The Phantom Thieves finally began their infiltration of Okumura's Palace. The only lead they had on the Treasure was that it was in the largest building in the back, but they still had to get there. That alone was going to be a task and a half, but nothing they couldn't handle. They had a larger team now with the addition of Violet, temporary though she may be. Joker took the lead, but Noir was following closely behind him for multiple reasons, this was her Father's Palace after all. Plus they didn't know if there would be another door that required her biometrics to open. At the moment, they were crawling through an air vent since the door they wanted to go through was locked.
"Is there a lot of vent crawling in your work?" Violet asked. Since this was her first infiltration, there were many elements that she was new to. This was one of them.
"Yes. We do this quite often." Dragon explained. "The first vent I had to crawl through was unfortunately poorly maintained…" The vent in Kaneshiro's bank gave her nightmares with how dirty it was.
"I wish I could forget that…" Queen was in the same boat as Dragon there, since they joined more or less at the same time. Eventually they all crawled out into a facility passageway, which led to a control panel.
"Theeeeeere it is…" Oracle had a grin on her lips. The technology of this space port captured her attention and she couldn't wait to hack into anything and everything she could.
"Danng…this place is insane! All this techy shit's getting' me pumped!" Skull said excitedly.
"This must be a server room." Oracle went ahead, staring at the terminal in front of her. "Watch this…." Within a few minutes, Oracle was able to hack into the system, wearing a proud grin afterwards. "There! I opened up a whole buncha doors for us! I also managed to snag a map of this place too." Oracle presented the map of the space port. It was huge.
"That's incredible!" Noir, not being one to get high tech stuff, was really amazed at Oracle's feat. It just made it that much more amazing to her. "So this means our infiltration deeper into the Palace should be easier, yes?"
"In theory." Oracle reported. "There are still a lot of area ahead…the barracks, the factor, and the airlock area."
"A factory?" Joker asked. "That…probably sounds exactly like I imagine it will."
"What do they even need to make in a factory?" Panther tilted her head. "This is a fast food place at the end of the day, isn't it?"
"Burgers?" Skull suggested.
"Actually, I found one other interesting file when I was cracking the system." Oracle reported. "It's called 'Project: Escape to Utopia'. There's a blueprint inside too…it looks like whatever they're making for it is ginormous. That factory can't just be for burgers."
"I wonder what it means by utopia…" Violent tilted her head.
"A utopia is perfection personified." Fox explained. "I can only surmise it is an escape to a land where everything is perfect."
"I see…" Violet had a bit of a sweat drop. Fox was a little more eccentric with his wording and tone than she expected. Something she'd have to get used to. "Still, I do wonder about the specifics."
"What's it matter?" Skull said with a grin. "It won't when we steal the Treasure and take down the Palace!"
"…I suppose you have a point, Skull-senpai." Violent couldn't argue with that.
"Come on," Mona began, already crawling back through the vent. "Let's keep moving. We don't want to keep giving them anymore time to build…whatever that is."
Mona made a good point. They had to continue deeper into the Palace and they soon came across another locked door. So Noir did her thing and stood in front of it, assuming it to be like the previous door that blocked their path. "Okay, here we go…" The door let out a BEEP sound and the words 'ACCESS DENIED' appeared on the display above. "Huh!?"
"It ain't openin' even after Oracle's tinkerin'? Man this bastard really doesn't trust anyone!" Skull said, annoyed that they were blocked by yet another door.
"Skull!" Panther said sharply, needing to remind him that Noir was right there. It was a pretty insensitive thing to say.
Noir appreciated the concern, but she was able to shake her head. "No, it's alright. Father is clearly guilty of some horrible crimes…that's why we will stop him." Her voice still held resolve.
"How are we going to pass through this door, though?" Violet asked.
"If it's not a normal lock or a biometric one, I think it might use rank based authentication." Oracle explained. "Basically, you're gonna need to be a chief-director to get through here."
"That's…inconvenient." Dragon blinked.
