Literally: to come into history
Meaning: to be remembered, commemorated

Friday, January 13th, After School

"Mona-san, Oracle-san?" Sumire piped up. "Do you have any idea where Crow is?"

Everyone was waiting by the lift to Maruki's Palace for the one remaining late member. "Nope," Morgana replied. "He just broke off and said he'll catch up with us here."

"It's irritating," went Sumire. "I feel like we've made so little progress, and just get constantly sidetracked. Was that- were things like that happening before?"

"Most previous targets didn't reshape the very fabric of reality to their whims," Yusuke pointed out.

Lavenza moved out of the way and the blue cell door opened, and Goro marched out of it, a paper bag in his hand. "Hello again, apologies for my tardiness," he half-heartedly waved at the others, "I thought outfitting Oracle is in order."

"I've said I don't need any equipment," she replied.

"It's about the symbolism," Goro countered, pulling out a folded laser blade. "But hey, I can keep this color-changing lightsaber to myse-"

"I didn't say I won't equip it," she butted in, yanking the weapon from his hands. She pressed a large button on the side and a glowing laser blade extended on it. She fiddled with it a bit more and it smoothly transitioned to orange, then yellow, then green, then the exact green of her tron-lined costume. She grinned with a gleam in her eyes, to Goro's satisfaction.

"Here, take the gun too." He pulled out a blocky worn-out-looking gray laser pistol and carefully handed it over. "The supplier said this one was inspired by an old Western RPG. Maybe you'll get the reference."

She grabbed it with her off-hand and inspected it. "Wattz 1000," she read the engraving on the side. "Nope, 404. I'll look it up later." She put it away. "Anyway, now that everyone's here…" She summoned her Persona and it emitted a hologram showing a large chunk of the Palace's interior. "I scanned the whole thing. As far as I can tell, the Palace can be divided into five sections." She highlighted the relevant bits as she went on: "There's the warehouse part, the patient-handling part, the monitoring part, the research part, and whatever's above it."

"That last one's vague," Sumire commented.

"I only know it's the last level before the Treasure," Futaba admitted. "I was unable to scan the whole thing; my abilities have limits."

"That has to be the most shocking revelation so far," Yusuke remarked.

"Do I understand correctly that we're past the halfway point?" Makoto pointed out, then glanced at Sumire. "See? There's no need to worry, we're progressing fast enough."

"One last thing," Futaba said, as three red dots appeared on the hologram. "From what I can tell, you've missed a few treasure chests in the warehouse and monitoring. You must've overlooked some side paths."

Morgana glanced at Goro. "You need to pay more attention to these things, leader."

"Well, you needed to pay attention to me paying attention, so there!" he huffed.

The backtracking to get to the treasure chests was worth the effort – Goro had acquired a sturdy polymer cane, while Sumire got herself a particularly sharp tuck. The cables from earlier remained retracted and so the group was able to reach the next section without issue.

The entrance to the research ward was a pristine-white pentagonal lobby with a safe room tucked in the corner. The lobby led to a multi-story section that, outside of all the futuristic bits glowing faint blue and omnipresent screens showing all sorts of data, resembled an office space for a numerous research team. Desks, computers, filing cabinets, shelves with binders on them, all coloured with shades of gray that the team found much more aesthetically pleasing and less utilitarian than the monitoring section.

Various mooks in lab coats were marching to and fro, guarding the area, and the Thieves cut through them with no effort. Well, most of them, at least; Sumire still struggled to keep up with the others and that was exacerbating her insecurities. She started noticing how some of the Shadows were outright repelling her attacks, forcing her to skip turns while everyone else dealt with the enemies without issue.

Finally, Goro noticed her struggling to catch a breath and went "Gree-"

"I can still keep going!" she screamed.

"Of course, after you get healed." He pulled out a neatly wrapped onigiri and tossed it at her. "Here, top yourself up." She grabbed it with a slight fumble and shoved it in her mouth. After a beat, she pulled it back out, removed the wrapping, and shoved the rice back in.

