Content Warning: This chapter contains a lot of heavy, disturbing imagery that may be a lot for some readers. Please be advised that this chapter contains the following subjects, which are warned about here to help readers that may have trauma navigate this chapter with preparation:
- Eye trauma/eye gore.
- Blood.
- Physical and verbal abuse, as well as Kamoshida's old behavior.
- Psychosexual imagery involving two cognitive naked people - not too NSFW, but might alarm some.
- A situation that can remind some of abusive parents.
- Body horror including a car crash victim, self-harm with somebody stabbing themself through the chest with a wall spike, and a being that shifts forms rather violently.
- Heavy Lovecraftian unreality/surreality.
- Being hit over the head with a beer bottle.
For anybody who wishes to have a further summary of the chapter's events privately messaged or commented to them instead of reading this chapter, I am very willing and welcome to do so.
With that out of the way, please feast your eyes upon: The Final Palace, the thing I changed up the most in this whole fic.
When Akira says that Mementos is their last Palace, the way to change the heart of the Japanese populace, none of them have any idea that they'll be plunging into the very depths of Hell itself.
It, of course, starts out simple. The place is streaked with a disgusting, lurid red - not the strong, vibrant red that Tohru's used to, the sickly sort of red that makes his eyes hurt and gives him a headache. There are huge, disgusting veins that make up the walls, going all the way down to some unholy thing down below.
Dojima's hand occasionally lands near Tohru's as they plunge deeper into Mementos' core, driving down via Morgana's "cat-bus" form that's gotten them out of many a tough scrape. "It's a Holy Grail they keep mentioning," Akira sighs, "and I'm willing to bet a good amount of Yen that's what we'll have to defeat - but it won't be easy, since they'll probably lay down all sorts of puzzles and such."
"Fuck those puzzles," Yukitaro blurts, and the vehicle they drive in is filled with the Thieves' mirthless laughter. Ryuji runs his hands through his hair and goes "It'll never be as bad as those air-lock puzzles - y'know, in Okumura's Palace."
"But once we're done.." Akira adds, "we won't have to fight any longer."
The vehicle goes silent. There's no conversation for the rest of the ride.
The first "puzzle" they encounter is a strange glowing floor. Akira steps on it and his body goes completely stiff - horrifically so. He is unable to be moved from his spot, staring into the void, eyes wide and full of fear.
"Joker- Joker? JOKER! What's going on!"
His hands begin to shake, and as he unfreezes, stumbling back, something becomes abundantly clear. He's crying.
"Don't.. Don't fucking step on that. Don't," he says, and then stresses it: "Don't."
But there's no other way forward. So, one by one, they step forward.
The minute Ryotaro Dojima steps on it, his vision goes black. When his eyes open again, he's in the rain, a heavy pressure of some kind upon his shoulders. Whispers linger in his ears like the ringing of a too-loud noise.
He stands on a road so familiar that it leaves a dark pit in his stomach - a familiar backdrop to the nightmare he once had each and every night. His heart pounds faster in his chest. It's late at night on this road, and he holds a flashlight in his hand. He stumbles back in the darkness, putting a hand over his mouth to restrain the deluge of sickness that wells up in him.
There's a pool of something warm and sticky pooling at his shoes. When he shines the flashlight on it, it gleams with a dark red hue. The sound of laughter echoes close by him, but when he turns, he sees nothing but a flash of yellow eyes and a figure standing there.
"Go ahead, " the figure - an unfamiliar man smoking a cigarette - urges him.
"Who the FUCK are you? Why are you here? Why are you here where she.. when she.."
The figure laughs . "I'm wearing the face of her killer." Ryotaro charges forward, grabbing him by the neck. A flash of lightning gives Ryotaro a single glint of the man's glasses that's seared into his memory.
The man's yellow Shadow eyes glint with sadistic amusement. " Go ahead, Ryotaro. Go ahead and walk forward. Your wife is waiting for you."
