Just as could be expected another memory began to surface in her mind. This time it was further back, way back before even Makoto had joined the Thieves. She was sitting in her room with Ann, Ryuji, Morgana and Yusuke in her male body before Ann, Ryuji and Yusuke left to buy ingredients. 

The image shattered just like the other times and now she was sitting on her bed in her girl body. 

“We should go grab that pot and set up the portable stove too” Morgana’s voice was the first thing she heard

She walked downstairs and into the kitchen area of Leblanc.

“I heard you’re all having hot pot for dinner” Sojiro said, standing behind the counter next to her

“Wanna join us?” she asked

“Don’t you know how busy I am? You guys go have fun” Sojiro smiled, “Her name was Ann, right? She’s a nice girl”

“Why do you say that?”

“Oh, I just had a chat with her” he sighed, “She said your friend doesn’t have anywhere to go and asked if I could take him in for a bit”

He looked at Ren seriously for a moment.

“Can’t say I’m all that comfortable having a guy spend the night here when you’re here by yourself” Sojiro sighed again, “but I said it was fine, she was practically begging me to let him stay”

“Thanks” she nodded

“Just uh, if he does anything that makes you uncomfortable you call me right away, got it? Doesn’t matter what time it is, I’ll take care of it” He still had that very serious look on his face.

 

Surprisingly that wasn’t the end of the revised memory, time seemed to leap forward to the end of the day when they were all sitting around the hot pot. 

“Hm, I won’t be able to sleep unless I take a bath” Yusuke said at the end of the day

“There’s a bath house nearby so you can go there, I won’t be able to join you though” Morgana informed him

“Oh that sounds great! I wanna come too! How about you Ann?” Ryuji stretched a bit while he spoke

“You guys go on ahead, I should get going” Ann got up from the couch, “Well, good night” she smiled and left downstairs to head home

“Alright then, Ren you wanna come with?” Ryuji looked at her now

“I’m good, I think I’ll head to bed here” she covered her mouth with her hand to yawn, “I’m really tired”

“Eh your loss, come on Yusuke!” Ryuji and Yusuke got up and left for the bath house while Ren got changed and crawled into bed.

 

She was once again awoken by her phone getting a notification from the group chat.

 

Yusuke: As could be expected by now, I had another revised memory

Yusuke: This time it was from our evening of hot pot

Haru: Hot pot is always delicious to eat with friends!

Yusuke: indeed, it was quite the pleasant dream

Ryuji: I wish we could still remember the original version of events!

Ryuji: That would make it a lot easier to tell what changed!

Yusuke: Well I mentioned wanting to take a bath so you and I went to have one

Yusuke: When we were in there you wanted to talk about our teammates

Ryuji: Shut it dude!! That was a private conversation!!

Haru: Who all was a part of the team at that point?

Ann: It was me, Ren, Ryuji, Yusuke and Morgana

Ann: What exactly did Ryuji have to say about us?

Makoto: Considering who we’re talking about, do you really want to know?

Yusuke: Well about Ann, Ryuji had asked me

Ryuji: Knock it off man!!

Makoto: Ignoring that for now, it would seem the change had do with the bath

Makoto: Perhaps originally Ren joined you? Or you talked about different things?

 

“That’s the most likely case, I imagine maybe the memory changed because originally you were in the same bath as them” Morgana agreed with Makoto’s theory.

 

Ann: Yeah that sounds right!

Ann: In my dream I just asked Boss if Yusuke could stay

Ann: He was a little reluctant but said yes

Ren: There was more as well, when you were all shopping

Ren: I was getting the cooking pot and Sojiro told me that Yusuke could stay

Ren: He was very uneasy about the idea and said he wasn’t fully comfortable

Ren: Then he said to call him if Yusuke tried anything with me

Ann: That does sound like Boss!

Haru: Aww, how sweet

Futaba: Sojiro is the best!

Yusuke: Tried anything? Me?

Ann: To be fair you were a guy he didn’t know, staying in Ren’s room

Makoto: and Boss is Ren’s guardian, it’s natural for him to be protective of her

Yusuke: You have a point

Yusuke: Speaking of Ren, Ryuji had things to say about her as well

Ryuji: Enough!!!

