Is anybody listening? Tell me, can't you see this darkness surrounding me?
Nights gettin' colder, heavy on my shoulder, and it's gettin hard to breathe
Vision's gettin' blurry, I'm gettin' worried, cause it's gettin' hard to see
When you're living in the house of pain
- The Notorious B.I.G. (feat. 2Pac, Mary J. Blige, Nas), Living in Pain
///
6 / 11 / 2016
I check the phone.
LOCATION ACQUIRED: Third Tier, Layer One, Left Wing
Do you wish to transport yourself to another Safe Room?
Do you wish to exit the Palace through Entryway?
Y/N
"So, we can teleport back to the previous Safe Room, then," I tell the others.
"Well, that helps. We can skip the entire middle section of the Palace...," sighs Yoshizawa. "I would say we're lucky to've found this Safe Room, but we've still got a whole Tier left to go..."
Maruki asks, "Are you all ready to move? Or should we take another day to rest?"
"I'm fine," is all Niijima says.
"I can keep on for a while longer," says Takamaki.
"Me, too," says Yoshizawa.
"Kazu - Joker," he turns to me.
"I'll be alright."
"Are you sure?"
I rotate my shoulder, lifting my arm up and down repeatedly, "Mist dulled the pain well enough. Not totally comfortable, but I can make it through."
"I'm glad I could help," she says, without looking at me or bearing any readable expression.
"Grateful you could. Now. Assuming we do manage to kill whatever's in front of us at this point, we still have one roadblock we can't just straight-up murder our way through."
"What do you mean?" asks Takamaki.
"We'll have to trigger a reaction out of him in the real world to manifest his Treasure."
"Right," nods Niijima. "Something similar to what you'd done to Kobayakawa and Kamoshida."
"Problem is we can't meet with him. I haven't the slightest clue where he could be. Aside from that fucking bar..."
"He hasn't messaged you?" asks Niijima. "He messaged me the day you and I fell into his sights."
That's surprising. I pull up my phone and scroll through recent messages. "Got nothing from him."
"I find that very strange."
"So do I. What's he told you?"
"He told me that he expects his money in a matter of two weeks," she says, shunting her phone before us all. "That he expects us at 9:00 PM sharp, on June 20, at the bar he had brought me to. It's called Nyuukama."
I read the text. It contains pictures of Niijima looking downcast, a sleazy piece of shit putting an arm over her shoulder. A picture of me, standing like a dumbass in the middle of the bar. A third picture of me, head bloody with shards of wineglass embedded in my hair, Niijima freaking the fuck out.
Of course Maruki shudders at the sight but he keeps down most of his fear, "I can't imagine what it must've been like to have been in that place alone with him..."
Takamaki wisely chooses to keep her mouth shut. Yoshizawa's unable to keep her terror to herself, "How did you even get away from them all?"
"Convinced them they could still make money out of us," I shrug. "As fucked as that sounds it was our only way out."
Or I could've done Plan E. But that would've made Niijima aware of my Kingdom. And fuck. Maruki is one thing. Stuco Prez with an inferiority complex and some misguided sense of self-righteousness is another. If anybody has to know how fucked up I am it should at least be my therapist.
"What do you have in mind? To provoke this guy?" asks Takamaki.
"Honestly? Not much," I exhale. "This guy's more fucked up than either Kamoshida or Kobayakawa could ever hope to be. So to say that making him disturbed enough to bring his unconscious mind to the forefront will be a challenge."
"We can try another Kamoshida. Throw him into his Palace," shrugs the cat.
Both Niijima and I say at the same time, "Out of the question," and dart our eyes to the other once we've finished.
Cat smiles coyly. "And why is that?"
"Because that'd probably end up causing him and us more trouble than this is worth," growls Niijima. "I doubt his Shadow would pull any stops if we did such a thing. Such a move might end up killing either him or at least one of us. Don't want to risk more than what we have already."
I roll my eyes, "He needs to be fifty feet within the range of the Palace's real-world equivalent. There's no way in hell he'd be caught dead near station grounds unless on important business. Him being this secretive mafioso motherfucker, he's gonna stay as far away from the product as possible, ensure that transactions are kept on the down-low. He wouldn't risk himself and his operation by coming out in the open."
Maruki sighs, "Kaneshiro's eager for a fight. He lusts after conflict, views worthy opponents as a feast. He may delight in feasting upon us, but at the core of it all lies a need to eat..."
"What're you thinking?" Yoshizawa asks him.
"Not much, but we've more of a grasp on him now. I'm confident that the fearsome persona he puts on, no pun intended, is less meant to exert his own ego and instead meant to drive others to fear him. It's less about making himself dominant, and more about making others submissive. Everything he's done, all the monsters he's sent after us, he's trying to break our wills. Make us weak and fearful enough for him to feast upon when the time is ripe."
