So yeah, we hit 30K. And like, I found out on Tuesday and fucking died. So yes, thank you all for 30K!

Thursday, November 24, 20XX

The sunset allows the water to shimmer, which gets me thinking. This is overflow from what should be the Pacific. Something nags in my mind; maybe nausea from being seasick, or maybe the fact nothing is separating us from the mastermind of everything.

The only way I can force my body to move is toward the edge of the deck, catching myself on the railing. I look down at the water; not only seeing a burred reflection of myself but the fallen buildings that lie under the sea. There's a loud creak, then a building off to my left falls; completely submerged. The echo of the cracking spins around in my skull, the splash of it hitting what should be the road beneath it. A huge gust of wind is shot in my direction, which makes me glad I wore jeans under my school shirt.

"Even though this country may sink," Yusuke begins. "He alone will survive. That's what this cognition is about, hmm?"

"This is bullshit!" Ryuji ignites. "A country to be proud of, my ass! It's COMPLETELY sunken in his head! If a guy like this stands above everyone, we're seriously done for!"

"This is beyond ridiculous," Ann adds her bit in and makes a frustrated noise. 

"The same goes for Akechi," which Yusuke makes an addition to Ryuji. "He should've seen this scenery as well, but he still aided Shido."

"What in the world is he thinking..?"

Haru looks toward the deck. "Whether it be for glory or simply reward... My father died because of someone like this!"

"We gotta sink Shido instead of this country!" Futaba is becoming our little beacon of hope. Her fists are clenched and she has a wild look on her face. 

"A Palace not only serving as the center of distortion but the entire country sunken! I can't believe there's someone with such a tremendous amount of desire! We should all be careful; this will be COMPLETELY different from previous Palaces."

"We're definitely gonna take his Treasure," Ryuji remarks, stretching his arm out. 

"We don't have much more time, let's go!" Akira leads almost everyone away, but I find a pair of black shoes still waiting a meter away from me.

"Are you ready, Y/N?" The regular gesture appears once more, and I once again didn't realize I really needed it.

"You know, I really think this is all bullshit dude. How fucking twisted," I sigh, flipping myself around to lean my back against the railing. "Do you have to be to want a country to sink so badly?! He's fifty-three, not some rebellious teenager 'standing up for himself'! This is something I expect one of us to do if we were less mature, I mean."

Yusuke only smiles at me. "You think very highly of Shido if you compare him to a teenager."

I scoff. "What, are you saying teenagers can't think?"

"Not quite. Shido is... less than a teenager, I won't lie to you."

I fake gasp. "You mean, he's scum?"

Yusuke's actual, loud laugh fills the air around me. "Yes darling, I promise you. He's scum." He begins walking toward the others, who are rattling off the date to finish this by. It's got to be done by December 17th, which we'll have done way before then. A pale hand is extended in my direction and I take it, being led to the front doors where our infiltration begins.

"Do have to say," I comment as I follow Yusuke up to the marble stairs. "I'm pleasantly surprised we aren't a threat yet."

"We just had that talk with Ryuji. I think it may have to do with the thought process we're teenagers; what should we do?"

I hum at Makoto. "Good point but I guess I was thinking, since Akechi was the spy and all, we'd be in uniform."

"When it happens, it'll happen." Akira shrugs. "Let's go."

I'm not so sure how that doof opened; it's pure gold and has no handles, but it was one of those pull doors. With Morgana and Ryuji at his sides, Akira leads us in, the rest of us filing in behind them. One by one, confidence spurs in each of us. Maybe it's because we've all transitioned into our Thief outfits. The hand I was holding no longer has skin against mine; instead, it's a blue glove against a creme-colored glove. I look down at my feet and find no longer school-looking shoes, but the dress flats I run in all the time. 

Looming above my head, stand two bronze statues of Shido in a cape and he bears a staff with a giant smirk on his shiny head. Grand is a bit of an understatement, much to my chagrin. There's a chandelier that hangs above us that doesn't compliment the posters of him pasted claustrophobically on the walls. The stairs fall perfectly down from the second floor and round out at the bottom banisters. What acts as the cherry on top is the red carpet strewn down perfectly in the center of the staircase. 

"It's very likely we'll end up in battle from here forward," Mona warns. "Be on your guard, everyone!"

