[Madarame's palace, entrance]
As the familiar sense of slight disturbance and nausea passed, Akira, Shiho, and Keigo stared at the spot that was used to be Madarame's shack. Instead of the shack that was literally built by tin plate, it was turned into a sumptuous-looking museum.
It was built upon golden cubes stacked on one another, with multiple spotlights shooting upward toward the night sky. On top of that, lines after lines of people waited from the main entrance, eagerly waiting to enter the museum.
"Huh, so it's this easy to guess the final keyword," Keigo, now in his Raven attire, glanced over to the palace itself. "Sometimes people are just this one-track-minded..."
"I guess it makes sense," Jester shrugged. "Madarame's main income source is exhibitions, after all. It's just much more profitable than selling the paintings."
Swan, on the other hand, groaned in slight anger. "Of course he doesn't want to sell those paintings, those paintings aren't his in the first place."
"Then we shall show the world who he really is," Raven plainly said, walking up to a truck nearby. "This seems to be the best spot to infiltrate the museum, how suspiciously convenient."
With that said, the trio jumped onto the said truck and vaulted over the laughably 'security' that was the walls. Landing in the front courtyard, the trio noticed that the security is unironically a joke compare to what Jester and Swan experienced over throughout Kamoshida's palace.
There wasn't even a single shadow in their sight.
Without a word between them, they hastily dashed through the front yard with ease. With the small light illuminating the walkway they're running on, the trio was greeted by pillars upon pillars of distorted cubes.
Noticing a small rooftop on the other side of the pillars, Jester smirked and pulled out his grappling hook. "Ahh, thank god I still have this here."
"A grappling hook..." Murmuring to himself, noticing what look Swan was giving to Jester. She was... blushing, and somehow clearly visible under her mask.
And it didn't take Raven even ten seconds to figure out what's going on, or at least got the gist of it. Well, it wasn't that hard to figure it out in the first place, espeically with how they dense acted in the real world.
Thankfully(?), Swan's words provided the answer he didn't want. "Please don't tell me I have to hold you again..." She sighed, peeping back at Raven. "Especially with Raven here as well."
"Oh right... you two still don't have a grappling hook," Internally cringing at the memories of those moments, Jester sighed and put his grappling hook back into his holster. "Well, I might try and get you two a grappling hook of your own."
"I can get them on my own term," Raven answered with the most deadpanned look as possible. "And I can get one for Swan if she needs one."
"And before any of you says anything, we should just return to our palace investigation, correct?"
Giving each other a question glance, the duo nodded stiffly in response. "Y-yeah, let's get back on the infiltration," Jester said, leaping up and climbed onto the pillars, followed by both Swan and Raven.
Before long, the trio snuck inside the museum via an opened window on a small roof near the pillars they encountered beforehand. At first glance, they were welcomed by a wall covered by different paintings.
However, instead of landscape paintings or abstract paintings, all of them were portraits of young people. And on the spot their mouth should be, there was a fake smile being poorly pasted and covered it. Aside from the people themselves, the backgrounds were just a pile of conflicting and mixed color, moving like paints on a water surface.
"Well, that's one hell of a contrast with those paintings," Jester commented plainly.
Swan nodded, looking at the portraits with slight unnerve. "Yeah... and their eyes... I feel like they're watching us..."
Raven, on the other hand, took out his reflex camera and snapped a few pictures of them. With how the pictures of Mementos turned out nicely after being processed, now he got a guaranteed way to capture evidence for his report.
As much as he had a bad feeling about them.
Walking up to those portraits before them, the Victorian-looking thief noticed an info plaque next to it. It was carved onto the metal plate with black ink to highlight them. But... there were only two lines on them.
"...Sato Takumi, 22..." Murmuring to herself, Swan couldn't help but felt more unnerved than before. She wasn't sure, but it felt like a shiver ran through her body. "What's this for?"