"...can't say it isn't working," Yoshizawa purses her lips, stroking her upper arm with her right hand.
"I don't know what made him this way, but he wants to be dreaded, not just because of the high it gives him. He believes in it so strongly that if that gets taken away from him, he has nothing."
"We can use that against him," suggests Niijima.
"How do you think?"
Niijima puts a hand to her chin. "He thinks the station is his to do with as he pleases. So what if the station became the place we expose his heart for everyone to see?"
Cat whistles, "Lay it on us."
"Some sort of series of posters, or cards, or what have you. Something that calls Kaneshiro out by name directly. Challenges him, threatens him by striking at everything he tries to hide from himself."
"You mean like a calling card!?" the cat smiles, sparkles in its eyes. Literally, large sparkles that look as though they belong in a fucking comic book, so flat that if you looked at them from the side you'd just see a white line.
"H-how are you doing that with your eyes?" asks Niijima.
It shakes its head, "Never mind that! A calling card's a great idea! Quick way to call out our specific target. Get at his insecurities, cause his unconscious mind to flare upwards, bada-bing bada-boom."
"You make it sound so easy," I growl at it. "Kamoshida was a pathetic waste of life. Kaneshiro is a malicious, psychotic, murderous waste of life who regularly does shit that makes Kamoshida look like fucking Totoro."
"Joker," Maruki interjects.
I glare at him coldly, "You realize that anything less than beyond the pale won't work."
For a second I think Maruki wants to argue back. He doesn't argue, not in the slightest. What surprises me is that Niijima doesn't, either. Nor does she even look back at me. Still, she cuts in. "You're certain that's the only way?"
"Joker has a point," exhales the cat. "Unlikely this guy's mind'll be affected by anything that doesn't hit him where it hurts."
"Are you all prepared for that?" I ask them.
Course Takamaki says, "Since the beginning."
Yoshizawa's more hesitant, "God. Again, really?"
"He's in league with the police. He's got whole families at his beck and call. To say he's protected would be an understatement. He needs to feel like despite everything, he's sitting upon a tower of glass."
"How will we do that?" I turn to Niijima. She's not argumentative in her tone. She's questioning. "How do you think we should do it?"
I turn to the cat, "You can sense Will Seeds, right?"
Cat's eyes widen, "Course I can."
"Oh my God...," mutters Yoshizawa.
"Smart," smiles Takamaki.
"I try."
Maruki's lost, because of course he is, "Wait, wait, what's a Will Seed? Why do we need it?"
"Will Seeds are objects manifesting from particularly large distortion. Within them they hold Palace Rulers' memories, their experiences. We find them, we begin to know Kaneshiro almost as much as we know ourselves."
"No, no, okay, j-just wait a second-"
"Maruki."
"I'm a psychiatrist, Kazuya!" he growls. The venom and vitriol belonging to a man who isn't nearly as familiar with anger as I am. "I am a mental health practitioner! I help people recover from their trauma, I-I can't just use someone's inner demons against them like-!"
"It's what you've been doing this whole time. From the day you entered you offered your help to let us know what makes this fucking guy tick."
"It was to help us navigate our way through his Palace. You just want to use that knowledge to traumatize him into submission."
"Perhaps something made this guy as fucked up as he is. Wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. In such a scenario we should use as much as we possibly can to our advantage. Now more than ever before. What did you think I was going to do at the end of this?"
"KAZUYA!"
"If you think restraining ourselves'll help in any way, you're a goddamn embarrassment. Do you believe that just gently reminding him of how much of a fucking piece of shit he is will get him riled up enough to manifest his Treasure? He hears that all the fucking time. If he cared about what people said about him he wouldn't be in this position in the first place."
"It also has its fair share of problems," Niijima cuts in. "Your reasoning."
I shake my head, "Do tell."
She turns to the cat. "What might happen to him if we go too far with this? Is there a possibility we might make this place, or his Shadow...unstable?"
"Queen has a point. Though I believe Joker's approach would still be pretty effective. The fact of the matter is, if we dredge up horrible memories of his, it may cause us more trouble down the line than it'd be worth."
"What could happen?"
"Well...his Palace could turn into a Kingdom, for one thing."
Everyone blanches at that, most of them not knowing what the hell the cat had just said. "A Kingdom...," Niijima mutters.
"A Palace is born of a person's unconscious desires. When said desires become conscious, one of two things may happen. One, he either lets go of his desire and frees himself and his heart from its chains. Or two, he accepts that desire and becomes driven to achieve it by any and all means. If option two happens, well, we'll have to kill him."
"K-kill him...?" Niijima's eyes widen.
