Makoto's heart pounded as she approached the door. Part of her wanted to wait for the others. Nonetheless, she felt she had to do this herself. She had to prove to the school, to her sister, to herself, that she wasn't useless.

She had accomplished quite a bit in the last few weeks. Shortly after being tasked with investigating students being extorted, she had discovered the identities of the Phantom Thieves that had been in the news. She could have exposed them, but she thought it better to get them to cooperate. She wanted to know how they had managed to change people's hearts.

While Makoto was suspicious of the Phantom Thieves, their goal and hers aligned. They all wanted to put a stop to the extortion and harassment of the students at Shujin. Their investigation ultimately led them to mafia boss, Junya Kaneshiro. Unfortunately, Makoto was a little too eager to confront him. This resulted in Kaneshiro getting photos of all of them in his shady establishment. Now Kaneshiro insists that they owe him money for the "inconvenience" they had caused him. He threatened to leak the photos if the debt he had made up wasn't paid. Kaneshiro seemed insistent that Makoto in particular was indebted to him. It gave her the creeps. However, that encounter gave them all the information they needed.

Finally, Makoto was let in on the secret of how the Phantom Thieves could change people's hearts. It was not what she was expecting to say the least. They actually travel to a world made from their target's cognition. From what they told her, taking some kind of treasure from this world would change Kaneshiro's heart. Makoto still didn't fully believe it. Seeing the world created by Kaneshiro's cognition definitely gave credibility to their story, though.

The look inside Kaneshiro's mind was not pretty. He apparently saw the whole city as his personal bank. The people were nothing more than ATMs for him to draw money from. The whole thing just reeked of greed. Wealth seemed to be all that mattered to him. If this is what his cognition looked like, a change was definitely necessary.

So Makoto joined the Phantom Thieves as they solved puzzles and defeated enemies in this labyrinth of a bank. After all the time they had spent on it, they had to be close. With the goal in sight, Makoto could think of little else.

As a result, she was quite disappointed that the others had cut their latest excursion short. It's true that they were all tired, but every day they delayed was another day Kaneshiro was ripping people off. Makoto was feeling more and more that she had to be the one to put an end to this. Surely, it wouldn't hurt to take a look ahead.

So, Makoto returned to the palace alone that night. She quickly returned to where they had left off with their exploration. From there, she continued cautiously. She had to avoid enemies rather than confront them since she was alone. She quietly moved through a few corridors before seeing something that made her heart skip a beat. A large vault loomed at the end of the hall, and it was wide open!

This was her chance. If she could get to the treasure now and change Kaneshiro's heart, she would put an end to the extortion crisis. She would finally be able to do something real to help her sister and the school. It was so close!

It was true that the other Phantom Thieves had mentioned needing to send a calling card before the treasure could be taken. Still, it couldn't hurt to take a look and see if she could just take it. The worst that could happen would be that she really couldn't take it without the calling card. In that case, she would simply take care of that step and come back. She had to at least see what it looked like.

She slowly crept toward the vault, but there didn't appear to be anyone or anything guarding it. The lack of obstacles actually started to cause some doubt in Makoto's mind. It was starting to seem a little too easy. The allure of her goal being so close kept her moving toward the open vault, though.

Finally, she was in front of the large vault door. She quickly hid behind the open door. Quietly looking around it, she tossed a coin into the vault to see if it would alert any guards or trigger any traps. The coin hit the floor of the vault with a loud tap. However, there was only silence in the vault after it settled to a stop.

Now thinking that the coast was clear, Makoto made her way into the vault, still being as quiet as possible. Once inside, she almost had to cover her eyes. Stacked neatly up to the ceiling in every direction were towering walls of gold bars. They sparkled in a bright and gaudy mass. Makoto had never seen so much gold in one place. Was this the treasure? Would Makoto have to get all of it out of here to change Kaneshiro's heart? The objective suddenly seemed much more complicated.

As Makoto was pondering what to do next, she felt something hit her in the back. Startled by the sudden strike Makoto stumbled and fell to her knees. As she tried to get up, she quickly found her body getting stiffer. Movement became harder and harder within a few seconds. Makoto finally managed to move her arm in front of her. What she saw made her start to scream, but she felt her throat and mouth stiffening up as well. Her arm was slowly turning the same golden color as the ingots surrounding her. Within a few more seconds, Makoto lost all ability to move as she saw the golden sheen completely cover her arm. Makoto was left frozen in place, looking at her arm, which now looked like it was made of solid gold.

Makoto desperately tried to move, but she couldn't manage the slightest twitch. It was safe to assume the golden coat her arm had received was covering the rest of her body as well. It was as if she had been turned into a solid gold statue.

No, that couldn't be true. Things like that only happen in stories. Besides, if she were a gold statue, she wouldn't be able to see and think. Then again, her inability to move at all was quite alarming. Her entire body was eerily still. Makoto couldn't even feel any breath or heartbeat in her chest. It just felt unnatural.

Makoto became more worried the longer she remained frozen in place. She desperately tried to remind herself that a person being turned to gold isn't possible. Then again, until recently she wouldn't have thought entering a world created by a person's cognition was possible either.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?"

Makoto was snapped out of her worried thoughts by a smug voice. Makoto was unable to turn her head to look at who had spoken. It wasn't until he stepped in front of her that she saw who it was. Makoto was horrified to see Kaneshiro step into view. His appearance was somehow more menacing than it was when she first encountered him. His skin was a dark shade of purple and his eyes shone with a sinister yellow gleam. It was a frightening thing to have staring down at Makoto while she was in such a vulnerable position.

"Now, now, this won't do at all." Kaneshiro drawled. "Not only are you trying to welch on your debt, but now you're trying to steal from me? Huge mistake, little miss president."

Makoto was torn between wanting to run and wanting to demand answers. In her current state, she could do neither.

"Oh well, it all worked out in the end. Now you're literally going to pay your weight in gold." Kaneshiro continued. "It's a fitting punishment. For trying to steal from my fortune now you're a part of my fortune."

He then bent down and tapped Makoto's arm. Her heart sank as she heard a metallic click.

"Nothing like the feel of pure gold." Kaneshiro said with a sadistic grin. Makoto now desperately wanted to run.

"Anyway, I suppose we should wrap up this little chat. Unlike you, I have a lot to do. Hope you enjoyed looking at all of these gold bars. Soon enough you'll be one once we get you melted down. So long, Miss President."

"What?! Melt me down?! Are you insane?!" Makoto frantically tried to shout. She had to do something, anything to get out of this. Except, she couldn't do anything. No matter how much her mind was panicking, her body remained utterly still and silent. She was as still as....a statue.

"No...it can't be true." Despair started to creep into Makoto's thoughts.

She could do nothing as two shadows appeared and picked her up. They set her on a cart and began to wheel her away. Makoto could only hope that the other Phantom Thieves would figure out what happened, and save her from her gilded fate.