After Kanji and I finished talking about dance costumes, I wasn't able to ask Elizabeth if she knew where to get that latex rubber stuff from the thigh-highs before Yu gathered everyone up to head back into the labyrinth. So, we warped back down to the forth floor and headed through the door. From there, we went into a door to our right and found a bulletin board.
"+a+b-a+c-d-b" was written on a page of notebook paper on the board.
"The hell? What're these letters?" Kanji asked.
"Heeheehee! Kanji can't kanj-ure up a clue!" Teddie said.
"What'd you say!? I'll open and close that zipper of yours, dammit!"
"Pfft...! What?" I tried my best to hold back a snicker.
"Now that's a new type of threat." Junpei commented.
""+a+b-a+c-d-b"...It looks like some kind of math problem..." Akihiko said. "I just don't get this. What's it getting at?"
"After all we've encountered thus far, I think it's safe to assume this is another type of code." Naoto replied. "Note how this piece of paper is the top part of a notebook sheet. The bottom has been torn off. I assume there's more to this than we're seeing here. Let's write this down for now and..."
"Whoa, hold on. Looks like whoever did this took the time to glue the paper to the board." Kanji pointed out, trying to pull the page off. "I think we oughtta note this one down on the map."
"Oh...? Very well then, let's do that."
"Already on it." Yu replied, writing in his map notebook.
We then continued on when he finished.
"Grrrrrr...!" Koromaru suddenly stopped.
"Koromaru-san is sensing danger. It seems he detects an FOE nearby." Aigis stated.
There was a familiar giggling that made a chill run down my spine.
"Wait...This voice..." Yukari seemed to notice as well.
"I-It's that doll we encountered in front of the bathrooms..." Naoto confirmed.
Rei whimpered.
"Does it like me that much? I'm such a wicked bear..." Teddie somehow skewed the awful situation.
"Then, we'll leave this to you. Guess you'll be starting a new life in the netherworld." Yosuke responded.
"Yosuke, you must know that jealousy between men is unbecoming!"
"How do you keep reaching that conclusion!?"
"Well...let's remain cautious as we go." Mitsuru said to Yu and Minato, who both nodded.
We headed forward carefully and entered the next door. Once it closed behind us, we heard the giggle come from the other side.
"U-Uh-oh! The ghost doll's here!" Rise warned us.
"It's come for us after all..." Akihiko said. "I saw a light switch when we came in here. We'd be better off with the lights on. We're at too much of a disadvantage in the dark."
"Let's keep it moving. We don't have time to waste." Shinjiro said, so we headed over to flip the switch.
As soon as we stepped away from the switch, though, the thing came through the door instead of just continuing to hold it shut.
"Watch out! The FOE...It's...It's in the room with you!" Rise warned us.
"N-Noooooo!" Rei screamed.
"Wh-What should we d-do!? Sh-Sh-Should we go back!?" Chie panicked too.
"Pretty sure "back" is where it is..." I pointed out uneasily.
"Th-There's no other way than straight ahead. If only there was a way to avoid it..." Mitsuru said.
"Extrapolating from prior data, there is a high probability that FOEs in this labyrinth hate light." Aigis stated. "I suggest we run to places where the lights are on."
"A calm analysis." Zen commented. "It's up to you, Yu."
We ran away into a lit area, led by our leader.
"Grrr..." Koromaru growled at it pacing around the edge of the light's reach.
"Even when it is this close to us, it will not come into the light. It seems this FOE is like the others and refuses to enter the light." Aigis observed. "Let us remain in light as much as possible as we proceed."
Chie whimpered. "We have to keep going, huh?"
So, we kept moving forward, from one light source to another to avoid it until we found a door to go through. It only held the door shut behind us for a little bit as we went forward before starting to chase us again. We repeated that with two more doors before finding a room with more lights and had to use them to get around it before we entered the next door and stopped to catch our breath.
"Whew, we've been running for a while..." Yukari sighed.
"Yikes...I-It's still after us?" Chie asked.
"It's persistent, I'll give it that. If this is anything like the usual ghost stories...It'll disappear once, we'll all be relieved, and then we'll suddenly run into it again." Yukiko said.