"You can steal the Treasure from a Palace, and in more cases than not, the worst that'll happen is they feel so guilty over their actions that they need to make amends. That's because a Treasure is unconscious. Once one becomes cognitively aware of the distortion in their heart and accepts it as their own, the act of stealing the Treasure then becomes infinitely more dangerous to the Kingdom Ruler. Death is a certainty, because their desires have become a part of their very identities, their understanding of their selves. Take that away, you take something absolutely fundamental to what they are. Either they lose their minds, or they just kill themselves from the emptiness. Either way, it ends the same."
Maruki turns to me and doesn't say a word, for his eyes say enough.
"S-so it's that dangerous?"
"A balance is necessary, I suppose. It really does depend on the person. It's why Palaces and Kingdoms are so dicey in the first place. I still support Joker's gung-ho attitude about this all, though. We can't afford to lose this guy because we were afraid of pushing him too far off the deep end."
Niijima glares at it, her voice intense, "What happens to his Shadow if he accepts his distorted desires as his own?"
"It becomes a Persona. And that's the worst possible thing that could happen. A Ruler's Persona is at the apex of its power within their Kingdom. Their strength will have increased by a thousandfold. It'll be virtually impossible for you to destroy the Persona then, as you are now. Your safest bet is to just try and destroy the Kingdom's Treasure."
"Which will kill the Ruler."
"Correct. Glad you're getting the hang of all this."
"S-so what's our solution, then!?" cries Yoshizawa. "We can't just traumatize him, but we have to - to disturb him enough such that his Treasure materializes - how do we know if we've gone too far or not far enough!?"
"There's no way to know," I exhale. "Either we do it or we don't."
"That's insane."
"You weren't crazy enough to begin with."
Takamaki scratches her head, "Where would you even find the Will Seeds in here? We've been through both the first and second Tiers and haven't caught wind of them once. Unless...we just missed them?"
"Mmm, perhaps," shrugs the cat. "I think it's more likely, though, that whatever Will Seeds remain, have to be somewhere around here. At least one of them."
"Can you sense them?" I ask it. "From here?"
"Not like a Treasure. They have a more narrow range. I can sense that the Treasure is somewhere here. A Will Seed, I'll have to be almost right up next to it to be able to detect it. Dunno how that works, but that's how it works."
"You figure it'll be here?" asks Niijima.
"Even if there weren't any in the previous Tiers, there's bound to be one here."
"Why?"
"Will Seeds tend to manifest in places the Palace Ruler has an exceptionally personal attachment to. In some way or shape or form. Considering that this is the final stretch of the Palace, or so it seems, it's safe to bet there's at least one Will Seed here. It's a vault, after all. Kaneshiro's obsessed with money and corpses and how he can make a living. Since the Treasure's here, it's obviously a place of great importance to him. Like with Kamoshida."
"Kamoshida had Will Seeds, too?"
"We went into your school gym and found a bigass Bible that contained all his memories. Though, weirdly, only Joker and I could see them."
"Why only you two?"
Cat shrugs, "Beats me."
Niijima narrows her eyes at it, then faces me, "What did you see in his memories...?"
I just close my eyes, "You don't wanna know."
.
.
.
The first thing I hear upon exiting the Safe Room is Baby Boy.
As soon as I lead the way out the Safe Room something crashes into my fucking torso and sends me flat on my face, on the ground, with a spine snapped in two.
Imagine a basketball made of cold glass and you'll imagine a fraction of what I feel now. Would probably have died right on the spot if the cat hadn't jumped on my gaping, destroyed spine in time. Unable to think straight or even see straight I hear muffled screams and violent explosions.
When I'm able to see again I see the others fighting another large fly, one as large as a bus. Unlike the other mooks, this beast is on all fours, as though it were a dog. Insectoid, segmented arms and legs, with an abdomen the size of a Volkswagen - yet it bears hooves for feet.
Atop its head stands a fat and tall creature, naked save for a set of chains that form gauntlets around his arms, and a loincloth at his waist. His pale, chalk white skin fades into a sick and thick brown color that begins at his waist and darkens at his feet. He wears a black horned mask with a long beak, similar to that of a plague doctor. He is nowhere near as obese as Kobayakawa, but it far exceeds even the fattest man on the planet. It stands about ten feet tall, and it wrestles with its horse-fly with a pair of electrical cables tied round its neck.
Baal Bherit is his name.
It looms over my fucking half-dead body and the cat gets offa me, leaps up like a goddamn hero to try and kill this fucking thing-
-only for it to grab its massive, bulbous head, and crush it like a fucking melon.
"NO!"
"Morgana!"
Niijima and Takamaki's scream pierces through the deafening silence; what comes out of the cat aren't organs. Misshapen fleshlike things, with eyes sprouting all over them like cancers. Nothing even remotely resembling brain matter or bits of an actual skull. Within its bulbous eyes lay even more eyes, each rolling across the ground like marble while having the consistency of jello. Black blood dashes downward in copious amounts as the whole party fucking loses their nerve-
-and for as much as I hated the fucking thing I didn't want to see it go like that.
