Awkward. She shouldn't have been the first through. She can't back up easily, and she has no persona to save her if this fight goes badly. 

She carefully drops down behind the shadow, levels her Tkachev, and empties the clip into its back, then draws her sword in case it's still alive after that. 

It staggers, badly wounded, but tries to whirl on her and draw its blade.

Noir surges forward and strikes with her stolen sword, aiming for the shoulder joint in the guard's armor.

She lands a hit, and it slumps to the ground, then dissolves.

The door looks easy to unlock from this side. Various bookshelves line the walls, along with an ornate wrought-iron lever. A table in the center of the room has a chest sitting on it.

Noir unlocks the door and beckons in her teammates. 

"Coast is clear. We might have what we're looking for, though." 

She looks at the chest on the table. 

"... This feels too easy," she says. "But I think we've got to see what's in that."

Clover comes in and looks at the chest and the lever. 

"This is definitely... something. But I don't know what."

Noir starts looking around at the books on the walls. More about sports injuries?

These books are all about Kamoshida's triumphs as a volleyball player throughout his life. The chest is made of ornate wrought-iron as well, like the lever. The chest is not locked.

Morgana nods. "This chest definitely has something valuable in it, but it's not the Treasure."

"Alright. Let's be careful. I don't know what that lever does, and it's possible the chest is trapped. Ry — Skull, watch the hallway. I'm going to try and open it."

Noir steps up to the chest and eases it open.

It opens easily enough. It's not trapped. Inside is a stylish-looking blouse in black and red that somehow feels durable and protective, despite being soft and comfortable.

"What on earth...?" 

Noir reaches in and lifts out the blouse, holding it up to the light. 

"Why would something like this exist in Kamoshida's mind?"

Mona shrugs. "I think that might be our fault, partly? Persona users — and maybe sometimes potential Persona users too — entering a Palace have minor effects on the space. We can't change the rules entirely, and it's not a conscious effect, but because we're here to steal things, we changed the Palace's genre just a bit. Now it's not just 'sleazy lust castle' but also 'heist movie', and heist movies have loot, and solvable puzzles to get through barriers, and crawlable vents."

"More of a heist game really. Makes sense given that I've read a lot of mystery novels and played a lot of video games, if I'm influencing the space..."

Noir looks at the lever. "Which I guess means if we flip this it should do something good." 

She tucks the blouse into her pack. "Let's see what happens. Again, everyone be ready for trouble."

She flips the lever.

The lever flips with a satisfyingly chunky sound, and then large mechanisms in the walls can be heard clicking and clanking. Nothing visibly happens.

"Okay, that did something. Let's explore some more and see if we can figure out what."

Noir leads the way back out of the room. 

As they head out, the halls are somewhat deserted, easy to sneak through without alerting any shadows. Soon, however, they find a spot that used to be a wall has now opened up, revealing a passage behind it.

Noir leads the team through the secret wall passage. 

It really is something out of a mystery novel.

At the end of the passage is a narrow stairwell leading upward. It's intact for one floor, but there's no door at that landing, and the next flight is broken. It looks like there are some sturdy railings at the top, but there's no way to reach them from here.

"Great. It looks like we'd need a grappling hook or something to get up there."

Noir frowns. "I can't believe we went into a dungeon and didn't bring any rope with us. Amateur move, seriously."

Ann can't quite surpress a snicker at that.

Ryuji laughs as well.

"I was planning to show you how to make some thieves' tools tonight anyway. That desk in your room looks like a great place to make some. We can work on a grappling hook too."

"Alright. Nothing more to do about this but backtrack, at least for now. I think we have our objective for next time, but I want to just make sure we're not missing anything easily accessible."

So saying, Akira heads back along the corridor.