"Even the robot employees have ranks and positions. What do we do about that?" Panther asked.
"I think we should steal someone's ID." Joker suggested.
"Oh, of course! Employee IDs are used to authorize entry in the real world company as well." Noir said.
"Wow! You two are so smart! That's gotta be it!" Panther beamed.
"So then it's decided. Our next move is to steal an employee ID." Queen nodded. "Let's see if we can find someone." They couldn't go forward, so they had to and backtrack near the elevator they passed. When they got close, the elevator opened and a few blue employee robots marched out.
"Oh, there are some now! Should we start stealin' their IDs?" Skull asked.
"It feels like we're mugging them…" Violet commented. She knew this was part of the deal of being a Phantom Thief, but the way Skull phrased it...
"I suggest we wait." Fox said, gesturing to the elevator. "If we follow where they came from, we should be able to find a number of employees at the source."
"A good notion, Fox!" Dragon nodded. "We shall dive deep into enemy barracks to commit identity theft!"
"…That's not inherently wrong." Queen sighed. It was amazing how radical Dragon could change between reality and the Metaverse.
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They took the elevator down to the barracks. They were in the right place, now they only needed to find the right person…er…robot. "So how are we gonna go about finding the chief director?" Skull asked.
"I did a scan of the area, but I got multiple readings." Oracle said. "They're all different from the robots we've seen so far, so it has to be one of them."
"So we're going to have to do an extensive search…" Dragon stroked her chin. "I suppose it cannot be avoided."
"But how exactly will we do that?" Noir questioned. It seemed like a time consuming endeavor no matter how they tried to approach it.
"…Hide. Someone's coming." Joker warned, everyone hiding behind two separate walls as two worker robots rushed by.
"Two robots…!" Mona said.
"HURRY, HURRY!" One of the robots said.
"GO! WE CAN'T BE LATE!" And they rushed off.
Panther peered around the corner, looking at where the robots ran off to. It was a gigantic room with other worker robots, but a taller, slimmer red robot was standing in the middle. "Look, in that room! There's a bunch of other ones like it…and another red one."
"By all appearances, that massive red robot must be quite important." Fox surmised. "I recall seeing a similar robot barking orders to the smaller ones when we first got here."
"I see!" Dragon nodded slowly. "So if I'm correct, the bigger you are, the more important your rank. A simple, but effective means of discerning people…"
"Is this the one we're looking for?" Violet turned to the others.
"It may not be," Queen stated. "But even if it's not the chief director, they may have some intel. Let's approach this carefully. On your lead, Joker."
"Right." Nodding, Joker led the way into the workroom. It was a vacant space with the worker robots off in the corner, while the taller robot was standing in the middle.
"HEY! YOU OVER THERE! WHO SAID YOU COULD STOP WORKING!?" The taller robot yelled at the others. "IF YOU AREN'T DOING YOUR JOBS, I'M THE ONE WHO GETS CHEWED OUT BY THE SECTION CHIEF, YOU KNOW? AND I'M SICK OF HIM CALLING ME USELESS!"
"Must he be so loud…" Dragon frowned. But it was important to note that the worker robots all nodded in agreement and began to work a bit harder. Some of them were complaining that the section chief continued to call them all useless, while others mentioned if they worked harder, they would break down. If this was the state of Okumura Foods…
"HEY! YOU!" The Chief Clerk Robot pointed at the Phanton Thieves. "GET BACK TO YOUR STATIONS! I'M THE ONE WHO GETS IN TROUBLE IF YOU AREN'T DOING YOUR JOBS, YOU KNOW!"
"Dude, we don't even work here." Skull sighed.
"Skull, can you please stay focused…?" Queen closed her eyes before taking a more professional tone. "Excuse me, we have a matter to discuss with the chief director."
