Most of you are bad question answerers.

Y/N's P.O.V.

I tap my knuckle against the dorm door. It's time to clear out the next area of the Palace; I got Akira's number before I left yesterday. He let me know it was time to head out to Yongen, along with a nice reminder to get everyone else's contact info. "Hey, Yusuke. Good morning!" I call through the door. Most of the kids on this hallway have gone home for the summer and I think we both are what's left. Regardless, there's a low moan from inside his dorm room. I've slept by him enough times to tell that's him waking up.

I tap my knuckle again, repeating the same words. Instead of a good morning, I get a "Please don't come in, I haven't changed yet!"

"I saw you half naked last night, there's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Y/N, g-give me three minutes. I-I left my paints and all of my artistic accessories about. I wouldn't want you to break your leg."

"Yeah, okay." I chuckle. "I'll wait out here."

There's a sigh of relief and a grumble of searching for something. I assume pants and it doesn't sound very graceful. In fact, it sounds like he just slid across his room and knocked out a canvas or two. I'm half tempted to laugh but I feel the responsible thing is to knock again and ask if he needs help. "Are you okay in there?"

"Peachy." He responds, a bit of a groan in his voice. The girlfriend instincts kick in and I have the urge to twist the knob. Intrusive? Yes. I push the door open a little bit so I can't see inside, but there's enough noise he doesn't notice it at first. When he does, he lets out a surprised noise. "I thought I informed you I wasn't ready for you!"

"I can't see you! Are you okay?"

"Yes! P-Please wait for me!"

I close the door in response and lean against the wall. There's nothing for me to do but wait in the awkward silence and listen for the scavenger hunt behind said wall. It's enjoyably sad that the sixteen year old I'm dating can't find his pants. I brush off the first dirty thought I have and occupy myself with my phone, searching for anything to do anything with. Oh! I told Morgana I'd make him fatty tuna. I guess there's no better time than the present.

I find myself knee deep in recipes a few minutes later when the door opens beside me. "Good morning officially, Y/N."

"Good morning. What do you think of this recipe?" I show him my phone as he closes his dorm door. "What's it for?"

"I told Morgana I'd make him fatty tuna. I don't know if he's looked with Akira, but I wanted to bring some options to the table."

"That's delightful, darling. I'm sure he'll love it."

"Yeah, I hope so." I slide my hand into his as we take the walk to the train station. It's one of those silent ones for a few minutes, one of those where you could be awkward if you tried, but it's not really. When the silence is broken, then it gets awkward. "So, what happened to your pants?"

"They um, they got misplaced. I painted in a rush last night. Then you came to see me."

"But you were fully clothed when I came to your door."

"Moving on, what do you think we're doing today?"

"Akira said we were going to the Palace. Clear out the next chamber. Guilt, I think it is."

"Ah, right. Sounds like a very interesting time." 

...

"So what's the plan, Akira? Everyone's here." Makoto starts, putting her pencil down. All of us are gathered at a table Akira's pulled out from somewhere in his room. Ryuji puts his manga down as Ann balances her phone on her leg. Meanwhile, Yusuke eats some sort of something he had shoved away in his bag, leaving me to annoy Morgana.

"Today, we're looking to clear the last two chambers. The next one is Guilt."

"That's where we're headed then?" Ryuji asks.

"We are. But first," Akira makes his way to his desk and pulls his spare bag from underneath. "Y/N, I got you what you need." He tosses me two plastic guns.

"You got me two fake 9 mms?"

"I feel like you needed firepower aside from those throwing knives. What do you guys think?"

"Well, I think she should try 'em out."

Akira nods at Ann and pushes his glasses up. "Alright, anyone else have anything they want to discuss?" 

There's not a sound from anyone in the attic. That's the signal for us to grab our phones and head out. Before we do though, Ryuji offers one thing. "All right, I'm gonna bust loose."

