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.

Warning! Suicide will be mentioned in this chapter and some chapters afterwards until the resolution of the Madarame arc.

Thank you to Guest for your review

I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.

Chapter 35: - Hardened Resolve

We'd all gathered at Shibuya station, except for Ren and Morgana, we were just waiting for those two to arrive. The tension over the three of us was rather thick as I struggled to even focus on my book, constantly finding my eyes drifting away and losing my place. Ann was idling moving her phone about, but it was clear to see nothing held her interest; Ryūji on the other hand was pacing like a caged animal in front of the two of us, agitation clear on his face. Thankfully Ren appeared and moved towards the rest of us, making Ryūji stop his pacing.

"Yo," Ryūji greeted. With all five of us now gathered, we just had to find Nakanohara and learn whatever he wanted to tell us. "So, what're we gonna do about Nakanohara?" Ryūji asked. Ren looked around briefly before stopping and raising his hand to point to a location a little removed from our own; I looked over and spotted the very man we were here to speak to.

"He's over there, so I'll approach him but hide myself so he doesn't see me, meanwhile you three keep an eye out for Niijima-senpai or anyone else who might be suspicious. I'll keep my phone on speaker and call you guys, that way you can hear what he's saying," Ren explained. He pulled his bag off his shoulder and quickly rifled through it to retrieve a bland grey hoodie, then handed the bag to Ann.

Ren slipped the hoodie over his head and flicked the hood up so that it hung slightly in his eyes, he pulled his glasses off and tucked them away. With a nod to us, our leader moved off and seemed to disappear into the crowd when he did; shaking my head slightly I broke off from the other three to start a random circuit around the area where the two would be meeting. The moment my phone vibrated, I quickly answer it and rested it in my book to hide that I was using it instead reading.

"Nakanohara Natsuhiko?" Ren's voice sounded. But it was different, deeper and perhaps a little distorted; a perfect decision to make since this would ensure that Nakanohara wouldn't be able to identify the voice if someone ever figured out that he had talked to us, it was also the best way to ensure that someone who walked passed and overheard the conversation couldn't identify Ren from his voice.

"Yes, that's me. The Nakanohara Natsuhiko who was posted about on the Phantom Aficionado Website," Nakanohara's voice sounded. He seemed to have changed from the deranged Shadow we had meet down in Mementos, indicating the true success of the Change of Heart. "The administrator of that website contacted me… they told me I could meet someone here for help," Nakanohara admitted. Mishima was being a little risky by doing this, but we needed the information.

"What is it that you want Nakanohara?" Ren asked. Even if we suspected that he was here to talk about Madarame, it was best for us to get all the information out of Nakanohara without jumping to conclusions; I continued my steady circuit of the area around my leader and our information source, mentally counting the seconds in order to decide when to change the page of my book in order to keep up my ruse.

"You may have already heard, but there's someone I wish to trigger a change of heart in. An artist by the name of Madarame," Nakanohara revealed. Madarame was already an unusual name, but to specify that it was an artist bearing that name was certainly stocking evidence onto the pile that he was here regarding his former mentor.

"As in Madarame Ichiryūsai? The one whose exhibition is currently on?" Ren questioned. Ren wasn't going to let anything slip by him, he was crossing every t and dotting every i, ensuring that we didn't make a mistake. Probably wise given how complicated this whole scenario had twisted into being thanks to Kitagawa's perception of Madarame, we couldn't afford to make any errors in judgment.

"Yes. I'm one of Madarame's former pupils. He gave me lodging at his home, where I thought only about art. I genuinely wanted to be an artist… there was another pupil as well. A very talented man, multiple years my senior," Nakanohara admitted. It couldn't be Kitagawa then, but my mind immediately turned to what Ryūji had told us last night. "Obviously, Madarame kept tabs on him. Everything he made was claimed as a Madarame original. He wasn't the only victim though… in response to Madarame's actions… that senior pupil committed suicide," Nakanohara added on.

I couldn't help the harsh stomp my feet made as I ground to a halt at hearing those words. Hearing there was a suicide of a student and actually knowing there was one and Madarame was a fault were two different things. Slipping my phone out, I snapped my book closed and put it away as I quickly walked towards Ann who had gone wide eyed and pale faced. I put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a slightly shake to knock her out of whatever state her mind was in, Ann gave me a tense smile but the watery look in her eyes didn't fade.

"He must have been unable to bear seeing his work praised under Madarame's name. That was when I disobeyed Madarame's orders and left. But he quickly pressured other parts of the art world and my life, as a painter, was destroyed. I tried to turn over a new lead working at a ward office… but it was no use. My attachment to art warped my emotions. Soon, I began getting attached to everything… in the end, I even turned into a stalker… I'd like to ask again, please make Madarame have a change of heart. Not only for me. It's… to save the life of another student as well," Nakanohara explained.