 

“Ryuji’s such an idiot” Morgana scoffed

Ren put her phone away and got up for the day, she was helping Sojiro around the shop for a few hours before just like the days prior her phone began to go off again, so she went up to her room and checked the messages.

 

Makoto: Hello Ren

Makoto: Haru and I were thinking of coming to visit today

Makoto: Given everything that’s happened, you probably haven’t studied much

Makoto: So we were thinking of lending a hand

Ren: Sounds good

Makoto: Great, we’ll see you in a bit

 

“Gonna help you study huh? Well, you could definitely use the refresher before we go back to school” Morgana snickered, “I must admit, I’m very curious to see how school will go for you”

“I don’t think it’ll be that different,” she shrugged.

 

About an hour later she heard Makoto and Haru arrive, “Ren! Your friends are here!” Sojiro called up.

As could be expected they both came up the stairs just a moment later, Makoto seemingly had a plethora of books in her bag. Ren set up the table while the other two sat next to each other on the couch, once it was all set up Ren sat across from them with Morgana just sitting on the table.

While she started studying Haru was looking at her rather intently

“What’s up Haru?” Morgana asked, noticing her staring before Ren did

“Oh, I was just thinking that her hair looks kind of like Mako-chan’s” she smiled, “it’s a similar length”

“You think so?” Makoto looked at her as if to try and verify, “I think it looks sort of like your’s Haru”

“Mine?”

“Well… her’s is more frizzy than it is floofy” she giggled

Ren started to play with her hair idly, still not used to it being longer than it was before, “Is that a good thing?”

“I think it works for you” Haru smiled

“I agree, the messy style has always suited you” Makoto smiled as well

“She never really does anything with it” Morgana looked at her now as well, “Maybe we should try some other styles out!”

“I’m sure Ann would be more than happy to help with that, but for now we have to study” Makoto’s class president nature reared it’s head again.

 

They focused on studying together, going through a plethora of topics that she had missed during all of her time pretending to be dead for Shido’s Palace. Of course since finals were over it’s not like she needed this information much, but just in case it’s needed in a future test she learned it all the same.

After a few hours Ren leaned back and stretched with a big overexaggerated yawn.

“Alright, I guess we can take a little break” Makoto said

“Honestly sometimes I forget just how smart you are” Haru sounded amazed, “all of our studying has seemed like a breeze for you”

“Well of course! She is the top of her class after all” Morgana said, beaming with pride

“Oh wow! I had no idea” she smiled at Ren, “perhaps we should have spent our time ensuring that Ryuji and Ann don’t fail”

“That’s a fruitless battle” Makoto sighed, “Ann’s not bad, but Ryuji is nearly impossible”

“They’re smart in other ways” Ren said

“That’s a good way to put it” Haru smiled

“Still, it is a relief that you at least take your studies seriously” Makoto said

“What about you two? Are you ready for entrance exams?” Morgana asked

“I think we’ll be ok, we’ve actually been studying together a lot lately” Haru giggled, “it’s been a nice change of pace to come here and see you Mona-chan”

Makoto looked like she just remembered something, “Oh yes, I wanted to ask you, how have you been adapting to everything?”

“Adapting?” Ren cocked her head at her

“To, well, everything” she explained, “you’re new body, new clothes, everything like that”

“Ah, well… I would say I’m used to the clothes by now, the body though?” Ren placed her hand under her chin and looked up

“Is something wrong?” Haru asked

“I haven’t really given it much thought honestly” she awkwardly laughed, “mostly I’ve just been sitting around since the change”

“It might do you some good to try and see what you can do, see if your body is just as athletic as before” Makoto said

“Not a bad idea… and I think we know just who to get in touch with for that!” Morgana grinned, “we can worry about that tomorrow though”

“Otherwise I haven’t really… uh…” Ren paused for a moment, “how do I put this?”

“Hm?” pretty much everyone else said in unison

“I haven’t really… well… I’m not super familiar with my body, I guess would be the best way to put it” she looked down at herself, “I mean, I feel a lot better than I did in my old body but it still feels sort of… alien?”

