[Discontinued] Second Fool (Persona 5 Harem)

7: Infiltrating The Palace

Keiji stood in the alleyway by Cafe Leblanc, hidden from view. Going into the metanav, he chose to go back into Yoru Sutoka's palace. The world seemed to ripple as black and red circles seemed to cover his vision. As they went away, he was greeted back to the metaverse.

As he looked down at himself, he was no longer wearing his school clothes. He now wore his outfit, and as he went to touch his face, he could feel the bony mask there as well.

Walking out of the alleyway, Cafe Leblanc had turned back into a giant fortress. "Cooper." Keiji lightly called, taking off his mask. The persona appeared behind him, picking him up before flying upwards's with its powerful wings.

Landing onto the wall, it dropped him down before disappearing back into Keiji's mind. Keiji placed his mask back on as he looked down into the courtyard which surrounded the round, stone building. In front of the wooden door, Shadow Yoru and his troops slammed a wooden ram into the door, trying to bust it open.

Quietly, Keiji slid down the wall, landing in the courtyard a little ways away from the entrance and where Shadow Yoru was. Well, he didn't need an entrance.

'A phantom thief never uses the entrance.' He smirked.

He gripped the stone wall, which has slight indents where the bricks were combined together. Climbing the wall, he arrived at one of the prison like windows. Hanging from the bottom of the window, he whispered Cooper's name again, causing the persona to reappear behind him.

Commanding it silently, the persona bent the bars allowing Keiji to roll through as Cooper disappeared. He rolled into a jail like cell room. He quickly shook his head. This was Yoru's cognition of Cafe Leblanc, not Sojiro's, or Wakaba's.

He quietly tip toed to the iron bars which separated the jail room from the hallway in front of him. He gently pressed on the iron door, causing it to slowly move open, creaking.

Keiji slipped around the door, being careful not it to hit it. He silently moved through the hallway, approaching a wooden door, separating this stone hallway from another stone room.

Slightly opening the door, he was greeted with the sight of two shadows talking. At least, that's what he thought at first. But they weren't shadows .. the two knights wore shiny, black armor, and their faces were two of the customers that Keiji would sometimes see at Cafe Leblanc.

'They have the customer's faces? Oh! Cognitions. That's what they are. It's like Wakaba from Futaba's palace.' The thoughts spun around in Keiji's head. 'This must be how Yoru sees the customers...'

"What are we going to do about the raiders?" Asked one of the knights.

"We'll just stand guard. We don't have to do anything unless they break in." Responded another knight.

The knight nodded. "Got it." The two then parted ways, one going down one hallway while the other went down another. Creeping into the room, Keiji noticed that there were three other hallways. He chose the one that the two knights didn't go through.

Walking through the hallway, Keiji stared at wonder. It was still hard to believe this was real. The stone brick walls, with the torches which dimly lit the hallway, really gave it a castle-like feeling.

As he reached the end of the hallway, he noticed two doors. One ahead, and the other to the right. Keiji head towards the one ahead, but just before he reaches it he got an odd feeling. Turning to his right, he saw the door ripple.

'A safe room..?' Curiously wondered Keiji.

He opened the door, to be greeted with a small wooden table in the middle of the room. His vision of the room shifted to one of Leblanc's tables, before changing back to the wooden one.