"Save their life? What do you mean?" Ren asked. His tone had taken on an urgent note as I shared a terrified look with Ann who looked like she was going to be sick; there was only one student left behind at that shack and if Nakanohara was aware of that fact then there was no doubt about who he was referring to with this request.

"Even now, there is still one young man remaining under Madarame's tutelage. He's a high schooler," Nakanohara answered. That confirmed that it had to be Kitagawa, since he claimed to be the only one left at the shack and fit the age. "Not only is he a talented artist, he also owes Madarame for taking him in after his mother passed… he is the perfect target," Nakanohara added on. This was stuff we already knew, but it didn't change that Kitagawa didn't want our help or anyone's help for that matter. "I actually spoke to him a few times, back when I was still living at Madarame's. I asked him if he found it painful to stay with Madarame… and do you know what he said? 'If I could leave, I would'," Nakanohara revealed. My body might as well have become a statue from how stiff I went.

That changed everything. Kitagawa had lied to our faces and claimed that he didn't want to leave but now we had evidence from someone who knew Madarame's cruelty that this wasn't how Kitagawa truly felt. Ann took in a deep breath as her face became composed with the tears in her eyes having dwindled and Carmen's fire blazed bright in her blue gaze, I could agree with her resolve.

"I have no right to say this given my prior cowardice, but I don't want to see another suicide! I'd like to find a way to save this young man. He has a bright future ahead of him, please consider that, when thinking about changing Madarame's heart," Nakanohara requested. He had spun around the corner to speak to Ren directly, but by that time our stealthy leader had shot away from the scene.

Ren and Ryūji quickly made their way over to me and Ann with Ren quickly hiding the hoodie in the bag with Morgana. With our information secured, I turned and guided the others out of the station and through the streets until we reached a small store front with a blue paint job. I pushed open the door and saw it was mostly deserted which was fortunate for us. The store was split between a sizeable bookstore at the front and a small café area at the back and up the stairs on the second level. The upstairs café was more popular, so I guided the group to a small booth that I frequently used and we sat down. Since the food making area was upstairs, it was safe for Morgana to come out and sit on the table top.

"We've been asked to act directly on behalf of one of Madarame's victims. It sounds like we don't have the time to deliberate whether or not to change Madarame's heart," Morgana decided. Before it had been taking revenge on a man who hurt many of those around us and several of our members, this time we'd been the outsiders looking in; but at last, someone from the inside and requested our help in stopping the cruelty being unleashed by the distorted man in question.

"Morgana is right. Nakanohara confirmed the plagiarism was real, something we already suspected, but he also confirmed the truth about the suicide being a direct result of Madarame's own actions. Add on that it's apparent Yusuke wants to be saved from his current situation despite his own words to us, and we have Nakanohara's earnest plea for our help. What do you think?" Ren spoke. He looked between each of us, but I got the sense he had already made up his mind.

"Hell yeah! Madarame's just a piece of shit who preys on the weak! I've been for goin' after Madarame from the get-go," Ryūji reminded. Ryūji had never once faltered in his belief and right now his conviction was being rewarded, I couldn't even get mad that he was being unnecessarily loud; I looked over at Ann and saw how stiff her face was but given what had been mentioned, I couldn't blame her for feeling that way.

"Suicide… I'll never let something like that happen! Plus, we finally got to hear how Kitagawa-kun really feel!" Ann declared. That was the biggest factor we never really had, Kitagawa had always insisted that he was fine with the situation but now we knew that to be false, we knew what truly lay within his heart thanks to Nakanohara; I was never more grateful than now for having gone after him in Mementos.

"Kitagawa-san wants to be saved. He said this to someone who knew him, maybe not well, but it was someone who knew his pain. He wants to escape the cage he's in. I say we get started right away," I decided. Kitagawa might still be able to paint, but he could lose that passion just like how I'd lost my will to sing. I might still hum on occasion, especially the Velvet Room's song when I'm stressed, but I never let words escape my lips and it was more often in my mind; I never wanted someone else to go down that same terrible path.

"Then, let's get started," Ren decided. He smiled brightly, we'd all found our conviction once more and could finally tackle this target with vigour, there would be no half-hearted measures involved in the infiltration which could have endangered us. I think that's what Ren must have been the most concerned about, how willing we were to go through with this Change of Heart.

"Our target this time is Madarame!" Morgana declared. He also seemed glad that we were finally galvanised to stop Madarame. "We all saw that Palace. We'll pay dearly if we assume it's just going to be like the last one. And furthermore… Ann-dono's chastity is on the line!" Morgana announced. This surprised the girl in question. "We'll need to do what we did with Kamoshida. First, we secure an infiltration route in the Palace. After that, we send our calling card. Once the Treasure has materialised, we steal it," Morgana reminded.

