Heart of Justice Chapter 22
It had not taken long for the Thieves to once more find themselves in the overly-elaborate and over-decorated garden where the once sealed door now stood open, leading further into Madarame's twisted museum.
"Sweet! Looks like the security system is still down!" Skull said with a grin.
"Yeah, thanks to my hard work!" Panther said with a roll of her eyes.
"Either way, it's certainly a relief," Ace stated, looking off into the open path ahead she and Skull had entered in their previous visit.
"Anyway, let's keep going!" Mona said. The group paused, though, noting Fox glancing back the way they'd come.
"Somethin' up?" Skull asked.
"My apologies, it's just... I've been doing my best to get what I saw back there out of my mind," Fox said.
"Fox," Panther said softly, unsure what to say that could comfort him.
"...For the Sensei who raised me to truly see me as nothing more then that, some mere "project" that serves no purpose but to add to his wealth and fame," Fox said, shaking his head at the memory of the portrait of him they'd passed on their way through, "...Everything that... "Shadow", you called it, said, it was like having it thrown back in my face all over again..."
Ace looked away a moment, before glancing back at him. "No one would expect you to overcome this so easily, Fox, but we have a mission to complete while we are here. The past can't be changed, but we can still stop Madarame before he can do the same to anyone else."
Fox gave a nod, his expression hardening with determination. "Hmm, you're right. All I can do now is ensure no one else suffers because of him," he said. "Apologies, Ace. I assure you I'll do my best. I owe everyone Sensei has ruined that much."
"That's the spirit, man!" Skull said, giving the other boy a thumbs-up. "Now let's head on in and find that Treasure!"
"Ace is right," Mona said. "This place already looks more distorted then what we've already seen, which means it'll probably only get even more dangerous from here! Let's get moving!"
As the five made their way down the hall and into the large room where the massive gold statue of Madarame stood. A larger Shadow guard wreathed in red smoke patrolled the statue in a circular route, prompting the Thieves to quickly move behind the corner.
"Let's try and steer clear of that one!" Mona whispered. Ace gave a nod of agreement as she looked ahead, spying a hallway beyond the statue, framed in golden peacock feathers and gold tiling.
"Seriously, all this gold, it's hurting my eyes," Panther whispered in disgust.
"Indeed. Gold is a sight to behold on its own, yet in such abundance it has an opposite effect," Fox whispered back.
Ace watched as the Shadow turned the corner and paused, gesturing and she and the others ran past and through the hallway as the guard continued its patrol route. She stopped, however, upon entering the hall as she noticed another pamphlet rack. The others looked over at her as the young detective approached and took one, unfolding it.
"What'd you find?" Mona asked, approaching.
"Seems to be a map to this part of the Palace," Ace explained, looking it over.
"So now we should be able to find where the Treasure is, right?" Panther asked, approaching as well along with the others.
"At least now we can commit it to memory and figure out where we're going," Mona explained. "But if I had to guess, we'll probably find it in the inner most part of this place."
Ace looked over the map, taking note of one particular part. "Hm... perhaps over here?"
Mona gave a nod. "That would be my guess. It's more isolated and looks like it's the deepest part of this place. It's easily the most suspicious spot."
"It seems there's a lounge and a gallery between it and us," Fox observed, looking the map over.
"And security is probably even worse with Madarame already on guard in the real world, so let's be extra careful!" Mona said.
Ace nodded. "I wouldn't be surprised at all," she said, walking ahead and peering through a barred opening ahead. "There's another passage through there, but..."
"What is it?" Panther asked, coming up behind her. Ace glanced back at her and led the group around a hallway to where an open doorway leading into the large room the bars had separated them from lay. The room was spacious, with no apparent obstacles other then one or two Shadow guards that seemed to pay them no notice as they paced about the room. This, however, was not what had gotten Ace's attention as her gaze fell on several metal fence towers stationed about the room between the Thieves and the doorway at the opposite end.
"Laser fence towers," Mona said, looking around.
"Figures, knew it looked too easy," Skull muttered while Fox seemed to have his attention on the three large bamboo forest paintings hanging on the far wall near the doorway.
"Hmm... can't see any of the bars," Panther remarked.
"Still, there has to be a path through for those Shadows to be able to walk around without setting off any alarms," Ace replied.
"How will we do that?" Fox asked, looking back at her.
Ace focused for a moment, and suddenly, before her eyes she could see red laser bars scattered about the towers, but not all of them. As she'd suspected, a safe path seemed to be open for them to cross through, though there was the chance they'd have to fight their way through the guards in the process.
"Follow my lead," she said at last, immediately moving ahead, though cautiously ducking behind one of the towers as one of the guards began to walk towards her, the others keeping a distance behind other towers.
The young detective took the moment to examine the room better. There was another hallway on the right side of the room, but it was inaccessible, only the hallway ahead of them was.
Making note of this, Ace waited until the guard had turned away again and hurried down the open path and into the hallway ahead, the others following quickly.
"Whoa, there's a strong-lookin' one right over there!" Skull said nervously, pointing to a right turn in the hallway. Ace turned, and there stood a Shadow guard in a red uniform, similar to the one she and Skull had encountered the time Panther and Mona had gotten the door unlocked for them.
"His stance certainly conveys the notion he is no ordinary foe," Fox observed as the Shadow stood before a closed-off room, eyeing the group but not approaching them, as if daring them to come and challenge it.
"It looks like he's guarding some kind of control room," Mona said, gazing through the windows behind the guard.
"If we're going to get any further we'll have to disarm the security," Ace remarked. "It would seem we have no choice but to use force!" Giving her gloves a tug as she stood straight, the girl glared back at the guard in defiance and advanced.
"Heh, and who are you?" the Shadow growled mockingly, "How did you even get in here?"
"You'd be surprised how easy it was," Ace replied flatly, reaching into her coat and drawing out her gun. "Step aside and let us through!"
The Shadow responded with a laugh. "You're a cocky one aren't you, kid!" it sneered. "You're sorely mistaken if you think you can intimidate me!"
The ground shook as the Shadow convulsed and exploded into a mass of red and black ooze that reformed itself into a winged, blue-skinned humanoid in a white and black gi holding a large conch shell horn, a pair of gray-skinned winged humanoids with beaklike masks resembling tengus, similar to the ones the Thieves had fought when Fox had awakened to his Persona appearing alongside it, prompting him to recall their weakness to its abilities.
With a yell, Fox grabbed his mask as Goemon appeared above him, unleashing a blast of ice upon one of the smaller Shadows, causing it to cry out and fall to the ground. Ace, meanwhile, called forth Jack Frost, who unleashed a similar volley of cold magic upon the other, sending both to the ground in a daze.
"Nice work you two! Way to hit the weaknesses!" Mona cheered as Panther and Skull summoned their own Personas who dealt the finishing moves on the two weaker ones.
The larger Shadow chuckled, however, rather then showed fear. "You think that you've won, don't you?" it taunted, blowing its conch shell horn and in a burst of black and red smoke, two new smaller tengu-like Shadows appeared where the previous ones had been destroyed. Before the Thieves could react, the two held their hands out, unleashing a cyclone at the group that sent them flying back into the wall.
