[21st April, Morning]

After the whole exploration in the Metaverse, Akira basically just crashed onto his couch and drifted into the dreamland. However, he still able to force himself to take a shower and packed up the clothes.

With a whole night's worth of sleep, Akira felt oddly energetic as he walked to Shujin. How long had he even felt anywhere close to this?

Putting his headphone around his neck, he sighed as he remembered how long Shiho's break last. "All the way until 2nd May, that's gonna be a long while for me." Murmuring to himself, he ignored the usual whispers around him and walked straight to his classroom.

However, he didn't notice a certain brunette was observing him from a distance.

"He looks better than before... That's weird," Nijima Makoto muttered to herself, crossing her arms as she clutched her eyes together, trying to block out those memories.

For a split second, she almost saw Shinji walking beside him, laughing and smiling. Just like how it was before Kamoshida's entrance... If Kamoshida never came to Shujin, then Kimoko won't die, and Shinji won't leave Shujin.

And HER Shinji won't leave her here...

"N-no, it's not the time to think about Shinji..." Roughly shaking her head, Makoto did a mental slap to herself and walked away.

Back to Akira's side, the lessons were just as dull as usual, endless lecture of something he either had no interest in or that already knew about. Sighing, he decided to enjoy the view outside, drifting off into the memories of his last visit to the Velvet Room.

[Last night, Velvet Room]

"Welcome back, Akira," Elizabeth smiled, taking a sip of her drink as she leaned against the bar table. "So, I can see that your infiltration into the castle of lust is going great."

"Kind of," Akira shrugged, remembering the face that Ren could use multiple Persona and decided to ask. "So uh... Elizabeth, can someone use more than one Persona?"

Elizabeth blinked, the drink in her hand almost slipped off her hand. "...So you've encountered with the Wildcard..." Trailing off, she put down the glass and stood straight. "If we're want to be straight to the point, yes."

"OK, so that's possible." Akira nodded, thoughtfully stroking his chin. "But you mentioned the word 'wildcard', what does that mean?"

"It is the ability to use multiple Persona," The velvet room's attendant explained, but Akira could notice that there's a hint of sadness hidden in her eyes. "N-not only that, a Wildcard user is also a guest of the Velvet Room."

"Guest of the Velvet Room?" Widening his eyes in realization, Akira leaned forward toward her. "So Amamiya is the guest..."

"Amamiya? So that's the Wildcard's name," Elizabeth nodded. "Be careful, Akira. We need to keep our knowledge on Yaldabaoth as a secret; if it found out that he does not capture me, the result would be horrifying."

"I know."

"Besides, I need to get Kamoshida's business finished before Shiho comes back..." Trailing off, his quiet time of looking into the cherry blossom was interrupted with a murderous glare. "...Shit."

"Hey, Ichijo! Stop drifting off!" Mr. Ushimaru yelled, spinning the chalk in his hand before throwing it to him. The white chalk flew through the air with a loud 'whoosh', aiming at Akira's forehead, dead center.

Widening his eyes, Akira instantly shifted his head aside, barely dodging the white bullet which flew past his head and shattered on the wall behind him. Mr. Ushimaru could only stare at the action with a shocked expression, but he quickly recomposed himself and returned into his lecture.

Taking a few deep breaths, Akira blinked for a few times before giving out a silent sigh. "Thank god..."

However, he didn't notice a particular black cat staring at him from the drawer, raising its eyes in confusion. "He's more agile than I thought... And that feeling..." He muttered.


[Lunchtime, Cafeteria]

Even though he tried his best, but Akira still couldn't get the special Yakisoba Pan from the store. Sighing to himself, he sat down at a corner of the cafeteria with a cheese and ham sandwich with a box of milk.

Noting that everyone in the cafeteria was giving him nervous glances, and the whispers emerged again. "Rumors never change, huh," The amateur writer muttered to himself, taking a bite into his sandwich when a certain girl suddenly walked up to him with her own bento.

"Excuse me, may I sit here?" The girl asked, and Akira raised an eye at the girl before recognizing her. It was Kasumi.

"O-oh, it's empty," Akira quickly nodded, gesturing the empty seat around him. "But didn't you heard about the rumors about me?"

"Rumors?" Kasumi shook her head in response, placing her bento on the table. "To be honest, I'm not really onto any kind of rumors..."