"Oooh, I got a question! Madarame doesn't know that we were doin' stuff in the… challenge yet, why are we already getting' treated like criminals in there?" Ryūji asked. A pretty astute question to make, there was something different about this Palace's manner compared to Kamoshida's, even though the Security Level had been low, we'd all immediately been cloaked in our Rebel's Armour.

"Because of Madarame's innate cognition. He's probably a highly suspicious person, so naturally his challenge will reflect that by viewing anything unknown as a threat," I explained. Which would make sense as a plagiarist who lived with his victims, he knew others who knew his secrets and while he was able to suppress Nakanohara's voice thanks to his influence, the fact that Nakanohara had escaped him wouldn't be lost on his psyche.

"Well done, you're learning Ryūji," Morgana praised. He was, to have asked such an observational question after one infiltration and the fact that he had actually used one of the codewords for our activities for once instead of just blurting it out; although it sounded like he had to think about which word to use when making his question, still it was progress.

"Then his Palace bein' so crazy had nothing to do with us?" Ryūji asked. He almost seemed disappointed about that fact given that he'd slumped down slightly; also he had gone and used the real word instead of a codeword which caused me to hang my head in dismay slightly… I wonder if he was ever going to learn.

"Either way, we should stay on our best behaviour. It'll be harder for us to steal the Treasure if we needlessly increase the Security Level," Morgana explained. That was definitely a necessity, especially since we had the added issue of someone very close to the target already being against us which could alert Madarame subconsciously if he even noticed how stressed Kitagawa was, or Kitagawa outright told him what happened.

"Prioritise stealth over everything else in this infiltration then," Ren insisted. That would mean we'd need to try and perform ambushes at every opportunity if we could, simply because it would be easier to lower the threat to us and continue deeper into the Palace and reduce the number of guards that would be loitering about.

"We also need to be careful of Kitagawa-kun this time too. I'm sure that whatever he sees will just get passed on to Madarame," Ann pointed out. All of us made sounds of agreement since his presence and perception added another threat even if it was one that we knew wasn't really dangerous. "Hey, what is Madarame's goal going to look like anyway? Another crown?" Ann wondered.

"No, it'll look like whatever Madarame believes represents his opinion that he is a great artist. For Ouvrard, it was a musical score for an opera she was making, so it could possibly be Sayuri for Madarame for maybe whatever Madarame's first painting was," I answered. It would be impossible to tell until we actually saw it with our own eyes.

"Our time limit for completing this is when the exhibit end, after that, it'll be too difficult to get near that shack. We have to get this done by June fifth, meaning securing our route by the second," Ren decided. That was the best way to do this, we didn't have much time but hopefully we'd be able to complete this one as swiftly as possible.

"Now listen here. We can't mess this up, NO MATTER WHAT! OKAY!?" Ann snapped. Her voice going higher than we needed it to be on the last lot, but she had a fair reason to be so empathetic about this.

*Persona 5 Royal*

We had another moment of Joker spacing out and me sensing the Velvet Room – still no sign of it and I gave as thorough a search as possible while the other three called out to Joker – before entering the Palace. Thankfully, Joker came back to us and we made our way inside to the picture gallery that was our entry point, we made to move to the next area only for Mona to dart in front of Joker suddenly.

"Hold on, Joker!" Mona exclaimed. He sounded worried and that concerned me, I stepped closer and my eyes widened when I saw that coming from two of the three pairs of black boxes I'd spotted the other day were red lines that were extremely faint, leaving only a small gap near the floor that was safe to pass through. "Tch… it's an infrared laser device. If we touch it, the security will increase!" Mona explained.

"Hold on, there wasn't anything like this last time though!" Skull protested. That was probably an indicator that Madarame's cognition had been altered thus increasing the Palace's overall danger; of course, I wasn't expecting such a subtle trap, but it made sense given the setting that the Palace had taken this time around, but it was still a danger we didn't need to deal with.

"It's possible that Yusuke warned Madarame of our questions and that will have ramped up the Security Level enough to trigger these things," Joker theorised. It could be any number of reasons, but the one thing I was certain of was that it probably wasn't going to go away no matter how many Shadows were defeated since Madarame knew something was wrong and these things were tied to that knowledge meaning they'd stick around probably long after our deadline had passed.

"Can we still make our way through?" Panther warily asked. No surprise especially since we would be incapable of getting further into the Palace at the moment if there was no way since we didn't have a way to climb over them and even a jump wouldn't help clear it; thankfully there was a way through this one at least.

