"Ren, what was up with that package? It looked like it was a toy, but I picked that thing up and, ohhhh boy, that's definitely some metal."
"What a strange way to ask that question..." Shiho wryly said.
"It lets you summon your Persona in the real world."
?!?!
"WHAT?!-"
[Beginning Navigation]
"Stop doing that, you ass!" Ann said in frustration, twisting the skin on his arm.
"Ouch," Ren said in a deadpan way.
Seeing the team glare at him, Ren sighed. "I won't change the subject. But I'll have to tell you about this later. Haven't you noticed?"
The team blinked and their faces dropped into frowns.
"This..."
"Looks like the calling card worked. The Palace is on high alert," Morgana said.
"It's time to topple the king," Ren said with a grin, Arsene's voice overlapping his.
The group all responded with a laugh.
"Aye!" they all said, their voices also overlapping with their respective Personas.
---
The team fast-traveled to the highest safe room once more, quickly weaving through the halls and shadows before coming across the "butt staircase."
"I feel like we could have just walked through the throne room. The door was open, after all," Shiho said quietly as the team snuck their way across the balcony toward the treasury.
"Come on, there's normally no way that wouldn't have been a trap, right?" Ryuji defended as the group slipped through the door.
They stood up from their crouches and walked toward the part of the treasury that had the ball of pale gold mist floating in it. If the calling card worked, then—
"TREASSSSURRREEEE!!!!!!!!!!"
"Again?!" Ann said as she grabbed Morgana from the air mid-jump.
"Oof," Morgana let out as he was pulled back. "Forgive me, Lady Panther. I forgot myself for a moment."
"Awful timing on that gentleman act," Ren whispered to Ryuji, who nodded.
"So, is this the treasure?" Shiho called their attention forward.
Where the mist was the day before was now an absolutely enormous royal crown rotating slowly.
"How are we gonna steal THIS?" Ann said in shock.
"Help me out, Joker," Ryuji called out as he took hold of one side of the crown, causing it to slightly sink.
"Why didn't you wait?!" Morgana snapped despite his jaw chattering as he used all his willpower not to hug the treasure.
"What else are we gonna do?" Ryuji explained with a shrug.
"Whatever, I suppose..."
---
The team all pitched in on carrying the treasure out of the room. Morgana opted to hold himself back and stay away from the treasure for the time being. He was still having trouble averting his eyes.
SMACK!
A heavy thud hit the giant crown, knocking it loose from the team's hold and sending it crashing down the stairs. The crown gradually shrunk as it rolled up to the feet of Shadow Kamoshida, who was bouncing a volleyball off the ground and catching it.
Bending over, he picked up the crown, spinning it around his finger before putting it on his head.
"Ah ah ah!" he chided while waving his finger. "That is not something you have any business touching, now is it?"
Suddenly snapping his fingers, he said, "Oh! There was that thief thing, wasn't there?"
He glared at the team for a moment and coldly said,
"Now that wouldn't be you all, would it?"
"We're going to take that treasure whether you like it or not!" Ryuji yelled, drawing his mace.
"You deserve punishment!" Ann added.
"For all the people you've harmed!" Shiho finished.
Ren had kept quiet to let the team vent their grievances. He had his own with the teacher, but they needed this.
"What a pathetic misunderstanding," Kamoshida sneered.
BANG
A hole appeared at Kamoshida's feet.
"Be very careful with what you're about to say," Ren threatened gravely, his eyes flashing a bright gold.
"Joker?" Morgana worried.
"Tch. You're all too stupid to get it anyway. I'm a cut above other people!"
"You're a washed-up old man!" Ryuji yelled.
"I am the King! And this is MY WORLD!" Kamoshida yelled as he morphed into a black blob, reforming into a horrifyingly ugly demon. It looked like it was fat, but also starving. It was drooling, and its eyes were roaming all around as it swayed like it was drunk.
"Hahahahaha, come get some!" Shadow Kamoshida announced. "Sukukaja!"
"He's opening with a buff!" Morgana yelled, pulling out his slingshot and firing as rapidly as he could, trying to interrupt the cast.
"Let's go, Captain. Lunge!"
"Now, Scathach! Snap!"
Ryuji and Shiho called out simultaneously. Ryuji crashed full force into the belly of the demon, Captain Kidd following along and adding weight to the blow.
Scathach appeared and, with a flick of her fingers, shot a rune directly into the demon's eye with a gunshot sound.
"AHHHH!"
The team backed up as the Shadow began to flail around in pain.
"You little shits!" Shadow Kamoshida said, spitting everywhere in the process, a dark goop falling from its eyes in place of blood.
"Ladies!"
"Yes, Kamoshida!"
Suddenly, the room was flooded with cognitions of young women and teenage girls. Each of them in bikinis, all jumping into the demon's large wine glass like they were having a nice swim.
Shadow Kamoshida raised his rail-thin arm and poured the wine and cognitions into his mouth, closing it with a crunch as he pushed a cognition's leg into its mouth with its tongue.
"Gross!"
"It healed him?!"
"I don't like the implications of that."
"Attack the cup, guys! Break that first!" Ren called out as Pyro-Jack appeared with a flourish. "Agi!"
"He ho hee!" Pyro-Jack giggled as he spun in place and raised his lantern. A fireball appeared in front of it and melted a hole directly into the golden wine glass.
"Hey, I got that at nationals!"
The team was running low on energy.
"We can't keep this up for much longer," Ren said.
"I..can..go..all..DAYY!" Ryuji yelled as he slammed his mace into the wine glass, shattering it.
There was a loud gong-like noise when the cup broke, and Shadow Kamoshida cried out like he had been gutted.
"MISHIMA!"
"Y-y-yes, K-k-king Kamoshida, sir." The cognition of the battered Mishima approached and set a volleyball for the Shadow, launching it high into the air.
The Shadow jumped to spike the ball, filling the room with putrid body odor. Regretfully, that lapse in attention caused the team to be struck by a heavy attack in the form of a volleyball spike that blew a hole in the ground around them.
The team coughed up a bit of blood each. Ren, Morgana, and Ann quickly cast Dia to heal everyone.
"Skull! With me!" Morgana called out. "Trust me, Joker!"
Blocking a stab from Shadow Kamoshida's weapon, which was a giant spork for whatever reason, Ren grunted in acknowledgement.
"Panther, Dove. Hit him hard!"
"I thought you'd never ask!"
The two girls each pulled out their guns, which both happened to be automatic weapons.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAH!" Shiho started laughing manically as she emptied her clip.
"I love that I'm not the only battle maniac!" Ren laughed confidently.
"Love?!" Ann and Shiho sputtered.
"Huh? Where are the other two little shits?" Kamoshida asked, his drool running down his chin. He was absentmindedly rubbing his stomach while looking around.
"Up here, Kamo-Shithead!"
Looking upward, they saw Ryuji up on the balcony above.
"Go, cat!" he yelled as he threw Morgana forward with all his might.
"I'm not a cattttttttt!"
BANG
Morgana's cutlass made contact with the crown, knocking it from the Shadow's head.
"Nooooooooo!"
"Finish him!"
The lights suddenly dimmed, and the team turned into blurs that struck the giant Shadow one after another.
"The End," Morgana said calmly as he sat in a chair and began to smoke a cigar.
---