When he says that, we all brush it off. It takes no longer than thirty seconds for a Cerberus to appear at the top of the stairwell, immediately shaking off his butler costume. I feel like, in all the mythology I've read, I wasn't expecting a white lion's body with a snake-looking and textured tail. 

There isn't much room for all of us to be up there and fight it out; so Joker, Mona, Skull and Queen take the lead, then we'll wait and see about tagging in and out. 

There is absolutely nothing like waiting on a railing and watching a fight happen; Mona's Persona has a tight ass crammed into skinny pants and I notice that Captain Kidd only swings to the left. He salutes of course, but it isn't anything that's super out of the ordinary in terms of combat. Queen doesn't deal the damage she wants and Joker takes the Cerberus out in one swing. Here I was hoping I'd get to shoot at something, but oh well.

"Safety in numbers. We should split up. There's an even number of us this time so we can spread out, investigate, and meet up at the..." Joker takes a step back and climbs a couple of steps, then squints. "There's a door up there, at the top of the stairwell. One group should go ahead of us and investigate the floor above."

We all, somehow, nod in unison. 

"I believe you know who you work best with. I'll be taking Queen, Noir and Mona."

I shake my head; odd group. But if I get to take the heavy hitters, that's fine with me. "Are you guys staying down here? I can take everyone else and look around upstairs."

Joker and Queen share a look at my question. I didn't realize I was asking for Chemistry help, but okay. "Yeah, alright. There's another half a level to investigate, so we'll finish this out and we'll see you at the top."

"Sounds good to me," I reply and wave a hand to the people on my team. "See you at the top!"

Four sets of feet trek up velvet carpeted stairs, loudly and ready to fight. Should there be anything up here, I have a very good feeling any sort of defense played by the threat will go down. Just like I'm under the impression the subconscious joining of two couples is certainly a bad idea. 

"You know, I feel like I've said it before, but I think I'll say it again. We all agree Shido's bullshit, right?"

"Skull, shut up," Panther nudges him playfully. "The silence is being ruined by Shido running his mouth, you don't need to either!"

"I feel like this would be far sexier if you weren't in a fox suit."

"I feel if you dislike it so much, I can strip if you prefer."

"Tempting, but I'll flip my shit if you undo that zipper."

"Noted," Fox remarks and his hand strays to his chest.

"I KNOW YOU WON'T!" I shout and inadvertently draw too much attention to myself. A glass shatters off to my right and a silver tray is whistling in my direction. Naturally, the move is to unholster and fire, but it's fast metal against fast metal. 

A whip cracks in the air beside me and I duck as the leather snaps. The tray goes flying somewhere toward the lobby and Panther clicks her heel. "You are incredibly noisy, Raider. Why don't you stop talking and fight?"

I let out a deep laugh. "You say that like I don't fight on the regular!" 

Since I'm closest, I jump up and whirl myself on the broad shoulders of the Shadow. Legs tightened against its neck, I take one of the throwing knives and slide the tip down the mask. The gloved hands belonging to the enemy form claws as the true threat is revealed; a fairy my height in a green dress. I'm shrugged off fast enough that I land badly and have to take a second to recover.

In that second, however, I find myself leaping out of the way of a katana blade and a heavy-looking hammer. Panther has her mask off and a blue flame behind her, with Carmen rising above in her own glory. It occurs to me at that moment that if there was an attraction to a Persona, I have one.

Is it gay? Yeah, maybe.

"It's your turn!" Skull yells in my direction. I've learned absolutely nothing about the weaknesses of this Shadow and pull my mask from my face. The little screen of magic ability flashes and I choose a Bless skill this time. I take my dramatic step forward and point in the direction of the bright green threat.

"Let's do it! Kougaon!"

Bright light fills the battlefield; more the carpet and railing. There's a high-pitched scream and in the wake of the regular lighting, a pile of dust sits in the middle of the floor. A light pressure returns; my mask is on my face once more. 

There's a little bit of me that wonders who we've just taken out. Loyal followers of Shido that were disposable? Or just mere additions? It's something that's always pulled in the back of my mind. 

"Great work! You did fantastic, Raider!"

I hum in response. "Team effort. Make it sound like I do everything, you guys."

"Sometimes that happens to be the case."

I roll my eyes at Skull's comment and lead the way around the floor. There are a couple of jars sitting about on little tables on this floor. One of them has garnet and another an old pocket watch. Nothing worth noting is found anywhere else, except a further workout up thin stairs.

