Good Day Readers! Obviously, I do not own anything connected to the Persona series in general or Persona 5 specifically, I DO own Chiba Natsumi and Anais Ouvrard, along with Natsumi's immediate family members and the original Personas that will be showing up on occasion.
I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.
See you all in the New Year.
Chapter 11: - Return to the Castle
Walking down the pathway, I thought over what I would need to do today when I went into the Palace. I brought rope with me in order to climb passed a broken part that I'd discovered in the trip before Amamiya and Sakamoto had stumbled into the Palace. With that and my bow I should be able to climb up the tower it was in and head deep into the castle towards where the Treasure might be.
"Chiba-san?" A voice called. Remembering what I'd been told only a few days ago, I knew who it had to be and so I turned to face the speaker who, as I suspected, happened to be Amamiya; Amamiya was looking at me with surprise in his grey eyes. "What are you doing here?" Amamiya asked. I seriously don't know how Sōjirō expected me to avoid Amamiya given the slight distance between my home and LeBlanc.
"I live in that direction," I explained. I gestured up the road that I had just come down before focusing my attention on the messy ravenette, how his hair was so unruly when his uniform was so neat, I didn't understand. "Shall we walk together Amamiya-san? We're both headed for the train station after all," I suggested. We were probably going to end up doing just that, but it would be nice to offer him the option of company.
"Are you sure about that? Being seen with a criminal?" Amamiya questioned. A grim expression on his face as his eyes drifted down to the side, the tension along his muscles were an obvious sign of anger; reaching out I hooked my arm around his and immediately set off towards the station, forcing the boy to stumble slight before he started to move willing. "I'll take that as a yes," Amamiya muttered.
I smiled slightly and unhooked my arm, but my hand stayed close to him ready to reach out for him again if he tried to run off. He never did, although there was no conversation flowing between the two of us, yet the silence was strangely peaceful and comforting, I didn't understand why but I did like it. Eventually we reached the train station and slipped on board the metal contraptions.
Squished together in the train car, me and Amamiya had barely any room to move with each of us hugging our school bags close to our fronts to keep them safe. Chatter from around us was focused on the train crash that had happened recently which had involved charging into the station at top speed, it was definitely another incident of a psychotic breakdown, someone thought the bad economy and depressing news was to blame but I wasn't entirely convinced of that fact.
As soon as it stopped, we stumbled out and immediately headed over to the line we would need to take towards Aoyama-Itchome, Amamiya kept pace with me the entire time. Or was it perhaps the other way around as Amamiya was taller than me with a longer stride, yet we never fell out of walking synch with each other; we reached the platform and gathered behind a sizeable group of other Shūjin students.
"Look, isn't that her?" A female voice commented. I wasn't particularly bothered by the chatter of other individuals especially since it was likely silly gossip that was exaggerated in some manner; the person who responded to the girl asked if it was the person with a red ribbon. "She's so thin… it's not fair, I've got my hair in a ponytail too…," The girl complained. That made no sense in my opinion, a train pulled in and the doors opened, we shuffled and crushed ourselves onto the train which was just as packed as the other one.
"Chiba-san," Amamiya's soft voice spoke. I felt warm air wash over my ear and a hand on my shoulder, I jumped slightly at the sensation before glancing over my shoulder at the boy. "There's a seat there, take it," Amamiya insisted. I blinked in surprise at his words, but before I could respond he gave me a slight push forward and I ended up stumbling into the seat, rearranging myself to get comfortable as the train started to move.
"Thank you, Amamiya-san," I stated. That was extremely kind of him, especially since he wouldn't be used to the crushing surroundings of the train ride like me and just about every other city resident; Amamiya gave me a soft and gentle smile in response, the train ride was pretty dull especially since I had brought a book to read through and the surrounding chatter was mind-numbingly boring with nothing I could use to help me; suddenly the person I was sat beside stood up.
"Please, take my seat," The person offered. It was a female voice and young sounding, so this girl was probably around the same age as me, the girl had dark red hair tied into a ponytail with a bright red ribbon and was talking to an elderly woman stood in front of her. "My station's coming up," The girl explained. This was likely to prevent any attempt to argue from the elderly woman.
"Are ya sure? Then…," The woman stated. The girl moved out of the way but before the woman could make a move to take the seat, the man in a business suit who had been stood beside her, immediately dropped down into the seat with such speed that the red haired girl couldn't help but whisper out an impressed admiration for the speed that had been displayed by the man.
"I mean, excuse me, that seat was for this lady-," The girl attempted to speak. However, the man gave her one dull look before proceeding to hang his head and drop fast asleep, snores softly emanated from the man which caused me to give him a disbelieving look at how he was acting. "Oh…," The girl trailed off. She clearly didn't know how to respond to this situation.
"Want me to wake him up?" Amamiya spoke up. I looked up and saw that the boy was looking at the girl and seemed more okay than the previous times, he wasn't hunched over although that might have been because of his need to grip the rail in order to remain stood up due to the shaking and bouncing of the train.
"It's alright. I can understand his position as well," The girl responded. His position, frankly I didn't understand what she meant by that, the man was actually rather rude; even if he was tired, he was in close enough proximity to hear the girl offer her seat to someone else, he had selfishly taken it without consideration for what the elderly woman was feeling. "I'm sorry I couldn't be any help," The girl stated.
"Take my hand miss," I called. This caused the trio to look at me as I help out my hand to the woman, she looked baffled but took a hold of it and I proceeded to pull slowly but firmly; as I pulled, I stood up and pivoted, spinning the woman around and down so that she could softly land in the seat although her eyes blinked slightly in shock. "My stop's next so I don't need the seat anymore, you take it," I insisted.
"Oh, thank you dearie, that's very kind of you," The woman stated. Giving her a smile, I reached for one of the handholds to keep myself up right until the train came to a stop at Aoyama-Itchome; once it did, I exited the train with Amamiya in front of me, we quickly walked off towards the stairs moving over the area we had initially met at.
"Pardon me!" A female voice called. I turned around as did Amamiya and I saw the red haired girl had run up to us; her fringe hung over her forehead with a slight curl to the left, she had matching red eyes with pink lips and fair skin, I noticed that she wore the Shūjin Academy wintertime uniform with black tights and red loafers. "Thank you so much for earlier," The girl admitted. She even went so far as to bow to us, even though it didn't seem like such a thing that required going so far as to bow.
"With what?" Amamiya asked. He reached up to brush a messy curl of black hair out of his eyes as he looked at the girl who rose up from her bow; I also cocked my head to the side since I was confounded by the way that this girl was acting, plus even though she wore the student uniform of our school I hadn't seen her before, then again her pin did signify that she was a first year and I'd barely interacted with them but surely her vibrant red hair would have stood out.
