"The security level is already down?" Milly asked in confusion. "Doesn't it normally take several days to fall once the Palace Ruler raises it that high?"
"That's how it usually works, yes," Arthur agreed.
"Let's not overlook the elephant in the room," Kallen said crossly. "You went sneaking off into Shirley's Palace, alone!"
"Time is of the essence," Lelouch replied. "I left as soon as I confirmed the security level. I don't want to waste any days that we don't have to."
"Brother, I know that I'm hardly one to talk, but did you learn nothing from what happened when we each tried to handle the Black King on our own?" Euphemia frowned.
"It's not like you to be so reckless," Leila said. "You must realize that-"
"Yes, it's a trap!" Lelouch snapped. "The whole Palace is already a trap! Whether it's Medjed using Shirley as bait or her Shadow purposefully lowering the Palace's security level so that she can lure us in and then sink us once she's thinks we're too far inside, that doesn't change what we have to do! If we do nothing, Medjed will reveal who we are and Shirley will die!"
"If we rush in without a plan and get ourselves killed, then no one will be able to help her," Leila replied softly. "Then again, I can't say that I wouldn't rush in myself if someone I loved was in trouble. You love her, don't you?" she asked, her amethyst gaze penetrating him.
"Why are you asking him that, Leila?" Kallen asked with sudden consternation. "Lelouch and I are-"
Lelouch also found himself reeling by the unexpected question. Why did Leila have such have a knack at piercing the defenses he had built up around himself? He supposed it stemmed from her nature as a representative of the High Priestess. Intuition was one of the traits symbolized by that Arcana, the same intuition Leila used to perceive her surroundings or analyze enemy defenses in the Metaverse, as well as what made her such a good cold reader in the real world. But the questions she asked him rarely had comfortable answers, and now he saw her earlier tarot reading in an entirely new light.
The Reversed Lovers and Upright Tower hadn't been just a reflection of his uncertainty at the suddenness of his relationship with Kallen and a premonition of how to defeat Alciel's rooks. The Reversed Lovers was Shirley's Shadow and the strain she had brought into his relationship with Kallen, who now showed jealousy toward Shirley where there had been none before, and the Upright Tower foretold Medjed kidnapping Shirley and threatening the Black Knights with ruination.
No. He had to remind himself once again that Leila couldn't actually read the future in the real world. That was impossible. The human mind had a tendency to work with the alleged fortune teller, stretching itself and interpreting events in any ways necessary to lend credence to fraudulent predictions that were intentionally vague for that very purpose.
But…
He found he couldn't say that Leila was wrong.
He would go to great lengths to protect those close to him, such as his friends on the Student Council. But for Shirley's predicament to provoke such a strong reaction in him, to the point of overriding his better judgment and making him recklessly take risks, focusing on saving her to the exclusion of all else…
That was how he would react if Nunnally was in trouble. Or, he realized, it was the same way he would react if Kallen were taken from him…. It was far more than mere feelings of friendship. If Nunnally was his guiding light, the reason why he fought, Kallen was his queen and partner in the fight against Britannia, above the other Black Knights, a chariot driving him ever onward to victory with her passion and strength. And Shirley…
He had loved her for a long time, even if he hadn't fully admitted it to himself, and to a greater degree than he had ever recognized until Medjed had threatened her life. He had denied or downplayed the depth of his own feelings for her to mere what-could-have-beens, but the truth was that Shirley had nonetheless managed to work her way into his heart, and the thought that he might not see the real Shirley again was now dangerously throwing him off-balance, robbing him of any semblance of normalcy.
Well, that wasn't quite right. His life had been nothing close to 'normal' ever since becoming a Black Knight, and, save for a few peaceful moments around school, things had never really returned to how they had been with Shirley and himself. In spite of whatever face she had put up in front of the rest of the Student Council, she had still been dealing with the lingering aftereffects of Coach Nu's abuse, and always on edge around Kallen, especially after he started dating his fellow Black Knight for real. But Shirley's presence had always been something precious to him. Milly's antics might have made Ashford Academy lively and welcoming, but Shirley, perhaps moreso than any of his other friends, made him feel like he belonged there, and, for brief moments, allowed him to pretend that he was just an ordinary student, like she had once believed him to be.
None of that meant that he was insincere in his feelings toward Kallen. Over the last few months, he had gone from not even knowing the real her, to recognizing and respecting her strength as a brave fighter, to entering a relationship with her. He still wasn't good at expressing his feelings, but as he fought alongside Kallen and helped her deal with her family problems, he had come to care for her just as deeply as he did for Shirley. But now his girlfriend needed an answer from him, and he had to choose his words carefully.
"I chose you, Kallen," he said after a moment. "I suppose I do have feelings for Shirley as well, more than I ever thought I did. But never think for a moment Kallen that you were my second choice just because I couldn't involve Shirley. You are, as always, my Queen, and I would never seek to betray the promise that we made together."
