"What the hell is this thing?!" Chie exclaimed in extreme anger, which pretty much mimicked Yukari's reaction when she had first seen this particular article of clothing. Although, calling it an "article of clothing" was an extremely generous description of the High Cut Armor. It looked more like something a stripper would wear. Or maybe a girlfriend would surprise her boyfriend in this thing.

"That is… I honestly don't know what to say…" Yosuke spoke slowly, carefully minding his words.

"Unexpected?" Yu offered, he himself feeling uneasy.

"Yeah, let's go with that."

"Hmm, I have never seen anything like this before," Teddie mused. "Is it armor?"

"No way in hell is that armor!" Chie screamed, startling the poor bear. "That thing barely covers anything up. I mean, look at it! No, don't look at it! Burn it!"

Hamuko suppressed the urge to sigh and took the highly questionable armor into her hand. "Never thought I'd have to see that thing again."

"I think I understand why you weren't able to describe this armor properly to me." Nyx did nothing to hide her mirth.

"Wait! You know what this is?!" Yosuke exclaimed in shock.

"Sadly, yes. I found the same thing in Tartarus." Technically speaking, Theodore had given it to her as a reward for doing something for him. When he first told Hamuko the reward would be the "High Cut Armor," she just thought it would be regular armor. The name may have been strange, but she didn't think much about it. Plus, at the time, her finances had been stretched thin. Any armor she could get without spending money had been a blessing at that point. A blessing for the boys as it turned out.

"This is the High Cut Armor. As you can see it has a rather… unique design."

"Unique my ass, get rid of it already!" Chie shouted.

"Sadly… this armor actually has its uses."

"Huh?!" Everyone, aside from Teddie, froze at that moment.

"You see, this armor works differently than your regular chest plate. Instead of protecting you with metal, this thing conjures up a magical barrier around your body that can block a certain amount of force. The barrier isn't perfect, but from experience, I can say that it is tougher than most of the regular armor us humans can create."

"Is this some kind of sick joke?!"

Hamuko turned towards Chie and gave her a deadpan stare. "Do I look like I am joking? This armor has one other effect. Namely, it increases your Persona's magical potential. Oh and obviously only girls can wear it."

"Huh. This armor sounds beary useful," Teddie said, looking at the thing. Yu desperately wanted to disagree with Teddie, but sadly, he couldn't. From a purely tactical standpoint, this armor was surprisingly useful. If Hamuko was accurate with her description than that thing was way better than the chain vests he and the others wore beneath their uniforms. Another point was the magic bonus. The group had noticed that Chie became tired very quickly when she used magic. An increase in her magical abilities would be beneficial to their cause.

"Well, if you like it so much, why don't you wear it?" Chie growled at the older girl.

"Hey, I'm just stating facts here. No need to get all hissy with me."

"Well, it's not like Chie can wear it," Yu stated, noticing a critical fact about the armor.

"Huh?"

"What do you mean? Wait. Are you telling me I'm not feminine enough to wear that?!"

Yosuke and Teddie made the wise decision to take a couple of steps back. Yu, on the other hand, kept his cool and explained his reasoning. "This armor comes with high heels." The silver-haired boy pointed at the shoes. "And you use weapons attached to your feet. I don't think you could fight properly while wearing high heels. Unless the heels were blades…"

"Oh, so that's what you meant!" his classmate said in realization.

"Blades instead of heels on shoes? I'm pretty sure there's a manga like that somewhere…"

"Well, guess Chie lucked out on that one!" Yosuke grinned. "Too bad Arisato-san. Looks like you're the one who's stuck with wearing that."

"This is definitely better than what Hammy-chan is wearing right now. She'll have a way easier time moving around in the High Cut Armor," the local bear reasoned.

Chie felt the sudden urge to kick both boys in the place where it hurts the most. However, for this one time, she decided to let it slide. She was just glad she didn't get stuck wearing that abomination.

"Yeah, I figured that would be the case. I'll change when I get the chance."

Surprisingly for the humans, Hamuko took it all in stride. She put the armor into the back where her weapon and school uniform was and got ready to continue on.

