The exploration of the Sapporo Jail continued. Though it was extremely cold, the Phantom Thieves managed to brave the harsh weather to keep their operation standing. With a new pathway opened, they began to traverse this new path. As they walked, they were surrounded by large walls of ice. "All of this ice..." Violet said while looking around.
"They're just walls. Unless they block our path, they're nothing special to gawk at." Crow said flatly. In his eyes, the ice was nothing more than an obstacle if it got in their way.
"What about these gigantic forks?" Skull looked to Crow, then a fork that was jabbed into a ledge. "Why forks...?"
"I've noticed those as well. I can't fathom a reason as to why they're here..."Dragon said while tapping her chin. The topography of someone's Palace or Jail.
"It's making me hungry." Skull said. Sure, they ate before they stepped into the Jail, but...
"You're getting distracted." Queen said. But she also realized that maybe it wasn't a bad thing. It was better than thinking about how cold it was.
"Look over there." Fox pointed ahead. Off in the distance, the very top of a Prison Keep was visible. "The Prison Keep."
"It's our second one!" Panther said excitedly. "Let's do this!" The sooner they got through this, the sooner they would be able to get out of the cold.
"Looks like we really are making progress." Joker nodded. It was a good thing. So they continued on their path, eventually passing through a a small building. The moment they all stepped inside, however, they were immediately surrounded by a swarm of Mothmen.
"Careful, we're trapped in!" Oracle reported.
"Eugh. Where's the bug spray when you need it?" Violet shuddered a bit. Too many for her liking.
"We'll just squash 'em!" Skull said while cracking his knuckles.
"We're not getting out of this one without a fight. Let's go!" Mona exclaimed while summoning Diego. The first thing he did was release a powerful gust of wind that swept up the Mothmen that were attacking from behind. They were light Shadows, so they were flung about within the whirlwind helplessly.
"Leave it to me!" Panther grinned while pointing her gun forward. While the Mothmen were trapped in Mona's tornado, she fired multiple bullets towards the Shadows. Due Gun damage being a weakness of theirs, she was picking them off very quickly with only a few bullets.
"Berith!" Joker called forth a Persona, the knight on his stead. Berith charged forward, plowing through a number of Mothmen with no resistance. The Shadows did try to fight back by releasing bolts of lightning, but they were all blocked by Skull and William.
"Nice try!" Skull said with a grin. "But it ain't working."
"Ella, let's dance!" Violet spun around while summoning Ella. With a graceful twirl, her Persona let loose numerous beams of light to pierce through the remaining Mothmen with ease. With their combined efforts, they thrashed their ambushers rather quickly. "There we go! All finished."
"They really like jumpin' us..." Skull rolled his eyes.
"Don't underestimate them." Dragon said while raising a finger. "Strong we may be, but even a simple mistake on our part can snowball into a disaster.
"She's right, it is important to remain prepared. We have the advantage in most fights, but we must remain vigilant." Fox nodded in agreement.
"Yes, yes, don't take our situation lightly." Crow already knew this and didn't really care for the repeat. So he just started to walk ahead, and Noir just narrowed her eyes. Crow could feel her gaze burning into his back, but he opted not to say anything for now. It was just...far more intense than normal.
"Let's keep going." Noir said quietly. They walked out of the small building and back outside, their next obstacle apparent: an extremely steep slope covered in snow. "Uh..."
"There's no other way forward." Joker stroked his chin. "But...how...?"
"It's a steep sloe covered with snow. The danger is there regardless of how we approach this." Queen was trying to think of the best and safest way they can proceed.
"Hey, check this out." Skull said, getting everyone's attention. "We got a few snowboards over here! Why don't we try usin' these?" As he spoke, there was such a wide grin on his face. He's never had the chance to snowboard, and the Metaverse was finally giving him that opportunity.
"Are you sure about this...?" Dragon was a little nervous. "I don't know about this!"
"It'll be fine!" Panther said with a reassuring smile. "You've got the Metaverse on your side, and you've got a good sense of balance."
"I guess..." Dragon was not sure about this. But the others seemed more gung ho about it than she did. So, she shrugged her shoulders and picked up a snowboard, everyone lining up on the slope. "Okay..."
"Everyone ready?" Joker looked to the others. They were prepared on their snowboards.
"Hell yeah! Let's shred some snow!" Skull said, being the first one to push off the slope and slide down the hill! The others quickly followed suit, snowboarding down the slope.
"Woo! This is pretty fun!" Panther said with a smile.