Ryotaro shivers as he steps forward. His feet land in the puddle. His hands tremble with a jittery motion as he keeps walking forward. There's the sound of a twitch - a crack. Pained, labored breathing. "R-Ry.. Ryooo.. taa-aaro.." a broken and beyond strained voice rasps.
Ryotaro puts a hand to his cheek. A stream of tears drips down. It feels as if it pulls his face down, further and further to the image he knows he will find, the image seared into his memory as if it had just happened a minute ago.
He stops when the warm liquid at his feet is at its warmest. "G-God.."
"Do you think that God will listen?" the man laughs. "There is no God here to help you. There is only you. There is only me. There is only her."
Ryotaro looks up at the sky. "D-Don't.. Don't make me look down.. Don't make me see her like that again."
"Look at her."
"No.. I can't bear to see my wife like that.. mangled and slaughtered by that.. that fucking drunk driver.."
"I SAID. LOOK. AT. HER."
Something grabs Ryotaro's ankle and indeed, he looks down.
Chisato Dojima stares up at him. She's dragged her still-breathing and mangled corpse towards him. The corners of her mouth tear open to ensure a proper smile for her husband, even with a broken jaw.
"R-Ryo.. Ryo.. taro.. taro.." she rasps lovingly, a thin strand of blood drooling out of her mouth.
Her face is cracked open, her eyes popping out of her head even as she looks up at him.
And she does not look away. She never, not once looks away.
"Chisato," Ryotaro Dojima sobs, and he looks her in the eye until the skies begin to thunder. He looks up, taking a deep breath in.
"My wife is dead, and I've come to.. come to accept that. Stop puppeting her corpse."
The figure chuckles. "Then look down now," his voice booms.
Ryotaro looks down and sees the frail frame of Nanako when he had almost lost her in that lonely December during the murders, sees the desecrated corpse of Tohru Adachi that he had held in his arms.
Tohru's corpse looks up at him with a blank stare. "You worthless fuck."
Nanako's breathing is slow and beyond pained. She's crying so hard from the pain that her whole body is heaving. "D-Daddy," she sobs, "you lied to me.."
That breaks him.
What Yukitaro sees is a familiar white office. If the volleyball on the desk and the awards on the walls don't seal it in, the name plaque that says Suguru Kamoshida on the desk certainly does.
His heart flies to his throat, his vision beginning to swim as he takes a step back. Akechi appears to be at the door, but he's got a Shadow's eyes. "Yuuki Mishima, right? No way for you to run," the Shadow Akechi mocks.
"You shouldn't be here!"
Shadow Akechi's face takes on an expression all too wrong, and one of his limbs bends at an unnatural angle . "Akechi is the boy you most hate, save for, well.."
Yukitaro - no, Yuuki - feels the presence behind him before he turns to see it. "Mishima! I'm glad you could come to my office. I think we need to have a little talk about your obligations."
Yuuki's hands shake as he turns around. "Haha.. you're fake, right? Just a cognition. It's not like you can hurt me.."
Kamoshida's jaw clenches. He throws a right hook that sends Yuuki crumpling to the floor. "Listen to me, Mishima.. you're just a sack of meat to me. You're just words on a screen. I am the one in control here. No matter how powerful you get, I'll always be there to knock you down."
Yuuki trembles. He's curled up on the floor, tears running from his eyes. The fear and the trauma is gripping his throat, practically ripping it open. "What was it you said? That you'd brand him with your name? Carve out his eye? How far you are from that now!"
"Shut the fuck up... shut the fuck up…!" Yuuki screams.
Kamoshida brings his fists down on the boy, kicking him with a sharp motion that makes him howl with pain. "You've forgotten your place, Mishima. Looks like I'll have to teach you.. where you belong.." he growls.
Yuuki's tears fall down from his face like weights.
