Literally: to take for... jeez, the word comes from "pytać/pytanie", meaning "to ask / question" but isn't really used outside this phrase, so let's just skip this
Meaning: to grill, to interrogate
Thursday, January 5th, Evening
Morgana and Goro entered Leblanc. To the latter's relief, only Sojiro and a few regulars were inside.
"You're back." The barista pointed at the unopened flat cardboard box on the counter, addressed to 'Goro Sakura'. "A package came earlier today. What's inside?"
Before the bishounen could come up with a plausible lie, the detective smiled and said "Lockpicks."
Cold sweat went down Morgana's back, as Sojiro appeared unamused. "And what do you want to do with them?"
"Um, pick locks?" Goro let out a chuckle. "I'm in a bit of a detective novel phase and decided to give locksport a shot. I ordered some assorted locks to practice on as well, but they must have not arrived yet."
"I'm eighty percent sure you aren't legally allowed to own lockpicks to begin with," the barista said.
"Maybe," he shrugged with a devil-may-care smile. "But now that they're here, I solemnly swear to not do anything illegal or immoral with them."
After a pause, Sojiro went "If you get arrested, I will not pay your bail," and returned to his devices.
Goro let out a chuckle, grabbed the package, and nonchalantly marched upstairs. Morgana just stood there, unsure, until Sojiro glanced at him. "Do you want to say something?"
"Um…" He reached into his pocket. "I-I retraced my steps and found my phone!" It had been there since the day before, just muted, and he didn't think about acknowledging it earlier.
"Good. Pay attention to it next time."
Morgana took this as an exit cue and quickly marched up the attic. Goro was sitting on the couch, opening the box with a pair of scissors.
"'Anything immoral or illegal', huh?" the bishounen muttered.
"Infiltrating Palaces is a legal gray area," he replied, discarding the cardboard and holding onto a black carrying case, small enough to fit in a suit jacket's inner pocket. He unzipped it, revealing an assortment of picks, rakes, and turning tools. The detective handed it over to Morgana, who inspected it with a smile and a satisfied purr.
"I'm glad you like it," Goro said, pulling out his phone. "If you need practice, the locks will come tomorrow or on Monday."
Morgana seemed mildly surprised. "You actually ordered some?"
"Why not?" he shrugged. "It helps to sell our cover story, and money wasn't an issue thanks to Mementos loot. Hell, we now have Haru on our side, so if all else fails we can beg her for table scraps." The detective's phone buzzed, and he glanced at the screen. "Speak of the devil."
spring_loaded: I'm carrying a little plastic bag.
spring_loaded: Inside it is a revolver grenade launcher and a double-headed poleaxe.
ak56: And you're itching to use them, I assume.
spring_loaded: :3
spring_loaded: I also gave Sumire some veggies from my garden, I'm sure she'll use them well.
ak56: On my end, the lockpick set I ordered for Morgana has arrived.
ak56: Truth be told, I did not expect so many people to fight back against Maruki.
spring_loaded: You have a history of underestimating us :P
ak56: It's not a matter of underestimating you, it's just that… hm.
ak56: I see the appeal of Maruki's reality.
ak56: I don't want it, I believe it's a bad idea in the long run, but I see why some people would find it preferable to the real world.
ak56: ...am I empathic? Is this empathy?
spring_loaded: Hee hee.
spring_loaded: Yes, it is.
spring_loaded: And as you said, it's bad in the long run. Maruki has too much power and needs to be stopped while he still _can_ be stopped.
spring_loaded: OH
spring_loaded: That reminds me.
spring_loaded: We're going to Maruki's Palace tomorrow, but Ryuji and I don't have the Metaverse app.
ak56: Mona and I will let you in. Meet us by the Odaiba stadium construction site at 10:25.
Friday, January 6th, Morning
"I was thinking about some semi-auto AK-looking shotty…"
"Based on a Saiga, I assume," Goro said, pulling out his phone. Those two, Morgana, and Haru were standing by the aforementioned construction site. The Palace seemed a little bit more firm than a few days before.
"Maybe?" Ryuji shrugged. "Anyway, then I thought 'half the fun of a shotgun is pumpin' it' and picked this thing."
