Good Day Readers! Obviously, I do not own anything connected to the Persona series in general or Persona 5 specifically, I DO own Chiba Natsumi and Anais Ouvrard, along with Natsumi's immediate family members and the original Personas that will be showing up on occasion.
Since I won't be posting tomorrow, Merry Christmas everyone.
I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.
Chapter 9: - Escape the Castle
My intention had been to run as fast as possible from the dungeons and get out of this Palace so that the defenceless Sakamoto and inexperienced Amamiya wouldn't be put in danger. But the moment I turned to face the hill to get us out of here, a shocked yelp came from behind me; fearing the worst, I twisted around to face the two behind me only to receive a shock that made my mouth open as my eyes widened.
"His clothes! They just went back to normal! What the eff is going on!?" Sakamoto yelled. Amamiya's Rebel's Armour had vanished, returning him to his ordinary clothing and that wasn't good; the masks were the only way to summon our Personas and without the power granted by his other self, then Amamiya would be defenceless against any Shadows that came after us and that put us in a dangerous position.
"Now isn't the time Sakamoto-san!" I responded. Sakamoto flinched and yet the confusion in his eyes was apparent, but I didn't have the time to answer all the questions he likely had. "Those creatures we fought in there, there are more of them in this castle. Without that outfit, especially the mask, Amamiya-san can't fight. Which means we have to sneak out of here since unless really strong those things more often than not always appear in at least groups of twos, so I can't protect both of you. Stay close to me, preferably behind me," I explained. My tone was slightly panicked about the situation, but I needed to stay as calm as possible to get these two to safety.
"We'll need you to lead us out then," Amamiya insisted. His aura had changed once more, going back to being slightly more timid but much more assertive than the one that he had when we'd initially spoke; a loud yelling and banging echoed towards us which likely meant that Kamoshida was calling for his guards to come and stop us from escaping.
"Let's get out of here before more of Kamoshida's goons show up," Sakamoto suggested. Nodding my head, I motioned for the two of them to follow me back up the hill towards the shallow gap that I had jumped over in order to reach them; turning around I reached my left hand out to them and Amamiya jumped, he cleared it easily and I moved my arm behind him to ensure he got pass, snapping my hand back I moved my hand in a hurrying motion for Sakamoto to hurry up.
He looked nervous, not that this was surprising, but he took a deep breath and bounced slightly as he backed up. Charging forward he leapt and I lunged forward to seize his forearm, I dragging him to the edge and turned as he moved forward with a slight paling to his skin. Moving passed them and through the door I'd left open on my way here, I hurried up the slope until we came to a trio of cages to cross.
"Ah hell no! We can't get across that! They'll snap in half!" Sakamoto exclaimed. I looked back and saw that even Amamiya looked nervous, not that I blamed them since I'd been a bit disbelieving when trying to cross them the first time, but the Metaverse continued to prove it was a world where the saying, mind over matter, truly ruled.
"I don't have the time for details Sakamoto-san but just know this is a place where your mind can affect thing. Believe you can cross those cages and you will," I insisted. The blonde still looked nervous, but a clanging echoed behind us and I looked over, seeing that Amamiya was already hopping across the cage tops to the other side with a surprising amount of ease; he reached the other side and turned around to face us.
"Hurry!" Amamiya insisted. I pushed Sakamoto towards the cages and he gulped but ran up to them, jumping across them with more or less the same ease as Amamiya; once he was safely across, I make my way across the cages to the other bank and darted down the hill towards the next door that I had left open to aid in escaping this place quicker, only to find that it had been locked.
"Blast! Kamoshida's knights must have sealed it," I muttered. Turning around, I moved passed the boys and into an empty cell that happened to be open; thankfully this was the same cell I'd made a hole in back during one of my early visits as I mapped the place. "Over here, we'll need to crawl through!" I called. I willed my naginata to vanish into blue flames and then slid my bow and quiver through the hole, I quickly started to crawl through and emerged into an empty cell.
"Crap! My bag's stuck!" Sakamoto exclaimed. I returned my weapons to their proper place as Amamiya emerged, he turned back around to help Sakamoto work through whilst I kept a look out for Shadows who might hear us; once the blonde got his bag free, he exited the crawl space and stood up, so I quickly motioned for the two to follow after me.
