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. This was initially much longer, but it got TOO long so I had to cut it into two chapters
I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.
Chapter 40: - Deeper into the Museum
We dived into the Metaverse the next day, Yusuke was as prepared as he would ever be to fight in this world. Upon our arrival, Joker quickly pulled out an assault rifle and handed it to Yusuke; he was slightly reluctant to take it but understood that we needed to have a ranged weapon. After Yusuke finished attaching the rifle to his outfit, we all turned to look at the Palace.
"Oh yeah. We haven't decided on the new recruit's codename yet," Mona realised. This drew our attention back to Mona as we realised that we hadn't actually got around to assigning such a thing to Yusuke, too distracted by ensuring he could fight here to actually bring up his need for a codename. It was clear through the mask that Yusuke was confused about what we were talking about.
"It has to be Kitsune. You know, with that kitsune mask and everything," Panther suggested. Given the appearance that he had, Kitsune would definitely make sense for a codename that he could use, but it would also stand out a fair bit since it would be the only Japanese name in our little group, thought that might not be such a big deal here in the Metaverse.
"Hell yeah. That really leaves an impression," Skull agreed. Of course, they were completely ignoring the very befuddled look that Yusuke was shooting all of us from behind his mask; I was actually wondering if he would speak up and ask what we were discussing or if he was going to remain utterly silent as he had been so far.
"Are you talking about me?" Yusuke asked. Well at least he had decided to say something at last, this drew Panther and Skull's attention to the boy and they finally realised that he was utterly confused by this entire conversation; I slightly shook my head about how oblivious the two of them can be at times since Mona and Joker had been aware of what was going on with Yusuke.
"In order to protect ourselves from the Palace Rulers recognising us in the real world, we use codenames to protect ourselves. I'm Amazon, that's Panther, Skull, Joker, and Mona," I explained. Yusuke looked at me and the expression he gave me showed that he understood without any need for more explanation to be added on.
"What do you want your name over here to be?" Panther asked. Yusuke took on a contemplative look in his eyes as his mind seemed to be whirling with possibilities of what to call himself, I was honestly convinced that he'd come up with something that might be a little… crazy to put it mildly, which was just the kind of thing that I'd expect from the artist who had been odd since the first day I met him.
"I'd say Da Vinci," Yusuke suggested. That was much tamer than I anticipated, it wasn't even that unusual since it was the artist who had painted the Mona Lisa which we already had someone embodying the name off, it was also short enough in letters and syllables that it wouldn't be a hassle to call out in the middle of battle.
"Nope," Skull responded. I looked at the boy, confused as to why he had shot down such a suggestion, but he was focused solely on Yusuke, I looked at Joker who just shrugged his shoulders in confusion as well. "Well, you've got that mask like Panther said and there that weird tail… alright! You're Abura-age!" Skull declared. Mona proceeded to snicker at that suggestion while I found it ridiculously crazy, more nutty than Yusuke's suggestion at least.
"Very well," Yusuke commented. I gave the boy a baffled look, not understanding how he had just decided to agree to such a mad suggestion for a codename; Mona was looking at the boy with an agape mouth which clearly showed his shock, Joker reached up and started to rub at the bridge of his nose once his mask was pushed up.
"He's agreed to it!?" Mona exclaimed. Skull had a big grin on his face, seemingly happy that his name had been agreed to while Panther's mouth was slightly open as she began to shake her head softly as if she couldn't understand why such a crazy suggestion was being agreed to by our new member.
"Nuh-uh! Not happening!" Panther declared. At least someone had spoken up against it, Panther proceeded to look at Joker with something close to desperation within her eyes. "Do you have any ideas, Joker?" Panther asked. I looked at our leader, hopefully he'd be able to come up with a good name, like he had with Tomoe even if I hadn't taken it.
"Why don't we just go with Fox, it fits the outfit and doesn't stand out as being Japanese," Joker decided. That was the most sensible suggestion out of the others that had been brought up, plus it really was the simplest that had been suggested; I think it was probably the best move to make given the other names that were suggested.
"A smart move. And speaking of moves, what do you think of it, Fox?" I asked. Maybe if someone prompted him to consider the name then we'd be able to get this over and done with, allowing us to finally continue with our infiltration; Yusuke agreed which caused Skull to declare that it was time for us to get started with an eager fist pump.
"Hang on!" Mona exclaimed. We stopped our advance towards the ugly building and turned to look at the cat shaped thief. "Our group has become much bigger than before, so I'd like to split us up into two groups to enable us to move about easier when it comes to stealth. Honestly, before as five it was tough to move about as a large group, but we couldn't exactly safely split up, so now with six we can split into groups of three and not worry about either group being in danger. The second group just needs to maintain a reasonable distance from the main group. Really, I'd prefer four in each group for the most stability, but we should work with what we've got," Mona explained.
"But Joker's gotta be leadin' the front group, so who's in charge of the second group?" Skull asked. A good question, we'd need someone who could be relied upon to keep the first group safe, Mona would be the best choice to take that position but given that he was our navigator it would make more sense for him to be in the vanguard.