"Ooh, you're a smooth talker, Lelouch" Milly giggled.
Kallen grimaced. "I won't pretend that I'm happy to hear that." He didn't blame her. After what happened to her mother, he supposed that Kallen had every reason to fear being supplanted by another lover. "But when you put it like that, I can't be angry." She glanced away for a moment. "Besides, Shirley's still a member of the Student Council. We have to look out for each other, and that comes before anything as petty as jealousy."
"I can't agree more," he told her.
"Just don't do anything else stupid, Lelouch, like going in there by yourself, or you'll have me to answer to!"
"I accept your terms."
xXx
Cautiously, the Black Knights crept across the deck of Shirley's Palace. They had in the end agreed to reenter it, since the Palace wasn't going to be any less of a trap whether or not they delayed. Indeed, if they waited for too long, Medjed might decide to carry out his threat of murdering Shirley before his original deadline. But as Leila and the others had urged, they would use the same methodical approach to exploring Shirley's Palace as they had in those before it, so that when the trap was finally sprung they might have a chance of escaping from it.
"Does the ship seem a little lower in the water to you?" Euphemia whispered. "I mean, compared to the last time we were here."
Leila concentrated for a moment, summoning Jeanne d'Arc, and then nodded. "It's not something I had the chance to search for last time, but you're correct. The ship is very gradually taking on water, and it will eventually sink, whether the Palace Ruler resorts to more drastic measures or not. However, the leaks are so small and the ship has so much buoyancy from the amount of water that it is currently displacing that it should pose not a problem to our infiltration."
"Knowing the stunt that she pulled last time, I wouldn't be surprised if she conjured up a big iceberg and put it in the path of the ship," Kallen muttered.
"Ssh!" Milly hissed. "You don't want to give her ideas like that!"
"I for one, do not want to get wet," Arthur declared.
"So you don't like that water, just like any other cat?" Milly asked, tilting her head slightly in curiosity.
"It's not that…" Arthur replied. "It's just that if I get drenched, my coat won't be able to keep me warm. It's no fun being stuck out in the rain without shelter, to say nothing of being dumped in the ocean."
"It's okay," Leila said, bending down to give Arthur a pat on the head. "With any luck, we'll all stay dry."
xXx
Neither Shadow Shirley nor Medjed had made an appearance by the time the Black Knights reached Shirley's Cognitive replica of the Clubhouse, but none of them were ready to lower their guard.
"There are still Shadows on patrol within," Leila confirmed. "Be careful, everyone."
Pushing open one of its doors as quietly as they could, the Black Knights entered the Clubhouse. The foyer was set up as a ballroom, and was patrolled by Shadows in the form of pairs of dancers, taller and more beautiful at a glance than the Cognitions around them. They too were masked, giving the whole scene the feeling of a masquerade ball, but unlike the Cognitions, they were actively hostile to the Black Knights. Other Shadows took the form of ceremonial guards wielding halberds and primitive muskets, which moved about the perimeter, and occasionally Shadows dressed as sailors would emerge from passages on the sides before vanishing back down into the hold of the ship.
"Let's try to reach the Student Council meeting room," Lelouch whispered to his teammates. "That has to be an important location in her Palace."
The Black Knights for the most part managed to avoid detection by keeping themselves hidden among the crowd of Cognitions, but occasionally they were forced to fight as they moved across the ballroom. As they neared the base of the stairs, there was a female dancer Shadow that was without a partner, so Lelouch took the chance to strike.
"Show me your true form!" Lelouch said as he ripped off the Shadow's mask.
The Shadow burst and reformed into a Yearning Siren with long, pale green hair and a blue-gray tail, seated on a lonely rocky perch. Lelouch gave the Yearning Siren no chance to get its bearings, attacking with its logical weakness, electricity. The Shadow cried out in pain, though its voice was drowned out by the music of the ballroom, and fell from its perch, giving the Black Knights all the chance they needed to surround the Shadow, their weapons drawn. Stepping forward, Lelouch signaled to his allies to refrain from an all-attack. Not only would the noise likely attract the other Shadows, but he wanted to see if he could persuade the downed Shadow to join him as one of his Personas.
As soon as the Yearning Siren saw Lelouch, she instinctively covered her chest with her arms and averted her gaze from him.
"You're the Black Knights, aren't you? Princess Shirley warned us about you. Are all humans this heartless?" the Yearning Siren asked.
"Some are," Lelouch admitted. "But we change their hearts."
"Princess Shirley says that when two people love each other, their hearts become one." The Yearning Siren paused. "Do you think humans have immortal souls?"
