[17th May, A few hours beforehand, right outside of the Togo Household]

Right after school ended on that day, the trio of The Fools arrived for their second infiltration to Mitsuyo's palace. And with upgraded gear for this time.

"So... where's the use for this watch?" Akira asked as he looked at the watch Keigo gave them. It was normal and... boring at first glance, just a run-of-the-mill black round watch. "I mean, all electronics-related stuff doesn't work on the other side, isn't it?"

"And that is why I am giving them to you two," The said half-Frenchman deadpanned, putting on his own watch. "These watches are specially made to work inside the Metaverse, or just any shadow-relates dimensions. And they have built-on communication, from what Kirijo-san said to me."

"Wait, that's even possible?" Widening her eyes, Shiho just blinked in bewilderment. "Wow, the Shadow Operative really is something..."

"Well, I guess we can use them to check the time when we're inside the palace," The amateur writer shrugged, putting on his watch in an upside-down way. "Not that it'll be anything important."

"Either way, we should not wait longer," Adjusting his glasses, Keigo took out his phone and opened the Meta-Nav. And the feeling of uneasiness washed through them again.

[1/F Saferoom, Mitsuyo's Palace]

Upon being teleported straight into the saferoom, the first thing Jester noticed was that the feeling was a bit easier to handle than before. Maybe that was the side effect of slowly being used to palace infiltration.

Even though it was just as he thought, but it's still surprising that the watch still worked inside the palace. "Wow, it really worked," Raising an eye, Swan took out her rifle from the back.

"Well, it's Mitsuru we're talking about, after all," Jester shrugged, adjusting the watch before peeking out of the door. "Okay, we're in the clear right now... ready?"

"Of course," Raven nodded.

"Always ready, Jester," The thief in white said with a faint smirk, and the leader just shook his head in slight amusement.

"I know."

With that said, the trio rushed through the door and ran toward the direction they were going to in the last infiltration. Thankfully, they didn't encounter too many shadows during the way, and those they encountered were luckily easier to defeat than they thought.

reached a room with another huge Kabuki stage inside.

Looking around, Swan just raised an eye in confusion. "Wait, weren't we here before? Like, when we fought that masked girl..."

"Um... this room doesn't look like that one we've been into," Jester looked around again, pulling out his revolver for any danger. "But we can never be too careful."

"I am sure that we didn't go in a circle, Swan," Raven answered, further examining into the room. "And this room does not look like the same one we found ourselves in-"

Before he could finish his words, the stage suddenly shined with light and showed an empty stage with a lone chessboard. For some reason, the stage background looked like a club room in high school.

But then, traditional music suddenly rang from somewhere, startling the trio.

"What the-" Scanning the room with caution and his revolver, Jester took a step back and kept his aim on the stage. "Okay, please don't tell me we're gonna fight that girl again..."

Thankfully, Jester's words didn't come to be a reality, and two people wearing school wear suddenly came out from backstage. And as if the trio wasn't there at all, they kneeled before the chess table and someone else started singing.

"This is the story between our beloved Empress Mitsuyo-sama, and our Emperor Mamoru-sama," The voice sang, and the music rang into a loud climax before briefly ending. And the two figures on the stage started talking.

"I got to say, I admire your determination to continue playing against me, Kagawa," One of the two people, who looked like a young man, said with a small smile, placing a piece. "But either you lose or not, I can see your skill improved a lot."

"After all, my goal is to defeat you on the battlefield, Togo-senpai," The other person, who was a young woman called 'Kagawa', replied with a smile of confidence as she put her piece down. "And I'm not going to stop until I reach that goal, not at all."

"Even after graduation? You know I'm going to college this upcoming spring, and we might not be able to... keep this going," The young man, now named as 'Togo', lowered his head and spoke solemnly. "And to be honest, I'm not sure whether I could pursue my dream of Shogi either..."

"What?! Why?"

"It's my parent, they have... a few words about my investment toward shogi in general..." Trailing off, Togo sighed before giving her a small smile. "Maybe it's because they have a traditional view of what my future should be, but I could never know."

"But then..." Trailing off, Kagawa lowered her head in sadness. "I..."

"I'm sorry, Kagawa..."

"Then I'll beat you before graduation!" She suddenly blurted out, before blushing like a red tomato. "I-I'm sorry, it just... escaped from my mouth..."

However, Togo just giggled in response. And the mood somewhat lightened for both of them. "Thank you, Kagawa. At least I still have you on my side, no matter what happened."

"Of course I am," Kagawa smiled widely.

With that said, the light on the stage turned off suddenly. And when the light turned back on, the girl and the boy were nowhere to be seen.

