#kawakami lets him skip class

[decarabias]

shuake’s mutual "hmmm" at first sight vibe is so so good. the core motivation for them getting to know each other is really just "what the hell is this guy's deal?"

akechi's side is pretty obvious — what better way to supplement your monitoring of the phantom thieves than befriending their leader?

but ren's side is almost more interesting to me here, especially because he largely approaches his non-phantom thief confidants from a completely transactional perspective. akechi kind of starts off that way too, because he plays his hand too early by unintentionally revealing that he's seen them in the metaverse, and then follows that up with essentially concern trolling about their methods on national television. so of course that's going to pique ren's interest.

and then somewhere amidst the "you don't know that i know that you know" 4D chess of it all, they genuinely become friends despite both of them knowing that they're on a collision course that won't end well. they’re so much.

[arcplaysgames]

(I don't actually know if Strikers does anything with tarot but anyway) Which game, as a whole, do you think uses the tarot theming the best? Whether it be individual arcana assignments or links to the plot or just vibes - I know you've spoken of inidividual S-Link meanings but I don't think a big-picture comparison was ever done.

hmmm okay lets do a basic round up

I am going to... give points

+ 2 (GREAT job) + 1 (They tried!) + 0 (phoned it in/makes no sense) - 1 (ACTIVELY BAD CHOICE)

Fool: SEES (P3) vs Investigation Team (P4) vs Notigor (P5) Gonna give P3 and P4 0 points bc these do nothing, but P5 gets -1 bc what the fuck

Magician: Junpei Iori (P3) vs Yosuke Hanamura (P4) vs Morgana (P5) Both P3 and P5 get +2 for AMAZING Magicians. P4 gets a 0.

High Priestess: Fuuka (P3) vs Yukiko (P4) vs Makoto (P5) P3 gets the +2 here. P4 gets a -1, Yukiko is a terrible choice. No opinion on Makoto but she doesn't seem like the right pick imo.

Empress: Mitsuru (P3) vs Margaret (P4) vs Haru (P5) I'll give P4 one point and P5 two points. Mits shoulda been Emperor.

Emperor: StuCo Guy (P3) vs Kanji (P4) vs Yusuke (P5) P4 gets +2 for a shockingly good Emperor. P5 gets a -1 for a shockingly bad Emperor.

Hierophant: Old Couple (P3) vs Dojima (P4) vs Sojiro (P5) P3 gets -1 and should feel lucky its only minus one. P4 and P5 get zero points.

Lovers: Yukari (P3) vs Rise (P4) vs Ann (P5) P3 gets the +2, P4 gets +1, P5 gets zero.

Chariot: Rio (P3) vs Chie (P4) vs Ryuji (P5) Everyone gets +1.

Strength: Koromaru (P3) vs Athletes (P4) vs Twin Wardens (P5) P3 gets +1, P4 gets fucking nothing, and P5 gets +2.

Hermit: Saori (P3) vs The Fox (P4) vs Futaba (P5) P3 gets +1, P4 gets -1 bc no that's not what Hermit is, and P5 gets +2 for nailing it.

Fortune: Ryoji (P3) vs Naoto (P4) vs Chihaya (P5) No points, everyone see me after class. Actually, no. P4 and P5 get -1.

Justice: Ken (P3) vs Nanako (P4) vs Akechi (P5) I AM GOING TO GIVE P5 +3 FOR AKECHI, FOR THE FIRST TIME PERSONA FUCKING DID ANYTHING WITH THE JUSTICE ARCANA. AND BOY THEY DID STUFF.

Hanged Man: Maiko (P3) vs Naoki??? (P4) vs Iwai (P5) P3 you get a -1, see me after class. Zero for the others.

Death: Pharos (P3) vs I HAVE NO IDEA (P4) vs Tae (P5) I refuse to give Pharos points, so fucking basic. P5 can have a point.

Temperance: UGH NO (P3) vs uh whoops (P4) vs Kawakami (P5) P3 what the fuck -1, +1 to P4 bc its boring but it fits, and Kawakami gets +2 for fucking nailing it.

Devil: Pres Tanaka (P3) vs that nurse??? (P4) vs Ohya (P5) I'm gonna skip this one bc I don't think I know enough about P4 and P5's to rate. And Tanaka fits but is just Fine. +0 to all.

Tower: Cool Monk (P3) vs uuuuh idk (P4) vs whoops x 2 (P5) Honestly, same as Devil. No points.

Star: Akihiko (P3) vs Teddie (P4) vs Hifumi (P5) FUCKING PLUS 3 TO TEDDIE FOR BEING A TREMENDOUS STAR. +1 to P3 for Akihiko. 0 to P5 bc I don't get the angle.

Moon: Shinjiro (P3) vs that one girl (P4) vs Mishima (P5) Fuck Mishimia. He's an amazing Moon. +2 to P5, zero to the others.

Sun: Akinari (P3) vs Yumi (P4) vs Yoshida (P5) -1 to P4 bc the Sun link sucks. +2 to P3 and P5 for AMAZING Sun links. Yoshida may be the most nuanced take on any NPC's Arcana.

Judgement: Nyx Squad (P3) vs Truth Dudes (P4) vs Sae (P5) P5 gets +1 bc at least they fucking tried, P3 and P4 were just tagged on and superfluous.

World/Universe: Reverie III vs Reverie IV vs Reverie V Reverie The Fourth loses HARD here bc the point of the World is coming to the end of a journey and being changed for it and he doesn't have enough personality to be changed. -1 to P4 Reverie the Third is a decent one who went through a lot and has enough personal stakes that I buy it. +1 to P3 I hate to say it but Reverie the Fifth gets +2. He feels the most complete of them all, so for the Arcana of Completion, or the Whole, it has to be him.

Okay I have no idea what that tallies up to, lemme see.

Persona 3: 10 points Persona 4: 4 points (OUCH) Persona 5: 19 FUCKING POINTS WOW THAT ISN'T EVEN CLOSE

My math might be wrong bc I suck at math (yay, dyscalculia) but that is a huge margin for error.

Honestly, makes sense. Like I said in the post-mortem, P5 succeeds in a lot of ways just for having actual adults available for the arcanas. P4 and P3 are so strongly limited to your classmates, there is only so many ways to make a high school student wacky and weird in a way congruent to their Arcana.

P5 has the worst Emperor in the series by far but it has the best Justice easily and possibly the best Sun and honestly a lot of the NPC SLinks are Just Really Good.

So yeah, P5 wins at something at last.

[makangerous]

Fukuya Rank 2 (Temperance Confidant)

You receive a text message from Fukuya.

My lesson plan's finally ready! First lesson: recognizing golden opportunities and seizing them. Call me the next night you're free.

You call Fukuya over for tutoring. You invite him up to your room.

We're having the session in your room today? That's a wise idea. If everyone hears what I have to teach you, it will lose all its value. And if I can't make money off of this, I don't know how I'm going to keep funding my research…

>What research?

Oh, it's basically playing around with chemicals. Sometimes, I create slight poisons to cause temporary illness. But other times, I try to invent new products for the mass market. Cleaning solutions, soft drink formulations… really anything I can think of.

Well, let's get started. I had a whole lecture prepared, but you're my classmate. Lecturing you wouldn't be fun for either of us. But I do need to share a bunch of info with you. So, I'm going to give you one of those quick idea showcases. What are they called? Oh yeah, a TEDDIE talk! You don't have to take notes or anything. Just listen closely.

People make mistakes. You make mistakes, for sure. But other people always make more mistakes, dumber mistakes than yours. And the many acquaintances in your life each make many mistakes, and it piles up and gets so inconvenient. They're your friends' and family's problems, but they inevitably become yours. Or are they? You can turn around other people's misfortune to your benefit! The trick is to take the time they're having to use to fix their mistakes and spend it on yourself. For example, imagine we're in homeroom. Miss Kawakami forgets the flyers she's supposed to hand out in the teacher's lounge. She needs to step out of class for a bit in order to retrieve them. What do you do?

>Wait patiently for her.

You'd really sit there and twiddle your thumbs the whole time? What if another teacher pulls her into a conversation and sidetracks her? What if it ends up taking half an hour? You would end up doing something you want to do, right? Such as reading a book, or building an incendiary device.

Let's use a less obvious example now. There's rain in the forecast, but your friend neglected to bring an umbrella. Of course, it starts pouring the second you two leave the school gates. You have an umbrella. There's three main choices you can make. One, you give your umbrella to your friend. He's grateful, but now you're soaked. You'll have to spend extra time at home drying your clothes and shoes, and you probably won't feel well. Two, both of you can stand under your umbrella. At the cost of a little bit of personal space, you both stay dry. He's happy, society's happy. But no one ever seriously considers choice three. You tell him the rain isn't your problem. He'll have to find his own umbrella. He can find someone else to borrow from, wait inside until the rain stops, or buy one from a store. He might be upset with you, but he'll forget eventually. And you have some quiet time to yourself…

Oh, I'm not trying to say anything bad about your friends. It's a hypothetical. But see? The selfless option isn't always the best one. It takes a while to overcome what society tells us is the right choice, though. Tell you what. You need some time for yourself? I just got a new doctor's note that says the teacher must escort me to the nurse's office every time I'm sick in class. I might have a few more "incidents" in Kawakami's class. I get to skip boring lectures, and you'll get some unsupervised free time. Sound good?

Ugh, I have another client paging me. Why now, of all times? Well, I have to duck out. See you in class.

Late at night, your phone rings when you're alone in your room.

You paid attention during my talk earlier, right? I do hope so, since I have another quiz for you. I bet you're rolling your eyes. But what kind of teacher would I be if I didn't check your understanding of the material? So tell me, what's the secret to finding more free time?

>Have a fake doctor's note.

Well, yes. But was that the only part you listened to? I mean, I suppose I don't care as long as I get your money. In fact, only paying attention to what immediately pertains to you allows you to selfishly zone out, so maybe you did absorb the lesson.

That talk was just the beginning, you know. Next session we'll--

[crash]

Ow, shit! Frickin' desk. Who the hell put this here?! …Wait, I moved it, didn't I? Can't believe I forgot again… The stupid desk in my bedroom jumped out of nowhere and hit me in the shin! Like I don't already have enough problems. I've got to go lie down. I'll text you the next lesson's topic once I clear my head. Read it as soon as you get it, and let me know when I can come collect that sweet, sweet tutoring fee. Goodbye.

[webbedphantom]

"A hydrating serum..." He repeated, making a mental note of that. He wasn't the best at taking care of himself, especially lately, but considering the sentimental value of his hair, he definitely didn't want to end up losing it-

"I'll try tha-"

He sort of lost his train of thought when the other suddenly boarded the train without so much as a good bye.

So much for learning more by talking to him-

As much as he hated to admit it, his Persona had a point. Following after him now would definitely make him suspicious, if he wasn't already.

Course, he still needed to take the train, so he entered a moment later, managing to get inside just before the door closed.

'Well, now what?'

He spotted the other towards the end of their current car, though he tried to make it a little less obvious.

'Guy definitely doesn't go to Shujin, so he's probably not getting off at the same stop. And if we keep after him, we're going to be late for class.'

... Maybe we can afford to be absent this time.

'WHAT??'

He couldn't believe what he just heard. Arsène was usually the responsible one, always trying to keep him on top of his school work, so hearing him suggest to skip class was jarring to say the least.

It wouldn't be the first time we've been late to homeroom. Worse case scenario, Kawakami or Makoto could cover for us.

'Are you crazy!? Makoto will shocking kill us if we skip intentionally!! And even if we did follow this guy, he's gonna see us get off the train! He'll know we're tailing him.'

I believe Makoto will understand in this case. As for getting off the train... I suggest we avoid using the door.

It took him a second to process what he meant by that... and when he did, he wasn't sure he liked it.

'That's risky... We'd have to get up to the roof without anyone seeing. Not to mention, getting out of the station without Captain Haircare catching onto us.'

Let's cross that latter bridge when we come to it. As for roof, I highly doubt anyone will notice. Just act like you're heading into the other car-

He sighed softly to himself, before doing exactly that, heading to the opposite end of their car, before heading out the door and, after checking to make sure no one was looking, hopped up to the roof and summoned his costume.

"... This better be worth it. I do not need to catch any more grief at school-"

"Ah, sentimental value. Understandable."

Izuru just.. instinctively plays with his permanent droopy ahoge, twirling it around his finger-- A distinctive feature that practically reminds him of his twin. Granted, his twin's ahoge was shorter. Without the memories of his past self... This prominent feature was a reminder of that.

"Regardless, you should consider a hydrating serum-- Dried ends could lead to hair fallout." Basically.... shedding and balding-- Just a light way of saying it. Without trying to offend the stranger, of course! "It will still keep your 'fuzzy'-look and it will give your curls a nice sheen as well."

Izuru highly doubts this stranger will take his advice but anything to keep any of his personal business out of ear. When people strike up a conversation with him they always want something out of Izuru-- His talent, his strength, or genius....Or any blackmail. When you're practically a 'false' god, you are going to get liars and enemies.

Moments later... His train arrived.

Without a proper farewell, the artificial hope stepped onto the train.

[seadragonjade]

Chapter 3: A Shadow’s tomb

I am so sorry that this Chapter come in so very late guys. I got distracted by other things and kept putting it off. So again so sorry about that. I will be posted chapter 4 but not for a a bit of time but it would be as long as this wait was hopefully. Pictures will be posted along with Chapter 4. Also this has be reposted since I freaked out when I didn’t know how to put read more but thank you to the person that helped me. 