"For speaking up when I offered my seat on the train. And for allowing that lady to take your seat," The girl stated. He eyes had been on Amamiya at first before sliding over to me when she moved to the second part of her statement and I swear a sparkle appeared in her eyes. "Both of you are second years at Shūjin High School, correct? I'm a first year there myself. Thanking you totally slipped my mind back on the train and I didn't want to be rude to my senpais. Please, excuse me!" The girl stated. She then walked around us and towards the stairs.
"And I thought I was formal," I admitted. That girl took it to a whole different level, with that out of the way I proceeded to head towards school with Amamiya moving alongside me, thankfully there was no accidentally dip into the Metaverse this time and we both safely made it to the school.
*Persona 5 Royal*
"I'm the social studies teacher, Ushimaru. I'll be teaching you the rules of society this year," The teacher spoke. A tall man with a stern and square appearance with slightly tan-ish looking skin tone, he wore glasses over his dark eyes, his black hair was slicked back and he wore a white shirt with black pants held up by braces with a blue tie that hung down to his pants. "Hmph… you all look like you've been spoiled growing up. Can't wait to see who disappoints me the most this year. A certain dictionary defines a year as 'a Period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments'. The book's title is about as cynically satirical as the rest of it. It's The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce," Ushimaru-sensei spoke.
Ushimaru-sensei was the worst teacher – apart from Kamoshida – not that he was bad at teaching but because he was completely, absolutely and absurdly strict. He had taught social studies to me last year and I had been forced to witness as he chunked pieces of chalk at students so fast that they could barely be dodged if he thought they weren't paying attention in his class.
"Hey, new kid!" Ushimaru-sensei called. Amamiya jerked upright at those words, he had seemed to be staring off into space in a slumped position before getting called on but now he sat upright and looked directly at Ushimaru-sensei. "Tell me what the Devil's Dictionary defined as the chief factor in the progress of the human race," Ushimaru-sensei insisted.
"Villains," Amamiya answered. It was calm and thoughtful but loud enough for him to be heard from his position near the back of the class; that happened to be the right answer, well technically Ushimaru-sensei did say malefactors was the specific answer but clearly 'villains' was an equally acceptable answer and he seemed surprised that Amamiya had actually known the answer.
"Sure, villains can affect the course of history. But remember that this definition is a sardonic witticism, nothing more. Here in the real world, villains don't push humanity forward. All they do us spread chaos and strife," Ushimaru-sensei lectured. The rest of the students seemed surprised that Amamiya had got it right and started to question the rumours that surrounded him. "I know you've all heard the reports of these agitators stirring up trouble. We don't have any room for criminals here. Not in school and not in society. Am I clear?" Ushimaru-sensei stated. His eyes seemed to be cutting into Amamiya as he said those words and I saw one of Amamiya's hands curl into a tight fist in response.
The bell rung indicating our next lesson which was P.E. – ugh… if it wasn't for the fact it looked suspicious, I would honestly skip that class every time it came around – was now. Gripping my bag, I stood up and walked out of the classroom, heading over to the practice building where our clubs and gym were housed involved heading down to walk across the courtyard but at least I could savour a few moments of freedom.
Entering into the changing room I swapped into the gym uniform of a white shirt with short sleeves, a pair of red tracksuit pants and a matching red jacket. Stepping out I had to fight hard to avoid rolling my eyes when I saw a volleyball net was set up, that seemed to be all we did during this lesson to the point it had become ridiculous, I might not understand why physical education was important but at least my middle school made it varied.
I practically squashed myself against the wall, hoping to stay out of sight to avoid Kamoshida, thankfully my ghost like existence hadn't completely faded so as more people filed in, I was able to blend in with them. Kamoshida strutted around like some overblown peacock – actually that might be an insult to peacocks – as he went about selected students and one of them was Amamiya. With the students selected the rest of us drifted to the edges to watch this absurdity.
"To you!" Kamoshida declared. He spiked the volleyball intentionally hard; it spun rapidly through the air towards Amamiya who was thrown off balance from blocking it, but Kamoshida didn't relent enough for him to recover, with a malicious curl of his lips, he sent another hard strike flying at the ravenette. "Come on!" Kamoshida yelled. The strike slammed into Amamiya's shoulder and his already flaky balance caused him to slide to the floor with his left knee keeping him up right. "What's wrong? If you play like that at the rally tomorrow, the girls will laugh at you!" Kamoshida declared.
I snorted and rolled my eyes at his words, that man was a pig… apologises to the pigs, he didn't know a damn thing about how to treat women or girls and it was aggravating to hear him talk like that. I noticed his eyes drift to the isolated Takamaki who was twirling a lock of one of her ponytails before proceeding to focus back on Amamiya who had recovered but seemed to be in pain from the hard strikes sent flying at him.
"Quit slacking, newbie!" Kamoshida ordered. He then proceeded to send another sharp spike slicing towards Amamiya and it struck the boy, but this time it struck him on the face; Amamiya stumbled back as the ball rebounded and tore the glasses from his face, the objects clattered to the floor as Amamiya stopped himself from going back any further, but his head hung down.
His shoulders were slouched down giving him a crumpled posture but then Amamiya lifted his head and whilst I couldn't see what happened, something on Amamiya's face spooked Kamoshida. In fact, it spooked him enough for Kamoshida to freeze in silence for a couple of seconds before calling out to Mishima, but he stuttered at the first word.
My eyes were wide as I watched Amamiya bend down, keeping his head low, and scoop up his glasses which he settled back onto his face with an almost relieved manner.
*Persona 5 Royal*
The final bell for school ended and I quickly moved to pack myself away, I did not want to get entangled in any kind of real world delays, I could finally continue with my infiltration of the Palace without needing to worry about two boys. I slid the bag over my shoulder and immediately proceeded to walk out, weaving through the students until I reached the stairway and I quickly took a few steps downwards.
"Hey there, Takamaki!" Kamoshida's voice called. I paused on the steps I had just descended and felt extremely tempted to rush back up and help Takamaki get away from him but doing so would only be a small and brief relief, instead I steeled myself and headed outside of the building and straight towards the alleyway I'd passed through yesterday when dragging Amamiya and Sakamoto to school after our escape; focusing myself, I entered into the Metaverse.
Opening my eyes, I found myself in front of the Palace and walked inside, my clothes changed to my War Maiden outfit and I picked up my bow as per usual, stuffing my bag into the hideaway that I had made. I began to make my way towards the entry point when I heard voices coming from behind me… two voices that were far too familiar to me and I pivoted around marching back towards the entrance.
