---

Trying to get work done, huh? School work, if he had to guess. Either that or he found some sort of online job. It was probably the former, all things considered. "Well, I'm trying to find books on historic firearms, if that makes any sense. The kind of stuff they used in World War 1 and the like. There's this really cool replica pistol at Wantanabe's, and after asking about it, its apparently been in use since 1911. At least, in America anyways. I was looking to see if maybe I could find more information on those kinds of things here."

He turned his head back towards the shelves. His only other real option for books was to either order them online, or to check the school's library, though considering the content he was looking for, there's a good chance they wouldn't have that kind of stuff. Most of the books there were fiction books, or books on various school subjects. There were certainly World War 1 books at the library, but they were all about the events that occurred, rather than the weapons that were used.

He turned his head back towards Kenzan. "Either that, or maybe books on important figures in that kind of stuff? Like there's apparently a really important guy in firearms history named John Moses Browning. Anything like that would help." While the internet was certainly a useful tool for looking at stuff like this, he couldn't exactly take his computer with him, and he's not supposed to be on his phone at school, so a book is really his only other option.

Nagi waved Asumi off as she left, even with her best friend not giving her a chance to respond or say goodbye. A moment later, Mune left too, telling Nagi she could handle the bird and that he'd be going home to get some rest. Not that she was exactly satisfied by that, but whatever. She'd let it slide this time. He was probably still tired from yesterday.

"Alright, you." Nagi muttered quietly down to the bird in her arms, opening her bag. "Get in. I'll leave it half open, but I'm not about to look like a crazy person talking to a bird." She helped the crow in before pulling her phone out, raising it to her ear as she pretended to talk into it. No reason to walk around town looking like she was talking to either herself or the crow.

Nagi started walking away from the school, heading off towards somewhere she knew wouldn't get much foot traffic.

"Let's lay down some ground rules. You give me reason to think you're bullshitting me, I'm sending you back to Asumi with some suggestions on bird costumes. Now, start talking. Why can I understand you? The word Persona mean anything to you?"

The crow settled itself comfortably within Nagi's backpack. He wasn't the best option for the time being, but he stayed quiet as the girl laid down whatever ground rules she deemed fit. It was only when she mentioned Personas that he stuck his head further out of the backpack and blinked up at her.

"Personas? Know a lot about 'em," he cooed. A moment of realization came over him, and he narrowed his eyes at her and clicked his beak. "Hey, wait a minute... how can you understand me and that other girl can't? Don'tcha think that's kinda weird?"

"Because I got one of those Persona things yesterday." Nagi shot back instantly, inwardly relieved. Good. Maybe this thing could give her some real answers about her situation after all.

"Me and the other guy did. Got sucked into some weird alternate version of our school. Asumi didn't. Don't freak out too much about her, by the way. I know she's overbearing, but she means well."

At Nagi's response, the crow fluffed himself up even more. "So... you and 'the other guy' have Personas?! You somehow got into the Metaverse?! How?!"

Thankfully, his initial wave of shock didn't last long. He settled back down into her backpack and frowned. "You and the guy are Persona-users, then. And you just got them yesterday, so you can't be them..." He shook his head, sighing and sinking further into her backpack as if in defeat. "Huh, just doesn't add up."

"So that's what the fucked up dimension's called?" Nagi raised an eyebrow. "Good to know. We got in through this stupid app that just downloaded itself onto our phones for no reason." She pauses.

"You know what a phone is, right? Whatever. Anyways, who's 'them'? You mean there's other people like me running around in there?"

"Of course I know what a phone is, I watch people use them every day! I might be a crow, but I'm not stupid," the bird cawed loudly. It looked like she had some semblance of what the Metaverse was, but not what it actually was. Humans. Always quick to think they know everything...

Her second question caught him off guard. He pondered it for a moment, then he shook his head. "Somethin's messin' 'round in there, that's for sure. Y'know the guy that-- that, uh, erm, 'sumi girl found with her friends? That wasn't a murder, not in your typical sense. No, that guy killed himself. I watched him walk into that corner of the road and slit his own throat. Pretty gross, if ya ask me... anyways, my name's Goji, and I'm hungry. Got anything to eat?"

He stared at the side of Nagi's face, eyes unwavering. It was quite obvious that this bird-- Goji --wasn't willing to talk anymore unless he got fed.

"You were dumb enough to ask someone for their help not five seconds after insulting them. The fuck you mean you're not stupid?" Nagi grumbled in displeasure, but paid attention to the rest of the crow's words nonetheless. Messing around in there? What, could you just screw with someone's head in there and make them off themselves-wait.

Nagi recalled the douchebag with the hat's words from earlier in the day. Kids suddenly worshipping Okamoto despite the fact the bitch was completely worthless. Well, shit. Maybe it was plausible after all. Of course, that meant there was someone else besides Okamoto fucking around where they shouldn't be.

She sighed at Goji begging for food, her phone still held up to her ear like she was taking a call. "Fine, what do you want? I'm only feeding your ass because you've been actually helpful so far, so don't get used to it. Name's Nakano Nagi, by the way."

"It's not like I thought you actually understood me at first..." Goji muttered under his breath.

Nakano, huh. He had heard that name before. Was that a good thing or bad thing? He wondered if he should ask her. Nah. If she was offering to feed him that meant she was probably not that bad of a human to begin with.

"I want steak. Well-done. Cut into little pieces so I don't gotta work too much for it," he rasped. "By the way, where you takin' me? To your place?"

He sure hoped that she didn't have a cat. The one at Asumi's place was definitely going to try to have a go at him. She was smart enough to keep him out of reach, but still! He could feel the thing's glare from across the room. It was sheer luck he didn't end up its dinner.

"Oh, and you don't got any pets, right? Like cats? I hate cats. They're worse than people. At least people don't want to eat me, y'know?"

Nagi's eyebrow twitched at Goji's reply. Little shit was getting real presumptuous. "If I didn't need you to tell me more shit about Personas and the Metaverse, I'd feed you to Asumi's cat myself." She grumbled, shaking her head.

"And yeah. Your prissy bitch requirements for steak mean that I'm gonna have to make it myself. Not gonna be caught dead ordering that well-done. You can stay up on the roof or something from my window for now until we figure this Persona shit out. I wanna go back in tomorrow. Got a score to settle."

Oh boy, home-cooked food. That was the icing on his cake. He smirked at her before he ducked the rest of the way back into her backpack and said nothing else until they arrived at her place. It was a normal person place, not a big deal. He had sense worse, but he had also seen better. Eh, she was going to cook for him, so there was no room for critique.

