"Hey, Mona? How the heck did that shadow see Joker and Cinder? They were behind cover." Skull asked Mona-senpai as the group left the smoking church into a nearby hallway, with Joker pocketing the item Mona-senpai identified as a soul drop.

"Well… I'm not sure. Well, maybe I do have something of an idea. Did that Archangel actually start as a knight?" Mona-senpai pondered.

As the others caught their breath, they thought for a moment before shaking their heads.

"Sorry, wasn't able to get a closer look." "Was too busy loading my shotgun." "...No, I didn't either, but I think I remember that the Toilet Demon did start out as a knight in golden armor."

"Hey, pretty sure that horse guy we fought when I got Captain Kidd first started off as a knight in golden armor." Skull remembered. "Always did wonder what that meant."

Joker looked at Cinder and Skull respectively. "So, you're saying that the knight in gold armor is supposed to be like a mini boss and just happens to see through our hiding places? How would that even work, Mona?"

Mona-senpai rubbed his chin as he thought about it. "You know how palaces form, and shadows are attracted to them, taking the form of whatever the ruler sees fit, right? Well, sometimes more powerful shadows that are unlike the rest do show up, and I'm guessing that unconsciously, the ruler recognizes this and makes them more prominent in the hierarchy."

Skull scoffed. "Gee, maybe we had some trouble before with that horse guy, but that Toilet Demon and Archangel were pretty easy. Heck, we had more trouble with the other shadows!"

"Actually, I think that might be due to Lady Cinder here." Mona-senpai said, drawing all attention to her.

Cinder pointed to herself. "M-me? What do you mean, is there something wrong?"

"I wouldn't say that. I just noticed that compared to us, you have a bit more power. Kouha and Makouha, those two spells happen to be a lot stronger and cover more ground respectively in comparison to what we have. Not to mention, you always seem to have the knack for hitting the weak point. I think we wouldn't have gotten through those fights as easily as we have."

Almost immediately, she could see Joker and Skull look a little down at that statement from Mona-senpai. Just as quickly, she realized what was bothering them, what the expression on their face was. It was a terrible thing, to try so hard only to be told that your effort hadn't produced the same result as another.

...When was she so familiar with that expression and feeling? Oh, her sister often wore that expression, usually when she finished her practice and routine. Her sister was the one that felt that depression, and she failed her. She refused to fail them.

"Joker, Skull. I just realized something I should have done before."

She bowed to both of them.

"Joker, thank you for pushing me out of the way of that attack. I don't know if I would have been able to help if that hit. Skull, thank you for going back to help Joker. If you didn't, Joker could have gotten hurt even more and seeing you go out there to help Joker… I believe that was when Cendrillon started to talk to me. You both helped me so much, so for now, let me help you."

She looked back up at both of them. "Besides, I have a feeling that you're only going to get better at this. I look forward to when you catch up."

Skull and Joker stared at her, before Skull grinned. "Yeah, of course we're going to catch up! Like we're gonna slack off and let you carry the team!"

"Team?" Joker looked at Skull, then at her. She noticed that his eyes flicked downwards, right at her ankle, before he looked back up at her. Before he could say anything-

"That's right. While Cinder is our strongest, she still needs help, so you guys should hurry up and do your best to support her!"

"HEY, WAIT A MINUTE!" Skull interrupted Mona-senpai. "What about you?"

"What about me? My place is clear: I know the most about the metaverse, I'm teaching you guys how to be good thieves, and I'm the one that heals you in case things go wrong. Of course, I could always get better, is that what you want to hear? Now that I said what I needed to say," Mona-senpai took out the second part of the map and looked over it. "Let's see if we can find a safe room and figure out what to do next."

As Mona-senpai started to walk through the halls with his head down at the maps and Skull scowling as he followed after, Joker came up to Cinder.

"Hey, Cinder?" "Yes, Joker? Is there something you need?"

Joker cast a look at Mona-senpai and Skull before looking back at her. "Listen, about what happened back at the church, I'm sorry I got you into trouble. I...I should have been more aware of what you were going to do."

"It's okay," Cinder waved him off. "I should have done the same thing. In fact, even thinking about it, that was probably the smarter move you did."

Joker nodded. "In a fight, you conserve every bit of energy you have. No offense Cinder-senpai, but leave all the fancy moves at the gym. Here, just stick them with the pointy end as fast as you can."

She was struck at his words. She really wanted to ask how he knew all this, how he could speak about such things with such confidence about his wisdom. The closest comparisons she could make is like when Coach Hiraguchi talked about gymnastics or her father talked about tv production. That sort of wisdom came with time and experience, and Joker… Ren just looked too young to know this kind of stuff.

So it was with a heavy heart that Cinder smiled. "Ok, I'll keep that in mind. See, you're already teaching me new stuff!"

Joker simply looked to the side as he started to walk along. "S-Sure, Cinder, let's go ahead. If we don't hurry now, we're gonna lose th- What's that?"