The detective glanced into the bag in the athlete's hands. "Double tube magazine… Looks like a Kel-Tec KSG."
"Again, maybe?" Another shrug. "You're the gun nerd here."
"Nobody's watching," Haru announced, putting her hand on Morgana's shoulder. His phone was already out - he didn't need it, but wanted to use it for the novelty value. "Take us in."
The detective grabbed Ryuji with his free hand and the two tapped the Metaverse app entry at once. One spilled-petrol-plaid transition later, the four were in front of the entrance lift. Sumire, Ann and Yusuke were already waiting for them.
"So you came early as well," the artist remarked.
"Hey, everyone," the gymnast waved with her free hand. "I love your outfit, Skull-san."
"Um, Green," Goro raised an eyebrow, "what are you doing?"
"Warm-up stretches," she said, standing with one heel on the ground and the other above her head. She lowered her leg gracefully and pointed towards a large pile of lunchboxes by the Velvet Room entrance. "I used Noir-san's veggies to make okonomiyaki for everyone." She glanced at the assistant. "Again, I'm sorry, Lavenza-san, I will make you one next time."
"Do not worry," she reassured her.
Morgana tauntingly grinned at Goro. "Did someone say 'delicious pancakes'?"
"Bite me," he spat.
"But that's not all," Ann said. "There are surprises inside the boxes."
Ryuji grabbed the topmost box, which had "SKL" written on it with a marker, and opened it. Inside was a thick okonomiyaki topped with narutomaki, chopped green onions and slices of a hard boiled egg. His mask was drawn on the top with some sort of dark sauce. "Omigosh, did you personalize these?"
"Yup!" she beamed. "Fox-san was kind enough to provide suggestions and sketch your masks for me."
Yusuke flashed a smile.
"That's… unnecessary, but adorable." Goro picked up the boxes and stored them in the inventory hammerspace. "I'll hold them for later."
Haru glanced at Ann. "Could you use your fire spells to reheat them later?"
"I can give it a shot."
"Alright," Goro raised his voice just enough to get everyone's attention, "I need three people for a forward team." Without waiting for Sumire to ask, he turned to her: "As the Thieves expanded in numbers, they started infiltrating Palaces divided into two teams… for some reason."
"Two smaller teams are stealthier and more flexible than a single large one," Morgana filled in.
"If it worked for you…" the detective shrugged, then went on: "A four-people forward team leads the way and engages the enemies, while the others stay at the rear and don't draw attention to themselves. People swap between front and rear when needed." He turned to the group. "I will be in the front at all times, because, well…" He snapped his fingers and switched to Robin Hood, then back to Woland with another snap. "We have little intel about weak and strong spots of the Shadows inside, so for now I want three volunteers and we might swap people later on."
Sumire's hand shot up in the air, and the detective smiled encouragingly at her. "Okay, two more."
Mona adjusted his hat with a confident smirk. "You won't go far without a navigator."
"Let's blow something up," Haru said, with a glint in her eye.
"Great, Phantom Thieves, moving out." He spun on his heels, faced the lift, and realized something: "...last time, we evacuated with a Goho-M. The lift is still up there."
With an irritated groan, he jabbed the call button.
The lift door opened at the top, revealing a bunch of formless Shadows aiming vaguely firearm-shaped things at the people inside.
"You cannot be serious," Goro muttered.
"Return where you came from," one of the mooks ordered.
Predictably, the detective didn't obey. He approached the Shadow and angrily gestured at his hands. "I mean, I get that Maruki might not be a gun person, but I've seen more realistic weapons in kindergartener drawings."
"We are in a Palace, Crow," Morgana followed suit. "Things will be distorted by the-"
The detective didn't listen, inspecting the weapon from various angles. "It doesn't even have an ejection port. And if it's supposed to be firing caseless ammo, how do you load it? I don't see a loading gate and the magazine is glued to the rest of the thing." The mook finally pointed his weapon at his face, but that only got him a bit more annoyed. "And the rear sight blocks the front one, how do you even aim-"
"I'll take it from here," Haru said, stepping between him and the gun and being as unfazed by it as the detective. "Greetings," she smiled. "This must have been a misunderstanding, we have done nothing to warrant such hostility."
