Yu had planned on going to defeat the guardian of the Evil Spirit Club, but we ended up heading to the last floor of the Group Date Cafe because Elizabeth said she wanted us to investigate it. So, we headed to the church.
"Everyone, watch out! There's something ahead!" Fuuka warned us about the big golden Shadow lounging about in front of us. "It looks as though it's a new type of Shadow...It's very strong."
"Hi-yah! I'm ready whenever you are!" Chie was striking a kung-fu pose.
"Oh, I also see a strange area up ahead! It's most likely the strange spatial void that Elizabeth was talking about. ...I think." Fuuka added.
"All right then! Let's get started!"
So, we fought the Engage King with everything we had. It actually wasn't that difficult to take down after finding out it was weak to wind and someone got a poison to stick.
"Good work! The enemy has been eliminated!" Fuuka praised us. "I can't sense any Shadows anymore...Why don't you try investigating what's up ahead?"
Yu put his hand into the spatial void again and it disappeared, leaving a pink orb in his palm.
"It's another one of those spheres. I wonder what they are..."
We headed back to the Nurse's Office to recover as Yu gave her the orb. Elizabeth named it the "Sphere of Matrimony" for whatever reason and gave Yu his reward. Then, we all headed back over to the Evil Spirit Club, ready to take on the guardian now.
We went back to the final floor and headed through that door to the last room.
"Eek..." Chie cowered as we walked in on something really strange.
Two nurses, one with a blue hat and one with a red, were holding down the legs of a Shadow while a bulky surgeon-looking thing was using a giant tool to pull on it's head. They probably wouldn't've noticed us if Mitsuru hadn't tripped over Chie's cowering form, but they did then, so...We got a look at their creepy faces that looked pretty wrong when they turned toward us.
"Ohhhh...? What are you doing here, little children?" A nurse asked.
"S-Stay awaaaaaaay!" Mitsuru actually got pretty close to screaming.
"It's time to begin your operation!"
The nurses jumped and landed in distorted, odd-looking positions in front of us before moving to stand on either side of the doctor wielding the big blood-stained tool he had just seemingly killed that Shadow with.
"I th-th-think he's th-the guardian..." Fuuka sounded scared.
"Somehow, I knew it'd be a doctor or nurses...Didn't think it'd be both." I sighed, getting ready for the fight. They were freaky, but not surprising to see here, really.
Yu needed me to attack the blue nurse with fire, so I transformed and did so quickly, considering Elizabeth had actually fixed whatever she'd done to me before. I guess his hunch that she was weak to fire was right on, and the red one turned out to be weak to ice while the doctor was weak to wind. We decided to take out the nurses first, so they would stop buffing and healing the doctor, and then we really went to town on him.
"Now then...This might hurt juuuust a bit, but it'll be allll right..." The doctor said creepily when we started to do some damage, so Yu ordered everyone to defend against the next attack before we returned to doing more damage. "Ohhh...Someone seems to be in high spirits today. Maybe you're ready for the operation...I'm known all over as a skilled surgeon. It'll be over before you know it..." The doctor said after losing more health, so we kept up the assault on his weakness. "No...No...No...Wh-Wh-What's wrong? Her condition's getting worse! Emergency surgery is called for! Don't worry...we'll save you..." The doctor said when he was getting tried, making me tilt my head slightly with confusion, but I had to refocus on attacking with the others and couldn't think about it too much. "The operation...Has failed..." He said as he was falling down, then disappeared like every other Shadow we had beaten.
"That must be what the guardian was protecting..." Yukiko said as we looked to the chest that was behind the operating table.
Zen went to approach it, but Rei was holding onto his cape and stopped him.
"...Do we have to?" She asked, not looking up.
Zen didn't really answer, just continued walking which forced her to let go. She stared after him for a second before looking back at the floor as he went to open the chest. He retrieved something from it and turned around to show us. It looked like...blonde hair.
"...Hair?" Minato asked, seeming just as confused as everyone else.
"Yikes, that's kinda..." Yukari began, leaning away from it a bit.
"How horrific!" Teddie exclaimed.
"Fitting for a haunted house..." Junpei said, seeming unnerved as well.
"It's beautiful." Zen said.
"Y-Yeah...You're right. Looks like it's about the length of Yukiko's." Chie responded.
"Mm...Hair tends to get tangled and damaged when you grow it out long, but this hair is really pretty." Yukiko agreed. "Whoever this hair belonged to must've been proud of it. It looks like they took very good care of it..."
"Proud...?" Rei repeated quietly, then the bell chimed again.
"Oh, the bell..." Yukiko said and we all paused to listen to it echo for a second. "Will another of the locks on the doors in the Velvet Room come off...?"
"The end's in sight." Yu replied.
"Mm-hm! I'll keep fighting, for Sensei and Rei-chan's sake!" Teddie replied.
"...Wh-Who's that?" Rei jumped suddenly. "Someone's coming...They're...calling for me..."
"Calling? I don't hear anything." Akihiko said. "You're not just letting this place get to you?"
"Who is it? No, I don't wanna go..." Rei held her head and shook it.
"Rei-san, please calm down. There is no one here." Aigis said to her.
"No, can we please go? Let me out of here...! I don't want to be here anymore...I'll be a good girl...I've had it with this hospital and school stuff...! I wanna go home where everyone is...! I want to go back together...!"
"Rei..." I felt bad for her, but didn't know what I could say.
"Then that's what we'll do." Yu told her.
"Y-Yeah. Don't worry. I'm sure we'll go back together!" Chie agreed.
"But you're the one who made this school, Rei..." Zen said to her.
"...Me?" Rei asked.
"Huh?" Junpei looked shocked.
"I've remembered a little more...You wished for this school...and created it...Are you...truly trapped here?" Zen asked.
"...I don't know." Rei shook her head. "I don't know, Zen..."
"Rei-chan..." Teddie looked sorry for her.
"...Zen-kun, I recall you saying that Rei-san's belongings are hidden in the depths of the labyrinths." Naoto spoke up. "If, as you claim, Rei-san created this school...Then the labyrinths we've traversed, and the large Shadows within them, are connected to her. ...Extrapolating even further, it's possible that Rei-san created all of these things."
