.

.

.

Funny how the mind tries to sink me deeper
As the evil tries to turn me around
I will not falter, shout at the devil
As I bury them six foot underground
The hours trapped in window panes
As futile eyes peer deep
The hurt nests right in
Haunting thoughts of this crumbling world

- Cody Matthew Johnson (performed by Matthew Barr), Subhuman

4 / 26 / 2016

We all decide to get it over with as soon as we possibly can. Today we go. While it's still light out, while we haven't sobered the fuck up yet and remain high on emotions, high on the desire to see this girl survive. The later we resolve all this the more likely Sakura'll get sick of us, or the more likely we drag Akechi into this mess, and neither circumstance is one I'm particularly fond of.

It's a silent trip on the trains to the house, but we decide since Palace range is around fifty feet of the location itself, we're better off entering the Palace through a more distant location. Because Futaba Sakura will be able to track the whole lot of us getting in range of her house and we'd like to pull this off quickly yet efficiently. Can't have her freak out at the sight and pull up a van on all seven of us.

Could we try entering the Palace one at a time, at different times? No. Wasteful - and I'm anxious that Ammut or some other Manikin will erupt from the desert sands and take advantage of lesser numbers. So we go in all together, despite all the risks.

We're fortunate that Sakura's house is within range of the laundromat just in front of Leblanc. And though it's a little cramped for all of us to fit ourselves in the laundromat, it works out all the same. For a given definition of works out.

"Oh, no...," is all Niijima can say.

All at once they feel the unbridled cold, they hear the howling winds, they gaze upon the black-as-ink sky. The snow comes up to our thighs now - before it barely reached the knees. The Cat nearly suffocates but digs itself upwards and outwards. Takamaki in particular takes it bad, frost already piling up at the ends of her twintails. Sakamoto and Yoshizawa are somehow able to handle it, and I don't know how Yoshizawa deals with it considering her thighs are exposed. For some reason it seems Niijima doesn't take the darkness too well - through the mask I see her eyes bulge wide, as though groping for any possible source of light outside of the cold and barren wastes.

I summon Hell Biker immediately and the flames clear the snow for a good distance and everyone just takes a few minutes to huddle close to it, rubbing their hands and ridding their Thief robes of tiny stalactites. Takamaki growls at me, "How the hell are you not cold."

And she's right, I'm not. The winds beat against me as they do all the others, but I don't feel the overwhelming chill.

"Because he's a cold bastard already," Sakamoto grunts.

Niijima almost looks like she's wondering the same thing, but she comes to a realization sooner than most. "Dante's Inferno..."

"What?" I turn to her.

"O-oh, it's nothing."

"Wh-what's the p-plan here, s-senpai...?" Yoshizawa stutters, shivering despite herself.

"We have to make our way to the pyramids and sphinx on the far end. Cat, any Shadows in the area?"

"A good number of them have cropped up since we came here last...," Cat breathes and clouds bloom out its mouth, "but they're further off. The place's so cold they're frozen in their positions."

"Meaning she's even more depressed now. There's a Manikin we encountered here, when we first entered this place. It's still alive. I wasn't able to kill it."

"I can't imagine what she must be feeling...," Niijima mutters, eyes fixed on the pyramids ahead. "She's so emotionally destroyed the state of her Palace is causing her own Shadows to freeze over. Though we stood right outside the location of her Palace, we're still so far away from where she identifies her tomb. She must really want to keep people away from her."

"She's likely attempted suicide multiple times by now," Maruki says suddenly. We all turn to him. His eyes remain locked on the fires of Hell Biker's wheels. "Her mental state is extremely fragile as it is. If there's a time for anyone with reservations to turn back, it's now."

Sakamoto seethes, "Already come this far."

"This place...feels so bleak. It's the complete opposite of Kaneshiro's bank."

"To be fair, that place was pretty bleak, too," I shrug.

"Yes, but there was a feeling of revelry there. Deep down, Kaneshiro enjoyed the monster he'd kept inside. There's none of that here - it's just..."

"Cold, brutal anger," Maruki finishes. "That's all she has left."

"Y-you must still th-think there's a ch-chance we'll be able to s-save her, right?" Takamaki chatters out worriedly.

Maruki nods. "There's a chance. There's also the chance that, in stealing the Treasure, we all but destabilize her, and she..."

And she repeats history.

"This is nowhere near as bad as some other Palaces I've seen," says the cat. "But, hell. Still pretty bad. We do have a chance to save her. If you want percentages, I'd say it's fifty-fifty. If we want to increase our chances...I'd say we'll have to look for Will Seeds. We'll have to comb through her memories."

"Right," Niijima affirms. "That's a good idea. We might be able to use something in her memories to our advantage."

I exhale, "Or we might just trigger something in her that would make everything worse."

"It's worth a try," says the cat. "At least I can still sense Will Seeds here..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask it.

"Your girlfriend's Palace didn't even have any Will Seeds. I couldn't sense even a hint of them. Her mental state had degraded to the point where she couldn't even coalesce the memory of her distortion in her own Palace. In here, I can sense them clearly. This Sakura girl has suppressed so many memories, but she still has them, deep down."

The thought alone almost makes me want to vomit. Or cry. Or both. But neither happen.

