BRIAN

It was one of the most awkward nights and subsequent mornings of my entire life. By that point, I was more or less used to irritating Kiriko and viceversa. With personalities as… diverse (more like polar opposites) as ours, keeping the peace was either a short affair or a completely farfetched ideal. But I was used to it, and I like to think that she was as well. It was our routine, in a way.

Kiriko's anger burned bright, but it was fleeting all things considered. A glare, couple of scathing words and then everything would be back to normal after a few minutes. It was even endearing in a way, to see someone wearing their emotions on their sleeves like that. There were a couple of occasions where I even envied her, a bit. That was normal.

This… wasn't normal in the slightest. She was quiet. Deadly so. Only talked when spoken to and to answer questions.

"Morning Kiriko…"

A grunt was my answer. Nothing more.

It was plain to see that she wasn't just ticked off. For the first time since knowing her… she was genuinely, completely and utterly furious at me. And for the life of me, I just couldn't understand why, from the height of my lack of emotional intelligence.

What I did know, was that it was going to make things a hundred times more difficult than they had to. Team cohesion was of the essence, after all.

But I knew that trying to talk to her while not even understanding why she was angry was only going to make the situation worse. So I bit my tongue and decided to give her some space.

I was confident that she was going to be the one to start the conversation, when she was ready.

But still, furious or not, we had to go over our plan of action. The first infiltration was going to be one the most delicate and difficult processes, after all. We had to scout the place, find a proper entrance point, monitor enemy activities, find a way inside the Palace proper and just generally get a feel on what we were going to face off against.

Kiriko listened without uttering a single sound, the temperature around us getting chillier and chillier the more I spoke. I'm fairly sure I stumbled over a couple of my words, but I somehow managed to keep my composure…

Just like she taught me all those years before. Old habits die hard, unfortunately. They probably had something to do with the situation as well, I was willing to bet.

"Yesterday we rested. But from today on, we are going to go all in. We have 20 days and a fairly large Palace to go through. There is still no real rush, but the earlier and faster we can make progress, the better…"

Kiriko kept her arms crossed, but my mention of being quick seemed to have her relax a bit. It almost felt like she believed I was not taking this seriously.

While we walked, I was looking around. Nothing out of the ordinary yet, but there were definitely more Hashimoto members around. Not enough to be considered a threat, but enough to call for some attention.

My paranoia kicked in and I brought Kiriko to a different alley for the jump to the Metaverse. We would need to walk a little more, but I didn't trust to not get caught if we decided to loiter around the front gates of the Temple Bell.

I started typing in the coordinates.

Hashimoto Katsuki.

Shimada Castle.

I furrowed my brow. I had the name and the location, but not the distorsion. Great, now I have to spend a couple of minutes on guesses…

"What is it?"

Her voice made me shiver. Stone cold.

"Nothing much… say, what word would you use to describe the Palace?"

"... what the hell kind of question is that?"

"It's important. We can't really reach it without the word. Any idea?"

She glared at me, but I could see the gears turning in her head.

"I already tried shogunate and empire. Neither really worked. I know that it sounds stupid and all, but…"

"Bakufu".

"Wha…"

"Bakufu. Try using that one. It should work".

I was skeptical, but I was already running out of ideas, so I decided to give it a shot anyway.

"Coordinates accepted. Beginning navigation."

… Holy fuck they actually worked.

While the world shifted, I wanted to sate my curiosity.

"What does it mean? Bakufu, I mean".

Kiriko exhaled through her nose, refusing to look at me.

"It's the term used to indicate the military sovereignty of a shogun upon their people. You could say it's a synonym of dictatorship, I suppose…"

That… made quite a lot of sense. Hashimoto Katsuki WAS planning to use force to take over the rest of the city and beyond, after all.

My gaze turned towards my companion once again and I gently sighed to myself. I could only hope that she was going to breach the subject soon… the tension was killing me.

KIRIKO

The switch happened quickly, but it was a feeling that I never really managed to get used to. It felt a bit like… being stretched, in a way. Like trying to fit in somewhere you were not meant to fit. Fortunately it did not last long, and before I knew it, we were in the Metaverse, ready to begin.

I reluctantly turned around to talk to Knight, since I needed his input.

My words died in my throat, and for a fleeting moment, I forgot that I was supposed to be angry.

He was back in the Hashimoto costume that we used the day before to infiltrate the Shimada Castle. And my first thought wasn't even how, to my eternal shame. No, it was something along the lines of…

"Wow, he REALLY does look good in a suit…"

I almost slapped myself after that. Not the time, brain!

"How are you in that… attire?"

I almost stuttered. Almost. Damn it, me…

"Ah right, this. So, you remember all that talk about the Metaverse being a world of cognition and all that? I mentioned back then that us Persona Users, while we can't directly influence it, there are a couple of things that we do have control over. Mainly our weapons and attires. Things like making our hits non-lethal, make them faster, slower or even change clothes, should we want. Try it, it's very easy, I promise".

I promise, he says. As if trusting him hadn't been one slap in the face after another. I sighed, correcting my previous statement. He was doing better in that regard, he deserved a lot of shit, but not that particular one. Not anymore.

So, I closed my eyes and focused briefly. Just like that, my clothes shifted and I was back to the same uniform as the day before. I briefly glared at it, almost as if the entire situation was its fault. Did I mean our… "shadow war" with the Hashimoto or my current issues with Brian? Back then, I couldn't tell you. The two things mixed in my brain, leaving me with only that burning feel of anger.

Now, I just had to go on and… not look at him, lest I completely forget he made me mad and go back to cracking jokes.

I heard him sigh, before doing the usual thing and taking point, leading me back to the entrance of our own, personal hell for the next 20 or so days.