"Huh, you're not bothered?" Yosuke couldn't help but ask, a light blush appearing on his cheeks. In return, Hamuko looked at the fellow brown-haired dangerously.

"Let's get one thing straight. If any of you guys do something stupid, I will have no problem sending my boyfriend on the trail on you. After I have burned your testicles, of course."

Yu, Yosuke, and Teddie sweatdropped, all feeling a sudden chill running down their spine.

"Yikes. For a second, I thought I saw the grim reaper himself." Yosuke gulped audibly.

"Let's avoid antagonizing her unnecessarily," Yu suggested.

"Agreed."

Chie snorted at the comments of the boys. Still, she was a little surprised that Hamuko was so easily persuaded into wearing that thing. Feeling a little uncomfortable, the martial artist quickly followed up to the veteran fighter.

"Hey. Are you really okay with wearing… that?" Chie whispered, pointing at armor in the bag.

"Eh, let them watch all they want. Boys tend to do that kind of thing. As long as they keep their hands to themselves, I don't mind. Besides, doesn't that just proves that I am pretty?" Hamuko gave Chie a coy smile.

"Eh… I don't think I can see it that way…"

"That's fine. To me, this thing is just like a swimsuit. People always check each other out on the beach, so I am going to imagine I am walking on a beach with my hot boyfriend on my side."

"I wouldn't count it as a swimsuit either…"

Hamuko giggled at Chie's discomfort. Truth to be told, Hamuko might be somewhat of an exhibitionist. She loved showing off her body to others. She wasn't sure when she had realized that this was a thing she liked or when it had developed in the first place. But she suspected it came sometime around when her puberty began. She had especially fun with the High Cut Armor and her teammates. During the explorations through Tartarus, she would act like the High Cut Armor was just another piece of armor. She'd put on a naïve face when her teammates looked flabbergasted or blushed in embarrassment. Ah, good times.

"Embrace your desire."

"SHUT UP, NYX!"

From the outside, Yukiko's castle looked like it came straight out of a Disney movie. It was a pretty generic 15th-century looking building. On each side of the entrance was a wall with rose bushes sticking out from behind it. Horse statues had been placed on said wall, standing on their hind legs. Hamuko right now was behind one of those walls, changing outfits.

"Damn it, was it always this complicated putting that thing on?" she groaned. The others could hear the sound of rustling bushes and shuffling of clothes. Chie was keeping an eye on all of the boys, making sure they didn't sneak a peek at the young woman.

"Argh! Stupid branch!"

"Everything okay over there?" Yu asked.

"Yeah," Hamuko huffed. "Just my hair getting entangled with the local plant life. I'm almost done."

Satisfied, Yu turned away from the wall and drew the sword from his sheath. He gave the weapon a quick once over, looking for anything that showed his untrained eyes that the weapon was breaking or something. Some of the enemies had extremely tough skin. At specific points he thought his sword would break, but it seemed like the local weaponsmith knew what he was doing.

"Dude, I can't believe she's actually going through with this." Yosuke, of course, referred to Hamuko and her armor. His cheeks were slightly red.

"Yosuke, I hope you don't have any weird ideas," Chie growled.

"H-hey, don't give me that look! I'm just shocked, that's all!" Yosuke defended himself.

"Don't worry, Chie-san," Yu spoke in an amused tone. "I think Yosuke values his manliness too much to risk it."

"Hah! Manliness? I haven't seen much of that with him lately."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Okay! I'm done."

Despite himself, Yu couldn't help but look up in anticipation. After all, in the end, he was still just a teenager pumped to the brim with hormones thanks to that little thing called puberty. And boy, he was not disappointed. Hamuko was carrying herself in stride. She walked inside that armor like she was wearing a Sunday dress. Her clothing showed off all the right spots and hid enough to get someone like him extra excited.

The leader of the Investigation Team decided to look away before his mind got carried away by his less than stellar thoughts. He made a mental note that it was high time he got himself a girlfriend. Yosuke had not the willpower to look away. His jaw had almost detached itself from the rest of his face. This was almost surreal. It reminded him of his video games where the female characters wore ridiculously revealing armor and even walked all-

"Gagh!" Yosuke's train of thought was painfully interrupted by Hamuko, who had grabbed the boy by his uniform and dragged him down on his knees.