"WHAT? A MATTER WITH THE CHIEF DIRECTOR? LOW-RANKING GRUNTS LIKE YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLY HAVE BUSINESS THAT IMPORTANT!"The chief clerk scoffed at Queen. "NOW, YOU'RE GOING BACK TO YOUR STATIONS EVEN IF I HAVE TO USE FORCE." As it said this it commanded the rest of the worker robots to turn around. They were about to fight.
"Well…it was worth a shot." Queen shook her head. Somehow she knew it would come down to blows in the end. "Get ready, everyone!"
"Somehow, I knew this would end in a fight." Dragon was pretending to be shocked, but this was what she expected as well.
"Let's see what you can do, Violet!" Panther said excitedly. This would be their first time seeing her in action, aside from Joker and Mona.
"M-Me?" Violet was being put on the spot? Okay! She could do this. She made a pose as blue flames swirled around her. "Dance, Cendrillon!" This summoned her Persona, allowing everyone to bear witness to it for the first time.
"Whoa…that's dope!" Skull's eyes were wide. He was pretty into that.
"Let us go!" Violet pointed her arm forward gracefully. This prompted Cendrillon to fly forward, past the Chief Clerk and worker Robots, numerous white lines appearing in the air. Cendrillon's high speed allowed her to strike multiple times in such a short span of time. She struck everyone and managed to knock them back as well. This left the group pleasantly surprised with her abilities.
"Such grace!" That was of course the first thing Fox had to point out.
"Not bad…!" Skull liked what he saw, but he also had to show off a bit in front of the newbie. "But check this out!" Skull took a pose, rearing his club back as if he was about to make a homerun swing. He then swung forward, not hitting anything, but the action summoned Seiten Taisei who rode forward along his cloud, barreling down the worker robots while slamming the Chief Clerk into the wall. "Hell yeah!"
"Wow, Skull-senpai! You're very strong!" Violet gave a bright smile. She then noticed a worker robot attempting to strike her; it was a weak attempt since it was clearly exhausted and worn down, but that didn't stop her from leaning backwards to evade it, pushing off into a back flip and pulling her gun, a musket. She pointed it forward and shot at the robot, pushing it backwards from the force of the bullet.
"Oh wow…she moves so gracefully!" Panther was in awe at how easily Violet was moving. "It must be the gymnastics!"
Violet landed on her feet to stick the landing, feeling a bit proud of herself. If she could move this easily in reality, then she'd have nothing to worry about! This felt like amazing practice and she was still getting used to how her body felt in the Metaverse. "This feels so amazing…"
"Watch out!" Noir warned. She was occupied with a few robots, using her axe to keep them at back. Her swings were precise, fast, and wide. A single motion knocked several robots backwards. While she lacked the total graceful movements of Violent, she more than made up for it with sheer power. Noir did say she was good with an axe and this was her chance to show it.
"I can…use my wind power…" The Chief Clerk muttered to itself, pulling itself from the wall while reaching forward with its long arms, creating a fierce whirlwind that shot directly towards Violent and Skull. "If only I wasn't too scared, I would use this on the chief director…!"
"Incoming!" Oracle warned.
The wind current was moving a bit too fast for Violet and Skull to dodge, but they were covered by Dragon. "Aegis!" The shield of Belle Star appeared in front of them, Dragon absorbing the damage for her two teammates. Since it was reduced, the most she did was wince a little bit. "I shall not let any harm fall upon you!"
"Thank you, Dragon-senpai!" Violet smiled. She decided to make use of this opening Dragon made, summoning Cendrillon once more, her Persona releasing a fierce downpour of light beams down on the robots via Makougon. Noir picked up on this and summoned Milady, creating a Psi tornado in the midst of this storm, drawing in the beams of light only to make them scatter violently, piercing the robots in various locations. The damage so great, the all faded away.
"That was fun!" Noir beamed. She and Violet even did a small high five after their impromptu combination.
"Not bad you two! You're both coming along nicely." Mona had a stint of pride in his voice. Clearly he made a good choice asking Violet to join them.
"A fantastic finish…I wish I could have drawn that. I'll have to commit those lights to memory." Fox said.