“Alien?” Morgana said in confusion

“Like… it still doesn’t feel like it’s MY body, you know?” Ren clarified

“That makes sense, it’s only been a few days after all” Makoto said, “considering how much has changed? It will probably still be awhile before you know it as well as you knew your old body”

“Right,” she nodded, “it’s not like I’ve ever been super familiar with girls' bodies…I guess I’ll just have to… study it?” 

“That’s… one way to put it” Makoto stuttered slightly

“I’m sure you’ll get used to it quickly” Haru smiled at her

“Now if only there was a way for somebody to help me study my body” Ren said casually while leaning back in her chair

“Th-that’s…” Makoto stuttered and stammered but didn’t say anything else

“Lady Ren! Come ooonnnn, you need to stop saying things like that so casually!” Morgana whined

“It’s good to see that your humor is the same as always” Haru giggled, either not fully understanding what Ren meant or just not being flustered by it

“My bad” Ren giggled slightly

Makoto had her head turned away from the group with a slight blush on her cheeks

“Everything alright Mako-chan?” Haru asked sweetly

“Y-yes, everything’s fine” she slowly turned back to face the group, “I was just caught off guard is all”

“She did the same thing yesterday” Morgana groaned

“To be fair I didn’t think this one would land” Ren said nonchalantly

“Your confidence really is inspiring” Haru smiled

“Please don’t encourage her” Morgana sighed

“L-let’s just get back to studying, alright?” Makoto tried to get things back on track.

 

The trio returned to studying for a few more hours, by the time they were finally done getting through the last subject the sun was already essentially set. With the studying out of the way they all now just sat around and talked more with one another.

“Well, now you should at least be ready for the class portion of school” Makoto said while putting away the books she had brought, “Hopefully the students don’t treat you much differently from before”

“Considering that there hasn’t been any revised memories about it, it’s probably safe to assume that everyone in class would treat her the same, right?” Haru asked

“That sounds about right to me, of course we don’t know how many more of those memories we’ll end up having” Morgana theorized, “at the very least I can’t imagine it would be all that different”

“I certainly hope that’s the case” Haru nodded

Ren just shrugged, “even if they treat me different it’s not like it can be that much worse than back in the beginning of the year”

“That’s true, student’s had such terrible misconceptions of you… myself included” Makoto sighed, “I think at a certain point I had heard rumors that you’d committed just about every crime imaginable”

“Yeah, we certainly heard of a lot of them” Morgana sighed as well, “People in her class always thought she had a knife on her or that she was going to assault them”

“It got a bit easier after our first heist though” Ren said, “I wasn’t really the center of attention after that, and each month following it continued to get easier”

She sat back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling, even though it was less than a year ago she couldn’t help but feel like it was several lifetimes ago. 

“Still, you were labeled such horrible things” Haru’s voice was more quiet and sad

“It doesn’t really bother me” she shrugged and looked back at everyone, “The people can say what they want, so long as I have you all, that’s all that matters to me”

“Well said” Morgana grinned

“That’s a great way to put it!” Haru agreed

“Of course if anything does happen at school you can always reach out to me, I’ll help in any way that I can” Makoto offered

“I appreciate it” she smiled and pushed her glasses up

“Well, we should probably head home now” Makoto looked out the window at the darkening sky

“That sounds good” Haru nodded and stood up

“Thanks for the help” Ren got up with them and starting walking with them downstairs

“Just be sure to keep up with your studies on your own as well” Makoto smiled

“Right” she smiled back, “see ya”

Once Haru and Makoto were gone for the night Ren locked up the shop like normal and went upstairs to bed.

 

A short while later Morgana came upstairs as well and jumped up into bed with her, “Still feeling extra tired from everything?”

“Nah, I think the initial drain is pretty much gone” she said while laying down and getting under her blankets

“That’s good, since you’re going to be training with Yoshizawa tomorrow” Morgana grinned, “I wonder if you’ll be even more impressive at gymnastics now”

“I still have to ask her if she’s free tomorrow first” Ren yawned, her eyes slowly closing

“Well, you should message her first thing in the morning then!” was the last thing she heard before falling asleep for the night.