A heavy golden door stands on the top floor with an arrow design engraved. I decide to tune out Fox's artistic opinion and slam my left side into the door to get it to open. My hip feels the brunt of it and I grunt on impact but I didn't see anyone else coming to my aid.

"About time you guys got here. Fight go okay?"

I ignore the stupid question from Queen and instead turn my attention to Noir who is looking at her ax. "What's up with your ax?"

"Oh, nothing! I was checking to see how sharp it was and it's still enough to make me bleed a little."

"Sounds like you're keeping it in good condition. I wouldn't worry too much about it. The fact you're wielding it makes it scarier."

Noir smiles and thanks me in her special way for the compliment. I return it and step further into the main hall of the ship. 

"I think I can sense the Treasure," Mona tilts his head upward and then sets his sight at the golden door a handful of meters ahead of us. "It's that way! Let's go guys!" Eight of us rush forward; uneven breathing comes from my right side and my left has a cat skipping hard enough he might as well leave a trail of glitter. 

By the golden doors are two screens with speakers attached and the sign in the middle above the double doors reads 'Representative Chamber'. The screens, however, have nothing remarkable to read on them. I grumble under my breath about this whole thing being a sham while Skull starts talking about how the double doors aren't obvious.

"-There are slots to stick something in, like a keycard! There's five of 'em!" Oracle gasps and bends down to investigate. 

Over the intercom, a monotonous male voice starts talking. "Four hundred seventy-five people in favor, zero against. Since there is no one against the plan, this bill will be passed unanimously as a draft."

"Passed?" Skull kicks at the ground. "What's goin' on? Was the Shido's voice?"

"If this truly is the Representatives' Chamber as written, beyond here must be the main assembly hall."

"The what now?"

"It's the large conference room we see on the news all the time," I respond. "That's where they have the big meetings about laws and shit." I can hear Queen sighing at me and I raise my hand. "Don't waste your breath, ma'am. I am aware I am a degenerate but I am also third-tier comedic relief."

"You suck so much as a teammate sometimes, Raider."

I whip my head to the left and give her a malicious smirk. "Oh honey, what would you do without me? Be the best female fighter? I don't think I can let that happen. Besides, something tells me you would crack under the pressure."

"Ugh, bite me."

"I think I'll take that as an invitation for another date," I wink and follow everyone else to the end of Joker's three second monologue. "Either way, there's a meaningless vote in there. This is Shido's perfect world; everyone agrees, so anything he suggests, goes."

"He's doing whatever he wants by keeping only his supporters in there," Noir puts her hands on her hips and shakes her head.

"There are five keycard slots... where do we find them?" Fox steps beside Oracle. 

"Maybe we need some kind of qualification, one that vows to be his follower or swear loyalty," Mona scans the slots and thinks aloud.

Panther joins in. "We basically need to prove we're on his side."

"We have to pretend," Joker announces, turning around. 

"You sure move on quick," Queen scoffs in disbelief.

"I'm not sure as I really have a choice in the matter."

"But what's the purpose of the qualification?"

"Great question," Noir smiles warmly. "Why don't we ask the people onboard?"

"Great idea," Joker grins in return. I can swear, in the look in his eyes, there's more than leader-to-teammate praise. Like the soft look I receive from Yusuke when I get excited about finding a pen in another sweatshirt. Or the look I watch Ryuji give Ann when she pulls another bright tube of lip gloss from her purse and gets excited because she hasn't used it yet.

"That never occurred to me. Woah."

"Asking around doesn't seem like a bad idea," Mona encourages. "The guests here are cognitions of Shido's people in his mind. They'll know any secrets he's shared."

"True, you have a point."

"That said," Fox flicks his wrist in his knowledgeable feeling. "The ruler here is evil Shido. It wouldn't surprise me if they became hostile."

"Yeah... they won't attack us, will they?"

I shrug and find myself playing the support role. "If they do, they're sorely mistaken in who the winner will be."

...

"Grand doesn't even seem to cover the aesthetics of this safe room. My boyfriend is gonna pee himself when he steps in here."

"Raider is correct. I would have peed myself if my bladder was full. The coloring is atrocious and I will not be staying here longer than necessary."

"There's a bed in the back though, you guys could continue on the Kitagawa legacy...." Skull wiggles his fingers and makes a noise after that.

"You ass! Don't encourage sex before marriage!" Panther hits his shoulder and he laughs in response. "That's rude!"