Words: 22739

*Next Day: July 19 Tuesday* 

*Beep* *Beep**Beep**Be-* The alarm got cut off by the young Jaden-Drake Etheren hitting the snooze button. He groaned as he got up. “God! I hate getting up for school!” He groaned out as he got up and went to his closet. “Too bad you gotta.” Draco the bearded dragon said as he crawled out from bedding that was right near the tank. 

Drake sighed as he turned his head to the smirking dragon. “Don’t give me that look or I leave you behind.” “Wait, no!” The dragon was a little bit shocked when the green-haired teen said that. “C’mon already sleepy head. It is best for us to not miss the subway.” Xander said as he pokes his head in his friend's bedroom right when Drake was putting on his uniform. “You do know we can take my car right. Traffic ain’t that bad during this time.” Drake told his friend as he turned to face him. “The early bird catches the worm.” He shrugs as he walks away. “That really doesn’t answer me.”

After Jaden got fully dressed and got his shoes on he grabs his bag with Draco in it and heads out the door with Xander. “You do know I’m not a crazy driver like Tanner and Randy. I was the only one who was allowed to drive when Draco is in his jeep form. Sooner or later we’re going to drive in my car.” The shorter teen states as they head to the subway. Xander just shook his head as they got in the crowded subway and headed for Shujin. As soon as they got to Shujin they headed straight to their respective classes. 

*Time skip: Lunchtime*

Once lunchtime rolled around Jaden headed to the board where it showed everyone's grade in their own year. Jade sighed as he looked at the board. “Huh, not bad. Got to remember that their grading system is different from America's.” Drake muttered to himself. “I see that you got that you passed all your exams. Great job Drake-kun.” He heard a male voice say from behind him. The green-haired boy turned around to see Akira standing right behind him. “Oh, thank you Akira-kun.” He told him with a small smile and a pinkish tint of blush on his face. 

Akira chuckled at how Drake acted. “Oh, yeah. Awesome job on getting into the top tens by the way.” He told the taller male as they walked off to go find Ryuji. “Hehe, Thanks.” He said giving Jaden a smile. Once they were down the stairs they saw Xander, Ryuji, and Mishima waiting for them. Once they got to them they began to have a conversation.  “We were busy. It’s not like I could focus on studying.” All the boys looked at Ryuji. “Hey, it’s not my fault my scores suck, right?” Ryuji said, looking at them. Akira just shooked his head at Ryuji. “Mate...I’m not even going to say it.” Drake stated as he shook his head. “What?” Ryuji asked. 

Drake again shook his head. “Alright, I get it is my fault. Anyways, there’s something more important here, Mishima…” Ryuji said, looking at him. “You want to ask me something about the internet, right?” He asked looking back at the blond boy. “Yup, I’m gonna be straight with you here, do you know who Medjeb is?” “You weren’t kidding about being direct.” Mishima states. “Well, I suppose the news about Medjed and the Phantom Thieves has caused quite the commotion…” He continued. “They started out as hackers of justice but now they only look out for their own self-interests. That’s all I know. They were the group I texted Kurusu about yesterday.” He tells them. 

“Nobody’s sure actually who belongs to Medjed. Well, it looks like things’ll be the Phantom Thieves’ word debut, no?” He finishes off with a smile. “Dude..” Ryuji said as he put his hand on his head. “Don’t worry, I’ll be rooting for the Phantom Thieves. I’ll get the forum mobilized as well.” He smiled. “Now if we’re done talking here, I really must be going. I’ll see you guys later.” Mishima walked away. “So that was fruitless…” Morgana stated as Mishima walked. “Agreed.” Xander said as he shook his head. “I second that.” Drake said cracking his neck a bit. “Wonder if anyone else got any info.” Ryuji said as he took out his phone. The others did the same. 

Ryuji: Mishima was pretty useless, you guys get anything?

Makoto: I tried asking my sister, but it seemed as though she didn’t know very much about them. 

Makoto: She doesn’t specialize in cybercrime, after all.

Drake: I tried asking my brother over the phone but all I got was. “Why the hell you worrying about some dumb system. Worry about you and your friends.”

Ann: I tried looking into them too, but I didn't come up with anything.

Ann: There are really just no leads.

Xander: We are up against an enemy that we don’t know of. It would be difficult to use the Nav.

Yusuke: It seems so.

Yusuke: Hm, our opponent is truly elusive. 

“No luck.” Ryuji sighed out. “Medjed, hm?” Morgana pondered. “It seems we won’t be able to deal with them by ourselves”  “I wonder what they could really be.” Draco sighed out. 

*Time skip: Afternoon*

“I know summer vacation is due to begin next week, but I have an unfortunate announcement.” Ms. Kawakami began looking at the whole class. “We’ll be holding an emergency assembly on Monday the 25th. Please come to school that day.” She finished. Everyone began murmuring about the whole situation. “Great.” Drake signed out, flopping onto his desk with his arms sticking out. “Settle down.” She scolded the class. “We’ve had many strange incidents: the psychotic breakdowns, students being dragged into crime rings…” She explained. “Hence, Principal Kobayakawa has instructed all teachers to caution the student body. This is inconvenient for us too, you know? Having to find things to warn you about so suddenly.” She explained. Once she was done explaining Akira, Ann and Drake took out their phones. 

Ryuji: How’re we gonna find Medjed?

Ann: I’m not sure. No matter how hard I look online, all I find are unreliable rumors.

Yusuke: They have carried out corporate terrorism, yet they still manage to elude arrest somehow.

Yusuke: Kaneshiro was a lot of trouble, but this is turning out to be a much greater ordeal.

Drake: That sounds like a lot of famous people back in America.

Xander: We would just have to wait. It is difficult to attack someone if you can’t see them.

Ryuji: Did we bite off more than we can chew?

Akira: They're too big.

Makoto: Yeah…

Makoto: We don’t even know whether it’s a single individual or a large conglomerate of people.

Makoto: And even if we do manage to get a lead, what do we do from there?

Ryuji: Damn, this stuff’s really not going so good...

Ryuji: That’s prolly why my exams’re going to shit.

Ann: You know those are two separate things, right?

“‘Damn, this stuff’s really not going so good…’ Mwehehe…” A young teenage girl said as she read off the group's texts. “Clues on Medjed, huh?” she smirked.  

The school bell ranged and all the students started to grab their stuff and get ready to leave while some got left behind to chat with friends. “If we can’t identify who it is, there’s nothing we can do. Let’s wait till they make a move.” Morgana stated to Akira. “Although I would love to stay and chit-chat with you I gotta go. I have stuff to do with my older brother and I got to meet him somewhere. If you see Xander tell him I got to meet up with my brother.” Jaden sighed as he began walking away. “Alright. Do you also want me to let Boss know that too?” Akira asked, looking at him Jaden nodded as he headed on. He went past many students on his way out. 

He sighed as he walked off the campus. Was it a good idea not to tell Xander I’m going to see Taka… He thought to himself. He walked past Xander who was looking around the area. It seemed like he was looking for someone. Jaden didn’t pay any attention as he walked past his friend. “Hey, Xander.” Draco said, causing the green-haired boy to stop in his tracks and turn around to see his friend. “Huh, oh didn’t notice you guys there.” He said walking up to them. “Don’t worry, I didn’t notice you either. Draco did though. Anyways, what are you doing?” Drake asked his friend. “Well, I was looking for someone. There was this person that I knew online from awhile ago. We were pretty close; she apparently goes by the name Alibaba. She is an excellent hacker so maybe I could ask her to help us.” The taller out of the two explained still looking around. Jaden looked at him. 

“Well, first I don't believe you face time together so you don’t really know what she looks like. Second, she might not even go to this school. Third, she was probably a grown-ass man that was catfishing you. I mean she could be real and fourth, that’s most likely not her real name.” He explained to him with a long sigh. “That would have been true but aren’t you forgetting something?” Xander stated after looking at his friend. Drake looked at him for a minute then realized. “Shit, yeah. Thanks, oh also want to meet him?” Jaden said to his friend. “Yes but that is not what I meant. I was talking about my eagle sense.” He sighed as him and Drake began walking. “One of the games that we played involved voice chat. Since then I have been using eagle sense since we arrived here trying to see her unique tone. From the sound of her voice, she appears to be a girl mostly younger than us.” He sighed again. “No, I didn’t forget about your eagle sense. I’m just saying be careful. Japan isn’t like America. I mean look at the law for the age of consent. 13. So she could be an adult.” He sighs out. “But age can be revealed through a person’s voice. It is rather difficult to explain but whenever I hear people speaking, a younger person’s voice tends to not have voice cracks of different magnitude, some noticeable others difficult to hear. And with Alibaba, her voice was girlish with voice cracks that I can see.” He explained to his older friend. Drake shook his head and sighed. “Whatever, mate. I can sense you’re not lying about this situation. But still...do be careful.” He told him with a sigh as they headed on.

Once they got home they dropped off their bags and quickly left with Jaden grabbing his car keys and them heading to the car. Jaden-Drake’s car was an impala 67 Chevy black. The car was big but from what the inside looked like it could hold up to six people if needed. They got in, Jaden in the driver seat, Draco in a bag next to him, and Xander in the shotgun. They got in and headed out the parking lot and then to the street. The car ride was full of silence between the three of them. Being sick of the silence Jaden turned on the radio and put it on a station he thought was good enough. “...I am not scared you're going to tell me. I’m not scared of the beast and the belly. Fill this cup with ambition. Paint this town with my very own vision.” Xander started singing. Drake just sighed as he heard his friend start singing. 

Man, it’s been quite some time since I sang in front of the others...Maybe I should start singing in front of our new friends...He sighed again as they pulled up to a white building that looked strange to Xander. “Woooaah, I've never seen a building like this before.” Draco stated as his head was out of the bag looking at the building. “It’s a studio building. Meaning where they have photo shoots and movie scenes.” Drake stated as he walked towards the building. “What a building, talk about a skyscraper?” Xander said looking at the building while following his friend. “Wait, a studio that is one building?” Draco asked. “I’m used to seeing multiple buildings being a part of a studio place.” Xander exclaimed. 

Once they entered the building, both the tan boy and dragon were amazed to find a longed area and a receptionist. “Excuse me, but I don't thi-” She was cut off by Drake showing her his I.D. “Don’t worry he’s with me. Can you tell me what floor Takato Saijo is on.” He asked her while he put away his I.D. “Oh, Right. Sorry, Ethren-san. I didn’t recognize you. I give you the floor Takato-san is on.” she stated as she began typing away on the computer. Xander and Draco both stared at him. “What?” Drake asked his confused friends.  “The receptionist seems to know you.” Xander pointed out to Drake. “I’ve been coming here since I was a baby. A lot of people know me here...I also just realized I could have texted him which floor.” He’d facepalm. “That would have been wise.” Xander responded. “Here’s the floor he’s at, have a good day young Ethern.” The lady stated as she gave him a piece of paper with writing on it. 

“Thank you, follow me mate.” Drake stated as he walked away. The three of them entered the elevator and Jaden pressed the button. “Alright, I’m going to tell you guys something. There are going to be actors in this room and some will assume that you're a fan of them. If you want to talk to them and they are rude to you, you have my permission to be rude back. They know me because of my brother and know I don’t take shit. Trust me when I say they won’t do anything to you. They know how my brother can get.” He explained with a sigh. “Oh, and Draco you can’t talk to us in front of them. I'm fine with you talking when it’s with my brother. Also fair warning he does know about the whole Metaverse thing so if he asks you anything about the Metaverse, you can basically say anything about the situation, but don’t talk about the times I get hurt. He is really protective of me.”  He finished explaining to his friends. 

“Don’t worry I will be careful with what I say.” Xander smiled at his friend. Drake smiled. “Thanks, mate.” Once they got to the floor the doors opened to reveal another lounge area with a vending machine. Jaden walked out and headed right. Xander followed him as he entered the door. Upon entering it, Xander and Draco saw a whole staff of actors, carmamen, and dictators. “Cool.” Draco hissed out. Drake chuckles as he walks in further with Xander following close behind. They walked past people not even batting an eye at the three of them. 

Once they were at a table with one of the actors sitting there with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. He had black hair and was wearing nice, dark clothes. “Hey bro.” Jaden said looking at him. “Hey, Drake. I see you brought a friend with you.” The black-haired actor said looking at Xander. “Yep. Xander, this is my older brother Takato Saijo.” Jaden said. “Hi, Takato. I am Jaden’s best friend. It is a pleasure to finally meet.” Xander said as he bowed a little. Takato smiled a little as he nodded. “Hmm, nice to finally meet you as well Xander.” Drake smiled as he watched the exchange. “That kinda reminds me, how's Junta doing?” The teen asked his older brother who sighed after that. “Clingy as ever but we’re working on that. Thankfully.” He answered his brother truthfully. He smiled at his brother's comment. He shifts his attention to the set in front of him, where the director was giving orders. “Now I must ask you two, since I know you’re good friends with him and of course, are like brothers. How is Damien?” Takato asked as he closed his eyes again. Jaden froze on the spot as Draco and Xander looked at each other. Xander looks down with a sigh. “...He..He’s no longer with us.” He tells him while still looking down. 

