The lake was large, far larger even than we thought before. The water was absolutely still, stirred only by the beat of my oar and the wake of the boat on which we sat. The bright, eerie sun cast its light, like a perpetual sunset, across the glassy, lifeless surface. As we approached the tower, its sheer size became even more apparent, with a base as big as a stadium and whose top, however high up it was, obscured by a thick layer of clouds.

We marveled at its imposing size and appearance, and couldn't help but get an ominous feeling from it, leaving us anxious as to what we would find inside.

Finally, after several minutes, we came to the base of the tower, which sat upon a small, fortified island. There was only stone and sand surrounding it; no plants or other signs of life. I looked for a good place to drop anchor, when something curious happened: a wooden dock materialized in front of us near the tower's entrance.

"Whoa, what the heck?" Marisa exclaimed.

"Seems someone or something was expecting us," I surmised. I decided to trust the dock, pulling up alongside it, tying the rope to one of the posts, and dropping the anchor into the water. I stowed the oars away, directed everyone off of the boat, then walked off the dock and onto the island.

Before us was the tower's imposing entrance, which was wide and tall, bearing an inscription on the arch. Marisa recognized it as Sanskrit; it roughly translated to "Ethos."

"So I guess we're here," she said, rubbing her chin.

"Still, what a strange place," Reimu remarked. She looked up. "I can already tell this place is far, far larger than Yuyuko's Fortress."

"It's like a mountain," I said, looking up as well.

Youmu touched the side of the structure, and focused deeply. "Hmm… this tower. I can feel a number of negative emotions emanating from and flowing through it. Fear, anger, rage, sorrow, greed, vice, lust, sin. It's like a thousand voices crying out all at once, a thousand tales of broken lives, envy and despair."

I flipped out my knife and twirled it around my hand. "We should keep our guard up. We don't know what will be waiting for us in there, but I'm certain there are shadows lurking around every corner." I gathered my resolve, and stepped inside, with everyone else following closely behind.


We entered into a cavernous lobby, which looked like the inside of an over-the-top Buddhist temple, complete with decorative support columns and golden busts. Above us, a mural, painted in an old, traditional subcontinent style, depicted a battle between soldiers and demons, which were directed by generals with elephant heads. There were pictures of holy beings with multiple arms, some empty and others holding rings, goblets, gems and weapons. A spiraling staircase in the middle led up into the ceiling; adjacent to it but invisible to everyone except me was a telltale blue door with Lavenza standing by it.

"What is this mural?" Reimu wondered.

Marisa pointed out each of the elephants depicted in the mural. "Vetala," she said. "And that one's Nalagiri. The big one in the middle with a dude on its back, that's gotta be Mara ridin' Girimehkala into battle."

"These are all Buddhist figures, then," I said.

"Right. The question is, what do they all mean? Why is this place themed around Buddhism?"

"I'm sure the answer will become apparent as we ascend the tower. Let's head up that staircase and see what lies ahead." We all nodded in agreement, ascending the staircase up onto the first floor.

As we emerged onto the floor, we discovered a haphazard maze of halls, tinted in a dull purple hue but still with the Buddhist temple aesthetic, and lined with lit torches. The setup of it all reminded me of Mementos, which furthered my suspicion that the two were connected somehow. We began scouring the floor, and it wasn't long before we came across a dark, humanoid figure with a bird-like mask. Attacking it caused it to turn into four Slimes, which were easily dispatched. There were shadows here, and there were lots of them. And, I realized, because of that this place would serve as an excellent location to train and hone our skills for when we took on other Fortresses. So I encouraged everyone to attack any that we found.

We ascended to another floor, and right off the bat found a treasure chest. Marisa eagerly pried it open and revealed… extremely dirty armor which would need to be washed later. We groaned, but understood we had to take what we got from these chests. We also found artifacts scattered throughout containing metals, gems and other items which we could pawn off for cash or craft into tools. Ethos, it seemed, was chock-full of loot and easy enemies to deaden our fists against; I also took the opportunity to gather a few as eventual fusion fodder.

At one point, we came across a floor which was dense with treasure and with few shadows guarding it all. Immediately I grew suspicious, and sensed some sort of trap. Marisa, meanwhile, went around cracking open each and every chest she could reach, busting the locks off and pocketing whatever loot was stashed inside them, including cards (doubtlessly Skill Cards), weapons and consumables.

