Chapter 66: Ascending While Descending

Ω • Ω • Ω

•Akira•

Unfortunately, the staircase didn't reach the top of the pyramid as it had when they'd first entered. Instead, another door was in their way. On one side of the hall was a Safe Room, and on the other, a door deeper into the Pyramid.

Mona said something about sensing more Shadows ahead, and that was certainly important, but his attention was caught by Futaba's Shadow standing further down the corridor. "So you've come. Follow me." She turned and walked away, and he glanced back at his fellow thieves to see they were just as confused as him.

"Everyone stay on your guard." He stalked forward, following after her as his eyes glowed lightly. His Third Eye highlighted the ground ahead as bright white, and he paused. He shot his arm out to grab Skull just in time as the faux-blond nearly stepped onto the glowing floor, the stone collapsing and revealing dozens of sharp spikes waiting to impale anyone who fell onto them. "HOLY EFF!"

Panther looked over the edge, eyes wide. "Talk about a close call… We almost found out what life's like for a pincushion."

"How're we supposed to get to the other side with the floor like this?"

"Up there!" Mona pointed at a hook hanging from the roof of the stone hall. "I'd bet our grappling hooks can catch that just fine. Joker, want to give it a shot?"

"You just want to see if there's anything else that'll try and kill us," he replied with a roll of his eyes. Regardless, he launched his grappling hook and let it pull him up and across the gap. There must have been some kind of invisible trigger, as arrows shot from the walls in an attempt to impale him.

He twisted midair, slipping between them and rolling when he hit the floor. Looking back, he waved his thieves across. "He makes this shit look way too easy," Skull grumbled.

His friends followed, making sure to swing through the small gap between the arrows that he'd revealed. They then turned down the path Shadow Futaba had taken and were nearly immediately stopped by spears jutting up from the ground in an attempt to impale them. "It's simply trap after trap," Fox muttered.

Since the spears reached the ceiling, they wouldn't be able to go over them. Sighing at yet another roadblock, he waved everyone along as they snuck down the unobstructed path.

The corridor led to another fork, but one way resulted in the floor crumbling into an endless dark pit, so they took the other road. It ended up being a simple one-minute detour that led straight to where the hall with the pit would have led. Because of course it was.

Joker furrowed his brow behind his mask. Everything in this Palace was made to annoy and slow him down.

A sarcophagus suddenly burst open, a mummy guard Shadow lunging toward him. "Shit!" He tumbled as Kasumi had taught him, flipping back and avoiding the attack, before bouncing forward and grabbing its mask, stabbing his knife under it and wrenching it off. "I'll reveal your true form!"

Everyone slid into formation as the guard dissolved into ooze, then reformed as a tall woman, wearing a golden headdress with a bird's head on the front, a white gown, and whose arms were covered in bright feathers. As she stumbled back in surprise, Mona struck with his blade, gouging into her deeply.

Black blood spurted out before Panther snapped her whip out and wrapped it around the Shadow's neck, pulling her closer and throwing her off balance. He took the opportunity, stabbing with his dagger through the feathered Shadow's stomach, spinning and slashing across its neck, then ducking to the side so that Skull could smash it on the head while letting out a roar.

It fell to its knees, dazed, and Skull yelled as he raised his hammer again. "they're down!"

"All-Out Attack!"

"All right! Time for some pain!" Everyone's bodies felt their instincts guide them as they struck, slashed, and shot, finishing off the Shadow in a shower of blood and killing it. "Slam!"

"A spectacular victory!" Mona cheered.

"That one didn't even have the chance to attack!" Panther giggled.

Moving onward through a door and jumping across more sandpits, Joker found another Anubis statue holding a gem, but this one had a slab with words printed on it.

"Another gem, let's go!"

"Hold on, Skull! We should probably read what it says!" Panther leaned over. "'Any who attempts to steal this gem shall be cursed.' Uh…"

"Should… we take it?" Fox asked.

"Dude, we can't let this 'curse' shit get to us, right? 'Sides, Joker's got some curse-resistant Personas. C'mon, let's just take it."

"Hm…" Glancing at a door they hadn't gone through yet, he nodded. "Alright, we'll grab it, and deal with whatever the curse is. Get ready in case it's another onslaught of hieroglyphics." Queen, well, everyone besides Skull looked concerned as he took the orb, causing the Palace to rumble for a moment before stopping. "…" He eyed the room, but nothing jumped out to attack them.