Raising an eye in curiosity, he pondered for a moment before shrugging. "Well, this isn't my seat, I don't really mind."

The honor student smiled and bowed politely, "Thank you, Senpai."

Shrugging, Akira took another bite of his sandwich when Kasumi suddenly bring another gigantic bento. Widening his eyes, he could only stare at the scene in front of him. "Um... No offense, but are you preparing all these for a lunch with someone?"

"Hmm?" Raising an eye in confusion, Kasumi glanced at her bento before shaking her head. "No, it's all for my lunch."

"Huh..." Awkwardly smiling, the amateur writer glanced at his sandwich before a feeling of inferiority suddenly emerged from his heart. "Maybe I should start cooking my own lunch..."


[Afterschool, frontgate]

After some messaging with Shiho during the lessons and a revision of the 'map' he roughly sketched during the exploration. Akira instantly left the classroom after the bell rang. However, just as he was about to leave school, Kamoshida suddenly appeared in front of him and stopped him in the track.

"Leaving now, Ichijo?" The PE teacher said with a disgustingly friendly tone, the smile was too wide to be genuine at all. "It's unusual that you're willing to leave this early."

"I have no time for someone like you," Akira said with a death glare, trying his best form letting his emotion overthrew him. "So please excuse me, I have my own business to attend."

With that said, Akira ignored him and continued his walk to the front gate. But before he exited the school, Kamoshida suddenly said, "It would be a shame that the Kirijo Group couldn't help you anymore when you're expelled, Ichijo."

Stopping in the middle of his walk, the amateur writer widened his eyes for a split second before turning into a determined gaze. "So you're giving me a deadline, huh. Now I'm motivated, thank you."

Before the teacher could say anything more, Akira walked out of the front gate. And just like how it was yesterday, Shiho was already waiting for him, browsing her phone with an unimpressed look.

However, instead of her Shujin uniform which Akira expected, she was wearing an azure T-shirt with the word 'Swan' on the chest with white windbreaker with black stripes on the arms over it. However, the one thing that stopped Akira in his track was that... she was wearing a pair of hot pants out of anything.

Glancing up from her phone and spotted Akira, Shiho closed the website she was browsing and smiled. "Did you just ran out of school once the bell rang?" She jokingly asked.

"Well, yeah," The amateur writer shrugged, but giving out a heavy sigh. "But, I have some bad news here."

"Bad news?"

"Kamoshida's planning to get me expelled," He explained, leaning against the wall beside her. "But the board meeting is on 2nd May, so we have a little under two weeks to finish his palace."

"2nd May... So we have to finish this before I return to school..." Shiho trailed off, opening the Meta-Nav and tapped on the search history. "Then let's do this quick. After all, I'm not going to Shujin if you're not here with me."

Widening his eyes in surprise, Akira was about to ask her about this when the world distorted around him. Within a blink, he found himself in the palace again.

[Kamoshida's Palace, Front Gate.]

Once the duo was in the palace again, Swan scrolled through the list of saferoom and hovered over the one on East building. "Hey Jester, you still got those two books, right?"

Jester slightly jumped, as if he was snapped out from some deep thought. "Y-yeah, I still have them," He nodded, showing her the two books. "The Slave Book and The Queen Book... I have a bad feeling about what's in these books."

"I just hope we don't have to read what's in them..." She sighed, tapping on the button and teleported them into the saferoom.

Opening the door, the duo instantly jumped onto the ledges nearby. Avoiding the shadows patrolling on the hallway, they entered a library-looking room with bookshelves filling the wall.

"Um... why would there's a library here?" Jester asked out loud, checking books on the shelves.

And those titles were disgusting.

"'The History of Kamoshida', 'Tracing Kamoshida's Steps', 'Kamoshida's law'..." Trailing off, he couldn't help but taking off his mask and rubbed his nosebridge. "What the hell am I looking at..."

Swan gave him a worried glance, but quickly noticed an empty slot in the role of books. "Wait, we can put something in it."

"Huh?" Raising an eye, Jester stared at the empty slot before taking out the two books. "Wait a sec. Maybe we can put them in..."

Just as he was about to put a book for testing, the door behind them suddenly opened, following by Ryuji's voice, "Man, there's must be other books on this floor."

