Inside the castle...
After Joker, Countess, Skull, Mona and Panther entered the castle via the opened ventilation shaft, they cautiously make their way out of the room, went down several hallways and closed rooms, fought off the knight Shadows that patrols the hallways and opened treasure chests to obtain the items within until they arrived and went into the first safe room that they found a day ago before Panther awaken to her Persona.
"Hey, what's with this room!?" asked Panther in a surprise tone of voice to them when she saw the room briefly warped and change between a classroom and a safe room.
"It's a gap in the cognition. A safe room, if you will." Mona answer and explain to Panther.
"Yeah, still not getting it." said Panther in slight confusion to Mona.
"Right? Uhhh, I'm still a little fuzzy on the details, but I think it's some kinda spot where Shadows can't find us." said Skull as he scratch his head in slight confusion.
"Yeah, that's about right from you, Skull." said Countess as she nodded at Skull.
"Huh… I didn't think a place like this existed in here. So what do we do in this "safe room"?" asked Panther.
"Well, Mona told us that this safe room is a place where we take our breaks and discuss on what we do and go next and what battle strategy we use on Shadows to take them down easily, Panther." replied Joker.
"Huh, a place for plotting and resting… Those are important details to know about. I guess I'll rest for a bit too then. Let me know when we're ready to move out, Joker." said Panther to Joker before they all decided to sit down on the chairs and couches in the safe room and take a short break and Mona remember and gave Joker a Stamina kit S item and explain to her that it's for curing exhaustion.
After they had their short break, they leave the room, turned left and went down a hallway, opened a door and they found themselves standing in a circular tower room with a destroyed staircase that prevented them from going up before Mona take out and strapped a grappling hook device around Joker's left wrist and explain about how to use it to her.
Joker listen attentively to Mona's explanation about the grappling hook before she open fired and hook it quite expertly on a chain on the destroyed staircase and bring herself, Countess, Mona, Skull and Panther up and they landed on the top part of the staircase that's still intact and in one piece (and make her teammates giving her proud words of praise) before they turned and went down another hallway and Joker opened the door and they found themselves inside a large dining room that had 2 long rectangular white cloth tables with dozens of chairs around it, plates of foods, drinks and lighted candles on the table, a large fireplace with a huge chunk of meat hanging on a thin metal pole being roasted by the fire, porcelain vases, wooden barrels and crates scattered around the place while Shadow knights walked back and forth in the dining room.
"We haven't explored past here yet, Joker. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious as we push on." said Mona cautiously to Joker.
"Right, Mona." said Joker as she and the others rushed forward and fought off the knight shadows in the room before they could noticed them. After they took them down, Joker decided to uses her new "Third Eye" skill to look around the room for any hidden treasures, spotted 3 particular glowing yellow barrels and crates hidden among the barrels and crates and she break them open, obtain "Strange Lantern", "Dull Sword" and "Onyx" items before they left the room, went down another hallway, break 2 volleyball and short vase to obtain "Crushed Shield" and "Silver Cutlery" items, went up a spiral staircase and down another hallway, fought and gained 3 new Personas (Agathion, Cait Sith and Silky) and the "Holey Helmet" and "Devil fruit" items before they stepped into a large room which had a large pillar and metal bars cage in the middle of the room with only a table inside the cage that had a piece of paper lying on it.
"Look, Joker! There's something in there!" said Skull as he raised his hand to pointed at the paper on the table inside the cage.
"Yeah, we can see that, Skull. But how are we going to get it with this cage around it?" said Countess.
"If he's protecting it this securely, it has to be important. That means there should be a way in and out of this cage." said Mona before he glance at Joker. "Joker, do you think you can solve the mystery of this room? I'm sure your observation skills will help you get through!" added Mona to Joker.
"Alright, leave it to me, everyone." said Joker as she uses the "Third Eye" skill to look around the room, saw a trail of glowing blue footprints on the floor and she followed the footprints (with the others following behind her), which leads them toward 2 black goat heads levers hanging on 2 different pillars and Joker grab and pull the 2 levers down, which caused the bars of the cage to rise up and opened the cage.