Takato opened his eyes and brought his attention to the both of them. “Oh...I’m sorry to hear about that…” He paused for a second, then looked at his younger brother. “I knew how close you were to him. Just remember he’s in a better place now.” He said with an awkward smile. “Yeah….”Drake sighs. “Can we just change the topic, please?” He said softly. “Yeah of course. Um...Oh, how's working in the Metaverse?” The dark-haired male trying to change the subject quickly. “Kind of good, besides that incident. Have been helping people out here and there.” Xander explained. “Well, that’s always good to hear. Hey little bro, do you-” Takato was cut off by the director telling him it was his part to do. He sighed and shook his head. “Well, I’ll see you guys later then, I have my part to do.” He said as he got up and walked away. “Welp, that’s our cue to leave. Come on, mate.” Drake said as he headed for the door with Xander right behind him.

*Time skip: Evening*

Jaden was in the shower while Xander was in the living area when he got a text.

Yusuke: So I looked.

Ann: Did you find anything?

Yusuke: As you know, Medjed is a god that appears in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Ann: Huh?

Yusuke: Its name apparently means “the smiter”.

Yusuke: It seems nobody is actually sure that Medjed is a real name.

Yusuke: On top of that, almost everything else about him is unknown.

Yusuke: Even his form is unattainable.

Xander: An enemy who is unseen.

Xander: It’s going to be rather difficult to get them

Yusuke: Right. An unseen god that flies through the sky and shoots from his eyes...

Yusuke: He truly is an elusive being.

Ryuji: Dude.

Yusuke: Everything about his existence is shrouded in mystery

Ryuji: Wait. 

Yusuke: Fundamentally speaking, ancient Egyptain art always depicted gods drawn in a side profile.

Yusuke: However, Medjed is facing straight ahead in all depictions of him

Yusuke: Taking all of this into account, he seems to be quite the alien being

Akira: Well done.

Ryuji: Hey, there’s nothing to be impressed about.

Drake: Well unlike you there are people who would love to hear what Yusuke has stated.

Drake: Fuckin’ dumbass

Yusuke: I hope that information was at least somewhat useful.

Makoto: Indeed it was.

Yusuke: Should I look into more?

Makoto: That’s enough, thank you.

“Well, I know who I’m going to talk to when it comes to mythology.” Drake said as he walked out with a towel around his neck. “Do you mean Inari?” Xander asked his friend as he watched him sit down on the couch. “Yep.” He smiled.

*Time skip: 7/20: Early morning*

“And here comes another hot day at school.” Jaden sighed as he waited for his friend to get in his car. “Yay and boo!” Draco said with a smile. Jaden chuckled as Xander got into the car and they drove off. As soon as they got to the school, Jaden parked his car in the student parking lot and they headed inside the school building. Once inside there they heard conversations about the Phantom Thieves versus Medjed. All three boys rolled their eyes at the comments. “I wonder who is going to win. The Phantom Thieves or Medjed.” The boys walked away not wanting to listen to more. “I hate that this is what people are talking about nowadays.” Draco hissed out. “They are people bored out of their minds there's nothing we can do about it.” The green-haired teen stated. “We just plan out our next move.” Xander said as they headed to their homerooms. “Right.” 

*Time skip: After school*

The Phantom Thieves have a meeting and Akira shows them the text messages that Alibaba sent to him. “Considerin’ he mentioned stealin’ hearts, he knows, doesn’t he?” Ryuji said. “Seems so...” Makoto. “First of all she is a young female and second of all how do we really know it’s her.” Xander stated, getting a little huffy. “Wait what?” Ann said. “That’s his old friend and he gets defensive when someone talks trash and, or doesn’t know anything about his friends, just continue.” Drake said with a small sigh. “Anyways, how were we found out?” Yusuke said with a hint of anger in his tone. “I wished I knew…” Drake said as he sighed. “Well, he may have traced our chat log…” Makoto stated. “How careless of us.” Yusuke said “It’s not really our fault. Hackers are hackers, we can’t really stop them.” Drake explained. “But how would he have known these details with just that?” Makoto asked. “Do you think that there is another cause?” Yusuke pondered. 

“Yeah. I’m not sure why, but that’s the feeling I get.” Makoto told them in a soft voice. “Hey, is it that easy to look at someone’s chat log?” Ann asked them. “Normally no. But unless they’re hackers or just really good at technology.” Draco said looking at Jaden for confirmation. Drake nodded his head at the young lizard. “I don’t know much about it myself, but...it’s probably not impossible, I think?” Makoto sighed out. “How’s it done?” Ryuji asked her. “Maybe they extracted our phones’ data?” She answered. “It’s a lot more complicated than that, so it’s a lot harder to explain than you think.” Xander told them, shaking his head. “Why’s Akira getting an error when he tries to reply?” Ann asked. “Perhaps the receiving end doesn’t exist.” Makoto stated. 

“That’s possible?” Ryuji asks in surprise. “Don’t ask me everything. I told you that I don’t know much about it.” Makoto told him. “Wait. Might this be, from what Jaden and Draco kept on telling us, is referred to as hacking?” Yusuke asked, looking at the green-haired teen and yellow bearded dragon. “Yes. Again it’s a lot harder to explain then it is to show, and I’m not much of a hacker myself. I just knew people that did this sort of thing.” Drake sighed out as he explained. 

“Then, does that mean this guy’s a hacker!?” Ryuji asked. “Yep. Like I explained, mate.” Drake said. “I don’t get high-tech stuff! What does this all mean?” Morgana shouted. “An unknown hacker contacted us!” Ann told him. “I see. I don’t really get it.” He said. Akira shook his head a little bit after the cat said that. “Then is this person Medjed?” Yusuke asked. “I doubt it, considering he says he wants to “deal” with them.” Makoto said. “That is, only if we take his words for face value.” “True…” Yusuke agreed. “Hey...Wouldn’t it be great if we got this guy on our side?” Ryuji pondered. “That’s...not a half bad of an idea.” Drake said. “But we know nothing about his identity at all. We can’t trust him.” Makoto said, looking at the both of them. 

“I don’t think it’s a bad deal though…” Ryuji said. “I see where both of you are coming from.” Drake sighed. “But I agree with Ryuji. An enemy of my enemy is my friend as the saying goes.” The green-haired boy pointed out. “Even if Alibaba turns out to be a criminal? I am not helping anyone of that sort.” Yusuke stated. “Oh, right. That wouldn’t be good.” Ryuji sighed out. “We have no other choice though. Alibaba is our only way of beating Medjed.” Xander explained to the group. “I have to agree. It goes to say don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Right now we’re judging something based on second-hand information. Aren’t we a group that’s the opposite of that?” Jaden stated to them. Everyone nodded in agreement. “Although, the ‘I’ve prepared the necessary too’ part makes no sense either.” Morgana stated. 

“Could this be a prank?” Ann asked. “He knows an awful lot for it to be a prank.” Makoto responded. “If he knows who we are, won’t we get caught?” Ann asked. “No. If he wanted to report us, I think he would’ve done it already.” The brunette stated. “He must have some sort of objective of his own. He did offer us a deal, after all.” Yusuke said. “I’m certain he’ll contact us again.” He finished. “There’s no telling when he’ll do so, though…” Makoto said. “It’d be best if we stay together if something happens, we can act at once.” She told them. “I have to agree with that. Who knows what would happen if we don’t.” Drake sighed. “Yeah. So, somewhere we can wait and hide for long hours…” Ann stated. “How about Leblanc?” Makoto said watching everyone nod. “Alright, let’s go then.” Akira told the group as they walked off.

 *Time Skip: Evening*

The group walked into Leblanc to see Sojiro leaning on the counter holding a note looking at it. Akira looked puzzled as he walked up to him. Once he walked up to the black-haired adult he put the paper down and looked at him. “...Oh? What’s with the big group?” He asked looking at the group. “Good evening. We were thinking about putting together plans for our summer.” Ann told him. “Hm? Well, I don’t see why not. Just don’t cause too much trouble.” He said to them. “This old man’ll get going and leave you kids be. All right, the store is all yours.” He said as he walked towards the door then leaves. Once he left, they ordered food then sat down at a table. Their food arrives and they set it up at the table then just start talking. The T.V was on which was airing a news channel. 

“We have late-breaking news on Medjed, whose notoriety rose since their statement the other day.” The T.V.’s news reporter said. “Just moments ago, a new message has been released on their website. They have announced their victory over the Phantom Thieves. Medjed also warns any Japanese citizens who praised the Phantom Thieves to stop doing so. We will report any further actions by Medjed as they arrive.” He finished off. “Oh, come on! It’s in English!” Ryuji shouted as he checked his phone. Drake just chuckled as he shook his head. “Let me see. ‘The Phantom Thieves remain silent at our questions. This proves that we are just.’” Ann read out loud. “‘People of Japan, wake up. You must not worship the Phantom Thieves.’” She continued. 

“What!? That’s bullshit!” Ryuji shouted. “Keep listening.” Yusuke told him. “‘We will discipline any who worship them. The punishment is the confiscation of possessions. We are Medjed. We are unseen. We will eliminate evil.’” She finished. “That’s what it says.” She told them. “What does that all mean!?” Ryuji yelled. “They’re saying that they’ll target sympathizers of the Phantom Thieves.” Makoto stated. “For someone that wants to get rid of evil they sure are punishing that they will hurt people that don’t follow them. Sounds just like a cult.” Drake signed out. “Confiscation of possessions, hm?” Yusuke said. “Perhaps bank accounts or personal information...Either way, it won’t be anything pleasant.” Makoto stated. “Why the hell are we being singled out!?” Ryuji yelled out. “Like hell, I would know.” The green-haired teen huffed.  

“Perhaps all they care about is labeling the Phantom Thieves as crooks.” Makoto stated. “That all this wouldn’t have happened had the Phantom Thieves not existed.” She continued. “That’s complete bullshit.” Ryuji stated. “Talk about a troublesome organization that we’ve been targeted by…” Morgana stated. “Isn’t there anything we can do?” Ann questioned. “I don’t really think so.” Xander sighed out. “It’s certain we can’t do anything about this on our own…” Yusuke said with a saddened expression. “Hey, so what’s this letter about? We don’t need any more trouble.” Ryuji said to Akira. “It’s rare for you to get something like this.” Morgana said. Akira picked up the letter then took out the card. He then observed the envelope. 

Nothing seemed strange about it.  “What could it be?” Xander pondered. Akira put down the red paper. “A calling card?” Morgana asked in confusion. “Anything else in there!? Who’s this from anyway?” Ann said. “No, there wasn’t anything else in the envelope and I don’t really know.” Akira sighed out. “There’s no stamp on it. Someone must’ve directly dropped it into the mailbox…” Makoto said. “Could have been Alibaba?” Yusuke asked. “That reminds me, he did mention something about preparing the ‘necessary tool’...” Morgana stated. “Don’t tell me..Is this what he was talking about!?” The blue-eyed feline asked. “What the hell’s goin’ on here?” Ryuji said. “All we can do at the moment is wait for Alibaba’s orders.” Makoto said. “Let’s brace ourselves and stand by...in case anything comes up.” 

“I’m going to repeat this: an enemy of my enemy is my friend. So I guess we’re allying it up with them.” Drake stated. “Oh dear…” Ann sighed out. 

*Time Skip: At Jaden and Xander’s apartment*

“Man, I don’t really like this Alibaba person...Oh, no offense mate.” Drake started as he looked at Xander with a sheepish look. “None taken.” Xander sighed. “Kay, anyways. I wonder if they're just using us to get some recognition.” The short teen sighed out once he plopped himself on the couch. He thought for a bit while sighing again. “Man, this reminds me when we first formed the Hidden Ones. Heh, man, we didn’t understand who to trust and when to trust them.” Drake sighed. “Man, I miss those days.” He sighed again. 

He closed his eyes as he started to remember the days with the Hidden Ones. To him, it seemed like a lifetime ago. He sighed again. Draco looked at him with a knowing expression. “We can’t change the past. All we can do is look towards the future as you always tell us; The past is in the past and the future is in the future.” He told his human friend who chuckled at him. “Yeah, you’re right, I always do say that.” He agreed. “Just think of the friends we have today.” The dragon smiled. Speaking of other friends I wonder what Akira is doing. Drake blushed as he thought of the Phantom Thief leader. “The sight of love. Rather funny to see in your eyes.” Xander chuckled as he sat right next to his friend. 

“S-shut up, and what do you mean by that?” Drake asks him while his face was turning red. “My eagle sense is getting stronger and every time it is always to see your vivid feelings towards Akira.” Xander smirked as he watched his friend become even redder. “W-what?! Dude?! N-no, I don’t...” Drake stammered trying to think of a way out. “You are digging your own hole of embarrassment.” He continued to smirk at him. “Fuck! I can’t help that he’s just too freakin’ cute. Or the fact that everything about him is just so hot. Or how kind he is...He’s just...great…*sighs* I’m helpless aren’t I?” Drake asks as he flops a bit on the couch. 

“Yes, yes you are.” Xander told him. The shorter teen huffed a bit. “*sighs* What makes it worse is the fact I don’t know if he feels the same way.” He said as he bites his lip a bit. “You will just have to wait for the right moment.” The tan male told him. “Yeah, you're right. Anyways, we better get started on our home, god knows we have to before summer break.” Drake explained as he stretched. “Shall we begin?” Xander asked as he grabbed their bags. Jaden chuckles as he grabs his and gets his homework out while Xander does the same thing. 