"Nyeheheheh, look at all this treasure!" she cackled with glee. "We're gonna make soooo much bank when we're through with this!" Reimu and Youmu too, it seemed, got caught up in helping hoard all the floor's treasure and robbing the shadows for cash. Meanwhile, I kept an eye and an ear out for any signs of trouble, either a deadly trap or a very powerful shadow waiting to ambush us.

That's when I heard them. The chains.

In an instant, my eyes widened, and I could feel the blood in my face running cold.

"We need to get out of here, now," I urged forcefully.

"Why?" Marisa asked. "There's still so much treasure-"

"I don't care, we need to fucking go!" I grabbed her arm and frantically started running down the halls trying to find the stairs up to the next floor. Soon, we found them. With no time to explain, I yelled at everyone to run up them as fast as they could. I needed to get them to safety, since I took responsibility for all of them as their leader. Normally, I wasn't inclined to selflessly help people like this. But this threat was so terrifying, it short-circuited my normal way of thinking in such a way that it caused me to become irrationally and utterly panicked, so much so that I felt compelled to keep these ladies from seeing it. Once Reimu was up, I made a mad dash up the stairs. I looked over my shoulder, and caught a glimpse of a red aura, part of a tattered, blood-stained black robe and the tip of an oversized revolver peeking around the corner. That just made me scramble up the steps even faster, and almost caused me to brown my pants.

Once we were safely on the next floor and had caught our breath, Marisa was the first to ask, "what the hell was that about? What was so scary 'ya rushed us outta there?"

"I'm curious as well," Youmu said. "Whatever it was, it managed to completely frighten you, of all people."

"Yeah, the way you acted was completely unlike you," Reimu remarked.

I regained my composure, fixed my tie, looked back over my shoulder just in case, then looked them in the eyes. "That shadow we just escaped…" I was still shaking, and had palpable fear in my voice.

"That shadow?"

"It is an extremely powerful one. It's called… The Reaper."

All three of the girls' irises shrunk.

"...yeeeaaaahhh, that doesn't sound like somethin' I wanna fuck with," Marisa winced.

"The Reaper? As in, the Grim Reaper?" Youmu asked.

"Possibly. If nothing else, it lives up to its name if it manages to catch you. Instead of scythes, it uses two oversized revolvers to shoot you to death, has some of the deadliest magic any shadow can use, is extremely tough, and is almost impossible to defeat. If we hear those chains, we need to book it. No asking questions, no finishing what you were doing, just. Fucking. Get. Out. Of. There."

At that moment all three of them started nervously inspecting the floor we had landed on. Unlike the previous floors, it was wide open, decorated with various statues and idols, had what looked like benches for us to sit on arranged in a circle around a symbol on the floor, and, I could sense, a weakness in cognition allowing us to warp back to the entrance, and possibly keeping us safe here too.

"Uh… is that thing gonna follow us all around this place and try to rape us then?" Marisa asked nervously.

"Most likely, unfortunately," I nodded. "It also stalked Mementos. I had a feeling, from the moment we entered, that it might also be here as well. The Phantom Thieves explained it to me before taking me in for the first time: it appears if you stay on one floor for too long. Furthermore, Mementos had floors with anomalies as well, such as complete darkness, few or no enemies at all, and most importantly, more treasure than normal. That's why I got very nervous on the floor below us: the Reaper is more likely to appear on floors like that."

"Well, that's… shit," Reimu grunted. "Looks like we'll have to be very, very careful exploring this place. Might be different if I had my sealing powers, but without them, if it's as dangerous as you say it is…"

"We just have to move quickly between floors," I said. "It doesn't seem to chase us up or down stairs, either here or in Mementos. As long as we keep moving, we'll be in the clear." I looked around the room again. "In any case, this room seems to be free of hazards. Why don't we take a short break and discuss our next moves?"