Blinking at Joker's sudden distraction, she quickly jogged over to where Joker was staring at and took a look for herself. There, at the end of the hall, past a gap of two balconies with a place where Joker could use his grappling hook, a darkened area lied, a lone red light illuminating a wall covered in leaves and a single door. Quickly, Joker looked at Mona-senpai and Skull, who were about to ascend the stairs.

"HEY, YOU GUYS! COME OVER HERE!" Joker shouted, getting both Skull and Mona-senpai's attention. Both immediately came over and looked at what the other two were looking at.

"Hey, Mona. You know what that is?" Skull asked with Mona-senpai shaking his head.

"No idea, and don't you make that face! Don't make me take you aside to explain the metaverse." Skull quickly wiped the smirk off his face as Mona-senpai turned the others. "I'm guessing you guys want to investigate it."

Joker immediately nodded. "From the looks of things, Kamoshida doesn't want to acknowledge this...whatever it is. For me, that's enough to look at it."

"Good enough for me!" Skull agreed. "If King Douche doesn't want this thing out in the open, then we totally should see what it is."

Cinder had to agree. Kamoshida was an utterly proud and shameless man, so what could he possibly want covered up even in the depths of his heart? "We should be careful. Don't know what could happen."

"Well, we should investigate, just to know what exactly we're dealing with. Come on." Mona-senpai walked forward with everyone else quickly joining them.

After crossing the gap, and the third time Cinder holding onto Joker as he used his grappling hook certainly being less awkward than the first, the group stood in front of the door. Now that they were closer, she realized it was more like vines had covered the wall and door. The single door was also covered in what looked to be yellow police caution tape, telling the group to keep out.

"Get ready." Joker said as he took out his knife. As Skull and Mona-senpai took out their mace and scimitar, Cinder drew out her rapier before considering how little she had used it during the past couple of battles. As everyone nodded to him, Joker swiftly cut through the tape. Once all of it was cut away, he put his hands on the door and pushed.

The door gave way, revealing an empty room with one thing in the center. Sitting on a pedestal composed of roots, a seed that looked like a skull sat. Inside it, a red glowing orb illuminated the inside.

"...Mona, you got anything now?" Joker asked as they carefully approached it. Mona-senpai looked it over before nodding to himself.

"Okay, I have an idea about what this is. This is supposed to be a Will Seed, essentially a coalescence of the palace ruler's distortion. Pretty sure they usually come in a set of three."

Joker and Skull stared at him blankly, before Skull groaned as he rubbed his head. "I'm never gonna understand anything, am I?"

"Well, good thing we don't have you around for your brain, do we?" As Skull got in Mona-senpai's face, Cinder came over and peered at the will seed. Staring at the empty shapes that resembled eye sockets, she looked at Mona-senpai.

"Mona-senpai, you said that a Will Seed is supposed to be a 'coalescence of the palace ruler's distortion', right?"

"That's not very helpful, Cinder. After all, isn't the palace supposed to be when a person's desires grow distorted enough that something like this forms? Is there a difference?"

Cinder adopted a thinking pose for a bit. "Well, looking at all the roots and vines, the fact that Mona-senpai called it a Will Seed, and that it kinda even looks like a seed, maybe this is supposed to be a representation of what made him distorted in the first place."

Skull and Joker looked at Cinder, glanced at each other, before staring at the Will Seed. After a while, Skull scoffed. "Like I really need to know how Kamoshida got distorted. He won that medal, everyone kissed his ass, and now he thinks he's king around here. Nothing complicated about that!"

Joker continued staring at the Will Seed. Here was something that represented a question to Cinder, something that had been slowly forming in her head. Was Kamoshida always distorted, or did something make him this way and he was, at one point, good?

"Mona, is there any reason to take this and actually try to find the others?"

"...Sorry, don't really know." Mona-senpai shrugged, leaving everyone to look back at the will seed.

"I vote we take it. Maybe if we get all three, it'll turn into a superweapon or something like that." Skull grinned. "Hey, if that happens, I call dibs on being first to smack Kamoshida with it!"

Joker actually chuckled at that, and even Cinder couldn't help but giggle at that mental image. "Sure, Skull. Whatever you say."

Seeing Joker look to her, she thought for a moment before coming to her answer. "If it can help us, then we should take it. Like you said, every little bit helps."

Nodding at that, Joker stared at the seed before reaching out and picking it up. As he held it up and examined it, his face scrunched up in discomfort before he reached out and clutched his head with his free hand. Everyone immediately rushed to his side.

"JOKER?!" "ARE YOU OKAY?!" "WHAT'S HAPPENING?!"

Just as suddenly as the pain hit, it seemed to stop, and Joker blinked rapidly. Looking around, he didn't seem to have any lingering pain. Before anyone could ask anything else, a sudden… balm seemed to come over them, slightly restoring some of their lost stamina.

"Ok… If that is what happens when we pick up a Will Seed-" "It's fine." Joker interrupted Mona-senpai.

"We all felt that, right? I think we should continue getting these." Joker said as he put it inside his coat before starting to walk off.