However, he didn't notice the sound of a grappling hook as the duo quickly hid into the shadows. Not only that, but there are also two books lied on the table nearby.

"Wait a sec, why are there books lied over there?" Tilting his head in confusion, Mona took the books from the table and examined them. "No way, these are the books we needed!"

"So they just lyin' here for this whole time?" Ryuji questioned, crossing his arms.

"They aren't there yesterday..." Joker murmured to himself, glancing around but saw nothing. "But whatever, now we can solve this stupid puzzle."

"Right," Panther nodded, walking over to the slot Jester just looked into. "'Kamoshida's Law', 'Tracing Kamoshida's Steps'... I think it's for the King's Book."

"Here," Joker nodded, tossing the book to her.

"'Sakamoto Ryuji, The Vulgar Ape'..." Grunting in annoyance, Ryuji looked over to Morgana with a hand extended. "Mona, what do you think it's for?"

"I assume it's 'The Slave Book', Skull," Mona said, giving him the Slave Book and tossed the final book to Joker. "Well, there's only one left, Joker."

"I know," Joker nodded, taking The Queen Book from his hand, inserting it to the slot right in front of him. They inserted the book into the empty slot in front of them, and the wall behind them suddenly moved, revealing a new room behind it.

"Whoa, it opened up?!" Ryuji, now Skull exclaimed, widening his eyes in surprise.

"You got it, team!" Mona grinned in pride. "Let's take a look inside!"

Meanwhile, Jester and Swan were observing them from the shadow. "So that's what they're for." Jester sighed in relief as the hidden room was revealed, but narrowed his eyes at the room.

"Wait a minute, there are photos..." Swan trailed off, glancing at him with a worried look. "Should we wait for them to go, or not?"

"I think we can wait," He shrugged. "And from the look of it, it won't be anything pleasant..."

Meanwhile, the thieves entered the room and looked around. "It's that cross again..." Panther trailed off, tightening her grip on her other hand she noticed the photos on the wall.

"It's all photo about Shiho... Wait, there's also Akashi's photo..." Widening her eyes in shock, she felt a hand gently placed on her shoulder, giving her a comforting squeeze.

"Kamoshida's gonna pay for this, everythin'," It was Skull, giving her a faint smile before hardening his gaze toward the photos. "For Suzui's sake, and Akashi's sake."

"Skull's right, Panther," Mona agreed with a nod.

Panther faintly smiled in return, before noticing the medal they're looking for was lying on the shelf. "Wait, there's a medal!"

Without a word, the group walked to the shelf next to the cross and found the medal they were looking for. And under that was another map, describing the rest of the castle.

"Now our map is complete!" Mona said with a proud smirk.

"So is it gonna tell us where the treasure is?" Skull asked.

"It seems like it," Joker replied, pointing at the spot with a chest drawn on it. "I don't know why would Kamoshida left this symbol here, but it seems like there's the treasure."

"Well, that's a weird-shaped building..." Panther commented, tilting her head in deep thought. "Could this be a tower or something?"

"It seems like it," Their leader nodded, taking out the first map and studied them for a moment. "Judging from where we are right now, we're about halfway there already."

"All right! Then let's hurry over there!" Skull smirked, pumping his fists.

However, Panther only cast him an unimpressed glance in response. "We can't just blindly rush in just it's nothing."

"Now that we know how much we have left, we should find the best way to pace ourselves," Mona added, resting his arms on his hips. "Not only that, what are we going to do with the whole Jester situation?"

The three other Persona users all sighed in unison in response. "You're right, it's weird that we haven't met them again after that fight," Joker commented, putting the map into his coat's pocket. "But either they're avoiding us, or they were way ahead of us."

"I agree with Joker," Panther nodded.

"Me too," Skull nodded as well, and his head slumped for a moment. "Anyway, it's no use just to stay here and talk."

Joker nodded and led everyone out of the library, but they were interrupted as a guard suddenly entered the room and spotted them. "...Hm? Hey! What are you doing?!" It said, dashing toward them.

"Dammit, of course they spot us now," The Cat-like thief grunted in annoyance, readying his Sling Bow.

"It's time to make a path for ourselves then!" Skull exclaimed, pumping his shotgun. "Let's do this!"