Bastard Children. Killed Baal Shamin. Powerful. Worthy. Map Inside. Kill Me. Claim It. Or Die.
When I leave the broken pieces of my back scattered to the ground, when I stand tall and proud and fucking pissed, I'm about to pull the mask right off my face-
"Bishop, to me!" Niijima cries.
"Wh-what!?"
"No time! Use a spell to increase my speed! Do it!"
"S-Sukukaja!
"Johanna!"
A white motorcycle dashes past me and circles around its legs, so quickly I can just barely grasp where it's going; I turn to Maruki and I see him pouring all his concentration into making Niijima as quickly as possible. The horse-fly stampedes and tramples, tries to cave Niijima in with its massive hooves but it misses because Niijima's been buffed to hell and back.
She makes a ninety-degree turn at just the right time.
KKRACK
The horse-fly whinnies and rears upwards, its left hind leg blasted apart right at the heel. after all, a bike Johanna's size, coupled at the speeds at which it goes, is unlikely to hit anything without it either feeling it or shattering apart.
The horse-fly collapses then and there, and Niijima shouts, "Now, Mist! Your swords!"
"C-Cendrillon! Sword Dance!"
The six zweis glimmer in the air and pin the fucking fly down. It squeals and thrashes but isn't able to do much more than that, its massive hooves scraping along the ground in its death throes-
Baby Boy. Baby Boy. No More Escape.
-and it fucking sucks that none of the swords hit Bherit.
He rises now, pushing his impaled horse-fly off of himself and throwing it against the wall with such force the ensuing impact causes everyone not on a cognitive bike to all fall on their asses and he whips his arm to the left-
A chain shoots forward like a jetstream and within seconds Yoshizawa feels cold, cold steel wrap around her neck. Within seconds her eyes bulge out, within seconds she turns purple and collapses, she groans and breathes as cracking and creaking noises tighten, chains go white as he laughs and laughs and laughs, frostbite hits her neck such that if the chain gets removed she'll pour out blood from her throat-
"Takamaki!" Niijima shouts. "It's weak to fire!"
"Salome!"
The screaming head roars and in so doing sends a barrel of fire from out its mouth. Bherit burns and his flesh blackens almost immediately, as it lets out an aognized scream. The chain unravels from Yoshizawa's neck, so roughly a line of blood pours out the side, but the wound isn't deep enough to be fatal, so while she coughs and screams from the pain she's at the very least still alive.
Baby Boy, it groans so loudly you'd think Bherit was crying, Baby Boy. Feed Me Mommy. Keep Me Close, it hunches over as it burns, its helmet collapsing to reveal an egg-shaped head. Utterly bereft of hair, its eyes, mouth and nose are in completely random places throughout its head, though its mouth shifts forward to us and bares its gumless teeth- We Have To Contain It.
"Keep at it!" I shout.
"Salome!"
YES! Devour, or BE DEVOURED!
Even as the next ball of flame charges at it it lunges at me, completely coated in burning oils that might as well be lava, but now I'm actually fucking prepared-
BOOM!
And Satanael fires a bullet that might as well be a cannonball. Since the creature charges at me on all fours, the bullet runs through his face and exits out his lower back, cratering his skull and leaving his insides utterly decimated. He lands and slides a good ten feet forward, leaving a trail of flaming blood - his oily flesh boiling and brimming in a brilliant shade of orange that turns into blue-
It's enough to subdue it right then, enough for Takamaki to call down even greater flames.
The last thing it says, before it completely shrivels into dust: You Have Been Found...Worthy.
And just like Kobayakawa's Manikin, we're left with a pile of ashes, in the end.
Takamaki collapses to her knees again, not only exhausted but also horrified, staring at the cat's corpse and its crushed and flattened and utterly opened head. Niijima allows Johanna to disperse, as she and I and Maruki rush to Yoshizawa.
All she says in response to us is a weak and strained "I'm fine...," as Maruki unravels his white coat and has her drape it over her own shoulders, keeping it against her neck to stop the bleeding.
"I...," Maruki mutters, "I don't know if I can heal this..."
"Cat said you had healing spells."
"I-I don't feel like I do! I don't know if I...!"
"Try. Please," Niijima tells him.
Maruki purses his lips, focusing all his efforts on Yoshizawa, "It's going to be alright, I promise, I promise..."
"Can't you heal her?" asks Niijima. "I remember that you healed yourself, back when we first entered the Palace."
"My Persona's healing spells only work for me."
"Have you tried it on anyone else?"
I narrow my eyes. "Suppose it's worth a shot. Maruki."
Maruki looks up at me, steps back just a bit. Yoshizawa cringes with agony as I gently pull her hand and the now bloody white cloth away from her neck. I place a red glove upon her wound, and recite the words in my head-
I'm exhausted within seconds. Feels like half my lifespan's drifted right out of my body. Niijima has to support me by the shoulders just to keep me upright, let alone conscious. But Yoshizawa?
