Disclaimer: Persona 5 Characters except Fujin Katsuo belongs to Atlus, this fanfic has no commercial purpose.
"Shit, my ribs..." I was still feeling pain from my injuries at the Palace. I had to take another free night; it would be impossible to explain Lala-chan about all that Metaverse stuff. That was my worst week. Two straight nights without going to work, I wasn't sure how many more would be if we didn't steal the Treasure before the appointed day. From what Morgana explained to me: We only had to secure the Treasure. In other words, I only need one more night before going back to work. How annoying.
Tomorrow we would reunite again to talk about the current predicament. However, I wasn't sure if those guys would going to survive with me in the group. It was already bad that I did something stupid for my first time in that world. There was no turning back, but I didn't like my odds.
Ryuji: Hey, Katsuo-san! Did you get your train on time? I didn't see you walking to any station after we departed.
Katsuo: I don't need it.
Ryuji: Why not?
Katsuo: I have a bicycle.
Ryuji: Won't you get wet? It is going to rain soon.
Ann: Did you start this chat only talk about the weather?
Katsuo: It was he who started this topic.
Ryuji: I was just curious.
Katsuo: Just to satisfy your curiosity, Sakamoto, I found it much faster than trains.
Ryuji: Aren't you older than Miss Prez? Shouldn't you have a driver's license or something?
Katsuo: That's none of your business.
Ryuji: Come on! Why not?
Ann: Would you stop talking about random topics? You could do it in your chat without us here.
Ryuji: I just wanted to know him better as a new member of the group.
Katsuo: Takamaki is right; you only send me messages for more essential matters on the group chat.
Ryuji: You could be a little more open to us, you know?
Katsuo: Don't push your luck.
Makoto: Alright enough, you two. We should talk about important matters tomorrow as we agreed.
Like always, she had to get the last word. But I guess it was for the best to break the pointless talk. I wanted to get home as soon as possible. My back was killing me. I couldn't understand how they were able to go there without getting tired. Or I was out of shape. Dammit, I didn't do enough fighting since I was thirteen. Seriously, my condition was taking a toll on me.
It was already late at Shibuya from the next day; they were waiting for me on what we had to do before heading to the Palace. I arrived late because I had to leave my bike at home. I'm sure that after my first time experience in the Metaverse made a number on me. Using the trains wouldn't be a bad idea because it saved me the problems for parking and some traffic accidents. There was one thing I wanted to say before doing anything else.
"Hey, before heading there, I want to address one thing."
"What is it?" Takamaki asked.
"Who chose this place as our hideout? I got the feeling somebody will discover our activities sooner or later," I was unamused about how ridicule was that spot. Everyone stared at Sakamoto.
"Why is everyone looking at me? You all agreed about this place too!" He felt attacked by everyone's glares.
"In any case: Yusuke, do you still have that notebook which Kaneshiro left behind?" Makoto asked.
"Yes, there you go," Kitagawa pulled the notebook and handed it to her.
"The pages afterward have been torn out as well. Could it be a code from sort?" Makoto examined that notebook, carefully.
"If we're not gonna figure this shit out now, we should just go back to the Palace, yeah?" Sakamoto was impatient.
"Considering Kaneshiro's reaction, the last elevator should lead us to the innermost part of the bank," Morgana was deducing about our next move. "If so, it'll be the most secure area as well. Let's make sure we're ready for whatever awaits!"
"He can run or hide all he wants, but I will catch him before he gets the chance," I was eager to start the infiltration.
"Before going, I have one simple rule for Katsuo he needs to follow if he wants to accompany us there," Kurusu said with a serious tone.
"What is it?"
"Promise us not to chase him again; we are only going to steal his Treasure without taking any possible risks," the leader sounded dead-serious.
"Sure, sure, I will only follow you guys. No promises if he tries any funny business that may risk our lives otherwise," I shrugged.