"There's a gap at the bottom we can crawl through, let's just hope there are other gaps in later defences," I pointed out. Joker crouched down and tentatively reached his hand forward, lightly swiping his hand from side to side; heaving a sigh of relief he proceeded to crawl through the gap, Mona only had to duck his sizeable head slightly as he was able to walk through the gap, Panther and Skull followed after the cat shaped thief and then I slipped myself through.

In the next room we encountered a similar problem with multiple infrared lasers active, some were on the top and bottom which meant none of us could jump through that gap since the contorting necessary wasn't possible unless one specialised in such acts, there was also a Shadow present as well. With a quick discussion, we proceeded to ambush it revealing two Mokoi's wobbling in place.

"It's weak to Wind and strong against Electricity!" Joker warned. Mona and Panther linked together by a Baton Pass and thanks to Panther's Breeze Ring, then tied off with an All-Out Attack heavily weakened the little boomerang wielders. This allowed Skull and I to finish them off, with our enemy bested we kept moving in the direction of the picture frame opening and found more Shadows.

Another ambush on one granted us a battle against a trio of Hua Pos that turned out to be weak to Ranged weapons and Ice. This was another easy battle in that all it took was a single bullet from Joker to disable each of them and then an All-Out Attack; this one actually finished the opponents off this time. We eventually reached the picture frame and came across another Shadow; Joker swiftly ambushed this one and it formed into two Shadows.

One was a Hua Po while the other was one we'd never seen before. This one was also feminine, with light blue skin and darker blue hair that was gathered into two loops at the base of her neck, golden eyes peered out from her slightly closed eyelids which made me think immediately of Kawakami-sensei. She was clad in a white outfit that was reminiscent of what a gymnast would wear with a slightly longer back that seemed to ripple as she moved, aqua coloured gemstones shaped like tears were sent into a dark blue belt that circled her hips while a translucent blue sash wove around her arms and through the air.

"That blue one is called Apsaras. It's weak to Fire and Electricity but Resists Ice!" I called out. Mona did the smart thing and started things off by firing his slingshot at Hua Po which dropped the fairy girl to the floor. A Baton Pass to Skull allowed the false blonde to blast Apsaras with Captain Kidd's Zio spell. With both of them down, we moved in and Joker managed to convince Apsaras – who reminded me of Silky and felt the same upon being released – to join us before we eliminated Hua Po.

"Hey, Mona, Amazon. Do either of you know about Traits?" Joker asked. I looked at the boy in confusion as I tried to think about what he was referring to, I closed my eyes and started to rifle through my memories of Igor in order to recall anything about what had been mentioned; eventually I realised what Joker was referring to though it was something that I hadn't thought about for a while.

"Huh? Oh… I actually completely forgot about that," I admitted. It was pretty embarrassing to have done such a thing but with no need to think about something, things can slip the mind. "Yes, I know about Persona Traits, but each one's is unique, Phantom can increase the duration of mine, and maybe others, Kaja type support skills," I explained. With the others present, we were better off knowing what each of them could do innately since it could help us latter on.

"Zorro can increase the effect of all of our healing spells on occasion. You guys will have to focus your attention inwards to get that information," Mona added on. We had entered the area where Nakanohara and Kitagawa's paintings were located only to see a massive field of infrared lasers cutting across large sections of the hall in a horizontal fashion. "Sheesh, I'm glad I managed to make more grappling hooks for everyone," Mona admitted. He then pulled them out and helped to strap each new one on to the rest of us.

Joker had proceeded to shoot over while Mona helped us and our leader gave the all-clear for us to cross. I flew over the lasers followed by Panther who squeaked a little as she curled in a few times to try and avoid the lasers, I had gathered my skirt in one hand in a bunched mass to avoid that, so I don't blame her. Skull had Mona perched on his shoulder as he geared himself up, the blonde soon shot over and landed with a heavy thud – though he sank down a little – while Mona seemed to be grinning as his small paw attempted to ruffle Skull's hair but that resulted in it being more like a pat.

Once the three of us had recovered ourselves from our first flight on grappling hooks, we quickly made our way into the reception area and dealt with the Shadows there before heading into the area where that vile statue was located. I swallowed thickly upon seeing it and flexed my hand opened then closed in order to calm myself of any negative emotions, getting emotional wouldn't help here, better to channel those feelings without being overwhelmed by them.

"We'll be in unknown territory once we go past here, right?" Panther questioned. Even with a map, we wouldn't know what would be present beyond the basic layout, its' contents and enemies would be completely unknown until we actually got there; I could only hope that we'd be able to find a Safe Room soon to ease our travel.

