7/30
So, it seems the light is what opens the large doors, Ace mused to herself as she watched the sunlight from the open walls after setting off a ballista rigged to a switch. The path had lead back into the main hallway, with the group emerging from a door in an area on the stairs.
"Wow, maybe this is how we open the doors at the stairs?" Panther asked, thinking similar thoughts.
"It's certainly possible," said Ace, pinching her chin in thought and noticing the binary coding flowing through the rays of sunlight. "...The doorway ahead might lead to a way to do so. Futaba's a hacker, so finding ways to unlock things is something she does normally. Seems she wants us to do the same to reach her Treasure."
"Be nice if she'd just let us in and save all this trouble," Skull grumbled.
"It may be due to because whatever's going on here, it seems like Futaba-chan wants us to see the rest of the Palace on our way up," Queen said.
"The circumstances around her mother's death were extremely suspicious," Ace noted. "From what we've seen, there's what Futaba believes, but I wonder..."
"Hm?" Fox asked. "You think somewhere, deep down, Futaba may not entirely believe it? When I lived with Madarame, there were truths I willfully ignored and outright denied... it's possible the same could be said of her."
"Her heart's been distorted by the trauma she experienced, so it's likely she can't distinguish truth and fiction on the matter," Mona replied. "...So, yeah, it's possible. But we won't know till we explore some more. Let's push on ahead!"
Ace lead the way, another corridor adjacent to the one they'd come out of leading further into the pyramid, the group pausing upon finding a stone tablet glowing in blue writing that was surprisingly in Japanese.
"Hmm... the light shed by the god of the underworld shall become the sign for those who traverse the pits," Ace read, staring at the tablet pensively, noting a pair of statues of a jackal-headed deity on either side of the tablet each grasping a glowing green sphere in its hand.
"God of the underworld?" Skull asked. "This what these dog-things is?"
"Anubis," Ace replied. "...In truth, it's actually Osiris who is the Egyptian god of the underworld, with Anubis as the god of funerary rituals, hence why during the embalming process a priest would wear a mask of his likeness. He is the one who escorts and tests the souls who come before Osiris to deem them worthy of passing on to the afterlife rather then rule over them," she explained, glancing over at one of the statues. "...Though he's also more widely recognized then Osiris and commonly mislabeled as the god of the underworld instead."
"I see," said Skull. "Then that'd mean these thing's gotta be the answer to gettin' more doors open?"
"We won't know for sure until we try," said Ace, looking at the jewel spheres the statues offered out and taking them. The statues' glowing eyes went dim, but nothing else seemed to happen as she examined them. "...It's likely these both go to something, somewhere. Once we find out what and where, I suspect it will help us proceed further."
"Then let's go find those answers!" Mona cheered with an approving nod, Ace leading the way down the next corridor and climbing several ledges heading further and further upward to another hallway, only for her and the group to pause before what appeared to be a mirror, bending sunlight filled with binary coding from the ceiling into a wall opposite of it.
"Hey, is that...?" Skull stared in awe, though not at the mirror but what was behind it.
"The door to the great stairs!" Fox exclaimed in shock. "Then we must now be above where we last were when we came in!"
"Look! A cavity over there!" Queen shouted, pointing ahead where two gold pedestals were on either side of a wall that formed a dead end, each with a small circular cavity on the top of them. Ace approached, noting the size of the cavities and taking out the two jewel orbs from the Anubis statues.
"Think maybe it fits in one of these?" Panther asked.
"Only one way to find out," Ace replied, placing each one in the respective pedestal cavities. Soon as the second one had been placed, however, a tremor shook the pyramid as the pedestals' necks caved downward a few inches.
"Look!" Mona called out, pointing to the mirror as a section of the wall slid inward, and the mirror flipped over, turning the sunlight over toward the doorway and shining on the blue, scarab-like jewel at its center. The doors promptly slid apart, revealing more of the great stairway leading further up the pyramid.
"Seems we are indeed pushing our way through the doors of Futaba's heart," Fox mused.
"Not sure I'd put it that way, Fox," Panther said. "Anyway, let's get down there and keep going!"
"I'm sensing a Safe Room up ahead, too! Let's go take a break and we can continue!" said Mona.
"Good idea," Ace nodded. She intended to complete this mission in its entirety, today, given Futaba's state so she had no plans of leaving any time soon.
Mona looked over at Ace as she stood by the door of the Safe Room as the others relaxed, the young detective clearly deep in thought. "Something up, Ace?"
She nodded, studying the Safe Room's details and décor. It was filled with numerous crates that became delivery boxes for brief moments, within a severely messy bedroom with trash bags piled high, something that could be expected of someone who'd become a complete shut-in over the last several months. "...You mentioned Futaba's heart being distorted. Whatever she thinks, it's possible it's not the truth at all, and her survivor's guilt is affecting her," she said. "If she was completely certain, even deep down, would she be allowing us to proceed?"
"No, probably not," Mona said, ears drooping. "Still, I sensed a lot of Shadows around before we came in here. We need to be extra careful, whatever's going on in Futaba's head she's still very defensive."
"It's got to revolve around her mother's death, it's when she started withdrawing," said Queen, shaking her head. "She witnessed it all. Then there's those voices we heard. But still, it seems like a part of her still wants to be saved."
"Still, raiding her tomb and all, it makes sense she'd attempt to keep us back," Panther said. "But we gotta do our best, especially when it's clear like Queen said, a part of her wants to be saved whether she knows it or not."
Ace nodded. "You're right. Take a few minutes and we'll resume our investigation. I think we're on to something..."
As the group emerged from the Safe Room, Ace noticed how a corridor adjacent to it was now open for them. Leading the way, she rushed down the stone path and up several stairs that seemed to lead to another floor. This, however, was not what truly caught her interest but what, or rather whom she and the others saw standing facing to the right the end of the hallway.
"Futaba?" Panther called out. The Shadow-Self turned to look at them from the hallway she was facing. She did not advance, or do much more then stare at them for a moment before finally speaking.
