A Disregarded Palace

The Floor of Change

(Sorry that chapters will be coming out further apart, you can blame school)

 We continued up the stairs and found a map for that floor. The map read that this was map two out of five.

This floor's layout was similar to the first floor, but there was a large cell in the middle of the maze. There were also multiple places where we had to turn around due to security cameras. Thankfully there were different places to turns off said cameras, but still no shadows.

It took us a while to figure out how to get to the center, but once we got there, it looked to be empty.

"Empty?" Morgana questioned, "With how important it looked on the map, I thought there would be something here."

"Young one, you are not wrong." We all turned around to face the origin of the strange voice. It appeared to be a regular person. They wore a long white robe with a hood that covered their face.

"Who are you?" Haru asked.

"The one who presides over Change."

"What did the cell hold?" Makoto asked the robed figure.

"This place used to hold the strive to hold on to the past," The robed man removed his hood. He looked much like Katsumi, only older. He looked familiar to me.

"Your Katsumi's dad, aren't you?" I asked.

"Why Goro, I'm surprised you didn't recognize me sooner." He shook his head, "I guess Inmate was right about your amnesia..."

"Is Inmate important?" Ryuji asked.

"Inmate is the reason this place exists." The cognitive being looked right at me, "Inmate already does not like that you are here, Justice. I suggest you save Him before Inmate can destroy this place any further."

"Wait, if this Inmate is the reason this place exists, then why does he want to destroy it?" Futaba asked.

"Inmate is the one who negates all the other floors except Death." Katsumi's father lowered his head, "Inmate wishes to destroy all floors but death, even though He wishes to hold onto His past."

"Who is He?" I asked.

"The one Inmate holds captive. Inmate is the treasure you seek."

The cognitive man faded away, and the bars of the cell disappeared as well. A large screen lowered from the ceiling, and it turned on. The screen showed Mementos, and a younger Akechi wandering through the place.

I watched as this version of me found the shadow of Katsumi's father. He pulled out a gun, and that's where it ended.

I-I killed him? The thought of it made my chest feel tight. I fell to the ground and started crying.

"DAMNIT!" I screamed as I punched the ground. Akira crouched next to me and hugged me, but he felt far away.

"You don't know that, Goro. He might not be dead in the real world."

"You don't know that...He most likely is. But why? Why would Shido ask me to kill him? Why do I even have this fucking amnesia in the first place?" I kept crying, the tears stung, and Akira's shoulder was already damp.

"Let's head back, for now, we can find out more tomorrow." Akira picked me up bridal style, and the hole grew smaller.