"It's no good, we'll need to take out the leader," Ace stated, rising from her crouching position and lowering her arm from having shielded herself from the attack though a little worse for wear as her teammates hurriedly stood themselves back up.
"Lemme knock him down first, then go for the ice attacks again!" Mona declared, getting himself back up and summoning Zorro who in turn summoned a spring-loaded boxing glove that socked the taller Shadow in the face, knocking it out of the air.
"JACK FROST!" Ace shouted, summoning the snowman-like Persona once more and unleashing a blast of ice that struck the whole group, knocking the tengu Shadows out of the air before they could respond and leaving their leader encased in ice.
"They're down! Everyone, attack!" Ace ordered, whipping out her dagger as the five Thieves leaped into the air, striking all their enemies in a blur of motion. The smaller enemies exploded as the larger shadow was now staggered.
"Little... brats!" it snarled, preparing to raise its shell again to summon more minions, but Fox acted first.
"GOEMON!" Fox called forth his Persona, blasting the Shadow with cold and encasing it in ice.
"Perfect! Fire away everyone!" Mona yelled, whipping out his slingshot and the other four taking out their guns as well and unleashing a volley of bullets on the enemy, the ice and its very form shattering apart after taking the punishment.
"Heh, not bad!" Skull said with a thumbs-up as he wants the Shadow's remains dissolve. "Thought for a moment we'd get trashed!"
"Definitely starting to take a whole new level, aren't they?" Panther asked.
Ace gave a nod. "It would seem so. We're getting deeper into the Palace, after all," she said. "At any rate, we should examine the room that Shadow was guarding."
Pressing a switch outside the doorway, Ace led the way in to the small room, filled with several terminals, as well as monitors that showed surveillance of various hallways and rooms of the museum confirming it to be a security control room.
"Sweet!" Skull observed as he looked around. "So, all's we gotta do is turn those damn lasers off!"
"It seems to be password protected," Ace remarked as she studied a terminal that had been left on.
"Aw man, a damn password? Ya kiddin' me?" Skull protested.
"Guess we'll need to find someone who knows it, then," Mona replied.
"So it would appear," Ace said, holding her chin in thought as she stared at the terminal a second longer. "Still, it's unlikely the security that handles this terminal would be far from it while leaving it unattended," she added. "Let's look around."
Returning down the hallways, which had begun to make Ace and the others feel a little dizzy staring at their gold checkerboard patterns covering the walls and ceilings, Ace blinked a few times in disgust as she led the way to a turn that had been gated off, pausing as she saw a pair of Shadow guards on the other side conversing.
"It seems the intruders have already made it past the Central Garden security!" one of the guards stated to its companion.
"Yeah, I just got a call earlier to change the password here, too!" the other guard replied.
"Oh yeah? What to? Hope it's not too simple!" the first guard said.
"Well, I did have a tough time coming up with a good one. Tricky to figure out but easy to remember, you know?" the second guard answered. "So, I set it to... the numbers for Lord Madarame's feet!"
The first guard tilted its masked head in confusion. "Lord Madarame's feet? What're you talking about?"
The second guard shook its head. "Don't worry about it now. We need to find those intruders!"
Once the Shadows resumed their patrol, Ace turned to face her teammates, folding her arms as she gave the conversation they'd overheard some thought.
"Madarame's feet? The hell's that supposed to mean?" Skull wondered aloud.
"Maybe his shoe size?" Panther asked, looking over at Fox. "Would you know it?"
Fox simply tilted his head. "I've never heard him mention it, no," he said. "Are you sure that's a proper number for a password?"
Ace shook her head. "Average shoe size for an average adult man, even toe number, that's still at most just two digits either way," she said.
"Maybe... shoe size and toe number?" Skull asked.
Ace pondered a moment in thought, then shook her head again. "Neither of those sound like something that'd just be made readily available with anything but guesswork and assumption," she explained.
"There must be something we missed," Mona replied.
"Maybe that giant statue from near the front of this building?" Panther offered. "It's the only thing I've seen that has anything depicting his feet. Maybe it's the size and such of the statue's?"
Ace gave a nod. "It's worth a look," she replied, giving a faint smile. "Let's go."
Moments later, the group found themselves once more standing before the gigantic statue of Madarame that stood at the lobby of the once-locked building.
"Not really sure how we're gonna measure this," Skull muttered, staring up at the golden monument depicting the Palace's Ruler.
"I mean, his socks have two toes each," Panther said.
"But who can say if that's a number for the password," Fox replied.
"Besides, we don't know if any alarms will go off if we go past these posts," Mona remarked, frowning as he noted the divider posts surrounding the pedestal the statue had been placed on.
"Yeah, we don't want a repeat of the last time!" Skull replied, earning a glare from the cat.
"Hey, that wasn't my fault it was that Treasure Demon's!" Mona protested.
"Quiet, there's something written here," Ace said sharply, leaning in and examining a small golden plaque posted in front of the pedestal right in front of the statue's feet.
"Here we praise our most holy Lord Ichiryusai Madarame, the one ray of hope in this depraved world," the young detective read aloud. "...He stands alone, as his two adept hands paint the future. None shall ever match his excellence!"
Skull shook his head in disgust. "That damn phony's really puffin' his chest out here, ain't he?"
"Hm, perhaps this plaque may be the spot of Madarame's feet the guard mentioned?" Fox inquired.
"Well, it is positioned as it feet but I don't see any numbers," Panther replied.
"On the contrary, there are numbers in this description," Fox explained, running his finger along the plaque, stopping at key words. "..."One" ray of hope stands "alone", "two" adept hands, "none" shall match him..."
Kyoko brought her hand to her chin as she looked over the words Fox had pointed to. "Then our potential password is "one", "one", "two" "zero"."
"Sweet!" Skull cheered. "Then let's get back to that control room and shut down that security already!"
Exchanging a mutual nod of agreement, the five quickly made their way back to the control room, Ace typing the numbers into the waiting terminal once they'd arrived. A second after, Ace and the others turned at the grinding sound of the gates to all the other hallways rising up, allowing access. Leaving the control room and entering the larger chamber through the now opened door, Ace paused as she noticed there were still laser guards up blocking their progress to the other newly-opened hallway on the other side of the room, glaring as she noted there was no way she'd be able to slip around them, leap over, or slide under.
"Hey, check this out!" Skull called, prompting Ace to turn and see what was going on. The boy had touched one of the gigantic, rippling bamboo forest paintings on the wall and his hand and half his arm had gone through it!
"Hey! Careful!" Mona snapped, prompting Skull to pull his hand back out, though by Ace's observation it looked perfectly normal and unharmed as the painting rippled like water.
"Hm, such a bizarre texture despite its simple technique," Fox remarked as he looked it over. "It is indeed almost as though I could just slip inside..."
"From the looks of what Skull did, you think we can actually go inside it?" Panther asked.
Mona looked over at the laser guard blocking their only other path, his large blue eyes tracing along the wall where two other similar paintings lined it, the third positioned right above the hallway they were attempting to reach. "I'd say so, and I don't see any other way we could get across."
Ace gave a nod. "Then we'll have no choice but to give it a try," she said, approaching the painting. "I'll go in first..."