"So you've come," she said in an eerie monotone as her glowing, gold eyes gazed at them and slowy raising her thin hand to point to the hallway next to her. "...Follow me."
She began to walk down the hallway, her white robes billowing behind her in an almost ghostly way, but not even looking back at them as she disappeared around the corner. Ace took a step forward to follow, only for the floor to immediately crumble out in front of her, leaving a chasm ten feet across.
"Whoa! We almost found out what life's like for a pincushion!" Panther cried out in alarm, noting the spikes at the bottom of the pit.
"So how're we supposed to get to the other side with the floor like this?!" Skull protested.
"Hm," Ace mused, bringing her hand to her chin in thought and focusing with the Third Eye ability Igor had told her of when she'd first begun. Her eyes gleamed a golden yellow, and there, sparkling nearby, was a torch handle. Taking out her grapple hook, she signaled to the others to hold on, and with a hiss of the cord shooting out, the group were suddenly but safely pulled across, landing on the other side near where the turn was.
Said turn, however, presented its own set of problems.
"WHOA! We almost died there! She tryin' to kill us?!" Skull yelped after barely avoiding getting gored by the metal spikes that suddenly sprung up from the floor at the turn leading into a chamber at the end of a short hall.
"Look! Up there!" Queen pointed upward towards the ceiling.
"Another of those mirrors," Ace observed. "From the look of it, these are indeed the key to getting further into the Palace to the top of the stairs. Seems Futaba wants us to "shine light" on something, so to speak, in a literal sense."
"But with this trap in the way, there's little we can do," said Fox.
"Maybe what we're looking for isn't found here," Ace mused, her attention turning back further down the hall beyond where Futaba's Shadow had been. Perhaps, she thought, the answers lay in that direction.
Proceeding down the hall, Ace found the path had split, one way leading up platforms and the other to a door. The door, however, seemed to be shut yet looked much like other large doors she'd seen so far in the Palace, which meant the platforms it was. Ascending the stairs, she found what appeared to be a switch with an eye hieroglyph on it, and another Anubis statue with a glowing orb.
"What's up, Ace?" Mona asked as he trotted up behind her.
"This switch... there's a message about letting light in. If it'll do what I think..." She pressed down on the oval-shaped stone button, causing it to sink into the pedestal it sat upon and a rumbling was heard within. A beam of light suddenly cut through the gem on the door down below, causing it to open.
"Looks like we got our answer, but what about this gem? It looks like the other one," Queen said.
"There's an inscription..." Skull read. "Whomever takes this gem shall be cursed by the death's judge? I don't want no damn curse!" he protested.
Ace brought her hand to her chin in thought. "Given how Futaba views us, and the bandit village, seeing all who come in here as tomb robbers, she likely implies it's a trap of some sort, much as pyramids allegedly had them, or warnings of curses to keep raiders hoping to steal treasure out of them."
"Yeah, but I saw that movie! I don't want no life-suckin' mummies comin' after me!" Skull replied anxiously.
"It's likely not meant to be taken, then," Ace replied. "She assumes the worst intentions in others, so it stands to reason things such as this may exist." Turning away from the orb, she proceeded back down the stairs, the others following as she made her way to the door, leading to several more stairs and a hallway that concluded at another switch, on a ledge overlooking where the spear trap had nearly gotten them earlier. At the top of a tall platform stood the mirror, redirecting the light that'd come in courtesy of the last switch into a wall, behind the mirror sat a ballista attached to the wall, several riggings Ace noticed feeding into the wall itself.
"Hmm," Ace studied the switch, which had what appeared to be an image of the sun on it. Glancing at the ballista, she pressed the switch, the walls groaning from machinery as the pulleys on the ballista snapped, its massive arrow firing and destroying the wall in front of the mirror and allowing light to shine through the newly-opened passage above the chamber leading further in. Hopping down, she made her way up the golden sarcophagi that lined the adjacent wall to the passage and proceeded onward, the others right behind her.
What awaited was even more intriguing to the young detective. The ray of light and coding reached another mirror at the center of a small, lit-up chamber and redirected it towards a wall opposite of what appeared to be some kind of blank mural frame.
"Hey! Look, it's some kind of control panel, I think!" Queen said, beckoning Ace over to a stone tablet on the side of the mirror's pedestal that emitted glowing yellow engraved words and a inward carving shaped like a handprint into it. Pressing her hand in, Ace saw the mirror suddenly turn to face the empty frame and shine the light upon it.
An image appeared, flickering into existence like a TV screen depicting what appeared to be a large likeness of Futaba dressed in the Egyptian queen robes and regalia her Shadow wore, seated on a throne. She was not the only figure depicted, however, as there was also a falcon and three smaller humanoid figures with the heads of hawks dressed in modern business suits, one of which holding a paper in one hand.
"Some kind of picture?" Panther wondered.
"Yet it appears to have been scrambled," Fox noted, as indeed, the image's figures seemed to have mostly been cut into vertical rectangles and their positions rearranged judging from how pieces such as limbs were no longer connected to the figures they clearly belonged to.
"Oh! It must be a puzzle of some kind, then!" Panther said. "Think we can rearrange it, somehow?"
"I don't see any controls, but..." Ace's eyes went wide as she noticed the rectangles, one with the back half of the falcon, now glowed green, the mirror shining on it specifically. The teen's gaze furrowed as she focused, keeping her hand in the small groove in the panel. It appeared to be similar to a sliding puzzle, yet controlled by what amounted to a keyboard with her thoughts. Looking carefully, Ace placed in her mind where the rectangles would connect best to where they were cut off from, connecting the limbs and parts until the picture appeared to be whole again with Futaba positioned near the center, the falcon behind her and the suited hawk-headed men on the right with the one holding a paper directly in front of her, as it promptly lit up in a faint, golden light, its completion signified by a rumbling within the walls of the pyramid.
"Awww, yeah! There we go!" Skull cheered.
"Strange picture, though. What do you suppose it's of, exactly?" Panther asked.