"That's up to Joker, he chooses who'll be in each group and who the leader of the rear group is," Mona decided. This caused all of us proceeded to look at Joker who looked between all of us with a critical aspect to his eyes, most likely running through each of our known capabilities to ensure he could divide us properly.
"I'm in the first group, we need a healer in each group so Mona and Panther can't be together in case I haven't got a healing Persona. Skull and Fox both wield physical Personas, so splitting them is a good idea… based on that…," Joker muttered. We could hear it, but he seemed to be thinking. "Right, Mona since you've got the most experience, I'd like you to act as the second-in-command in case something happens to me in a fight. You and Skull will fill out my team. Meanwhile, Amazon, Panther and Fox will make the back group… as for their leader…," Joker commented. He nodded his head sharply as if agreeing with something none of us heard. "Amazon, I entrust you with that role," Joker decided.
"Me?" I asked. I wasn't surprised by the fact that he had suggested me, I mean it seemed obvious considering Mona was with him; it was instead the weight of his trust and faith that had surprised me, it seemed as if he had already come to the conclusion that I would be the leader but to know Joker – and the others from how they were nodding in agreement with Joker – believed in me this much, it was humbling and slightly emboldening.
"After Mona, you have the most experience, it makes sense for you to guide the other group what with Mona up front with me, plus your group has more support skills so the healing can be limited to individuals as opposed to Mona's group heals," Joker decided. I understood his reasoning and it was almost like I could feel the weight resting on my shoulders.
"Very well," I agreed. We split up our medicinal reserves and I supplied Joker with a few items to cause other elemental damage; with that cleared up, Joker proceeded to create a shortcut and we slipped through into the Safe Room right before that doorway. Quickly darting out, I followed after Joker's group since there was no need for us to split up yet, Shadows weren't present in this area, so it was fine for us to stroll up to the courtyard.
"Sweet, the security's still down!" Skull cheered. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief at the fact that the security hadn't decided to spring back into existence after we left the Palace; getting it down again would have been more hassle and it might not have even been possible since Madarame might have someone posted to guard the door now after we had broken into it.
"Thanks to all my hard work," Panther lamented. However, her words caused me to turn to her with a hand on my hip as I raised an eyebrow; Panther turned to look at me with a puzzled expression upon her face. "What is it Amazon?" Panther asked. I blew out a breath at her question, surprised that she would actually question that.
"Exactly who was picking the lock, again?" I asked. Panther proceeded to duck her head with a faint blush decorating her cheeks, I shook my head lightly at her action before looping an arm around her shoulders, causing her head to perk up. "Not denying you definitely did your job as decoy admirably, but it wasn't only you, working hard Panther. This was a team effort," I clarified. The blush of embarrassment faded away as a small smile took its' place.
"Wait, you were picking a lock the entire time… I had wondered where you'd gone when Panther fled the room. But it never occurred to me that's what you were doing," Fox commented. I drew back from the side hug with an embarrassed blush of my own decorating my cheeks as I rubbed the skin underneath my ear; kind of surprised that he hadn't realised what I was doing despite what he had witnessed.
"We had to forcible change Madarame's cognition by proving the door could be opened by others. It was a necessary step, and it brought us a new teammate," Joker explained. He even clapped a hand on Fox's shoulder as he said those words, Fox allowed a smile to curl his lips as we looked at the doorway that would hopefully guide us to the Treasure.
"C'mon, let's keep going!" Skull insisted. I hung back with my team as the other three went further in, once they reached the doorway that was beyond, I motioned for the other two to follow after me and got my first look at the area beyond the door. I was immediately focused on the massive statue of Madarame that dominated the area… up until a Savage Shadow walked across my view.
I quickly motioned for the two to duck down as I spotted Joker's group beyond the statue. Mona suddenly scampered into view and lifted something over his head, I focused on the object which looked to be a brochure… the other half of the map! Thank goodness they'd been able to find it. Once the Shadow moved passed, I motioned for the two to follow me and we darted up behind its' back with Joker's group having advanced further on.
There was a large open room beyond, but any path to it that was right in front of us was barred by shutters sealing in two chests, I looked right and left, finding Joker's group down the second path. I was about to follow after them when I saw them coming back towards us, I turned to the right hand path and moved in that direction to scout it out before they reached us. The gold patterned walls were quite irritating on the eyes, but I ignored it as best I could and turned two left corners until I came to a stop.
"We wait here!" I softly ordered. The opened area from before was right in front of us and I managed to get a better look at it, there were more infrared lasers cutting off our access of having a straight path through while Shadows patrolled about; footsteps came and I looked back to see the other three move towards us. "Lasers and Shadows. No direct route through from what I can see," I informed.
"It feels like I might touch them accidentally… let's be careful as we go through here, okay!" Panther suggested. It was definitely a good suggestion since we had a maze of lasers and two Shadows in order to deal with, if we accidentally triggered the security then we'd just end up butting heads with even more Shadows which we could do to avoid as much as possible.
