A/N: In case you didn't read the announcement i posted earlier, I have deicded to nix the initial planned version of chapter 18, as I have been unable to move forward on that chapter, so i sacrificed it for the sake of the story. In its place, I have posted an updated version of this chapter to set up the (i think) improved version of chapter 18. Thank you for your patience.

Chapter 17: Night at the Museum

Monday, 5/16/20XX, After School

The Phantom Thieves were on a train, Jolyne and Ann sitting on a bench and Ryuji standing up. "Ugh, I hate this line. It always takes forever to get anywhere…" The fake blond groaned out.

"This is the easiest way to get to Madarame's atelier, and we can bring pets on here, too." Ann replied, earning a scoff from Morgana.

"Hey, watch who you're calling a pet! I'm the one leading you to your goal, so you should all be calling me Master!" The "not" cat protested, Jolyne nudging his bag, giving a warning.

"Hey, keep it down. I didn't pay the extra pet fare."

"Oooh, kitty!" A new voice said, the source being a young girl, no more than 5 or 6 years old, staring at Morgana with an eager smile on her face.

"Crap…!" Ann muttered out.

"Is that your pet, Miss? I heard it meowing." The girl asked, Jolyne frantically searched for an answer. She did not want to pay the extra fare for Morgana…

"It's uh…it's a toy! It meows when you press down on it's head." She replied, totally not lying. "It's…a gift for my cousin." Of course, it only made the girl more curious.

"Really? Can I see?" She asked…which gave Ryuji an evil idea.

"You heard her, Jolyne. Why don't you give her a little demonstration?" He teased. Morgana scowled and was very much gonna protest, only for Jolyne to press down on his head.

"M-meow!" He obliged, getting the small girl to giggle.

"Again! Again!" She cheered, a cheery smile spreading across her face.

"P-please…Jolyne…have mercy…" Morgana pleaded, his face contorted into an expression of nausea. Jolyne looked to her nauseous animal companion, then to the smiling little girl….

"Time to button mash." Jolyne declared, and before Morgana could protest, she began to rapidly press on his head. "Oraoraoraoraoraoraoraora!"

"M-Meow! Meow! Meowowowowowowowow!" The little girl giggled at Morgana's repeated meowing, not noticing that he looked increasingly sick.

"Again!"

"Hurk…" Morgana groaned out, when the PA chimed.

"Next stop: Shibuya Station." The voice said over the intercom, and Jolyne smiled at the little girl.

"We've gotta get off now, sweetie. Go back to your mom now, ok?" The little girl nodded.

"Ok! Bye bye!" And with that, the girl vanished back into the crowd, as Morgana shuddered.

"I think I just threw up in my mouth…"

Elsewhere, the SIU director sat in his office, staring at a file on his desk. "Suguru Kamoshida…former Olympian…teacher at Shujin Academy…reason for turning himself in is a 'heavy conscience.' Hmmm…." He read aloud, and tapped his chin. "The human mind doesn't change that easily, let alone his natural temperament. Shujin Academy…" The elderly man said to himself, rising from his chair and walking to the window that overlooked the city. "Seems doubtful…but I'd better have someone look into it, just in case."

Sometime Later

The Phantom Thieves walked up to a two story building that appeared dilapidated, Ryuji couldn't help but frown at the sight. "Is this really the right address? This place looks condemned."Jolyne looked at the address that Yusuke had sent her.

"This is the place, alright. And look, there's even a nameplate that says 'Madarame' on it." She pointed out, gesturing to the plate by the door.

"Madarame wasn't exaggerating when he said he lived in a shack." Ann observed. "So, who wants to knock?"

"Are you serious? It looks like it's gonna blow over!" The track star retorted.

"Oh, quit being a baby, Ryuji!" Jolyne scolded, making him sigh before walking towards the door. He pressed the doorbell, worried that too much force would cause the entire house to collapse. They all watched with bated breath…until the intercom beneath the doorbell crackled.

"Who is it? Sensei is currently out right now." Kitagawa's voice crackled over the speaker, giving Ryuji a slight startle, and Jolyne walked p beside Ryuji and pressed the speaker button.

"Uh, Kitagawa? It's Cujoh." She responded, and there was silence for a few moments before the door in front of them slid open, revealing Kitagawa standing there with an excited smile on his face.