Someone clicks the Nav on their phone and the world turns to red and black swirling, pushing out in front of the pyramid I've seen a couple times before. The heat sets in immediately and my initial thought is to undo a couple buttons on my blouse. Sounds like a great idea until I realize I've caught a pair of bright blue eyes.

"Like what you see?"

"I always do." Yusuke makes his picturesque sign and angles it just so my face isn't fully out of his view. He's interrupted by Joker approaching us, pulling his gun from his holster. 

"Raider, why don't you show us your skills?"

"I've never worked with guns before."

"None of us have either, but do you see that vase up there with the Ra head?" On top of a wooden platform is bright yellow vase with a covered head in gold paint.

I nod, aiming the gun in my (dominant side) hand first. "Shoot it," he says.

"Alright." I squeeze the trigger and there's a pop in front of me. The gun smokes for a second but there's no satisfying shatter. 

"Try your other hand."

"Yeah, okay." I drop my first hand, lifting the second. I know there's a crowd behind me and I'm choosing to ignore my nerves. Aim, squeeze and the smoke, but nothing like the results I'm hoping for. I let out a whispered 'damn' and drop my other hand.

"Now, use both hands. Be careful of the draw back; it'll hit you a little late." 

"Sounds fair." I lift both hands and fire at the same time. Two pops simultaneously with the smoke from both guns mixing into a cloud above my head. In the distance, the Ra head shatters and drops a metal chunk from the center.

"How the hell did you know I could do that, Joker?" I drop my hands to my side, turning to face him. 

"Leader's intuition."

"Um, actually, you used that in chapter 13, what is it really?" Queen calls.

Joker lets out a laugh and shakes his head. "It's simple observance. She can use her dominant hand all she wants, but she works well with both hands. I figured if we put them together, it was a chance at seeing how well she could work two guns."

"Which was damn well! You killed that shit, Raider!" Skull cheers, Panther echoing it. Fox puts his hand on my shoulder in signalling a 'well done', leaving Joker and Queen with smiles on their faces. Seems the newcomer had some potential after all. 

...

Giant stone doors drag along the floor, making way for the entrance to the Chamber of Guilt. Directly inside is a pair of sarcophagi and a stone tablet with green hieroglyphs. We take a quick look and it mentions something about red and blue. Everyone seems relatively lost about it but we all know it's coming up soon. There's a left ahead of us, Joker and Mona stopping against the corner of the wall. The rest of us step into position, awaiting the signal. Another one of those ET lookin' mummies steps toward the corner, then the bandages flap as he turns around. Joker pushes himself away from the corner and lands on the shoulders of the mummy thing. "Show me your true form!"

The mummy lets out a scream and collapses into dust to take the form of an Isis and a snake woman. We've seen these before, it's a matter of taking them down with ice and bless damage. Which means it's a fight for me and Fox. 

"Persona!" I cry, summoning the woman behind me. 

"Goemon! Strike!" He takes his mask off, the ninja from long ago rising behind him.

Streaks of blue and a pale yellow mix at the top of the tomb, coming down to strike the Shadows in front of us. Both let out screams of agony, the snake woman collapsing to the ground and fading shortly after. The Isis on the other hand, pushes herself forward to Joker. "P-Please don't kill me, I don't want to die yet!" She pleads.

Everyone around me has their guns focused on the Shadow at his feet. A dark smile crosses Joker's face as he reaches for his holster. "Lend me your power."

"P-Oh! I remember now! I'm a Shadow lost in the sea of human souls! My name is Isis and I'm your new mask." Joker takes his mask off as she finishes, a bright blue light pulling her in. She's gone, the space at Joker's feet now empty. The electronic music kicks up again, coins hitting everyone's toes. Something behind Queen pops and she mutters an 'oh, I leveled up!'

"How many jokes have we made about this?" Skull asks.