"Not bad, guys…" Joker said with a slight grin. He knelt down, picking up the Chief Clerk's ID. It was dropped after its body vanished. "Guess…we got this too."
"Oh…but it says Chief Clerk." Noir pouted. "That's not what we're looking for."
"We need the Chief Director's ID, right?" Panther peered over Joker's shoulder, staring at the card.
"This one should be okay for now." Oracle said. "At the very least this should help us get to some new places."
"Indeed. We can now access areas authorized to the chief clerk or lower." Fox said.
"…" Oracle glanced around quickly. There was a brief blip on her radar, but it was gone just as quickly as it appeared. That was the second time this happened; it didn't make sense to her but she didn't like it either. Regardless, she kept up with the others as they went to try out the Chief Clerk's ID.
"If I recall correctly…" Dragon was thinking back on the Chief Clerk's words. "The Chief Director enjoys calling people useless and yelling. It sounds like a very poor work environment."
"It depresses me just thinking about it…" Violet frowned. She understood being under constant pressure, but this was crossing far too many lines. This kind of pressure was outright breaking people based on the information they all had. Now she felt like they were in the right for wanting to do something about this.
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This cycle continued for the Phantom Thieves. They had to hunt down increasingly higher ranking robots within the barracks to gain access to deeper areas. After defeating the Chief Clerk, their next target was the section chief, another shining example of wonderful management. After the section chief, their final target was the chief director. Each robot was progressively getting bigger to show their standing within the company. It was a lengthy process, but in the end they were able to defeat and secure the Chief Director's ID. This granted them passage through the door that barred them access before.
"That felt like a runaround trip…" Skull scratched the back of his head.
"But we made progress." Joker said, sliding the ID into the slot. The door authorized entry and they were able to advance forward.
"I thought Okumura was behind the mental shutdowns, but we haven't been able to find anything leading to that conclusion yet…" Queen was a little disappointed in the lack of their findings thus far.
"Well, those were only employees." Oracle pointed out. "There's no way the small fry would be privy to such information."
"It's probably deeper inside." Mona said. "Let's keep moving." They proceeded onward, using the nearby elevator to arrive outside once again. They were a bit closer to the building Mona pointed out, and he was able to actually point to it this time. "We're getting close! The Treasure is in that building all the way over there!"
"That's quite far…" Violet said. "It would take a long time to get there…"
"Yeah, that's just a pain. If it's that close, why don't we just go in from the outside?" Skull suggested. They could make it across the roofs of other buildings and it would save them some time.
"That's not a bad idea, Skull." Panther nudged Skull with her elbow. "C'mon, let's go!"
.
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After leaping through the buildings overhead, the door they found led into the large building. This brought them to the factory section of the space port, starting at the export line. As they walked, they found a good view to scope out their surroundings and figure out where they needed to go next. This also let them see how the export line worked. "This really is a factory, just like the name says." Panther was a bit surprised at what she was looking at. Even the atmosphere of the factory felt even deader than previous areas. "I wonder what they're making here…"
"Do you think it's related to the 'Escape to Utopia' thing?" Oracle brought up.
"They do appear to be transferring supplies somewhere…" Dragon leaned over the railing a bit. "I can only surmise it's going deeper into the factory."
"Hey, wait a second. Ain't the guys in here movin' kinda weird?" Skull pointed all around to the robot workers they could see. Many of them were twitching violently before straight up collapsing from overwork. While the robots nearby did see and were startled by this, their options were calling for help and risking being put in trouble themselves, or simply do their own work. The sight of this appalled everyone.
Queen couldn't look. She closed her eyes and turned her body to the side. "…Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite of how you would imagine a utopia to be."
"This is abhorrent…" Violet couldn't look either. This was far too much.
Noir's eyes were wide in shock, before they fell. "These conveyer belts and the positioning of the workers, this is almost identical to the company's bun factory. I can't believe this…" She really did want to believe in her father, but things were lining up against him too much.
"Noir…" Mona frowned. He could see the heartbreak in her eyes.
