Under Hare's earnest persuasion, coupled with Seele's hopeful gaze, Shadow Seele, despite her extreme reluctance, finally lowered her defiant little head to Ren Amamiya, willing to submit to him for Seele's sake.
"Although I'd love to immediately verify if I can subdue you as my Persona, there's no rush right now... Let's collect the Will Seeds and Treasure in the Palace first."
After confirming Shadow Seele's submission, Ren didn't rush to try and take her in immediately.
Since they were already here, Ren, as a phantom thief of hearts, naturally had to steal all the Will Seeds and Treasures within this Palace in Seele's heart to uphold his professional ethics.
Persona users don't develop Palaces.
Although Ren, not Seele herself, was about to subdue Shadow Seele as a Persona...
Once Shadow Seele, the Palace Ruler, was subdued by Ren, there was a very high probability this Palace would collapse.
Ren had no desire to search fruitlessly, like looking for a needle in a haystack, through Mementos—formed by the collective human unconscious—for Seele's Palace Will Seeds and Treasure, which would have scattered due to the Palace's collapse.
Therefore, the most logical order of operations was naturally to steal the Will Seeds and Treasure first, and then subdue Shadow Seele as his Persona when preparing to leave.
Shadow Seele had been completely subdued by Ren. Under the watchful eyes of three Personas, she had absolutely no chance of turning the tables.
Without the threat of Shadow Seele, the Palace Ruler, and with Hare, an extremely sensitive guide, as a teammate, Ren didn't expend much effort to collect all three Will Seeds from Seele's Palace.
As he collected the Will Seeds, Seele's memories stored within them flowed into Ren's mind in meticulous detail.
The three Will Seeds respectively recorded Seele's memories from her time in Cocolia's orphanage: witnessing a pink-haired girl push Bronya down the stairs, injuring Bronya's legs, while Seele herself lacked the courage to intervene, merely hiding in a corner crying.
Memories of a clearly younger Bronya than the present day, killing all encountered enemies and rescuing Seele, who had been kidnapped.
And, Seele revealing the red marking etched on her chest to Cocolia, mustering her courage to proactively request Cocolia to replace Bronya on the human experiment list with herself.
In the first memory, Bronya's clearly human appearance surprised Ren somewhat.
Although Bronya, even as a human, had a rather cold personality, a closer look revealed the inner emotions displayed through her facial expressions.
However, when Ren encountered Bronya in the real world, she had already been completely transformed into a robot, seemingly having lost her emotions as well. No matter how the battle situation changed, Bronya's expression at the time hadn't altered in the slightest.
But since Bronya could still summon a Persona, it meant her heart was still intact. At most, she had merely lost some of her human emotions due to her mechanical body.
In the second memory, Seele, during her childhood kidnapping, had clearly already begun to initially awaken her own Persona ability.
Although it couldn't yet interfere with reality, the red figure Seele saw behind Bronya at that time was distinctly Shadow Seele's silhouette.
However, back then, Seele was only at the initial stage of Persona awakening. Even now, Shadow Seele remained a Shadow, not yet transformed into a Persona to fight for Seele.
In the third memory, the chest Seele proactively revealed also caught Ren's attention.
That white marking... no, red marking, gave Ren a somewhat familiar impression.
Yesterday, in Raiden Mei's Palace, Shadow Mei had given Ren a seed of power. The external manifestation of that power was a crimson patterned mark appearing on Ren's chest, over his heart.
Although the patterns of the crimson marks were different, their form of existence was undoubtedly the same.
Cocolia, in the Will Seed memories, called this crimson marking a "Stigma."
Although Ren had already heard Hare mention the term "Stigma," this was the first time he had seen this crimson marking on someone else.
Could it be that ATLU$ later introduced an era of tattoos into the Persona series? As long as you have a tattoo, you can awaken a Persona?
Thinking this way, putting aside Hare, whose life form was unique, could it be that Raiden Mei, a character who didn't appear in P5, also had a similar crimson pattern on her chest?
Realizing this, Ren's gaze flickered subtly towards Mei beside him. Then, under Mei's somewhat surprised look, he retracted his gaze.
It's best to ask such private questions later, when there's no turning back.
The three crimson-black Will Seeds swirled and converged, combining into an even deeper, more mystical Will Seed crystal.
While reading Seele's memories in the Will Seeds, Ren empathically experienced the strong emotion commonly recorded in all three:
Envy.
The Will Seed crystal Ren had just obtained was precisely the Will Seed crystal of the Sin of Envy.
...Although Ren didn't know what Seele was envious of, he had indeed collected the Sin of Envy.
Considering Seele's feelings, Ren very thoughtfully didn't announce the sin this Will Seed crystal represented, merely silently stowing away the Envy crystal.
Wrath, Sloth, Envy.
The collection progress of the seven deadly sins was finally nearing the halfway mark. The situation was looking good.
As long as he found the Treasure in Seele's Palace, Ren could send the Envy crystal to the Velvet Room and commission Caroline and Justine to craft new equipment to arm and strengthen himself.
"Hare, still no sign of the Treasure?"
After stowing away the Envy crystal, Ren asked Hare beside him. Her dream projection, though with most of her face covered by a blue helmet, revealed her pink lips pressed together in a troubled manner.
All three Envy Will Seeds were obtained thanks to Hare's radar-like acute senses. Theoretically, with Hare's perception, she should be able to locate the Treasure quickly.
