Makoto and Goro entered the Mementos. The rest of the team was waiting just by the entrance.
"What's with the limp?" Joker asked.
"A parting gift from the older Niijima's Shadow," the detective growled. "It shouldn't hinder me too much in combat."
"Did she give you back the gun?"
The president displayed the unloaded pistol to the group.
"Good." The brunette glanced at the detective. "For the record, Crow: you not getting it back isn't a matter of trust, it's a matter of not giving a gun to a suicidal guy. If we'll have to use it, you'll at the very least get to weigh in on the technique."
"Speaking of," Ann said, pulling out her model SMG, "this is the last chance you'll get to show me how to fire that thing properly, so go ahead, I'm watching."
Goro took the model from her and carefully inspected it. "Follow me downstairs, please."
The Thieves all marched down to the topmost level of Mementos proper. The detective pulled out the retractable stock, slapped the charging handle into place, and took aim towards the far end of the tunnel. "Now, I've never fired an actual SMG, this is based on internet videos…" He braced himself and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened. "Hm."
"Can I try?"
Goro handed over the gun back to Ann and she mimicked his stance before pulling the trigger. It fired on full-auto with no problems.
"Now that's just…" Something clicked in his head and he glanced at the side of the gun to check his guess. "The fire selector's on 'safe'!"
"What?"
"There's a small switch on the side, and it's set to 0." Goro allowed himself to move it to 1. "Try it now."
Ann fired a single bullet. Then, she thumbed the selector to 3 and fired a short burst. Then, she switched it to 30 and emptied the magazine. "Neat. Firing one-handed looks cooler though."
"You know what's even cooler?" the detective shot her a glare. "Hitting your bloody targets."
"I guess Crow's experience with actual guns influences how our models operate in his hands," Morgana remarked.
"Does that mean we've gotta worry about those things firing when dropped?" Ryuji asked.
"From what I've gathered," the detective replied, "most modern firearms have precautions against such things and my handgun's just faulty. In short, probably not-"
In response, the athlete pointed the shotgun away from the group and pointedly dropped it on the ground. Nothing happened.
"-but let's not test that if we don't have to," Goro glared at him.
"Okay, that covers Gun Safety with Crow, I guess," Joker spoke up. "Forward team is me, him, Mona and Panther. Let's roll out."
The cat turned into a car and took off with the Thieves onboard. "So, you're a gun nut, huh?" Ryuji asked.
"Kind of," Goro said. "I took interest in the topic after they gave me a firearm, to figure out why attaching a suppressor didn't suppress the sound, and found myself fascinated. Not even in a 'oooh I can kill people faster' way, modern firearms are compelling from an engineering standpoint. Hundreds of years of improvements, specialization and standardization to propel the projectiles adjusted to your needs as fast and as frequently as necessa-'' He cut himself short. "I sound creepy now, don't I?"
"You sound like someone talking about a topic they're passionate about," Makoto shrugged. "And besides, you're not the only person with a quirk in this car."
"As long as you refrain from using incomprehensible firearm lingo in normal conversations, I fail to see the problem." Yusuke added, then shot a brief glare at Futaba.
After a pause, Haru asked, curious, "…so, why was the gun loud even with a silencer on?"
"The bullet was breaking the sound barrier. You need ammunition that doesn't go above the speed of sound or some fancy suppressor that slows it down."
Makoto gave him a glance. "There are suppressors like that?"
"I've seen one on a German submachine gun."
"Path of Sheriruth, Area 13," Joker mimicked a subway announcer, as the Morganacar took a turn into a dead end with a platform in it. "This car terminates here, we wish you pleasant further travels."
The group got off, Morgana shifted back into his cat form, and everyone marched downstairs. Area 14 consisted of a single island platform, closed off from the other end with an elaborate black door decorated in red. Subway trains were speeding along on all the tracks surrounding the platform. You know how this location looks - if you don't, spoiler alert, don't waste money on equipment for Goro.
The gate opened on its own after Joker touched it, revealing a staircase (or an inoperational escalator) leading downwards. Hesitantly, they marched down it. It led to something that could be best described as a terminus - multiple platforms on as many layers, each with a subway train parked next to it and the human-looking silhouettes exiting it and marching towards whatever was on the other side of another wall slash gate moving out of the Thieves' way. The group was ready to go through before Futaba stopped them:
"Hold on." Her flying saucer Persona appeared around her and floated a bit above the platform. "The door only opens from this side."
"What do you mean?" Ann asked.
"Well, I took a quick peek at the mechanism inside the door and it looks like you can only open it from here." She dismissed the Persona and landed on the ground. "We can get in, but nothing can get out."
"A point of no return, huh?" Joker turned to the group. "Last chance to back down. Nobody will hold it against you if you bail now."
"Without exaggeration," Yusuke said, "I am convinced everyone present will follow you to the ends of the earth."
"That's what I worry about," he sighed. "Alright, let's move out."
The group marched through and found themselves standing on a ledge on an inner wall of a gargantuan cylindrical chamber. In the middle of it was an enormous bundle of dark-red… pipes? Cables? Veins? Whatever they were, they were connected to the walls of the chamber and they were rhythmically pulsating in unison, as if to transfer something to the lower levels. Joker noticed that there was no Velvet Room entrance that had been present in every previous Palace's entry area, but didn't think too much of it - it was a unique scenario, he didn't expect things to follow the usual formula.
