The Palace of Mistuyo Togo required the Phantom Thieves to act differently than usual. For this infiltration, they needed to split into three teams to proceed to the Throne Room, where the Treasure awaited. Skull, Fox, and Mona were taking care of one of the two security towers. Due to a bit of a mishap, it ended up coming to blows faster than anticipated. But they were already prepared to silence anyone before they raised the security level. Skull was the first one to jump into the air, raising his club high above his head with a single hand. "EAT THIS!" Skull landed on the ground, crushing one of the knights under his club with ease. The moment he made impact, Seiten Taisei appeared and summoned forth numerous bolts of lightning. The Mazionga rained down from seemingly nowhere, striking numerous knights due to its extremely wide range.
"I-Intruders! Sound the alarm!" A knight shouted, but anyone who was able to respond was currently unable to escape the trio of Phantom Thieves attacking them.
Fox and his speed would not allow anyone to slip past them. Whatever knight wasn't affected by the rain of lightning was cut down by Fox. As the fastest one present, there wasn't a single knight capable of escaping his sword. "Kamu Susasno-o!" His mask burned away as his Persona appeared, stabbing its sword into the ground. Frost covered a large section of the room, freezing over several knights and preventing them from moving. Fox slid across the slice, swinging his sword rapidly to cut down numerous knights all at once. "Is that all of them?"
"Only a few more!" Mona said. "But I got this! Zorro!" Mona leapt into the air while calling forth his Persona. Zorro created a whirlwind that sucked in whatever knights remained in the room. With all of them trapped, Mona brandished his saber, leaping from knight to knight while slicing them down in the process. He was swift and efficient, making sure to take them all down in a single blow. He then landed and looked around quickly, doubling checking in that they took out everyone in the room. The coast was clear. "Alright, I'm sure we got all of them."
"That was a lot of work just to move forward." Skull sighed, rubbing the top of his head. "But it's whatever, we can move on now. I hope the rest of it ain't like that."
"Don't be so loud next time, and maybe we can sneak around properly." Mona crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. While it was going to come to blows no matter what, Skull's loudness put them in an uncomfortable situation.
"Okay, okay! That was my bad." Skull groaned.
"Wow, he's actually owning up to it." Fox was surprised.
"Shuddap!" Skull grunted, turning away. "Are we just gonna stand here and poke fun at me, or are we gonna keep it movin'!?"
"Fair enough. We don't have much time after all." Fox said, gesturing down the empty corridor. "This way, I believe." They walked carefully down the corridor, making efforts to not catch any more attention than they already had. After all, there was still a chance there were more security knights lingering around. Sure enough, there were a few lingering in front of a door. "There's more…"
"Heh…I got this." Mona smirked and pulled out his slingshot, quickly firing off a few shots. Before the guards even knew what hit them, they were knocked out, crumpling to the ground. Skull and Fox moved in quickly to finish them off before they woke up. The three of them were a surprisingly good unit. "Not bad."
"Course it wasn't!" Skull grinned before carefully pushing the door open. Luckily there was no more security to deal with. The only thing in the room was a computer in front of them.
Fox looked over the computer curiously. This was far from his area of expertise, so naturally he was a little confused about it. "Is this what we're looking for? The security computer?"
Mona walked forward, hopping on top of the computer. Oracle would be better used for this, but if the knight shadows were in charge of security it couldn't be that hard. "Hm…I think I can make this work."
Skull's eyes went wide. "Huh? For real!?"
"It can't be that that hard." Mona said while staring at the control panel. After a few moments, he nodded and pressed his paw on a random button. There was a beep and an automated voice spoke out.
"Deactivating the gate on the second floor."
"It worked." Fox turned around, noticing a door off to the side. "Oh, this must be the door that leads to the other tower."
"You think the girls are already waitin' for us?" Skull asked while approaching the door, carefully opening it to make sure there we no nasty surprises. The coast was clear.
"Only one way to find out. But we shouldn't keep them waiting anyway." Mona said and hopped off of the computer. They only completed the first step of their part.