"Let's go, then. Any other Will Seeds in this area?"

"No. The remaining are all in the pyramids."

"You found a Will Seed earlier?" Takamaki asks. "Where is it?"

"I dropped it."

"You dropped it," Sakamoto repeats, nonplussed.

"Yes, I dropped it."

"We were attacked by that Manikin Joker mentioned earlier," says the cat. "Speaking of which, I can't sense it now, but assume we'll encounter it sooner or later."

I groan, "It might just teleport on top of us, all things considered."

"How do Manikins just show up all of a sudden?" asks Niijima. "You can sense Shadows from far away, but Manikins seem to just come and go as they please."

"Manikins and the Palace Ruler can appear anywhere in the Palace at will. Keeping ourselves stealthy helps protect us from prying eyes, but make too much noise and we will attract their attention. Unfortunately we can't help but make a lot of noise, especially when it comes to Palaces as messed up as this one."

Niijima turns to me, "Were you able to see any significant memories of hers?"

"Yeah, uh... I did. I..." Fuck, don't be at a loss for words now of all times. "I saw her memories of Kana."

She blinks. "Oh."

Quivering, Takamaki has her hands at her shoulders and arms over her chest, "I-I c-can't s-summon Salome if I t-tried...t-too cold..."

"C-can we go now...?" Yoshizawa mutters, still shivering. "I'd like for us to put an end to all this now rather than later."

Right. "I'll ride next to you guys. Hell Biker can withstand the cold well enough. Proximity to it should hopefully keep the car warm."

"I can drive us there," Maruki says.

"Alright. Everybody in!" calls out the cat, right before it leaps up into the air and comes back down a bus.

We all march through the snow and the cold and Maruki gets himself in the driver's seat, Niijima acting ostensibly as a navigator. Before she enters the car she gives me one last look - almost nothing in her eyes except the overbearing sense that she and I have promised each other something. I nod back at her, and she gets in at Maruki's side.

I say, "Hell Biker."

And the seven of us ride on toward the pyramids.

"Goddamn this fucking COLD-"

When we all get there, Sakamoto all but boots the side of the cat open so he can run out. Everyone else follows suit.

"Oh my God...," Takamaki's pale, her skin right on the verge of a light blue. Almost looks like an ice sculpture herself. "A-at least the b-bank had v-ventilation..."

"The heater wasn't working at all! If anything you made things colder!" Sakamoto shouts to the cat.

"Oh fuck off, that was the best I could do."

"For real? God, you're fucking useless."

"And you're a whiny little bitch, get off my dick-"

"SHUT UP!" Takamaki shouts, "My fingers are seconds away from falling off, I don't need to hear other people complaining about the cold..."

"We're here...?" Yoshizawa murmurs.

"We're here," responds Maruki, getting out his staff as his robes billow in the cold winds.

I get down from off Hell Biker and Niijima makes it to my side, as we stare right ahead of us.

The sphinx in the center of three separate pyramid structures. Up close we can see that the bright yellowstone we had assumed it was from far away was not yellow at all - the bright color it took on from afar were reflections of light coming from God knows where, shimmering so brightly they drew us to it. Despite frost and ice coating the outer layer of their structures, the pyramids' and sphinx's true colors remain prominent up close.

They are black. Stone-cold darkness, as if someone had carved them all right out of obsidian. The bricks that make their foundations do not cascade like steps - the pyramids are cleanly cut, not a single jutting stone or fallen brick. I'd dare say that even if they were not frozen, you'd be able to slide down smoothly from the very top to the very bottom without feeling a hint of friction on your back. Of course there are crevices in the stone, carvings that curve inward and look like spirals, all but bleeding red. Within these spirals lie figures you'd see on Egyptian tapestries, inked in blood. In languages I cannot understand.

The sphinx herself bears the face of a woman wearing glasses - the face itself is neutral but the eyes haven't any pupils whatsoever, and she wears her hair down in a bowl cut. Rather than patterns carved into her, she is dressed with a red collar around her neck, embroidered with jewels so valuable you could sell one of them and have enough for ten generations of your family to live comfortably. The rest of her body remains this shade of obsidian, her front legs thrice as massive as any kind of bus you'd find on the freeway. She sprouts massive stone wings out her back, each one together almost as tall as the Burj Khalifa. The rest of her body is that of a black lion's, hind legs shuffled in a seated position. At our sides stand fifty-foot tall pillars, hieroglyphs carved into them as well, though decayed and rotted off by years of agony.

"And here, we'll find the Treasure?"

"Correct," says the cat. "I sense it right in the middle."

"We should go," says Yoshizawa, pushing past us, gripping Takamaki's shoulders as she moves forward. "We'll freeze to death out here if we don't get any closer."

"Right."

"Anything nearby...?" I ask the cat.

"Nothing. At least, nothing so far. I'll let you all know in case some horrible thing teleports in."

"Appreciate it."

Space is expansive to the point of breaking the laws of physics. Logical spatial reasoning would not make the inner halls of the Sphinx almost as wide as an open field, almost as tall as a grand cathedral. The whole world is dimly lit. Almost black in its entirety. Our few sources of light come from sconces lining the walls which gleam bright orange flame. The walls themselves are as black as their exterior, binary codes lining wherever hieroglyphs should be, again carved in red. There is an extremely long flight of stairs that must at least consist of a few hundred steps, running right from the middle, onwards and upwards to a massive set of large black doors.