"You may look. But you may not touch. Understand?" The avatar spoke in a commanding tone, glaring down at the brown haired boy.

"Y-yeah!" Yosuke choked out. "Ah!"

Hamuko dropped the boy unceremoniously to the ground. The girl spun her naginata around a few times, before locking eyes with Yu. The silver-haired boy suddenly found himself standing at attention. He felt like something had changed about the woman's aura, something that made him want to obey her orders. On the other hand, it might just be his brain getting overwhelmed with visual stimuli.

"Ready when you're, leader."

"R-right," Yu cleared his throat, trying to compose himself. They were here for a reason after all, and soon enough, the group would put themselves in a life and death situation. The last thing they needed was for him to ogle over the veteran fighter, who appeared to enjoy making the boys nervous.

Chie found herself strangely impressed with the way Hamuko handled Yosuke. It reminded her of the fairy tails where an evil queen or someone similar would use her looks to get what she wants. And here she saw it all in live action.

"Teddie, can you bring us back to the fourth floor?"

"Wha-?! I mean, of course, sensei! Leave it to me."

The (wannabe) kung fu master looked over to the mascot bear in wonder. Apparently even Teddie had been drawn in by Hamuko-san's beauty, which was weird, considering he was a bear and not a human. One would think he had other preferences.

"Teddie can transport us to the last floor we have been to," Yu explained Teddie's strange abilities to Hamuko. "The layout of the castle changes every day, which means we can't draw any maps or something. Once we're inside, Teddie will stay a little away to not get caught in the crossfire of a fight. Since he doesn't have a persona, the shadows will leave him alone."

"I cannot fight, but I do remember what attack has what effect on the different shadows. At least the ones we've met so far," the bear explained.

The avatar nodded, understanding. Yu had already explained Teddie's abilities to her.

"By the way, what sort of abilities do you have?" Yu asked Hamuko.

Everything would have kind of been the right answer, but Hamuko couldn't just have the group steam roll this place or else she would only hamper their growth. On the other hand, she needed to pull some weight, so she went with a compromise.

"Well, my new powers are a little weird. Do you remember how I used Bash on the chest lid? And before that, I used Agi, the fire spell?"

"Yeah, what about it?" the green wearing girl asked.

"You see, I don't have access to all of my abilities at once. How should I put this…? Ah. Have you noticed how each of your personas have different arcana?" she asked.

"That Tarot stuff?" Yosuke asked for confirmation. "Yeah, I looked it up online. Apparently, I'm a Magician."

"I have Chariot," Chie said.

"The Fool," Yu simply stated.

"Yeah, see? Here's the thing with me. I can change my arcana from between Fool to Death. And depending on which one I have selected, I can use different abilities."

"Ah, so you're kinda like my partner here," Yosuke realized. "You see, he can somehow change between different personas. Kinda unfair if you ask me."

"That so?" Hamuko asked.

"You don't seem surprised," Yu noted.

"To be honest, I could do the same once."

"Wait, what?!" the brunette boy exclaimed.

"Really?!" the girl next to him shouted.

"Yup. But it all went away. How do you suspect I managed to climb Tartarus on my own? If I would have been stuck with just one persona and met an enemy that is immune to all attacks I can throw at it, I would be a goner."

"That… makes a lot of sense," Yosuke realized. "Oh well, that doesn't mean I'll sit this one out. Since I have this power, I might as well use it to help others."

"Yeah, I feel the same," his female classmate nodded.

"Then how about we stop talking and start using our power? I have to admit I am a little excited in finding out what I can do."

XXX

Teddie's teleport didn't feel any different from using a teleporter in Tartarus. There was a sudden feeling of weightlessness, followed by slight disorientation upon finding yourself in a completely different location.

"That's the inside? Looks kind of disappointing if you ask me."