Instead of heading down the hill like we had been doing for the last few paths we'd come across, I instead guided the two across a bridge – a proper one thankfully – as the downhill way was fairly obviously thus likely to be guarded if Shadow Kamoshida's cries had reached this far. On the other hand, the other side of the drawbridge connected to a less used area and that would enable us to get out easier.
"Is this… a drawbridge?" Amamiya softly asked. I glanced back at the boy who seemed a little spooked, not that I blamed him although at least he was more controlled about it that the near panic attack state that Sakamoto seemed to be heading towards, we descended a hill once more when the clanking of metal started to irritate my ears and I glanced in the direction that it was coming from.
"Quick! Hide!" I insisted. I violently motioned for Amamiya and Sakamoto to hurry up and shoved them behind the nearby pile of boxes and barrels that were just abandoned; I ducked down once they were safely hidden with a tight grip on my naginata with my left hand hovering over my mask just in case we got spotted; thankfully the Shadows just ran up the opposite hill and towards the deeper jail part. "Okay, they're gone. Let's get moving," I whispered. Keeping a low voice would keep us safer from being discovery.
"Hang on!" Sakamoto exclaimed. I turned around to look at the blonde with Amamiya also looking confused as to why he'd stopped us form moving away. "I've been listening to you talk and I swear you're that chick from class two-d. Chiba Natsumi," Sakamoto announced. I was admittedly rather surprised that Sakamoto had managed to figure out who I was just from my voice especially since its' normally dormant steel was baked into each word instead of the soft tone he would have been used to hearing.
"And if I am?" I challenged. Sakamoto apparently hadn't been prepared for me to respond in such a manner from his slightly open mouth and blinking eyes. "I won't deny your accusation Sakamoto-san, but please don't loudly yell my name for everyone to hear, I've kept my identity a secret from that vulgar man far too long to let you mess it up by being loud," I requested. Sakamoto's jaw clacked shut as he continued to stare at me.
"Whoever you are," Amamiya softly spoke up. This caused the two of us to look at the boy who was shyly looking down, but his right hand tightly gripped his bag's straps. "We need to get out of here. Those… knights are looking for us, so we can't stay around here for much longer," Amamiya insisted. His voice was gentle but resolute as he said those words.
"Yeah! I ain't playing around with this anymore! We gotta find a way out this goddamn place!" Sakamoto declared. Rising to my feet, I moved towards the arch that was near us and up the steps, I heard the two boys following after me which I was glad for; the stairs were a spiral so I couldn't clearly see what was ahead of us which meant that I moved slower to ensure we were safe as we ascended.
"If this goes up, you think it leads to the exit?" Sakamoto asked. However, I heard heavy breathing escaping him which caused me to pause and I looked around to check on him, finding that he was holding onto his leg… oh, that's right; Sakamoto had ended up breaking his leg somehow – I suspected Kamoshida – and the old wound was likely causing him pain to this day since he still moved with a limp.
"Yes, this way will get us out. It's how I got to you," I reassured. A small smile came across Sakamoto's lips, likely relieved that this was a sure escape path. "Are you okay, Sakamoto-san?" I asked. The blonde ended up blinking in surprise at my words, we weren't even acquaintances, so he was likely not expecting me to express concern to him.
"I'm fine. I can keep up," Sakamoto reassured. My lips were pressed tightly together at his words, but I nodded my head; Amamiya was look between us, likely confused by the conversation but we didn't have time to delay beyond what I'd done, turning around I continued to rush up the steps with the other two following after me until we reached the top. "I-Is this… the exit!?" Sakamoto asked.
"Not yet. We still have a little more to go, deep breaths Sakamoto-san," I reassured. Pushing the door open I quickly looked left, since right was a dead end, to ensure no one was there and step out of the doorway with the other two following only for them to openly gape at the blue water that was gushing right in front of us.
"Dude… you gotta be jokin'…," Sakamoto commented. It truly was insane, more than Ouvrard's Palace had been, I shook my head in disagreement whilst Amamiya had been shocked into silence by the absurd sight. "What the hell is this place?" Sakamoto wondered. That was too much for me to explain in this current situation and honestly, they didn't need to be dragged further into the madness than they already were.
"A place we need to get out from," I answered. I moved to the doorway that would lead us out and frown deeply at what I saw, a group of cognitions of the volleyball team imprisoned in cages suspended over the rushing water and there was no way for either boy to avoid seeing them and it was the best way to get out of here.