"W-We can't fight that thing!" Ken said, worried.
"...Let's go. We don't have time to waste remaining here." Zen spoke up after I noticed Rei wasn't looking too good.
We then returned to our running away from the thing that was way too fast and escaped through a one-way shortcut and had to do the whole thing over again when it just blocked the door behind us and then chased after us. We found a few switches on the wall while running away this time. Then, Yu and Minato came up with this crazy idea after fiddling with the switches and finding out what lights they turned on and off to lure the FOE into a spot where it got trapped between two lights when we turned the switch back on.
"Oh...There's lights on both sides of it...Is that FOE trapped!?" Chie asked, seeing it wasn't moving now.
"Mm-hm! Yeah! I think you're right, Chie-chan!" Rei looked happy.
"Does this mean...that thing's totally stuck!?" Yukari asked. "Have we finally beaten it...!?"
"C'est magnifique! We can walk about as we please now!" Mitsuru was relieved as well.
"I...don't wanna get my hopes up..." I muttered, still feeling uneasy.
Chie sighed. "I'm tired of all these sudden shocks..."
"Rei...Are you all right?" Zen asked.
"M-Mm-hm..." Rei nodded to him.
"All right. Let's go."
So, we walked away to go explore the area for the way forward and I could hear the thing's squelching as it paced back and forth in its corner now, but looking to make sure it wasn't following us proved it seemed to be effectively trapped there. However, when we tried to proceed through the next hallway, a baby FOE showed up and we had to lure it out of our way to move on through the next door.
"W-Well done! I think it can't come after you anymore!" Fuuka said.
"Whew...For a while there, I wasn't sure what would happen to us..." Junpei sighed.
"But trapping the FOE in the light, preventing it from moving...Your judgement and leadership leave me speechless with admiration." Mitsuru praised our two leaders.
"...But you're talking now." Minato pointed out.
""Speechless with admiration" is a figure of speech. It only means that I'm impressed." Mitsuru sighed at him. "...You would seem to have a long way to go academically."
"C'mon then, let's keep going!" Teddie urged, so we did.
We activated a shortcut that was near the stairs up and then fought some Shadows as we moved forward. There were two doors at the end of the hallway and we headed right.
"Careful, everyone! There are FOEs hiding in that room!" Rise warned us.
So, we proceeded carefully, avoiding walking straight into the doll FOEs that popped up. There were a lot of them, and they led us to a piece of notebook paper on the floor somewhere around the middle of the room. It said, "+c-b+a+a+c-a" on it.
"This scrap is shaped very similarly to the piece of notebook paper we found earlier." Naoto noticed.
"Yeah, and it's another code that makes no sense. What're these letters about?" Yosuke muttered.
"It does seem similar to the code we found. I assume there's some relation between the two..." Mitsuru said. "Also, the top and bottom of the page are torn off. This may be the middle portion of something."
"This one is glued down too. It won't be easy to peel it off cleanly..." Ken said after attempting to pick the paper up. "Why don't we note it down so we can check it whenever we need to?"
"I did." Yu answered, so we headed back and went through the other door.
There was a Power Spot in that room so we gathered from it and fought some Shadows before heading through the next door. In that room, there were doors on every wall, one of which was a metal door that was locked, but had no keyhole. We headed through one of the other doors and found another room with three doors and some kind of bookshelf that had something on it, but it was too dark to make out what. It seemed to be a thick book.
"It's thick enough to be a textbook of some kind..." Mitsuru said thoughtfully.
"Let me just open it up and..." Kanji opened the book and looked at the pages. "Huh? I can't read it."
"Heeheehee! Again?" Teddie asked coyly.
"Is that because it's so dark, Kanji? Or..." Yosuke was smirking too.
"Dammit! Are you guys tryin' to make fun of me!? Of course it's 'cause it's dark!" Kanji shouted at them.
"Kanji, do you need these glasses so you can see better?" Teddie asked, wearing one of the gag glasses with the nose and moustache.
"You little...!"
"...That is enough!" Mitsuru interrupted them.
