Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

As much as you're sure you could coax Morgana to discuss one topic or another... you find that this is more peace and quiet than you would have expected from a place like this. Sure, there's a crowd that swarms around, and the people in it talk, but they don't really say anything.

Just watching them, you get the feeling that SEES contains the only real people in this whole school.

If the school itself is even real. Or based off of a real place. You still aren't sure about that.
It is. It's called Yasogami High.
"Yasogami High..." You repeat those half-heard words to yourself, thinking about just how familiar they are.

Morgana's ears twitch. "What was that?" He asks, finally deigning to pay attention to you.

Sadly for him, your current interest in conversation has passed. "...It's nothing, really."

Still... Yasogami High. That does sound right, as a description of this place, even if it seems familiar beyond that. You might just be imagining things, though- there's no place like this anywhere near Iwatodai.

"Really? I thought I heard you say- ...Never mind." He turns his gaze back to his ice cream. "...Once we're done eating, we should go back to the others. Maybe they'll have figured out how to get back to Tartarus!"

He sounds far too excited about returning to the tower. But... you suppose it's better the nest of Shadows you know than the one that the Velvet Room dumped you into without any sort of warning.

"Yeah. We'll do that."

---

When you get back to the others, it seems like none of them have found any sort of answers.

"When I ask people where we are, they just say 'Yasogami High.'" Yukari-san states. "But when I ask where that is, they just say something about enjoying the festival... They won't even tell me the name of the town it's in."

"Yasoinaba." Everyone glances at you, for completely understandable reasons. "Not that it really matters. I doubt the gate outside actually leads to Inaba."

"You've got that right..." Shinjiro-san sighs. "We tried everything. Going out the front door, hopping the fence... it all just leads back inside. There's not even a nice landscape to look at."

"We can't go back the way we came in, either," Makoto-san adds. "The Velvet Room's not an elevator anymore. There's doors, but... they're locked up pretty tightly. Theo tried doing... something... to them, but... nothing happened."

"So nobody says anything, we can't leave..." Yukari-san turns to Mitsuru-san, Fuuka-san, and Chidori-san. "Have any of you found anything?"

Chidori-san nods. "There's Shadows in the festival."

Before anyone can respond to that, Fuuka-san adds. "Well, they're not in the festival, exactly, but... they're in one of the displays. Not that we can tell much more than that... this place is messing with our powers."

"How intriguing." Elizabeth looks like she's having far too much fun with this. "A place that we cannot escape from, where the only clues are hidden away by Shadows... Perhaps there is a task that must be accomplished here, or a deity that is getting to big for their bridges."
I mean, she's right, but also I'm not sure she won't get herself possessed again.
Lavenza sighs and shakes her head. "That's almost definitely not the right saying, but I haven't spent enough time with humans to know what it actually is. ...She does have a point, however. Nothing happens in the Velvet Room without a reason... even if the reasons can be remarkably petty at times." She gives her sister a glance when she says this. Elizabeth pretends not to notice.

"It'd be nice, if all we have to do is hit things until they let us leave," Akihiko-san remarks. "...Well, it'd be simple, at least."

"Depends what they want us to punch," Shinjiro-san points out, before turning back into the crowd. "...The two of you can come out, now."

Out from the crowd emerges two people who look to be students of this school, except there's something to them that makes them feel more... solid, almost. Like they're more real than the rest of the building. One of them is a girl in a bright yellow sweater, who wears a number of white lilies in her hair, which is long enough you can't imagine it not getting in the way when she tries to move.

The other is a boy with dark skin and a deep blue watch, a deeper blue than even the shades of the Velvet Room.

Both of them have eyes in a strange shade between green and gray.

"I'm surprised you noticed us," The boy speaks, though he doesn't sound shocked at all. His voice conveys a similar amount of emotion as Makoto-san's, which is, of course, very unhelpful.

"You're kind of the most noticeable students here." It's very hard to disagree with that. "What with actually being real people, and all. How long have you been following us, anyway?"