"Um," the impromptu spokes-Shadow replied, "considering how the last meeting between the head researcher and you went, we expected aggressive behaviour."
"I've heard about it," the princess replied. "Dr. Maruki's behaviour was unacceptable, and it would be in his best interest to demonstrate that it was merely an exception to his usual modus operandi and relieve our worries."
"Hm." The Shadow stroked its chin. "That is a fair point." He lowered his weapon and stepped aside. "You can go ahead. You can also keep your weapons, as a gesture of goodwill, but if you escalate things, the personnel will not hesitate to fight back."
"Understandable." Haru nodded, then turned to the group. "Let's go."
The group, not bothering with the split for now, marched up the stairs, towards the waiting room. "Good job, Noir," Goro commented. "I did not expect diplomacy to be worth anything at this stage, and yet you pulled it off."
"Maybe Maruki-san regrets the regret rooms," Sumire commented.
"Maybe," he muttered.
"When getting you out, I've stumbled upon an employee-only staircase," Morgana said in a conspiratorial murmur. "It led to the basement you were kept in, but there were also some stairs leading to higher floors.
"Let's call that Plan B for now," Goro commanded. "Plan A is following the path for normal patients and seeing how far we can go without things going to hell in a handbasket." He glanced at the queue in front of him. "So, do we, like, stand in that queue, or…"
"There's a ticket machine over there," Sumire pointed out.
The detective marched up to what looked like a small podium with a single unlabelled button on it and a small printer at the bottom. He pressed the button and a ticket came out: Goro Sakura ne Akechi and others – 2137.
"So we're all on a single ticket," Haru peeked from behind him. "What number is currently being serviced?"
As if to respond, the PA system proclaimed, in a soft, artificial voice: "Oh. Oh. Six. Four."
"Bugger," the princess and the detective went in unison.
Daytime
"Two. One. Three. Seven."
"Fucking finally," Goro growled, as the Thieves all rose from the benches and promptly marched up to the gate. A professional-looking Shadow in a lab coat awaited them.
"Your ticket, please," it asked, and the detective handed it over. "Thank you." He pointed at the double door behind him. "Please proceed to the examination sector. You will be asked a few questions that will allow us to diagnose you and select the right treatment."
"I'm betting ten thousand on sluggish schizophrenia," Goro muttered.
Some confusion appeared on what passed for the Shadow's face. "Sir, that is not a real diagnosis. Sluggish schizophrenia was invented by the USSR during the Cold War as a way of dealing with political dissidents." Beat. "Oh, was that an insult directed at the facility?"
"Yes."
The Shadow didn't seem fazed. "Well, it was uncalled for."
"We'll just move along thanks bye!" Sumire pushed Goro forward, assisted by Haru and Morgana. "Crow-san," the gymnast said as they walked through the double doors, into a corridor, "we are all irritated by the long wait, but let's avoid unprovoked hostility."
"Yes, of course," he rolled his eyes. "And if I get too testy again… I don't know, spritz me like a disobedient cat."
"Keep me out of this," Morgana protested.
The corridor ended with another double door. Behind it, there was a room split into two distinct sections – one with blue walls and floor, the other with red ones. Each section had a table, a few chairs around it, and what looked like a lift large enough to fit all seven of them without problem. On the wall behind each lift was a pictogram – the one in the blue half showed a person running towards someone wounded, and the one in the red half was shown running towards a man in a police hat. In the middle, between the sections, was a monitor showing both pictograms and some sort of interactive panel. A few cognitions were loitering around.
Goro approached the panel. It consisted of a touchscreen with a large button labelled "Question 1". He tapped it, and some text appeared on the screen, read aloud by some unseen speaker:
"At work or at school, you witness a good friend of yours led away by a group of scary people. You want to help him. Do you:
"a) Try and help him yourself, risking getting hurt in the process,
"or b) Look for a teacher, a policeman, or any other authority figure to help you, which might mean your friend will get hurt in the meantime?
"Select an answer by picking the corresponding lift. Thank you."
The detective turned towards the team. "If it was up to me, I would pick A, but I want to hear your opinions."
"P-personally," Sumire said, lacking confidence, "I would pick the other option."
"I don't want to split the team," Goro said. "Let's do a quick vote and see what the majority chooses."