It becomes abundantly clear from that point onward that Mementos Depths and its mysterious Palace-holder are not pulling punches.
The next roadblock is when the Depths turn into a maze, separating the Thieves with illusions and trickery. They each find themselves in open areas of stone and pillars, where the Shadow of the person they least want to see waits.
For Tohru, it's Mayumi. She is not peaceful, as she was in death. She is wanton and wild; hair knotted and askew, dark bags under her eyes making her streaks make-up stand out further.
"Adachi.. ADACHI!"
She launches herself at him, sharp fingernails raking down his face. "You DISGUSTING little man, I still had so much more, so much more I wanted to do.. and you took it all away! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, unforgivable wretch.."
Tohru stands there and takes her attack, not moving. "Yumi.. this isn't who you are, you bitch, and we both know it."
Mayumi is panting. " Then what about her?"
That's when Tohru feels the weight of someone yanking him down, slamming a beer bottle over his head.
His vision is dazed, but he knows the face he sees as he falls. Saki Konishi stands before him, looking as she did when she died: face ashen, eyes vivid with fear and rage. "You took my life before it could even begin, you stupid pervert."
"I-I'm sorry," Adachi tries to wheeze, but Saki's foot slams right down onto his face and pins it there. "Sorry? SORRY? THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY?"
"We've got every right to hate you for what you did to us.. to Sae Niijima.. to the small town of Inaba," Mayumi hisses. "This is a part of us. Don't you remember? Shadows are a part of the self.. and they only go berserk when you defy them!"
Tohru looks around at his setting for anything he can do, anything at all. There are long, lethal spikes sticking out of some of the pillars..
While his rational mind screams that he shouldn't do any more irrational, self-harming stunts, Tohru simply doesn't care.
He rolls out of Saki's grasp, standing up and grabbing Mayumi on both sides of her arms. "Look.. there's nothing I can do to atone for killing you both. You're completely justified in hating me for what I've done."
As he talks, he begins to walk her towards one of the spikes. "I ruined your lives. I stole them because I thought I was entitled to them - because I thought I owned you both! It was thoughtless, and selfish.."
So close. He's so close to the spike.
"I can never take back all I said and did. So I know.. you won't listen.. but believe me when I say I regret what I did, all of it, and it came from this place of darkness I know has hurt all kinds of people.. I'm sorry, Mayumi. I loved you then and I love you now."
Saki jumps in front of the two too late. He kisses Mayumi Yamano on the lips and holds her close as he drives her and Saki all the way through the spike, impaling himself in the process.
Their Shadows twitch and disappear as if they had never existed in the first place.
He pulls himself off of the spike, pulling out a healing item and using it. He feels his wounds knit together. "At least it'll make for a cool scar.." he tells himself.
Yukitaro can't help but laugh when he sees Kamoshida's Shadow. The crown upon its head, the heart-decorated cape, even the boxers and slippers it wears - it makes Yukitaro laugh even through the thick tempest of emotions so concentrated he feels like he's the eye of a storm.
"I put you in your place earlier, and I'll do it again.." Kamoshida says, and it only drives Yukitaro's laughter up a notch.
His body shakes with the force of his laughter. By this point, his laughter has grown so out of control that it sounds almost like his father's, when his father had been at the peak of his own madness.
"You controlled me so much because you knew.. I wouldn't run.. or fight back.. or even scream.. and I want you to know that ends now, you pedophilic whore!"
Yukitaro pulls out the magic tome weapon he's fond of using in Mementos. Kamoshida's eyebrow raises. "There's nothing you can do with that. Come on, Yuuki, put down the book and be a good little boy.."
" Yukitaro is my name. Use it. Then again, guess my dad was right. You're such a meathead that you need the lesson beat into you, huh? Or, rather.. branded in. "
Yukitaro raises the tome, chanting as fire spirals around him. In his other hand, he pulls out his chain-sword, holding the tip of the blade to the flame and letting it heat up.