"..." Crow was just quiet the whole time. Everyone else looked like they were having the time of their lives sliding down the slope. He was indifferent to it. "Company." He pointed out. There were plenty of Jack Frosts on the open path. Poor things. They had no idea about what was coming to them.
"Do we have to?" Noir pouted. She was prepared to drift however necessary to avoid colliding with them. But, as she said this, she already saw Skull take this chance to run over the Jack Frosts. "Aw..."
"Move it or lose it!" Skull laughed.
"You're enjoying this way too much." Mona rolled his eyes.
"Take care not to crash!" Violet shouted at Skull. Despite this being the first time anyone's ridden a snowboard, everyone managed to do a decent job at it. Who would've thought snow boarding would be on their list during summer vacation? The Metaverse was just that strange. Still, everyone made it to the bottom of the slope without any issues. "Whew...! That was exciting."
"What a refreshing experience." Fox enjoyed that quite a bit.
"That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be..." Dragon admitted. She was even smiling; she felt the rush. She can say she went snowboarding!
"I'm surprised I didn't die." Oracle said bluntly. Even in the Metaverse, her physical attributes did not compare to the others. Being able to snowboard with little issues felt like nothing short of a miracle.
"And look where we ended up." Joker pointed ahead. Shredding the snow led them directly to the next Prison Keep. In front of it was a panel. Oracle already knew what to do and approached the panel, using her hacking skills to open it up.
"Viola! Path open." Oracle said proudly. "Keep your guard up!" The path to the second Prison Keep was open. The group stepped inside and they weren't met with an ambush just yet.
"I hope we don't have to deal with another blizzard..." Dragon said while rubbing her arms.
"It doesn't seem like we have to worry about that." Queen reassured everyone. "I doubt they'll pull the same trick on us a second time."
"I hope not. I'm only just enduring this cold." Violet said sheepishly.
So far, so good. They did ascend the second Prison Keep and the Core appeared before them. Joker snatched the Core, and in his hand was a white flower. "Huh?"
"Yay, we got a core!" Oracle cheered. "Why's it a flower?"
"Wasn't she telling off that one staff member who let the flowers wither?" Panther couldn't forget that if she tried. The way Mariko yelled at that man in front of them, only to turn around and act sweet seconds later.
"I wonder if it's related to what she said earlier." Noir said. "How she wanted to make Sapporo a beautiful destination for all."
"While I certainly understand her passion, sacrificing her own people to do it is completely unacceptable." Fox said while shaking his head.
"Yes, I agree..." Noir nodded in agreement. It was unacceptable. Why did the people in her life take these paths? The paths of hurting others for their benefits? What happened to Mariko that made her like this? Thinking about it hurt...
"Then it is important that we stop her as soon as possible. So we should get moving." Crow said. The cold was irritating him, even though he was dealing with it. He'd rather not be here any longer than they had to be, which is why he was trying to push everyone along. Noir, however, grit her teeth. Hearing those words from Crow of all people...it sparked something in her.
"We have the next Core. We should head back to Odari Park." Queen suggested. With the way things were going, she could only surmise that the next path opened.
"Those flowers..." Crow felt like he'd seen them before...
.
.
They made it back to Odari Park, and as they thought, the path was cleared. So they followed it to the Sapporo Tower. They could see the third and final Prison Keep up ahead, but... "There's another wall of ice in front of it...we will not be able to pass this way." Sophie reported.
"Damn, but it's right in front of us!" Skull groaned. How annoying, being blocked by walls of ice was really starting to get him heated.
"What should we do then?" Noir asked. They couldn't brute force their way through this ice. They already tried that and it failed.
Fox was the one who spotted a path. He looked over to the left, noticing high ground they could climb up. "What about over there? I believe we should be able to scale that incline with little difficulty."
"Good looking out, Inari!" Oracle said. "We can make it right over that!" So, they all quickly scaled the hill, and once again, they were met with more snowboards.
Immediately, Panther ran over to grab a snowboard, looking towards the others with a cheeky grin. "Hey, don't you think we'd get there much easier if we slid down?" Someone was eager to snowboard again.
"Again...?" Oracle sighed.
"Good idea. You're sharp, Panther." Sophie smiled. Panther giggled from being called sharp. It wasn't something she heard very often, but it was nice when she did.
"Witness as we gallantly soar down these slops to safety!" Fox said proudly. "This may just be the inspiration I need."
