And another new Persona

Blood spurted from Shiho's face as a pillar of blue flames appeared behind her.

Kamoshida, who could already guess what was happening, was terrified. He rushed towards the girl, intending to knock her out before her Persona could materialize. However, his plans were quickly foiled as a black blur slammed into his crown.

That was Shin, who just knocked the Treasure off Kamoshida. The monstrosity suddenly got weaker without its crown.

Meanwhile, Shiho's Persona, Simurgh, managed to take form. It was a huge bird with the head and front paws of a wolf, wings of an eagle and the tail of a peacock. Its fur was mainly purple, while the feathers were multicolored. Its underbelly was light beige, with the color getting less and less vibrant as it went along its body.

The Persona stretched its wings and aimed towards Kamoshida. It seemed to be readying an attack. The monster could feel danger coming from the wings, so he hurried to get out of its reach. It couldn't go far, however, as he tripped over Shin's Bicorn.

Smashing headfirst into another statue, Kamoshida was dazed long enough for Shiho to launch her attack.

A barrage of thirty sharp feathers was targeting Kamoshida. Despite the small size, the sheer number of cuts the feathers caused a plethora of wounds on the perv.

"Ahhhh!"

It almost looked like he'd awaken a Persona from all the screaming and writhing. That was not the case, though. Kamoshida was just dying.

"Alright, that's enough, Shiho. I still need him alive for something." said Shin.

"Hold on. I'm not done ripping the wings off this butterfly." she said, grinning maliciously.

'Damn, girl!' thought Shin, shocked. 'Guess that's what long periods of bottled-up feelings about someone do to you.'

Shin went near Shiho, who was fully focused on extending Kamoshida's misery. He reached for her head with his hand and patted her, startling the girl. She quickly turned around to face him and said.

"Wh-What are you doing?"

"Patting your head."

"But why?"

"Don't we all want to know that?"

The boy kept patting her as she didn't pull away. A pink background seemed to appear behind the two as they made eye contact. Unfortunately, that pink atmosphere got blown away when Kamoshida, who had been breathing hard ever since Shiho stopped the attack, shakily stood up to his feet. He had already shrunk back to his original size, along with the Treasure.

He wanted to pick up the crown and run away, but he was stopped by the same Bicorn he tripped on earlier.

"Why don't you go ahead and run? Oh, right. You can't. Of course you can't." said Shin.

Kamoshida just sat down on his knees.

"I accept defeat... You want this? Take it." he said, throwing the crown to Shin.

The bastard looked almost pitiful.

"Go ahead and finish me off... My real self will go down too... You have that right since you won..."

Shin shook his head as he approached.

"We still need you to confess for your crimes in reality. Besides, killing you would be too merciful. But first..." said the teen, taking out his knife.

Before Kamoshida, who was pathetically slumped down, could do anything, Shin stabbed his knife right through his crotch. The boy swiftly slammed Kamoshida's mouth shut, seeing as he wanted to scream. The older man doubled over in pain and Shin crouched so he could whisper directly into his ears.

"This is what I want you to do after you confess and go to jail..."

Meanwhile, Shiho went to help the others. Although the medicine was administered, it'll take some time before they wake up.

"C'mon! Let's go!" shouted Shin.

"Huh? Alright."

He hurried to put the knocked out members of their group onto Bicorn. Ryuji and Ann were just strewn over his back, while Morgana was held with its mouth.

As there wasn't any more space on the poor Persona's back, Shin had to give Shiho a piggyback ride. While the girl was still confused at his hastiness and somewhat embarrassed that she had to depend on him once again, her unasked questions were answered when she felt the whole Palace shake.

Shin bolted through the door as he could already see pieces of the ceiling falling down. The bumpy ride throughout the castle woke up the others.

"What the hell is happening!?" shouted Ryuji.

"Where are we!?" asked Ann, looking at Shin's Persona.

"Why am I held like this!?" asked Morgana, who was swinging wildly from side to side.

"Kamoshida's beaten. Palace's crumbling." replied Shin.

It took them a bit to regain their bearings, but eventually they hopped off the Persona as they could feel the end of the Palace approaching.