Kamoshida begins to back away. "N-Now, Yuuki- Yukitaro, we can, we can talk this out like civilized gentlemen, I don't have to die.."
"Oh, no, you're not going to die," Yukitaro says in a sickly soft tone. His Persona, Enkidu, appears above him - looming over his shoulders as a marvel of feathers, fur, and muscled flesh. It looks at Kamoshida with nothing short of calculated, venomous triumph.
Yukitaro's grin is wide and sadistic. "It's just like I've said, what feels like over and over.. I will not allow you to die."
And he launches himself forward towards Kamoshida.
The screams of Shadow Kamoshida are so loud that the other Thieves hear it, even, and come rushing over. Shadow Kamoshida's corpse disappears quickly as they get there, but what Akira sees of it is scarred into his memory.
And of course, there's Yukitaro, holding something round and white and bloody in his hand.. Ryuji has to go puke once he realizes what it is.
In Yukitaro's hand sits Shadow Kamoshida's eyeball.
The depths of Mementos are getting more desperate. Before they face the Palace-holder (because they can all sense the massive power down below their feet, where all the power seems to be heading towards), their last hurdle is another trap of illusion.
Indeed, they are mentally thrown into their own worlds of distorted desire.
Tohru Adachi opens his eyes to the familiar sight of his kingdom in the Midnight Channel spread out before him. The sky is a bloody red, as it once was, and the place is a desolate ruin save for what's around him.
It takes a few minutes before he becomes fully aware of his situation.
He sits on a comfortable throne. Incredibly comfortable, actually. He's got a crown on his head, too - he can feel the weight of it, though he can't see it. Both of his hands hold chains - seemingly leashes - that lead all the way down to a sight that goes straight to Tohru's crotch.
Dojima and Mayumi are kneeling in front of him. Both are naked, not a single bit of cloth covering them in their intense, comely glory. Their collars don't detract at all from either of the bodies he's fantasized about in more erotic situations.
"Master.." Mayumi breathes in that same fluttery tone that Tohru thought about often.
Ryotaro stretches a bit - a sight that makes Tohru's breath hitch. "... Your wish is our command."
"Wait, h-hold up," Tohru stutters, "why are you both.."
Ryotaro sighs, his gaze languid and sultry as it stares into Adachi. "Isn't it obvious? We're yours.. and we're perfectly consensual to anything you want to do to us."
"Where's Yukitaro?"
Mayumi's face scrunches up. "Who's... Yukitaro...?"
Tohru looks up to see a figure walking towards him.
It's Takuto Maruki, the man he saw in the memories Philemon gave him. However, this version seems to have the yellow-glint eyes of a Shadow - and is smiling smugly as he walks towards Tohru.
"You're the bitch I saw during that vision of my worst moment, aren't you? You took the form of Namatame."
The Shadow of Takuto Maruki gestures to himself. "Well, yes, I was Namatame earlier, seeing as he is the man you hate the most - but I wanted to see your face once I dressed in the skin of the man you will come to hate even more."
Not-Takuto laughs, and while Takuto himself has a laugh of warmth and love, whatever being is currently wearing his skin had a laughter like a snake's rattling hiss.
Tohru Adachi shoots Not-Takuto the most unimpressed look. "You know, this 'distorted desire' is something I could very easily replicate in this place myself, if I wanted. I can still go there. Whatever you did to replicate it, you fucked up at one thing - it's pretty much my personal Palace, and I can sense everything that's going on in it."
Not-Takuto's face goes still and cold for a single minute, his eyes holding the dull glint of an unused knife. Then, whatever being is wearing Takuto's skin painstakingly, slowly draws Takuto's facial muscles up into an uncanny, taste-of-absinthe grin that looks eerily calm.
"Adachi. I think you're being just a little bit ungrateful."
Tohru has to hand it to Not-Takuto - he's certainly learning what it must have felt like for Yu Narukami to see him at the height of madness just from this one facial expression.