Lelouch had never been one who had been much interested in religion. Yet his Personas claimed to come from the sea of his soul, and when Euphemia had revived Milly, she had done so by recalling her spirit. So maybe…
"I do," he told her. Maybe he wasn't fully convinced, but at a certain point skepticism became arbitrary. Besides, if he remembered how this story went…
"I wish I could have a soul of my own…" the Yearning Siren said wistfully. "But why must Princess Shirley suffer for her love?" The Yearning Siren's eyes lit up. "Wait a minute! I just remembered! I'm not a Shadow! I come from the sea of the soul. My name's Mermaid! Please, take me with you! I don't want to dissolve into foam."
Mermaid transformed into a mask in a flash of blue light, and was drawn into Lelouch's own, merging with it. Fittingly, she was a Persona of the Lovers Arcana.
The path beyond the stairs was narrow and heavily guarded. Lelouch could persuade Mermaid Shadows not to fight them once they realized he carried one of their sisters as a mask within him, but in other cases fighting was unavoidable. Notable among their foes were the Slithering Snakewomen. Like the Mermaids, their upper halves were mostly human, specifically in the form of beautiful black-haired women with regal bearings, but their lower halves were long, red-scaled, coiling serpentine tails, and their eyes were filled with hate. Their nails were practically claws, which they would use to slash at the Black Knights in rising motions, and they uttered ominous words that could cast their target into despair, to say nothing of the threat that their fire spells posed on a wooden vessel. Fortunately, Mermaid could easily dispatch the Snakewomen by using Bufula to conjure large ice crystals, while offering the ability to cast Magaru to attack multiple enemies with gusts of wind or even tend to allies with Diarama, a more potent healing spell.
But the Slithering Snakewomen were far from the only Shadows that they encountered on the way to the Student Council Room. There were the Envoys of Sleep, small Shadows with heads that looked like the crescent moon who carried bags which they would toss enchanted sand from, trying to lull the Black Knights to sleep. The devilish Lilim knew the spell Marin Karin and, like a certain Student Council President, did not discriminate between trying to beguile males or females. Far more dangerous were the green-robed angels with sunlike-crowns and scepters, who used the same exorcism magic that the Black Knights had learned to fear in the last Palace. But most disconcerting of all were the Shadows that took the form of hideous zombie-like horrors with long tentacle-like feelers where their eyes should be, and rows of teeth lining mouths that stretched all the way down their abdomens, which left Euphemia visibly unnerved by their sheer wrongness.
As they continued to fight, Lelouch found he couldn't help but see the Shadows before them as eerie reflections of Shirley's mental state. Of course, all Shadows that guarded Palaces conformed to the desires of the resident Palace Ruler, but this was more than simple obedience. Perhaps it had always been there. The alluring female Shadows in Clovis' Palace came to mind, as did the corrupting Karasu Tengu and vicious Oni in the Black King's Palace. But now it was plain to him. Love and lust, justice and vengeance, sweet dreams and horrific nightmares all mingled in the Palace, contradictions that were tearing Shirley apart.
The decor around them also served to put to rest any lingering denials the Black Knights might have about the Deadly Sin at the root of Shirley's distorted desires. Not only was the Palace lavishly decorated with ribbons and roses for the wedding of the Palace's princess to the illusive Black Prince, but the gallery overlooking the ballroom floor was lined with statues depicting an all too familiar subject.
"My, my, Zero…" Milly murmured, a smirk on her face. "I knew that Shirley was into you, but it looks like there's more of me in her than she would care to admit."
The statues were of Lelouch. Their poses were, for the most part, familiar to him. It wasn't uncommon for him to be asked to serve as a model for his classmates' sketches in art class, and indeed, he was a favorite subject for female students to draw. But why was he half-naked? In most of these statues, he was dressed in little more than a speedo, though some added a crown on his head or a robe that failed to hide a physique that would have made the statues a vanity portrait of himself, if he had been the one to commission them. His face got redder as he realized that he actually was completely naked in a few of the statues.
"I never thought your abs were so chiseled, Zero," Milly continued to tease. "Have you started hitting the gym without telling us? Could it be all this running around in the Metaverse? Or maybe you've been doing some private training with Queen to build up your stamina," she said, her smile growing wide. "How about it, Queen? Does Zero really look like that in bed?" Her eyes flicked over to one of the nude statues. "Is it really that big?"
"Wh-what?" Kallen stammered. She had to be blushing furiously under her lotus mask. "That's-"
"Enough!" Lelouch said, cutting them off. "Stay focused, both of you!"
Eventually, they reached the doors leading to the Student Council Room. They were locked, but Lelouch could hardly be surprised. Even if Shadow Shirley had purposefully called off many her guards to lure them into the Palace, there were still places important to her Cognition that she would reflexively defend, and the Student Council room was evidently one of those places. Or, viewed another way, the lock was a manifestation of the real Shirley's attempts to put distance between herself and the other members of the Student Council after learning they were Black Knights.
