A/N: Dialogue... So much dialogue...
As always, thank you for supporting Gameplay! :)
April 19, 2013
Crystal Fortress, 1F
Fully understanding the implications of the theory he suggested, Souji wasted no time in bringing his team out of the thick silence they had fallen into. "...Rise, there's a Chest around here, right?"
The brunette hesitated for just a split second. "E-eh? Well, yes, but... Ah, that's right. I just remembered. Senpai, do you see a boulder somewhere near you?"
"We've been standing around one since, like, ages ago," Yosuke responded while trying to avoid looking at the bloodied chains. The colour in his face was still considerably absent.
Rise was not amused at his answer. "Well, you have to get that boulder out of the way. The Treasure Chest is right underneath it."
"That's...unusual," Yukiko commented, stepping aside for Souji to summon one of his physically stronger Personas to move the boulder away.
The teen idol seemed to agree, though it wasn't voiced aloud. "I think Orihara-san, subconsciously or not, was trying to stop me from telling you guys about the location of this particular Treasure Chest. It probably contains something really important, so he did all he could to keep it hidden."
"...That guy... I don't even know him, but I already find him annoying, somehow..." While holding his forehead in his hand, Yosuke shook his head.
Before anyone could respond to that, Souji's cry of "Persona!" rang through the entire room.
Then, hovering above him, manifested a long-haired blond man donned in a red metallic helmet and armour. His build was impressive and outstanding - his arms and legs were swelled up with trained muscles and sheer power - and yet his face carried no traces of senescence, neither were there any visible scars on the rest of his body. In his right hand was the hilt of a longsword, and over his shoulder was a simple metallic shield. Bangles of silver encircled the young man's wrists and the area directly below his kneecaps.
With one mighty swing of his sword, Siegfried unleashed a Vorpal Blade attack on the boulder, smashing it into tiny pieces of rock that scattered onto the ground. The swift destruction of the boulder revealed a hole that it had been concealing; a hole which had already been filled with a shimmering, golden Treasure Chest.
Under such circumstances, it was a good thing Souji always thought ahead. If they had been under somebody else's leadership, the team would probably not have thought of bringing Keys in advance. Stepping closer to the uncovered hole, they watched their leader take out a golden Key and slot it into the keyhole on the Treasure Chest. He quickly unlocked it and lifted the lid.
"Hm? What's this?" Souji mumbled, mostly to himself, as he reached into the depths of the Chest and picked up the item lying inside it. Gazing at it with mild curiosity, the silver-haired teen played around with it carefully. "It looks like a USB dr-oh."
"Whoa, careful there, partner." Yosuke instinctively jerked back when a sharp blade leapt upright from the capsule-shaped object in Souji's hand. "Huh... Is that a switchblade? What's that doing here?"
"Maybe it belongs to Orihara-san," Chie suggested. "I mean, none of us uses that in here, so it's not something for us to use, I guess?"
"...No, actually, it is!" Rise tried to bring everyone's attention to the full map of the current floor they were on. "Look, the stairs appeared right after Senpai picked the knife up."
The four of them scanned through the map, eyes travelling everywhere until they could spot a two-tone square in the middle of a room. They traced back their steps as far as they could remember. Yosuke was the first to point out, "Hang on... Isn't that the place where we started from?"
"Really? How can you tell?" Yukiko asked, appearing slightly surprised.
"Well, our starting points are always nearest to the bottom of the map, right?" Yosuke nearly raised his hand to indicate where the stairs were until he remembered that there was nothing tangible to point at. "See? Isn't that where the stairs are?"
"Huh... You're right," Chie noted. Then her eyes widened. "Wait, doesn't that mean we've been led on a wild goose chase all this while?"
"It seems so," Souji replied after a brief moment of silence that filled the room.
"...So lemme get this straight: first, the guy created the floor such that the stairs won't appear until someone finds the switchblade. Then, he threw us off by completely blocking Rise-chan out and making us wander around this place with no way of knowing where we were going. And now that we've found the switchblade, the stairs just had to be in the room we started from? Which is like, at the opposite end of where we are right now?"
"Yeah, you got it," Yosuke answered, sounding as if he had just tasted something foul.
"Well that's just great." Chie sighed. "But then again, it's not like we have any other choice than to keep moving..."
"Right," said Yukiko encouragingly. Souji gave a nod to affirm his agreement. Yosuke and Chie, on the other hand, didn't seem so enthusiastic.