"Agreed, we have to be careful. With only two Shadows, we'll split up and deal with them," Joker decided. I nodded my head as we both moved out into the maze of lasers; I guided my team straight until we came to a series of lasers with a gap at the bottom with a corridor right across from us and a Shadow patrolling the area between the opening and the lasers.
"Panther, think you can tangle his legs through the gap at the bottom?" I quietly asked. Despite the paling of her face and widening of her eyes, Panther nodded her head, I reached out to grab her shoulder tightly. "You can say no, just remember that," I reminded. Panther gave me a strained smile, but she gently patted my hand and then moved closer while taking in a deep breath.
Carefully removed her whip, Panther steadied her stance, while crouching a little lower than normal. She waited – like a cat waiting to pounce – her blue eyes following the movements of the Shadow a few times. As the Shadow drifted passed, Panther snapped her whip out as if it was a striking viper. The leather slipped through the gap, just barely missing the laser above the gap, and tangling around the Shadow's legs.
The effect was instantaneous. With its' movements hampered, the Shadow tumbled over. I darted forward and managed to slide under the gap that was present. Scrambling to my feet, I stabbed my weapon down and pried the mask off. The other two quickly joined me on the other side of the lasers as Panther pulled her whip back just as the Shadow reformed into two Jack Frosts.
"Fox, don't bother using your ice!" I ordered. I quickly used Makakaja on Panther and she didn't hesitate to whip her mask off. Panther unleashed her multi target Fire Spell which instantly knocked all of the little snowmen off their feet. We swiftly dove in to perform our All-Out Attack and while it lacked the power of all of us working together, it was more than enough. The Shadows dissipated and I scooped up what had been left behind.
With the Shadows dealt with, I turned to the hallway that the Shadow had been walking in front of. I found a shutter that would prevent us from going in that direction, but ahead of it was an open area with different coloured couches dotted about and a treasure chest at the back. I quickly looted it finding an ofuda and continued looking around. At the other side was another corridor that led somewhere else, but I only moved a couple of steps close before freezing up.
"His stance conveys the notion that he is no ordinary foe," Fox commented. An astute observation for a boy with limited combat knowledge, but he was right. There was a Shadow blocking our way and it was terribly obvious that this enemy wasn't someone that we could take lightly or with the current numbers that we had present.
"Yeah, we've seen that variety before and that means we'll be in for a serious fight," Panther acknowledged. It was good to know that both of them understood how risky it would be to face down this enemy which meant that my next order would be easy for them for them to follow; first of all, I had us shuffle backwards away from the Shadow.
"Agreed. Wait here, I'll get back up," I ordered. Without another word, I turned and darted back to the laser maze hall, I spotted Joker's group at the other side near the exit by the large painting; I quickly let out a sharp whistle to get their attention. Joker's head snapped towards me as Mona twisted around while Skull jumped, luckily Joker quickly guided them over to my location. "There was a strong Shadow back there, I figured we could use the help getting rid of it," I explained. Joker nodded his head in understanding and we quickly made our way back to the Shadow, ducking behind an edge so that they could look at it before fighting.
"That looks to be a control room behind him. He's probably guarding it to make sure nobody gets too close. However, we'll need to disarm the security if we want to ensure we have a safe infiltration route. Forcing our way through seems to be our only option," Mona explained. That wasn't a good thing, but we all knew this was how it would be; Joker quickly had us checked for wounds and once done, we stepped out into the open.
"Hm!? Who are you!? How did you get in here!?" The Shadow demanded. It was no surprise that the Shadow had immediately demanded such information from us; but I was more concerned by how his posture changed ever so slightly to show that he was completely prepared to fight us once he heard our answer. I suppose that was expected but it would likely be a difficult fight for us, caution would be our best ally in the fight.
"We walked," Joker responded with a snarky edge to his voice. He took a single step forward to bring himself closer to the Shadow who adjusted the gun that it held as if preparing to use it against Joker. "Now step aside," Joker demanded. The grip on both gun and flashlight tightened enough that I heard something creaking which caused all of us to summon our weapons in preparation.
"You expect me to move just because you tell me to!? I'm afraid you're sorely mistaken!" The Shadow yelled. It proceeded to reform into three enemies, with two of them being the familiar Koppa Tengu, but they flanked an individual that towered over them. A deep blue face with red eyes, dressed in a white outfit with black sandals, black edges on the pants and a black sash around the torso. Blue wings stretched behind the new Shadow with blue skinned hands clutching a conch shell.
"Kurama Tengu. Reflects Wind, Nulls Ice and is Strong against Bless, Curse and Gravity! No weaknesses!" I warned. We would need to fight smart here instead of reckless; unfortunately for us the enemy got the first move when I felt a weakening aura attempt to surround me. I quickly jumped out of the way, followed by Joker and Mona. Fox tried but was too slow which meant him along with Panther and Skull got caught in it.
"We've been slowed!" Fox realised. He quickly pulled his mask off and used Goemon's Sukukaja to return Panther to normal. Joker used Jack Frost's single target spell to knock one Koppa Tengu down. He then passed to Fox who mimicked his move to subdue the other Koppa Tengu. Fox wisely passed to Panther who used Dormina on Kurama Tengu.