She's absolutely fine. "I...what did you just do...?"
It takes me more than it should just to say, "I...healed you...? I could do that?"
"You've never tried, before?" Niijima eyes me carefully.
"I didn't think it was possible..."
"Thank you...," Yoshizawa says to me, truly grateful, if a little worried sounding.
I think to say You're Welcome. But nothing really comes out my mouth. I just turn back to Takamaki, and approach her, the rest of them following behind me.
"I doubt that healing spells can heal someone who's already dead," I sigh.
"Are you alright?" Niijima approaches Takamaki.
She keeps her horrified, traumatized, fucking thousand-yard-staring eyes on what's left of the cat, "You're asking me?"
That bastard nearly killed me right then. Was too disoriented to use Victory Cry on myself. Too much pain, too suddenly. If the cat hadn't healed me up I'd have died. Maruki looks like he wants to cry and vomit at the same time, while Niijima's fighting back tears. Yoshizawa's not even bothering to fight them back anymore, as she cups her mouth. "Morgana..."
But then we hear a thick slop sound cut through the air.
We turn. A piece of the cat's head; not a brain, not any organ recognizable, slinks over to its shattered skull like a slug. Its many eyes dart every which way as it sprouts veins and arteries that go nowhere and are shades of color I didn't even know existed. Soon enough the other parts of its head twitch and vibrate and thrum with life, sliding and pulling themselves back into becoming filling for the cat's head, growing tendrils of nerves that all merge together at once. The many tiny marble eyes all roll from wherever they'd drifted off to, coming together to form vitreous liquids and sclera and pupils-
A crack, a splutter, a dripping noise and a lot of seizure-like shaking later, the cat's bobble-head reverts to its proper form, and it opens its eyes like it's just woken up from a long sleep.
It even yawns.
"What happened...? Felt like I died there for a second..."
Maruki faints.
"D-Doctor!" cries Yoshizawa, as she tries pulling him back to reality.
"Y-you did...," Takamaki mutters, "how did you...?"
"I did, huh?" cat shrugs. "Well, it's happened before. Dunno how I'm still alive, but no biggie. What, did ya cry over me?"
"YES WE DID!" shouts Yoshizawa, rubbing at her eyes furiously, "We thought you were dead...! We were terrified and-and sad, and we, we thought you were just gone for good!"
Cat actually looks surprised at that, "You know, that's actually awfully sweet of you. But don't worry. As long as I'm in this world, I won't die. In reality, I think it'll be a different story. But...I guess whatever made me into this also made me functionally immortal here. So no biggie."
Niijima doesn't wanna say shit because too much of this has freaked her out already and I can't blame her. Except, she feels like she has to, "Do you...have any idea how you can...?"
"Really, it beats me. Every time I've died beforehand I can feel my consciousness just kinda wandering through the Network. It takes me a while before I can return myself to myself. It's hard to explain."
I narrow my eyes, "Network?"
"I'll let you know some other day."
I exhale, "He said he wouldn't hold anything back, once we've come here."
"I'm glad you're alright. All of you," Niijima says, letting herself heave out a sigh of relief.
"Good job out there," I tell her. "Was too disoriented to make a call."
"Don't mention it..."
Then I turn back to the cat. "Why couldn't you tell there was an enemy right outside the Safe Room?"
Takamaki looks at me, beyond shocked, "He just came back to life."
Cat smiles, "No, honestly, woulda been weirder if he'd decided to act nice all of a sudden. I think that, when it comes to my ability to sense Shadows, I get dampened when I'm in a Safe Room. Shadows don't typically hang around near Safe Rooms at all, so it isn't actually that big a problem for me."
"Well, that Shadow did."
"It was a Manikin."
"Even so. How did it know where to find us?" asks Niijima.
"It couldn't have. It's a Safe Room. Palace Rulers can't know what happens in Safe Rooms. That's why they're Safe."
It hits her first. "Kaneshiro sensed we came down from the elevator. Sent the Manikin after us immediately. He didn't know where we were. He just had him stand by the entrance."
I grit my teeth, "He's chomping at the fucking bit to get to us now."
I get up and brush past them both, marching my way over to the pile of ashes. I wobble here and there but the disorientation doesn't last nearly long enough to debilitate me again. Niijima, Takamaki, and the cat follow behind me, pushing our hands through the grey and the ash, swiping clouds away just to get through. Niijima's eyes widen, and she rises up, completely caked in soot, "Got it!"
Another map.
We storm the Safe Room, dragging Maruki's fucking corpse along with us, and we stick the map upon the fucking wall again.