"Hmm," Fox stepped forward, studying it. "From the look of it," he observed. "...This man, he seems to be reading something to her and she is crying. The emotions of the artist are often depicted in the art they produce... I can sense, a severe pain harbored in her heart."
"These hieroglyphs, something's happening with them," Ace said, noting they suddenly seemed to change to Japanese characters in the light as coding from the sun fed into them.
"I should never have had Futaba..." the first set of writing was suddenly narrated in an adult man's voice that echoed within the chamber as light passed over them.
"What the... did that voice... come from the mural?" Queen gasped.
"She was always such a burden to me!" the man's voice echoed, continuing to speak as light passed over more of the inscriptions and sounding as though he were reciting something written, causing Ace's brow to furrow as she turned her attention towards the suited man with the paper as she recalled Yusuke's observation.
"Well, it seems you caused your mother a great deal of trouble, Futaba-chan," the man's voice stated in a condescending tone. "...She must've suffered some kind of maternity neurosis because of you..."
A loud, powerful bang shook the walls of the pyramid as though something outside had struck it, an intense gust of wind howling outside accompanied by a terrible, inhuman shriek. The mirror let out a chiming series of beeps like a cellphone as it suddenly spun around, more light pouring into it as the mural vanished, allowing the light to shine through to the great stairway and upon another of the gigantic doors blocking access further in. With another tremor, the doors promptly slid apart, allowing further progress upward. Despite this, however, the Thieves thoughts remained on another matter, entirely.
"What was that?" Panther asked, "...That voice..."
"Based on its contents, it sounded almost like a suicide note," Queen replied.
"Could that be... what Futaba remembers of her mother's death?" Fox asked, frowning.
Skull, however, seethed with anger. "You heard what that man said, though?!" he hissed. "That is the shittiest thing to do to a kid if that's how it all went down!"
Ace walked towards the new opening, folding her arms as she gazed down the stairway leading further up. Her expression maintained most of its normal stoic neutrality, but her own deep frown was evident with it. "I've been curious about Futaba's mother's death particularly from what Sojiro said," she explained, a hint of cold, tranquil anger lacing her tone. "Those men read that to her two years ago when it happened... it was an utterly cruel thing to do, I'll be frank on that, but as a detective I've learned a number of times to trust my suspicions that there's more to something then it appears, in this case, what she was told to believe."
"What do you mean?" Skull asked, his eyes going wide with realization. "You think..."
"She didn't simply take her own life, Skull, least of all would it make sense for her to choose to with how Sojiro described their relationship," Ace explained. "...And based on how Futaba apparently described it to him, it was like she suddenly spaced out and walked into traffic, despite his insistence she loved her daughter more then anything in the world." her gaze furrowed. "...Like a... spontaneous, drastic change in personality? One that happened within a time frame of two years ago?"
Skull's jaw dropped. "Holy shit, you're saying..."
"...A mental shutdown! You think she was murdered!" Queen shuddered, getting a nod from Ace.
"But why, though?! Why would someone murder her?" Panther asked, aghast.
"She was a researcher, it's possible she found out something someone didn't want her to," Ace replied. "...And so not only was she assassinated, I suspect those men were part of covering it up."
"And they tricked her kid into thinking it was all her fault?!" Skull looked ready to explode. "WHAT KIND OF MONSTER DOES THAT?!" he snarled.
"That's the big question," Ace replied, walking towards the end of the ledge where several platforms lead back down to the great stairway. "We've already been attempting to solve these incidents. Futaba's mother, it seems, may have been one as well. Whoever it was Kaneshiro was referring to, that our black-masked assassin answers to... must also be involved in some way."
"It's possible Futaba-chan may know something as well, having lived with her mother all her life, and being a hacker, it's possible whoever did this... hoped to make Futaba end her life on her own accord to lower suspicion," Queen wondered.
"That's horrible! What could be worth doing something so heartless to a child for?!" Panther protested.
"We'll have to ask Futaba once we save her from herself," Mona said, hopping down the platforms. "If there's anyone who might know what her mother was involved with, it'd be her. Let's keep going and see what we find! We're definitely getting closer to the Treasure, now and the sooner we get it the sooner we can ask!"
"Agreed. There's still a lot of unsolved questions," Ace said, following and the group proceeding onward.
"She nearly squished us with those boulders!" Skull growled as the group narrowly avoided several giant round boulders covered in angry emojis. "I wanna save Futaba but these traps're gettin' on my nerves!"
"Seems even after seeing that mural, Futaba's not ready to let us fully in, yet," Ace replied, kicking down a large plank to use as a makeshift bridge allowing them to cross a crevice, "Speaking of, it seems they're the means of getting further up the stairs. Futaba is showing us her memories connected to her trauma."
"We can't talk to her about them in the real world, though," Panther sighed.
"Between Sojiro wanting us to stay away, Futaba's avoidant behavior, and said trauma still unresolved, that won't be doable for the time being," Ace replied, turning her attention to a hound-like Shadow that had come around a corner. The beast let out a howl as it promptly bounded towards them, but Ace expertly leaped over it, grabbing its mask and tearing it off in a single swish of her hand as it promptly exploded in a burst of black and red ooze that took on new shapes, three gray-furred baboons with gold head ornaments with open tomes in their hands as they sat cross-legged before the Thieves.
"What the... monkeys?!" Skull cried out in disbelief. One of the baboons, however, chittered in response, its head jerking sideways almost mechanically as it promptly raised its hand, its glowing eyes gleaming with malice as a bright light formed on its fingertip.
"An Almighty spell! LOOK OUT!" Mona cried out. The group quickly dispersing as it fired at them like a laser, striking the ground in a massive explosion of blue light that left scorch marks and cracks where it'd impacted, the force of the explosion knocking them off their feet save Mona, who'd jumped atop a sarcophagus but nearly toppling off and now hanging by his paws.
"JOHANNA!" Queen grunted as she sat up, her motorcycle Persona appearing and green light bathing her teammates, her eyes then going wide as she saw the other baboon grin as it raised both hands, intense blue energy much like the kind her own Persona could produce gathering with intent to strike her fallen friends.