Under Rise's guidance, the four of them began making their detour back to the room they had started from. It would have been a relatively short trip there, if not for the Shadows which had reappeared along the corridors and in the rooms they had passed by before. But with Rise's help in identifying the weaknesses of the various Shadows right into battle, the team eliminated the Shadows much swifter than they did without, and eventually reached their starting point without much trouble.
To their amazement, what used to be simply a large, glowing pond in the heart of the cave-like room had turned into a scenic landscape. Little circles of light across a spectrum of colours floated in the air, dancing around a helical rainbow like fireflies. The crystals in the room were shimmering in an almost hypnotic fashion.
"Whoa..." Yosuke breathed, taking in the mesmerising sight.
"It's so beautiful..." Yukiko agreed, looking across the room.
"Yeah, I don't even know what to say except for 'wow'," said Chie, unable to peel her eyes away from the dazzling array of lights.
Souji seemed to share the same sentiment, having made no comments about the room or its sudden makeover and simply stood there with widened eyes. Then realisation dawned upon him. "I don't see any stairs around..."
"Huh?" Chie blinked the brightness away. "Hm...me neither. Unless that spiral thing is the staircase?"
"...But that's just a beam of rainbow light," Yosuke replied with a frown. "We can't walk on light, Satonaka."
Chie looked affronted. "I know that! I'm not dumb, you know!" A pause. "Okay, maybe I am, but I'm not that stupid. Unlike somebody I happen to know whose last name starts with a 'Ha'."
"Oh c'mon, why is this about me all of a sudden? It's not like I actually said that out loud," the brunet shot back.
"Ohh, so you admit that you were thinking it, at least!"
"What the- Stop putting words into my mouth! How would you even know what I was thinking?"
"It was written all over your face, that's how!"
"Guys, this isn't-" Souji tried to interject, but his words were gone unheard.
"Oh, so Satonaka's some kind of face reader now? Yeah, you'd make a really good police officer with a skill like that. You'll drive your suspects nuts with your amazing interrogating skills and what not," Yosuke continued to provoke the young cadet. He was doing it so naturally that it was difficult to tell if he was deliberately pushing Chie's buttons just for the fun of it, but Yosuke would know better than to do anything that might earn him a hard kick to the groin. Which could only mean that he hadn't the intention to anger Chie at all since the very beginning, and that made Souji sad, somehow.
"Oh that does it!" The brunette's fingers curled into tight balls of fists. "You know what? I'll just prove it to you!"
For the first time since their heated argument started, Yosuke took a moment before he gave his reply, "...Uhh, about what?"
"The stairs, Hanamura. What else? Sheesh." Chie walked towards the spiral beam of light. "I'm gonna prove that this is the stairs. And when I do, you're gonna buy me steak. Lots of it. Are we clear about that?"
Yosuke grimaced at the mental image of his wallet being emptied to the point of getting ripped to shreds. "How 'bout we just forget about it and move on? In case you haven't noticed, we're still on the first damn floor." Souji and Yukiko visibly relaxed at that comment, relieved that, at the very least, Yosuke hadn't forgotten.
Chie grumbled, "Alright, alright, fine. But you're still buying me steak once we get outta here. Got it?"
The words "For what?" nearly escaped Yosuke's lips, but he held himself back, and sighed instead. "Whatever you say, ma'am," he promised, casually giving Chie a lazy wave of his hand as if he were trying to shoo her away.
With a huff, the brunette lifted her foot. She would've had instantly stepped onto the light if not for the fact that she wasn't certain herself if she would fall through, and so slowly, but surely, Chie lowered her foot towards the starting point of the ray. As the tip of her boot met the light, it immediately responded by forming a solid, glowing platform for the sole of the boot to land on.
Remaining in that position, Chie whipped towards Yosuke, whose jaw had dropped, and flashed him a haughty smile. "Ha! You see, you see? I told you we can walk on light!"
Inwardly, Yosuke wept.
Crystal Fortress, 2F
Climbing up the spiral staircase had led the team into a corridor, which had an identical appearance to the corridors of the first floor. The air in the second floor was slightly colder than it was in the first, so their late spring clothing still did little to keep them warm in the frigid dungeon.
Before Souji took off, he made sure that the mental link he shared with Rise was kept preserved, uninterrupted by any unusual interference, and then he looked over his shoulder to check if his teammates were behind him. Once he was certain that everything was in order, he requested a quick scan through the current floor, as well as the rest of the floors above, from his kouhai.
"Okay, let's see here..." The brunette tried to expand her searching radius temporarily, being particularly careful about exerting too much of Kanzeon's presence on the Shadows' territory. "Hmm... Looks like it's still quite a long way ahead until we get to where Orihara-san is. This floor doesn't seem too bad, though. There aren't many Shadows or Treasure Chests around, but we still gotta be careful. Who knows what's going to happen next in a place like this?"
