Now that the Phantom Thieves were part of the Rebel Club, their mission was clear. Gather the four keys to the locked door, and defeat the tyrant. Business as usual. "All right, let's head out." Erina said.
"I can never get into the right mood for this stuff in my normal outfit." Ryuji slumped over. "Hopefully I can get into it when combat comes."
"The courtyard is on the other end of this floor! There's no time to waste!" The brave rebel exclaimed.
"Ready, set, go! Best of luck in battle!" The female rebel pumped her fist into the air.
"Man. I can't tell if they're just gung-ho or just bossy." Ann mumbled.
"These guys are so bossy." Mika huffed and crossed her arms. Being bossed around by these little hat people was a little annoying. She much preferred the Rebel Corp or the civilians from the Feudal Kingdom.
"We'll continue our preparations here to battle against that awful tyrant!" The current rebel leader told them.
"I wonder just what they're planning..." Hifumi mused. But it was unlikely that they were going to tell them just yet.
"Let's do what we can for now." Ren told the others. So they were going to move out and exit Leblanc for now, stepping back into the eeriness of the school once again. The only had a few directions to go off of, so they were effectively on their own for the time being.
After some walking, Haru had a question to ask. "I wonder which part of the building we are now..."
"We haven't gone through any stairs, so assuming this building functions like a building, this should still be the first floor." Zenkichi said.
"Hey, isn't this place kind of a vibe?" Futaba asked. Before anyone could say anything, she continued. "Not Shadows or Legionnaires, but you know...horror vibes?"
Makoto instinctively flinched and tensed up. She was never good when it came to creepy atmospheres! "Y-You don't mean...!?"
"Oh, give me a break..." Mika shook her head. She didn't like creepy atmospheres either, but nothing was going to be the absolutely dreadful, horrible vibes of Okinawa Jail.
Noticing that Toshiro was silent, Ichinose turned his way. "Oh, did she scare you, too?"
"What? Oh, no. I don't believe in ghost, so she's not fazing me." Toshiro said. Ichinose just quirked a brow in response, causing him to sweat. "H-Hey! I mean it! I'm just a bit preoccupied at the moment. My mind keeps coming back to one thing. Don't the beings here seem more riled up than the ones in the last two Kingdoms? Could there be a reason behind it?"
"That's putting it mildly." Akechi scoffed.
"It's much like our recent power increase, I'd wager." Morgana stated. "With Toshiro deciding to fight back, it likely did more than just effect our strength as well."
"So the little rebels here are more excitable because of that..." It made sense to Sumire.
"HE's gone from the Runaway Old-Timer to the Sorta-Defiant Old-Timer!" Futaba snickered. "Gramps still has you beat out, though."
"Had to slip that one in there, didn't ya?" Zenkichi said with a small sigh.
"Well, being around you criminals was bound to harden me up." Toshiro shot back with a roll of his eyes. This was directed at the young adults and not the literal police officer standing nearby.
"I know we just talked about it, but you really did have the spine of black tofu, didn't you?" Erina snickered. She couldn't resist taking that shot.
"You still need to grow up a bit yourself, Erina." Toshiro shook his head. "Aren't you roughly the same age as them? You need to learn to respect your elders, or life is going to be..."
Erina rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know..."
"W-!? You! I'm not putting up with this anymore!" Toshiro shouted. As they argued, it happened once more. For a brief moment, Erina turned into a completely different person. The gray hair flashed brown, and her outfit briefly flickered to that of a school one. Toshiro thought his mind was just playing tricks on him again, causing him to groan slightly.
"Some things aren't going to change." Ren said with a small sigh.
"...He brings up a good point, though." Hifumi stroked her chin. It didn't occur to her until Toshiro pointed out, but Erina DID appear to be about the same age as them. Knowing that she was a cognitive being, and based on their current circumstances, Hifumi started to wonder. "Everyone we've met from Toshiro's cognition has been as he knows them in terms of age, as they are now. If Erina is about our age...could she...be from this school...?" It felt like a leap in logic and she knew it. She glanced towards Ichinose, Zenkichi, Makoto, and Akechi, who appeared to have a similar pensive expression to her.
"...No point wondering about it right now." Zenkichi said aloud. Whatever questions they had would likely be answered by Toshiro's memory.
The group continued walking to the courtyard. They walked through a door and arrived. "Is this is it?" Sophia asked. She'd never seen a school courtyard herself before, so she was taking this opportunity to observe as much as she could.