Making a choice, Queen swiftly rode Johanna into its path, taking the hit. Her Persona's identical element allowed her to survive the blast, but the pain was still all too real as she toppled to the floor with a pained moan.
"I got you! ZORRO!" Mona's swordsman Persona swished its blade as the catlike thief hopped down, a green light engulfing the brunette while the others stood up, their enemies now flipping through their tomes' pages and a purplish-blue light engulfing them both that they now hovered off the ground.
"These guys're pretty tough! CAPTAIN KIDD!" Skull summoned his pirate Persona.
"CARMEN!"
"GOEMON!"
"Once more! ZORRO!"
Ace rose, touching her own mask. Her teammates' Personas had made their moves, their different elements striking their foes but doing little to impede them. They had to have a weakness beyond what was done and what they'd used. They used Nuclear, and her teammates spells did not seem to affect them much. There had to be something left they had...
The image of the Neko Shogun and its skills appeared in her mind, the armored feline promptly materializing before her.
"Nyaaa!" the Persona pointed its lance, and psychedelic-colored purple orbs suddenly emitted out of it, striking one of the baboons, causing it to drop its tome, gripping its head in pain as it toppled over, yowling and kicking its legs in agony.
"Nice going, Ace! Get the other one!" Mona cheered as Ace nodded, turning towards the other, now noticeably more concerned baboon as Neko Shogun unleashed another colorful blast of orbs in its direction, and soon it was on the ground as well.
"S-Stop! What wrong with you?!" the recently-downed baboon cried out.
Ace approached, gun drawn on it. "You attacked us, why should I feel pity?" she asked.
"Me just mad is all!" the baboon complained, clutching its head.
A shot rang out from Ace's gun. "Not good enough. Surrender to me and I'll spare you," she said sternly, but the baboon chuckled.
"Your power strong, but not strong enough for me. Here! Take! Worth lots!" the baboon said, the other one getting up as well as they tossed a few precious opals at Ace's feet before vanishing.
"Phew, close one!" Skull said, brushing his hand through his hair while Ace picked up and pocketed the gems.
"You okay, Queen?" Panther asked, helping the brunette up.
"I'll be fine," Queen said, staggering slightly as she got up. "I guess that was kind of a daredevil move I did there, wasn't it?" she asked with a nervous laugh.
"It was very risky, yes," Ace said with a faint smile. "...Still, you saved us."
"Heh, you're welcome!" Queen grinned, wincing. "Let's just hope it doesn't come to that again for my sake!" she joked.
"Focus, Phantom Thieves! I think we're close to something important!" Mona declared, gesturing down the hall towards a lit room with his paw. "The Shadows had to be guarding it! We need to go take a look!"
"I'm alright," Queen replied, nodding to her teammates. "I know the risks, saving Futaba-chan matters most right now, alright? Let's go!"
"...It seems the picture is complete," Fox stated, frowning at the completed image.
"...She saw it all," Ace uttered softly as she approached it. "...Her mother's death."
The latest mural was a little more complicated then the last, and the finished picture far more morbid. On the left was Futaba, in her Pharaoh robes, on her knees weeping. In front of her was a woman, seemingly throwing herself into incoming traffic, the image framed by what appeared to be police tape to mark a crime scene. The woman, presumably Futaba's mother, had short dark hair and glasses, and wore a black dress and boots, a badge of some sort around her neck that held Ace's interest.
"Hey, you hear something?" Panther gasped in alarm.
"FUTABAAAAA! YOU... ARE..." it sounded like a woman's voice, yet inhumanly loud and shrill, and filled with terrible rage not unlike the shriek from earlier as it echoed around them before another tremor struck the pyramid, as though it were caused by something outside.
The mirror, however, turned and shone on the mural, causing it to vanish and open the way to the next door on the great stairway.
Skull shook his head in dismay. "...She really did die right in front of Futaba's eyes..."
"That's so horrible!" Queen stammered, her voice trembling.
"So was it her desire to forget these memories cause her to repress them?" Fox asked.
"The badge, on her neck, for it to appear it means her job was something important to Futaba as well," Ace said, pinching her chin in thought. "...Or at least, on her mind for some reason. Sojiro mentioned her mother raised her alone, so she may have worked a lot to provide for her..."
The young detective's brow furrowed in disgust. "...Convince Futaba she was too much of a burden for her mother to bear till she fully believes it, she doesn't suspect any possible foul play involved in her mother's death and blames herself instead."
"That's inhuman!" Skull snarled, smashing his mace against the pedestal in anger. "Whoever's behind this is someone who goddamn deserves to get their heart changed like those others we've gone in the Palaces of."
"Unfortunately, we don't know who that is, Skull," Mona replied. "All we can do for now, is save Futaba, and we'll hopefully find out more of what her mother was involved with along the way."
"He's right, at any rate, this does bring is closer to doing so," Fox said.
"Exactly!" Mona said with a reassuring smile. "It's not pleasant, but there is a bright side: we're much closer then before to the Treasure, now! We finish securing the route and give Futaba the calling card, we'll be able to save her, just like she wanted us to!"
Ace nodded, thinking her past deductions over and what she'd determined from the images. Far too much to be coincidence, it seemed increasingly evident to her there was more to Futaba's mother's death then those men wanted Futaba to believe...
Ace sprung into action, the Persona Sentata striking at the incredibly formidable ebony-skinned, dog-headed deity with a scale in its hand to draw its attention but doing little as it had just left Panther unconscious from a brutal Mudo spell, its scale switching which side was weighed down.
"Panther!" Skull knelt down next to his friend, turning her over to give her some medicine. A green light emitted from the girl's body as her eyes fluttered open.
"That does it! Come on, Fox! Let's teach this bastard a lesson!" Skull growled, turning to face their foe, Fox standing beside him.
"Indeed, no one disrespects Takamaki-san in such a callous way!" the taller boy glared at the enemy. "Time for a real coup de gras!"
Ace paused, feeling a hum in her coat as she reached in, taking out the strange stone Jose had given them as it'd begun to glow brighter and brighter, even the Shadow paused as everything was bathed in a flash of light just as Skull cringed, complaining about feeling hungry, too...