"If that's true, maybe we were wrong about that "someone" from the start." Minato said. "What I mean is, maybe there's no "third party" here besides Zen and Rei-chan."
"That may be true." Yu answered.
"...I can't say for sure, though."
"...So, what? Rei created this place, made guardians to protect stuff, but now she's lost her memories and wants out?" Shinjiro asked.
"That raises more questions than it answers..." Junpei replied.
"This isn't the last labyrinth yet. We're still missing pieces of the puzzle." Akihiko stated.
"Yeah...The next one should be the last. The rest of the blanks should get filled in there..." Shinjiro agreed.
"Yes...I agree." Naoto nodded, although something seemed to be bothering her. "Let's return to the Velvet Room..."
And with that, we headed back and went to the Velvet Room to see the second-last lock had popped off.
"As we thought, another lock is gone. Only one remains. The next labyrinth will be the last..." Naoto said.
"The last one is on the third floor...It seems to be at the "Inaba Pride Exhibit"." Fuuka told us.
"All right. I want all of you rested and prepared. Let's disband for now..." Mitsuru dismissed the group, so we headed off in our own ways through the hallway after exiting the Velvet Room.
"K-Kyo..." Rei approached me, not looking too good.
"Rei...Are you-" I was about to ask if she was alright, but stopped myself, seeing something in her face that made me feel like it wouldn't help. "...Do you want to go dance again?"
She shook her head slowly, gripping the bottom hem of her sweater tightly in her fists as she looked at the ground. She almost seemed on the verge of tears.
"...C'mere." I gently put a hand on her shoulder and guided her over to a bench next to the vending machines. I then got her a hot chocolate from one. "Here."
She took it hesitantly, looking at me questioningly as I sat down next to her.
"When I was making the kind of face you are right now, my mom gave me hot chocolate and waited until I wanted to talk, so..." I told her with a bit of an awkward smile. "Don't worry, just drink it slowly. Even if you don't want to say anything, a warm drink and some company can make you feel a little better, right?"
"Th-Thank you..." Her voice was a bit weak, and she seemed uneasy as she took a sip of the drink.
We sat in silence for a bit and I watched the NPCs that were walking by, wondering what Rei came to me for but not letting my curiosity get out of hand and make her feel worse. I mean, it always made me feel worse when my mom asked questions instead of just waiting for me to decide if I felt like talking or not. Or tried to get me to talk when I calmed down and still didn't want to.
"U-Um...Kyo...?"
"Hm?"
"D-Do you...Really think I c-can go back with everyone...?"
"...To be honest, Rei, I don't know for sure." I admitted to her, although I felt like it was difficult to say when she was probably looking for reassurance. "But I really hope that you can. I...want to keep seeing you have fun with everyone and smiling, so...I really hope it's possible. From the bottom of my heart."
"...But you don't know." Rei mumbled, looking depressed.
"I won't lie to you." I sighed, looking her in the eye as I seriously told her the truth. "I don't have a very good feeling about all of this...And I don't know what memories you've lost and if they'll be good for you to get back, but...I truly wish that everything will work out in the end and you can go back with everyone. I really hope my bad feeling is just because this place is making me weary, but I won't deny that it's there."
She looked at my face for a few seconds, seeming to search for something, then looked down at the hot chocolate clasped between her hands and nodded a little. "O-Okay. I...Want to go back with everyone, so...I really hope I can too...!"
"...Sorry, I was probably a little too honest." I said to her a bit sheepishly after feeling somewhat relieved she didn't seem to take it the wrong way.
"No..." She shook her head and gave me a small, albeit slightly sad-looking smile. "I have those doubts sometimes, too. B-But everyone's so nice that I want to do my best...!"
"Yeah. Let's do our best to get through this first. We can worry about the ifs when we come to them, right?" I smiled a bit at her, trying to sound encouraging.
"Mm-hm! We'll hurry and eat the bits when we come to them!" She said, seeming to get back some energy and determination as she began to chug the rest of the hot chocolate.
"Bits...? What are you even talking about?" I couldn't help but laugh at her misheard version, unsure what exactly she meant but reasonably certain that it probably had to do with food.
"Now that I'm feeling better, I'm hungry!" She grinned at me. "Kyo, let's go get ikayaki together!"
"Huh? Okay, sure. I guess I'm a bit hungry." I shrugged and stood up with her to go eat, relieved that she seemed to feel better despite not really talking about what was actually bothering her before. I guess maybe she did and it was just those doubts, but I got the feeling that Rei was hiding something still, so I felt like she hadn't addressed the real issue yet. I wanted to support her, but there was nothing I could do but be there when she needed me if she didn't want to talk about it. Honestly, it probably had something to do with what Zen said about her creating this place and her not remembering, but I wasn't going to ask her when she seemed so stressed out by it before. And there was no way I was bringing up the fact my bad feeling mostly came from what that doctor had been saying during the fight. Even though it was a bit childish to think this way, I...didn't want to properly acknowledge that until I had to. Rei made me want to hold onto the hope that my gut feeling was wrong this time.
I was wandering aimlessly, but I ran into Zen near the games and he seemed to have something to ask me.
"Why do you wear that pelt outside of the labyrinths? Is it not just a tool you use to take your other form while fighting?"
I was a little surprised by the question, but shook my head and gave him a slight smile. "It could be viewed as just a tool to be used for fighting Shadows, but...It's actually really important to me. I'm kinda taking advantage of the situation so I can wear it openly without getting looked at funny by classmates."
"It's important...?" He seemed not to understand.
"How should I explain it...?" I tilted my head slightly as I tried to think of the words. "It's like...It's like it's apart of me, y'know? When I can't have it with me, I feel more anxious. Like, if I lost it, it'd be like losing part of myself."
"But it's just a pelt...Isn't it?"
