The voice that insulted Sophie was gone, but a Lock Keeper appeared in its place. Though the Jail was without a Monarch, this was the one thing keeping the Desires of the islanders locked away. If they could defeat this, there was a high chance they could return the Desires and be safe when exiting the Jail. But they had to defeat it first and foremost. Sophie was still stunned from what happened with the voice, and not quite battle ready as a result. "...!"
"Hey, Sophie!" Skull called out to her, trying to get her attention on the enemy in front of them. "Snap out of it! We gotta work together on this thing! Like always!"
"We need your help right now, so please..." Violet said.
"Okay...I'm sorry..." Sophie nodded slowly, preparing herself to fight. This Lock Keeper used shields as opposed to the previous ones that had sharp weapons.
Fox drew his blade and allowed ice to cover it. He charged towards the Lock Keeper while attempting to slash at it, but the moment he did, it brought a shield up to block his attack. With no damage dealt to the enemy, Fox had no choice but to leap backwards. When he landed on his feet, he saw a familiar defensive aura rise up from the Lock Keeper after the exchange. "It appears to use its shields to bolster itself as well..."
"That's annoying..." Crow already foresaw that this was going to be one annoying fight. But it had to be done. "Hereward!" His Persona appeared beside him, firing a volley of curse based arrows at the Lock Keeper. The Lock Keeper held all four shields up in front of itself. Multiple explosions took place, but the Lock Keeper's shields withstood the attack, much to Crow's chagrin. "Tch!"
"Haaah!" Dragon and Skull dropped in from above, aiming to slam their weapons onto the Lock Keeper. It had to bring up a single shield to defend against them, but the impact did result in a resounding shockwave.
"Damn, these shields are tough!" Skull grunted!
"And rather annoying to deal with..." Dragon said, ironically. The two of them landed, but they didn't get the chance to breathe. The shields of the Lock Keeper suddenly turned into axes, and it charged the pair. "Huh!?"
"Holy shit?! This thing has an axe?!" Skull gasped.
"Bella!" Dragon was as quick as ever to get on the defensive, Bella appearing with her shield to withstand the numerous blows coming their way. She could hold out for a while, but this was still a surprise.
"Be careful!" Orcale warned. "It looks like this one can use the other Warden's weapons!"
"That would've been nice to know sooner!" Skull shouted.
Panther leapt into action, wrapping her whip around one of the arm's of the Lock Keeper. She was hardly strong enough on her own to stop an arm from moving but with Queen's help, they were able to lock a single arm into place. That alone was enough to catch the Shadow's attention and turn to them. "Noir!" Both Panther and Queen exclaimed, doing all of this to get an opening for their heavy hitter.
"Leave it to me!" Noir spun in the air with her axe to clash against the Lock Keeper. It still had three arms to use and brought up all three axes to defend against Noir's spinning attack. It was a fierce stalemate, and while Noir was attempting to overpower it, the best she could manage was a draw. She bounced back, forcing the Lock Keeper to stagger and drop its guard.
This opening was what Joker was waiting for as his mask burned away. "Black Ooze!" A slime-like Persona appeared in the air, raining down droplets of Curse magic like a heavy rain onto the Lock Keeper. The rain of curse started to weigh down on the Shadow and forced it to remain stationary. "An opening!"
Violet jumped into the air. There was some scaffolding right above the Lock Keeper. She slashed the wiring with her rapier, causing the platform to fall right on top of the Lock Keeper with a loud CRASH that forced the creature onto its knees. "Go for it!"
Sophie and Mona attacked at once. "Pithos, fire!" Sophie used Pithos to fire off numerous beams of light that struck the dazed Lock Keeper, inflicting some decent damage on it. Mona followed suit by having Diego create a whirlwind in front of him, transforming into the Mona Car and using this wind tunnel to propel himself forward at a violent velocity. Mona slammed into the Lock Keeper with such force that it lifted the Warden off its feet and slammed it into the wall on the other side of the room.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Mona said with his usual cocky grin. "How do you like that!?" The Lock Keeper recovered from this impact after a moment, and the axes in its hands then transformed into swords! "What!?" And then...it vanished.