"H-Hey… look…," Sakamoto breathed. A trace of fear in his voice, not that I blamed him since this aspect alongside another that the two had been fortunate to not come across yet were so highly disturbing that they made me nauseous whenever I came to them. "We really did hear people screamin'… so we ain't the only ones who got captured!" Sakamoto stated. That was wrong, not that he knew, these were mere cognitive imitations just like the me that I'd run into in Ouvrard's Palace so saving them was pointless, I don't even know what they'd become if they left this place. "Is uh… is he okay?" Sakamoto asked.
"We're vulnerable enough as is Sakamoto-san! I can't protect you two in a fight; even more people would strip away our ability to move quickly and quietly! We need to go and we need to go, now," I insisted. Sakamoto gulped slightly as I gave the cognition a pitying look, their lives here were painful almost like they were trapped in an eternal nightmare. "We're almost at the exit. One more bridge and some stairs then we're free," I soothed. With those words I pushed passed the cages.
Striding to the bridge that would let me get to the main hallway, I stopped shut and nearly bit my tongue to kill a curse that was poised on my lips. The bridge, another drawbridge, had been retracted and I'd never needed to drop it from this side. That meant I didn't know the mechanism needed to lower it, I scowled and moved over to the creepy statue of Shadow Kamoshida nestled beside the drawbridge as I looked it over.
"Another dead end?" Sakamoto commented. I could feel both boys with their eyes on me as I checked the side of the draw bridge and the statue to try and see a connection between them. "I thought this was supposed to be the way out Chiba! How the hell're we supposed to get outta here!?" Sakamoto yelled. His loudness wasn't helping, apart from distracting me it also ran the high risk from bringing more Shadows down upon us.
"Hey, you there," A voice called. I perked up, having never heard that voice before and I turned my gaze from the statue and bridge to cells it was coming from. "Blondie! Frizzy Hair! Warrior Girl! Look over here!" The voice insisted. I moved away and looked at the source of the voice only to take a couple of steps back in surprise at the sight that greeted me in one of the cages.
Inside of the cell was an anthropomorphic and biped cat-like creature with a large spheroidal head and tuxedo style patterning. The fur was predominantly black, except on the limbs and tail which appeared to be white alongside the bottom front half of the face around his mouth which was also white. The creature's entire body was the same height as its' head with stubby legs, the curvature of its' limb muscles was more extreme, with the only difference being that it has smaller hands and feet in comparison. A black mask covered much of the face with the outside of its' ears included, the creature's eyes were elliptic shaped with white sclerae, blue irises and black pupils. The outer ears were black with white inner ears and a lemon-coloured scarf was wrapped around the neck, a utility belt was secured around the hips, with two golden buttons and two bags attached. There were tufts of fur within the inside of the ears, around the shoulders and on the chest with the paw pads being pink in colour.
This wasn't the weirdest thing I'd seen in the Metaverse, I'd seen weirder but it was so mundanely weird that it kind of spooked me a little, most weird things were so over the top I kind of expected them, a bipedal animal that talked and didn't try to attack me on sight was novel. The weirdest thing was that I felt some kind of odd familiarity with the creature and its' eyes made me think of the Velvet Room's comforting blue aesthetic.
"What is this thing?!" Sakamoto exclaimed. Him being weirded out by the creature was no surprise since he wasn't used to the weirdness of the Metaverse as much as I was and even I was weirded out by the creature; I glanced over at Amamiya to find him silently gaping at the entity with a slight cock of his head as he stared at the cat like entity.
"You're not soldiers of this castle, right!? Get me out of here! Look, the key's right there!" The creature demanded. It sounded like a young boy… or maybe a girl… I couldn't be sure since its' voice was in that odd range were the two kind of overlapped; what I did know was that the creature sounded desperate to escape, which meant it couldn't possibly be a cognition as they didn't care about escaping at all, just listlessly enduring the hell they lived through here.
"We're trying to get the hell out of here!" Sakamoto yelled. I sharply shushed him; we didn't need anyone figuring out we were here because Sakamoto couldn't keep his voice down. "I mean, you obviously look like an enemy too!" Sakamoto accused. Amamiya looked at Sakamoto with a furrowed brow before glancing over to me as I shook my head in annoyed dismay, the appearance of enemies was knights, yes; creepy cat looking creatures, not so much. Plus, it was locked up, how did that mean it was an enemy?
"I'm locked up here, so how can I be your enemy!? Help me out!" The creature insisted. The fact that its' words almost mimicked my thoughts was a little bizarre but that could just as easily be a coincidence; I quickly cast my head about to try and spot any approaching enemies since Sakamoto and the cat creature were being surprisingly loud and we could be ambushed at any second.