*Time Skip: 7/21 Early Morning*

They were in Jaden-Drake’s car on the way to school at a stoplight. “Man, I hope today’s not going to suck.” Draco sighed as the two teens were looking out of the window. “Same here. I just hope nothing bad happens. Let’s face it we already have enough stuff to worry about.” Drake stated with a sigh that showed how tired he really was. “I also wonder if everyone’s alright. Learning we have to listen to Alibaba must be hard on some of them.” He huffs out. “We are basically pawns to her right now.” Xander explains to the two of them. 

“*Sighs* I feel bad for you the most mate. You two must have become good friends.” Drake said as he started the car again since the light turned green. Xander looked at his friend then sighed. “Heh, it will be fun when she realizes that it is me that she messed with.” Xander chuckled. Drake smiled and shook his head. “That’s going to be fun when we see her face to face as she realizes who you are...Did you ever give her your real name, mate?” He asked, looking at Xander. “No, my username was either ScarcenXD or Scarenknight.” He explained. Drake nodded as they made their way to the school.

*Time skip: Morning*

Akira, Ann, and Jaden-Drake were all in their class doing what they would normally do. Ann, listening to the teacher, Akira, somewhat listening to the teacher, and Drake, taking a quick nap. Everything was quiet till Akira's phone buzzed. Upon hearing this Morgana popped his head out of his desk. “Hey, your phone’s buzzing!” He told Akira. Akira checked his phone. “*sigh* It’s just Ryuji.” The cat said. The bearded dragon ignored the whole thing as he made sure Drake was still asleep since he stayed up too late the night before. Akira read the text messages to himself and shook his head a bit. He put his phone away and went back to doing what he was doing. While Draco tried walking Drake up to no avail.

*Time skip: Afternoon*  

They were back in class listening to the homeroom teacher. Thankfully Drake was fully awake and listening to Ms. Kawakami. Akira’s phone buzzed for what seemed like the fifth time that day. Drake shook his head while Morgana sighed. “Ryuji again? He just never shuts up, does he?” He huffed out. “Sounds like someone I know.” Draco mumbled as he curled further into Jaden’s desk. Said teen shook his head as he watched Akira check his phone. This time Akira kinda seemed a bit surprised by what Jaden could see. “So, it was really from this guy…” The feline said. 

Drake quickly understood what was going on and shook his head. I’ll learn about this later from Akira. He sighed to himself as he went back to listening to the teacher. “Tell him. We need the name of the target.” He heard the feline say but choose to ignore this time. He started nodding off to sleep until he heard Morgana speak again. “So he threatened you, then just took off!?” What the hell? He thought to himself. “And Sakura..? I feel like I’ve heard that name before…In any case, we should let everyone know about this.” The blue-eyed feline stated. 

Drake nudged Akira a bit. Akira turned his head a bit and saw the green-haired teen looking at him with a confused and worried expression. “You okay, mate?” He asked the fluffy, black-haired teen. Akira looked at Jaden and nodded. “Yeah, I’m good. Just, Alibaba texted me again. See.” Akira said as he showed Drake without the teacher noticing. “Huh, geez. We better watch out then and find out whoever this kid is.” The young teen sighed as he leaned back into his seat preparing to fall asleep. “And whoever this person is, that needs a change of heart, I hope they're ready for that.” He yawns as he falls right to sleep. 

Akira watches the other male for while he is falling asleep. He chuckles at his friend’s continues to keep falling asleep in class. He’s adorable when he falls asleep in class. I wish I could help him fall asleep better at night. The black-haired boy said as he smiled at the thought. I wonder how he would look in my arms. He smirked to himself. He continues to watch him for a few more minutes before going back to what the teacher was talking about.

*Time skip: After school*

“We’re gonna get reported if we don’t do this? What the hell…” Ryuji said after being shown the text messages from Akira’s phone. “‘Futaba Sakura’?” Ann questioned. “Wasn’t Sakura…” Makoto started. “It’s Boss’s last name!” Ann finished it for her. “Does he have any family?” Yusuke asked. “Boss has a kid...that really doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.” Drake said with a heavy sigh.  “Does he?” Morgana questions. “I don’t really know.” Akira said as he put his hand on his chin. 

“For reals!? How laid-back are you!?” Ryuji snapped at him. “Hey, it’s not his fault for not asking Boss in the beginning if he had any family. I mean it is kinda rude to ask that.” Jaden stated, glaring at Ryuji. “Wouldn’t you normally be introduced at least? I mean, you ARE living at his place.” Ryuji said. “Well, his situation does make things difficult…” Yusuke said. “True, why would someone trust a kid who has a criminal record, it is only us that know that the charge is fake.” Xander stated as he looked towards each member of the group. 

The teen green-haired right next time to him nodded. “If I was a parent in his situation, I wouldn’t want them near my kid. Ah, no offense Akira-kun.” Drake said, looking at Akira with a blush of embarrassment in his face. “None taken.” He said as he chuckled a bit. “Anyways, the calling card was delivered to Boss’s house; it’d be more natural to assume this is all related.” Makoto stated. “One of the reasons for that is because Alibaba mentioned nothing about “which” Futaba Sakura. Perhaps he thinks that the name alone is enough.” She said to them. 

“That makes sense.” Morgana said. “I believe it’s adequate for us to think that this is the doing of someone close by.” Makoto said, looking at the group. “I see.” Ann said looking at her. 

“I don't know how Alibaba got a hold of Akira-kun’s smartphone information. However, since he’s ordering us through chat, I do feel as though he’s taunting us.” Makoto explained with a sad expression on her face. “You mean, this might just be a prank?” Ryuji asked, looking at her. “I mean, look at his demands.” She pointed out. “Pay me if you don’t want me to leak who you really are-that I’d understand. But he’s telling us to steal someone’s heart without explaining why.” She explained to them. “So we’re being tested?” Yusuke asked. “I don’t really believe that we are.” Drake said. “Regardless, I think we should ask Boss about Futaba Sakura once.” She said. 

“That’s probably for the best. There’s nothing else we can do at the moment, and Chief might have an idea on what this is about too.” Morgana said. “I’ll check the school’s roster just in case.” Makoto said. “He will probably be mad at us if we were to ask about his family member.” Xander explains to them. “We don’t have a choice in the matter, mate.” The green-hair teen explained. “With that aside, we must make sure Boss doesn’t figure out who we are. We’ll have to go about this cautiously.” Yusuke said, looking towards his friends. Everyone nodded. 

“Well, I guess we’ll see you later. Also, good luck Akira-kun. I bet you’re going to need it.” Drake said as he patted Akira. “Also, boop.” he said as he boops Akira on the nose then left with Xander shaking his head following behind him. Everyone just chuckled or shook their heads as they left. Aside from Akira who stood there blushing a bit. Holy shit that’s adorable. I want him so badly. He thinks as he grabs his bag and walks away. 

“Don’t even think about it Jaden.” Xander said as he jokingly glared at his short friend. Drake just chuckled. “What’s the point when I know you're going to dodge it.” He told him. Draco just shook his head at the two human’s banter. “You two are strange people, but I love you two for that.” The bearded dragon smiled. 

“And you are a strange pet, but we love you for that.” Xander said with a smile as well. Draco looked at him and stuck his fork tongue out. Drake shook his head at the two of them. “You two are ridiculous. But will be my good friends no matter what.”  He states as the trio walk into the school parking lot and get into Drake’s Impala and drive away to their shared apartment. 

*Time skip: Evening*

The two teens were doing their homework when they got a text on their phone.

[Phone convo]

Ann: Oh, I just remembered!

Ann: Akira, were you able to ask Boss about Futaba Sakura?

Akira: I tried…

Yusuke: So, no results. Could there be a reason as to why that was?

Makoto: Hm. Alibaba might be our only hope of defeating Medjed.

Makoto: I wish we could get some info about Futaba out of Boss.

Ann: But trying to force it out would probably have the opposite effect.

Yusuke: To be honest, I owe a great deal to both Boss and Akira.

Yusuke: I don’t wish for this to be a source of discord between them. 

Drake: I owe Boss for allowing me to work for him and Akira whenever he needs it. 

Drake: So I got no complaints with finding out the hard way. 

Ryuji: Yeah, I know just what you mean!

Xander: We have no other choice.

Makoto: It’s probably best to wait for Boss to bring the subject himself. 

Jaden-Drake yawned as he laid on the couch a bit. “This is going to be difficult for us isn’t it?” Jaden sighs. “Most likely.” Xander said.

*Time Skip: 7/22: Morning.*

“Summer vacation starts the day after tomorrow, but don’t forget…” Mr. Ushimaru started up. “There's an urgent assembly on Monday. We’ll be taking attendance. There’s been an unusual number of strange incidents this year. Don’t do anything stupid over break. Got it? Don’t someplace shady like the red-light district, and don’t go to the beach after dark.” While he was stating this all, Drake was dead asleep on his desk with his arms crossed and his head to the side laying on them. “I wanna go to the beach...I wanna jump in some cold water…Seems like we won’t be having fun on our summer break for a while…” The blue-eyed feline said. “That’s true. But all I want to do is take a nice long nap under a shady rock under the sun.” The yellow lizard said as he responded to Morgana's statement. 

*Time Skip: After school*

Drake went to hang out with his older brother, Takato, while Xander was at the school's front looking for someone. He didn’t notice a certain red-haired girl with a ponytail behind him. “Audiotori-Senpai!!” She yells as she jumps a bit. Xander jumps a bit out of surprise then turns around to meet her. In his left eye was fading from its blue glow. “Ohh...what a pleasant surprise Kasumi-san.” He states looking at the redhead. 

“Hi, Audiotori-Senpai.” She said with a sweet smile on her face. “I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me today?” She looked at him. “Sure my schedule is open for today.” Xander said with a smile. “Awesome, let’s go.” She said as she walked away with Xander following her. They both walked to the subway and had a nice chat about their school work with Xander cracking a few puns like he usually does with Kasumi laughing from them. Xander smiles as he watches her laugh at his puns. He appeared to have been more relaxed at the moment. 

This whole exchange was making him more relaxed from everything that was happening recently. He smiled a genuine smile. They made it to their stop and got off and continued walking towards the beach. The beach was thankfully not as crowded as it usually was. “Come on, let’s go Audiotori-Senpai.” Kasumi said with a smile as she walked towards the sand with a skip of joy. 

Xander chuckled as he followed her. “Alright, wait up.” He said as he walked behind her. They continued until they got to the sand. “Do you just want to sit and talk some more or have our swimsuits on and have fun in the water?” She asked, looking at him. “Well, the choice is up to you.” He told her. “Well then, let’s just sit and talk more.” She walked towards one of the tables then sat down. 

Xander followed her and sat across from her. “So how long have you known  Etheren-Senpai?” The red-haired girl asked, looking at him. He looked at her and smiled. “We actually go a bit, I think it’s been two or three years now. We didn’t know each other at first but when our other friends knew that both of us liked similar games, they decided to introduce us to each other.” He explained to her. 

“Wow, that’s so cool. You guys seemed like really good friends so I just wanted to know a little bit more about your guy's relationship. Also, how long are you guys going to be here in Japan for? Also, why did you guys transfer to Shujin?” Kasumi asked, looking at him with a smile. 

“Well...For the first question: might be for a year or three. And to the second it’s a bit complicated.” Xander said as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh, it’s all right you don’t have to explain to me right now if you don’t want to. It’s kind of the same situation for me as well.” She said with a little sad expression. “Which...I guess you kind of know a bit of it.” Xander looked at her and sighed. “Hey come on now.” He smiled as he put a hand on her cheek. “Smile my dear, you are never fully dressed without one.” He closed his eyes and smiled some more. 

It took him a few moments to realize what he was doing when he opened his eyes to see a little blush on Kasumi. He chuckles awkwardly as he takes his hand away from her cheek with a barely noticeable blush on his face. “Whoops, my apologies.” They look away from each other for a little bit. “I-it’s alright. I-I don’t really mind.” She said while she was still blushing. 

They sat there in an awkward silence not knowing what to say after that. Why did I do that, I was blinded by her cuteness. Why?! Why?! I am such a fool. He thinks as he starts blushing a little bit more. Why did he do that? Was there something on my face? Oh god, why did he have to look good when he did that. She thought as her blush became darker. Before any of them could speak or make the situation even more awkward Xander gets a text on his phone. 

Drake: Hey, I’m heading back home from Taka’s place. Do you want me to pick you up from wherever you’re at or do you want to take the train?

Xander breathed out of relief as he picked up his phone. “Uh Kasumi, I need to check something real quick.” He states as he looks through his text messages. “Oh, it’s fine.” She breathed out as will. 

[Phone convo]

 Drake:  Hey, I’m heading back home from Taka’s place. Do you want me to pick you up from wherever you’re at or do you want to take the train?

Xander: Go on ahead and pick me up.

Drake: Kay, where are you so I can come get you?

Xander: By the beach.

Drake: Kay I’ll be there in a few.

Xander: Kay.

He puts his phone away and looks at the redhead. “Sorry, but I have to go right now. Jaden-Drake needs help with something.” Xander said as he gets up and grabs his bag. “Oh, okay. I need to get to my practice anyways. So, I’ll see you later.” She states as she does the same thing. What a relief, probably won’t tell Jaden-Drake what happened. He thought with a sigh. 

“See you later Kasumi.” He said as he began walking to the parking lot to wait for his friend. His face was still red from embarrassment. Calm down already, just concentrate. He activated his eagle sense trying to find the green-haired male’s car. Meanwhile, Jaden-Drake had just parked and threw his head back with a grunt. “Shit, Taka worries too much.” He sighs out. Drake looks around trying to look for Xander. He sighed to himself again. He sometimes hates waiting by himself for his own personal reasons. 