Kurusu took out his phone and started to use the Metaverse app to tell transport at his Palace. It always gave me the chills no matter how many times we were using it. 'Starting Navigation.' After hearing the app talking, we arrived at the bank.
"Alright, I think it is good to choose a codename for you," Morgana said.
"Great, I was waiting for this," I said, unenthusiastically.
"What? How did you know about the codename?" Makoto asked me with surprise.
"Isn't it obvious? Any story about thieves always has some sort of alias for their characters. Also, I heard you and Kurusu getting called Queen and Joker, respectively."
"Man, he nailed as Queen about these codenames," Sakamoto seemed surprised as well.
"Well, we don't have all day talking, better chose my codename, now," I was impatient.
"Mhh, what about Devil?" Sakamoto just pulled the simplest one.
"Nope, too obvious," I said.
"What about Oni?" Fox suggested.
"No chance."
"What about Jester? Your clothes look like one," Takamaki tried to put more thought.
"Sorry, but can you be a little more creative? Jester sounds way too similar to Joker, so I rather chose myself."
"So, which name you have in mind?" Makoto asked me about my option.
"Mhh... Maverick."
"What?" Sakamoto looked confused.
"I said Maverick, do you have earwax or what?"
"Why that name?" Makoto didn't get my reason why.
"I'll be honest; I don't care about your little justice group that most people claim to be. I will tag along and listen, but that doesn't mean I support this whole crusade," I said confidently.
"That is cold, dude," Sakamoto wasn't sure about my codename.
"Do you have a problem?" I stared that clueless blond-guy.
"I think it is fine. Everyone has their own reasons to fight at the end," Kitagawa agreed with my code name without a problem.
"Says the guy who agreed to be called Aburage as the first option," Sakamoto looked upset.
"It was your suggestion," Takamaki intervened.
"Okay, that is enough! Just tell me your names, and let's move on because we are already wasting time!" I lost my patience from discussing all that ramble.
"Sorry, their names are: Morgana is Mona, Ryuji is Skull, Ann is Panther, and Yusuke is Fox. You already know mine and Makoto's, so it should be enough," Kurusu, now Joker, told me everyone's names while getting into his now more confident attitude. He indeed looked like a leader type.
"One more thing before going back: What happened to the front door?"
"Oh, you mean Queen's Escape Route? It was awesome! She saved our asses!" Skull was smiling about what Makoto, I meant, Queen did to that door.
"Could you please not talk about it?" She, on the other hand, was more embarrassed about it.
"I can see that," I chuckled.
Joker used the app to transport us to the last Safe Room we were when they fought Kaneshiro's guards. What a convenient method because I would hate to walk all over the bank again. Why this Palace had to be so complicated to move around?
We walked to the elevator after leaving the Safe Room right in front of us, which was too small for six people and a cat. With a tight space like that, no wonder only one or two shadows used this at the time. We just moved down to whatever the Treasure is until we noted something from the windows.
"Hey, look," Mona appointed what was below is from the elevator. It looked like a labyrinth.
"Wh-what the hell? Are these all vaults…!? How messed up is this guy!?" I couldn't agree more with Skull. Kaneshiro was a sick bastard.
"Are we supposed to check all these for the Treasure!?" Panther looked worried, looking at what was down.
"Hold on, this distinct shape… Could it be…" Queen noted something odd about the shape of this place.
"What's the matter?" Fox looked curious.
"If my prediction is correct, we won't need to check every single of these small vaults," Queen had something in mind.
"For real!?" Panther said with surprise.
"… That is, I hope. I'll explain why once I've confirmed my theory."
"I guess we will see it soon," I was curious about her theory. There was always a workaround for such high-tech security places.
"I seriously hope so too…" Mona said.
That place was absurd of how huge and cryptic is to move around the bank. If this Palace reflects the owner's desires and thoughts, I couldn't imagine how it looked like Kamoshida's or Madarame's. Those guys were narcissistic people from what Morgana told me along those lines of his crash-course. Is it possible for anyone to have a Palace? I wondered if reasonable people can even have one—just questions for another day. Of course, the most that wouldn't stop hanging on my head was about pulling those stunts inside another reality, especially wearing ridiculous outfits.