"A… cat?" Amamiya asked. I stumbled slightly in my observation before looking back at the black haired boy who had an almost innocently cute expression on his face as he stared at the creature, how had it take him this long to realise the creature was a cat? "Do all city cats look like this?" Amamiya asked. Sakamoto looked flabbergasted by this comment, whilst I wondered just how weird this boy though the city was.
"I am not a cat! Say that again and I'll make you regret it!" The creature snapped. Apparently, it didn't like being called out on its' cat-like appearance but then clanging sound echoed to my ears and I immediately put myself in front of the two boys and raised my hand to my mask, ready to pull it off at the drop of a hat. "That movement!" The creature exclaimed. I glanced at the creature out the corner of my eye, surprise pulsing through me that it understood what my move meant… did it have experience with Persona users? Or could this creature be…
"They're catching up already!" Sakamoto panicked. I jolted and snapped my attention back to the important matter at hand, asking this creature about its' knowledge could come later, the important thing was to keep the defenceless people safe from harm. "Shit, there's still no service. Ain't there any way to contact someone outside!?" Sakamoto asked. Oh yeah, I hadn't told then cell phones don't work here. "How the hell do we get out!?" Sakamoto demanded. Could he tone it down for five minutes? His yelling would only draw the guards nearer.
"Hey, you three! You want to know where the exit is? Let me out and I'll take you there. You don't want to get caught and executed, right?" The creature proposed. If this entity really did know the way out, then it had been snooping around the castle same as me, but what was such an odd creature even doing inside of the Metaverse, let alone a Palace, to begin with.
"Can you really help us?" Amamiya asked. His tone was firm as he asked that question, the creature gave a positive answer, but I heard the doubt in Sakamoto's accusation of it being 'all talk', I focused on keeping myself ready. "What exactly do we have to lose? I'm letting it out," Amamiya decided. How did such a soft and gentle sounding boy have such a commanding presence? It was a baffling mystery to me.
"If you're letting it out, do it fast, we don't have the time to be standing around here. And cat creature, if you try anything to endanger these boys, I'll make sure to deal with you," I warned. My tone dripping with certainty as I gave the creature a look to show it that I was extremely serious about my stance on this matter, I promised to get those two out of here and I would keep that promise, my own self be damned.
"On my honour as a gentleman, I won't hurt either of them or you!" The creature answered. So, the creature viewed itself as a male, fair enough then. "But I am not a cat!" The creature protested. Until I got a name, cat creature was what he will be called and he would have to deal with it; jangling echoed behind me and then creaking followed it. "Ahhhh… freedom tastes so great," The creature sighed. How long had that thing been locked up here? I certainly don't recall seeing him the last time I'd been down in the dungeons… though that had been some time ago.
"Now, where's the exit, you monster cat!?" Sakamoto demanded. I wanted to hang my head in disbelief at the false blonde, this entity was willing to help us and yet Sakamoto was treating him as if the cat creature had been the one to throw him in prison and attempt to execute him instead of Kamoshida's Shadow; the cat creature spun around and proceeded to narrow his eyes into a sharp glare at those words.
"Don't call me a cat! I am Morgana!" The cat creature declared. Sakamoto then threatened to lock the cat up again in response whilst demanding the cat hurry up; seriously, this might just make the cat not want to help us in the end. "A-alright, sheesh!" Morgana answered. He looked rather subdued in the face of Sakamoto's unreasonable rage but soon perked up as his ears twitched and flicked slightly. "Follow me and stay quiet," Morgana insisted. His voice was quieter but audible enough for us to hear.
Morgana proceeded to hop forward with a slightly bouncy stride towards the creepy statue that was resting by the bridge, that at least meant I'd probably been right in my analysis that the statue would allow us to get out of this place. I quickly strode over to him with shuffling footsteps echoing behind me as the two boys followed me, Morgana looked at us as Sakamoto proceeded to ask him what the cat creature was doing.
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm lowering the bridge," Morgana answered. He proceeded to turn to face me and Amamiya fully. "Frizzy Hair, Warrior Girl. It seems like both of you pick up on things faster than Blondie over here. One of you try checking around the mouth of this statue, okay?" Morgana suggested. Hearing that almost make me want to groan in annoyance at this fact, so I just shook my head.