"Joker, you okay? It looked like… something was happening to you." Skull asked. The black haired teenager stood there for a while, completely silent. Then he continued walking.

"I'm fine. Come on, who knows how much ground we still got."

Skull looked like he wanted to ask something more, before Cinder came up and laid a hand on his shoulder. She simply shook her head, as he sadly let it go. For now, they had to trust that Joker was telling the truth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TAKE YOUR TIME~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Guess it's pretty obvious where the treasure is." Joker commented as he looked up at the tallest tower of the castle as the group hid behind a wall. They were at a rooftop courtyard, with a gazebo in the middle surrounded by small gardens of generic looking flowers.

Mona-senpai nodded as he put away the map. "Judging from the map, and my mastery of the thieving arts, the ruler would most likely want to keep their treasure somewhere that thieves wouldn't be able to get at easily. I say that tower qualifies as the best possible place."

"Probably full of enemies and traps, too." Cinder noted, to which Mona-senpai nodded. Skull turned to Mona-senpai.

"Hey, can a treasure be a person?"

Everyone turned to look at Skull, with Mona-senpai looking utterly perplexed. "...Why would you even ask that? Why would you even want to know that?"

Skull shrugged. "Hey, it's not like you said that the treasure could only be an object. For all we know, Kamoshida's treasure is a princess or someone like that. Wouldn't be surprised either."

"Hey, let's focus first on getting past these guys before we wonder about what Kamoshida's treasure is." Joker said as he pointed at the three guards with red auras surrounding them that were patrolling around the rooftop courtyard. "Doubt they'll let us just swing up there."

"Can you try setting off another fire with a molotov?" Skull asked. Joker brought out one molotov from his coat.

"I only have one more molotov. Don't have too many empty glass bottles lying around. Not to mention, I don't know where to throw it. Not too much space around here." Joker admitted as he peeked around before going back to cover.

Cinder thought for a moment. "Maybe you should check your other personas, Joker. Maybe there's another thing they can do besides elemental attacks and healing. That goes for the rest of us."

"...Worth a shot." Joker admitted as he closed his eyes, looking through his current personas. While Mona shrugged, Skull closed his eyes and almost shouted as he seemed to notice something about Captain Kidd.

"I think I found-" "Quiet, Skull." Mona said, covering Skull's mouth "Don't alert everyone else! So what did you find that you felt like everyone needed to know?"

"Geez, sorry." Skull said before smiling. "But hey, found this new skill that Captain Kidd can do, Tarukaja. I can help someone hit harder now. Oh, and apparently, Captain Kidd got this...other thing that helps us hit even harder too, but only if we use our weapons, not magic… and sometimes it happens, not every time..."

"Skull, can I ask how these will help us right now?" Mona asked. Skull thought for a moment.

"Well, I was thinking that I boost up everyone...then we go to town on all of them!"

"Skull, there is a reason why you are the muscle and not the brain."

Cinder ignored the two as she went ahead and looked at Cendrillon. She found some physical attacks, some bless spells, and a healing spell. However, there were another two skills that she found. One was called Apt Pupil, which helped her aim and attack the weak points of her enemies more easily. Another was called Veil of Midnight: if she was close to another person when they were hit by their weakness, there was a chance that they would be able to shake it off and continue fighting.

However, none of her abilities helped in making a sneakier entrance. If anything, her abilities only lent themselves to Skull's idea. If they worked fast enough, it was possible to eliminate all three, but she had the idea that even her power wouldn't make the fights any easier or faster.

"Hey, I think I found something." Joker spoke up, everyone's attention immediately switching to him. "Silky has this spell called Dormina, it's got a high chance to make an enemy fall asleep."

"We're gonna make them go to sleep?" Skull asked.

"Joker, maybe we should call it a day." Mona-senpai suggested. Joker frowned, but gestured to him to explain. "We made pretty good progress for today, and we should try to get Lady Cinder and Skull their grappling hooks."

"Mona, do you think that we won't encounter shadows in the church anymore? Because we haven't found a safe room yet, and I really don't want to have to fight our way back here again." Joker reasoned, and to which Cinder found herself agreeing.

"...So I guess we are doing this, huh?" Mona-senpai sighed to himself.

"Yep." Joker said as he readied Silky. "I was thinking that I cast Dormina on one knight, one of you can grab it and drag it behind cover. Then we do that to another one, then we can just put the third one to sleep and just go from there. We should do this as fast as possible since I don't know how long the spell will last. Do we have a plan?"

Everyone looked between each other before nodding. Skull and Mona-senpai quickly moved to another wall before nodding. Joker peeked up from behind the wall before ducking back down. "Alright, first one. Get ready!"

Mona-senpai and Skull nodded as one of the knights got closer. Just as it was near Mona-senpai and Skull, Joker pointed at the knight. Behind him, a brown-haired woman, her legs not visible under her red dress, appeared.

"SILKY! DORMINA!"

