"Look! It's the castle from yesterday!" exclaimed Ryuji in a loud and triumph tone of voice to both Keiko and Mallory before he run forward through the wooden drawbridge (with Keiko and Mallory running and following after him), came to a stop in front of the castle's entrance and take a look at the surroundings around them. "We made it back… That means what happened yesterday was for real too… Yeargh!" said Ryuji before he turned around to glance at Keiko and Mallory and suddenly let out a yell and stagger back a few steps with a shock look on his face (which make Keiko and Mallory jumped a little before they glance at him).
"What is it now, Sakamoto-kun? Suddenly yelling out like that?" said Keiko in slight exasperation at Ryuji (who's still staring at her in shock silence now) while Mallory turned to glance at Keiko and gasped in shock too. "First Sakamoto-kun, then you, Maly? What's wrong with you two?" said Keiko as she glance back and forth at Mallory and Ryuji.
"Keiko! Your clothes!" said Mallory as she raised and pointed a finger at her clothes.
"My clothes?" said Keiko in confusion to Mallory before she glance down at her clothes and gasped in shock when she saw that she's now wearing her alternate outfit instead of her school uniform. "What the? When did my uniform change to this, Maly?" said Keiko even more in confusion now.
"How do I know when it change, Keiko?" said Mallory with a shake of her head.
"That happened last time too, huh!? What's with that outfit!?" asked Ryuji.
"I don't know, Sakamoto-kun!" replied Keiko with a shake of her head before she glance at Ryuji. "Why? You jealous or something?" Keiko added teasingly to him.
"I-I ain't jealous!" said Ryuji in denial at her words. "What's goin' on here!? This makes no effin' sense at all…"
"Hey!" a familiar voice suddenly called out to Keiko, Mallory and Ryuji from their left and when they turned to see who is it that called out to them, they saw that it's the cat-thing named Morgana as he came walking out from behind a corner of the castle toward them and stopped in front of them. "Stop making a commotion outside the castle and it's nice to see you again, Madame Keiko. Same goes for your friend too." said Morgana sternly to Ryuji then softly to both Keiko and Mallory.
"Yeah, nice to see you too, Morgana." said Keiko as she smiled at him (while holding back her inner urge to picked Morgana up and cuddle him).
"Ah… You!?" said Ryuji in surprise at Morgana.
"What are you doing here?" asked Mallory.
"The Shadows started acting up, so I came here wondering what it could be, and it turns out to be you three… To think you three would come back to the entrance when you three barely managed to escape yesterday." replied Morgana as he crossed his arms.
"What is this place?… Is it the school?" asked Ryuji.
"That's right." replied Morgana as he nodded to Ryuji.
"But it's a castle!" yell Ryuji in disbelief to Morgana.
"Pipe down, Sakamoto-kun!" snapped Keiko as she scowled at Ryuji for yelling.
"Yeah, be quiet!" snapped Mallory as well.
"This castle IS the school… But only to this castle's ruler." explained Morgana.
"The castle's ruler…?" said Ryuji in confusion to Morgana.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Mallory.
"You must mean Kamoshida, am I right, Morgana?" said Keiko.
"Yes, you're right, Madame Keiko!" replied Morgana as he smiled at her before he explained even more to both Mallory and Ryuji. "This castle is how his distorted heart views the school."
"Kamoshida… Distorted…? Explain it in a way that makes sense!" muttered Ryuji even more in confusion at Morgana's words before he scowled and demanded Morgana to explain clearly to him, Keiko and Mallory.
"I shouldn't have expected a moron to get it…" said Morgana as he glance at Ryuji with an unimpressed look on his face.
"At least you got that right about Sakamoto." thought Mallory in agreement in her mind.
"What'd you say!?" yell Ryuji as he glared down at Morgana.
Suddenly, a loud and painful scream of a guy came out from within the castle, which make Keiko, Mallory and Ryuji jumped in surprise before they glance at the castle.
"What was that!?" asked Ryuji.
"It must be the slave captives here." replied Morgana.
"Slave captives?" said Mallory with a shock look on her face.
