PQ2: New Cinema Labyrinth
Jester and her teammates spend the next few minutes exploring the city (and of Jester drawing the map accurately on the notebook that Hikari gave her), looking cautiously at the peoples walking and talking with each other while ignoring them, dozens of different shops and apartment buildings around them with dozens of different-coloured graffiti words of art that says "Kamoshidaman" painted on the walls (which annoy Skull and Panther the most) while encountering, fighting and defeating the different shadows that showed up in front of them, gained EXP, money and items from them.
"Hey, guys. Is it just me or do you guys starting to feel weak and tired?" asked Skull.
"Now that you mention it, we do started to feel weak and tired." replied Panther.
"Which is weird because aren't we strong enough already after the past few months of infiltrating in Palaces of corrupted adults and training in Mementos together?" said Spade with a confused look on his face.
"I think the most likely explanation to why we're feeling weak and tired is because we're in a different world and the progress and levels that all of us have before have been reset back to the beginning, which means we're as weak as the weakest shadows in the first level of Mementos, everyone." said Jester solemnly to them.
"I think you may be right, Jester." said Crow as he nodded solemnly to Jester.
"Just great." said Paladin.
"Why don't we take a break then? It might not be a bad idea." suggested Skull.
"Yeah, Skull's got a point. You guys should rest and keep an eye on your health because you guys are fighting in an unusual environment. Make sure you guys take the time to heal up too!" said Oracle.
"Yeah, we know, Oracle." said Jester in agreement with Oracle before she and her teammates take a 10-minute break in an alley before they resumed their exploration of the city.
"Hm? Is that…? Everyone, look over there!" said Fox as he stopped, noticed then raised and pointed his finger at a staircase leading down to a subway station in the middle of the road far in front of them.
"Hm? Oh, you've sharp eyes, Fox! That's a staircase!" said Spade, impressed with Fox for noticing the stairs.
"Uh huh. Looks like that stairs over there leads down to the next level and we haven't spotted Niveus, Queen and Noir yet, so it's best to keep on going." said Oracle.
"So, we're supposed to head over there?… I-I feel like we're going to lose sight of it." said Panther with a concern look on her face.
"Then, what if I put a mark on the map? May I borrow the notebook for a while, Jester?" asked Crow as he glance at Jester.
"Sure, go ahead, Crow." replied Jester as she nodded and hand the notebook over to Crow.
"Thank you, Jester. I'm glad if I was able to be of use." said Crow as he gave a small smile to Jester.
"Indeed. It'll be easier to see that way." said Fox with a small nod of his head.
"Come now, we know where to head next. Let's look for a path that leads to those stairs." said Crow before he, Jester and the others saw, opened a metal door and went into an alleyway, walked to the other end of the alleyway to opened the other door, went through and closed the door behind them and they found themselves inside another part of the city.
"Oh! Over there!" said Panther to the others as she spotted, raised and pointed her finger at something and they all saw that it is the same huge thing that chased them until they arrived and jumped out of the movie screen and into a theater. "It's a, uh… was it "BLT"?" added Panther as she think about the name that they call it.
"No, it's "FOE"." said Crow as he shake his head at Panther.
"That's right. I believe it stands for "Fried Chicken on Egg"…" said Fox.
"Seriously? "Fried Chicken on Egg"?" said Spade as he scowled in disbelief at Fox.
"Uh what? Beef's way better with eggs than chicken." said Skull.
"No-I stand by chicken. It's both cheap and filling." said Fox as he shake his head at Skull.
"Oh my god, these two idiots…" thought Jester as she shake her head at both Skull and Fox.
"While we ignore those comedians… I wanna remind you all, that FOE over there is still really powerful… At the very least, you all can't win against it right now. For sure." said Oracle warningly to them.
"Wait, that's not good! We won't be able to go any further…" said Panther with a worry look on her face.
"Hey, I just noticed-ain't that big guy's just walking around the same area?" said Skull, pointing out that the huge FOE is walking in circle in the same area.
"Oh, you're right. It is walking around the same area." said Spade as he nodded to Skull.
"Couldn't we, like, slip past him when the coast is clear?" said Skull.
"Ah, that's it! Good job, Skull! You're actually useful sometime." said Oracle happily to Skull.
