooe. Yoshida's short lived victory turned to horror in mere seconds...

That was just one of the five letters they had to collect.

Then, what were the rest going to be like!?

"Joker and the others, fell down there!?" Mona asked, referencing the hole in the floor (he was still being held by Yoshida, unable to move on his own), as Chihaya nodded.

"We need to get them! We can't leave them!" Mona exclaimed.

"We need to get back to the safe room!" Chihaya squeaked "Look over there, look at him!"

She was referencing Sojiro, who had passed out on top of Oracle, although the girl was unharmed, the café owner was a completely different story, it looked as thought his back had been put through a meat blender. It was clear that if he didn't receive treatment soon, he'd die.

Mona was about to argue back, when a coughing caught their attention, a weakened, bloodied and dust coated Ooe, stumbled from out the rubble.

He froze upon seeing Yoshida and the others.

"Wait! Please!" he begged, going to his knees "I-I-I- ca-can explain, I didn't... I wasn't..."

"Ooe" Yoshida said simply.

"Yoshida" he muttered looking up at the other politician.

Yoshida slightly moved his cane, as a ruined chair leg whacked Ooe in the face, and the pathetic politician was knocked out.

"Do shut up" Yoshida finished.

"So, what now!?" Chihaya squeaked, looking over at Ooe's unconscious shadow "Do we finish him off, change his heart!?"

"NO!" Mona roared, before anyone else could speak "We do that, Shido will know how far we are in infiltrating his own palace, Joker figured it out. I knew what he wanted to do, we have to take him with us and keep him prisoner".

"Keep a shadow prisoner!?" Chihaya inquired, looking over at Ooe, "But there's no way... we can't carry everyone!" she squeaked.

Yoshida sighed, previously he'd be like Chihaya, he'd have good intentions but have no idea what to do.

He had to serve the people now, he had to act.

Without another word, he used his wind powers to lift the prone Sojiro into the air, it took a lot of his energy to keep the man afloat based on air pressure alone, but it was something Yoshida had to do, if they wanted to get him back into the safe room and to keep him alive.

"Carry the girl, I'll get Ooe!" Yoshida commanded, as Chihaya obeyed him and propped the light Oracle on her back, Yoshida took Ooe's heavy shadow and made sure the man he loathed was safely on his back, Mona managed to curl up in one of Yoshida's overlarge pockets.

"I can sense loads of shadows coming to investigate" Mona muttered, "Now that Ooe's hold of this place has weakened and we've destroyed his ultimate shadow form, plus the noise we made..." he sighed there "I guess we can't get to Joker and the others after all..."

"They'll handle themselves, that's all we can hope for now" Yoshida said, yet he couldn't help but take one last look down the hole where Mishima, Ohya, Joker, Skull and Panther had fallen into. Returning to the safe room with news of Nagisa's death, the others all missing, a shadow prisoner and Sojiro on death's door wasn't going to be the morale boost they all wanted or needed.

He sighed, there really was nothing else he could do now, other than get themselves to safety.

Running through the entrance (the concrete wall from earlier had vanished when the snake had been slain), they soon found themselves back in the main lobby again, no one paid them any mind, despite them being covered in blood, dust, sweat and leaving a mess after themselves. Especially with Sojiro essentially floating behind them, Yoshida could feel his energy sapping away fast, once he got into the safe room, he was going to collapse from exhaustion.

So much had happened, the first of them had fallen, their leader had been defeated and separated from them, they were left as the shaken survivors, it was a victory, they had their first letter.

But it didn't feel great at all.

A/N: So for the notes behind Yoshida's persona Toku, it's based on Tokugawa Ieyasu, known as one of the three Unifiers of Japan and the first Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, that ruled Japan under the Edo period. For those of you interested, Edo used to be the name of Tokyo, so I thought the man that started the period that lasted for over two centuries, in the city Yoshida now resides in would be a fitting choice for his persona. Granted Tokugawa was known to be a cruel and feared leader which is the opposite to how Yoshida would be. But the edo period did bring an era of stability and economic growth to Japan, which in a way is what Yoshida inspires to do as well, while seeing that Shido does not take power.

Anyway if any of my history is wrong regarding the matter, feel free to let me know! I did struggle for a while deciding on Yoshida's persona. His outfit was set in stone from the start, but his persona... Tokugawa seemed the polar opposite from Yoshida from what I could gather. But then I remembered that Milady from the game, who was a scheming villain in the Three musketeers was the persona for sweet, little Haru. Plus many outlaws make up other persona users as well (e.g. Captain Kidd) so I let it pass. Anyway I seem to love going for the historical figures, but next awakening maybe something different...

Okay then. so we had our first death this chapter, the group is truly separated, Ohya, Mishima, Akira and Ann in one group. Skull on his own and grieving, and the rest of the leaderless group back at the safe room. I wanted to place the characters in groups or situations that are far out of their comfort zones so they can develop further, the stakes are truly raised for next chapter and all that follows! We'll see Igor next chapter and the chapter afterwards we'll get our long awaited debut of Shinya. Now onto answering reviews from last chapter!

Shadow of a queen- Thanks again for reviewing and yes old man Tora did fight back this chapter and glad you liked the prospect of Palaces within Palaces it will make things complicated for sure.

Ulrich362- Many predictions and you'll have to wait and see if they come true or not and the twist of Yoshida being the source of Ooe's distorted desires was a way to make the battle and connection between them more personal and how at the end of this chapter, it's Yoshida who finally got to tell Ooe to "shut up" but expect more interactions between prisoner Ooe and Yoshida soon to wrap up their little arc, anyway glad you are finding this interesting.

todpolle- Sorry to hear you didn't like Judge's design, hopefully Yoshida's awakening and design this chapter is an improvement over that, and you had a point about Futaba. Anyway hopefully these next awakenings feel less like cop out's for you and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Mad Hatter Stories- Tried looking through your suggestion, but it just didn't feel right. As Yoshida is trying to help out Japan and oppose Shido it just felt right to use a Japanese historical figure. But I did love your suggestion and hope for more from you in the future. I'm still considering your one for Hifumi. Glad you like how unique the story is and hopefully this chapter lived up to the hype! Can't wait to hear more from you!

Ford114- Other way round, Ooe used to admire Yoshida, but Yoshida was something of an idiot back then and to be honest I didn't even realise the snake was supposed to have 8 heads, I just put it as 12. Ah well, made the fight harder that was for sure. Also about your suggestion, I do like it, but have an allergy to anything SAO related. I consider it the series with the greatest potential that was wasted but the IT president will be worse than he is in canon, but you'll have to wait and see. I'll get to reviewing chapter 3 of persona vein either today or in the next couple of days as I'm enjoying that fic as well, anyway great to hear from you! Hope you liked this chapter!

RoastedButter- Yeah I got a bit to carried away with the confidants looking cool, but hopefully the fight this chapter had the OG's back in the spotlight and I will try and keep them revelant. It is proving difficult with the amount of characters present, but I guess that's the fun in writing, wouldn't be an interesting fic if I didn't receive criticism or suggestions on how to improve which is why I value reviews so much, hope to hear from you in the next review!

Okay thanks again everyone, yep I know another fast update but I just had to get this chapter out, next chapter might take a little longer, but I'll get too it eventually.