"Tehehehe!"
The blob in the pot—Agathion—was bouncing around, giggling with glee before turning back into a mask with a flash of light and landing gently on Ren's face. The connection between them was obvious now. Agathion was without a doubt his Persona.
'Silky, me bored!' Agathion chirped within his mind.
'I am cleaning! Go play with Pyro-Jack!' Silky called out.
Ren shook his head and focused on the twins.
"You said I can summon them back?" Ren asked eagerly.
"For a fee, yes. But keep in mind, your soul can only hold so many Personas at once." Justine assured.
"Train hard, weakling!" Caroline snorted. "Eventually you will be able to contain more."
---
Ren returned to the safe room after summoning Arsene and Pixie back. Pixie was glad to be back and settled into 'her spot,' whereas Arsene nodded at the Wildcard before gently sitting in the forefront of his mind.
'I didn't like that,' Ren mentioned.
'It is how we are, mon ami.' Arsene assured.
"JOKERRRR!!"
A shout cut him from his thoughts. Opening his eyes, Ren's vision focused to reveal the confused faces of his friends. The sodas on the table were still fizzing. Ryuji was stuffing his mouth with the same scone he had been eating when Ren tapped the fast travel button.
"Why didn't you go?" Ann asked gently.
"I did though?"
"Huh?"
"Re- Joker-… You didn't go anywhere…" Shiho revealed.
"Yeah bro, you just tapped the button then like drooled on yourself for a second," Ryuji managed to get out with his mouth full.
"Stop talking with your mouth full, you idiot."
"Shaddup Cat!"
"Haaaaaa…" Ren let out a sigh. "Time dilation, huh?"
?!?!
"I definitely went somewhere, take a look."
Removing his mask, Agathion appeared with a spin and giggle.
"Hehe! Hi frens!" Agathion chirped before tapping the top of each of the group's heads in play before giggling again and vanishing.
"I like that one," Ryuji simply said.
"Where did he come from? You didn't have him before." Ann asked with a furrowed brow.
"Joker, what happened?" Shiho asked seriously.
.
.
.
.
"WHAT?!"
The group was mad!
"Bring us there! We need to get revenge for Arsene and Pixie!!!!" Ryuji growled. "I don't care if they look like kids!"
Suddenly, Pixie appeared on Ren's shoulder.
"Awhh Mr. Skull does care!" Pixie said in fake tears as Arsene materialized behind Ren, also acting theatrically moved.
"...I didn't finish. I was able to summon them back..." Ren trailed off.
"But are they like… them?" Ann asked the question on everyone's mind.
"Yes." Ren, Arsene, and Pixie all spoke together. "I am thou, thou art I."
Suddenly, Shiho and Ann nodded and gave Ren a hug, Morgana jumping down from the shelf to join them.
"Uh, did I miss something?" Ryuji said, awkwardly joining the hug.
"That must have been hard to watch," Shiho whispered and hugged a bit tighter.
---
After the girls decided that Ren had emotionally recovered, the group returned to their infiltration. Ren had assured them he was fine for several minutes, but the girls weren't having it, forcing him to rest and eat. Ryuji and Morgana kept an eye on him as well, but took Ren's assurance at face value and ended up arguing over who gets the last shortbread cookie.
The castle felt much larger than it actually was. The team managed to sneak their way around, before coming across an apparent library wing. There were many rooms filled with books, but a majority of them were named nonsense across their spines.
"Must be a reflection of how he feels like an intellectual but hasn't actually read anything. Look, how did he end up misremembering how to spell Kant?" Morgana stated as he opened the book.
Ren peeked over after a slight chuckle and took a look at the book.
"...Why is there a bunch of volleyball rules listed?" Ren asked in confusion.
"Do you really think he knows anything about philosophy Ren?"
"Slave book?" Ann read aloud. "Now this sounds more like him."
Shiho replied with a snort as Ryuji took the book from Ann, basically tearing it open with frustration.
"Dick!" Ryuji yelled and slammed the book down on the nearby table, huffing and muttering curses as he walked away from it.
The others in the group came over to take a look. Inside the book's table of contents, there was an entire section labeled: "Ryuji Sakamoto, The Vulgar Ape."
Morgana simply started laughing as the others scanned the other labels, seeing things such as "Volleyball Team," "Delinquents," and other such high school cliques.
Strangely, Ann and Shiho were not listed. Nor was Ren.
"Got another over here!" Ryuji called out from a separate room.
Quickly, the group ran towards the room Ryuji was calling from, Ren grabbing 'The Slave Book' on his way out.
'Seems important.'
"What the hell, Skull?!"
"Don't leave the group 'cause you're angry, idiot," Morgana grumbled. "You would have been screwed if you came across a Shadow."
"Eh, I'd just call for ya. I trust you guys."
"Well, don't do it again," Ren said with narrowed eyes.
"My bad, my bad. I won't. Sorry everyone," Ryuji apologized. "But anyway, look at this…"
In his hands was another book, labeled: 'The Queen Book'.
"I haven't opened it yet, but I'm pretty sure what's listed here," Ryuji continued in disgust before tossing it over to Ren. "We found two strange books, there is probably a third."
"How do you know that?" Morgana asked. "You seem sure."
"More RPG crap. I guarantee this is a puzzle or something, and there is the rule of 3s on this kind of thing." Ryuji waved in response.
"Oh, video game patterns." Ann realized.
Ren and Ryuji looked at her in confusion. She didn't seem like a gamer.
"What? If my best friend can quote FATE, obviously I like this stuff too," Ann said shyly.
---