"I'll wait for them upstairs" said Ann as she headed towards the attic. Sojiro nodded vaguely as he was looking for something in the small kitchen of the coffee shop. On the TV was a commercial for that EMMA that said it was coming to the world in just three months.
Up in the attic, Ann sat down on Joker's cot. She stared at nothing for long minutes of silence as Ann was very deep in thought. She waved a hand lazily and the small CRT that Joker had bought shortly after moving into LeBlanc came on. On the small screen there was the Phantom Thieves in front of what was unmistakably her Palace. They all had entered the Metaverse to see Ann's Palace it would seem.
The Palace was three stories tall and the entrance had a red carpet under that led to the huge glass double doors under a covered awning. On the wide window next to the entrance of the Palace were affixed huge neon lights that proclaimed "Ann's Place"
"Are we really going to do this?" asked Ryuji.
All of the Phantom Thieves were in regular clothing. Futaba was the furthest back of all of them and looked distinctly nervous. Yusuke was at the entrance itself looking into what looked like a lobby through the glass doors.
"We're just checking it out" replied Makoto. "I thought you said you wanted to see this place, Ryuji. I wonder why"
"It isn't like that!" shouted Ryuji turning red. "I was just curious about entering a Palace that one of us would have"
"It'll be a unique experience to be certain" said Yusuke.
"I'm not totally comfortable with this either" said Sumire.
"We should just relax" said Haru.
It was then that Ann noticed that her breasts had grown again; she was now a E-Cup. She tried for several fruitless attempts to shrink her breasts back to their original size but she just couldn't. Ann sighed and conjured up a series of mirrors so that she could see what other changes to her body.
Ann took a look at herself from every angle. Ann yelped when she noticed that her ass was almost twice as large as it usually was. She tried to change her body back to normal but it was no use.
"So it's true" said a familiar voice.
Ann looked around to see Lavenza had appeared in the attic. The young girl was holding a big thick book as per usual as she peered at Ann with her bright yellow eyes. Lavenza apparently didn't need to blink as often as other humans did. Was she even human? Joker once told Ann that Lavenza was once twin little girls that had been split apart by the God of Control who had taken over the mysterious Velvet Room.
Joker had told Ann all about his time in the Velvet Room during his dreams.
"Lavenza?" asked Ann. "what are you doing here?"
Lavenza didn't respond right away. The young girl was looking at Ann up and down. Lavenza stepped closer to examine Ann more closely. Ann suddenly felt like being examined under a microscope.
"The mantle has gone to you," said Lavenza. "You're the second human to receive the mantle...curious"
"I'm not going to abuse it" replied Ann. That's when Ann noticed a doorway in the middle of the room. The doorway looked very out-of-place. The door appeared to be a jail cell door judging by the bars on it. A thin purple mist was coming from the doorway. The door led to a purple void.
"You just rewrote somebody's cognition" said Lavenza.
"That was a special case" replied Ann. "he was a stalker"
Lavenza looked blankly at Ann.
"A crazed fan who was obsessed with me," said Ann. "who would harm others for insulting me even the slightest. Someone who would've probably kidnapped me and forced me to have sex with him....or kill me, or rape me....not precisely in that order"
Lavenza slowly nodded.
"I'm not planning on doing what Maruki did" said Ann. "I don't plan on rewriting everyone's cognition. If I did, do you think you'd be able to get here? How does that work, by the way?"
Lavenza said nothing but appeared to be examining the TV which showed the Phantom Thieves enter the lobby of Ann's Palace.
*********
The lobby of Ann's Palace was a small square room about 15 feet in diameter. There was only one long skinny corridor leading deeper into the Palace that served as the only other exit of the lobby. At the mouth of the long skinny corridor was a counter -- a podium, really -- which had a Shadow standing behind it. The Shadow was shaped like a human that was wearing a red uniform.
The walls of the lobby were red. The carpet of the lobby was also red, although it was a few shades lighter than the walls.
Ryuji was the first to enter the lobby, quickly followed by the others.
"Ah," said the Shadow behind the counter in a bright and cheery voice. "you all must be the Phantom Thieves!"
Ryuji glanced around as he and the others walked right up to the counter. As usual, the Shadow had no features whatsoever save for two eyes. The voice of the Shadow was feminine. It was safe to say that the Shadows in the Palace would be female.
"I was instructed by Lady Ann to give you these" said the Shadow, giving out VIP passes to all of the Phantom Thieves along with what looked like keys and a map of the first floor of the Palace. "please be advised that there are certain areas that are restricted, even to VIP guests such as you"
"Why is that?" asked Ryuji.
"This place is a reflection of Ann's heart" said Makoto. "maybe the restricted areas are parts of her heart that she wishes to keep to herself"
"Ah, I got ya" said Ryuji.
"Please, make yourselves at home" said the Shadow.
The long corridor led down to a single door that led to a huge room that had a stage on one side. There was enough room on the stage for a live band although there wasn't a band on the stage at the moment. There were pictures and statues of Ann everywhere. None of the statues or pictures were tasteless in the slightest way. Yusuke, as suspected, went totally nuts for the artistics of nearly every piece.
"Totally reminds me of when we first met" said Ryuji to Yusuke.
Yusuke was busy looking at a bust of Ann's head which was set high on the walls.
"He's not even listening" sighed Ryuji.
There were Shadows everywhere in the room but none of them were aggressive. There were even a few Shadows that looked rather beefy that glowed with a red aura that marked the Shadow as a strong one.
"I'm just glad Ann doesn't see us as a threat" said Haru.
"Where's Ann?" asked Sumire. "I would've thought she would meet us here in her own Palace"
"Ann probably knows that we're here" said Futuba who sounded a little nervous.
"Relax" said Ryuji.
Futaba took a deep breath. "Yeah, yeah....I should relax. I mean, this is just the second friendly Palace I've been to"
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