/!\ I MADE SOME CHANGES TO THE END OF THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER, MORE DIALOGUE HAS BEEN ADDED AFTER HARU'S DAYDREAMING /!\

Their walk had become more upbeat once their resolve was boosted by the blood pact they made after their most recent encounter with Luciano, and the boys found themselves making progress quickly with no enemies (or anything, really) the rest of the way forward. The foggy catwalk soon lead the men to another metal door plastered onto an endless wall of concrete. It had the same glowing 'exit' sign above and the same iron bars covering its window as the one that sat at the entrance to this void.

'Oracle/Futaba, Joker/Akira checking in/up. Situation?' Akira reached out to Futaba with his thoughts. It was up to her to establish the connection.

'Oracle/Futaba here. All OK. We met/aligned with a dog/Balltze, he's friendly/ally.' Her voice echoed inside Akira's head. A dog? She sounded calm, so Akira decided to worry about it later.

Communicating directly with their thoughts meant their dialogue could afford to be far more free-form than with normal speech. The meanings of words often blurred. It was strange at first, but after some practice, they found that it allowed for higher information density and therefore faster and more efficient communication.

'From you, distress/violence earlier, all OK?' She continued.

'Did you hear/see?'

'You/they need to explain.'

Fuck.

'We are entering/exploring a new area/door. Will update.'

'Roger/careful.'

Futaba cut the line. Akira had no way of knowing how much Futaba had heard. Her power let her pick up bits and pieces of information here and there even when she wasn't actively 'plugged in' to someone, but given what she already knew about Luciano and No Nut November, it sounded like he would have his work cut out for him later. For now, Akira looked onwards.

Crossing the threshold of this new door, he did not feel the slight tickle on his skin that he had felt walking through the one at the entrance. This door had no barrier. Not that anyone aside from the four in attendance would want to cross it, though; The scene that awaited them just beyond this door was equal parts uninteresting and unnerving.

Everything was yellow and green, right angles and flat planes as far as the eye could see. If Akira had to describe the rooms and hallways with just one word, 'empty' might be the best one. Yellowing neon lights gridded the ceiling, and a hard carpeted floor extended beige out as far as the eye could see whenever the featureless lime green walls permitted. There were no vents to circulate air, so the musty smell of old wallpaper and dried up carpeting hung in their nostrils uncomfortably. Guided by a vague hunch of which way to go they trudged ahead, unsure if the emptiness they felt around them was a hint that they could relax or precisely the opposite.

"Hey!" None of them had said that.

All four turned around. There was nothing there.

"Hey, Apple!" The nasally voice felt like it was coming from all around them.

"Apple! Hey! Hey, Apple!" the sound bounced off the walls.

"W-what…?" Ryuji whispered.

"Knife!"

Akira could feel the air behind him shift. Instinctually he leaped forward out of the way, a large slicing sound filled the air where he once was. In the periphery of his vision, he just barely saw a fridge-sized kitchen knife pull itself out of the floor and lunge at him once again.

"Evasive action!" Morgana yelled.

"Captain Kidd!" he could hear Ryuji pull off his mask.

"Don't bother, Skull!" The floating knife was relentless in its pursuit, Akira dodged two more attacks in less than a second. "Leave it to me! Pepe!"

"REEEE!" the green frog materialized into existence in front of Akira. The knife stopped stabbing and pointed itself at Akira's meme persona for just a second before recommencing its stabbing. The frog jumped out of the way with surprising agility for its body shape and size.

"Go!" Akira commanded.

The green creature planted its feet and widened its stance, but twisted itself with just enough speed to avoid the enormous knife by a hair. Before it could mount another attack, the meme jumped up and took hold of its rubber handle with its stubby arms.

"REEEEEEEEE!" Together the two flailed violently in the air, the knife was trying to shake him off.