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Panther's entire body slumped over at the person she saw standing in front of her, Noir, Queen and Violet. "You cannot be serious right now…"
"Uh…?" Violet blinked, staring at Panther curiously. "Do you know her…?"
"Unfortunately." Panther pulled herself back up. They were staring at Cognitive Mika. Mitsuyo's perception of Mika was going to be just as unpleasant as the real thing, Panther could already feel it in her bones.
Cognitive Mika turned around, spotting Panther and company. She could tell who Panther was and just scoffed loudly. "What sort of costume party are you going to? Halloween is already over, and leather is out of season."
Yup, Panther predicted this. "I don't really want to deal with this. I know she's just a cognition, but I can feel my irritation rising too…"
"Is this a case of a cognition acting like the real person?" Noir whispered to Queen. In response, Queen had to shake her head.
"I don't know…but based on Panther's reaction, maybe?" Queen replied. Panther was the only one here that personally knew Mika, so the others wouldn't know.
"Do we just fight her and get it over with?" Noir said while raising her axe. Cognitive Mika just seemed like a waste of time, so the sooner they dealt with her the better.
"Wait, that feels…weird." Panther waved her hands. "Well…at least wait until she tries to kill us or something."
"Like how all dealt with Hifumi-chan?" Cognitive Mika placed her hands on her hips. That caused the girls to stiffen up a bit. The Cognitive Hifumi that Dragon defeated was still gone after all, so… "I was the special guest invited here and you all just…" Before she could finish, the tower began to rumble. Everyone stumbled to keep their balance and then…numerous shadow knights appeared, all of them surrounding Mika.
"I knew we should've just taken care of her…" Noir was readying her axe again.
"Wait…!" Queen held an arm out. The way the Shadows were moving were strange. "That's not a defensive stance, they're surrounding her!?"
"Are they going to attack?" Violet asked. "But why…!?"
"W-What's going on?" Cognitive Mika was actually a little worried.
"You are no longer welcome here. You must be removed, the Queen's orders." A knight said.
"Is this…a change of cognition?" Queen suggested.
"You mean Hifumi's mom is actively seeing Mika as a threat?" Panther turned back to look at Queen. If that was the case, that meant that something was going on in reality. "What's Mika doing…!?" There was hardly any time to think about what was happening in reality. Without thinking about it, Panther slashed her whip forward, knocking down the knights that surrounded Cognitive Mika. "…That felt really weird."
"Eh?" Cognitive Mika blinked. "What was that?"
"Don't worry about it!" Violet said while waving her hands. She frantically looked around as a few of the knights were now beginning to close in on them. Noir was waiting to swing her axe at something, so she was gladly engaging the shadow knights all by herself. Her wide, swift swings covered so much range, allowing her to crowd control very easily. While this happened, Violet was going to try and explain things to Cognitive. "Okay, listen! We're looking for the security room! We're trying to get into the throne room."
"Considering the ruler here doesn't see you as an ally any longer, would you be willing to tell us where it is?" Queen asked.
Cognitive Mika shrugged. "Fine. I was getting tired of listening to her absurd demands anyway." She pointed down the corridor. "It's down there, and it leads into the third tower too. Also…the third tower has a really big security guard there, so you can have fun with that."
"Thanks!" Violet smiled.
Nope. This was all too weird for Panther. Mika being helpful? They were definitely in the Metaverse. "You should probably get out of here."
"You don't have to tell me twice." Cognitive Mika flipped her hair and started to walk off, since Noir was singlehandedly dealing with the shadows. "And seriously, do something about that outfit. All those zippers are so unnecessary."
"MOST OF THEM DON'T EVEN WORK!" Panther shouted, but Cognitive Mika was already gone. Violet just patted Panther's shoulder.
"Strange, though…I wonder what happened…" Queen mumbled. They usually had to manipulate someone's cognition from the outside in order for these things to happen. But this was an event completely out of their control…
"So!" Noir said, the handle of her axe resting on her shoulder. There was quite a massacre of shadows behind her, but she seemed very content about it. "We're moving on, right?"