Takamaki breathes one last bloom of white air, before rushing to a sconce and exhaling like she's found an oasis.

Niijima mutters to herself, clutching her arms together like she's anxious, "Why does it have to be like this everywhere in this place..."

"Are you... alright?" I ask her.

"I-I'm fine, I just... I don't...," she groans, "never mind."

"What is it? If it's anything that could obstruct us in the Palace, we'll need to know."

She's annoyed at me when she grunts out, "I don't do well in dark places, okay?"

I blink at her. "You're scared of the dark."

"I don't do well in dark places."

"You're scared of the dark."

"I think I'm more scared of the fact that we're in this wasteland all alone and covered in snow and in enemy territory, thank you very much!"

"And it's dark."

She just glares at me.

I don't think she'll have to worry about my Kingdom, then. She'll flee the second she enters it.

Maruki hums a little, "To think her Palace would be a series of pyramids..."

"They're tombs, right?" Sakamoto grunts out. "These are what her Palace interprets as her tomb...?"

"Yeah. They're for pharaohs," I answer.

"Pyramids don't have to be graveyards," Niijima mutters, seemingly to herself - despite her fears. "Though that's how they're mostly known. There are a variety of theories on it. Some regard them as devices for resurrection of the dead. For rebirth. But all this..."

Sakamoto shakes his head, "So... who's leading this operation?"

"Well, ostensibly, me and Hikawa. Like how it was in Kaneshiro's Palace."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Sakamoto groans.

"Wh-what's wrong?"

"I don't like either of you," he says bluntly.

Which makes sense. The shit I did to him notwithstanding, his experiences with Niijima involve her blackmailing him into getting rid of a yakuza boss, and then getting his arm broken because of her recklessness. A fact which she recognizes, by how she seemingly cringes at the thought of everything she's done to get him this mistrustful of her.

"Fine," I turn to Maruki. "He leads."

"Wh-what!?" he cries out. "Kazuya, are you sure!?"

"Actually, that's not a bad choice," says Niijima. "You're a therapist. You can help us manage our way through this Palace, likely better than we ever could. Knowing how to navigate through a suicidally depressed person's state of mind would be crucial to our success."

"I can't even fight..."

Sakamoto's eyes grow wide, "What do you mean you can't fight!?"

Cat steps forward, "He means that his abilities are geared towards buffing your strengths and weakening your enemies. He may be able to heal way later on, but that'll be a while from now. Bishop definitely isn't fit for the frontlines... but for exploration I think he'd work wonders for us all. He might just be the best chance we've got at resolving all this."

Maruki narrows his eyes, "Are you all sure...?"

"Let's put it to a vote," I declare. "All those in favor say I."

"I," says Yoshizawa immediately.

"I'm in favor," breathes Takamaki, her shoulders loose and her fingers able to move again.

"So am I," says the cat.

"I...," Sakamoto groans, "to hell with it. Fine."

"...okay, then," Maruki clears his throat. "I, er... I'll do my best."

"We know you will."

"Oh yeah," Cat turns to Sakamoto, "you need a codename."

"What?"

"Can't say real names in the Palace. You need a cover, just to be safe."

"I... then, what should I be named?" I look at him. I look at him, very intently. So intently he freaks out a little. "Wh-what...?"

"Sunflower."

"What? Why?"

"Your hair."

"Fuck you."

"Guess he doesn't like sunflowers," blurts the cat. "Dandelion?"

He walks towards the doors, "I'm leaving. Fuck alla you."

"What about your mask?" asks Niijima. "It's a black skull."

"Blackskull...?" murmurs Sakamoto. "No. Just Skull should be alright. Okay. I'm Skull. What're everyone else's names?"

"He's Joker," points to me, then to each of us in rapid succession. "She's Lady. She's Mist. He's Bishop, and she's Queen. I'm just Morgana."

"I'll have to get used to this codename shit..."

"Now that's decided...," Yoshizawa turns to Maruki, "what should we do next? Do you think we should go forward?"

"Treasure is right up there, at the top of those many steps."

"I'm... anxious about it. This all feels too easy," he puts a hand to his chin. "If she's as depressed as her Palace indicates she is, then... I can only believe that whatever lies ahead is something monstrous. No matter how cold and still things might be now."

"Anything in mind for how we approach this?" I ask him.

He sucks in a deep breath. "Either we boulder on, straight ahead... or we look and see if there are any more Will Seeds."

Niijima questions, "Will Seeds? Why?"

"How many can you sense, Morgana? Nearby us."

It closes its eyes. "One in each surrounding pyramid. So, three."

"If we want to save this person we have to know how they think. What they've experienced. How they've lived all this time, what they've come to determine are truths of the world. She's depressed to the point where she's suppressed so many of her own memories, where they've just taken up shop in this section of her unconscious mind. If we're going to have any chance of saving her, we'll need to go through each and every last one of her memories. Comb through them one by one, and determine a path forward through them. I feel that it's our best option."