Readying herself and crouching, Ace leapt forward at the painting, her form vanishing through its surface only to suddenly reappear within it a second after, standing on the painted hills as if they were real terrain. Panther, Skull, Mona, and Fox, seeing she looked fine, leapt in after her, and soon all five were now standing within the painting.
"Whoa, okay this is kinda freaky," Skull remarked, tapping his foot on the painted landscape as if it were solid ground.
"At least we appear to be safe," Ace replied, stretching out her hand towards where they'd come through, which now looked like a large window hovering in the vast forest leading back into the museum.
"How dare you thieves trample on my tranquil garden with those grimy feet!" Madarame's voice suddenly boomed loudly seemingly all around the group. "You won't leave here alive!"
"The hell was that?!" Skull cried out.
"It's probably just Madarame's thoughts," Mona replied. "No need to panic."
"This way," Ace said, looking to her right as she calculated would lead them to their intended exit point as she ran ahead, the others following her through the watercolor forest, pausing as she came to what appeared to be a dead end.
"Seems this place is formed by a multitude of paintings," Fox remarked, looking around.
"Um, I don't see a way out of this one, though," Panther said, concerned.
Ace looked about, before closing her eyes a moment and focusing. There, ahead past a small hilly area was a hidden window frame leading back to the museum. Glancing back at the others, she pointed ahead and made her way forward, leaping ahead and in a flash as if jumping through water, she found herself back in the museum, now on a higher platform above where the laser guard maze was and a second after, the others emerged as well right behind her.
"Despicable, he calls us thieves who dirty his heart," Fox mused aloud. "The one who sullied the very nature of art itself with his lies has no right to accuse us of such things!"
"You'll have your chance to make him pay, later, so save your emotions for then," Mona explained. "For now, we better keep going!"
"Aw great, more big paintings like before!" Skull muttered as he and the others had found themselves on a balcony overlooking a gigantic, golden wall adorned with peacock feathers, five gigantic portraits hung on the wall, each depicting a different kind of landscape save for the two blank ones on top. The others depicted from left to right three camels walking through a desert, a cloudy mountain shrine, and a pond with a large rock at the center of it surrounded by a grassy clearing in a forest.
Ace brought her hand to her chin as she looked them over, the two blank ones were especially intriguing, the one on the far right hung just above a scaffold leading to the only other door she saw, while the desert painting had a corner just above a scaffold at the left end of the balcony they were on. If it was anything like the previous experience, it was likely this would be their path.
"So, ya think this's like last time?" Skull asked as the group approached the scaffold under the desert painting. "Y'know, with the secret passage through the paintings n' all?"
"That would be the most likely assertion," Ace replied, gazing up at the huge painting that now loomed over them, its surface rippling like it were water. "From the looks of things, if we follow the sequence it will take us to the platform on the other side like the previous ones."
"They all look totally different, though," Panther said.
"...And not only that, there are two frames with no painting at all, including the one at the end," Fox pointed out.
"Indeed, but it looks like all we can do is investigate," Ace replied. "...Let's go..."
Upon entry, the Thieves could immediately feel the dry wind and arid scent of the desert, though it didn't feel any warmer then the rest of the museum. Despite the landscape appearing more detailed and realistic then the stylized bamboo forests of the previous paintings and the camels within no longer appearing flat, the place kept a stillness, everything remaining perfectly in place, as if frozen in time.
"Alas, this world is naught but an arid desert, filled with laymen who can never understand true beauty!" Madarame's voice echoed around them in the wind. "The slow drain of my skill is inevitable when I am surrounded by mediocrity!"
"The bastard's blamin' the world for his declinin' skill?!" Skull snapped, scowling. "He never had any real talent to begin with!"
"...Just like Kamoshida blaming other's expectations on him for his disgusting crimes," Panther hissed, shaking her head.
"So long as people like them think they can just blame everyone else, they'll always excuse everything they do," Ace replied before turning her attention past the camels. "The path's this way, let's continue."
Leading the group past the frozen camels, the Third Eye sense guiding her, Ace approached a shimmering point and suddenly in a flash, the five Thieves found themselves atop a tall mountain with a red shrine arch at its peak. Despite the howling winds and the clouds billowing below and around their waists that concealed the ground, however, the air felt the same as it did in the museum once again.
"The gods, even in their dormancy, are worshipped constantly," Madarame's voice boomed from the skies above. "People gather under their shrines, offer money, and return home fully satisfied! Art is practically the same way! In the end, it's all just a matter of imagination!"
Panther frowned as she listened to the voice while the group pressed on. "Even if that were true, that doesn't give you the right to be deceiving people!"
"Tell me about it!" Skull said. "This ain't about givin' people somethin' to believe in, this's just him takin' advantage of 'em!"
Ace looked around, following her senses as she saw a shimmering point within the shrine arch and approached it, and in a flash, the Thieves found themselves in the forest painting in front of the pond with the tall rock formation.
"Hard work is not what makes a sapling grow tall and thick with green leaves," Madarame's voice explained, coming once more seemingly from all around the small group. "Too many young people do not see the true value of youth these days, what fools! Is it really so wrong for an expert like myself to capitalize on that youth before it has wasted away?"
"What the heck?!" Mona protested, a disgusted glare on his face. "He's basically saying he's jealous of young talent!" he said. "Look at me, I was turned into a cat and I'm still fighting! Age is no excuse!"
"There's a way out over here," Ace said, pointing towards a small bush area where she could sense a shimmering point. As she led the others through, they found themselves on a lower scaffold where a podium with a switch stood.
"So, shall we press it?" Fox asked.
"I see no other options," Ace replied, looking at the empty frames and the higher scaffold they'd been attempting to reach and pressed it. A tremor passed through the room, and suddenly the topmost frame began to change, a traditional watercolor of a wooden ship in a stormy sea appeared within it.
"So that's it," Fox observed, looking at the new painting. "...Passing through one hidden route leads to the formation of another. What an elaborate ruse."
"Then a new path has likely opened to us," Ace replied, glancing up at the new painting as well. "We should go and see."
No sooner had they re-entered the forest painting, however, that the Thieves found themselves in very familiar, dry surroundings.
"Holy... camels again?" Skull asked, looking around as it seemed they had ended up in the desert painting once more.
"They don't seem to be connected as we thought. We'll need to try and find the right path, see if anything new's appeared," Mona said.
It did not take long, as once they'd reached the mountaintop shrine once more, Ace could sense a new entry point at the other side of the mountain and approached it. As she suspected, the group now found themselves aboard the ship. She could feel the misty spray and smell the salty air of the sea, a storm above threatening to break from the watercolor clouds as the waves tossed and turned about around the ship, the tentacles of a sea creature thrashing in the water nearby. Still, she could hear Madarame's voice echo around them once more, louder then the winds that swept the painted currents.
"Could a ship skirt across the ocean if its crew had to constantly worry about what sea life may lie below?" the voice asked. "Art, life, water. They are all identical! The one who ascends to the summit is the victor!"
"He's usin' all these pretty words," Skull remarked, "...but he's really just sayin' he sees everyone as steppin' stones!"
"Everyone he took in as his pupils," Fox said softly. "...Yonaga... myself... so many others... he used us all for his "art"..."
"That piece of shit," Skull fumed. "There's no way we can let him keep doin' this!"