"Cujoh-San, thank you for-" The artist started to say, but his smile fell from his face as soon as he saw Ryuji and Ann. "…you two are here as well?" Ann just smiled, while Ryuji merely gave a small wave.

"Sorry, but there was something we wanted to ask you." The model states, Ryuji speaking up.

"Is it true that Madarame's plagiarizing stuff? And he's abusing people too, right?" He asked…only for the blue haired art student just blinked.

"Are you serious?" He questioned, Ann nodding.

"We read about it online." She responded, and Kitagawa was silent for a moment…before he began to laugh.

"Preposterous! Not only is the plagiarism impossible, but abuse? If Sensei hated children to the point that he would harm them, then he would never allow pupils into his home! And I'm the one residing here and studying under him, so when I say it's not true, it's beyond doubt!" Kitagawa angrily retorted.

"And? You might be lying about it." Jolyne stated, and that seemed to take him off guard.

"That…" He muttered out, before he recomposed himself. "That is utter rubbish! I had no family when Sensei took me in and raised me into the person you see before you! If you continue to philander the man who raised me like this, I promise you that you will rue this day!" Kitagawa bellowed out, Madarame walked out the door behind him.

"Yusuke, the whole neighborhood can hear you. What's the matter?" The elderly painter asked, and his pupil spun around to face Madarame.

"These people are slandering you with baseless rumors, accusing you of plagiarism and abuse!" Yusuke angrily answered, and Madarame cast a quick glance over the three behind his pupil.

"Forgive them, Yusuke." The artist ordered, shocking all four of them. "They must have heard those rumors, and became concerned for their friend's safety." Madarame explained, but Yusuke still looked unsure.

"…understood, Sensei." With that, Madarame turned to the three Shujin students.

"Allow me to apologize. These nasty rumors swirl up whenever I have a big exhibit opening, and Yusuke tends to get a tad defensive." He apologized.

"Well, that's fine, but…" Jolyne started to protest, but Madarame didn't pay her any mind.

"I'm sorry to have butt in on your conversation. However, I do have neighbors, so I must ask that you keep it down. Now, if you'll excuse me…" Madarame pleaded, before he turned around and reentered his shack. AS soon as he was gone, Kitagawa turned back towards them.

"I'm sorry. That was rather uncourteous of me." He apologized, before his eyes seemed to brighten. "I know! You all would believe in Sensei if you saw that painting!" Before any of them could ask what he meant, Kitagawa retrieved his phone out of his pocket and held it towards. The wall paper was an image of what appeared to be a painting of a woman in red in front of a moon and a branch, looking downwards with a seemingly vacant expression towards a fog that covered the bottom of the picture.

"What is this?" Ryuji asked.

"This is the Sayuri, one of Sensei's most famous works. This is the piece that first elevated him to fame, and is the painting that inspired me to become a painter as well." The art student answered.

"It's so beautiful…" Ann muttered out, and Ryuji nodded.

"I don't know the first thing about all this fine art stuff, but even I can tell this is impressive…" The former track star commented, and Kitagawa looked right at Jolyne.

"When I first saw you, I was overcome with the same powerful emotions I felt when I first saw this painting." He commented, and Jolyne's eyes widened.

"Wait, seriously?" She asked, getting a nod.

"I wish to pursue beauty like this, and I believe that drawing you will be vital to that pursuit. I implore that you seriously consider my offer. I'm sorry that you took all the time to come up here, and that I acted the way I did, but I must help Sensei today." He stated.

"Don't worry about it. We'll see if we can't work something out." Jolyne responded, and the odd boy nodded, before retreating back into the house. Soon, the Phantom Thieves were standing on the sidewalk across from the house, with Morgana sitting on a bench.

"So those two…seemed like nice guys, right?" Ryuji asked, and Ann reluctantly nodded.

"I feel bad. They invited us to that art show for free, and we paid them back by saying Madarame was a plagiarist. Maybe the Madarame that Shadow was talking about is a different person." Ann suggested.

"Could be. Suppose we'll have to keep our ears open." Jolyne said, and Ryuji let out a sigh.

"Man, just when I thought we had our next target, too…" He groaned out, but Morgana didn't look quite so convinced.