"For real!?" said Ryuji, shocked as well before they heard another loud and painful scream of another guy. "Oh, shit… it's for real! We saw other guys held captive here in the dungeons yesterday… I'm pretty sure they're from our school." added Ryuji grimly to Keiko, Mallory and Morgana.
"Yeah, you may be right, Sakamoto-kun." said Keiko as she nodded his head in grim agreement at Ryuji.
"Most likely on Kamoshida's orders. It's nothing out of the ordinary; it's like that every day here." stated Morgana firmly to them before he glance at Keiko. "What's more, you three escaped yesterday. He must have lost his temper quite a bit."
"So he decided to ordered those knight minions of his to punish those prisoners just because we make him mad by escaping from him and his castle yesterday?" said Mallory in anger at Kamoshida for punishing them.
"Yep, exactly as you say, Miss Mallory." said Morgana as he nodded at Mallory.
"That son of a bitch…!" swored Ryuji in anger at Kamoshida as well.
"Ryuji…?" said Morgana as he glance in concern at Ryuji.
"… This is bullshit!" yell Ryuji before he charge toward the front door and rammed his shoulder against it to try to break it open but to no avail. "You hear me, Kamoshida!?" yell Ryuji for the second time at the castle.
"Sakamoto-kun! Stop it!" said Keiko with a worry look on her face.
"Keiko's right, Sakamoto. You'll only hurt yourself if you do that again." said Mallory.
"Yeah, you should listen to Madame Keiko and Miss Mallory, also doing that isn't going to open it, you know… Still, it seems you have your reasons." said Morgana sadly to Ryuji.
"Hey, Monamona!" said Ryuji loudly to Morgana as he turned around to glance and approach him.
"It's Morgana!" snapped Morgana in bristling anger at Ryuji as he corrected him for saying the wrong name to him.
"Do you know where those voices are comin' from…?" asked Ryuji as he ignored Morgana's words to him.
"You want me to take you to them?" said Morgana apprehensively at Ryuji before he glance at Keiko. "… Well, I guess I could take and guide you there. But only if Madame Keiko comes with us."
"Huh? Why?" said Mallory in confusion to Morgana.
"Because I want to get a better look at her power. Also even if Madame Keiko doesn't agree, I bet this guy'll go on even if he has to do it alone. Are you and Madame Keiko gonna leave him?" said Morgana as he glance at Mallory.
"Of course not. And count me in too if you want her to go with you." said Mallory.
"Maly… Very well then. Let's go." said Keiko as she nodded to Morgana.
"It's settled then!" said Morgana as he briefly jumped up in excitement.
"For real!?… Thanks, girls." said Ryuji as he smiled quite widely and in relief at Keiko, Mallory and Morgana.
"All right, let's do this. Follow me!" said Morgana excitedly to Keiko, Mallory and Ryuji before he turned around and run off and they run after him.
Morgana brought Isamu, Akira and Ryuji back to the opened ventilation shaft that they crawled through to escape the castle yesterday and they stopped right below it before Morgana turned around to glance at them. "This is our infiltration point." Morgana told them.
"Ain't that where we escaped outta last time…?" said Ryuji.
"That's right. Not barging in through the entrance is one of the basics of phantom thievery." replied Morgana.
"How're we supposed to know about that stuff…?" said Ryuji.
"Well, now we do know thanks to Morgana telling us about it, Sakamoto." said Mallory sarcastically at Ryuji.
"I'll make sure to teach you 3 as we go. Come on, follow me!" said Morgana coolly to them as he turned around, jumped onto a barrel then jumped again onto the ventilation shaft before he crawl through it and into the castle.
Keiko, Mallory and Ryuji turned to glance and nodded to each other before Keiko jumped up onto the ventilation shaft first, grabbed the edge of it with her hands before she pull herself up until she's crouching on it then she turned and hold out her hand to both Mallory and Ryuji for them to grab on.
Mallory jumped first, raised her hand and grab hold of Keiko's hand and she helped pulled her up, let Mallory crawl past her through the shaft before she hold out her hand to Ryuji, who quickly jumped and raised his hand to grab hold of hers and Keiko pulled him up, let him crawl past her as well before she crawl after him, jumped out of the shaft and they soon find themselves back inside the bookshelves room with Morgana.
"Man, this place is as creepy as always." said Ryuji as he and Mallory look around the room.