Ace meanwhile, turned her attention to the side of the ship, where she sensed a shimmering spot in the waves themselves and jumped in, much to the others' surprise before following suit, and instead of hitting water, the group suddenly found themselves landing on another scaffold, where another switch awaited. Glancing at it and the remaining empty frame, Ace pressed it. Sure enough, the empty frame shimmered and rippled as a new painting appeared, depicting an opulent porch overlooking a lush garden bathed in an afternoon sunset. Ace noted the painting and the one they'd just come out from were too high to reach, the desert painting being the only one now accessible from outside. She looked the paintings over, her gaze falling on the forest clearing one, where a new shimmering point had appeared atop the rock formation.
"Let's go," she said, leading her teammates up the scaffold and through the paintings, following the path to the rock formation and leaping atop it, to where the entry point she'd seen was, and the group soon found themselves standing within the newest painting.
"Beauty is merely a mirage!" Madarame's voice cried out around them. "Transforming that into wealth is what brings about true happiness! My fine mansion? My lifestyle among the chosen few? Those things are the true "art"!"
"So, running your atelier out of a shabby, run-down shack was simply an act after all," Fox said, downcast as he glanced around. "If I had to guess, this is likely similar to the place Sensei truly calls "home"..."
"Fox..." Panther looked over at the boy, concerned.
"How foolish of me to have allowed myself to be deceived for so long," Fox said, shaking his head in disgust. "I owed so much to him... as both a father and a sensei, so I never questioned it... no, I was deceived because I willfully blinded myself from the man he truly was..."
Ace glanced back at him a moment, but said nothing, turning her attention to a shimmering point. "That way, up ahead. Hopefully the way out."
As they made their way to where Ace had indicated, the Thieves found themselves on the high scaffold right near where the door was.
"Sweet! This has gotta be the end!" Skull cheered, grinning as the group was back in the museum.
"How despicable," Fox commented, glancing back at the large paintings they'd walked through. "We have encountered so many of his paintings, but not once did he ever mention a love for art. These are no "paintings", they're nothing but meaningless self-assertions placed inside frames!"
"In that case I'm excited to see how the change of heart will alter him," Mona said.
"I'm just glad we got that whole crazy trip behind us!" Panther said with a smile.
"True that!" Skull replied as they all began walking to the door ahead. "Hopefully that's as nuts as this place gets!"
"Shit, what the hell is up with this place?!" Skull asked, staring agape at the new surroundings the group had found themselves in following a large storage room that had proceeded the giant paintings they'd traveled through.
"Isn't that a good question!" Panther remarked, eyes wide with disbelief at where they now were before suddenly rubbing them. "Ugh, there's so much gold... it's really hurting my eyes even more, now!" she protested.
"You'd think after a simple storage room our path wouldn't change so radically," Fox mused, looking around as well.
"The distortion's really bad here, it's barely even holding up!" Mona explained.
Ace could not argue anyone's point. What stood before them was what could only be described as twisted whirlwind of gold-plated stairs, some made of brick, others made of canvas, going in every direction possible. Literally every direction possible, bathed in an intense, bright gold light shining through the gaps in the geometric block formations and arches the stairs led to, from, and underneath as though it were not even part of a building but rather the entire structure were suspected in the air, the light making it impossible to ascertain which angle was even correct, portraits of Madarame's pupils and flags and banners promoting his exhibits hung about at crooked angles or even upside-down only compounded this further. The entire design of it reminded her of MC Escher's "Relativity" painting.
Taking out the map, the young detective noticed there was only a large blank space separating where they'd come from and what lay beyond that likely represented where they were, now. "It's not on the map, either" she said.
"We'll need to determine the true path with our own eyes, then," Fox replied.
"It would seem so," Ace stated, making her way up a stair set and hopping down to a lower part of the platform they were standing on and making her way down the stairs it led to, though they came to a stop at what appeared to be a wall.
"So where do we go, now?" Panther asked. "I don't see any other ways..."
"Hey, check this out!"
Ace looked where Skull was pointing, and noticed a glowing blue outline on the wall in front of them, on the left side as if it were framing a door, making a crack at the bottom, or like a partially peeled-off sticker.
"It seems to be covering something," she said. She focused a moment, the senses that Igor had granted her told her the path continued beyond it. "...Let's try moving it."
Squatting, Ace and Skull both grabbed the corner and gave it a firm pull and suddenly the section of the wall tore clean off as though it were made of paper, creating a tall doorway three times their height that seemed to go into a blue light.
"Good thing you'd noticed that. We may have been trapped here, otherwise," Fox remarked.
"Eh, I kinda just got lucky, really," Skull replied sheepishly.
"...How could this be..."
Ace glanced back at Fox, who was looking at the group's twisted surroundings once more.
"...I thought I'd seen everything there was to this distorted world. To think Sensei's mind could conjure up such a bizarre place like this," he said.
"Be that as it may, there could be more walls like this if we find ourselves running into any dead ends, so let's keep an eye out for them!" Mona urged.
The moment the group stepped forward into the blue light, however, they found themselves on another platform with several stairways. Looking around, Ace noted where they stood now could not have possibly connected to where they had once been when they'd walked through. In fact, the way they'd first entered this strange place was in the far distance, now.
"Did we just... warp or somethin'?" Skull asked, looking around.
"It would seem the paths beyond these apertures are distorted in the same way as this room," Fox noted.
Continuing down the stairs that now stood in front of them, the Thieves found themselves at a fork in the path, leading to two different stairways with two different doorways both bathed in blue light.
"So which way, now?" Skull asked.
"Ace, look!" Panther called out, prompting her to turn. Panther was now standing before two "Sayuri" paintings, positioned before the paths. One painting showed the woman in a blue robe, the other in red. The young detective approached, her hand at her chin as she looked them over.
"What are they doing here?" Panther wondered.
"It's connected to the Palace in some way," Ace replied, looking at the two paintings. "Likely a representation of his counterfeit operation."
"Why is the woman wearing a blue robe in that one? In the real one we saw in that locked room, she was wearing a red robe!" Panther said, glancing at the painting on the left.
"Because it's an obvious fake," Fox replied. "This one right here, however, is very much the original. The vibrant crimson robe, her beautiful hair, the sublime balance between subject and background. Palace illusion or not, it is a spitting image of the true "Sayuri"."
The two paintings suddenly vanished in a bright flash, a single glowing ball of yellow light appearing in their place as it drifted past the Thieves and up a small ledge and several stairs to one of the two doors and entering it. Once the light disappeared into it, the blue light shone a brilliant yellow.
"I see," Ace observed. "...It's possible Madarame alters the design for his copies in some way or another to better deceive his customers," she explained. "After all, if an image of one got out to the public, each customer would be led to believe their own to be authentic because of the difference it has and believe the other to be a fake. Madarame lying that it was stolen would lend credit to a claim that the thief made the counterfeit and not him, the real artist..."
"...And those with an eye for genuine art and ability to see through such trickery are brought to the truth," Yusuke replied. "It makes sense now, this golden place filled with counterfeit work... when he is not stealing the rewards of his students are owed for their work, he entraps people who can not see through his lying facade..."
"Then finding the "real" one at each fork is a clue that leads us down the right path in this place," Ace confirmed.