Just like that, the knight pitched forward, Mona-senpai ducking under to try to stop it from hitting the ground. Skull quickly grabbed the knight by the shoulder, pulling it behind cover. With a gesture from Joker, he pushed the night's leg out from cover. A few moments later, one of the other knights noticed while the other was still far away from the action.

"What? Are you sleeping?" The sound of jangling armor could be heard as the knight approached. "Come on, his majesty will not toler-" "SILKY! DORMINA!"

Joker and Cinder quickly grabbed the asleep knight and pulled it behind cover. Immediately, all of them rushed closer to the last knight and hid behind cover. Getting a nod from everyone, Joker peeked out one more time and pointed. "SILKY! DORMINA!"

As soon as the last knight fell to the ground, Skull grabbed Mona-senpai and threw him to the top of the gazebo, while Cinder grabbed onto Joker. Joker shot his grappling hook onto the gazebo's roof, and pulled them towards it. Dropping Cinder off, Joker dropped down to get Skull.

As soon as Joker reached Skull, he saw that one of the knights were starting to rouse awake. Quickly grabbing Skull, he shot his grappling hook for the roof and pulled them both up. However, his aim was a little lower than it should have. Joker shouted in pain as his shoulder slammed into the edge of the roof. Skull grabbed onto the edge as Cinder and Mona-senpai managed to grab onto Joker's hand.

Skull climbed up onto the roof before helping the others get Joker onto the roof. The moment Joker's feet cleared the edge, the knights were rousing themselves from their sleep. Transforming into european knights wielding lances and riding steeds, they circled around the courtyard, looking for their attackers. The group stayed still on the roof as they stayed out of sight.

"...Must have been the wind." "Perhaps I have been more tired than I thought." "We will need to report to the dungeons for discipline!"

The three knights vanished, leaving the courtyard empty as everyone sighed in relief. Joker mentally counted the time the knights spent asleep. "30 seconds, and this was when they were like that. No telling how long they would have lasted if they were in their shadow forms."

Getting up, he rolled his injured shoulder before nodding towards the tower. "Come on, we got places to be."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TAKE YOUR TIME~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The door of the safe room opened, Cinder and Mona-senpai quickly rushing in. Skull and Joker quickly followed after, before shutting the door behind them. Briefly listening for a bit, the two sighed before walking towards the table.

"Two down, one more to go." Joker declared as he set the red and green will seeds together on the center of the table. Taking out a seat, he sat down and kicked his feet up on the table as everyone else joined in and truly relaxed.

"...Did everyone else see what Kamoshida had for pillars in this place?" Skull remarked, looking faintly disgusted with himself. "I mean, I'm not the only one that felt...icky in there, right?"

"No, Skull. No, you weren't." Cinder responded, trying to shake the limbless female torsos that had their breasts and butts sticking out and served as the pillars that held up the rooms. That wasn't the only thing that stuck out to her or the rest of the group.

The interior of the tower clearly differed from the rest of the castle. Instead of warm candlelight, the windows let in pale moonlight that just barely illuminated the room. Parts of the floor burst out, rhythmically going up and down, while other parts were pits where the bottoms couldn't be discerned. It all felt… distorted.

"So...we still have to get to the top of the tower?" Joker asked as Mona-senpai quickly consulted the map. "How many floors do we gotta get through?"

"Besides this one? I say about two more floors." Mona-senpai said as he laid the map out on the table for everyone to see. "Still, we should be careful. We're getting closer to the treasure, so there's got to be some extra defense."

"...Sometimes I wonder how you even managed to get caught in the first place." Skull remarked, chin resting on the edge of the table with his arms spread out on the surface. "You're supposed to be this huge expert and master thief, yet you got caught and needed us to help you out. I don't get you sometimes."

At that, Mona-senpai hopped onto the table before jumping on Skull's head. As Skull shouted and pulled back, Mona-senpai landed on the table.

"You know, if it wasn't for me, you guys wouldn't even know about how any of this works. Besides, what is there to get? Clearly, all this knowledge I have shows that I must have been a human beforehand, and me getting caught just shows that I'm just not used to this… form. So please do show your betters some respect, Skull."

"WHY I OUGHTA-" "ENOUGH." BONK!

Mona-senpai and Skull both rubbed the top of their heads as Joker scowled. "Come on, if you want to fight, do it outside the palace. Otherwise, conserve your energy for what's coming up next."

"OH! Hold on! I remember!" Cinder exclaimed as she reached inside her coat and pulled out a tupperware container, some disposable cups, a disposable plate and a large bottle of water. "I went ahead and made a snack for everyone!"

"Hmm… I could actually go for a snack right now. Thanks, Cinder-senpai." Joker smiled.

"OOO!" Skull exclaimed, grinning widely. "AWESOME! What did you make?"