"I dunno. Not enough. They're kinda funny. Anyway, let's get going!" Panther offers as we all break our clump.  Joker leads us down the corridor and through a couple lefts, past a group of vases to a cliff and a drop off via sarcophagi to where Shadow Futaba waits for us. Same get up, same ominous vibe, same uncomfortable feelings. 

"What's up there?" Skull asks Joker, who has made his way up on the ledge. 

"Nothing super exciting. I guess we're going down. Though in the corner, there's what looks like an eight ball peeking from the side. Everyone be careful." He hops down from there and down the sarcophagi to the stone floor. That's enough for Futaba, as when three more of us hit the ground, she opens with insults.

"You're late. What took so long?" No one gets to respond, which that may be good, because I would've spit some words back. Fortunately I was struggling with tossing my shoes away from my landing spot, so I didn't to think too hard about it. Regardless, Futaba takes off to her right, up a slope. When we've all hit the bottom we're waved up to follow her, the path becoming narrower as we go, two thirds of the path covered in sand piles maybe a meter and a half high.

Futaba's reached the end and makes a left, leaving our team in her dust and an earthquake. Queen wonders why the ground's shaking and we get our answer as a bright gold and fluorescent green begins rolling toward us. Morgana lets out a cry while I'm told neurologically 'hey! you've seen this before!' I brush it off and follow the group back to where we came from, all of us narrowly avoiding being crushed. The sarcophagus that was across from us has been destroyed, along with Skull's last nerve. "I'm sick of this bullshit! What the hell is she thinkin'?!" Joker waves it off and turns back around to climb back up to the ledge. I guess he's checking for another potential threat, but something catches my eye.

"Hey! There's a crawlspace where the sarcophagus was!" I wave in the general direction where it is, everyone gathering to where I am. Quick and low compliments surround me, leaving a thud on the ground from Joker and a huff from Queen. Seems not all of us can be helpful all the time. One by one we cross the gap to the crawlspace, Joker leading and Mona playing the end. I fall in line behind Panther, leaving Fox and Mona for last. 

When I crawl out, the group has gathered at the top of a small set of stairs. In front of me is what looks like the source of the trap Futaba left us. Multiple in-ground tombs lay in perfectly set rows of two, six per row. The floor is out in a couple places, but at the back, there's a bright green holographic chest. I'll point it out before we leave unless someone beats me to it. 

I've spent too long studying it seems, as the group has moved on from the steps and up deeper into this room. There's a sudden pressure on my shoulder and a low beating on my neck. "You feelin' okay, Raider?"

"Oh, yeah. Thanks Mona, I was taking a look around, gathering what I can."

"Sounds good. I think we should get going with Joker and the others, in fact...." He suddenly leaps off my shoulder and pulls his slingshot from somewhere on this utility belt. Another gun cocks behind me, heels clicking behind us. I snap my head to the left, only to be reassured of Yusuke's presence.

"Why the sudden defense? Did you see what I did too?"

"Of course I did," Mona replies and ducks behind one of the stone tombs on the left. He presses his earpiece and mutters something into it. Static shoots back as I get behind him, reaching for my holsters. "New enemy?"

"Just spawned, good eye. We just need to sharpen your skills as searching for enemies in all the details. Get ready. We should have backup if I call for it, but we're going to see how the three of us as a group work out. Are you ready?"

I nod back and make myself smaller as Fox shifts himself to his knees to make an aim for the mask of the newly found enemy. A quick 'pop' and the thing collapses to dust, bringing us another Anzu. We don't have nuclear ability, so we'll make do with what we have.

"Zorro! Show your might!" Mona steps out from our hiding spot, touching his head and bending in half. Zorro appears behind him, foil at the ready. Mona lets out a little cry and Zorro waves his foil in a 'Z' shape. A bright green circle engulfs the purple flying... thing. Egyptian mythology is sure something. 

"Mina, come!" I take a step back and reach up at my mask. There's a light behind me, I can sense it. The once clear screen has become a light blue and gives me a brief looking at what Mina can do. Deciding on 'Eiga', I throw my arm forward as red and black engulfs the enemy. It lets out a low scream and that leaves one more turn.