The hallway Hamuko, and the others found themselves in could only be described as bare. There was a red carpet stretching throughout the halls, white walls and the occasional window. There seemed to be a bit more fighting space than in Tartarus, but then again. The rooms and hallways inside Tartarus could be as small as Hamuko's old dorm room or as big as a ballroom.

"It may not look like much, but this place is dangerous. It seems the higher we go, the stronger the shadows will become," Yu told his predecessor.

"But now, we're at full strength. Those things won't take us off guard a second time!" Chie proclaimed.

"You got that, right! Although, I hope I won't have any trouble focusing on the battle," Yosuke muttered the last part to himself, eyeing Hamuko from the side. The avatar pretended she didn't hear it but smiled silently to herself.

"Are you actively trying to get the poor boy killed?" the goddess inside Hamuko asked in amusement.

"Don't worry. Once he gets injured, he'll have his head back. It worked with Junpei."

"Alright, follow me and keep an eye out."

With his sword at the ready, Yu took the lead. Yosuke and Chie followed him a little behind, each covering a flanking side of their leader. Hamuko and Teddie formed the back lines, with Teddie staying a little further away, seeing as he was the support. Said bear oddly enough found himself very interested in Hamuko's butt. He didn't know why, but for some reason, he found this part of her body quite fascinating.

He was brought out of his musings when he smelled the shadows getting closer to their positions. "Sensei, be careful. I smell one coming our way."

Immediately the group tensed up. Hamuko tried to suppress the excitement building up in her chest, as she would need to focus on what was about to come. Sure enough, only a few steps later, the group of humans (and non-humans) came face to face with one big, formless blob. It appeared to be aimlessly crawling on the floor. Aimlessly, until it's white mask set sight on the castle invaders.

"Here it comes," Yosuke growled.

Arms suddenly appeared out of the formless blob, and it charged towards the group, flailing the arms in all direction. Yu ran directly towards the shadow, readying his sword. Both opponents attacked at the same time, swords and arms clashing in the air. Yu staggered backward a little, and the blob disappeared into dark mist. Said mist split up and quickly reformed itself into three floating dice.

"Three enemies! Be careful! These explode if you let them charge up for too long!" Teddie shouted from behind.

"Then let's take care of them quickly!" Hamuko declared and charged past Chie to strike the enemy she had set her sights on. Her naginata came crashing down on the foe, producing a clanking noise. The shadow staggered back into the hallway but appeared relatively okay. Yu and Yosuke produced similar results from their attacks. Chie, to the girl's frustration, couldn't engage in melee. The hallway was just too tight.

"Physical attacks aren't working that well! Try something else!" their navigation shouted.

"Like this?!" Chie shouted and kicked a spinning Tarot Card in mid-air. Her persona, a female humanoid one with yellow clothes, white sports shoes and equipped with a naginata of its own appeared. An ice shard flew towards the dice Yosuke had attacked, and it got stuck. The shadow shook, not violently, instead it floated inside a small space and appeared as if it was having trouble staying there.

"Izanagi!"

"Jiraya!"

Seeing Chie's success, the boy's summoned their personas. Yosuke's used wind, which slammed the dice against the wall, but didn't do the trick. Yu's lightning had more success, in that the shadow disappeared completely in black smoke.

"Its weakness is electricity!" Teddie exclaimed happily. "Be careful! They're almost done charging!" The bear followed up in panic. Hamuko reacted to his words and slammed with the back of her weapon against the foe. Acting like Junpei, Hamuko shouted "Homerun!" as the shadows collided and died.

"Crisis averted," Teddie breathed a sigh of relief. The group gathered together in the middle of the battle zone. Hamuko watched the others picking up money and something that looked like junk. It was a broken cable from the looks of it.

"Why are you picking this up?" Hamuko asked, pointing at the cable Yosuke had in his hand.

"Deidara can make something useful out of those. It may not look like much, but you should have seen what he made with the last stuff we brought him," the brunette explained. "He also pays us a decent amount of money for it. It's a double win for us."

"And he doesn't question where you get this stuff from?"

"Yeah, he's weird like that."