"Uh... What just happened?" Blinking in confusion, Swan's eyes just darted between the two boys.

"Well, that's definitely new," Jester commented, adjusting his tophat. "At least we don't need to fight that masked girl again. But... it looked like a piece of Togo Mitsuyo's memory."

"Judging from the voice and how it matches with her past, that is probably the case," Raven said, noticing a small square-like platform emerged from the ground. "Wait a second..."

On the platform was a Shogi piece, a pawn piece to be exact.

"A Shogi piece?" The Victorian-looking thief asked out loud, hesitant on whether to take the piece or not. "Wait, this won't be a trap, right?"

"Probably won't," Shrugging, Swan picked up the piece and closely examined it. After a few glances... it looked just like a normal Shogi piece, without the slightest bit of anything. "...Huh, it really is just a Shogi piece."

"It possibly has some other uses," Raven said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Consider that it is kept something like this... it's for the best that we keep it for now."

"Yeah, I agree."

Nodding, Swan kept the Shogi piece and the trio continued on their way. Weirdly enough, nothing really changed after they took the Shogi piece, there wasn't any noticeable change in the guard's behavior, or any change in the feeling in the air.

Without too much of any word, the trio continued on their infiltration. Thankfully, with the lack of change to the shadow's patrol route, the trio was able to explore the entire floor without too much danger or battle.

"Ahh, the first locked door," Jester jokingly said, resting his arms on his torso. "Took us quite a while, but here we are."

"...Is this supposed to be funny?" Swan deadpanned, shaking her head and examined the door. "Hmm... 'Only those who have insight to the past can proceed'... Any idea of what does it mean?"

Stroking his chin thoughtfully, Raven noticed a small hole beside the locked door. And it looked like... a shape of a Shogi piece. "Wait, only those who have insight to the past... Swan, can you give me the Shogi piece?"

"O-oh, here," Raising an eye in slight confusion, the thief in white handed the small Shogi piece.

Silently giving her a nod of thankfulness, the half-Frenchman inserted the Shogi piece into the hole next to the door. And the piece fitted perfectly into the hole, right before the door started moving and opened for them.

"Just as I thought," Raven said, subconsciously adjusted his mask.

And before them was a room with an elevator shaft, and a map inside a frame hanging on the wall aside with a small table underneath. For a pagoda, it was incredibly out of place.

Walking into the room, Jester instantly noticed the map and ripped the frame from the wall. "Nice, so here's the goddamn map," Feeling a small smirk crept on his face, he placed the framed map on the table.

And the other two walked to his side, reading the map alongside him. "Hmm... so there are only six floors till the treasure room, interesting," Raven commented, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"But from the look of it... the floor is larger than we thought as well," Swan offhandedly groaned, resting her hands on her waist. "Of course they're not going to give us an easy time to get through this palace, isn't it?"

"It wouldn't be a palace without some weird puzzle, after all," The leader chuckled to himself. "But at least we know where the treasure is, and... I guess there's light at the end of the tunnel."

"That's the weirdest metaphor I've ever heard in my entire life," The thief in white deadpanned, pressing the 'calling elevator' button. "But well, at least it has a clearer way than that castle."

"Yeah," Nodding, the trio stepped inside the elevator and continued to the next floor.

Which, was quite similar to the first floor they just been into. Like, maybe a bit too similar. The only thing different was that there was a shadow in golden armor, instead of the silver one they encountered.

And they kept the approach as before, avoiding as many battles as they could and only fought when necessary.

Sneaking past as many shadows and trying to be as Stealthy as they could, the trio were able to find the locked door of this floor. Or if their theory was correct, the door toward the next floor.

But they didn't just stop there.

Watching the body of the shadow captain dissolved into black goo like every other shadow they defeated, Swan only stretched her arms in the air. "That was... not that difficult," She said.

"Yeah, but we kinda have the element of surprise as an advantage," Jester said, noticing a scroll of film left behind on the ground. "...Uh... what is that?"

Picking it up from the ground, it looked just like any old-school film for movies. And on the side of it, the word 'treasured past' was written on it.

"Well, if it's a movie film, there's definitely a place to a thing to play it, right?" The thief in white suggested, tilting her head. "So... is there any more room we didn't explore?"

Scanning through the map with a narrowed gaze, Raven unconsciously adjusted his mask. "Yes, there is one, on the other side of this floor."

Nodding, Jester put the film a inside pocket of his trench coat. "Then let's see whether it's the room we need for this film then."

With that said, the trio sneaked over to the room indicated on the map.