"Persona!" The face once covered in a fox mask is red streaked as Goemon moves in for the final motion. He slams the cigarette extender to the ground, a vast amount of physical power hitting the Shadow, allowing it to collapse seconds later. Fox replaces his mask, all of us straightening and shaking off our tensity. My hands are sweaty and I seriously consider taking my gloves off, but I have nowhere to put them, so I guess that's a no. While I have my inner battle, Mona presses back into his earpiece and there's what sounds like a problem on the other end. His paw eases off the button and gives us a nod. There's something going on further in, something we haven't faced before. We rush up the tiny flight of stairs and over a poorly done wooden bridge and make a left.  Up ahead is something I recognize from my school days; it's an Anubis.

It's not looking good. The scene we've entered has Panther and Joker still standing. Queen is up against one wall and Skull is by a stone button. The one from the very beginning is green and the one by that flight of stairs is red. I connect the dots as I reach for my holsters, ready to help. My heels click as I step forward, guns drawn at the god of death with his scale leaned to the left. There's a whisper floating in my head, a woman's voice saying 'Curse...." It's Mina. She can tell what's about to happen; why the scale is tipped. She doesn't give me anything past that, leaving me to call out in warning. "DUCK!"

I aim as I stop, spreading my legs shoulder length apart and focusing on the head of the Shadow. A kill shot? Maybe. I settle on downing it, let out a sharp breath and fire. Panther and Joker fall the sides just as bullets fly past them, disappearing into said Anubis. It falls to the ground, those still standing or just coming in flocking to the scene, ready to fire a warning shot. 

"Lend me your power." Joker commands.

"As if. I don't want to waste my time on shitheads like you." Anubis spits.

"Alright then, on my mark." Joker lifts his hand then bounces into the air. I've only done this once and it takes some effort into convincing my knees to do it, but I leap into the air with them, exchanging guns for a knife. The All Out is fun to watch, but it's a gamble to be apart of. Last time, I got hit with a blade of some kind. Today, I'm afraid of being whipped. I'm sure it'll grow old in no time, but I still don't want to chance.

We hit the ground, all of us sliding back. Joker hits the ground last, fixing his glove as the Shadow above us bleeds out midair. Beyond that, you couldn't tell there was anything here. After the end, the coins hit the floor while Queen and Skull pick themselves us from their walls. Skull lets out a low whistle as he helps Queen up. 

"Panther, you got them? Otherwise I've got some medicine somewhere in here," Joker begins patting down his trench coat but Panther stops him. "Yeah, I got you. Carmen!" She summons her Persona, mask covered in bright orange flames. Carmen appears, always puffing on her cigar and standing on her love fools. I don't catch the word she mutters, but Carmen flings her wrist forward and a lime green light surrounds all of us. I feel my health increase; unaware it was decreasing in the first place. When the light feeling goes away, Panther's mask is back on, everyone standing as tall as they can.

It's time to keep moving down the corridor, another left and then a dead end with a stone slab at the end of the hall. Queen and Skull have an exchange with a bit of Joker sprinkled in. He decides to take a closer look and presses on the slab. It lights up a bluish purple and something in the next room shakes. Skull gets excited. "Oooh! It's shinin'!"

"Hm," Queen starts, placing her chin in her palm. "The devices controlling the murals seemed to react in a similar fashion"

Panther gets excited. "Something showed up! It says 'B01010'!

"That may be a clue of some sort. Either way, we should search to see if anything has changed." The white and red fox mask slightly tilts upward so he can be heard clearly.

Joker decides it's time to head back to that big room at the front with the tombs. Turns out the slab we saw acts as a power source, as the left side of the room has the tombs lit up with a holographic blue. It takes a bit of brain power, but we come to the conclusion that we start at the blue hologram and turn the bright yellow holograms on and off as we go down the line. When we have them aligned correctly, the slab up the handful of steps lights up to match the purple-blue color. Panther, Fox and Joker step up there to make their own remarks, in that order of course.

