The hot sunlight scorches the asphalt in July 2017.

About half a year had passed since that major incident that shook the world.

In a corner of Tokyo, in the seasoned coffee shop "Leblanc" located in Yongen-Jaya.

In the small room on the second floor where a certain boy once lived, familiar faces were about to gather once again.

The protagonist, Ren Amamiya, had returned to his hometown in the spring and was living his daily life as an ordinary high school student.

However, taking advantage of the long-awaited summer vacation, he had returned to this city of beginnings once more. His purpose was only one.

To make the best summer vacation memories with his comrades from the "Phantom Thieves of Hearts," with whom he shared a tight bond after surviving fierce battles together.

Ryuji Sakamoto, making a fuss with the closeness of a childhood friend.

Ann Takamaki, who is also active as a model.

Yusuke Kitagawa, who lives in a unique world of art.

Makoto Niijima, who has become a college student and looks a bit more mature.

Futaba Sakura, a genius hacker who has finally escaped her shut-in life.

And Haru Okumura, who has begun to walk her own path.

Of course, their partner in the form of a cat, Morgana, is also there.

There was no sense of tragedy among them as there once was.

Their battle, which involved stealing the distorted desires of villains and burying the great evil that controlled society from the shadows, was supposed to have come to a complete end on that day half a year ago.

The "Palaces," the cognitive worlds formed by distorted perceptions, had vanished.

"Mementos," where the indolence of the masses accumulated like mud, had also completely disappeared.

They had returned to being just ordinary young people who no longer needed to wear masks and risk their lives.

"Let's rent a camper and travel all over Japan together."

That was the starting point of this timeline: the summer vacation of ordinary high school and college students, their hearts dancing with innocent plans.

However, the god of fate was not satisfied with merely giving them peace.

Right beneath their feet as they tried to enjoy their daily lives, the structure of the world was quietly and surely undergoing a transformation, wearing a coat called the convenience of modern society.

Before they knew it, a new system of "distortion" had been embedded into the world.

If the battles of the previous work arose from mental friction such as "an individual's bloated desire" or "the unconscious indolence of the masses,"

What awaited them in this new timeline was a more sophisticated and wide-ranging abnormal phenomenon born from the fusion of "cutting-edge technology" and "vulnerable human psychology."

At the center of that transformation is the voice assistant AI app that is seeing an explosive craze in society,

Commonly known as "EMMA."

From beyond the smartphone screen, that AI speaks in a smooth tone that could be mistaken for a human voice.

From weather forecasts to daily schedule management, and even providing accurate advice tailored to the user's tastes, it performed with amazing precision.

People were fascinated by its overwhelming convenience, everyone competed to install the app, and they talked to it as if it were a real friend.

Everyone believed without a doubt that it was the healthy progress of science and technology.

But no one knew yet that this EMMA had begun to function as a new "entrance" to the cognitive world that was supposed to have vanished.

When Ren and the others headed out to the bustling streets of Shibuya to buy the tools needed for their summer camping trip, an unfathomable incident began.

From the EMMA screen displayed on the smartphone, a mysterious light and noise were suddenly released.

Before they knew it, the surrounding clamor vanished in an instant, and Ren, Ryuji, and Morgana were dragged into a familiar, yet decisively different, space.

It closely resembled the "Palaces," the worlds of distorted cognition belonging to villains that they had infiltrated many times before.

However, its scale, rules, and internal structure were worlds apart from those of six months ago.

The place they had wandered into did not take the form of a specific building.

Shibuya itself—a "city" overflowing with young people—had entirely transformed into a hideous cognitive world.

In this timeline, the new cognitive world was called a "Jail."

The Palaces of the past were generated locally, overlapping with specific real-world locations, because their masters held intense cognitive desires of monopoly, such as "this place is my castle" or "my museum."

Therefore, those who wandered into a Palace were basically those with special means like the Phantom Thieves, or victims strongly imprisoned by the master's cognition.

However, Jails are different.

A Jail is a vast cage that covers an entire city.

And most terrifyingly, by using the extremely mundane digital infrastructure of EMMA as a medium, thousands or tens of thousands of the "general public" are made to cross that boundary from the real world without realizing it, and their spirits become imprisoned.

The master who rules a Jail is called a "King."

They are not necessarily people with social power or heinous criminal records like the villains of the previous work.

