'Left on this corner/turn, Joker/Akira.' Oracle's commands reverberated hazily in Akira's head. 'then straight/forward for 15meters/28steps.'

Akira beckoned Skull, Fox, and Mona to follow him through the yellow hallways of Luciano's Domain's third level with the labored wave of a red glove.

'Exit/passageway still nowhere in sight/range. Not detecting any hostile presences/entities in your immediate vicinity.' She continued. 'Requesting/please, a break/pause? Feel tired/overstimulated.'

'granted/rest.' he replied, and the connection went silent.

"Take a break, everyone." Just as the words left his lips, Ryuji promptly fell onto his ass, Morgana onto his face, and Yusuke to his knee. Akira followed suit and caught himself against a wall. Everyone was exhausted.

They'd been wandering this endless 'backrooms' level for what felt like hours. This area of Luciano's Domain proved too vast, empty, and monotonous even for Futaba's Persona to make much sense of it. She had described scanning for an exit as trying to find a dead pixel on an unpowered phone screen. Akira hadn't understood the analogy back then and decided that trying to comprehend it now would be just as fruitless.

He wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead from under his bangs and sighed. He didn't want to admit it to himself, but lately he was getting complacent and frankly fed up with everything related to Luciano and No Nut November. The days were feeling more action-packed than ever, with the antics Haru and Kasumi kept roping him into, the mad scramble for answers about Luciano, and the occasional trip to his hellpit, but the calendar still found a way to drag. Every morning, the instant his eyes opened, his brain assaulted him with the idea that he could simply end all of this with a quick tug. It had become ritual to psych himself out of a suicide-fap multiple times throughout the day, and Morgana's defeatist attitude didn't help much, either.

Following Ann's encounter with the angel last week, everyone had been hesitant to come to Mementos. Simply being here sent waves of sickness through the stomachs of the boys and Akira could tell the girls weren't exactly happy to be here when they'd agreed to meet a few hours ago. Half of the reason Akira had ordered an expedition today was out of desperate hope that Luciano would stick to his word and grant the reward promised to them on Wednesday. That maybe, it would make their upcoming battles (both with Luciano and with time itself) a little more bearable.

But, watching his teammates slowly drag themselves to their feet, Akira was beginning to wonder if this whole thing was even worth it. A deadly lingering thought formed in his mind a few days ago. One that he'd elected to reject and suppress out of despair in that it might be worth considering, out of fear his hypothesis might be right. He pressed at his temples and took a deep breath, trying and failing not to think about it.

Exactly as self-described, No Nut November is a despicable, masochistic, and downright suicidal challenge wherein participants must not masturbate, have sex, or otherwise ejaculate for any reason during the entirety of the month of November. He and the boys (and, a bit later, Futaba) had been roped into this challenge against their will, and defeating the ringleader, LuckyLuciano17k, would be the fastest way to put an end to this lunacy and regain control of their lives. But there was another –potentially much more difficult and certainly much more intimidating – option.

Maybe, just maybe… The best course of action might be to just wait it out. To endure the 30 days of No Nut November and complete the challenge as intended. He shuddered at the idea of dragging himself through the kilometers of dirty, shattered vodka bottles that 20 more days of this abstinence would be.

"Lookin' mighty flaccid over there, boys! What's got your dicks in a knot?" Indeed, when their heartless orchestrator's omnidirectional voice filled their heads with taunts, the boys barely reacted.

"Can you just hurry up and kill us already, you pasty freak? Can ya turn me into a ghost so I can peer into the girls changing room?" Ryuji slurred complacently.

Luciano emerged from around a corner with his usual inhuman smile, hands clasped at their regular spot afront his stomach, and chuckled to himself.

"Ahhh…" Luciano sighed a somber, almost nostalgic sigh. "The Monday blues… on a Friday, no less! It's tough when you can't whip the weasel, huh? Here, why don't I give y'all a lil' motivation…" he brought his hand up to eye level.

*Snap!* Luciano was meters away from Akira, and yet the snap sounded as if it had gone off right next to his ears.