"Well, if this is the right way, then we'd better get moving!" Mona said, rushing off ahead and the others following behind. As they entered the archway, in a bright flash they found themselves on a ledge, where four more "Sayuri" paintings sat on easels along the wall.
"Fox, you know the original, you'd remember every detail, correct?" Ace asked, looking back at her teammate.
"Absolutely," Fox replied. "In the locked room where the copies were stored, I was able to recognize the authentic piece. Every aspect of the painting fuels my passion for true beauty through art, I'd recognize it anywhere."
Fox looked at the four paintings, stopping at one. "This is the only one with the branch from the backdrop. It's not as obvious a difference as the previous one, but anyone who knows the painting well enough would have little difficulty remembering it."
Ace walked over, examining the painting Fox stood before, taking in each detail as the only other time she'd been exposed to it was when she'd seen the image of it on his phone. "I see, then this is the correct one. The tree branch is absent in all of the others."
Immediately, the paintings all vanished, as the last two had, a glowing ball of light soaring off to a doorway ahead, turning its light from blue to a golden yellow.
As the group emerged to find themselves on a narrow platform of winding stairs. Ace looked around, blinking in concern. The platform had no less then ten "Sayuri" copies positioned about it.
"Aw shit! How're we supposed to tell, now?!" Skull protested.
"Only one of them can be the real one, but they're spaced apart so it'd be hard to reference them!" Mona said, looking about the pathway before them.
"Leave it to me," Fox said, stepping forward and approaching the first one that was positioned right where they'd entered from. "This one is not the real one," he said.
"How can you tell?" Panther asked, looking it over. The branch was present, the robes were right, the setting sun was where it was supposed to be.
"Right there," Fox pointed. "The eyes are the wrong color."
"Hmm, good eye, Fox!" Mona said with a smile. "We should continue looking, then!"
With each "Sayuri" the Thieves approached, however, Fox found an imperfection, leaving only one left at the end of the narrow path leading to a lone, blue-lit door at the end.
"It's gotta be this one, right? There aren't any more left, and it's at the very end," Panther said.
"Yeah, kinda standard he'd want us to go the extra mile, right?" Skull asked.
"Wait!" Fox snapped. "This one's wrong, too!"
"Are you certain?" Ace asked.
"Very," Fox said, pointing to the top of the painting. "The branch, the cherry blossoms are not budding."
Ace brought her hand to her chin as she looked at it, then back the way they'd come. "That was all of them, though."
"There has to be something we missed, then!" Mona said.
Ace nodded, retracing her steps as she focused for a moment. Ascending the stairs back to the previous platform, she took notice of shimmering cracks in the wall behind where several fake "Sayuri" had been positioned and approached it.
"You find something, Ace?" Mona asked.
"This wall, I think it's like the one Skull spotted earlier," Ace replied, reaching for the corner and giving it a pull. The fake wall slid aside, revealing a hidden room where another "Sayuri" had been placed.
"One need only peer behind the curtain concealing the truth," Fox mused as he approached the painting. "There is no question, this is the correct one," he said.
The paintings immediately vanished, a single glowing ball of light forming as it flew off, but not towards the doorway that had awaited them at the end.
"Hey! Where're ya goin?!" Skull cried out.
"It must have gone to one of the other doors," Mona observed.
"Then where'll this one lead us?" Skull asked, looking over at the only door they'd not entered.
"If I had to guess, it would take us to one of the other platforms we've been to," Fox replied. "Those unable to follow the truth will continue to go aimlessly in circles, but it may be necessary to retrace to find where a new path may have opened..."
"Then let's see where this leads," Ace replied, slowly walking back to where the doorway stood, the others following and they soon found themselves emerging on to the platform where the first set of "Sayuri" paintings had been. Ace glanced about, before taking notice how the other doorway the fork in the path had led to now also emitted glowing a golden yellow light instead of blue.
"Hey, there it is!" Panther cheered. "Hopefully it'll get us somewhere new!"
"It should," Ace said with a nod, leading the way once more going down the other pathway and into the waiting entrance. In a flash of light, the five Thieves found themselves on a high platform, with a gold-plated indoor hallway lined with exhibit banners to their right, a silver double-door awaiting at the end. Running ahead down the hall, Ace pushed open the doors, leading into a much more normal-looking lounge area that appeared to much more resemble the rest of the museum's interior. Walls covered in gold diamond-print wallpaper and gold tiling ensured the overly gaudy atmosphere of it all had not changed, sofas of various colors were all arranged about boxing in a pair of display cases containing gold fans. None of this, however, was what had the attention of Ace or the others, but rather what was in a room at the end of another hallway up ahead...
"That's...!" Fox stammered.
In the room at the end of the hall, surrounded by laser security beams that spanned up to the ceiling, was the glowing light of what could only be the unformed Treasure. Standing before it, facing away from the Thieves, Ace could see Madarame's Shadow, a pair of guards walking by in front of him passing in and out of view in the door frame. The girl narrowed her eyes, there was no way to tell for certain if he was aware of them or simply confident his security system ensured they'd have no means of reaching the Treasure even if they got past him.
The group drew closer, ducking around the corner of the lounge that led into the hallway.
"Madarame, and the Treasure," Ace said as she peered around.
"That glowing spot... is this that "Treasure" you spoke of?" Fox asked.
"Basically," Mona explained. "It's not fully manifested yet, but once we send Madarame the calling card and make him aware it will be stolen, it will take solid form and we'll be able to swoop in and take it!"
"I wonder what form it will take," Fox mused, looking down at the floor in thought.
"Probably a self-portrait or somethin'," Skull replied.
"The source of what distorted his reality this much," Fox sighed.
"So," Skull asked, looking over at Mona, "...Think it's safe to say we got an infiltration route secured?"
"It's true we do know where the Treasure will be," Mona said, looking down the hall as his ears drooped, "...But I'm not sure we've successfully secured the route..."
"With the laser security and Madarame and his guards personally watching over it, it'd be difficult to get through by force," Ace replied as she watched the guards continue their patrol around the parameter. "It'd be better to avoid a confrontation at least until after we're able to steal it."
Panther shook her head. "This is tougher then it was with Kamoshida," she muttered.
"Regardless, we'll need to find a solution," Ace said, looking left and right at the other hallways that lead out of the lounge and approached a nearby sign, signifying the main hall ahead and the left hallway leading to a control room. "Hm..."
"What's up?" Panther asked, approaching.
"There's a control room down this hall" Ace said. "...It may be able to deactivate the laser guard. Still..."
"...We'd have Madarame's Shadow and the guards to contend with," Fox replied. "If we were to shut them down, they'll know something is amiss."
"It'd be best we investigate, then," Ace replied, leading the way down the hall to the double doors that waited at the end leading into a control room, a single active terminal at the windows granting a view to the main hall where Madarame stood before the glowing light where the Treasure would appear.
"Hey, check it out, doesn't even need a password!" Skull said with a grin as he came over and looked at the menu on the terminal screen.
"Let's see if we can at least switch off the lasers," Ace replied, clicking on the tab. The Thieves peered through the window to see, but a few seconds passed and the laser sensors did not disappear. Glancing down, the young detective noticed a popup. "Error," she read. "Only Lord Madarame can access this option due to maximum security setting..."