With that said, the guard dissolved into black goo before emerging as two Bicorns. However, the third one emerged a whole moment later, and purple aura surrounding it with some sparks as it kept mumbling to itself. "Oh, it that..." Mona muttered out loud, widening his eyes in surprise.

"What's up with that one?" The ex-runner asked out loud, raising an eye at the Bicorn with unusual aura. "It's mumblin' to itself, but... it's not makin' any moves."

"Yeah, care to explain, Mona?" Panther added, tightening her grip on her whip.

"Be careful, if my prediction is correct, that one's a bit problematic for us," Mona explained.

"Alright, Then I'll go take care of it!" Skull nodded, dashing forward and struck the unusual shadow with his club. However, it suddenly charged back just after his attack, barely missed him.

"Whoa, what the hell?!"

"It started moving after we attacked it..." Mona trailed off, narrowing his gaze. "Looks like it's exactly what I expected."

"Once we take it down-" He interrupted himself, glancing at Joker and Skull. "Hey, you two! Watch this!"

Without any other word, he slashed the shadow with his sword. And it morphed into a purple orb of energy before exploding, severely damaging the other two Bicorn around it.

"What the..." Skull trailed off, still processing the event just unfolded in front of him.

"It's called disaster shadows!" Mona exclaimed, making sure there's enough distance between them and the shadows. "Once you killed it, it'll explode like that!"

"Hit it's weakness or just make it unable to move so we can deal with it later!"

"Got it," Joker smirked, pulling out his pistol and fired two bullets at the shadows, killing them instantly.

Once the battle was ended, Joker holstered his pistol with a spin. "So disaster shadows... huh," He commented, gesturing everyone else to go.

With a nod, they exited the library swiftly, and the duo finally emerged from the shadows. "Disaster shadows... Let's keep them in mind," Jester commented, glancing at Swan beside him. "...Swan?"

Swan, on the other hand, only stared at the hidden room before them and walked toward it. "These pictures..." She trailed off, tightening her grip on the whip-sword.

Worried by her action, Jester quickly followed her and entered the room, but was stopped by the sight before him. "They're not only about you, but Kimiko as well..." Trailing off, he tore a single picture from the wall and examined it. "Kamoshida... You fucking bastard."

It was a picture of Kimiko's thigh, shot in an extremely sexualized manner.

Crushing the picture with his hand, the Victorian-looking thief clutched his eyes for a second, before turning it into a rage-filled gaze. "You will pay for this, Kamo-fucking-shida... You're gonna pay for Kimiko..."

"He's not going to get away from what he's done..." Swan trailed off, grabbing his cheeks and turned him so she's looking at his eyes directly. "But don't lose yourself to the rage, OK? Look at me."

"You're right, Swan..." He sighed, caressing her hands with his, a bitter smile on his face. "I... it feels weird. It feels weird to have a way to take down Kamoshida finally."

"Me too," She nodded, her hands leaving his cheeks. "Let's continue on, shall we?"

Nodding, the duo exited the library and continued their infiltration. Noticing the previously blocked door was unlocked, they opened the door and ran down the hallway. They did found a safe room at the end of the hallway, but the sound of combat interrupted them.

Without another word, the duo entered the church-like area with Kamoshida's statue in the middle of the area. The group was fighting an Archangel, and they're struggling at it.

"Dammit, we need healing!" Skull shouted, holding Panther up with his strength. "Mona! We can't just let this keep happening!"

"I know!" Mona replied with the same volume, dodging another slash from the armored shadow. "But we need to find an opening so I can heal! I can't just heal you all at the same time-"

"Le Pucelle! Media!"

Feeling a wave of green aura surrounded them and the pain lessened, the group turned around and noticed the duo. "J-Jester?" Joker murmured, taking a deep breath before getting up on his feet.

"Revolver Shot!" Jester shouted, summoning Moriarty as he dodged another frantic strike from the Archangel with a roll on the ground. "You're OK?" He asked, holding a hand out toward Skull.

"Y-yeah," Skull nodded, taking his hand and lifted him off the ground. "Thank you..."

"I know we're not in a great position the last time we met," Jester shrugged, pulling out his revolver and held it in his left hand while holding the scythe with his right. "But save the questions for later, that shadow is the priority here."

Without another word, he dashed forward and summoned Moriarty again. "Eiha!"