Goji settled himself on the windowsill to her room, his sprained wing making him unable to fly up to the rooftop. The bird waited a little while for Nagi to return with his meal. In the meantime, he wondered if telling her all of this was a good idea or not. For all he knew, he could be confiding in the wrong person. Where would that get him?

When Nagi returned with his meal, he snapped back to attention. "Thought that you ditched me out here. What took you so long, huh?"

By the time Nagi had returned home, it'd been about time for dinner anyway. Cooking club and hanging out with Asumi, Masa, and Mune after had taken a good while anyways. So she'd grilled up steak skewers and vegetables for herself, her dad, her lunch, her dad's lunch, Asumi's lunch, and the fucking bird. Frankly, the steak bits she made for Goji were a god damn crime, considering she'd just ruined good beef by charring it well-done. But if the crow wanted to have shit taste, it'd have shit taste.

Her old man had returned home while she was cooking too, and Nagi had to be occupied with having dinner with him for a while. All in all, once cleanup was done, she knew she was a bit later than she should have been with sneaking Goji's food over to her room.

"Eat a dick, I had to cook like six meals and then serve two." Nagi grumbled, shoving the plate of well-done steak cut up into baby-sized pieces onto the windowsill. "You want some cheese with that whining, too?" She left Goji to his meal, pulling her textbooks out of her bag and starting to work on her homework.

"Anyways, once you're done, start talking. I can work on this shit and listen to you at the same time." Nagi grunted, scratching away at her math homework. "The fuck's a Persona? Why do I suddenly have superpowers?"

The crow was pleased to see that Nagi had done just as he wanted, down to cutting the steak into minature pieces and everything. He never had a human serving him before. It was a delicatable experience, even in the face of all of her complaining. And the steak was delicious as well. Much better than rooting through the trash or fighting other birds for scraps. He practically devoured the food that she had given him, down to the very last piece of over-cooked meat. When he was satisfied, he let out a belch of thanks and stepped inside of Nagi's room. He carefully picked his way across to her before he settled down into a bloated, yet content, mass of feathers.

"That's a loaded question. Main question is how you got that app on your phone, and how you got into that Palace," Goji replied after a long silence. "Personas are easy to explain. You ever feel so angry in the face of somethin' unfair that it just drives you crazy? Like you wanna just beat the crap outta someone or crawl outta your skin? When you get like that in the Metaverse, you awaken your true self-- a Shadow. It calls out to you in that moment, when you rebel in the face of injustice. It forms a contract with you, and you and the Shadow merge as one, which grants you a Persona-- which is kinda like a manifestation of your willpower."

"You must've been really upset for that stuff to happen," Goji grumbled, his eyes half-lidded. Damn, that steak was really good. He was suddenly so tired... when was the last time he got food fatigue? "That other guy, too. You got beef with someone, or somethin'?"

"Shed on my desk, and no amount of information's gonna save your ass." Nagi jabbed her pen in Goji's face for a moment before listening to the rest.

"As a matter of fact, yeah. I don't know how that app got on my buddy Mune's phone. According to him, it just happened. It dragged us into your fuckin' Metaverse where some weird double of our history teacher tried to get us to be her bitches. Don't know what set Mune off, but she talked shit about my family. Dunno about all that injustice shit, though. Okamoto just pisses me off."

Nagi trailed off, working on solving another math problem for a moment before speaking again.

"According to some shit I heard today, could be that she's fucking with people's heads in there. Some self-important dickhead told me that a good number of former students of hers practically worship her. In a way that ain't normal. So yeah. Gotta go back in there and nip that problem in the bud before it screws us over." She paused for a second.

"You think that's actually her in there? Because I'll tell you, the Okamoto out here and the Okamoto in there definitely ain't the same person. The one in the Metaverse has fake tits, of all fucking things."

Goji grumbled a curse under his breath and snapped his beak at Nagi's pen when she shoved the thing into his face. What kind of person did math with a pen anyway? Weirdo. Nevertheless, he bundled himself up into a tighter ball, attempting to keep his movements minimal as to not soil her precious desk. What she said did make sense, though, for someone who had just awakened their Persona. Maybe he could put more trust in this girl after all.

When she mentioned the teacher manipulating students from within the Palace, he shook his head. "That's impossible. The real world affects Palaces and the Metaverse, not the other way around, so seems like teacher lady's been having a grasp on her students for a while. What you're seeing in the Palace is how she views them, since Palaces are distorted perceptions and cognitions..."

"Which means the teacher lady in there isn't the same as the one out here. Remember when I said that you got your Persona 'cause you merged with your Shadow? That's her Shadow. And it lives smack dab in the middle of the Palace her screwed up congition created."

He sighed and sagged his shoulders. "'s all really complicated. But if she's causin' so much trouble, I have a theory on what we can do to get you and that other guy outta this mess."

Nagi frowned as she listened, punching some numbers into her calculator. "So what, you have to be fucked up in the head to make a space for yourself in the Metaverse? There goes me making my own secret clubhouse, then." She groused lightly before perking up at Goji's next words.

"Look, if you've got a way out of this, I kinda need to fucking know. Does it involve beating the shit out of her? Please tell me it involves beating the shit out of her."

"You can try taking the physical form and source of her distorted desires, her Treasure," Goji responded. "If you take it, I think there's a chance it can change her... that's my theory, anyways. But she won't let you just steal it, so you'll get the chance to rough her up a lil'. That's bettin' if you can even get past the Shadows and locate the Treasure itself."

"So basically we go in, find something that looks big and important, and steal it?" Nagi sighed, finishing up the last of her math problems and leaning back in her seat. "Sure, fine, whatever. You're gonna have to repeat this whole thing to Mune tomorrow."

A pause as she thought some things over, her mind replaying the events of the previous day in her head.

"...Be straight with me, what's our chances with just two people? I'm guessing there's no guarantee that anyone else we drag in with us can awaken a Persona, yeah?"

"Why do I have to repeat it? Don'tcha have a mouth?" Goji asked, exasperated. Her next question was another good one, and one that he had to think of for more than a few moments. "Based off what you told me, seems like teacher lady has a hold on the entire school, so her Palace has to be swarming with Shadows. Not to mention the size of it. Two people can do it, but it'll probably take a while."