"I don't have to be grateful to you for anything. I didn't explicitly ask you for any of this."
Not-Takuto's eyes sharpen further with that dull, calm anger.
"Really? Not even for the sight of Ryotaro Dojima naked, something I know you've never seen in reality and probably will never see?" One of Not-Takuto's hands goes down to stroke Cognitive Ryotaro's hair in an oddly intimate way. Cognitive Ryotaro, revoltingly enough for Tohru, nuzzles into it.
"Get your hand off of him, or I'll shoot it off."
That makes Not-Takuto bubble up with another burst of snake-rattle laughter, taste-of-absinthe grin growing larger on his face.
"Tohru Adachi, so possessive of his mate that he even defends cognitive versions of him from a stranger's attention.. How amusing you are." True to his word, he removes his hand from Cognitive Ryotaro's head.
"I'm leaving this place, whether you want it or not." He stands up from his throne, throwing the chain-leashes aside. Instantly, Cognitive Ryotaro and Mayumi are grabbing at his legs, looking up at him with desperate, pleading eyes.
"Please," Cognitive Mayumi moans, "we can go back to the way things were before!"
"Adachi.. please.. I need you.." Cognitive Ryotaro's grip tightens.
For a moment, Tohru Adachi really considers staying. His hunger would be eternally satiated, his desires fulfilled.. He shakes his head and looks up at Not-Takuto. "Whatever you're doing to my head, cut it out. You know it only makes me want to escape more."
Not-Takuto cocks his head, eyes glittering with a condescending look that makes Tohru clench his fists. "Tohru Adachi.. You can't trick a god."
Then Not-Takuto pauses, thinking for a second. "Actually, you could perhaps trick a lesser god.. but not me. No, to trick me is heresy, dear boy. You think you're the embodiment of chaos? I've sent emperors wailing at my feet and set scholars to trembling at the mere insinuation of my presence. You would dare deny this desire of yours?"
Tohru Adachi stares into Not-Takuto's eyes, pushing away from the cognitive copies of his lovers. "Now, I don't consider myself experienced enough at dealing with your ilk, but you know what? No."
"No what? "
"I'm not denying this.. this desire I have. I'm just going to escape from this shitty, convenience-store-brand version of it, and going to where I can make my own better version of it."
Not-Takuto's eyes flash with rage as a portal appears behind Tohru Adachi and the illusion begins to dissolve into a mass of black butterflies. As Tohru moves toward the portal, Not-Takuto snarls and reaches out for him. His words are spat with an dissonance so deep and distorted that the reverb makes Tohru's ears ring.
"Tohru Adachi, no matter how much you foster bonds, no matter how many grand plans you improvise on impulse, no matter how high you rise in the strata of the world, it will never be enough, dear boy! You will always become listless, unsatisfied, bored.. you will always become hungry!"
Tohru turns his head back, smirking. "Good," he says, and he walks through the portal.
What the actual Ryotaro Dojima sees is a familiar living room. His daughter Nanako sits at the table, much younger and more innocent. Her mother, Chisato - alive, alive and beautiful - sits next to her.
"Ryotaro.." Chisato hums, "come here. Nanako has something she'd like to show you."
"I made something! Look, Daddy!"
A drawing of the three together. Everybody is wearing flower crowns, a very Nanako touch to add.
Ryotaro blinks back tears unsuccessfully. "It's.. it's beautiful, Nanako. Go hang it on the fridge, ok?" he says, his voice strained.
As Nanako shoots up and runs off to do so, Chisato walks over and wipes away Ryotaro's tears, hugging him. "No need to cry, Ryotaro. You're home."
Her voice is warm, as is her hug - tight and tender, something he had often dreamt of.
He holds her closer. "This isn't real. None.. none of this is."