*THUD!* the back end of the knife slammed against a nearby corner, tearing off a chunk of wall to reveal more of the same grey concrete underneath. Akira's summon somersaulted off just before impact and landed heroically in a comically unfitting yet badass pose. Evidently, this was a hard enough hit at a crucial enough point to seriously injure the thrashing kitchen appliance, because it lost control and crashed lifelessly to the ground. "REEEEEE!" Pepe cheered triumphantly before fizzling out in a swirl of blue energy.

"Phew… That was close." Morgana peered out from around a corner and wiped sweat off his brow.

Akira cautiously walked up to the motionless kitchen knife. When he was within a step of it, it picked itself up and floated directly in front of him, blade pointing away; it felt to Akira as if it were calling to him, somehow. He extended his hand. It shrunk down to a usable size and gently hovered into his palm. When akira wrapped his nervous fingers around it, it regained its weight and sat comfortably in his grip.

"So…" Ryuji said from behind Morgana. "Is that yours now? It's not gonna turn us into a kebab when we're not looking, right?"

"If such a thing were to happen, I would prefer to be at the back. I find I would rather be big spoon than little spoon." Yusuke said, far too calmly.

"I can feel it… This is just like Pepe…" Akira examined the knife. It looked no different to any old kitchen knife he might find in, well, a kitchen, but something about the way its mass shifted under his gloved fingertips radiated a certain inexplicable power. It reminded him of the frog. This, then, must be a meme, too. "Let's go."

It didn't take long for another oddity to find them. In less than 5 minutes, Yusuke had gotten his wish and acquired a comically large spoon that doubled as a sword, Ryuji a perfectly straight metal pipe that only ever made one kind of ear-shatteringly loud sound, and Morgana a slingshot that shot out what looked like strange cartoon birds. Each became easier to obtain than the last, as it seemed that all of these were a type of meme that each of the party members could use to fight the normally untouchable types of beings that inhabited these walls; and with each that they found, their spirits and confidence rose.

By this point, they had become so accustomed to the ridicule of Luciano's domain that they simply accepted their new weapons as they came. But they could not have foreseen the insanity that would come just when they thought things were progressing smoothly.

"Tralalalala-lalala-lalala…!" It said.

It was a kind of man-sized stick figure. Akira and the others could not make out what its body was made of, but its arms, legs, and torso looked like they were drawn on some computer program and superimposed onto the real world. They could see the jagged outline of pixel graphics tracing the movements of its skinny body. Its head was a lopsided, hideously wrinkled paper-white and its face wore a grin so wide it creeped up past its cheeks and compressed its eyes into thin fermatas. It was dancing, too. Alternating its legs in a jovial stomp and swinging its arms around in time. It was taunting them. No matter, this would be another good test for their new weapons.

"Heh…" Ryuji chuckled at himself, swinging his new metal pipe up onto his shoulder. "Anyone want dibs on this clown 'fore I one-shot it?"

"Easy pickings!" Morgana fired a casual shot off a little red bird-sphere at his new slingshot aimed straight at the dancing stickman's unflinching face. It opened its already comically oversized mouth even wider and caught the projectile between its teeth. It continued to dance defiantly with the little bird flapping uselessly in its maw before spitting it back at Morgana with unrelenting speed; Morgana was barely able to avoid the headshot with a dive to the left. It kept dancing, its expression unchanging.

"Allow me, Mona." Yusuke twirled his enormous spoon as gracefully as one could and lunged for a swift slice across the abdomen. "Hiyah!"

The stick figure contorted impossibly and bent its thin, pixelated body into a perfect outline of the spoon's oncoming silhouette and dodged the swing. Yusuke recovered the momentum of the spoon magnificently and spun around to deliver a powerful stab at its stomach. It used its spindly arms to grab at its upper thighs and it pulled its legs high up above the spoon, causing it to pass harmlessly between its legs. Another attack, this time a reckless and angry overhead swing intended to cleave the creature in half. It separated its left and right sides like a pair of wooden chopsticks and Yusuke's spoon smashed hard into the ground uselessly as the two sides of the stickman popped back together. It continued its dance.