"Aw man, I'm runnin' on empty!" the blond boy complained as he stepped into and sat down in an old-fashioned beef bowl diner with an open bar named "Fox's Beef Bowl", the true Sayuri hanging on the wall nearby, and manned by Fox.
"Behold!" Fox declared, spinning on his heel to face his seated teammate with a prepared beef bowl in hand. "Saucy... zesty... MASTERPIECE!" he announced as he added sauces and seasonings to it before passing it to the eager Skull, who grabbed up a pair of chopsticks to take a bite...
...only to be interrupted by the doors suddenly flying open, revealing the now very confused Shadow. Neither Skull nor Fox were amused.
"GET OUT, DUMBASS!" Skull bellowed as he and Fox took up their firearms and began unloading all the ammo they had on it, Skull topping it off with a grenade that appeared in his hands as he yanked out the pin and flung it at the staggering Shadow, Fox firing at it and causing an explosion that annihilated the Shadow completely, the two boys bumping elbows in celebration as the restaurant faded around them back into the inside of a pyramid while Ryuji quickly scarfed down the food before it, too, would vanish as well.
"Aw man, didn't get to finish but I don't feel hungry anymore," Skull chuckled. "...You alright, Panther?"
"Yeah, I'm alright," Panther said, getting back up and dusting herself off. "What was that, it must've been one of those special moves caused by that stone again!"
"It would seem so," Ace said, pocketing the stone again. "...And satisfied Skull's appetite in the process."
"Maybe it's 'cuz it's gone active a few times, now?" Skull wondered. "...Think maybe I'll still get loads'a money or ace some tests or somethin' from it one day!"
"...That may be asking a little much," Queen remarked as she picked herself up as well from the arrows of light the Shadow had bombarded her with moments ago.
"For now, let's be glad for what we got," Mona said. "ZORRO!" His Persona appeared, bathing both Panther and Queen in a healing green light for good measure. "Futaba's got some pretty tough Shadows guarding her Palace, now. It just means we gotta be close to getting past the next barrier, which should hopefully be our last one!"
"Good to know, this place is getting pretty tiring," Panther said. "But if we're close, I think I'm good to making it to the end!"
"As am I," Ace said, adjusting her gloves. "That was a close call, but if we're close, we only afford Medjed an opportunity to go back on their word, or Futaba possibly doing something to herself before we can affect her cognition enough to feel more at ease with us... that said, I suspect we'll have some obstacles left before we're where we need to be."
"Hey! I think there's a Safe Room not far!" Mona said, his nose and ears twitching. "C'mon! Let's take a few and we'll get through the rest of this Palace!"
Once the group had rested up, a few of Takemi's medicines had certainly helped, the Phantom Thieves resumed their journey further into Futaba's foreboding tomb, its torchlit hallways seeming to feel tighter, and more like things could jump out anywhere, and at times, they would have if not for the columns to hide behind. At long last, within a large chamber lit by four large columns with greenish-yellow grid lines glowing off them, standing atop an alter positioned at the end of the chamber flanked by two large brazier torches, was Futaba, donning her white Pharoah robes and gold royal regalia. She watched them intently as they approached.
"Hm, it took you long enough, I'd thought you'd all died," she said bluntly, glowing golden-yellow eyes peering through her large glasses.
"No offense, but we kinda almost did thanks to you!" Skull said, eyes wide in disbelief at her blase way of addressing them. "If you really wanna help us you gotta stick your mind to it!"
The Shadow-Self showed no sign of being bothered at all by Skull's complaint, rather, merely confusion. "...I'm not sure," she said. "There's not much left at this point, though..."
Without another word, she vanished once more.
"Ugh, she's gone again! Skull, you probably coulda chosen your words better!" Panther muttered.
Before he could reply, however, the ground tremored and a puddle of red and black ooze seeped up from the floor, growing in size before a shape finally rose out of it, resembling a seven-foot-tall, two-foot-wide, twelve-sided black gem with glowing red glyphs adorning each side, with eye-like markings on the smaller sides of the top and bottom and squat humanoid ones on the larger sides of its middle portion.
"WHO DARES INTRUDE UPON THE PHAROAH'S HOLY GROUND?!" the gem-like Shadow boomed as the ground continued to tremor more violently. "FOOLISH THIEVES! YOU SHALL NEVER PASS HERE!"
The gem suddenly began to spin, faster and faster, as the Thieves noticed the air getting noticeably colder and colder...
"Everyone take cover!" Mona cried out, Ace and the others leaping behind the columns in a blur of motion as they narrowly avoided merciless blasts of devastating cold, snow blasting past them and producing a terrible chill as it coated the columns in frigid ice as the gem had become a howling white cyclone.
"Brrrrr! So cold!" Panther whimpered, teeth chittering as she curled up behind the column next to Skull.
"The hell do we do against that?!" Skull asked, teeth chittering as well as the blizzard rocked the entire chamber in a terrible storm.
"J-Joh-JOHANNA!" Queen shouted, her motorcycle Persona revving as green light bathed her friends, giving them momentary, but temporary relief.
"I-If its element's i-ice, m-m-maybe its weakness is fire! A-Ace! Panther! Go time!" Mona ordered despite the cold.
The two girls immediately leaped from their hiding places and touched their respective masks.
"Fox! Front and center! Stop this blizzard" Ace ordered.
"Right!" the boy nodded and leaped in from his own hiding place, the cold affecting him less due to his Persona's power as they all preparing while their foe began to spin and unleashed a flurry of ice shards through the icy winds.
"GOEMON!"
The kabuki-themed Persona inhaled deep through its pipe, the ice dissolving into snow that was sucked up into it before the Persona vanished, the room beginning to warm up again from the braziers that remained ablaze despite the Shadow's attack. "Now's your chance!" Fox shouted.
"CARMEN!"
The dancer Persona performed an alluring twirl of her gown, a blast of flame bursting from her cigar as it immolated their foe.
"SANDMAN!"