"So, it was the same way as the other side," I muttered. Reaching my left hand forward, I stuck it into the crevice near the chin and I pulled down on it; creaking sounded as chains rattled and gears spun, the bridge began to lower itself down so that the two sides could connect and allow us to cross the rushing water that would have swept us away if we tried to swim; I needed to start bringing rope, or find some kind of grapple hook.
"How were we supposed to know to do that!?" Sakamoto protested. Morgana called the blonde an amateur and insisted that we get moving, I started jogging quickly across the wooden panels, tightly gripping my naginata as my heart pounded in my chest; the likelihood of Shadows showing up was immensely high due to all the yelling and other loud noises.
Unfortunately, this was the fastest way out, it was our best bet to get the two boys to safety and I didn't want to risk trying to find another route only to run into danger. Rattling sounded behind me as I moved forward, only to grind to a halt and drop into a fighting stance as a Shadow walked out right in front of us from the door that had been near the bridge.
"A-Aah! Shit! Shit! It's them!" Sakamoto panicked. A flash of heat flared behind me and I looked back, feeling immense relief when I saw that Amamiya's Rebel Armour had been restored – perhaps the danger had manifested it - which meant there was at least one other person would be capable of fighting off the Shadow, better for protecting Sakamoto who had proceeded to fall over in response to his fright.
"Tch! You amateur!" Morgana snapped. He hopped forward so that he was in front of me and Amamiya. "Stay still," Morgana ordered. He then cast his blue eyes towards me and Amamiya. "Hey, you two! You can fight, right? Let's go!" Morgana insisted. Perhaps there were three of us that could fight, smiling slightly I raised my hand to my mask fully intending to use my full power now that Shadow Kamoshida wasn't skulking about thus endangering future infiltrations.
"Come Zorro!/Sing Phantom!" Morgana and I declared. His paw like hand raised to his mask and a surge of fire sprang from it as I pulled my mask off and it transformed into blue fire, swirling behind me to appear as Phantom with that dark and mysterious smirk of his firmly pressed upon his translucent lips; beside him another Persona manifested, very different yet similar to the one that I possessed.
This Persona was tall and completely clad in black clothing, a bulky upper body surrounded by a fine jacket inlaid with silvery looking designs, yet the lower body was tapered and slimmer with tall boots that had a point at the toe much like Amamiya's boots were. A thick silver belt wrapped around its' waist, a black cape billowed behind him much like Phantom's black cloak did; sharp yellow coloured sclera and blue-ish eyes gazed out from behind a black masked face which rested above a thick black moustache. A fine rapier of gleaming metal was held within the Persona's right hand.
"You're the girl from the train!" Amamiya realised. With my features on full display it was no surprise that he'd figure it out, especially since he would have recognised my butterfly hairclip; I decided not to respond to Sakamoto's panicked exclamation about me and Morgana possessing a Persona since the Shadow in front of us briefly transformed into black ooze before remerging as a Jack-o-Lantern, followed by a Silky, looking like a pale green-grey skinned woman in a large red dress and an Incubus, a demon looking creature with bat wings and a leering gaze that focused on me.
"Morgana! Advance warning! Amamiya, the boy you've been referring to as Frizzy Hair, only got his Persona, today! He's literally a novice," I warned. We needed to be careful in this fight, we were an even split in regard to numbers, but one false move could put Amamiya and Sakamoto in danger, Morgana seemed pretty confident, so he was likely experienced with his Persona, but how experienced was the worrying bit, if his confidence was actually cockiness then I had three liabilities in this fight.
"And you?" Morgana asked. Not cocky then, that was a relief, he'd wisely gauged that I was clearly more experienced than the other two, but he had been concerned about how experienced I was, that at least meant he was taking factors into account when looking at the enemies we were facing and how best to take them down.
"Little over two months. My Persona, Phantom, has Earth, Gravity and Support spells. Amamiya's Persona, Arsène, has Curse spells. What can Zorro do?" I responded. The Shadows weren't making any move yet, clearly content to just let us strategize, Shadows could either lunge at the first sign of a fight, run away or just languish idly… they were bizarre but then that summed up the Metaverse in general.
"Wind and Healing," Morgana answered. Oh, nice; with the Wind magic that meant a fourth avenue of attack and the healing – which I'd only found in enemies and Lavenza so far – would ensure that our wounds could be patched up as soon as. "With that combination, we will promptly shut them up," Morgana decided. He was right, with the different spells that we possessed, we'd be able to strike at the weak spots of two Shadows with ease.
