Life Will Change

Chapter 62: Saving Morgana

Begin

~Normal POV

9/15 - Thursday

Immediately after school everyone met up and made their way to Okumura's office downtown. The building was located in an open plaza with a parking lot out back. It was very tall, in fact, it was taller than a few of the skyscrapers in the rest of the city. From their position in the plaza they could see a few of the damaged windows that were being repaired.

"Man, this place is huge..." Ryuji commented.

"It is the headquarters of a major corporation, after all," Yusuke replied. "And the Palace itself is likely to be just as big."

Akira was checking the Nav on his phone. "Yep, this is definitely the place. The distortion field is all over it. Makes sense that a corporate suit's Palace is his own office."

"I searched up a bit about Okumura online." Ryuji said, "He's definitely up to something. Don't you think he's guilty, too?"

"We'll know soon enough. Once we see the Palace, we'll have at least some sort of indicator for the kind of person he is," Akira answered.

"Ok, but I'm positive I'm right!"

"We're here for Morgana, remember?" Futaba warned.

"I know, I know, but if we're going in anyway, we can at least take a look around."

"Futaba, you said you figured out his keywords already, right," Makoto asked.

"Mhmm! The Corporate HQ is 'Outer Space!'" Futaba answered, promptly.

Everyone stared at her with mild concern. They didn't doubt that she was right, but the idea was... unnerving.

"I figured it out cause he owns Big Bang Burger," Futaba added, simply. "It was kinda obvious..."

"Outer space..." Yusuke said, thoughtfully. "How exciting..."

"I hope there's more to it than that... We can't breathe in space..." Ann said, worriedly.

"I mean Shadows need to breathe too, so I'm sure it's fine. Is everyone ready?"

"Ready!"

Akira activated the Nav and everything around them went hazy... Unfortunately for them, they didn't notice the passing figure of a known detective catching them in the act as they vanished...

~...

"Holy. Shit."

Okumura's Palace wasn't just outer space. It was a futuristic, high tech, space station. The walls and floor were cold steel. There were odd tech gadgets all around. There were large windows looking out into the vast void of stars. They could see that his space station was meant to look like it was orbiting the Earth; as the planet was visible through the windows. In the entrance area there was nothing more than an elevator leading down into the station proper. Their clothes had changed as well.

"We're already considered threats?" Ann said, examining her gloves.

"Okumura is probably on guard," Makoto explained. "What with the effect Mona caused on the real building and the fact that he's public enemy number one on the site."

Futaba and Yusuke were staring out the windows in awe.

"This view is insane..." Futaba said.

"It's as though we're in a film..." Yusuke added, framing the view with his fingers. "I wish I had brought my sketchbook... The stars are immaculate."

"Maybe another time, Fox."

~...

After heading deeper into the Palace, they found their first bit of proof towards the rumors about Okumura. While walking along an elevated path, they saw the cognitive people of this Palace: robots dressed up like they were wearing suits. They all looked roughly the same, human-esque but clearly not. They were walking around performing repetitive tasks while being watched by a larger robot supervisor.