"Kiryuu Shuichi, 14..." Trailing off, Raven widened his eyes on the name, as if he recognized it. "Wait, that is the name of that pupil who committed suicide."
"How did you know?" Swan raised an eye in confusion, feeling a shiver ran down her body. "And only 14 years old..."
"I heard about it in the news, it was a big one in the art community," Not noticing how his hand clutched into a tight fist, the half-Frenchman tried his best to keep his emotion in check. "Especially because he was 14. I always wondered why did he just do that, even if most of the community came to the conclusion that he was just depressed."
Jester shook his head, unintentionally gulped a breath of air. "Wha- no... if it's what I'm thinking..." Trailing off, he hastily walked to another portrait and examined the info plaque of it. "...Ninomiya Mai, 19..."
"Kasuragi Yuri, 23...'
"Misaki Kensuke, 15..."
"Ibuki Ren, 26..."
The trio took a step away in unison, keeping their stare onto the portraits. Swan and Jester's eyes were widened in realization and horror, while Raven changed his gaze into calmness instead.
"These portraits... are what Madarame thinks of his pupils."
Lowering his head and let his thought ran on, Raven glanced over to the hall room next to the one they're in right now. "And we are not even scratching the tip of the iceberg."
Leading the duo to the hall, they were immediately assaulted by a hall filled with more portraits. Each of them had an odd smile placed on their face as if it was horribly pasted on them.
Scanning the entire room, Jester couldn't help but gave out a breath of shock. "Jesus... how many portraits are there?"
"Probably more than what we all expected," Swan answered. "Consider how many paintings they were showing during the exhibition..."
Meanwhile, Raven took out his camera and took more pictures of the names and ages of those pupils. "I should have brought spare films for this..." He muttered, giving out a low sigh as the film of his camera ran out.
"I don't think you need this many pictures for your report, Raven."
"I know, they are not for the report," Shaking his head at Jester's comment, the half-Frenchman put away his camera. "After changing Madarame's heart, we still need to return the paintings to their respective owners, right?"
"Even if it might not be us to gave the painting to them, it would still be helpful."
"Yeah..." Trailing off, the Victorian-looking thief looked over and widened his eyes in shock. "Wait, isn't that... That's Miyano!"
The trio rushed over and stopped in front of the portrait, their eyesight laid on itself. Just like the others, it showed a half-body portrait of Miyano with a distorted background. And just like the others, it also had a smile poorly pasted on where his mouth should be.
"So what he said was the truth, he was a victim as well," Feeling the pencil he got from that Mementos battle, Jester looked down and bit his lips. "Damn it, everything's just coming together in the worst possible way."
"Then let's get going, we are doing it for them, right?" Swan muttered out loud, giving them a determined look.
"Yeah..."
With a solemn nod from Jester, the trio continued their exploration and found themselves right in front of an info counter. Just like any normal info counter anyone would find in a museum.
However, his focus laid on the try sitting beside the info counter. It was filled with row after row of leaflets, and it had the exact same design as ones that he noticed during the exhibition in the real world.
"If my intuition didn't serve me wrong..." Trailing off, the Victorian-looking thief took one leaflet out and examined it. "Aha, there it is."
"Hmm... a map," Swan commented, poking over his shoulder and read the map alongside him. "It makes sense."
Raven agreed, picking up another leaflet and opened it. "Indeed, but this map only covered this floor."
"So we need to find the other part to complete this," Jester shrugged, putting the map inside his coat's pocket. "Just like Kamoshida's palace."
"They're just never going to let us have an easy time, right?" The white-thief sighed, turned around and glanced over to a new space behind the counter. "And we still haven't check that place either."
Placing the other leaflet back into the tray, Raven nodded and the trio walked over to the space behind the counter. To their surprise, they were greeted by a huge sculpture made entirely of gold. And the reflected light coming from it was hurting their eyes, unironically.
