7/30 Saturday
Days until the Cleanse: 22
She wasted no time meeting with the others, all of them heading back to Futaba's palace.
As they entered the palace, they saw that their path was still blocked, with Futaba's shadow standing in front of the door.
"So, you're back. I didn't think I'd see you again." Futaba said.
"We're here cause we have to be!" Ryuji snapped. "Why the hell did you drop a boulder on us? Do you want us to steal your treasure or not?!"
"Well, why don't we make a deal?" Futaba suggested.
"What kind of deal?" Yusuke asked.
"I want you to get something that was stolen from me." Futaba explained. "The thief ran off to the nearby town. I want you to retrieve what they stole."
"Could you give us any details about the thief or what they stole?" Makoto asked.
"Everything you need to know will become clear once you enter the town." Futaba told them.
"I guess we'll have to go to the town if we want to keep going." Ren shrugged.
The exited the pyramid, and she drove Morgana over to the nearby town.
The town was thankfully very small, but there were plenty of alleyways for a thief to hide in.
"It's rather desolate, isn't it?" Yusuke frowned.
"Yeah, I can't see anyone around." Morgana replied.
"You guys lookin' for something?"
A strange man wearing some standard desert clothing approached them, casually playing with a scimitar in his hands.
"I thought I heard someone rustlin' around." the trader said. "Welcome to the desert, fellow trader."
"A trader?" Yusuke repeated.
Makoto suspected that this was the man who had stolen from Futaba. Perhaps if they handled this situation diplomatically and subtly…
"Bah! Who cares about your welcomes?" Ryuji grumbled. "You're the bandit, right? So give back what you stole!"
A master of subtlety and diplomacy, Ryuji was not.
"Hah! Ain't that funny… a bunch of thieves comin' after a trader like me." the man chuckled. "Well… if you want it… then you'll have to come and get it!"
Instead of fighting or talking any more to them, the thief quickly escaped, running away from them as fast as they could.
"Hey! Get back here you coward!" Ryuji snapped.
"Come back!" Ann cried, before giving Ryuji an annoyed look. "...You just had to scare them off, didn't you?"
"What did I do?!" Ryuji snapped.
"Let's just calm down and try to find him, alright." Ren suggested.
Even under the desert sun, he always managed to keep his cool.
"Yeah. He can't outrun us all." Makoto agreed.
They chased the bandit around the town, the bandit quickly realizing that he wouldn't be able to shake them.
They quickly cornered the thief on the rooftop, shocked to see that it was covered in several shadows groaning in agony.
The blue, snake-like shadows were covered in injuries, the thief chuckling as he kicked one of them out of the way.
"What happened here…?" Makoto trailed off.
"Listen… we're all thieves here, aren't we?" the bandit said. "Why don't we just plunder the pyramid together?"
"We don't care about that!" Ann snapped. "We just want to help Futaba-chan! Now give us back what you stole!"
"Tch… guess I've got no choice." the bandit muttered.
The bandit dissolved into black ooze before transforming into a large, monstrous bird, letting out a deafening screech.
"Let's go, everyone!" Makoto shouted.
The shadow attempted to blow them off of the building, but Makoto quickly fired her gun at the shadow's wings.
The shadow screeched in pain, falling to the ground.
Makoto tried to attack from up close, but the shadow recovered, slapping her with its wing.
The others tried to provide some covering fire, but the shadow blew it away.
The shadow quickly adapted to their strategy quickly, swatting them away when they were close and blowing away any spells or bullets.
Makoto's eyes darted around the battlefield, hoping to find something that would turn the tide in their favor.
Inspiration struck when she saw the shadow flapping its wings again, blowing sand on the roof everywhere.
"Mona, blow it back!" Makoto commanded.
Morgana fired off a Garula spell, forcing the sand back, causing the shadow to cry out as it got into its eyes.
"Eat this!" Ryuji shouted, firing a bolt of lightning.