"…..She scares me sometimes." Violet said with a sweat drop.
"You're not the only one." Panther said with a small gulp.
.
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At this point in time, Mika and Mitsuyo were at the TV station, but it wasn't a friendly meeting. Their last conversation left a sour taste in Mika's mouth, which led to her breaking off her relationship with Hifumi. The lack in activity spurred Mitsuyo to question Mika about their agreement. "What are you doing?" Mitsuyo gave Mika a firm stare.
"Whatever do you mean?" Mika lifted a brow, feigning ignorance.
"I thought we had an agreement." Mitsuyo snapped. "And yet I've had to pull a few strings that I didn't want to, all because you're failing to pull Hifumi away from that American girl. Do you not remember what's at stake for you if you don't do this?"
"I remember." Mika said while running a hand through her hair. She then gave Mitsuyo a wicked smile. "And I realized that I don't need you anymore."
"Wh-!?" Mitsuyo's eyes widened.
"I was only using you and Hifumi to push my career. And now I've reached a point to where I don't need whatever you were providing." Mika replied. "What's at stake for me? Certainly not a loss of my career. I'm waaaaay too popular for anyone to drop right now. In fact, I'm only going to get more popular as the days go by."
Mitsuyo was fuming and not hiding it well. "Then I'll just tell Hifumi that-!"
"That what?" Mika lifted a brow. "Oh, I guess she hasn't told you? Then let me do the honors. I broke off my relationship with Hifumi-ch…Hifumi. I told her the truth so you wouldn't waste your breath."
"You…" Mitsuyo couldn't believe this. "How dare you…?"
"I don't enjoy being told what to do." Mika huffed. "And unlike you, I actually considered your daughter's best interest. Ironic, all things considered."
Mitsuyo would not stand for this. "I can ruin you!"
"I'd like to see you try." Mika replied, unbothered. "I already had to break your daughter's heart just to keep her safe from your increasingly absurd demands. The only thing you're ruining is your daughter's life with your stubbornness." She turned, flipped her hair, and walked off. She left Mitsuyo to stew in her own anger.
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Joker, Crow, Dragon, and Oracle were making their way through the main castle. They already pushed their way through to the second floor thanks to the trio of Mona, Skull, and Fox in one tower. Now they had to make it to the third floor. They were halted by a few gigantic security knights. Oracle stood behind them while the trio of combatants went ahead. Oracle was in Prometheus, enjoying the new UI of her powered up Persona. "Okay, Attack up!" She shouted, casting Matarukaja on the three.
"Much appreciated!" Crow said while pointing his arm forward. "Take them down, Robin Hood!" Robin Hood appeared behind Crow, pulling the drawstring on his bow back. Arrows of light formed and were released towards the shadow knights.
"Power!" Joker followed suit. The angel clad in red armor appeared behind him and threw its holy lance forward. The shadow knights used their shields to protect against these attacks, although the increased power from the attack buff did cause them to stumble briefly. They did recover fast, preparing to bring their large swords down on Joker and Crow…
"Aegis!" Dragon jumped forward, Belle Star appearing in front of them with her shield at the ready. The two swords struck the shield and Dragon sponged the damage with relative ease. Dragon then vaulted over Belle Star with her extended staff and spun around in the air, slamming her weapon against both knights to knock them back.
"Impressive! But I won't fall behind!" Crow said while raising his hand up. Robin Hood took to the air, now creating arrows charged with Curse element. "Finish them!" Robin Hood released the volley of arrows, resulting in numerous explosions of darkness. This didn't quite finish the knights off, but it did leave them vulnerable for an All Out Attack. Crow jumped in, with Joker and Dragon following for a flurry of blows. At the end of it all, Crow landed the finishing blow, spinning around with an eccentric grin. "My only interest is the truth."
