What surprised Ren was that merely speaking the target's name, "Raiden Mei," without even tentatively inputting the location or palace type, caused the MetaNav app on his phone to suddenly activate successfully.
The space around Ren and Mei rippled like water, dimming rapidly.
An intense wave of dizziness, like motion sickness, washed over Mei.
The moment her vision cleared, Mei's slender legs suddenly buckled. Her face pale, she stumbled forward, falling into the arms of Ren, who had positioned himself in front of her.
"Looks like this level of spatial transfer is a bit too intense for Mei-senpai. You should rest here for a bit."
After helping the dizzy Mei sit down on a nearby platform to rest...
Blue flames flickered quietly around Ren's body. When the flames died down, the black, wing-like phantom thief suit that Mei found so captivating had once again replaced his Chiba Academy uniform.
The MetaNav app Ren currently used was clearly a different version from the one at the start of the game's story a year later.
The cabbage icon instead of the black eye totem was obvious enough.
Even the method of use was much simpler and cruder than the official version.
It didn't require finding a specific real-world location, nor deducing what place Mei perceived as her own distorted domain within reality, nor even physically going near that real-world entrance.
Just the target's name was enough for the cabbage version of the MetaNav to instantly transport the user into the corresponding otherworld Palace.
However, this method of transfer was rather forceful and jarring—a compulsory spatial shift.
It wasn't like the official version, which offered a gradual, gentler transition, allowing users to unknowingly step into the Palace's boundaries while simply walking in the real world.
Ren, already a Persona user accustomed to Hare's teleportation methods, was fine, experiencing only a moment of slight discomfort.
But for an ordinary, physically delicate girl like Mei, experiencing such a rough spatial transfer for the first time immediately induced severe spatial sickness, leaving her limbs weak and numb, temporarily unable to move.
"This place... is it Chiba Academy? And it looks mostly unchanged, just shrouded in dark clouds."
After settling the pale-faced Mei down to rest on the platform, Ren began to look around, observing the environment and layout of the Palace within Mei's heart.
Perhaps because the Palace in Mei's heart was still in its nascent stage, it looked largely identical to the real-world Chiba Academy.
The only difference was the weather; thick, dark clouds covered the sky, plunging the entire academy into a gloomy state.
While not pitch black, combined with the unnerving emptiness—completely devoid of students, unlike usual—and the occasional deafening thunderclaps echoing from the heavens...
A chilling sense of the familiar becoming alien, of her everyday surroundings transforming into a ghastly, haunted domain, instantly gripped Mei's heart.
Mei's body shuddered violently as she slowly but determinedly scooted closer to Ren on the platform.
Staring at the academy before her, shrouded in black thunderclouds and steeped in darkness...
Mei felt as if, at any second, some demon or ghost might leap out from an unseen corner and attack her and Ren.
"Th-There!! Ren-kun, enemies!!"
As if governed by Murphy's Law, the more Mei didn't want to encounter monsters, the more likely they were to appear.
In just a few moments, Mei's pupils suddenly dilated. Her slender white arm trembled as she subconsciously pointed towards the direction behind Ren.
A figure wielding a longsword, face completely covered by a purple mask, head shrouded by a white hood, and clad in a purple and white form-fitting combat suit, had appeared silently. It walked slowly towards Ren with stiff, inhuman movements.
Even though the purple and white figure concealed its face entirely with the mask and hood, Mei still sensed a strong sense of wrongness from its gait.
Simply put, the uncanny valley effect hit her hard.
"Don't worry, it's not an enemy... This is a summon controlled by my other partner, Hare. It functions like a sentry. If we follow it, we can meet up with Hare."
Although his back was turned to the individual Hare called an "Archetype Seed," Ren had sensed its presence even earlier than Mei.
The situation was clear: Hare, anticipating potential intruders sent by Cocolia into Mei's Palace, had summoned an army of Archetype Seeds and dispersed them throughout Chiba Academy for patrol and vigilance.
If anyone infiltrated Mei's Palace, Hare would immediately receive feedback from the Archetype Seeds.
Through spending time with Hare, Ren already knew the Archetype Seeds possessed simple intelligence.
After casting a recovery skill on Mei, whose dizziness hadn't fully subsided...
Ren helped the instantly improved Mei to her feet. He followed behind the Archetype Seed, navigating through the familiar yet alien Chiba Academy Palace.
"Joker? And... the real Miss Mei?!"
Below the second-year students' classroom building, Hare had been staring intently at the rooftop area above.
Hearing the faint sound of footsteps approaching and sensing one of the Archetype Seeds deviating from its patrol route to return to her position...
Hare tore her gaze away from the rooftop and turned her head towards the source of the footsteps.
Her smooth, white-purple hair flew gracefully as she turned. Her blue eyes, which always seemed to hold a touch of melancholy, widened with intense shock and disbelief upon seeing Ren and Mei following the Archetype Seed.
"What is happening? Why are you suddenly in Miss Mei's Palace, Joker? You shouldn't have the ability to infiltrate Palaces on your own!"
Hare possessed the special ability to read and transcribe information about things; illusions were ineffective against her. She could be 100% certain that the Phantom Thief Joker before her was Ren Amamiya himself.
It was precisely because she confirmed Ren and Mei's identities that Hare felt even more bewildered.
After all, without special tools, humans shouldn't be able to freely traverse the Imaginary Space [Mementos].
And previously, Ren had always needed her, a Stigma crystallization, to open the gate to that space.
How could Ren suddenly gain the ability to infiltrate Mei's Palace on his own after just half a day apart?!
"It's a long story. Simply put, someone secretly installed a program on my phone... This is my partner in phantom thievery. Her name is Misteln Schariac, but in Mementos, I usually call her by her codename, 'Hare'."
Ren raised a hand in greeting towards Hare, then turned to Mei—who was slightly stunned by Hare's beautiful face—and made the introduction.
"By the way, my phantom thief codename is 'Joker'."
"Hare, have you found any trace of Shadow Mei? We need to find her now so she can become Mei-senpai's Persona—"
Hare had entered Mei's Palace earlier than him, so she should have gathered more clues.
However, just as Ren turned to ask Hare about Shadow Mei's whereabouts...
CRACKLE—BOOM!!!
A thick bolt of violent purple lightning, as wide as a water barrel, suddenly descended from the heavens, striking the ground directly in front of Ren!
Following the path of the lightning strike, Ren looked up towards where Hare had been staring—the rooftop of the second-year classroom building.
A cold, black-purple throne hung high in the sky.
And seated upon this zenith throne was an arrogant figure, like a queen looking down upon her domain, gazing impassively at everything below.
Jagged bolts of immense lightning flashed across the dark thunderclouds blanketing the sky.
Accompanied by the earth-shaking roar of thunder drums, the fleeting, brilliant lightning illuminated the figure on the celestial throne, clearly revealing the ruler's majestic appearance to everyone on the ground.
"Is that... me? Is that... the Shadow within my heart?!"
Waist-length black-purple hair, a delicate and dignified beautiful face, an arrogant expression cold as frost, like a lightning queen.
This familiar image, like looking into a mirror, reflecting her past self, made Mei on the ground stare wide-eyed.
"We finally meet for real, Shadow Mei-senpai. Thanks for accepting my request to visit."