When we reached the floor, everyone was intrigued by how huge this place was. Looked like nowhere to go despite more vaults behind another. Something that caught my eye was a panel to dial numbers. The word was 'RICH' on the plate. I already guessed that we had a lot of work to do. Queen pulled out the notebook while Joker pressed the numbers, just as expected, the walls started to rotate, giving us more opportunities to infiltrate and find the Treasure.
"Money... I need more money..." We began hearing Kaneshiro's voice above us. "I must grow richer! As long as I'm rich, anything will be possible..." He sounded desperate.
"That voice... It's Kaneshiro! Is he watching us?" Panther said as she looked upwards.
"Doesn't seem to be the case," Mona replied. "It sounds more like the voice of his heart... I guess all he really thinks about is money, after all."
"So he blackmails people outta their savings, and that's still not enough? What a douche..." Skull said, utterly disgusted. He took the words right of my mouth.
"More importantly, the messages in the journal was the PIN code!" Panther said.
"Yes, it seems.. but I doubt it will be that easy from this point forward," Fox replied, and unfortunately, he wasn't wrong. "The rest of the pages were torn out of the journal. Who knows what clues they may hold..."
"Which means there are more roads for us. Too bad it isn't going to be that easy for the other walls," I commented on the complexity of this place.
"Well, let's not get pessimistic. We should look around and try to find some other clues," Mona said, confident of our progress.
"True, we need to keep moving," Joker was thinking of how much exploration we would need to get to the center.
"Time to head further in and find those PINs!" The cat said as we adventured inside the vaults. It was never an easy task, but couldn't complain since there never existed the easy path in every obstacle anyway.
The first area wasn't so bad. The layout was straight forward, even with the guards and dogs blocking our way. We tried to find more code pages, but those were inside giant pig-like statues. The amusing thing was seeing Joker kicking electric panels to cut the energy between barriers and security cameras. Does he always solve everything with a kick?
Of course, there was always trouble following us: One Deafeated Avenger on our path.
"Alright then! Bring it, freak!" I was eager to use Faust on that Shadow. During the exploration, Joker explained to me the names and uses of the skills I had. I wondered how he knew about my skills, but it was good to know regardless. "Faust, Rakunda!" While just holding my mask, Faust roared, making the Defeated Avenger's defenses weaker.
"Carmen, Dormina!" Panther put the Shadow to sleep, easy prey.
"Johanna, Frei!" Queen knocked it down with Technical Damage, more versatile than doing Critical Hits. "Let's do it!" She said as we initiated an All-out Attack, but that wasn't enough. It was resilient as hell.
"Matador, Taunt!" Joker used a different Persona than Arsene. It was a skeleton with a bull-fighter outfit. That included the cape and sword. It inflicted Rage on the Shadow. The Defeated Avenger was so pissed that it didn't bother to use other skills and just tried to tackle us, but failed miserably.
"Faust, Double Fang!" My Persona crawled and leaped towards the opponent until biting it twice, damaging it a lot.
"Carmen, Agilao!" Panther threw a barrage of small fireworks on it, another Technical Damage. We wasted no time. Another All-out Attack from all angles until it finally perished.
OMG We are SO awesome!
Panther said with a wink and hand gesture of peace.
"Man, they don't hold back, huh?" I commented while stretching my limbs.
"Shadows are vicious, that's an important aspect of infiltration," Joker said while hiding between corners.
"Do we have to fight every one of them?" I asked.
"Not necessarily, but we can't take any chances of gettin' caught," Skull said on my left.
"Figures..." I sighed. We kept moving and annihilating Shadows on our way. From what I noticed, every Shadow had different weaknesses, but not one of them wasn't weak to physical attacks, in worst cases, resistant to them. It was complicated for me since I didn't have any magic that could affect them, only ailments that didn't do much unless someone backed me up. Couldn't tell if it was for the best.