"...Let's go," Queen spoke, also keeping watch warily. They passed through the door they hadn't yet entered, and halfway down the hall arrows nearly skewered them.

"Shit!" Miraculously, no one was hurt. Though Skull was cursing up a storm. "Come on, man!"

"Should we go back? Maybe the path Futaba went down doesn't have the spears anymore?"

Joker crossed his arms. "…Skull, take the orb and put it back on the statue. Let's see if it turns off the trap in this corridor."

"Gotcha." Skull walked away, and he crossed his arms as he waited. Several moments later the pyramid rumbled and he felt the aura of the hall change. Activating his Third Eye, he didn't see any danger anymore.

"So the 'curse' was these arrow traps activating…"

"I… suppose that does count as a curse," Fox shrugged. After continuing forward they found a slab with a button on it overlooking the path that Shadow Futaba had gone down. When he pressed it, there was no rumble… But the aura of the hallway changed. "In any case, the ambiance seems to have changed. Do you think that disabled the spikes?"

"It did," he confirmed, seeing no glow through his Third Eye. Once more, he was glad that the PSI drain from the ability was negligible. He was getting a headache from constantly staring at the darkened version of the world… Or it was just the sick feeling he had since waking up getting worse.

"Do you think there's something over in the direction Futaba's Shadow ran off in?"

"I'd hope so," Queen answered Mona. "That's the only way to go."

"Well, then let's head over there!"

They collected Skull on the return and after carefully passing over where the spears once shot out of, entered a small room with a large central pillar, and at the top was another mirror. Two Guard Shadows slowly patrolled the room, circling the center, one of them a dog, and the other a Savage Enemy.

"Slip past them both," he whispered. "If we fight one, the room isn't big enough for the fight to escape the notice of the other." Slipping around the edge of the room, they waited for the perfect opportunity where neither Shadow was looking and moved through a doorway. Following the winding hall beyond that, they found a room half submerged in sand, with another dog Guard Shadow.

He nodded at his teammates, before leaping onto its back and ripping off its mask. "Show me your true form!"

Ω • Ω • Ω

•Ann•

Panther could tell. Something was wrong with Joker.

She could see it in his eyes, whenever she got a good look at them. It wasn't that… distant, far-away look he had whenever he talked with his Personas. His eyes were… cloudy. Like he was sick, or he wasn't thinking straight.

She was getting worried. Sure, she and probably everyone else were feeling the heat from such a short deadline, but Joker was especially freaked out. They hadn't gotten too far into the Pyramid, but he was already looking slightly worn out, almost being hit by attacks that normally wouldn't have come close.

It wasn't like she was always watching him! It was just that after fighting together so long, she had a general idea of how he fought. He was flashy, and dramatic, and put extra flair into his moves. Now he was putting the minimum in, like he was saving his energy. Which, yeah, he had already said everyone should save their strength, but he was going way too far in the opposite direction.

In any case, she was concerned about him. And he kept saying that he was fine…

They continued exploring, Joker and Queen solving several puzzles that had her and Skull stumped before eventually a ballista shattered a wall blocking a stream of light reflected by a mirror, letting the stream, and them, continue deeper in.

Mona sniffed out a Will Seed nearby, and through an ivy-covered door barred by yellow caution tape they grabbed the first Will Seed. The murmurs that echoed around them forced a shiver up her spine, and she was thankful when Joker hurried everyone along.

At the end of the stream of light was a small room. On one side a blank… mural? And in the center another mirror.

"What's this thing? It looks like some kinda TV screen…"

"There must be some trick to it," Fox spoke back to Skull. "Why don't we look around?"

She and Queen looked at the mirror and noticed a panel on one side. "Hey, check it out." She leaned over and tilted her head. "Wonder what this is?"

"It looks like some sort of control panel," Queen replied, one hand on her hip, and the other on her chin. "Joker, should we try doing something with it?"

"Might as well." Joker examined the panel, and there was a flicker like a tv screen as the mural turned on, revealing… She wasn't really sure what it was showing, with how scrambled it was. From what she could see, it looked like a picture of Shadow Futaba, and some men with owl heads wearing suits.

"Is this… some kind of picture?" She asked.

"Odd. The design seems to be scrambled somehow."

"Oh, maybe it's kinda like a puzzle?" She turned to Joker and smiled. "I bet you can solve it, right?" Instead of smiling like he usually would, he quickly got to work, manipulating the control panel and causing the pieces of the picture to begin swapping places.