Entering the said room, the trio was greeted by a lone projector and a few lines of films hung up on a small rail. And with the bookshelf filling up the walls here, it just felt a bit out of place compared to everything they had seen in this palace.

"A projector room?" Jester asked out loud, his eyes scanned through the entire room before landing on the films. "That's... kinda out of place, don't you think?"

"Yeah, really out of place," Swan nodded, looking through the books in the bookshelf. "Wait... 'Moviemaking 101'? Is that even related to Mitsuyo at all?"

"We are inside Mitsuyo's heart, Swan," Raven deadpanned for a moment, before crossing his arms and scanned the entire room. "But either way, I have not found anything concerning movies during my research on Mitsuyo though..."

"We'll probably found out why," The leader shrugged, taking a closer examination onto the films. "...Wait, it might be where that scroll is supposed to be used on..."

Trailing off, he took out the scroll of film from that shadow and inserted it onto the projector. Then he hit the 'play' button, and the projector started showing something on the white screen.

And for the first few seconds, it looked just like something similar to an amateur movie. And after a few moments of blurry images as if the person holding the camera was shaking it, it ended up focusing on a teenage boy with glasses. And he was sitting before a Shogi board.

However, the first thing that grabbed their attention was that...

He was wearing Shujin's school uniform. Even though there were some small differences, but it's definitely Shujin's uniform, the school emblem hadn't change at all.

"...Wait, that's Togo Mamoru," With his eyes widened, Jester leaned forward on the table, keeping his focus on the screen. "No way, he used to study in Shujin?"

"Kagawa, are you sure that you're going to film it?" The boy, who was identified as Togo Mamoru said, raising an eye in confusion.

"Yeah, I need to study our games, after all," A voice similar to Mitsuyo said, and with a layer of child-like excitement. "Besides, we can keep them as our memories, right? The graduation is tomorrow, after all."

With his eyes widened slightly, Mamoru stayed silent for a few moments before nodding. "...Yeah, I guess so."

"...Senpai, you're still worried about your parent's disapproval?"

"Well, I tried to talk about it with them," He replied, visually grimaced at the recollection of memories. "It didn't end well, we... we had a fight."

"That must be rough, Senpai," The voice behind the camera said with a hint of sadness and empathy. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Well, you're already helping with playing with me, it helps me relax," Mamoru smiled, adjusting his glasses. "And... Just keep your smile, I always like to see them on you."

"S-senpai... It's embarrassing..."

"It's true though," He chuckled, resting his hands on his knees. "Ever since the first time I met you, I always think that... you're just as beautiful, or even more than Oichi herself."

"Oichi... huh?" Kagawa said with a hint of playfulness, and from the noise, she seemed to adjust her posture. "Then... I guess you are my Nagamasa then."

In response, Mamoru just chuckled again, and a small smile stayed on his face. "Your Nagamasa... I think I'd gladly take that title."

And with that, the footage ended alongside the projector. And the trio was greeted by silence again.

"So... we're going to watch Mitsuyo's memories throughout the entire palace?" Swan asked, feeling a bit uneasy. "The stage play, and this video..."

"It seems like it," Jester nodded, taking off his mask and pinched his nose bridge. "Dammit, knowing how it all ended... It kinda hurts."

However, Raven didn't say a word during the entire time, just staring at his feet and tightened fists. "...It's going to be just like how mom and dad ended up as..." He murmured under his breath, clutching his eye shut as hard as possible. "Dammit, c'mon... keep yourself together, Keigo."

Noticing Raven's tight demeanor, Swan and Jester hastily moved over to his side in concern. "Hey Raven, you're alright?" The Victorian-looking thief asked, hesitating either to hold his shoulder or not.

"We can call it a day if you want to," Swan added. "We're a team, after all."

Shaking his head, Raven took a deep breath before facing them. "I... I'm fine, sorry about that," He shook his head again. "I... I just need a few moments, th-that's all."

However, before Jester could say anything, the screen suddenly retracted and the bookshelf behind turned over. And inside the hidden space was a small opened box, containing another Shogi piece.

Seeing a nod from Raven, signaling that he was alright, Jester walked over and picked up the piece. And from the look of it, it was a Lance piece.

"Okay, so here's the piece to proceed-" Interrupting himself, the leader suddenly freezer, his eyes widened in shock. "Shit, look out!"

Without another word, he rushed over and threw himself to the other two. But before he could reach them, the wall next to them exploded. Sending the trio through the room and slammed to the wall on the other side.

For a few seconds there, the world was only filled with smoke, ashes, and pieces of burning and burnt papers.

"Thieves," Looking through the giant hole on the wall, a shadow captain taunted as he reloaded his crossbow. "I'm surprised that you managed to survive the blast."