"Huh? The slab over here is shining too. Was it not doing that earlier?"

"It is the same color as the one from further in. There must be some meaning to all of this."

Joker pushes the bright orange button now standing out from the slab and a door I hadn't paid much attention to earlier now opens, a whirring sound signalling the abrupt stop of the lock placed on it. 

"The door opened!" Panther shouts gleefully. It's short lived with ever realistic fox mask breaking our moment of excitement. 

"I suppose this is the first step in this process? The next device must be beyond this point."

"By the way," Panther joins the newly found bleak mood. "By the way, what's up with these things? Are they all because of Futaba-chan's mental state?"

Mona gives a shrug. "It's hard to say. But it does prove that she might not be as simple a target as we were hoping she'd be."

Queen steps up the stairs behind Mona and joins in too. "I wonder about the meaning behind the stone slab as well."

I find myself interjecting, realizing I've subconsciously put it all together. "It's a lock. It's connected to the trap outside where the sarcophagus is. If I'm right, we're going to find the red slab in the door that just opened and we'll have to do some work out here to match it up with the blue holograms."

Everyone turns their attention to me, thinking over the idea hanging in the air. Joker rolls his head on his shoulders and a smile creeps across Fox's face. I return it and there's nothing past that; it's time to get going. We're lead through the door that had the virtual lock, leaving us in not a vast room, but wide enough hallways we could all stand shoulder to shoulder. On the turn to the left, there's yet another mummy ET Shadow. We get a warning, and it's time to go when: "Show me your true form!"

We get into line, facing an Isis and a couple Nagas? They look like slithering soldiers, so I guess I could call it like it is. "I got it!" Skull calls, tearing his mask off. "Blast 'em away! Captain Kidd!" His Persona salutes, ship rocking forward as lightning rains from the sky. Two of them are knocked down, leaving what looks like the availability for a baton pass. A high five is exchanged between Joker and Skull, beginning Joker's first turn. He takes his mask off, calling "Matador!" His Persona raises his flag as bright yellows, pinks and a black pop around the Isis. She lets out a scream and hits the ground, joining the Nagas. It's time for all of us to step forward, guns raised. I feel a little out of place, with most of the team having two handed guns, but I double wield. I guess I'll be fine.

"Do it!' Joker says, executing a back handspring and we jump into the air. Time freezes when you're up there, by the way. It's just fighting and stabbing until the Shadows can no longer take it. We all hit the ground, heels sliding as we prepare for impact. Joker hits the ground last, fixing his glove as the words 'The Show's Over' appear over his head. I didn't realize we all got little sayings during our All Out Attacks. I wonder what mine says, finding myself looking over at Queen. She shrugs in return, I think noticing the same thing. 

We continue along the corridor, sand leaking from a corner with a couple vases on the side. We get a Sekhmet Mural from the vase that had a human face, and continue to our right this time, only to find a another Shadow, but dog form. It doesn't have the wrapping hanging off, but it's bone skinny and angry. We ambush it, finding more of those literate baboons. They're ugly and gross, and every fiber of my being wants to fire off all the bullets in the chambers of my gun.

Hits come from Matador again, I let out a small sigh and wonder if I'll learn a Psychokinesis move any time soon. Maybe I'll stick around after I'm done for the day and work with Mina, see what I can conjure up. Or we'll get someone with it in the next Palace, if there is one. The battle finishes with me not paying any sort of attention, yet hand on my hip so I can reach for a knife if needed.