"Mm-hm." said Morgana as he nodded his head in agreement to Ryuji. "Now, you all better make sure to do exactly as I said, all right? Follow me!" Morgana added firmly to them before he run out of the room, turned right and run down a hallway. Keiko, Mallory and Ryuji run out of the room, turned right and run down the hallway after Morgana back into the large ballroom.
"Hey, you guys…" said Ryuji suddenly to Keiko, Mallory and Morgana and they stopped walking and turned around to glance at him.
"Yes? What is it now, Sakamoto-kun?" said Keiko.
"Well, we went by here when we came in the front…" replied Ryuji before he trailed off into silence when he (and also Keiko, Mallory and Morgana) saw the large ballroom briefly warped and change into the front entrance of the school then change back into the large ballroom. "What the…!? I was seein' double or something just now…! Was that Shujin!?" exclaimed Ryuji with a surprise look on his face before he glance at both Keiko and Mallory.
"Yeah, that was Shujin for a moment, Sakamoto-kun." said Keiko while Mallory nodded silently to him.
"I've told you all a few minutes ago. This place is your school. Regardless, we don't have the time to stand around. Who knows when a Shadow might show up. Come on, this way!" explained Morgana before he told them to keep moving and they quickly run toward a door, opened it and found themselves inside a narrow room with a spiral staircase leading down.
Keiko, Mallory, Ryuji and Morgana run down the spiral staircase to the bottom of it, run through a door back into the large underground dungeon place (where they and the others were locked in yesterday) before they turned to their right, run toward an opened metallic door and they quickly came to a stop and hide behind some wooden crates when they saw one of the knight Shadows patrolling back and forth on the pathway near the lifted wooden bridge far in front of them.
"Darn… I had a feeling there would be guards here… It looks like we won't be able to avoid conflict from this point forward." said Morgana in slight exasperation to them.
"F-For real…?" said Ryuji.
"So what do we do now?" said Mallory.
"Oh well, I'll just teach you the basic of battles right now, Madame Keiko. So listen well and remember it well. As a rule of thumb, try to ambush as many enemies as you can. Attack them from behind whenever possible. You need to rip off their masks to momentarily break the control the Palace ruler has over them. If you succeed, the enemy will be caught off guard, allowing us to jump in for a preemptive attack." Morgana told and explain to Keiko.
"Okay, got it, Morgana." said Keiko as she nodded to Morgana.
"So we wanna ambush 'em and go for the first strike… All right, I got it too!" said Ryuji excitedly to Morgana.
"Uh, you know you and Miss Mallory are just going to be watching, right? You two can't use Personas…" said Morgana to both Mallory and Ryuji (who sighed in dismay unison). "Anyway, let's go, Madame Keiko!" Morgana added to Keiko when they saw the knight shadow turned around and began walking the other way.
"Of course!" said Keiko to Morgana as they stood up, run out from their hiding place and away from Mallory and Ryuji, run toward the knight shadow and Keiko jumped up and landed on the shoulders of the knight shadow (which surprises him) and she grabbed hold of his mask.
"Reveal your true form to me!" declared Keiko firmly to the knight as she forcefully ripped his mask away from his face before she jumped away from him, landed on the ground and watched as the knight started shaking then burst apart in the same shower of black and red liquid and reveal 2 of the same floating pumpkin-things.
"Now's our chance to strike first, Madame Keiko! Go!" said Morgana.
"Hmph, you guys again? This'll be a piece of cake." said Keiko mockingly at the 2 floating pumpkin-things before she summoned forth Arsene and uses Eiha skill to finish off one of them. As Keiko fought and finish off one of them, Morgana summoned forth Zorro and uses Garu to finish off the other one. After both Keiko and Morgana fought and finish off the 2 floating pumpkin-things, they felt their power, HP and SP levels increase a little before Keiko turned to glance at both Mallory and Ryuji.
"The coast is clear now, you guys. You guys can come out now." Keiko told them and they nodded to her before they came out from their hiding place and approach her and Morgana.
After Mallory and Ryuji joined up with Keiko and Morgana, they then run across the drawbridge and into the short hallway with 2 dungeon rooms on both sides of them and stopped when they saw the prisoner guys wearing sport outfits locked and lying inside the dungeon rooms is no longer inside the rooms.