However, what the sculpture was sculping disturbed them. With a giant spiral of some abstract... stuff, a number of people were pictured as if being dropped down, some of them were upside-down too. But on the top of them all were Madrarame himself, standing up proudly as if he achieved something great.
Staring at the sculpture with an eye filled with hidden anger, Raven walked up to the info plaque and read it out loud. "The Infinite Spring... A conglomerate work of art that the great director Madarame created with his own fund..."
"These individuals must offer their ideas to the director for the rest of their lives. Those who cannot do so have no worth living..."
"And they called this as art..." Jester repeated with a blink of his eyes, glancing back onto the sculpture itself. "Looks more like a display of ego than anything to me."
Swan, on the other hand, couldn't help but frown and looked away. "It's just so uncomfortable to look at, both metaphorically and literally."
"...It is just an insult to art in every angle imaginable," After staring at the info plaque for a few long seconds, Raven took a deep breath and tried to keep his composure, before looking back at the duo. "This is more than I expected, and..."
"More than you can handle, right?" The Victorian-looking thief finished for him, resting his hands inside his coat as he glanced back to the sculpture. "Besides, we have Togo's request as well... I guess we should call it a day."
"Right, we still have to talk about Togo's request..." He nodded.
[Meanwhile, Madarame's shack]
Togo Hifumi felt stupid, really really stupid for doing this.
Why in the world would she think that staying behind a corner and waited for anything to happen to be a good idea?! She was lucky that no one had passed by for the last 45 minutes. If anyone saw Togo Hifumi out of anyone hiding around this corner as if she was waiting for someone...
She didn't have the courage to imagine what tomorrow's entertainment headline would.
"Maybe I should just leave..." Trailing off, she stood up with slight difficulty and was about to leave when a feeling of nausea suddenly assaulted her. "What is this feelin-"
"Well, at least we made a bit of process into Madarame's palace."
Widening her eyes at the voice behind the corner, the Shogi player hastily crouched down behind the corner again. "They're back... And just like how they disappeared..."
On the other side, Shiho only sighed. "Then what about Togo's request?"
"Uh... let's deal with that tomorrow, okay?" Akira suggested, giving Keigo a worried glance. "I guess you want some time to cool off, right? Besides, dealing with two palaces in one day is a bit too much."
"That would be preferable," Keigo nodded, holding his lips in a thin line. "Then we will meet up at the school gate?"
"Yeah."
"Alright... See you two tomorrow," With that said, the half-Frenchman turned around and walked toward the Hifumi's hiding place.
Still hiding behind and spying them, Hifumi gasped as he walked toward her direction and hastily ran away. "Please don't notice me..." She muttered under her breath, not noticing how tight her grip on her schoolbag was as her body walked toward the station.
However, her mind was running at full speed, and the only other time her mind was running this hard... was when she played against her father.
The Phantom Thieves were going to investigate her request tomorrow, what should she do? Should she came out and confronted them, or just left them to their own businesses? Wait no, it wasn't just their business, her family, life was involved in this as well.
Shaking her head and put all those thoughts aside, the Shogi player decided to leave those thoughts for tonight. At least then she had all the time to think and analyze, then decided on what she would do tomorrow.
Maybe she would figure out what should she do by then.
[16th May, Lunchtime]
"So Ichijo-Senpai, how's the progress between you and Suzui-senpai?"
Surprised by Kasumi's sudden words, Akira almost choked on his bento and coughed violently. "W-wha- What?!" He shuttered, internally being really thankful that no food was accidentally split to the table. "That wasn't expected."
"Well, it's been more than a week since we last talked, I'm just a bit curious..." Trailing off, the gymnast softly scratched the side of her cheek and smiled sheepishly.
Seeing how Kasumi tried to act cute, Akira couldn't help but giggle. "Welp, I guess we got a bit closer than before. Even though I might have overstepped for a bit."
"Overstepped?"
"I uh..." Gradually lowering his voice, he looked away with a faint blush. "Well, I don't know whether I should tell you about it, but I uh... tell Shiho that she's beautiful during a study session."
