Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

Looking at them, they're ordinary moving walkways, the most special thing about them being the color. At least, that's how they are on first glance.

At second glance, however... You don't think you've ever seen a walkway move this fast. It's sort of disconcerting. You think you'll wait to see what happens when someone else steps on it- and they'll have to, the other path just leads to a dead end and an unopened shortcut.
Honestly, they make even less sense than the clocks did... At least those had the excuse of Zen-san being here.
"No way..." Satonaka-san's eyes start glimmering like the frost that used to line the dorm windows whenever Mitsuru-san was having a bad day. "What's that?"

"Huh? It's just a moving walkway," Junpei-san says. "Have you never seen them before?"

"Inaba's too small for that," Hanamura-san explains. "Okina City's nearby, but... it's not that big, either, really... Not like, say, Kyoto..." He sounds a little disgruntled about it, but you don't think he really means it. Not really.

"This is so awesome!" Satonaka-san, without waiting for the go-ahead from Yukari-san or Narukami-san, leaps right onto the walkway, which swiftly carries her away.
And there she goes... Bye, Satonaka-san!
Maybe a bit too swiftly.

Five seconds later, you're watching her tumble off of the walkway at the end of it in an undignified heap, crushing a poor rock Shadow. Hanamura-san sighs. "I apologize for our rowdy country mouse..."
Satonaka-san experienced kinetic energy.
"This has given us useful information," Narukami-san remarks, a slight smile on his face. "When you get on the moving walkway, watch your step."

And, because it's in your way, you're going to have to go on the walkway.

...Why is this even a thing!?

---

It's been five minutes, and you are officially dizzy enough that you need to sit down.

Why is this? Well, it wasn't just the one walkway in that room. The next door you stepped through had dozens of walkways, all moving in different directions. Or, at least, you assume that there's dozens of them.

It's hard to tell, because sometimes the ones that look separate at first glance sometimes turn out to be the same walkway, just with corners. And it all moves so fast to begin with, you could be going around in circles for all you know.

You need a a break. So you sit down abruptly in hopes that, soon, the world will stop spinning quite so much.
You... do realize we'll have to go through that again soon, right?
...You're not going to think about your return to the chaos right now. It's too soon for that. You aren't even sure you're in the same room anymore, and you definitely don't want to contemplate that just yet.

"These places are supposed to mean things, aren't they?" Amagi-san asks. You aren't entirely sure what she means by that. "So... what do these moving walkways mean?"

"Maybe they mean letting things take their course, or something," Teddie-san suggests. "Or maybe just that love makes you dizzy..."

"I don't think that's what lovesick means... Say, where did everyone else go?"

(I think you've all gotten lost.) Hearing Rise-san's voice does not help you with your headache at all. (I guess it's not a surprise, with all the speed and turning...)

You pull yourself enough together to look up. A lot of people are still speeding along on the walkways, some of them potentially ahead of you, some of them very much not, and some of them vanishing through doors to over rooms that swing open as they blitz by on the...

Actually, no, you're not calling them walkways anymore. That would imply that anyone does any actual walking around here. What these things really are is conveyor belts.

You'd inform the others of your discovery if there were more than two people here with you. Or if you could consider the conveyor belts without feeling ever-so-slightly ill.

"...Do either of you remember who had the map?" You ask instead, because this is an important question.

"That'd be Chidorin, wouldn't it?" Teddie-san asks. "She's always drawing on it."

"Probably... but if you call her that to her face, she'll set you on fire, probably." It's pretty clear to you that only Junpei-san gets to do that. But it makes sense that not everyone would have picked up on that yet.

"That does sound about right..." Amagi-san nods along. "Amada-kun, do you know what these moving walkways could mean?"

"How should I know?" You've never dated anyone before, and while you're aware that there are romantic relationships in SEES, you've never really poked at them too hard. It just doesn't seem like it'd be good for your health. "No one talks to me about this stuff, even the ones who can."