The pathway wasn't too long until we reached the panel with the word 'REAP.' Cracking was easy. We began hearing the main room moving, as the mechanism was loud, it became sure that one of the walls were out of our way. Of course, we heard Kaneshiro's again.
"Tch... This isn't anywhere near your quota for this month," Kaneshiro sounded upset. "Don't gimme your excuses. Just go reap every yen! I'll make you understand if you don't get it... People who can't earn money are worthless to me!" What the hell was his problem? Money over human life? That guy truly needed a therapist or else.
The second area wasn't any better, not only got massive shelves with piles of money and electric fences; the shortest route for the panel forced you to pay actual money. I mean, what the fuck!? It was bad enough that fatso doesn't pay you for not doing a job, but having to spend your money to work!? That was getting outright ridiculous that couldn't find it funny anymore.
"Shit, this guy can't be serious, right?" Skull commented, looking at the golden door.
"I have several questions, too," I said as I knocked at the door if it had any weak spots to break it. Gold wasn't durable per se. Too bad not thin enough to break it with brute force.
"I suppose we are taking a long way," Fox said as he pointed at the other direction. More guard dogs, cameras, and headaches. Well, trouble was unavoidable.
Through the halls and floors, we reached the other side of the golden door. Joker gave an excellent kick at the machine that made a nice shortcut for us. Not going to lie, kicking was the answer for everything, after all.
We reached the panel with the word 'HUGE' on it. After looking at the notes, Joker put the right code as we heard the third wall moving. And we also heard Kaneshiro's voice again.
"This isn't enough... I need to have a huge presence!" Kaneshiro sounded anxious. "I'm done having other people walk all over me... It's my turn now..." Was he thinking back when he worked for my old man? I don't know what my dad or his subordinates did to that human meatball in the past, but I was sure that he deserved it. One thing I learned was respect and loyalty, but he had none of that. I only wanted to strangle him at that point.
Joker told us to come back to the main hall since we got nothing left for that area. We moved quickly until we saw another path open for us. We made good progress, but there was always a bump on the road. A guard was standing in front of another panel as soon we turned our heads at it. We got everything ready to fight it right away.
"Hmph, you guys must be the rats we've been hearing about... Well, Mr. Kaneshiro ordered me to absolutely no let anyone past this point," the security guard said proudly with some anger underneath his voice. "Accept your death!"
One Life-Draining Spirit guarded the panel. Just our luck.
"I don't like the look of this fellow," I said as I got my weapons ready. The rest of the team did as well, couldn't tell what it was capable.
"Bloodbath!" The Shadow shouted as it swung its blade at everyone. Joker, Fox, and Queen swiftly dodged the attack. The rest, including myself, got hit by it. It only made worse because I got inflicted with Fear.
"A-Afraid? I-I d-don't know wh-what are you t-talking about?" I trembled, my body refused to take any action.
"Hey! Wake up!" Panther rushed towards me with a paper fan at hand. She smacked me with it in the head, alleviating me from the ailment.
"Grrr, I hate when they do that," I said in disdain. I couldn't know what was worse: Ailments, or paper fans.
"Carmen, Dormina!" Panther held her mask as she summoned the dancer by her side. By a simple mode, the Shadow quickly fell asleep.
"Let me return it the favor, Double Fang!" Faust leaped and bit twice. I did more significant damage than usual to the freak.
"Captain Kidd, Assault Dive!" Skull gave his best shot. The Soul-Draining Spirit was getting weak.
"Angel!" Joker summoned a different Persona as he delivered the coup de grace on it with Kouha. He killed it with a little sparkle.
"Phew, that was a fight," I said, rubbing my neck.
"Did you get used to this?" Queen asked me, worried about my condition.
"Hard to say, definitely not something for the average human," I stretched my arm as I tried to alleviate the sore feelings between fights. Our work could be a little tougher if it weren't for Disaster Shadows.