Thanks to Fox restoring her, Panther was fast enough to catch the Shadow in the Sleep Spell. It slumped forward with the conch hanging limply in one hand. Mona quickly used Frei on the sleeping enemy. Knocking it down with the other two. We dove in and quickly set about cutting them apart. The two Koppa Tengu turned into smoke, but Kurama Tengu fluttered its' wings and rose back up. I decided to do the smart thing and used Makanda on it to drop any offensive Spells it might use. Skull attempted to have Captain Kidd ram the flying Shadow, but it managed to dodge the attack by a hair's breadth.
Kurama Tengu quickly proceeded to attack, unleashing two bursts of kinetic energy on Joker. Fox used his support Spell to restore Skull to his normal speed as Joker pulled off his mask to reveal a new Persona, it had a dark brown dog's head with gleaming red eyes, an extremely stretched out body that was wrapped up in white fabric. The weirdest thing was that as I looked at it, I sensed a faint connection to Iwai-san of all people.
Joker had it cast the same Sleep Spell that Carmen used. Skull took advantage of the sleeping state and proceeded to hammer it with Electricity. We executed another All-Out Attack on Kurama Tengu. We quickly pulled back once it began to move and I used Phantom to slam it with a deluge of rocks. Panther and Mona used Fire and Nuke upon it to try and knock it down again but to no avail.
Suddenly a cold sensation began to grow and I immediately leapt backwards several times. Panther not far behind as she also fled the coming Ice attack that had to be multi-target. Fox wasn't as concerned but made some graceful sidesteps to dodge. Mona had already found a high point to hide at. Unfortunately, both Skull and Joker got caught by the icy attack, Skull was completely frozen as a result of the attack while Joker just seemed slightly stiff.
Mona quickly used Zorro to heal them. While Joker brought out Jack Frost and a healing aura surrounded Skull. The ice covering our blonde punk started to crack apart before turning from a solid to a liquid. It easily slipped from his form, thankfully freeing Skull. With an angry shout he summoned out Captain Kidd and had the pirate captain ram into Kurama Tengu, sending it stumbling back but it stayed upright. Panther snapped out the boy's name before weaving another Sleep Spell over Kurama Tengu.
"Will my Skill work?" Fox asked. I nodded my head and that was all our new comrade needed. He summoned out Goemon and the towering thief pulled out his pipe to swing it down at Kurama Tengu. The blue skinned Shadow was knocked down and we promptly pounced upon it, striking out as much as we could. Unfortunately, it still managed to get back up and glared at us with intense red eyes.
"Will you go down already!" I demanded. I pulled of my mask and used Tera once more, but this time it managed to knock the Shadow back down. This caused everyone to look at me in silent surprise. "That happens sometimes, just go with it," I explained. That was all Joker needed to get us focused and attacking. This time it worked and Kurama Tengu vanished into smoke, leaving us breathing heavily.
"Phew! That guy was tough… I guess that's just par for the course in a Palace," Skull commented. Joker suddenly bent down and lifted something up, it looked to be a card of some sort, he turned it over a few times but it seemed to be blank on both sides which seemed to increase the confusion that Joker's face showed he was currently feeling.
"It really was on a totally different level from the other enemies thought," Panther admitted. Joker proceeded to turn and he held the card out to me, I gently took it and focused my Second Sight upon it, trying to see if I could see anything about it but without my Second Sight as I adjusted the card, I spotted a word written on it in pretty writing, Media.
"What's this for, I've never seen anything like it?" Mona wondered. I shook my head, since I had never seen it either, but I carefully adjusted the card so that everyone could see the word that was written on its' surface which was a little tricky due to how faint it was. "Media, that's the multi-target heal Spell," Mona admitted. I handed the object back to Joker who looked at it with an extremely confused expression upon his face.
"Ain't it just some kinda loot? C'mon, let's get back to explorin'," Skull insisted. Joker shrugged his shoulders and slipped it away, we entered into the room but found that we needed a password just like last time which caused Skull to complain about it; but there was nothing to be done, with a wave of his hand Joker guided us out of the room and we made our way back through the rooms until we came upon two Shadows behind a shutter.
"I hear the intruders already got passed the central garden security," One Shadow muttered. We quickly ducked down to avoid being spotted by them while looking at each other to ensure we were all listening to the conversation, we could only hope that they mentioned something about the password that we needed for that room.
"Yeah. I just got a call earlier to change the password here too," The other Shadow admitted. The first Shadow wanted to know and requested it not be simple. "Well, I was having some trouble coming up with a good one… for now, I set it to the numbers for Madarame-dono's feet," The Shadow answered. At that admission, all of us proceeded to share looks of 'what the hell?' since I couldn't understand how such a thing could be considered not simple and it looked like the rest of them felt the same way.
"Madarame-dono's feet? What are you talking about?" The first Shadow asked. Unfortunately, we got no answer as the second Shadow insisted they get moving, because we might be nearby, once the Shadows moved off we proceeded to stand up and after a quick check of our surroundings to confirm we were alone, we all gathered in a circle.