I shook my head. "I don't know exactly where it came from, but I'd say it might literally be apart of me. Ever since I, er, absorbed my Shadow, it's been with me. And it came back to the real world with me too, so I began to think of it like a tangible part of myself. Like, um...Like part of my soul or something...?"
"So it means much more to you than it could to anyone else...I don't quite understand, but it's just as important to you as your own body...?"
I nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. Maybe even more important."
"It's more important...?" He repeated, then shook his head. "So you don't normally wear it as often in the outside world."
"No, I don't. It'd be considered weird or I'd be viewed as crazy. That'd draw attention to me and cause problems, so I usually either just keep it in my bag or wear it under my uniform where no one can see. Oh, by the way, it's been confirmed to be a coyote's pelt. An abnormally large one, too. But, they have no idea where it actually came from..."
"They...? Who tested this?"
"The police. Getting it back from them was kinda a pain, but..." I shrugged.
From there, I ended up telling Zen about what happened after I was kicked out of the TV world and he seemed to have a lot of questions about what the police were trying to do and stuff. I think I ultimately failed to explain things properly, but Zen seemed mildly interested to hear the story, so at least I didn't feel like I was bugging him by talking about it in a bit more detail. It tired me out though, so I went to take a nap after Zen decided to leave. But not before I came across Akihiko and Kanji having an arm wrestling match in the middle of the hallway while Yosuke and Junpei cheered them on and Shinjiro looked like he had a headache. I stood with Naoto and watched quietly for a while, I guess sharing her mild curiosity as to who would win. I didn't get to see, though, since Mitsuru came by to tell us to stop playing around and get ready to head to the next labyrinth right away. In the end, I'd say they were pretty evenly matched, anyway.
"So, this is it. The final labyrinth." Akihiko said as we all stood in front of the Inaba Pride Exhibit.
"It seems to be a type of exhibit commonly seen at Culture Festivals." Naoto commented.
"Yeah, the type no one comes to." Junpei replied.
"The boring kind..." Minato muttered, looking down.
"Why're you bummed out about that?"
"This will be it, right?" Rei asked, seeming anxious again. "I'll do my best and not cause any trouble...so let's all leave this school together. Please?"
"Of course! I'll hustle and bustle for your sake, Rei-chan!" Teddie said energetically.
"It's good you want to help, but don't go overboard..." Shinjiro responded.
"...Let's go." Zen looked serious.
We all headed into the labyrinth. Inside, there was music playing and it was decorated with giant paper lanterns and stuff.
"...A festival?" Rei asked, then seemed excited. "Wow, it's a festival! I love festivals! I wonder if there'll be tons of food here. Cotton candy, candied apples...Oh, and funnel cakes!"
Yukiko chuckled. "Looks like Rei-chan's cheered up a bit."
"It's cool it's a festival...But the music...It's a remix...?" I muttered in confusion. "Why isn't it traditional festival music...?"
"Maybe they wanted it to be more modern...?" Yu suggested, shrugging.
"This is supposed to be an exhibit about the area, right...? Then why is it a festival?" Ken asked in confusion.
"Festivals are completely different from region to region. Hence, there's a wide range of diversity." Naoto answered. "These festivals can be important constituents of research into local cultures."
""Constituents"..." Junpei repeated. "There's a word I don't get to say too often in my daily life."
"Heh. We've got this Culture Festival already, and then another festival inside it..." Yosuke commented.
"Ohh, I see. This is the last labyrinth, so maybe it's like the centre of it all." Chie responded. "Still, a festival, huh...? I wonder if there'll be a mikoshi. You know, one of those portable shrines!"
"I remember how you loved to be one of the ones who carried the mikoshi from shrine to shrine..." Yukiko said to her.
"Well, yeah. They gave you snacks if you did!"
"Mikoshi are made of snacks!? Are they a pile of chocolate and wafers that you carry around!?" Rei asked in surprise.
"That'd get sticky." Shinjiro muttered, shaking his head a bit at her.
"Kanji, you should carry a mikoshi if you find one. You totally look the part." Yosuke said.
"I don't got a loincloth." Kanji responded rather bluntly and I held back a snicker.
"Uh, you don't have to go that far with it."
"You need a loincloth to carry a mikoshi?" Rei asked, eating a corndog she got from who knows where.
"Well...some festivals are like that. I see them on the news sometimes." Chie replied.
"Like the one where guys in loincloths throw water around, climb up poles, and dance on top of the mikoshi?" Yosuke asked.
"Guys in loincloths throw syrup around, climb up chocolate bananas, and dance on top of kosher food!?" Rei asked in surprise. "Festivals are amazing...! Will it be like that further in here too!?"
"Hah, I doubt that." Akihiko replied.
"So we hope..." Shinjiro didn't seem as certain.
We headed forward until Ken spoke up and said, "Oh, I see stairs beyond the canal! And we just got here, too...I'm surprised we found them so soon. This labyrinth might be an easy one."
"But this is the last labyrinth, so I bet this one's gonna have a huge underground section, too." Yukari said. "What if the maze is complex and all the Shadows are powerful...?"
"C'mon, Yuka-tan. Cheer up! The stairs are right over there. This is gonna be a breeze!" Junpei told her.
"Then, go be a bridge for us."
"Huh?"
"Just lie over the water so we can walk over you to get to the stairs. Make sure to face down when you do it."
"Th-That's not fair! I wanna be the bridge!" Teddie protested, then blushed. "Step all over me, Yuka-chan and Mitchan! I don't mind being face down, either."
"Let's go. We don't have time to mess around." Shinjiro sighed at them.
"The guys can use Junpei. This bear was made for walkin', but only by the girls."
"Wha-!? That's not fair, Teddie! You'd better split them up evenly!" Junpei protested.
"You're still gonna do it, then...?" Kanji asked him.
Yukari sighed. "We've got two perverts in this bunch..." She then turned to Yu. "Let's ignore these guys and look for the door that leads over there."
Yu nodded to her and we headed through the blue fabric door we had access to. Then, we explored a bit until we found a door that was sealed with a talisman.
"The door says it's sealed. Look, there's even a talisman on it." Yosuke pointed out the obvious.