"Hmm, I wonder…check the Meta Nav." He suggested. Jolyne pulled out her phone and went to open the app.

"Alright, but I don't think-"

"Results Found." The app chimed, causing all of their eyes to widen.

"Wait, what?" Ryuji asked, and Jolyne looked at the image being displayed on her phone.

"This display…this is what it looked like before we entered Kamoshida's Palace for the first time." Jolyne observed.

"Was it picking up on our conversation…?" Ann muttered. "So does this mean that Madarame actually has a Palace?"

"Looks like it. Jolyne, what exactly does it say?" Morgana asked, and Jolyne read the words being displayed.

"'Madarame', 'plagiarism', and 'shack.'" Jolyne read aloud, before she remembered something. "Wait…when we first met, Ryuji talked about Kamoshida, the school, that he was a pervert, and that he thought himself the 'king of the castle.'"

"Really?" Ryuji asked, and Ann began to think.

"So that's the person who has the Palace, how their desires manifest, and the location of the Palace. So what are we missing?" Ann asked, and Morgana pursed his lips the best we could.

"If Kamoshida viewed the school as his castle, and that's how the Palace manifested…the last keyword must be how Madarame really views this place."

"For real? How the hell are we supposed to figure that out?" Ryuji asked.

"All we can do is try saying some random words." Morgana suggested, and Jolyne tapped her chin.

"Alright, how about…castle?"

"No Match Found."

"Then how about…Prison?"

"No Match Found."

"Jail?"

"No Match Found."

"It's related to an artist, so maybe…Studio?" Ann suggested.

"No Match Found." The app chimed once more, and they all let out a groan.

"This is gonna take forever…" Ryuji grumbled, when Jolyne began to think.

Several years ago, a 7-year old Jolyne was walking through the streets of Morioh next to Josuke, and they rounded a corner to come face to face with a man that had a sideways undercut. "Rohan." Josuke calmly greeted, and Rohan Kishibe curtly nodded.

"Higashikata." Rohan almost spat out, casting a glance towards Jolyne, who hid behind Josuke's leg. "Give Jotaro-san my regards." He stated, before he walked past them and approached a large, extravagant house across the street. Jolyne watched the mangaka enter the house.

"Grunkle Josuke, how come Rohan-san never invites us to his house like Koichi-san and Okuyasu-san?" Jolyne asked.

"Well, a long time ago I beat him in a game of Cee-Lo, and he's been mad about it ever since." Josuke responded. "Besides, a mangaka like him probably doesn't want kids anywhere near his 'precious manuscripts.' I swear, it's almost like he treats that place like some kinda-"

"Museum."

"Destination Found. Beginning Navigation." As soon as those words left the phone's speaker, the world around them began to ripple and distort. The ambient noises of the neighborhood faded away, and the sunny afternoon sky was replaced by a dark blue light. When the distortions finally settled, Morgana, now in his mascot form, blinked several time in shock as he hopped off where the bench had been.

"Whoa! When did you activate the Nav?" He protested, and the others, having already changed into their Phantom Thief attire, simply looked at him.

"Didn't really have much of a choice. I think we just happened to get it right." Ryuji responded. "Hey, how did you guess that, anyways?" He asked to Jolyne, who merely shrugged.

"Josuke knows a mangaka back in Morioh. Met him whenever I would go to visit. All this art stuff has been making me think of him." Jolyne responded, adjusting one of her red gloves, and Morgana just scoffed.

"What if I hadn't noticed where we were, and wandered off and gotten captured by an enemy?"

"You probably would've figured it out once you started walkin' on two legs." Ryuji shot back, and Morgana just grumbled.

"So even you can slip into the Metaverse without noticing, Morgana?" Ann asked, and he nodded.

"Yup. In a Palace with minimal cognitive distortion, the differences can be subtle. I might not notice right away."

"Forget that. Look over there!" Ryuji interjected, and they all looked behind them, and their jaws dropped. Mere moments ago, Madarame's quaint, modest, two story shack had stood behind them. But now, the shack was replaced with a towering one golden building, about the size of a skyscraper. Written on the side of the building, next to elaborate golden drawings of dragons and tigers, were golden kanji letters that spelled out "The Madarame Museum for Excellence in the Fine Arts.."