Once it was completed, it showed a picture of Shadow Futaba sitting on a throne holding a staff, the owl-headed men standing in front of her and holding a piece of paper with a weird bird sitting behind her and the weird egyptian text all over the picture. "Aw yeah, there we go!"

She tilted her head, inspecting it. "But… What's it a picture of?"

Fox stepped closer, gesturing to the owl-man holding the paper. "This adult seems to be reading something to a crying child? Hm, the emotions of the artist are oft depicted in the art they produce… I can sense serious pain harbored in her heart."

"Not exactly a surprise, considering everything we've learned about her so far," Joker muttered.

"'I should never have had Futaba.'"

The voice of an adult man threw her off guard, and Queen looked at the picture with wide eyes. "Is that voice coming from the mural?"

"'She was always such a bother.' It seems you caused your mother a great deal of trouble, Futaba-chan. She must have had some kind of maternity neurosis." Panther narrowed her eyes at the mural. She could be wrong, but that voice sounded condescending, even a little sarcastic. There was a rumble, and the mirror behind them spun, shining light on the picture. It, and the wall behind it, vanished, letting the stream of light continue to flow forward and hit the next door on the grand staircase, unlocking it.

"What was that?"

"Based on its contents, it almost sounded like a suicide note," Queen hesitantly replied.

"Could that be what Futaba remembers of her mother's suicide?"

"But that's the shittiest thing to do to a kid if that's really how it all went down!" Skull kept grumbling angrily as they climbed the stairs, but she had to agree with him. What kind of sadist just reads out a mother's suicide note to her child?!

At the next locked door, they found another Safe Room on one side of the staircase and a hall on the other. "Let's take a moment to rest," Queen spoke up. "I haven't been put on the front line yet today. Mona, Skull, do either of you need to switch out?"

"Uh, guess I could use a break," Skull shrugged, rolling a shoulder as they entered the Safe Room. "Gettin' low on energy."

"If you're swapping in, do we need to rest?"

She frowned at Joker's anxious-sounding question. He hid it well, but she could tell there was a hint of worry in his voice. "I'm feeling a bit tired too. A rest would be nice."

His face soured, but he nodded.

"Besides, Joker, you're the one that's always doing the heavy lifting, you know. Your ability to use multiple Personas means you're using more energy than the rest of us to hit the weaknesses that we can't. Aren't you feeling low on energy?"

"I can keep going. Even if I couldn't, that's why we pack so many medicinal items."

Mona and Queen swapped glances before the cat continued talking. "Well, since the rest of us will be resting for a little bit, you can take the time to rest too."

A grimace spread across Joker's face, and he reluctantly sighed, digging into his bag and removing stamina and energy-restoring drinks, snacks, and medicine. "Alright. Let's take a break."

Ω • Ω • Ω

•Akira•

Having gotten antsy waiting around the safe room, he left and returned to the Velvet Room, the straight shot from the grand staircase to the outside was safe, with no Shadows patrolling it. The Fusion Alarm blaring in the back of his head didn't help his growing unease. He wasn't feeling ill, or sick. He wasn't. It was just nerves.

…

He ignored the fact that Arsène and his other Personas were talking less as the infiltration went on. He had a theory in the past that since they were reflections of himself, they would also become sick when he was. But that couldn't be why they were quiet now since he wasn't getting sick. He wasn't pushing himself past the breaking point.

He wasn't.

Caroline and Justine gave him rare concerned looks, and he steadfastly ignored them. "I'm here to fuse."

"Hmhmhm…" At the very least, he was thankful that Igor said nothing at all, just looking at him with the same amusement as always. Maybe if no one said anything, he could fool himself into thinking that he was fine.

Even if he was sick, he'd rest when they were done with the infiltration, and be ready to steal Futaba's heart the very next day. It would work.

Nothing could go wrong with this plan.

…

Ω • Ω • Ω

•Makoto•

Queen knelt, reading the slab. It caught the eye immediately, as it was the very first thing through the door, and was glowing. "'When red and blue align, an illusion will rise. Only proper guidance shall form a path.'"

"Uh… What's it talking about?"

"I haven't the slightest idea, Panther," She sighed. "It may be a hint of some kind." Joker stayed silent but motioned everyone forward.

Around a corner was a Guard Shadow, and once everyone was ready, she watched as he sprinted forward and ambushed the Shadow, revealing two Lamia and an Andras. Panther hit them with a Maragi, and the Andras was sent to his knees. She knew that Joker was listening carefully when she listed the weaknesses, and she was reasonably sure he still had Sui-ki. But instead of hitting the Lamia with a Mabufu, he switched to Rakshasa."Mind Slice!"

