"Mordred!" Taichi tore the mask off his face. Blood-red energy streamed down his cheeks, neck, and arms, pooling in his palm before solidifying into a knight's greatsword with a silver blade and a red hilt. At the same time, the mask transformed into a full suit of armor, encasing Taichi from head to toe.
"Woah! What is that?! That's way too cool!" Ryuji Sakamoto was about to attack the Shadows that had noticed them, but he stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes wide at Taichi's transformation.
"A knight, huh... It really fits the name," Ann Takamaki said, watching as Taichi effortlessly cut down a Shadow that lunged at her.
"Oh oh oh! I can't be left behind!" Morgana, eager for praise from Ann, immediately summoned his Persona. "Zoro!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Don't leave me out!" Seeing Ren Amamiya charge forward with a gun after shouting "Arsène," Ryuji wasn't having it. "Captain Kidd!"
"...They actually left a defenseless girl behind. Those three guys are hopeless," Ann said, watching the three figures rush away from her. She sighed and shook her head, then turned to Taichi, who was still by her side. "Naruto-san, you're the real knight."
In truth, Taichi was troubled. Inside his head, two people were arguing. Mordred kept urging him to charge forward and annihilate every enemy. As for Ann Takamaki... since when did she, Mordred, ever stop for a woman? Meanwhile, X was constantly arguing with Mordred. Neither of them was talking about the important things, like why the Heroic Spirit Mordred was lending her power to Taichi as a Persona. Or if this world had something called the Spirit Origin Records. After getting back to the real world, he'd have to check if there was a city called Fuyuki in Japan. If so, he'd transform again and check the Antarctic for something called Chaldea. If all that existed, then he'd have to ask X to take him to another galaxy. He couldn't stay on this planet.
Now that he thought about it, everyone was ganging up on the helpless Shadows, but he hadn't seen Ren trying to communicate with them to get a new Persona. Was the game's mechanic different in this reality?
He shrugged mentally. It didn't matter. He wasn't the main character of this story. He was Ultraman X, a specialist in fighting monsters. At most, he'd transform and help Ren and the others in the final battle. Still, if he was using Mordred's power, could he use her Noble Phantasm? Taichi looked at the greatsword in his hand. He planned to find a moment to be alone and ask Mordred about it. But for now... if he used her Noble Phantasm, this castle would collapse, and Kamoshida would be completely broken. Plus, it was still a question whether he could even use it. And defeating a Shadow gave him no experience points or money... this was a terrible game experience. Taichi felt a slight sense of disappointment.
Guided by the experienced Morgana and Ren, the group fought through a number of Shadows and safely arrived at a room called a "Safe Room."
"There's a 'Safe Room' in the middle of the enemy's territory... That's pretty illogical," Taichi said, sighing and pressing his hand against his forehead. They didn't gain experience or money from beating Shadows, yet they still had a safe zone.
"Oh yeah! Now that you mention it, if this is Kamoshida's Palace, why would there be a Safe Room? Does that mean there's still a part of his subconscious that's good?" Ryuji said, looking like he'd just had a revelation.
"I don't know..." Morgana looked troubled. He didn't have any knowledge of that.
"Who cares? It's a perfect place for us to rest," Ann Takamaki said, out of breath. She was still a regular human. Her physical stamina was severely depleted after a number of close calls. Ren, Ryuji, and Taichi, on the other hand, were protected by their Personas and weren't as affected by the exhaustion.
Then, Mordred started complaining again. In her words, none of the fighters here were up to standard. They had too many openings in combat, wasted a lot of energy, and many of their moves were flashy but useless. The Shadows were little more than mooks that she could have taken down with a single swing of her sword. If X hadn't helped Taichi resist her influence, she would have taken over Taichi's body to fight herself.
Looks like after "Ultraman X," they'd have "Naruto Taichi-go" too. Besides transforming, he could call in a proxy fighter!
"Okay! I've rested enough, let's keep going!" Ann stretched her arms and legs, urging them to move on.
"No, you should wait here," Ryuji said, scratching the back of his head, clearly annoyed. "You can't fight, so it's better for you to stay in the Safe Room. Those things can't get in here."
"I refuse!" Ann immediately rejected Ryuji's advice. "I want to see Kamoshida with my own eyes in this Palace! And I'm going to punch him right in the face!"
Timid in reality, a heavy hitter in the Palace! After all, the police couldn't enter the Palace and arrest her.
"No, no, no! I'm worried about your safety!" Ryuji said, looking miserable. "We only have four fighters on our side. To protect you, we'd have to split one of us off, but Kamoshida has an entire Shadow army!"
"Ugh—" Ann's face turned red, but she couldn't find a way to argue back. She knew she was a liability.
"It should be fine," Taichi chimed in. "Our goal right now is to explore the Palace and find Kamoshida's Treasure. If we run into a situation we can't handle, we can always just leave the Palace."
"We can just have Ann hide in the Safe Room during the final battle, right?"
"Otherwise, if we leave her with this hang-up, I'm worried she'll lose control and try to sneak after us later. That would be even more dangerous."
"...Takamaki, you weren't actually going to do that, were you?" Ryuji looked at Ann with a horrified expression, taken aback by Taichi's words. The Ann he knew just might do exactly that.
Ann's behavior—looking away and whistling—confirmed his fears.