Our main goal today was to establish the nature of Ethos, including why it existed, how it acted as we made our way through the floors, and most importantly, if it had any connection to Mementos, which could help us establish what exactly was going on Outside. Even though those in the Velvet Room told me to have faith in the Phantom Thieves, I still couldn't help but at least try to discover the nature of the anomaly even if there was nothing I could do to fix it. And even if we couldn't find any link, Ethos itself was highly suspicious, being a distortion that covered the whole of Gensokyo and in many ways was reminiscent not only of Mementos, but also bore similarities to depictions of Tartarus, both from documents confiscated in top-secret government raids on the Kijiro Group's offices which the SIU director somehow obtained and allowed me to review, as well as testimony from the Shadow Operatives. With this in mind, I resolved to center our group's operations around this place and discover what secrets it held, especially on its upper floors. For today, though, we decided it was getting late, and that it would be best to resume our investigation another day. The same warp trick I was used to using worked here too, so we went back, satisfied that we now had a forward starting point for when we returned.


Once we arrived back at the lobby, however, we soon found ourselves getting into trouble yet again.

"Shadows? Here in the entrance hall? And they're grouped around something…" We ran up to see what it was, and discovered a very familiar figure - one which had apparently followed us all the way here, and was now on the floor, swinging a knife around trying to keep the shadows away.

"...Nitori?" Marisa's eyes widened. Immediately, she switched out her claws, summoned her Persona, and dove right in, kicking and slashing at the shadows to get them away from the small Kappa girl. Once the shadows were clear, she helped Nitori off of the floor. She was breathing heavily, and I could tell she was weak from her wobbling legs.

"What the Hell are 'ya doin'?!" Marisa shouted. "You gotta get outta here! This place is dangerous!"

Nitori lifted her head up and looked at all of us. "...Marisa? And you are… Akechi-san? And… Reimu? Youmu?" She steadied herself and pushed herself off of Marisa. "What is this place? And… what's with those costumes?"

"There's no time to explain," I said. "If we hadn't come down just now, those shadows would have killed you right there. And there are more infesting this place. You must leave right now."

"I…" Nitori stepped forward, but it took a lot of hesitation and effort for her to do so. "I followed you all out of my home to see what you were doing with that boat. But… this place is…"

I facepalmed and sighed. I should have expected Nitori would want to see what we needed a boat for. We should have waited a day or so before actually coming here. Now, she had found out our secret, and she was in grave danger too.

I looked at the others. "We have to get her out of here, quickly."

"Agreed." Marisa and Youmu rushed over to lift Nitori by her arms and rush her out toward the exit, while me and Reimu followed close behind.

"HALT!"

Suddenly, a tall, armored and imposing figure with a staff dropped out of the air and blocked the exit. Spinning and twirling its staff around its body with both arms before pointing it at us, we stood back and saw it was a warrior with the head of a white ox, the wispy cloud of darkness around its feet indicating it was a shadow. A very powerful-looking shadow.

"You are all trespassing this most sacred tower of Ethos! By my honor, I, Godly General Vajra, cannot allow you to leave with your lives!"

"Vajra?" I wondered.

Marisa cut in again, "one of the twelve godly generals who serve Yakushi-Nyorai, who all possess an aspect of one of the animals on the Chinese Calendar; in this case, he's the Ox. It's also the name of the legendary weapon he's carrying there. It's said to be the strongest weapon in the universe."

I took out my knife. "We don't have time to waste. Let's take care of this quickly and get out of here."

The shadow raised its staff. "Foolish of you to assume I stand here alone. Have at them!" Suddenly, a number of shadows spawned in, running the gamut from Archangels to Onis to one Decarabia and one Forneus. We were surrounded, and the shadows had the upper hand. And we still had Nitori with us to protect.

"Shit." I gritted my teeth. "...we have no other choice. Go all-out!" Me, Reimu and Youmu engaged the shadows head-on while Marisa protected Nitori and attempted to keep us healthy while fending off any shadows that tried to get near. It was tough, and they just kept coming at us, bashing us and blasting magic, and sometimes managing to knock one of us down. It seemed like for each one we killed, two more took its place. The Vajra shadow seemed like it could summon an endless number of these soldiers. Eventually, Marisa ran out of magic, meaning we no longer had a source of healing. We're in serious trouble now, I thought. There was still no end to the shadows, and it started to seem we really did have no chance of making it out of this one.