Toshiro's expression shifted to one of shock. "This is..."
"A rather pleasant courtyard." Yusuke was pleased with the aesthetics of the courtyard. "One could easily find a place to sit back, relax, and enjoy a bento."
"I haven't seen you enjoy a bento at school in a while." Hifumi commented quietly.
"Dreaming about food even now, Inari?" Futaba rolled her eyes. "I'd love to do that too, but we have that to take care of." Futaba gestured to the door sitting in the middle of the courtyard. It was a freaky one, just like the previous one they encountered.
"I guess we found it." Sumire stared at the door. She really did not like the vibes that it gave her.
"I'm sure some other fresh hell awaits us on the other side." Futaba wasn't exactly looking forward to it either.
"But the Rebels told us that that's where the key is, right?" Erina asked.
"No doubt we got enemies to deal with on the other side." Zenkichi stared at the door with a narrowed gaze.
"Alright, guys. Let's do this quickly." Ren said. The door slowly began to open, beckoning the Phantom Thieves inside.
"That's not creepy at all." Mika groaned softly.
"Whatever's behind that door, I'll take care of it quickly." Makoto said with determination.
"..." As the door opened, Toshiro stared into it blankly.
"Uh, hello?" Morgana called out to Toshiro. "Earth to Toshiro? You there?"
"Huh?" Toshiro snapped out of it and shook his head. "Oh, it's nothing." He responded, although Hifumi just stared at him in the background. "I could swear...where have I seen this place...?"
"Okay, folks! On the count of three, like last time!" Morgana told everyone. "One...two...three!"
.
.
The group stepped through the door, and they were instantly in uniform. The atmosphere was just as hot and heavy as before, which made for a very unpleasant experience. "Ugh, still unbearably hot and sweltering." Dragon attempted to fan herself to cool down, but it really wasn't doing any favors.
"The sooner we wrap this up, the sooner we can get outta here!" Skull was eager to get this over and done with.
"As expected, the place is crawling with Legionnaires!" Oracle reported. "I'm picking up another ninja type enemy as well, but something is different about it. It's above us on that incline!"
"I'll take care of it!" Violet offered. She spotted a few rocks that she could use for footing. She flipped onto them, one by one, and propelled herself into the air. Once airborne, she spotted the enemy in question and summoned Ella. "Take this!" Several beams of light collided against the ninja, and Violet landed on the ground...actually, that wasn't quite right.
In Violet's place was the ninja, and the opposite was true. Fox didn't seem fazed by this initially. "Oh. It appears she turned into some kind of monster after the attack."
"I'm just up here!" Violet shouted, quickly ducking behind some of the nearby rocks to avoid being shot at by some basic Legionnaires. The Ninja, in turn, moved to attack the others since it was so close, but its attempts to do so were completely stopped by Queen punching it in the face, sending it flying back.
"An enemy that switches places with whoever attacks it..." Joker furrowed his brows.
"A tactical inconvenience." Dragon stated, leaping to the side to get behind some cover. She used Bella to strike her enemies from afar. "We can use it to our advantage, but it would be bad if it left a teammate of ours was positioned poorly."
"As long as we're careful about it, it shouldn't be a problem!" Sophie said with a smile, keeping the optimism high. She summoned Pandora, who flew forward to rain light down on the Legionnaires. "Oh, I do feel a lot stronger...!" She could feel the boost in power that Wolf and Crow mentioned.
Wolf pointed his guns forward, beating the Legionnaires to the draw as his bullet struck them first. "Not too shabby."
"These Legionnaires don't stand a chance now that we're getting back into the swing o' things!" Skull grinned while racing ahead. There were some of those umbrella wielding Legionnaires from Yoshiki's Kingdom. They pointed their umbrellas forward and began to open fire on him, much to his surprise. "Oh shit!"
"Skull!" Dragon leapt ahead, summoning Bella to protect him with Aegis. "Remember how they work?"
"Yeah!" Skull nodded. With Dragon covering him, he was quickly able to slip behind them, his mask burning right off of him. "Let's go!"
"SCHOOL RULE! SKILLS ARE PROBHIBITED!"
The speakers blared at the worst time. Skull used William to blast the Shielders from behind, causing them to tense and seize up from the powerful bolt of lightning. "FOR REAL!?" Skull groaned. Because he broke the rules, a rock landed on his head. He recoiled, holding his head in agony. It was a sharp pain. "Ow...!"