"The security will probably get a little more fierce as well," Mona warned. It was deeper in, thus closer to Treasure which would automatically make it more secure meaning more Shadows; the stealth part of our mission was about to start. "Make sure you don't touch anything or run into any of the displays, alright?" Mona added on. His eyes were focused on Skull when he said that bit.

"What're you lookin' at me for?" Skull asked. None of us answered that question and instead ran up the ramp at the back of the room and quickly moved through the door, there were two directions we could go but one was hidden behind a door that was locked from the other side, so Joker darted right and we followed him. A leap and a crawl around some lasers brought us safely to our first Safe Room.

"Thank goodness… at least we won't have to jump over that laser field again," Panther admitted. As we stepped in, I noticed the room shimmer to its' physical world counterpart and while the steel looking tables with wheelie chairs took up most of the room, I still saw wooden stools in one corner and a sleeping roll in another… a sleeping roll? "What is this place?" Panther wondered. The Metaverse version reasserted itself and I saw TV screens talking about Madarame with golden panelling that had some black trees painted on them, golden trees were in the far corners of the room and blue fabric was underfoot.

"I think this might be where Kitagawa-san sleeps, there was a roll in the corner, which is my only evidence, but its' quite likely given that it would be a place in the shack weak to Madarame's influence," I answered. We took a quick breath and proceeded to leave the room behind, we quickly moved through to the next room where more disturbing pictures were hanging from off-white walls. We quickly ducked into the corners and darted about the room until we came across a Shadow.

A swift ambush revealed three Shadows. All of them were the same quadruped beast, looking like some kind of cross between a dog and a lion; despite being petite in size it looked like there was a faint white-blue mane around its' face. There was also a curly tail at the back of it, there were also curly tufts of hair on the legs. All in all, they reminded me of the Shiisaa statues I'd seen in Okinawa… which is actually what they are.

"Shiisaa are weak to Psy and Curse while resisting our Physical attacks and blocking Bless!" I warned. This meant we wouldn't be getting a hold of one for Joker, through our own abilities at least, Joker made the first move by bringing out Mokoi and using a Spell that unleashed bright spots around one of the little dog Shadows, this caused it to go cross-eyed and stumble around a bit as if it had become dizzy or drunk.

"Attack the one Joker dazed!" Mona insisted. Skull moved forward and slammed an Electrical attack down on the ailed enemy, which caused it to drop to its' knees. "Alright! We should be able to use a Baton Pass now!" Mona encouraged. Skull passed it over to Panther, with a quick summoning of Carmen, a sleepy aura surrounded a second Shiisaa and its' eyes drifted close and the head dropped to its' chest.

Acting quickly, I summoned Phantom and a pulse of Gravity twisted around the dreaming Shiisaa, knocking it down. I Baton Passed to Mona who summoned Zorro and unleashed some Wind on the only one that had remained undamaged. But that one remaining Shiisaa suddenly began to gather energy around itself that felt terrifyingly familiar. I sensed it coming for me and I quickly flipped backwards, but it wasn't enough. The nuclear attack seared across my leg, tearing a scream from my lips as I went tumbling backwards.

Yells echoed across my head as I struggled to get myself back together. Clawing at the ground to try and force myself up despite the swimming in my head. The stinging scent of fire and electricity battered the air around me as the cold blast of ice drifted over my skin. A soft warmth pressed itself into my skin and I felt my head clear up faster.

Scrambling to my feet, I saw that the Shiisaa had been whittled down to only two. Pulling my mask of, I had my eerie Persona use its' Gravity Spell on the only one that as currently standing up right. I must have got lucky because my attack knocked it down. Joker commanded an All-Out Attack and we dove in, successfully eliminating them. Once they puffed into smoke and dropped their loot, I moved backwards to lean against the wall and looked at the leg that got hit.

"That was unpleasant, I'll have to be careful," I muttered. Ice and Fire both stung like hell when they hit, but Nuke attacks were by far the worst for me to be struck with; if Nuke attacks were now showing up thenI'd need to be on my toes even more than before to stop taking such serious wounds. Panther moved over to me but I gave her a shake of my head and pushed away from the wall.

We kept moving through the disturbing gallery, avoiding a savage Shadow when I saw it since it was stronger than us. We darted passed some lasers in a small, enclosed area which allowed us to slink out of the corners properly, Joker spotted a grappling hook attachment and we darted up – I was really glad Mona made more – to another level. It seemed to be some kind of backstage area with an almost vent like appearance, we followed it around and dropped down to find sturdy mesh coverings on the floor and a section of metal that jutted further off the end. We walked along it and looked down to find metal fences encircling boards of wood piled together and a Treasure Chest which contained three Fire Magatamas.