"D-Don't tell me...There isn't a ghost sealed in there, right?" Chie asked in alarm.
"C'mon, all that ghost stuff ended with the haunted house in the previous labyrinth."
"Th-Then what about kitsune...!?" Chie asked, still nervous.
"I-I kinda doubt there's a fox spirit behind this...A-And even then, this is a festival, so it'd be the good kind anyway..." I dismissed her a bit nervously.
"M-Maybe the door's sealed because there's treasure hidden behind it." Yosuke suggested, also looking slightly nervous.
"So, the chocolate and wafer mikoshi is on the other side of that door!?" Rei asked excitedly. "Hey, Zen! Let's go have fun carrying it together!"
"Hold on, Rei. There's the possibility that there's danger beyond it..." Zen stopped her.
"I'm quite positive that this door won't open. The words engraved near the door seem to indicate that." Naoto stated, pointing out the engraving.
"Offer the Holy Flame to the god's presence. The door will remain sealed to those without qualifications." was what it said.
"...What's that supposed to mean?" Akihiko asked.
"The qualifications to open the door, huh...? Does anybody here have their Door Openin' License...?" Kanji asked.
"D-Door Opening...? Pfft...!" I couldn't help but find that funny.
"I-I don't believe that the government issues a license for that..." Naoto told him.
"Kanji, every time you open your mouth, you keep revealing how stupid you are." Yosuke said, and I elbowed him. "Ow!"
"That was mean." I told him, forcing myself to stop laughing and shoot him a disapproving look.
"Th-There could still be a test for it, though! Like mixed in with your driver's license, or your kanji proficiency test!" Kanji protested, getting annoyed in his embarrassment.
"Th-That's so ambiguous, though..." Naoto shook her head.
"F-Fine! I'll show you that I'm qualified to open doors! Hoo-rah! Hraaaaaaaagh!" Kanji placed both hands on the door and pushed with all his might, but it didn't budge before he was winded. "It's no use...You seriously do need some kind of qualification thing..."
"...Thank you for trying. At least now we know that it won't open to brute force." Naoto said to him. "The door will remain sealed to those without qualifications. In other words, if we are qualified, it will open. Also, according to the message, those who offer a Holy Flame to it will be allowed through."
"Either way, this door won't open. We don't have any other information regarding this door." Mitsuru said. "Yamagishi, Kujikawa. Do you two sense anything?"
"I don't know if it's related to that door...But I am picking up a heat source near you." Rise answered.
"It may be that Holy Flame you talked about. Can you try searching for it?" Fuuka suggested.
"All right. Come now, let's hurry." Mitsuru turned to lead us away from the door and to find the heat source.
"Ooh! There it is! We found a bonfire!" Rei cheered.
"Could this be the Holy Flame that the writing near the door mentioned?" Yukiko asked.
"I can't say for certain, but most likely..." Naoto answered.
"It said to offer it to the god's presence...So maybe we have to carry it somewhere?" Junpei suggested. "I think whoever made this labyrinth calls himself a god and is waiting for us in the deepest part of the maze...What do you think of that theory?"
"Wow, you might be onto something, Junpei-kun." Chie told him.
"That is the story of a video game that Junpei-san was playing not long ago." Aigis said.
"Why do you know that...?" Junpei muttered.
"Ah, I thought it sounded kinda familiar..." I said to myself, realizing I'd played that game too, but it was probably a couple years ago now.
"Well, let's still give it a try. Heck, just carrying the Holy Flame might be that "qualification", after all." Chie said.
"How are we gonna carry it? This thing's far too heavy to take with us." Shinjiro pointed out the issue with that.
"We need something to light, then..." Yosuke replied.
"Hmm...What's around here...?" Yukiko wondered, looking around until her eyes landed on Teddie.
"Y-Yuki-chan...Wh-Why're you staring at me like that...?" Teddie noticed and got uneasy.
"A living thing would run around at random if it was on fire...Not a very good idea..." I sighed at that.
"Arf arf!" Koromaru brought attention to himself behind Teddie.
"Koromaru-kun is standing behind you with something." Yukiko told the bear. "Now I can't see him, because you're in the way."
"So cruel!" Teddie cried.
"Arf!" Koromaru was holding a wooden stick in his mouth.
"You're smart. You're sayin' we should carry this stick around with the fire on it, huh?" Shinjiro asked the dog.
"Woof woof!"
"I see...Then, leave the rest to me." Zen took the stick, tearing off a piece of his cape and wrapping it around the end. "This should light up now."
"I see...Now we have a torch." Shinjiro said as Yu took the torch.
"It's not going to last long, though. If the flame goes out, then we'll have to relight it."
"So...We just have to carry it to wherever it needs to go before it goes out." Yosuke reiterated.
It was decided that Yu or Minato would carry the flame, considering one of our leaders needed to be free to fight the Shadows. Once the torch was lit, we quickly made our way back to the door. As we approached, the seal came off.
"Well done. The door has opened." Aigis stated.
"So the Holy Flame was the fire that we were carrying on this torch." Naoto said. "Just carrying it must have been the qualification it desired."
"We did it, Yu-kun. Let's go through it." Yukiko said and we stepped through the door.
"Hm...!? H-Hold on a moment! Take a look at this." Mitsuru stopped us and brought our attention to the door behind us that had closed and resealed itself. "The seal on this door doesn't seem to be completely lifted!"
"S-Seriously!?" Yosuke looked surprised.
"That talisman sticker is still on it." Rei said.
"So...This means that we need to have the Holy Flame with us if we want to pass through this door..." Naoto stated.
"In other words, we can't get out once the torch's flame has gone out..." Mitsuru said, then turned to Yu. "We'll have to be even more cautious during our investigation now. Keep that in mind."
Yu nodded, then we fought some Shadows and moved on.
"I'm sensing a decrease in temperature. It is getting colder and colder." Aigis said suddenly and the torch's flame went out.
"This flame won't last long...We'll trust you to carry it for us, but try not to wander about aimlessly." Zen said to Yu and Minato.
Shortly after that, we came to a dead end.