Erina was not doing any better. Because she planned to follow up right after Skull. Her spear enlarged and she tossed it down to finish off the Shielders . That said, right after she landed on the ground, a rock landed on her head, much to her annoyance. "Agh! I'm starting to hate that...!"
"That's school for you. Everyone hates the announcements." Noir said with a smile. But she decided to do something about it, sprinting along as best she could. A large Slammer aimed a punch at her, but she twisted her body and slammed her axe into its chest to knock it backwards. It went to counter by leaping at her, but it was intercepted by Crow, who stabbed it with his sword to drive it into the ground.
"I don't think so." Crow said with venom. With that Slammer taken care of, he turned and focused his attention to another group of enemies. Hereward appeared, and let loose numerous arrows of curse magic onto them. He wasn't deterred by the warning, watching as the explosions of darkness shook the hellish landscape. A rock landed on his head, but he ignored the pain.
Right at that moment, Noir used her axe to cleave through the speaker. It blared once last time, which was grating to her ears, but she ignored that. "Ow. I dislike these things a lot." A ninja attempted to strike her from before, but Panther's whip cracked in front of it, causing numerous blazing pillars to appear around it.
"Take this!" Panther used Celestine to large a potent Agidyne at it. The fireball exploded against the Ninja, and the radius caught a number of Legionnaires in its wake as well. Joker, Fox, Viper, and Mona quickly sped through the battlefield, using their sharp, bladed weapons to slash through the remainder of the enemies. With their power rising back to near normal levels, they were finding these encounters much easier than they were in the past.
"That was easy." Viper flipped her hair.
"Look at you all, barely breaking a sweat compared to before!" Ichinose was smiling. This was a good thing for them. She knew how strong the Phantom Thieves were, so the enemies they were facing really did appear as light work for them.
"At this rate, future encounters may be just as trivial." Toshiro said. The enemies were probably getting stronger in retaliation to his own will to fight, but the Phantom Thieves were just naturally strong.
"So where is this key?" Skull asked while looking around. "Did they drop it somewhere?"
"I don't see anything of the sort so far." Fox glanced around as well.
"Maybe we shouldn't take the term 'key' so literally." Joker said, arms crossed. "Maybe we're just looking for something that stands out?"
"I've got a reading!" Oracle pointed over to the corner of the room. There was a shining object. The group approached it, only to be surprised that it was...a band aid.
"Um. This is what what shining?" Noir tilted her head. "These aren't keys though..."
"It's a band aid..." Panther spoke with a sweat drop.
Toshiro gasped, pushing his way forward. "Really? Sorry, but could I see those for a moment?"
"What, did you get hurt or something?" Viper scoffed. Toshiro ignored Viper's works and grabbed the bandages. They began to shine brightly, causing everyone to cover their eyes. "Uh!?"
.
.
[Flashback.]
Toshiro, younger and in highschool, stood in the Student Council Room. There were a few marks on his face, but he wasn't thinking about that. Instead, his attention went to the door. There was a knock on it, which surprised him. "Who could that be, this late into the evening? Come in."
A girl stepped inside, wearing a bright smile. Her hair was short and brown, which matched her eyes. The thing about this girl, is that she bore a very striking resemblance to a silver haired woman he'd meet in the future. "Hey, I heard I'd find you here!" But when she took a look at him, she tilted her head. "Huh? You look fine, more or less..."
"Hmmm?" Toshiro responded in confusion. "I'm sorry, but I don't believe we've met. Perhaps you're mistaken me for someone else."
"Nope, you're definitely who I've been looking for." The spirited student replied with a wide smile. "Toshiro Kasukabe, Mr. Class President!"
"Well, I suppose you're not mistaken, then." Toshiro replied. "Well, is there something I can do for you?"
Geez, so stiff. The girl waved her hand at the formal air in the room. "You don't have to be so formal with me. It's not like I hafta have a reason to be here - this is the student council room, and I am a student."
What a very unhelpful response. Toshiro glanced away, mildly irritated by such a non answer. "You have an upperclassmen uniform, but I haven't' seen you here before. Are you a new transfer?"
"All business, aren't you?" The girl let out a small smile. "You got me, though. I already knew this school was fancy, but they push the decorum here pretty hard, don't they? I'll pick it up eventually, and if not - no biggie." The way she disregarded it made Toshiro's brows furrow. "I got curious about you, so I started asking around. Pretty impressive rep you've got there. A ton of talent, a connected family, stellar grades, your whole future set up. You even got elected student council president as a first year! Nobody'd done that here before you!"
