Soon after they entered the Metaverse world, Akira, Ann, Ryuji, Kanakubo-sensei, Ken and Minako gasped and look around in disbelief and shock (while Koromaru start barking) when they saw that all of the other people walking around them had disappeared while Minato briefly widened his eyes in surprise at seeing the same scene they see and Morgana look at them with a calm look on his face.

"Everyone disappeared…! It… kind of feels like I'm walking on air…?" said Ann in a shock tone of voice to them.

"Is this place truly the Metaverse world? But the place looks the same as the one in the real world…" muttered Akira to himself.

"This place feels similar yet also different from when you and your friends entered and explore Tartarus at night back in Tatsumi Port Island a few years ago, isn't it, Minato?" said Pharos.

"Yeah, Pharos." said Minato in agreement with Pharos.

"Whoa, the place around us is completely devoid of people, so different from when we see the moon turned yellow and bigger than normal, everyone turned into coffins and blood puddles on the ground in the Dark Hour every night at midnight back in Tatsumi Port Island many years ago." thought Minako as she, Ken and Koromaru look around the empty place.

"Is this that Nakanohara guy's Palace?" asked Ryuji as he glance at Morgana.

"That's half right, but half wrong." replied Morgana in slight amusement to Ryuji. "This is a type of Palace, but it's different from Kamoshida's Palace. Come on, let's head down. The Shadows here lurked underground." added Morgana.

"Why is that, Morgana?" asked Akira curiously to Morgana.

"I don't quite understand why. It may be because they're drawn to something." replied Morgana.

"They're drawn to something in the Mementos underground? What could that something or someone be? Can you sense what it is that they're drawn to, Pharos?" thought Minato curiously to himself before he tell Pharos to sense it.

"Already did but there's a strong barrier blocking me from sensing whatever or whoever it is so I can't. I'm sorry but I guess it could be anything, Minato." said Pharos sadly to Minato.

"I see. At least you try, Pharos." said Minato reassuringly to Pharos.

"Underground…? How are we going to get there?" asked Ann.

"How, Lady Ann? You all use it everyday on your way to school. Follow me!" replied Morgana as he nodded to them before he turned and run down the stairs and they immediately run and follow behind him.

XXXX

Inside Mementos…

"The hell is this place…?" said Skull as he, Joker, Panther, Seraph, Paladin, Minako, Ken and Koromaru look around the almost crimson-coloured subway station of Shibuya that had dim-looking lights hanging and swaying slightly on the ceiling above them, several televisions screen showing nothing but static buzzing and several mass of growing dark red vines on the floors, pillars and on the ceiling with worry looks on their faces (while Mona glance at them in silence) before Skull turned to glance at Joker, Panther, Seraph and Paladin as he suddenly took a step back in surprise. "Wait, our clothes change!?" added Skull to them.

"Oh my, when did the cat change his appearance while they change their uniforms into such different and cool-looking outfits and with masks on their faces, especially my twin brother's mask and outfit which looks similar to one of his powerful Personas named Messiah…" thought Minako as she glance at Joker, Mona, Skull, Panther, Paladin and Seraph's alternate outfits with an appreciative look on her face.

"The Shadows knows we're here!?" said Panther, surprised as well.

"Since the moment we stepped in." said Mona.

"You should have told us earlier!" complain Skull as he scowled at Mona.

"He didn't because neither you nor Panther ask him before we stepped in and he already told us that there are Shadows in here so keep your comments to yourselves, please." said Seraph slightly coldly to both Skull and Panther (which make them scowled at him before they fell silent).

"Seraph's got a point, besides, we're still safe right here. I've come to investigate this place a number of times before I met you guys. Shadows never come up to this floor. But it's a different story once you all go down. This place is simply teeming with them." said Mona reassuringly then concernly to them.

"Is that so? How comforting." said Paladin sarcastically at Mona (who scowled at him).

"Then we just have to be more alert and careful when we head down, isn't it, Mona?" asked Joker.

"Yep, you're right." replied Mona as he nodded to Joker.

"More importantly, what is this "Mementos" place!? It's about time you start explaining." demanded Panther.

"Mementos is… everyone's Palace." replied Mona as he placed his paws on his hips.

"Huh? Everyone's palace?" said Ken with a confused look on his face.

