Date: May 16

Location: ?

Current Objective: Gather Information

As the distortion around us faded, I noticed that we were in our thief outfits. Morgana was also in their monster-ish form as he stood on the railing a look of shock on his face. "Hey, when did you activate the Nav!? You surprised me!"

"I don't think I did…" Joker also seemed confused as he slipped his phone into his pocket. I quickly started trying to get a good look at our surroundings. I didn't want us to get caught off guard.

"Didn't have much of a choice." Ryuji seemed calm for the most part as he turned towards Mona. "I think we just happened to get it right."

"What if I hadn't noticed, and then wandered off and got caught by an enemy!?" Mona jumped up in frustration at our bleached blonde friend. Ryuji started to rub the back of his head as he looked to the ground.

"You prolly woulda figured it out once you started walkin' on two legs." Mona just started looking sad a growled lightly at Skull's response. Though his reaction did bring up a good point, one that Panther seemed to take note of.

"So even you can slip into the Metaverse without realizing it, Morgana?"

"Yup." Mona was very upset by this fact. "In a place with minimal cognitive distortion, the differences can be subtle."

Ryuji seemed to finally realize where we were, as he freaked out looking to the building next to us where Madarame's shack used to be. "Forget that… Look! That shack is seriously some kinda museum!?"

The museum was made mostly of gold. There were a lot of misplaced windows all over and there were swirls of brighter gold color along with the awkwardly tall structure at the center of the building. It was very flashy and just the exact opposite of what I had seen from Madarame so far. There were even spotlights near the entrance.

"Let's go check it out!" Panther wanted to get straight to work, which was fine by me! When we got to the front of the museum, it was so crowded by cognitions lining up for the chance to go in. They didn't seem to even notice that we existed. "It's so extravagant… to the point that it's gaudy."

"You know, I just couldn't think of a word to think of it…" I sighed as I started to cross my arms. "It almost hurts to look at man…"

"It's a museum… right?" The only reason that I was thinking of this place as a museum, well, it was because of the Metanav. I couldn't honestly tell what the building was supposed to be from the outside.

"This is Madarame's?" Skull turned back to Mona looking quite shocked. Like I already mentioned, this building didn't seem to fit with the personality that we had seen from Madarame.

"A Palace is a scenery driven by desires, just like how Kamoshida's Palace was a castle." The cat-like creature had a serious face as he continued to explain. It made sense to me at least, Kamoshida wanted to rule the school. So it would make sense that the school turned into a castle with Kamoshida as the king. So if this was a museum, I started to get an idea of how Madarame looked at his home.

"Madarame's artwork is on display at Museums in reality too, though." Panther seemed good at starting to look into what was happening here in the Metaverse. "His exhibit was popular, and people already respect him. Why would he fantasize about a museum?"

That was an amazing point that she brought up. Skull also picked up on that. "You got a point… It ain't related to plagiarism or abuse either."

"Maybe it's more complicated than we can see on the outside…" I brought one hand up to my chin. Which was made a bit more difficult due to my gas mask. "Man, I can't think of anything that it could be…"

"Let's try looking around." Mona leaned in to try and grab Joker's attention. "Racking our brains here won't do us any good."

Joker looked from the building to Mona and nodded, most of us nodded and Skull looked back to the building as well. "Right. That aside… Ain't a museum a must for phantom thieves!?"

Joker grinned evilly a bit. "Yeah, it is."

"Well, we should also keep an eye out for traps…" I sighed remembering all the crap we went through in the castle. It was truly annoying.

"Yeah." Ryuji seemed to upset again. "All those old man's fans were super strong and all."

I immediately grabbed at a spot on my arm as the memory of the pain came back a bit. "You can effing say that again…"

"That has nothing to do with this you two." Morgana seemed a bit worried at this. He… he was right that was dumb to think the fans would have anything to do with traps in the Palace.

"But man, just look at that insane crowd…" Skull seemed a bit more interested in the what, rather than the why. Joker smirked and patted our bleach blonde on his shoulder.

"Come on, let's go!" Joker moved over a small distance away from the crowd.

"Well then, it's time we begin our infiltration!" Mona was ready to get to work! Yet, Skull seemed to not get the idea.