"Honeyed lemon slices." Cinder said as she opened the tupperware and showed everyone what was inside. Misshapen lemon slices swam in an ocean of honey, bits of seeds floating in the liquid. She blushed as she dug her toe in the ground. "I-It was my first time trying to make something like those, so sorry if it isn't… that good. Here let me…"

Quickly plating the lemon slices on the plate, she poured some of the left over liquid into disposable cups, mixed them with some water, before handing them to Skull and Joker. Standing back a little, she watched both of them take some lemon slices and suck on them. Strangely enough, while Joker sucked on his a bit hesitantly before finishing it off with full gusto, Skull sucked on his with deep thought on his face.

"Cinder-senpai, that's pretty good!" Joker said before taking a sip of his drink. "Both are pretty good! You really need to be more confident in your cooking."

Cinder smiled at Joker's compliment before turning to Skull. "So what do you think, Skull?"

"Hmm…" Skull finished his lemon slice before taking a sip of his drink. "Hey, how long did you keep these in the fridge?"

"About four days. Started making these the moment I got home from our last trip. Why?" Cinder asked.

"Ah, that explains everything. My mom used to make these for my track meets. She usually kept them in the fridge for three days at most." Skull recounted, before noticing Cinder's downcast look. "But it's still good! It's pretty good just like those riceballs you made."

"Good save, Skull. Dont denigrate Lady Cinder's hard work." Mona-senpai said as he reached for one slice only to be stopped by Cinder.

"Sorry, Mona-senpai. I went ahead and looked it up online, but lemons are toxic to cats. So I got you sushi instead." She said as she brought out a small tray of sushi and put it in front of Mona-senpai.

The masked cat looked a little disappointed at missing out on Cinder's cooking before opening the tray and taking a bite of tuna. Immediately, his tail shot up straight as he bit up. Mona-senpai immediately devoured the piece before purring in delight.

"SO GOOD!"

Skull smirked as he set down his drink. "So… the kitty likes his fishies, huh?"

His joy cut short, Mona-senpai picked up something to throw at Skull only to realize he had picked up another piece of sushi. Quietly sitting down, he threw Skull one last glare before eating his piece. Joker chuckled as he slid the plate over to Cinder.

"Come on, Cinder. Eat something, get back your energy."

Cinder removed her gloves and took one misshapen slice. She remembered how she overcompensated for this one, making it thinner than it should have been. She took a bite of it.

Could use some more work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TAKE YOUR TIME~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We could have skipped, like… 90% of this fricking place if we knew about the secret passage behind that giant portrait in the entrance!" Skull ranted as the group rode the medieval elevator down into the depths. "FRICKING KAMOSHIDA!"

"Shh, we don't know what's down here!" Mona-senpai pointed out.

After discovering a medieval elevator near the safe room in the tower, the group voted to check it out. Riding it down to the first floor they came across, the group didn't find much other than a corridor that led to an enormous picture of Kamoshida. After pushing on it, they found themselves back to the entrance hall of the castle. Looking back and seeing another picture of Kamoshida, they immediately got what had happened.

After Skull cursed out Kamoshida for having installed a secret passage in the first area of the castle, the group made a quick stop at the nearby safe room before going back and going deeper into the castle in the elevator.

The elevator came to a stop and everyone came out to look at where they were. The stones under their feet were slick, and the air had the smell of mold. A single path, barely wide enough to accommodate all of them standing shoulder to shoulder, encircled a swirling vortex of water, cages hanging overhead. And at the end of the pathway, they saw the familiar closed door with a gold knight waiting in front of it.

"Shoot, I think Kamoshida might have figured out someone was gathering these things." Mona-senpai commented. "Do you still want to go for it?"

"...Sorry guys. I just don't like leaving things unfinished." Joker admitted.

Skull just grinned. "Don't worry. Same here."

Cinder nodded. "I will admit, I'm kinda curious now what exactly will happen now."

Hearing everyone agree, Mona-senpai sighed. "Alright, what is the plan?"

Joker looked at them, the lack of stuff that the group could hide behind, then at the swirling vortex, before starting to walk forward on the path. The golden knight noticed Joker coming up to them and pointed its sword at him. "HALT! WHO GOES THERE?!"

"Listen, I just want to get past you to get that last will seed. Easy way or hard way, pick."

"IF YOU WISH TO POSSESS WHAT RIGHTFULLY BELONGS TO KING KAMOSHIDA, THEN PREPARE TO FACE YOUR DOOM!"

"SILKY! DORMINA!"

Just before the golden armored knight could transform, the spell overtook it as it slumped to the ground, fast asleep. Quickly walking up to it, Joker kicked it over the edge. Making a huge splash in the water, the group watched as the shadow was swallowed up by the vortex. Waiting for a few seconds, Joker took a deep breath as the rest of the group joined him.

"Joker...That was really dangerous." Cinder finally said.

"Would have appreciated some heads up." Mona-senpai agreed.

Skull finally looked up from the vortex. "That was really easy. Should it have been that easy?

Joker shrugged as he approached the door and cut the tapes. "Well, nowhere to hide, so might as well be as quick as possible. So let's just take this thing and get out of here."