"I wanted to get ice cream," The girl says. "And then I saw a cat going off into the crowd, so... I thought I'd follow it."

"'m not a cat..." Morgana's mutterings go ignored.

"I couldn't stop her," The boy says. "Rei is... very determined, sometimes."

Yukari-san blinks at the girl. "Rei? That's your name?"

"That's right." She dips her head. "...Well, I mean, there's something it's short for, but you might not be able to pronounce it. Anyway, this is Zen!" Zen doesn't appear to be fazed by this at all. You suppose he must be used to Rei doing things like this. "It's nice to meet you all."

You sort of feel like you should say something, right now, but you're not sure what. Decisions, decisions...


[ ] "Have the two of you been here long?"

[ ] "Are you students here? You're wearing the uniform..."

[ ] "...What is Rei-san's name short for, anyway?"

[ ] Do they know anything about the Shadows that are here?

[ ] So how did you get here?

"It's nice to meet you, Zen-san, Rei-san." It's nice to see that there's other sentient beings in this festival, and they're even sane. Presumably, at least. "Could you... tell us how you got here? We came here with an elevator..."

"Um..." Rei looks like she's thinking really hard about this. "It just... happened, really? Like... we just woke up here one day."

"Really?" Yukari-san sounds interested now. "When was this?"

Rei starts counting on her fingers. "Well... um... you see..."
What are you trying to count by? Days, years... meals?
"It was a very long time ago," Zen says for her. "We could not find a way out, and have been here ever since. If there is a way out, it... probably involves the Labyrinths, and those are too dangerous to enter on our own."

Fuuka-san looks up at them. "Labyrinths? Do you mean the place where the Shadows are?"

"...You only see one of them?" Before you can ask what he means by that, he continues. "But... Yes, the Labyrinths are filled with monsters. They come in swarms too large for one person to hope to defeat them."

"Huh." Junpei-san grins. "Hey, Akihiko-san. Guess you'll be able to punch our way out of this, after all."

"Don't encourage him!"

"...Where is the Labyrinth you're talking about, anyway?" You find yourself asking. "If that's the way out, then..." Well... even if it just sends you back to Tartarus, home is only a matter of a long walk away... or another highly-illegal bus ride.

"It is this way." Zen just turns around and walks off. Rei huffs.

"Geez... Not this again..."

"Is he always like this?"

"Not usually, but... it's the Labyrinths. He patrols to make sure that the monsters don't get out, and just leaves me at the roof food court." Honestly, you can think of much worse places to wait for somebody. "We should get going before trips over another one of those blobs..."

You try to imagine the apparently serious Zen tripping over a Maya Shadow. It's hard to picture, but you have to admit you find it hilarious.

---

From the outside, the place that Zen leads you to looks like any other festival stall. It's titled 'You in Wonderland.'

"Now you can walk in Alice's shoes..." Fuuka-san reads aloud. "...Oh, it must be an interactive display."

Mitsuru-san looks skeptical. "One filled with Shadows?"

"Still better than some of the stuff we had planned for our festival..." Yukari-san sighs. She almost seems to be glaring at Junpei-san, for some reason. You decide not to ask.

Shinjiro-san groans. "Speak for yourself. I liked what my class had planned."

"Regardless of the relative quality of festival stalls that aren't going to be operating either way..." It really is a good thing Mitsuru-san's good at staying on topic. Otherwise, you don't think this group would ever get anywhere. "If there are Shadows in this place, it would be best to be on our guard. We can't be sure how this place compares to Tartarus."

Rei blinks at her. "...Tartar sauce?" She sounds hungry.

"Tartarus is a tower back where we come from," Makoto-san explains. "There's a lot of Shadows there."

"Yeah, a lot more than there are in here!" Morgana pokes his head into the stall. "Come on, I don't see anything nearby!" He vanishes into You in Wonderland.


[ ] Follow after the cat.

[ ] You know what? You'll just wait here.