Milly tried to open the door after the others had failed to open it, but it remained securely locked.
"I was almost sure that it would let me through," she frowned. "Since when haven't I been able to go pretty much wherever I want on campus? I mean, other than when Coach Nu and the SSDF were running things?"
"Your friend rules this Palace," Leila replied. "Her desires take precedence here."
"How are we going to get through?" Euphemia asked with worry.
"I'm sure there's a way," Arthur reassured her.
"I'd bet she's stowed it below deck," Kallen grumbled. "Can you think of a better way for her to trap us?"
"No, I think that's it," Lelouch agreed. He turned to the other Black Knights. "Let's play along then, shall we? It's not like we have a choice in the matter."
They nodded gravely.
xXx
Returning to the ballroom, the Black Knights crept along the sides, entering the passageways that they had previously seen sailors using to travel below deck. They were more spacious than those of a real galleon would have been, befitting the grandeur of a Palace, but now that they were confined on four sides, fighting took place in even closer quarters than before.
Still, that was not to say that they were without hiding places. Every so often there were barrels, presumably containing provisions, that they could duck behind, lying in wait for nearby Shadows, and whenever the corridor turned there were blind spots at the corners in which the Black Knights could conceal themselves.
They passed by a number of cabins for the guests, which appeared to correspond to Ashford Academy's dormitories. Among them, they found a safe room, which confirmed this as Shirley's distorted Cognition of it as part of her Palace flickered in and out, revealing a well-furnished but otherwise unremarkable girl's room. It probably belonged to a girl who Shirley did not know well, or whose room she had never been inside, explaining why her Cognition was so weak there.
"The cabin representing Shirley's room in the girl's dormitory must be nearby," Lelouch murmured. "We might be able to find a clue there."
"Not to mention what sort of panties Shirley has," Milly grinned impishly.
Lelouch sighed and shook his head slightly in exasperation.
"I'm just trying to lighten the mood a little," Milly frowned.
"If the Student Council room was locked, then Shirley's cabin is sure to be locked as well," Kallen said, ignoring Milly.
"I agree," Arthur added.
"So then, how do you suggest that we get in, Zero?" Kallen asked.
"We'll find a way."
xXx
Indeed, they soon came across a cabin that appeared to belong to Shirley. A Cognition of a girl with dark hair, though lighter than his own, who was about the same age as Shirley, stood outside the door. The girl's facial features were hidden behind a stark white mask, but after several moments Lelouch realized who she was. It was a Cognition of Shirley's roommate, Sophie Wood.
"Who are you?" Cognitive Sophie asked, sounding unfriendly. "Princess Shirley asked me not to let anyone into her cabin."
They needed to come up with a satisfactory response quickly, or else Cognitive Sophie would raise the alarm, allowing Shadow Shirley to pinpoint their location within her Palace and start swarming them with Shadows. But then an idea came to Lelouch's mind. It was just a rumor, but it was whispered that there was a certain member of the Student Council who Sophie had a crush on. It wasn't him, but they just so happened to have the object of Sophie's affections in their party. Whether or not the rumors or true were not wasn't important. As long as Shirley believed them, then her Cognition of Sophie would conform to that perception, and that would give them a way in.
He turned to Milly. "They say Sophie's into you, Diamond," he whispered. "She if you can persuade her to open the door for us."
"With pleasure," Milly smiled. She took a few steps forward. "Well, well, Sophie, I've been looking for you," she said, her voice dropping low and seductive.
Cognitive Sophie's masked expression remained impassive, but her voice piqued with interest.
"That voice," she said. "Milly?"
"Would you do me a favor and let us in?" Milly said, batting her eyelashes. "I'd be sure to remember your help, and could schedule some quality time alone for us," she continued suggestively.
Was that a trickle of blood running from the nostrils of Cognitive Sophie's mask?
"If it's for you, Milly," Cognitive Sophie said breathlessly, and handed over the key to Shirley's cabin without a fight.
Standing before the door to Shirley's cabin, the Black Knights felts chills pass through them. They didn't need Leila to tell them that the distortion on the other side of the door was vastly much greater than what they had seen so far in the Palace. Indeed, the distortion was so great that Leila said that she couldn't tell exactly what was in there.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Arthur grimaced.
Milly turned the key and opened the door.
At once, the Black Knights were met with a rush of water out of Shirley's cabin that pushed them back and began flooding the passageway. After a moment, the torrent subsided somewhat, allowing the Black Knights to clamber back to their feet, but a slow but steady stream of water continued to flow out of the cabin.
"I knew it!" Arthur chattered. While all of the Black Knights had gotten wet from the expected deluge, Arthur's small stature meant that he had been completely drenched from head to tail. He began licking himself frantically, as if to mop up the salty water that had saturated his fur. Leila quickly scooped him up in her arms and began to pat him dry with the parts of her dress that hadn't gotten wet.