The humanoid, sack-toting Persona with a crescent moon-shaped head rose up above Ace, thrusting its hand forward as a fierce gust of wind followed, fanning the flames of Carmen's attacks and causing a brutal backdraft that exploded from the gem-like Shadow, causing it to topple in a daze.
"NOW!" Mona cried out, the Thieves, as one, drawing their weapons to attack, striking it in a flurry of blows from all angles before it came crashing to the ground and dissolved in a cloud of ash and smoke.
Ace stood, adjusting her gloves and taking in the air as it grew more tolerable again, her attention on the passage above ledges behind the alter where she noticed further up the sunlight and binary code seemed to be flowing into that signified their destination awaited them. "...Futaba..." she frowned, it seemed the girl was still feeling anxious and defensive about letting others in, but she'd come too far, now. It was time to get this mystery solved.
Taking the lead, Ace leaped atop the alter Futaba's Shadow had stood on moments ago and scaled the ledges behind it, turning to face the others. "Let's go. I doubt it's far."
Soon as her team was together, Ace made her way carefully down the hall, following the trail of light that seemed to be guiding them, around a corner redirected by a mirror on a pedestal and finally to where a room emitting gold light awaited, within sat another stone control panel with a birdlike statue holding the mirror where the light was shimmering.
"I can sense the Treasure even more, now," Mona said. "This has to be the last one!"
"Let's see what we have," Ace replied, placing her palm on the panel and revealing a far more scrambled mural that seemed to have panels arranged in every place and in every direction like a dropped jigsaw puzzle. "...This may take a little longer..."
Taking in a deep, deep breath and closing her eyes before exhaling, Ace studied the picture carefully before she set to work.
"How we comin?" Skull asked, relaxing against the wall and giving a glance up at the mural before his face promptly lit up. "Ohh, there we go! Damn you're good at this, Ace!"
"My grandfather made me work on puzzles when I was little," Ace said, using the controls to turn and slide the last pieces into place. "He'd time me, and I'd not get dinner till I finished."
"...Hm," Fox muttered to himself in thought at her words. "Oh, it's lit up, now! I imagine it must be finished!" he said, standing up straight as well to look at the mural.
Framed by winglike formations and square borders, was a depiction of Futaba in her Pharaoh robes once more, though she appeared to be the size of a child, now. On the floor was a computer monitor and discarded hardware, while in front of the younger Futaba was the woman from other previous image, carrying a stack of papers to a nearby desk and looking back sternly at the girl who was tugging her dress.
"Mom..." A voice that sounded like Futaba's, but higher, younger, suddenly echoed through the room. "...I'm tired of eating dinner alone all the time! It's always just convenience store bentos!" it pleaded. "I wanna go somewhere! Take me on a trip!"
"Don't be so selfish!" an older, more mature female voice snapped sharply. "You know I'm working hard to support you, right?!" it asked, followed by an angry grunt.
Another tremor shook the pyramid, and another horrible, bellowing shriek echoed from outside. The mirror turned, the beam of light and data shining upon the mural and making it vanish as it unlocked another of the sealed doors of the pyramid's great stairway in the main area.
"She sounded pretty angry," Queen said. "This doesn't... match what Boss said, or what you were talking about, though."
"I thought it was pretty normal for a child to want to spend time with their parents, honestly," Panther replied.
"Parents can... get frustrated, too. They're not perfect," said Queen, recalling the argument with her sister. "...We... we all say things we regret, but Futaba at her age may have taken what may have been an outburst from stress very personally."
"Even still, sounds like Futaba was a pretty lonely kid, regardless, if she remembers things like this," said Skull.
"She sees it as these incidents compounded and lead her mother to suicide," Fox mused, frowning.
"...So you see, now, why I must die?"
Futaba's voice startled everyone, even Ace, who looked sharply in the direction of the voice as the Shadow-Self materialized at the edge of the platform that had replaced where the mural was.
"I killed her, that's why I am in this tomb," Futaba explained, a cold frown on her face as she stared at the group before her.
"Futaba, that's not true," Ace said, approaching. "None of this makes sense, surely you can see that now..."
The Shadow-Self only shook her head in response. "No. This is the truth. I must die, it is the only way I shall ever be able to atone for what I've done."
"Futaba, listen...!" Futaba vanished once more before Ace could finish her sentence, prompting a sigh from the young detective. "It's no use, despite the evidence things were in fact staged against her, it seems her Shadow won't be reasoned with unless we reach her Treasure."
"Her thoughts are all over the place due to the distortions," Mona explained. "Even if part of her maybe knows there's more to it, her emotions and trauma drag her back into believing what she was told to believe."
"Then we have to hurry and save her!" Panther said, visibly distressed, now.
Ace nodded. "The last door, correct?" she asked, looking back at Mona.
"I think so!" the catlike thief said, "The sense I'm getting from the Treasure is really strong now it's gotta be right up ahead past that door!"
"Then let's go," Ace ordered, immediately making her way to the ledge and leaping down to the stairs, followed by her teammates as they immediately made a charge up to the door, the pyramid rumbling as they drew closer as the door split in two and slid apart.
The group stopped in their tracks at what lay beyond.
"What's this?!" Panther protested, staring in disbelief.
Beyond at the top of the stairs was an arch, about half the size of the large doors. However, access was blocked by a stone collapsing door that was closed shut, glowing green light emitting from it. The door's surface was also, notably, covered in police tape ordering not to cross, and a sign declaring "PRIVATE! DO NOT ENTER!".
"Damnit! The way's blocked! Looks like there's some kinda gears over on the sides, though! Think there's any way to open it from anywhere else?" Skull asked, knocking on the stone surface and causing a green ripple to wave off it.
"These signs," Queen mused with interest. "Oh! They're like the ones outside Futaba's room!"
Ace nodded, approaching it. "It all makes sense, now. She keeps her door locked all the time, and didn't even allow us to enter when we came over," she said.
"Of course! Then it'd be in her cognition that no one can enter!" Mona said.
"...Like that door in Madarame's Palace," Ace observed.
