"You are... me? What a joke! A creature like you—"
Hearing the seductive words whispered by the giant fox head, fury ignited on Yae Sakura's delicate face. Full of denial and resistance, she shouted loudly at the massive head.
"Don't, Yae Sakura! Don't say that!"
Although Ren felt a momentary sense of déjà vu, like this scene was from a different story, the ominous premonition welling up inside urged him to quickly intervene, trying to stop Sakura from uttering the crucial phrase.
"—A creature like you could never be me!!"
As Yae Sakura's pained denial rang out, the sound of crackling flames erupted. The red-black smoke swirling within the Yae Shrine grounds instantly transformed into a substance resembling crimson-black fire.
The giant fox face formed from the crimson-black ethereal flames stretched its mouth wide into a grin. It narrowed its long, fox-like eyes, revealing a mocking smile. At the same time, its cavernous mouth, composed of the same eerie flames, opened wide and swallowed the distraught, unresisting Yae Sakura, who was sitting collapsed on the ground.
Bathed in the bizarre, crimson-black flames re-emerging from the giant fox head, Yae Sakura staggered back to her feet. Like a broken doll, she slowly lifted her head, her scarlet eyes gleaming with an eerie, crimson light. The sakura-haired miko, now sporting long fox ears atop her head and clearly in an abnormal state, slowly turned towards the distant Ren, her face flushed red, breaking into a joyous, almost yandere-like smile.
"What the hell? She should just be a Shadow! Even if not, she's definitely not a real human! But Yae Sakura's behavior and experiences... it's almost as if she herself entered this Palace?!"
After the giant fox head consumed Yae Sakura's body, the storm-like resistance pressing down on Ren and the white-haired girl vanished simultaneously. However, even though they regained their freedom of movement, Yae Sakura, the one they needed to stop, had already succumbed to the distortion of her heart, her body now controlled by the eerie voice from the black box.
Ren stared intently at the crazed smile on Yae Sakura's face, his brow furrowed tightly. In the story of P5, the only instance of someone entering their own Palace and awakening their Persona by reconciling with their Shadow self was Futaba Sakura. And even then, it was Futaba's Shadow actively trying to guide Futaba herself, making it a poor reference point.
Compared to P5, Yae Sakura's situation seemed more akin to the process in P4, where the real person enters the other world and gets verbally tortured by their own Shadow. But Yae Sakura was the Palace Ruler, she was the Shadow! How could she be tormented by a voice from the Treasure?
"Although I don't know what you're talking about, the one standing there is undoubtedly Sakura herself. As for Sakura no longer being purely human, that's only natural, because..."
Ever since the black bird-beak mask fell off, the white-haired girl had gradually been regaining her memories. And as Yae Sakura fully recovered all her cyclical memories, the white-haired girl, Kallen Kaslana, who had shed the mask of Phantom Thief Violet, also reclaimed all her forgotten memories.
Under Ren's somewhat confused gaze, Kallen Kaslana, who had previously acted like a complete stranger to Yae Sakura, now spoke in a sorrowful tone, explaining Sakura's situation to Ren. Her words revealed a deep familiarity between them.
"Because, five hundred years ago, Sakura was sealed away by my own hand. After five hundred years, Sakura's physical body has long since perished. What remains here now is merely Sakura's soul."
An indelible, deep sadness filled Kallen's blue eyes as she recalled the scene from five hundred years ago when Yae Sakura was corrupted and controlled by the Herrscher of Corruption. The distant figure of Yae Sakura, seemingly bathed in blood under the influence of the corrosive power, gradually overlapped with the image from five centuries past – everything was exactly the same.
"Five hundred years ago? Sealed? Soul?"
The sheer amount of information contained in Kallen's words didn't immediately enlighten Ren; instead, it made his frown deepen.
...Screw it. Stop trying to understand, just start feeling. Just like how the JoJo world has vampires, yokai, ghosts, and fate alongside Stand users, the Persona world has high-and-mighty gods, fate divined through tarot cards, besides Persona users. Adding elements like souls and ghosts wasn't that strange.
If Yae Sakura was truly dead, this was Ren's first time entering the Palace of a deceased person. It was perfectly understandable that the state of Yae Sakura's Palace, belonging only to her soul, would differ from those of living people.
"Hey, Violet! What happens if I defeat Yae Sakura? Can she return to normal?"
Ren drew the Raikiri katana hanging at his waist. Gripping the highly mechanical-looking blade tightly, he asked Kallen on the other side.
"I don't know. Sakura has already been..."
Kallen, addressed by Ren, had just started giving a quality answer when Yae Sakura, impatient from waiting, shot forward like a rocket, appearing instantly before her before Kallen could explain further.
Yae Sakura raised the blade in her hand high—the Goushinnso Memento [Her weapon's name], corrupted from a sakura-pink spirit blade into a demon blade under the Herrscher of Corruption's influence. With a wild, savage laugh, she swung it down fiercely at Kallen.
Fortunately, as an S-rank Valkyrie from five hundred years ago, Kallen's skills were extraordinary. She narrowly dodged Yae Sakura's fatal blow, nimbly and agilely creating distance between them.
"Looks like she won't give us time to sit down and calmly discuss strategies. Let's just take her down first! —PERSONA!!"
Holding Raikiri in his right hand, Ren used his left to tear the white bird mask from his face. Under Kallen's astonished gaze from afar, he forcefully threw the mask towards Yae Sakura.
Ethereal blue flames suddenly swept across the sky. As Ren called out its name in a deep voice, his own Persona made its grand entrance upon the azure stage, appearing before everyone present.