The strike brainwashed the Lamia and caused them to begin clawing at each other, and Skull took the opportunity to run forward and bash the back of the Andras' head into the floor, turning it into a splatter of black blood. Pulling out her revolver she unloaded into the Lamia, three bullets for each.

The Shadows collapsed, dazed, and Joker burst forward, summoning Setanta. "Giant Slice!" The Gaelic Persona spun his spear and cut through the Lamia, erasing them entirely. Transforming back into his mask Setanta disappeared, while Joker pulled out some medicinal pills and swallowed them. "Let's go."

She frowned in concern, and she saw Panther shoot her a look. Before she could even open her mouth, Joker had disappeared around a corner further ahead, and she cursed as she waved everyone along. "Come on, let's not lose him."

"What the hell is up with him today?" Skull muttered.

She didn't see the concerned and guilty look in Mona's eyes as he trailed behind.

Ω • Ω • Ω

•Akira•

Futaba's Shadow tried to kill them with another giant boulder trap. Or maybe it was an accident. In any case, the boulder knocked down a sarcophagus and revealed a tunnel deeper into the pyramid. Through it was a massive room filled with coffins, and a locked door.

After exploring enough, he found a stone slab that activated the coffins. The puzzle ended up being a binary matcher. To match a binary sequence, they had to turn on or off several holographic projectors hovering over the coffins showing large blue orbs, zero for off and one for on.

Once they were all matched he pressed a button by the entrance… which activated the boulder trap. "Uh, I don't think that's what we wanted," Skull spoke worriedly.

Fox stepped up. "Joker, can you stop it?"

He pressed the button again. The boulders got faster.

"Joker?"

His eye twitched and he gave up, kicking the button with his full strength. It sparked and died, the flow of boulders finally stopping. "There."

"I… Guess that works."

Ω • Ω • Ω

"Focus the Isis! I've got the Anubis!"

"But—!"

"Principality, go!"

Ω • Ω • Ω

"We'll have to wait for an opening to sneak around, or we could fight—"

He jumped onto a Shadow's back and ripped their mask off. "Show me your true form!"

Ω • Ω • Ω

He felt his stamina reserves dropping, so he reluctantly switched Personas and unleashed a magic attack. "Phoenix, Maragion!"

As soon as they were killed, he popped more painkillers to restore his stamina.

Ω • Ω • Ω

"It's all my fault… I'm so sorry…"

The whispers that rang through the Will Seed room seemed to cause the air to get heavier, everyone's mood dropping as Futaba's depressed murmurs surrounded them, weighing them down.

Joker ripped the Seed from its viney pedestal and turned to leave.

Ω • Ω • Ω

"This is the same mechanism as the one we saw before," Queen noted as they stood before another mural and another mirror.

"Then we just gotta touch it and make something happen, yeah? C'mon, let's try it out." He nodded at Skull and tapped the control panel, causing the mural to flicker to life. The scattered pictures this time were more scrambled, some of them seeming to be upside down. "Huh, this one's kinda hard to make out…"

"It makes sense that the next puzzle would be a bit harder to solve," Mona shrugged. "Let's put it back together."

Rotating the upside-down pictures, and piecing the puzzle together slowly eventually revealed Futaba kneeling on the sidewalk while a woman was throwing herself into traffic, an oncoming truck about to run her down. "It seems the picture is complete," Fox observed the gruesome scene.

"Is she… Jumping in front of a car?"

Panther looked downcast at Queen's words. "Could this be the moment when Futaba's mother committed suicide? Oh, There's another voice…"

"...F-Futabaaaaa… Y-You aaaaareeeee…" Joker grimaced at the sound of the woman's voice. It was heavily distorted, grating, even.

The mural faded, and the beam of light reflecting off the mirror shone onto the next door of the stairwell, unlocking it. No one moved, they were still processing the picture. "...She died right in front of Futaba's eyes," Skull whispered.

Queen squeezed her eyes closed. "That's horrible…"

Fox fought past his feelings, instead attempting to figure out the purpose of the murals. "So, did her desire to forget those memories cause her to repress them?"

"Whatever the case, figuring out what the murals mean has nothing to do with us grabbing the Treasure," He interrupted. Everyone glanced at him, and he began hopping down the ledges to reach the Grand Staircase. The next door opened, revealing more stairs, and yet another massive gate that they needed to unlock.