He shrugged before he gave her a large and rather loud yawn. "If you wanna push people into the Palace and see if they get Personas so they can help you, you can. There's always a chance they get Personas, but there's also a chance that they get seriously hurt or worse. And don't go askin' me what's the best choice, 'cause honestly I don't care about what happens. I'm only in it to see if my theory's correct."

"Yeah, that's fair." Nagi could only shrug in response. "Ain't like I give a shit about you, either. Just how it is sometimes." She folded her arms in thought, trying to decide who exactly she and Mune could drag in with them for potential backup.

Asumi was absolutely out of the question. Nagi knew her best friend wasn't exactly a fighter. No fucking shot. Masa was more of a definite. In the years Nagi had known him, she'd always suspected he had far more of a taste for violence than he'd let on. And...fuck it, why not? Hat kid. He seemed to be enough of a bleeding heart that he'd probably jump at the chance to be cannon fodder if it meant getting a scoop and doing something good for the school.

"Alright, think I got an idea of how to do this. You can rest on the windowsill outside for the night or something. Do whatever the fuck you want around town until after class and clubs are done tomorrow."

"Aight, I'll leave it up to you. Time to turn in for the night." Goji got up to his feet, stretched, and picked his way back over to the windowsill in a lopsided manner. Damn it, he would have to get used to his sprained wing for the time being. He'll hitch a ride on either Nagi or Munehisa while they do whatever they do in the Palace tomorrow. From there, he'd be more focused on giving them suggestions and less on how he'd be getting around.

He sat down on the windowsill and tucked his beak under his wing. Within a few moments, he was sound asleep.

The answer to Kotone's question didn't come from Akira, but rather, a certain somebody who looked a little familiar.

The certain somebody was a senior around the school who she could have sworn she saw doing some investigation work. Probably about Miss Okamoto, since she was big talk around the school not that long ago. She saw him around from time to time and recognized his face, but she didn't know him personally enough to just go up and strike a conversation with him.

Speaking of conversations, he contributed that, in other words, Akira would have more luck just playing on a street corner than actually getting gigs. It made Kotone frown a bit to hear Akira call herself "not good enough".

"Don't sell yourself short. You play better than some adult musicians I've seen." She told her, finishing the statement by eating some of her lunch. Granted, it wasn't many and they were all amateurs, which Kotone and Akira technically classified as, but Kotone meant what she said.

Her attention turned to Hakuro. "Nice to see a new face. Who are you?" She asked him. Better to get a proper introduction than to be left guessing, right?

Mentions: Chen @Lord Orgasmo
For a book nerd it seemed like Chen was rather chatty when someone got him talking about history. He couldn’t really say he was surprised, but he didn’t mind history. The amount of conversation? That he might mind a little bit more if it dragged on too long. Besides, history wasn’t his preferred subject, his interests laid more in science and law, but it was alright for now. Historic firearms? That was an interesting topic especially if he was looking for specifically American ones.

He hummed thoughtfully and thought about the books that he knew were in the bookstore. He spent more time here than he cared to admit, but it did give him an idea where most things were located without having to ask.

“If you’re looking for historical figures or history that isn’t Japanese you’re gonna want to look in the international section.” There weren’t a lot of books, maybe a shelf or two, and he hadn’t really looked at what was there. It’d be the best bet though. He wasn’t sure what was compelling him to actually continue the conversation, but he pushed himself to his feet nonetheless. “Come on.”

He moved past Chen towards one of the back corners of the bookstore. He quickly scanned the shelves before seeing the spines of the books that pertained to anything foreign, “Here.” That should do for the amount of interpersonal interaction he would have to deal with for the day.

To be honest, Hakuro didn't like people selling themselves short either. It was just that he felt the need to point out that some people aren't interested no matter how good you are. He would follow up on that matter as the other girl did, saying "I agree. You're probably fine, just not for this setting. Somewhere that actually takes auditions, maybe, in a bigger town.", although he was 90% sure the music he'd been hearing on the way up wasn't Akira's own. Nevertheless, Hakuro read the 'room' and decided to remain encouraging. Why not? It couldn't hurt to try. Just take the act somewhere else, somewhere that the people might...hmmm. A thought came to him, just then. He'd've brought it up, if not for the hard rocker here addressing him now.

"Well, I'm not exactly new, and unless I'm mistaken, you've seen my face before. Long enough to draw it, anyway."

The Hatto-san stepped forward, tapping his phone a few times to bring up an image and show it to her. It was, naturally, the image that the 'Metal Chick' account had posted online that he found very weird, the one of himself as some kind of Thug Life nutjob, complete with sunglasses.

"You have an account on my site with an artist's rendering of your face in the profile and Fujihama listed in the public info. I didn't even need the IP address, 'cause I'd seen you around."

He pocketed the phone now.

"Now, I'm not angry, and I'm sure as hell not gonna be like Okamoto about it, but I would like to know why...because I had to dance, and I didn't feel like dancing."

Yes, it was important to note that he wasn't pissed off. He was mainly confused. People have made doodles of him before. It happens. But this was kind of 'out there', and it made him seem like a bad person, especially at a time where he was putting his foot down about not talking about the Prime Minister.

---

An international section? Well, that made sense, if he couldn't find anything in the history section that was probably a good place to look. Kenzan even offered to lead him there. He probably knew this place a lot better, all things considered. Chen had only been there a couple times at most.

The walk was relatively short, Kenzan leading him to the so called international section. "Alright, well, thanks. Ill let you get back to... whatever you were doing." Chen looked over at the varying spines of the books. There were a few in languages he didn't recognize. He pulled out his phone trying to use a translation tool to try and decipher some of the titles. Most of them came out pretty incomprehensible, just due to the way languages work, but at least the insides were translated.

A couple piqued his interest, namely a book on World War II equipment and their uses, it was even written by an American, though it's been translated into Japanese. He also found a book on ancient Chinese warfare, although Chen already knew about a lot of that, but it might contain some new insights. In the end however, he picked up the book of World War II. It was a pretty thick book all things considered, and the book itself was pretty large in size. It almost looked like has history textbook.

Unlike the aforementioned Kenshiro figure, this book was surprisingly affordable, only ¥2,500. It also probably helped that it was in paperback. But one quick transaction later, and Chen was the proud new owner of the book. It was time to head home and crack this bad boy open.

Now, Kotone expected a lot of things, but being called out as if she were this idiot criminal who left behind not just fingerprints, but a note of confession to the crime with her signature on it, made her want to laugh. She raised her hands a little with a smile. "Alright, you got me red-handed."