I nod. "Smart. You should be leader more often."

Maruki just turns to me. There's something... solemn in his eyes.

I ask him, "What's wrong?"

"Kazuya, there's something you all should know."

"What is it?"

He purses his lips, looks at everyone, seems to psyche himself up a little. "Okay. Okay. Before I knew any of this, I told you that I had a fiancee. You remember?"

"M-Maruki, what are you - ?"

"Just listen. I know that the thought might sound crazy to you, but," he looks at Yoshizawa for some reason, for a good long while. "If we find out the root of all her trauma, I think I might be able to-"

"Heads up! From up the stairs!"

Someone is walking down to us, from the very top of the stairs. But it doesn't take nearly as long as you'd expect for her to come all the way down. She appears in flashes, and every time she does the whole pyramid almost shudders - first she goes ten steps down from where she once was. Then twenty. Then forty. Then eighty. She moves almost in the motions of a flame, flickering in and out of existence as the sconces catch afterimages of her, sometimes multiple at once. In seconds she's right in front of us all - before we can even gather our bearings fast enough. We see her, what she looks like, for the very first time.

She's rather tall, almost taller than myself. Her hair is a dark black shade, unkempt like a barbarian's. It stretches all the way down to her back. Her skin is green - she's experiencing necrosis, I can see holes in her side, gaping wide enough to see bits of her innards. Her fingernails are lengthy - each almost as long as the finger they've grown from. She's barefoot and I see her toenails don't fare much better, but both sets of nails are blackened and dead. Her eyes, though wide like a child's, bear no light other than the gleaming gold shade her pupils bear. She's dressed as though she were a beggar - a top made of two rags, a long skirt made of sackcloth. She wears a golden headdress with a bronze snake sprouting forward in the middle, the lappets striped black and red.

Had she not worn that, I could never have seen her as any kind of pharaoh.

"So you're Futaba Sakura...," mutters Niijima.

Coldly, Sakura looks upon us all. I'm right about to rip my mask off on the spot, but Maruki grabs my forearm and steps forward.

All at once, I know not what to do, so I let him take the reins.

"We can... assume you won't let us take your Treasure. Correct? Or... is that assumption false?"

I grab him by the arm, "What are you-?"

He raises a finger up to me, silencing me. She does not respond at all to what he's said. He inhales deep, "You don't want this, do you? You don't want any of this. You want to be able to live, without all these painful emotions gripping you by your neck. Don't you?"

She does not answer him. She leans backward a little, one leg behind herself, as if she's getting into a stance.

"Sakura-san," Takamaki steps forward now. "H-hey... it's okay. There's no reason to be scared."

She says this, even though by all accounts, we're the ones who should be scared.

"Your most treasured possession... is up there, isn't it?" she continues.

"God, let's just leave her...," Sakamoto groans, to which Yoshizawa steps on his foot, and he yelps in pain. Then she takes a crack at it.

"Sakura-san. We don't want to hurt you. None of us do. If it's at all possible, we want to help you. But we don't know how. We don't know what you need. If you could tell us, we... we might be able to do something. I can't tell you I know what it's like... but I knew people who did. If you would just talk with us, we could help you-"

"Just talk with you. You sound absurd. You are plunderers, here to rob my grave and sell its treasures for your own gain. Why else would you come? Cease your pretensions. If you believe you can steal it, then try as you might."

"She sounds very defiant, for a depressed person," Cat mutters, arms folded.

Of course she sounds defiant. One of the most agonizingly irritating things you could tell someone who needs help, is that all they need to solve their problems is just to talk to someone. But that's not what Yoshizawa said at all - Yoshizawa said we could help, that we have a chance to do something. Sakura's irritated at our insinuation that we could help her at all.

She thinks we pity her.

"Considering the state my Palace is in... there's hardly a chance for you to steal anything. And there's nothing I am willing to share with any of you. Least of all, the boy with rat hair you've got at your front lines." She says this while looking at me. "You've the gall to come here. After all you've done, all I've done to you? You would go so far as to invade my heart, to save yourself and your friends?"

"We came here to save you."

She hisses, almost laughing. "You can't save me. At least no more than you can save yourselves. At least no more than you could save Kana, or Masako. It does not matter. None of it matters. In just a few days I will bring all your lives to ruin and there's not a thing you can do to stop me."

"What are you planning to do to us!?" Sakamoto roars.

"I will sink you, to the bottom of the world, and then... and then..."

They all turn to me, as if to hope that I won't lose it so long as their eyes are kept locked on. I'm about to retort something back, but suddenly she grabs her head with both hands, and crumples to the ground. We hear loud, loud noises on all sides, noises that coalesce - into voices.