"And don't worry, Shiho didn't take that badly." However, as his gaze landed back on Kasumi, he could only see her deadpanned stare.
"Seriously? That's 'overstepping' in your mind, Senpai?"
"Uh... yeah, it just ended up making our study session extremely awkward-"
"But Suzui-senpai DIDN'T hate you for it! That's already a massive step forward!"
Akira blinked. Kasumi had a point, Shiho didn't react too badly toward his compliment, other than the obvious one. Besides, whether it was because of their other-worldly business or not, they still talked like nothing had happened.
Then why in the world should he think that he was overstepping for that sole compliment?
"Y-yeah... you have a point, Kasumi-san," He nodded, rubbing a long strand of his hair. "I'll find a way to at least... have some one-on-one trip with her? It won't be a full-on date, more like a trip between two friends-"
"That's the spirit!" Kasumi beamed. "Good luck with it then, senpai!"
"Good luck... I'm gonna need it."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the campus, Keigo somehow found himself eating lunch with someone he only met once. And out of any place they chose to have lunch, it was the rooftop.
"It's been a great help, Kamisaki-kun," Haru smiled as the two watched the empty planting pot laid organized in front of them. "At this pace, I might start doing some farming here."
"That's great," Keigo nodded, taking a sip of his drink with a faint smile. "And it seems like you did take my words in heart, I can see you changed your posture when carrying."
"Yeah, it actually made carrying them much easier than before," The heiress widened her smile in response. "Who knows how bad my hand would become if I didn't change it?"
Keigo only chuckled, letting the comfortable silence between them played out. To be honest, he liked how comfortable it could be, sometimes words weren't really needed.
After a moment, Haru curiously glanced at his camera hanging on his chest. "Actually, I've never seen anyone use this kind of camera before."
"Oh, this?" Raising an eye, the half-Frenchman took off the camera and let her had a feel for it. "It's actually a twin-lens reflex camera, which was first developed around the 1870s."
"1870s? Wow, that's really old."
"I can say that I'm more an old-school person," Keigo shrugged with a hint of a smile. "Like, I never liked digital photos, they can be easily altered without any prior learning process..."
"For me, photographs are documentation of memories, so I never wanted to see them being altered," Finish his short monologue, the half-Frenchman suddenly realized what he just said and glanced away. "Sorry, I might have rambled for too long..."
"It's fine, Kamisaki-kun," Haru smiled in return, letting him knew that she was fine with his small rambling. "I... I can somewhat relate to what you just said."
"My relationship with technology is weird, to say the least," She chuckled to herself, trying to hold her embarrassment down. "Like, I can't count how many times I have to fix my portable computer anymore. And sometimes I didn't even touch it, I tried booting it up, but it just didn't work."
"...well, that's quite far-fetch," Keigo blinked, keeping his gaze at her for a second before giving out a faint smile. "But still, thank you."
The heiress nodded, gazing off for a few moments before turning back at him. "Actually, I heard that you came from Ayanagi, right?"
"Yeah, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing too big, I'm just curious about how it is over there," She said with an innocent smile. "Ayanagi is a unique city, and it isn't common to see someone who actually lived in that city too."
"How it is to live in Ayanagi..." Repeating under his breath, Keigo stayed thoughtfully for a moment. "From an objective standpoint, I can say there's a fantastic view."
"Right, I heard that the coast is one of the must-see places, right?"
"Yes, it is," The half-Frenchman agreed, pushing his glasses. "It was where most of my early photos took place, alongside the windmills. And the snow there is great too, on top of them..."
"...That sounds a great place to live."
"Yeah, it is."
With that said, the two fell into another comfortable silence. To be honest, this was only the second time they met each other, and both of them were surprised at how many things did they just talked about.
But at least this time, the bell rang before the silence became too much.
Standing up from the chair he's been sitting on, Keigo packed up his lunch. "Lunch is ending, I think we should go back to our classroom."