*Snap!* a second one. For a moment, nothing happened, until Akira saw Ryuji's pants tighten and a tent form at his groin.

In utter shock, he witnessed Ryuji leap at Luciano like a tiger in heat, fully erect, foaming at the mouth and with a look of pure rabid madness on his face.

"WHO WAS THAT GIRL!? TELL ME!" he grabbed at Luciano's shirt furiously, the white demon only smiled back.

*Snap!* Another from Luciano. A few instants later, Yusuke followed Ryuji's lead, also at full mast.

"IS THAT AYOTO!? ARE YOU SAYING I'LL…!?"

*Snap!* This time, Morgana's turn; red rocket ready for launch.

"NAKED UNIVERSITY GIRLS!? YOU'D BETTER NOT BE MESSING WITH ME, BITCH!"

Akira stared slack-jawed at his friends' behaviors until a final *Snap!* from Luciano made their actions clear. He felt like the folds of his brain unravel, inflate, tie up into a tight braid, and shove themselves back into a head too small to contain them. A vision appeared through the mist in his mind. One that, in his heart of hearts and by a method he could not comprehend, he understood to be a snapshot of the near future.

Makoto Niijima. In his room. On his bed. Topless.

If Akira were tasked with describing the way her expression in that moment of future-time made him feel in a single word, he would have ejaculated on the spot.

As a consequence of overexposure to highly curated sexual content, his view of the female form had become warped. Though Makoto was by any definition an attractive young lady, in Akira's head, her beauty and sex appeal were divine. In the vision, however, her bare-breasted form was decidedly normal, and quite unlike the goddess of sex he'd build her up to be in his head. But it was this fact that helped Akira realize that this was a legitimate window into reality, and not one of his many, many fantasies involving her. Makoto didn't look as good naked as he thought, but the fact that she didn't resemble the over-sexualized silicone-ridden porn-stars he'd spent hours cranking it to made it obvious that the Makoto he saw after Luciano's snap was the real thing. Akira had struggled to 'get it up' before No Nut November started, and though he found his dong responding more readily as the days went by, never in his life had he gotten so painfully hard so painfully fast.

Akira snapped back to reality and his heart imploded when the glorious scene faded into his memory. Like an animal, he joined the other three boys in lunging at Luciano.

"MAKOTO…!? BOOBS!? IN MY ROOM? N-NAKED!? WHEN!? WHEN WILL THIS HAPPEN! SPILL THE BEANS, ASSHOLE!" He screamed. Luciano only chuckled, unaffected by the punches and scratches assaulting him.

The slam of their heads onto the hard carpeted floor as Luciano teleported away seemed to knock a bit of sense back into them.

Luciano snapped his fingers again, and a set of glowing orbs appeared between him and the boys. When the light dimmed they saw four beveled cubes hovering in the air, like six-sided dice blown up to the sizes of beach balls. Instead of dimples on the faces of the die they had unblinking, pitch-black eyes that eerily resembled the one they'd seen on the angel that attacked Ann. Dumbfounded, and not completely over their glimpse into the future, the thieves motionlessly stared at Luciano.

"Well, go on! Don't be shy, y'all! I worked hard to get'cha these!"

After a minute of awkward breathing and exchanged glances, Ryuji was the first to rise. The cube spun ominously in the air at hip level, all its eyes staring up at him, unblinking and inhuman.

"W-what is this thing?" Ryuji asked.

"Y'all earned it! For making it to Friday. I'm not a man to go back on my word." Luciano crossed his arms expectantly. "Don't worry, it don't bite!"

These unsettling boxes must be the reward Luciano alluded to the other day, the reward for making it through 10 days of No Nut November. Ryuji looked back over his shoulder at his teammates, who had finally picked themselves up off the ground and stood with hands at their masks in case a battle ensued. They all understood it a risky proposition, but whatever 'reward' lay tied to these boxes might be the only freebie they'd get against Luciano. It was an opportunity they could not afford to pass out on.

