Working With Phantoms

Delivery to Nowhere

September 6th

Madran made her way to lunch and sat down with her friends, with Sheila immediately striking up a conversation.

"So, how is everyone today?"

"I'm good. Wow, you seem excited."

"Well, we're almost done with the palace."

"Yeah, we've been stuck in this air duct hell forever. However, according to Futaba, we're almost done."

"Same with us. We only have 20 more floors to go up this massive cylinder."

"Damn, how big are the floors?"

"Like, as large as a museum, each."

"You mean, an exhibit...?"

"Oh, yeah, thank you, Suga."

"No problem. Also, I heard from Ann that you and Madran ran into her yesterday at a gig."

"Yeah, we did. Sheila wanted to invite me along, and I wanted to confirm my suspicions about Mika."

"Well, what's the verdict for you, Mad?"

"She seems pretty suspicious about her involvement in that making-everyone-late-thing, but we'll have to see."

"Hmm. I guess I'll have to see for myself, too. When does Ann have another gig?"

"I dunno, she isn't as high up as me, so people don't request her presence that much."

"Is that how it works?"

"Yep."

Akira nodded.

"He's going to do something about that, isn't he?"

"We'll have to wait and see, Madran."

Haru then spoke up.

"Hey, I have a question. So, what exactly is this treasure? Is it metaphorical, or literally a treasure?"

"It's the latter. A treasure, in Metaverse terms, is someone's physical manifestation of their deepest desires. For example, mom's treasure was a pen. When we take the treasure out of the palace without breaking it, it changes appearance into something that the palace-owner might relate that to in the real world."

"What happens when you break the treasure?"

"Uh... I don't really know."

Morgana then popped out of Akira's bag.

"Well, I do. Whenever a treasure is broken, the palace-owner enters a comatose state and doesn't respond to anything, due to all of their desires being taken away without the safer version of it existing in the real world."

"Wait, is this like what mom's condition was before March?"

"Yes, I believe so."

"Well, from what I saw in that flashback in Philemon's palace, mom got attacked by a few shadows and got, well, eaten alive."

"Perhaps, they ate her psyche, and that's what caused her to go catatonic?"

"Yeah, but then, I remember Madran telling me about mom telling her about this thing that named itself 'Pandora' appearing after a few years, and, lo and behold, her primary persona was Pandora."

"Hmm. Possibly, Wysteria was able to regenerate her psyche after having it destroyed, and that first phase was having her shadow reform."

"For a weird cat thing, you sure know a lot about this."