Lightning spread through the shadow's body, the shadow unable to move.
Makoto quickly attempted to capitalize.
"Anat!" she cried. "Freila!"
She blasted the shadow with intense nuclear energy, instantly defeating it.
"Woah, that was strong!" Morgana gasped.
"That's our leader." Ren grinned.
"I'm still surprised by just how strong Anat is…" Makoto admitted.
"That just means that stealin' Futaba's treasure is gonna be a breeze." Ryuji grinned.
"It appears the shadow dropped something." Yusuke noticed, picking up some papyrus from the ground.
"This must be what was stolen from Futaba." Makoto realized.
"Then let's head back and give it to her." Morgana suggested.
They left the town and went back inside of the pyramid, seeing Futaba waiting for them inside.
"We're back!" Ryuji exclaimed. "And we got the thing that was stolen from you!
"Well done." Futaba praised. "It is yours now."
"You're giving it to us?" Ann asked, confused.
Futaba opened up the piece of papyrus, showing them a map of the pyramid.
"The bandit stole this to help him raid my tomb." Futaba explained.
"This place has quite a confusing layout…" Makoto frowned, examining the map.
"Say, Futaba-chan, I'm curious about something." Ren said. "Since this is your place, shouldn't you have been able to find a way to stop the thief yourself?"
Futaba shook her head. "All that matters is that the map is safe. Now, if you'll go forward… ah!"
Futaba clutched her head again, before rising into the air and disappearing.
"F-Futaba-chan?" Ann cried. "Where'd you go?"
Suddenly, the ground collapsed beneath them, dropping all of them into a pit of sand.
"Godamniiiiiittttttt!" Ryuji shouted as they fell.
While the fall wasn't lethal, there was no time for them to relax.
"We're in… quicksand!" Makoto cried.
"Everyone, swim out now!" Morgana cried.
They desperately tried to escape the quicksand, swimming away as fast as they could.
Thankfully, they all managed to escape, catching their breath as soon as they were on safe ground.
"Is… everyone… ok?" Ren panted.
"First the boulder and now this… did we do something to piss her off?" Ann wondered.
"She might not be in full control of her palace." Morgana theorized. "She might be struggling against her own distorted desires."
"It must be like a defense mechanism." Makoto realized. "After what she's been through, I can't blame her for not trusting others."
"We have to save her!" Ren exclaimed. "I can't just stand by and do nothing while she's suffering."
Makoto nodded. "That's right. Let's find our way back up and find her treasure."
They made their way upwards, hoping to make it back to where they came.
They easily dispatched most of the shadows along the way, but one of the shadows proved stronger than most.
The shadow wore Egyptian clothing, had the head of a jackal, and carried a scale in its hands.
Makoto wasted no time firing a few shots at the shadow, but they were easily dodged.
The shadow tipped its scale, and suddenly, darkness came pouring out of the scale, headed straight towards them.
Ryuji, Yusuke, and Morgana, barely managed to dodge, but Ann wasn't so lucky, taking the full brunt of the attack, falling unconscious to the ground.
Strangely, Ren and herself were completely unaffected by the darkness.
"It's using instant death attacks!" Morgana warned. "I'll heal Panther, the rest of you be careful!"
As Mona went off to heal, the rest of them attempted to defeat the shadow with a mixture of magic and gunshots.
The shadow was hit several times, but still wasn't beaten.
This time, the shadow tipped its scale to the other side, sending out rays of light.
Most of them were able to dodge, but the rays of light did severe damage to Ren, bringing him to his knees.
"Joker!" Makoto cried.
The shadow attempted to finish Ren off, only for Makoto to intercept them, slamming her fist into its face.
The shadow reeled back before attempting to blast her out with another instant death attack.
She wasn't able to dodge, but found that she took no damage from the attack, noticing that her charm was glowing.
It must be protecting her…
The shadow grew annoyed as it gripped its scale again, neither it's light or dark attacks having much effect.