Though, his next question made her ears perk up a bit. Did Hakuro not know that the picture was meant to be a silly joke? The last thing she wanted was for him to think she was making fun of him directly. "I just thought it was so stupid that it was funny. I figured the people on your site would know I was overexaggerating and you weren't actually like that. I mean, "the only thing more stylish than me is my mechanical keyboard?" Who unironically talks like that?" She reassured him.

To be honest, she didn't expect him to start dancing. But it was a nice treat for a frequent Hatto-site viewer like herself.

"I can delete it if you want." She offered a smile. "I'm not that attached to it anyway. And I doubt your forum will miss it."

I mean, it's not that hard for the site manager alone to find out that you are the one who did a thing. It's even easier if a guy known for a bit of sleuthing didn't even have to look very hard! Still, her reaction was puzzling, and the girl's next words seemed to confirm that...nothing at all was meant by it. He'd thought it was something like a smack in the face, or some kind of trolling. He'd responded to it in a funny way in order to show that he was taking it as some sort of funny challenge, and that would quell things better than directly taking it as insult. Really, the whole thing had confused him, and the timing...well...he explained.

"People say and do weird things, sometimes. That wasn't the issue at hand. I thought it was a bit of troublemaking because...maybe you noticed there's been a little grumbling on the site."

He began to make some emphatic gestures.

"'Hatto-san should talk about the Prime Minister's death! Everyone else is, so why won't he?', but I don't want to. It isn't something I know any better than anybody else or can do anything with, plus I don't want to be seen as just grabbing attention for it. Unfortunately, the other end of that is someone making it look like I'm just going 'Deal with it', which is what I thought the picture was about."

Now, he shook his head.

"It was just bad timing. I don't want you to take it down. That might make things worse. I just thought I'd ask, since I knew you were around."

He doffed his hat then, as he smiled...

"Hakuro Kuroda. You can call me Hatto-san, if you like, but I have a real name too."

...before remembering something, in regards to the picture.

"Also, I should warn you: Nagi brought the picture to my attention, as well. I...don't know exactly how she feels about it. I think she actually would've preferred if I was like that. It's kind of weird. She might ask about it too, though."

Yup, the *CoughTotallyNotYakuzaButYesSheReallyIsCought* tough girl was in on the act, too!

As he spoke, Kotone listened quietly to his explanation in regards to why he thought what he thought, and why he was confused by her picture. It made a lot of sense. He was in a sticky situation regarding the Prime Minister's death and the attention surrounding it, and Kotone recognized the lose-lose situation that would come if he chose to talk about it.

"Hey, I get it. You can't win if you do talk about it, can't win if you don't." If he was ill-informed, then he would get shit. If he started spouting theories, he'd get more shit. If he acknowledged it and spoke practically nothing about it, more shit. She was no P.R. rep, but staying quiet about something like that was the smartest move Hakuro could do.

"Sorry 'bout that. I'll wait for this whole thing to blow over before I post something else." She smiled. Kotone wouldn't tell him exactly what it was, since she thought it would be more funny if he got to experience it first hand. "Kotone Sonoda. I'll call you Hakuro for now." Gotta separate the dancing man on the internet from the guy she was talking to after all.

Though at the mention of Nagi, a little 'pffft' escaped her.

"It's all in good fun. But I'll let you know if she throws me out the window or something."

---

Chen practically had to peel his face off of the hardback cover of his textbook. He was exhausted, and spent nearly the entire class in a dazed and confused state. Miss Okamoto tried to take a shot at him with a surprise question, but Chen had already read so far ahead and re-read so much of the book the question might as well have been "What is 2 + 2?" Chen let out a groan and wiped the drool from his face as he sat up and tried to wake himself up.

Chen had spent the previous night staying up until the early morning hours trying to research his newfound obsession. He spent hour after hour scrolling through dozens of websites and online journals absorbing as much information as he possibly could, occasionally using the book he had purchased as a supplement for more resources.

Unfortunately, after just a couple of hours, Chen's brain had become completely fried, and any information after that point was only absorbed in small, out-of-context shards. He'd likely have to re-read much of the content from the early morning and previous night. Especially the book. Fortunately, despite his sleep deprived mind managed to remember to actually bring the book to school.

But he'd need a quiet place to re-read it. He considered for a brief second going to Wantanabe's, but quickly dismissed the idea. He liked to think that he and the old man were on good terms, and wouldn't want to ruin that by sitting around awkwardly in a corner an reading a book. The book store he got it from was certainly a decent choice, but it also left him open to the public and its infinite nonsense. Where else was there?

Well, there was the school's library, it was usually pretty quiet, and he had spent quite a lot of time there before. That seemed like a decent place to start. Of all else failed he could always just go home. Chen packed up his things and made the short trek to the library. He was finally beginning to wake up, and it was as if his brain was slowly coming back online. He didn't know how long it would last, but as long as it did, he was going to be taking advantage of it.

Munehisa had quickly reverted back to his late night schedule after an early light's out from the previous day, though his habit of booting up the first-person shooter game lacked its usual flair. In a fit of inspiration, the boy had instead taken to his drawing tablet to illustrate some of his faithful recollections from the alternate dimension; the honeycomb-like structure, decorated in the adhesive substance that was nectar to its deity, to another full body illustration of the witch playing god within its walls. Just as so many questions would still remain unanswered until they decided to dig deeper, the talking crow was another conundrum on its own. Nothin' just makes any sense anymore, I swear. Drowsiness had come as quick as the hours had gone before then, and in the midst of drawing the lineart for the bust of Peter Pan, sleep overtook the boy at his desk.

During Okamoto's block in their class, Munehisa spent a lesser part of the hour comparing the ordinary world's harpy to the other world's hag, having transferred his drawing from computer to phone. Despite certain obviously exaggerated features, there was little to no doubt that they were indeed one and the same; he confirmed this much to Nagi outside of school before he discovered the crow in her schoolbag. "Who you callin' a dumbass the other day?!?" he'd exclaimed while vigorously shaking the bird within its bag of holding in revenge before realizing the potential of onlookers. With obligatory introductions aside, Munehisa was quick on the uptake as the crow explained to him what had been told to Nagi; Personas, the Metaverse, Palaces, Shadows, and how it all connected to a "Treasure".

