KIRIKO

"That… is Hashimoto Katsuki's Palace. Right in the Shimada Castle".

Well… I guess that now I finally knew what a Palace was, and why Knight refused to explain it. What I was seeing was… unexplainable, in normal terms.

Beyond the massive gates, where the temple with the giant bell was supposed to be, stood a Zen Garden, much bigger than what the space was supposed to be. I could barely see the end. And beyond it…

Where the dojo was previously located, now there was a gigantic shogun castle. I couldn't make out any details, due to the distance, but the power that it radiated was painfully obvious.

I was starting to understand why Joichiro was acting so cocky when we defeated him. This… this looked like a massive hurdle to overcome. Not even taking into consideration the, no doubts, massive fight that would take place within the walls of the Palace.

I couldn't help it. I never saw anything like that before in my entire life, so… let's just say that I panicked. Just a little bit.

"WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THAT SHIT?! ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GO THROUGH ALL THAT?!"

Juuuuust a little bit.

I started hyperventilating, my heart beating like mad in my chest… until a sharp pain on the top of my head brought me back to reality. Knight had karate chopped me mercilessly.

"Calm down you idiot. We are not prepared to face a Palace yet. We have to prepare accordingly. Breathe properly, before you give yourself a heart attack".

Breathe… breathe, right. I had to calm down. Sure, the first time that I ever saw a Palace was the first time I ever witnessed something so… huge and intimidating, but eventually, Knight's stern reprimand and my own training took over and I managed to go back to normal.

But I still stared at the Palace with a hint of fear.

"So… what now?"

He started walking towards the edge of the building we were parched on.

"Now… we are going back to Kanezaka. We gather supplies, anything that could be useful: money, food, water, medicine and the like. I'll also contact my boss and gather some informations, even if I doubt I'll find anything. Then, once we have a steady foundation, we're going to come back here, figure out a way to open these doors and then we destroy Hashimoto Katsuki… and his Palace together with him".

Destroy him and his Palace… he sounded beyond bloodthirsty. Like he was waiting for nothing more than to beat him to a bloody pulp. His more violent tendencies were becoming more and more obvious after each fight… and I wasn't sure how I was supposed to react. I could still see what convinced me to approach him in the first place…

The kindness that he showed Akari, when he stitched back together her stuffed fox. How he didn't hesitate one second to help both her and Yoshida-san, when they were being held captive. Even when he reacted straight away when Kobayashi almost shot doctor Miyamoto.

He was a hero. I knew that he could be. But… all of it was buried beneath a thick layer of violence and anger. Even hatred, to an extent.

Angry and hateful at whom? And why?

I had no idea. What I did know, at that point, was that he needed help. And I have never been one to ignore someone else in need, especially a friend.

"Ohi, are you going to come down anytime soon?! If you get attacked again, I'm not helping you!"

… Even if he often made it hard to not want to kick his ass.

I eventually joined him, casting one last look at the massive gates.

"So… we need to open these to continue, right?"

He nodded.

"Yup. Until we do, the Palace will be unreachable".

I tilted my head.

"How? And why? Couldn't we just… climb up and go over?"

Knight pointed over the gates, wordlessly. Following his finger, I sharpened my gaze. For a moment, I saw nothing, but then I saw it. Some glints of lights. Multiple of them in fact.

Arrows. All pointed towards us.

Yup, I did not feel like becoming a pincushion. Plan B then, I guess.

"Gotcha. How do we open the gates then?"

"We have to find a way to open them in the real world. Or to get invited in, whichever one comes first. In other words, alter the Palace Ruler's perspective on either us, or the gates themselves, to allow us to get in without becoming target practice for these archers".

More cognitive shenanigans. How come I was not surprised?

"Back to Kanezaka then. How much time do you think we'll need to prepare?"

Knight hummed, thinking it over.

"I'd say… at least one week. But we're in no rush at the moment, we can adjust as we go. Don't worry, we're not going in unprepared".

Well, I'd fricking hope so. I don't need to be an expert like him to understand that a Palace is a big deal, now that I've seen it.

My gaze swept back to my friend, who was stroking his chin and muttering to himself, likely going over a mental checklist of what we would need.

Well, at least I could be sure that we would be ready for it.

BRIAN

One more extremely awkward ride on Kiriko's motorcycle and we were back to where everything began. Fortunately for me I was absorbed in my own thoughts, so it wasn't as had as the first time around, but next time, we're taking the bus. End of the story.

Kiriko stretched beside me, yawning loudly.

"I'm pooped… that guy gave us a lot more trouble than I thought…"

I chuckled.

"Having second thoughts? You're still in time to dip out if you can't handle it".

"Don't even think about it! I'm seeing all of this through, whether you want it or not!"

We walked the short distance towards our flat, when suddenly her voice turned somber.

"So close… we are so close to getting rid of the Hashimoto, finally… I can barely believe it, after all this time, there's a light at the end of the tunnel! And… I owe that to you".