Jumping up and over the cages we spotted a Shadow and a chest at the other end. We darted along in the small hideaways provided by more caged wooden boards until we reached the Shadow and Joker pounced upon it like he was some kind of cat. Two Koropokkgurus popped out and Joker's information had Panther dousing them quickly with two balls of fire. An All-Out Attack finished them off.

From the chest we received a ring which contained a Nuke based spell, I stepped away from it feeling slightly nervous about being near it as Joker gave it to Mona who hooked it over his tail quite comfortably. As there had been a door back near the first, we retraced our steps and emerged back into the gallery we'd left. We darted through the gallery and emerged on the other side to move through another door.

This led us to a pale blue-grey hallway like the rest with the striated blue carpet but it turned out to be the door we'd previously found locked. Turning around, we darted to the opposing end through more lasers and up a set of stairs that led through a block shaped arch of those infernal golden squares. Another blue tinged room with twisted paintings greeted us, although there was a door at the end with glass screens and a glass window a short distance away from the door.

Joker ducked down and we followed his moves, keeping low to the ground so that we could avoid being seen by any Shadows that might be sitting in there. We turned the corner and moved along before standing up, before us lay a long room with two other rooms beside it which were separated by panes of glass. There were gold coloured panels and paintings around the wall; a semi-circle of yellow couches and sitting right in the middle was a golden ornament that seemed to have some sort of pulsing effect coming from it.

"H-Hey, wait a second! You're just gonna ignore that golden sheen?" Mona asked. I came to an abrupt stop and whipped around to stare at the healer who was gazing at the golden ornament with almost dreamy eyes; that was a surprising thing to hear from him, especially after what he had gone and said earlier about not touching the displays especially since Madarame's cognition would likely cause us to be ensnared in a trap.

"You said not to touch the displays Mona," I reminded. I had hoped that hearing his own words being shot at him would knock the sense back into Mona before he ended up doing something reckless like approaching the object and getting us caught; unfortunately, it seemed that my words went in one ear and out the other without even brushing against his brain since Mona remained staring at the object.

"Mmmm… look at that lustre…," Mona purred. I looked at the others and found they were giving Mona versions of their own disbelieving looks, Panther's was a far bit more deeply concerned than Skull's who looked rather annoyed – though given that the one who'd told him not to touch anything was talking about doing that same thing, he can't be blamed – at the swooning cat. Joker looked like he was contemplating picking the cat shaped thief up if he didn't get a move on.

"I know that's not catnip Mona! Calm down!" Joker demanded. He sounded rather annoyed and none of us spoke up against him for it, Mona should not have been distracted so easily by a shiny piece of cognitive creation; I have no clue what he could possibly be thinking getting so focused on something that wasn't even real.

"I know it might be tough to take with us, but don't you think it'd sell for tons?" Mona wondered. He then proceeded to leap onto the pedestal and hug the item in question, he didn't even know if it would materialise outside of the Palace; even if it did, given Madarame's perchance for plagiarism I was doubtful it would actually be worth anything if we did try to sell it.

"C'mon, we didn't come here to-," Skull began to complain. But he stopped himself and I think his pallor rushed white. "Hold on, you're steppin' on something!" Skull warned. That wasn't good, there was probably a pressure plate underneath the display and who knows what that could trigger now that there was the wrong kind of weight on it.

"Isn't this bad!?" Panther exclaimed. She was right about that and I doubt that we'd be able to stop it by yanking Mona off the pressure plate, in fact that could make things worse for us, who knows what we'd have to deal with but either way I wasn't exactly keen to stand around and find out whatever it was that would be coming.

"Get back!" Joker yelled. I threw myself back into a handspring and flipped away as Joker did the same thing; this was fortunate for us as we managed to avoid getting caught in the security net that was thrown up around the object, sadly none of the others had managed to escape and were completely encased within the crisscrossing lasers that formed a cage completely surrounding them.

"Oh no, I tripped the security!" Mona realised. I wonder if this was one of those situations where people felt the urge to face palm, I certainly know that my hand was twitching slightly though whether to grab Mona's scruff or strike my own forehead I couldn't tell; Joker groaned slightly and dropped his face into his hands, we were definitely in a sticky situation now that most of our team was captured.

"Urgh! And you were the one makin' us be careful too… so whaddya wanna do? Run outta here?" Skull wondered. Skull's complaint was rightly made, but his suggestion was a horrifically bad idea for more than the strain that it would inflict upon his leg; even worse was that it looked like he was preparing to follow through with the action despite no one else having given him a response.

"Don't be suicidal Skull! Running through those lasers will bring Shadows down on our heads, if the alarm hasn't already done so," I warned. Thankfully this jerked Skull's movements to a stop as he lifted his brown eyes to look at me, Panther also turned her blue gaze over to my location and I spotted them widening when she took in mine and Joker's location.