"Madarame's feet? The hell is that supposed to mean!?" Skull exclaimed. That was probably the exact summation of how all of us felt after hearing that clue to the passcode; it was completely baffling as to what the Shadow could have been meaning with the decision to choose that as the basis for the code, everyone appeared to be racking their brains for some kind of answer to what it could be.
"Maybe… his shoe size?" Panther suggested. Well feet would naturally lead to shoes so I can't blame her for thinking that could possibly be the answer but at the same time it seemed to be too simple of an answer for the Shadow to have used; Skull immediately proceeded to ask if Fox happened to know what Madarame's shoe size could possible be.
"Unfortunately, I have never heard him mention it," Fox admitted. That wasn't good, even if that wasn't answer, we could have at least had something to try and get it open. "Are we sure that is the proper password?" Fox asked. A valid question since I wasn't sure that I believed that to be the answer any way, but what could it possibly be.
"I don't think it is," Joker spoke up. All of us focused on our leader, he was leaning against the wall with a tense look within his eyes as his fingers drummed away at the wall. "Think about it, the Shadow said numbers and a shoe size tends to be the same for both feet," Joker insisted. The moment he said the words 'both feet' I immediately had an image pop into my mind which made me perk up slightly.
"Perhaps we'll find the answer at the statue we passed earlier," I suggested. This drew everyone to look at me instead of Joker with our leader seemingly intrigued by what I had suggested. "Well, it did have a plaque in front of it, there might be a clue there," I added on. None of the others seemed bother by this and so we made our way back to the statue, but there was one problem, the savage Shadow.
"We can't look at the plaque there, I know it's probably stronger than us, but we haven't got a choice but to ambush it," Joker decided. The rest of us bore grim expressions but we nodded our heads in agreement to his words and Joker darted forward to spring up and tear the mask off the Shadow. It quickly reformed into what essentially looked like a humanoid made out of paper with what looked to be a reddish underside. "Amazon give me a read on this thing!" Joker ordered. Lucky for him, I was already using my Second Sight to speed this thing up.
"Shiki-Ouji. It Nullifies all physical damage, Bless and Curse. Thankfully it's weak to Nuke," I revealed. It was a mostly relaxing bit of information since we could at least face down the enemy with some way to deal major damage. Acting quickly, I proceeded to boost Mona's magical attack, feeling my Trait activate. On the other hand, Panther proceeded to weaken the shikigami with Tarunda. Joker stepped up and pulled his mask of to reveal a little humanoid made of paper with red designs on it. A weakening aura surrounded the opposing paper creature.
Mona quickly used his Atom Ring to send Shiki-Ouji to the ground. We dived in for an All-Out Attack and drew back once it started to get back up. Since they couldn't use their Skills, both Fox and Skull used their elemental attacks to try and deal more damage to it. Shiki-Ouji got over its' surprise and quickly used a support spell, likely one to counteract what either of my teammates had done to it.
Joker quickly pulled off his mask and Ame-no-Uzume manifested behind him. A wave of her fans sent out a blast of Nuke magic, but it seemed to be a multi-target from the space it covered. We didn't question him and instead dove in to attack once again before pulling back. The paper body had still felt as weak as previously which meant it had countered Panther's weakening instead of Joker's de-buff.
The shikigami spun around, revealing a red underside like I thought, and a ranged kinetic energy slammed into me. I braced my feet and managed to keep myself up right. Pulling off my mask I quickly used Makakaja on Joker to better support us. We pretty much kept up with allowing Mona and Joker to bombard it with Nuke abilities to allow an All-Out Attack. If it ever tried to boost its' attack, Panther quickly countered, while me and the boys kept using our elemental attacks. It once attempted to enrage Fox but like with Mona it didn't work. Eventually, we managed to defeat it and Joker walked up to the plaque.
"'Here we praise our most holy lord Madarame Ichiryūsai, the one ray of hope in this depraved world. He stands alone as his two adept hands paint into the future. None shall ever match his excellence'. That what it says," Joker read. I felt really annoyed upon hearing how Madarame was portraying himself as some great and almost sacred individual when he was nothing of the sort, it certainly made me want to use my naginata on him more than was a good idea.
"Pffft! He's really puffin' his chest out here, ain't he?" Skull spat. Panther was scowling heavily as she sharply nodded her head in agreement, I felt rather irritated as well, but I controlled myself and looked at Fox; surprisingly the boy seemed to be calm as he took in a deep breath and exhaled in a controlled manner before moving forward to stand beside Joker.
"I think Amazon was right, this plaque does hold a clue to our password," Fox spoke up. Panther brought up how the password was meant to be a number, Fox glanced over at Panther before turning back to look at the plaque. "Hm, I do believe there are numbers here though. One ray of hope stands alone with two adept hands. None shall match him… that means…," Fox surmised. Ah, so that's the answer.
"The password is one-one-two-zero," Mona answered. That was actually a clever way to think of a password, we quickly made our way back to the control centre. "Alright, let's try that password we found," Mona insisted. Joker punched it in and the computer quickly disengaged the security, we watched as shutters opened up in various places.