As far as the money went, it was divided between everyone equally. This resulted in everyone getting only getting chump change, but Yu promised it would add up eventually. After the money was distributed, Chie had a comment to make.

"You know, those shadows didn't even fight back."

"That's a trick. Dice shadows rarely attack back, because it disrupts them from gathering energy," Teddie explained. "But once they have gathered their energy, they usually leave behind a pretty huge crater."

"Well, now that we have their weakness, we know how to deal with them. Let's go."

They came across a door. The hallway went on for a little bit, but you wanted to check out if there was something hidden inside the room. There was something inside. Only it wasn't anything good. In the middle of the square-shaped room was a shadow. Or multiple shadows, no one could tell until they engaged. Luckily for the group, the shadow did not appear to have heard them opening the door.

"Should we attack?" Yosuke whispered.

Yu didn't give an audible response. Instead, he opted to as silently as possible approach the shadow. With careful steps, he approached the formless being from behind, raising his katana when he was almost in range. The metal came down and slashed the blob in half. The shadows appeared as they did previously. The difference this time was that the enemy was disoriented. There were four hand-shadows, and they were tumbling around on their fingers.

"Four enemies! They're weak to ice!" Teddie shouted from behind.

"Guess it's my turn! Tomoe!" Chie shouted, summoning her Persona. An ice shard flew towards one of the tumbling shadows, knocking it over.

"Chie-chan knocked down an enemy!"

Hamuko, for her part, had switched to the priestess and gathered her energy for a quick knock-down. Unlike Chie, the avatar could use Mabufu. And use it she did. The girl stretched out her hand, and multiple ice shards flew out of it, heading straight for the shadows. Every single one of them had their body stabbed, and before their brains could even realize what had happened, they disappeared into clouds of smoke.

"Easy enough."

Yu and Yosuke, who had been in the middle of summoning their personas, looked impressed at the display. The tarot cards disappeared, and everyone relaxed their stances.

"Whoa! What was that?!" Yosuke asked.

"Mabufu. It is like Bufu, but it hits multiple targets. Your personas should learn the ma-spells at some point."

"Holy! What can't you do?! You took them out with just one hit!" Chie exclaimed.

"Well, for one, this armor is doing its work." Hamuko gestured down to herself, causing Yu and Yosuke to look away, blushing. The former wild card smirked. "The magic boost shouldn't be underestimated. Like I said, each Arcana I can use, gives me different kind of skills. And I have fourteen in total."

"But why only those? Doesn't the Tarot deck include more cards? More than twenty if I recall correctly." the leader was thoughtful.

"Don't look at me. I didn't come up with this power. All I can do is use it to the best of my ability."

The silver-haired boy nodded in understanding. "I should have asked you of this earlier, but once we're done for today, can you tell me what skills you gain through each individual Arcana?"

"Can do."

"Ahhh! Incoming!" Teddie shrieked, running past the group. They barely had time to react, as not one, not two, but three blob shadows appeared from the entrance of the room. Hamuko barely responded in time to cut one of them down. However, the other two got past her and advanced towards the humans. The avatar had no time to chase after them, as she found herself confronted by three tables.

"Damn! I'm surrounded!" the avatar realized, referring to the shadows that got past her.

"Don't worry about them. As long as you don't make the first move towards them, they will leave you alone. Besides, it's not like any of those weaklings can harm you in any way."

As if to underline Nyx' words, the tables all flung their flying knives, pans and whatever else was flying over them towards the avatar. Hamuko raised her naginata, but only managed to redirect a knife towards the floor. The rest of the kitchen utensils hit her straight on. The only thing here was that she barely noticed them making contact with her. It felt like someone was trying to stab her with plastic spoons.

"I… I don't feel anything."

A zio spell hit her directly in the face. The only reason she knew she got struck was because she had seen the split second the lightning had been visible to her.

"I know this armor is tougher than it looks, but still, I should feel something."

Nyx chuckled in amusement. "They might as well throw feathers at you. It seems you haven't quite realized it yet, but you're no longer human. As much as you look like one, you are several leagues above them."