"Hold on! Joker and Amazon aren't trapped!" Panther pointed out. Mona turned himself around in order to see that we were the only two currently safe from the imprisonment; honestly that was probably down to nimble reflexes, Joker's warning, and a fair amount of good luck that we'd managed to escape before the cage was sprung.

"Sorry you two, but we're going to need you to search for a way to turn off these infrared lasers. This is a museum, so there has to be some switch to let the workers avoid these lasers. Find it!" Mona pleaded. It was the only way, and we'd best accomplish it fast otherwise an inundation of Shadows would show up and as skilled as Joker and experienced as I was, I didn't fancy the idea of going through with such a thing.

"I'll search one side; you take the other!" Joker insisted. I sounded my agreement and turned to look at the wall of glass to my left, there wasn't anything for me to jump on in order to climb up, but there was a walkway that linked the two glassed off areas right over my head. I aimed the grapple and fired, thankfully it tangled around a vertical pole and I was yanked up to it.

Carefully walked along the edge towards the painting filled room, I spotted a Shadow stalking around within that room as I called upon my Second Sight, there was no time to waste. I spotted that a painting seemed to call out to me; relaxing my sight I crept along until I could safely watch the patrolling Shadow stalk along its' path. Jumping down, I darted over to the painting and pushed it aside, revealing a button behind it. I quickly pressed the object and the red light beneath it turned off.

The golden drapes that had hung in the area suddenly rose up, while the glass partition that sealed Skull in dropped down. The Electricity wielder darted out but that immediately alerted the Shadow as to what was going on and it charged towards Skull. Luckily, Skull swung his weapon into the Shadow which forced it to stumbled backwards, I darted over to stand beside him as the Shadow manifested. It looked incredibly disturbing, like an onion stuck to the defeathered body of a chicken.

"It's Weak to Ice and Bless. Luckily, it's neutral to any of our capabilities," I explained. Skull was grinning at my words, but I'd need to keep his head on straight during the battle. "Boost your attack first!" I insisted. Skull seemed to recover his senses and he proceeded to used his Tarukaja to do as I insisted. I quickly copied him to raise my own attack though in the magical variety.

The creepy little thing called an Onmoraki proceeded to let out a cruel shriek as cursed energy surged up. It twisted around me, causing a small grunt to escape from me, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. Skull immediately had Captain Kidd manifest and it flew forward to hit the Shadow. I followed up with a hail of rocks from Phantom. The Shadow retaliated with the same Spell as before, but with our boosted capabilities, we were easily able to deal with the Shadow. We left the area and met up with Panther and Joker.

"Now we just gotta get Mona out," Skull commented. But there was a significant problem, while Skull and Panther had been able to escape via the removal of the glass that had also been locking them in alongside the lasers, Mona was completely surrounded by lasers and since he was in the rough centre of the room, we wouldn't be able to lift him out from above since there was nothing for us to stand on up there.

"But… I don't think we'll be able to get him out unless we can turn the lasers off," Panther admitted. That was exactly what we'd have to do if we wanted our healer back before this situation got even worse, the only question was how to turn the lasers off, there hadn't been anything else which caught my attention while searching with my Second Sight.

"There has to be a control room for them! I don't know if it's nearby though!" Mona exclaimed. That seemed the most likely place for us to search, it should also be close by if it was to control this area but how close was the real question. So far nothing had come to investigate, but that could change at any moment.

"Let's try that room we saw before coming in here!" Joker insisted. We darted back to the room but quickly found an issue, the door was locked, Joker raked his gloved hands through his hair and I could practically taste the stress rolling off of him at having been thrown into this situation head first; not that I blamed him since it was rather stress inducing and I could feel the tension building within my muscles. We needed to get in this room, but how? At that moment, I remembered something I spotted.

"I think I saw a vent back in the area where I found the button to get Skull out," I admitted. We ran back to the area and quickly pulled ourselves up and in, this time I dragged my skirt up so that it rested to the side instead of over my ankles; this prevented me having another falling incident. Panther also threatened Skull again about looking up despite the boy's protest that he wouldn't do that.

Once inside the room that had been blocked off, we found a control terminal that Skull happily pointed out that it seemed to be connected to a security system. He encouraged us to turn it off, but there was a slight problem, that problem came in the form of us requiring a password in order to turn it off… couldn't things just go easy for us.

"We should probably try to find the password… but I doubt it's just lying around somewhere," Joker admitted. That was highly unlikely as the cognition would ensure it was ensconced somewhere safe from our kind of hands, much like how those two creepy eye keys were in the hands of Knight Captain; well know, that might just be a helpful memory.