Me? What did I do?

She must have read my expression, judging by the smile on her face.

"Your presence was the catalyst. You arrived… you brought the Metaverse and now we have an honest to the gods shot of actually eliminating these parasites from the streets! None of this would have happened without you… so, thank you. For everything".

Jeez, who activated her "earnestly honest" mode? Now I feel weird…

"Don't thank me yet. We still have a long way to go, in case you forgot".

She grinned.

"Then I'll save my thanks for when it's all over. But consider it a… preview, of sorts".

I shook my head, but couldn't shake a small smile from my face. This idiot was way too trusting for her own good. I just hoped that it wouldn't come back to bite her in the ass.

Who am I kidding, of course it will.

"Go get some rest. I'm gonna get in touch with my boss and see what I can do".

She nodded and waved me off at her door.

"See ya later, alligator!"

… What the hell do alligators have to do with the situation?

I shook my confusion away, opting to focus back on the task at hand. Just like before, I connected my computer, but this time I was the one requesting a call.

The answer came fairly quick and my employer's synthetic voice came through my headphones.

"Knight! Back so soon? What a surprise! How are things going over there, making progress?"

They sounded a lot cheerier than last time. Good sign, good sign.

"The target's Palace has been located. I'm still missing the exact coordinates, but I've seen it. It's located in the Shimada Castle, in Hanamura. The Ruler's name is Hashimoto Katsuki".

A Moment of silence stretched between us.

"You found the Palace without coordinates? Impressive, really impressive, Knight! You've outdone yourself this time around! When do you plan to commence the operation?"

"A week, at the earliest. It's one of the biggest Palaces I've ever seen, so we're gonna need some time to make the necessary preparations. Is there any hope for backup or support?"

The boss clicked their tongue.

"Not for backup, unfortunately. All of our agents are currently in missions right now. These spikes of energy in the Metaverse are getting more and more common, we can't afford to slow down. As for support… I think I can do something for you there. Start your preparations, Knight, you'll have some help in the next couple of days. Until next time~"

The line cut itself. No reinforcements uh? Damn it, that sucked… but at least they were going to send something. At that point, I was desperate enough to accept anything.

All right, with that taken care of, what else would we need? Something for healing, my mind helpfully reminded, coupled together with a nice image of Kiriko being slammed against a wall, just for good measure. She's good at healing, but there's only so much that she can do on her own…

Maybe doctor Miyamoto could be willing to let us buy something without asking questions. But just in case, I would have to come up with some believable lies. And hope that she won't protest it, but I believed that wouldn't be a problem, that time at least.

Next thing on the list would be a base of operations. We obviously need a place to sleep, but we also could use a nice, secluded place with no prying eyes or ears to discuss strategy. I'd have to leave this one to Kiriko, she knew the area better than I did, no doubts about it.

Thoughts of her growing in Hanamura also reminded me of my curiosity towards her past, specifically her training. It kinda dawned on me that I knew absolutely nothing about my partner, except that she was a Shrine Maiden and a Yōkai.

I never bothered asking because I didn't believe it to be relevant to the mission. And it wasn't, all things considered. But it felt… wrong to not know. And just turning on the computer and looking for info there sounded even MORE wrong.

I groaned, massaging my eyes with my palms and decided to focus back on the task at hand. It wasn't enough yet, but I couldn't plan for much more until the boss sent their support. So, for the moment, I decided to go lay down for a bit and rest up. The next few days were going to be hectic. We had no time limits, but I'd still feel better about being done with all of this quick, if we could.

KIRIKO

The next couple of days were extremely hectic. The supplies that we were going to gather for the Palace were all located in Hanamura, meaning that we would have to wait for this "boss" of Brian to send us what they promised. What did we do while we waited?

He dragged me to the Metaverse and absolutely trained until I could feel my arms fall off. Spar after spar after spar, Persona endurance training (meaning keep using your skills until you can't anymore) and just generally spending as much time as possible in the alternate reality, as to try and minimize the fatigue of switching back and forth.

Knight was an absolute taskmaster. The drills never ended, the sweat never stopped flowing and the bruises never stayed healed for too long. I could see just how serious he was about this. He was determined in making sure that I was ready for the challenges ahead.

Pauses and breaks were few and far between, but they were my favorite part of the training. Not for the respite, but for the conversations. We always filled the silence with something: stories of our past (mostly mine, since he actually came out and asked. I'm just as surprised as you are), what we liked or disliked, favorite movies and much more. Obviously there was more teaching on his part. But not all of it was good…

"That wasn't Tamamo special skill?!"

"Nope. That was a healing ability called 'Dia'. It's way too soon for you to learn your skill Miko, don't be so hasty. I've been doing this job for almost two years at this point and I still haven't learned everything about Mordred and his own skill yet. These kinds of things take patience".

I couldn't help but pout a little bit.

I was so sure that I had it! It was even the perfect situation! But no, just a generic skill. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but I still felt frustrated. Or more like, disappointed.