"Yeah... We haven't even gone that far, but we've already encountered so many differences. We can't treat this like any of the other places we've been to," said Yukiko, her fan unfolded and ready to engage any Shadow that might appear without a moment's notice.
"After all that stuff we just went through, I'd say we're ready for anything," Chie added while routinely checking her boots.
"...Still, I can't say I'm not worried," Rise admitted.
Souji briefly rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "About what?" he asked.
Rise seemed to be considering her words carefully. "Well... If Orihara-san is subconsciously trying all he can to keep us out, then why did he - or his Shadow, more like - stop blocking me when you reached that room with the Chest? He could've continued blocking me, but it felt like he just...gave up, for some reason."
"Maybe he just wanted to mess with us," Yosuke said. "Y'know, make us run around while he sits there and laugh at us like we're free entertainment?"
"...Maybe, but..." Rise paused. "I don't know... I just don't think it's that simple. I kind of have a bad feeling about all this..."
"We'll keep that in mind," said Souji before he sprinted off, his teammates following him.
And just as Rise had described, the rest of the floor was pretty straightforward and lacking in Shadows - a stark contrast to the hell they had experienced in the form of the fortress' first floor.
Crystal Fortress, 3F
The ascent to the third floor, however, was like entering through the gates of hell once again.
"What the freakin'-" Yosuke paused to sneeze and wrap his arms around his upper torso. Teeth chattering, he continued, "I-it's freezing in h-h-here! Th-this is s-s-so much w-w-worse than the second f-floor. I didn't e-even th-think that was p-possible."
"It's even w-worse than Inaba i-in w-w-winter." Chie pulled her sweater closer to her body, letting out a shaky "Brr".
"I... I can..." Exhaling sharply, Yukiko mentally called out to Amaterasu.
Almost immediately, the golden figure of the sun goddess manifested above the young manager of the Amagi Inn, her bare body perpetually bathed in an angelic halo of light that gave the four shivering adolescents the warmth that they were in dire need for.
"Whew," Chie breathed out, visibly relaxing. "Thanks, Yukiko. You're a lifesaver."
Souji, however, couldn't decide on whether to look grateful or concerned at the raven's decision. "Don't overdo it, Amagi," he said, trying to sound thankful at the same time.
Yukiko gave him an assuring smile. "It's fine, Seta-kun. As long as I'm not using any spells, it's actually not that tiring."
"You should still take a break after a while, though," Yosuke advised.
Yukiko nodded. "I'll do that, don't worry."
"And I'll be keeping an eye on her to make sure," Chie offered.
"That's good to hear," Yosuke replied with a wink. After a momentary pause, his face fell into a mildly serious expression. "Man, what's with the drop in temperature all of a sudden? I mean, it's a really ridiculous drop. If not for Amagi, I think we'd literally freeze to death in here."
"It must be because Orihara-san's Shadow is on this floor... I can sense him."
The four Persona-users immediately tensed at that. "Is he somewhere nearby?" Souji asked.
A few seconds passed before Rise answered, "Yeah, he's in a room just up ahead. He's not with anybody else, though..."
"I see," Souji muttered to himself. Then he spoke, in a louder voice, "Rise, can you guide Naoto and Kanji to this floor? We'll gather first before we continue."
"Got it. Just hang on for a while, it shouldn't take too long." And then the connection weakened.
As they waited, the four adolescents huddled closer together, basking in the warmth of Amaterasu's light. Staying clear from the staircase, they set their weapons down, and remained silent.
Not long after, Rise's voice reverberated in their heads, "Okay Senpai, they're coming up now."
The moment she ended, royal blue hair appeared from the rainbow stairs, and not long after, an emotionless Naoto came into view, followed by Kanji, who, unlike the young detective, was frowning. The atmosphere surrounding the pair was incredibly tense and awkward, more so than usual. Souji was tempted to ask if something had happened, but after taking Kanji and Naoto's personalities into consideration, he decided against it.
Unfortunately, Yosuke's curiosity got the better of him. "Huh? What's up with the both of you? You guys look like you've just had a lovers' spat or something."
"...Nothin'," Kanji gave a strained growl, as if he were trying but failing to reign in his anger.
Naoto, on the other hand, said nothing, her only response to Yosuke's innocent question being her expression darkening considerably. And somehow, seeing that was more terrifying than the prospect of Kanji losing his temper.