"Great, -ough ough- an unavoidable battle," Raven said between coughs, getting up and took out his light machine gun from the back.

"Jester... you're alright?" Using her whipsword to support herself, Swan took a few long breaths before straightening herself. "And... how did you-"

"That's not important... and we have to deal this captain first," Brushing some ashes off from his tophat, Jester summoned his scythe. "Moriarty!"

Without hesitation, Moriarty aimed his revolver and pulled the trigger. Shattering the shadow captain's mask in an instant. And just like before, the shadow twitched violently and dissolved, changing into a Shiki-Ouji.

"Weird, shattering the mask should kill them instantly..." Raising an eye in slight confusion, Swan hastily operated the bolt on her sniper rifle and fired.

However, the bullet only bounced off like it was nothing, and the shadow only raised its hand and fired a large shockwave. Sending the trio backward, broke through the wall and to the adjacent room.

"...So... no gun on him," Jester said between coughs, tightening his grip on his scythe and dashed toward the shadow. "How about this!"

As the distance between them was close enough, he leaped and swung his scythe toward the Shiki-Ouji. However, just like Swan's bullet, the shadow didn't flinch, even a single bit.

"Wha-" Before the leader could even finish his word, the shadow grabbed his neck and slammed him to the ground without hesitation. And the grip only tightened, starting to squeeze the breath out of him.

Thankfully, a flash of light hit the arms and made the shadow released its hold on Jester. And a barrage of ice shard right afterward. "Raven, keep its attention away from Jester," Swan said, rushing to Jester's side and cast a few dia.

Meanwhile, in order to keep the shadow's attention away, Raven kept his barrage on Atomic Shards as he dodged one shockwave after another. "So it is weak toward Nuclear..." Noticing how the shadow flinched more with his shards, he narrowed his eyes and double-downed on his barrage.

But before he could even react, the shadow suddenly sent out a barrage of psy energy, knocking him back a few meters. Luckily, a few shots of light hit the Shiki-Ouji and managed to knock it off balance, as Swan fired her grappling hook and kicked its torso.

"Moriarty, Eiha," Seeing how the curse energy did nothing, Jester cursed under his breath before raising his voice. "Swan, Raven! I'll keep drawing its attention, hit it with everything you got!"

"But-"

"All of my attacks are not effective on the shadow!" He interrupted Swan, tightening his grip on his hand cannon. "Drawing its attention is the only thing I can do now."

With that said, he quickly fired a few rounds onto the shadow, drawing his attention. "Now! Just give it everything you got!"

And the battle slowly turned into the thieve's favor, with the shadow kept being barraged by Raven's atomic shards and Swan's Kouhas. However, just as they seemed to able to defeat him, the shadow suddenly built up a massive amount of energy in his hand.

"...Shit!" Widening his eyes in shock, Jester hastily fired his grappling hook and pulled the other two toward the broken wall. Hoping that the explosion would send them to the outside instead of the wall.

But he couldn't think of anything else before the explosion hit.

Being sent to the outside hall, the trio was lucky enough to hit the floor and lessened the impact by rolling. However, watching how the Shiki-Ouji slowly walked out of the room, Jester tried to stand up again. But he wasn't strong enough to get up in time.

"You're weaker than I thought, thieves," The shadow captain said, raising his hand and prepared for another strike. "Now di-"

Strangely, he interrupted himself and started groaning in pain. Within seconds, a clawed hand impaled through the shadow's chest. And another voice slowly emerged from behind.

"Who gives you permission to kill them?" Retracting her hand from the shadow's chest, the masked girl from before watched as he fell to the ground. "Tell me, who?"

"H-Hime-sama... Why?"

She didn't answer, just kept her gaze on the dying shadow as he dissolved into nothing. The trio could only watch this strange turn of an event happening, trying to recover from the explosion.

And after a while, the masked girl turned toward the trio. Even though covered by the mask, they could feel a confused glace coming from her.

"Wow, you three are struggling against a captain?" She asked, and it felt like she was expected something more out from the thieves. "And I thought you were worthy to challenge me."

"Then... why the hell did you save us?" Jester asked between heavy breaths. "You have no reason to do that, we're the intruder here."

"But well, as I said, I thought you three were worthy enough to challenge me," Even though her face was covered with the mask, the trio could clearly felt a smirk crept up. "I am not going to let a worthless captain take my glory of defeating you three."

"Guessed that you would not genuinely help us," Raven commented.

Ignoring Raven's words, the girl continued. "Anyway, don't expect me to come in as the knight in shining armor. I will be waiting for our rematch... on the next floor."