I was also looking for a chance to breach the topic of that anger of his. I don't know if Joichiro had realized a couple of days prior, but Knight was perfectly capable AND willing to just kill him on the spot and be done with it. Something happened to him in the past that turned him into what he is… or attempted to, at least.

I really wanted to talk about it, see if I could help in any way, shape or form, but I also knew that he wasn't going to be happy about me meddling in his affairs. We were friends, sure, but that kind of topic is still way too personal for him, I didn't even need to ask. But still, I could ask at least one question.

"Are you going to kill him?"

"Hm? Who are you talking about?"

"Hashimoto Katsuki. Once we find him and defeat him… are you going to kill him?"

Knight sat there, staring at me through his mask, trying to understand why I was asking him something like this now.

To be perfectly honest, I couldn't care less if the leader of the Yakuza group lived or died. He was a parasite all the same, nobody would miss him if he was to disappear. What I did want to prevent, was Brian going past the point of no return. He could still be saved, I could still bring him back from that abyss of anger and violence that he found himself into.

How naive I was…

"I do not wish to kill him. My boss wants him alive, after all. What happens to him once I'm done is none of my concern".

I heaved a small sigh of relief. Good, that's good. No bloodshed in sight, even if back in Hanamura it seemed like that was the point of the entire thing. I could work with that. Even if he did sound a bit too callous for my tastes.

I was about to talk once more, but he got up.

"Let's wrap it up early today. The package should be arriving any moment now".

Ah right, that was the day. So focused on our conversation, I almost forgot. I wondered what could this person send us that would help. Maybe some new weapons? That wouldn't be bad…

When we returned to the real world and inside the flat, a box was innocently standing in front of his door. Brian mentioned for me to follow him and together we picked the box up, entered his apartment and looked inside.

Promptly, I felt like that, whoever this person was, was making fun of us.

Envelopes. Their idea for "help", were envelopes. A letter was inside as well. My friend picked it up and read it out loud, while I examined the pieces of paper.

"From what little my sources were able to tell me, Hashimoto Katsuki is preparing something big. Bigger than any other operation he ever commanded. He sent invitations to all remaining members to gather in the Shimada Castle to discuss… something. I have no idea what, unfortunately. Those tickets and clothes that I packed will allow you to infiltrate the meeting and find out more, in exactly three days. I cannot help you further, so from this moment on, you will be on your own. Good luck to you both, Knight and Miko. Signed… S. I… did not tell them your codename Kiriko. I shouldn't be surprised at this point… but I am".

Sheesh, scary…

One more look confirmed what his boss told us, including the uniforms that we would have to wear. More infiltrations… not my forte, as I already demonstrated some time ago. We didn't have the luxury of a choice, though. It was something that I got used to fairly quickly in that mission alone.

Brian hummed, likely thinking the same thing I was.

"I guess that's that. We have an objective now. Honestly, this should even open up the gates in the Metaverse, if we play our cards right".

That could be pretty damn convenient. And appreciated. I'm no expert, not like him, but I could just tell that having to work around people's cognitions was going to be a pain in the butt.

"What's the plan then, leader?"

Aaaaaand there's the half glare again. Man, he really didn't like me calling him that. But it was funny, so I kept doing it anyway.

The sight of my shit eating grin made him sigh like a man heading to his execution.

"Now, we go back to Hanamura. By bus!"

He interrupted me before I could run to my motorcycle. Needless to say, I deflated immediately.

"Oh, come on…"

"We find a decent hotel to stay in for the next few days, make a pit stop to doctor Miyamoto's clinic for some supplies and then… we find a hideout".

Hide… out?

"Brian, we are not kids anymore, you know?"

He rolled his eyes.

"Fine. Then a private spot where we can discuss our future moves in peace and quiet. Better, princess Kiriko?"

"Much! And it's 'your highness Miko' to you, little knight!"

He facepalmed, but I could see the grin that he was trying to hide behind his palm.

I laughed and decided to give him a break.

"Okay, okay. No more teasing… for now!"

He rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling.

"I'll take that. Come on then, we got shit to do".

He started walking out and I followed, feeling confident in our chances. It was just the two of us… but we would be enough.

Hello?! Is this thing on?! It is?! Noice.

Welcome, dudes and gentleladies, to another episode of UTFW, the show where teasing Brian is a national sport.

Not really much to say here, except for a couple of things. First, I'm going to reduce the size of chapters in the story. Writing 4k+ words everytime is way too taxing for an amateur writer like me. I tried, but I cannot keep up, as evident from the fact that this chapter came out MUCH later than usual, so I'm going to spare myself some anxiety.

Second, next chapter is likely going to be the last for a little while. I want to stop for a bit and enjoy August, a bit of a vacation if you would, before I burnout again like I did months ago. Chapters could still come out, if I'm inspired, but no more hard deadlines. Everything will be back to normal in September most likely.

That's all folks! Ta-ta for now!