Yosuke, however, failed to pick up on that. "Oh, what's this? No denial? Ooh, that's a first. Something must've really happened between you two."
Kanji snapped, "Hey, could you shut it already? We ain't got time to be standing around like this!"
Yosuke raised both hands and took a step back in surrender. "Whoa, whoa, what's gotten into you? I was just curious, is all. Take a chill pill, Kanji."
"...Tch." The younger male turned away.
Throughout the entire exchange, Naoto had yet to speak up, and simply stood there while actively avoiding Kanji's line of vision. Kanji himself didn't seem to want to look at Naoto either.
Yosuke inched towards Souji and whispered in his ear, "Seriously, what's gotten into them? They're like, super pissed off for some reason."
"Naoto-kun tried to take on a bunch of Shadows all by herself again," Rise answered before Souji could reply. "So of course, Kanji dived in to help her, but...well, you know how Naoto-kun is."
From the way Kanji and Naoto did not react to that, it seemed that Rise was projecting her voice only for Souji and Yosuke - and presumably Chie and Yukiko as well - to hear.
Chie resisted the urge to sigh. "What? This isn't the first time it's happened and they can still get that pissed with each other now? I mean, what are they, kids?" she spoke in a harsh whisper lest the children in question could hear her.
"Well, they are younger than us..." Yosuke jokingly pointed out.
Chie scoffed. "Like you're any better."
"Wha-hey! Why are you always trying to involve me in everything?"
At the sudden outburst, Naoto gave Yosuke a sideway glance, still looking as ill-humoured as before. "What is it, Hanamura-senpai?"
"Oh thanks a lot, Satonaka," the brunet muttered under his breath. "Uh, it's nothing, Naoto. Just complaining about the cold. It's getting to me."
The detective didn't look entirely convinced at that answer, but she accepted it in spite of that. "Yes, it does seem to be much colder in this particular floor," she said without as much as a stutter, buttoning up her trench coat. "Well, in any case, we should move forward. Abnormalities of the surroundings should not be a deterrence to us."
"Right," Souji agreed, which, under such circumstances, meant that the previous topic was closed until the team fulfilled their real purpose in coming to the TV world. "Orihara-san's Shadow is nearby. Be on your guard."
The others nodded, gathering behind their leader. When he saw that his teammates were ready, Souji faced the front and then he ran forward, not stopping until the familiar gates appeared. Just as he placed his hand on the handle of the crystalline knife which acted as the lever controlling the gate's movement, Rise gave the team another warning, "There's a really strong Shadow in here... We don't know if he's hostile, considering all that has happened so far, so don't do anything reckless, guys."
"We won't," Souji affirmed.
"Teddie and I are coming over now. Stay clear, okay?"
Before anyone could respond, a burst of light suddenly appeared behind the group. It quickly died away, revealing the young teen idol and former Shadow standing in front of the angelic figure of Kanzeon, who faded away at Rise's dismissal.
"Sorry for the wait," Rise said.
"We're bear-ry sorry for the wait," Teddie echoed, his tiny feet squeaking as he waddled over to the rest of the team.
Yosuke stared at the pair blankly before he turned to Souji with an unenthused expression. "Remind me again why we can't just use the Rise Express Train to zip past everything and save us the time and trouble?"
"I'm right here, you know," Rise replied, not at all pleased that she had been reduced to the level of a vehicle even though she knew it wasn't intentional. "As for your question, I can't go to a place I've never seen before, remember? Even if that's possible, I'm only able to when somebody else I'm linked with is there. Besides, I can't teleport all of you at the same time. It's difficult enough on my own."
"...Ahh, right. Now that you mention it, I do kinda remember you saying something like that... My bad, I shouldn't have asked that at a time like this. Let's move on."
"Alright," Souji replied, and then he gave the handle a gentle push.
The moment the gates gave way completely, the Investigation Team rushed in. They were greeted by the back of a familiar hooded figure standing atop a platform of ice in the middle of an enormous pond, the largest they had seen since the start of their hike. The room was vaster than any other room they had been through thus far, with crystals lining every edge of the walls. The potato sacks and crates, however, were absent; in their place, supposedly, were massive blocks of ice that gave off a shine not distinct from the crystals surrounding them.
The thick mist in the area snaked around the figure as he spun to meet his guests.
"Ohh?" the hooded man cooed into the cordless microphone in his hand, his voice horribly dissonant and distorted. White puffs of air escaped his lips whenever he breathed or spoke. "Oh my, oh my, to think that someone actually came after me. And not just one or two, but eight of you, at that. What a big group we have here today! How absolutely delightful!"
