Lee had been put through the wringer; The first part being that he was still recovering from his late night "grinding" in the Palace then discovering that Munehisa Iwai was now called Munehisa Itomi and she was equally as scary, on top of which Tae Takemi confirmed his worries by making him her full time Guinea Pig.
"You made it back, I'm surprised you remembered where you lived." Sojiro snarked before tossing a key over to him; "Here, this is another of your responsibilities; I can't afford to keep waiting on you until you come back here so I'm leaving you in charge of locking up the store." He grumbled as he walked past and headed out but stopped when he got to the door; "Are you okay? You don't look so good." He asked as he noticed that Lee was looking pale and a tad sickly from Tae's last batch of medicine testing.
"Yeah, just a little under the weather…I should be fine." Lee tried to reassure Sojiro; "A cup of coffee and I'll be right as rain."
Sojiro raised an eyebrow curiously; "One cup, huh? Alright…Well seeing as you've been doing somewhat decently here and I have noticed you keeping your behaviour relatively clean, I think I'll make a deal with you; You keep making progress and helping around here and I'll show you how to make a perfect cup of coffee, how's that sound?"
Lee looked a little confused; Sure coffee was good but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't all that impressive except for cafes.
"Not convinced? Well, you'd be surprised what a good cup does for people, it even earns you some extra points to getting attention from the ladies." Sojiro remarked with a sly smirk; "So, we got a deal?"
Lee raised an eyebrow; "Sure, if I'm gonna help here more then I could use some pointers to help make coffee." He would agree though felt that same Mantra in his head when he accepted a deal with Takemi; only this time it mentioned the Hierophant.
——Later——
Lee was sat at a worktable that Morgana insisted to clean before piecing together some new gear for them; more specifically for Lockpicks.
"I gotta admit, I hadn't expected you to get the hang of this so quickly." Morgana mentioned as out of the 11 attempts that Lee made on creating lockpicks, only one had failed and that was the first attempt.
"Well, you keep pushing me to be a "Master Phantom Thief" so I figured that I'd get to practicing." Lee mentioned as he placed all the completed picks into a bag before getting up and walking over to the bed.
"Honestly, I'm just amazed that you were able to do all this while you were still-THUMP!"
Morgana was cut off when they saw Lee collapsed on the bed as sleep caught up with him; "Good grief…I'm going to need to keep a real close eye on you so this doesn't become a regular thing…"
As the heavy bout of sleep set in, Lee found himself stirring to the familiar sounds of a piano and a quiet singing; He was now back in the "Velvet Room"
"Ah, I see that you have finally started forming new bonds with your confidants…Congratulations are in order." "Igor" mentioned as he sneered from over his desk; "Allow me to reward you by granting my own of bond, in this game of Rehabilitation; You must be prepared to use anything and anyone as you see fit, even myself if you should think it."
Caroline then tapped the bars with her baton; "You should be more elated Inmate! Our Master rarely indulges someone so reprehensible like yourself with such open arms!" She barked and then bashed the baton on the bars.
"Indeed, this is a great honour for yourself so please feel free to engage as you wish." Justine chimed in as she examined her book; "And with your Personas slowly beginning to fill our Compendium, this will surely aid you too."
"Oh yeah, who wouldn't feel happy about enabling a giant shot glass for his apathy?" Lee mentally snarked before nodding his head; "I hope to keep exceeding expectations."
"This first gift of mine should aid you in obtaining new heights…." "Igor" drawled as he snapped his fingers and Lee felt like he had more capacity within himself. "Take what you learn and expand, the night draws you away so keep that lesson in mind…"
Sure enough; With the fake Igor's words ringing in his head, Lee found himself rising when the sun did and to his surprise; he had a good number of messages for him; two from Ryoko and Ann, another from Shiho and two from both Takemi and Itomi. "Dang…You're really popular this morning, but we got a Palace to infiltrate remember? We lost most of the day because of that batch of chores and your late night grinding slowed you down." Morgana pointed out as they hopped into Lee's bag and got comfortable.
Lee nodded as he grabbed his bag and headed downstairs, quickly scrubbing down the dishes that had piled up and headed out with Morgana in tow to head to Shujin. "You guys meet me on the roof after school, we're going in that Castle one way or another!" He texted into the group chat that Ryoko made for the three of them.
"Hell yeah! We got everything we need, right?" Ryoko cheered in text but then took a sudden turn.
"I would hope so seeing as you guys took all day yesterday to prepare." Ann would add in as she added a Question mark emoji.
"Don't worry, I've made sure we've got the right gear and enough provisions for us to get to where we need to." Lee mentioned as he got onto the train.
"Ideally, we should be able to get right up to the treasure at this point. Though the fact that the others haven't been in since we rescued Lady Ann might be a problem, it would be worth the time to try getting them back up to our level." Morgana suggested to Lee as they pawed at his arm.
"We can…But don't forget, that brief grinding we did in the night should have given us an edge to handle things that are deeper into the Palace….Right?" Lee pointed out as he ventured forward to look for a seat.
"Um…Excuse me, do you mind getting up? This lady would like to sit down." A timid girl's voice spoke up as Jae tried to navigate the crowd; This redheaded student was currently trying to convince a man to get up out of his seat so an elderly woman could sit down but was ignored as he fell asleep.
"Would you like me to get him to move for you?" Lee asked politely to the girl who turned with a small fright at hearing his voice.
"O-Oh, don't worry about it, I'm sure that I can find another seat fo…I recognise your uniform, you are a Shujin student as well?" She asked him as she held on to the balancing pole nearby while the train ran.