"Whoa… that opened all sorts of stuff," Skull acknowledged. Mona claimed we'd be able to move to more places now, also we'd be able to get a hold of the two chests that I'd seen earlier barricaded by lasers and shutters; we proceeded to return to where the lasers where through a nearby opening that was right beside the giant paintings I had seen.
"The corridor over there dead ended. You guys look around and try to find anything, I'll go loot the chests," Joker insisted. Without another word, Joker darted away from us with his coat flaring out behind him as he darted away from us; I looked around but could see no openings nearby which meant we'd likely need my Second Sight; but before using my eyes immediately, I drifted over to the large bamboo painting that lay beside us.
"What a giant painting," Panther marvelled. It was quite sizeable, not something that could be normally put in a frame and it was instead more like something that was put on walls; it was also good which made me think that this couldn't possibly have been painted by Madarame given his habit of stealing from his students instead of creating his own works.
"Indeed. It bears such a bizarre texture as well. It's as though I could simply slip inside," Fox acknowledged. He approached the painting and reached a hand out towards the rippling surface; terrifyingly enough, what he had just mentioned did actually happen. "Wh-What the!?" Fox exclaimed. His loud voice carried and seemed to practically summon Joker to our side.
"Are you okay?" Joker asked. His tone was stern but filled with concern and worry for our teammate, Fox pulled his arm back out of the painting and proceeded to stare at it with something akin to surprise and disbelief that it had actually happened. His fingers twitched as he rotated the hand and arm just to make sure that it was all still there.
"M-My hand… it actually entered the painting…," Fox stammered. Joker moved closer and gripped the hand that had slipped inside, moving the appendage towards him and looking it over with an intensity that seemed almost piercing; Joker pushed up the sleeve and managed to pull off the glove, but nothing marred the skin or nails of the arm and hand. Joker sighed and proceeded to return the glove to Fox who fixed himself up and we all turned to stare at the looming painting.
"So, we can go inside of it? Well, I don't see any other path for us to take. Let's give it a try," Mona encouraged. We all exchanged rather wary looks at the possible dangers of entering the painting, but Joker edged forward and stretched one of his hands out to swipe the red fabric through the painting as if it was water; soon enough he stepped into the painting taking on the same texture as the painting, the rest of us follow after him and I instinctively sucked in a breath when I stepped through.
"How dare you trample on my tranquil bamboo garden with those grimy feet!" Shadow Madarame's voice bellowed. All of us jumped and a small scream escaped into the air, I looked around for the deranged painter but found nothing to indicate his presence. "You shall not leave alive!" Shadow Madarame threatened. Still there was no sign of him nearby, it was almost like a Will Seed chamber.
"What the heck was that!?" Skull questioned. A good question, but if that really was akin to the voices that were generated by the Will Seeds then it was probably from the same source as them, although more specific to the surroundings rather than just basic sentences connected to whatever the generating distortion happened to be.
"We're probably just hearing Madarame's thoughts. There's no need to panic," Mona reassured. Fox hissed out the painter's surname as his hands curled into fists, I gently knocked my hand against his fist, causing him to look at me as I gave him a reassuring smile; pulling away from the agitated ice warrior, I called up my Second Sight to look around our surroundings, I spotted something that looked a little strange compared to the rest of the area.
"I think there's some kind of exit over there, it a weird kind of… area," I revealed. Joker had me lead the way as we all linked hands to ensure we weren't separated; I moved over to the area and felt a strange sensation wash over me. A sort of buzzing, tickling kind of feeling and when it faded, we were in a completely different painting than before, one that was slightly higher up than the previous one.
"Hm… so this space is not merely one, but a multitude of paintings," Fox theorised. That made sense given that we had seen multiple bamboo paintings on the wall, so them connecting to each other as a possible road us to reach whatever the next area was and where it might lead, wasn't that crazy of a possibility, especially if it managed to work. Skull was concerned about how we would keep moving forward. "That, we will have to continue walking to find out," Fox stated.
"Amazon, do you see a way out of here?" Mona asked. I looked about with my Second Sight and soon located the next unusual area, heading over I stretched my hand out and found that it led outside; with a small jump I exited the painting and landed on a railing surrounded area above the previous area, metallic echoes sounded behind me which indicated the others had joined me.
"So, he dares call us thieves who dirty his heart… the one who sullied the very nature of art itself has no right to accuse us of such a thing!" Fox declared. We looked at the boy and I understood that his anger was intense at having been so manipulated by the man, but he couldn't allow his emotions to get the better of him otherwise it would hamper his ability to fight.
"Save your emotions for later. We have to keep moving!" Mona insisted. Fox took a deep breath and seemed to have calmed down, we proceeded to walk a short distance down the walkway until we reached a vent; Joker quickly knelt down and started to crawl through it followed by Mona who dragged Skull after him. Fox proceeded to move into the crawl area before either me or Panther could, even stopping us from doing so.
"Hey, don't go starin' at my butt," Skull snapped. I covered my mouth to stifle as laugh with Panther trying to cover up her own laugh by coughing which didn't really do much to help; I eventually got myself under control and approached the vent as Panther tried to control herself, I slipped myself into the small passageway.