"You consider this inspiring?" Queen let out a sigh of her own. Oh well, no point in complaining. Everyone grabbed a snowboard once again and began to slide down the slope.
"Woohoo! Shred the gear, baby!" Skull said.
"Ahh, I love the feeling of wind in my hair!" Noir smiled. It was a refreshing feeling.
"Hey, careful! Look ahead!" Queen warned everyone.
"I really like the motion! Shooooooom!" Sophie cheered.
"Incoming!" Oracle warned everyone. Multiple helicopter Shadows started to loom over the Phantom Thieves as they slid down the slope, all of them pointing their chain guns at them. "Ack, they're gonna fire!" And fire they did, causing the Phantom Thieves to split off and show their skills to avoid the gunfire.
"So, they thought they could ambush us like this? How pathetic." Crow scoffed as he pulled his gun out, Hereward also appearing by his side. They may not have been able to attack with their weapons, but they still had plenty of options. "I won't waste any time with this." Crow skillfully weaved through an onslaught of bullets, firing sevral bullets at his target. The bullets hit their mark, causing the Shadow to stagger for a moment. That opening was all he needed for Hereward to fire an arrow of Curse directly into its face, leading to an explosion shortly after.
"Nice shooting!" Panther grinned before pulling out her gun, taking aim at anything in the sky that seemed like an enemy. Her aim was a little off, but that hardly mattered with the sheer amount of bullets she was pumping into the sky. She was able to match the chain guns. "Why do they have so many bullets!"
"That feels ironic coming from you." Joker said while latching onto a helicopter Shadow with his grappling hook. He pulled himself closer, circling around to the neck of the Shadow. His gloved hand gripped the mask of the Shadow and pried it off in a single motion. The Shadow began to fall towards the ground and Joker leapt off, landing on his snowboard without losing any momentum, while the shadow exploded on the ground in the distance. "Heh! Easy."
"You enjoy showing off, don't you?" Crow scoffed. Joker wasn't going to deny it.
"Ack!" Oracle was under fire. She brought her arms up to defend herself, but it wasn't needed. Dragon swooped in next to her, using Bella's Aegis' Shield to protect Oracle from damage. "That one in particular is rather high up..."
"Leave it to me!" Queen said while leaning forward and ducking low to increase her speed. She spotted an incline to leap off, and she was gunning for it. The Shadow realized this and began to fire at her, but she was able to carefully weave through the bullets. She reached the incline and leapt off of it, propelling herself high into the sky while nuclear magic surrounded her fist. "Take THIS!" She swung her fist forward, smashing it against the Shadow's face with ease. There was a following burst that knocked the helicopter out of the sky and sent it into the distance. Queen fell from the sky, but with a simple flip, she was able to land on her board with no problem.
"Wow! You're so cool, Queen!" Noir giggled.
"Behind us...!" Oracle gasped. More Helicopter Shadows, and this time from a rather disadvantageous position.
"Aw shit..." Skull gulped. They couldn't go up hill! The Shadows began to fire upon them, and this is where they had to focus on dodging as opposed to fighting. It was a lot harder when the enemies were behind them. The terrain was forgiving, luckily, but some of them were getting nicked and grazed by bullets they had to dodge.
"Diego!" Mona summoned Diego. His Persona let loose a powerful wall of wind that deflected the bullets and bought everyone some time to dodge and get their bearings straight. The wind even disrupted the flight path of the Shadows, making it more difficult for them to shoot properly.
"Two can play that game!" Noir said while summoning Lucy. With Lucy's help, she didn't even have to aim! Lucy was a walking artillery!" Lucy's dress opened and and the guns began to fire. Noir wasn't playing games, resorting to the explosive shells to light up the sky behind them. Numerous explosions occurred and multiple Shadows were wiped out in an instant from the sheer firepower she brought to the table.
"That's never not gonna scare me." Skull said while sweating. As they neared the bottom of the slope, another wave of Shadows appeared before them. "Don't these assholes know when to quit!?"
"It's the last wave!" Oracle reported.
"Then we should make it quick." Sophie said while pointing her hand forward. Pithos was summoned and launched forward. The individual pieces of Sophie's 'persona' struck Shadow from various angles to bring it down. Pithos then reformed in front of Sophie, and she used this chance to release a gigantic beam of light that swept across the sky, wiping out a few Shadows in her path.