"Oh, s-sorry..." Kanji apologized to her quickly.
"You three aren't taking this seriously enough. We must explore this labyrinth quickly and...Teddie! Take off those ridiculous glasses this instant!"
"I-I'm sorry!" Teddie took off the glasses and apologized as well.
"Once we get back, I order you three to clean up the Culture Festival. If you don't do a good job, then I'll execute you! Is that clear!?"
"Y-Yes...!" Yosuke looked surprised too.
"Honestly..." Mitsuru sighed at them and turned to Yu. "...Not that it needs to be said, but we can't read this textbook in the dark. Let's check elsewhere."
So, we moved on through the next door into another room with FOEs hiding in it. We weren't able to get anywhere but another board with x-rays posted on it.
"Hrgh...Why are X-rays so scary when you see them in these circumstances...?" Chie whined.
"Nothing shows up on my X-rays, you know. C'mere, Chie-chan! My arms are wide open for you!" Teddie said.
"Uh...Isn't that actually scarier?" Minato asked.
"You know, now that I think about it...Teddie is creepy." Yukiko said thoughtfully.
"We've been around him so long we don't even notice it anymore...That's scary in itself." Yosuke commented.
"I-I'm not scary or creepy!" Teddie protested. "A-And even if I am, then why isn't Kyo-chan!? Nothing shows up on her X-rays either!"
"Mine are just blurry. If nothing at all shows up on yours, it's creepy." I shrugged that off. "Besides, I didn't grow my body, I already had it."
"Yeah, that's true. Kyoka was a person before, so we already know where she came from..." Chie nodded. "She's not really creepy at all..."
The conversation kinda died there, since Yu decided we should just move on through the next door we had access to. Then, we went through another door before finding a metal door with a black mark near the keyhole. Then we went through another door and found a switch. We headed through yet another door and had to run from a baby FOE. Yu got it off our back with some light puzzle thing and we got some treasure before backtracking to the other room where the FOEs were gone now and we were able to activate a couple shortcuts and find the darkness key before using another switch to turn the lights off and find a way back to the door with the key to unlock it. We headed into another room and found another locked door with a black mark on it. Yu and Minato did most of the work figuring out these darkness key puzzles after we explored, but it seemed like a lot of back and forth to me. Either way, the door got opened and through there we found another bulletin board. It had another piece of paper that said, "-b-b+b-d+a+c" on it.
"Hmm...Could this be another scrap of the notebook paper we found earlier?" Naoto asked.
"It's that same kind of code..." Akihiko replied.
"The top of the page has been torn off and the bottom seems untouched. From this, we can deduce that this piece must be the very bottom..."
"Isn't this all of 'em now?" Shinjiro asked. "The first one was the top piece, then we found the middle, and this here must be the bottom."
"I think that's reasonable to assume. Now, if only we could deduce what they all mean..."
We decided to look around some more and found some stairs going up nearby. Yu checked his map of the previous floor and said there did seem to be a shortcut we couldn't activate before, so we should go check out the area these stairs led to. We went ahead and activated that shortcut he mentioned before picking one of the two doors to head through.
"...We're pretty far in, I think...Is there more to go, Fuuka?" Minato asked as we stood in front of another door, but didn't get a response. "...Helloooooo?"
"Oh...I'm sorry!" Fuuka spoke up.
"You okay?"
"Y-Yes...I don't know why, but I can't search that room...Also, it's hard to communicate with you now compared to before..."
"...Alright. We better be careful if we're going to explore this place. Our support might not be able to reach us." Minato told the rest of us.
"Y-Yeah..." Rei looked nervous, but we decided to head through the door.
There was a strange noise as the ground under our feet seemed to shake for a second.
"Aaaaaah! I-Is everyone here...? W-We're okay...right?" Rei was panicking a bit.
"Are you all right, Rei?" Zen asked.
"I-I can't stand this anymore...I wanna go somewhere bright and eat as much as I want..."
"It won't be long now. You just have to hold on."
"Hrrrgh...I'll try, but..."