"What are you talking about?" Fox asked. Biting my lip in order to keep my laughter to myself, I quickly called after the others and soon enough Panther followed after me; we emerged into a golden room – this was starting to become an eyesore – with a large peacock pattern on the wall containing the vent and across from it, which turned out to be beyond the lasers that had barred our way out.
We passed through a doorway into a large room with more gold and peacock patterns walls, but also partitions made of the same pattern were dotted about the room thus restricting our view and hiding any enemies. We split up into our teams and started to make our way between the hiding spots when we spotted a Shadow patrolling about, a short distance from us. Joker's group were directly across from us and further from the Shadow. A sharp nod came from Joker, so I darted forward to ambush the Shadow.
Upon dropping down, I saw it reform into three Shadows, two of them were the same dog creature that Joker had summoned which was known as Inugami. As for the other one, it was a strange creature; a black face with red eyes that were surrounded by a white mane like a lion, though its' legs and arms were like a tiger and its' torso was akin to a bear's while a snake was attached to its' back end.
"Inugami Nulls Gun, Fire and Curse but is Weak to Wind. As for the other one, I don't know what it is, but I know it's Weak to Fire, Nulls Curse and is neutral to Electricity," Joker explained. His group had come over to us, however I couldn't understand how he knew about the stats of the centre Shadow despite not having it in his repertoire. "We had to fight one while you were outside with Panther and Fox two days ago," Joker revealed.
"Fair enough. The only addition I can make is that the centre one, Nue, resists Ice as well," I added on. Mona quickly took advantage of the information to unleash a Garu Spell on one of the Inugami. He quickly passed to Panther who blasted Nue with a fireball. One pass to Joker later had the other dog creature brought down to the ground. We proceeded to dive in for an All-Out Attack to tear them apart.
None were dissipated when we pulled back, but I could tell the Inugami were weakened from how they looked. Joker quickly pulled off his mask used the same group Wind Spell as last time. This eliminated the floating dog creatures. Joker passed to Panther who doused Nue with Fire once more and we dove in to attack once again. Myself, Skull and Fox did what damage we could with our elements before Panther used her Fire once more.
A third All-Out Attack commenced but the Nue was still standing. It proceeded to use a multi-target Curse Spell on us and we all got hit. Joker quickly lowered its' defence thanks to Kodama. Panther used her flames once more and this fourth All-Out Attack actually managed to work, turning it into smoke. But one look at each of us showed that we were all breathing quite heavily due to the amount of exertion.
Luckily, we found a Safe Room, so after a small break to rest up with some LeBlanc coffee to restore our Soul Power – though Skull was grimacing as he drank it – we returned to the outside area. After passing through a door beyond the room with the partitions, we entered into a hallway and at the end there was a large peacock patterned wall with several frames stuck to its' surface, some contained different paintings while others were completely blank.
"Huh. More big paintings just like the ones we saw before." Skull commented. There were five frames hanging on the wall, one contained a desert landscape with a few camels on it, another was of a mist clad mountain with a shrine gate while the last one was of a forested area with a rocky cylinder rising up; as for the other two frames, well they were blank.
"There is something off about these though…," Fox commented. He was most likely referring to the blank frames which seemed just a little unusual and my head ended up tilting to the side slightly. "Look. There are even two frames with no paintings at all," Fox pointed out. He proceeded to point directly to the two empty frames so that the others would be aware of them.
"Why don't we go take a closer look?" Panther suggested. Joker checked out a door to our right, but it was unmoving, so we all went left and through a door that led us towards the first of the paintings after jumping over the glass railing that separated the walkway and the planks of wood in front of the desert painting.
"Ain't this just like last time? Y'know with the secret passage inside and everything," Skull commented. He was right that there would probably be a passageway inside of the paintings, but with the fact that all of them were different might make traversing them just a bit more difficult than the previous set of paintings.
"Hm… it looks like these ones are all completely different," Panther mentioned. We'd have to be careful the moment we stepped into the paintings, since we don't know the dangers that might come with traversing through different paintings; there could be any manner of traps that lay in wait for us and the pathway might not be as easy to find.
"There are even frames with no paintings at all," Fox added on. Those might be the thing that poses the biggest problem to us trying to get to our next destination through the paintings as them being empty might very well shut down the pathway, so we'd likely need to fill them if we wanted to get across to the next area… Madarame sure had some annoying obstacles for us to deal with.
"That is strange… but we don't have a choice. Let's go," Mona insisted. We proceeded to hop up and into the painting of a desert, thankfully even though it was such an arid land, the weather was basically the same as what the rest of the Palace had been which meant none of us were instantly sweating bullets, which would be especially true of Joker, Skull and Mona due to their dark colourings.
"Alas, this world is a desert filled with laymen who cannot understand true beauty! The slow drain of my skill is inevitable when I am surrounded by such mediocrity," Shadow Madarame claimed. I felt like sighing at his words, at least Ouvrard had accepted her fading capability with some manner of grace; yet Madarame couldn't stand that he wasn't actually capable of painting so chose to steal from his students instead.