"They've blocked our ability to advance. They're definitely out for blood this time. We need to fight like our lives depend on it," I warned. The trio of Shadows might have been content to hover, but they were clearly against letting us escape from this Palace from their positions which meant if we tried to push ourselves passed them, they'd just unleash a hail of attacks upon us which would wound us before we could possibly climb the stairs.
"Remove the mask," Amamiya muttered. I looked over at him and saw him gently take the mask off, causing it to burst into flames and manifest into Arsène who I think smirked ruefully at the creatures facing us. "Eiha," Amamiya spoke. His hand extended and Arsène moved, the red clad Persona dropped down and pressed its' hand against the ground which caused cursed energy to surge upwards, but it hit the Incubus, something not weak but not resistant to Curse-type spells and attacks.
"Warrior Girl was right, you are an amateur," Morgana commented. Despite that he was happily jumping about and the line of his mouth was curled into a smirk, implying he was hardly worried. "This is how you fight! Garu!" Morgana declared. Zorro slashed its' sword, sending out a storm of wind that briefly twisted around the Jack-o-Lantern and slashed it repeatedly before dissipating; when it vanished, the Jack-o-Lantern dropped to the ground, dazed and wobbly. "Strike at an enemy's weakness to knock them down. Use that opening to strike again! That's the most basic of basics! Remember it well!" Morgana declared.
'Those words.' I thought. They were almost identical to when Lavenza had explained weaknesses to me back in January, the bit about basic of basics was new, but the rest of it was her words practically verbatim. I snapped my attention back to the fight when Morgana used the opportunity presented by the dazed Jack-o-Lantern to unleash his Garu spell again which tore through the Shade and reduced it to ash.
"Gry!" I declared. Phantom extended his arms and the green energy flew forward and slammed into Silky, rattling it around briefly before it dropped to the ground in a state identical to the Jack-o-Lantern. "Tera!" I announced. Phantom quickly shifted his attention to the Incubus and proceeded to unleash a storm of rocks that pounded into its' body before turning it to dust.
The Silky's dress fluttered as it rose back up, but still appeared to be slightly dazed from the attack but it recovered and I saw ice starting to gather in front of its' red covered body. A slight yelp of worry escaped me and I jumped out of the way, my jump landed me behind Amamiya and Morgana but safely away from the ice shards that had been coming towards me; although both of them looked back at me with surprise in their eyes.
"What? I get cold easy," I explained. Amamiya was confused but it looked like Morgana understood, Ice was a weakness of my own, Amamiya frowned before turning back around and summoning Arsène to unleash another bolt of cursed energy, the Silky had the same affinity for Curses as the Incubus, but its' already wounded body caused it to start flagging.
"Time to end this!" Morgana declared. With a rush of wind, the Silky was turned into smoke, dropping money onto the ground in the process which I quickly gathered up. "Not bad, Frizzy Hair, your Persona's pretty powerful. As for Warrior Girl, you certainly know the ebb and flow of battle," Morgana acknowledged. Sakamoto had wisely moved to another area when the fight started but with it over, now he re-joined us.
"Persona? Y'mean that thing that comes outta you three all dramatic-like?" Sakamoto asked. I hadn't wanted to delay us by explaining what Personas were and all that to a rookie and an outsider especially since we were so deep within Kamoshida's Palace that it put us in a dangerous situation, too dangerous to be hanging around chatting; but here was different, we were near the exit and only one knight had shown up despite all the commotion so we probably had time.
"Yes. You saw how Frizzy Hair and Warrior Girl here took of their masks to summon it, right? Well, everybody wears a mask deep within their heart. By removing that-," Morgana began to explain. But he was cut off when blue flames surrounded Amamiya and when they faded his Rebel's Armour had vanished again. This wasn't good, why wasn't the transformation stabilising? Had Amamiya not fully rebelled yet in a part of his heart? "Hm, it looks like you don't have full control over your power yet. The transformation shouldn't dissolve like that. After all-," Morgana began to explain. At least he was confused as well.
"Rrgh, that's enough!" Sakamoto suddenly yelled. I looked up at him and saw he was tightly gripping his short hair. "This crap doesn't make any sense!" Sakamoto snapped. Morgana got annoyed with him and demanded he stay still and listen for once whilst still calling him Blondie. "Don't call me Blondie! My name's Sakamoto-!" Sakamoto began to yell.