"Flashy." Oracle said while hopping forward. They went back to wandering down the huge hallway. Oracle had the layout of the castle downloaded, so she was leading them in the right direction. "Okay, so assuming that Panther and the others got through to the next tower, we should be clear for the third floor. After that, it's only the gate to the Throne Room, where we can meet up with the others."
"We're making good progress." Crow said.
"We've been in here a few times before." Dragon said. "We got a direct trip to the throne room, so we do know where to go. It's merely a matter of getting there." She then came to a halt, staring at a painting on a wall. She blinked slowly while observing it.
"What's wrong?" Joker asked.
The painting Dragon was staring at was an old memory. A younger Hifumi, in the arms of her mother. But in the context of the Palace, they were dressed in royal garb. "…I remember this." Dragon said, staring at the expression on Mitsuyo's face, she looked so happy…they both did. "This is when I won my first shogi game. Mother looked so happy back then…"
"Are you alright?" Joker asked.
Dragon stared at the image for a few more moments before pulling back. "I'm fine. I just had a bit of nostalgia is all…" It had been a long time since she thought about that. Now she was wondering… "I'm sorry, let's continue moving."
.
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The second security gate was lowered. The girls were able to do this thanks to Cognitive Mika's help. So now they were traversing into the third tower, which was…another set of spiral stars. Panther and Noir were dying, slogging up the stairs. "Ugh…."
"We're almost at the top, come on." Queen said. She would drag them up the stairs if she needed to. Luckily they managed to make it to the top, where Fox, Mona, and Skull were waiting. "Oh, you're already here, great."
Skull looked at Noir and Panther. "Are they okay?"
"W-We just need a minute…!" Panther said while lifting her hand up, panting softly.
"Is the last computer through here?" Violet pointed to a large set of double doors. It was cracked slightly and she assumed one of the boys opened it.
"Yes, but there is a problem." Fox gestured at the door. "There is a rather large shadow behind that door. We did not engage because it would be too dangerous with the three of us."
Violet walked towards the door. "I wonder if it's what Mika mentioned…er, the cognitive one, anyway. How big could it…" She peaked through the crack in the door, eyes widening at the sight of the massive black flying dragon lingering in front of the computer. "W…!?"
"Yeah, that's a big one." Mona crossed his arms. "But with all of us here, we'll have a chance."
"It's not often we engage in battle without Joker…will we be alright?" Panther was a bit cautious.
"We can take 'em!" Skull said confidently. "We gotta show we can hold our own!"
"Skull's right. I would feel ashamed if we couldn't handle this." Noir said. Everyone was in agreement. Though it was odd fighting without their ace in the hole, they were still perfectly capable of handling this. "Can I start this off?"
Skull and Queen went to the doors, looking at one another. They raised their legs and kicked the doors open. "GO!"
Noir had her rocket launcher at the ready. The instant the doors flew open, she fired at the Fratricidal Destroyer Seth. The rocket flew through the air, exploding against Seth's body, causing the dragon to roar in pain from the surprise attack. "Direct hit!" Seth didn't like this very mouth, gathering darkness within its mouth and fired it forward.
"Scatter!" Mona shouted and everyone dove in separate directions, avoiding an explosion of darkness that covered a wide radius. "Zorro!" Mona summoned his Persona to attack first. Zorro attacked with a flurry of slashes that created a fierce twister around Seth, but to his surprise, it didn't look like the wind had much of an effect on Seth. "Huh!?"
"Mona, watch out!" Panther shouted.
Seth took aim at Mona, focusing raw energy in the form of a large bullet. One Shot Kill. This bullet soared towards Mona, who used Zorro to try and deflect the attack. It was a fearsome attack and ultimately Mona was blown back. "Gaaah!" Luckily for Mona, Panther sprang into action, wrapping her whip around him to catch him, and also fling him back towards Seth.
"Go!" Panther yelled.
"Thanks. Panther!" Mona flew forward and spun around, using his saber to slash at Seth's body while flying past it.