"Are you kidding me!?" I exclaimed. Sakamoto, in his regular clothes, and Amamiya, clad in his Rebel's Armour, proceeded to jump slightly apparently startled by my sudden appearance. "After what you went through the last time, you came back?! How did you even get here?! Haven't you realised the danger you're in just by being here?!" I lectured. Honestly, though my words were harsh, they were born of fear, fear that they were going to get hurt because they had decided to come back here.
"Well, I couldn't just ignore this! If this is connected to Kamoshida, then I'm not going to stand back and let him get away with this!" Sakamoto exclaimed. He had a fierce fire burning in his eyes and the blue flames of his dormant Persona raged, looking as if they were trying to take shape in that moment but it wasn't enough; Sakamoto wasn't ready to rebel yet, but he was getting close, very close, I turned my eyes to look at Amamiya who gazed at me.
"I'm not going to ignore someone who hurts others the way he does, I'm not going to ignore wrongs committed right in front of me," Amamiya insisted. He spoke with that firm conviction that had been in his voice yesterday, the confidence that had seemed to desert him when we had returned to the physical world, it wasn't like my steely tone at all which I just hid… I wonder why?
"If you two are this determined to get yourselves killed, I won't stop you," I muttered. Sakamoto yelped and went pale whilst Amamiya's eyes widened in slightly frightened shock. "What? It could happen and thinking it can't, is a folly on your parts. Especially you Sakamoto-san, without a Persona and Rebel's Armour, you're incapable of fighting back and extremely vulnerable to a Shadow's attacks. If you really want to come, then you need to stay close to me. As for you Amamiya-san, you don't get to hang back like last time, you'll be fighting with me right from the get-go," I insisted.
"Got it/Understood," Sakamoto and Amamiya responded. Even though I had warned them of the possibility of death and they had been scared, neither of them had started to run away; I sighed heavily, realising that these two were going to going to stick with me, I turned and motioned for them to follow after me and we headed back towards the front door.
"So, we did make it back… that means that what happened yesterday was for real too," Sakamoto acknowledged. He then proceeded to look over and saw that Amamiya was dressed in his Rebel's Armour. "Yeargh! Those clothes!" Sakamoto exclaimed. Amamiya looked down and his eyes widened as he lifted is glove clad hand up to look at it. "This happened last time too, huh? What's with that outfit?" Sakamoto questioned.
"You two only realised that now? This is why I want Amamiya-san fighting, his rebellion has stabilised now which means I'm not going to be walking on eggshells worrying about being attacked by Shadows, the knights we kept seeing, since there's two of us and only one defenceless individual," I explained. Both of them looked at me in confusion as I pinched my nose to keep calm since these two were rookies. "Look, I can't explain here because the Shadows could attack at any moment, if we get somewhere safe inside, and those do exist, then I'll explain a bit more. But for now, just know that outfit signifies Amamiya-san as someone who can fight without being eliminated in one strike in this place," I explained.
"You jealous?" Amamiya asked. The corners of his lips kicked up into a teasing smile and I arched an eyebrow, it was almost like he became a slightly different person in this place, was that an impact of entering a world of cognition and thus his own mental image of himself was completely different to the one he allowed others to see… or did Amamiya and Sakamoto have that good of a understanding already that he could comfortably tease the blonde.
"I-I ain't jealous," Sakamoto protested. That indicated that he probably was a little jealous of Amamiya's capability. "What's goin' on here!? This makes no effin' sense at all," Sakamoto stated. Welcome to the Metaverse Sakamoto, where physics and common sense are chunked out the window to the nearest cannon and blasted far away from this place.
"Hey!" A familiar voice called. Twisting around, I quickly dropped into a fighting stance before breathing a sigh of relief when I saw Morgana peeking out from behind a corner, he then hopped over to us and came to a stop beside me. "Stop making a commotion," Morgana insisted. Sakamoto recognised the cat creature. "The Shadows started acting up, so I came here wondering what it could be… to think you guys would come back to the entrance when you barely managed to escape," Morgana commented. His forearms or forelegs were crossed over his chest.
"I know Morgana, but these two were determined to come back and I'd already expended more than enough energy trying to deal with this place, one hiccup won't put me off," I acknowledged. Morgana looked at me as I shrugged my shoulders alongside speaking my words; even though I hadn't found the Treasure yet, I refused to give up on it and walk away especially when it would be turning a blind eye which I had vowed never to do again.
"What is this place? Is it the school?" Sakamoto asked. Surprising, alongside his delinquent reputation it was kind of a running gag in the school that Sakamoto was hopeless when it came to academic stuff and was always in the bottom of the school rankings when it came to exams, I don't know if he was actually dumb or just awful at studying but either way him asking a sensible question was something I hadn't expected.
"That's right," Me and Morgana answered at the same time. Sakamoto seemed surprised by this comment and immediately protested this since the building in front of us was obviously a castle, of course he did this loud enough that I was tempted to slap my hand over his mouth once more to avoid drawing attention to us.
"This castle is the school, but only to this castle's Ruler," Morgana explained. Sakamoto got confused by this, but he'd probably figure it out before too long since he was well acquainted with Kamoshida's warped personality in the real world. "I think you called him Kamoshida? This is how his distorted heat views that school," Morgana explained. I don't know how much these two would understand with an incomplete explanation.
"Kamoshida… distorted...," Sakamoto repeated. He and Amamiya proceeded to exchange a look before Sakamoto suddenly stamped his foot and looked down at Morgana with annoyance in his eyes. "Explain it in a way that makes sense!" Sakamoto demanded. In response Morgana's expression dropped into one of annoyance with his large eyes becoming slightly hooded to express this annoyance.
"I shouldn't have expected a moron to get it," Morgana stated. Sakamoto took offense to this, albeit accurate, comment; but before anyone could react any further a piercing wailing scream reached up to the air, causing it to tremble with the sound, Amamiya who'd been silently watching dropped immediately into a stance as his dagger manifested in his hand with a burst of blue fire, Sakamoto jumped in fright as all eyes moved over to the castle door.
"What was that!?" Sakamoto asked. With all the times I'd infiltrated this place, there was only one option as to what had been the source of that sound and it caused my left hand to tighten into a fist as I glared at the building; Morgana seemed to realise the source of the sound as the cat creature writhed in place slightly, seemingly expressing a discomfort with this knowledge, not that he could be blamed for that.
"It must be the slaves captive here," Morgana stated. His expression grim as he said those words, Sakamoto was initially disbelieving before realising from the dark expressions that me and Morgana wore that it was very real; he also realised that the cognitions were people who attended our school. "They're most likely being tortured on Kamoshida's orders. It's nothing out of the ordinary; it's like that every day here. What's more, you three escaped yesterday. He must have lost his temper quite a bit," Morgana acknowledged. I had to learn to tune the screams out every time I came here or repeatedly remind myself that they were nothing more than convincing looking marionettes.