"Nngh, I'm so...hungry..." Rei was holding her stomach. "...Hm? I wonder what this is." She then held up what seemed to be the end of a rope.
"Is that a "shimenawa"...? One of those ropes you use to tie around holy trees and stuff? But there are no trees here." Junpei responded with a bit of confusion.
"Maybe it's for playing tug-of-war." Yosuke suggested.
"Tug-of-war...I've heard of that! How do you do it!?" Rei asked, seeming excited.
"Um...You have a team on each end of the rope, and you all pull on it. The team that gets pulled the most loses."
"You have to steam and pull pork? And whoever pulls the most pork loses!? ...I'll eat it!"
"Rei! Wait!" Zen stopped her.
"Awwww!"
"Don't you think it's strange that some random piece of rope is lying in our way...? ...Rise, Fuuka, can you detect any Shadows nearby?"
"Hm...Wait, he's right! I'm getting Shadow signals from that rope!" Rise answered with alarm.
"I-I didn't even notice...It looks like that rope has Shadows at the other end! Please be careful!" Fuuka warned.
"Just as I thought...The Shadows must be camouflaged. They're planning on attacking us when we get closer." Zen said. "They haven't noticed us yet, though. If we strike now, we may have the upper hand. Of course, if you don't wish to fight them, we could just keep moving. What do you want to do?"
"Let's fight the Shadows." Yu shrugged.
"Ready your weapons." Zen told the rest of us as he got his crossbow ready.
We attacked the Shadows first, but they were a bit strong so even with all of us working together, it took a bit more strategy than just throwing attacks at them. Either way, we won.
"...I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking ahead when I did that..." Rei apologized to Zen after the fight ended.
"I'm just glad I stopped you before you bit into it." Zen replied to her.
"Z-Zen..." She blushed a little. "Um...I just...wanted to say...Thank you, for, y'know...protecting me...Thank you..."
"We did make a promise to one another."
"I-It's not about the promise...! That's not what's important...Augh! Stupid Zen!" She got frustrated and Zen looked confused. "Yu-kun! Don't you think Zen's a meanie!? He's so heartless!"
"That was pretty mean." Yu nodded to her.
"R-Right!? ...No, that's not true! Zen's...really nice." Rei changed her tune after thinking about it a bit. "Even when I thank him, he just doesn't get it...It's like he understands the words, but he doesn't get the feeling behind them...What should I do?"
"Why don't you give him a present?" Yu suggested.
"A present...? That's it!" Rei seemed to like that idea.
We moved on after that, continuing through the next door. In the next room, we found another sealed door and we looked around for another fire to relight the torch. However, the nearest bonfire that we found wasn't lit.
"This bonfire isn't lit. We can't light our torch like this..." Ken stated the obvious.
"The firewood is cleanly stacked. It is quite likely that someone intends for a fire to be lit here." Aigis observed.
"Put the torch to my chest! My heart is blazing with my feelings for you, Ai-chan!" Teddie said dramatically.
Aigis reacted by pointing her guns at him. "Preparing sodium bicarbonate dispersal! Five...Four...Three..."
"Wh-Whaat kind of chemical is that!?"
Yu and Minato diffused the situation before ushering us forward through the next door in search of more fire. On the other side though, there was an FOE standing right in front of us.
"Aaaaaack!" Chie screamed at the odd-looking creature.
"What the hell is this thing? It looks like a gourd." Shinjiro seemed unfazed for the most part.
"I guess this labyrinth's FOE has decided to show up." Akihiko said.
"There's no telling how it moves. Let's remain cautious as we proceed." Mitsuru advised.
"U-Um...I'm sorry to butt in when you're cautioning everyone, but..." Rise spoke up.
"What is it, Kujikawa?"
"Fuuka-chan and I have been monitoring that FOE this whole time, and..."
"It's not moving." Fuuka finished.
"Not moving?" Yosuke repeated.
"Yes, it hasn't taken a single step from where it is now."
"Okay...So we just have to avoid running into it? That's kind of a letdown, but I'm not going to complain!"
"Oh, but it'll still be dangerous if you touch it! Make sure you don't come into contact with it, okay!?" Rise warned.
So, we moved on carefully, found another unlit bonfire, and then headed through the only door we could. Inside the next area was a Power Spot, so we gathered materials, fought more Shadows, found another unlit bonfire, and went through the next door. We found yet another unlit bonfire and went through another door and found out that the shortcuts here were pinwheels when we activated a few. We then had to go through a shortcut to that first fire and light the torch before heading back through to light the first other bonfire we could get to. However, when we reentered the room with fire, the FOE that wasn't moving before left its spot.
"Huh? This one jumped away right now." Rei noticed.
"It didn't move at all until now, right? What's goin' on here?" Kanji asked.
"There should be some kind of logic behind this..." Ken said.
"Arf!" Koromaru apparently knew.
"Koromaru-san's animal intuition is telling him that it ran away in fear of something." Aigis stated and I put together that it was probably afraid of the fire Minato was carrying.
"It may be our flame..." Naoto seemed to come to the same conclusion. "Perhaps it ran away from the Holy Flame that we're carrying."
"Then there's nothin' to be scared about. If we keep movin' it out of the way with the torch, this'll be a breeze." Kanji said.
"But we can't carry the torch's flame too far." Ken pointed out.
"R-Right, I forgot about that...Is there any way to carry the flame farther...? Let's think about that while we give it a try."
Yu directed Minato over to the nearby unlit bonfire to light it.
"I see. We're gonna use this as a new starting point for carrying the flame. Good call, Yu." Shinjiro said.
Minato relit the torch at the new bonfire and then Yu directed us carefully to the next unlit one we had come across, which was through a shortcut. From there, it was a series of repeating that process until all the bonfires were lit and we could make it to the sealed door with the flame.
"We managed to get through this door, too." Yukiko said after we'd walked through and it closed behind us.
"Woof woof!" Koromaru barked at Yu.
"Koromaru-san says that he is left speechless by your ability to find the shortest-distance paths." Aigis translated for him. "...But he spoke when he said that. An intriguing contradiction."