"The ones who can...?" Somehow, you know what these two are going to ask you next. They'll want to know who you're talking about. There's multiple answers that could work, so you should probably think about who you want to point them to...



[ ] Point them to Mitsuru-san. She's sensible enough that it probably won't go too badly.

[ ] Point them to Akihiko-san. You aren't sure how much they'd get out of it, but it is a valid answer, and you're sure it'd be hilarious.

[ ] Point them to Chidori-san. It can't be much worse than any of the other options.

[ ] Point them to Junpei-san. It just might distract him and Naoto-san from breaking into the faculty office.

[ ] Point them to Makoto-san. Just so you can see how he'd respond to that.

When you pause to consider your options, you realize that there aren't a lot of good ones. You aren't sure there are any good ones, period, but some of them are less potentially disastrous than others.
...Sorry, Sis.
"I think Mitsuru-san might be a better person to ask, actually," You say. Sure, she might not be the best at talking to people, but she does have actual romantic experience, which is a lot more than you can say. And while she probably would freeze if asked about it, it's in a very different sense than if anyone else was.

"Mit-chan?" Teddie-san places a paw reasonably near to his chin equivalent. "Why Mit-chan?"

You shrug. "I just think she might know more about this than I do." Most of your considerations of romance involve teasing the others and hoping that whatever Makoto-san's doing isn't about to implode. You are very much not qualified to give advice or make speculation.
Not that we're sure anyone here actually is...
"All right! Yuki-chan, let's ask Mit-chan about this later!" ...What have you done?
Let's never tell Mitsuru-nee about this conversation. Then, she might not find out it was us.
"L-later as in, once we find her, or...?"

"As soon as we can!"

"Maybe wait until we're out of the Labyrinth first," You recommend. "We're... probably a bit busy for that right now."

Teddie-san huffs. "But this is the place to talk about love!"

You turn to Amagi-san. "What have you been teaching him?"

"Why do you think I taught him anything about this?"
Because we're pretty sure he's, like, less than a year old at the moment. It's a pretty safe guess to make.
"Did Teddie-san know any humans before meeting your group?"

"I..." She pauses, her eyes firmly on her feet. "I don't know? He doesn't remember anything from before he met us..."

"So who has he been learning things from?"

"Um... well..." For some reason, her face suddenly starts turning a very deep red. "...Probably us..."

"...Yuki-chan, are you all right? You're all red!"
No big deal, just immediate regret of all of her life choices.
"I-I'm fine. Just... uh... thinking about things, at the moment. I just remembered there's something I have to talk about with Yosuke-kun!" And with that, she takes to the conveyor bets with more swiftness than you would expect, her hair actually flying behind her in the nonexistent breeze.

...You're not entirely sure what that was about.

---

Eventually, you all get out of the room of conveyor belts. You aren't sure exactly how long it took, because you spent about half of it fighting back motion sickness.

You're not the only one. The fact that none of you actually got sick at any point of it is kind of impressive, when you think about it.

For a long moment, you all stand, dazed and disoriented, just a few steps away from a door that, if memory serves correctly, presumably leads to a question room. But you're sure the questions can wait, so you all just sit around for a while until you're no longer dizzy.

Once you can all definitely walk in a straight line again, you enter the room.

As expected, you hear the mechanical voice. "The stray lambs have arrived. Hello on this new floor, as well."

"I could have sworn it said something earlier..." Kanji-san states. You think it might have, as well, but since it happened while you were still extremely disoriented, you genuinely have no idea what it was saying.

Given how the recording itself seems to have no memories of it, you assume that it wasn't important.
If my memories are correct, it was just telling us the door was here. But that was a whole timeline ago, so who knows?
"In honor of this, a special third question has been prepared. Steel yourselves before you answer. Now then, here is question number three."


Do you believe that breaking the rules is sometimes necessary?


[ ] Yes.

[ ] No.