"Ngh...Yamagishi, Kujikawa! Tell us what's going on here!" Mitsuru ordered, but we just heard static. "...It's no use."
"Sh-Shouldn't we go back...? It wouldn't be dangerous if we headed back..." Rei suggested.
Yu looked around the room a bit, then he discussed with Minato what we should do. It was decided we'd take a few more steps into the room, but then the floor shook and gave way under our feet. As we were falling and I heard some of the others scream, I also thought I heard Rise's voice coming through a little and sounding like some sort of warning.
"Ugh...Why the falling...?" I groaned when I sat up, feeling the after-effects of hitting the ground. But then, I began to feel a chill when I couldn't hear the sounds of the others getting up. "Huh? N-No one's...?" My voice died as I looked around and couldn't see anyone else nearby.
"Heeeeey! Can you hear us!?" I heard Junpei's voice call from somewhere, but couldn't tell if it was nearby.
It was dark where I was, but it was narrow and I felt like it was a bit different from the normal hallways.
"Jun-chan, are you in there?" I heard Rei's voice calling after a moment, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from either.
"Ooh! Is that you, Rei-chan!?" Junpei called back. "Thank god! You gotta help us!"
"Has someone been injured?" Zen called.
"No, we're all fine. But I think we're trapped in here." Minato answered.
"Yuka-tan's all scared and going, "Help me, Junpei!" She even started to-Ow! What was that punch for!?" Junpei seemed to be his normal self, which was a bit comforting, even if I still found myself unable to move.
"Can you hear me?" Yukari spoke up now. "The door's locked and we can't get out! Can you try opening it from your side?"
I heard the sounds of a door rattling, but not of one opening.
"Hm...? There are devices beside the door. With red, blue, and yellow lights on them..." Zen said.
"Oh...it's a machine that opens the door when you use a key card in it." Rei responded.
"A key card? Will that unlock it?"
"Mm-hm...The doctors have them."
"So this door won't open unless we have these key cards. There are three devices...We'll need three cards to open this door."
"Let's find those keycards." Yu's voice answered.
"That is our only option. The door is very sturdy. Destroying it would be close to impossible."
"So, this'll open if we have the key cards? Then let's hurry and find them!" Rei said.
Yu told the others they were going to hunt for the door's key cards.
"B-But...will you be okay? It seems like our support folks can't reach us here..." Yukari's voice responded.
"We'll look around first. Just stay where you are." Zen called back.
"All right. We're fine waiting here." Minato replied.
"Leave it to us! We'll save you!" Rei called.
"Hey, wait a minute! Partner, is Kyoka out there with you guys?" Yosuke's voice called suddenly.
"Huh? Kyoka...? No, she's not." Yu answered.
"W-Wait, seriously!?"
"I-If she's not out there...Wh-Where'd she go...!?" Chie's voice sounded worried.
"I-Is Kyo okay...?" Rei seemed worried, too.
"...We'll try and open this door first, then we'll look for her together." Yu decided.
I tried to call back to them, but my throat felt like it'd closed up and I couldn't make a sound. I winced, touching my neck and cursing my tendency to lose my voice when I was seriously scared and could use it. After a moment of listening to muffled voices that seemed to echo too much for me to be sure where they were coming from, I finally managed to pick up my naginata and use it as a support as I got up on shaky legs. I could hear Yu, Zen, and Rei's voices calling back and forth, seemingly talking about which way Rei should walk and what she was finding in a large, echoey room. I tried to follow the voices as best as I could, but it was kinda confusing. Then, I found a wall with a bit of a hole in it that I could hear their voices more clearly through.
"I've run into a wall..." Rei's voice sounded like it was right in front of me suddenly, but it was so dark and the hole I was hearing her through was too small to see anything.
"R-Rei...!" I managed to force my voice out.
"Eeeek!" She shrieked and I winced a little, since it sounded like she was right next to me.
"Rei, are you okay!? What happened!?" Zen called.
"I-I thought I heard a voice...!"
"A voice...?"
"S-Sorry..." I said softly, trying not to scare her again. "Rei, it's me, Kyoka."
"K-Kyo...?" She asked shakily just as she came into view of the hole in the wall I was trying to look through.