Yep, those little buggers were far more dangerous than regular ones. However, killing it one of those would cause an explosion to damage their allies. All that while dropping sweet loot. Of course, that's only when we hit them first without missing because they can be nastier with comebacks.
"Huh? I can feel a Will Seed here," Mona said as he hopped with excitement.
"A what?" I said confusingly. We explored further in that hallway behind the main vault. We shortly realized that another guard was waiting for us.
"There are Shadows here as well... Perhaps they are protecting something," Fox said as he pointed to a narrow path was behind the security guard.
"That one seems pretty tough... We'll have to make sure we're good and ready," Panther commented.
"Shall we take this guy down, now?" I asked the leader.
"Let's do it," he confidently said as we move forward.
"What're you doing here!?" The guard seemed surprised, somewhat scared to see us. "But since you're here... It'll be the last of you!" Of course, nothing could go through without any of those freaks wanting to fight. The guard transformed into a large white lion with a snake tail.
"Here it comes- get ready!" Queen warned us as we got into positions.
A Guard Dog of Hades was not playing around.
"Johanna, Makajam!" Queen tried to inflict Forget, but that didn't do much.
"Goemon, Bufu!" Fox threw ice at the beast, knocking it down completely. We did a Hold-Up, but Joker asked us to break formation, giving Fox a chance to act again. "Baton Pass, Maverick!" He called me while wavering his hand. I complied with gusto was we did a High-Five, pushing my cape aside while feeling my body with a boost of agility.
"Alright, Fido, you better cry for mommy!" I held my mask as Faust appeared behind me. "Double Fang!" I shouted while my Persona leaped towards the Shadow, but knowing my luck, it didn't work as planned. The beast was able to reflect my attack, hitting me instead of it. "The hell!?"
"Be careful! It can counter physical attacks!" Mona said from the backline.
"And you are telling me that just now!?" I was baffled of wasting the turn with something like that. The Guard Dog of Hades got back up and continued to fight.
"Vajra Blast!" Its roar caused an explosion in the whole area. Damaging the team. I resisted the impact, but that meant bad news for everyone as they were low at health.
"This is not good!" Mona said, terrified as he stepped out from his hiding spot. "Zorro, Media!" The weird creature healed the party, probably a bit more than the usual amount.
"We have to lower its offense. Tarunda!" Panther called Carmen as a red aura covered the beast.
"I guess I should give better support. Faust, Rakunda!" I lowered the Shadow's defense. It was a much safer bet than trying to attack it again.
"Genbu, Bufu!" Joker changed Persona once again; it looked like a turtle with a snake on top of the shell. He threw more ice and knocked it down with even more damage. We did a Hold-Up. Already into positions, we started an All-Out Attack, but that didn't kill the Shadow.
"Alright, I guess it is time to try the new technique!" Skull nodded at Queen while giving a mocking expression at the weakened beast.
"Let's go!" She approved the order as both of them jumped into the air.
For a strange reason, everything faded to black as we started to see a wild west scene with both Skull and Queen in the center. They rushed towards the defenseless Shadow as it received a flying kick from the advisor. The next thing was that it got a followed up with a powerful strike from the brutish guy as he sent the Shadow flying back at Queen. For the finishing touch, she began throwing rapid fisticuffs until nothing from the Shadow was left. As you could say, it was already dead.
"Holy shit!" I yelled as soon as the fight was over. "How did you do that!?"
"That? Oh, that was a Showtime!" Skull said, but not giving much explanation.
"Showtime? The hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Well, those are super attacks when the moment arises," Skull said, but still not giving me the detail.
"Okay, but how?" I began to feel desperate for that guy's half-assed responses.
"We use that weird star that a little kid from Mementos gave us after-"
"Alright, stop! You are not making any damn sense!" I interrupted Skull after hearing all that nonsense talk.
"You don't have to get angry at me! I'm just telling you what it is!"