"So disabling the infrared laser sensors is not an option for us," Fox said.
"Let's try another option!" Panther urged. Ace scrolled the mouse to the next option, to shut off the power. With a click, Ace gazed out the window. The lights suddenly cut off, though the lasers remained active and in place while Madarame shouted orders at the guards before the lights came back on seconds after.
"So the lights only go out temporarily," Mona observed. "This place must have backup generators for this sort of thing."
"And those damn lasers still didn't go away!" Skull protested.
"Oh no! A guard's coming this way!" Mona shouted, noticing as one of the Shadow guards ran out of the main hall. "Quick, Ace, hit the other option!"
Ace slid the mouse, tapping the last menu option that controlled the shutters that presumably closed off the hallways further down and clicked on it. "Let's go!" she ordered, opening a pair of doors ahead and the Thieves hurried through, closing them behind them right as the guard arrived. Cautiously peering through the door's window, Ace saw the guard looking about and approaching the terminal, taking one final look around before leaving. Satisfied the guard did not choose to follow, Ace lead the group through a winding hallway that seemed to grow narrower and lead further and further upward, its walls lined with portraits of Madarame's pupils in crooked, random places without rhyme or reason to them. Ace paid them no mind as she continued onward. Another brief fight with a Shadow guard later, and the team found themselves on a balcony overlooking the main hall where Madarame and an ample supply of Shadow guards stood a whole story below.
"There they are," Panther whispered as she peered down at them.
"So, what'll we do next?" Skull asked. "Even from here there's no way to get to the Treasure, it's too far away!"
Ace looked around, her gaze falling upon a rafter above. "Grab on," she instructed, her teammates all approaching and holding on as she fired her grapple hook at the rafter and the team were suddenly standing on the catwalks above.
"My... that was...!" Fox stammered, noting how high up they now were.
"Looks like there's a path across!" Mona said, gesturing ahead with his paw. "Wonder where it leads to?"
"We'd best find out," Ace replied, leading the way across the narrow path and noting a crane hook at the center, causing her to pause as a case she'd solved a year ago suddenly came to mind...
"Why'd you stop?" Mona asked, pausing behind her.
"This crane hook," Ace replied, gazing down from where it was positioned. Directly above where the unformed Treasure was.
"That's a rather notable hole in security," Fox observed, "...There aren't any lasers protecting the top. Someone could just drop right through if they fell off from all the way up here."
"Exactly," Ace said.
"They wouldn't be able to get back out, though," Panther said.
"Unless this lowered them in," Ace replied, looking over at the crane hook again.
Mona's eyes widened in realization. "Oh! Like if one of us were lowered in from above, we could nab the treasure and be pulled back up!"
Ace nodded. "If we can find the control room for it, then yes, we have a means of stealing it once we've made it appear."
"It can't be too far from here," Fox replied, noting the catwalk continued onward to another balcony. "Perhaps it's on that side?"
"Oooh, now I'm all excited!" Mona cheered. "Let's go check it out!"
A moment later, the Thieves found themselves across the rafters and inside another control room. The terminals were all switched off but there was a very conspicuous lever near several wound-up cables feeding into the walls leading out to the rafters nearby.
"Skull, Fox, go to the balcony and check if it works!" Mona ordered. "Ace, give it a pull!"
Approaching the lever as Fox and Skull went back out to the balcony. Ace gripped the lever and gave it a firm tug, pulling it down. Immediately, the machinery sprung to life, the cables moving about before her eyes.
"Hey! It's working!" Skull cheered as he watched the hook begin to descend into the square area the laser sensors surrounded.
"The hook's lowering!" Fox called out.
"H-hey! Not so far down they'll notice!" Panther warned, prompting Ace to pull the lever back up, the hook immediately ascending once more.
"Well, that confirms it! We have our way to the Treasure!" Mona said with a smirk as Skull and Fox returned to the control room. "Since I'm the smallest and the lightest, I'll handle retrieval!"
"Not that I doubt your abilities," Fox said, concerned. "...But how will you avoid being seen? Surely the guards will take notice of you once you're able to reach it. Plus the crane's noise once it gets close enough is certain to get their attention as well..."
"Not necessarily," Ace interjected, bringing her hand to her chin. "Remember the control room we came across earlier?"
"Oh, right! We were able to turn off all the lights!" Panther replied. "If we do that, they won't see Mona take the Treasure when the hook lowers him down!"
"Precisely," Ace replied. "We'd need to split up for this to work, one team will be stationed here to lower Mona down, and other in the control room to switch off the lights as they'll only go off briefly."
"Perfect!" Mona replied with a nod. "...Then all we have left is to get out before Madarame even knows it's gone!"
"Still, you sure this'll work?" Skull asked. "Pretty sure they're gonna realize what's goin' on at some point! I mean, yeah Madarame's full'a himself but he ain't stupid!"
"We don't have any other options," Ace replied. "By my deduction, this would be the approach most likely to succeed. We'll be able to successfully reach the Treasure, and the confusion once the lights are back on will buy us enough time."
"Well said, Ace! You clearly understand what being a Phantom Thief really means" Mona replied, smirking proudly.
"To solve a heist as a detective, a detective has to think like the thief who carried it out," Ace replied.
"On that note, I noticed a window in the hallway leading to the control room from the balcony," Fox said, speaking up and leading the team out of the control room, pointing to where the moonlight shone through a large window up ahead. "...That window overlooks the garden area... perhaps that would do for an escape route?"
Ace nodded, smiling faintly. "It would be preferable to having to get past the security Madarame will likely send up here once he notices the Treasure is gone," she replied.
"We're gonna pull off an actual, heist like in movies or somethin'? Sweeeeeet!" Skull cheered excitedly.
"Then it's settled!" Mona said. "Now that our infiltration route and our plans for stealing the Treasure are set, we have no reason to stick around here any longer, so let's get back to the real world and we'll work out the details then!"
No sooner had the Thieves made it back to the streets outside the museum did Ace hear Justine's voice call out to her from behind, causing her to turn around, facing the childlike guard standing before the Velvet Room door she'd grown all too familiar with.
"You seem to be doing well, inmate," Justine said, a small smirk on her face.
Ace folded her arms, staring down at her. "Would I be right in theorizing you have something to talk to me about?"
The girl nodded. "Indeed. An important matter regarding your rehabilitation," she replied, the Velvet Room door swinging open into a blue void. "Right this way..."
Relieved it had not been Caroline waiting for another opportunity to drop-kick her through, Ace complied and stepped through the door, becoming bathed in blue light for a moment before feeling the weight of shackles around her wrists and the dank air of the panopticon prison as the bars of her cell door and everything beyond it slowly appeared before her.
"There you are, inmate!" Caroline's voice snapped as she came into view on one side of the cell door, twirling her baton.
"Our master admires the progress of your rehabilitation," Justine explained, walking into view as well opposite where Caroline was standing and holding her clipboard. "...It seems you are on the verge of toppling another Palace Ruler, but whether or not you succeed will depend on you..."
"Your skills as a thief continue to improve much, Trickster," Igor stated from his desk. "I have high hopes you will be successful in the task ahead of you..."
"Is that all?" Kyoko asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion at the warden.