"Rei, over here. The wall." I called to her quietly, relief to actually see her drowning my previous shakiness and fear that was closing up my throat.
"Oh...! I found Kyo! She's in the wall!" Rei called to the other two after having spotted me through the hole.
"In the wall...?" Yu repeated, seeming doubtful.
"Kyo, are you okay!? What're you doing in the wall!?" Rei asked, leaning toward the hole with a mixture of relief and confusion on her face.
"I don't know..." I shook my head and gave her a bit of a sheepish smile. "I guess I ended up pretty far away from the rest of you...I don't know how to get out. I can't see any doors or anything, and there's pretty much nothing on the floor or walls in here."
"U-Um...Wh-What should I do...?" Rei looked around herself a bit, seeming to be frantically trying to think of something to do as I began picking at the hole, trying to make it a bit bigger.
"...Hey, Rei, stand back." I told her, getting an idea.
"Huh? O-Okay..."
I made sure Rei stood away from the wall before taking a deep breath and using the handle of my naginata to bash in the crumbling drywall surrounding the hole in the wall. It really didn't take as much effort as I thought it would to make the hole big enough for me to crawl through, but when I did, Rei jumped forward to hug me almost as soon as I was standing in the same room as her.
"Kyo, you're really okay!"
"Y-Yeah..." I hugged her back a bit awkwardly.
"Rei, what's happening?" Zen called and she let me go to call back.
"Kyo broke through the wall! She's with me in the room now!"
"Kyoka, are you hurt at all?" Yu called.
"Nope, I'm fine! Don't worry!" I called back and Rei took my hand, seeming relieved to have someone with her in this huge, dark place, but still pretty scared. "So, uh, what're we doing...?" I asked her more quietly.
"Looking for keycards." She answered me, then called back toward the door. "Kyo says there's nothing on the other side of the wall, so where should we go now?"
"Go to your left." Yu called back.
After that, it was a series of walking in the specified direction until we either ran into a wall or one of those doll FOEs popped up in front of us. Until something different happened.
"Noooooo!" Rei screamed as I got into a defensive stance between her and whatever we just saw in the darkness. "S-Something just moved...!"
"Rei, hang in there!" Zen called back.
"I-I keep looking...but I can't find the last key card...Wh-What am I gonna do...?" Rei began to cry.
"Rei..." I looked at her with sympathy, hesitating a little before using my left arm to pull her into my side as I kept an eye on our surroundings. "I-It'll be okay...I'll protect you."
"K-Kyo...!" She curled into my side as she sniffled and calmed herself down.
"That's enough. Come back, now." Yu called out to her.
"No...I'm not...heading back..." Rei responded, stepping away from me and wiping her face on her sleeves as she firmed her resolve. "I have to try harder...Everyone's waiting for us...S-So...I'll try looking around a little more..."
"Rei..." Zen said as Rei began walking forward and I followed her.
"I have to do this..." Rei said. "I have to save everyone..." She almost stepped on something, but when I jolted forward thinking it was an enemy, I was taken a bit off guard to see what it was too. "Aaaaaah! Th-There's a scary doll!"
"Is it an FOE!?" Zen asked.
"Hrrgh...N-No...Th-There's an a-actual...scary doll on the ground..." Rei answered.
"I almost wish it was an FOE..." I muttered, the doll making me shudder a bit.
"Huh...? The doll is holding something..." Rei picked up the red rectangle the doll was holding. "I found the third key card! That's all of them! We can save everyone now!" Rei smiled with relief.
"Well done, Rei. Come back at once." Zen called.
"Okay!"
"Be careful!" Yu called.
"Okay! They do say that the trip home is the most dangerous part!" Rei responded, taking my hand as she began leading the way back.
"Ooh, so that's what happened." I commented, understanding why Rei was wandering around alone in the dark when we came back through the door into the room where Zen and Yu were waiting to see they were each standing on a switch on the floor. My thoughts were confirmed when they stepped off them and the door closed.
"I'm so...glad...I made it...back..." Rei sniffled, letting go of my hand and standing in front of Zen. "Waaaah..."