"Then, why you don't explain to me everything from the get-go!?" That blond dumb and I began arguing about the stuff I had been missing out, but the way he tells couldn't give me any context. At all.
"I guess I will give Maverick the notes later." Queen sighed.
"Thank you!" I said with zero of my patience left. We continued to explore the door that the Shadow was guarding away from us. A strange door covered in yellow police tapes sealed it before Joker pulled out his knife, cutting them like butter. Behind of said door, there was a weird skull of a blue glow inside it. It was creepy as hell.
"Marvelous! We got all Will Seeds." Fox smiled.
"Okay, can anyone, please, explain to me what is this Will Seed do?" I begged for a perfectly reasonable answer.
"How should I put it? They are part of the Palace Ruler's distortions." Joker said in the most straightforward way possible. "They are like treasures, but we can use them in combat by collecting three of those."
"Combat, you say? Well, I guess that's worth all the trouble to get them," I folded my arms while thinking of the use. Joker threw one at me. I caught it before I almost dropped it. After examining it closer, I could see three skulls emerged into one with a crystal ball inside. Yep, not creepy at all. "Alas, I knew him very well, Oratio!" I held it with one hand while reciting, imagined using that thing as a prop for a play.
Enough joking around. Since the place was a dead-end, we turned back and tried to move the walls again with the last panel. We opened a path after moving both in the center, but I know something wasn't right: Another wall.
"Give me a break..." I muttered, so pissed because it wasn't over yet.
"We should go back to the Safe Room before continuing. Sounds good for all of you?" Joker tried to cheer me up, I nodded. We walked back to the closest Safe Room. It was just next to the elevator. Convenient.
"How's everyone?" Joker asked everyone about our well-being.
"I can keep up with no problems," Fox replied while keeping his cool.
"I should be fine," Mona replied too.
"No problem, either," Queen was feeling alright.
"How is our progress?" Joker asked us again about the Palace.
"I can feel the Treasure nearby, so we are good," Mona said as he was sensing the Treasure nearby.
"There is one last wall. After that, we should already get the Treasure in no time," Queen explained about our chances.
"About that, I was wondering about Palaces in general," I shared my thought with everyone.
"Mhh, what is about?" Skull was curious about my question.
"Are Palaces always this complex to move around? Because I started to get some distaste about how complicated they are," I didn't like everything about that place.
"Sadly those are always like this, Kamoshida and Madarame weren't exactly a park-walk either," Mona told me with disappointment.
"I think I will hate Palaces from now on."
"Just wait until we get to Mementos. You definitely won't like that place too," Panther added about somewhere else too.
"Memen-what? You know what? I don't want to hear it," Whatever was that place, it sounded as terrible news.
Our break time was over; we continued exploring what's left of the Palace. So far, I couldn't tell how I felt accompanying them in battle. Most enemies from that point were either resilient or immune to Faust's Physical attacks. The most I could do was using Fear or Rakunda, but not much else to contribute the fight. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to tag along because I felt that I was just dragging them.
The final area was an absolute nuisance. Not only had everything from previous areas, but it became a labyrinth with verticality. We jumped, we hid, and we ran a lot since security increased the closer we got.
One of the most intriguing things we encountered were golden drawers with names. There was probably more than half of Tokyo's population who owed money to that asshole. How long had he been hoarding all that cash? Obviously, it wasn't actual money, but the fact that he did all that way back he betrayed my father with other families, and probably external help, made me sick.
After a long trip to the panel and the last notebook page, everything looked good. "Well, that wasn't as bad as I expected," Skull said gleefully.
"Yeah, despite dog guards, electric fences, MacGuffins, and other kinds of dangers around here; yeah, everything looked good for us." I didn't need to explain how I felt about the area. "But on the serious note, how come people can create such complexity?"
"No one knows, the human heart stores different feelings that we can't comprehend for a certain extend," Mona said. He didn't seem convinced despite being the expert. I mean, I couldn't tell what he was, aside from looking like a cat, and denying it, but it had more explanation than the rest of the place.