While it was distracted, Ryuji blasted the shadow with lightning, shocking it.
With the shadow now defenseless, Yusuke charged forward, slashing his weapon at the shadow, knocking it to the ground.
The thieves surround the shadow, guns pointed at it.
"Surrender now, or we'll shoot." Makoto threatened.
"You… I… I…" the shadow muttered.
The shadow's eyes widened in realization.
"I… I am Anubis! And I shall become your mask."
She absorbed Anubis into her mask, making sure everyone was healed before moving on.
They continued making their way up, eventually reaching a room filled with coffins.
"This is creepy…" Ann muttered.
"Let's not spend any more time here than we need to…" Makoto trailed off.
As they started making their way out of the room, however, one of the coffins started to wildly shake.
Makoto narrowly dodged out of the way as a hand burst out of the coffin and swiped at her.
"Watch out, it's another shadow! Morgana warned.
The coffin shot up and began darting around at incredible speed, blasting them with several Megido spells.
"What the hell?!" Ryuji snapped. "Why does this coffin thing get to use a billion attacks?!"
"Rakukaja!" Makoto shouted, boosting her defense.
She charged towards the shadow, bracing herself against its attacks.
Seeing that she was getting closer, the coffin began shaking again before opening up.
Two women-snake hybrids came out of the coffin.
Yusuke tried to change the coffin, but the snake women interspersed him, blasting him with Agilao spells.
"Fox!" Makoto cried, trying to think of a plan.
After thinking for a moment, she came up with a way to defeat the snake women.
"Anubis!" she cried out. "Mahama!"
Her Persona shot out several beams of light, instantly defeating one of the coffin's minions.
Ren and Ann quickly followed up, firing at the other minion until it fell.
"Alright!" Ryuji cried. "Time to take down that coffin!"
Ryuji attempted to slow it down by blasting it with lightning, but the coffin dodged every shot before blasting him with magic of its own.
Ryuji groaned from the impact, Morgana quickly healing him before firing off several wind spells.
The coffin continued to dodge all of their attacks, but Makoto noticed its movements seemed slightly more desperate.
The coffin started shaking again, but this time, they heard strange murmuring as a hand emerged from the coffin and pointed to Morgana.
Suddenly, Morgana was enveloped in smoke.
It quickly cleared away… only to reveal that Morgana had turned another animal entirely.
"That coffin shadow turned Mona into a mouse!" Ren exclaimed.
"Was it? Maybe he does that naturally, like how he becomes a car." Yusuke said.
"I'm not a mouse!" Morgana squeaked. "I'm a ca- human! Human! And it's that shadow's fault that I changed!"
"Better finish this quickly!" Ren warned. "Mona sounds pretty rattled."
"Not the time for jokes, Joker!" Ann snapped.
Makoto quickly grabbed Morgana and hid him in her scarf.
The shadow forced them on the defensive, firing spell after spell without tiring.
"Come on, don't we get a turn?!" Ren complained.
Finally, Morgana recovered from his ailment, turning back to his normal self.
"All right, time for some payback!" Morgana exclaimed.
The shadow kept its distance, Makoto attempting to analyze its movements.
"Why did it target Mona first…?" Makoto wondered. "Maybe… Mona! Blast it while it's speeding!"
"Got it!" Morgana cried.
Morgana shot wind everywhere he could, eventually landing a lucky shot on the shadow.
The coffin spiraled out of control and crashed into the wall, the wind giving it more speed than it could handle.
"Queen, now's our chance for our special attack!" Morgana exclaimed.
"Right!" Makoto nodded.
Morgana began to transform, not into a car, but a motorcycle.
Makoto quickly boarded the motorcycle, boosting forward with aid from Morgana's wind.
She slammed into the coffin, knocking it down, and started doing donuts around it.
She drove circles around it so fast, that a whirlwind began to form, blowing the coffin into the air before it came crashing down.
"Everyone, now!" Makoto shouted. "All Out Attack!"