"Joker! A treasure chest! Let's get it!" Mona calls from the far end of the hallway. Down said hall to the right, a bright green light and a tinkling sound surround that end. Joker lets Mona open the treasure chest, and as he approaches it, Mona hops on his shoulder, his little tail waggling at the speed of light. He hops on the table and pulls a sash of some sort; I'm too far to pull the majority of the kanji, but it looks like 'stamina' from the little I can. It's over as soon as started, Joker and Mona turning to our side of the hallway and pushing the door in front of us open. There's a lever to be pushed, revealing a large room with multiple sarcophagi and another stone slab. Now that I think about it, it looks like every other room in this place. 

"Look! There's a stone slab here, too!" Mona says, taking a look at it.

"Touching this one will probably activate it too. What do you want do, Joker? Queen takes a step forward as Joker turns to face her. He gives her a nod then turns and pushes the hieroglyphs on the stone, turning it a bright red. 

"Woo! It lit up like we were expectin'!" Skull cheers.

"There are red inscriptions on there this time. They say..." Queen pauses, reading and rereading to make sure she's got it right. " 'R01100' and 'B10011'."

"If this code is similar to the prior one, these would surely be hints for those buttons." Fox offers, turning his head to the slab.

"To be honest, it somewhat reminds me of binary." 

"It makes sense, given Futaba-chan's hacker background. Well then, let's go see if anything has changed." 

That's the end of the note taking and we head back to the big room with the tombs and the holograms. I catch stride with Queen, her cape only hitting me once. She turns her head to me and gives me a half smile. "Did you really figure that out without looking further?" It's a straight forward question, and I don't know how to answer. "I guess I was just taking notes as we went along, subconsciously."

"That's fair. I like your observation skills. You're giving me a run for my money, keep it up Raider." I can't tell if she means it or not, so I give her a half smile in return and fall back a step. I let it spin around my head as we come to the end of the corridor and into the room where this adventure started. 

"Aha, look!" Mona reaches one of his paws out toward the holograms. They blink for a second, then go out, the ground shaking beneath us. I reach out to place my hand on the railing, but a hand reaches out to my hip to balance me; a blue one at that. I shoot Yusuke a small yet grateful smile as the ground shakes again, this time all of the holograms lighting up. 

"Something changed in the room, just like we expected."

"There should be some connection between that," Queen gestures to the open area below us, "and that code that appeared on the stone slab."

There's nothing more to that conversation, but it takes a couple minutes to get the rows programmed. One of us may have had to go back to check it, but I won't say. We all seem to have different things on our minds, some of us more than others.

"Hey! The stone slab changed color! It's red too now." Seems the cat has an eye for things changing today.

"It seems to have reacted to the slab further in. What should we do, Joker?" 

"We're going to press the button." He answers Queen, then gives the bright orange button a punch.  The ground shakes again, throwing all of us off guard. Mona speaks first. "Woah, what's going on? This is a stronger reaction than anything up to this point."

"Guys, look!" Queen jerks a finger above us, the entire team looking where she points. 

"...Are those giant boulders rolling down the corridor?" Mona asks the general question, but he doesn't get an answer. I push my hand against the wall, doing my best to stable myself as the boulders keep rolling.

Skull joins next. "Dude, they ain't stoppin'! Are we gonna be okay?"

Joker shrugs and pushes the button again for an answer. The boulders pause momentarily, then go faster. Fox makes a comment about how it sped things up, but I don't catch it. This may be what earthquakes feel like and I'm straight up not havin' a good time. Mona panics and asks Joker to do something, but that button on the slab is no longer bright orange and stuck in the slab. He gives in and kicks it, the ground shaking one last time then stopping, sending most of us to the ground from the impact. Especially us girls it seems; the curse of the heels.

The boulders slow to a stop, Mona checking for reassurance. I miss the conversation as I push myself off the ground, ankle wobbling as I get up. I didn't roll it, but it feels out of wack. Shouldn't be a problem though, shake it out and keep moving. There's a low voice next to me, I think it was whoever noticed. "You doing all right, Raider?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Thanks Joker."