He grabbed his phone to text Xander he was there when there was a tap on his driver window. He looked to his left to see a strange-looking man looking in. Drake already knows where this is going to go. He ignores this man and texts Xander.

Drake: Hey, I’m here.

Drake: Find me fast. There is a strange man at my door and you know how I can get.

He puts his phone down and rolls the window down so he can speak to him. “Yes. Can I help you, sir?” The confused but straight face teen asked the man who was over his window. The guy smirks at the short teen. “Well, hello there little lady.~ Why yes, you can help me.~” The guy said as he leans down so he can get more of a good look at Drake. 

The green-haired teen can smell the smell of beer on him. Great, this is a drunk dude. Just great. He thought to himself as he sighed and looked at the older male. “Okay first. I am a guy. Second what type of help do you need?” He asks as he grabs his metal knife just in case. “Well, you don’t look like a guy. You look like a very pretty girl. A girl that needs something to fill her.” He smirks and it clicks in Jaden’s head what he wanted. 

The young teen cringed as he looked at him. “Mate, I am male. Dick and all. Also, I’m 16. You can’t just go and when someone asks you for help to tell them that they need to have something fill them. Also, you're drunk so I’ll be calling the police.” The short teen said as he began to grab his phone to text Xander to hurry when the man grabbed him. “I don’t think it’s worth the time to bother the police.” He said with a smirk. 

Jaden smirked as he opened his door. The man thinks that the teen has finally agreed to do what he wants. He lets go of him so he can get out of the car but once the teen does he punches the man right in the face then kicks him. The man grabs his face and looks at the teen with surprise. “Don’t try to touch someone that can easily kill you. Well, don’t try to fuck someone at all.” The teen said as he watched the man get up and began to run. 

He smirks to himself as he sees a small dagger fly right past his head and hit the guy in his baggy pants keeping him from running. “Don’t worry it isn’t my Spear of Leonidas. This one is not lethal, it will just make him stop.” Xander said as he smirked when walking up to the car. 

Drake shrugs. “I know. Anyways, let’s get out of here.” The teen huffed as he got back into his car with Xander following to the shotgun. They backed out and drove away. “Well, to get the nasty-ass man out of my head. What were you doing at the beach anyways? I don’t remember you being a beach person. I mean, hell, I have asked you if you wanted to go but always a no, so why did you go now.” The teen asked his friend while he looked for an album to listen to on his phone but kept his eyes on the road. 

Xander did not look at his friend, instead he blushed and looked out the window without the other noticing. “Well...The sounds of the ocean is something I always find soothing.” Xander lied to his friend without really thinking. The green-haired teen sighed when he heard that. “I get it but you don’t have to lie about something but if you're uncomfortable with telling me then you don’t have to tell me.” Drake stated with a huff and left it at that.

*Time skip: Evening*

They made it home and went to their rooms without saying another word to each other. Drake sighed as he dropped his keys on his bedside table then went to his desk to start on his new animation project when his phone buzzed. He opened up and saw it was from the group.

[Phone convo]

Ryuji: Yo, how’d it go?

Ryuji: You find out anything about Futaba Sakura?

Ann: I’ve been wondering about that too!

Akira: Tell you tomorrow.

Ryuji: Woah-ho.

Yusuke: So you did learn something. Fine work.

Ann: I knew we could count on you

Makoto: Akira-kun, thank you

Drake: That’s great mate.

Drake sighed as he sent that text. He really dislikes the idea of going into someone's personal life without their permission since it wasn’t any of his business. He goes back into his project without another thought. He was about to call it quits for the night so he could get some sleep and do something else when he got another text. 

He checked if it was a scam when he saw it was from Akira. The green-haired teen blushed and almost fell out of his seat. What!? Why is Akira texting me!? What time is it?! He thought as he checked the time. His phone showed it was 8:15. He looked relieved but still confused. 

[Phone Convo]

Akira: Hey, Little Dragon, how are you feeling?

Drake: Little dragon?

Akira: Well…

Akira: It’s my...It’s my new nickname for you. 

Akira: Do you not like it?

Drake: No no. I love it, it’s just that this is my first time having a nickname that wasn’t from my family or a shorter version of my name.

Akira: Haha. Okay, okay.

Drake: Anyways, to answer your question, I’m feeling fine thanks for asking.

Akira: It’s alright. I just want to make sure you are feeling your best.

Drake: Aw, that’s sweet, mate.

Akira: Yeah, I know. Anyways, I have a question to ask you.

Akira: Would you...Would you like to have a sleepover at my place? Or would mind if I stay at your shared apartment?

Drake: Um, sure. I wouldn’t mind at all. I don’t really mind where it is as long as Boss knows I guess.

Akira: Great. I’ll have to talk to you in person about the time and place.

Drake: Alright. 

Drake sighed happily to himself with a small blush on his face. Akira had just asked him to sleep over at his or the shared apartment. He sat there rolling on his bed a little bit with joy. He doesn’t remember being this happy before, besides getting to see old family he loved or getting presents as a kid from anything. Drake and Akira texted until 10:30 where Akira convinced him to go to bed. 

Drake smiled and chuckled at his friend’s concern with his sleeping habit. He smiled at the thought of being next to him when sleeping. I would love to be in his arms cuddling up to him and feeling his warm body against mine. He thought to himself as he began to fall asleep.

*Time Skip: 7/23: After School*

Everyone was at the hangout to talk about what Akira knew. “A woman was threatening Boss?” Makoto asked. “Yeah, she was going on about domestic abuse and taking the case to court and stuff…” Morgana explained to everyone. “I don’t know how it is in Japan, but when you want to do that you need a lot of legal evidence, not just the basic information. So, in other words she can’t do that without evidence.” Jaden explained to them. “That is true, you can’t take a case far without solid evidence.” Xander agreed with his friend. “....” Makoto sighed to herself as the three of them made their statements. 

“What’s up?” Ryuji asked Makoto. “It’s nothing.” Makoto said as she looked at the male blond. “So to summarize what you told us, Futaba is Boss’s daughter, and he’s abusing her?” She asked looking at the feline and the fluffy black-haired boy. “I don’t know him very well… Is he really the kind of person who would do that?” He looked at her and sighed. “There’s no way.” Akira said. The brown-haired girl nodded. “I would like to believe so as well, but we don’t have any conclusive evidence, do we?” After she said that Akira’s phone pinged. “Is it Alibaba!?” Morgana asked the messy-haired boy. Everyone gathered to watch the text message. 

[Phone convo]

Alibaba: I’ve given you a calling card and told you the target’s name. You should be ready for this.

Alibaba: Why aren’t you doing it?

Alibaba: I told you I’d help you if you stole her heart. What seems to be the hold up?

Alibaba: I also said I’d report your identity to the police if you didn’t help me.

Alibaba: Are you OK with that? I’m serious here.

Yusuke shook his head with a sour expression. “What a selfish person.” He stated. “Well, he does have information on us…” Makoto said. “Anyways, this Futaba he’s talking about have a Palace? If so, we’ll need keywords to get it. Try messaging him about ‘em.” Ryuji told Akira. 

Akira: Tell me her keywords.

Alibaba: Keywords?

Alibaba: What are you talking about? 

Alibaba: Are you just saying random stuff to dodge the issue?

“What’re we supposed to do about this?” Ann asked with a worried expression. “We'd be able to figure out Alibaba’s identity if we could just meet with him… Try asking him if there's any way we could meet up.” Morgana said to him.

Akira: Let’s meet somewhere.

Alibaba: Meet? With me?

Alibaba: That will be difficult.

Alibaba: I have reasons for not being able to go out.

Alibaba: That’s why I’m contacting you like this.

“He can’t go out?” Morgana asked

Alibaba: Wait I get it.

Alibaba: You steal people’s hearts directly… That might make things difficult.

Alibaba: Extremely difficult.

Alibaba: One moment.

Alibaba: I’m thinking…

Alibaba: Ok. It’s a shame, but I’m calling this deal off. Stop looking into Futaba Sakura.

Alibaba: Forget this ever happened. I won’t report you to the police either, don’t worry.

Alibaba: Sorry for taking your time. Now if you’ll excuse me...

Akira: Wait a second.

Alibaba: I said the deal’s off!

Alibaba: We’re never going to speak again. Don’t expect me to contact you anymore either.

I can’t find an account to send a response to. All I get back is an error message...Akira thought while they still looked at his phone. “Huh…? Did he just shut the whole operation down?” Ann asked shocked after what she just read. “This doesn’t make any sense… Not only can Alibaba not go out, but he won’t let us meet Futaba either?” Morgana said. “Well, it’s none of our business now. We can’t contact him anymore.” Ryuji stated. 

“But...what do we do about Medjed? We won’t be able to get Alibaba to help us with them now.” Ann said. “I don’t know. It seems that we’re on our own for now.” Drake sighed as he shook his head. “Seems like it.” Xander stated with a sigh. “Maybe they were just prankin’ us.” Ryuji shrugged. “They made that huge declaration, but they ain’t done nothing since. I bet we got ‘em freaked out.” The blond stated. 

“You mean they backed out because they’re afraid we’ll change their hearts?” Morgana asked. “Yup. And now it’d just make ‘em look lame if they came out and apologized.” The blond male stated with a smile. Drake shook his head and sighed. “But-” Makoto tried to explain but was cut off by the blond. “I guess with Alibaba and Medjed outta the picture, can we just say this case is closed.” He smiled out. 

“...You do have a point. I guess it is safe for us to relax a little” The Makoto sighed out. The short male shook his head “I don’t think so. I get the feeling that’s not it. I believe there’s more than meets the eye here.” Drake explained to the group. They all looked at him. Ryuji shook his head. 

“Oh yeah, remember Kaneshiro’s Treasure? Prepare to have your minds blown! We got one hundred and fifty thousand yen out of it.” He shouted out. “Holy shite.” Drake said. “That’s awesome! We can really go all out with that kinda money!” Ann said happily. “Yeah! Let’s make up for what happened at the fireworks festival!” The blond smiled. 

“We gotta go eat something fittin’ for the Phantom Thieves’ worldwide debut!” He declared. “Where would be good?” Ann asked hungrily. “Ooh, how ‘bout sushi? I could really go for some eel too!” Ryuji suggested. The green-haired teen’s stomach growled out. Signaling that he was hungry. “Heh, I guess that works with me. I'm kinda starting to get hungry with all this talk about food.” He stated while rubbing his stomach. 

“The best method is to fill yourself on ginger before beginning to eat sushi. That is my master technique.” Yusuke said. Everyone looked at the blue haired teen. “You don’t need to do that this time. Actually, definitely don’t do it, okay?” Makoto told him. Drake shook his head. “Yusuke please don’t do that cause ginger is used for cooking different dishes and you’ll get sick if you eat too much of it. Hell, that's what happened to my family on Christmas.” He explained. “Yeah… probably best not to do that Yusuke.” Xander told the taller male while he looked at him. “I’m all for sushi! You’re okay with that too, right?” The feline smiled. Akira just chuckled and nodded. “Sushi’s fine.” He said. “Then it’s decided.” Morgana meowed out. “All right! We’ll go tomorrow night!” Ryuji said. Everyone nodded in agreement. 

*Time Skip: Evening*

Jaden and Xander were in the living room watching a random movie when they got a text on their phone.

[Phone convo]

Makoto: I wonder if that Medjed business was just a prank.

Makoto: Now that I think about it calmly, it’s strange that they haven’t actually done anything yet.

Makoto: If their goal is to target the Phantom Thieves, they should want to be acting now, given our fame.

Ann: Huh. When you put it that way, it kinda makes me wonder too.

Ann: Especially after they taunted us theatrically like that.

Yusuke: Yes, however, it would be best for us to come up with a countermeasure regardless.

Yusuke: For now though, we should cautiously enjoy the sushi. That is all we can do. 

Akira: Yeah.

Drake: I have to agree but, still…

Ryuji: But that’s no fun…

Makoto: Hm, Yusuke is right.

Makoto: I’m sorry for bringing this up. On the day before our celebration party too…

Ann: Cheer up, Makoto! We’ll be eating sushi like kings tomorrow!

Yusuke: I hope one person in particular is on their best behavior. I’ll refrain from saying who though.

Drake: I second that.

Xander: I third that.

Ryuji:...You better not be talking about me!

Jaden just started laughing after the text message was sent. “Damn, That’s too funny.” He said as he shook his head. “Well...who else would it be?” Xander mutters to himself causing Jaden to laugh even more. “HAHA, damn it dude why do you have to do tha-HAHAH!” The green-haired teen stated as he continued to laugh while trying to calm himself down. “Because I can.” Xander said with a smirk on his face while he watched his friend calm down from laughing. “Damn, it’s very rare to get me laughing like that, fuck.” Drake sighed. His friend shook his head at that statement. “I have done it several times.” Xander said while he looked down at the green-haired teen who was sitting on the floor by now.

*Time skip: 7/24: Daytime*

The next day, two people were standing around talking in what looked like a common area for a police building. One was a female wearing a black business suit and the other was a young male that was wearing his school's summer uniform with a striped tie. 

“You seem quite busy, Sae-san. I take it you’re stuck in the middle of everything?” The young man said. “The Phantom Thieves made a mockery of us when they brought down Kaneshiro… And to make matters worse, Medjed, who has been dormant for some time now, just declared war on them. How much more can they screw us over?” The woman, Sae, stated to the young man. “Stress is bad for the skin, you know.” The young man said to Sae with a smile. 