"SOME times!?" snapped Skull as he scowled at Oracle.
"From the looks of it, this FOE's patrolling a fixed route. Even after checking more closely, I'm still not getting an immediately hostile reading from it… It's possible that it won't act unless ordered by the police." said Oracle, ignoring Skull.
"So it won't chased and attack us unless we make the first move?" said Panther.
"Yep." said Oracle as she nodded to Panther.
"Well then, why don't we observe the FOE's movement for a moment? If we work out it's pattern, we'll surely be able to evade it." said Crow to Jester.
"Alright! The Phantom Thieves are getting sneaky! Let's do this, Jester!" said Skull with an excited look on his face to Jester.
"Skull…" sighed Spade as he shake his head at Skull.
"It'll be quite troublesome if it catches up to us while we're fighting other enemies. Be sure to remain cautious while running away from FOEs." said Fox warningly to Jester.
"Yeah, I know, Fox. Let's go, everyone." said Jester as she nodded to Fox before she and her teammates slowly and cautiously walked down the road while evading the huge FOE that patrol around it's fixed route and they managed to evade it.
"Whew! We managed to slip past that thing…" said Panther in relief to the others.
"To think something like that is wandering around here… What is this place, truly?" sighed Fox.
"Kamoshidaman's city… I believe it was called "Kamo City" by the police officer earlier." said Crow.
"Kamo City, eh… Seriously, what do you think of that name?" asked Skull as he glance at Jester.
"It's a terrible name for the city. It makes me sick and I loathe it, Skull." replied Jester with a cold look on her face at the name of the city.
"Right? Seriously, to hell with a city named after Kamoshida!" growled Skull with an angry look on his face at the name of the city too.
"Kamoshida… If I recall correctly, he's a former teacher at Shujin High, no?" asked Fox as he glance at them.
"Yeah, he was the PE teacher and coach of the volleyball team. A whole lot of students got abused and sexually harassed by him soon after he came to Shujin…" replied Panther with a grim look on her face.
"…Yeah and it wasn't just physical abuse, either. We almost got expelled by him, he make subtle yet lewd advances on Jester and Panther went through an even worse hell… He was the worse piece of shit who saw himself as some kinda king and just did whatever he wanted." said Skull even more angrily to Fox.
"Yeah, what a bastard he is." thought Spade in cold agreement with Skull.
"And neither Queen nor I knew about how bad and corrupted he is to the students because of the principal covering up and keeping us from knowing about it until we saw and heard him confessing his crimes in front of us in the auditorium because of Isamu, Morgana, Ryuji and Ann stealing and changing his distorted heart a few months ago." thought Paladin with a guilty look on his face.
"A criminal with distorted desires-the first target of the Phantom Thieves." said Crow.
"So, that bastard… You're tellin' me he's some sorta superhero here?" said Skull.
"There's just… no way! This can't be happening!" snapped Panther with an angry look on her face.
"I understand how you two feels, but we need to keep out wits about us here. From what I've gathered so far, Kamoshidaman and Kamoshida should be two different people." said Crow calmly to them.
"What leads you to believe so?" said Fox curiously to Crow.
"Remember what Nagi-san told us… How the hero character's appearance changed after we entered the movie?" said Crow.
"Oh yeah, she did say something like that. He wasn't Kamoshidaman before we came here, apparently." said Panther with a small nod of her head.
"So in other words, that "hero of justice" is only assuming the appearance of Kamoshida?" said Fox.
"That's my current working theory." said Crow.
"But… why Kamoshida? That's a totally miscast role. Could it be related to us coming here?" said Panther with a pondering look on her face.
"Well… Jester, what do you think? Are we somehow involved in the movie's hero taking on Kamoshida's appearance?" asked Crow as he glance at Jester.
"I think so too, Crow. It's related." replied Jester as she nodded to Crow.
"Mm, I agree. However, we've too few clues to be able to make that sort of conclusion yet…" said Crow.
"Then all we can do for now is press on." said Fox.
"Right! We gotta hurry up and find those three!" said Skull.
"Yeah-let's get going!" said Panther in agreement with Skull.
"I hope that you're alright, Queen. Same goes for Noir too." thought Paladin worriedly in his mind about both Queen and Noir before they resumed their exploration of the city.