"Whoa…" Jolyne muttered out, as they all looked up at the massive golden building.

"That guy seriously views that old shack as some kind of museum? Guess this is what Morgana meant by 'distorted cognition.'" Ann remarked, taking note of the buildings intricate designs.

"Well, what're we waiting for? Let's check it out." Ryuji suggested after a moment of silence, and Jolyne nodded, and so they approached the museum. As they neared the front entrance, the Phantom Thieves were met with the sight of a massive line of faceless people gathered in front of the door. "Whoa. Is this really Madarame's?" The false blonde asked as he looked at the seemingly endless line of people, and their diminutive mascot nodded.

"That's right. A Palace is scenery driven by desires, just like Kamoshida's castle."

"So all those people are cognitive duplicates, just like the guys in the dungeon?" Jolyne asked, and Morgana nodded.

"But Madarame's art is already on display in museums, and people are lining up to see him in the real world. Why would he need to fantasize about a museum?" Ann asked.

"Ann's got a point. This doesn't really look related to abuse or plagiarism either." Ryuji commented, and Morgana just shrugged.

"I'm not sure. But we won't come up with an answer just standing around here staring." He replied.

"I agree. We should start looking around." Jolyne suggested.

"Where do we even start, though? That crowd isn't moving at all, so I don't think we can try and blend in with the line." Ryuji commented.

"There's gotta be some sort of side entrance or something, right?" Ann suggested.

"We won't be able to find it just standing here. Let's move." Joker ordered, and Morgana smirked.

"That's our Joker! The Infiltration has begun!" He cheered.

Museum Special Exhibition Room

The Phantom Thieves dropped from the open skylight, landing firmly on a metal shelf. "Man, talk about lucky. I dunno what we would have done if we hadn't found that skylight." Skull commented. After finding a way around the high walls surrounding the museum, the quartet had moved around the side of the golden building, hopping on an elevated walkway in order to avoid the Shadows patrolling the grounds. Eventually, they had jumped over several outside sculptures until they reached an elevated wall, where they stumbled across the open skylight.

Without a word, the Phantom Thieves jumped off of the shelf onto the floor, and exited the storage room they were in. As soon as Joker opened the door, they were greeted with the sight of a large room, lined wall to wall with paintings. "Are they…moving?" Panther asked, and the Phantom Thieves all turned towards the painting closest to them. The painting, which appeared to be a portrait of a young man, did indeed appear to be moving, with ripples moving across the portrait, distorting the subject.

"Hmmm…the Palace reflects its ruler's heart…we may want to check these out." Mona suggested, and Skull leaned closer to read the plaque under the painting.

"'Kazuya Inoue. Age 21.'" He read aloud. "A name and age? The hell does that mean?"

"That can't be what the title of the painting. Maybe it's the name of the artist?" Panther mused, while Joker and Mona both frowned. They had a sneaking suspicion of what it meant.

"Check all the paintings in here." Joker instructed, and Skull just looked at her with a confused expression.

"We really got time for that?"

"Humor me." With a shrug, they begun to check all the paintings in the room, before meeting in front of the first painting after several minutes.

"They're all the same. No title, just a name and an age." Mona stated.

"This doesn't make any sense. Madarame's famous for his wide range of art styles. But these paintings all look the same." Panther said.

"It's a far cry what we saw at the-"

"Whoa, look over there!" Skull shouted, cutting Joker off as he pointed behind her. They all turned in the direction the loud Persona user was pointing, and what they saw caused all of their eyes to widen.

"That's the guy from Mementos!" Panther exclaimed. Indeed, hanging on the wall close to the painting they had been looking at was a portrait of Natsuhiko Nakanohara, the man who's Shadow they had fought in Mementos just a few days ago. There was even a plaque beneath it, with his name and age emboldened.

"What the hell is he doin' in here? And why's his name written beneath it?" Skull asked, while Joker folded her arm and tapped her chin, beginning to think.

"Nakanohara was the one who first gave us Madarame's name, wasn't he?" The Joestar asked aloud, and Mona nodded.

"His Shadow did, yes."

"He also told us that the reason he acted the way he did was because Madarame took everything from him." Panther chimed in.

