"Ugh, can you guys please stop starring like a bunch of slack jawed idiots whenever I say something unexpected?! It's making it kind of hard to explain anything! Next time you guys do it, I'm going home; I have homework for piss sake!" Sora yelled very annoyed. Yosuke came to his senses first and said defensively, "Hey don't yell at us, it's just the name shadow palace sounds kind of ominous, we're just a little surprised." "I don't know what's so surprising considering the shit you guys went through." Sora grumbled. "Hell, I figured after meeting a gods damned robot, I figured that nothing would surprise you anymore." "Hey!" Chie exclaimed, "Aigis-san isn't just a robot, she's a person same as the rest of us!" Sora closed his eyes for a count of three while idly thinking that he had to do something about his temper. "Anyway," Sora said with irritation still in his voice. "Can we get back on topic, I would like to finish before the day is out. I swear, dancing with that stupid one eyed gunslinger shadow has got to be easier than this." Rise gasped, "You've fought the reaper?" Sora snorted, "That's your name for it? Man that's lame." He then gave it a second of thought, "you know," he started before someone could interrupt him, "now that I actually think about it that actually seems kind of fitting… wait, I'm' getting distracted. Ok, so what is it you guys want to know?" they all started talking at once. "what" "How" "Reaper" "Palace" "Geez!" Sora exclaimed, "You guys are like a bunch of kittens all going for the same piece of string." Sora let out an exasperated sigh.
"Ok, Hanamura-sempai, you ask the questions. Best I can tell you're the least likely to give me a headache" "Ok then, first off, what is the shadow palace?" "The shadow palace is just that, a palace full of shadows. The air is cold and oppressive, and aside from one room I've barricaded off to use as a safe zone, it's crawling with shadows. The outside of the castle is black, and you can't see the individual bricks. It has the funny cone roofs that you see in Middle Eastern palaces." Sora paused for a second before saying, "Or it could be Russian since I haven't bothered to learn the difference." "Aside from the one room I use as a hub, the layout of the place changes daily. I have no idea how big it is, or why it exists. As for why it's the called the shadow palace, well I liked the name since it's a palace full of shadows." "Ok," Yosuke said, "so when did you first discover the place?" "It was during Golden week, I had just recovered from my cold after the red fog had cleared, and I was out for a walk trying to build by strength up since my legs still felt barely more solid than jelly. I was spaced out; just ambling along, when I found a black key. Nearly slipped over it too, I was that lost in thought. Scared the hell out of me when I nearly slipped. I picked it up, and figured I could ask whose it was at school if someone didn't ask about missing their key, small town and all. When I went home from my walk, I joked how it was death's own key. If you hadn't guessed, I was basing it on that anime that had just come out the week prior, but that's beside the point. Anyway, I went back up to my room, and deciding that it might be amusing, I stuck the key into my door's lock, and made the unlocking motion. The thing was purely decorative since it locked via deadbolt from the inside, so I figured that nothing bad would happen like locking myself out." Sora cleared his throat and steals Teddie's drink since he hadn't drunk from it. He takes a big gulp and continues on. "Righty then, let's see… oh yeah, the door. When I opened the door, I was outside of the shadow palace. Unfortunately, I didn't have the common sense to turn around, and throw the key out a window. So I went inside; I found something that looked like a gun, so I picked it up thinking it was a real gun. As it turns out, it wasn't. A shadow attacked me almost as soon as I picked it up. It chased me for a bit, but I couldn't get away, I discovered it wasn't a gun, when I tried to shoot it. I honestly thought I was going to die. It was at that point that I felt the weirdest feeling. It was like something took a cold spoon and used it to scoop part of myself, and replaced it with a bowl of soup if that makes any sense. It was at that point, every instinct I had was screaming at me to shoot myself in the head with the not gun. Weird I know, I mean, what kind of instincts would tell you to put a gun shaped item to your head and pull the trigger? But anyway, I did just that, I put the thing to my head, pulled the trigger, and summoned my persona. Since then, I've been going into that castle to explore once a week. It also serves as the mother of all workouts."
Sora finishes the story, and finishes his stolen drink. "So, any other questions?" Everyone is silent for a moment before Naoto asks, "you said that you go exploring once a week, what day you usually go explore the Shadow Palace?" "Saturday," Sora starts to explain, "I like exploring then since we don't have school on Sundays." Then with a minor note of bitterness Sora says, "Since today is Saturday, I would be exploring right now if not for you guys." Sora opens his mouth to say something else, then stops since he thought of a good idea. "Oh I just got an idea, since you guys are so interested in the place, how about I just take you there?" Sora grabs a piece of paper from his bag and scribbles his address on it. "Ok, here is my address; you guys go get whatever gear you need, and meet at my place in an hour, I need to do some homework anyway."