Seth turned, snarling in pain as it prepared to attack Mona, but it stopped when a fireball and a bolt of lightning struck its body. It turned back around, only to see Panther and Skull aiming their guns at it. "Eat this!" Skull clicked the trigger of his shotgun while Panther unloaded her machine gun. The bullets flew toward Seth, constantly pelting it. It was working, but they didn't notice the pillars of darkness slowly forming under them.
"Panther-senpai! Skull-senpai! Watch out!" Violet shouted, but it was too late. The two of them were caught and thrown in separate directions. Violet was next, and due to her affinity, she was weak to curse based attacks. This one hurt a lot as she collapsed to the ground, stunned. "Ow…?"
"This thing has a lot of long ranged attacks." Queen surmised. "Noir, can you keep it occupied!?"
"You don't have to say anything else!" Noir nodded and summoned Milady. "Fire!" Together with Milady, they released a bombardment of gunfire at Seth, who fired back with its own bombardment. This resulted numerous explosions that shook the tower, but Noir was sure to keep it in a deadlock for as long as she could. "I won't be able to hold this for long!"
"You won't need to!" Queen summoned Anat, while Fox created an ice ramp for her. Revving the engine, she put the pedal to the metal, going full throttle. With the ice ramp, she was able to drive into the air and slam Anat into Seth, causing it to stop its bombardment. This meant it was overpowered by Noir and shot into the ceiling numerous times.
"I'll finish this!" Fox said while calling forth Kamu-Susano-o one more time. He swung his sword, sending numerous icicles towards Seth's body to impale it and keep it stuck to the ceiling. "That should do it." But surprisingly, Seth broke free and roared, despite the damage it sustained. "Impossible…!"
"No way, after all that?!" Panther gasped. Seth opened its maw and fired off a beam in a sweeping motion. While the beam itself didn't hit anyone, the ensuing explosion sent everyone flying. "Ow! That hurt…"
"Is everyone okay?" Mona asked.
"I'm breathing…" Fox said.
Violet narrowed her eyes. They had to get Seth down to the ground…ah! "Skull-senpai, give me a boost!" And she was already running towards him.
"Me!?" Skull pointed at himself. Violet wasn't giving him much time to react, so he just cupped his hands together as Violet approached. Her foot landed in his hands and he used all his strength to push Violet into the air, and she jumped at the same time to gain some serious height.
Seth looked up, firing another bullet at Violet, but she was able to twist her body in midair. This was gymnastics in action, the bullet barely whiffing as she landed on Seth's back. Naturally, the black dragon tried to shake her off, but she stabbed her rapier into its back and used that as a grip. "Cendrillon!" Violet's Persona appeared, wasting no time in firing off numerous beams of light on Seth's back. This was effective, the obsidian dragon howling in pain as each blast knocked it closer and closer to the ground, until it eventually crashed. "So that was its weakness!"
Queen and Noir exchanged glances and nodded. "Showtime!"
The two leapt into the action, scenery changing to that of a wrestling arena, with the downed Seth stunned on the other side of the ring. Queen and Noir entering and waving to the crowd. But Noir didn't get to enjoy the moment as Queen was already rushing ahead. "Oh…!"
Queen rushed in with a haymaker, while Noir followed up with a drop kick. As she picked herself up, Queen had the STEEL CHAIR! She slammed that down on Seth's head, and everyone watching was certain something just cracked. The two then looked at each other and went to opposite ends of the ring, climbing the top rope. "Noir!"
"Leave it to me!" Noir said, grabbing the tip of her hat while pointing to the crowd. "Ready, set…" She and Queen pushed off the rope in unison, flipping in the air while extending their elbows down. They landed on Seth with powerful, crushing elbow drops.
"DOUBLE DEATH BLOW!"
AND THAT'S A KNOCK OUT! That was more than enough to defeat Seth, and the two girls posed at the end of their Showtime.
"THAT WAS EFFIN AWESOME!" Skull said with bright eyes. That was probably the coolest thing he witnessed so far.
"What a spectacle…" Fox wished he could draw that, but he was already committing it to memory.