Hamuko slowly but steadily moved towards the shadows, who just mindlessly kept assaulting her with spells and attacks. When she was close enough to the beasts, she slashed them so long with her naginata until they fell in battle. It was a ludicrous scene. It was like someone had turned on god-mode, and when the brunette girl thought about it, it was a fitting metaphor. She had all of the powers of a goddess at her disposal, plus whatever the Universe Arcana came with. Even back when she was human, her personas would have been enough to minimize the damage to nothing more than her clothes getting torn. Thanks to the magical barrier created by her armor, she didn't even have to worry about that.

Soon enough, the last table shadow disappeared, allowing Hamuko to turn around and aid her comrades. To her pleasant surprise, the humans already managed to get rid of the shadows that had broken through to them, and now they were gaping at her with jaws hitting the ground.

"What? Never seen a woman in a kitchen before?" She just couldn't resist, even if the pun had been awful.

"H-how…" Teddie muttered his eyes, having shrunk to pinpricks.

"I guess there is something to this armor after all…" Yu managed to get out. The other two found themselves stunned to silence. "And while I hate to ask this, is there a male version for this?"

Hamuko almost lost it, barely able to support herself on her naginata. She covered her mouth with her free hand and suppressed the laughter to the best of her abilities. Nyx didn't show any of these inhibitions. Yosuke and Chie looked at their leader like he had grown a second hand.

"There is," Hamuko confirmed, her voice full of mirth. "I found some male bathing trousers that do the same thing. I had no use for them, so I threw them away. So, Yu-san? Are you ready to put on a show for us girls?"

To the boy's credit, he managed to laugh the situation off. "If it means saving Amagi-san? I guess I can swallow my dignity. I also have to admit. I admire the guts you have for wearing something so provocative in front of strangers. And I mean it."

The brunette girl grinned at the new wild card. "Falling for me already? Too bad! I'm taken!"

"Well, I guess I am officially jealous of your boyfriend then."

Both former and current wild card shared a laugh at their exchange. Teddie in the meantime looked at the silver-haired boy with some newfound respect. "Sensei is ready to wear something so embarrassing to save someone else? Sensei is a true man!" the bear declared.

Chie blushed, having imagined what Yu would look like if he would wear a similar thing to what Hamuko was wearing. Yosuke did too, although his reaction was the complete opposite. He even felt embarrassed when he thought about running through the TV-World half naked. Not to mention how people would react if he accidentally ran out of the world, without changing back into his uniform. The thought was downright mortifying.

"All right, everyone. Let's keep our heads in the game," Yu declared after his laughing fit ended. "Let's gather everything useful and then go on. Teddie, keep an eye on the entrance and tell us if something comes."

"Right away, sensei!" the bear saluted and ran to the entrance of the room, peaking outside. Chie and Yosuke were both glad to have something to take their minds away from their dirty thoughts and started gathering materials. Yu and Hamuko shared a knowing look.

"By the way, how did you get rid of the shadows so quickly?" the avatar asked, as she helped to scan the ground for anything useful.

"They were weak ones. We were lucky nothing big came out of those blobs. Do you know what those things are by the way?"

"The blobs? Not really. From my experience, they usually consist of up to five shadows each, depending on how big or small they are. The shadows have the advantage in that we don't know their numbers or their type for that matter. But, I did notice that those things don't move that fast and that their vision is rather limited. You already seem to know the advantage of striking those things in the back."

Yu nodded, putting what seemed like a dried up tongue into his pocket. "Teddie told us about how disoriented shadows get when we hit their backside. He also taught us the basics of combat, exploiting weaknesses, and such."

"Hmm, for someone who stands in the backlines, he knows a lot about how to fight shadows. Then again, it can be because he lives here he needed to gain the experience in order to survive."

After everything had been gathered, the group exited the room and followed Yu back into the hallway. As they exited the room, Hamuko found Yosuke glancing over to her every so often. She gave the boy a light slap on the shoulder, gaining his attention.

"Focus boy or the shadows make sure I will be the last thing you'll ever see," she said in a sing-song voice. "In hindsight, this wouldn't be such a bad thing, would it?"