"We sound more like thieves or robbers than Persona users if the endgame's called a Treasure of all things," Munehisa scratched the back of his head as they made the trek opposite of all the other students towards the school grounds. It was a lot of information to take in at once, but at least they weren't going in against the unknown anymore. He had his own skeptics in mind, wondering if Nagi felt the same way. "Let's say we do nab her Treasure-- is she just gonna do a complete 180 overnight? It sounds ridiculous, but then again, all of this shit is ridiculous. How about you, Nagi?"

In the morning, Nagi had belatedly realized that one of her plans would have to wait: she'd completely forgotten that Masa was out of town for a kendo meet. Until the end of the weekend. Motherfucker. She hadn't even noticed until her LINE lit up with him sending pictures of food. The ramen looked real good, too. Bitch. And so the school day passed with her in a perpetually piss-poor mood. It didn't help that for some reason, Okamoto wasn't even being her usual incompetent self, and so she wasn't even able to get any decent footage with her hidden spy cam. Not that Nagi had much faith in that plan anymore, after everything the bird had told her last night. Why bother trying to go public with footage when the bitch literally had mind control?

When school ended for the day, Nagi had dragged Mune aside, foisted Goji onto him, and told each other they had about two hours to get explanations and shit sorted before cooking club ended and they could run off into the Metaverse. She'd given the matter some thought, and decided that it wasn't worth trying to go in the moment class ended. Too many people still around with clubs and shit. At six in the evening, though? Enough people would have filtered out by then that the chance of running into someone before they could do what they had to was way lower.

So once cooking club was done, Nagi met back up with Mune and the bird a few blocks away from the school, not wanting to have attracted suspicion by waiting right outside.

"Please, burglary's for pussies. I have standards." Nagi grunted as they made their way back. "Honestly, I don't give a fuck if she changes or not. I just want the one with the bees to not be able to kill me when I turn a wrong corner in this building."

They made their way back into the main building, heading upstairs. Nagi led Mune towards the same empty club room that she'd interrogated the hat douche in, given that it'd gone unused for years by this point.

"Okay, we should be fine in here. I'll get us started, Mune." Nagi fished her phone out, opening the Metaverse app as Goji had instructed her to and punching the keywords in.

"Look alive, bitches. Let's lock and load."

Another day, another practice session done. But this rate, Akira doubted that they'd be able to perform their piece in time for the school term's end. Some of the other instruments weren't smooth enough in the overall piece and their conductor, one of the third years, was trying his best, bless his heart. And the library was closed so she couldn't retire there to study for that damned history test that Miss Okamoto had set. Its due date was getting closer and closer and Akira was getting a little frazzled trying to balance practicing her part for the band club and cramming for the test.

Today felt different though. Something about the air or the atmosphere in the school was stranger than usual and she couldn't quite put her finger on why. Was it the quaint meeting she'd had with Sonoda and Hatto-sa- Hakuro yesterday? She hadn't seen most of the study group since their study and gaming session from earlier in the week. Asumi had left school pretty early, she knew Chen was somewhere in the library. As for Nagi, who knew? Last she'd seen of the headstrong youth was at cooking club, just before Akira had checked at the band room to see if they had practice.

So it was here on the school's roof that she found herself once again. Trumpet case at her feet, her lunchbox on her lap and her signature pink headphones on her head. She bobbed her head to the beat of an inaudible song, munching on a sandwich that she'd made herself for her mid-afternoon snack, something to keep her going while she practiced. As for the song she'd picked for her personal piece today, she'd once again returned to the land of old school jazz, picking a piece from one of the greats to challenge herself again. After all, playing something created by the best jazz trumpeters of the 20th century was going to be difficult for a teenager like herself to master.

Once Akira was done with her sandwich, she took her headphones off and hooked them around her neck, standing up to stretch and roll her shoulders. Then she popped her case open, pulled her trumpet from it, put her headphones on and turned on the song she'd chosen. And soon, the strains of jazz trumpet echoed and flowed from the school's roof. An almost predictable part of anyone's day in Fujihama.

Elsewhere...

"I warn you, brother. To not contend with forces you cannot understand. Make peace with your ills and repent thy deeds. It is only a matter of time before they catch up to you."

The figure stood away from the lantern light, symbolically cast away from all that is good and proper. He waited for this very line, and turned with sudden ferocity towards the light, turning against the light, as it were.

"My works are my own, and my family need not concern themselves! What have I, a great warrior to fear from this thing? I swear to you, I shall conquer it as all things!"

He was taken aback, but as he was the man's brother, he dared press on.

"But this is no ordinary threat. Even you must see it by now. The black fortune, the sounds of some creature, even now stalking towards you..."

There was the sound of growling in the backdrop. It had been worked on considerably to sound decent enough for the play. Yes, play. This was the Drama Club room, and they were going through one of the latter scenes of a three-act script, in which a man - a samurai - is haunted by the deeds of his past and is thoroughly unrepentent. As a result, a creature had been stirred by all the woes and sorrow against him, one which had formed from his beloved pet. Even now, the growling began to sound more...cat-like. The male lead - Hakuro's friend, Roshi - pushed Hakuro back now, forcing him to drop the lantern - a prop they rigged with a false flickery flame that they could turn off remotely - and cause the light to falter.

"Away with you! I face my demons alone! Come out, beast! Come out, and face your master!"

"Aaand done! Okay, this is good. We still need to make the monster, and I know that it's going to be difficult, but I know we can do it."

This was an idea that the Drama Club head had had last year with members, back when he was just a member. Since he had been put in charge this year, he'd been working on a script over the summer, and was proofing it out now with the others. Hakuro was the main supporting lead while Roshi, probably the best actor in the group, was the main role. Both had been in costume from a previous play still stored in this place, and the backdrop had been a sheet, but there was great confidence that this would work out. People love a horror tale, although some people wanted to do the Shakespearean tragedy that was the Legacy of Kain game series. A good tale, and well-written AS play, but very confusing. All that time travel...

At this stage, though, the hour groweth late, and they needed to clean up and get home. Here, there was the problem. In their enthusiasm, they'd run a bit long, and several of the members needed to go NOW. In a sudden solution to this, Hakuro held up his hand and said "No problem. I've got this. My hat is at your service.". This was met with uncertainty, but he said he had no other plans, so he'd do it. The others thanked him, and they were off. Truth be told, there wasn't much else for him to do today. In fact, as his investigations were starting to get into his head, he thought of taking a break to ease his mind and, in fact, stave off any suspicion anybody might have of his activities. A paranoid thought, but one he entertained for his own sake. If anyone was looking around for trouble, he was backing off so they wouldn't find any. If there wa none there, then he still needed a little break.