 

As was tradition at this point once she fell asleep another memory began to creep into her mind. This one was a tad bit different than the others though, she couldn’t quite place what day this was, because she was in Mementos. All of the Phantom Thieves were sitting in a rest area and planning out the rest of their trip.

Ren was in her male body for just a short few seconds before the image shattered and she was now standing in her girl body. Because this was just a memory though she couldn’t exactly look down at herself to see her attire in the metaverse.

Ann sighing was the first thing she could hear, “I’m honestly a little jealous of Joker”

“What do you mean?” Yusuke asked, sitting nearby her

“Her outfit looks so much cooler than mine” she crossed her arms, her bright red latex phantom thief attire certainly was eye catching if nothing else

“Really? I don’t think it’s that cool” Ryuji looked at Joker

Ren looked down at herself finally, her outfit was very similar to the one she had possessed in her male body just like Morgana thought. She had the same large coat, the same top and the same red gloves with the same mask. 

The main difference between this outfit and her old one was on her legs. Instead of the pants she wore before she now had a relatively tight black pencil skirt that reached to her mid thighs and black pantyhose beneath that. On her feet she had a pair of high heeled boots that reached half way up her shins, the heels were quite a bit higher than the other girl’s heels and pointed at the ends.

 

“I think her outfit is very stylish!” Haru giggled, “It suits her very well”

“It’s certainly more modest than mine and Queen’s” Ann sighed

“I like your outfit though” Ren said back

Ann turned her head away with a bit of a blush on her cheeks, “D-don’t say things like that!”

“I must admit I’m at least a little jealous of the lack of spikes on your outfit Joker” Makoto sighed

“Your spikes have definitely skewered Fox a number of times in the Mona car!” Futaba giggled

“That is certainly true… I must ask that Joker drive more carefully so I don’t impale myself anymore” Yusuke was as serious as ever

“No guarantees” Ren said with a shrug, “If we need to run from shadows I’ll drive however I need, Mona or Queen can always heal you up if you get hurt”

“A fair point” he sighed in response.

 

Futaba’s giggle immediately followed, “all of the girls do have pretty kinky outfits”

“How is Joker’s kinky? A-and don’t say things like that!” Makoto asked before also blushing beneath her iron mask

“Well, her and Noir definitely have less kinky outfits than you two” she snickered at Makoto and Ann

All the while Ryuji and Morgana were trying their best to look away from the group and stay out of the conversation, presumably out of fear of retaliation if they made any remarks.

“I must say, all of your attires are quite aesthetically pleasing” Yusuke chuckled, “you all would make for an excellent painting together”

“We’d have to be in the metaverse for that though and I don’t think it’d be safe to stay in one place long enough for you to paint us” Haru said

“Not to mention if anyone saw the painting they might figure us out!” Futaba jumped in

“But no one outside of us has ever seen our thief suits” Yusuke said curiously, “the public doesn’t even know how many phantom thieves there are”

“How about we keep it that way then, Inari?” Futaba snarked back at him

“Well… at the very least it would be quite nice to paint a picture of Panther, her outfit especially is-” Yusuke started

“Let’s just get back to exploring!” Ann cut him off immediately

“Yeah!” Ryuji and Morgana said in unison and jumped up out of their seats

The whole group started to head down to the next floor of Mementos, once they reached the escalator Ren’s vision started to fade back to reality once again.

As was the norm by now she awoke to the notifications coming in on her phone.

 

Futaba: So THAT’S what her thief suit looked like!

Haru: It was just like Mona-chan thought

Futaba: I approve, looking good Joker

Ren: I try

Makoto: I can’t imagine it was very easy running around in a skirt that tight

Ann: Ren is just a professional I guess!

Ren: It was more movable than you’d think

Yusuke: I thought the shoes would be the hardest part of moving in that attire?

Ann: Oh yeah! She did have some pretty high heels didn’t she?

Ryuji: Is it really that hard to move around in heels?

Futaba: Maybe you should try it Ryuji

Ryuji: What?! Eff that!

Makoto: Regardless, it’s nice to see that her will of rebellion was unchanged

Yusuke: Absolutely

Haru: Very true!