Ryuji reached a slow hand out and touched the die. Instantly, it exploded into a shower of confetti and silly string with a comical horn honk straight out of a carnival that caused all but Luciano to jump in surprise. A set of spinning wheels resembling those on a slot machine appeared with a popping sound a meter from Ryuji's face and a disembodied voice not belonging to Luciano spoke in unfitting cheer:

"Ding-ding-ding-ding! Ryuji Sakamoto! Age: 18!"

"W-what the fuck is this clown shit?" Ryuji and the others took a step back, Luciano chuckled to himself.

"Height: 175 centimeters, weight: 61 kilograms, occupation: student," it continued. "Romantic interests: none!"

"D'ah, really!? C'mon!" His shoulders sagged and he tried to swat the spinning wheels quiet, but found his hand phased right through them. Suddenly, they began to slow down and one by one they all settled onto the same image, a minimalist icon of green shoes with feathers at the ankles, invoking the image of Hermes' winged sandals.

"Congratulations! You have won: a permanent 10% increase to your base speed!"

Before anyone could react, the wheels dissipated in a soft green glow and fizzled out, the remaining light gathered into a ball which floated up to Ryuji's chest, and caused his entire body to glow green once it touched his chest.

"Skull!" Mona started to his rescue.

"No! Mona, i-it's fine…" Ryuji signaled for the cat to stay back.

The glowing stopped and Ryuji looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers and wrists slowly. He turned to face the others and his face wore a look of simultaneous confusion and excitement. He threw a set of rapid-fire left jabs at the air. They were fast.

"Woah…" he balled his right hand into a fist in amazement. "It's for real…!"

Morgana sheepishly walked forwards and, shooting Luciano the hairiest eyeball known to cat-kind, hopped up and touched one of the other cubes, which also exploded into an inappropriately jovial ball of confetti.

"Ding-ding-ding-ding! Morgana! Age: 2!" the same voice cheered. "Height: 50 centimeters, weight: 4 kilograms, occupation: not a cat!"

"Got that right." He chuckled.

"Romantic interests: None!"

"Wha-!? I clearly have Lady Ann as my romantic lover! This thing's busted!"

"Keep dreamin', pussy!" Ryuji shadowed some lightning-fast punches in the cat's direction.

"Congratulations! You have won: The healing spell Yggdrasil!" again the slots turned to green light and merged with Morgana.

He summoned his persona and called out the name of the spell. "Maybe this'll fix that low IQ of yours, Skull!" An enormous, ornate hammer of lustrous grey appeared over Ryuji's head and with a thunderous crash flattened the blonde in a scene straight out of an old cartoon.

Akira and Yusuke gasped, but when they saw Ryuji rebound like a bouncy ball looking no worse for wear, their mouths hung open.

"What the fuck was that, Mona!? You legit tryna kill m-?" Ryuji pulled Morgana up to his face and screamed, but froze a second afterwards. He dropped Morgana and his hands trembled as he slowly put them to his leg and exercised the full range of motion of his bad knee, the painful-sounding set of pops that usually followed this motion were absent. His face lit up into pure glee and he scooped up the cat once again, this time into a hug, completely forgetting Luciano was watching the entire thing not even 5 meters away.

"Oh! You beautiful not-a-cat-thing bastard!" Ryuji nuzzled Morgana, who tried and failed to escape the blonde's grip. "You fixed by busted knee! I'm gonna stuff you so full of catnip you're gonna explode!"

"Gh! Skull! Let me go!" Morgana wheezed.

Akira and Yusuke's jaws threatened to dislocate. The doctors had told Ryuji he'd be wrestling with that injury for the rest of his life, and none of their usual persona spells or mementos-specific healing items were ever able to do anything for it, but it looked a whole lot like Morgana had magically healed it back as if it'd never been broken. Whatever fit of mercy had overtaken Luciano didn't seem to be for show. Skills and abilities far more powerful than they could ever hope to find on their own as a reward for not jerking off for 10 days in a row. Luciano did say at the beginning of all this that he wanted them to succeed, it looks like he really was telling the truth.