"Whoa… You're amazing." said Skull in surprise and awed at Joker for solving the mystery of the cage.
"Yeah and how do you know that these 2 black goat head levers can opened the cage, Joker?" asked Countess curiously at Joker.
"That's a secret, Countess." replied Joker. "You guys won't believe me even if I told you guys about the skill that Igor gave me before we infiltrate the castle." added Joker in her mind.
"As expected of you, Joker." said Mona proudly at Joker before they approach the table and glance down at the paper lying on it.
"It's a map, everyone. But this map is only showing half of the castle's interior. The other half must be hidden somewhere else. Here, Countess, keep this half of the map safe in your coat and don't lose it." said Joker as she take, folded and handed the map to Countess (who nodded as she take and tucked the map safely in her coat).
"What the hell? He had it all locked up and shit, but it was to protect some old map…?" said Skull in slight annoyance to them.
"You're hopeless, Skull… Don't you realise how vital a map is?" said Mona as he shake his head at Skull (who scowled at Mona) before he glance at Joker. "But now that we've found and obtain half of the castle's map, it'll give us a better grasp of the topography of the Palace. It's a true necessity for a phantom thief. This should make securing a route to the Treasure much easier." Mona said and explain to Joker.
"Wait, does it say where the Treasure is on there?" asked Panther.
"No, it didn't, Panther. Which means that the other half of the map shows where the Treasure is located." replied Joker sadly to Panther.
"Mkay, let's leave and start checkin' what we can. We'll prolly find another map along the way somewhere." said Skull to them before they left the room, went down another hallway and they stepped into the second floor balcony of the large foyer room before they jumped from the balcony onto the chandeliers hanging on the ceiling one by one until they jumped and landed on the balcony on the other side, went into a room, saw and opened a glowing treasure chest on a table with a lockpick (that Mona gave to Joker before he ask her to make some new ones tomorrow) and obtain "Gold Breastplate shirt", "Onyx" and "Pearl" items inside the chest before they went into the second safe room to take another short break then they leave the safe room, went down several more hallways and entered more rooms, fought some more knight shadows (and Joker gained a new Kelpie persona from among them), went up another spiral staircase to the next floor and went down another hallway before they stepped into a small library room.
"Hm? This book seems different from the rest." thought Joker as she take and inspect one of the books (that had the words "The Slave Book" on the cover that stands out among the other books.
"The Slave Book, huh…? That sounds kind of important…" said Mona.
"More like suspicious, Mona." said Countess.
After Joker take the Slave Book from the bookshelf, she, Countess, Skull, Mona and Panther then left the small library room, went down some more hallways and fought some more knight shadows (which caused Countess, Panther and their Personas to level up and learn new "Sukunda" and "Dormina" skills), gained more items, entered 2 more small libraries and Joker take 2 more books from the bookshelves within the 2 rooms (The Queen Book and The King Book) before they left, went down another hallway and went into a larger library room.
"Whoa, this library is much more musty than the previous 3 libraries that we went into." said Panther as she covered her nose and mouth from inhaling the dust particles floating in the air.
"Yeah, I agreed." xaid Countess in agreement with Panther.
"A bigger library, huh? This definitely seems fishy." said Mona.
"Whaddya mean?" asked Skull.
"Come on, it's a bigger library in a castle. There has to be some kind of secret mechanism in here. Let's look around, Joker." Mona suggested to Joker.
"Alright, let's check this library out, everyone." said Joker as she nodded to Mona before they began inspecting the books on the bookshelf.
"Hm… some of these books on this shelf seems familiar…" said Countess as she pull out a random book, opened and glance at it and her eyes widened in shock at what she just saw and read inside the book. "Hey, Skull! This book has the names of the volleyball team members in it!" said Countess to Skull.