Everyone rushed the coffin at once, attacking it again and again until it dissolved into ooze.
"Good job everyone." Makoto praised.
A short time afterwards, they arrived right above where they entered the palace, shining a light on the large door that had blocked their path up the stairs.
"Alright, we're back! Now let's keep moving!" Ryuji grinned.
"Actually, Ryuji… maybe you should take a little break." Makoto suggested. "You've been taking quite a few blows from the shadows…
"What?! For real?!" Ryuji snapped. "I'm still doing just fine!"
"Still, I… I don't want to overwork anyone." Makoto stated.
Ryuji muttered under his breath but didn't argue anymore with her.
After rearranging the team, they made their way forwards, eventually making their way inside of the Will Seed room inside of another coffin room.
Makoto took the first Will Seed from its pedestal, watching the world transform…
They found themselves outside on a grassy field. The sun was shining, and there were flowers all around… but the atmosphere was grim.
Several people were gathered, all wearing black, watching as a coffin was lowered into the ground.
"This must be a funeral." Ann whispered.
"It's probably for Futaba's mother." Makoto replied.
Makoto only had a vague recollection of her own mother's funeral. At the time, she was too young to fully grasp what was happening. It wasn't until a little while later that she started to understand what death meant…
She remembered suddenly bursting into tears, screaming about how mother was gone. Her father had brought her into a big hug, comforting her as best as he could…
"Queen! Look!"
She snapped out of her trance, turning her attention to several men in black suits.
They heard whispers amongst the crowd, the people wondering who they were.
One of the black-suited men pulled out a piece of paper and began to read from it.
"I never should have had Futaba… she's nothing but a burden."
Makoto gasped. "What is this?!"
"It seems like you caused your mother a great deal of trouble, Futaba-chan…" the man said. "She must have had some kind of maternity neurosis… this is what she wrote on her suicide note, after all…"
The crowd began to whisper once more, all eyes on Futaba.
"She's a murderer…"
"It's all her fault!"
Futaba fell to her knees, weeping as the vision ended.
"That was awful…" Ann muttered.
"Who the hell would say that about their own kid?!" Ryuji snapped.
"Something's strange… why would they read that note at a funeral?" Ren wondered.
"I'm curious about those men in the black suits." Makoto added. "They just seemed… out of place."
"Well, hopefully we'll find some answers further in." Morgana said.
They found their way to a safe room afterwards.
"Why don't we take a break?" Makoto suggested. "We've accomplished a lot so far."
Ren nodded in approval. "Yeah. Sounds good."
Everyone made their way into the safe room, getting comfortable.
After checking that everyone was ok, Makoto sat down, letting out a sigh.
"What's up?" Ren asked, sitting next to her.
"I'm trying to be a good leader and save Futaba at the same time." Makoto brought up. "I… I'm still not sure if I can do it. I don't want a repeat of what happened at the last palace.
"Just be yourself. That's all you have to be." Ren encouraged.
"Be myself…?" Makoto asked.
"That's what drew all of us to you in the first place. I'm sure it'll work here too." Ren grinned
"Thank you." Makoto smiled. "I'll try."
After leaving the safe room and venturing a bit, they found a room filled with large pots and stone slabs.
They only took a few steps before several snake-like shadows poured out of the pots.
Two of them had blue scales, wielding spears and shields, giving them an appearance similar to guards.
The third shadow, however, looked different.
Unlike its two guards, the shadow had no weapon or shield, and its scales were golden instead of blue.
Finally, it had a far more regal appearance than the guards.
"I hear that you defeated my mortal enemy Garuda." the golden shadow spoke. "However, I am far stronger than that beast! This pyramid shall be your tomb as well!"
The shadow reared its fist back and charged forward.
Makoto met the shadow head on, their fists colliding.
Even with just its bare fists, the shadow was strong, so she decided to match its strength with her own.
"Setanta!" Makoto called. "Charge!"