The massive gate doors opened up on their own right in front of us. The infiltration in the real world had worked like a charm, it would seem.

With a wave of his hands, my companion opened the door on the right of the gates, to the room that would lead up on the top of the gate itself.

It was… a storage room now. Full of weapons from the old days. Naginatas, katanas, kanabos and so on and so forth. Then… the room shifted back to the one in the real world that I remembered. I blinked and it was gone.

"What the…"

"Safe room. Hashimoto Katsuki's control over this particular part of the Palace is weak, meaning that he cannot sense us in here. Shadows also can't enter for the same reason. There should be more up ahead, but I figured it would be wise to show them to you now, in case there's a need for them".

… he was making it very difficult to stay mad at him. But I held on for just a bit longer. We both needed some time and to let things stew for a bit.

"What's the plan then?"

He searched around the room, finding eventually a piece of paper, a feather and some ink.

"We continue with our disguises for as long as we can. Try to map out the place. If we can move on to the next section right away, that would be nice… but I doubt it. Which means that we'll have to spend the first few days here and form a plan of action, as fast as possible".

I grunted, feeling another wave of irritation. More planning, more waiting… more inaction while people suffered. And he did not even look concerned, in the slightest.

I clenched my fists, tempted to just yell at him to fuck off and storm out on my own. But then, I remembered the last time I decided to ignore his carefully crafted plans and refrained.

It was maddenly infuriating… but we stood the best chance at making it together, rather than separate.

Either oblivious or uncaring of my inner turmoil, Knight headed back towards the exit of the safe room.

"Let's get started then. See what this place has in store for us".

He stopped for a moment.

"Listen I… I know that you're angry. I have no idea why, but you are. Just…when you're ready to talk, I'll be here".

BRIAN

I likely shouldn't have said that. Like at all. You don't tell these things to volatile people that are a couple of feet away from blowing the fuck up. But… I needed to say something.

Miko wasn't just a partner at work, or a mere collaborator. She was my friend… and it kind of stung to see her glare and scoff at me at any occasion.

I didn't wait for her to answer, simply opening the door and stepping out inside the Palace again, followed by her after a couple of seconds.

All right then… back to the task at hand. Just as we had seen previously from the rooftop opposite of this building, the area was a lot bigger than it used to be. The small open Temple had exponentially grown in size. Shadows dressed as samurais roamed around, not paying any mind to either me or Miko. The disguise seemed to be working, at least for now.

With a critical eye, I started walking around, sketching all the important bits that I could see, occasionally asking Kiriko to elaborate on things that I didn't understand, while she kept a lookout, checking for any signs of aggression from the residents of the Palace.

Eventually, we reached another massive gate, closed off. The door did not open this time around.

The thing was slightly more decorated. The first one was pure wood, this was decorated with bronze platings and various drawings, with the most important ones being at the center. Four leaves, seemingly in a specific order: a dark green maple, a bright red of the same tree, a lone branch, with nothing on it and a pink sakura. The gate itself had four keyholes, with the picture of the four elements.

During the walk, we also encountered four different temples instead of just one, each with its own bell. A look inside reveal that to each temple, was dedicated an animal: a vermillion bird, a white tiger, a black turtle and a sky blue dragon.

Inside each temple there was also a massive Shadow, likely keeping guard to the place.

We dodged guard after guard, just in case being close to them could trigger them or something like that, finally coming back to the safe room.

"So… the gate is closed by four keys. The doors themselves have drawings of different types of leaves, four to be exact… and again four temples, with four bells and four animals. I don't need to say that it's all connected… but how?"

Somehow, I had a feeling that going random wouldn't help. Those drawings were in a precise order, after all… bit what could it mean?

Miko leaned in over my shoulder, making me tense up. Luckily, she wasn't touching me…

Her eyes roamed my sketches, seemingly making comparisons… before she leaned back, nodding to herself.

"The four season".

"What?"

"All the drawings indicate the four seasons. Look here… see the leaves? Dark green momiji, that's summer. The animal that incarnates summer is the vermillion bird, right here. Bright red momiji, that one is fall. Animal is the white tiger. Then the branch with no leaves, that's winter, with the animal being the black turtle. Finally, the sakura tree leaf, which indicates spring. The animal is, you guessed it, the sky blue dragon. We have to ring the bells in the order the leaves indicate, starting from summer and ending with spring".

I sketch everything up, making sure to add all the necessary annotations.

"What about the four elements?"

"I'm… not sure. We'll probably have to figure out where each key goes once we get it, I suppose".

"That's fine. We have a start, we can continue on from there. Now… this will be the slow part".

"What do you mean?"

"If I understand correctly, we're going to have to ring the bells, in order for anything to happen. After that, we'll likely have to defeat the Shadows guarding that particular point. After which, the Palace will be on high alert…"

I heard her sigh.

"Which means that we'll have to retreat and come back the day after…"

She sounded pissed… but resigned.

"Do we get started today?"

I nodded.

"Yeah. Best not to waste too much time. Nothing big is going on at the moment, but violence in the real world is only bound to get worse. The earlier we start hitting them, the earlier we can put them down".

For the first time that day, Miko finally looked at me in the eyes.

"... All right then. I'm with you".

That was the most comforting words I heard the entire week.

I heaved my sword on my shoulder while Miko fingered her wakizashi strapped to the back of her waist. The tension between us was still very much present, I could feel it… but the temperature had gotten a bit warmer, at least.

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

Welcome back, dudes and gentleladies, to another episode of UTFW, the show where videogame puzzles have found a new home.

I recently re played Uncharted 2, got the platinum trophy and all that. If you played, you know what puzzle I'm referring to ahahaha. Not the exact same, naturally, but somewhat inspired.

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