“Did you come all this way simply to be sarcastic?” The Sae young woman stated. “How about you listen to my deductions for a change of pace? You may think it absurd… But don’t you think the case you’re pursuing and the actions of Phantom Thieves overlap somehow?” The young man asked with a calm voice. “What are you basing this off of?” Sae asked, looking at him. “The one point of commonality across all cases is how those involved have an unforeseen change of heart.” He explained to her. 

“I’ve suspected that myself, but those suspicions are unfounded.” She told him. “I told you at the beginning that this was only a deduction. These ‘just’ Phantom Thieves are riling up the public. However, that is a disguise. Their true goal is terrorist action by way of psychotic breakdowns… Is that too much?” He asked her. “There’s nothing at the moment that falsifies that claim. Have you mentioned this to the police?” Sae asked him. “I’d never tell them such things. The only value I have to me is in their mobility and organizational capabilities.” The young man explained. The young woman turned and fully looked at him. 

“Hm, it seems having you lend me a hand has paid off.” She said to him. “I’m glad to hear that. What about your case, Sae-san? Did you learn anything from the guardian of that mental shutdown victim’s daughter?” He asked her. “Nothing at all.” She sighed out. “I see. Now, what should my next action be for our victory?” He said. “Handle the Phantom Thieves. Without remorse. Use any means necessary to win. That’s how I would deal with them.” Sae told him. 

“*Chuckle* Very well.” The light brunette said with a smile. “This seems to be fun for you. Are you on to something?” Sae asked him. He shook his head. “No, not all. Well then, to our victory.” He told her. The young light brunette male waked away leaving the young woman to herself. 

“*Groans*” Drake makes a noise as he is on the phone. Draco jumped in confusion. “Is Drake okay or...?” He asked Xander, who was sitting on the couch waiting for him. “Isn’t this him on a day to day basis?” Xander asked looking at the bearded dragon. “Well…” “Taka-kun, it’s fine. I’m just going to be with friends eating sushi.” Jaden-Drake told his older brother. 

“Well, I just want to know where you're going for the fact of Medjed. I’m worried since you're a part of the Phantom thieves, I just want to know that you're safe. Look, I know you're 16 and you’ve been here before, just be saAAAAfe- CHUNTA!!!” Takato yells through the phone. The three of them tried holding back laughter as they heard the black-haired male yell. “Make sure you're safe, kid. I don’t want Takato-sama to worry about you too much. You know how he can get it.” Junta said as he held Takato. 

“Hey. Don’t talk to my brother like that when I’m on the phone with him.” Takato yells a bit. “Huh, what are you talking about? What did I do wrong?” His lover asks. Drake chuckles at the two’s banter. “Okay, okay. I love you two bakas.” He chuckles as he hangs up on them. He sighed once he did so. “Man...Every day is getting harder and harder for him to worry less and less about me man.” He said as he shook his head. 

“Is he always like this?” Draco asked the green-haired human. “Most likely.” Xander answered for him. “Well, with that out of the way. Let’s go get sushi!” The short male shouted. The others chuckled and shook their heads. They all walked out of the apartment and to the parking lot to get in Jaden’s car. 

*Time skip: Evening*

The Phantom Thieves were at the sushi bar eating their favorite dishes. “Man, the flounder is outta this world! That texture…” Ryuji drooled as he spoke. “I-I don’t see any prices listed here…” Yusuke said all worriedly. “It’s called market price. Don’t worry ‘bout it; we got the cash!” The blond male told the blue-haired male with his mouth full. Drake chuckled. 

“Man, I have never been to this type of place unless it was a buffet. It’s more cooler than I thought. Any thoughts, mate?” Drake asked his friend next to him. “This restaurant is nice.” Xander said as he ate. “Sooo gooooood…” Ann drooled while she ate. “Hey, is the fatty tuna ready yet?” Morgana said, wanting some fish. 

“Hold your horses. And don’t talk!” Ryuji told him. “Hey, he and I want our food.” Draco hissed at him. “We get it but you're not supposed to talk to you, butt.” Drake told the dragon off. “By the way, Akira-Kun... Is Boss really the kind of person who would abuse someone?” Makoto asked, looking at the black-hair male. 

“That again?” Ryuji puffed out. “I can’t get it off my mind. Especially if it means he could be taken to court…” The young brunette explained. “I understand and get what you're going on about but it’s something we can not help. Boss isn’t someone that seems like he would abuse someone.” Drake explained to her. “It’s very hard to be a bystander in a situation like this.” He sighed out as he continued to eat. “What kind of person is he? Do you truly believe he’d do such a thing?” She asked Akira. 

“No chance.” Akira shook his head. “He doesn’t seem like the type.” Drake nodded in agreement. “I have to agree with Akira with that. Even though I worked with him for almost about a month I don’t sense that he is a bad person.” The green-haired teen explained. “If it’s really true about the abuse, he’d be a no-good jerk pretendin’ to be a guardian.” Ryuji told them. 

“Maybe the chief is the one who needs a change of heart…” Morgana meowed out. “Ooo, I agree with that.” Draco hissed out to the feline. “Wait, it might be too early to jump to conclusions about Boss’s behavior.” Xander said, putting his hand up, stopping the group a bit. “*sighs* We are.” Drake nodded. “Hold on a sec! About that… I actually got curious after our conversation… and checked his name in the Nav.” Ann explained. “Sounds to me like there wasn’t a hit.” Makoto said. “Right. Anything beyond this is his family’s problem. We probably shouldn’t get any more involved.” Ann explained. Drake nodded. “That’s basically what I’ve been saying this whole time.” He said as he put salmon sushi in his mouth. “Wait… You think Alibaba could be Boss’s ex-wife!?” Ryuji stated. 

Everyone looked at him with questioning looks. “He musta cheated on her, and that’s where Futaba came from.” Ryuji explained his reasoning. “Doubtful.” Ann said. The green-haired teen slowly looked at him. “This is one of the reasons why I question a lot of men’s brains sometimes.” Jaden states while shaking his head. “Your imagination has run rampant.” Makoto states with closed eyes. “How foolish.” Yusuke says agreeing with the two of them. 

Akira nodded in agreement while Ryuji looked away. After that, they all went back to eating their food. “Still, this is delicious. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it before.” Yusuke said with a small smile. “Hmm, I’m going to agree with you, mate.” Drake said. “Man, and it’s all thanks to us bein’ the Phantom Thieves-” Ryuji was about to finish when he cut himself once he saw everyone looking up. 

Drake tried to hold back his laughter. “Crap.” Ryuji said. “U-ummm… Ph-Phan… Fantastic! This sushi is delicious!” Makoto said, trying to make a quick save. “Y-yeah! The fish is so fresh!” Ann said, making a quick statement to save her. “Hmph. Everywhere we go, we hear about these Phantom Thieves.” An arrogant sounding woman said, looking at the man right next to her. “What rubbish.” The haughty man that was sitting next to the arrogant woman said. 

“Think about where we are, Ryuji.” The light blond female scolds at the yellowish blond male. “Sorry, it just kinda slipped…” Ryuji told her. “Think before you speak, boi.” The short, green-haired teen explained. Xander looks towards his friend. Drake looked back. “What?...It’s true.” He defended himself. Xander keeps on staring at him. He hints for the fact that Jaden also does the same thing. “Oh, wait hey!” “My apologies for bringing up Boss again. We should just enjoy the food.” Makoto said. Everyone went back to eating their food.

The group finished up their meal and went out of the sushi place. “Xander and I will meet you guys at Leblanc, seeing that I don’t want to leave my car anywhere.” Drake told them. “Unless you want to go with them, mate, then I don’t mind.” He said looking at Xander. “I will tag along with you.” Xander told his shorter friend as he shrugged. Drake nodded with a statement. Akira looked at Jaden and smiled. “Alright, we’ll see you at Leblanc text me when you get there. So we know that you guys are safe.” Akira said to them. I really don’t want anything bad to happen to you. He thought to himself. 

Drake chuckled and walked over to pat his head. “We’ll be fine. It’s not like in America where a lot of people were shitty drivers...Well, I can’t really say that.” He mumbled to himself as he patted his taller friend's head. Akira blushed as he watched Jaden pat his head with a bright smile on his face. Akira chuckled as he watched Jaden mutter to himself. 

He grabbed Drake’s hand so he could stop patting his head. Drake stopped talking to himself when he felt a hand on his hand. He looked up and saw Akira holding his hand and blushed. Akira still held his hand as he put their hands down to their sides. They stayed like that for a few more moments. “Um, dudes?” Ryuji said after a few more seconds of the two of them holding hands. 

Both teens realized what was happening and quickly got their hands away from each other blushing while doing so. “Um, Well...See you at Leblanc...Bye!” Jaden blushed as he ran straight to his car leaving a blushing Akira behind with a very confused group of friends. Xander smirked to himself seeing that he now has teasing material. “See you guys later.” He waved off as he grabbed Drake’s bag with Draco in it and followed the blushing Drake. 

The rest of the group were at the subway station when they heard a young male’s voice. “Niijima-san! What are you doing here?” A familiar-looking pleasant boy approached the group. “Akechi-kun…” Makoto said, turning to face Akechi. “Akechi?” Ryuji stated as he turned to look at Akechi. Ann and Akira followed after him. “You’re the ones from the TV station...Could it be that you’re friends of Niijima-san?” The young man asked them. 

Yusuke turns around to face him and the group. “Do you know this guy?” He asked the rest of the group. “It’s nice to meet you. My name is Akechi. Glad to make your acquaintance, Yusuke Kitagawa.” He told the tall, dark blue-haired male. “How do you know my name?” Yusuke asks Akechi. “Well, because I’m a psychic, of course.” The light brunette told him with a smile. “Haha, I’m only joking. In truth, I’m a rookie detective. You’re a former pupil of Madarame, right?” He explained with a small smile. 

“I have actually just recently joined the investigation team looking into the Phantom Thieves. Did you see that Medjed has declared war on them?” He asked the group. “War?” Ryuji asked. “Their website was updated just a moment ago.” He stated to them. “For real?!” The vulgar blond asked. Ryuji took out his phone to check the website. “English again…” He groaned out as he checked the website. Ann took out her phone so she could read the post. 

“Wait what!?” Ann shouted as she looked at the post. “What’s it say!?” The blond male asked her. “Hm? Why do you seem so agitated?” Akechi asked the two of them. “Oh, um…” Ann started to think of something to say. “She’s, uh… a huge fan of the Phantom Thieves. A total nutjob for ‘em.” Ryuji quickly stated saving Ann at the last moment. 

“Hm, I don't know how wise it is to be a fan of groups like them.” The light brunette male said. “What is with these comments?” Makoto asked, looking at him with a stern look. “My apologies. I didn’t mean to butt into your conversation. But I must say, this is an interesting group. Prosecutor Niijma’s sister, an ex-pupil of Madarame, and a few Shujin Academy students… It seems you’re all connected to the Phantom Thieves. Perhaps you have better intel than I do. Ah, yes. I wanted to ask you something.” He said looking at the group. The group looked at him right after he said that. 

“Regarding this whole Medjed commotion… If you were one of the Phantom Thieves, what would you do?” Akechi asked them. “Ignore them.” Akira told him with just a single answer. “That is unexpected… Only a small minority of people believe that is the best decision.” Akechi said. “Sorry to disappoint, but we’re just normal high school kids. If anything, we wanna hear what you gotta say, Mr. Detective.” Ryuji said in a condescending tone. 

“...My profiling of the Phantom Thieves has led me to believe they are a group of juveniles. They have a relative amount of free time after and a hideout to slip away to.” Akechi explained to them. “Furthermore, considering Kamoshida was their first target, it seems they began activity around April. In a way, all I’ve said about the Phantom Thieves coincides with the group you have here.” He finished off looking at the group with a strange face. “What, you gonna report us? This isn’t even the full group, the rest are waiting for us.”   Ryuji said but regrets saying the last bit as soon as he said it. “Shit.” He cursed quietly. “Ryuji.” Ann quietly scolded at him. 

“So you have other friends that are part of this group. Interesting. Also, I didn’t say I was being suspicious of you.” Akechi said. “Good to hear.” Akira told him. “Hahaha, it seems you’re not perturbed in the slightest. You really are an intriguing one. I lack your calm mannerisms… but don’t you think my deduction is an interesting one? I bet we’d make a great team if we worked together.” He chuckled out with a wink. “What!? The hell’re you sayin’!?” Ryuji snapped at him. 

“Well, this has been a valuable point of reference for me. I hope to see you all again. And I wish to meet those other friends of yours.” Akechi stated. He then walked off leaving a very confused group behind. “What was that about?” Ann asked as soon as the group turned around to look at each other. “Do you think he’s ascertained our true identities?” Yusuke asked them. “Nah, couldn’t be. Right?” The blond male said. 

“I’d like to say that it’s simply us overthinking this, but… it may be best to be cautious from now on. We shouldn’t forget that Alibaba was able to discover who we are.” Makoto explained. “True, but it’s not as though he had tangible evidence to prove that discovery. Just keep acting normally.” Yusuke said. “More importantly, things are getting serious with Medjed!” The light blond female stated. 