The room is circular but layered. Thousands of large safes form towering walls, each kept a full circle by large vault doors titled on the map called FLOODGATES. Between each layer of safe-walls lies a recursive inner hallway. What really gets me are the red dots titled UNLOCK CODES. There's one dot per inner hall; the one for this hall is roughly southwest of the Safe Room. For the next, it's north. For the third, it's west; fourth, southeast. All in random positions, likely to throw us off. The center of the map is titled FINAL SANCTUM, labelled TREASURE HERE.
Niijima's surprised. Surprised, and pleased, because she was exactly right, "It is a keyhole."
The shape is plainly obvious now, considering the angle. The floodgates in each layer, if arranged correctly and opened, would form a keyhole. There're even arrows curving in the directions they would rotate. In context of our current position, it would form a path right from the elevator entrance directly to the inner sanctum. A straight shot to the Treasure.
Scribbled in bright red ink, so wet and thick you could mistake it for blood, are the codes themselves, at the very bottom right of the map. For each single red dot on the map, a code is written right next to it. Just numbers.
"The codes'll open the gates,
We have a way forward. We have the codes. We have a plan, and we just barely have time on our side.
We just need the energy...and the courage.
Niijima's eyes widen then, with horror, "He most likely has a Shadow, or a Manikin, posted at each of these red markers."
I growl, "Almost certainly."
"What should we do?" asks Takamaki.
Niijima turns to the rest, "Everyone...do you all feel ready enough to tackle the rest of this Tier? I'd say we've accomplished a lot for today, all things considered. If you want to just head home after today..."
"I'm ready," says Takamaki. "I can still fight."
Yoshizawa looks a little pensive about it, but ultimately declares, "If we can finish this today, I'd like to."
"What about Bishop?"
Cat turns to his sleeping form, scratches his cheek in one fatal swipe, "AAAAGH what the, how did, where-!?"
"Wakey-wakey, handsome," cat smiles, blowing on its claws.
Maruki rears away from it, puts his back to the fucking wall, shits himself right then and there (not literally thank God) and whirls his head around to the rest of us, "What's, what's happening!?"
"He had a map inside himself," I say, pointing at it.
"O-oh..."
"It's unlikely the sanctum would open unless we input the codes first," says Niijima. "If I were as paranoid as Kaneshiro I'd try to keep the core of my desires as hidden under lock-and-key as possible."
"We go any further and we're likely to encounter more Shadows or Manikins like the fuckers thus far."
"I'll burn whatever stands in our way," growls Takamaki.
"We've come so far. I don't intend to back down when we're so close," Yoshizawa says, determinedly.
"I'm prepared for whatever comes. We have to finish this," exhales Niijima.
I let out just a little smirk. "Good. Okay. We'll head out there. Put in the fucking codes, kill anything not in costume, and get our asses in the inner sanctum."
"Or you could fly us to whichever terminals we need to put the codes in. Use the map to tell us where they are."
We all turn to the cat.
Niijima's eyes brighten up. "Oh right. Your Persona has wings."
Little bit pissed I didn't think of that. Guess I was so focused on the idea of killing shit. Goddamn I need to talk to Maruki more. "I suppose it's worth a shot. You all okay with that?"
"I-is that even possible...?"
"It should be," says Niijima. "I mean, I can ride my Persona."
"That alright with you, Joker?" asks the cat.
"Honestly, I'm afraid there might be snipers or some shit...," I take a dep breath, "but we'll have to take some risks every now and again. I'm willing to give it a try if you all are."
Niijima turns to the other girls; they just nod, their faces tightening with determination. She faces me again, "We're all ready. But..."
"But what?"
"So you've...flown on your Persona before?" asks Niijima.
I just say, "Once."
"Er...guys?" We all turn to Bishop. "I, uh, it's just...I'm afraid of heights, is all..."
I make my way over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder for once. "Maruki, I love you. But we're all doing things we're afraid of today."
That doesn't assuage him any.
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First up is myself and the cat.
"You're sure about this, Joker?" asks Niijima.
"If there are snipers, even automatic ones, we know that at least one of us will definitely survive. Satanael can take a few hits. If I smell bullshit at any point I'll swoop back around. Hopefully before one of my wings get shot off."
"There're lots of Shadows now, since the horsefly-riding douche that killed me. Let's take things one step at a time."
"Haven't they already sensed us, though?" asks Maruki. "Considering they've spawned all over the place..."
"They know we're here, in this specific Tier, but I doubt they can sense us like I can sense them, at least not until they're closeby. They correspond to their Ruler's will. The Ruler knows we're here, but he hasn't determined exactly where."
"Be careful," says Niijima.
Alright, Mom. "Let's do it."
I grip the mask across my eyes and I'm about to tear it right off-
But the lights in the room shut off, one by one by one, from the center progressing outwards. Each row of lights fades with a loud goddamn shoom noise that hammers into our ears over and over again. When it ends the whole fucking world is pitch black, impenetrably so; I pull out my phone and turn on the light but it can't even shine a foot in front of me, as though the darkness itself swallows any light that tries to come through.
