Mona has been up all night talking about how he would have done the heist and getaway of a certain museum in France. I don't think his ideas work in the real world but as I can only squeak in response, he just keeps talking at me...

Ren sometimes runs errands for a weird middle-aged man in a mask and glasses in an alley in Kichijoji. Some of the things he wants are limited, so I guess that's why he needs help. Ryuji suggested opening a wider service on the Phan-Site but Ren has to run around enough as it is.

We handled some requests today. The little boy there is always making drinks out of flowers, so Haru got curious and bullied him into letting her try. I think her eyes were literally glowing afterwards. She said she had ideas for her café but didn't remember them when we returned.

Ren called me ‘his little tactical nuke’ today while booping me on the nose. I’m not sure if I like it or not.

Sorry I haven't been posting much. I've been feeling a bit discouraged. I know we just have to keep searching and that I should be thankful for the few special safe rooms we've found, but it's hard to come back empty handed time and time again in between.

It was chilly tonight. Futaba commanded Yusuke to lend her his jacket, like a gentleman would in a romance novel. He took off his coat and stood behind her, letting it go to fall on her shoulders. She crumpled immediately, nearly flattened. I think she forgot to account for how much bigger he is...

I think Futaba was hoping that Morgana would be trapped in the costumes she created. That might work for a normal cat, but Morgana had no trouble escaping once she fell asleep. I wonder what she thought waking up to an empty lobster costume.

Oh I figured it out. I was just the distraction to wear out Morgana. She has so many more costumes for him, but he's too sleepy to fend her off. I would be smug but I'm too tired...

Ren is going to have so much cleaning to do. Futaba's floor is covered in felt scraps. I keep trying to drag a few to the trash, but before I get anywhere, it's time for another costume. I tried hiding but she's good at getting into tight spaces and Morgana is on her side.

Futaba suddenly got it into her head that she wanted to take a whole bunch of mouse-in-costume photos for social media. I'm not sure what this is for. I don't think she even has social media. Even though I'm more nocturnal these days, I just want to go to sleep...

When Ren is really showing off in Mementos, he has this haughty laugh that echoes through the tunnels. The shadows look really scared. I would be scared too if it wasn't him. 😊 Actually, being in his pocket while he does it, it's kind of fun the way his full chest vibrates.

Today Futaba said that I say so many misinterpretable things that I should become a streamer when I'm human again. I could tell Ren was trying to get her to stop talking. I'm not offended. I don't know what she means. Should I be offended?

We received requests about more personal bullying too so we've started investigating those. It's sad how many people take the bully's side. I thought most were avoiding being a target themselves, but Ryuji thinks many just like being on the 'winning' side. Can we steal the heart of mob mentality?

Lately we've gotten a lot of Phan-Site requests from creatives who are being bullied online. Futaba says its easy to use bots to scam or try to hurt people as they require no skill these days. She said she even sees them where she archives my posts, but she just reports them and they're removed.

The nursing home director has been calling in sick, so I think we were successful, but we won't know for sure until he either returns or makes a statement. Changes of heart seem to take differing time for different people. I guess even after it happens, they need some time to decide what to do.

Ren and Morgana are sleeping now. I should probably sleep too. I tired, but I just keep reading things on my phone. I've also been thinking about the special safe room, and how we don't have access to it anymore. Our experiments didn't yield anything. Will I be stuck like this forever?

Though Ren made it seem like a pretty easy fight, escaping the crumbling haunted house with all of the ghost fleeing at the same time wasn't as easy. Futaba had a great time though. (Ryuji carried her because she wasn't running fast enough.)

Stealing the treasure was fairly straightforward. The director's shadow was some sort of necromancer. Futaba, Morgana, and I all told Ren to use bless skills (well, mine came out as squeaks) but he overpowered the shadow with curse skills just to show off.

We managed to talk Futaba out of doing the entire first run without sound. She was hoping that some of the execs on the call would warn "You're on mute!" We convinced her they would just probably just disconnect.

We 'sent' the calling card today. Futaba overrode the entire videoconferencing interface, turning the windowing elements red, and added a Phantom Thieves participant who took over, shared screen, and blasted the calling card presentation. She then immediately uploaded the recording to social media.

Since we plan to send the calling card soon, Ren and I went into the Palace to use the special safe room for a bit. I'm going to miss the ability to stretch, move my real body, talk with my real voice, embrace each other as my real self. Why didn't we come here everyday? So many obligations...

I climbed up the back of the receptionist's chair so I could see the nursing home director's calendar. The good news is we have several candidate times to invade his most important video conference calls. The bad news I was seen and now they’re calling pest control…

Since the nursing home director goes on a lot of video conference calls, we have been debating sending the calling card through that. Futaba video conference bombing its too pedestrian, but is willing to help. I've been trying to spy on his calendar without his assistant seeing me to find out when.

Ren volunteered at the nursing home today. The three of us searched for a good place to put the calling card. It's a bit fraught because the director doesn't come in every day, so we'll need to make a big enough splash that his staff notifies him. They're pretty resistant to deal with him though...

We were going to take a bunch of tarnished armors we found to this one shop in Kichijoji that will buy them from us, but Futaba suggested we keep this batch and wear them for Halloween. ...she isn't willing to wear one though.

We secured a route to the treasure. Futaba wants us to wait though because we have a 'real haunted house' for Halloween. She's even suggesting we wait a whole month. I don't mind having access to the special safe room, but what about all the nursing home residents and staff...