With that said, she playfully waved them goodbye and disappeared with those black liquid. Just like how she disappeared the last time they met her. And with a brief moment away from the fights and shadow, the trio slumped down, filled with tiredness.

"...I guess now we cannot go on anymore," Raven said between heavy breaths, using his cane to help himself up. "And there are definitely not enough members for us. At this pace..."

"I know," The leader nodded. "But it wasn't like I can openly recruit someone as a part of the Phantom Thieves..."

"Can't we just stop rambling and call it a day?" Swan interrupted him, summoning Le Pucelle and cast a few dia for both of them. "And we can worry about the not enough members thing later on..."

"You're right... let's just call it a day..."

[Outside of Togo Household.]

"You have returned to the physical world, thank you for your hard work."

As the familiar robotic female voice rang out from Akira's phone, the trio all unconsciously gave out a long breath in unison. For them, today's infiltration process ended in the weirdest way possible.

"Okay, first thing first, we're taking a day off tomorrow," Akira leaned against the wall behind him. "I really need to restock out medical supply, can't rely on dia forever..."

"You should've done that days ago," Shiho deadpanned, giving out a long breath. "But to be honest, I don't think having enough supply, in general, would help that much..."

"Maybe... I might ask for help from Ren's group..." Trailing off, the amateur writer was about to say something when her stomach suddenly growled.

Widening her eyes in surprise, the volleyball player couldn't help but blush. "...Ahh, sorry 'bout that."

"To be honest, I'm a bit hungry as well," He awkwardly chuckled. "Well, maybe we can have something in the family diner?"

"Yeah, I would like to."

"Okay, so Kamisaki, you also..." Turning his focus on Keigo, Akira felt his word died in his mouth.

Keigo, for some reason, said nothing since their return. At first glance, it might just because of their tiredness from the battles, and increased stamina usage in the Metaverse.

But... he didn't look like it.

"Kamisaki? You're alright?"

As if he just snapped back to reality, Keigo looked away from the household and hastily shook his head. "I-I am fine, there is no need to worry about me."

"But you don't look like it," Shiho crossed her arms, with a look of concern all over her face. "I guess those memories we saw hit you hard?"

"...You can say that," The half-Frenchman nodded, adjusting his glasses. "Just give me a few moments, that's all I need."

Not know what exactly he could do to help, Akira just gave out a long breath. "...Well, we can wait-"

"No, you two can go first," Keigo interrupted, shaking his head. "You two don't need to wait for me, I... just go."

Opening his mouth for a second before closing it again, the amateur writer eventually nodded. "...Uh... Well, we'll see you at school then."

With that said, Akira and Shiho left the scene with a bit of hesitance. And Keigo was all alone again, just him and his own thought. Once their back left his view, he felt his back slumped against the wall behind, giving out a long breath.

"...I thought coming here is a blank slate to start over..." He murmured. "Dammit, why did I have to have those flashbacks?"

"But... at least we are helping someone who suffered the same thing..."

Trailing off, the half-Frenchman looked over to aside, where the church was a few dozen meters away from here. "Maybe I should talk with her?"

"But that would be a bit weird... just showing up because of those rumors online," Shaking his head, his mind came to the second solution he could think of. "...Or I just tell her that I knew that from Mitsuyo's palace. It... technically isn't a lie, and..."

"No, at least Togo still has her mother to be there... I can't let that happen again," Straightening himself, Keigo adjusted his glasses. "Maybe I should have a talk with her."

Taking a deep breath, he walked toward the church, where Hifumi was.

(To be continued)

Preview:

As The Fools took a small break, their daily life continued on.

As Shiho revealed the truth of her present to Ann.

As Akira had a heart-to-heart with Kasumi.

As Keigo made a promise to Haru.

As their relationships grew.

Next Chapter:

"Taking a Small Break"

Stay Tuned!

So uh... it's been almost 2 months since the last chapter, but finally, chapter 23 is here!

So, for what happened for the last two months, I was actually dealing with my public exam for college. And I couldn't really get too much in writing in general. But don't worry, I finished the exam a bit more than a week ago, so I'm finally back!

Anyway, for this chapter, we get more insight into Mitsuyo's past with Mamoru, and Keigo somewhat got a Vietnam flashback from it. And thus leading to the final scene in the last chapter.

Also, about Mitsuyo's old surname 'Kagawa', it's a reference to Kagawa Manao, the first female Shogi player who got the title of "Women's Ōshō" from 2013 to 2014.

Which in a way, is the same as Hifumi. So basically, it's a small reference to basically the real-life version of Hifumi XD.

Anyway, I hope you all like the story so far, reviews are definitely welcome!