Someone bumps into me and the noise they make when they do so indicates that they're Niijima- "Is-is everyone alright...!?"
"We're fine! I-I, what just happened!?" Takamaki yells in fear.
"Oh my God, what's going on...?" Yoshizawa shudders.
"E-everyone! Stay calm!" cries Maruki.
"Cat, can you see anything?"
"No."
"What do you mean no!? Can't you see in the dark!?"
"I look like a cat, but I'm not! You know this-!"
"You killed them. The bulwarks of my mind. Nobody's ever even come close to this far before. I am almost impressed."
His fucking voice booms across speakers from every which way. His words seep into our ears, into our brains, as though his voice has pried open our skulls and dug its fingers into our cortexes.
"I'm kidding no one. Of course I'm impressed. I've been starved of late. It's never personal when you put down some stupid fucker who hasn't given you what he owes you, it's never anything fresh. Just dull and bleak, boneless, tasteless. But killing you? Whatever happens next'll be all worth it."
"Is he anywhere near us?" Niijima snarls, despite the fear.
"No, no he isn't," responds the cat. "He's...somewhere else."
"Where!?"
"I don't know, but not here! At least not anywhere near us-"
"Smart of you to try and fly your way over the vaults. But that wouldn't have worked. The Final Sanctum only opens if you input the codes on that map to their proper terminals. Every terminal in this place. In every hall between the stacks upon stacks of safes. So even if you did manage to flap your fucking wings over to the Sanctum, you'd not have gone fucking anywhere."
Goddammit. The universe seems to be fucking conspiring to make Niijima's observations fact everywhere I fucking go. "Any Shadows nearby?"
"None, but I doubt that'll be the case anytime soon-"
"While I would love to rip your fat out with my teeth I must admit I'm at a bit of an impasse. I am aware that I've basically consigned you to the sex trade in order to fulfill your mountains of debt, but people of your caliber would be wasted as living dolls. I smell the blood on your hands, it's enough to drive a man mad, and yet you still pursue me when you could do the obvious."
None of us say a fucking word to this piece of shit. We just huddle close together, keeping ourselves as tightly knit as possible. I hear Niijima breathing, I can feel the terror radiating off her, but she keeps her inhalations as steady and strong as fucking possible.
He is silent for a time. For a very long time. "Off-limits, they'd said."
"What...?"
"You all fell right in my lap that day. On the one hand I had a chance to make a helluva lot more cash than I'd ever needed. On the other, you're all led by the son of the one man I've been told not to even think about crossing. One o' my fucking people squealed, told our higher-ups that I was planning to do all kindsa shit to the son of Morishige Hikawa, and they fucking called me up and screamed at me, told me I was a goddamn nutjob to even think of messing with that asshole's son."
"What are you talking about?" Niijima mutters, her voice directed at me.
"Are you stupid and deaf? The head of the fucking SIU told me that you people are off-limits."
Horror paints her voice then, "The SIU...!?"
"My people're pussies. The word of the SIU is enough to get them to back the fuck off you and your friends. These're people who've fucked little girls so hard their cunts bled for weeks, and yet they decided to let you and your goddamn fuckbuddies off the hook. Tsukioka said shit like Don't Touch Him, Or Anyone Close To Him."
Tsukioka sounds familiar, but I haven't got a fucking clue as to where I'd heard it before.
"My father is the technical director of a goddamn electronics corporation, what the hell did he do to make alla you so fucking scared?"
"Fucking beats me. All I know is that none of us can touch him. Weighed my options. Considered sending you a threatening letter and leaving you alone. But honestly, now? After the shit you pulled? I think it'd be a waste to let you go while we're still on speaking terms. Why not...you all join up with me?"
Her voice cuts through the darkness like a knife. "What?"
"If there's anything you should know of me by now it's that I do not discriminate. As long as you're useful I will keep you well fed. Well paid. Well treated. I may be a monster, but I'm a damn fine monster that knows to respect his fucking people. I won't do shit. I can't do shit, even if I wanted to anyway; so if you went to me in the real world, just bowed your fucking selves and offered your services to me, I'd probably just let you work off the debt working as fucking janitors somewhere for a year. Hell, if I like you enough, I might even consider lettin' you in on operations. What do you say?"
Two words scream in my mind and I'm almost entirely compelled to say them, but it's Niijima who says them first.
"Hell no."
"Of course you. Cop's kid wants to follow in her daddy and sister's footsteps, even though she's wading in blood and shit."
"There's no way any of us here would ever surrender ourselves to the likes of you! We came here to put a stop to you! I came here to put a stop to you!"
"No. You came here for nothing-"
"Do you think I'd be stupid enough to throw everything I believe in away, just to prolong my life until whenever you decide you're done with me!? I won't bend or bow or get on all fours for you or anyone like you ever again!"