"We've also decided what Persona we'd like you to fuse for us, inmate!" Caroline replied sharply, narrowing her eye at her. "Give us an Ame-No-Uzume! Take a good look and you may find it's within your skills, so don't try and tell us you can't get it done!"
Kyoko kept a neutral expression at the childlike guard, though her annoyance was evident. If she was going to get any closer to solving the mystery of this place she'd tolerate it for now. "Let me see the registry..."
Justine approached, Kyoko's Personas' names appearing on her clipboard's page in glowing blue letters as Kyoko looked them over. She noted Caroline's amused look as she found what she was looking for. "Cait Sith and Succubus. Fuse them."
"Looks like someone lucked out on the Personas she collected!" the guard said with a sneer. "That's all it was, though. Pure luck, inmate. Don't expect a fluke like that again but we'll let it slide this time!"
"I admit, well, done," Justine said as she and Caroline set up the guillotines while Kyoko's Personas materialized before them. Within seconds, the blades swung down on the bundled entities, producing a new one. Before Kyoko's eyes appeared a ghostly woman in purple and white robes, bound in a purple and gold sash. Four gold fans decorated her form, two she held in her hands, one held in the front of her sash, and tied to the topknot she wore her long, dark hair in, her sidelocks in braids looping under her arms and the fan on her head angled down obscuring the upper portion of her face. The being resonated with Kyoko, her thoughts of her time spent with Ann crossing her mind as the Persona suddenly glowed brightly, as if gaining even more power before it vanished, manifesting as her Phantom Thief mask before fading away. Kyoko felt a rush of this power as she felt it added to her own.
"It is commendable that you've taken this opportunity to work closer to rehabilitation so quickly," Justine said with a faint smile as she and her twin approached the cell once more.
"Hmph, well it can't be argued. Still a lucky break, inmate!" Caroline snapped. "We'll be sure to come up with one you'll have a tougher time putting together next time around!"
Kyoko gave a faint sigh. She wasn't interested in dealing with what was looking more and more like an unnecessary game whose purpose was solely for the twin guards' amusement when she still had a lot of questions whose answers she knew were being kept from her. "If you say so," she replied, her gaze neutral but barely concealing a hint of annoyance. Unfortunately Caroline's smirk made it clear it did not go unnoticed.
"Aw, you getting tired of this already? You can quit whenever you want, you know! Just don't think deserting this duty will be to your benefit!" the young-looking guard sneered, tapping her baton on her shoulder like a club.
"Be that as it may, Caroline does raise the point that you completed this one surprisingly easily," Justine remarked. "But do not expect luck to stay on your side in the upcoming tasks..."
"Luck hasn't been entirely in my favor for months, you may have noticed," Kyoko replied dryly.
Justine gave a soft chuckle. "True, all the more reason to continue these tasks. You may find the more you complete, the more the odds may come closer to your favor, and make rehabilitation more certain."
It was evident she was not going to get much more from the strange guards, nor the warden, there was little option but to keep playing along. At least she still gained access to stronger Personas if what they'd promised were true. "...I'll continue for now."
"Very good, inmate!" Caroline said with a grin, Kyoko could hear the sound of a chain break within the corners of her mind as she regarded the twins before her.
"We will provide you another privilege in this facility," Justine explained. "...Once you have completed the next task we assign you. This time, we ask you fuse us the Persona, Flauros, with the ability of Tarukaja."
Kyoko noted her registry did not provide her any such option. Indeed it seemed the twins had found one that she would not be able to complete here and now. She did not dignify them with addressing this fact, however.
"Still," Igor stated, breaking the silence and grinning at the young detective from his desk. "With such progress I believe some concession is an order!" he explained. "...For such diligence, I grant you use of another ritual within the facility..."
The twin guards turned, glancing back at the warden for a moment, before as one looking back at the imprisoned Kyoko, exchanging a glance with their remaining eyes and giving a nod.
"If the master wishes it, so be it," Justine said, her tone neutral.
"Observe, if you will, this device," Igor explained, gesturing to a spot in the panopticon, once vacant, was now occupied by an electric chair that looked like one of the earliest models in history by her account. Kyoko frowned at the grisly machine. Igor only chuckled in response at her reaction. "While the guillotine is used to fuse old Personas into new ones," he said. "...this electric chair will allow you to transmute them into potentially useful items, including weapons... provided the right Personas are sacrificed."
"But remember this, to transmute a Persona into a new item or weapon, you will require a special object with the potential for transmutation," Justine added.
"Continuing your rehabilitation as planned is the key to more rituals to help you!" Caroline sneered. "So, in an act of generosity so you'll get what we mean by said special objects..."
Caroline held out her hand to Kyoko, and in a flash of light materialized an unremarkable, plain kogatana utility knife like the kind Kyoko was certain she could find in stores that sold household objects. The young detective stared down at it a moment, then at Caroline, who smirked.
"Now, step two, hand over that Persona you made for us earlier!" she said, a devious gleam in her remaining eye.
"Should you wish to reclaim the Persona, you need only call them forth from the registry again once we are done here," Justine explained.
Giving a nod and deciding to humor the twins, Kyoko focused as Ame-No-Uzume appeared before the twins, slowly descending to the floor in a kneeling position as the twins promptly flung a sheet over it, harnesses binding it into place as they unceremoniously flung it into the air, watching as it landed in the seat of the chair. Straps wrapped around it, the headset suddenly and sharply swinging down atop the bundled Persona's head and a powerful current of electricity erupted through the machine. Kyoko watched, noting the twins amusement as the Persona jerked about before suddenly exploding in a burst of light that drifted towards the small kogatana Caroline had left on the floor near Kyoko's cell door, the twins watching as the ball of light merged with the knife, causing it to glow brightly and reshape itself into an ornate, sheathed katana.
"You like the result, inmate?" Caroline said, a triumphant smirk on her face. "Of course you do! Show a little gratitude!"
Kyoko looked down at the katana again, then at Caroline and Justine, giving a faint smile and a nod. "I'm sure it'll be useful."
"Of course it will!" Caroline snapped, her expression stern again as she kicked it through the bars to Kyoko's feet. "You won't find this in your world I promise you that! I trust you have a teammate who can make use of it, after all."
"Now that you understand how this works, it should be easy for you to do so again," Justine said, taking out the registry that listed all the Personas Kyoko had collected since she'd begun and holding it out to her. Kyoko looked down at the name of the Persona she'd just sacrificed and Justine snapped her fingers, the name vanishing as Ame-No-Uzume appeared once more, before vanishing and Kyoko felt the Persona's power return to her.
"That is all, Trickster. You may return from this place, now," Igor stated. "...Be certain to visit again when you require our services once more."
Taking up the katana as best she could with her shackled hands, relieved being in the Velvet Room spared her the discomfort from their burns while being exposed, she watched as the place began to fade from existence as she was once more outside the museum.
"Is something wrong?" Ace heard Fox's voice call to her from behind, prompting her to turn. "You were just standing in that corner looking lost in thought a moment."
Looking down at what she was holding, Ace held out the katana she'd acquired. "I thought I saw something under this van, I found this."
Fox's eyes widened behind his mask, staring in awe. "My, what a remarkable find!" he said. "Its design, the aesthetic... it's absolutely stunning!"
