Together, we Conquer

A Many Layered Maze

February 25

Once again, The Bodacious Babes had gathered in the Velvet Room. Philemon seemed to be a bit uncomfortable, despite nobody being able to see his face. Chicory was loudly eating a treat that Madran had given him, and Suga was talking quietly with Sheila. However, Elizabeth, fully knowing what was going on, decided to talk to Philemon.

"Philemon, would you like to tell us what's on your mind?"

Philemon looked down, not really saying anything. Madran was now petting Chicory.

"No."

"Well, sister always found it beneficial to do so. Like, when she had that cru-"

"Elizabeth!"

"When she felt confused about how to fuse a persona."

Philemon sat on one of the chairs.

"No."

By now, Madran was looking over at him.

"Is it my friendship with Yukino, Ulala, and Maya? Do you think that I hate you now?"

Philemon went silent.

"I don't. I have no idea what happened with them and you, but you really helped all of us out. Like, I owe my life to you for how you helped with dad."

"Let us enter the Metaverse."

Philemon, dodging the question, sat up and went out the door to the palace. Everyone except for people in blue followed.

"Ok, team, let's continue! Butterfly, if you'd please..."

Philemon nodded, transporting them to the latest Safe Room. They embarked on the next area, and Madran went to chat with Suga while scanning.

"Well, yesterday, when I was walking with my new friends, this random kid was, like, stalking us. And, when Yukino went to confront him, lo and behold, he's a persona user! He then ran away when Yukino scared him, shouting something about Kiri or whatever."

"Hmm. Maybe, since he can use a persona, he was interested in all of the like-minded people gathering?"

"Na, he didn't walk up to us and go like, 'Yo, hey, my name's XYZ and I'm a persona user.'"

"Speaking of which, I saw this short-haired blonde lady with a cool set of headphones staring at me. I guessed that she was spacing out, but, when I looked at her, the colors in my vision inverted."

"Um, that's like when I look at anyone who can use a persona as well. Gosh, these places are crawling with persona-users."

"Yeah, this guy was chatting with this red-haired gal before he noticed me and they both looked at me. Weird."

"Beauty, did you have the same affect?"

"Yeah, for both of them. Maybe, Shiini scared them off, because they left after that."

"Wasn't that when you were going to the photoshoot?"

"Yeah. I haven't been responding to his texts, and have deleted all of those... images. When he asked, I just said that my phone isn't receiving messages because it's broken. He believed me!"

"Great!"

"Hey, team, look."

Philemon had stopped at what looked to be a large amount of building-sized mirrors. They hadn't run into any shadows along the way, and this was why.

"My goodness, look at 'em! There's way too many!"

"How would this work?"

Chicory looked down, summoning Yorick.