Ren: Maybe I should try running in heels in reality

Makoto: You probably shouldn’t try that unless you have no choice

Makoto: You could break an ankle if you slip up

 

“Looks like I was right on the money with that” Morgana grinned proudly, “You always did have the best looking thief suit, other than mine of course”

“You think so?”

“Mhm, it was totally fitting for the leader of the phantom thieves!” he smiled at her, “now, we should probably message Yoshizawa before too long”

Ren nodded and stood up out of bed, looking at her phone again to do so.

 

Ren: Do you think we could train today?

Kasumi: Senpai!

Kasumi: Yes, I’d like that, I… have a few questions for you

Kasumi: I should have some time in a few hours!

 

She tried to message back but it said the text couldn’t be received. She hit it a few times until finally a few minutes later a few messages were sent all at once.

 

Ren: Sounds good

Ren: Sounds good

Ren: Sounds good

 

“She really needs to just get a new phone already” Morgana sighed, “I wonder what she has to ask you about though, any idea?”

She just shook her head before heading downstairs to help around the shop while waiting for Kasumi’s next message. It was a little after noon when she finally received the message to go ahead and meet at Kichijoji. She decided to change into her gym uniform just so she wouldn’t have to worry about her clothes while training.

“I’ll just wait around here, let me know how the training goes when you get back!” Morgana grinned while laying down on the couch.

 

She headed downstairs and out towards the train station, with everything that had been going on she hadn’t actually seen Kasumi in awhile, not since before this whole ordeal. Thinking back, Ren wished that they could have found what was the deal with the strange palace they went to where Kasumi awakened to her Persona. But since Mementos was gone there wasn’t much they could do about it.

She pushed those thoughts out of her mind and focused instead on the present, during the train ride she really noticed just how much smaller she was now compared to before. It felt like she was a lot more squeezed in on the train in her smaller new body as others moved in all around her. 

Once she arrived in Kichijoji she found Kasumi standing in her normal spot just as always. The red haired girl didn’t really even notice her walking up to her though.

“Kasumi?” She asked once she was fairly close without being addressed at all

“Yes?... oh, Ren-senpai?!” she was completely taken aback, “I didn’t recognize you on account of… well, everything”

“Wait… do you remember…”

“What you looked like before? Yes… I only heard recently that the Phantom Thief leader was a girl” the last part she whispered so others wouldn’t hear, “What exactly happened to you, senpai?”

The pair took a seat nearby where Ren gave her a brief overview of everything that had happened since Christmas Eve. Through the explanation Kasumi listened with an intent look in her eyes, she couldn’t tell if that look was because she was curious, worried or upset.

“I… see” Kasumi looked her up and down with the same strange look on her face, “So this is what you wanted all along…”

“I wasn’t anticipating that you’d remember my old body” Ren laughed awkwardly, “Sorry… I should have gotten in contact sooner”

“Oh no it’s fine, I can certainly see how this would have kept you rather busy” she smiled at her

“You don’t have to treat me any differently than before and you don’t have to play along with this or anything, you can still just refer to me as a guy if you’d like” Ren was completely unprepared for this interaction and as such her voice was just slightly nervous sounding

“Oh it’s no problem at all! If this is what you wanted, then I’m going to support you one hundred percent!” she stood up and then bowed, “I’m sorry if I gave the impression I would do otherwise”

“It wasn’t that” she looked away from her and couldn’t help but smile a little, “I just… didn’t want to force it on you”

“I just wasn’t expecting it, but if this is who you are, than I’m happy that you can finally be yourself” Kasumi’s warm smile was more than enough to warm up Ren’s heart, “I will admit though, I am very curious to see how you perform in training with a totally different body!”

“Yeah, I was curious about that as well” she stood up as well, just now realizing that she was now pretty much the same height as Kasumi

“Then I hope you’re ready senpai! Cause I’m going to put you through the wringer today” the cheeriness of her voice did little to dampen the dread of the training to come, “Well, let’s head out! We have plenty of work ahead of us!”

The pair set off back towards the station and to their training destination. It was still rather packed so there was very little room for much talking on the ride over.