This stuff isn't as troublesome as it looks. Captain runs a tight ship.

He got to work, putting things away as he listened to some music via phone.

Mentions:-
Another day and another slog through a fairly mundane and boring school day. Kenzan honestly barely remembered what most of his teachers had said over the course of the day. He didn’t really feel the need to pay attention though. All he needed to do was make sure he understood the homework and he would be fine on the upcoming exams. It wasn’t like he’d ever had problems before despite his lack of active studying.

As the final bell rang, he packed up his stuff to head either home or to the bookstore. He weaved through the various people who were heading to clubs or other after school activities. He mindlessly scrolled through the music on his phone as he put his headphones in and decided that he would go to the bookstore for at least a couple hours so he could get work done in peace. He, shockingly, hadn't gotten any pestering texts from his mother so he felt in the clear for the moment at least.

And he did get work done, a fair amount of it actually in between scrolling through social media and playing games on his computer. He ended up staying for longer than just a couple hours, but he doubted that Kudo cared at this point. He was there often enough he was just a constant fixture at the table at this point.

It was getting into early evening by the time he left, but despite seeing the dead body with that bunch of second years he didn’t feel any fear. Though his head did snap upright when he heard noise through the music.

“Hey! Can you grab her!”

He stopped in confusion at the sight in front of him. A white cat loping towards him with someone he vaguely recognized in passing from school chasing after her. A second year if he remembered correctly, in a different class to the crowd he’d stumbled across.

The cat had already slowed down at the sight of him and padded up with an insistent meow before rolling over onto his shoes. He stared down at the curious blue eyes that peered expectantly up at him. He crouched down to pet her, and loop a finger through her collar, as the guy caught up to him.

“Thanks, she slipped out when I opened the door,” he bent down to scoop the cat into his arms, “You should know better than that Meeko.” He made eye contact with Kenzan, “Oh, hey, you go to school with me. Sakai Kenzan right?”

How this guy knew his name he had no idea but he nodded, “You’re welcome and, yeah, that’s me.”

The other student grinned, “Great, well, see you at school then!” He turned on his heel to jog back the way he came.

Not the weirdest encounter he’d had recently, but it was definitely up there. He just shrugged his shoulders and turned his music back on so that he could get the rest of the way home. Hopefully without any more weird encounters.

---

"Fuck you mean, 'it's closed'?" Chen flung his hands out to the side, book in hand, half-shouting at the library boy, Tanaka. He looked to the side, seeing several students wandering around the library, reading textbooks, or studying together. "Look! You can literally see people walking around the-" He was quickly cut off once more by Tanaka who quickly stepped in front of him, blocking his view, insisting that he go somewhere else to read his book.

He knew Tanaka pretty well at that point, so why would he go against him now? The only logical conclusion he could come to was he either hung out with a girl he liked during his little study session with Asumi, or, the more likely option, he was being put up to this by Miss Okamoto. That bitch. It's one thing to teach a class poorly, it's another to actively impede your students. He needed a plan. One that would expose her antics. Unfortunately, he had little in the way of evidence. If he tried to go to the principal about her threat to expell them, she could just deny it, and it would be her word against his. And as far as Tanaka went, he couldn't actually prove she was manipulating him. Not yet, at least. He needed to bide his time.

"You win this round Tanaka. But I'll be back." He then turned on his heels and began heading the other way. Well, now was the time to think of where to go next. Going straight home seemed like it would just be a repeat of last night, or at the very least, he'd end up clocking out early and miss out on valuable time. Hmm... a predicament indeed. For now, maybe a walk would clear his head, or at least keep him awake.

He made his way towards the entrance of the school and began switching out his shoes. Where to next?

It is a funny thing, these transitions. Certainly, one would normally expect a certain dizziness or nausea, as the world shifts while you yourself remain the same. Perhaps part of it is in the inner-ear, perhaps the rest is in the eyes, but for Hakuro…it was something else. He had been finishing up the cleaning job while listening to music, and once he was done, he would be off, except…he wasn’t. He had just donned his hat and coat when everything changed, and the first thing - the very first thing…was the smell. A sudden and unexpectedly sweet aroma penetrated his nose at that moment, and his eyes now focused on his new surroundings.

”Wait, what? But I… I just- How…?”

He stood there, confused for now, as it had seemed like ‘Presto! Chango!’, the room was redone! It was like some sort of magic conjuring trick, but impossible. Just impossible. Everything was both fancy, and yet…gaudy as hell. He didn’t like it, and he also didn’t like whatever that decidedly organic sound was…

Meanwhile, a similar situation was developing on the roof of the school. Akira had finished her single personal piece for the day and was in the midst of packing up to go home when the change came. At first, it was weird. It felt like a rush of vertigo that made her vision swim as the school seemed to pull away from her, then rush inwards towards her vision. And then the sickly sweet scent of some sort of honey filled her nose, cloying and overwhelming in its intensity.

Akira’s sneakers squeaked in the honey that coated the roof of the..beehive? School building? She wasn’t even sure now. All she knew was that her trumpet case was now covered in a layer of this strange, sickening sweet honey. She looked around in confusion, panic rapidly rising in her system. She clutched her trumpet to her chest and then she called out, struggling to maintain her composure.

”H-hello? Anyone there?!”

There was no answer, because even when in the normal world, the Drama Club room was a closed set. It was made that way for the benefit of those working on their performance, and to not bother anybody in the vicinity outside of it too much. Thus, Hakuro would be ignorant of the immediate situation…in favor of the one he found himself dealing with already. Amidst this ostentatious array, he was carefully closing in on something that stood out among it all, and it all stood out for a different reason, as is. In the backstage area - which was larger now, as the rest of the room was unexpectedly enlarged - was something wholely unexpected, and the sort of the current smell which had alerted him to the weirdness around him. He was putting aside the bizarre setting for now, as this room was perhaps benign by comparison. This…needed his attention more. It was making noise, and he remembered-

No, no…stop! Absolutely not!

He knew something Alien when he saw it, or at least something just as potentially bad. They were egg sacs, and he was NOT going to tempt fate by going near them like some idiot from a horror film. They always seem to touch things and get too close to horrible whatsits, and a sudden fear that he’d been dropped into a drama for somebody else’s amusement suddenly hit the hat-boy, causing him to back away like it was on fire.