Toshiro just stood there, awkwardly. "Why are you describing me to myself? Is this some kind of awkward ribbing?" He knew all of this already. "If you don't have any council business, please see yourself out. I'm quite busy here."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you!" The girl replied. "I'm just interested in you, I swear! I mean, getting beat up by a whole gang of delinquents? They don't even do that in manga anymore."
Toshiro's expression faltered a bit. He glanced away, embarrassed. "Y...You saw that...?" His mind flashed back to that moment; he was on the ground, his glasses fallen off his face. It was not his finest hour.
"I even though for a second that I'd find you here all covered in bandages!" The girl said.
"What a bizarre way of thinking..." Toshiro trailed off.
"Still, you jumped into that mess al by yourself to help that other student getting mugged, didn't you?" The girl asked. "You're not just a president - you're a student council Superhero! You know, I actually like the sound of it!"
Toshiro let out a weighted sigh. This girl was giving him far too much credit for his actions. "I merely happened upon the scene - once I knew what was going on, I had no choice but to get involved. I also only became student council president because it would look good on my college application. Besides, my father told me I need experience as a public figure to ensure I can take up the family's work...But never mind all that, I'm digressing." He waved a hand. "What I mean to say is, I've learned a valuable lesson about poking my nose in other people's business."
"Huh." The girl didn't seem so convinced. "Still, you ended up saving the kid, right?"
"Well, those miscreants seemed too tired to go back to bullying him after they had their fill of assaulting me..." Toshiro shook his head. "Don't you have somewhere to be? It's far too late for students to be..."
"Oh!' The girl snapped her fingers. "I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Eri Natsuhara. Kasukabe-kun, I've got a hunch about you! This is where you usually hang out after school, right? I'll drop by and bug you later."
Wait, what!? "Huh!?" Toshiro's eyes widened.
"See ya!" Eri walked out of the room. And then immediately turned around and walked back in. "Oh, right! I forgot to give you these." She tossed something into Toshiro's hands. "Okay, see ya!" And with that, she finally left.
"W-What the..." Toshiro looked down at his hands, only to see... "Some bandages? What is with that girl...?" Something told him he was in for a ride...a very annoying one.
[End Flashback]
.
.
The memory faded, and everyone's eyes opened. "Huh? Was that...!?" Panther snapped back to attention.
"I think we all just saw the same thing." Mona was shaking his head. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around it."
"That was so full of twists, I don't even know where to start..." Oracle slumped over.
"That was...Toshiro in the uniform, yeah? The student council president?" Skull asked.
"Ah, but he looked so young!" Ichinose remarked with a snicker.
"He had some fire in him, didn't he? More than he does now, at least." Panther teased. Toshiro's expression shifted ever so slightly at her remark.
"But it looks like he's never been much of a fighter, huh?" Skull added.
"Indeed. It's safe to say he's grown to become one of those types to prefer nagging over physical confrontation." Fox nodded slowly.
"Couldn't you have called it 'dialoguing' at least!?" Toshiro exclaimed.
"Nobody says that." Viper rolled her eyes.
"More importantly!" Toshiro shook these remarks off. "There's something more important to discuss now."
"..." Erina was silent. After what she just saw, and what she learned about Cognitive beings...
"I'm sure we have a lot of questions and answers now." Dragon glanced at Erina. "But perhaps they can wait until we are out of here."
"I agree." Queen said. "Now that we have the key, we are one step closer to unlocking that door the Rebels mentioned."
"Let's get out of here." Wolf said, making his way to the door.
"..." Erina could feel everyone's gaze on her. They weren't saying anything about it yet, but...
The Phantom Thieves walked out of the door and returned outside. A few moments after they did, a shadowy figure appeared on one of the higher perches of the room. On their shoulder was a silver, familiar bird... "So, those are the Phantom Thieves."
"That's right. Those are the brats that dare defy my Lord's will." The bird...it was Jerri. But she wasn't pink like before. "They are doing the exact same thing they did to me! Digging in places they don't belong and dredging up old memories!"
"In this case, it's fine." The figure said. He glanced at Jerri, then the door. "In this case...we want him to remember. We want him to remember everything, so we can take it all away and crush it at the last moment. He may have escaped Marie and Yoshiki's clutches...but he won't get lucky a third time." The figure spoke with an imposing, malicious smile. "So go ahead, Toshiro. Remember everything about Eri Natsuhara...remember how your actions led to her demise."
.