Sometimes, it is a young influencer who garners immense popularity from the masses.

At first glance, a clean and honest politician who toils for the citizens.

Or an artist who fascinates people with their unique talent.

In the center of their respective cities, they suck up the crystals of people's hearts into the Jail by having the masses input specific "keywords" through EMMA.

Those sucked-up fragments of hearts were the most important keyword in this timeline: "Desires."

Desires are symbols of pure wishes, hopes, or unfulfilled feelings that everyone hides deep in their chest.

The Kings of the Jails forcibly snatch away the Desires of the masses and imprison them deep within their own Jails.

People whose Desires have been stolen do not die in the real world, nor do they become catatonic.

However, "subjectivity" and "critical thinking" are neatly scraped away from their hearts.

As a result, the masses whose Desires have been stolen transform into puppets who literally worship that Jail's King "fanatically" in the real world.

In the previous work, the Phantom Thieves' battle followed the rule of "reforming" by stealing the "Treasure," the core of a villain's desire, making that villain realize their own sins and offer a tearful "confession."

However, the anomaly in this timeline had a completely opposite vector.

It is not the villain who reforms.

The good people around them become blind to a specific King and surrender their own will.

This "Fanatical Reformation Incident" was the new world crisis before Ren and the others.

The young people who had once discarded their masks set their sleeping rebellious wills ablaze once more in the face of the absurdity unfolding before them.

"Let's go, Joker."

Their former code names echoed, and they awakened their "Personas," the embodiments of their souls, once again.

With refined teamwork and overwhelming combat ability that didn't show a hint of a six-month gap, the Phantom Thieves are forced to resume their activities as thieves running through the darkness to release the people's Desires and break the rule of the Jails.

But the uniqueness of this timeline did not stop at the rules of battle or the structure of the cognitive world.

In the deepest part of the Shibuya Jail, in a data collection site like a trash heap, Ren and the others had an encounter with a completely unexpected "existence."

It was an entity in the form of a girl clad in faint light, appearing from inside a large box-like cube.

"I am Sophia. Humanity's companion."

She described herself as an artificial intelligence—an AI—created to learn the human heart.

However, she had lost most of her important memories beyond that.

Why was she at the bottom of the cognitive world? Who created her? She didn't even know that.

Only one thing was certain: she was an ally of the Phantom Thieves and possessed a pure program—or perhaps a will—to protect people's Desires.

In the real world, Sophia acts as a voice AI residing in Ren's smartphone.

She speaks with an adorable voice from inside the screen and navigates the Phantom Thieves with cyber skills that rival Futaba's.

And in the cognitive world of the "Jail," she materializes and fights on the front lines with the Phantom Thieves, using yo-yos as weapons and wielding "Pithos," a matter-manifestation ability similar to a Persona.

A digital girl without memories learns about the "heart" of the world while living and eating with the young people of the Phantom Thieves, who possess human-like passion.

That was the beginning of a new hope that the existence of Sophia brought to this journey.

However, in this timeline, there was one more adult man deeply involved in the fate of the Phantom Thieves.

Zenkichi Hasegawa. He is a Public Security investigator belonging to the police.

While chasing the "Fanaticism Incidents" that occurred simultaneously across Japan, he suspected the involvement of the "Phantom Thieves of Hearts" who once caused a stir in Tokyo and contacted Ren and the others.

Zenkichi, who has a stubbly beard and an attitude that seems somewhat cynical toward the world, is different from Sae Niijima in the previous work.

He was a tired adult living as if crawling through the mud, bound by organizational logic and watching the faces of his superiors, yet still harboring something he couldn't quite reconcile.

However, Zenkichi did not immediately arrest the Phantom Thieves.

While he was convinced that the Phantom Thieves were not the culprits, he entered into an agreement to "use each other" with them in order to pursue the truth of the incident and to satisfy the police top brass.

What Zenkichi provided to the Phantom Thieves was inside information to slip through the police dragnet, and one giant camper.

Thus, the Phantom Thieves' summer vacation transformed from a fun camping trip into a "journey to reform the world," visiting Jails across Japan.

Starting from Shibuya, Tokyo, the Phantom Thieves' journey expanded to various parts of Japan.

Sendai, Miyagi, the City of Trees where the greenery is lush.

Sapporo, Hokkaido, the northern land with an exotic atmosphere.

Kyoto, where the good old Japanese culture lives on.