Finally, the Vajra shadow dismissed its minions and made its move, striking us all quickly with its weapon, in particular hitting me in the chest, and knocking us all down to the floor. The strike also knocked Nitori away from Marisa, sending her sliding across the floor toward the spiral staircase. It strutted up to us and held its weapon down at me.

"I am a Godly General responsible for the commandeering of legions of soldiers! Now, I have bested you intruders, and shall punish you for your incursion!"

"Goddammit… we were too reckless…" I grunted.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Yuyuko-sama. I… failed… you…"

"We're not gonna die here like this!" Marisa definitely hissed. She looked through a shadow's legs over to Nitori. "Hey, Nitori! Got a weapon or somethin' to fry this idiot?!"

Nitori struggled to get herself off of the floor. She looked up, coughed, and ultimately pressed a button on her backpack, causing a set of mechanical arms to pop out and help hoist her back onto her feet. Weakly, she staggered forward and clenched her fist, her body covered in cuts and bruises and her face stained by a trickle of blood.

"You… hah… you…"

"Ah. The girl this blonde one was shielding," the shadow declared. "You are weak. There is nought much you can do to save her. After I kill these intruders, so shall I slay you."

Nitori stared at the shadow, her figure getting weaker by the second and which struggled to stay up, even with the aid of her mechanical backpack.

"Dammit… I can't let you-" Marisa tried to get up, only for the Vajra shadow to step on her back to keep her down.

"Are you so cowardly and weakened that you dare not save your friend? Disgraceful! I shall grant you a swift death, and your soul shall pass on weighed down by the sin of failing to avenge her!"

But Marisa still stubbornly refused to be defeated.

She turned her head over to Nitori. "Don't listen to this guy's bullshit!" Marisa pleaded. "You're the reason we're in this mess to begin with! Stand up to him! I'm your trusted friend! Trusted friends have each other's backs! Trusted friends save each other when they get into shitty situations like this!"

"Trusted… friends…" Nitori weakly muttered.


I felt weak. And I felt myself getting weaker by the moment, like some force was sapping all of my vitality out of me. Of course, I had just gotten the shit beat out of me by these… shadows, they said? What on Earth? What was this place they had led me to?

I guess that didn't matter right now. Because I interfered, because I followed them here and allowed myself to be attacked by them, because I held them down, not only was I going to die, but so was Marisa, my friend, as well as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, Reimu, as well as Youmu and Goro. I didn't come armed for a fight, I had no Spell Cards, I couldn't use magic for whatever reason, and when I tried to punch them it was like trying to knock down a tree with a fish.

I could feel it: I had to be dying. I felt helpless to do anything to save them, to save myself. I felt useless. There was nothing I could do. Nothing except wait for death, and bring all of these people with me. All because my curiosity got the better of me. Maybe I really should have just stayed in that cave and never talked to anyone like all the other Kappa.

Then, suddenly, the world grew dark. Like I had blacked out, but I could still see myself. Was this... death? Was this what it looked like...?

"You're pathetic," came a sharp voice.

"Wha, HUH?" I spun around, and found myself talking to… me? No, that couldn't be right. A double? What was a double of me doing here?

"What a useless and spineless friend you are," she harshly scolded me. "Giving up at the moment the friend who got you out of that cave and her friends in turn all need you the most? Especially since you yourself got you all into this mess in the first place. Perhaps all that time spent holed up in that damp place with your toys turned you into such a racist, lying, cheating sack of shit who's utterly incapable and unwilling to help anyone, and this is your comeuppance?"

I hung my head down low. She wasn't far from the truth: I was prone to being racist, egotistical, and arrogant, boasting my superior technology and power to everyone else, dissing on religion and telling everyone they were putting all their trust into and letting all their decisions be made by beings which had no power and in fact didn't exist. I even tried to disprove the existence of gods to the gods themselves. Now, I was being shown my place for all that, and me and my friend were both fated to die. All because I was useless. I started to cry. Cry, and curse myself for being such a wretched person who couldn't help anyone, not even myself.

"Hmph. So you're just going to give in and admit defeat in the face of your demise, because you can't help but feel so sorry and powerless at the end of the selfish life you lived. You were a horrible person who didn't care about anyone or anything but your contraptions. And yet, you were still willing to become a friend to that magician, even giving her the strength she needed to save Gensokyo from a fiery fate, when the Shrine Maiden had failed. In return, she showed you a life beyond the confines of Genbu Ravine. Friends help friends in times of need, especially now, where death awaits her. Tell me: are you willing to admit the mistakes you made, own up to your faults, and work to eradicate the hate and prejudice in this land which you have unwittingly helped to spread?"