Y̴o͟u͜ ̨k͠i͝l̴l͘e̵d̵ ̡h͟éŗ,̵ ̛I̷ ̨k̸n̕o͏w̵ ҉y͘óu̶ ͡d̡i̢d̨,̴ ̵s͘h͞e̛ ͘s͝h̕o͡u͜l̶d̡ ͝h̷a̵v̴e͟ ͡h͘a̵d͢ ̛t͏h͢è ̢a҉b̢óŕt҉i̶o͏n͞—̕ ́ S͠h̴e̴ ͞n̶e̡v̡e̢r͘ ͝f͞u̶c̸k͞i͘n͏g̴ ̕w͜a̴n͟t҉e͘d͟ ͏y͜o̡u͜.͟ ͏Y͞o̷u̕'̶r͡e͠ ̸a͞ ̶f̧u͠c̨k͢i͜n̢g̛ ͘w͢ąs͟t͞ę ̶o͘f̴ ̵e͢v͞e͘r͝y̶t̵h͏i͡n҉g̵.̷ ̢I͏f̢ ͢s͘h̕e͜ ̀h̵a̛d̛ ̛m̢i̷s͏c҉àr͝r͘i̶e͘d̨ ́s͢h̡e̴ ̨w̶ơu̧l̡d͏ ̨h͟a̡v́e̶ ̛b́e̢e͢n̴ ̡a͞b͘l̕e͞ ̷t̴o̶ ͟d̵o͘ ̢s͢o̧ ͝m͟u̧c͞h̢ ͜m͞o̡r̢e̶—̕͞͞ ́͘͘ L̸i̶t̡t̵l̷è ͟c̛h̢i͝l̀d̶,̡ ͘l̨i͠t̛t̛l̛è ̷b̛a̷b̸y̕ ̸F̀u̕t͡a͏b҉a͜,̕ ̀a̷l̀w̢a͠y҉s͞ ͟ẃa̕n̴t̶i̛n̴g͘ ̷t̛o̕ ̨s̡u̧c̢k̷ ̢o҉n̕ ́h͜e͡ŗ ̧m̀o͜t̨ḩe͜ŕ'̀ś ̧ţe͠a̸t̛s̨ ̷t̵o̷ ͟f͘ìņḑ ͢h͞ąp҉p̴i̛n͝e͡s͘ś,͠ ̀g̀r̷o͝w̢ ͜t̨h́e͏ ̢f̕u͢c͝k̸ ̶u̕p̀—͏̷́̕͜͞͞ ̶̨́͘͘͘͢

"What's happening!? Who's saying all this!?" cries Yoshizawa.

"Oh my God...," Maruki voices out.

Some of them are male. Others are female. I should be able to determine which are being spoken by others in her memories, and which ones she's telling herself, but for the life of me I can't. Sometimes the voices cross over and I hear her telling herself these things.

M̵̗̆Ȗ̷̲R̸͖̀D̷͙͝Ȇ̵͚R̶̙̆Ë̸̥R̷͇͂!̴̫̒ W̵h̀y̸ ̕w̨o͟n̵'̢t̵ ̸y͜o͟u͝ ̢f̨u͢c̸k͠i̡n͞g̢ ̶S̀A̵Y͘ ̷s̸o̢m̡e͜t̷h̢i̵n̵g̶—̸̕͟͞͞͞͞ ̷̴̀́͘͘͜ ̴K͠i͜l̴l̡ ҉y͡o̧ùŕs̢él͜f͡ ͢a̛ ͏t҉h͞ơu̷s̛a̢n̨d̶ ͢t̵i͜m͜ès͘ ̀o̕v̕e҉ŕ ͝a͝n͝d̕ ̵y͟o͡u̢'̀l̨l͜ ͜s̵t҉i͠l͟l͟ ̛n̢e̢v͡e͟r͞ ͝s̡e̴ę ̡h̶e̷ŕ.̀ ͘ S͘h̨e͟'͟s̴ ̵i͞n̨ ͝H͡ȩl͏ĺ,̡ ̴F҉u̶t͏a̢b̨a̸.̀ ҉Şh̨e̵'͘s͟ ͟b́u̸r͏n͢i͜n͟g̀ ̶b̵e̕c̢a͠ųśe͞ ̵s̷h͢e҉ ͏m͠ád͢e̕ ̴y̡o̶u͡.҉ Y̸ǫu̸ ̧s̶h͜o͡úl̨d̕ ̢h̢a҉v̷è ̛g͢o̧t͝t́e̢n̷ ͞y͟o͘u҉r̷s̨e͞l͢f͡ ҉u͡n̢d͏e͢ŗn̛e͝a͠t̸h͝ ͢S͞o̧j̶ìr͝o͏'̧s͡ ̸c҉a̴r͠ ͜a̸n҉d̵ ͏l͞e̛ţ ̀t̕h͝e҉ ̴w̴h͘e͞e̷l͜ ͞c̷ąv͢e̵ ҉y̴o͢u͠r̸ ͝f̶a̵c͏ȩ ̶ìn͝-̸-͠ S̵h̷e̸ ҉l̛e͘f̢t͜ ̧ùs̶ ̀b͞e͢c̛a̶u̡s̢e̢ ͞o͝f̷ ̧Y͏O͟U͟!͟!́!̵ W͞H͏Y̴ ͢C͠A̶N̛'͟T́ ̀Y͡O̸U̷ ̕J́U͟S͘Ţ ̨S͏T̀ÒP͠ L͡O͘O̧K͜I͞N̸G̵ ͏A҉T̀ ͞M͜E̕!̕?͠!̧?̕!̡?͢ WHY W͞O̢N͝'͠T҉ ͝Y̶O͡U͠ ̀L̶E̛ÁV̀E͠ ̵M̧E͏ ̕A̡L̕O͝N͞E͡,̷ ̕F̶U̸T́A͟B͜A̴!̸?͡ ̵W̛H͠Y͢ ̨W̸O̧N̡'̶T̢ ͢Y̢O̕U̴ ͠L͢E͡T́ ͘M͏E͜ ͏D҉I͜È!̴?͢ ỲO͝U͝ ̕D̸O͟Ń'͘T̸ ́E҉V͢E̶N̴ ̷D̸E̢S͞E͢R͟V́E͟ ͞T̸O҉ ͘R̛E͜M̶E͜ḾB̛E͘R̨ ͝M͠E͏!̷ K͝I͜L͏L̷ ̨Y̧ÒU͝R̀S̸E͘L̸F̴ ̶L̵I͠K̢E͞ ҉Y̸O̴U͟ ͘K͘I͞ĹL̡E͜D҉ ̡M̨Y҉ ̡F͜U̡C̴K͝I̢N͢Ģ̢͊ ̕F͞A͠T͜H̵E͜R̕ ̷Y͠ÓU̡ ͝F͢U̸C̶K̢I̶N͘G̀ ̕B̵I͡T͠C͜H͘ ̀D̷O͝ ̴Y̕ƠU͏ ͡R̀E̷A͢L̀ÌZ͠E̕ ̀W̵H̴A̷T͞ ̵Y͞O̴U͝'͡V̸E̵ ̵J́ƯŚT̸ ͟D͝ǪN͝E̷!̶?̨ ̵I҉'͡M̀ ͞S̢O͞R̴R͝Y͢ I҉ ͡D͡I̶D͘N͏'͘T̀ ͘M̶ÉÁN̨ ̴I̸T҉ ̸I̕ ̕D͘ĮD͡Ņ'́T̨ ͠I͞ ͏P҉R͜ǪM͞I͝S͝E͏