 

Once they arrived Kasumi jumped pretty much immediately into full on gymnastics boot camp. It didn’t take long into their training for Ren to realize what she could do, the backflips that she had grown so accustomed to in Palaces were just as easy to perform as ever. Overall her technique remained largely the same but with her smaller frame and seemingly heightened flexibility her agility and skill seemed to be even better than before, at least to her.

Of course she couldn’t really compare to Kasumi by any means, and she found herself growing more exhausted than normal as well. After about an hour of highly intense training the pair took a quick break to sit and rest. Ren had ditched the jacket portion of her gym uniform and just had on her white undershirt and gym pants now, she was sitting on a bench while Kasumi stood next to her.

“It’s good to see that our previous training hasn’t gone away” Kasumi smiled, sweating a lot as well though she clearly wasn’t as tired as Ren

“Yeah… I’m… glad…” she was still out of breath so she spoke rather slowly

“I’d say in some ways you’re even more impressive now than you used to be” she giggled

“That’s… good” Ren brushed the hair out of her eyes

“I better be careful, you might pass me at this rate senpai!” Kasumi smiled

Ren shook her head with a grin, “Not even close, I can hardly keep up with you”

Kasumi sat down on the bench beside her to rest as well, “You’re always so full of surprises aren’t you, senpai?

“I’m full of mystery” she said back

Kasumi giggled at her joke, “To be honest I was quite surprised, when I saw people mentioning a girl as the phantom thief that was caught”

“That certainly would have been surprising…”

“Well at first I didn’t really think anything of it, but then my coach asked how you were doing a few days ago and even she referred to you as a girl” she looked at her with a look of confusion, “How is that even possible?”

“It’s like I said… reality was altered, so to most people this is all I’ve ever been, in your coach’s memory you must have always referred to me as a girl” she explained, “the only ones who remembered the old me were the rest of the phantom thieves”

“And… I remember because I also have a persona?” Kasumi tilted her head slightly

“Most likely, yeah”

“I’ve got to admit, if I hadn’t seen everything I’ve seen I’d call you crazy, senpai” she giggled

“I’m living it and I still sort of think I’m crazy” Ren smiled back at her.

 

Once their short break was done they got back to training for a little while longer, the longer they trained the more obvious the differences became. While she was more agile and more flexible than in her male body, her strength, particularly her arm strength, and stamina had both worsened quite a bit as well. 

They only trained for a short time after that both because it was starting to get later in the day and because Ren was starting to feel much too tired. With their training all done she got her gym jacket back on and was getting ready to leave.

 

“You did amazing today Ren-senpai!” Kasumi cheered, beaming with happiness, “You’re so flexible that I’m honestly impressed”

“I certainly wasn’t expecting to be able to do a standing split” she laughed a bit

“Yeah I could tell, when you did it the look on your face made me think you had pulled something” the two giggled together, “Make sure to do some stretches before bed, I’d be willing to bet you worked out a lot of muscles you aren’t quite used to using”

“Right” she nodded while starting to walk out of the gym

“Oh, Ren-senpai?” Kasumi called back so Ren turned around to look at her, “It was great seeing you! I’m so happy for you!”

She smiled back at her and waved before walking out and towards the station.

 

Pretty much the whole train ride back she was still actively sweating and could definitely feel the soreness already starting to hit her. Once she got home she pretty quickly locked up the shop and collapsed into her bed, hearing the sounds of Morgana’s paws getting closer to her bed.

“Tough training?” he asked

She just groaned and nodded

“Well, you should probably get some sleep then” he jumped up into bed with her, “Oh right! What did Yoshizawa have to ask you about?”

She turned over to lay on her back, “she remembers my old body”

“What? Really?!” he sounded more surprised about it than she did, “did… everything go ok?”

“Mhm, she was as nice as always” Ren was pretty much half conscious already from the exhaustion

“Well that’s a relief” he sighed, “oh, by the way I was thinking maybe tomorrow we should stop by Takemi’s clinic, couldn’t hurt to have a check up and make sure you’re new body is healthy”

“I’ll do that” she said in basically a whisper, nearly asleep

“Good, the last thing we need is you having some kind of health problem right now” by the time he finished his sentence she was already out cold, “Hm… so it’s persona-users who still remember her from before then? I guess that keeps things simple at least”

Ren felt herself slowly drifting into another revised memory…