"That son of a bitch!" Sakamoto snarled. I spoke the boy's surname, seeing the fury that twisted across his face, another scream cut through the air. "This is bullshit!" Sakamoto bellowed. He then charged at the door and slammed his body into it, although the door didn't even budge in response. "You hear me, Kamoshida!?" Sakamoto yelled. I walked up to the boy and grabbed a hold of his shoulder.
"I get that you're angry Sakamoto-san but doing that won't open the door and even if it did, going in that way is far too dangerous, the Shadows will be on us like flies on honey," I warned. Sakamoto still looked angry, but he moved away from the door and back to the rest of us as Amamiya looked incredibly uncomfortable from how he was twitching, but he clearly had more control over his impulses than Sakamoto did.
"Hey, Chiba, Mona-Mona," Sakamoto called. I nodded my head to show I heard him whilst Morgana protested to the shortening of his name by reminding Sakamoto of what it was. "Do either of you know where those voices are comin' from?" Sakamoto asked. I furrowed my eyebrows at this, wondering what Sakamoto could possibly be thinking by asking that question.
"You want me to take you to them?" Morgana asked. He then turned his attention towards me and Amamiya. "Well, I guess I could guide you there. But only if those two come with us," Morgana insisted. He nodded his head towards us to clearly indicate exactly who he was talking about when he said those words.
"I was hoping to push into an area I hadn't explored today since I lost the chance yesterday. But I'm not going to leave you to stumble around with Sakamoto-san and Amamiya-san, my main concern is getting these two out safely. I'll come with," I answered. It was another delay, but I refused to let anyone else get hurt when I could stop it, there was enough I couldn't stop in the physical world.
"I'll also come, but I have to know, why us?" Amamiya asked. I was glad that he was coming along otherwise I'd been too concerned about what he was doing to properly focus since it was apparent that these other two could get into the Metaverse via a currently unknown ability which meant forcing him out would be pointless.
"I just want to get a better look at your powers," Morgana answered. That seemed reasonable, I was also curious as to what the cat creature was capable of as he might prove to be a valuable ally in stealing the Treasure if I could convince him to stick around to help me; I didn't know his reasons for being here but hopefully they wouldn't clash if we formed an alliance.
"Thanks for doing this you two," Sakamoto admitted. I gave the blonde a small smile in response to his words, I walked over to the vent we had moved through yesterday and quickly uncovered it. "Back in the same way we got out, huh?" Sakamoto asked. I set the vent covering to the side and turned to face the boy who had joined me along with Amamiya and Morgana.
"The Shadows haven't caught me using it yet, so I see no reason to change it," I answered. Morgana chirped about how not barging in through the entrance was a 'basic of phantom thievery'. "Phantom Thievery?" I repeated. I looked at the cat creature with a slightly raised eyebrow in response to his words, did this cat view himself as a thief.
"I'll make sure to teach you as we go. Come on, follow me!" Morgana insisted. However right as he made to jump onto the barrel beside the vent to reach it, I reached out and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck causing him to yelp in shock and writhe for a bit before stilling. "Why did you stop me? And so painfully?" Morgana asked. He did look like he was in pain and I felt bad about doing that.
"Sorry Morgana, but there's something I need to clarify before we go any further," I admitted. Adjusting the cat creature so that I could settle him onto my shoulder which he seemed content to stay on, I focused on the source of my concern as I had just realised something. "Amamiya-san, I have to ask, can you see clearly?" I wondered. Amamiya blinked his grey eyes in response to my question, so I reached up to tap my mask. "It doesn't look like that mask has any lens in it, if your vision is faulty then it could endanger your ability to fight," I explained.
"Oh, that," Amamiya acknowledged. He shuffled slightly and reached a hand back to rub the back of his neck in a manner that was kind of adorable, I mentally slapped myself a few times and refocused on the boy who seemed embarrassed about something. "I don't actually have bad eyesight," Amamiya revealed. I blinked my eyes in shock whilst Sakamoto stared at him with a slightly open mouth.
"But why do you wear glasses?" Sakamoto asked. I agreed with the question, if Amamiya had perfectly fine eyesight, then there should have been no reason for him to wear the glasses; Amamiya looked sheepish as he kicked his pointed boot at the ground whilst keeping his head tilted downwards, I couldn't tell if he was shy, embarrassed or just uncomfortable.
"My eyes. They're unusually sharp… it scares strangers. So, I wear false glasses to stop that from happening," Amamiya admitted. I blinked my eyes at that, wondering how sharp eyes could cause people to become scared; but then the memory of how Kamoshida flinched backwards when Amamiya had lifted his head up after having his glasses knocked off, so maybe they really were scary.
"So long as you're good to fight, that's what matters most," I insisted. I then turned my gaze towards Morgana who had quietly remained on my shoulder. "We're good to go now Morgana," I insisted. That was all the cat creature needed to leap off my shoulder and into the vent, vanishing my naginata, I leapt into the vent and moved into the room; sounds indicated that the other two had followed me.
"Man, this place is as creepy as always," Sakamoto commented. An accurate analysis of how bizarre this place was; Morgana insisted that we do exactly as he says and he immediately took off out of the room, moving out I looked to both sides and saw no signs of Shadows, I then jogged after Morgana with the other two following me. "Hey… we went by here when we came in the front," Sakamoto commented. We stopped moving just as the surroundings shimmered and changed to the inside of the front entrance of school. "What the!? I was seein' double or something just now! Was that Shūjin!?" Sakamoto exclaimed. The scenery changed back to the gaudy entrance hall.
"We already told you. This place is the school but viewed through Kamoshida's twisted up heart. We don't have the time to stand around here though, we might run into a Shadow at any moment. This way to the dungeons," I insisted. We kept moving, descending back down to the stairs that would lead us to the dungeons where Sakamoto had seen the cognitions for the second time; however, we ran into a problem when a Shadow barred our path.
"Down! Down!" Morgana hissed out in a whisper. I threw myself back and ducked behind a beam near the edge of the rushing river that cut through the Palace. "Shoot… I had a feeling there would be guards here," Morgana softly commented. The three boys were all gathered near the doorway with Sakamoto the furthest back and stood up, Morgana slightly bent down near the edge of the door and Amamiya crouched down and pressed up against the door.
"With a Shadow here, we're going to have to fight our way forward if we want to reach the dungeons," I admitted. Twisting around I peeked out behind the pillar and saw the Shadow had turned around and walked away from us; Sakamoto was appropriately nervous as he asked if I was 'for real' whilst stuttering slightly at the start.