Yusuke was next. His romantic interests were listed indistinctly as 'two,' sending Morgana and Ryuji into a short rage of envy. He received a simple attack increase of 5% that the others accepted as fittingly unceremonious punishment for daring to be romantically associated with a woman during this drought, let alone two.

Finally, Akira walked up to the cube and touched it.

The remainder of No Nut November, regardless of whether they managed to defeat Luciano early or persist through the remaining couple of weeks, would be far from easy. With the image of his love's bare chest upon his bed forever burned to memory and his desire to masturbate higher than ever, Akira had the gut suspicion that his trials and tribulations would only grow more extreme. But he would not be phased.

'I will see Makoto's boobs!' his every neuron cheered in unison.

"Ding-ding-ding-ding! Akira Kurusu, Age: 18, height: 175 centimeters, weight: 57 kilograms, occupation: student, romantic interests:…"

Akira braced for the sour looks from his comrades. He knew that the voice would say 'one,' representing Kasumi; Even he wasn't dense enough to not notice her crush on him.

"…Four!"

His eyes widened so quickly he thought they would eject from their sockets, and they immediately shut again when he saw two fists and a paw careening towards his neck.

"YOU HOARD FOUR AT ONCE!? THIS WILL NOT GO UNPUNISHED!" Yusuke screamed.

"BASTARD! YOU GET FOUR!? THAT'S ENOUGH TO GIVE ONE TO EACH OF US, YOU ASSWIPE!" Ryuji joined in.

"MREEEOOOOWWWWWW!" Morgana shrieked incomprehensibly.

In the center of the pile-up, Akira was completely unresponsive to the barrages of punches, kicks, and scratches the others pelted him with. All he could think about was the implications of what he'd seen in the last few minutes. At some point in the future, Makoto would be shirtless on his bed with him around to witness it, and knowing that there might be a chance she was one of the four girls who were 'romantically interested' in him. It almost sounded too good to be true… Would this finally be it? Would Akira finally bid the land of the virgins adieu?

"Congratulations! You have won:" the voice continued. In the midst of the tussle they'd nearly forgotten about it.

"One free hit on Luciano!"

The mood shifted.

"F…" Ryuji finally broke the silence. "For real?"

"For real. Take your best shot, boyos!" Luciano spread his arms out in cocky surrender.

"No asterisks?" Morgana raised an eyebrow.

"None. Whenever and however y'all'd like. End of the month, if ya want."

There was a lengthy silence as Akira and Luciano shot daggers at one another with their eyes.

"J-joker?" Yusuke asked.

"…" Akira detected no emotion of any kind on Luciano's toothy grin, which only grew wider and wider by the second.

Nobody moved. The tension in the air could be cut with a butter knife.

"Let's go." Akira finally said.

Instead of demanding a Tarukaja buff, or summoning a persona to cast charge, Akira turned away from Luciano and calmly walked away. Once the others were freed from their paralysis at his decision, they scurried after him like baby ducks to a mother.

"Dude! What the hay!?" Ryuji whispered. "This is our chance! We can finally whack off!"

"We have all the SP in the world to buff you up for the strongest attack ever! What's going on, Joker!?" Morgana protested.

For an agonizing minute, Akira said nothing. Though it would mean nothing since Luciano was likely overhearing their conversation, the leader of the PT wanted some distance between themselves and the mastermind, both for the illusion of privacy and to organize the cacophony of thoughts fighting for attention in his skull. The idea he'd picked instinctually was risky upon further review, even moreso than trusting Luciano and touching those floating dice, but Akira was beginning to feel a strange sense of understanding with Luciano. The gift he'd received, that guaranteed hit on the robber of rubbing, was more than just a freebie.

"We aren't ready." He said.

"How can you be so assured? The rewards he gave us are substantial, and you have access to more memes than ever before!" asked Yusuke.

"He wouldn't give us a free hit like that so early, or so easily. This is a test."

"A… test?" Ryuji stuttered.

