The Shibuya Underground Walkway was never supposed to be this quiet.
No train whistles. No chatter. Only the low, static hum that buzzed faintly in the fluorescent lights. Everything was too still, and every ad screen flickered erratically, showing warped reflections of passersby who weren't there.
This was the fragment.
And the Phantom Thieves were already inside it.
They'd passed through what looked like a glitching screen at the station entrance. One moment they were walking through the evening rush—then, without warning, the world had gone grainy and off. Like a half-forgotten dream made real.
Makoto walked beside Ren, her gloved hand briefly brushing his.
He noticed.
But it was Ann who kept glancing at them. Quietly. Thoughtfully.
"Do you feel that?"
Yusuke spoke in a hushed tone, his voice reverent.
They were surrounded by what looked like fragments of forgotten dreams—flashes of strangers' lives frozen in time: a child drawing on the floor of a subway, a couple arguing beside a vending machine, a woman weeping over a torn sketchbook.
"These are all… people," Haru whispered, watching a flicker of someone crying into a scarf. "These regrets... they're everywhere."
And it was getting heavier the deeper they walked.
They found the heart of the distortion in an unused service tunnel behind an out-of-order vending machine. The passage glowed faintly with runes none of them recognized.
Futaba gasped. "Guys—this is encoded. Like some kind of memory lock. But these symbols? They're reacting to Ren."
Everyone turned.
Ren took a step forward. The moment his foot touched the ground, the runes pulsed, casting the hallway in golden light.
"Heart-Link Detected."
"Desire Threshold: Reached."
"New Trial: The Fractured Self."
Suddenly, the world shifted again.
The team stood in a glass maze, reflections of themselves spinning endlessly in every direction. Ren looked up—and found her beside him.
Ann.
But not in her usual outfit. She wore a mirrored version of her Phantom Thief attire—glass-like, refracting light and shadow, a duality of who she was and who she'd hidden.
Her voice was soft, but vulnerable. "This place… it's reacting to what we don't say. What we try to forget."
Ren looked at her.
And for a long moment, Ann didn't look away.
"I had a dream too," she admitted. "About you. About us. And I thought it was just Mementos messing with me, but now…"
She reached out and touched one of the mirror walls. Her reflection smiled, eyes shimmering with emotion she hadn't shown before.
"I've always admired you, Ren. But lately? I can't stop thinking about the way you look at everyone else—with care, with heat. And I wonder… am I just imagining how your eyes linger on me too?"
Ren stepped closer.
"You're not imagining it."
The tension between them cracked—sweet, uncertain, magnetic.
Their fingers brushed. The maze around them responded—ripples of light cascading through the glass. The air smelled like rose and fire.
Before they could say more, a shadow roared from the depths of the maze.
Mini-Boss Appears: The Doubtbound Reflection.
Ann turned to face it, flames flaring behind her. "We'll finish this later. Together."
Ren nodded, unsheathing his blade.