"Yes, it doesn't exist.. but that doesn't make our love, this moment.. any less real." Chisato rubs Ryotaro's back soothingly, the way she always used to do when he was stressed. "Is she thriving, where you are?"
Ryotaro pulls back, brow furrowing. "Who?"
Chisato stares back. "Nanako."
"She's at high school.. she's doing alright." He puts a hand over his mouth, dragging it down. "I wish I could stay, more than anything else in the world, but.."
"But what?" Chisato's eyes are pleading.
"I can't keep living in the past when doing so would destroy me. And I have other people I need to live for."
"Ryotaro, I'm here, Nanako is here, this is all that matters.."
Ryotaro takes a step back. "You're not her. For a minute, I thought you were. When you asked about her. She would never say that we're all that matters.. she would want me to keep going, for my sake, for Nanako's.."
"Are you sure?" Chisato asks, and she's crying.
The portal opens up behind Ryotaro, and Ryotaro nods.
"Last time I tried to live in the past, Nanako suffered for it. I'm willing to bet she even privately resents me for it - and for good reason. She'll hate me even more if she ever finds out this.. this secret I have, of being a Thief."
"You can live here, where she'll never know.."
"Goodbye, Chisato. I'll love you to the end of my days, but I need to live for more than you, now."
He moves to leave, and Chisato asks: "Is he as loving as me? That man, Adachi, does he please you like I did?"
Ryotaro pauses. "... he is there for me, and for Nanako, in all the ways that count. And though he will never replace you, he will always have a mug at my table and a place in my heart, just like you."
And he leaves.
"No, this isn't what I wanted!"
Yukitaro's voice raises at the two figures sitting across from him: Mayumi Yamano and Taro Namatame. Taro Namatame has a Shadow's eyes, and he looks at Yukitaro with a sickly condescension.
"Yukitaro, my dear son, you're upsetting your mother. Please, calm down."
"Like hell this is my family. The only person here that is is my mother, and the thing sitting across from me isn't my mother - it's a cognition. And I can see your eyes - whatever you are, it's certainly not human."
Not-Taro's teeth grind with rage. "Is that so?"
"Yes. Yes, it is so!"
"You and Tohru have the same hellish stubbornness, are you aware of that?"
Yukitaro nods forcefully. "Stop pretending and start telling me where my real dad is."
Not-Taro takes a deep breath in. "So you would leave this reality, this perfect family that I have so lovingly crafted for you, and you would dare to turn your back on I, your better father, in exchange for an acquitted, murderous rapist? "
"Yeah, I would! I'd do it again, and again and again."
"You would exchange this life for one of such chaos and disorder?"
"Of course!"
"Even with Tohru's hunger? Even with his habit of lashing out to free himself from boredom?"
"Yes! YES!"
"Tell me, boy, how does he treat you? I assure you, I can do better.."
Yukitaro's fists clench so hard his nails dig into his palms. "Stop asking me.. the same question everybody asks.. with such an obvious answer!"
He plucks a salt shaker off of the table and throws it at Not-Taro's head. It makes contact, and Not-Taro begins to bleed. He turns back towards Yukitaro, his eyes leveled and calculated.
Right at that moment, Yukitaro realizes that Not-Taro has neither blinked nor taken small breaths like humans usually do during this whole exchange.
The pupils in Not-Taro's yellow eyes shift to reptilian slits. His voice begins to have an underlying baritone of a reverb that sounds like nothing Yukitaro has ever heard out of a normal Shadow. "I am going to keep you here and you will learn to like it, you foolish boy, or I will peel off the skin of the man responsible for conceiving you, piece by piece."
"Fuck you," Yukitaro replies, and he takes off running.
He finds himself stopping, trying to maneuver around walls and railings and stairs of borderline Lovecraftian design.
Not-Taro's voice booms like a disgusting symphony - "You, boy, cannot run for long - even death cannot outpace me!"
Yukitaro can also hear the cracking of bones, the strange sounds of flesh bending and tearing, and it scares him more effectively than anything else. "Shit, I need to go, I need to escape.."