"Do you think the metaverse can manifest in the real world?" Queen asked.
"So far, no. It affects the target's distortions. Only outside factors can influence the inside, but not the other way around," the weird creature explained briefly. That should make us feel at ease. Could you imagine if any weird shenanigans appeared at my local convenience store? I guess I wouldn't be too thrilled, either.
"In any case, Joker, could you do the honors?" I said while moving aside, letting the leader type the code while holding the notes with his left hand. The last word was 'GOLD' and took a couple of minutes since Joker looked between past pages for the correct code. A few tries, and we finally heard the sweet sound of the sixth and final wall moving.
"This gold sheen..." And more of that Kaneshiro BS. He snickered. "This... This is the fruit of all my hard labor!" I had enough of hearing his voice. "With this much, I will be invincible! Omnipotent!" Fatter! "I've changed... I'm no longer the person I used to be..."
"The person he used to be...? What could have happened to make him so distorted?" Panther asked as everyone's eyes shifted towards me.
"Do you have any idea, Maverick?" Fox said.
"Not much. All I could gather over the years of hiding was that fatso used to be a debt collector for one of my dad's Lieutenants," I recollected my thoughts by tapping my head with the index finger. "He was a nobody, a loser, but I still wonder how exactly he was able to get power to betray everyone. I doubt he was charismatic enough."
"I might get an idea of how," Queen said as she put her finger, touching her chin. "He probably gathered more people like him and paid them to follow his orders like now."
"Unlikely, with such rank of grunt, he couldn't afford it enough to more than the higher-ups. It could cost more than everything he owned." I shook my head. "It doesn't matter. He is going down after you steal his Treasure."
"Don't you mean we?" Panther said.
"Nah, my only concern is to punch him in the face." I scoffed.
"In any case, let's go back," Joker gave us the order to move on outside. When we reached the walls, the pathway opened just with only an elevator. We used the elevator to enter the vault's interior.
"We found it. It's right here…" Mona appointed to that glowing thing.
"I don't see anything." Queen looked confused.
"You are looking at it." Mona corrected us about it.
"This thing is the Treasure? I was expecting something like a real object." I was confused because that thing is what we were looking at all that time.
"Once we get this far, we need this callin' card thing," Skull commented about something I didn't know what he referred.
"Calling card? Hey Mona, you forgot to explain something to me!"
"A calling card… I see. Making the target believe that the Treasure is in danger will cause it to materialize." Queen was able to catch it on pretty quickly. "That's quite a bold trick."
"Oooh, now I get it. That makes sense for thieves, I guess?" I was able to understand that, for the most part.
"Huh? They understood?" Panther was kind of surprised by how pretty quickly Queen and I figured it out the trick. Mostly, I was thinking of more realistic situations on fictional thieves.
"Joker, we'll defer to you regarding its timing," Fox commented about Joker's next choice for the calling card.
"Okay, guys, let's get ready for the heist!" Mona told us to be ready for the big day. We left the main vault by returning through the same elevator. We were in the main hall.
"Next time we enter that Treasure room will be after we send out the calling card," Panther said.
"In the end, that Kaneshiro bastard only showed his stupid face twice..." Skull commented.
"I wished he appeared one more time, definitely needed to tear off his face," I sighed.
"That doesn't matter. As long as we steal the Treasure, we'll change his heart." Mona interjected. What a real shame.
"Then let's act as the Phantom Thieves should and send the calling card. It's on you, Joker." Queen said as we headed towards the latest Safe Room. We transported to the main entrance until Joker pulled his cellphone with the navigation app.
'Now returning to the real world from Kaneshiro's Palace. Thank you for your hard work.'
After a long day of working at the infiltration, the only thing left was waiting. I never felt so accomplished, but is still far from done. From what Morgana explained to me, those rulers won't let anyone take their Treasures without a fight. If that means punching Kaneshiro in the face, I would be so happy to take the honors.
It was all or nothing.