"Oh, not this again..." Panther gulped. She hated when these things just vanished without a trace!
"I can't read its movements..." Oracle warned, causing everyone to stay on guard. The Lock Keeper appeared between Fox, Noir, Queen, and Panther, instantly spinning around and slashing all four of them with its swords. They all cried out and were thrown back from how sudden and violet it was. "Gah!?"
"Panther! Everyone!" Dragon gasped and immediately moved to try and attack the Lock Keeper. Numerous blades of almighty magic formed in the air and were raining down her target, but it vanished before the blades even struck it. "It vanished again!?"
"It's on the offensive!" Joker exclaimed. Before he knew it, he was next. The Lock Keeper used all four shields to bash into Joker, sending him tumbling along the ground. "Damn..." He really wished he had his gun on him at the moment, but that couldn't be helped for the safety of Zenkichi and Mika back at the entrance. He planted his glove on the ground, coming to a sliding halt with a grunt of pain.
This process continued. The Lock Keeper continued to vanish, only to reappear and strike a random Phantom Thief with a random weapon. Due to the erratic nature of its attacks and movements, it was extremely difficult for anyone to get a read on its next move. Oracle, Crow, Queen, and Dragon were getting annoyed at this as well. The damage on everyone was just racking up, even if they were able to defend themselves to a degree. "So it can switch weapons and we can't read its movements!? What next?!" Panther groaned. She was getting tired of this already.
What next, she asked? The Lock Keeper focused its attention on Queen, charging right at her with just its fist. Queen wasn't going to back down from this challenge and sprinted ahead, nuclear magic swirling around her fist. It then threw a punch at her, which she was able to dodge, but her eyes were wide...because that wasn't just any punch. That was the exact way she threw a punch. She slammed her nuclear empowered fist into the Lock Keeper's chest, managing to make it stumble, but it then countered by slamming her with a roaring uppercut. "AAAH!"
"Queen!?" Everyone's eyes widened from that impact.
Noir quickly moved to catch the disoriented Queen in her arms. "Are you okay!?"
"Y-Yeah, I think so..." Queen nodded slowly.
"What the hell...wasn't that Queen's move?!" Skull asked the others. He's seen Queen punch too many things to not recognize that kind of punch.
"Is this thing...learning from us?" Fox questioned.
"That's bad...we have to take this thing out NOW!" Mona said in a slight panic. The Lock Keeper was cracking all four of its knuckles while staring down the Phantom Thieves. Then, it had one of each weapon appear in its other hands; a sword, a shield, and an axe. It was ready to throw down.
.
.
"..." Mika was pacing back and forth. Things went silent after a while, and the Phantom Thieves were too deep in the lab to be contacted. Even the sounds of their fighting couldn't reach the two that were stuck at the entrance.
"..." Zenkichi was also silent. He knew nothing he would say would placate Mika, and he also knew that she wouldn't want to hear it either. But they were silently on the same page as well. The others were gone for a while and there was no means to contact them. Normally he didn't think much of the things they were doing, but in a desolate place like this, he really couldn't help but worry either. Where were they? What were they doing...
.
.
With four types of weapon in hand, the Lock Keeper was proving to be an extremely powerful adversary. "I see we won't be getting anywhere at this pace..." Crow could tell that this foe was not one to take lightly. It was far more dangerous the other Wardens they fought before, and he was going to do something about it. "Hereward!" His Persona appeared once more, firing off a green, red, and purple arrow towards the Lock Keeper. It attempted to use its shield to defend, but this wasn't a physical attack! It was Debilitate, which weakened the target in all aspects considerably. "Now, let's see how you handle this..." Crow then jumped forward himself, slashing at the Lock Keeper. It brought up its sword to parry him away, but since it was noticeably weaker, it wasn't able to do so and ended up getting slashed, staggering back instead.