.
Once outside the door and in the safety of the courtyard, they could finally take a moment to go over what they talked about. "So, about what we saw together. That wasn't just a figment of our imaginations." Toshiro confirmed.
"So that was your memory. Makes sense." Zenkichi crossed his arms. "None of that would make sense otherwise."
"Yes, I'm sure it was." Toshiro's expression was a little tense. "Although, I'd forgotten the event entirely until now. The girl who showed up was Eri Natsuhara - she was my senpai in the student council. But, out of all my life, why that memory?"
"We are in a school." Sumire pointed out. "We have to assume that this is the school you went to, right?" It only made sense. It didn't take a genius to put that together.
"That makes the most sense." Morgana nodded.
"This place does resemble a school in some ways. If you added a bunch of weird stuff to it." Ann commented. "Although, maybe this is just me being bitter because we just got out of school for winter break..."
"I think we shouldn't ignore the elephant in the room for much longer." That was Akechi's comment.
"What he means to ask is...do you remember anything else, Toshiro?" Haru asked.
"Hmm, well..." Toshiro placed his hand on his head. "That was when I first met Natsuhara-senpai. She joined the council shortly after, and..."
"She had you totally whipped?" Futaba teased.
"That's an awful way to put it, but unfortunately not far from the truth, either." Toshiro couldn't deny that. Ichinose was laughing in the background because of it, causing him to sweat. "Regardless, she was also the kind of person who couldn't stand mistreatment or injustice. Whenever she caught wind of problems with the school or students in trouble, she'd run to me with a report. Every time, she would try to convince me with a 'Toshiro, let's fight the good fight.".
"Oooh..." Sophia was about to say something, but Sumire shook her head. They needed to wait until he was finished, first.
"You guys are a perfect pair of goody two shoes." Mika said, although she was also jabbed in the side, lightly, by Sumire of all people. "Ow...!"
Toshiro continued. "I initially agreed to help so I could keep tabs on her - she was such a reckless student council member. Before I knew it, she had us running all over the school together. We tackled all kinds of issues at that school. Bullying, unfair school rules...Heck, by the end, we were even giving career and relationship advice. At some point, the student council room became more of a counseling room. The students were always grateful for our help. I found that especially gratifying, since I was fed up with my father's expectations for me. Looking back at the time, I think we did a lot of good together...and then..." He paused. "That's all I'm able to remember. But why!? It's almost like something's fogging my memory."
"Please don't push yourself." Hifumi said. "There are three other keys remaining. As such, it stands to reason that the other keys may hold more of your memory."
"True - and there are still a few more things I want to get to the bottom of." Toshiro glanced at Erina. Everyone did.
"I suppose there's too much of a resemblance to mark it off as coincidence." Makoto said with a nervous smile.
"They even act the same together." Ichinose tilted her head.
"Ehehe...think so?" Erina said with a nervous laugh. "I-I mean, we may look similar, but I don't boss you around that much, do I?"
Toshiro wore a deadpan expression. "What are you expecting me to say here?"
"It's more like he's in the palm of your hand, and you're crushing him." Futaba wore a mischievous smile.
"Yeah, as flat as a pancake!" Ann added.
"Wha...is that really how you see me!?" Toshiro gasped. Nobody said anything. The silence was loud.
"So, I guess we've figured out who she's based off of, right?" Ryuji asked.
"...Not quite." Makoto replied while shaking her head.
"Whaddya mean?" Ryuji blinked.
"There are still some things that are off about Erina, compared to Eri..." Makoto looked over Erina. Appearance wise, they were about the same. But something about Erina's presence felt...different. She wasn't sure what it was.
"I'm sure we'll figure things out as we go along." Ren said. They knew Erina was a cognitive being of some kind, but it was strange... "I have a few questions myself, but I don't think we'll get answers here."
"But hey!" Ryuji spoke up. "No matter what you are, you'll always be you - just like Mona'll always be a cat, yeah?"
"Yeah!" Sophia added. "Your existence makes you unique, Erina. That's important!"
Morgana didn't even have a chance to interject, as everyone was doing their best to cheer Erina up. Haha, thanks guys. Well, no use thinking about it now - we've still got work to do!"
"Hm..." Hifumi was thinking hard. "Given what we know, Erina, er, Eri would be the perfect Rebel leader for this Kingdom. But in that case..."
Why was Erina in Marie's Kingdom. What was Erina exactly...?
They could only gather the answers to these questions by delving deeper into this school...