"Oh boy. I'll just teach you the basics of battle for now. You'd better not forget all this," Morgana warned. Since we were going to be pushing into more fights now than when we were escaping, it made sense to warn Amamiya ahead of time. "Always try to ambush enemies instead of rushing everyone headlong. Attack from behind whenever you can. You'll need to rip their masks off to momentarily break the control that the Palace's Ruler has over them. If you succeed, your opponent will be caught off guard, allowing us to jump in for a pre-emptive attack," Morgana insisted.
"So, we wanna get the jump on 'em and make the first strike… okay, got it!" Sakamoto exclaimed. Thankfully it wasn't that loud so the Shadow wouldn't be draw to the sound, however I proceeded to give the blonde an unimpressed look since it seemed he had forgotten my warning about fighting at the front of the castle.
"Sakamoto, you will solely be watching. You don't have a Persona," I reminded. I then looked over and saw a nervous looking Amamiya glancing back at us and then at the patrolling guard. "Would you like a demonstration?" I offered. Amamiya looked at me in silence for a few moments before nodding his head; I took a deep breath and focused on the guard who had turned away from us.
Pulling myself out from behind the pillar, I softly began to creep forward, keeping my body low and my stance wide in order to ensure it was stable as I approached my enemies. Once I was near enough, I focused my mind on the goal I wanted to achieve. I sprung into the air and landed firmly on the Shadow's shoulders, arcing my hand into a claw shape.
"Let's see what you really look like!" I declared. Lashing my hand down, I sunk the fingertips into the mask's edge and dragged the object free, leaping from the shoulders I landed safely on the floor and immediately called my naginata as the Shadow dissolved into black and red goo before coming back as a Jack-o-Lantern.
"Morgana! Lead with a Wind attack!" Amamiya ordered. I looked back, surprised by the authority in the voice, Morgana hesitated for a moment before he summoned out Zorro and unleashed a burst of wind directly at the Jack-o-Lantern, sending it tumbling to the floor before it could recover from its' distress of me ripping the mask off. "Arsène!" Amamiya called. His Persona appeared and slashed out with its' sharp heels, cutting apart the Shadow and dissipating it.
"Alright, let's keep moving," I stated. We were near the bridge and quickly crossed over it until we reached the cells that we had been previously at, but there was a slight issue that we were immediately greeted with; the cells were completely empty of the cognitions that had been trapped within them the previous day.
"Why ain't anyone here?" Sakamoto asked. He checked in the nearest cell by moving over and looking inside for a few moments. "Dammit! They were here before! Where'd they go?!" Sakamoto demanded. Morgana immediately hissed at the blonde to be quiet. "Oh yeah, there were more of 'em further into!" Sakamoto exclaimed. He seemed to have not even heard what Morgana had just said and then took off away from the three of us.
"If they aren't here, then they must have been transferred," I commented. Footsteps echoed back to us and I turned to see a panicked Sakamoto rushing up to us exclaiming about lots of footsteps coming towards us. "Thankfully, there is a safe room right over there, meaning we can hide in it," I informed. I pointed in its' direction and then marched over to the slightly shimmery door that was pressed into the walls, I pushed the door open and motioned the other three inside which they promptly rush to comply with, I then ducked in and shut the door behind me.
"The Shadows won't be able to come in here," Morgana commented. The cat creature hopped onto the table that was present as Sakamoto hunched over breaking heavily likely from his unexpected sprint, Amamiya stuffed his hands into his pockets and I leant against the table's edge; the room was rather bland with a brown table and chairs set and what looked to be a bookcase, Sakamoto pulled himself up, still gasping for breath as he fixed his brown eyes onto Morgana.
"How can you tell?" Sakamoto wheezily asked. He looked exhausted from his run away from us and then back to us, honestly he was lucky that he had managed to get away from the Shadows before any of them had seen him and been able to attack him due to his current defenceless state; I hope he wouldn't keep running off otherwise I was tying him to myself or Amamiya.
"There's a lack of distortion here, meaning the Ruler's control over this area in the physical world is weak which is reflected here in these safe rooms," Morgana explained. As if to punctuate the statement, the surroundings flickered, fading to a classroom before changing back to the safe room we were currently inside.
"Is this a classroom?!" Sakamoto asked. That should have been fairly obvious from how the room's physical setting had looked with a blackboard and desk for the teacher, it just happened to be lacking the desks and chairs for students since the table and chairs of the safe room had taken up the floor instead of them appearing, almost all safe rooms in this place were classrooms since it was where Kamoshida's real world influence was the weakest.
"Now do you understand? This place is another reality that the Ruler's heart projects," Morgana explained. Sakamoto claimed that this made no sense with him looking to be incredibly distressed by the information he was being given. "One could say it's a world in which one's distorted desires have materialised. I call such a place, a Palace," Morgana explained. Interesting, to use the same terminology that me and the Velvet Room denizens even though I had never met him… and then there were his eyes, that familiar blue colour.
"The distortion is based on the fact that the real Kamoshida perceives our school as his own castle," I added on. Sakamoto was baffled by the knowledge that it had become this way through sheer thought, baffled enough to start laughing. "I'm not joking Sakamoto. Morgana already said this is another reality. As a whole, it's called the Metaverse and is a place where a person's cognition, their mental perception of things, places or even actions can affect them," I stated.
"That son of a bitch!" Sakamoto suddenly yelled. I was so glad this was a safe room otherwise I'd be worried about being found by Shadows, Morgana stated that Sakamoto really hated Kamoshida, this caused Sakamoto to whip around to face the cat creature with a boiling magma rage shimmering within his brown eyes and a dark expression twisting across his face. "Hate doesn't even cover how I feel! Everything is that asshole's fault!" Sakamoto declared.
"I don't know what happened between you two, but don't let your emotions get the better of you. His lackeys are everywhere inside this castle," Morgana warned. His eyes then drifted over to Amamiya who was quiet as he watched us. "You're curious about your outfit, aren't you?" Morgana asked. Amamiya looked down at himself and pulled out his hands.
"Honestly… yes, why am I dressed like this?" Amamiya asked. He seemed confused about why he was dressed in the manner that he was, admittedly it was a little unusual but that was only because of how different it was to my own outfit; Sakamoto admitted that he was also curious about the outfit change, seemingly calming down at the change of topic and focus.
"That is a result of being in this world. A Palace is born from the Ruler's distortion, as a result that tends to distort anything that enters this place like the Shadows, they're actually things born of human stories and tales but entering this place twists them to fit the Ruler's cognition. In order to remain unaffected, a Persona is necessary since it grants the wielder a mask to protect them and armour to support them. A Persona is born of a Will of Rebellion, therefore the Rebel's Armour takes the form of what the person believes a rebel looks like. This is the image of rebellion held in your heart and this is mine," I explained. I gestured to our two outfits when I spoke my last sentence.