"Why not spy on the Shadows," I suggested. Everyone proceeded to look at me with perplexed looks in their eyes. "There won't be a password lying about because Madarame's mind will assume all his security knows the password. Security here is Shadows, so the Shadows will know. And it's either spying or interrogating but interrogating means confrontation and takes time, we need to be quick for Mona's sake," I explained. Joker nodded his head sharply, showing he agreed with my suggestion.

We opened up the door only to spot two Shadows right in front of us, they were far enough away that we hadn't been seen yet. Each of us dived out of the doorway to avoid arousing suspicion as the door hissed close behind us, we took up different positions as the Shadows began to chat about us. They knew we were here despite the lowering Security Level and the password had been changed… this was to a sequence of numbers that when read upside spelt hello, whatever works I guess.

"That was almost too easy," Panther commented. Easy it might be, but it was best to take every lucky break that we could find; once the two Shadows stomped off to… wherever, we returned to the terminal and Joker entered the code into it, thankfully the system showed the laser field being shut down. "It looks like it worked!" Panther cheered.

"Sweet! Let's go grab that stupid cat and get movin'!" Skull insisted. This time, I'd let the stupid comment stand, since Mona had been very stupid to completely disregard his own warning and cause such an issue; we left the room and returned to Mona who had hopped off the display without taking the ornament with him which I was thankful for.

"I-I'm sorry… that was very much unlike me…," Mona admitted. Considering he had reacted the same way towards Treasures, it wasn't entirely unlike him, but it was a bit odd that he'd done that to a non-Treasure object. "Urgh, that is true… I can't believe I made such a novice mistake, even for solid gold," Mona chastised. He was really beating himself up for that mistake, so I decided to not lecture him about it. "But something was drawing me to this vase," Mona admitted. He even turned around to look at the object that had caused this terrible mess.

"What do you mean? Isn't it just an ordinary gold vase?" Panther wondered. It certainly looked like an ordinary object. "I wonder if there's something special about it. Should we take a closer look just in case?" Panther suggested. The gold vase suddenly disintegrated and out popped an almost ghost like entity attached to a shining pink diamond. My eyes widened in shock upon seeing the entity.

"AH! No! Not ordinary! Grab it!" I yelled. Joker responded fastest and immediately jumped at the entity and brought his dagger down on to the diamond's surface, allowing us to form a star around the object to limit its' movements. "Its' only weakness is Nuke attacks, whatever you do don't use any kind of Physical attacks, it resists those," I warned.

"Mona! You'll need to attack them! Everyone else, support Mona!" Joker commanded. He then tore his mask off as Slime manifested and a positive aura surrounded Mona. Deciding to do the same, I removed my own mask to boost Mona's offensive magic. Panther brought out Carmen to lull the ghostly entity to sleep. Joker tossed an item to Skull which lowered the entity's magical defence.

"Take this!" Mona declared. He utilised the ring that Joker had given him to strike its' weak point, the entity was knocked down instantly and woken up in the same move. We quickly closed the star shaped formation and Joker demanded that the entity lend him its' power; this wasn't a Persona twisted into a Shadow so I don't know if it would even work.

"My name is Regent… my existence shall become a new part of you," The entity spoke. That had to be the easiest negotiation we've had, since all others had to be talked into joining, the mask transformed and proceeded to fuse into Joker's mask; well, if it worked then it worked, we all released our weapons and relaxed slightly.

"Good, good! The was pretty nice considering it was your first time running into one," Mona congratulated. It was very impressive that we'd managed to stop it so quickly after it had appeared, I was just glad that we'd done that instead of letting it escape; it wasn't something we'd come across often so capturing one was for the best if we wanted to learn what they could really do.

"What was that?" Panther asked. The question didn't come as a surprise since this was the first one they had ever ran across, I glanced over at Joker and saw he had his eyes closed and was seemingly oblivious to the conversation going on around him; shrugging my shoulders at his tuned out state, I turned to look at Panther in order to properly answer the question.

"They're Treasure Demons. Extremely rare Shadows that take the form of something we consider valuable. I don't know all their uses, but they probably have some special ability that Joker will be able to make use of since they're so rare," I explained. Igor and Lavenza had vanished by the time I'd run into the first Treasure Demon, so I really was clueless about what they could be capable of.

"However, they run very fast and attacks don't deal very much damage to them," Mona warned. We had been lucky to have managed to be in possession of its' weakness thus allowing us to deal some proper damage to it and prevent it from running off. A small hum came from behind me and I turned my head to see Joker had opened his eyes.

"It can't be used in battle, but it possesses Spells that attacks a group and covers all Elements. I think if I can fuse it with something else," Joker commented. I raised my eyebrow in confusion at that last part; but Joker seemed to refocus. "Let's keep moving!" Joker ordered. All of us agreed and turned to face the other end of the display area that had been such a problem.