"Take this!" Ryuji swung his pipe at the caricature's head.

The characteristic ear-shattering crash of Ryuji's weapon signaled that the blow had connected successfully. The surprise attack had worked, a direct headshot! The stickman fell over onto its side, bounced its head off the ground, and like a reflex punching bag un-bounced right back up into Ryuji's pipe, sending the boy flying off to the side in a flatspin from the recoil. Akira was about to mount an attack of his own, until a bone-chilling scream filled his head. It was Futaba.

'EMERGENCY. AKIRA/RYUJI/MORGANA/YUSUKE, IMMEDIATELY HELP/RESCUE. PAIN/TERROR/DEATH.' All four of the boys could feel the sheer dread in her transmission and froze. Not good.

'Coming/hoping. Guard/Pray.'

Wordlessly, the boys spun on their heels and began back up to the entrance. There wasn't enough room either in the yellow hallways or on the catwalk for Morgana's car form to drive at any meaningful speed, so a full sprint was all they could manage. Futaba's connection was open the entire time, her screams grew less and less coherent as the agonizing seconds passed. From every part of his surroundings Akira could feel LuckyLuciano17k's eyes crawling across his skin and his smile burning itself into the back of his mind. This was Luciano's land and he was always watching. Always laughing.

After what felt like 2 hours to the boys but couldn't have been more than 2 minutes, they finally arrived back at the barrier. Joker experienced a brief moment of calm when he saw the door was still intact and closed, a sign that maybe Luciano hadn't appeared. They nearly tore it off its hinges when they opened it and immediately went white at what they saw approaching.

Last time something like this happened, Akira and Futaba were about to be overrun by a completely rabid Reaper and Luciano was the one who had saved them from its assault. Akira could barely believe what he was thinking, but right now he really wished Luciano were here. That was something he could at least begin to comprehend.

It screamed in a thousand voices all at once. If Akira were asked to describe it or draw it, he might say it looked like a set of 4-8 white undulating bus-sized bird wings with their feathers replaced by human mouths, eyes, ears, and noses. Each facial feature moved like it had a mind of its own. Bloodshot eyes darting around, noses twitching and huffing air loudly, mouths muttering and screaming words from all known and some unknown languages, and ears pivoting in all directions. The one common factor tying them all together was that they all gushed blood, staining the already unpleasant floor of Mementos with a thick coating of foul-smelling red.

One of its appendages – Akira wsan't sure if 'wings' was fitting – moved to reveal a pitch-black eye larger than the rest at the center of what could have been its body. It looked at them and time froze, nobody dared move a muscle. Everyone held their breath.

"W-wha…" Ryuji's voice cracked under his breath.

The instant Ryuji opened his mouth, the largest eye in the creature's center split as if sliced by a cross-slash, opening up into four flaps and revealing a starry darkness inside the cavity. They couldn't look away, even as a blinding light began to engulf their surroundings and scratch at their corneas.

"PERSONA!" Ann was the first to attack. The crashing sound of a mask being pulled off pierced through the dripping of blood from the horrendous sight afront, and suddenly orange flames burned their wide eyes strongly enough to force the others to look away. If Ann's inferno had any effect on the creature, it was minimal. The opened eyeball orbited in its socket to point at her. Its screams got louder and the light got brighter, something was coming.

In fear, all Ann could do was guard. She planted her feet and hid her head behind her forearms as the beam of pure white light engulfed her body for a mere instant. There was no sound or impact, neither from Ann or her surroundings. For all the theatrics the winged abomination put on before, it fell almost comically flat when it finally did attack. To Akira and the others, it looked like Ann had merely been shined upon with a spotlight for a second, the kind that might hang off the ceiling at a stage and illuminate actors as they recited their lines. It looked harmless, and Akira felt a distinct kind of warmth and comfort during that moment when the light bounced off the blonde.

"EEEIIYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Another hair-raising scream. This time from Ann.

"DON'T LOOK! GO AWAAAAAYYYY!" Panic contorted her face hideously. She curled her knees up to her collarbone and buried her face as far between her legs as she could, trying to make herself as small as possible.

The remaining thieves were left stuck in a tug-of-war between doing something to help Ann and being paralyzed in fear by whatever attack that monster had thrown at her.

'It is weak/open to psychic/Haru skills!' Futaba's voice echoed in Akira's head once more.

Haru yanked the mask off her face almost hard enough to bring her hat with it. Both her and her pink persona glowed blue as she cast a Psiodyne at the winged atrocity. It was rare for Oracle's analysis to be wrong, and Akira thanked the powers above that this was not one of those times. Its hundred screams hung in the air, only barely drowning out Ann's own. It fell to the ground and writhed, sending gobs of blood out from its flailing limbs and orifices to cover both the walls and ceiling even further in red. From there, an all out attack was enough to cement their victory.

In hindsight, the battle went easier than they had expected. The object died in one hit, and upon examining the mess they'd made in defeating this strange enemy, maybe they had overreacted somewhat. He took one final look at the thing. A brief one, seeing one of its hideous arms or wings or whatever they were supposed to be poking out from underneath a chunk of rubble was enough. Just looking at it made him feel sick.

Akira also saw a strange…naked? Yellow man walking around the rubble. He hadn't noticed it in the heat of battle, but it looked like the body of a bodybuilder covered in fur with the head of a little yellow dog. It made eye contact with him and he stood in awe as it shrunk down its body to match its head. Now indistinguishable from a normal canine, galloped over to introduce itself. This must be the dog Futaba was talking about, Balltze. Akira scratched its chin affectionately and it wagged its tail. It could transform into a buff version of itself to fight? That would certainly put Akira a bit more at ease next time he had to leave the girls up here. With this strange friendly creature around to help fight they would stand a better chance if another one of these horrifying flying eyeball-demons appeared. Looking back at Ann made Akira relieved that they were so thorough in dispatching the foe.

Whatever that thing had done to Panther with its shower of light, she was not taking it well… She had backed up into a corner and the others were bunched up a fair distance around her, trying to get close enough to help without scaring her. Akira approached slowly, careful not to upset the delicate equilibrium they seemed to have reached.

Costume aside, she really did look like a cornered cat. She was hiding her face and stomach with her legs and even from a few meters away it was clear she was shivering uncontrollably. It pained Akira to see her like this. Normally Ann was a pillar of emotional strength, she had made it through many traumatizing experiences both in her youth and in recency and always come out better than before. To have her cowering in fear and hugging her own arms would take nothing short of a catastrophe.

"It must have attacked her mind directly." He whispered to the others. Haru had tears in her eyes and Makoto and Ryuji looked like they were about to combust from anger. Sometimes, Akira hated his inclination towards rationality. As his friend lay there in a puddle of her own tears, he found himself unable to help and his mind naturally wandered towards finding an explanation or solution instead.

"That was no regular shadow." Yusuke whispered with a scowl. "It took our attacks like any other, but even palace owners are fodder compared to this…"

Ryuji stood up and slowly walked up to Ann, mask off. He had known her the longest, and despite their constant bickering and arguing, their friendship was airtight. Nowhere had Akira seen that on display better than here and now. The blond shooed the others away and managed to calm Ann down by draping a hoodie over her. He asked everyone to walk ahead of them as they exited Mementos, the journey was silent and pensive. That disgusting winged beast may have been defeated with a single blow, but it was perfectly capable of crippling any member of their party just as easily. Unable to comfort Ann any further, the others shuddered just thinking at what it had done to her mind.