"Uuugh, I'm so fed up with all this! I'm more curious about you, Morgana, than their clothes! What the hell are you anyways!?" Sakamoto demanded. I wonder if my explanation had been too over the head, a quick glance at Amamiya showed he was inspecting his outfit before smiling slightly, okay so it had likely only gone over Sakamoto's head than it had Amamiya's.
"I'm a human, an honest to god human!" Morgana declared. I proceeded to look at the cat creature with a disbelieving look on my face, simply because it was too weird, how could this entity be a human when he looked nothing like a human; even Sakamoto pointed out how he was more cat than human. "This is, well… it's because I lost my true form… I think," Morgana justified. Had it taken him so long to rebel and awaken Zorro that he'd been trapped in his distortion or was it something else? I wish I could find Igor and Lavenza. "But I do know how to regain my true form. The reason why I snuck in here was for a preliminary investigation of those means. Well, I ended up getting caught though," Morgana explained. He then proceeded to jump into the air as a fierce expression took over the morose look that had been on his face moments ago. "Besides, I've been tortured by Kamoshida too! I'm going to make him pay for sure!" Morgana declared.
"What is this, a manga? This is seriously crazy," Sakamoto stated. Morgana insisted we get going and insisted he would be relying upon both me and Amamiya this time. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna force it all on you two. I thought it might help, so…," Sakamoto stated. He then reached inside a pocket and pulled out a gun, causing me to jump back in surprise. "I bought this just in case! It's a model gun though, so it only makes sounds!" Sakamoto explained. I let out a thankful breath of air before relaxing.
"A model… it looks really real though," Amamiya acknowledged. That was exactly why it had frightened me so, even though I had never seen a real one, it had seemed convincing enough to startle me slightly… wait convincing enough, if the Shadows or even Shadow Kamoshida saw this, then how would they react, would their cognition cause it to fire, after all it was everyone's cognition that affected things not just one person's perception.
"Yeah, since it looks real, it'll at least fake 'em out. I also brought some medicine too. You know what they say: 'Providin' is pre… something'. Huh? Huh?" Sakamoto commented. He pulled out the medicines that he brought with him so I took a hold of them and slipped them into one of my skirt's pockets as Morgana claimed Sakamoto had planned this from the start.
"You might as well take the gun, Amamiya, better for you to have it than Sakamoto. Once we're all good, we can continue with the infiltration," I suggested. Amamiya took a hold of the gun with his left hand and tucked it into his coat pocket; I turned to the door and moved over to it pressing my ear against the door and I heard mutterings from outside. "I think guards are still out there, keep quiet," I insisted. I then silently pulled the door open slightly.
"Hm, I thought I just heard something move over there… guess it was my imagination. And what of the slaves?" One of the three knights outside asked. Another, though I couldn't tell which, responded that they were in the training hall and commented that they were screaming in pain by now. "Very well. By the way, I heard we may have intruders around. Stay on your guard," the knight insisted. With that the three split up, two darted over the bridge while one went further into the dungeon.
"Did you hear that?" Morgana asked. I opened the door fully and the four of us scurried out to occupy the space the knights had been in previously, Sakamoto confirmed that they had mentioned a training hall. "I think that's just a little further ahead. Let's go!" Morgana insisted. With a round of agreement from all of us, we turned to face the area the single Shadow had rushed in.
Pulling my notebook out of my pocket, I flicked through until I reached the map page and started to unfold it into its' much larger form, Sakamoto let out a yelp in surprise at the object's size since it displayed a rough but comprehensive enough map of the Palace I had explored with lots of staples and Sellotape holding the different pieces of paper together.
"A map, you actually drew a map of this place," Morgana commented. The cat creature bounded over to me as I set the object on the ground and knelt beside it, mentally tracing the route we would need to take in order to reach the training hall, I'd been near it but never inside as the door had been locked when I was near it. "That's pretty impressive," Morgana commented.
"It's just a sketch, nothing to get surprised about," I insisted. With my tracing finished, I folded the sketch back up and closed my notebook whilst rising to my feet. "Down the stairs at the end and turn left, that will lead us in the direction of the training hall," I explained. I tucked the object away as Amamiya nodded his head.
With our direction set, we proceeded to move towards the stairs before Amamiya suddenly stopped and threw his arm out in order to keep any of us who were behind from getting ahead of him, me and Morgana were watching the rear and sides for an ambush with Sakamoto between our triangle shaped arrangement. Darting out of position I saw that down at the bottom of the steps was a Shadow marching about in direct eyesight of us and that meant if we got within a certain distance, it would see us.
"There's a guard on duty here, as Warrior Girl said, the way to the training hall is just beyond those bars," Morgana lamented. He had also moved up to stand beside us, Sakamoto asked if we were going to fight it. "Seems like it. Just don't let it notice you beforehand, if it does the Palace's security level will rise," Morgana explained. However, the other two seemed baffled by this phrasing they'd just heard.
"The Shadows are under the command of the Ruler, but that is achieved by the masks they wear. Those masks act as threads connecting the Shadows to each other and the Ruler, if we're spotted then even if we beat that Shadow other Shadows will be sent to our location and the Ruler will be more alert causing more Shadows to appear, the more we get seen then the harder it will be to infiltrate the Palace," I explained. The two boys had concerned looks on their faces.
"A-And what do we do if that happens? Run away?" Sakamoto suggested. He seemed really nervous but given that he was the only one of us who couldn't fight, he had every right to be concerned about an increase in Shadows since that would made the fights occur more often and put him in a much more precarious position than the current low level of security would be putting him in.
"What if we ambush the enemies we come across if we do cause an increase?" Amamiya suggested. I looked over at the boy and raised an eyebrow in surprise at his suggestion. "If the masks connect the Shadows to each other and the Ruler, then when we tear off the masks during an ambush that should disrupt the connection and not disturb either of the others," Amamiya reasoned. It was a pretty sound suggestion, a possibility I had never considered since I'd always just hid from Shadows and ambushed them as much as possible.
"It could work, we won't know unless we try but I'd rather we avoid raising the security level at all, it'll cause less trouble that way," Morgana insisted. Sakamoto claimed it sounded complicated, but we just decided to start our descent down the stairs, it was slow going as we kept ourselves pressed against the wall to minimise being seen as much as possible and only moving down when the knight had turned away.
Once we reached the base of the steps, Amamiya darted out from our position, moving with an almost elegant grace as he seemed to glide over the stones underfoot until he reached the knight. Pouncing up onto the knight's shoulders, he maintained his balance as the knight briefly writhed about in surprise at the sudden appearance of someone on its' shoulders.
"I'll reveal your true form!" Amamiya declared. He tore the mask off and then jumped off the knight as it turned to goo and reformed as two Mandrakes, pinkish bodies that looked more like roots and made me question how they stood up, a green neck and forehead shaped like leaves, blank white faces and red flower petals draping down like hair.