"So this was one of her traps," Lelouch murmured. Around them, the atmosphere of the passageway had grown more oppressive, and now had a faint red glow to it, signifying a heightened security level. It wasn't yet the bright flashing red that would indicate that Shadow Shirley was about to overrun their position with Shadows, but it meant that there would be significantly more patrols between them and their objective. "Simple but effective." He mentally cursed himself. Of all the traps she could have used against them, he hadn't anticipated something like this. There would be no way to stem the tide of the water issuing from Shirley's cabin, for it was Cognitive in nature, and until they found Shirley in the Palace or stole her Treasure they couldn't change her Cognition. Leila had said the Palace was taking on water so slowly that it would not significantly affect their deadline. But now…
"How much time do we have, Bishop?" He asked.
Leila bit her lip. "Our saving grace is the size of the Palace. But something like that will sink it in a few days at most," she replied finally.
Kallen swore in Japanese.
"What do we do, Zero?" Euphemia asked anxiously.
"We press on," Lelouch said. "We can't afford to delay or waste time with extraneous infiltrations now. We'll see if there's anything useful in the cabin, but then we move. The Palace Ruler undoubtedly has a very good idea of where we are right now, and it would be unwise to linger."
Wading inside Shirley's cabin, the Black Knights were dismayed by what they saw. It wasn't a proper cabin at all.
It was a brig.
"No…" Milly gasped. "This is really how Shirley sees her room now?"
"How horrible," Euphemia agreed.
"A prison of her own making," Lelouch concluded.
"But why?" Kallen asked.
"I think that will become clearer as we explore her Palace," Lelouch replied. Truth be told, the brig bothered him far more than he let on. The layout and the architecture was different, but he couldn't help but see it as a watery reflection of the Velvet Room, where Igor kept him imprisoned.
"There's something over there!" Leila announced, pointing to a drawer of a small beside table that was chained to the wall as she completed a scan of the room with Jeanne d'Arc.
Lelouch slowly opened the drawer, wary of further traps.
There were none. Within, there was a slightly waterlogged diary. It was heavier than it looked, yet at the same time, it didn't seem to be entirely there, its edges blurring and the pages becoming less substantial before resolving themselves again, as if it was flickering in and out of existence.
"Is that her Treasure?" Arthur asked.
Leila concentrated and then shook her head. "It's a significant source of distortion in this room, and it has some characteristics of a Treasure, but removing it wouldn't be enough to change her heart or collapse the Palace. Though I feel that it is linked to her true Treasure somehow…"
"Why is it flickering like that?" Kallen asked.
"Perhaps your friend's conviction that we are coming to steal her heart acts as a sort of calling card in of itself?" Leila mused. "It's enough to keep it in a persistent, semi-materialized state, but lacks the immediacy and power of an actual calling card." She paused. "We should leave this place," she whispered. "Shadows are on the move."
"Onwards," Lelouch nodded. "We can take a look at the diary in the next safe room."
xXx
Nearing the front of the ship, the Black Knights encountered a grand, staircase, ornately carved from oak spiraling down to the lower decks. Balconies overlooked the staircase on each side, and a domed skylight was directly above, letting moonlight stream in and glitter off the crystal chandeliers surrounding the staircase.
"I feel like I've seen this before," murmured Kallen.
Milly's eyes lit up. "Oh! I know! It's from that ocean liner that sank in the North Atlantic en route to the homeland after it hit that iceberg nearly fifty years ago!"
"What's it doing on a galleon?" Lelouch asked irritably. "They're centuries apart."
"When people think of sinking ships, that tragedy is seared into their imagination, and this staircase was an iconic part of it," Milly explained. "Shirley's Palace might be based on older stories, but she unconsciously borrowed part of it from the most famous sunken ship of all."
A clock on the wall displayed the time within the Palace, but as they rounded the staircase, they saw something far more interesting. Perched on a pedestal at the end of the railing was a bronze cast statue of a man who was definitely not Lelouch. The man appeared to be in his mid-forties, was slightly heavyset, and thankfully fully clothed. The statue portrayed its subject with a heroic bearing, and further embellished him with a pair of angelic wings sprouting from his back.
"Is that-" Kallen began.
"I love my Papa!" a voice said, seeming to emanate from the diary. It was Shirley's voice, but it sounded more youthful, as Shirley might have sounded when she was a little girl. Yet beneath the carefree innocence, there was an eerie echo, as if Shadow Shirley were speaking as well, her voice filled with pain and longing. "I love him more than anything in this world! There's no one kinder or gentler than my Papa is! Someday I'll even be his wife!"