Her persona began charging power, raising its physical strength.
Makoto charged forward again, but one of the shadow's guards got in the way, trying to block her attack.
She easily overpowered the guard, shattering its shield and defeating it in one blow.
The other guard tried to strike her, but Ryuji intercepted it, slamming his weapon into the shadow hard enough to knock them to the ground.
Yusuke swiftly followed up, driving his sword into the guard and finishing it off.
The entire team quickly moved to charge the final shadow but were blasted with electricity before they could reach him.
Morgana collapsed from the shock, the others not looking much better.
Ryuji recovered the fastest, trying to charge the shadow again.
The shadow was easily able to outmaneuver him, however, dodging all of his blows before slapping him with its tail and slamming his fist into his stomach.
The shadow tried to hit Ryuji again, but Ann chased it off by firing several bullets.
"Sakunda!" Ren shouted, lowering the shadow's agility. "Queen, Fox, take it down!"
Both of them charged forward, Yusuke meeting the shadow head on while Makoto held back to charge her power again.
Yusuke easily managed to keep up with the shadow now that it had been slowed down, even landing a critical blow against it.
"Queen, finish it off!"
Yusuke passed the baton to her.
"Setanta, Giant Slice!" Makoto shouted.
She struck the shadow before it could respond, slicing it in two.
After making sure everyone was healed, they began looking over the stone slab.
On the slab was the letter B, followed by a series of 1s and 0s.
"The numbers on this stone slab...it reminds me of binary, like what you'd see in machine language." Queen told them. "This might be a puzzle…"
"Another puzzle, huh? Err… but what's binary?" Skull questioned.
"It's a series of 1s and 0s and it's the language that computers understand." Queen explained.
"Oh? Are you fluent, Ms. Beep Boop?" Joker smirked.
"It's like you want to get smacked." Makoto glared.
Ren just snickered as she looked over the slab.
After working out the puzzle with the stone slabs, they located the second Will Seed room, quickly entering and taking the seed off of the pedestal.
They saw a younger-looking Futaba pulling on her mother's clothes as she was working on something.
"Mom…?" Futaba said. "I'm… I'm tired of eating dinner alone all the time."
"Oh, Futaba…" Makoto whispered.
"It's always just convenience store bentos… I wanna go somewhere. Take me on a trip!" Futaba continued.
"Don't be so selfish!" Wakaba scolded. "You know I'm working hard to support you, right?! Ugh!"
"But, but…" Futaba trailed off.
"I'm very busy right now, ok?" Wakaba told her. "I need to finish this work."
The vision ended there.
Futaba and her mother's situation seemed all too familiar to Makoto…
"Futaba must have been a pretty lonely kid." Ryuji realized.
"I feel like it would be pretty normal for a kid to want to spend time with their parents." Ann frowned.
"Still, at the same time, it's… pretty hard to be a single mother." Ren mumbled.
"...Yeah." Ryuji nodded.
It seemed these visions were striking a chord with everyone…
It wasn't long before they located the final will seed room, only to find a pillar with red markings blocking the way.
The pillar began spinning around before attempting to strike them with high powered magic.
Everyone, watch out!" Makoto cried.
The room began cooling down at an astonishing rate, chilling winds slowly freezing them.
Yusuke resisted the cold, and attempted the strike with his sword, only for his attack to be reflected.
"Fox, swap with Panther!" Makoto ordered.
Fox nodded, switching out.
"Lamia!" Makoto called. "Foul Breath!"
A putrid stench clung to the pillar, making it more susceptible to ailments.
"Panther, burn it!"
Ann fired several Agilao spells, not stopping until the shadow began to catch fire.
"Queen!" Ann shouted.
Makoto nodded. "Anzu, Garula!"
The winds from Makoto's Persona fed the flames, spreading them faster than the shadow could put them out.
The shadow tried one last desperate attack, firing a block of ice at them, but Ann quickly countered with fire, easily overwhelming the ice and exploding the shadow and reducing it to cinders.