"Welcome back, Rei. You must've been scared on your own." Zen smiled at her a little.
"I-I wasn't scared...Kyo was with me..."
"I was only there for not even five minutes. You were on your own for a while before then, right?" I responded with a slight smile at her.
"What reward do you want?" Yu asked Rei.
"A reward? Um...Well...Sesame ice cream...O-Or sesame seed buns...Or sesame miso ramen...Or sesame tofu or sesame crackers or sesame rice balls...or just ground sesame period!" Rei seemed to cheer up quickly thinking about food.
"Rei...You're very strong." Zen said to her.
"H-Honestly...I was so scared that my legs were shaking the whole time." Rei blushed a bit. "But when I focused on saving everyone, I was able to move on, a little bit at a time!"
"Ah...That was brave of you."
"Hey, I bet everyone's waiting. Let's hurry and open that door!" Rei said, giving the key cards and some items to Yu.
Yu then used the key cards on a device next to a metal door and it buzzed and the door slid open.
"Ooh, the door's open!" Junpei noticed first.
"I'm so...! We're out...!" Chie cried. "I thought we were gonna be stuck in there forever...!"
"Wasn't it fun? It was like being in an extreme situation." Yukiko seemed happy, though.
"That's not how I saw it..." Yukari replied.
"I could tell by the way you were bawling and saying stuff like, "I wanna go home!"" Junpei mocked her and she slapped him. "Ow! Can you not slap me either!?"
Mitsuru sighed. "No sooner are we out of that mess then this immediately starts up again...But we owe you three our thanks for saving us."
"Rei found the key cards. She went to look for them alone in the darkness." Zen told them.
"I see...Thank you so much, Rei-chan. You've really done a lot for us." Yukiko said.
"Heehee...I was okay because I had Yu-kun and Zen encouraging me." Rei blushed. "And then when I found Kyo along the way, she was with me, too!"
"I just walked around with you to find the last one though, so I didn't really do anything..." I shrugged, then smiled at her. "You saved me too here, Rei. Thank you."
"Then you three are all champions!" Aigis said to Zen, Rei, and Yu.
"Yay, I'm a champion!" Rei seemed happy.
"Hey, just where the hell were you!?" Yosuke asked me with annoyance.
"I don't know. I guess I ended up stuck between some walls...?" I tilted my head as I tried to figure out where exactly I had been, but I couldn't. "Anyway, it's fine, 'cause Rei found me."
"Hellooooo? Can everyone hear me?" Rise's voice came through then.
"Ooh, Risette! Does this mean our support's back?" Junpei asked.
"Thank goodness, we're finally through! Geez, you scared us. Our voices suddenly stopped reaching you guys!"
"...Isn't that a paranormal phenomenon?" Ken asked.
"Aaaaack! Stop, I don't wanna hear it!" Chie cried.
"D-Don't worry!" Fuuka spoke up now too. "The trap seems to have been safely lifted, so you can proceed now!"
"Now that everything's okay, I'm starting to get hungry!" Rei said cheerfully. "Once we're out of here, I'm gonna get candied apples, cotton candy, crepes, and chocolate bananas with everyone!"
"Of course. I'll buy as much as you want, as a token of my thanks." Mitsuru smiled at her slightly.
"Smoked ham shanks!? Ooh, I'd love that too!" Rei apparently misheard her, but no one really wanted to correct her.
Yu decided he wanted to check the room the others had been in and we found a piece of paper on the ground. It said, "Four rooms, four quadrants. Where's the origin?" on it in childish handwriting.
"U-Uh...This seems a little overly friendly..." Yukari commented.
"It was part of a child's game after all...But I believe this is a hint regarding that strange code from earlier." Naoto replied. "We should note this down."
Yu nodded and did so, then we headed back and through the room Rei had been walking around since the door no longer needed the switches pressed to open it, and activated a shortcut back to an area we already explored. From there, we headed back toward the group of rooms that Yu thought the clue was referring to. In one of the rooms, we found another thick book on the shelf.
"What is this...? All the pages have "-+" written on them. I can't even read this." Akihiko said.