"Nice one. Crow!" Skull said while pulling out his shotgun, beginning to pump lead into the Lock Keeper. Noir, Queen, and Fox joined him with their guns. With Noir's added firepower, the rockets that exploded against the Lock Keeper succeeded in doing significant damage. But all that came to a halt when the Lock Keeper vanished, only to reappear in front of the four of them and swing both its sword and its axe. They were able to narrowly dodge, but that didn't stop it from being close.
"It's slower now..." Dragon nodded. Fox, Mona, Sophie, and Violet were attacking it all at once. Its attacks were still fierce and its movements were largely unpredictable, but she was thinking of a plan.
"What are you thinking?" Queen said while landing next to Dragon. "A way to slow it down?"
"We have no idea how it'll choose to move, but I believe we can force it to move in a way we would like." Dragon said, gesturing to the remaining platforms in the air. "If we split into groups, I believe we can pin this thing down before it becomes a problem."
"Oh ho! Our tacticians are working!" Oracle quickly hurried over. "What's the plan? Where do we need to send everyone?"
Queen and Dragon looked at each other. It appeared they had the exact same idea, and now, it was time to execute it. "First...!"
Everyone had an idea of what the plan was. Panther, Sophie, Crow, and Skull were standing under the platforms and shooting at the Lock Keeper with their gun. It could only use one shield to defend against them from so many different angles with the approach it was taking. Even then, the shield felt weaker since its defensive capabilities were stunted. Because of this, it decided to attack one of the Thieves shooting at it at random. The target was...Panther! It vanished once again, only to reappear in front of Panther while swinging at sword at her!
"Now!" Panther shouted while leaping back. Joker was on the platform above her, and the instant the Lock Keeper appeared, Joker slashed it with his knife. This caused it to collapse onto the Lock Keeper and force the Shadow to stumble and stagger from the impact once again.
"It's open!" Joker yelled. This was the opening all of them were waiting for. The Phantom Thieves all lunged at the Lock Keeper for an all out attack. With their numbers, the Warden barely had any means of even attempting to fend them all off. Whenever it swung a weapon in desperation, it was blocked by the shield of Dragon's Aegis. It was at the mercy of the Phantom Thieves and they had none to spare.
"Let's finish this!" Sophie jumped back as Pithos merged in front of her. A gigantic beam of light shot from Pithos, punching a hole in the Lock Keeper's chest for the finishing blow. That, coupled with the All Out Attack, was everything they needed to bring this battle to a close. It certainly wasn't easy, but the Phantom Thieves once again emerged victorious as the Warden of Okinawa Jail vanished just like all the others. "Whew..."
"We emerged victorious..." Fox took a breath.
"Seriously, what the eff was with that voice!?"
"It sounded just like Sophie..." Panther was unable to get that thought out of her mind. But they weren't going to be able to stay on that for long, because the birdcage they were in started to shake violently.
"Is it starting!?" Noir gasped.
"The cage is about to collapse! We need to get out!" Queen exclaimed.
"Damn it! None of this makes any sense!" Skull shouted in frustration.
"Worry about that later." Crow said. They had to leave, and they did. They went up the elevator they came down in, and the birdcage collapsed, with the Desires shattering and being returned to the Islanders with the defeat of the Warden. Once they were save in the room above, they took a moment to just...relax after that experience.
"Man, what is WITH this place..." Panther sighed.
"I wasn't expecting a birdcage to fall along with a Warden." Dragon also sighed. She was starting to feel the exhaustion of the entire day catch up to her.
"It could be due to the lack of a Monarch." Mona said. With what they knew about Jails, there was some degree of sense to this logic.
"Whatever the case, we should be able to return to the Island now." Crow said while crossing his arms. The toll of the day was even starting to get to him as well.