"We've only got one shot. If we can't kill him with this hit, we may as well kiss our dicks goodbye.

The others gulped in unison.

"We have 20 days to figure out a surefire way to beat him." he continued. "We can't afford to blow our load."

"…Dude…" the muscles in Ryuji's neck stiffened. "20 more days without a-*glp* without a tug…?"

"I… I don't know if I can make it, Joker…" Morgana's cheeks sunk into his face.

"Were you not our leader, and your reputation not so decorated, I would pin you a madman, Joker…" Yusuke's voice was unsteady.

Akira didn't say anything. Was this the right choice? Would he come to regret this in 3 weeks? Or even less than that? He focused on putting one step in front of the other for now. He needed to think.

Back where they'd left him, Luciano watched their backs recess into the shadows of his domain. He slowly clasped his hands together and brought his feet together. He chuckled and whispered to himself.

"Well done, Thieves."

The men felt his laugh in their bones as they continued aimlessly down the endless yellow corridors.

.oOo.

"Good work, everyone." Makoto clapped the dust off her hands as the last bits of the angel's corpse fizzled into a blue-ish powder.

This one marked the third of these beasts that had attacked her, though to the other girls it was only the second, and was apparently named Phanuel as per Oracle's scan. It took the form of a giant ball of pulsating meat with an enormous, razor-sharp wing made of muscle and bone which it would have sliced at its enemies with had it not been dispatched before getting the chance to use it. Determined not to make the same mistake she had the last two times (first with Ann and her meltdown, then with Kasumi), Makoto had been extra careful to stay on top of surveillance, and as such the girls knew the angel was coming minutes before it reared its ugly head to them. The battle had been short and intense, but ultimately uneventful. Oracle quickly identified its weakness to gun attacks and the thing was thoroughly bombarded with bullets as soon as it entered their range, resembling a slice of Swiss cheese as it slammed lifelessly into the ground not 5 seconds later.

"Yeah! That's right! Phew!" Ann swung a fist lethargically at the dust cloud between huffs. "That'll teach you not to mess with the Phantom Thieves!"

I'll send Joker a ping in a bit…" Futaba squatted down against the concrete to pet Balltze and catch her breath. "My batteries are low."

"Likewise," Haru took a deep breath and threw a sideways glance at the last cobalt embers of the angel's corpse. "Moreso from nausea than anything…"

"You said it, girl." Ann plopped herself down next to Futaba and showered Balltze with even more scritches.

"Well, it's been defeated, so all we can do now is stay alert in case another decides to stop by." Makoto stared off into the tunnels. Their cavernous size meant they always felt so much longer than they looked.

"I don't think that's gonna happen. The floor felt quiet before the angel attacked, but now it just feels abandoned. The same thing happened last time. It's just us, now." Futaba stretched her arms over her head.

"Oh! Speaking of 'just us!' Noir! You had another gardening date with Akir-…Joker, right?" Ann asked. "Spill the tea, girl!"

"O-ohh! Y-yes… I suppose I did! Ehehehe~he…" Haru's mask hid most of the blush, and covering her cheeks with her hands covered the rest, but she couldn't hide the trail of drool that rolled down her chin.

"Guys, come on. We talked about this…" Makoto closed her eyes to prevent her brow from twitching.

"Queeeen!" Ann puppy-dog-eyed and pouted comically. "Don't be like that! It's just a lil' girl talk. I know you wanna hear, too!"

She sighed. "Fine… I'll keep wa-"

"Y-Y-YUSUKE!?" Futaba abruptly screamed. Haru nearly fell over.

"…!? What the heck was that!?" Ann put a hand on her chest as if steadying her heart.

"D-uwa-! …Nothing! Nothing, nothing…" the redhead tried desperately to appear composed.

"Uh, like hell? You never call him 'Yusuke'…" Ann calmed an agitated balltze down with more pets.