So loud we're all forced to our knees along with Sakura herself, and we're all trying desperately to keep our ears shut so we can at the very least still hear when it's all over, but it isn't over, it'll never be over. More and more words of ridicule and abuse, spiteful and raw, telling her to hang herself or cut deep into her arms. The Shadow is crying, weeping tears of blood, she's sobbing uncontrollably - her face twisted in a way that does not at all even match the stoic facade she put on for us just moments ago.

"This... this is horrible...!" cries Takamaki. "Make it stop!"

Niijima shouts through these horrible words and in desperation she addresses the Shadow directly, "Sakura-san! Please! We just want to help you...!"

"I am the one who killed my mother. I am the one who let Kana perish in the hands of a wretched little fool. There is no helping me."

"SAKURA!"

The whole Sphinx trembles from the ground up, reverberating as though something underneath is ripping through the stone. Rubble starts falling from the ceiling and the Shadow begins to fade from our view. Futaba Sakura's Shadow fades into oblivion as the voices grow ever louder, yet even as the voices grow ever louder Sakura's rings through, cutting through everything like a spear -

"I will remain here. Once I've undone the whole lot of you, I will be finished. I will be free."

And then the doors at the top of the stairs open. They open, and it rushes down, right for us. It moans and groans in pain as it rolls down the stairs, blood spewing out its thousand mouths and flooding the steps in thick coats of red. It is a mound of bodies, all curled up into a ball - men and women and children all stitched together with metal rods and pylons, they scream and they bleed and the ball rolls down to us and we're all forced to make a dash out the Sphinx right before it crushes us into pieces -

H͟O͟W̷ ͘C͘O̷U͟L͏D̵ ̨Y͟O͞U̷ ̵E͝X̛I̸ŚT͝,̛ ͞F́ƯT̡A͟B͜A͟!̧?̕ ̨H͘ǪW͡ ҉C͠ÓU̵L͠Ḑ ̴Y̕O̵U͟ ͝C̷O͢M͟E̵ ̸T̡O̴ ͏K̢N̢ǪW͞ ͢U͘S̴!̛?̀

"EVERYONE GET OUT!"

And we're able to, all of us. Once we rush out the gates we'd entered, the doors slam shut and the mass of humanity SLAMS against them so hard they almost open right up again. We're back out into the cold and it's all just so fucking horrible.

First this person wants to kill me because of Kana, now this person's got some shit to do with her mother, "God fucking dammit this shit can't get any worse."

We all hear a giant, violent roar, bellowing from about a thousand miles away - yet it's so loud it might as well be right on top of us. We see clouds of sand kick up in the distance as something massive, something wild, something vicious draws closer and closer and closer -

"What the hell!?"

"EVERYONE IN THE PYRAMID OVER THERE, NOW!" screams Maruki.

And we rush over there like hell, Cat turns into a bus just for that short distance because getting there fast matters above all else. The pyramid to our left stands tall, and the doors hopefully aren't locked, and we hopefully won't have to deal with a mass of bodies all folded into a ball, so we run up the steps into the only open space in the pyramid for us to enter and I stop dead in my tracks once something rings in my brain like lightning.