The group woke up in the familiar back alley near the school. Shin barely managed to slow down enough to not ram into the walls of the buildings around. The others weren't as lucky, though.

Morgana even ended up flying several meters away. That poor cat.

"Ouch!" said Ryuji, rubbing his behind.

"Is everyone okay?" asked Ann.

"Where's Morgana?" asked the blond boy, looking around.

"In here!" shouted the cat from the inside of the trashcan he landed into.

As Ryuji went to get Morgana, Shin checked the navigation app on his phone. The destination was, as expected, missing.

"Yeah, it's gone, alright." he commented.

"What about the Treasure?" inquired Ann.

The black-haired teen placed his phone back into his pocket so he could take out the Treasure, since he was still carrying Shiho on his back.

The Treasure took the form of a gold medal.

"The heck..." muttered Ryuji, while holding Morgana.

"Where did that crown go...?" wondered Ann.

"This means that this was the source of Kamoshida's desires. To him, this medal is worth as much as that crown we saw in the Palace." said Morgana.

"An Olympic medal... So, that perv kept clinging on his past glory and couldn't let it go..."

"But... this means that Kamoshida's heart might've changed, right?" asked the blond girl.

"Probably..."

"Our expulsion is on the line, dammit!"

"This is the first succesful example for me too. However, there's no doubt that this affected Kamoshida's personality a lot. The entire Palace disappeared, after all."

"I feel antsy! Is there no way to check now?" asked Ryuji.

"We'll see soon enough. For now, let's go home." said Shin.

The boy wanted to check on Shiho, but he quickly realized she was fast asleep. Heck, there was even a little drool on his shoulder.

"I guess she'd be tired after awakening her Persona." he said.

"Shiho... did?" Ann was shocked.

"After you three got knocked out." Shin nodded.

The others were still thinking about that, while Shin gestured with his hand towards Ann.

"Come on. I suppose you know where Shiho lives, right?"

"Eh? Yeah, but why do you..."

"I doubt you could carry her. And it doesn't look like she'll wake up any time soon."

Shin and Ann went on their way, but not before Morgana could shout after Shin.

"Ryuji, give him a bath, will you? He knows the way home." he replied, leaving both the teen in question and the cat somewhat bewildered.

As it would take some time before they arrived, Ann decided to start a conversation.

"So, what happened after Shiho's Persona appeared?"

Hearing that, Shin summarized what happened, without mentioning how sadistic Shiho was.

"...I see. It's good that she could defend herself."

"But?"

"I feel bad that I got taken out like that."

Shin patted her shoulder with his free hand.

"You did what you could. Don't fret over it." he said with a smile.

Silence descended over the two. Finally gathering her thoughts, Ann mustered a small 'thanks'.

'This thing's pretty pleasant.'

"Here we are." said Ann.

Shin could see a normal apartment building in front of him. Going to the second floor, Ann took out a key from her pocket and unlocked a door.

The two stepped into a normal entranceway, and Ann led the boy to a room at the end of the hallway. The inside looked as girly as Shin assumed it would be, with a few posters with sports on the walls.

"Shiho has this whole place for herself?" he asked, before leaning down to place the girl on her bed.

"Yeah, her parents rented this apartment for her to be closer to school."

"Still, this is pretty far from Shujin."

"Well, whatever was closer to Shujin and wasn't occupied was over their budget."

"I see. I'll take my leave then."

"See you."

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This chapter's additional info is on... The Hope Arcana!

Like the Faith Arcana, the Hope is not found in standard tarot decks. The Hope Arcana is present in the Visconti-Sforza tarot deck. Upright it represents hope, optimism and positivity. On the other hand, reversed, it can represent despair, false hope, negativity, and pessimism.

Together with the Priest Arcana, it is the first Arcana to debut in a spin-off game.

In the Visconti deck, the Hope is not numbered, unlike most Arcana in the Persona series. It shares this trait with the Faith, another theological virtue within the same deck.

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Confidants:

Igor (The Fool) - Rank 2

Morgana (The Magician) - Rank 1

Ann Takamaki (The Lovers) - Rank 2

Ryuji Sakamoto (The Chariot) - Rank 1

Tae Takemi (The Death) - Rank 1