"Right..." Haru nodded subtly, also standing up from the chair she's been sitting on. "Thank you for helping me, Kamisaki-kun. It's... cozy to talk with you too."
"Really?" He asked with a raised eye. "I'm not the best person to talk about anything, and this is only the second time we met..."
"No, it's just... I don't need to worry too much when talking with you," Feeling a smile crept onto her face, she decided to embrace it instead of holding back. "I... can we eat lunch together from now on?"
Keigo widened his eyes in surprise, but still nodded with a smile in response. "Of course."
[Afterschool, Kanda]
After school ended, the trio of The Fools met up at the school gate and decided to go to the Togo Residence located in Kanda. To their surprise, Togo Residence was actually just a small two-stories house, a really simple one.
"So this is the Togo Residence?" Akira asked, turning back and glanced at the house before them. "It's smaller than I thought."
Shiho sighed, giving him a light smack on the back of his head. "Even if she's a celebrity, she's still a high school student, okay?"
"I know... I'm just asking," Before he could finish his word, Shiho's deadpanned stare stopped him with pure annoyance.
"Oh, so you're interested in Togo Hifumi?"
"Wha- of course not! Why would I- Wait a sec, why are YOU worried about it?"
"Huh? Well, we're talking about business here and you're thinking about something else!"
However, Keigo had enough with their unknowingly public display of affection and cleared his throat. "We are here to look into Togo's request, not to have... whatever this is."
"And if you two want to continue on, get a room."
He watched the duo instantly blushed like crazy, and near the point of emitting steam (if a human could) with a nonchalant look. Once the blush finally somewhat faded and calmed down, the half-Frenchman took out his phone and opened the Meta-Nav.
"Anyway, we know that Togo Mitsuyo does not have a Mementos chamber," He recounted, inputting the name into the search bar. "And with how little information we have concerning the Togo family in general, this place might be where the palace is located."
"Y-yeah, you have a point, Kamisaki," Akira, on the other hand, shuttered and kept avoiding to even glance Shiho's face. "And with how Togo appeared on different TV stations or magazine interview, I can't narrow down to any specific place from that angle either."
"Nothing from my side either," Shiho added in, also avoiding to look at his face too. "S-so yeah, it's pretty much this place."
"Alright, I will put this place into the Meta-Nav..." Eyes darted between the two, Keigo couldn't help but just gave out a long sigh. "...I hate being the third wheel..." He muttered, his finger quickly tapped on his phone screen.
"Togo Mitsuyo, Togo Residence..."
"Location found, please input the keyword."
"Magnifique," The half-Frenchman nodded to himself, adjusting his glasses. "Then now it's the distortion left-"
"Y-you three did take my request into consideration."
Startled by the sudden voice coming from aside, the trio turned toward where the voice came from. And... standing in front of them in her Kosei uniform, Hifumi watched them with widened eyes.
"H-heh?! Togo Hifumi?!" Akira yelped, hastily cleared his throat, and tried to bullshit his way out of it. "U-uh... Sorry, we're don't know what 'request' you're talking about, miss-"
"I know that you three are the Phantom Thief of Heart," Hifumi interrupted him, taking a stern step closer to the trio. "Don't try to make excuses to fool me."
Widening their eyes at the name drop, the Shiho exchanged a look of uncertainty with him. Do they have anything else to say? This person knew their other identity, and their identity was at risk here.
Meanwhile, Keigo hastily scanned through his own memories, trying to find the moment they accidentally exposed their identity to her. 'I should be more careful about it!' He cursed internally.
Feeling there's nothing else to say, the amateur writer only decided to sigh and reluctantly nodded. "F-fine, let's say we are the Phantom Thief, are you going to expose us out?"
"No, this option has never crossed my mind," Hifumi shook her head, feeling her grip tightened on her shoulder bag's strap. "I'm just thankful that you did take my request into consideration..."