"I'm surprised you made it this far..."
The group turned to see Futaba's Shadow descend to the floor in front of them as she materialized once again.
"...Beyond lies the Pharaoh's chamber."
"So you're sayin the Treasure's through here?" Skull asked, approaching.
"Indeed," said Futaba's Shadow. "...However, you'll need my permission to open this door."
"Then do we have your permission?" asked Ace, approaching as well.
"I cannot grant that. You must have her invite you in," the Shadow-Self replied.
"Hm, you mean the real one," Ace said. "We have to affect her cognition in the real world, like what was done with Madarame when we ran into a similar dilemma."
"Exactly," said Mona. "We need the real Futaba's permission for this!"
"Get her to open the door to her bedroom and allow us entry, we'll be able to bypass this door," Ace replied with an understanding nod.
"Correct," The Shadow-Self of Futaba replied, rising off the floor again and fading away. "Considering you made it this far, you may be able to do so..."
"We've done all we can, here," Ace affirmed. "Boss had confirmed Futaba never lets anyone into her room, so it stands to reason we'd find a roadblock."
"Right, she's a serious shut-in," Skull replied.
"Still, she must've left the house to get that blank calling card to us, so maybe it's not impossible after all," Queen offered.
"Even still, how would we convince her to allow us entry?" Fox asked.
"We have to try," said Queen. "It's really all we can do."
"We'll force our way in if we have to," Ace said. "Soon as Futaba no longer deems her room impenetrable, it may affect her cognition, that said..." The young detective's gaze flickered downward. "...It'd be best we not be overly aggressive in our method, or it may worsen her condition given her fear of engaging with people."
"Right, while we'd get in, taking such a route also runs the risk of her Palace becoming much more dangerous," Mona said.
Ace nodded. "...An outright intrusion could instead worsen her trauma and anxiety to the point her Treasure will become truly impossible to reach by any means, then, both in the Metaverse and in reality."
"True. Either way, we have no choice but to sneak in again while Boss is out if we're going to engage with her in a way that gets her to open the door for us," Fox replied.
"In that case, it's your call when we do this, Ace," said Panther. "We'll probably need an excuse, too, in case Boss catches us."
Ace gave her a faint smile. "...I'll think of something,"
"Oh! That reminds me!" Skull suddenly piped up. "That blank calling card you mentioned? We still got it, right?"
"We do, yes," Ace replied.
"Good! I just realized, when that door opens, so does this one, leadin' us straight to where the Treasure is, right? That means we also gotta alert her with a calling card so it's there for us to take!" Skull asked. "Queen, you help me think'a somethin' to write!"
"Yeah, I can do that," Queen nodded.
"We got that part covered, then!" Skull said, giving Ace a confident grin. "You decide when we wanna barge into her room, and we bring this along so we can swoop right back in here and take the Treasure!"
Ace folded her arms, smiling. "Sounds like a plan. Good idea, Skull."
"Hey, I am on occasion brilliant!" the blond said, scratching the back of his head and chuckling.
"In that case," Ace said, feeling more confident of their mission and its chances of success, now, as she walked back towards the stairs, which were now all the way open back to the way outside that ensured a quick dash back up them was all that'd need to be done to reach the door again once they returned, "...Let's head back. We've done all we can for now..."
"Welcome back," Sojiro smiled as Kyoko entered Leblanc. Evening had since fallen after the group had returned from the Metaverse, so they'd parted ways immediately after and Kyoko had chosen to pick up dinner from the convenience store before returning home.
Kyoko gave Sojiro a smile as she walked by, bento in hand as she made her way to the stairs, but paused as she noticed the rather distressing news on TV, and a familiar face present as well.
"...So in conclusion I've determined that the initial suspect behind the so-called terrorist bombing of Ando's Sweet Shop was in fact a victim herself, not of a psychotic break, but rather an innocent and unsuspecting bystander who'd fallen prey to a misunderstanding caused by an absolutely destructive act of either deception or a grim comedy of errors," Goro Akechi explained to the reporters as a firefighters behind him were busy extinguishing flames of a ruined building and two teenage girls, one in a now very sooty and scorched pink coat and hat and one equally sooty and more disheveled-looking and wearing a dark clothes and a surgical mask, both screaming at eachother indistinctly in front of the smoldering ruin as officers tried to calm them down.
Akechi glanced back at the strife behind him and sighed, running his hands through his hair in exhaustion. "...We are still searching for the young man who matches this young lady's description that she believes may have switched bags with her leading to this unfortunate incident, and learn of the yet-unidentified culprit's original intent," he said, gesturing to the second girl. "Luckily no one was hurt, and once they've settled down, we'll try and question them further."
"I see," the reporter answered, the camera briefly turning to the two girls who were still practically at eachothers' throats before turning back to Akechi. "...And if we may be so bold, has any new information on Medjed surfaced as of yet that you are able to share?"
"None, unfortunately," Akechi said with an apologetic smile. "But luckily it does not appear they've made any recent actions, as of yet. Perhaps they do intend to keep their word for the time being. I only wish the Phantom Thieves would take this threat seriously, though."
Kyoko sighed, continuing her way to the stairs and up to the attic. There was, unfortunately, the very real threat of Medjed still hanging over everyone's heads and any more chaos was more then she needed right now with the other cases she was looking at.
"Maaaaan, what a day!" Morgana yawned, climbing out of her backpack and hopping on to Kyoko's bed. "Still, we made a ton of progress! We'll have Futaba's Treasure and she can help us stop Medjed, and that takes care of two things to worry about in one move!"
"True," said Kyoko, sitting at her desk to eat her dinner when her phone suddenly chimed, she notied the Thieves' chat log had new replies in it.
[Thanks for the calling card, Kyoko! I think Makoto and I already got something ready!] Ryuji's message read.
[Wow, that was fast!] Ann replied.
[Hey, I wrote three of 'em before, remember?] Ryuji answered.
[But I came up with almost all the sentences.] Makoto messaged.
[You don't gotta mention THAT!] Ryuji messaged back.