"...what do you mean?" I asked.

"Let me rephrase that. You made friends with that magician, and now here you find yourself, her and others at the brink of death. Was your decision to befriend her a mistake?"

I shook my head. "O-of course not! Marisa-san is my best friend! She may be loud, and rude, and unladylike sometimes, but I wouldn't trade the world for her! She…" I paused, thinking about the mess all of us were in right now.

I clenched my fist, and my teeth. In this situation, I was the only one with the power to turn it around. Even though I lacked power…

...no. I HAD to get power. Lots of power. I needed the power to save them, to kick that thing's ass, and show everyone that the Kappa were a force to be respected and feared. That we couldn't just be kept in our caves, that we could work together, and with others. That we could overcome preconceptions, hate and bigotry to band together and wield the strongest powers there were: friendship and teamwork. One person cannot do anything, but many people working together can move words. All of a sudden, I felt an overwhelming urge to break through my past bullshit, save the day now, and change the world eventually.

I stamped my foot. "I understand now. I do admit I made mistakes in the past. Lots and lots of mistakes. How I was a racist asshole, tried to scam many humans and youkai out of their money and helped other Kappa do the same… I admit all that, and now I'm declaring that I will resolve to make amends and do what it takes to forge strong bonds and be the friend others deserve, so that I may deserve them. Now then, help me help them."

The other me - my shadow - smirked devilishly, and the pupils of her piercing yellow eyes turned into slits.

"Hmhmhm, I see your resolve," she hissed, her voice now having a distinct serpentine lisp and her tongue having turned into a snake's. "A slave to your own creations as you are, you wish to use your skills and hard work to help others? If that is the case, if you wish to be the forbidden fruit which guides the blind idiots out of the utopian prison in which the forces that be sequester them, then so be it. If you resolve to help them, help yourself, then I, the other you, shall become your power."

She turned into light, and then that light broke up into smaller pieces which converged on my face until it formed a pair of goggles over my eyes, after which I doubled over in pain. The pain… it was indescribable, like every inch of my body was being torn apart while a throbbing pain assaulted my head. I put my hands on my head as I grunted and struggled to keep from screaming in agony.

"Let's strike a deal, shall we?" the snake-like voice, now in my head, continued. "I am thou, thou art I. The path to true enlightenment sees those who slither in the dark leading the blind away from the evil calling themselves the light. Be their power, their commanding force, the glue which holds this legion of heroes together and empowers them to rock the heavens!"

I gripped the goggles on my face, clenched my teeth together, and ripped them away from my face. It was a sharp, sheer pain, one which caused me to absolutely shriek as blood stained my face and blue flames and wind erupted all around me.


Just when our fates appeared to have been sealed, the air around Nitori exploded into blue flames and wind, knocking the shadows away and disintegrating them, and causing us to reel back. Even the Vajra shadow was forced to avert its eyes. Once we were able to look back, we were amazed at what we saw:

Floating above the floor was Nitori, now clad in a scientist's outfit complete with a white lab coat, brown shoes, slacks and a striped shirt. Power seemed to emanate from her back; no doubt it was her newly-awakened Persona.

Nitori looked up, and briefly checked herself out, wondering why she was dressed like this now. Then, something came from her back: the head and body of a robotic snake with red eyes. Then, three more just like it appeared from behind her as well, staring at her, and her staring at each of them. She reached out a hand, and one of the snakes butted it with its snout.

"This power…" Nitori chuckled. "I see. So, this, this is MY power!" She faced the Vajra shadow, and each of the four snakes glared at it as well. Pointing at our opponent, she declared, "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't let you kill my friends. I will stand up for them, because they stand up for me. That's just what friends do!" She then pulled out a PDA, and after fiddling with it unleashed a wave of energy which instantly revitalized all four of us. Now back in fighting health, we jumped back up on our feet and dared the shadow once again.