"At the very least, this is how Okumura views his workers." Fox sighed. "I apologize for saying this, Noir, but this is truly atrocious."
"Well, it'll all be under control once we make that change of heart happen, right?" Skull asked.
"Right. Let's go!" Joker nodded ad took the lead. It looked like they were going to have a mostly smooth trip through the export line, so long as no one fell into the supply line or anything. The worker robots were too occupied or exhausted to deal with them.
The slow and steady walked continued until Oracle picked up that same reading on her radar again. It wasn't a blip this time. It was a huge source of power and it was very close by. She didn't have the time to say anything other than: "DUCK!"
"Huh?" Confusion ran about through the thieves, but they did as Oracle shouted and hit the floor. It was a good thing they did, because a bullet struck a box behind Joker's head, leaving a noticeable mark.
"What the hell!? Did someone shoot at us!?" Skull grumbled.
"Straight ahead! Someone's there! I think they've been following us." Oracle said while remaining crouched low.
Joker was the one to looked first, eyes widening under his mask when he saw who it was. It was a person in a black mask, grinning heinously at him from across the export line. They had a pistol drawn, keeping it pointed towards the Phantom Thieves' location. "…It's…!"
Everyone else poked their head out at this point, their reaction the same as Joker's. "It can't be…!" Fox gasped.
"Is that…the one…?" Dragon pointed. "Why are they here!?"
"Is that the one causing the mental shutdowns?" Violet asked. "If so…could they be here to…?"
"No, that can't happen!" Noir shook her head violently. If this was the one in the black mask she was told about, then their appearance here could only mean one thing. She did not like that train of thought.
"What do we do, Joker? They're here for a reason…" Panther whispered. Black Mask wasn't moving from their spot, just giving that heinous, bloodthirsty grin.
"If we can capture them, we may be able to tie up any and all loose strings in a heartbeat!" Dragon said.
"She's right, this could be our chance. But…something about this feels wrong…" Queen couldn't shake the feeling that something was off here. Why did Black Mask even risk showing themselves!?
"Who cares!? We out number them! All we gotta do is jump their ass!" Skull shouted. It was true, it was 10 to 1.
"Skull's right! If we act fast, we can surround them on all sides!" Mona said.
Black Mask noticed a crane moving a canister overhead, directly above the Phantom Thieves. So he aimed his pistol at it and shot it, causing it to explode. This explosion forced the Phantom Thieves to scatter in different directions as numerous, sturdy boxes came tumbling down, cutting the export line into two parts. Joker was on the only side that had a straight shot to Black Mask. "Come on, Phantom Thieves…" His voice was low, unhinged, raspy, and held nothing but murderous intent.
"Is everyone alright!?" Noir asked, quickly looking around to see where they were. They were separated from Joker with no clear way to make a path to him directly.
"Agh, what the hell!?" Skull groaned, shaking his head to recover from the sudden collapse.
"…" Joker narrowed his eyes. He didn't recognize the voice at all. But Black Mask was clearly beckoning him forward. Knife drawn, Joker leapt across a few boxes on the assembly line and lunged at Black Mask. His knife clashed with a jagged sword, sparks flying from their weapons colliding. Joker let out a yelp of surprise when Black Mask easily pushed him back, but he was able to flip a few times and land with no issue. "This is the guy, it has to be. The one causing the Mental Shutdowns…"
"Joker, wait!" Panther yelled.
"We need to get over there to help Joker-senpai!" Violet said in a panic.
It was just him right now. Joker could see the others frantically looking for a way around the export line to help him but in the meantime…it was just Joker and Black Mask. "….."
That grin never left Black Mask's lips. It was fiendish, eager smile. The red eyes of his mask glinted with excitement and murder, a black and red aura slowly swirling around his body. It was like he was waiting for this moment for a very long time. Without waiting any longer, he lunged forward with his sword extended, aiming to strike Joker with everything he had. "SHOW ME WHAT YOU CAN DO!"