"But funny. Also worth noting you're religious..?"

Panther punches her fingers. "A little. There are some things I feel a little ways about."

"Either way," Joker clears his throat. "We need a recap. What'd we find out?"

As Mona begins to rattle everything he knows off, I take a seat next to Oracle on the deep purple couch. I try not to sink in, but the fabric pulls me in fast. Now I look like a fool with my knees above my head and my flats somewhat hanging off my feet. I need a grappling hook if I'm going to make it out of this.

"-We need five letters of introduction from five VIPs on this ship. Those become the keycards necessary for getting into the Chamber of Representatives. Queen, the floor is yours."

"Right, thanks Joker. According to my intel, one of the VIPs in named Ooe, who is an influential politician. He's supposedly seen at the restaurant late at night, sitting by a window."

"Uh, I'll go next. I heard about a prominent VIP who used to be..." Panther searches for the word she wants. "Nobility? It sounds like he's usually by the pool."

"Next is my intelligence."

"Can you take your mask off so we can be a little more serious about this? You look like a furry."

"Raider has been demoted to silence. It seems the president of a television station is another VIP. He always plays slots at night. It would seem he spends his money quite lavishly."

"Oh crap, I'm startin' to forget people already..."

Completely ignoring the blonde boy, Oracle jumps in. "Next is my turn!"

"For real? Even you got info?!"

"Of course! I eavesdropped. Supposedly, one of the VIPs is is the president of an IT company. He's always in his room and reportedly enters from an exclusive hallway."

"Well then! I'll close us out!" I watch the yellow neckerchief shake as Mona gets excited.

"How the hell'd you get info with your looks?"

"Dude's got a point. What the f-"

"You both suck. Anyway, it seems like there's another guy called 'the cleaner' who serves as a VIP. I've heard he's cautious, so we should probably check out the other ones first."

"Cleaner.." Noir murmurs. "I wonder what they mean by that."

"Aside from wondering who the 'Cleaner' is, who here remembered 'em all? I memorized them, so I can write them down for everyone later."

"Shhh, Raider."

"Girl please-" I'm about to break Oracle's hand for shushing me but she gets on her recap box.

"We're up against five people. The politician Ooe, a former noble, a TV station president, an IT company president, and a cleaner. We get a certification from them and obtain letters of introduction that serve as keycards. But only go for the cleaner after the other four have been dealt with. Got it?"

"Woah!" Panther compliments her. "That's impressive! You go girl!"

"If we can't remember the details of who's who, we reconvene in a safe room."

I make a comment under my breath about the brunette across from me dying from not being in the spotlight, but I'm over spoken by a biped furry. 

...

"I think, we should live by the ocean when we get out of high school."

"And why do you think that, Y/N? We happen to live on an island. We can go to the beach any time we please."

"But then we have to get on the highway. And we have no car!"

"I turn 18 in January; I can see about my license then. Perhaps we could go to the beach whenever you please."

"No but like," the dorm door shuts behind me. "We could go out ON the beach whenever we wanted if we lived there."

"The tsunamis would be a nightmare, darling. Do you have the money for the insurance?"

Oh, shit. He's got me there. "No, but I could. I just need to go to work for it."

"So could I. We'll have to see about it though. For now, as November comes to a close, I think we should see about our next case."

"Right, right." The springs on the mattress creak heavily beneath my sitting down. A lot has happened on this bed in the past almost six months: I slept, I ate, I made out, slept some more... "So... we have five people we need to take out. Then what? Do you think we're just... done? After we wipe Shido out, I mean."

Yusuke puts a little bit of thought into his answer, but not before moving to my bathroom and running some water. "I feel as if that would be too easy. I have a feeling our mission will be split up into the course of somewhere between a week and a week and a half, including waiting out on the calling card. This seems to be a personal mission for Akira, so I think going any sort of 'out of place' would not be in our best interest."

I can only bring myself to nod. "I was having the same thought, just not put 'oh so' professionally."

Yusuke grins. "In time, you will certainly learn the sophistication of my vocabulary. It is a gift that only few hold."

I roll my eyes and return the smile. "I love you, but you're full of shit."

"I believe the term is egotistical."

I remember when I was gonna publish this in June and then time got away from me and I was like 'hah oops'. Thank you for almost 32K, I very much appreciate it. 
Honorable mentions for this chapter are 
TheSlavicLad  because I said so. Take care!