Struck by another curse attack, the Archangel still somehow able to stay alive and charged, raising its sword into the air. Widening his eyes, the Victorian-looking thief threw his grappling gun to Swan.

"Get to high ground!" He shouted, firing a few bullets toward the shadow. "You're the only one who can heal everyone at the same time!"

Even though she was hesitant, but Swan still nodded in agreement. "D-don't die, don't you dare," She muttered, firing the grappling hook and pulled herself to the ledges on the ceiling.

Turning back to the shadow, Jester glanced at Joker for a moment. "This guy has resistance on what element?"

"As we could see, this shadow has no resistance on any element at all," Mona replied. "On the other hand, it also doesn't have any weakness as well."

"OK, then we have to brute force this guy..." He trailed off, and an annoyed grunt escaped his lips.

However, his stream of thought was cut short as the Archangel swung its sword toward them. Before he realized what he's doing, Jester found himself right in front of the blade, shielding Panther from the attack.

Clutching his eyes, Jester waited for the blow to come.

But it didn't come, and the sound of steel clashing to each other rang through the whole church. Opening his eyes, he was greeted with the sight of Le Pucelle blocking the sword for him.

"Is there something wrong with you?!" Swan shouted, aiming her sniper rifle at its head and pulled the trigger, emptying her magazine. "Cleave!"

Obeying her owner's command, Le Pucelle dematerialized her flag and gripped her sword with both hands. Then she knocked its sword aside and slashed, knocking it back for a visible distance.

"Eiha!"Smirked to himself, Jester summoned Moriarty and sent a wave of Curse energy to the Archangel. "Revolver Shot!"

"Zorro! Show your might!" Mona shouted, and Zorro sent a wave of wind toward it, finally defeated the shadow.

Once the battle was ended, Skull released a heavy pant as he grabbed his knees as support. "Didn't realize those things could be this tough..."

"Yeah," Mona nodded. "It looks like he's making a concerted effort to stop us now."

"Then we have to give our best as well," Joker commented, pulling his red gloves as he turned to Jester. "Also... thank you, and Swan."

"Nah, that's alright," Jester shrugged, adjusting his tophat. "But first, I'm sorry for that whole stunt before. It's my fault."

"We forgive you, Jester," Panther replied with a smile, but her expression quickly changed into a serious one. "But actually, there are some questions we wanted to ask you-"

"Let's just get to the point, who are you and Swan?" Skull interrupted her, crossing his arms. "It's not like we're gonna rat you out or anythin', we should work together to take Kamoshida down-"

"I'm sorry, but it's classified," Jester replied with a shake of his head, let the shadow created by his hat shielded his appearance. "Maybe we'll meet in the real world after this whole mess-"

Before he could even finish his words, more shadows suddenly emerged from nowhere and surrounded them. "Crap... More of 'em..." Skull grunted as the group faced the shadows in a circle.

"What should we do? Head back?" Panther asked.

"No, there must be some other way to get out from here!" Mona replied with a stern look, scanning the environment around them.

"Actually, there's no need to look for another way," Jester said, glancing at the ledges above them. "Swan's already there, and that means we can get there as well."

Widening their eyes in realization, the group looked at the statue before firing their own grappling hook, pulling them to the ledge above. However, the Victorian-looking thief only stared at them in pure shock for a second.

"Hey! Can't you guys give me a spare grappling hook-"

Thankfully, his ranting was cut short as a thin wire suddenly attached to his back and pulled him up to the ledges above. And the cold stare of Swan greeted him. "Idiot." She coldly said, sending a wave of shivers all over his body.

"U-um..."

"Whatever, let's keep going," She sighed, letting it slide for now as she tossed the grappling hook to him. "At least you're fine... That's enough for me."

With that said, the duo continued following the group in the shadows, and their infiltration toward the Treasure.


The infiltration went on well, and the group picked up something called 'Will Seed' along the way. Mona told them it's basically a distortion coalesce into actual items... but they were still confused.

Continuing their infiltration, they found a way toward the roof, and it was filled with shadows with menacing-looking shadows. "Well, we can't just fight them like this..." Joker murmured as they hid behind a nearby wall, using his Third Eyes to look for a way to the tower.