"Why ain't anyone here…?" said Ryuji as he glance at the empty dungeon room in confusion before he turned to scowled at Morgana. "Dammit, they were in here before! Where'd they go!?" snapped Ryuji angrily at Morgana.
"Quiet down!" Morgana snapped back at Ryuji.
"The most likely situation is that Kamoshida must have ordered his knight minions to take and moved them somewhere else or to the deeper level of this dungeon place, Sakamoto-kun." said Keiko grimly to Ryuji.
"Then that's where we should head to now!" said Ryuji before he run swiftly past Keiko, Mallory and Morgana and down the hallway away from them.
"Sakamoto! Stop!" Mallory called out to him but he didn't answer back and didn't stop. "God, that impulsive fool…" said Mallory as she raised her hand to scratch her head in exasperation at Ryuji.
"Come on, we should go after…" said Keiko to Mallory and Morgana before she trailed off into silence when they heard the sounds of running footsteps coming back toward them, turned and saw that it's Ryuji.
"Crap, guys! I can hear footsteps comin'! Lots of 'em!" said Ryuji worriedly to them.
"Darn! It would be a problem if they discovered us now…" said Morgana before he turned, walked toward and stop in front of a wooden door next to the empty dungeon room on the left side of the hallway. "Hey, let's head into this room. We should be able to hide in there until they leave." Morgana added to Keiko, Mallory and Ryuji before they opened the door, went into a room (that had a wooden rectangular table with 4 chairs around the table, a wooden bed standing against the right corner of the wall with several wooden shelves and a flame chandelier hanging on the ceiling) and Keiko quickly closed the door behind them.
"The Shadows probably won't come in here." said Morgana reassuringly to them.
"How can you tell?" asked Ryuji slightly tiredly to Morgana.
"There's a lack of distortion here, meaning the ruler's control over this area is weak." explained Morgana.
Soon after Morgana explain to Keiko, Mallory and Ryuji, they watched with surprise looks on their faces as the room briefly warped and change to an empty classroom then change back again.
"Woah, you're right, Morgana." said Keiko.
"Is this a classroom…!?" said Ryuji.
"Now do you three understand?" said Morgana. "This place is another reality that the ruler's heart projects."
"This is Kamoshida's reality…? Shit makes no sense at all!" said Ryuji in confusion to Morgana.
"One could say it's a world in which one's distorted desires have materialized. I call such a place a "Palace"." Morgana explained further to them.
"A "Palace"?" asked Mallory in confusion to Morgana now.
"This is happening because he thinks the school is his own castle." replied Morgana.
"So, it became like this 'cause he just thought of it like that!?" said Ryuji before he briefly laugh bitterly then clench his fists in anger. "That son of a bitch!" yell Ryuji angrily at Kamoshida.
"You must really hate this Kamoshida guy." said Morgana.
"Hate doesn't even cover how I feel. Everything is that asshole's fault!" said Ryuji angrily to Morgana.
"Calm down, Sakamoto-kun." said Keiko calmly to Ryuji and he slowly calm down.
"I don't know what happened between you two, but don't let your emotions get the better of you. His lackeys are everywhere." said Morgana calmly to Ryuji as well before he glance at Keiko. "You're curious about you outfit, aren't you?" Morgana asked Keiko.
"Yeah, me and Caelum are curious as hell about it too." said Ryuji as he and Mallory glance at Keiko's outfit.
"That's also because of this world." said Morgana.
"Because of this world?" said Keiko with a confused look on his face.
"More stuff that makes no sense…" said Ryuji as he leaned his back against the wall.
"Anything distorts according to how a ruler pleases within his Palace." Morgana explained further to them. "A school can turn into a castle like this, after all. In order to prevent such distortions, one must hold a powerful will of rebellion. Your appearance is a manifestation of that. It's the image of rebellion that you hold within."
"Oh, that explains it." said Keiko as she nodded in understanding to Morgana.
"Uuugh, I'm so fed up with all this "distortion" and "rebellion" thing! I'm more curious about you than her change of clothes! What the hell are you anyways!?" said Ryuji in frustration to Morgana before he bluntly asked him about himself.