He twirled and twirled about on his feet, causing the platform beneath him to shake and spill water onto the nearby dry land. With his hood covering the upper half of his face, seeing the Shadow's glowing, golden eyes gleam and shine through the darkness, coupled with a wide smile against deathly pale skin and a thin body emitting tendrils of violet smoke, was exceptionally disturbing.
"I must say, I am so very curious as to why so many of you decided to come," the Shadow continued to say as he came to a stop. "But unfortunately, I have a programme to run and it's not very nice to interrupt it when I have so many viewers tuning in right now. I'm on a tight schedule and my audience doesn't have all day. Ne?"
As if on cue, the low, displeased murmurs of the Shadows gathered in the fortress spilled over into the room. Instinctively, the eight Persona-users fell into their fighting stances while keeping a close eye on their surroundings.
"Th-the Shadows are getting really agitated," said Teddie. "It's sending chills down my fur."
"I nearly forgot how creepy this was..." Chie mumbled to herself.
"At least nobody's laughing like last time," Yosuke, having heard that, replied just as quietly.
With a giggle, the Shadow borrowing Izaya's form and voice carried on, almost as though he were ignoring any comments the adolescents had made, "Well then, without further ado, let's venture further and see if we can find any hidden treasures stowed away in this beautiful place! What do you say to that, my dear viewers?"
Simultaneously, high-pitched squeals and thundering cheers roared through the entire area, nearly causing Yosuke, Chie, Rise and Teddie to jump back. The others resisted flinching.
"...You just had to say it, Hanamura," Chie groaned. "Like this isn't a thousand times worse than the laughing, really."
Before Yosuke had time to react to that, the hooded Shadow brought his free hand to his chest in an exaggerated fashion. "Wow! What a heated response for humble, little me! It's making my heart throb like crazy~!" He chuckled suggestively. "In that case, maybe I ought to speed things up a bit. After all, our special guest for the night is simply dying to meet all of you, too."
The Shadow spun till his back faced the Investigation Team. "Well then, off we go~!" he exclaimed, doing a strange sort of skip off the platform and into the thick cloud of mist, disappearing into the distance.
"...Well, that was strange, to say the least," Yosuke said, some time after the hooded figure had left.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. As melodramatic as that Shadow is, he didn't exactly reveal anything about what Orihara-san has been trying to hide about himself. It's like...he's inviting us in yet still closing himself off at the same time," Rise replied, sounding rather unsettled.
Yukiko had an equally uneasy look on her face. "And what do you think the Shadow meant by 'speeding things up' or 'our special guest for the night'? Doesn't it seem a little strange that he hasn't mentioned anything about a guest until just now?"
Naoto folded her arms, resting her chin on her finger. "Unless..." she murmured, trailing off into a sudden pause as her eyes widened.
"Wh-what is it, Nao-chan?" Teddie asked in a squeak.
Without any further explanation, Naoto took off, wasting no time in leaping across the large body of water using the slippery platform and chasing after the now unseen Shadow.
"O-oi! Naoto! What the hell're you doin'?!" Kanji yelled after her, before breaking into a run to catch up to the detective despite his friends' attempts to stop him. As he went further and further in, his call of "Wait up! Naoto!" faded as quickly as his body did into the dense, icy fog.
"Crap, Souji, we have to go after them!" Yosuke shouted, almost ready to chase after his Yasogami juniors in blind panic.
"Yosuke, calm down. We don't know what's up ahead."
"But isn't that exactly why we have to go stop them?!"
Souji shook his head. "If we end up getting lost ourselves, then we won't be able to help them, right?"
The brunet opened his mouth to reply, but found himself at a loss for what to say, and promptly closed his mouth shut.
Souji's expression flickered to that of a concerned look before it was gone as swiftly as it came. He turned to face his remaining kouhai. "Rise, can you tell what's up ahead?"
The idol frowned slightly. "Hmm... Not really... But with Naoto-kun and Kanji in there now, it kinda feels like the floor's expanding a little. And the Shadows seem to be a lot tougher from here on out."
"As expected..." the leader of the Investigation Team said. "Thanks, Rise. We'll continue as planned."
"Got it, Senpai. Just…be careful, okay?" As Rise summoned her Persona, she waved for Teddie to come to her side. "C'mon Teddie, we're going back."
"Right-o!" Teddie responded quickly. "I'll do my bear-y best to keep my nose out for Kanji and Nao-chan, so go forth without any worry, Sensei!"
Souji smiled. "Thank you, Teddie," he replied. "We'll see you soon."