"Quiet!" I hissed. Darting over, I slapped a hand over Sakamoto's mouth, silencing him as clanking reached my ears from somewhere behind us. "More knights. We need to move, now! The exit is up the stairs," I insisted. Releasing my grip over Sakamoto's mouth, I turned around and faced the stairs that would lead us out of here. "Amamiya, take these. They'll restore your health if you get injured in battle," I insisted. I extended my hand which held three of the medicinal ointments I had, Amamiya nodded and took the three items.
With him having taken the medicines, I darted towards the stairs and climbed up them, seeing that the route was clear of any Shadows but unfortunately the drawbridge that led away from this place was drawn up just like the last one. More cells lined our route, but I detected the faint trace of security in the air, implying that there was a safe room nearby, but now wasn't the time to focus upon it.
"Hold on a sec!" Sakamoto yelled. I was forced to a stop and turned around to see that Sakamoto was staring at another of the cognitions trapped within a cell, completely broken thanks to Shadow Kamoshida's sadistic nature and unable to stand up despite his struggles. "I feel like I've seen what this dude's wearin' before," Sakamoto admitted. I should hope so since that was Shūjin's P.E. uniform. "Dammit! I'm too flustered! I can't remember anything right now!" Sakamoto exclaimed.
"We need to keep moving," I insisted. Turning around I looked at the bridge only to hear Sakamoto called out to me, so I turned back to look at him. "What is it Sakamoto? We're still in danger, especially the longer we stand around here," I warned. With their masks attached, the Shadows were connected to each other and the Ruler which gave the Ruler an intricate security system, ambushing the enemies and tearing of their masks weakened that security system and also prevented reinforcements from knowing where intruders were and thus allowing the Shadows to ambush us more easily; meaning the Shadows knew where we were thanks to the attack just now.
"But… who are these guys?" Sakamoto asked. Morgana proceeded to look at me with wide eyes as I pinched the bridge of my nose, completely distressed by the fact that Sakamoto was focusing on other things instead of escaping, I couldn't – and personally didn't want to – explain the insanity of the Metaverse and Palaces to two boys that might never find their way back in here, even if Amamiya did have a Persona, I knew of no guaranteed way to travel to the Metaverse outside of my eyes.
"Do you really think you have time to worry about other people right now!?" Morgana exclaimed. He had likely realised how little both of these boys knew about the world they had tumbled into and decided to focus on redirecting them to escaping. "Besides they're-," Morgana began to speak. But a loud bellow drew our attention as the drawbridge we needed to cross slammed down, only to reveal a Shadow on the other side who quickly charged over to our side. "Shoot! We've been found!" Morgana hissed. And it was a convincing cat hiss.
"Let's fight!" Amamiya insisted. Looking over at him, I saw his Rebel's Armour return once more – this was so weird – and a hard expression was in his grey eyes; at least he was prepared to face whatever enemy was likely to interfere with our attempts to escape from the Palace since that would make our escape attempts much easier in the long run, Morgana claimed to like this decision as the Shadows dissolved and reformed into a duo of Pixies, causing me to let out a laugh.
"Bad choice to send them. Those are weak to Curse attacks," I commented. I flicked my eyes over to Amamiya still holding a grin on my face fit to match my Persona's own expression. "Your time to show off Amamiya," I encouraged. The grey eyed boy blinked in confusion at my words before seeming to understand as he reached for his mask and removed it, allowing the gentlemanly demon to manifest behind him.
"Arsène, ravage them!" Amamiya commanded. The Persona responded to the violent command and unleashed his Eiha spell upon a Pixie, causing it to drop to the ground and Amamiya used the opportunity to repeat the attack upon the other one; with both of the Pixies on the ground in such a dazed state they would be unable to retaliate for a brief time but that brief moment was all we would need.
"Morgana! Let's end them!" I insisted. Morgana let out an agreement as he summoned out Zorro, on the other hand I dissipated my naginata and prepared an arrow, losing the weapon allowed it to pierce into the Pixie who dissolved into black smoke with the Garu spell from Zorro eliminating the other one completely; the fight ended and once more Amamiya returned to his normal appearance.
"Alright! Let's get away before more show up!" Morgana insisted. I retrieve my arrow and slid it back into the quiver as I pocketed the money and summoned my naginata back to me, with the drawbridge having been lowered we could now cross it and move towards the exit it wasn't too far from our location now, hopefully we'd avoid any more fights between here and there.