“Oh yeah! What’d they write!?” Ryuji asked her. “Here I’ll read it… ‘We are disappointed in the people of Japan and their belief in the Phantom Thieves’ false justice. Hence, we shall proceed with our plan to cleanse Japan. This process will commence on August 21st. As a result, the Japanese economy shall suffer devastating damages.” Ann finished reading that part of the post. “For real…?” The blond male said. “Keep going.” Makoto told her. 

“‘However, we are magnanimous. We will give the Phantom Thieves one final opportunity to repent. As proof of this repentance, we demand that they reveal their identities to be public. We will attack if these demands remain unmet. The future of Japan rests with the Phantom Thieves. We are Medjed. We are unseen. We will eliminate evil…’ That’s what it says.” Ann finished. “Sounds bad…” Ryuji said. 

“In other words, if we don’t unmask ourselves, Medjed will attack Japan… correct? It seems they are quite the attention seekers...” Yusuke stated. “What are we gonna do about this?” Ann asked. “If only we could get in contact with Alibaba.” Makoto said to her group. “Our only clues... are Boss and Futaba. Anyways, it’s too damn hot out here. Why don’t we head to Leblanc already? We can talk more over there.” Ryuji explained. They all nodded as Akira texted Xander to explain to Drake and Draco what was going on. 

Xander and Jaden-Drake were very close to Leblanc. Joking around in the car when Xander got a text. “Well, this is bad.” He stated as he looked at his phone. “What? What is bad?” The green-haired teen asked as he looked at the road. “Medjed is claiming that if the Phantom Thieves don’t unmask themselves the future will be very grim.” He explained to him. “WHAT!?” Draco and Drake shouted in unison as Drake quickly slammed on the brakes as soon as he heard that, causing Xander’s seat belt to tighten up on him and Draco to almost fly out. 

His face was shown with shock and was as white as a ghost. “Be careful. Dude.” Xander shouted at Jaden. “Yeah. Sorry, but what the hell...This is like America all over again.” He sighed as he hit his head on the steering wheel. “Just don’t act as aggressively.” Xander sighed as he fixed his glasses and seating position. “Yeah...You're right...Geez” He sighed as his friend shook his head. “It’s just, how the hell are we going to handle it this time?” He begins with his eyes on the road again. 

“Last time we barely made it out cause we ended up turning their heart around. This time though we don’t know who they really are...Man...this is going to be tougher than what I was really hoping for.” The old Hidden Ones’ leader signed out from the memory of stress that the team and himself endured. “I don’t know what to tell you. We just have to wait to see what happens.” Xander explained calming his friend down. The other nodded and sighed. 

“Yeah...yeah you're right...sometimes I wonder why you didn’t become the leader of the Hidden Ones.” The green-haired teen sighed as his other friend chuckled. “You know that I like working behind the curtains while you enjoy the spotlight.” He smiled at him while Draco chuckled. “There is also the fact that you have more experience with being a leader than anyone that was a part of our group.” Draco smiled at Jaden. Drake chuckled after hearing that. “Huh, that’s true.” 

Once Drake and Xander drove up to a parking spot and headed towards Leblanc. Drake sighed as they walked in to see the group was already there. “We went through all sortsa options on our way here, but… Looks like we got no choice but to ask for Alibaba’s help.” Ryuji said to the others. “Question is how do we get in touch with him?” Ann asked with a look of defeat. “He cut off all contact with us after that misunderstanding. Then again, if we manage to steal Futaba’s heart, he may attempt to reach out to us once more.” Yusuke explained. 

“But we don’t have any clues on what her keywords are.” Morgana stated. “Dammit, Alibaba! Where the hell are you!?” Ryuji yells out in frustration. “Actually, he may be closer than we think.” Makoto said. “Huh?” Ryuji questioned. “How so?” Xander asked, looking at her. “Hypothetically speaking, even if we stole Futaba’s heart...How would Alibaba know that the deed has been done? Would he truly be able to discern that just from cell phone messages?” Makoto asks. Everyone looked at each other. “You mean he’d have to meet her in person?” Morgana asked. 

“Alibaba was able to deliver the calling card here. On top of that, he can check on Futaba’s condition. However, according to the circumstances he put forth, he’s unable to meet with us. This leads me to believe that if it would be bad for him if we were to see the two of them together. It seems to me that...Alibaba may in fact be Futaba herself.” Makoto explained to the group. “For real!?” Ryuji asked in shock. 

“So she’s asking that we steal her own heart!?” Yusuke asked in surprise. “I’m going to say this...I am not surprised one bit.” Drake signed out with a huff. “Maybe she wants us to save her from the scars of her abuse? That would be hard to ask directly.” Ann said. “I’d like to meet with Boss… He lives nearby, right?” Makoto said. Drake and Xander look at each other. Draco shakes his little head a bit. “I know where his house is.” Akira said. 

“I agree. It’s real late though. What’re we gonna tell Boss when we get there?” Ryuji asked her. “We’ll say this take-out sushi is a gift for him.” Makoto said. “But my fatty tuna…!” Morgana shouted. Draco hissed a bit. “Don’t give him any of my fish.” Drake sighed.  “I don’t think this is a real good idea. I understand that we need to help her but going into Boss’s private life. Now that is just wrong on so many levels.” Drake shook his head as he looked at the group. 

As much as he knew it was true that they needed to know, it just didn't feel right to him. He can’t really describe it, but something was telling him that something bigger was at play. He sighed as he heard Ann speak up. “No complaining.” She looked at the three of them. “Let’s all go together. Boss may get the wrong idea if Akira-kun and I show up alone.” Makoto said to them. Everyone nods. 

I still don’t think this is a good idea at all. But what choice do I have in the matter anyways. Drake thinks to himself. Xander notices his friend's concern. “This is our only way of knowing Futaba, like it or not.” Xander said to his friend as they walked out. Drake sighed and shook his head. 

*Time skip: Boss’s place*

Yusuke rang the doorbell near Sojiro’s door, but nobody came...again. “Nobody is answering, but the lights are on...” Makoto stated. “Maybe he thinks we are marketers.” Drake joked to the whole group. “Think she’s nappin’?” Ryuji said. “Even Boss would’ve woken up with how many times we’ve rung this doorbell.” Ann said annoyed. “I would think Futaba would have answered by now if she were here too.” Morgana sighed. 

“Ah, the gate is unlocked.” Yusuke pointed out. “Dude, you can’t go openin’ other people’s stuff like that.” Ryuji stated to Yusuke. “But look. The door seems to be slightly open as well. I wonder why. That’s rather careless...” The brunette said with confusion. After she said that a thunderous noise was heard from the sky. 

The Phantom Thieves looked up at the sky a little. “Whoa, it sounds like it’s going to rain...We should get inside!” The black feline stated with a serious voice. “...Do you think that’s okay?” Makoto asked. “Prolly?” Ryuji asked. Drake just shrugged. “I used to do this with abandoned houses when I was still trainin-AH.” He was cut off by Xander elbowing him in the gut. 

“Gonna rain for quite a while. Might as well go in.” Xander shrugged, then glared at him, who’s tempting to flip him off. “My apologies, Boss!” Makoto whispers. Six of the Phantom Thieves walked inside quickly while the other two fell behind in a slow walk. “WTF! Why did you elbow me, mate?” Drake whispered so the others wouldn’t hear.  “Would they not be suspicious if you were in abandoned houses?” Xander scolded back at him. 

The green-haired teen shook his head and sighed. “Whatever.” He mumbled while rolling his eyes. “Hello, sir?” Makoto said. They waited for an answer from him only to get nothing in return. “He’s not out, is he?” Makoto asked. “The door ahead is open, and I can hear the TV.” 

“I hope he didn’t pass out or something… I mean, Boss is kinda old, ain’t he?” Ryuji told them. “I’m a bit worried. Should we go in and check on him?” Ann asked. “I have no clue if that is a good or bad idea considering the fact we did enter without anyone’s permission, but might as well ‘cause if we don’t, I know for a fact that I will later regret it if we don’t.” Jaden sighed out. For the fact that I have morals of making sure everyone is alright and well. He thought to himself. “Please excuse us…” Makoto stated nervously. 

They walked further inside the house to look for any sign of life. The group continued until they heard the sound of thunder, the lights turning off following afterwards.  “AAAAAA!!!” Both Ann and a young female screeched. Draco, Jaden-Drake, and Ann jumped a little after hearing that. “Meep.” Drake meeped. “A scream!? What was that!?” Makoto questioned in fear. “H-How should I know?” Morgana scarcely asked. 

A few seconds after the black feline said that and the grouped calmed down, just by a little bit, they heard a thud coming from somewhere near them. “Did you hear that!?” The brunette asked the group in a scared voice. “H-Hai…” Drake said in all but a whisper rubbing both of his two arms. “What could it be?” Xander asked, looking around. “Let’s get out of here, please? Can we just go?” Ann the others terrified. “What’re you freakin’ out for?” Ryuji asked her annoyedly. 

“I-I-I’m not freaking out!” Ann said with a stutter at the beginning. “W-well it’s either this or the rain. I rather choose being freaked out a little bit rather than being soaked.” Draco hissed out at her with a beady eye glare. “Could it be Alibaba? I mean, Futaba?” The blue eye feline stated. Right after Morgana said that Ann ran back down the hallway past Jaden, Xander, and Draco who all shook their heads as they walked down with Yusuke and Ryuji. 

Drake sighed as he started calming down from being freaked out. Maybe I can ask Akira if I can just stand behind him or next to him at least? He thought to himself. “Um, sorry… Can I hold your hand?” He heard the older female ask the taller male. Drake froze in place when he heard that. He turned around to see Makoto holding on to Akira’s upper arm. He sighed as he shook his head. 

Man, I wanted to do that...Great... Drake pouted with a soft sigh. Can’t always get what you want, I guess. He thinks as he walks next to Xander. Next, they heard a door creak opened. “Eek!” The brunette screams screeched. Jaden, Xander, and Draco shivered a bit. 

“I can sense someone’s presence…” Yusuke said. “I have to agree.” Draco said. “Who is it?” Makoto asked with a hushed worried voice. At first, she looked at her leader then to another side of the room. “Who’s there!?” This time she was even more freaked out. “I can’t take this anymore! I’m leaving!” She yelled out of fear. 

After she stated that there was a noise coming from somewhere that they didn’t know. Makoto slipped down after hearing that. Drake was looking everywhere for the noise while pulling out his kunai slowly. Xander looks around as well and pulls out one of his daggers. Makoto tried getting up but she couldn’t get up. “N-No… My legs won’t move..” she stated out of fear. 

All of a sudden Makoto, Akira, and Morgana felt a presence behind them. They slowly turned their heads to see a dark figure with big white refelted eyes. The next thing everyone knew, lightning flashed revealing a girl with black-framed glasses and orange-colored hair. Even if that was the case, it still terrifies the living daylights out of Makoto. “Aaaaaah!” Both the brunette and the girl screamed causing the girl to run back into the room. Right when Makoto screamed she fell onto the floor and held onto Akira’s leg. 

“Alibaba! Futaba!” Ann yelled to the girl while Makoto quivered. Drake put his kunai away so he can cover his ears from all the girls yelling. Thankfully I’m not freaked out anymore...but I am now going to go deaf because of the screams. He sighed to himself. “Hey! C’mon, where are you!?” She shouts at where the girl once stood. Xander shakes his head as his shorter friend takes his hands off his ears and checks if Draco was alright. 

The poor bearded dragon was curled way back into the bag thanks to all the yelling by both girls. “You’re a hacker, right? Just show yourself!” Ann yelled again. “I’msorryI’msorryI’msorry! PleasesavemeSis…” Makoto stated in a whimper. Drake saw the situation at hand. Fuck, I got to do something to calm the girls down so that way Draco isn’t scared. Poor little guy. Before the green-hair teen can say anything to try to defuse the situation there was a voice that came from behind them. “Are you okay, Futaba!?” The voice of Sojiro yells through the front door. 

“Crap, he’s home!” Ryuji said. Both him and Yusuke ran down that hall with Ann following right behind them. Drake, Xander, Akira, and Makoto stayed where they were with Drake facepalming as soon as Sojiro opened the door and ran partly in. He looked down the hallway, seeing a group of shadowy figures. Unaware of who they were, Sojiro becomes defensive. “Who the hell are you!? Don’t move!” He yelled at them.

“You hear me!?” Sojiro yelled again. Drake and Xander were just shaking their head at the situation, as Boss turned the flashlight that was in his hand. “I’msorryI’msorryI’msosorrySis...Somebodypleasesaveme…” Makoto kept on repeating. She hadn’t yet noticed Sojiro, who had entered the room. 

Sojiro realized who they were and calmed down. “You? What’re you doing in my house?” He asked them. “Ah…” Makoto finally calmed down and realized the situation that they were in. Drake just sighed as he mentioned Xander that they stay put. “You’re…” The older man was trying to find something to say but was interrupted by Makoto. 

“Oh… G-Good… evening, sir… We… didn’t mean… to intrude.” The brunette stated. “Niijima-san!” The black-haired adult said as he looked at her. “Wait, are you two dating?” He asks the both of them. Drake looks in between the to and tries to hold back a bit of laughter. Xander watches and does the same. The young brunette shook her head. “W-We’re j-just friends!” She exclaims. Akira nodded and agreed with her as he slid glances to Drake who was still trying not to laugh. 

“Friends nowadays get that close to each other?” He asks them. Drake just loses it and starts laughing a bit at the whole situation finding a funny story to tell his mom later. “That’s not it! This, um...Things happened… and..” She tried explaining the situation as she was getting up from the floor. As she did so Drake started laughing at the situation. Drake calmed down once the others walked in. “You kids are here too!?” He asks the rest of the group.