"We're pretty far in now, huh?" Panther asked, breaking the silence of the group. "This has to be past halfway."

"Yeah, the Treasure smells really close. I think we can take a break for today," Mona spoke. "We're all getting low on energy at this point."

"All the more reason to keep going. Until we're fully drained we should push as far as we can before leaving. If we're more than halfway, we can probably reach the end before we run out of stamina and energy."

Queen shook her head. "That sounds reckless, Joker, we shouldn't push ourselves like that."

"If we want the best chance of stealing that Treasure in the time frame we have, then we have to push ourselves," he shot back coldly. "Fox, you've rested up. Replace Skull, he's lowest on spirit. Now come on."

Ω • Ω • Ω

"What wonderful form. Seeing such divine sculptures in person is exceedingly rare." Fox's words seemed to ease some of the tension in the group as his weirdness was put on full display yet again, observing the humongous statues in the center of the massive room.

"Yeah, I guess you prolly wouldn't be seein' anything like this shit if we weren't in a Palace."

"Seriously. This almost feels like a trip abroad or something."

"Make sure not to treat this like it's a school trip," he spoke back to Panther.

Mona nodded, hopping forward. "Joker's right. It's no time to be letting our guard down, with how tired we all are. I can sense a lot of Shadows up ahead."

They walked between the two statues, and deeper into the Pyramid of Wrath.

Ω • Ω • Ω

•Yusuke•

Watching as Joker pushed himself further and further past the brink, he frowned. It may have been true that he wasn't the most savvy with understanding others, but it was rather clear that his friend was overworking himself.

As they traversed further into the Palace, Joker's usual jokes, quips, and sarcasm that he would shoot out as often as the bullets from his gun slowed. His acrobatic feats, simultaneously for style and practical use in confusing Shadows and tripping them up, stopped entirely.

Instead, his mood had become as sullen as a washed-out canvas. His fighting style was no longer as bright as his normally shining eyes, silver as the stars in the sky. He was too cautious, too paranoid.

Joker was a careful person, he knew this quite well. Even within the Metaverse where he bloomed with the colors he normally kept quite hidden, he was still vigilant, still alert. Every joke that left his lips was matched by his watchful gaze keeping track of the enemy.

Fox's eyes caught the dichotomy, and while his other friends may not have had such a stark difference between their inner and outer selves, he still noticed things about them. While he was not quite sure why it was easier for him to see this while they were in the Metaverse, he chalked it up to the odd reality.

In any case. He saw it. A tired sheen of sweat was beginning to cover Joker's face, and he was growing sluggish. After every battle, he was drinking coffee and swallowing painkillers, restoring spirit and recovering stamina, while trying to hide it from them.

Similarly, Mona was casting guilty looks at Joker, his odd mascot form slightly hunched over, and his bright, sky-blue eyes gazing at their leader sadly, which didn't match his aura, a downtrodden dark blue. While Skull, Panther, and Queen all looked concerned, none wore the expression that Mona did, and it was not just because his cat-like face caused his expressions to naturally differ.

He was unsure why Mona would look so guilty, or why Joker was pushing himself so hard. But, in the end, it was his duty as their friend to help them and pick them up when they needed him, as Joker had done for him.

"Shadows ahead. Get ready."

He gripped Jagato, ready to slide the blade from its sheath. Yes, he would be ready.

Ω • Ω • Ω

•Ryuji•

He wasn't sure what the hell was going on with Joker, and he wasn't all that philosophical to wax on and on about what Joker could be thinking.

But he knew, as he watched Joker and the others fight off the current Shadows, that he would have his brother's back when he finally got whatever was weighing him down off his chest.

Ω • Ω • Ω

•Sapphire•

Licking his lips, he eyed third base. But his mind wasn't on the game.

This process will commence with the downfall of Andonut's Laboratories on August second. Following this, the Japanese economy shall suffer devastating damages…

He didn't know too much about this 'Medjed', even after looking them up with Willow, and after Anthony gave them a nonchalant explanation about them and how they weren't a threat.

They didn't seem to be connected to the mysterious weirdo that taunted the Four-Eyed nerd with that weird webpage… However many months ago that was. But there was a chance it could be the same person.

The crowd's roar was ignored, and he prepared to run, close enough to second to jump back if the pitcher tried to get him out while he was off the base.