"Hold on, we can't just leave these guys here!" Sakamoto protested. I turned to look at him and saw that he was still standing beside the cage holding the cognition of a volleyball team player, Amamiya had a slight frown on his face as he looked at the individual locked within the cell; explaining would take too long! If I could then I would have sat them down to talk, but escaping took priority!
"You really don't get it, do you? Hrgh… there's no time to explain," Morgana decided. He sounded irritated by these two wanting to hang around instead of escaping, not that I blame him since he had only just been freed from his prison. "Look, I'm going. If you don't want to follow, be my guest!" Morgana snapped. I, however, wasn't giving them a choice in the matter as I walked over and seized Sakamoto's left arm with my right hand and Amamiya's right arm with my left.
"Oh, they're coming, even if I have to drag them out of here," I answered. With that, I pulled both boys along with me as the odd cat creature bounded across the bridge, I could feel Sakamoto struggling against me so I kept a tight grip on his arm, but Amamiya didn't struggle so I kept a firm but gentle grip on his arm. There was no point being overly harsh to someone who wasn't causing me any trouble unlike
"Damnit! Fine, Chiba! I'm coming!" Sakamoto protested. I could hear the frustration in his voice but believing he wasn't about to do something ridiculous, I moved him in front of me and then let go; I repeated the motion with Amamiya and took a single step back from them so that there was more distance between the three of us.
"Go, follow Morgana. I'll cover our backs," I insisted. Removing my bow and arrow, I twisted my body so that I could focus on any coming attacks from behind whilst still being able to move forward; a warm hand clasped around my wrist and I jerked, looking over to see Amamiya looking at me with brilliant grey eyes that swam with uncertainty.
"Will you be okay?" Amamiya asked. His tone was soft and filled with worry, it actually made my heart flutter a bit that this basically a stranger was worried about me even though I was no better than a stranger to him; assault… that sounded so laughable to my ears now that I spent such a short time in his company, labelled as self-defence I could believe it, but a violent attack, I don't think Amamiya had it in his heart to hurt a human.
"I'll be just fine, Amamiya-san. I don't need a rookie worrying about me," I softly reassured. Amamiya didn't seem convinced as he pulled his hand back and I saw him slowly walking away, but soon enough he sped up and I followed after him. We made our way through a door and Morgana announced we were close, darting up the stairs we returned to the entrance hall that the two boys had been captured in, I just hope Shadow Kamoshida wasn't there.
"Other side of the hall! First door on the left! It's where I got in," I called. The cat creature bounded over and quickly pulled the door open, allowing the rest of us to pile in and I gratefully slid my weapon away, moving my arms and hands in relaxed circles now that they no longer needed to remain so tense, we were almost free and safe.
"How do we get out of here? There aren't even any windows!" Sakamoto asked. I had covered up the vent when I came in, all to prevent any guards from figuring out my entry point since this place wasn't a safe room thus the Shadows could technically come and go as they please in this room; better safe than sorry after all.
"Um… how about the vent?" Amamiya suggested. I gave the boy a smile and easily leapt on top of the bookcase above which the vent rested, gripping the mesh I pulled it off and placed it to the side; Morgana claimed such a thing was 'the most basic of basics', he seemed to like saying those words, I extended a hand down so that the boys could have an anchor when they climbed up.
"Come on, let's get out of here," I encouraged. Sakamoto moved over and gripped my hand, I pulled him up and pushed him gently towards the vent which he quickly proceeded to crawl through, I turned back to Amamiya but found the transfer student was instead focused on Morgana who was looking at both of us.
"Thank you for your help, Morgana-san," Amamiya expressed. He even bowed towards the cat creature, Morgana's large eyes blinked in surprise as if he couldn't believe what Amamiya had done just now; the ravenette gave the strange entity no chance to respond as he turned to me and gripped my hand allowing me to repeat the processing of pulling him up.
"Many thanks Morgana, take care of yourself and don't get caught again," I insisted. Amamiya crawled through the ventilation shaft and I followed him, once at the edge I dropped down and quickly swapped my bow and quiver for my school bag. "We need to head for the street outside the alleyway! Follow me!" I ordered. The street had been the entry point so that was how we got out of here.
"Okay!/Right!" Sakamoto and Amamiya answered. With that I proceeded to guide them out of the Palace's boundaries, my outfit vanishing in blue flames as I left the danger zone.