"S-shut up!" Futaba retorted, a little too loud. Before she could say anything else, a blinding light briefly appeared a few meters in front of her. Once it dimmed, a large floating green cube covered in unsettlingly familiar eyes emerged from the source of the flash. Its sudden appearance triggered a fight response from the girls who – much to Futaba's relief, as the mental vision of Yusuke's pursed lips millimeters away from her own was not going to leave her be for many hours, and would certainly cause her to blurt something out at an inconvenient time – immediately moved on from her little outburst to focus their attention on the green eyeball-box.

"W-what is that?" Haru swung her axe into a battle stance, almost toppling over.

"…Oracle…!?" Makoto slowly brought her hand up to her mask, her entire body tense. Was this another angel?

Wordlessly, Futaba slowly rose to her feet and tiptoed up to the cube.

"Careful!" Ann warned.

"It's…" The others could see a reflection of green reflect in the girl's goggles. She didn't even need to scan it. "…It's okay."

The instant her finger touched its corner, it exploded into a startling, harmless ball of confetti and a set of three spinning slot machine wheels hovered just above where the cube had been. A jovial voice started:

"Ding-ding-ding-ding! Futaba Sakura! Age: 16, height: 149 centimeters, weight: 41 kilograms…!"

"What?" Ann asked nobody in particular.

"…Occupation: not in education, employment, or training. Romantic interests: one!"

"Oracle! What is this?" Makoto tightened her grip painfully around her brass knuckle, other hand still planted firmly on her mask.

"It's…" she watched the slot-machine wheels slow to a halt.

"Congratulations! You have won: Passive Ability – Helheim!" Everyone watched in anticipation as a smaller green orb of light hovered into Futaba's chest and evneloped her in a soft glow for a moment. Her lack of reaction to it gave them just enough comfort not to tackle the girl out of its path, and when the redhead opened her eyes, seemingly unhurt, they relaxed somewhat.

"Guys…" she grinned like she had just won a trip to TSMC's fab 15.

This time, a blue outline of energy surrounded the girl, but instead of fading away, Makoto, Haru, and Ann's eyes widened when silhouette floated upwards out of her like a ghost leaving her body. The blue phantom-Futaba hovered in the air for a second, smiling devilishly down at the girls before flying around them like a teenager-sized dragonfly and causing Balltze to bark after her in excitement. Her original body remained standing nearby, perfectly still.

"I'm flying! I'm like Superman 64, but good! Yippee!" the flying blue Futaba hollered.

"Oracle! That's amazing!" Ann leapt to her feet and clapped in celebration.

"That's…incredible!" Makoto's eyes struggled to follow her speed. "Is this because of that slot machine?"

"But wait! There's more!"

Futaba, still floating a few meters off the ground, slowed her flight to a hover and pulled the goggles off her translucent face to summon her persona. Unbelievably, the goggles on the flesh-and-blood girl likewise slid upwards onto her forehead as if moved by a set of invisible hands; the eyes of the 'real' Futaba were closed peacefully. Necronomicon, the UFO, buzzed into opacity above her material self and rotated so its underside opening faced the wall with the exit door. A wide beam of light shone out from its bottom and once an image resolved on the concrete a video began to play.

"It's a projector!" Haru stepped forward. Half a second later, she heard her own voice repeat the statement through the flying saucer.

"Yup!" Futaba proudly placed her hands at her hips and smirked at Makoto. The picture on the projector shifted and Makoto saw herself on the wall. "A live video feed of whatever I see and hear!"

"Cool! So cool!" Ann cheered.

"Yeeeeeaaahh!" Futaba swooped down and clapped Ann's hand with a soaring high five. She caught eye of her body standing rigidly nearby and floated down to look at herself. As she poked her physical self's cheeks she muttered: "Is that what I look like? Hmm…"

"Take me flying! Take me flying!" Haru skipped up to the Futabas. The spectral girl hooked her arms under Haru's own and managed to lift her a few dozen centimeters off the ground with unflattering grunts accompanying them. "Aah! A-am I too heavy, Oracle? Ohh, I've been eating too much~! I-i-is Joker okay with heavier girls!?"

"You are not fat, Noir! It's the gigantic axe and grenade launcher!" Ann laughed.