"How'd you come up with that one?" Panther was dying to know.
"Oh, it was Queen's idea!" Noir said.
Queen was a little embarrassed, but also happy it turned out so well. "I got the idea…watching TV in passing." She knew what the implications of this were, but she wasn't going to shy away from them.
"That was super cool…" Violet was in awe.
While everyone was gushing over Noir and Queen's showtime, Mona went ahead to the computer and disabled the third and final gate. "There. That's all of the security measures taken care of."
"I told ya we could handle it." Skull said smugly.
"I guess I have to make my exit now." Violet said while pointing to a large door on the left. "That probably leads to the castle, and we can't let, er…Crow, was it? We can't let him see me, so I'm going back ahead."
"We couldn't have beaten that thing without you." Fox gave a nod. "Be safe on your way back. We'll follow you soon."
"Mhm!" Violet waved. "And it was a team effort!" With that said, Violet was going to leave the Palace, since they were supposed to meet up with Joker's group soon.
.
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Dragon frowned as they continued walking through the Palace. Everywhere she looked, there were pictures of her mother being happy whenever Hifumi won in Shogi. It would be nice if she didn't know the price of those victories. Yet Mitsuyo looked so happy every single time… "…"
"It seems your mother is quite invested in the idea of your victory." Crow said. It was an obvious observation, but he didn't let it go unsaid. "I am beginning to see why this Palace manifested…"
"Yeah…" Dragon replied quietly. She's still wondering when it all went wrong. "But we're going to take it down."
They arrived at the gate to the Throne Room. It just opened, which meant the final security gate was dealt with. As the gate opened, the other group met with Joker and the others. "Nice job, guys." Joker said.
"You guys look a little roughed up." Oracle pointed out.
"We handled it." Skull said proudly.
"Good job. I had no concerns that you would be able to handle whatever lie in wait." Akechi smiled.
"But boy, do we have a story…" Panther let out a sigh. The story could wait. "Um…should we go into the Throne Room? We know the Treasure is there, but…"
"It's empty." Oracle said. "She's not in there."
"She isn't?" Dragon blinked slowly before pushing the door open. It was an impulsive act and everyone followed suit. True enough, they were standing in the empty throne room. The colorless mass that was the Treasure floated above the throne. "She really isn't…"
"So this is the location…quite spacious…" Crow glanced around. Assuming that it came to blows, he was already thinking about a plan of attack.
"So we have our infiltration route secure." Mona said. "We can send the calling card at any time, Dragon."
"…Right." Dragon nodded absentmindedly. Her eyes wandered the throne room for a bit and she noticed a cracked door open. She could hear someone speaking. She silently, curiously approached the door while the others remained cautious. The sight Dragon saw did surprise her.
Shadow Mitsuyo was sitting on the edge of the bed, where Cognitive Mitsurugi was sleeping. He looked just as pale and sickly as he did in reality. "Everything's going wrong and I don't know why…but I don't think I'm doing anything wrong! There's nothing wrong with trying to win! I couldn't win, but Hifumi can. I've poured EVERYTHING I can into that girl so she can do what I couldn't, and yet…"
"…." Cognitive Mitsurugi didn't say anything. He was asleep after all, but Shadow Mitsuyo was using his presence to vent.
"Ever since you got sick, things just haven't been the same. That cursed game…shogi…" Shadow Mitsuyo snarled. "All it does it take from me, and I'm tired of it. I will exploit that game as much as I can to make up for everything it's done to this family! There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with trampling everyone in line to obtain what I want. Hifumi is poised for greatness…! I want you to see that before you pass, and I'll make her see that too, no matter what it takes. I'll do whatever I need to make sure it happens…"
"…" Dragon was silent. It felt like her mother was so far gone down this path of conquest. It was up to her to take her off of it. Any longer was bad for this family, and Dragon wanted to save what was left no matter what. "Mother…I'll show you what I'm truly made of tomorrow…and you'll have no choice but to look at me for who I've become, instead of who you want me to be…"