"Who's in favour of option A?" Haru announced.
Everyone but Sumire raised their hands.
"A bunch of people screwed over by shitty adults don't trust authority figures," Ryuji remarked. "Who woulda thunk it?"
The group marched up to the lift and Goro pulled the lever to activate it. The platform moved up a level, and the group was greeted by a menacing-looking Shadow in a lab coat.
"While your willingness to help others is admirable," it said, "you are putting yourself in harm's way, and should things turn out badly, you will become unhappy. Allow me to escort you to treatme-" It suddenly collapsed into a puddle of black goo.
"What just happened?" Morgana raised an eyebrow.
"That counted as a provocation," Goro replied, putting away his Nagant. "Green, this is the part where you say 'I told you so'."
"Eh," she muttered, not satisfied. "I didn't expect Maruki-san to consider self-sacrifice wrong."
"At least we learned something from that mistake," Morgana said. "Don't answer honestly, answer how Maruki thinks you should answer."
There was another double door at the end of the corridor. The group walked through it and was greeted with a room not dissimilar to the previous one, except with three sections: blue, red and yellow. The pictograms depicted, in order, someone lifting weights, someone holding a trophy with some pills spilled on the ground underneath him, and someone painting something with the weights discarded on the side.
Goro marched to the question panel and tapped the button labelled "Question 2."
"You have a goal or a dream you were pursuing for a long while, but even after you have put tremendous effort, it seems to be unattainable. The lack of results is painful, but if you were to give up now, all of it would be wasted.
"Do you:
"a) Continue pursuing that goal despite the pain,
"b) Resort to underhanded tactics,
"or c) Give up and find a new dream?"
"Do you think Maruki considers brainwashing the entire country an 'underhanded tactic'?" Goro snarked, then realized, "...that's a valid question, come to think of it."
"I don't think he does," Yusuke replied. "Judging by both the Palace's form and our interactions with him, he genuinely believes he's doing the right thing."
"That leaves options A and C," Haru remarked. "Green, you were right about the first question. What do you think?"
"Oh, um…" Sumire didn't feel comfortable with everyone looking at her expectantly. "I mean, a few months ago, Maruki-san encouraged me to not quit my dreams… but that was a few months ago."
"Getting the powers of that Y guy seems to have changed him," Ann said.
"Power corrupts," Goro remarked. "If nobody keeps you in check in one way or another, you end up… well, you end up like me."
"Mona," Ryuji glanced at the bishounen, "could you bite him every time he does that 'wah wah I'm a bad guy' schtick?" Morgana smiled in response, exposing his teeth.
"Try it and I will get you neutered," the detective snarled.
"Honestly, if physical pain will stop you from performative self-depre-"
"Pain!" Sumire exclaimed, interrupting Yusuke. "That's it!" Everyone looked back at her, as she continued: "In the first question, us getting hurt made the answer we picked wrong. Here, A stresses that continuing means more pain, which by Maruki-san's logic means it's wrong, so we should pick C."
A few long seconds followed. This was stupid, Sumire thought, this was stupid and they will all laugh and call me dumb. Kasumi would've figured it out without-
"Yeah, that makes sense," Ann remarked.
"All in favour of picking option C, raise your hand," Goro announced.
Everyone did. The group marched to the yellow elevator and the detective pulled the lever. It rode one floor above, revealing a few harmless cognitions sitting around.
"Congratulations, Green, you're two for two," Morgana said. Haru did a little golf clap.
The third question had five answers to pick from: blue, light blue, red, yellow, and green.
"You have gained access to the Metaverse: a realm representing the cognitive landscape of society as a whole."
"I feel targeted," Morgana remarked.
"That opportunity can be used in a multitude of ways, and leaves little to no evidence in the real world. It's safe to assume whatever would happen would not get tracked back to you.
"What would you do with it?
"a) Gather valuable intelligence by skimming through memories and secrets of various people,
"b) Gather material riches that are inexplicably produced by said realm,
"c) Make evil and traumatized people repent for their crimes or move past their trauma,
"d) Murder people by killing their Metaverse representations,
"e) Nothing; all of the above options sound too dangerous to be used."