"Does Koromaru-kun not like going on long walks, then?" Yukiko asked.
"Woof woof!"
"He says that he only wishes to walk the most efficient routes, so the longer the walk, the more fun it is for him."
"I see. It would be more fun to be able to go to different places. Hey, Koromaru-kun, will you go for a walk with me too?" Yukiko asked.
"Arf!" Koromaru seemed happy.
"Can I walk you, too...?" Kanji asked.
Koromaru whined, not looking too pleased with that idea.
"Why not me!?"
We moved on, finding a Power Spot, fighting more Shadows, and heading through a normal door.
"Oh, look at that FOE. It's a different colour from the other one." Rei pointed out the gourd FOEs in this room that were orange instead of green.
"It seems to have a different movement pattern as well...I believe it will circle one particular area." Fuuka said. "Please be careful of your surroundings when entering the FOE's territory."
"Woof!" Koromaru barked.
"Koromaru-san says that he is confident when it comes to territorial disputes." Aigis translated.
"J-Just don't start the conflict, okay...?" Chie asked with a bit of a sigh.
We proceeded carefully, activating a shortcut to a treasure room before going back and following Yu as he worked out the path through to a door. We came to a dead end shortly afterward and noticed that Koromaru seemed really happy for some reason.
"I am detecting a high number of alpha brainwaves from Koromaru-san." Aigis said.
"When your brain gives off alpha waves, doesn't that mean...you're relaxed?" Fuuka asked. "Maybe he feels at home here because he grew up at a shrine."
"Arf arf!"
"Um, Leader. You don't have to do this if you think you don't have time for it, but...Could you take Koro-chan for a walk?" Fuuka asked Yu. "If possible...in this part of the labyrinth."
"I'm sorry, Yamagishi, but it's out of the question. Whether or not he feels at home, this is a Shadow nesting ground." Mitsuru interrupted.
"O-Of course...! I'm sorry..."
Koromaru stared into Mitsuru's eyes with an adorableness I doubted even she could resist.
"Nngh..." Mitsuru looked put off and Koromaru whined, seeming to do the trick. "...F-Fine! I'll make an exception just this once."
"R-Really!?" Fuuka asked.
"But we'll go into the labyrinth together, like we always do! Do you understand?"
"Yes, thank you! Hear that, Koro-chan?"
"Arf arf!"
"That's pretty rare. Never expected you to give in like that." Shinjiro commented to Mitsuru.
"...Could you have said no?" She responded.
"Nope. Nobody can resist when he looks at you with his eyes set to Maximum Cute."
"Hah...I suppose you're right."
"Okay, I'll put in an official request for this. You can do it whenever you think you have the time." Fuuka told Yu, who nodded.
We then headed through the next door. We activated a shortcut back toward the entrance, found another sealed door, and came across another dead end.
"I'm not getting any Shadow readings there." Fuuka said.
"Let's take a break here, then. Yamagishi, Kujikawa, you can turn the comm off as well. Get some rest." Mitsuru instructed.
"Th-Then...we'll take you up on that offer! We'll cut the comms for now!" Rise replied.
We all relaxed a little for our break, but then I heard Fuuka's voice say, "Whew...That labyrinth seemed very hot. Just watching them made me feel like breaking into a sweat..."
"That heat seems tough, but I envy them a little...I could do with some sauna time, after all." Rise's voice replied.
"Hmm? Isn't that...Fuuka and Risecchi?" Junpei asked. "You think...maybe they forgot to turn their stuff off?"
"Woohoo! We're listening in on real girl talk! It's a situation that all guys dream of!" Teddie cheered.
"Oh, you don't need to lose any weight! You look great, you know?" Fuuka's voice was saying when they quieted down.
"C-C'mon, that's not true! You look great too, Fuuka-chan!" Rise replied.
"Huh? Y-You can't say that! Having a teen idol say something like that just sounds like you're trying to be nice!"
"It's the classic scene: two girls trying to out-compliment each other!" Teddie seemed excited for some reason, although I found these types of conversations boring or tedious myself.
"I'm not joking! Look at how thin you are! Oh, except for here..." Rise said.
"D-Don't grab me there! G-Geez! My turn!" Fuuka apparently retaliated. "...Oh, you're surprisingly soft."
"Wah! Sh-Shtop it! You're gonna tear 'em! Nooooo!"
"What the...What's going on over there?" Junpei asked.
"You're gonna tear my cheeksh! Let go!" Rise was protesting.
"Ch-Cheeks...!?"
"Huh...What did you think she was going to say?" Yukari asked Junpei.
"I, um..."
"We really don't want to go near some perverted guy in a costume." Yukiko said coldly.
"M-My identity is being trampled on...!" Teddie cried.
The break turned out to not be a very good break because of being able to hear the navigators' conversation, so Yu decided we should just carry on. We went through the next door and found yet another unlit bonfire before going through another door and seeing one of each of the FOEs that we couldn't get past, so we went back and tried another way.
"It's another sealed door." Yukari commented as we stood across a canal from one of the talisman doors.
"Oh! That door leads to the area you saw with the stairs when you first arrived here!" Rise spoke up.
"So I guess once we open this door, we'll be done with this floor? Ugh...Hasn't the labyrinth gotten complicated all of a sudden?"
"It seems to be both much larger and more complex than the previous labyrinths." Aigis replied.
Yukari sighed. "I really don't want to open this door..."
"Since you feel that way, Yuka-chan, I have some good news for you!" Teddie said.
"...Good news?"
"You can still open...the door to my heart! C'mon, rush right into my heart, Yuka-chan!"
"Sorry...But I'd choose this door over yours."
"Oh, my!"
"How are you still surprised at this point...?" I muttered, shaking my head at the bear.
We moved on and headed through the next door we could reach. There were FOEs there that we had to get around to activate the next shortcut and then go through another door. There, we found another shortcut to activate before avoiding more FOEs and unlit bonfires before coming to another dead end.
"Arf arf!" Koromaru looked happy.
"What's up, Koro-chan? Do you like this spot?" Fuuka asked.