Okay. I dunno what’s going on. Am I still in the Drama Club? Do I smash the eggs? I think I smash the eggs.

He looked around and, lacking any obvious oversized props to grab and hoist overhead, he made do with one of the chaira instead. And it was at that moment, that someone close to any sort of vent or ductwork - friend of foe in this place - might’ve heard…

”HATTO SMASH!!!”

There were no visible entrances or exits on the roof. At least, what she thought was the school’s roof anyhow. With her trumpet in her hands and her backpack slung on her…back, Akira began to move.

The first thing she realised was that this roof wasn’t flat. It curved slightly to the sides and gradually flattened near what she came to recognise as the centre of the structure. So it was there that she walked to, trying not to slip and fall in the slick honey-like substance that seemed to be everywhere, sucking at the bottoms of her sneakers with every step like glue. The centre of the building didn’t feature the opening where she knew the school’s courtyard was, so there was no longer a way down from the roof. Nor were the stairs here. Instead, it was all one curved structure, smooth surfaces from end to end.

Her earlier cry unheard, Akira chanced a glance to the edge of the hive. The edge seemed to slope downwards and it was all covered in honey. Although…

That gave her pause for thought and she glanced down at her shoes. If this was so sticky, perhaps it would provide leverage for her to…get down? The thought itself sent a shiver down her spine but it appeared she had no other choice. It was that, or stay up here and wait. Risk starving. Or worse.

Akira hurriedly stuffed her trumpet as best as she could into her backpack and took a deep breath in. Then, one step at a time, she advanced towards the edge of the hive. True to form, the honey was thick and sticky enough to provide her with enough grip to slowly make her way down. When the angle of the roof-turned-wall was too steep, she turned around and dipped her hands (gross) into the honey, using all the suction it had to slowly make her way down until her feet touched ground on the outside of the school. It was there that Akira found the front door, wide open, with a few sets of footprints in the muck.

That was strange, she thought. There shouldn’t be anyone here. Or at least, there was? But if there were people here, hadn’t they heard her yelling?

”...were they ignoring me?”

That thought, voiced out loud, drifted into the relative silence of the school grounds. Until she heard a rather familiar voice yell a very familiar catchphrase.

Hatto-san. He was upstairs somewhere. She didn’t mistake that voice, especially after she’d met the young man himself yesterday. Her trumpet had found its way into her hands again, almost unconsciously, and Akira did the only thing she could.

She walked right up the steps of the school and went back in.

Its layout was startlingly familiar, almost exactly identical to the way she remembered it, right down to the staircase that led up to the second floor. But the walls were honeycombs, the air smelled like burnt sugar and there was that strange, sticky honey all over the walls and floor. To say that she was scared was an understatement.

That yell had come from the direction of the drama club room and, as she got closer, she called out to him.

”H-hatto-san? Kuroda-senpai? Are you there?”

She would’ve heard alot more than just the yell, upon approaching the Drama Club room. That repeated pounding sound, for instance, as Hakuro was most-definitely hitting something repeatedly in some manner or another. Indeed, inside the room, the stage was now a certified mess. He didn’t…even bother to inspect whatever was inside, upon the act. He merely smashed in favor of not wanting to find out too late. By the time the deed was done, he was thoroughly exhausted now - having held nothing back to ensure no alien spawn or whatever the hell was growing in those things would get him.

The worst would’ve been if they really were facehuggers, all so spidery and skittery…

But as it happened, the stage was now a crime scene, murder by chairs. The culprit had grabbed TWO chairs, in fact, as he sought to mash the eggs into a pulp and leave nothing behind, and did so with such force that he was sure that one of the chairs bent out of shape, or both. He didn’t care, and it was only when he was done that he truly began to appreciate the sheer richness of the area surrounding him. Starting with the sheen of the chairs to the chandelier to the diamond-encrusted walls, Hakuro finally took in all the details and had…no idea where he really was. Was this truly the room he’d been in before? The stage looked old in comparison to the rest, which made it seem more genuine…if sticky. The eggs made it wrong again, though, and he got the impression of having been either dosed on drugs, or at least asleep!

But that doesn’t explain the pain shooting up my arms. No drug trip or deryp dream could’ve produced that!

What caused this, then? He hadn’t seen what it was, but…this was something akin to that spooky podcast, or even the old show hosted by that man in a suit. You know the one. Hakuro was about to investigate more, but that was when he heard the voice, a familiar voice calling to him. There were alot of familiar voices to him, but he’d been conversing with this one only yesterday. Swiftly, he turned to the door out of this room and slid it open.

”Yes, I’m over heee…agghh…oh.”

And for the first time today, Hakuro got a really good look at this Palace outside of the fancy Drama Club room. He saw the honeycomb hive sections, the considerable amount of honey and stickiness everywhere, and the unexpected presence of the normal-ish Akira among it all. She was still in pink, but he wasn’t judging at this time. Akira, upon seeing him open the door - which had stuck a little, of course - saw the transition of Hakuro go from being polite and helpful, to suddenly shocked and disgusted, and finally to meme-worthy Concern Face. He clearly hadn’t seen all this until now, which you could believe since the inside of his room looked actually clean. In fact, he gestured for her to come inside.

”Perhaps you’d better come in, where it’s a little less…this.”

Akira could only nod as Hakuro emerged from the drama club room, splattered with some sort of slime and panting like he’d just run around the school a few times. With as much haste as she could, she nipped into the club room and, finally, stopped to catch her breath. When she’d done so, she looked at her senior.

”K-Kuroda-senpai, I’m so glad you’re okay. I…didn’t expect to find you here. Or at all.”

She leaned against one of the walls and slowly slid down until she was sitting on the floor, confused and in shock.

”...do you know what this place is? Or where we are? It’s like our school, but…”

Akira shook her head. ”It’s like we’re dreaming or someone’s playing a prank on us, but then why us?”

”Trust me, I didn’t expect this any better than you did.”

He took one of the remaining intact seats and collapsed into it, then - as he saw Akira hitting the floor, he turned one of the other spares in the U-pattern towards her, in case she wanted it. Still, he thought it over slightly, the weirdness outside the door still sending him reeling…yet explaining the eggs he’d so-thoroughly thrashed. What this place was… He looked around.

”I don’t know what it is, not exactly. This looks still like the Drama Club, but it’s not. Outside was a hallway, but a hiveway, too. I know I’m not dreaming, and if someone is playing a joke, I don’t hear laughing.”

Which…you know…you’d expect, given the circumstances.