"Ugh…" Ryuji groaned loudly. "Are we gonna have to wait in that gigantic line?"

"Skull, I doubt phantom thieves would ever use the front door." I smirked as I could easily think of a few places for us to try and get in from.

"But there's a high wall around the building…" Panther made a good point once more.

"We'll just have to find our way over it then." Mona scanned the street in front of the Palace. "In any case, let's get going!"

"There!" Joker pointed towards a truck next to the wall. He moved over to it and flipped up onto the truck and then onto the wall next to it. After seeing this, the rest of us moved to get up there. Ryuji quickly pulled himself up using just his strength. Morgana was able to just jump up to the wall quickly and effortlessly. Ann limberly flipped up the truck and wall. I, knowing that I wasn't as limber or strong as my friends, kicked off the truck and then kicked off the car, being able to roll onto the top of the truck and then Joker quickly reached down to help me up as I stood up.

With that, we were able to now get ready to move forward into the museum. As we now got a good look at the gaudy Palace. "This is really how he thinks of that run-down shack…? It's overwhelmingly shiny…"

"It's just not hitting me that this is that old guy's Palace…" Panther seemed a little grossed out by the building.

"That's why we're here, right?" Skull seemed somewhat upset. "C'mon, let's go check it out."

"I agree, we won't learn more from just staring out the building." I rubbed the back of my neck. We had to go in and see what it was like in there for ourselves. We all jumped down from the wall into a garden area next to the line. There were hedges and a gazebo-like path that led to a fountain with a small few spiral statues next to. After a quick moment, Joker flipped up onto the statue that had a flat top. So I jumped off the fountain and rolled onto the statue and noticed that there were a lot of the spiral statues in this garden. I turned back and grabbed Panther's arm, helping her up as she jumped up.

I groaned a bit in pain as I lifted. Next to us Mona and Skull lifted themselves. Once we were all up. Joker led the charge farther into the garden and closer to the Palace. After running across a few of the statues, we had to hop across a few of them leading to an archway where we could see a Shadow patrolling the grounds just below us. Quickly moving across the archway and jumping a few large steps like indents in the wall of the building. We made it to a low part of the roof where we found a few blue and gold skylights. One of which was conveniently lifted open a bit. Skull seemed excited by the new revelation. "Ooh! The skylight's open! I think we can get in here."

"But it's a pretty far drop…" Panther peered into the skylights. "Will we be able to get back out this way?"

"Hehe, don't worry…" Mona reached into one of the pockets on his hip and produced a rope! "I have a rope! I'm our tool specialist, after all!"

"You know, I'm honestly impressed, Mona." I leaned on my right foot and moved my gas mask from my neck to my face. The cat-like creature smirked and his eyes lit up due to the praise.

"Glad to see that someone appreciates my talents!" Mona smirked evilly, glancing over to Skull before he turned Joker. Our bleach blonde member just huffed at our thieving mentor. "So, what's your call, Joker? Want to head inside?"

"Let's go." Joker nodded and we moved into action. Mona quickly tied the rope to a nearby air conditioner and down we slid. Once inside, the first thing we noticed was all the different paintings of people that seemed to distort the longer you looked at them. We landed onto the dark blue carpet. There were different green or gold benches lining the middle of the room.

"It's quiet." Mona quickly looked around the room. I quickly moved to a spot where if we were ambushed, at least we wouldn't be surrounded. "Almost too quiet."

"H-Hey…" Panther though seemed to be taken in by one of the paintings. "This… It's… moving…"

"C'mon, we're in a Palace." Skull, ever the observant. Was more focused on the task at hand. "That ain't anything to be freakin' out over."

"Hey Mona, didn't say that Palaces reflect the ruler's heart, wouldn't that mean these have something to do with Madarame's cognition?" I looked at all of the paintings currently in the room. Our mentor nodded and took a few steps closer to one.

"You're right Spector…" The small cat creature's face had a very serious look in his eyes. "We may want to check these paintings out."

We moved up to look at the closest picture. It seemed to be of a young man… though his face seemed a bit distorted and I couldn't seem to make out very many details. Skull moved up and looked closely at a nearby plague. "Oh hey, there's some kinda explanation here… Lemme see… It's someone's name and age? What the hell?"