"Huh? Whaddya mean "everyone's"…?" said Skull confusingly to Mona.

"When you say and mean "everyone", do you mean "everyone" in Tokyo or "everyone" in all of Japan?" said Joker in a disbelief then shock tone of voice to Mona.

"Everyone in all of Japan, of course." said Mona.

"Oh dear… That's a lot of people." said Seraph in disbelief as well.

"No kidding." said Pharos.

"Exactly as you two thinks, Joker, Seraph. A Palace as grand as the previous castle only forms when a person's wishes are extremely distorted. So, instead of many individual Palaces, the general public has one gigantic shared Palace. That's where we're now… Mementos." explain Mona even more to them.

"Now that you mention it, this place feels a bit different from Kamoshida's Palace…" said Panther as she take another look around the place.

"When you say shared… you mean they're all put together? Even though they're just strangers…?" asked Skull warily at Mona.

"Think of it as the collective unconscious… No, never mind. You wouldn't understand that." replied Mona despondently to Skull.

"The collective unconscious of people, huh? Sounds like something that Igor would say." thought Seraph with a pondering look on his face at Mona's words.

"So what you're saying is… Using this place, we can change the hearts of people who don't have Palaces of their own?" asked Panther with a hopeful glint in her eyes.

"Correct! The steps to do so and slightly different though." replied Mona as he glance and smiled at Panther.

"But this place looks pretty huge. Are we gonna be able to get around just by walkin'…?" said Skull questioningly to Mona (who began walking a few feet away from them, stopped and turned to glance at them).

"It seems the time has finally come…" said Mona dramatically to them.

"Huh?" said Seraph.

"Time for what?" asked Joker.

"Watch. Morganaaaa… Transfoooooorm!" exclaimed Mona quite loudly to them as he do a power ranger pose (which make Minako chuckled and make Paladin sighed and shake his head at Mona's pose) before he jumped up into the air and literally transform into a black bus (which had a yellow stripe extending from it's hood down to it's rear, blue orbs-like eyes as headlights in front of it, with the numbers 2-22 on it's license plate, a golden cat brand logo above it and with a cat tail swaying left and right in the back near the exhaust pipe) which make Joker, Skull, Panther, Paladin, Minako and Ken gaped in shock unison and make Seraph raised his eyebrows in brief surprise then awed at Mona's transformation.

"Wh-What? Th-This…" said Joker.

"Come now, Panther and Miss Rednette. Ladies first." purred Mona.

"A car…!?" said Panther, flabbergasted.

"No way!" said Skull in disbelief.

"Yeah, wasn't expecting to see you turned into a vehicle of all things." said Paladin.

"Woah. A cat literally transforming into a bus. I'll admit, it's quite a surprise to me." thought Seraph to himself.

"I think it's hilarious and besides, wouldn't him turning into a bus makes it easy and convenient for you all to explore Mementos?" said Pharos.

"Yeah, you're right, Pharos." said Seraph in agreement with Pharos.

"This comes from the way cognition materializes in the Metaverse, plus a bit of extra training. It's not dissimilar to how you guys transform." explain Mona.

"You turnin' into a car is totally different than our clothes changin'!" yell Skull as he briefly flailed his arms around.

"For some reason, "cats turning into buses" is an extremely widespread cognition among the general public." explain Mona.

"Seriously? Can't believe that some people would think that." said Paladin with a deadpan look on his face.

"Ah, I see. So that's how he's able to turned into a bus. It's because of the general public thinking and spreading the widespread cognition of "cats turning into buses"." thought Seraph with a small nod of his head.

"But still, why a bus though?" asked Panther.

"…No idea." replied Mona as he jumped a little.

"No idea, huh? Oh well and I think your vehicle form's kinda cute and convenient for us, Mona." said Minako.

"I see and thanks for the compliment, rednette." said Mona.

"My name is Minako Arisato, not rednette, Mona." corrected Minako.

"Oh, sorry about that, Minako." said Mona apologetically to Minako.

"Wait! Why didn't you do this at the castle!?" interjected Skull before he make his way toward the Mona bus, opened the door and went in.

"I would have if I could! But that castle was cramped, there were tons of stairs, and no way this fits on top of a chandelier!" snapped Mona in slight annoyance at Skull.