"Whoa… holy shit, that was awesome!" Marisa exclaimed. "Ya seein' this?! Ya seein' this power she's givin' us?! We're invincible now!"

"Hmph," it grunted, getting back into a fighting stance. "Let's see what you're truly capable of!"

"Challenge accepted," Nitori smirked. She pressed another button, granting us all a significant speed boost. "Go, attack!"

"Roger that," I affirmed, as we charged the shadow again. Me, Marisa and Reimu dogpiled debuffs on it, causing its strength to slip away and its movements to slow, which combined with our own hastened reflexes meant that it couldn't get any hits in with its weapon. Nitori pumped us with another buff, this time boosting our attack power, and we continued to ravage it even more, tearing off portions of armor and breaking the end off of one of its horns.

The shadow eventually managed to escape our assault, spun its staff around again and pointed it at us. "Tch… to think that girl would provide you all so much power! Perhaps it's time to strike at her directly!" Charging up and glaring at her like the frenzied bull it was, it let out a battle cry as it rushed toward her. But Nitori wasn't afraid; in fact, she promptly commanded "there! Strike that hole in its chest armor! It's weak there!" So I whipped out my gun, backflipped in front of her, aimed at the shadow, and fired a shot which hit it directly in that weak spot, causing it to cry out in pain, stagger back and eventually fall to the ground, which also caused its weapon to shatter into useless shards.

Once it was down, we wasted no time surrounding it and aiming our firearms at its head. Nitori too joined in, revealing two arms which came out of her jetpack (actually her Persona) with gatling guns attached to them. I spat on the shadow. "Well well well," I said coldly, "seems the tables have turned."

"Geh…" the shadow struggled to get itself back up into a pained kneeling position. "So… this is where I, Godly General Vajra, will meet my end…"

"We've got him on the ropes," Reimu said. "What should we do? He almost managed to kill us, so I think it would be fitting to exterminate it while he's weak."

"I concur," I said. "Starburst?"

Marisa smiled sadistically, flipping out her claws like Freddy Kruger. "Let's do it."

I turned to Youmu. "And you?"

Youmu held her sword to the shadow's neck. "On your command."

I turned to Nitori lastly. "How about you? We don't act without a unanimous decision, after all."

Nitori was focused on her PDA, and after a few moments she looked up. "Hold on, I just found something weird about it," she said. "I wanna try something before we croak it."

"Do what you need to," I replied.

"Arlight, then." She adjusted her hat. "Watch this! Nitori's Super Forbidden Fruit Wave!" Each of her four snakes opened their mouths, releasing streams of energy which converged into one green, data-like ball, growing in size before she commanded one of them to slam into it, causing it to explode and send a powerful green shockwave of ones and zeroes in all directions. When it struck the shadow, it reacted with its body, causing it to pulse green and black before bursting into lights, forcing us to step back and cover our eyes. When we looked back, the shadow was still there. We observed it for several moments, watching it get back on its feet, look around, then look at itself.

"...where am I?" It asked. "What… this place…" It shuffled around, looking up at the ceiling. "I remember now… this place, I was drawn to it from the Sea of Souls, and was enslaved and brainwashed by its miasma, a mindless puppet through which it channeled its distorted will."

"...huh?" Marisa wondered.

"Does it mean…" I looked around again. Did this place have a ruler? If so, who was its ruler? What distorted desires was causing it to stand?

I looked at the shadow again. "I remember you called yourself the Godly General, Vajra?"

"I am. I… think I am? Am… I? I…" It looked at itself again. "I… am a consciousness from the Sea of Souls. I took the form of this deity, but… I am not actually that deity? Then what… am… I…?"

It was clear the shadow was having an existential crisis, but this was much different than when other shadows were told their identities. Those shadows, once they remembered their real names, were freed from the Fortress' spell. But whatever Nitori did to this shadow was causing it to behave differently. Clearly, "Godly General Vajra" was not its true identity, even if it bore the figure's appearance and mannerisms. What it failed to do was help it remember its real name, if indeed it had one. It was like its freedom from the Fortress' control was incomplete, severed from its spell but unable to remember its name, even if it could remember the events leading up to its enslavement. I had never seen anything quite like it in my years of exploring the Metaverse, and was unsure what to do right now.