"This is turning into quite the mystery…" Mona mused.

"We won't figure it out just standing here. Let's keep going." Joker ordered, and they all began to move on. The quartet passed through a doorway that resembled a picture frame, and that's when they came face to face with something they didn't expect to see: a portrait of none other than Yusuke Kitagawa, just like all the others in the adjacent room.

"Whoa, it's that Kitagawa guy…" Skull observed, and Panther looked at the plaque below the portrait.

"'Yusuke Kitagawa, Age…To be announced?'" Panther read aloud, and Skull scrathed the back of his head.

"'To be announced?' What's that supposed to mean? What the hell are these paintings?" He asked aloud.

"They're Madrame's pupils." Joker piped up, drawing their attention. "Remember those books in Kamoshida's library, and how they had pictures of the people he had hurt? I think this room is something like that."

"I…I think you might be right." Panther agreed, and Skull's eyes widened.

"For real? But it was only Yusuke when we visited this place in the real world."

"This must include former pupils as well. Yusuke's the only one left…" Mona stated, and Panther's brow furrowed under her cat shaped mask.

"So if those are all his former pupils, then those ages under their names must have been when Madarame decided he was done with them." The model-turned-thief guessed.

"Then why's Kitagawa not have an age?"

"Because Madarame's not done with him yet." They all went silent as soon as those words left Joker's mouth, all of them staring at the painting of Yusuke. "…come on, let's get moving. We won't find anything to confirm all this just standing around here." Joker instructed, and they were on the move once again. Passing by several more paintings, they passed through another frame shaped doorway. They passed through a hallway, before being deposited into a spacious lobby, with cushioned benches and racks of pamphlets lining the walls, with a television displaying some propaganda about Madarame. As the Phantom Thieves walked through the reception area, Joker looked at one of the pamphlets. The pamphlet read 'Your Guide To Exploring the Talents of Ichiryusai Madarame'.

"This is getting' way too detailed for a Palace. Why'd he even make something like this?" Skull commented, reading the pamphlet title from over her shoulder.

"Your guess is as good as mine." His friend replied, and took one of the pamphlets from the rack. Opening it, Joker was greeted with the sight of what appeared to be some sort of map. "This should make things easier. Hey, Mona, can you sense the Treasure yet?" Jolyne asked, and Mona sniffed the air.

"It's very faint, but I'm getting a whiff of it. We're definitely heading in the right direction." The supernatural creature stated.

"Do you have any idea how close it is?" Panther asked, and Mona shook his head.

"I don't know exactly how far away, but it's still a quite a bit away." He replied, and the red clad model sighed.

"So much for wrapping this up quick…" She muttered out, and Joker took a closer look at the map.

"Says here that it's 'one of two.' If there's another pamphlet to complete the map, then that must mean that-"

"That's seriously only half of the Palace?!" Skull blurted out, cutting off Joker. "Just how big is this place?"

"Complaining won't do anything. If this map does only show half the palace, then we've got a lot of ground to cover if we decide to target Madarame." Joker stated, as she folded the map and placed it inside of her coat. The others all nodded, and they moved once again. Passing through the reception area, they soon arrived at another large, circular room, this one with a large golden statue in the middle of the room with ramps on either side, leading to a door. The statues themselves seemed to be several golden sheets spiraling upwards from the platform in the middle, with formless golden people that seemed to be apart of the sheets. All of this seemed to be entered around a golden statue in the middle, one that had a not-so-slight resemblance to Madarame. The Phantom Thieves approached the statue, reading the plaque on the platform.

"'The Infinite Spring…'" Panther read aloud. "'A conglomerate work of art that the great director Madarame created using his own funds. These individuals must offer their ideas to him for the rest of their live. Those who cannot do so have no worth living!'" She read aloud, before swallowing a lump in her throat. "This…this is most likely about the plagiarism, right?"

"No doubt about it. This lines up with what Nakanohara's Shadow told us about Madarame tossing him aside as soon after he was done with him." The Phantom Thieves' leader responded, and Skull scowled.

"Dammit! That no good phony geezer…"

"In other words, his pupils are his property. If this is true, he doesn't even qualify to be called an artist." Mona spat out, crossing his stubbly arms. "Stealing the ideas of talented students in exchange for securing their livelihood, then tossing them to the side after he's done with them…it's no wonder a Palace formed around Madarame."