"But I need them! Aerial bombardment!" she pouted and swung the enormous weapon violently as if attacking an enemy, causing Futaba to yelp and nearly lose her grip on her.

Makoto, who had up till now been doing her best chameleon impression with one eye on the tunnel and another on her friends, couldn't hold back an incredulous chuckle. Once they'd all gotten over the novelty of their fantastical flying friend Futaba, the navigator mentally reached out to Akira and the others for a situation report.

"It looks like they found some of those weird item boxes, too." She commented and turned to face the door. "Take care of my body, yeah?"

Before any of them could consciously react, Futaba's ghostly legs turned into a hazy blue cloud of smoke who's shape somewhat resembled that of a mermaid's tail. She shot up into the air and with an elegant flip dove into the door marked exit at a remarkable speed, passing through both it and the invisible barrier with no resistance. The girls blinked in awe before snapping their heads to the projector and watched her soar just above an unsteady-looking metal scaffold railing before flying through another exit door that lead to a yellow background that perfectly matched Futaba's description of the 'backrooms.'

"Woah…"

It didn't take long for her to find Akira and the others. They looked tired and angry up until Futaba appeared and, except for Ryuji, their faces softened. Through the persona-projector the girls heard their voices.

"FUTABA! YOU DIED! LUCIANO TURNED YOU INTO A GHOST!" Ryuji tried to grab her out of the air. He looked far too angry for his words. "PROMISE ME YOU'LL SAVE SOME GIRLS FOR ME!"

"Skull! What are you talking about!? I'm not dead!" she said. "I'm astral projecting! I can help you guys from the front lines!"

"What about-" Makoto's stomach flipped over now that the novelty had worn off and she realized that without Futaba the girls were essentially lost at sea with no map or compass.

"What about the angels?" Akira asked, he realized the same thing, too. "Oracle! Get back to the others, now! Detection up there is more valuable than it is down here!"

"Don't sweat it!" the girls saw Futaba's dismissive handwave through her eyes "My body's up there with them, and that's where I do my scouting from. I could feel a fly landing on Jose's arm 10 levels away!"

"Is that true? Oracle, that is incredible!" Yusuke said. Futaba only looked at him for a brief instant before planting her gaze firmly on the ground below. Earlier, she had declined to comment about the results of her date with Yusuke, but now Ann wished she had pushed for an answer. That reaction didn't look good.

"Where'd'ya learn to do that?" asked Ryuji.

"It's a new ability, called Helheim, I got it from-…" She stopped mid-explanation at a subtle yet deathly serious look from Akira. One that Makoto picked up on and found exceedingly odd.

"…Uh… From defeating the angel…?"

Was that a lie? Haru and Ann looked to Makoto, puzzled. Without looking away from the screen, she turned her head slightly in their direction and responded with a small shrug.

"Joker, It's queen. Oracle reported to us that you encountered some of those green boxes down there as well, is that right?" Makoto asked.

The boys didn't respond to her question. It seemed that Futaba could talk to them, but the girls would only be able to listen and watch from their little movie screen. Makoto's brow furrowed reflexively when she reflected on the concerning and increasing frequency of voyeur scenarios she'd recently been finding herself in.

"You beat an angel!? Nice!" Morgana jumped up for a high five, overshooting and spinning out mid-air when she fiendishly retracted her hand at the last second.

"Oracle, are you able to find a way forwards? We haven't been able to make much progress." Akira asked, his voice rather tinny through Necronomicon's speakers or whatever was beaming the sound up to the first layer.

"Yup! Found it ages ago. Follow me!"

On the projector, Makoto, Ann, and Haru watched the screen flip around, catching the tail end of Morgana's car transformation. For a few minutes Futaba guided them through the labyrinth until they reached another familiar and unnerving metal exit door. Just as they were about to approach it, the door opened on its own, and they could all briefly see an expansive forest canopy on the other side as a bizarre cartoonish-looking stick figure with a hideously wrinkled face stepped through. When the camera centered in on it, a slew of rapidly scrolling text boxes and pictures similar in appearance to the creature's face appeared in the corners of the screen. Futaba was analyzing the thing, seemingly searching the internet in real-time.