The young Shirley's sweet voice turned petulant, her Shadow creeping to the fore. "Papa says that someday I'll meet the man that I really love. But who else is there? No one can replace him in my heart!" Anxiety entered her words. "Is it wrong that I love my Papa so much? Or that I want to have him to myself?" Her voice dropped, as if to whisper a secret. "I love Mama too, but sometimes I'll cry and pretend to be hurt or sick when he's paying more attention to her than to me." Shirley giggled, but it was almost all her Shadow now, a malicious mockery of the young girl's voice. "And Papa doesn't suspect a thing." The Shadow faded, and the voice was once again innocent. "Still, I wonder… if Papa's not the man who I really love, who is he? Such a person must be the most precious thing in the world. I hope I meet him one day."
The weight of the diary seemed to grow in Lelouch's hands, as if it were growing more tangible, and then it fell silent.
"Has Shirley always been like this?" Milly asked.
"So it's all about attention for her," Kallen said disapprovingly.
"I don't think that's quite it," Euphemia spoke up.
"What do you mean, Noire?" Kallen asked.
"Well, I know that back when we were all in Pendragon, Nunnally and I used to discuss which one of us was going to marry him," she said, glancing at Lelouch.
"Excuse me?" Kallen said. "Marry him?"
"We were kids," Euphemia replied sheepishly as red flushed her cheeks. "But I know that sometimes Nunnally would get herself sick if she felt like her brother wasn't paying enough attention to her. And Nunnally doesn't have a Palace."
"As far as we know," Milly murmured, only to receive a withering glare from Lelouch.
"All I'm saying is that I think there's more to it than that," Euphemia frowned.
"I can only speak for myself," Arthur added, "But Shirley has only been kind to me and others from what I've seen in your Student Council Room and around the campus, usually without asking for anything in return. She wouldn't be that way if she was all selfish for attention."
Leila nodded in agreement. "Still, this is likely when her Shadow first began to develop as something more complex than the primitive id. After that conversation with her father, she probably began to suppress any romantic feelings she had toward him until they could find a safer, more age-appropriate expression. It's also when the idea of her true love became fixed in her psyche, causing her to spend years looking for that person."
The eyes of the other Black Knights focused on Lelouch.
"Let's move on," he told them, trying not to sound perturbed by their stares.
xXx
Beyond the grand staircase, the Black Knights found themselves walking through a small gallery, lined with pictures. On one end, there was a house that Shirley was tearfully leaving behind. Then there was Shirley arriving at Ashford Academy, wearing the pink pinafore over a white shirt with a short red tie that was the middle school uniform. It was followed by a picture of her, still in the middle school uniform, glowering at Lelouch. Then there was a car accident, thankfully a small one, no more than a fender-bender. A wealthy-looking man was yelling at an older couple, as if to blame them for the accident. The last picture showed the wealthy man's car being towed away, to his shock, while Shirley, now in the light yellow jacket and short black skirt of the high school girls' uniform, looked on admiringly at Lelouch, who was reading in the sidecar of Rivalz's motorcycle, a bored expression on his face.
Shirley's voice emerged from the diary again, somewhat older than before. "I grew up in the Homeland. But one day, a few years after the war, my father told us that we had to move to Japan, or Area 11 as it was now called. He said that he had been hired to conduct geological surveys by the Viceroyalty there, to map Area 11 for deposits of useful mineral resources, and to monitor the island's volcanic and seismic activity, to make sure that everyone living in the new settlements would be safe. I didn't fully understand it at the time, but it sounded like my father's work was very important. He said he would have to spend a lot of time away from home while he was at his lab, but he wanted us to come with him to Area 11, so at least he would be able to drop by when he got time off, without having to cross an ocean to do so. I was sad at having to leave my friends in the Homeland behind… but knowing that I wouldn't be able to see my father much made me miserable."
Shirley's voice brightened. "Fortunately, the Tokyo Settlement was a beautiful place to live-"
"What about the rest of Tokyo, bombed out by Brittania?" Kallen snarled.
"I made plenty of friends at my new school too," Shirley's voice continued without heeding the interruption. Her cheer faded once again. "But I was still lonely when my father was away from home." Irritation entered her voice. "And there was one boy that I couldn't stand! Lelouch Lamperouge! He was so flippant, and it seemed the only thing that he worked hard at was avoiding hard work! He always just rubbed me the wrong way! What was his problem anyway?"
"My, how times have changed," Milly murmured with a small smile. "But that's right. Shirley didn't like you at all at first, Zero."
"Who am I kidding?" Shadow Shirley's voice suddenly laughed from the diary. "My conscious self may have thought she hated our Lulu, but there were bullies and far worse people at Ashford Academy, and they never got her as hot and bothered as Lulu did." Her voice became low and lustful. "Deep down, we were drawn to him even then, but she didn't want to admit it. She just needed a little push."