I realize what it is, for I can see it despite the distance - despite it being so unbelievably far away. The name strikes me like a gong, Ammut, Ammut, Ammut, and I see it charge through the desert wastes like one of those goddamn giant worms you'd see burrowing through sand in shitty sci-fi movies, and we make our way rushing up the stairs between the sphinx's arms and dash into the massive doorway where her heart ought to be.

Niijima gets in first because she's on a bike, barging through the large black doors blocking everyone's path - Takamaki and the others make it too thanks to the catbus and I, on Hell Biker again, am last, out of choice.

"HIKAWA WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING-!?"

Sakamoto screams out for me but Maruki keeps him back. Niijima storms back out before anyone can catch her, but Ammut is fast, so fast. So fast that I don't hear Niijima calling out her Persona before the Manikin's able to make a lunge that cuts through a hundred feet and makes it to the very steps we'd just come up.

Ammut's maw is so wide you could fit us all in and it wouldn't be enough to cover her tongue. She is wounded, her body scarred and mangled and bloated and bleeding. Her shoulder's bloomed like it's cancerous. Her lower half is gangrenous with wounds that expose hip bone and innard lining. Her crocodile's head is bifurcated and gored, but she can consume us all the same. She crushes stone beneath her heel as her snout bends open wide and she charges forward to pike our skulls with her remaining teeth -

Until I say "Satanael."

And another hole blows her skull open again.

Her lumbering half-corpse death lands flat into the snow, and for good measure I strike her thrice in the chest with three more shots from Satanael's rifle. Her torso opened, we see her bleeding and beating heart, we see her guts pool open as her lungs shrink and expand and shrink and expand.

Before I can make another order I hear Niijima yell out, "Johanna!"

And a bright blue light careens into Ammut's opened chest cavity, boiling her insides right on the spot. She writhes and screams, rolling herself back upon her belly as she coughs out nuclear smoke, as her abdomen swells and contracts and turns red. She flees the scene, stomping away and burrowing into the snow dunes, the whole of the base of the Sphinx varnished in a ruby red flood.

Niijima gets off her bike, whose wheels have flattened some of the steps of the Sphinx's staircase, and slaps me hard right across the face. "Never do something that reckless again. Not while you're working with us."

I blink at her, stroking my left cheek. "Okay."

"If you ever go off on your own again, for whatever reason, no matter how horrible the Palace'll turn out, I will put you down. I will have Morgana heal you and Maruki slow down time so you'll feel every single inch of agony for hours on end. Understand!?"

I just nod, turning back to the multiple ten-foot long bloodstains at the base of the Sphinx. "I understand."

She exhales harshly. "Now come on. Let's get inside."

"Oh, for God's sake, why...?"

All that anger melts away into fear as Niijima sees what's in front of us and so do I. It's a big empty void, of nothing whatsoever. No sconces with which anyone would be able to see. No lamps or lanterns. Bleak darkness. Takamaki gets the idea to summon her Persona, "Salome."

And out from the head on a platter comes a steady bright flame, acting as our basic flashlight.

"G-good thinking," Niijima mutters.

We look all around us, and we almost wish the flame could fizzle out right then. The whole room is almost as expansive as the sphinx's hall, but it's lined with toys, of all things. Each in various sizes, each in various stages of dilapidation. Dolls strewn about and opened up, their parts scattered atop one another - thousands of them, forming little hills and mounds. They look at us, their eyes look at us, even as broken as they are. Little robots and mechanisms and consoles, all made into piles. Beyond just toys there's water bottles full of piss, broken television sets and screens, computer components and smashed laptops. Broken glass and coffee beans. Corpses of rats and cockroaches lying opened on the floor. Dozens of copies of what appear to be either game consoles or DVD players opened up and hardware strewn about. They all stack so high they could reach a ceiling, if there is one. They go so far that I'm certain if the light from Salome shone brighter, we'd see the piles continue on to the horizon.

Niijima just nudges closer to me, trembling more and more the longer we stay here. Whispering to herself, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please save me Sis, I...," ad nauseam.

"There's a Will Seed in here, correct...?" I ask the cat.

"Yeah."

"What the hell is with all this...?" Sakamoto wonders aloud. "What's any of this even mean? All these... toys and shit?"

"If I had to guess... this might be her childhood," says Maruki.

"What makes you say that?" I ask him.

"It's an assumption. Based on these toys, or what have you. But I think there's grounds for it."

"Being?"

"Hear me out when I say this. I don't think she's a bad person."

We all blink at him like he's fucking stupid.

"I said to hear me out. A Palace is a person's suppressed side of themselves, given life and meaning and structure in ways they could never have imagined. For Kaneshiro, he suppressed his weakness and his fear of losing his grip on power. But for someone like Futaba Sakura, it's... different. She's not suppressing any vile or horrid side to herself - in fact, she's unleashed it directly on you. I think she's suppressing everything that could possibly make her happy... because she thinks she doesn't deserve happiness."

"And you think this is her childhood, because...?"

"Because there's lots of toys here. The place is dark, which could mean she wants to shove this whole realm in the very back of her mind. Or maybe she's grown so much she can't even remember any of this clearly. I don't know. It's all a hunch, but I think it's worth considering. Because if I'm right, then we might find out where all this distortion came about. If you find the Will Seed here, and are able to read through her memories, we might just be able to find something of value we can use... when we confront her later."