"Mandrakes! They're weak to Fire which we can't hit them with. Unfortunately, they're also resistant to my Earth spells," I warned. Since that was the case there was at least one thing I could so, quickly pulling of my mask, Phantom appeared behind me. "Makakaja," I called. I focused the Support spell so that it would effect Amamiya, a pale greenish glow of light surrounded him an upwards surging fashion. "I've raised your magical attack; it won't last long but your Spells will hit harder now!" I advised.
Amamiya's answer was to pull of his mask and summon out Arsène, the demonic gentleman proceeded to unleash a wave of cursed energy at one of the Mandrakes, the attack was enough to send it stumbling back. Morgana pulled out Zorro and had his Garu Spell tear into the Mandrake that hadn't been injured, the attack didn't send it stumbling but that was expected.
The less dazed Mandrake proceeded to flip onto its' back and then pounced forward with its' lower roots stretched out. It ploughed into Amamiya, sending him stumbling backwards as he gasped for air, the other Mandrake managed to recover but it clearly wasn't in any state to attack just yet. Thankfully, the case wasn't the same for Amamiya who got back up to his feet and immediately unleashed Arsène once more.
Sending out a boiling surge of cursed magic, the Persona cleaved through the still strong Mandrake, weakening it further. A swift sword swing from Morgana and a quick Gry Spell from me finished of the two Shadows. Gathering up the dropped money, I motioned towards the door that we needed to take, Amamiya carefully pushed it open as we gathered behind the ravenette in case an enemy was on the other side.
Luckily there wasn't, although we had entered a room lit only by torches that cast eerie shadows around us since they burned with an odd combination of purple and yellow flames and it was filled with a sort of ominous silence that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Sakamoto and Morgana discussed our destination which thankfully broke the oppressive silence briefly, we descended down the steps and tried to go further when Amamiya suddenly threw himself backwards, almost falling over in the process.
I lunged forward and looped my arms around the boy, keeping him up right when his flailing arms hadn't helped to keep him up. Morgana edged forward and looked around the corner before turning back and mouthing guards at me, that would explain why Amamiya had thrown himself backwards, in an attempt to avoid being seen.
"Hey, have you seen anyone who looks like an intruder?" A voice asked. A negative answer came, I removed my arms from Amamiya who had regained his footing and crouched low moving up to the edge with the other three gathering close to me; Morgana quietly complained about how it would be impossible to dodge them given the close confines and lack of hiding places around the corner.
"Then, what do we do? Should we try and take 'em down like before?" Sakamoto asked. His voice was strained in an attempt to be as quiet as possible, Morgana shook his head and warned how we still had a way to go and conserving energy was best. "I-I see… sorry…," Sakamoto responded. I reached back and patted the boy on the shoulder.
"No need, this is new to you, there's a lot for you to learn even if it is as a spectator," I reassured. The two boys were so out of their depths that it couldn't even be spun into being a joke, I couldn't even imagine how Sakamoto was feeling at being in this situation, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar to how I felt when first witnessing Shadow Ouvrard and her malicious opera of madness.
"Dammit, I wish I could fight… I'd at least be able to help out a little bit. But all I got is this toy from earlier, I'm such a loser," Sakamoto bemoaned. His face was twisted up into a strained and sorrowful expression as he spoke those words; I couldn't believe he was saying such things, a loser was the furthest thing from my mind when I considered Sakamoto, he had been considerate enough to get a hold of medicines for us and whilst the model gun might not be the most useful thing in the world, it still showed that he cared enough to think of something that might just scare the Shadows.
"Huh? Do you mean that gun?" Morgana asked. Sakamoto confirmed this and admitted that whilst it looked real, it didn't even shoot anything. "I see. Well, there is a way," Morgana decided. His eyes seemed to sparkle as he said those words causing me to raise my eyebrow in silent questioning. "Okay, we'll use that to take down the enemies!" Morgana declared. His voice had gone slightly higher than it had before but not enough to draw attention.
"What!? Were you listenin' to me? It don't even shoot pellets," Sakamoto protested. His voice had gone much louder than Morgana's had but either these Shadows were partially deaf, or we were just really lucky because they still didn't react; clanking sounded which indicated that someone had moved away from us as footsteps came closer to us implying that a Shadow was moving towards us.
"Don't worry, I'm sure this'll work. Attack away, Frizzy Hair!" Morgana encouraged. Amamiya looked unconvinced but shrugged his shoulders and darted out form the hiding place, the sudden appearance startled the Shadow enough for Amamiya to swing his dagger – crudely and badly enough that I flinched away at the sight – into the mask's edge and pry it off; the goo revealed a Jack-o-Lantern, Mandrake and Pixie. "You have the gun with you, right? Point it at a Shadow and fire!" Morgana insisted.
Amamiya released his dagger causing it to vanish into blue fire and pulled the gun from his coat pocket, he pointed it at the Jack-o-Lantern and squeezed the trigger. I jumped in shock when a bang went off and something flew at the Jack-o-Lantern, pushing it back and causing it to bob and weave as if it had been hit by something painful.
"Wh-What?!" Amamiya and Sakamoto exclaimed in unison. I had thought it might be possible to make the gun work from cognition, but I hadn't actually expected it happen; since neither of them were as experienced in this world's bizarre rules they probably hadn't expected anything to happen at all, Morgana on the other hand was happily bouncing around and smirking in a delighted manner.
"How about that!? Surprised? There are plenty of instances where rapid fire's going to be more useful than swinging your dagger. Of course, you can run out of ammo, but using it all up does more good than letting it collect dust!" Morgana explained. Amamiya still seemed baffled by the fact that the model worked like a real gun as he stared at it. "Alright, I'll show you my weapon too!" Morgana declared.
The cat creature suddenly pulled out a slingshot that seemed almost as big as him so I wondered where he had hidden it. He pulled back on the item's elasticated band and quickly let it fly forward, carrying a pellet into the Jack-o-Lantern, forcing it to dissipate and then switched his attention to the Mandrake who was only mildly injured by it. Deciding to take the flow of battle, I pulled out my bow and knocked an arrow, the projectile sliced through the air and pierced the Pixie, forcing it to vanish and allowing me to unleash another arrow at the Mandrake dissipating it as well.
"Whoa! Did that toy gun just shoot real freakin' BULLETS!?" Sakamoto exclaimed. Morgana filled him in on how the cognition of the enemies had transformed the toy into a real gun because of how realistic it looked, admitting that it wouldn't have worked if it was shoddy. "I don't get it," Sakamoto admitted. It was probably going to take him a while to understand the complexities of this crazy place.