Opening the door, he briskly closed the distance, and swiped the final will seed off its pedestal. Joker briefly grunted in pain before the familiar burst of energy energized all of them. However, Cinder saw a pulse from Joker's coat.

"JOKER!" Cinder quickly rushed in as the other two will seeds floated out from his coat. Grabbing him by the arm, she pulled him back as the three will seeds joined each other in the air, slowly spinning faster and faster and emitting a strange light.

"MONA, WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Skull shouted as he crouched beside Cinder and Joker.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Mona-senpai shouted out as the light reached a crescendo, blinding everyone as they covered their eyes. As the light died down, they slowly peeked out and saw what the three will seeds had become.

There, floating in front of Joker, the three will seeds fused together, the skull shapes combining at the cranium to create a macabre visual. From the six eye sockets, a glow could be seen from the core inside. Slowly, Joker reached out and grabbed it, inspecting it.

"Not much of a weapon, Skull." Joker remarked.

"Maybe it has some super spell if you equip it." Skull suggested.

"Hmm…" Noticing that there was a chain on it, Joker went and chained it to his waist. The moment he did so, he blinked as if some information just hit him. "Diarama… Apparently, this thing lets me cast a healing spell."

"Aww...That's kinda boring." Skull complained.

"Oh? Healing is boring. I'll keep that in mind next time." Mona-senpai grinned only for Cinder to frown at him.

"Mona-senpai, Skull could get really hurt if you even try that." "Okay, sorry…"

Looking around, Joker nodded to himself. "Alright, I think that's everything here. Let's go."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TAKE YOUR TIME~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So we gotta find some eyes to stop the trap blades from choppin us into pieces?" Skull asked as the group hid at the top of the stairs, looking at the area below at the patrolling guards. "And they are kept by those gold knight guys?"

"There is a good chance they are." Joker groused. Cinder did her best to fight off the annoyance that she was feeling as well. She had to wonder how Shadow Kamoshida managed to make it to the top of this tower when he had a giant bridge with bladed pendulums deterring any movement over it and the only way to stop the blades was to put the two eyes into the Kamoshida bust that was at the beginning of the bridge.

Mona-senpai would probably say that it was just how the Metaverse worked.

"So how should we do this?" Cinder asked. "There's only one golden knight here, and I doubt that he would be holding both of the eyes. Not to mention that the other knights would come to help in a heartbeat."

"We could try to distract it, get it to come to the second floor." Mona-senpai suggested.

"With what, one of us?" Skull pointed out. "Don't exactly like being bait. Not to mention, do we have anything to get them to come to us? You got anything, Mona?"

"Hmm… I know I taught a few things to Joker over the weekend even with all the other stuff he was doing. Shame there was barely any material to practice with." Mona rubbed his chin. "I will admit, I did not see you creating molotov cocktails. I'm gonna have to teach you the other elemental projectiles I know. Still, I'm sure he might have a few of his creations lying around."

Joker quickly reached inside his coat and searched around. Feeling something unfamiliar, he pulled out three balls. Immediately, Mona-senpai recognized them.

"Right, you never used those smoke bombs I gave you before."

"Smoke bombs…" Joker considered the bombs in his hands.

Cinder saw Joker looked contemplative. "You have an idea, Joker?"

"Mona, what's after the bridge?"

Mona-senpai quickly consulted the map. After a while, he nodded to himself. "After this bridge, there is the last floor. Looking at the way the map shows it, I'm sure there is a safe room there."

"Good. I was thinking either way, we could do it quickly, just taking out the golden knights and grabbing the eyes, or we do it slowly, just trying to get everyone one by one and work our way up." Joker looked up at the rest of the group. "So what do you guys think?"

Skull smirked. "We're close to the finish line, aren't we? Sneaking around is fine and all, but I like getting to go loose."

"Of course, you would want to be a brute." Mona-senpai snarked. "I suggest that we take it slow."

Finally, everyone else looked at her. Cinder saw the wisdom in both options. While the slower option was what she preferred, Skull had a point that they had no way to reliably lure shadows, not to mention that there was a chance they might accidentally attract others. The quicker way was riskier, but if they pulled it off, they would be in and out with the shadows unable to react in time. And the idea that they were so close was tantalizing…

Quickly, she looked at Joker, and the expression he wore told her what option he wanted. Eventually, she nodded and Joker smiled.

"Alright, here's the plan…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TAKE YOUR TIME~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shutting the door behind them, Joker took a deep breath as he looked over at everyone currently in the safe room. "Everyone okay?"

"Yeah." "I'm fine." "A bit close there, huh Joker?"

Joker frowned. "Didn't see that… weird codpiece coming. But hey, managed to get the smoke bomb back, and we got both of the eyes. Everything worked out there."

"True." Mona-senpai conceded that. "But if we're going to continue doing this, we better not constantly risk ourselves like that."

Cinder briefly looked at Mona-senpai. 'If we're going to continue doing this? Does Mona-senpai want to try finding more of these palaces?'

"Right... last room. Everyone ready?"