"So he's gonna blame the world for his declinin' skills? Heh, that bastard never had any real talent to begin with!" Skull mocked. The others seemed to be in agreement with Skull's commented; meanwhile I focused upon finding the opening we could use, once that was located, I guided the others to the transfer point which brought us into the mountain painting.
"The gods, even in their dormancy, are worshipped constantly. People gather under shrine gates, offer their money and return home, fully satisfied. Art is practically the same. In the end, it is all just a matter of imagination!" Shadow Madarame claimed. The gods at least were worth the worship that was offered to them, unlike Madarame who was nothing more than a con artist!
"Huh?! Even if that's true, that doesn't give you the right to be deceiving people!" Panther exclaimed. I looked around yet there was something odd, there happened to be two transfer points, but it almost felt like one of them was blocked in some manner; moving away from the strange area I took them under the shrine gate and we re-emerged in the forested painting.
"Hard work is not what makes a sapling grow thick with green leaves. Too many young people do not see the true value in youth these days. What fools… is it truly wrong for an expert, such as myself, to capitalise on that youth before it wastes away?" Shadow Madarame claimed. I couldn't help the growl that escaped my throat at his words, to claim that hard work was meaningless practically spat on all those who worked hard to achieve their goals and actually made something of themselves.
"What the heck? He's basically saying he's jealous of young talent… look at me! I was turned into a cat, but I'm still fighting. Age isn't a valid excuse," Mona argued. Mona was quite right, some people even at an older age were able to achieve something of themselves so long as they put in an effort, age should never be a restrictor when you want to achieve your dreams. I looked around and found something off about this painting as well.
"Strange… just like the last one there's two points, but one of them feels… blocked somehow. I think that point might link to a new painting, let's get out of this painting and see what happens," I suggested. We did so and Joker proceeded to push the button that was near the painting, this caused a ship with a boat capsizing in a storm to appear in one of the empty frames.
"So, passing through one hidden route leads to the formation of another… what an elaborate ruse. It's highly likely there is a new path through the paintings. We should investigate, Joker," Fox suggested. Fox was right about that, even if I couldn't see anything while out here, the fact that a new painting had been added likely meant one of the blocked points was open now.
"Agreed, one of the other paths I sensed could be open," I chimed in. We returned to the rocky painting but nothing was different. "We might have to go the long way around, come on," I insisted. I guided the others to the opening and felt us pass through only to emerge into the camel painting; we moved to the mountain afterwards but instead of going through the shrine gate, I took them passed it and to the newly opened passage that brought us to the ship painting, but I now saw that at the end of the capsizing ship was a writhing mass of tentacles.
"Could a ship skirt across the ocean if its' crew had to constantly worry about what sea life may lie below? Art, life, water… they are all identical. The one who ascends to the summit is the victor!" Shadow Madarame declared. I could practically hear the wood of my naginata's shaft creaking from the stress that it was enduring from my tightening grip; I swung my naginata out to one of the tentacles, frightening it away.
"They are not the same! Art, life and water are different to each other. Even if they were similar, it doesn't give anyone the right to use others as stepping stones or sacrificial lambs for their own benefit! People aren't in this world to be used by others! We're here to support each other in the good times and the bad!" I lectured. I immediately snapped my gaze out to find the exit and led the others to it.
We jumped out of the painting and Joker pressed the nearby button, activating the last picture. With no more empty frames we could probably make it to the area we needed to move to, so we proceeded to climb back into the water painting, but I sensed no new paths, which meant we were forced to retrace our steps through the desert which had no new openings. I brought everyone to the rocky painting where I had sensed a closed pathway and found it now open, we step through and into a Japanese style building with cherry blossoms fluttering outside.
"Beauty is merely a mirage… transforming that into money is what brings true happiness. My fine museum, my lifestyle among the chosen few… those things are the true 'art'!" Shadow Madarame declared. I couldn't believe how warped one man's mind had become, so twisted that his viewed something that was meant to be kind as something to simply create more money; it's truly amazing he didn't end up with a distortion born from Greed.
"So, you lie and lie. Believing yourself worthy of the things you gained through deception and theft. True art touches a person right in their soul! You're the one who is a mirage," Joker hissed. I'm certain all of us were done with hearing this man's mad ramblings, we made the simple walk to the end and happily hopped out of the painting at a higher level.
"See, this has gotta be the end!" Skull cheered. We all proceeded to take a deep breath, glad to have escaped the paintings we'd been stuck inside of; hopefully that would be the last of those kinds of infernal mazes that we'd have to deal with, especially since it was starting to tire my eyes out, I could keep going for now but any more of this would likely mean we'd have to stop exploring.
"How despicable," Fox snarled. We all looked at our new comrade and saw the trembles that writhed across his arms and shoulders. "We have encountered so many of his paintings, yet not once did he mention a love for art. These are no 'paintings'. They are just meaningless self-assertions placed into pictures frames!" Fox declared.
"I'm excited to see how the Change of heart alters him. Now let's hurry!" Mona insisted.