"I seriously hope so. I really don't fee like living through another B-movie." Oracle shook her head. She had no reason to believe they weren't successful, but everything about this Jail was so different and off-putting compared to the others. She wanted to be sure.
"You said it." Violet nodded in agreement.
"I'm sorry, everyone..." Sophie said while her gaze went low to the ground.
"Sophie?" Noir turned to their AI companion, as did everyone else.
"After all your efforts, this mission was fruitless." Sophie shook her head. "I'm sorry you had to endure that because of me." She felt bad. They tried to help her learn about herself, but they only left with more questions than answered.
"Hey, don't sweat it." Joker said.
"It wasn't fruitless." Violet shook her head.
"Yeah! Listen to them!" Panther gave a sweet smile.
"Mmm...right." Sophie nodded. It still got to her, but she would listen to the others. "But I did figure out one thing. When that voice called me worthless, it made me sad. But when that made everyone angry, I became happy. I still feel that way - even now. There's a warmth within me. I have friends! I know I'm not alone!" Sophie was smiling now. "Thank you Violet...Joker, Skull, and Mona." They were the ones who stood up for her the loudest. So loud, that it surprised everyone.
"I couldn't stay and listen to it say those mean things about you!" Violet said with a soft smile. She felt a connection to Sophie and it really showed back there. "I don't think I've ever yelled at anyone like that before."
"You haven't. I almost jumped out of my suit!" Oracle was teasing Violet for her outburst.
"R-Really?" Skull was suddenly bashful. "You just figured that out now? I mean, that thing just really pissed me off, is all..."
"Yeah, and I was just trying to reel in Skull, so..." Mona glanced away awkwardly.
"Ooooh, what's this?" Oracle's teasing was far from over. "Two embarrassed Phantom Thieves?"
"Even your masks are glowing red." Queen added with a small giggle.
"Wha-!? NU UH!" Skull adamantly denied this. "That's impossible! How's my mask suppose'ta change color!?"
"If you were to look in a mirror, you would see it in real time." Dragon snickered.
"Mona's black mask makes it difficult to tell." Fox added.
"I'm not telling anything!" Mona stammered.
"Ah..." Crow just sighed. These idiots... "Should we not be heading back by now? We have two non combatants waiting for us."
"Ah, Mika!" Dragon's eyes went wide. With everything that happened, she admittedly almost forgot Zenkichi and Mika were waiting for them.
"I bet she's freaking out by now." Panther snickered.
"Alright, everyone! Back to the entrance!" Mona said.
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.
"What was all that shaking...!?" Mika asked, as if Zenkichi had an answer.
"No idea...but that didn't sound good. Or maybe it was? I don't know." Zenkichi replied.
"You're not helping." Mika glared at Zenkichi. Having enough of all this waiting around, she walked towards the door.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Zenkichi stood up from his uncomfortable seat. "Didn't you hear them? They said not to leave this place."
"If that noise was bad, we won't be leaving anyway! I'm not going far." Mika huffed. "I'm just looking out to see if they're coming back or not." She really didn't like standing around while Hifumi was in danger. She also couldn't help how much she was thinking about Hifumi, but if this was the danger she was putting herself in...she had to know. So she left the entrance.
"Oh crap..." Zenkichi groaned. Despite Mika's attitude, she clearly cared for at least one person present. So he had no choice but to follow. "Seriously, stay put!"
"I'm not going far! Just relax, old man!" Mika huffed. But they did not get very far, because a guard Shadow appeared in front of her suddenly. "EEEP!"
"Oh shit...!" Zenkichi's eyes were wide. THAT was a Shadow?! This was the first time he'd actually laid eyes on one. Well, he did have Joker's gun, but it was a fake. He said it would work...so Zenkichi did fire a shot...and a bullet did fly out and injure the Shadow. "...This works!?" He admittedly thought it was a bunch of bull, but this world really was something else.