Panther seemed confused at the plague as well. "That can't be the title of the painting… right? Do you think it's the artist's name?"

I started to get a very sick feeling in my stomach. I didn't have enough proof but… I felt sick just looking at them. I didn't think that something like this was possible… "I-I may have an idea… but I don't like it…"

"Uh, what do you mean?" Panther tilted her head at me and I just shook my head.

"I need to see a bit more before I make any final judgments…" I turned away from the picture, that sickly feeling not leaving me. I noticed that Mona seemed to be deep in thought as well.

"Okay, but let us know when you know for sure if it's right." Mona nodded to me as he turned to look at the other paintings in the room. "Let's check the other paintings too. Like Spector… I think there might be something important about them…"

"Alright." Joker nodded and led the charge into the room which was a maze of different moveable walls, all of which had at least one of the paintings that we had been seeing on them. We stopped by one near the entrance we had just come from and Panther read this one.

"This one has a full name…" I winced hearing her words. I played with the gas mask a bit. My hands not just shaky from my nerve damage right now…

"I hate this feeling…" I looked from painting to painting… it felt like I was being watched by every single one of them too… We hadn't even run into any Shadows yet. The closest we had gotten to security was what looked like black boxes on poles. After a few more minutes of walking around in that, we moved onto the next one which was a long hallway of the paintings. We stopped just in the doorway as Panther started to speak again.

"Hey, this doesn't make any sense…" She started eyeing the paintings in the hall. "Madarame's famous for having a variety of art styles… But all the portraits on display here look the same… This is way different from what was at the-"

"Wait a sec!" Skull interrupted the model as he jumped seeing the painting behind us. I had to look away when I saw it… I was right… "Ain't this that guy we saw in Mementos…? Y'know, the one who was shit-talkin' Madarame…"

"Natsuhiko Nakanohara." Mona had a pained look on his face… seemed like we had come to the same conclusion… "His name's written on the plaque."

"Dude, I don't get it!" The bleached blonde was so shocked that the painting of the man we had gone after in Mementos. "Why's there a paintin' of him in here!? And more important, why's his name written under it?"

"You're right…" Ann brought her hand up to her chin deep in thought. "Doesn't art usually have like, the title of the piece or the artist's name?"

"Hm…" Mona glared at the paintings now. "This is quite the mystery… All right, let's keep looking around for now."

Seemed like I was wrong, Mona didn't think the same thing I was. The cat did look to me. "Or did you figure out if you were right yet?"

"I need to see one more thing… and I hope I'm wrong…" I looked down the hall and say a from that was a lot more simple than the rest of the paintings we had seen. Joker nodded and motioned for us to move down the hall. As we walked closer to the painting, I could feel a pit forming in my stomach. Then Panther called out.

"What…?" She stopped dead in her tracks as she looked up to the painting. "No way!"

We all moved to get a good look at the painting. It looked like who I feared it would. Skull seemed to notice it as well. "Hey, isn't this a painting of that guy…?"

Mona turned away from the plaque back to us. "It says 'Yusuke Kitagawa.' There's no mistaking it."

"I was right…" Everyone turned back to me as I looked to all of the paintings in here. "They are Madarame's…"

"Madarame's pupils…" Joker gritted his teeth in anger. Panther seemed worried.

"I think you're both right." The model nodded at us. I was still feeling sick at all of this.

"For real?" Skull flinched back in shock, his eyes wide. "All of 'em…? But it was only Yusuke when we went to his place before…"

"This must include former pupils as well." Mona was right, some of those ages made it seem like they hadn't been at the shack in years. "Only one remains now…"

"That's what Nakanohara said after we beat his Shadow." I clenched my fist. I had a pretty clear image of what these were now. "I think we need just a little more to get the full picture…"

One thing was for sure… Madarame was not the man he seemed to be. We were about to find that out real soon.

All rights are reserved for their respective owners.

Now we move onto the Palace.

I will be trying a different style when it comes to the battle now.

I know not a lot happened here, but I didn't want this to run on forever.

Well, I hope that my writing has improved throughout these last few chapters.

I ended up getting a grammar program so it should help a little.

Too broke to get the premium though, student loans still suck guys.