After finishing off the shadow, they all walked into the third and final Will Seed room.
Makoto grabbed the final Will Seed, and the room shifted around them…
Futaba's mother stood right on the sidewalk, Futaba right behind her.
Wakaba stared off into the road, a blank expression on her face.
Her eyes appeared lifeless, and she thought she saw some sort of black ooze in her mouth.
"This can't be… a mental shutdown?!" Makoto thought. "No… a psychotic breakdown!"
Wakaba turned her head to see a car started speeding closer and closer to their house. And then…
"Futaaaabaaaa! Y-You… aaaaareee…!
She flung herself in front of the car.
The vision cut off right before the collision, but they could all envision what happened.
"God, that was…" Ren trailed off.
"Really effed up…" Ryuji mumbled. "She died right in front of Futaba's eyes…"
"Poor Futaba." Ann sympathized.
"To witness the death of one's own mother… what an awful feeling." Yusuke whispered.
"Fox… are you alright?" Makoto asked.
"I'll be fine." Yusuke assured her. "This is just another reason for us to help her, isn't it?"
"Yes, that's right." Makoto smiled. "Come on, everyone. The treasure can't be much farther!
Sure enough, their destination wasn't far from the Will Seed room.
However, they found their way blocked once again by signs and caution tape.
"Seriously, another blocked door?!" Ryuji snapped.
"This looks familiar…" Makoto muttered. "Oh! Futaba's room!"
"So why isn't it opening?" Ann asked.
"Boss said that she never leaves her room or lets anyone inside." Ren recalled. "Maybe it's another cognition thing."
"That must be it!" Morgana exclaimed.
"I'm surprised that you made it this far…"
The group turned around to see Futaba's shadow glancing at them.
"Beyond that door is the Pharaoh's chamber." Futaba explained.
"Soooo… that's where the treasure is?" Ryuji asked.
"Indeed. But you need my permission to open this door."
"Then give us permission!" Ryuji exclaimed.
"I cannot. Only the other me can." Futaba said.
"I suppose we'll have to have the door open in the real world. Like Madarame's palace." Makoto realized.
"Guess we have to return to the real world for now." Ann said.
"If the treasure's right through here, we can finish the infiltration as soon as we open that door!" Morgana added.
"All right then. Good job, everyone." Makoto praised. "I'll let you all know when it's time."
The infiltration finished for now, they left the palace and returned to the real world.
Makoto's Confidant Progress:
THE FOOL - Ren Amamiya: Rank 7
THE HUNGER - Igor: Rank 6
THE CHARIOT - Ryuji Sakamoto: Rank 5
THE MAGICIAN - Morgana: Rank 6
THE FAITH - Eiko Takao: Rank 5
THE TOWER - Chiaki Yasui: Rank 5
THE SUN - Shiho Suzui: Rank 6
THE MOON - Takayo Tachibana: Rank 5
THE HIEROPHANT - Sojiro Sakura: Rank 5
THE TEMPERANCE - Naoya Makigami: Rank 4
THE STAR - Hifumi Togo: Rank 3
THE DEVIL - Mitsuhide Matsuoka: Rank 2
THE HANGED MAN - Munehisa Iwai: Rank 2
THE DEATH - Yohei Kiritani: Rank 2
THE EMPEROR - Yusuke Kitagawa: Rank 3
THE EMPRESS - Haru Okumura: Rank 3
THE LOVERS - Ann Takamaki: Rank 3
THE STRENGTH - Caroline and Justine: Rank 5
THE JUSTICE - Goro Akechi: Rank 4
THE PRIESTESS - Kasumi Yoshizawa: Rank 3
THE FORTUNE - Phantom Thieves of Heart: Rank 4
THE JUDGEMENT - Sae Niijima: Rank 4
THE COUNCILLOR - Takuto Maruki: Rank 5
Are the Phantom Thieves just? Yes 40.1%