Mika, recognizing she made a terrible mistake, took a few steps back, only to stumble and fall. She absolutely should've listened and stayed put. "Ah..." Though wounded, the guard Shadow did attempt to strike her, but before it could, it was taken out by Dragon's staff slamming into it. "Huh!?"
"Mika, are you alright!?" Dragon looked to Mika, extending her hand.
"...Hifumi..." Mika looked up at Dragon, who looked so dashing as her savior in this moment. Her heart did that weird thing where she felt it beat again. It wasn't supposed to do that. "I'm sorry, I heard rumbling and got worried and..."
"Sorry for worrying you..." Dragon said while helping Mika to her feet. She wasn't even mad they left the safe zone. At least...not yet. She was a little too tired for all that.
"We came to get you guys back. We should have returned the Desires to the Islanders."
"What a relief...so we can go back now, right?" Mika asked.
"That's the plan." Panther nodded. With that...they were now returning to reality.
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August 18th
The group returned to reality, but the sun in the air compared to when they went to the Jail at night. "Oh man, it's finally hittin' me..." Ryuji sighed.
"Wait, it's morning already...!?" Ann's eyes were wide. "No wonder I feel so bad..."
"You look bad too." Mika pointed out. But she was tired from all the anxiety as well.
"Not in the mood..." Ann groaned.
"Play nice, you two..." Hifumi also didn't have much energy to intervene.
"I accept most of this as karma, but at some point I know I didn't do that much to deserve that horrifying experience..." Mika grumbled.
"At least we survived the night." Akechi was also exhausted, but he was trying not to let it show too much.
"So, aside from that scare, how'd it go?" Zenkichi didn't look like he was slowed down too much by the rough night. "How'd it go? Who was the Monarch? Was it really a local? Find anything on Madicce-?" Question after question; he knew they had to have some answers and he really wanted to know what they were.
"Zen...Zenkichi..." Futaba said with heavy breathes. Her battery was on empty and it was taking everything she had not to collapse. "We can...tell you later...but now...I must sleeeeeeeeep..."
"OH!" When Zenkichi took another look at them, he could see how exhausted they really were. "Okay. I see. I'll go and check out the RV for you and see if it's safe. You guys pulled your weight and then some. So it's my turn now." With that, he went ahead to scout the area.
"Now that I think about it, we just took a boat trip, went swimming, cooked a whole feast, and then drove straight into a Jail." Mona listed off the things they had done within the last 24 hours, and they had been awake the whole time! "No wonder that even I'm bushed..."
"Why is the cat still talking...?!" Mika groaned.
"Oh. Now that you heard him talk in the Metaverse, your brain can understand him here..." Ann responded tiredly.
"So now you can hear him for the rest of your life." Akechi added.
"Great..." Mika sighed heavily. She was stuck with the knowledge of knowing this cat could talk.
"At least the first half was a lot of fun." Haru smiled faintly.
"It wasn't something I'd ever forget." Sumire could smile to that. But she was going to feel all of this a little later.
"We did learn quite a bit from the Jail as well." Yusuke added. Although they were forced into the Jail, they came out with plenty of information.
"That voice, though...who do you think that was?" Ann asked the others.
"All I know is that they're a real asshole, copyin' Sophia's voice and everything!" Ryuji kicked the ground.
"..." Sophia made some kind of noise in response to that. It was then that Ren's phone began to ring. "Oh. Zenkichi is calling."
Ren answered. "Hello?"
"The coast seems clear for now. I haven't seen a single local so far. I can't tell if you guys really pulled it off or not, but you're safe to go back to the RV." Zenkichi responded before hanging up.
"Thank goodness..." Makoto said with a relieved sigh. "Let's go." With that, the others began to head to the RV for some much needed rest.
"I'm going to head back to my room and sleep so hard..." Mika trudged behind the others. With any luck, maybe this was just some hyper insane dream she was having. But she unfortunately already knew the answer to that...