*After School May 16*
After taking a long train ride by yourself, you finally arrive at Yusuke's living address. You don't see your friends around and quickly take out your phone to text Ren.
*Your Text: Ren, are you guys inside?*
*Ren Text: Yes we actually did get in, Yusuke is doing a painting of Ann as we speak.*
*Your Text: Did you guys find any clues?*
*Ren Text: Not exactly. However we will as soon as we are done.*
*Your Text: Alright, I guess I will wait till you guys are done.*
You begin to end the text and put away your phone when suddenly, your phone buzzes. Your eyes open wide as you see the Meta Nav app pops onto your screen. You read the text on the screen.
You: "Search History confirmed, Madarame's Palace." W..What? So he does have a Palace...but... Why do I have it on my phone already? It says I already searched his Palace before..but when? I don't remember ever going into someone's Palace before... W..What is going on here.. Is the Meta Nav busted?
Meta Nav: Confirming location. Infiltrating Palace.
You: W..What?!! No! Cancel!
You feel the sudden shift of the world warp and fizzle in front of your vision. You blink in confusion as the reality starts to shift and you stand in front of a large museum. You notice that your Phantom Thief outfit is already equipped to you. You look around and see no one around, you try to head back to the real world but the Meta Nav app is somehow locked out.
You: Why won't it let me return! It did this when I first went into Mementos... How is this possible. Well I guess I am here now.. I better help the team out and scout ahead. Maybe I can find something out before our mission fully starts...
You put away your phone and begin to approach the museum. You look at it as you get closer, that's when suddenly you feel the same images flash in your mind as they did last time at the art exhibit, however you seem to recognize what they are, it is Madarame's Palace.. It's like.. you've been here before but not really, almost like you saw someone else's memories. You shake off the dizzying feeling. And head around the side to jump over some pillars to reach the roof of one of the buildings. You see one of the panels are open.
You: I can infiltrate from here.
You slip inside and find yourself in front of giant paintings of warped people. You take mental notes of each one but it seems to be for naught as they are hardly recognizable and probably won't lead you anywhere. So you begin to slip through a few doors, noticing some shadow's patrolling around the exhibit as guards, you do your best to sneak around.
You: *Whispering* It would be best if I don't get caught up in unnecessary fights, only scouting out for the guys is my main goal. Let's stick to it.
You begin to slip behind some thin walls and come across a laser field alarm system. You look for a way around to see if you can bypass it, no such luck. However you notice that just above it is a study pipe that can be used. So channeling your power, you summon the purple flaming shadow that reaches and grabs onto the pipe. You reel yourself in like a grappling hook and flip over the laser field. However you realize that you aren't used to doing acrobatics and so when you landed you had to do a soft tumble that made some noise.
You: Shit.. Not what I had planned..
Random Guard: What was that?!
You: Damn.. Gotta hide!
You quickly duck and roll out of sight, the guard runs into the room and is directly behind the wall you are hiding behind. You notice him looking at the ground and seeing some dirty foot prints left by your mistake. He gets suspicious and begins to look around, you worry if he will find you hiding so you decide to take him out as necessary. Reaching behind your back, you grip your sword and quietly draw the blade out. You prepare the blade for when the moment arises, when it does, you quickly rush forward and leap into the air with your sword held high.
The shadow turns around just to see you coming down with your sword, slicing downward, you make contact and the guard reacts with a grunt. You wait a moment to see what he would do now, but he stumbles back a few steps and you watch as he disperses into nothing. You throw your left hand up into a fist bump for the successful ambush.
You: Good job Kage, now let's continue the scouting.
You move past the room you were in, seeing more of the laser grid alarm system more aggressively, you take the time to slow your pace to make sure you trigger them. You worry that your slow progress will bite you in the end and so you try to look for a way around them quicker. That's when you notice a big door that is open that seems to go around the security system.
You: Just my luck, I can bypass this no problem.
You leap forward and head through the big doors. Taking the time to observe your surroundings you find yourself in a pretty open room with art pieces that catch some of your attention. They are big objects that are shaped very weirdly in the artistic fashion of the distorted user. Looking around a little more, you find an access panel room and head inside to see some of the security cameras. You notice that there is a path ahead that you could take to maybe find a better route around.
Deciding it's for the best, you sneak around another group of guards who don't seem to notice your presence and get into the next corridor. It's dimly lit and the paintings on the walls are hard to see any details without a proper source of light so you just ignore them completely. After some time, you have bypassed a decent amount of the security and seemingly reached a deeper part of the Palace. You look at the sky which is a massive spiral of distorted color that is meant to be how the Palace user sees his desires. It makes you a little disgusted and you begin to proceed forward. However you quickly encounter an issue, the main doors that might lead to the possible location of the treasure.
You: Damn.. Seems like this is how far I can go. This giant door must be some safe guard the Madarame has in the real world that makes him think his secret is kept safe. We won't get far unless we figure a way to get him to see us in that room. It should break his cognition, allowing us to enter where his treasure is.
You step a little forward trying to examine the door's details. It looks like a peacock with the colors and design. A weird choice you think to yourself. You try to get closer to the door to get a better look at it, until you feel the ground below you rumble and shake. That's when suddenly laser field poles pop from the ground and turn on. You try to shift back to dodge the laser but you trip over a step and take a bad stumble backwards, right into the laser field. The moment your body crosses the beam, a very loud alarm starts to echo inside the Palace, a bright red light flashes the room and you scramble to your feet.
You: Now you've done it Kage..!
???: I see the little rat found his way back into the cage again! How unfortunate for you to be so unlucky again.
You: What..? Madarame?
Madarame's Shadow: You stupid fool..! To think you were able to get so far that I wouldn't catch you like this!
You turn around and see Madarame's Shadow approach you with guards all around him. You draw your sword in a defensive stance and look at your surroundings. It isn't good, you are flanked by at least 60 guards to your back and even more in front.
You: Just wanted to scout the party before attending you know? I guess I over stayed my welcome this time..
Madarame's Shadow: Muhahahaha! I wasn't able to catch the pesky intruder in the black mask, but I was able to corner you. Maybe I can make you into an art piece to warn that bastard not to set foot here again.. Although he wasn't normal by any means, I am glad he didn't do much of anything.. You on the other hand I cannot let you roam here freely, your chance to be left alone left a long time ago!
You: B..Black Mask..?
You feel a sudden surge to your head as you see a glaring pair of red eyes staring at you with a vicious smile. It's brief but you shake off the stigma and refocus on Madarame's Shadow.
You: I don't know anyone in a Black Mask..! Besides I don't think you would have given me a chance to escape in the first place.. so how about we stop this little game of dance and see if I can get out of here and show your guards that they messed with the wrong guy!
Madarame's Shadow: Hmph! The look in your eye isn't the same as the other.. however there is no mistaking that mask... Besides the point! Guards.. Take out this disgusting trash.
Madarame's Shadow snaps his fingers, his kimono flowing as he snaps, his long top knot of a Shogun showing his false ambition, proceeds to walk away as you begin to be closed in. Looking at your options, your best bet is to fight until an opening of escape arises.. How soon that will be you don't know......
Thank you guys for reading this chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! Sorry to cut it short a bit but I had planned on a pretty lengthy fight scene here that was also gonna have a lot more background depth added so look forward to it! I am trying to recreate the original level design of the games while not trying to add in a lot of the filler stuff like certain puzzles or objects since they kinda are extra that doesn't need to be explored. Just giving valid details of the environment and key elements is good enough to convey the scene and progress from there. Well thanks again for reading, I will See you all in the Next one!