He just chuckles, "And what about the rest of you? You wanna follow little goody-two-shoes and get used up by necrophiliacs, too?"
"Men like you drove my best friend to jump off the top of my school roof," Takamaki seethes, letting her voice turn guttural and raw. "I will burn this bank down before I spend another minute listening to your bullshit."
Though Yoshizawa is nowhere near as ferocious as either of the two, she remains strong in herself. "You drove innocent people to commit crimes on your behalf and threatened them and their families. You've probably scouted out the hospital my sister stays in. I can't afford to leave here without knowing you won't, or can't, lay a finger on her."
"You should know better than to make an offer to the people whose lives and friends and family you've threatened," Maruki says with a voice so firm you'd think his balls dropped again. "None of us intend to lie down and kneel for you."
"And what about Kazuya Hikawa. The demon boy. What do you have to say?"
"What the fuck do you think I have to say?"
"You're a criminal. Your father's disowned you. Everyone at your side is only at your side, because they hate me more than they fear you. You obviously didn't want to save that stupid bitch when she barged into my fucking bar, and you had no obligation to. Yet you did it anyway because you wanted to be a big goddamn hero. When you don't even have to. When you could just leave all that bullshit behind. You don't belong with them, with any of them, and you know it. That fucking motorcycle chick and all her friends are just one bad day away from being you. But you are one good day away from being me. Why not just let today be a good day?"
Everyone goes silent. I can't see their faces, but I can feel their gazes upon me. Niijima most of all radiates trepidation, anxiety, anger and horror, everything she's felt toward me since the day we met and more. Her fears, at least this time, are unfounded.
"You put others under your heel and decide you have that right, because you're strong and they're not. Because you're a King and they're not. Because you're hungry, and the world's a goddamn buffet. You think yourself a free man, but in truth you're a slave to everything you keep hidden away from yourself. You of all people don't get to play God."
"And what the hell do you think you're doing, kid? You want to steal my Treasure, take away everything that makes me myself, and you don't think that's playing God?"
I smile, "I'm nobody's God. I'm the Devil."
"You've got no fucking idea what you're saying."
"Oh shit. Guys-!"
A single light blares down upon the space behind us, and we see whirl around and we see him. Standing right fucking there, in his base form, with his golden robes and pulsating chest. The light casts the space under his eyes in impenetrable shadow, but his pupils grow bright and gold and fierce, his mouth stretching into a vile grin. We're all taken aback but Niijima gets her pistol out first, then I, then the others, as Maruki raises his scepter in advance.
Of all the places he put himself in, he stands between us and the fucking Safe Room he shouldn't even be aware of.
"You could do whatever you fucking wanted out of Palaces and the only reason you're here is because you wanna beat up the bullies with your goddamn fists, like this is fuckin' preschool or some shit. The things you can do could net you the world. Instead you fuck around in shitty costumes, hiding behind masks. None of us had the privilege to hide our fucking faces. None of us had the ability to change the hearts of the motherfuckers who used us, abused us. We all just had to wade our way through the shit and come back up for air every now and again."
He removes his jacket and reveals what's been pulsating over his flesh all this time; from his chest to his shoulders, arms to his hands, human faces with empty eyeholes lay molded upon his frame. Each moaning and groaning in agony, trapped in a hell of Kaneshiro's creation. "I've killed hundreds, maybe thousands. The faces upon my frame are the only faces I remember. They are my father, my mother, my siblings, my brothers-in-arms, my Judases and my most treasured victims. Whatever you think you are, I am more."
He grows, his body blooming exponentially. Obese and monstrous. The faces melt away into stark blue diseased flesh, and within seconds he is returned to his barbarian, towering, all-encompassing form as the terrible Lord of All That Flies, Baal Zebul, and he grits his teeth and grins and laughs a hearty laugh as I again place a hand upon my mask-
BANG!
-and I'm surprised that I'm not the one who made the first shot.
Niijima's pistol is smoking from the barrel, raised high up in the air from the recoil. The bullet had struck Kaneshiro right in the fucking eye, with enough sudden force to have whipped his head right back. He lowers it, eyeing her with more than a little rage, and more than enough excitement, as she thumbs back the hammer. And all at once none of us have anything we could possibly say. I, least of all.
"I've had enough of people using what they've endured as an excuse to profit from the pain they've caused. You're a filthy fly who makes his living off dirty money, and we're going to wipe you and your goddamn organization off the face of the planet."
He just laughs, arms stretching outward in sheer joy, "COME AT ME THEN! IT IS TIME TO FEED THE BEAST IN ALL OF US!"
"Johanna!"
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NoRoleModelz Chapter Notes: Next chapter is gonna be the tentative final one for this arc. Gonna be like, damn, probably fifteen thousand words? Maybe more? Really excited.