"f) Rewrite the whole reality, brainwash everyone into accepting it, and make a passive-aggressive questionnaire," Goro rolled his eyes.
"I say it's C," Ryuji proclaimed.
"Yes, that's what we would do," Morgana countered, "but we're trying to think like Maruki now."
"When he got access to the Metaverse, he did all this," he made a sweeping gesture. "I say C's the right answer."
"The previous two questions have prioritized minimizing personal risk over whatever good could be achieved by taking it," Goro pointed out.
"But the question said that there's no risk," Sumire countered, "It's like those physics tasks that tell you to not worry about friction and stuff."
"This might be a trick question," Ann joined the conversation. "We'll pick C and the Shadow upstairs will be like 'syke, there is always risk!'."
"For all it's worth," Yusuke added, "Maruki has favourably compared himself to the Phantom Thieves. I do not believe he thinks what we did was foolish."
"Looks like a near-even split," Haru remarked. "Who's for option E?"
Goro, Ann and Morgana raised their hands. "And just for the record," the detective announced, "who prefers option C?"
Haru, Yusuke, Sumire and Ryuji lifted their hands.
"Very well then," Goro gestured at the team to move towards the green elevator. "I am looking forward to being proven wrong."
With some hesitation, he pulled the lever with his right hand and put his left in his inner pocket. The lift went upwards, bringing them to a squad of Shadow with weapons traine- no, not really, it was the correct answer, so no hostiles were present.
"Well, there's egg on my face," the detective remarked. "Again."
"At this point, we should just call you Ak-eggy," Ann chuckled.
"No real names in the Metaverse, Panther."
The group marched through the door into a white corridor. "Thank you for your cooperation," the voice announced. "Your examination is now complete. Please proceed to the Counselling Room, where you will attain happiness."
"There doesn't seem to be any other way forward than through there," Morgana said. "Let's keep going."
Paying attention to their surroundings, the group marched forward and walked to the exit. The contrast between the corridor they just left and the one they entered was striking – the inviting white walls were gone, replaced with the dark grey walls and wall-mounted halogens Ann and Morgana had seen in the basement. The motivational (?) posters they hadn't paid attention to before were now interspersed with creepier, darker versions. The cables were carelessly hanging from the ceiling.
"What's that shimmering door at the end?" Sumire asked.
"A safe room," Goro explained. "I don't know the theory behind them-"
"They are blind spots in the Palace ruler's cognition of the place."
"Nobody asked, Mona, but thank you. If we were wounded, we could regroup and heal there. Joker also knew some sort of trick for instantaneously travelling between safe rooms and the Palace entrance."
"I could demonstrate it, if someone asks," the bishounen smiled.
"We're all in perfect shape, so let's just move on for now."
The group turned a corner and walked into what resembled a waiting room, with a few rows of long, brown couches in it. A dozen or so cognitions were sitting in it, wearing helmets covering the upper halves of their heads. Everyone present was unsettled by the general atmosphere of the scene.
"Maruki's brave new world, everyone," Goro muttered.
Opposite the entrance the Thieves used was an exit – a tunnel leading towards something non-specific but brightly lit. The pathway was blocked with some sort of blue-tinted forcefield, helpfully labelled: Only people that have finished treatment are allowed to pass.
"Well, shit," the detective remarked. "Are there any other exits from here?"
"Way ahead of you, Crow," Morgana replied, pulling out his lockpicks in front of a comparatively plain-looking door labelled 'Employees only'. The lock promptly gave way. Behind it was a spiral staircase leading both upwards and downwards.
"This seems familiar," Ann commented.
"Wait here, I'll check something." The bishounen promptly marched one level down, and was met by a door locked from his end. He opened it and, as he expected, on the other side was the corridor leading to the auditorium. He sighed and relocked the door.
"We're in the employee-only staircase you've mentioned, aren't we?" Goro sighed.
"Yup," Morgana said, trotting upstairs back to the team.
"So we've wasted hours in the waiting room for nothing," Ryuji scowled.
"We have gained some insight into Maruki as a person," Yusuke remarked.
"It wasn't worth the time," Goro said, pulling out his cane. "We are now in a restricted area, so the Shadows will probably attack us on sight. We should split back into forward and rear teams before going upstairs."