"You know...I wonder if these are algebraic symbols...?" Ken asked.
"Ugh, algebra...Really...?" I muttered, unenthused by the thought.
"...Ken-kun may be on the right track. I think it's safe to consider them as such." Naoto said. "But that piece of notebook paper and this math textbook...What's the connection between the two? ...Let's continue our investigation."
So, we looked around the room a bit more and found a door that had been locked with some electric device. However, according to Yu's map, we'd already been into the room on the other side of it, so it was a bit strange. Either way, we checked another room and found a textbook with more of the same symbols. I don't really know how Yu, Naoto, and Minato figured out this puzzle, it seemed like a lot of walking through doors for no apparent reason to me, but I decided I didn't really care to know, what with the algebra and everything. I probably wouldn't really get it anyway.
"Bingo! I heard a sound from the door over there." Junpei said when we entered the room with the locked door again.
"It seems the door is open now. Let's go have a look." Naoto replied and we went to check to find the door did open now. "We've solved the puzzle. Now let's move on."
"...Damn, you three are amazing." Kanji said, impressed. "I don't have a clue when it comes to puzzles like this..."
"...To be honest with you, I think you're amazing in your own right, Kanji-kun." Naoto told him.
"...Huh?"
"Isn't that right, Aigis-san?" Naoto turned to the android.
"Huuuh?"
"I have been keeping track of the total number of heartbeats of the entire group." Aigis stated.
"You've been doing that this whole time...?" Shinjiro muttered.
"Yes, it is my duty to monitor everyone's health. According to my data, Kanji-san and Shinjiro-san have the steadiest pulses of you all. You are both tied for first place. Congratulations."
"Er, thanks...?" Kanji looked confused.
"I was trying to say that it's amazing that you're able to stay calm this whole time." Naoto said. "...I mean, even I'm a little afraid."
"O-Oh, you think so?" Kanji looked flustered.
"...!? Kanji-san's pulse has suddenly gone up! It is the highest it's been since we entered this labyrinth!" Aigis said in surprise.
"Wh-Wh-Wh-What are you sayin'!? I-I'm not freakin' out or anythin'!"
"Wh-Where is it...?" Naoto asked, seeming a bit alarmed.
"Huh!?"
"Where's the ghost!?"
"...There isn't one..."
Naoto looked confused.
"Oh, Naoto-kun..." I sighed, shaking my head at her and snickering a little.
"...Yu-san, what exactly did Kanji-san say right there? He seemed to be retracting a statement. What statement was he retracting?" Aigis asked.
"A secret message." Yu answered as deadpan as ever.
"A secret message...I still do not quite comprehend it. I will continue searching for its meaning."
We decided to just go, and found the stairs down. We headed down and found a hallway before a creepy looking door to...An operating room...?
"Oh geez...This place is super creepy..." Yukari sighed.
"Everyone! I'm sensing a powerful presence further inside!" Fuuka warned.
"So the guardian for this place has shown up. I wonder what it'll be this time..." Shinjiro said.
"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that we win." Akihiko replied.
"I wanna see some nurses!" Teddie cheered.
"Geez...Isn't anyone here taking this seriously...?" Yukari asked.
"I-Is it going to be a ghost...? I hope it's not a ghost...But it probably will be..." Rei looked nervous.
"Calm down, Rei. Ghosts don't exist. They're not real except for our conceptions of them." Zen told her.
"O-Okay..."
"Hey, Chie. Are you hanging in there okay?" Yosuke asked, but Chie didn't respond as she was covering her head and cowering a bit. "Uh, Chie? Did you hear what I-"
"Bye guys, I'm out of here." She began creeping off, but stopped when no one reacted. "...No?"
"Yeah, no." Yosuke sighed.
"Actually..." Yu said, looking at the shining gear warp thing. "We should head back for a bit and prepare."
So, we did and stopped by the Nurse's Office, had a thank you party for Rei in which she ate probably more than anyone else yet again when Shinjiro and Yu cooked up the "Ham shanks" she had supposedly been promised, and talked about getting psyched up to fight the boss before splitting up.