Lee nodded; "I'm Lee Kurusu, I've not long transferred here." He mentioned and smiled at her, mentally thanking the fact that she was one of the few students as Shujin who didn't look like they wanted to spit on him.
"Well I hope you can make yourself comfortable here at school, Senpai." She said politely as they rode together; "I am in the year below you so I hope you can help when I need it."
"It's okay, if you need help then I shall offer it where I can." Lee nodded as he felt his phone buzz and the train started to slow down; "Looks like we're nearly there."
"O-Oh shoot, I have to hurry…My practice starts first thing and I still need to prepare! It was nice meeting you, Senpai." The girl would fret as she noticed the time and then bowed politely before rushing off of the train towards the school.
Lee stared in confusion as the redheaded girl ran off towards the gym but then realised that he was about to run late too and made a break for it once the crowds cleared. "That was weird…I don't think I've ever seen her before...Here or back then…Maybe I should ask Igor once I get the calling card sent." Lee mused to himself as he weaved through the crowds of rush hour travellers, though he hadn't noticed that a long haired girl briefly looked back as he rushed past.
During the agonisingly slow course of the day, he had been getting messages from Ann and Ryoko asking about the Palace and even getting called to the counselling office by Kawakami, with Kamoshida leaving alongside that same redhead to Lee's chagrin .
"Ah, Kawakami….The Counseling room is free now so you can talk with him as much as you need…I trust you met Miss Yoshizawa?" Kamoshida remarked to her, to the other teacher and Yoshizawa; he was politely explaining about her but to Lee: it felt more like he was rubbing in what he thought was a sure win.
"It's nice to meet you, Miss Kawakami. I am Kasumi Yoshizawa, it's nice to meet you." Kasumi would bow in respect to her before looking to Lee with surprise; "Oh, I had no clue that this was the delinquent student that you had warned me about, sir."
"Yeah…Be careful around him, Yoshizawa. This is a grade A delinquent and if you stick close to me then you can do a lot better than him to talk to." Kamoshida drawled as he took the opportunity to be petty towards Lee…Unfortunately, Lee wasn't the only one to read into it.
"Suguru, while I do understand that you have brought him up to the board based on what happened to you, I'd rather that you didn't try to smear Lee or say stuff like that until there's a clear verdict…" Kawakami mentioned as she glanced up at the taller teacher; "It's one thing to judge him on his criminal record but he's still my student…Until we have all the facts about what happened, I'm not convinced that he'd act like that let alone be that audacious during this time."
Kamoshida looked to Lee with a mocking sense of sympathy; "I couldn't agree more, but unfortunately someone leaked all his details to the whole school and the knot in my head still aches whenever I look at him…I know he's the one who did it."
Kawakami raised an eyebrow; "You said you didn't see who did it, so why are you so adamant that HE did?"
Lee smirked a little as he saw Kamoshida deflate a little under Kawakami's common sense; "Thank you for being the more reasonable type of teacher."
"Just watch out for him…considering the kind of thoughts that kid has, try not to get caught alone with him." Kamoshida whispered to her as he walked off with Yoshizawa to show her around.
"Honestly…Anyway, in here." Kawakami grumbled and then opened up the door for her and Lee; "We need to talk…And coincidentally, it's regarding what Mr Kamoshida has reported."
Lee nodded as he listened to Kawakami detail everything that Kamoshida had "addressed" with them. "Son of a bitch thinks he can get us pinned for this…I know how this ends and it won't be me getting expelled….Though who exactly is that girl? I've never seen her before last time and she seems…different."
"Kurusu….Kurusu!" Kawakami snapped her fingers since she noticed he spaced out; "Please tell me that none of what Kamoshida has been saying to everyone in the staff room is true." She practically begged him; It was no surprise that she thought Kamoshida was kind of suspicious, the fact that she was still at the stage of suspecting Lee of being an irredeemable punk balanced out the odds for now.
"Look, I got called to his office and was told that I would be expelled…I'm not sure why Ryoko or Saya were being expelled as well but I didn't go to the school with the intention to hit him." Lee mentioned honestly as he watched Kawakami listen to him and nod her head though the look on her face was still skeptical at best.
"Right, the fact that you have a criminal record means that you would be one of the first people to be addressed…but it is rather odd that Kamoshida is so adamant that you're the one plus I've seen you working diligently in my classes so I can't exactly agree with him on your behaviour, are you sure that there isn't anything that you want to tell me?" She asked him and leaned forward, "I know you don't want to tell on any of your friends but you are aware that if YOU get expelled, there's nowhere else for you…I'm your teacher, you should be able to at least voice concern."
Lee was confused, one minute she suspected him and was more concerned about how it affected her class as a whole but now she was showing worry for him; "I'm not sure if I can really trust her if I tell her the truth…But I guess I should be willing to take a chance…." He thought to himself before looking to the door; "If I tell you…Can you at least make sure that this doesn't get told to everyone?" He asked her to try and see if he could still trust her.
"Lee, I can only do so much…But as your teacher, I can hear you out at the very least." Kawakami promised him as she grabbed a notepad; "Just tell me what's troubling you."
Lee nodded, taking a deep breath before explaining about things; About Kamoshida's treatment of other students and with what he had heard from Mishima plus the "One on One" meeting with Suzui. All the while making sure he didn't give names or tell her that he knocked out the gym teacher so that if Kamoshida was to overhear, he couldn't act out. "So that's when he called me to his office…" He finished as he exhaled and then twiddled with his thumbs, waiting for Kawakami to formulate the right words.