The Shadow's voice faded, leaving just Shirley's again. "But that all changed in my freshman year. I happened upon the scene of an accident. Lulu was there as well. A driver rear-ended another car, and was clearly at fault, but he tried to blame it on the elderly owners of the other car. But no one tried to help them. They were afraid, since the driver who caused the accident appeared to be wealthy, which meant that he was probably a noble. But then, while everyone else was focusing on the driver threatening the old couple, Lulu got up, and hooked the man's car to a tow truck that was waiting for the light. The signal turned green, and there it went, dragging the man's car with it. Lulu didn't do it so that he could boast to his buddies or laugh about it later. He did it with the same bored expression that he always wears. That's when I wondered, 'What's up with this guy? What goes on in his mind? What does he do?' I really wanted to know, and in the process of finding out-"
"My other self finally recognized realized that she was in love with Lulu!" Shadow Shirley's voice giggled maniacally. "And it wasn't just any crush. He was the man my father had spoken of! Before long, we were hopelessly head over heels for him! I felt truly alive, as if I could fly, and spent all day thinking about him! With that one gesture, he had effortlessly stolen my heart, but now I had to win his for myself!"
Kallen shifted uneasily. "I don't like where this is going…"
"Still, it's hard to fault her for becoming interested in you, Zero," Leila said. "You were the Good Samaritan, who helped that couple without any thought of reward. What's not to admire?"
"Not you too, Bishop!" Kallen replied testily.
Lelouch didn't know what to think. Shirley had fallen for him over something as inconsequential as that? He hadn't even remembered the incident until now. It had just been another day for him, and he would have helped anyone in that position. Yet that action had catalyzed the feelings that had eventually become distorted into Shirley's Palace.
What was certain was that the diary gained more solidity in his hands with another memory.
xXx
Leaving the gallery, they moved through a large dinning room and past the ship's galley. As they ambushed enemy Shadows without being detected, they were able to proceed without significantly raising the Palace's security level. Eventually, the Ruler would notice that patrols were going missing and tighten security again, but in the meantime, without the patrolling Shadows to act as her eyes and ears, she would no longer have as good of an idea of where they were in her Palace.
Soon, they encountered another anachronistic feature - a large swimming pool, much like the one they had at the real Ashford Academy. Cognitions of Mermaids, masked like the others, filled the pool, all fawningly gazing at another revealing statue of Lelouch, a devilish smirk on its face.
"But no matter what I did," Shirley's' voice said from the diary, "Lulu wouldn't see me as anything more than his friend on the Student Council. And I had to deal with every other girl at school also competing for his attention!" her Shadow seethed. "They were all interested in Lelouch for all the wrong reasons! And then…."
The diary shook violently in Lelouch's hands, and from its pages a new Cognition emerged, of a tall, dark-skinned woman with long silvery hair tied into a ponytail, who was wearing a school swimsuit over a toned figure and had a whistle around her neck. The Cognition's mask hid its face, but Lelouch, Kallen, Milly, and Arthur knew exactly who it was of.
"No way!" Milly gasped.
"Don't be so surprised," Cognitive Villetta said, her masked expression static even as venom dripped from her words. "This place is my domain." Laughing, she cracked a whip in her hands. At once the Mermaids in the pool cried out in pain as chains attached to heavy weights wrapped appeared and wrapped around them.
"Coach Villetta wasn't all bad at first," Shirley continued to narrate, "but before long she decided that she didn't like me. I had no idea what I did wrong, and I tried my best to make it up to her. But that only made things worse. When Lulu asked me if something was wrong, I wanted to tell him, but-"
Cognitive Villetta lashed her whip, knocking the diary out of Lelouch's hands, silencing Shirley's voice.
"It's enough that I have to put up with such a needy girl," Cognitive Villetta spat. "But what's more annoying than anything is her false modesty. She acts embarrassed whenever anyone brings up her crush on Lelouch, even though everyone already knows. I'm glad I was able to put her in her-"
Cognitive Villetta didn't get a chance to finish her speech, as Lelouch furiously ripped off his mask to summon Matador, who swiftly cut her to pieces. Cognitive Villetta's soulless black voids simply stared at him for a moment, and then she dissipated into dark wisps, which were absorbed back into the diary. Once again, it seemed more substantial as Lelouch bent down to pick it up.
"I was sure that we were going to have to fight her again," Arthur said.
"Be glad it was just a Cognition rather than a Shadow," Kallen told him.
"There's no reason a particularly strong Cognition couldn't be as dangerous as a Shadow," Leila said quietly.
"That was your teacher?" Euphemia asked. "What was her Shadow anyway?"
"Leviathan," Lelouch replied, clenching a fist at the memory.
xXx
Eventually, the Black Knights reached the hold of the ship, which was lined with towering piles of barrels, boxes, sacks, and other cargo on each side. It brought about a sense of foreboding since they all knew they were well below the water line, and water leaking from Shirley's cabin was already starting to trickle down the steps behind them. With the small leaks that had already been open in the hull of the ship, the bottom of the hold was now filled with several inches of water, which would only continue to rise. In some places, water dripped from the ceiling where there were gaps between its planks, creating the impression of rain, and reminding Lelouch all too strongly of the day that they attended the funeral for Shirley's father. Fittingly enough, as they waded through the hold, Shirley's diary spoke one more time.