"That's true. If only that castle were wide enough and didn't have any stairs to hinder you, we could have use you to ran Kamoshida over, Mona." thought Joker sneakily in his mind.

"Hey, Skull! Ladies first!" yell Panther indignantly to Skull as she run forward and began pulling him out of the bus.

"Stop pullin' me! That's dangerous!" Skull reprimanded her.

"Panther! Please be gentle!" yelped Mona as he shook quite violently from their actions.

"Why are you 2 so…" sighed Paladin as he shake his head at both Panther and Skull.

"Come on, Seraph, Paladin, Arisato-san, Amada-senpai and Koromaru. Let's get into the bus too." said Joker calmly to Seraph, Paladin, Minako, Ken and Koromaru before they approach the bus and Joker went and sat onto the middle seat of the bus next to both Panther and Skull, Minako, Ken and Koromaru sat at the back behind Joker, Panther and Skull while both Seraph and Paladin went in and sat at the front.

"All aboard! Let's go, leader!" said Skull cheerfully to Joker as he leaned back in his seat.

"Hold your horses, Skull. And Joker, before we start the engine, do you know about safety and how to drive this bus?" asked Seraph concernly to Joker.

"Well, not really, Seraph. But I do learn, know and remember most of the basics of driving and vehicles safety for quite a few years from my father, just in case." replied Joker slightly reassuringly to Seraph.

"Really? You sure about that?" said Seraph even more concernly to Joker.

"Don't worry, Joker! I trust you to drive me. Just try not to smash up my beautiful face, alright?" said Mona reassuringly then concernly to Joker.

"Yeah, I got it, Mona." said Joker reassuringly to Mona.

"Well, if Mona said that it's fine then it's fine by me." said Seraph.

"Nope, I don't think so. I'll be the one to do the driving because there's absolutely no way I'm letting any of you kids drive Mona. Mind switching places with me, Seraph?" said Paladin as he glance at Seraph.

"Excuse me, Minato and I aren't kids anymore, mister Paladin." thought Minako as she scowled at Paladin.

"Well, I guess you do have a point about us, Paladin. We'll leave the driving to you instead of to Joker since you're an adult and our teacher." said Panther as she gave a small smile to Paladin (who glance over his shoulder at Panther and smiled back at her before he turned on Mona's engine with a flick of the switch after he switched places with Seraph).

"Fine and yeah, right there, Paladin… That feels sooo gooooood…" purred Mona happily to them.

"Uh, is that purrin' I hear…?" What a creepy-ass bus!" said Skull as he shake his head.

"Don't underestimate my meowtary engine. We're going full throttle! It's time to fly!" declared Mona. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you all one more important thing. There's also a very dangerous and powerful Shadow called the Reaper that roams in this place so if we heard the sound of snarling and chains rattling coming, that's when we need to run away from ASAP." added Mona worriedly to them about the Reaper.

"Say what!? That annoyingly powerful and difficult Reaper shadow that me, my sister and the rest of the SEES members faced and fought before in Tartarus is still alive and roaming around even in this Mementos place!?" thought Seraph (and also both Minako and Ken while Koromaru start barking) in disbelief and shock in his mind at what Mona just told them about the Reaper.

"Unfortunately so because I do sense that the Reaper is indeed roaming in Mementos, Minato." said Pharos sadly to Seraph.

"Great, thanks for the added input and confirmation, Pharos." said Seraph dryly at Pharos.

"Say what? Why didn't you tell us earlier!?" said Skull.

"I'm telling you all now! Now be quiet and let's go already!" said Mona.

Upon Mona's declaration, Paladin put his hands on the steering wheel, stepped on the pedal and started driving Mona, his students, Minako, Ken and Koromaru down into the subway station and they saw that it's a dark and foreboding-looking tunnel with a slightly strong wind constantly blowing and sending pieces of torn papers, stray metals and scraps flying around them. Paladin proceed to drive down the paths of the winding tunnels, bumping into wandering Shadows against Mona and fought and defeat them with the others (and they were surprised to see that Minako, Ken and Koromaru used the same Evoker gun devices to summon their Personas out to fight like Seraph had), take the treasures from treasure chests while searching for their target, Nakanohara until Paladin stopped the bus in front of a red and black swirling vortex at the end of a pathway and they quickly got off the bus before the bus turned back into Mona.