"Arf!"
"It might be useful to remember these places when we go for a walk. Maybe you should mark them on the map." Fuuka told Yu.
Yu nodded and jotted down a note on his map before we continued exploring. We activated another shortcut, then Yu began working out if we could get the bonfires lit yet. Once he had apparently figured it out, it seemed like a lot of careful steps until we came to a room with those orange FOEs in it.
"E-Everyone! Careful you've got to be!" Fuuka warned us, seeming flustered.
"...F-Fuuka-chan! Calm down, you're mixing your words up!" Rise said.
"U-Uh...so what's up? Why're you all flustered?" Kanji asked.
"A nearby red FOE is coming after you!" Rise answered. "It seems to be attracted to the Holy Flame!"
"Seriously!? So the red one's after us. What a pain..."
"You'll have to carry the torch pretty far to get to the door...Make sure you don't encounter the FOE that's chasing you and...and...P-Please, just don't! Be careful!" Fuuka said, seeming really worried before giggling a bit. "I-I said it right that time!"
"You don't have to be so proud of it..." Junpei muttered.
"Can we just go?" I sighed, feeling uneasy.
Yu lit the bonfire we were next to, relit the torch, then we made a run for a shortcut to lure it all the way to the other side of the room before we went back through the shortcut and ran over to light another bonfire and escape through the next door. After that, Yu and Minato seemed to be pretty on top of the whole lighting bonfires thing. In the meantime, we found a couple more places Koromaru seemed to like and that Yu noted down. Then we came across a large lantern with the word "festival" written on it in Japanese in a dead end.
"Hey, doesn't this labyrinth remind you of summer festivals?" Yukiko asked, seeming to be in high spirits.
"Oh yeah, it does. We all wore yukatas, huh?" Chie replied.
"Such pleasant memories..." Teddie said.
"Uh, if it wasn't for Kyoka, it would've been pretty lame for most of us. And even then, it was still kinda..." Yosuke sighed at him.
"Did something happen, Yosuke? If you don't mind telling me, I'm willing to lend an ear."
"You don't remember!? It was all your fault!" Yosuke shouted at him.
"I don't know what you're talking about, but we had a summer festival in our hometown too." Akihiko said. "Though we didn't all go together or anything..."
"Let's do that next year." Minato suggested.
"Yeah, both our teams should go together." Yu agreed.
"Seriously!? I'll get to see the Team Yaso girls in yukatas too!?" Junpei looked excited.
"Ooh, what a great idea! It'll be a summer to remember!" Teddie cheered.
"You're gonna play fair and use your own pay next time, got it, Teddie!? Promise me!" Yosuke said.
"Maybe this time I can get to spend some alone time with Kyo-chan!" The bear blushed as he snuck glances at me and I gave him an utterly confused look in response. "No need to be shy if no one's watching, right, Kyo-chan?"
"Wha-H-Hey! Kyoka's off limits, you stupid bear!" Yosuke protested before I could even say anything.
""Off limits"...?" Chie repeated him, getting a sly look on her face. "Hey, Yosuke, since when do you get so worked up about Teddie putting the moves on Kyoka?"
"Th-That's...!" Yosuke's face went red and he seemed to be panicking as if just realizing he had said something he shouldn't've. "That's none of your business!"
"Wha-H-Hey, don't tell me...!" Chie looked surprised. "Are you two-"
"No!" Yosuke denied after we exchanged a look of alarm and then looked away quickly in embarrassment. "I-It's not...Uh..."
"Oh, so you turned her down? But you can't chase off other guys if you turned her down." Yukiko seemed to both pick up on the situation and have it go over her head at the same time.
"Ugh..." Yosuke grimaced a bit at that. "It's not like that..."
"I-I just told him recently that Teddie was freaking me out and may have said I'd hate to be left alone with him, s-so..." I lied, but maybe it sounded awkward enough for them to believe it. "Sorry Yosuke, I wasn't seriously worried about Teddie..."
"H-Huh? Uh...Y-Yeah!" Yosuke looked a bit surprised and confused at first, but then apparently decided to go along with it and laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "S-Sorry, I overreacted a little..."
"H-Hey! Wait a minute! Kyo-chan, I was freaking you out...!?" Teddie asked in shock.
"You said, "Come to me, my fair-furred canine, and let me be your mate!"...So, yeah. I was a bit freaked out since you don't usually take it quite that far..." I responded to him a bit awkwardly, looking away.
"Y-You seriously said that to her!? What is wrong with you!?" Chie looked at him with disgust and shock now too as Teddie hung his head guiltily.
"I-I thought it was romantic..."
"It wasn't." Yukiko replied flatly.
With the situation more or less diffused, we moved on. Yosuke ended up walking next to me and was apparently waiting until he was sure none of the others were listening before he spoke to me quietly.
"You're scary good at lying. Did you know that?"
"It was a half-lie, so it's different." I replied to him just as quietly.
"Still..." He muttered, looking a bit unnerved, then offering me an apologetic smile and a bit of a cringe. "S-Sorry. You wouldn't've had to lie if I didn't say something stupid..."
"...It's not...stupid." I answered, looking straight ahead and trying to ignore the fact my face was heating up.
"Huh?"
"It kinda makes me happy...But I don't want to cause problems with the others, so I half-lied about the reasoning behind it...So, Yosuke?"
"Y-Yeah...?"
"P-Please try to stop making it difficult to hold back."
"Wha-!? S-Sorry...! ...Wh-What do you mean, "hold back"...?"
"Are you really that dense...? J-Just think about it."
"Wait, seriously!?" He looked a bit alarmed.
"Oh, right. I forgot you were a pervert." I sighed. "Okay, take whatever you just imagined and downscale it to the "appropriate to do in front of other people but probably still counts as PDA" level."
"...Yeah, okay. I got it." He seemed both disappointed and relieved at the same time. "But still...You're seriously holding back? I couldn't tell at all."
"...Restraint is probably one of the things I'm good at but don't like to put on display." I muttered, grimacing a bit at the reason why.