"Everything's fallen apart!" Shirley's voice said tearfully. "Why is Lelouch going out with Kallen? She had sworn she wasn't interested in him, but I knew that it was all a lie!" Her voice turned ugly. "Why can't Kallen be the one who's dead and not my father?!" Shadow Shirley raged through the diary. "Now Mom's the only one I have left!" She paused. "Still, there is a silver lining to all of this," she said deviously. "I knew Lulu would feel sorry for me when I threw myself into his arms after everyone else had gone, begging for him to comfort me. I didn't care that I was practically forcing myself on him…. When he kissed me back, for a moment, everything was perfect. And then my other self had to ruin the moment!"
"What the hell, Zero?!" Kallen shouted. In a moment, she had grabbed his collar with one hand, and for a moment, Lelouch was sure she was about to slap him across the face, but she held herself back. "What does she mean that she 'forced herself on you'? And... she said that you kissed her back..." She shook her head, and it looked like she was about to cry. "You had better have a good explanation for this, Zero!"
"Shirley looked like she was about to fall apart," Lelouch told her. "At the time, I thought that rejecting her would have only made things worse." He shook his own head as he hung it in shame. "It wasn't one of my better decisions, or one that I'm proud of. Not only was it unfair to you, Queen, but Shirley herself was wracked with guilt, because she knew that it was wrong for both of us. It was the only time anything like that happened, and I deeply regret it. That kiss, paired with discovering that we were Black Knights, doubtlessly pushed Shirley over the edge, once added to everything else she had been going through."
Kallen's hand closed into a fist, and flew past him, easily punching a hole in a barrel behind him due to the enhanced strength bestowed upon her by her Persona. Retracting her fist, she looked at it, trembling.
"What's with me?" Kallen frowned. She shook her head. "Everything used to be so simple, but now I…"
"Don't apologize, Queen," he told her, reaching over to gently wipe a tear from her cheek. "You did nothing wrong. I'm the one who wronged both you and Shirley. Let's just finish our mission together."
Kallen seemed to be at a loss for words, but after a moment, she nodded.
Before anyone could say anything else, the diary that they had been carrying suddenly glowed, and became fully solid. Flipping through the pages in a safe room adjoining the main hold, Lelouch was surprised to find that the diary was actually hollowed out in the middle, and that a key was now concealed within it, one that clearly hadn't been there before.
"I think this is it," he told the Black Knights. "We should be able to use this to gain access to the Student Council room, and hopefully Shirley."
"If I may, Zero," Leila spoke up, "we would be ill-advised to do so right now. We have covered a tremendous amount of ground in the Palace today, even with the heightened security level, but many of us are running low on energy for summoning our Personas. We would be at a severe disadvantage if we had to fight Shirley's Shadow, Medjed, or both. I would suggest that we withdraw for now, rest, and then extract her and her Treasure from the Palace tomorrow."
"Wait," Euphemia said. "Don't we need to send a calling card to her before her Treasure will fully materialize?"
"That's right," Milly frowned. "Shirley's still trapped in the Palace, so we can't-"
"We'll prepare the calling card tonight and bring it with us into the Palace," Lelouch said, cutting her off. "Once we find where Medjed is keeping her, we'll hand Shirley the calling card in person."
"Will that even work?" Arthur asked.
"I don't see why not," Lelouch said simply. "Whether Shirley receives the calling card from us in the real world or in the Metaverse, it should affect her Cognition enough to let us steal her Treasure and put an end to her nightmare."
Resolved, the Black Knights quickly took one last around the hold for anything they could use, knowing that they would not have the opportunity to explore it again. In the back, there were large chests, of the sort that pirates or conquistadors of old liked to store their ill-gotten gold and silver in, and there was another Treasure Demon hidden in one them, just as they had found the Queen's Necklace in the jewelry store in the Black King's Palace. But then they made their exit, returning to the real world to rest and prepare for the next day's heist.
Lelouch did not sleep well that night.
Days Until Shirley Drowns with her Palace: 3
A/N:
Shirley's Palace is more front-loaded with dungeon-crawling than the other Palaces, because with the life of someone so close to him in danger, Lelouch would likely drop everything to save Shirley, just as he's done so canonically for other characters in the anime (such as Kallen or Nunnally). There's also the fact that the sinking puts the Black Knights on an accelerated timetable, so they don't have the luxury of taking their time. Confidants for this arc will take place after they clear the Palace.
But next up, the heist, and the showdown with Shadow Shirley and Medjed!