Unless... there was no Treasure left in this Palace.
Or, to put it another way, although Seele hadn't truly awakened her Persona's power yet, the Treasure in this Palace had already become Seele herself.
"Instead of painstakingly searching for it ourselves, it's naturally more convenient and quicker to directly ask the ruler of this Palace. Although, judging by your expression, you don't look like you'll answer me, I'll ask anyway... Shadow Seele, where did you put the Treasure in this Palace?"
Seeing Hare still unable to locate the Treasure in Seele's Palace, Ren turned his head and asked Shadow Seele, who had been wearing a grumpy, annoyed expression the entire way.
The result of the inquiry was unsurprising to Ren.
Shadow Seele pursed her lips, crossed her arms, and deliberately turned her face away, giving Ren a silent, resistant reply.
"Seele, you ask her."
Ren sighed lightly, entrusting the task to the real Seele, who had been following closely behind him.
Among everyone present, the only one who could successfully pry open Shadow Seele's mouth was probably Seele herself.
"If it's called a Treasure, then that thing must be very important to my other self... Phantom Thief-san, do you absolutely have to take my other self's Treasure? Could you, please, leave that thing called a Treasure for my other self?"
Seele clasped her fair white hands tightly before her chest, a conflicted expression on her delicate face. After some hesitation and struggle, she finally mustered her courage and pleaded with Ren in a weak voice.
Hearing Seele plead with Ren on her behalf, Shadow Seele's arms, which had been crossed over her chest, unconsciously dropped.
She turned her head with a complex expression, feeling somewhat irritated yet inexplicably pleased. She clicked her tongue, as if casually remarking to Seele.
"How ridiculous. There's no Treasure left in this space for them to steal. If you ask why, you should know the reason best... That thing that could be called a Treasure, you already personally gave it to your dear Bronya-oneechan."
Being forcibly bound to Ren's side, Shadow Seele had already understood the concept of the so-called "Treasure" while listening to the conversations between Ren, Hare, Mei, and the others.
What these uninvited heart-thieves sought was clearly the power residing within the Stigma.
Shadow Seele herself was one such instance.
And "Project Bunny 19C," the Previous Era technological legacy Seele gave to Bronya, was also a target Ren and the others pursued.
Shadow Seele had initially been annoyed by Seele giving Project Bunny to Bronya.
However, upon realizing Seele's action of giving away Project Bunny meant Ren and the others had essentially come up empty-handed this time, she felt a little happy.
"The Treasure was given to Bronya-oneechan by me? Could it be... the Treasure is Project Bunny?!"
Shadow Seele's answer was very clear.
Due to this unexpected reply, a surprised expression appeared on Seele's delicate face. She subconsciously covered her small mouth, then cautiously observed Ren's expression.
To Seele's slight relief, Ren didn't seem angry that the Treasure in the Palace was gone, merely showing a thoughtful expression.
"To actually gift the Treasure in your heart to Bronya, and it's even that Project Bunny... So Seele, you're capable of such things."
Ren naturally recognized the name "Project Bunny." It was the name of the robot-like Persona behind Bronya.
Ren had initially thought it was Bronya's own awakened Persona power.
But now it seemed Project Bunny was actually power nurtured within Seele's heart, the Treasure of Seele's Palace, merely gifted by Seele to Bronya for her use.
Interfered with by Cocolia's human experiments, Seele being able to do this was surprising, but not to the point of astonishment.
If Project Bunny wasn't Bronya's own awakened Persona, then whether she still possessed human emotions at this point was uncertain.
Fortunately, with Jizo Mitama as a safety net, even if Bronya had completely lost her human emotions, Ren was confident he could make her stand on his side.
"Since the Treasure has already been given away by Seele, then next is directly the Persona subduing phase... Shadow Seele, you should know what to do, right?"
Ren's gaze shifted towards Shadow Seele. She frowned, snorted coldly, and shrugged impatiently, replying perfunctorily.
"Yes, yes, I've been watching for so long, of course I know everything."
As her voice fell, Shadow Seele's body transformed into a ball of dark red energy. Then, that ball of energy dispersed into a swarm of crimson butterflies.
The crimson butterfly shadows, exuding an eerie aura, continuously converged towards Ren's raised hand, finally forming a blood-red butterfly mask, intricately patterned with mysterious, ethereal designs, which landed in Ren's palm.
I feel... if this were blue, I could try cosplaying as Balala the Fairies.
Having verified yesterday's conjecture and actually subdued Seele's Shadow as his own Persona, this thought about the butterfly mask's design had just flashed through Ren's mind.
The entire Seele Palace, due to losing Shadow Seele, its ruler, fell into a state of violent tremor, as if on the verge of collapse and destruction.
"Let's return directly to Kaslana's Palace using a portal, Joker!"
Knowing the MetaNav app's drawback of needing to return to the Palace entrance...
Hare, canceling her dream projection's manifestation, reopened her eyes. She proactively raised her hand, creating a portal connecting to Kaslana's Palace, offering her assistance to Ren.
Seele stepped into the portal alongside Ren.
After a fleeting moment of slight dizziness, she found herself in a desolate, crimson desert environment.
A cold back view of someone in a blue, white, and black combat suit with short white hair...
Was strikingly reflected in Seele's azure eyes.