Back in the real world, Ann thankfully seemed somewhat calmer. The dread that was once written across her face was gone, now she just looked tired and nervous. The others tried to ask if she was okay, but she shied away and Ryuji shielded her from any questions; She needed to be left alone for a while. After a quick explanation of what the boys had found in the deeper sections of Luciano's Domain and with note of Ann's current state, the troupe decided to call the expedition for the day and disband. It was still early in the afternoon, so after walking Ann home safely and scheduling a more thorough debriefing meeting for tomorrow evening, everyone went their separate ways to recover from the eventful exploration.

"A-akira…" Just as he was turning around to return home with Futaba, he felt a pair of fingers tug at his sleeve. It was Haru. She averted her gaze.

Akira's mind flashed back to what happened between the two on the rooftop the other day. He was far from the brightest when it came to women, and did not put it past himself to not realize he had wronged her that time with something he said or did. 'I am unoffendable.' She had said. He gulped.

"9am… On Sunday…" She held the lip of her turtleneck up to cover her chin. Her voice was shaky. "Please meet me at the rooftop. The mangoes are ready for harvesting."

Akira blinked. Had she forgiven him? Haru had always been reserved around him. Probably because he was the leader of the group and great friend to Makoto, the 2nd-in-command; The pressure to maintain a good relationship with him was high. It was something Akira was hoping he could one day overcome (Unrelated, but he would absolutely also hope to one day come over to her house and see that glorious 32C bra). But right now she seemed extra sheepish. Clearly she had something significant in mind. Akira began steeling himself, as Sunday was likely to be an important day on the rooftop with her.

"I'll be there." He nodded.

Her fluffy hair was hiding her cheeks, but even with that and the tilt of her head, Akira was able to make out a tinge of blush spreading across her face. Head still down, Haru reached out and fixed a weird fold in his collar before she trotted away. He couldn't help but notice the slight bounce in her chest as she turned. He caught gazes with Makoto. She looked away as soon as their eyes met. She walked up to him.

"Good work today, Akira. Head home and get some rest." She stuck a hand out at a position that half-suggested a handshake and half-suggested a pat on the shoulder. Makoto bounced her hand back and forth between the two and instead gently placed her hand on his collarbone even more awkwardly, pulling it back immediately and opening her mouth as if to say something. Her eyes were wide and unblinking like she'd just accidentally knocked over a vase, she nibbled on her lower lip and clasped her hands together over her solar plexus. A silence hung in the air between the two for a half second.

"Well! Be seein' ya!" Makoto brought her hand up to her forehead in a cramped salute and pivoted on her heel to walk away, arms and legs stiff as a board. Akira would have wondered what the fuck just happened if his eyes had not locked on to Makoto's butt the instant it was in his periphery.

Man… What happened to Ann sucks, but…

Akira REALLY wanted to jerk off.

A/N:

/!\ I MADE SOME CHANGES TO THE END OF THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER, MORE DIALOGUE HAS BEEN ADDED AFTER HARU'S DAYDREAMING /!\

Hey again guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Honestly, this one was a challenge to write at times. Let me know how you found the prose and comprehensibility of my writing, or if some scenes got too much or too little…uh… word-time, I guess…? Regardless, I value all feedback good and bad so feel free to share your thoughts!

As for the content itself, the gang found some new weapons in the backrooms! Akira got the Annoying Orange Knife, Ryuji the famous Metal Pipe, Yusuke the Comically Large Spoon, and Morgana got the slingshot from Angry Birds. These aren't personas, so I felt giving some minor memes to the other male characters to allow them to fight alongside Joker's arsenal of heavy hitters would be a good idea. Seeing how Trollface (yes that was trollface) so easily shrugged off their attacks, they're going to need all the firepower they can get! As for the girls' side, today they met a biblically accurate angel! Why, you may ask yourself, are persona attacks able to hit these but not the other memes? Well, basically, it'll be explained soon, so don't worry! :D

See you next time!