Naoto's quite aware that she's the outsider in this group. While this certainly isn't the first time they've worked together, thus far she has never been considered as one of them. Until now, they've been two separate groups working on their own separate missions and only crossing paths where it has most been necessary. But with the larger threat looming, the unknown entity seeking to corrupt Persona users and return them to Shadow, now more than ever it pays to know the similarities and differences between their worlds, between their foes, and for that Naoto has had to leave her friends to plan amongst themselves while she investigates this avenue.

It's meant calling in some favours with Mitsuru, of course. She herself had not been best placed to secure a Shadow for examination but the Kirijo group had means and resources that, given the circumstances, Mitsuru had been willing to share on the understanding that Naoto remained part of the study.

The Shadow isn't what interests her here, however. Shadows, she's seen plenty of and even as she knows it's her presence as a Persona user that agitates it, she's far more concerned with the Heartless. In definition, very similar to Shadows only gifted a different name. She wonders, briefly, if there was scope for Heartless to be transformed into something more positive just as Shadows could become Personas, but certainly it won't be found in this Heartless here.

"By all means." She's eager to see this progress, fascinated by the science and the logic in this study even as she's trying not to let that show. Age already stands against her, as does her ignorance in much of what she's seeing, but she's not going to let that impact any more than it has to. "If this proves at all any connection between what you have faced and the threat to all Persona users, we should determine it as soon as we are able."