Thankfully, he could feel his hand glow as he noticed a spot to grapple himself to. "Stay close to me. We're gonna get across this place without alerting any guards." With that said, the thieves hopped from cover to cover, reaching a box that's close enough to reach the platform in the middle.

Grappling themselves to the platform, Joker noticed a pole nearby and grappled again, pulling them to the ledges on the wall of the tower. However, just as they were about to climb into an open window of the tower, they could hear a sound of grappling hook firing.

In an instant, the thieves could see Jester and Swan soaring through the air, reaching the opened window in no time. "Um... Can we do the same thin' as well?" Skull asked.

"Our grappling hook's range is too short to reach there," Mona replied, shaking his head. "We have to do this the old-fashion way."


Meanwhile, the duo dropped onto the room with a swift roll, opening the door and entered the tower. And they could see a purple tint to the atmosphere, the floor which looked like a checkerboard moved to different height individually.

"OK, this is really weird," Jester commented, glancing at Swan behind him.

"I just hope we can be done with this place already," Sighing, they rushed through the hallway of the tower, avoiding most of the shadows in the area.

However, they could notice a specific shadow with gold armor. "Let's see if he would give us any useful things..." Murmured to himself, the Victorian-looking thief fired his grappling hook and attached to the back of the shadow.

Pulling himself and landed on the back of the guard, he gripped on the edge of its mask and ripped it off. Then he quickly avoided a blast of energy with a backflip as an Eligor emerged.

"We can't just brute force our way out of this battle," Swan commented as she rushed to his side, an idea suddenly popped in her mind. "Jester, remember that we can hit for extra damage when they're asleep or brainwashed?"

"Of course," He nodded, summoning Moriarty. "Killing Joke!"

(Killing Joke: Inflict Despair (high odds) to all foe, and doubled the Technical Damage.)

The Persona laughed creepily in response, sending the shadow into Despair. Then he followed up with an Eiha, killing it instantly. Once the battle was ended, they were about to continue their infiltration when they noticed a lone orb on the ground.

Jester raised an eye in curiosity, picking the orb up and examined it. "It looked like an eye," He commented, pocketing the orb.

With a nod from Swan, the duo continued their infiltration. They encountered a lot more shadows and avoided them, only killing anyone with gold armor and picked up another orb. After a long while of battle and sneaking around, they reached an open room with two metal grates held up with large metal chains from the ceiling.

Not only that, to the side of the entrance was a small statue of Kamoshida, a large grin on his face. Raising an eyebrow, Jester started walking down into the room with Swan following him. But as a giant blade swinging down at where he is. He suddenly jumped back, narrowly dodged the blade.

"OK... That's REAL close..." He murmured, wiping the sweat on his forehead.

Swan glanced at the statue next to the door, narrowing her eyes. "That statue looked suspicious, maybe it has some mechanic or something like that?"

"Possibly," Sighing, Jester got up and was about to check on the statue when the door opened, revealing Joker and his team.

"Man, where the hell is that special enemie-" Skull stopped himself in mid-sentence, widening his eyes at the duo.

"Is there anywhere to stop those blades?" Jester asked with a deadpanned expression, gesturing at the statue.

"The chin is a lever," Joker answered, pulling the edge of his gloves. "but this statue is lacking its eyes, and we're looking for them."

"Eyes?" Swan asked, crossing her arms as she pondered. "Jester, remember the orbs we got earlier?"

"Orbs?" Skull asked, rubbing the back of his neck. "What do you mean?"

"She means these," The Victorian-looking thief took out the orbs from his pocket, showing it to them. "We killed some shadows with golden armor, and some of them dropped these."

"Wait! That's the eyes we're looking for!" Mona exclaimed, quickly grabbed the two orbs from his hand and inserted them into the statue.

"Let's hope this works," Joker said, pulling the chin of the statue. Thankfully, The swinging blade stopped.

"thank god..." Panther sighed with relief.

"Well... let's go, shall we?" Joker stated and crossed the huge open room.

They ran down the huge hallway in silence with the duo following the team. And they entered an empty hall that was filled with small Kamoshida statue on the dividers, parts of the floor having eroded away due to the distortion.

Seeing that there are no shadows at all, the group ran up the red stairs and defeated the long guard patrolling outside of a large white door. Noticing a saferoom at the end of the hallway, the group entered and sighed in relief.