”The only explanations left are the most bizarre, unsettling, and paranoid I can think of, because things that make sense are currently not here. Lemme try…”

He pulled out his phone, but…no. No service.

”Akira, I think we are somewhere we’re not meant to be. Or worse, we’re somewhere that someone definitely wants us, and it’s not gonna be pleasant. And I’m sorry to lay that on you, but I’ve got nothing on this. Nothing at all.”

”So… I guess we can try to leave? I came in through the school’s front door and it was unlocked, but I also saw some footprints leading in. Maybe there’s other people here?”

”Wait, you…came into this place, even though you were already out? That’s…”

He paused for a second, smiling at this and nodding.

”...actually kind of impressive. I thought only people like me did that.”

Shrugging, Hakuro headed for the door now.

”We’ll have to be pretty quiet, especially since I made a big noise, a moment ago.”

It was without a doubt that that would probably piss off something around here, so Hakuro wanted to be away from that now, as quickly and as quietly as possible.

”I was…on the roof, actually. There was a lot of that weird honey stuff on it and I climbed down. It was actually really scary…but at least I’m not afraid of heights, right?”

Akira chuckled nervously as she watched Hakuro leave. She stood from her chair once he reached the door, still clasping her trumpet in her hands.

”I didn’t see anything when I came up here though…it was so quiet.”

”That seems doubly wrong. Okay, ssh, for now.”

Carefully opening the doorway, the Hatto-san slipped out and…immediately didn’t like the minor squelch of honey-stuff underfoot. Swearing to himself, he moved on, trying really hard to remain stealthy, yet utterly knowing that if this was being watched by anybody…they looked absolutely ridiculous.

Akira followed right behind him, wincing a little at Hakuro’s shoe squelching into the honey-muck. She clutched her trumpet to her chest and satchel bag, trying as best as she could to follow in his footsteps. Her gaze flicked left and right as they moved on through the hallways, her hands wringing nervously around the body of her trumpet.

The smell of this place was smothering him, making the air thick like soup, or perhaps stew. Either way, he didn’t like it. Was this place one big flypaper? Did it have anything to do with what’d been happening lately around town? Hakuro remembered his conversation with Katsuragi, how he’d had this weird feeling of revelation, not paranoia, like something clicked together. He couldn’t actually be right something being seriously wrong with Okamoto, could there? Were they being ‘disappeared’? They soon reached the stairwell down, and he looked back to whisper Akira’s way.

”Okay, we get downstairs and creep towards the main doors. If anything freaky happens or someone calls at us, book it for the doors and do not stop.”

He didn’t trust any of this, any of what he was seeing, hearing, or whatnot. I mean, of all the things to find in this giant honeycomb, why did he hear something so out of place as that?

Yet, escape would not come easily for the two of them. Hakuro’s foot stepped on a specific tile, producing an audible “click”. A long tendril of honey poured out from one of the strangely shaped sigils on the walls, its serpentine figure twisting and writhing as it assumed corporal form. The entity looked much like a worm; its entire figure was segmented, though it was faceless and translucent like honey itself. It produced a loud growl, which ushered more of its kind from the walls. And more. And more, and more, until all of the tendrils writhed together on the floor. Slowly but surely, the creatures were encasing the floor in a flood of thrashing bodies. They licked along Hakuro and Akira’s ankles, their lithe bodies beginning to wrap around them in an attempt to restrain them.

Akira was the first to notice. Not the click, but the wet slop noise that came from one of the walls. They were a ways down the hallway and the silence was deafening, other than the sounds of their footsteps. So when that happened, she stopped and reached out for Hakuro, tugging on the back of his coat for him to stop too.

”D-did you hear that?”

And then she saw it. The strange, wriggling worm-like creature that had emerged from the wall. And more of them, slithering down from the orifices hidden within the honeycomb-like structure. Gathering at their feet. Twisting around her ankles.

That’s when she screamed.

For Hakuro, it was a little different, starting with the moment he hit that apparent trigger in the floor. There was a barely-audible ”Oh no…” from him as he heard and felt the click that every Indiana Jones type fellow fears: A boobytrap. He’d waited for alarms, poison darts, a boulder…but what really came was more of GLORP, followed by something more continuous and messy-sounding, which is where Akira tugged on his coat and asked if he heard. Hakuro looked back as he nodded emphatically while mouthing ‘Oh yes’ with an expression that was simultaneously stating ‘Oh crap’.

It wasn’t clear whether they were moving like flowing honey, or if they were flowing honey, but now the walls were bleeding worms, or worm-like shapes, all running together in a swarm-like manner that just…ugh… It’d make you sick. It made Akira scream, which meant it was time to act, because the things were starting to lash around their ankles. His own briefly-panicked mind remembering The Plan, Hakuro grabbed Akira’s wrist and shouted ”DOWN!” before throwing all his leg-born might to leap at the stairwell, heading for the way down. The wormy things had only just started, so they hadn’t had the chance to be more than thick muck to their shoes…but when Hakuro reached the stare, his somewhat more-nervous voice then cried ”UP!!”, as he saw what looked like a rising tide of the things flowing up the stairs from below. This was an indicator to reverse course, head upstairs, as he felt like something was crying in his ear to do so, anyway.

Wordlessly, Akira followed Hakuro towards the stairs, her panic rendering her speechless as she wove her way around the worm things as best as she could. Sickening wet pops of the strange creatures bursting under her sneakers echoed down the hall as she dashed after the senior. At first, she thought that they'd made it. The worms were slow, barely able to catch up to the two of them. But the sight that awaited them on the stairs down made her breath catch in her chest, another scream of fear welling up in her lungs.

There were more of them. A sea of them. Roiling, slithering, almost entrancing were it not for the fact that they seemed to go straight for them as they approached the stairs.

With a cry of terror, she let Hakuro drag her upstairs instead, keeping up with his pace while he had a firm grip on her wrist. Her other arm wrapped protectively around her trumpet as some form of shallow comfort.

It seemed that with the sudden shouting, the sentient beings melded together, their sticky forms folding upon each other like hot syrup. It was obvious that, despite being made of many parts, they worked and thought together as one. Attracted by the jump in activity, they suddenly surged up the stairwell and after the two poor students. The giant, fluid-like blob licked along the edge of the second floor. This time, its advance was much quicker. It only took a few seconds for the sticky substance to reach their ankles, then their calves. Portions of the monster licked upwards in an attempt to restrain them and pull them under.