"We're almost out of the research level." Futaba pointed at some sort of door in the distance. "Look, there's the exit."

The group approached the gate. It was wide enough to fit a truck, and made out of synthetic-looking retractable panels and a semi-transparent oval screen in the middle. It displayed an image of a closed padlock. When the group got close enough, an artificial voice read out loud: "Security lock currently engaged. Answer the identity authentication question to proceed."

"Password-protected, huh?" Futaba's Persona manifested around her and floated around a bit. A few irritated groans could be heard from the inside before she came back out, dejected. "I can't bypass this one. It's a self-contained system and I can't find any vulnerabilities to explore."

"He must have improved the security after M's successful hack," Ann remarked.

"Security lock currently engaged," the voice repeated. "Answer the identity authentication question to proceed."

"I, uh… forgot the question?" Futaba bluffed.

"The question is: what was the turning point?"

Cue a pause – everyone expected some sort of follow-up that never came. "That's it?" Ryuji finally blurted out. "That's the whole question?"

"It is," the system replied.

"Any context?"

"An authorized person would know the context behind it."

"Dammit, what happened to mothers' maiden names?" Futaba grumbled.

"Well, I guess that's a wrap for today," Goro remarked. "I'll try and dig up something about Maruki in the real world." He chuckled to himself. "I've always wanted to do some actual detective work."

"You're throwing in the towel too early, Crow," Morgana piped up. "We're in a Palace. What other place could possibly tell us more about Maruki's history and who he is as a person than a representation of his distorted desire?"

"We've already gone through all the accessible sections, we won't get any more information from here," Goro countered, then glanced at Futaba: "Or haven't we?"

"I'll re-run the scan," Futaba announced, and summoned her Persona again. "Well," she said almost immediately, "there's a massive room upstairs."

"So what, did we go through this whole section and miss a way up?"

"Nice work, leader."

"Can it, Mona!"

"Hmm…" The saucer floated away, and the group followed it into an empty antechamber between rooms – suspiciously empty, in retrospect. Futaba unsummoned her Persona and pointed at the ceiling, a few meters above them. "That opening leads to somewhere we didn't map out yet."

"This room is wide enough to fit a staircase," Haru commented. "Maruki could've simply removed it and hoped we wouldn't pay attention."

"Which means whatever's upstairs is important, valuable, or worth checking out for other reasons." Goro glanced at Morgana. "Mona, cat mode."

"What?" he blurted out. "What for?"

"I am going to launch you up there so you can scout out whatever's upstairs."

"I won't let you of all people throw me at the damn ceiling!" Morgana inched away from him. "How can I know you won't miss on purpose?"

"I suppose I am untrustworthy enough." Goro barely suppressed a smirk, then turned to Ryuji. "Skull, how's your throwing arm?"

"Good enough to yeet a kitten," he smiled back.

Morgana pulled out his slingshot and loaded it in one swift motion. "Both of you, stay the fuck away from me!" he shouted, holding them both at ball-bearing-point.

"Alright, one, two, three!"

The boys turned around and saw Makoto and Yusuke giving Sumire a boost as she jumped. She got thrown high enough to just barely grab the edge of the floor above them.

"Ooh, nice leap," Ryuji remarked.

"Green saw you three bozos arguing and said 'I can do that if Mona-san doesn't wanna'," Ann explained.

"And she nailed the jump. Congratulations," Goro smiled.

"I would've nailed it if I got a better grip!" Sumire fell back down – thankfully for her, Goro cushioned her fall. Still more chemistry than they had in canon. "I-I'm sorry, Goro-san!" she got off of him. "I'll do better on my second try!"

And so she did, getting a better grip on the edge of the floor and immediately pulling herself up.

"Are you okay?" Makoto called out. "Are there any enemies nearby?"

Sumire scanned her surroundings. "I don't see any, but this room's massive, so who knows what lurks in the corners!" She noticed a shimmering door at one of the walls. "I think there's a safe room here!"