I did it. I managed to get past the ghosts and hit the switch! I'm fairly proud of how well I dodged despite all the fear. Too bad no one could see some of my more impressive paw-work. Less impressively... apparently my squeaks of terror could be heard even through the vent...

We've cleared out the viable requests and everyone seems to be all rested up and ready for the Palace. I'm a bit nervous so I did a few more rounds of training at Futaba's house. It was much easier, but I think she was holding back on the scares since Ren was watching her.

Ren decided we should handle some requests from the Phan-Site rather than take on the Palace just yet. Some of them were posted a few weeks ago. Fortunately no one seemed to be harmed by the wait. I'm surprised how fast requesters notice the change of heart. It really is sudden.

It seems everyone came back more tired from the class trip than they thought. We tried going back to the Palace earlier this week but everyone just fell asleep in the safe room except Futaba, Morgana, and I. (Morgana was thrilled.)

The team has been sharing photos of the class trip on the group chat. They look like they had fun. I'm sad I missed it. It seems that Kosei also switched to Singapore due to travel restrictions. Once Yusuke met up with the others, it started raining quite a bit. Fortunately they all had umbrellas.

Everyone is still coming down from the class trip, so not much is getting done at school. I think I saw Mr. Ushimaru actually pout. Ms. Chouno leaned into it and has been sharing stories of her own trip under the guise of language practice. I try to be a good student but they're kind of boring...

Later, Ren and I went to the special safe room, just the two of us. I don't think I realized quite how much I missed him until we had some alone time. Together, but with others around, or when I'm a mouse, just isn't the same. It was nice telling him about last few days with my own voice too.

Despite going to bed early, Ren slept in. The class trip must have been very tiring. I heard Ryuji slept until noon when his mother made him get up. No one out slept Futaba though and she didn't even go.

Ren returned from the class trip. Apparently he wanted to pick Mona and I up from Boss's house, but when Boss saw how wobbly he looked, he insisted not. He fell asleep in his school uniform still holding onto Mona and m, but we manged to wriggle free.

Futaba promised no more random jump scares after Boss admonished her. Now she only does it during set training. She set up some mazes for me to simulate vents. She has all sorts of scary ghost dolls she uses for the scares. I'm trying my best but sometimes I panic and knock everything down.

Boss let me stay in his room last night since Futaba wasn't backing down. He seemed hesitant at first, suggesting it wouldn't be appropriate, but I tried the cute-attack that Morgana taught me. After that, he said it was okay as long as Morgana was there too.

When Futaba woke up she started talking about 'special training' to prepare me for exploring the vents in the haunted house. She's been randomly jump-scaring me all day wearing a variety of scary masks. I'm hiding in Boss's room for the time being.

Ren dropped Morgana and I off with Futaba before leaving for the airport this morning. Well... Futaba was still asleep but Boss left us in her room. I tried to help tidy while we waited for her. I'm pretty proud of the pile of items I gathered.

All the students were so distracted by class trip preparation today that only Mr. Ushimaru tried to teach. It didn't go very well. In fact, it was so bad he ran out of chalk and had to turn to the rest of the time into a study period...

Ren is already packed for the class trip. It's pretty efficient when all you have to do is move stacks of clothes from a big cardboard box to a suitcase. He was still pondering whether I could sneak past security, possibly through the metal detector with him. The risk is too great though.

Ren wanted to take Morgana and I on the class trip. The airline doesn't allow passengers in the main cabin. I'm somewhat curious what it would be like to travel with cargo, but don't like being stuck if it's bad. Ren is against the idea though so we'll be staying with Futaba again.

The situation is still bad at the nursing home. Ren tells me not to feel bad as we can’t infiltrate during the class trip anyway. When they get back, I'm going to try the vents again!! I guess we’re lucky that we don’t have outside time pressures like in some of our earlier Palaces…

Early morning and coming back from summer break don't mix well. Everyone in Ren's class looked like zombies... Ms. Kawakami especially. Even planning the class trip didn't seem to wake people up...

When things cleared out a little, we played suikawari 🍉. Haru won with an impressive strike! Ryuji looked like he might get a good hit until Ann started giving him bad directions... and then Futaba joined in too. I hope I get to play suikawari some day. It looks really fun...

Morgana extolled the virtues of napping on beach chairs & blankets under a big umbrella. We made time for that too. I was a little shy about laying on Ren's bare chest out in public but every time I tried to scurry away Ren just put hand over me. It was rather nice once I calmed down 😊 ...

Since I couldn’t go this time, Ann, Futaba, and Haru rode the banana boat without me. I was worried because Futaba doesn’t know how to swim and Ann and Haru aren’t particularly athletic, but everyone came back fine. Futaba is much more confident this time around (but she still can't swim!)

Ren and Ryuji entered a beach volleyball tournament. Ren said the prize might be helpful in the Metaverse. It’s strange how many random things are. I guess it’s all cognition. They won! They were impressive in all their matches, though Ann says Shiho would have destroyed them in her prime.

Futaba and I helped Yusuke gather materials for his sculptures. It was like a scavenger hunt… though he often admonished us for our choices. I’d find a piece of trash I thought he’d really like but he’d tell me to throw it away and instead hyperfocus on something else. I don’t get the artist’s eye.

Yusuke started making sculptures out of anything he could find drifting in from the sea. There was litter, seashells and stones, seaweed, broken flip-flops… he even tried to incorporate a small crab but seemed flummox when he couldn’t get it to stay in place.