"I'm a human- an honest-to-god human!" Morgana snapped at Ryuji.
"No, you're obviously a cat!" said Ryuji.
"A very cute cat." thought Isamu mischievously in her mind.
"This is, well… It's because I lost my true form… I think." said Morgana as he lowered his head to look down sadly.
"You think?" asked Ryuji.
"But I do know how to regain my true form." replied Morgana. "The reason why I snuck in here was for a preliminary investigation of those means. Well, I ended up getting caught by his lackeys though… Besides, I've been tortured by Kamoshida too! I'm gonna make him pay for sure!" added Morgana as he look away then look back at them in anger at Kamoshida for torturing him.
"What is this, a comic book? This is seriously crazy…" said Ryuji in slight exasperation to himself and to Keiko and Mallory.
"If we're gonna keep going, we should hurry along." said Morgana before he glance at Keiko. "I'll be counting and helping you on fighting this time too, Madame Keiko. Is that alright?" asked Morgana.
"Of course it's alright, Morgana." replied Keiko softly to Morgana.
"Are you sure about this, Keiko?" asked Morgana in concern to Keiko.
"Well, we're in here now, aren't we?" replied Keiko.
"Don't worry, we're not gonna force it all on you. I thought it might help, so…" said Ryuji before he pull out a handgun from his pants pocket.
"Sakamoto-kun, that's…!" gasped Keiko in shocked (same goes for Mallory) at seeing Ryuji taking and holding out a handgun to her.
"It's fine, Amamiya! I brought this just in case! It's a model gun though, so it only makes sounds!" added Ryuji reassuringly to Keiko.
"That's a toy gun!" said Morgana.
"But it looks totally real, so it'll at least fake em' out." said Ryuji as he glance at Morgana then glance back to Keiko. "I brought some medicine, too. You know what they say: "Providin is pre… something". Huh? Huh?"
"Very well then, Sakamoto-kun." sighed Keiko as she took the gun and the medicines from Ryuji.
"So you were planning this from the start… Well, fine. If you all are ready to go, we'll resume our infiltration." said Morgana as he shake his head at Ryuji before he told them that they're all ready to go on.
Once Keiko, Mallory, Ryuji and Morgana are sure that the knights are gone (and they also overheard that the knights had taken the prisoners to a training hall place), they cautiously came out of the room, turned to their left to run down the hallway, saw a knight shadow standing guard in front of a cell door and Morgana began explaining to them about security levels of Palaces before both Keiko and Morgana charge toward the knight shadow and take him down with their Personas and weapons.
After Keiko and Morgana take down the knight shadow, they then opened the cell door, went down another hallway and walked down several staircases, saw and take down another knight shadow standing guard in front of another door with the handgun that Ryuji gave to her (and which make Morgana explain the basic of Gun Attacks, Party Tactics, Skill Selection Assistance and Rush Mode to Keiko) before they resumed on walking down the hallway, met and take down some more knight shadows patrolling the hallway (and level up a little more), walk across a drawbridge to the other side of the hallway, saw another knight shadow standing guard in front of another door and Morgana explain a special battle basic to Keiko called "All-Out Attack" before they charge toward the knight shadow, knock it down before they jumped and started attacking the knight shadow swiftly from all sides and finish it off (which shocked and amazed both Mallory and Ryuji when they saw it).
After both Keiko and Morgana take down the knight shadow, they opened the door, saw that they're inside the large training hall place, walked across another drawbridge and they soon saw with sadness, horror and anger looks on their faces (specifically Ryuji) at the terrible sight of the knight shadows beating and abusing the young guys wearing sports uniforms. Both Keiko and Mallory try their best to calm and restrained Ryuji as he began yelling and cursing loudly at Kamoshida and his knights for beating and abusing the sports guys (even after Morgana told him that they're cognitive beings instead of real peoples).
After a short while, Ryuji finally calm down and both Keiko and Mallory released him and he thanked them for it before he decided to memorized the faces of the abused guys clearly in his mind since the camera apps on their phones are down. After he's done memorizing all of their faces, Keiko, Mallory, Ryuji and Morgana then turned around and quickly make their way up and out of the large dungeon place.