"If I was able to reach it, I could take everyone else there… Ugh!" Morgana growled, then switched back into his cat form. "Crow, carefully throw me up there."

Sumire reached out from above. "No worries, Mona-san! I'll catch you!"

After a few minutes, all the Thieves emerged upstairs and were able to see the mysterious room for themselves.

It was vastly distinct from the research ward below them. Dimmer, for starters; the walls were a dark shade of gray, and the interior was only barely lit up by no discernible light source. Most of the room was filled with seemingly endless rows and rows of shelves, each around two meters tall, and long enough to disappear into the distance. They were filled to the brim with books, binders, folders, tapes, discs, disks, clay tablets, and anything else that could hold any amount and form of data. Lots of loose A4 sheets were scattered on the floor.

"Jeez, it's like a creepy school library," Ryuji commented.

Between the hole in the floor and the safe room entrance was a large black desk with a single chair standing by it. On that desk was a screen, not unlike all the others in the Palace, and below it, what looked like a central unit, with assorted slots at the front. On the side, a white device, sticking out like a sore thumb.

"It resembles the audio recorder we had found in Mementos," Goro picked it up and slumped on the chair. "Let's hear what the madman has to say for himself."

He pressed 'play'. After a moment of silence, the recorder went: "Beep. Beep."

Realization flashed on everyone's faces.

"Beeeeee-"

Goro sprung up from the chair and threw the device with enough force to put a minor league pitcher to shame. It landed deep between the shelves and stopped after a brief roll just as the recording went: "-eeeeeeeeep."

Then, a tense pause. Then…

"Boom," Maruki's deadpan voice came out of the recorder.

Everyone sighed in relief and/or irritation. "What a comedian," Morgana growled.

"A tasteless joke, yes," the recording continued, "but if you are hearing it, then you have already trespassed into a section that I deliberately made inaccessible. This room contains copies of memories of… well, everyone, basically." His tone turned slightly apologetic. "I-I know what it looks like, but gathering them was necessary to construct the reality around you, and they weren't used for any nefarious purposes. Please, refrain from breaching everyone's privacy, turn around, and leave."

The message ended. After waiting a few seconds to make sure that the recorder won't actually explode, Futaba muttered: "Yeah, I'm invoking my right of access. Persona!" The flying saucer materialized again. "If it stores everyone's memories like he claims, then maybe it stores his memories as well, and if it stores his memories, maybe it has a memory of the turning point password. Lemme just…" Pause. "…I really should've expected that."

"What happened?" Goro asked. "No memories?"

"Invert that – there are hundreds of them." She unsummoned her Personas and turned to him. "I'll need some time to filter out all the relevant ones."

Ann remembered Mishima's adventures in brute-forcing passwords and asked: "Are we talking minutes or millenia?"

"A few minutes, I think," Futaba replied. "There seems to be a tagging system in place, but, well, there's a lot of memories for me to go through."

A thought appeared in Sumire's head. "Um, Oracle-san…"

"Yeah?"

"I got… curious about one specific memory unrelated to Maruki-san, but… related to me. Could you find it before doing your thing?"

"What memory? The more details I have, the easier it'll be for me to locate it."

"I… want to see how you stole my heart in November," she elaborated. "Ak- uh, Joker-senpai gave me the rundown back then, but… well, I want to see your perspective." After a pause, she glanced at the rest of the team. "If-if the others are fine with that, of course."

"It was a somewhat unusual experience, when compared with the others," Yusuke admitted. "But I believe there wouldn't be any harm in recalling it."

"I'm curious as well, now that you said it," Goro interjected. "As I had said, I had other obligations at that time."

"We can use that memory to test this equipment," Makoto added, pointing at the multiplayer on the desk. "And it's something to pass the time while Oracle works."

"Alright, if everyone's fine with this…" The saucer materialized around Futaba again. "Oooh, found it already. Follow me, Greenie. It's on a VHS tape, not that far off."