A crowd of Shadows was standing in front of yet another gate, and that one didn't open when the Thieves approached it, but that wasn't a problem - it wasn't the first time they had to find a side entrance. After a moment of poking around they managed to find a large enough open window and get inside.
Sneaking down the only path leading forward, the group started wondering what the palace was supposed to be. The previous seven each had a theme that was apparent from the get-go, and this one just had a bunch of creepy red patterns on black cubes. Helpfully, the very next room has revealed beyond doubt where they were.
It was a prison.
In front of them was a large cell, separated from the rest of the room with thick black bars. Behind them were Shadows, murmuring about something.
"What on Earth…" Joker mumbled to himself.
"Should we, uh," Ryuji stared at the scene before him, unsure, "should we release them or something?"
"No!" one of the Shadows protested. "We want to stay here!"
"C'mon, don't be out there and come on in," another Shadow invited.
"I don't see any cell doors," Joker muttered. "Let's just move along, before-"
"Hm?"
The group turned towards the voice and noticed a Shadow, more humanoid than human-looking, dressed like a security guard.
"Why are you out and about?" he said. "Where are your restraints?"
"…before something like this happens, I suppose," the leader finished, pulling out his knife.
The fight - and every subsequent one, while we're at it - was too brief to warrant a description. The Thieves pushed onward, with the puzzles being more of an annoyance than the skirmishes.
"This is everyone's Palace, right?" Ann spoke up, "Not like Kamoshida's castle… Who's keeping these people here…?"
After nobody offered a plausible theory, Joker turned to Morgana. "What's your take on… Mona?" The cat was scanning the area, visibly unnerved. "Is everything alright?"
"I…" he said, "I can't shake the feeling like I've been here before. This all seems familiar…"
"But it was closed off before," the model pointed out. A stray thought appeared in her head. "Crow," she turned to Goro, "how did you get through the locked gates?"
"Through what?"
"Sections of Mementos were locked off when we started, just like the Depths were," she explained. "We gained access to them as the Phantom Thieves' fame, or infamy, grew."
That took the detective aback. "They… weren't locked for me. I was able to access everything up to that terminus at the very bottom."
"Hmm…" Morgana purred. "The Phantom Thieves used my van form to travel in Mementos, but how were you getting around? You weren't traversing this place on foot, level by level, were you?"
"Well, no. There was some kind of… door or portal at the topmost layer," he explained. "I was able to go through it and travel to all the safe spots scattered throughout Mementos."
"We never saw any door at the entrance," Ann remarked.
"It only manifested when I explored this place alone, and disappeared when I was accompanied by you."
"That's… suspiciously convenient," the model said, then added, "I believe you, of course, you have no reason to lie anymore, but still, it's weird."
"Was that door blue by any chance?" Joker asked.
"No, black with red details, like our current surroundings. Why?"
"No reason." After a pause, he turned to Morgana. "Do you have any explanation for it all?"
"Um, I don't-" he looked completely out of his element.
"And since we're comparing notes already," Goro added, "how do you know all the things you do, Mona?"
"I don't know, alright?!" he snapped. "And I have no clue why the place just allowed you to murder everyone you wanted, so get off my back!" He marched ahead, keeping his distance away from the rest of the group.
"That's a scary thought, isn't it?" Ann piped up. "That this place, or whoever's in charge of it, deliberately gave Crow an advantage."
"I mean, with how much luck he had…" Joker said.
"By what definition of 'luck'?" Goro asked.
"By the definition of 'survived two years alone in Mementos'," he elaborated. "I mean, no offense to you and your combat skills, but… shit happens. Crits happen. I've never had to fight alone and the thought's kinda scary, and you managed to survive and thrive."
"You know, now that you mention it…" the detective focused on memories of his past life, "I had a lot of lucky misses when at low health. And at least once I… shrugged off what should have been a fatal blow."
"Are you sure it was fatal?"
Goro shot Ann a glare. "I will be blunt: after one particularly bad day, I blew my brains out with the handgun Queen is currently holding. I woke up by the entrance to Mementos, alive, with a bullet missing in the magazine. But hey, maybe I just shot a cognitive stunt double."
"Alright, fine, no need to get a-tetchy with me."
The detective just groaned in response.
At that point the group had reached a massive chasm, with the only way forward (other than just jumping in the hole) being a narrow path leading ever deeper. Morgana was waiting for the rest of the group, still appearing uncertain about all of this. Joker carefully approached it and looked down - and that was the straw that… not necessarily broke the camel's back, but put a noticeable crack in his spine.
Here he was, staring into a bottomless pit in a Palace of all Tokyoites - potentially all Japanese people. All the previous Palaces had an element of, dare he say, whimsiness, silliness to them, but not this one, with its red details on black cuboids and Shadows brainwashed into compliance. Goro's comments and Morgana's uncharacteristic lack of confidence weren't reassuring, and the fact that the Palace was a prison of all things-
"Joker?"
He spun around, startled, and noticed all the other Thieves giving him concerned looks.
"Dude, you alright?" Ryuji asked.
"Yeah, of course." He adjusted his mask. Sure, it was scary and unknown and everything about it screamed 'very final dungeon', but he was prepared. He had experience. He had friends, and one- no, he had friends period watching his back and with all those wonderful, splendid fellows behind him he was able to take on the world and no goddamn Shadow, cognition or any other being spawned by this hellscape would stop them. "Let's get going."
"We don't have time to walk," Morgana changed into his car form. "Get on board, and please don't drive me off the cliff."