'Medjed' shouldn't have any beef with the Nerd, with how focused they were on the mysterious 'Phantom Thieves of Hearts' (which was a damn sexy name for an organization he had to admit.) Was Four-Eyes' endorsement of the Thieves enough for them to target him like that, to want to take down his company?

Was it just a front for a person who was presumably a former servant of Giygas, as they theorized?

Was it just some uppity internet vigilantes?

Of course, there was also the chance that Medjed worked for, or was part of, that weird laboratory that experimented on him that he'd told Anthony about a month ago when they were having those beers at Pink Cloud. Anthony thought he was joking, and for now, he'd keep it that way.

He was pretty sure that during his breakout he'd… eliminated every scientist there, and the leader of the lab, which he didn't feel too bad about. They didn't exactly have any problems with human experimentation after all, so no need to feel guilt about that. So the chances that someone from that lab would survive and become the culprit of this incident were low…

Though, the website subtly taunting the Chosen Four had started popping up about a year before, which was after he destroyed their laboratory, so…

Damn it… If only he had the brains to put the pieces of the puzzle together. If they were puzzle pieces. They might not even be related!

Crack!

Well, time to focus.

The baseball was sent flying, and he began to run. One eye was kept on the ball. If it was caught, he'd immediately reverse course.

The out-fielder who was backpedaling just missed the catch, and Sapphire pushed himself onward.

He reached third, and went for home, all while the ball was picked up and thrown, soaring towards the catcher.

His eyes tracked it, and the catcher. He would not use PSI. One, that would take all the fun out of the game. Two, it would be cheating. Three, he could easily make it and score with his natural human limits.

However…

He made up his mind, intentionally slowing just a bit. He wasn't going to score today.

This is going to suck, he thought with a grim smile before hiding his expression.

Thankfully, it looked natural when he attempted to slide into home and the catcher collapsed on top of him, having just barely caught the ball and bringing his glove down to tag him out. The man's weight fell almost entirely on his outstretched leg, and he forced excess PSI into the limb. Instead of enhancing the durability, he intentionally made it more brittle, so the excess weight combined with crashing into home plate resulted in a sharp snap that only his enhanced hearing could perceive.

"FUCK!"

He'd been hurt much worse before, but he needed to ham it up. He hopped to his feet, carefully balancing on his left foot as his right leg throbbed, his calf burning.

Even when seriously injured in past games, rare as that was, a discreet Lifeup, only for his injury of course, never to restore his stamina, fixed him up and he could continue the game. But right now he needed an excuse for a little vacation.

He heard players from his team and their opponents arguing behind him, the coaches and the umpire gesturing wildly, his coach pointing to the dropped baseball and the catcher.

A teammate, Markie, helped him hobble back towards the dugout, but he couldn't resist letting out a cheeky shout over his shoulder. "Ump, I totally scored that! Give the wounded player some pity!"

"Get your ass back to the dugout, Starr!"

He just laughed at the order, Markie shaking his head with a grin. "It's about time you got hurt out there. We thought you were fuckin' invincible for a while now."

"Don't be jelly, Markie, green ain't our team color," he snickered.

"Prick. Come on, let's get you sat down before you somehow hurt your other leg too."

"Heh. Let's hope I can make at least one more play by the end of the game." He wouldn't, of course. He was pretty sure that 'snap' was either his tendons tearing, or a broken bone, and his insane pain tolerance wasn't letting him discern which. Either way, at minimum he should get a few weeks off for recovery, in which he could discreetly crash with Anthony and keep watch over him. No matter who it was targeting his nerdy best bro, he wouldn't let them hurt him.

Yeah, Sapphire thought, nothing could go wrong with this plan.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American fanbase. Hope you got what you wanted during Black Friday, too.

Been a little bit since the last update, but the slog of writing a constant Metaverse exploration really killed my writer's spirit, and then the holiday season hit and my store decided 'open early, close later!' is a brilliant move to make more money, so my hours got fucked too.

A small note before I end this Author's Note, since I don't want to waste any more time writing a long ass AN discussing the chapter, and accidentally delaying it by yet another month, but the Sapphire segment was supposed to happen in the next chapter so that it would make a bit more sense with the time differential between Eagleland and Japan. But we'll ignore that, I needed to hit my mandatory minimum word count lol.

With that done, I'd rather post this so the people who enjoy my story get it, and it's no longer delayed. So, let me know what you think of the chapter, or just leave a 'nice,' both are always great to read. See y'all next time!