And then, in a pulse of crystal-blue butterflies and understanding, there appears a portal before him, an outstretched hand..
"This is not the first time I have saved one of your family, Yukitaro, and it will not be the last," Philemon sighs. His eyes are understanding, and when Philemon takes a breath, Yukitaro's reassured.
"Come, Moon. Come, and I shall lead you away from the great evil that so often likes to ensnare people in his grasp."
"Where are you, boy? I'm coming for you…" Not-Taro's voice growls.
Yukitaro takes Philemon's hand, and Philemon leads him away.
When Yukitaro, Tohru, and Ryotaro converge once more, they appear differently. Ryotaro is the first to appear, falling onto his face from the portal and pulling himself back up. He grunts, rubbing his face as he hears a fluttering noise.
He looks up to see a mass of blue butterflies parting and the sound of Yukitaro's laughter. Philemon's hand remains outstretched as he helps Yukitaro out of the portal. Yukitaro himself has a little blue hat and a wide smile on his face.
Philemon grins back. "Hopefully, Yukitaro, dear Moon, I have helped ease your mind."
"Thank you for the hat, and letting me explore that Velvet Room, and the little notebook and.. and everything!" Yukitaro's hands flap with excitement, his face looking cheerful.
"It is of no concern. I will see you soon, someday.."
And Philemon is gone.
Ryotaro blinks. "What was that? For that matter, we've got the others, where's Dev-"
Tohru literally comes flying out of another portal, his body slamming against one of the pillars like a limp ragdoll. Ryotaro runs over to comfort him, but Tohru Adachi shakily holds up a thumbs up. "I lived! Fuck it all, I lived!"
To behold the very thing they've been searching for, the thing they've wanted to fight against, is a terrifying sight.
The Holy Grail, the thing they've been hearing of from the others going into Mementos Depths. It's a massive thing, alive and breathing. They can hear its arcane heartbeat, feel its power pulsing through every part of these depths. It's a literal chalice, gilded down to the brim and covered in churning clockwork.
Akira clears his throat, staring up at the thing with anger in his eyes. "Are you the being responsible for the hell we just underwent, those visions?"
The Depths of Mementos boom: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THOSE.
"Are you lying to us?"
The hint of fear in its voice alarms the Thieves as it repeats again, more urgently: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THOSE.
"Well, it doesn't matter. We're going to take you down, no matter what.. Say your prayers."
There's a grueling fight that ensues - no matter what the Thieves do, there's not a scratch they can inflict on that towering Grail. Its laughter is solemn, its statements nihilistic: GIVE INTO IGNORANCE. ACCEPT YOUR FAILURE. AWAY. AWAY.
One by one, the Thieves seem to be forced out of Mementos, forced out of the Metaverse entirely - into the streets of Shibuya. The sky seems to be thick with anger, turning red and livid. Bones begin to grow out of the ground, the world thrown into chaos..
"Shit," Yukitaro hisses, "Mementos is fusing with the real world.. and nobody else is noticing!"
He grabs his head suddenly, his head pounding as he falls to his knees. "What's.. happening.."
The others follow suit, and it's Ryuji that notices the thing that tops it all off.
"Guys.. g-guys?" he says, and the Thieves turn to look at him through their blinding pain.
He lifts up a disappearing hand.
Whatever the Holy Grail is, this seems to be its last act of revenge, a twist of the knife.
It's erasing the Phantom Thieves from cognition altogether.
Author's Note: ... man, what a firecracker of a chapter, huh?
Next update is on Valentine's Day, and it's going to be even more of a doozy. As a wise man once said: "Get excited."
Best of luck to you all readers. As always, your viewership intrigues me, your comments delight me and this story is written in part for myself, but also for you all.
Thank you guys for sticking with me on this wild journey. I'll be sure to finish this fic up right.