"Then all those paintings back there…if those were the students that he stole everything from, then that was some sort of fucked up trophy room!" The blonde track star shouted, clenching his fist.

"He's treating them like slaves or tools!" Panther declared, her face downcast.

"Why's Yusuke lyin' about all this stuff? He's got no reason to cover this up!"

"Didn't he say Madarame took him in and raised him? I can't blame him for not wanting to see the truth."

"But still-!"

"I'm not so sure." Jolyne cut them off before they could begin to argue some more. "Back at the art exhibit, Mona said Yusuke acted strange when I praised one of the paintings on display. If that really was Yusuke's painting, and he let Madarame plagiarize it, he has to have his reasons." She explained, and Skull let out an angry huff.

"We know Madarame's plagiarizing his students. Ain't that enough to target him?" He asked.

"Slow down, Skull. I think we should confirm this with Yusuke first." Mona interjected, and Panther nodded.

"I agree."

"Confirm what though?! Ain't this Palace enough proof that Madarame's guilty?"

"We should still get solid evidence that he actually did all this. Besides, there's still a lot we don't know about Madarame." Joker responded, and Skull groaned.

"…I guess you're right. Though how are we going to get Yusuke to come clean?" Skull pondered, and Joker tapped her chin, thinking on all the possible ways they could get the info they nodded.

"…I still have his contact info. If I accept his modelling offer, I may be able to squeeze something out of him." As soon as Jolyne said that, Ryuji snorted.

"Wait, you're seriously thinking about doing that?"

"It's not like we have any other options. If we just turn up at the front door, he'll just kick us out again." Joker retorted, and placed her hands on her hips as she sighed. "Never thought I'd be doing this modeling thing. I don't even have any sort of idea how to do this…"

"It's not as hard as it looks. I'll give you any advice you need!" Panther piped up.

"That's good and all..." Mona spoke up, drawing their attention. "…but if we're done here, we should go ahead and leave the Palace. We've been lucky so far, but it's only a matter of time before the Shadows notice we're here." They all nodded, and began to head towards the exit.

5/16/20XX, Evening, Yongen Jaya

Jolyne let out a sigh as she entered her room, setting the Morgana Bag on the table so it's occupant could exit. "Well, at least that wasn't a total waste of time." She huffed out as she fell backwards onto her couch, and Morgana nodded.

"Agreed. Now that we know that Madarame really does have a Palace, we can start from there." Morgana stated as he stretched, and Jolyne's phone chimed.

RS: Oh man, I'm so excited!

RS: We finally have a target! Our first official mission as Phantom Thieves!

JC: Remember, we haven't officially decided to target Madarame yet.

AT: She's right. We still need some hard evidence from Kitagawa-kun.

RS: Well yeah, but we know it's gonna check out.

RS: Speaking of which, you message Yusuke yet?

JC: Not yet. I wanted to give him a day to cool down after what happened this afternoon.

RS: Just don't wait too long, alright?

RS: We wait too long, and we could lose our chance!

AT: Chill out, Ryuji.

AT: If we rush this before we're ready, we could end up causing one of those mental shutdowns Morgana talked about.

RS: Oh shit.

RS: I almost forgot about that.

Jolyne just rolled her eyes at Ryuji's message.

JC: I'll message him when I'm ready. That exhibit's supposed to last the whole month, so we've got plenty of time.

AT: See? So just chill!

RS: Yeah yeah…

RS: See you guys tomorrow…

AT: Good night!

JC: Night.

Sakamoto Apartment

Meanwhile, in the small apartment he shared with his mother, Ryuji yawned as he exited the bathroom. "Man, that Metaverse is really exhausting…" The former track star muttered out, heading into his room. By the time he collapsed onto his bed , Ryuji noticed that he'd forgotten to shut his door. He groaned to himself, unable to muster up the energy to walk over there and close it himself...when he heard it shut. For a second, the vulgar Phantom Thief thought that his mother had closed it for him...before Ryuji remembered that she was working a late shift that night. Ryuji slowly turned his door...where he saw what looked like a transparent emerging from his leg.

"Gahhhhhh!"