As everyone nodded, Joker opened the door of the safe room. Looking at the huge door that towered over them, he looked to the side. There, busts made up the pillars of the door, and on the right hand side, a small opening showed itself. Climbing onto the busts, the four entered through the opening and put themselves flat against the nearest pillar, seeing that they were on some balcony overlooking the room.

"IMBECILES! ALL OF YOU!"

Everyone immediately recognized that voice and quietly peered out to look upon the room itself. From the long red carpet leading from the door to the throne on a platform overlooking a company of knights, it became obvious that this was a throne room. They also saw Shadow Kamoshida, his fury palpable even from the distance they were.

"HOW HARD IS IT TO CATCH FOUR MEASLY THIEVES! NOT ONLY HAVE THEY HUMILIATED ME, BUT YOU HAVE LET THEM SET FIRE TO THE CHURCH AND MY CONCUBINE'S SHRINE! AND STILL THEY ROAM FREE!"

"We plead for your mercy, your majesty! We will catch the scum!"

"OUT OF MY SIGHT UNTIL YOU ACTUALLY HAVE!"

All the knights disappeared, leaving Shadow Kamoshida alone in the throne room.

"First the concubine escapes my grasp, now my Ann is nowhere to be seen! Damn it...DAMN IT!"

With that last tantrum, Shadow Kamoshida left through the huge doors. The group waited for a bit before Skull pointed to a staircase that led upwards just behind the throne. Carefully sneaking through the balcony, they came across a set of twin doors.

Everyone pushed through the doors, before entering the hallway. Passing through the hallway, they entered the room and stopped as they saw what was inside. Hovering over a mountain of gold, a shiny cloud of… something was there.

As they stepped closer, Joker reached out. His hand grasped nothing. Looking at his empty hand, he then looked at Mona-senpai. "Is that the treasure?"

Mona-senpai nodded. "Yep, that's the treasure. Congratulations, with this, our infiltration route is ready!"

Looking between each other, the group couldn't help but smile at each other. As Skull fistbumped Joker, Cinder held out her hand for a high five. Skull and Joker gave her one. As they slowly felt the feeling of accomplishment fade to a warm feeling in their chest, Joker looked up at the cloud.

"So… how are we going to steal this? We can't even touch it." Joker asked, already looking to Mona-senpai to provide an answer.

"That's because the palace owner doesn't even know his desires can be stolen. That's what we have to do now, convince him that his desires are a physical thing that we can steal. Once that happens, this will turn into a physical object."

"So how do we convince them?" Cinder asked. "We don't have to actually walk up to him and tell him, right?"

"Don't worry, Lady Cinder. Of course we're not going to confront him face to face. Instead, we send him a calling card, telling him what we're going to do."

Skull pumped his fist as he grinned widely. "You mean like an actual phantom thief? THAT'S SO COOL! I call writing the message!"

Cinder didn't look as enthusiastic. It was one thing to do this in the metaverse, it was going to be something different to essentially go out into the real world and directly threaten Kamoshida. A brief image of Mishima comatose because of Kamoshida's action immediately squashed her indecisions.

Joker stared at the treasure, before looking back at the group. "So… I was thinking that we pretend to be one person, not a group. Just in case the police come sniffing, it should be better for us for everyone to assume that one person is responsible."

Immediately, Cinder grasped what he was thinking and shook her head. "No, you're not taking the blame for this if it goes that way. It's just like Skull said, we're a 've already had to share the pain getting to this point, we're not going to let you try to sacrifice yourself."

Before Joker could say anything, Skull had his arm around his shoulder. "Cinder is right. We are a team. We win together, or we lose together. And we ain't budging on that."

Mona-senpai nodded along. "What kind of gentleman would I be if I left you in the lurch?"

Joker looked at all of them before sighing. "You guys are not budging on this, huh?"

Everyone nodded at that. Joker turned to Skull. "Alright, but we get to see what you write and edit it, Skull. No offense, after all this, I'm not looking like an idiot."

"Okay… Hey, so what do we call ourselves?" Everyone paused at that before Skull giggled. "Joker, you know I like 'Nutcrackers' for our team name."

"No, no no no. That was a mistake. We are not naming ourselves that." Joker palmed his face.

"Let's discuss this later. I say for now, looks like our job is done." Mona-senpai said.

"Come on, Joker! Nutcrackers!" "STOP!"

Cinder giggled as Joker ducked his head down as Skull needled him over that one time. How strange that they could still joke around like that. Strange how after so much pain and effort, it all felt worth it for those few moments, almost like…

"You don't understand…"

Kasumi stopped giggling and sedately followed after, no one noticing her sudden mood shift.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TAKE YOUR TIME~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Kasumi found a seat on the train, she just barely restrained herself from collapsing onto it. Feeling the aches and pains of the past six hours, she simply couldn't wait to go home and just collapse onto her bed. However, while fatigue racked her body, her mind was still sharp and racing after hearing what Mona-senpai said.