They took a short break before continuing the infiltration, coming back to the door of the King's hall. Knowing that the door won't work, the thieves jumped on to the pillars which looked like a female body and climbed again onto the ledge. Jumping into the opening of the King's Hall, they found themselves in the balcony. Meanwhile, Kamoshida was talking to the soldiers below.

"How have you not captured the intruders yet?!" Kamoshida yelled, glaring at his guards with immense anger.

A soldier dropped his head and begged for forgiveness, "I apologize, my liege!"

"I bet he'd never imagine we're in the same room as him. Come on, let's keep moving." Mona snickered, looking at Joker.

They snuck around the balcony without being seen by any of those soldiers or Kamoshida himself. After that, they reached a large stone room which was filled with gold. The ground wasn't even visible under those precious items like crowns, jewels or necklaces. And in the middle of it all was a white orb, glowing and wavering in place.

"Whoa, what is this place?! Holy shit!" Skull exclaimed, his wide eyes darting around to those treasures. "That Treasure thing's gotta be in here!"

"H-Hey, what is that?" Panther noticed the orb and asked, stepping closer to it. "It's... floating in the air."

Mona jumped up to the grail, grinning at the orb with confidence. "Hehe... That's the Treasure! We finally found it!"

"Are you sure 'bout that though?" Skull questioned, rubbing his head. "How can we steal this thingy?"

"Same for me." Joker nodded.

"The job isn't finished, right?" Jester added, crossing his arms.

"Right, and I was planning on telling you more once we made it this far," Mona said, crossing his arm. "Simply finding the Treasure isn't enough. We'll need to make it materialize before we can steal it."

"Materialized it..." Swan murmured, raising an eye in confusion.

"what?" Panther asked.

"Whaddya mean?" Skull added.

"It's because desire has no form by nature. Hence, we'll first need to make the real person aware that their desires are in fact a Treasure." Smirking, the cat-like thief continued his explaining. "Once they're conscious that their desires might be stolen, the Treasure will finally show itself."

"So we need to let them know we're coming for their desire," Jester finished for him, nodding with a faint smile.

"So a calling card, right?" Joker said with a raised eyebrow, rubbing his chin. "That's probably what a Phantom Thief would do."

Mona nodded its head, equally excited. "Once we do that, the Treasure will appear!" Then a look of uncurtain suddenly took over the excited look before, "...I think."

Skull deflated and looked at Mona with a frown. "That again...?" He shook his head and cleared his thought. "Either way, sounds like it's worth givin' it a shot!"

The feline jumped in place and looked over at Joker. "Our infiltration route is secure. All that's left now is to pump out a calling card in reality, then come back to take the Treasure!"

Before anyone could say anything, Jester and Swan started walking toward the door. "Wait!" Panther exclaimed, stopping them mid-track. "Where are you two going?"

"Back to the real world," The Victorian-looking thief replied, giving them a faint smile. "We'll know when you sent the calling card, don't worry about it."

With that said, the duo left the room, leaving the group alone in the treasure room.

"...They're weird," Joker commented, resting his hands in his pocket. "But how would they know that we've sent the calling card?"

"Maybe they're also Shujin's students, but that's public knowledge at this point," Mona shrugged, shaking his head. "But from what they've done, I don't think they're not trustworthy."

"Yeah, I'm with Mona," Skull nodded.

However, Panther's gaze still lingered on the door, the dots slowly connected in her mind. "Wait a minute everyone, do you have a feeling that we've met them before? I mean in the real world."

Joker nodded. "Now that you've mentioned it... they looked similar."

"Same with Joker," The ex-runner added, crossing his arms. "I've been havin' this feeling that they know who we are."

Panther looked down thoughtfully, before looking back at her teammates. "I don't know if it's possible or not... but..."

"What if we already knew them in the real world?"


Preview:

The route has been secured, only one more step remained before the heist.

However, as Akira continued to prepare, another peek of the past emerged.

The calling card has been sent.

"Come, steal it if you can."

Next Chapter:

"Before the Heist"

Stay tuned!


Now the infiltration is complete, and it's time for the calling card!

However, the boss battle won't happen immediately in the next chapter, but the chapter after the next one. And with Phantom Thieves' suspicion of the duo's identity, how would their relationships change?

In all and all, I hope you, the readers, like the fic so far!

Reviews are welcome!