[Smooth, Ryuji.] Makoto's response read.
[The real question is when we should go to Futaba's room, though.] Yusuke messaged.
[Um, up to our leader.] Makoto replied.
[Who's the smooth one, now?] came Ryuji's answer.
[Kyoko, you there? Any ideas of when we wanna go visit her?] Ann messaged.
Kyoko took a bite of her dinner bento, bringing her hand to her chin in thought. Much as she wanted to resolve this as quickly as possible, she did admittedly feel worn out from their infiltration.
Her mind made up, she began typing.
[We need to be well-rested and ready.]
[We don't know what might stand between us and the Treasure as this Palace and its Ruler are different from the others. Something else concerns me as well.]
[I get what you mean about bein' ready, but whaddya talkin' about? Futaba wants us to take it, right?] Ryuji answered.
[Those tremors and that noise. Like something was attacking the pyramid the further in we got.] Kyoko replied.
"Hm, that's a good point," Morgana said as he read her message after hopping on the desk. "There may be something in this Palace we haven't seen yet and if it's a threat we should go prepared."
"My thoughts exactly," Kyoko said. "And there's Futaba's trauma. Even if we do this right, the thought of people intruding may affect her cognition, regardless, like it did other Palace Rulers."
"True, who knows what'll happen even in a best case scenario," Morgana mused as Kyoko began typing again.
[We'll take tomorrow off. We visit Futaba the following day.]
[Works for me!] said Ryuji.
[That is probably the best course of action. Let us know when you're ready to go!] Ann answered.
[I'll await your response as well.] Yusuke messaged.
[See you then, Kyoko.] Makoto responded.
"Well, that's a pretty big task we got ahead of us!" Morgana said.
Kyoko nodded as she took another bite of her dinner as she resumed eating.
"We also learned a lot about Futaba's past, too, or at least how she remembers it with her thoughts so distorted," the cat continued, his ears drooping in sympathy. "It's awful what happened to her... and those men, you feel they were involved somehow?"
"I think we've reason to think so," Kyoko said, opening her laptop and loading up her case files.
The name Sojiro mentioned, Wakaba, someone he knew connected to cognitive science, she read. Likely that was Futaba's mother, she thought to herself as she rest her chin on her palm, scrolling through her notes.
cognitive science - important project Sojiro was harassed over - men who claimed her death was suicide - connection?
Futaba and mother's relationship positive according to Sojiro.
Strange circumstances surrounding death - mental shutdown to blame?
If mental shutdown - metaverse assassination?
Kyoko's brow furrowed.
"What's up?" Morgana asked.
"What could be so important about this "cognitive science" that Sojiro would be harassed repeatedly over it and someone wanted Futaba's mother, and likely Futaba if she were to end her life out of subsequent grief, dead?" Kyoko asked. "Two mental shutdowns would be unusual. A mother seemingly committing suicide, her daughter out of grief and survivor guilt soon after? Not to mention Sojiro jailed over child neglect charges they could create over such a thing? Less suspicious as a means to cover it up."
"Still, that's such a terrible thing to do!" Morgana gasped. "I've seen Palaces, but it's still hard to accept humans can be so cruel, sometimes."
Kyoko nodded. "You'd be surprised at some of the crime scenes I've had to go through," she said, choosing not to elaborate. "Someone involved with whatever she was researching in some way..."
Person of interest - involved in cognitive science research - assassinates Wakaba - Reason?
"She had to have known something she wasn't supposed to," Kyoko mused. "...Whatever it was, someone got worried, felt she and possibly Futaba knew too much. Whoever this person is, they're connected to our black-masked metaverse assassin as well in some way."
Wakaba - Murdered over classified knowledge? - knowledge to do with cognitive science?
"I wonder..." she muttered aloud, bringing her hand to her chin in thought. Could it be this, and what Kaneshiro had spoken of, as well as Madarame's own brush with the black-masked assassin, really were all part of a larger rabbit hole? She didn't know for sure, but the question lingered in her mind. If it were, it only made her wonder how much deeper it went, and who it was waiting at the end that it all connected to.
If there was someone at the end, some benefactor that Kaneshiro alluded to, someone pulling the strings in so many places, and the one the black-masked assassin answered to, that'd coldly murder a mother and stage things to scapegoat her daughter so she'd end her own life, Kyoko could only wonder what kind of dangerous person this could be.
The young detective sighed. There were still a lot of unanswered questions, questions that she suspected may be ones Futaba indeed knew the answers to.
"Hm?" Morgana asked.
Kyoko shook her head, saving her notes and closing her laptop. "Just thinking where this might lead to," she said. "...The bathhouse is sounding like a good idea, right now."
"Well, save me one of those tuna rolls in your bento before you go, at least!" Morgana pleaded as Kyoko resumed her dinner. The teen gave the cat a small smile, taking one out for him and finishing the rest before preparing to gather her things for the trip for the evening.
A/N: At long last, an update to Heart of Justice! I did abridge some traps and puzzles but at last Futaba's Palace is cleared, likely gonna have another chapter on confidants, then the heist itself! If you've not checked out Persona 3 Reload yet I advise doing so! Very worth your time. I'll be returning to Fenrir's Masquerade next.
0 - The Fool: Rank 6
I - The Magician: Rank 6
II - The Priestess: Rank 3
IV - The Emperor: Rank 3
V - The Hierophant: Rank 4
VI - The Lovers: Rank 7
VII - The Chariot: Rank 9
VIII - Justice: Rank 3
X - Fortune: Rank 1
XI - The Strength: Rank 5
XII - The Hanged Man: Rank 3
XIII - Death: Rank 6
XIV - Temperance: Rank 7
XV - The Devil: Rank 2
XVII - The Star: Rank 2
XVIII - The Moon: Rank 4
XIX - The Sun: Rank 4
XX - Judgement: Rank 2
1 - The Councillor: Rank 5
? - Faith: Rank 3
Kyoko's Personas: Anzu, Nigi Mitama, Flauros, Naga, Neko Shogun, Sandman, Phoenix, Setanta, Clotho, Isis