The day after tomorrow. That was the day that they were going to send the calling card to Kamoshida. That was the day that they would go back to the palace and steal Kamoshida's treasure.

That was the day that she hoped Kamoshida would finally face justice for what he had done.

Her mind was brimming with anticipation. However, she did have practice tomorrow, and Mona-senpai would need another day to create a grappling hook for her and Skull. She had to admit, she couldn't wait to get hers. She already had some ideas for what to do with hers in terms of attacks…

Looking up from her impromptu brainstorming, she realized that the train was starting to fill in with some more people. At the very forefront of the incoming crowd, she saw a honest-to-goodness maid. Even from a precursory glance, she stood out from the late night working salarymen and hard partying college students.

Looking closer, she could see that white stockings covered her legs, while polished black shoes covered her feet. The maid wore a black dress that came up to mid thigh with white frills. A pure white apron covered her front and was tied into a bow around the back of her waist. Looking upward, she saw that the maid had her face turned from her, letting her see that she had her brown hair tied up into twintails, with a maid's headdress sitting firmly on top.

Then the maid turned around, and Kasumi blinked as she recognized her.

"Kawakami-sensei?"

For a brief moment, she saw the absolute tiredness that she associated with Kawakami-sensei as the maid stared at her. The maid didn't seem to recognize her as she opened her mouth in an inelegant yawn. However, her jaw quickly snapped close as Kawakami-sensei realized that she knew the student that was sitting in front of her.

The two stared at each other, both unsure what to say. In fact, Kasumi wasn't sure that she wasn't asleep and dreaming. After all, what do you say about your homeroom teacher dressing as a maid and walking onto a train in full view of everyone? She simply didn't strike her as someone that would willingly do that.

Just then, Kawakami-sensei's head started to droop down before she woke up and kept her head straight. At that display, Kasumi spoke the first thing that came to mind. "Do you want to sit down?"

Kawakami-sensei blinked before shaking her head. "No, no, I shouldn't." Yet she could clearly see the desire in her eyes.

The red-haired gymnast quickly looked around, making sure that no businessman was going to try something like that time she tried to give her seat to the old lady. After making sure that nothing like that was going to happen, she still gestured to Kawakami-sensei to come closer. "Please take my seat Kawakami-sensei. You look tired."

"I…" Her homeroom teacher bit her lip, her desires conflicting with her need to not embarrass herself in front of her student. Eventually, her desires won out, and she sighed. "Ok...would you mind if you wake me up 10 minutes from now? My stop will be around then."

"Alright, sen-" "Please don't call me that right now." "...Alright."

The moment the two switched, Kawakami-sensei's head leaned forward, her body relaxing as she took her nap. Kasumi frowned. As long as she knew her, she always thought that Kawakami-sensei should take better care of herself. Was this the reason why? Why did Kawakami-sensei need to do this?

Looking around, she noticed a pink flyer on the floor. Picking it up, she looked at it and saw that it was an advertisement for a maid service. Looking down the list of services offered, it seemed like everything but the few that Kasumi believed that Kawakami shouldn't offer. Seeing a picture of Kawakami-sensei on the flyer, she looked for any more information before she put the flyer away in her bag.

"Becky?"

Eventually, she saw that her stop was coming, as well as the allotted time when Kawakami-sensei asked her to wake her up. Reaching out, she gently shook Kawakami's shoulder. "Our stop is here, sensei. You need to wake up."

Slowly, her homeroom teacher slowly woke up, rubbing her eyes. As soon as she laid her eyes on Kasumi, she clearly held back a curse. "Sorry, Yoshizawa-san. I...wish you didn't see me like this."

"...You know, I could pretend that I was tired enough that I didn't see you." Kasumi suggested.

"...You would do that? I mean, just like that?" Kawakami-sensei asked as the two left the train and made their way to the streets.

"I won't ask why you are doing this. Just… don't let this get in the way of teaching us and I won't have a problem with it." Kasumi said after weighing each word in her head.

"Alright, thank you, Yoshizawa-san. Let me go ahead and start now, is everything okay?"

Kasumi tilted her head. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I noticed that you have been hanging out with Takamaki-san and Suzui-san a lot more. While I think it is good that you are adjusting to Shujin, I can't help but feel like you all try to stick together no matter what during school hours. Almost like… Yoshizawa-san, is there someone harassing you or Takamaki-san?"

'Hopefully not for long.' Kasumi thought to herself before shaking her head. "No, it is just… nice to hang out with Takamaki-san and Suzui-san."

Kawakami-sensei stared at her before sighing. "Alright, that's good to hear. You better get home soon. Have a good night, Yoshizawa-san."

Kasumi bowed. "Have a good night too, Kawakami-sensei."

Her homeroom teacher paused for a moment, giving her a look before heading off into the night. Kasumi stared until Kawakami-sensei disappeared from sight. Taking out the flyer from her bag, she stared at 'Becky's' face to confirm what she just saw.

"Better stop thinking about it. There are other things to worry about." Kasumi muttered to herself as she walked to her apartment.