"I…" it looked at the stairs. "I need to leave this place at once." It reached into its armor and pulled out a shining pearl gem which I immediately recognized as an extremely rare, extremely potent Soma, and placed it on the floor. "I must have caused you much trouble. This is my way of saying thanks for freeing me from the tower's spell." It then walked outside, jumped into the lake and began swimming across.

We stood there for a moment, still not quite sure what had transpired. All of a sudden, Nitori's PDA went off, causing a satellite dish to emerge from her Persona and start spinning around. "Hm? What's this?! These readings… they're off the charts! They're coming from the floor above us!"

"The shadows must be getting restless," I realized.

"What do we do?" Reimu asked.

"We need to leave at once," I urged. "We almost died to that shadow's hands, and-"

The fucking chains rattled again, and I saw the Reaper begin to float down the stairs.

"-we definitely will if that son of a bitch catches up to us! RUN FOR IT!"

All of us rushed out the door and dared not look back at the Black Death chasing after us. Piling into the boat, I hastily undid the cord, lifted anchor and rowed as fast as I could away from that place. Thankfully, the Reaper did not seem interested in leaving the tower and chasing us across the water. I still did not dare slow down until we were safely onshore, beached the boat and I said the words "The light of Dawn thrusts thine eyes open."


"Hah… hah… that sucked," Marisa panted.

"I agree," I said. I looked over to everyone else. "You all okay?"

"Yeah, I am," Youmu said.

"I think so," Reimu answered. She looked down at Nitori. "Can't say the same for this one, though." Nitori was curled up on the ground, sleeping soundly.

"Her awakening must have taken a lot out of her," I said.

"Yeah, seems like it… serves to reinforce my theory," Marisa answered.

I looked at her. "What theory, I asked?"

Marisa shook her head. "I can tell 'ya later. For now, we should all just head home. We gotta cool down after almost gettin' killed back there."

I thought about how Marisa wasn't able to heal after running out of magic. Had it not been for Nitori's intervention, we would most likely have been killed.

"We were reckless," I stated. "We've been reckless. We haven't been preparing for our Fortress infiltrations as well as we should be."

"What do you mean?" Reimu asked.

"If we want to avoid a repeat of that incident back there, we need more ways to keep ourselves healthy and ready to fight at all times. We're going to need medicine, weapons and armor. We've already obtained a big advantage though: a navigator."

"A… navigator?" Youmu asked.

"Up to this point, I've been guiding you all based solely on my rote memory of aspects of the Metaverse I learned when I was working with the Phantom Thieves. As you can probably tell, it has limits, especially since these Fortresses are different from the Palaces I learned to use my skills in. But Nitori's skills are much different from the rest of ours."

"How so?" Reimu asked next.

"Different Persona users have different abilities based on their character, personality and even their motivations. Our Personas, for example, can be used to fight enemies directly, and I also have the Wild Card power. Just occasionally, however, someone will manifest a Persona which possesses much different properties than a purely offensive one. They can't directly attack, but are instead gifted with the power to analyze a Fortress location, uncover hidden treasure, find traps, scan enemies, support teammates by providing them healing and power and even cripple opponents. We call these Persona-users 'Navigators.' The Phantom Thieves had one in their ranks. And now it seems we've got one of our own."

"So… are you suggesting that she join us?" Marisa wondered.

"She saved us all, plus she already knows our secret. Wouldn't you agree having her as an ally would be in our best interests?"

"Well…" Marisa knelt down to Nitori. "...I think she should be allowed to have a say." She got on her broom and loaded Nitori behind her. "I'll take her back to my place tonight so she can recover. Should we meet back up tomorrow or something?"

"Yes, let's regroup tomorrow and discuss our next steps," I replied. "We still need to investigate Ethos' secrets, but we need to heavily refine how we conduct our infiltrations."

Reimu looked over to Marisa and Nitori. "It would be troublesome for Marisa to have to carry Nitori all the say to the Shrine, so… if it's alright with you, can we all meet up at your place?"

"Fine by me," Marisa shrugged.

"Then it's settled. We'll meet up at Marisa's tomorrow. Youmu, I can show you how to get there, and we'll come and get you too, Goro."

"That sounds like a great plan." It was getting dark, the last lights of the sun fading over the horizon, so I made my way back home post-haste.