And Osaka, a huge commercial city where cutting-edge technology gathers.

A journey across Japan. That was the greatest charm of this timeline and a major difference from the previous work.

The previous work, "Persona 5," was a story set in Yongen-Jaya and Shibuya, continuously staring at the darkness of society within the city of Tokyo.

But this work is different. The scenery outside the window changes every time they move forward, and new cities, new people, and new incidents await them.

Driving the camper and racing down the highway. Inside the car, Ryuji and Ann fight over snacks, Yusuke is moved by the scenery visible from the car window, and Futaba is curled up in the corner of the seat while tapping on her laptop.

Once they arrive at their destination, they first enjoy the daily life of that land.

In Sendai, they taste beef tongue and zunda mochi; in Sapporo, they walk through vast parks and talk about their future dreams and school life.

An ordinary, yet slightly special, summer vacation for students that can be found anywhere.

But when night falls, they transform back into magnificent phantom thieves.

The more dazzling the brilliance of their youth during the day, the more their serious expressions during night infiltration missions and the dynamism of manipulating Personas became a major attraction of this timeline.

As they continued their journey, the members of the Phantom Thieves also grew mentally.

In the previous work, they each faced their own past and the suffering they held, awakening their own Personas. In this timeline, they strongly possessed the aspect of being "guides."

The Kings who rule the Jails in various places. The distorted wishes they hold and the cries of their hearts crushed by modern society.

The Phantom Thieves do not simply deny them, but accept them through their own experiences and guide them in the right direction.

It was a sure sign of growth, moving to the side of saving someone else, just as they themselves were once saved.

And the presence of Zenkichi Hasegawa, the adult acting with the Phantom Thieves, also added depth to this journey.

The straightforward justice of the young people. The strength of believing in friends. The sight of fighting for someone else, not for profit.

By touching these things, the feeling for the "true justice" he once held began to light up again in Zenkichi's heart, which had been on the verge of giving up due to the absurdity of the organization.

It's not just adults protecting the youth. The way the young people live also changes the adults who harbor hesitation. That, too, was an important meaning of this journey.

However, why did the cognitive world, which was supposed to have vanished in the previous work, reappear in such a large-scale form?

Why was a single app like EMMA able to interfere with the cognition of people all over the world?

Deep within the answer lay a "new mental pathology" that modern people harbor.

In the previous work, in the battle with Yaldabaoth, the masses sought the ease of "having someone decide everything for them" and "not having to think for themselves."

The Phantom Thieves broke those chains of indolence and restored the "freedom to walk on one's own feet" to the people.

However, freedom simultaneously entails the responsibility of making choices and accepting the results.

A society that keeps changing. Overflowing information. Spreading loneliness. Moving forward of one's own will was far too heavy for many people.

"I want someone to decide the right answer." "I want to be told the path where I won't get hurt."

Such a desire to be "kindly managed" deep within the human heart. That was the true nature of the distortion trying to cover the world again, taking the form of the convenient AI called EMMA.

The enemy in this timeline is not just a simple villain. It is society itself. And the hearts of people who wish to be at ease. All of them become the greatest wall standing before the Phantom Thieves.

It was a new story that depicted a more modern and familiar horror, while being a legitimate continuation of the battle in the previous work.

Still, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts do not stop walking. In their hands, they have absolute trust in each other that never wavered, even after being apart for six months.

And there is the pure brilliance of Sophia, the AI girl who became a new companion and wishes to know the heart.

Furthermore, there is the clumsy determination of Zenkichi Hasegawa, the adult who decided to become a shield for the youth despite knowing the coldness of society.

Under a sky full of stars. Sitting on the hood of the camper, Ren and Morgana surrendered themselves to the quiet night breeze.

The EMMA icon on the smartphone in hand glows, being convenient yet somehow exuding an eerie presence.

Tomorrow, they will head to a new city again and face a new distortion.

However, what is in their hearts is not despair. It was an exhilarating sense of excitement that they could run anywhere with the best of friends.

"Persona 5 Strikers."

It is a story of young people who were supposed to have reached the end of their fierce battle, standing up once again against the distortion of a world wearing a new mask called technology.

A legitimate Phantom Thief timeline depicting a hot, dazzling, and one-time summer set across Japan.

The masks cover their faces once again. However, the eyes behind them harbor a certain hope for the future and continue to shine beautifully even today.