"T-trollface?" Futaba asked herself.

"This is our second encounter with this atrocity." Yusuke readied his blade.

"We couldn't even hurt him last time," Mona said "but now…!"

"All out attaaaack!" Ryuji shouted.

"No! wait!" Akira and Futaba called out in unison, but it was too late

Ryuji, Yusuke, and Morgana lunged at the stick figure with all kinds of speed and power the girls had not seen from them before. Sadly, their good impressions were soon dashed as the stick figure created a shield in front of it that seemed to be decorated with an enormous picture of a half-naked man pointing off to the side surrounded by the letters 'no u.' The three men slammed against the image and were promptly bounced back like pinballs, landing flat on their faces unceremoniously a few meters away.

"You can't just rush it head-on! That's how it gets you!" Futaba chastised. "When you go for an attack, pull your punch at the last microsecond!"

Akira pulled out the special knife he'd found a few days ago and twirled it in his hands. Seemingly unrelated images of digitally altered oranges and apples appeared on the projection when Futaba looked at it. Doing as instructed, he moved as if to stab the flimsy-looking creature in the shoulder, but held his strike back just before impact. The stick figure immediately recoiled in what looked like pain, except the appalling harsh lines that constituted its face stayed motionless in a creepy smile as it thrashed violently on the floor.

"It thinks it got stabbed…" Morgana commented. He pulled out a wooden slingshot and shot some kind of screaming marble at the thing, narrowly missing its head. Again various pictures appeared on the screen for the girls to see, this time of what looked to be a mobile game.

"Easy as pie!" Ryuji followed suit.

After a few more non-strikes, the writhing stick figure succumbed to its 'wounds' and began dissolving into a blue smoke. It swirled almost beautifully in the air before whirlpooling into Akira's mask. It looked exactly like when Akira recruited a new persona into his arsenal.

A quick cheer later and the boys opened the door to the forest. Now that they could get a better look at it, trees stretched on for what looked like hundreds of kilometers. There was no floor to speak of underneath the door, and the height of their view of the treetops suggested that it must have been attached to the exterior wall of a building at least 50 stories tall. The second Futaba lay eyes on the endless green, the other girls saw her camera feed sway uneasily and a set of blue hand rise up to squeeze at where her temples might be. A set of legs resolved out of the blue smoke and she fell to the ground softly.

"Oracle!" Akira rushed to her side.

"Woaah… Information overload… ran out of RAM…" She moaned indistinctly.

"Perhaps it would be best to continue another day." Yusuke pondered as Ryuji and Akira helped Futaba steady her step.

"Agreed, we made good progress today." Morgana nodded. "Let's head back, everyone."

"N-no… I'm fine…" she cleared her throat.

"Oracle," Yusuke's face suddenly occupied the entire screen. "There is no need to push yourself so. Let us return home."

"…" Futaba returned to looking at her feet and stayed silent for a few long seconds. Turning her head at the sound of a sharply drawn breath, Ann saw Futaba's physical body blush. "Okay."

A/N:

[see knowyourmemepage 'no u' for the picture that showed up when trollface blocked the boys' attack]

Hello again everyone! Another chapter down! The gang has managed to make it to day 10 of No Nut November, and Luciano rewarded them handsomely for their troubles with stat buffs, new abilites, and even a brief peek into the future! Was Akira's gut feeling to cash in his free hit later the right move? Only time will tell!

I'm happy to report that this chapter was much easier for me to put together than the last few I'd written. Please feel free to comment if it feels a bit different to read or if I glossed over something that demanded more attention! Also! I found out you can actually add pictures to these chapters, so I think I'll start tossing on little sketches to add to the story! No promises on this first one, it looks to be bugging out a bit, but I hope you like them! (for those reading on or in case the image doesn't load, please see the imgur link for the picture: /a/G91epUu)

That's all for me this time, see you all again soon!