The boy stood back, finger-framing it a moment. "A superior brand to the one we purchased in Shibuya," he mused aloud, moving his hands as if considering a way to immortalize its image on a canvas. "...I don't suppose it's for me, is it?"
Ace gave the boy a faint smile and nodded as she held it out to him. "Use it well."
Fox lowered his hands. "I suppose it would be of a more practical use within the Palace," he said, accepting the sheathed blade. "I feel all the more confident should we face any adversity when we perform our heist. Thank you, I appreciate your generosity, Kirigiri."
"Hey!" Mona called, trotting over. "We've secured our route, so let's get outta-!"
The cat's eyes widened at the sight of the katana. "Wh-where'd that come from?"
"Ace found it under this parked van, apparently," Fox remarked.
"Wow, that's pretty damn cool-lookin'!" Skull said with a grin.
"Indeed, better then the other," Fox replied.
"Nice work, Ace!" Panther congratulated. "Find any really cool whips you let me know, hmm?"
"At any rate, we should get going, now that our infiltration route and plans are set," Mona repeated. "Let's get going!"
"Al-RIGHT!" Skull cheered as he and the group made their way to the rippling barrier leading back to the real world. "Just you wait, Madarame!"
"Phew, I'm exhausted!" Ann groaned as she felt as though a ton of bricks had been tied to her body once she and the others found themselves in the real world once more.
"Yeah, I feel ya!" Ryuji grumbled as well, resting his hands on his knees. "Feels like I just ran a mile soon as we got outta there!"
"I see, so the metaverse causes fatigue," Yusuke remarked, standing upright as if he were unbothered, though a slight tremble in his posture betrayed it before noting the bag he'd brought his purchased Gonto katana in that had reappeared in his hands now also carried the new one he'd been given by Kyoko.
"With our route secure, all that's left is the calling card, right?" Ryuji asked.
"That, I believe, we should leave up to Kitagawa," Kyoko said as she stood upright as well, though also with a hint of fatigue to her as she looked over at the taller boy.
Yusuke looked down, silent for a moment as he mulled Kyoko's words over. "There is still 14 days until the exhibit ends," he stated. "If possible, could we wait a day or so, perhaps? I'd prefer to rest before we take such action and we have time."
"And you're sure Madarame won't change his mind?" Ann asked, concerned.
Yusuke nodded in assurance. "...As I mentioned, it would only draw in negative publicity for Madarame were he to press charges and act during the exhibit."
"Indeed," Kyoko said. "I can imagine an exhibit hosted by someone of Madarame's fame would immediately get overrun with reporters who will make it difficult for Madarame to run his exhibit."
"It'd be kinda satisfyin' him gettin' harassed like that, but not if we're the ones gettin in trouble!" Ryuji grumbled. "I guess you got a point."
"Well, since we're all on the group chat, you can just let us know when you're ready, alright?" Ann asked.
"Once you decide, we'll meet up at the hideout and brief you then!" Morgana said, once more a normal cat and peering from Kyoko's schoolbag.
"I appreciate it," Yusuke said, giving a small smile before looking over at the shack he called home across the street. "I'll be sure to let you know, then. In the meantime, I should probably be heading back. It'd be best I return to the atelier before Madarame does."
With a polite bow, Yusuke turned and left without another word. Ann took a breath as she spoke up.
"We should probably get going too, I don't wanna pass out before I get home!" she said.
"I hear ya, I'm gonna prolly hit the hay myself, after I pick up some dinner for my mom," Ryuji added.
"Very well," Kyoko said, folding her arms. "We've done well. I'm certain we'll be able to expose Madarame's crimes."
"In the meantime it's best we not let our waiting for Kitagawa's response go to waste," Morgana explained. "We'd best prepare for then."
With a nod of agreement, the small group made their way back to the train station.
Kyoko did indeed feel tired as she got back. After greeting Sojiro(who'd remarked on her looking like she could collapse any second despite the girl's attempt to remain upright and with her dignity in place as she entered the café), Kyoko made her way to the stairs, only to pause as Sojiro called out to her, causing her to glance back.
"There aren't any customers around, if you'd rather have your dinner down here," he said, noting the shopping bag Kyoko had been carrying. The girl paused, taking out the bento box she'd bought on the way home. "Just make sure the cat doesn't leave that bag in case anyone does decide to show up. I'm gonna get started on tomorrow's curry."
"I appreciate it," Kyoko said, giving the man a faint smile as she sat down at one of the bar stools and opened up the bento box and disposable chopsticks that had come with it while Sojiro made his way back into the kitchen.
"Hey! Hey! Let me have one of those rolls!" Morgana pleaded from Kyoko's schoolbag she'd placed on the neighboring stool. "C'mon, pleeeeease?"
Kyoko closed her eyes, letting out a light sigh at Morgana's latest attempt at begging and took one of the sushi rolls out with her chopsticks, turning it to where the cat could reach, jerking back just slightly to ensure he did not attempt to take the entire thing and get his mouth on her utensils. Fortunately, Morgana was well-mannered enough to bite down on the half closest to him, tilting his head back and finishing it with a second bite.
"Ohhhh, soooo good!" the cat fawned, letting out a content purr.
"For store-bought bento, perhaps," Kyoko remarked as she continued on the rest of her meal.
"Now that the infiltration route's done, we just need to wait to hear from Yusuke to send the calling card to Madarame," Mona said as he licked his lips from the food. "We shouldn't wait too long, though..."
"He needs time to process," Kyoko said quietly, taking another bite. "He probably knows for a lot of reasons his life's going to go through a lot of changes afterward."
"Whatever happens, it couldn't be worse then what Madarame put him through!" Morgana replied.
"...You talking to the cat, kid?" Sojiro asked, sticking his head out the doorframe in the kitchen before returning his attention back to the large pot on the stove.
Kyoko's gaze fell on Morgana, who looked about as embarrassed as a cat could look as his ears drooped a little. "...Right, I guess that's what it looks like to him," the cat said sheepishly.
Kyoko took a breath and resumed on her food without another word, mulling over how she'd spend the time until she and the others heard back. If Madarame proved to be a greater challenge then Kamoshida should they go up against his Shadow as well, they'd need to be ready for anything.
A/N: Thanks for everyone's patience! At long last the Madarame dungeon crawl is complete! To answer some questions, yes, this is an AU. Hope's Peak here is more just *THE* most exclusive and prestigious academy in the entire country that excelling in a particular career field can get you approved as they seek the best, and it's run by Kyoko's father. As a result there's no evil cabal that can pull nearly any string or brainwashing project or scheme to craft an Ultimate Hope, or any Monokumapocalypse, as this is primarily set in the Personaverse for the sake of P5's plot, and with it Japan's different law system and values.
0 - The Fool: Rank 3
I - The Magician: Rank 2
V - The Hierophant: Rank 3
VI - The Lovers: Rank 2
VII - The Chariot: Rank 4
XI - The Strength: Rank 2
XII - The Hanged Man: Rank 1
XIII - Death: Rank 3
XVIII - The Moon: Rank 2
1 - The Councillor: Rank 3
Kyoko's Personas: Berith, Shiisaa, Kusi Mitama, Kodama, Jack Frost, Ame-No-Uzume