"Their brains perceived it a real because it looks real. Of course, that comes with the problem of an ammunition capacity limiting its' usage in battle. But they'll probably expect you not to use an empty weapon so the ammunition will likely be restored in each fight," I admitted. I picked up my arrow and slid it back into the quiver and then noticed the group looking at me. "Oh, mine's real in the physical world," I clarified.
"Chiba, how the effin' hell do you have a real bow?" Sakamoto asked. The answer of 'bought it' surprised Sakamoto so much that he silently gaped like a fish for several seconds; that was when a voice reached us demanding to know what was happening where we were and before we could hide, another Shadow showed up.
Quickly acting, I pulled my bow and arrow out, firing it into the crack of the mask, disorientating the Shadow and allowing Morgana to dart over and pry the mask off with his sword. Only a single Mandrake came out so we simply buried ammunition into it one after another until it vanished, Amamiya was admiring the gun before tucking it away into his pocket with care since he now realised what it could do.
"I wasn't sure whether or not to bring it at first, but I'm sure glad I did," Sakamoto admitted. I picked up my arrow and returned it to the quiver, glad to see that Sakamoto was no longer considering himself a loser simply for bringing a gun to the infiltration since it had proven to be so helpful in such a short amount of time already.
"Thank you, Sakamoto-san, this gun will be a real help," Amamiya stated. Sakamoto seemed embarrassed as he rubbed the back of his neck, but he had a grin on his face at the same time; Morgana admitted how lucky the addition of a firearm was to have for the infiltration although he did admit that it working here was down to dumb luck as much as anything else.
"Did you really have to put it like that?" Sakamoto complained. A mildly irritated expression on his face, admittedly I had to agree with the blonde since it was a bit mean of the cat creature to phrase it the way that he had, it could be read as him mildly insulting Sakamoto which we didn't need to do since Sakamoto was kind of known for having a hair trigger temper at school.
"Quit griping, Blondie. You're still getting praised," Morgana insisted. Sakamoto still looked annoyed by those words, but Morgana turned his attention to us. "Oh, by the way, we should decide how we divvy up our roles in battle from here on out. As you can see, there are quite a lot of enemies. It'll be important to coordinate our moves well. I can keep providing intel for us, but you should decide how we fight, Frizzy Hair," Morgana decided.
"What?!" Amamiya exclaimed. His eyes were wide and he looked down at Morgana with his complexion running a little paler than it normally was which caused me to raise an eyebrow in a silent questioning manner. "W-Why me? Shouldn't it be you or Chiba-san? Both of you are much more experienced than I am at this fighting!" Amamiya protested. His red glove clad hands rose up in a shaky manner, as if gesturing for the situation to keep away from him.
"Um… well I don't know, to be honest," Morgana admitted. That only seemed to make Amamiya feel even worse from the slightly parted mouth and the wider eyes which made me convinced they would drop out if they got any wider. "I just have a good feeling that you're the perfect candidate to lead us," Morgana explained. That was a weird thing to say given how little he knew of Amamiya and it certainly didn't help to reassure Amamiya.
"You're fast," I spoke up. Amamiya looked at me, a slight note of calm coming to his posture. "I don't mean physically but mentally. You instantly ordered a Wind Spell attack on a Jack-o-Lantern after a brief fight where you learned its' weakness. You only needed one display of an ambush to learn how to do it yourself. Arsène is the most powerful Persona I've seen. You being the leader isn't that inconceivable," I explained. I then walked over and settled a comforting hand on Amamiya's shoulder. "Besides, me and Morgana will be there to help you should you ever need it. You lead us and we will support you as a safety net," I reassured.
"Okay… okay, I'll try. But if it looks like I'm doing a bad job, one of you two had better take over," Amamiya insisted. A confirmation of agreement came from both me and Morgana and with that, we turned to face the next area; we followed the pathway down before coming upon a knight, another successful ambush revealed two Jack-o-Lanterns which were down by one blast of Wind from Morgana to one of them and a combined Gravity and Curse strike from me and Amamiya on the other.
We crossed the bridge to the next area but had to duck behind the corner of the arch that block a Shadow from a vision, Morgana had managed to sniff it out before we got into trouble by being spotted. We couldn't risk peeking around the corner but given the route we'd taken, I knew this was absolutely the door that was outside the Training Hall… typical, there being a road block to a place we needed to reach urgently.
"A guard… this is definitely where we need to be going, too…," Morgana muttered. Sakamoto asked if we were going to take it down. "I guess that's our only chance. But wait, this might be a good time… okay, I've decided! I'm going to teach you two a special way to fight enemies!" Morgana quietly declared. Amamiya softly asked if it was a new technique. "Something like that! Let's go!" Morgana insisted. We dived out of the corner and I rammed my naginata into the mask and pried it free, revealing a Pixie.
"Listen, there's a distinct flow to battles. Let me show you. After all, seeing is… something? First! Knock down all the enemies! Everything starts at that crucial step!" Morgana explained. He then whipped out his slingshot and fired a pellet at the Pixie, dropping it to the ground like a sack of rocks. "Alright! Now we rush in for an All-Out Attack!" Morgana declared. As he said those words a surge of power rushed through me that left my entire body tingling with a seemingly infinite well of energy; Morgana then leapt into the air in an arch and swung his sabre down hard to the Pixie, shrugging my shoulders I followed the cat creature with Amamiya right behind me, bringing our weapons down onto the Pixie in a forceful flaying that dissipated it as surely as any of Amamiya's Curse Spells.
"Okay, Morgana. What exactly was that insanity we just unleashed?" I questioned. I had never felt such a sensation even when landing my own strikes on a Shadow's weakness, was it something that only came from working with other Persona users? If so, that would explain why I'd never felt that rush of power before since I'd been reluctant to draw potential Persona users into this world for risk of what would happen if they never Awakened to their potential. Elizabeth didn't technically count since she used a Compendium instead of her own Persona. But if the requirement for its' usage was true, how did Morgana know about it? Had he worked with other Persona users before us?
"I told you; it's called an All-Out Attack. If you manage to knock all the enemies down, you might be able to use it to beat them all at once," Morgana explained. Sakamoto agreed that the battle had been over quick. "It's a concentrated attack on defenceless enemies, after all. Now as I mentioned before Frizzy Hair, I want you to be the head of our command. You can decide when we use this. Strike the enemy's weakness, knock them all down, then do an All-Out Attack! That's the ideal pattern of battle," Morgana added on.
"Alright," Amamiya agreed. He still looked a little unsettled by another addition to his mantle of leadership, but nothing like before when it had been given to him; Sakamoto darted passed us and proceeded to push open the door that had been guarded by the Shadow so that we could slip inside the building. "Is this it?" Amamiya asked. I nodded my head as an answer.