"Just a few more!" Violet said, firing her gun at a Shadow to take it down. There was a tree in her path, so, she grabbed a branch and used this to flip a few times, before somersaulting into the air. She spun around elegantly, summoning Ella as she did. The two twirled around each other in the sky, shooting off multiple beams of light in all directions to pierce multiple Shadows in the process. It was a beautiful light show within the frozen Jail. She stuck the landing on her board with grace; her training was still paying off. The last few were still in the sky.
"Fox!" Dragon held her staff backwards, allowing it to extend behind her.
Fox understood what Dragon was going for. So, he hopped on the edge of her extended staff. "Very well! I'll end this!" Once he was ready, Dragon used all her strength and momentum to fling Fox skyward. Fox drew his sword and sliced through the bullets coming his way. As he neared the last few Shadows, he cut them down with swift slashes. The Shadows were split in half and exploded. Fox landed on his snowboard, just as everyone made it to the bottom of the hill.
"Nice job, everyone! Shadows cleared out!" Oracle was happy to be walking again. Snowboarding definitely wasn't her thing, despite the small sense of excitement she got from it.
"Whew! Now that was kickass! Fightin' while snowboarding? We're never gonna have that chance again!"
"I thought it was fun too!" Violet beamed.
"Is everyone okay?" Mona asked.
"Just fine!" Panther gave a thumbs up. The path to the final Prison Keep was ahead of them.
"Looks like this led us exactly where we needed to go." Crow said. Since they took care of the resistance on the slopes, they were able to walk in and scale the tower with no problem.
They reached the top and Noir grasped the final Core. "Here it is..."
"Uh...it's...a badge...?" Panther tilted her head.
"It's the Sapporo Central mayor's insignia." Queen explained. "A simple, yet effective symbol of power..."
"This is the last Core, so I presume the final wall leading to the castle has been thawed." Crow said.
"Yes, it is worth checking out." Dragon nodded.
.
.
The group returned to Odari Park and their suspicions were confirmed. There were no longer any walls of ice barring their progress. "Excellent. It seems the walls are finally no more." Fox said with a smile. It felt like a lot of work to get to this point, but they were finally here.
"Then let's get our asses in there!" Skull said.
"Yeah, let's not waste anymore..." Mona trailed off, but he was stopped by the ding of an announcement.
"How do you do everyone?" The voice of Mariki echoed throughout the city.
"Mari-san?" Noir gasped.
"Are you working hard to keep the city of Sapporo Clean? To make it a glistening, filth-free city? Well, it's time for our regular cleanup! Anyone who calls themselves a proud member of my staff must take initiative! That means no slacking off, and not a single mote of dust on the premises! I want this paradise as clean as snow!" These were the demands of the Monarch, Mariko Hyodo.
"...Hey...do you feel the ground shaking?" Violet asked. She could feel a small rumbling underneath her feet.
"Something's coming! Hide!" Mona warned. Everyone quickly dashed off to the side and an army of Jack Frost began marching through the streets, all of them chanting 'Hee-ho!' as they trekked along.
"Cleanup, hee! Cleanup, ho! Cleanup, hee-ho, here we go!" The Jack Frost cheered. "Bury them in pure, white snow. Heeeee-HOOOOOOO!"
"What's with these little freaks!? There's so many...!" Skull rubbed the back of his neck.
"They're everywhere! IT'S THE HEE-HORDE FROM HELL!" Oracle exclaimed.
"I can hardly believe my eyes!" Fox's eyes widened.
"There are so many of them..." Violet said while watching the Jack Frosts pass by.
"They're chanting about some cleanup routine. Maybe this is a periodic measure?" Mona questioned.
"Whatever it is, we are not making anymore progress today." Crow crossed his arms. "We don't have much of a choice but to turn back."
"Hee-ho!" Joker suddenly exclaimed in response.
"Hee-ho!" Sophie also cheered.
"Hee-ho?" Oracle tilted her head.
"Hee-ho!" Noir said cutely, clasping her hands together.
"HEEEEE-HAAAAAAW!" Skull said it all wrong, but the spirit was undoubtedly there.
"Hee-HO!" Fox said with gusto.
"Hee-hoo...!" Even Dragon couldn't help but join in, giggling as she did.
"Hee-hoo!" Violet added, a little excitedly at that.
"They're infected!" Panther gasped. "The Hee-Hoo disease!"
"This is Hee-Horrible." Crow groaned. And then he realized that he got caught up in it as well.
"All right, good bit - now it's time to go." Queen said. Someone had to keep everyone back on track. She didn't say Hee-ho, but she was internally thinking it...
Skull slumped over. What a shame. "Hoo-okay..."