He gives me a 'hm' in response and leads our group down the small stairwell to the crawlspace where we came in from. It's full of dirt, so we try the conveniently placed sarcophagus to take us up above the line of boulders. 

"God damn, talk about a mess!" Skull calls.

"..It's broken. Well, I guess it would be a little more precise to say we broke it." Mona shakes his head, but it's not a bad shake. I think he's havin fun.

"We can't get through like this! What do we do?"

"Easy, Panther. We could try walking over the giant boulders." I cut Queen off unintentionally, but if she minds, she buries it.

Joker hoists himself up a ledge, gives himself a second, then takes a leap of faith onto the boulders. It's a straight line back, which is nice, until we get to the ledge drop off. It's not too far of a drop, but it's enough that I'm going to sit down with my Persona and ask her 'what the hell' for the heels. Maybe she'll give me nice sneakers.

Back in the Metaverse, we trek up a steeper flight of stairs after nabbing a couple rubies from the vases left through here. The door at the edge of the stairs opens to another stairwell and a bright light, I'm assuming leading to another mural. I choose to tune out the review conversation because we already know what's going to happen here. It'll be another picture of Futaba trying to grasp what's happened; the voices from the depths will sting my head but I'll tough it out like the big girl I am.

It takes Joker roughly a minute to fit the mural correctly. When the picture finally locks into place... it's one of the hardest things I've ever seen. Futaba's mother throwing herself in front of a car. I knew this is what happened, I was told. I clap a gloved hand over my mouth, feeling the color drain from my face. Words hit me like a brick when I think about it. 

I miss the days when my mother was there...

'This isn't my Palace' I tell myself over and over again. I shake my head and save the emotions for the most peaceful time of day; night time. If I can procrastinate on it, it'll get me then. Not a big deal. I let out a small sigh and watch the bright green light project further up the grand staircase. Light blinks ahead of us, but there's a sentence pulling me from it.

"...She died right in front of Futaba's eyes." Skull looks at the ground, not entirely sure how to feel.

"That's horrible..." Queen whispers.

"So, did her desire to forget those memories cause her to repress them?" Fox asks, his steps echoing on the ground behind me. His hand wavers in the air for a moment, then settles on my shoulder for a sense of comfort. No one says anything after he speaks, instead dropping to the stairwell below us. 

"Are you faring alright?" He asks me once Mona has dropped.

I give him a half smile. "I could lie and tell you yeah, but that ruins the fun, doesn't it?"

"It does, but I understand the want to cover it up. I won't pressure you about it now, but when we get home..." He searches for a way to say it. "If you'd like to discuss it, we can. This isn't easy for anyone here, but your mother is gone, meeting the same fate as Wakaba."

"Yeah, thanks." He's not very sensitive yet, but I'll give him credit for trying. "Let's go, don't wanna hold up progress."

Before he can say anything, I leap down to the doorway below us, going in for the final jump to the corridor. Everyone is already up ahead, having their intermission of what would be a cut scene if this was a video game. I follow them up, making sure I'm behind enough so I don't interrupt them. The group moves forward, leaving myself and Yusuke behind to play catch up. Two gates rise in the distance, Mona saying something about there being a safe room nearby. Joker pulls a lever and the stone doors open up, revealing another stone room to gather ourselves. I settle on one of the benches on the far side of the room, daring to look at my ankle. It's a nice red, but it's not hurting enough to raise my white flag.

"Is everyone ready?" Joker asks after giving us enough time to recuperate. He gets a variation of 'Yeah's and 'Yep's. I stand up, brush myself off and gather with everyone at the big door. When we've all clumped up, Joker pushes the door open and mutters. "It's showtime."

Honestly, I could totally do the rest of Futaba's Palace, but I don't wanna tonight. I'm about to cram 15 hours of sleep into 8, so wish me luck. Also, I mentioned a one shot book, so as readers, you should request some. That's all from me, very rambly, but I'm crashing. I'll start 21 tomorrow and finish her Palace. Goodnight everyone!