"Your request..." Repeating under his breath, Keigo pushed his glasses again. "So it was you after all, Togo-san."
"Yes, it was me," She nodded, casting a glance on her own house. "I... I heard about your work concerning Kamoshida Suguru on the TV... and I just wanted some help about my own situation."
"But still, thank you for acknowledging my request..." Trailing off, the Shogi player took in a deep breath and bowed politely. "If you need any help, I am happy to corporate."
The trio could only blink at her words, not able to do anything more. This was something they never expected. Even though knowing that the request came from her directly, her words were in the realm of possibility.
Processing Hifumi's words silently, an idea suddenly popped up inside Keigo's mind. The biggest obstacle they faced right now was that they didn't know Togo Mitsuyo personally.
However, Hifumi was on the opposite side. It was her mother, after all.
Adjusting his glasses even though he didn't need to, the half-Frenchman took a step forward and asked. "Actually, your appearance here right now helped us a lot."
"I apologize for the sudden question, but what does your mother view the Togo Household as?"
"My mother?" Hifumi questioned, looking down in thought. "She... I don't want to say it, but... a palace, or a pagoda to be more specific."
"A palace?" Shiho asked, raising an eye in confusion. "That was different..."
"It was more a weird quirk we Togo family has," The Shogi player shook her head in faint embarrassment. "But that what I believe mother to view the house as."
"A pagoda..." Muttering under his breath, Keigo inputted the keyword into the Meta-Nav.
"Location found, ready for navigation."
"Bingo," Letting his finger hovered over the 'navigation' button, he exchanged a glance between Shiho and Akira before giving Hifumi a thank you. "It was easier than I thought. But still, we appreciate your help, Togo-san."
"T-that's it?"
"Right, just leave the rest to us," He nodded. "And I would advice you to take a few steps away too, we don't want to accidentally pull you into the palace."
"What we're doing is dangerous," Akira sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "And you're not going to like what you see on the other side."
"...'Other side', huh?" Shiho raised an eye at the said amateur writer. "I kinda like that name though."
"Someone's watching, please keep your affection in check, okay?" Keigo deadpanned, seeing how Hifumi had already stepped back for a few steps.
Even though they couldn't confirm it, but he hoped that she wouldn't get dragged into the palace with them. And with that thought in his mind, he pressed the 'navigation' button.
"Beginning Navigation."
And just like they used to, the world distorted around them.
(To be continued)
Preview:
As another palace arises, The Fools are forced to switch their plan around.
A palace of grief faced upon them.
An entity is out-of-place.
A sudden test of their power.
Next Chapter:
"Sudden Appearance"
Stay Tuned!
And with that cliffhanger, Chapter 20 with the first visit to Mitsuyo's palace. Or right before entering the palace.
So first, it also marked the 100K word mark of this fic as well. As well as the second fic of mine reaching 100K in words!
Funny enough, the first one is the original version of Another Thief XD.
Anyway, so to uh... celebrate this milestone. I am going to bring back an old thing I used to do in AN during the original version.
*cough* Akira, do you have any word about this fic hitting 100K words?
Akira: Heh? What do you mean?
I mean, what do you think about this fic hitting 100K words?
Akira: Welp... I guess you can pack this up and publish it as 'Another Thief: Royal Fools Volume 1' or something like that. As a writer myself, I know hitting 100K words is a milestone of commitment-
Then... can you tell the readers what the hell is your novel about?
Akira: Well, it's... too complicated to summarize. And it's so long that I forgot some part of it.
...What.
Akira: Hey, you're the one who asked about it, don't act disappointed when I don't give you the answer you wanted.
You have a point here. Anyway, thank you for your appearance, Akira! Now get back to your world!
Akira: Wait a sec, YOU are the one who dragged me here!
It's non-canon, so I don't care!
*shoving Akira back inside the fourth wall*
W-well, that was a mess. Anyway, I hope you all like the story so far, reviews are definitely welcome!