"...Sorry." He seemed to get what I was referencing and apologized a bit sullenly.
"It's okay. We should focus inside the labyrinth, anyway. Like Mitsuru-senpai says, being distracted in here could be really dangerous."
"Yeah, you're right."
And with that, the conversation ended and we continued on with the exploration alongside everyone else. It took a while of going back and forth to light all the fires on the way through the place until we finally got the fire to the sealed door.
"We've finally made it to the stairs...Well done, everyone." Fuuka said to us.
"Woof woof!" Koromaru barked.
"Koromaru-san says that he senses tremendous heat coming from the next floor." Aigis translated.
"My nose sensors are picking that up, too!" Teddie said.
"You smell tremendous treats from the next floor!? Is it broiled squid? Or cotton candy? Or squid candy!?" Rei asked.
"S-Squid candy...?" I repeated in confusion, tilting my head at her.
"C'mon, let's go! Hurry, hurry!" Rei urged, looking excited and like no one could talk her out of rushing to the next floor.
So, we headed down the stairs and I immediately wanted to leave.
"...Doesn't this floor feel hot?" Shinjiro asked, wiping at his forehead under his beanie.
"It's too hot..." I complained quietly.
"And what's up with that shadow on the wall...? I'm getting a bad feeling about this..." Yosuke said, looking uneasily at the shadows on the wall of what looked like some sort of body builder or something. "Anyway, Kanji, we're gonna leave it to you to lead the way."
"Why me, dammit!?" Kanji got mad.
"All we can do is keep going...but I seriously don't want to..." Shinjiro sighed.
"Seconded." I sighed as well, shifting to take off my hoodie and tie it around my waist before draping my pelt back over my shoulders. It didn't help very much, though.
We went ahead and opened the first door we came across, only to see a half red half green muscular guy FOE come running toward us from across a canal.
Yosuke sighed. "I knew it was gonna be like this..."
"That one's really dangerous!" Rise warned.
"I can tell that just by looking at it!"
"It's more than just looks! It can move very quickly as well!" Fuuka said. "On top of that, it's very aggressive! It's going to chase after you with tremendous speed!"
"Everyone! There's a door to the north! Hurry through it before the FOE catches up to you!" Rise instructed.
"R-Right! We've got to get to the door to the north! You got that!?" Yosuke said to Yu, who nodded and then led us as we fled over to said door.
"We barely made it to safety." Aigis said after the door closed behind us.
"Those muscles...They were well toned." Akihiko seemed impressed.
"Who cares about its muscles...!?" Yosuke responded.
"Ugh...Why do we have to run when it's so hot...!" I whined between breaths.
"Before we passed through the door, I saw stairs on the other side of the canal..." Ken said, also out of breath.
"You're right! I do sense stairs there...but they're past that FOE...You'll have to search for a route that'll get you there without the FOE finding you." Rise replied.
"That means we'll have to pass by that FOE at least one more time, then..." Yosuke sighed.
"Th-That FOE we saw just now! It was wearing a loincloth!" Rei pointed out happily, but then seemed to get depressed. "Hm? But...there wasn't any chocolate banana..."
"That's not what you should be depressed about!" Yosuke told her.
"This festival's turning dangerous in more ways than one..." Shinjiro sighed.
"E-Everyone! You gotta stay positive!" Rise tried to encourage us. "Oh, I'll review what we know. That FOE will come after you if it finds you, so try not to let it discover you. I'll be cheering for you, so hang in there!"
We moved on and came across a dead end.
"I'm tired...I wanna take a break..." Teddie complained.
"It's way too hot here...I can't stop sweating..." Junpei said, using his hat to fan himself.
"I thought I wouldn't have to deal with this kind of heat while fighting Shadows again..." I sighed, pulling my shirt's collar in and out to try and help cool off.
"When it's hot, you should think about things that are cool!" Rise told us.
"Huh? There's no way that would make this place feel less hot..." Junpei responded doubtfully.
"Th-That's not true! It's said that your mind controls your body, after all!" Fuuka argued.
"...So what are we supposed to imagine? What can we think about that's cool?" Yosuke asked.
My mind immediately went to dancing in the cold rain, but thinking about that didn't really help me much. Probably because dancing warmed me up too, so it was a kinda weird cool on the outside, warm on the inside sort of deal.
"An air-conditioned room!" Yu said.
"An air-conditioned room...Do you mean like a library?" Chie asked.
"Ooh, a library sounds great! I only go there during the summer, too!" Junpei seemed to like the idea.
"Eh? Why only during the summer?" Fuuka asked.
"I bet he just goes for the air conditioning. If he ever went there to study, I bet Hell would freeze over." Yukari replied.
"Oh, that's true."
"Oh, come on! You too, Fuuka!?" Junpei seemed surprised.
I tried to think of an air-conditioned room, but it only helped a little bit. The others seemed to have more luck with the mind controlling the body thing, though. I wondered if it was because of that thing I had ever since merging with my Shadow. I had a hard time warming up, but when I got too hot it was difficult to cool off quickly. It was like...I had no control over my body temperature inside the Shadows' territory, but outside in the real world it was always kinda cold. Though, I'm pretty sure the doctors took my temperature when one of the nurses noticed my hands felt cold when I had just come back, but my temperature was normal, so maybe it was a mental thing...? Either way, I would prefer to be too cold than too hot.
We backtracked and went through the next available door to find a bonfire right in front of it. Zen said he sensed more sealed doors on this floor, so we'd have to light this one to proceed. It was a pain, but there was an FOE in this room too, so we couldn't complain too much before running for the next door to get away. From there, we found another unlit bonfire and headed through a door to find another one before a door led us to a room with stairs going up and a shortcut back to the stairs we first came down. Going up the stairs, we found a room with an unlit bonfire near a shortcut back to a place where we could go through another shortcut to light the torch then come back and light the bonfire, relight the torch, and finally go back down the stairs to light the bonfire on the next floor. With the starting point established for the fire chain on the second floor, Yu decided we should go back. So we did and went to the Nurse's Office before parting ways for our downtime.