Suddenly, Niijima steels herself, and turns to me, "She said she was planning to do something to us in the next few days, so we don't have much time remaining. If we can, we have to enter each pyramid and find each Will Seed within as soon as possible. You said you found a one when you first entered the Palace - that it held all her memories of Kana. Is there anything else you could possibly tell us about Sakura, that you found from that specific Will Seed?"

I put a hand to my chin. "She was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at a young age. And she was also born with an eidetic memory. This drove people away from her, they, they found her strange. Too strange to talk to or even approach. They'd look at her like something was wrong with her, and because of that she had social anxiety for most of her life. Kana was the only one who had ever shown her any semblance of kindness."

"Anything else?"

I remember... oh my God. "A woman. With short hair, and glasses. She had the face the Sphinx has on. She was tall, and kind, and she'd pull Sakura into an embrace when she'd cry... the day Sakura lost Kana, she'd fall into her arms."

"That was her mother," Niijima cups her mouth in realization. "My God... she thinks she killed her mother, did, did you see any hint as to why?"

"No, all I've told you is all I saw."

"Damn it."

"It's fine," says Takamaki. "We'll just need to make our way forward and see what lies ahead. We still don't know enough, but we can rectify it as long as we keep finding Will Seeds."

"And as long as we stay alive long enough to find them...," Sakamoto sucks in a deep breath.

Yoshizawa says not a word, but keeps her pistol at her side.

"There's a flight of stairs up ahead. We just need to go down it," says the cat.

Salome's flames burn brighter and hotter, and we see it - a hole in the ground, another set of steps leading us further into these catacombs, perhaps straight down into Hell itself by the looks of it.

We inch forward, slowly. "No Shadows?"

"None, but a Manikin might pop out at us at any moment."

"Right, right."

"Stay focused."

"We know-"

Ah. There you are.

We hear that voice from all over - masculine, like it's seen a thousand battles and come out no worse for wear. We all get ourselves ready - Niijima, Maruki, and I go so far as to summon our Personas. Maruki keeps himself at the ready to buff us up, for he doesn't wish to waste even a second if we have to fight. He has to send out the buffs the instant a fight happens to maximize time.

Niijima's blazing bike roars loud in the darkness and Satanael points his rifle every which way. Soon enough Yoshizawa and the others summon their Personas and we're all so cramped, so tightly packed together like sardines now, creatures from our Sea of Souls rising upward and ready to meet any challenge.

For as fearful as we are.

Let's see what you've got.

Suddenly I feel the air press upon me, from up above. On instinct I have Satanael fire a dozen times and I see shades and shapes, something blazing red, but nothing concrete. It's oppressive, it's heavy, the world's suddenly turned into lead, I know if we stay exactly where we are we'll be crushed in seconds so Niijima calls us all to "DODGE BACK!"

And so we do.

And it lands, whatever it is, kicking up smoke and dust and filth in the air. Then the smoke clears, it clears soon enough, and I see a man, rising to his feet before us all.

"H-holy shit...," Sakamoto almost shouts in disbelief. "No fucking way...!"

He is taller than even Maruki. His hair is white, goes down to the nape of his neck. He wears a blood-red longcoat with black belt buckles strapped to his midsection and waist. His hands bear black gloves, each carrying a gun - the gun in his left is black as night, the one in his right as white as snow. On his back hangs a sword almost as long as he is, one with a skull attached to the hilt. And he turns to me, and he faces me, and I'm terrified at the sight of his eyes - a deep silver, striking in and of themselves.

He smirks.

"Glad to meet you, kid. Hope you feel the same." And then he shoves the black gun in my face-

"SUKUKAJA!"

BANG

The bullet catches my ear. Time has slowed down enough for me to dodge, and the bullet still catches my ear, ripping apart the lobe. I let loose an undignified scream as I call out for Satanael - but even though time has slowed it feels as though nothing has changed - nothing for this red-coated man in front of me. He brandishes his blade in a motion almost too quick for me to register, and by the time I do I've been struck.

I arc backwards, flying in the air. My body isn't cut, surprisingly. There are no glaring, open bloody wounds, which surprises me - and then the pain forces me to writhe around on the ground, like a dead fish. There is no slash wound, but my insides are boiling. My lungs and intestines feel as though they've been cleanly bifurcated, and I've mere seconds before I lose myself. Blood shoots out my mouth as the world around me fades. Everyone calls out for me as the man before me stands tall, and a name runs through my mind.

Dante.

"I'll give you ten minutes to decide," he nods, his boot stepping upon my head. "Which would you rather end up in... a coffin or a dumpster?"

.

.

.

Y'know I thought this might have been a little silly to add in. But, fuck it. Dante was a huge part of my Nocturne experience, so it's only right that he should make at least a cameo in this Palace. Looks like Maruki's prediction was correct.

Song at the beginning is Dante's theme from DMC 5. Next time we do a rigamarole around this one specific pyramid and hopefully reach the Will Seed before Dante kicks everyone's asses. We are adapting that fucking sequence in the Labyrinth of Amala. Where Dante chases you throughout a goddamn maze and if he stabs you he sends you right back to the beginning. We're gonna fucking go all in. See you next time.