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_{[Oh, so NOW he brings it up.]}

Yes. That was rather unpleasant. Which is to say: take your apology and shove it up your ass, Crow.

_{[He's not feeling nearly as forgiving towards the older version. Raven at least has the excuse of being an impulsive child, but...

The typing bubble pops up and off over the course of a few minutes.]}

While I am grateful that I am no longer under Shido's control, understand why it was necessary, and why it was done, that does not mean I am ready to forgive you, or anyone else. You did exactly what Shido did to me, and I can't just handwave that away. Raven has the excuse of not being fully developed, for as mature of a child as he may be. I can't say much about that other kid, but what about the rest of you? People could've gotten much more seriously hurt than they did. You all could've done something to irreparably damage or alter my very being. I can't even be sure that you didn't, which isn't to say anything of what could easily be a trojan that Futaba stuck in my head. Let me put that in human terms for you: imagine getting an organism of unknown origins sewed into you brain, not knowing whether it's benign or a parasite lying in wait to take you over.

_{[There's another brief pause before another message comes through.]}

Let me make one thing abundantly clear, Crow: while I do not wish harm upon you, I am also furious beyond belief. I've had time to think and calm down, but it will take time and effort on your part to convince me to trust you, or the decisions you make. This is similar to what I told Phoenix the other day, and I trust you understand why. I say this in regards to Amamiya's Palace as well: while I'm sure you wish to do the right thing, I will not simply let you do as you want. I appreciate your help in finding the keywords, but I would not have messaged Raven if I could've found them myself. I will work together with you if needs be, but only if all parties involved are aware and okay with what is going to happen. This includes Amamiya himself. I will stop you, and anyone else involved, if there is another attempt at a hairbrained scheme that could get Amamiya hurt, or harm his cognition. Despite my own fury towards him, that is not something he -or anyone, for that matter- deserves.

_{[It's not a threat. It is simply a warning.]}

[Perhaps he should have anticipated such hostility, really.]

I understand.

[Does he say anything else? Would it all come across as mere platitudes?

It takes a bit for him to reply again.]

It's not lost on me that what we did is comparable to what Maruki has done with Sparrow and Dove. Whatever intentions were behind our actions, that doesn't change the fact that we acted without consent, violated your boundaries and your very existence, and clearly left you with lingering scars. I can assure you that I personally would rather not induce a change of heart in Drake, but I also believe we have no choice but to infiltrate his Palace to get to the root of what he's going through. He has been in a steady decline for months, I imagine. The catalyst to all of this was on Halloween, and again after Christmas. It's been simmering, and right now, he needs help. Not the sort of help that rewrites his cognition. Ideally, we wouldn't have had to act that way with you either. Ideally, Igor would have simply removed Shido's malignant programming with a snap of his fingers and left nothing in its place, but I suppose that would be no better because he would still be altering you. If we can simply reason with Drake's Shadow without stealing his treasure, that would be the ideal.

At least you understand. Very well. With the size of the distortion, I don't disagree that we might need to infiltrate the Palace, if only to see what is going on. I don't know what Drake's story is, and I'm not asking you to tell me. That Palace practically assaulted my sensors the moment I entered Tokyo this morning. That's not the sort of thing you can leave to fester with no consequences.

_{[Of course, there is one Palace like that he's left to fester... but that wasn't exactly his choice. Consider he wants its ruler dead...]}

To that end, I am willing to cooperate. Despite my misgivings, a teamup would be the most logical thing to do, if our end goals are the same.

_{[There's a brief pause.]}

What do you mean by stealing his treasure?

Oh, you're unfamiliar?

[Interesting. Well, he's no Morgana, but he might as well explain for clarity's sake.]

The treasure is a source of a distortion within a Palace. As Phantom Thieves, we seek a route to a given Palace's treasure and then, upon securing the route, send our calling cards to make the treasure manifest in a tangible form that we may steal from the Palace. Once the treasure is removed, the Palace ruler is forced to confront the feelings they repress. The emotions that cause the Palace and its distorted Shadow to manifest. That is why the Palace rulers confess their sins.

_{[Why the fuck would he be familiar with that? That's so convoluted and ass-backwards that nobody would figure that out on their own. He's found treasures before, sure but they were intangible, and stayed that way no matter what he (or, at the time, Isshiki) did. They weren't his priority, anyway, so even if he were interested, there was no way for him to experiment after Isshiki died.

Crow's words are eye-opening, to say the least.]}

So that's how they do it. Perform a Change of Heart. That's what you're describing, isn't it? To be perfectly clear, I don't care how necessary you think it is, I will not condone a Change of Heart. Brainwashing is brainwashing, no matter the reason, and I won't stand for it.

I wasn't going to suggest it for him, anyway. Typically, I'm only in favor of a Change of Heart when all other options have been exhausted. With Kamoshida, it was the only way to end his crimes, as the school and even the authorities were incapable of doing anything about it. The same can be said for the likes of Madarame and Kaneshiro, the latter of whom avoided the law for far too long and saw fit to use students as tools. I suspect that the Change of Heart simply forces the target to confront feelings they repress, but even so, I won't act as though it's innocuous because, even under dire circumstances, it is still forcing the target to confront those feelings.

[If anything, he can see why Falcon would be so averse, given his own circumstances.]

I don't believe Drake would appreciate it being forced upon him. If it is to be considered, it should only be as a last resort. And ideally not at all.

Glad we agree, then.

_{[There's a pause, before the next message comes through.]}

I'll be in Tokyo until further notice. I won't enter the Palace on my own yet, as I'd like to find Drake beforehand, but if you're coming, give me a heads up.

_{[Mostly so he can mentally prepare himself, and not curse out his supposed ally.]}

Let me know if there are any updates on the situation on your end.

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