"W-What!?" yell Skull before he rushed forward to glance down at the book in Countess's hands and widened his eyes in shock too. "Shit! You're right, Countess!" added Skull before he glance at the other books on the shelf and saw that they're all about the boys in their school. "Wait, what the hell!? All of the titles are boys from our school!" exclaimed Skull.
"Ryuji Sakamoto: The Vulgar Ape", "Mishima Yuuki: The Cowardly Boy". There's two here for Mishima and Skull." said Mona.
"That bastard! Who the hell does he think he is!?" growled Skull angrily at Kamoshida.
"Wait, Joker. Didn't you found and bring 3 books earlier? What if we try inserting the books you bring into the empty space of the bookshelves. Maybe something will change if we put it on the shelf." suggested Panther to Joker (who nodded before she put the Slave book into the empty space among the books on the bookshelf then they turned and approach another bookshelf).
"There are all sorts of books here… The titles don't have any rhyme or reason to them." said Panther before she noticed one of the books had a familiar name on it. "Huh? This book… had Shiho's name in the title… Wait… it's not just this one! All of the books here are about female students…!" added Panther to the others as her eyes widened in shock.
"Ann Takamaki: The Charming Doll. "Mallory Caelum: The Feisty Bitch". "Keiko Amamiya, The Beautiful Angel". Holy shit…" said Skull as he widened his eyes in shock as well.
"What the heck is this!?" yell Panther as she glared in disgust at the bookshelf filled with the names of female students in Shujin Academy while Joker and Countess (who's also as angry and disgust like Panther after they saw the book) put the Queen's Book inside the empty space among the books on the bookshelf before they went on toward another bookshelf to their left.
"Let's see… "The History of Kamoshida"… "Tracing Kamoshida's Steps"… "Kamoshida's heroisms"… "Kamoshida's Law…? What the hell!? All these goddamn books are about Kamoshida!" said Skull incredulously to them before Joker put the King's book inside the final empty space among the books on the bookshelf then they heard the sound of clicking, turned and saw the middle bookshelf moved inward then moved behind the bookshelf next to it to reveal a small, hidden altar room similar to the one Panther was held in a day ago.
"Whoa, it opened up!?" said Skull as he glance in shock at the hidden altar room.
"Nice work in bringing, using and putting those 3 books to fill up the empty spaces on the bookshelves to reveal and opened the hidden room, Joker." said Countess proudly to Joker.
"I agreed with Countess, Joker! Let's take a look inside!" said Mona as he smiled happily at Joker before they went toward and into the hidden room.
As they stepped into the room, they look around and saw with shock, anger and disgust looks on their faces at the dozens of humiliating pictures of Shiho plastered on and all over the wall with a large portrait of Kamoshida hanging on the wall among the pictures of Shiho (while there's also a wooden cross shackle and torture devices, wooden crates, barrels, lighted candles, pink rose petals on the floor).
"Ugh… The hell is this room? There're tons of picture of Suzui in here! Wait… It's all pics of her…?" said Skull incredulously to them (while Panther had a despair look on her face when she saw the pictures of Shiho on the wall).
"Ugh, just when we thought Kamoshida couldn't get anymore disgusting…" muttered Countess with a disgust look on her face.
"Are you alright, Panther? Don't you worry, we'll make him pay for this." said Joker as she glance consolingly to Panther.
"Yeah… Definitely. I feel even more motivated to do this now… Thanks, Joker." said Panther gratefully and determinedly to Joker.
"I'm sure it'll feel awful, but we should search this room. There has to be something in here if he was hiding it with such an elaborate trick." said Mona to them before they spread out to search around the room until Joker spotted and take the second half of the map and a golden medal item (Kamoshida medal) lying on a smaller bookshelf standing against the wall with the books inside and as they're about to leave the room, a knight shadow came in, spotted and burst into a different shiny-looking psychedelic purple, blue and green Bicorn shadow, which make Mona explain what is it to Joker and her teammates before they fight, defeat it and gained 2 rare Bead items, 27 exp points and 885 yen from it before they left the room and continue on with their infiltration of the rest of the Palace.