Ann was the first to speak before Drake had a chance to after he was calm enough to speak. “Um, we brought you some sushi, but nobody answered when we rang the bell… The door was unlocked too.” The blond female explained quickly, continuing as she continued explaining. “We could hear the TV though, so we got worried you might have passed out or something…”

After she finished Sojiro looked at them confused. “The door was unlocked?” He asked them. “Yes.” Ann told him. “...I do that sometimes. Guess I’m getting old.” He sighed. “Aw. Don’t worry about it. My family is like that sometimes as well.” Drake explained with a smile. Xander nodded in agreement with that statement. “Well, that makes me feel less old then.” He chuckles at that. “Um, excuse me. There’s something we’d like to ask.” Makoto said to the gray-eyed adult.

Sojiro turns his attention to the young brunette again. “Hm? You wanna ask me?” He asked her. Makoto looks back to where the girl once stood. “There’s someone else living here… isn’t there?” She asked. “Yeah…” The older man with glasses paused for a moment. “My daughter” He finally said. “Could she be Futaba Sakura?” Makoto asked.

“You told Niijma-san too!?” Sojiro asked Akira a bit loudly in front of the others. Akira was looking down the whole time while Jaden had moved next to him and put Draco near Morgana to calm him down. “U-Um… is there any way we could meet with Futaba-san?” The brunette asked the adult. “I think we may have frightened her earlier, so we’d like to apologize if at all possible…” She explained. “Well… that’s…” He crossed his arms and closed his eyes trying to think of a way to explain.

Everyone was looking at Sojiro. “Is she sick?” Makoto asked him. “No, it’s not like that.” Sojiro stated, answering her question. Everyone stood around for a short moment as he shook his head and sighed. “I don’t want you all getting the wrong idea…” He explained to them. The older male sighed again. “I shouldn’t have kept this a secret from you.” He told the group of teens in front of them. “Let’s talk at my shop. She’ll hear us if we stay here.” They all nodded and followed him to Leblanc.

*At Leblanc*

Everyone stood or sat around Sojiro who had pulled up a cheer that was at his bar. “Now, where do I start? Futaba’s mother and I knew each other long before Futaba was born. Her mother was a bit of a weird one, but we got along well for some reason…” He explained to them as he continued. “She was sharp-witted, somewhat stern, a little socially inept, but always carefree… She truly was a great woman.” He smiled to himself as he explained.

“I see…” Makoto said. “When something piqued her interest, that’d be all she focused on. She always worked deep into the night. I thought that’d change after her kid was born, but after having Futaba didn’t do much.” He explained. Drake chuckled a bit after he heard that. “If I’m going to be honest here that sounds like how my mom gets when she finds something she's very interested in.” The green-haired teen explained with a soft smile on his face. Sojiro chuckles a bit after hearing that. “It sounds like Her and your mother would have gotten along just fine.”

Drake nodded after hearing that. “I’m sure they would have, sir.” He smiled as Sojiro continued. “Even with that, she always took good care of her.” He finished that off. “Working and watching over a child at the same time sounds rough…” Ann said, sounding sorry for Futaba’s mom.  “I guess raising Futaba alone turned out to be tough on her in more ways than one…” Boss explained. “What about her father? Didn’t he at least try to help her in all of this?” Akira asked him with a few side glances in Drake's direction as he asked that. “There wasn’t a father.” Sojiro bluntly told them.

“Do you mean…” Yusuke asked while Jaden looked at him with a ‘Really, that’s the question to ask him right now’ look. “Well, there probably was one. I didn’t know him though. She never said a word about him, either. She was single when she gave birth to Futaba, and single when she raised her. They were an ordinary, loving family. You could really tell how much she cared for Futaba.” He sighs after stating that.

His face expression became more upset after he sighed. “But one day, she left… leaving Futaba behind.” Sojiro said to the group. “Did she die…?” Akira asked him with a sadden expression. The older adult male took a deep breath before speaking again. “Yes. She committed suicide.” He said softly but still loud enough for everyone to hear. “Suicide...!?” Ann said in shock. “Holy crud.” Drake said with a widened upset expression.

“Threw herself into the street, right in front of Futaba’s eyes…” Boss explained the upsetting news to the teens. Drake froze in thought for a second right after he heard the fact. “Shocking doesn’t begin to describe that…” Makoto stated with her jaw dropped. “That’s gotta be devastating for a kid.” Ryuji stated. “Yeah, the death of any family member is devastating, especially to a kid.” Xander sighed. “So…” Sojiro began, thinking of something else to say.

“Well, a lot happened after that, but I ended up taking custody of Futaba… First, she was so depressed she...she wouldn’t even talk to me.” Sojiro explained. “Was that because she couldn’t get over her mother’s suicide?” Ann asked him. “I kept talking to her though, and she started opening up to me little by little. That’s when I found out… Futaba blames herself for her mother’s death.” He explained to them. “What!? But why!?” Ann asked in shock. 

“That part she’s never told me. I wanted to know what led her to believing that, but I decided not to rub salt in the wound.” He explained. “Then, a few months ago… She started getting real scared, even when nothing was happening. She’d say things like, ‘I hear voices…’ and ‘Mom is looking at me…’” He told them.  “Visual and auditory hallucinations… Have you taken Futaba to a doctor?” Yusuke asked Sojiro. “I wanted to, but she refused. Even when I had a doctor come, she locked herself away in her room. Since then, she’s become what you’d call a shut-in.” He explained to them.

“She won’t take a single step outside the house or even try to see other people.” He stated. “What about you?” Yusuke asked standing up more and turning to him. “She doesn’t even let me come into her room.” Sojiro tells them. “That’s pretty harsh…” Ryuji said. “Futaba is, well, a unique girl. She’s so quick-minded that conversations with her tend to jump from one topic to the next… It seems like she’s always coming to conclusions in her head. There’s a lot I don’t get about her...” He said. 

Makoto nodded to Boss’ statement about his daughter. “So yeah… her situation is why I couldn’t let you in my house.” He explains to Akira while he turns towards him. “Don’t worry about it. You had your reasons, so I understand.” Akira explained to him. “Thanks.” Sojiro smiled at the black-haired teen. “What Futaba needs is a safe where nobody will threaten her. Somewhere she can be at ease. That’s why I won’t do anything she doesn’t want. I don’t make her do anything she’s unwilling to either.” He states as he gets up to stand from his seat.

“Then again, I know that’s no way for her to live. It’s all I can do though…” He said with an upset look. “What does Futaba want?” Akira asks him. “I’m going to agree with Akira on this. Do you truly know what Futaba wants from her point of view and a parent’s point of view?” Drake asks, looking at the older male. “I don’t know. She just asks me for things that she wants, like food or these complicated books… Well, that’s that. So can you just… leave her be?” Sojiro asks the teens around him. They all nodded in agreement. Well not all of them. Drake sighed as he heard Sojiro’s explanation. 

Like we’re going to... We need to help her… No teen should be shut in to believe that they were the cause of her mother’s death. Drake thought as he looked to the side of him. “I’m gonna head back then. You all had better head home soon too.” He tells them looking at each of them. He then walks past Akira, Makoto, Jaden-Drake, and Xander. Once he left, Akira took the seat that Sojiro was just sitting on and sits down. Drake walks up and stands behind him leaning in just a bit.

“I feel awful for prying into his personal affairs…” Makoto stated. “No way in hell he’s abusin’ her.” Ryuji stated. “The reason why Futaba wants her heart stolen must be related to what happened to her mother.” Ann claimed. “So, she’d like to discard her feelings of pain, but can’t do anything about it herself.” Yusuke said, adding to the conversation. “Will changing her heart really help her, though?” Ann asked looking off somewhere. “If we can help her, we may be able to stand up to Medjed.” Yusuke stated, standing up. 

Drake sighed as he thought about it. Not everything is easy to fix. “Maybe changing her heart will help her out, but having her help us out right after helping her is kinda of a dick move if you think about it.” The green-haired teen explained. “It makes us seem selfish.” He sighed out. “But we are in a tough situation, we do need her help.” Xander said. “Still…” Drake sighed out while looking at everybody. “It’s possible, but I believe we should have a better plan.” Akira sighed. “Hold on a sec. Do we even know if she has a Palace? Let’s check.” Ryuji said.

Akira took out his phone to the Nav to see if Futaba did have a Palace. “‘The Futaba Sakura that lives at Sojiro Sakura’s house.’ Is that gonna be enough?” The blond male. “Candidate Found” The nav said after Akira put the name in. “What the…?” Yusuke asked in shock. “She’s got one...” Ryuji stated with widened eyes. “So someone can have a Palace even if they’re not evil?” Ann asked with shocked confusion. “Hmm, yeah. We knew someone that had a Palace but they were the nicest person you’d ever meet.” Drake started as he motioned between him and Xander. 

“Oh... that one.” Xander said, remembering the Palace. “Hey Morgana-” Ann was about to talk to the black feline but as the group looked around themselves, they didn’t see him. “Where’s Morgana?” The light blue-eye female asked as Mona was nowhere to be found. “I haven’t seen him for some time.” Yusuke stated. “So, ever since we went inside Boss’s house?” Makoto asks. “...Somewhere ‘round there. He’ll be fine though. He’s a cat after all. The trains’re gonna be shuttin’ down for the night soon, so we should prolly be headin’ home.” Ryuji said.

Everyone nodded in agreement to Ryuji’s statement. “We have to go to school in the morning, after all.” Makoto told them. “Ohhh, right. The urgent assembly.” Ann groaned. “Tomorrow is going to suck then.” Draco said with a sigh. “Now I wish Morgana was here. Hmph” Drake rolled his eyes at the dragon. “An assembly? What about?” Yusuke asked. “Shujin has been garnering a lot of attention ever since Medjed called out the Phantom Thieves.” Ann sighed out while explaining. 

“So, they need to remind us not to say arbitrary stuff online and add more fuel to the fire.” She finished. “We’ve gotta meet up for every goddamn little thing. Talk about a pain in the ass.” Ryuji stated, annoyed. “I mean, it is our fault.” Ann said sadly. “It really isn’t. They’re just trying to find the littlest excuse to explain to us what we should do and shouldn’t do. I understand that the rules are different from an American public school but they’re still looking for an excuse to explain what we already know.” Jaden explained with a heavy sigh.

Xander just shrugged and shook his head. “Might as well go with the flow… I guess.” He sighed out. “Anyway, let’s contact each other afterward.” Makoto said.

\\\\

////

‘No way in hell he’s abusin’ her.’ The recording of Ryuji’s voice stated. During their discussion the orange-haired girl listens in while typing on her computer. ‘The reason why Futaba wants her heart stolen must be related to what happened to her mother.’ ‘So she’s like to discard her feelings of pain, but can’t do anything about it herself.’ ‘Will changing her heart really help her, though?’ ‘If we can help her we may be able to stand up to Medjed.’ ‘Maybe changing her heart will help her out, but having her help us out right after helping her is kinda of a dick move if you think about it.’ 

‘It makes us seem selfish.’ ‘But we are in a tough situation, we do need her help.’ ‘Still…’ ‘It’s possible, but I believe we should have a better plan.’ ‘Hold on a sec. Do we even know if she has a Palace? Let’s check. “The Futaba Sakura that lives at Sojiro Sakura’s house.” Is that gonna be enough?’ ‘What the…?’ ‘She’s got one..’ ‘So someone can have a Palace even if they’re not evil?’ ‘Hmm, yeah. We knew someone that had a Palace but they were the nicest person you’ll ever meet.’ 

‘Oh... that one.’ ‘Hey, Morgana-’ Right after the recording of Ann saying the feline's name, he jumped out from behind the computer, causing Futaba to yell and Morgana run out the door. 

////

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Jaden-Drake, Xander, and Draco were all in the front seat of Drake’s Impala. It was silent at first while they were getting home from Leblanc. “Alright... So you guys never told me why you guys can’t tell the others why you're so skilled and know a lot more than you're leading on…” Draco paused biting his lower lizard lip looking for the right way to put it. “You're also keeping the others hidden from them including Him… You need to open up to them...they're really nice to us.” Drake took a deep breath and sighed.

He looked over at Xander. “He’s right, mate... We told each other we wouldn’t keep secrets from them but we are...so why are we?” Drake asked, fully looking at him after he stopped at a red light. Xander looked out the window for a bit before he spoke. “It’s rather difficult for us to be open right away, we have only known them for a few months. I am just trying to be safe.” Xander explained to the both of them. “It’s not right man...they give us so much trust so far and what have we given them...little to none. Hell, we can’t even tell the people we like that we like them because of it... We have to tell them!” Drake yelled as he looked back at the road and drove since the light was green. 

Drake's eyes were starting to water due to the fact that he wants to be with Akira so badly. Xander looked at him full view now. His eyes flash from his light brown eyes to a brownish gold eye color to back to his original color. “It just… people are too unpredictable, you could have your arms open to someone and a few days later they could stab you in the back and take everything from you. I had that happen to me and I… I…just don’t want that to happen to any of us.” Xander shot back at his friend.

He was met with a dirty glare as they made it to their parking lot. “And you think you're the only one. I had that happen to me twice. TWICE!! And you already were a part of the second one...So do you think I don’t know or don't understand. Hell, I had my cousin because of this whole same situation. I don’t want that to happen again.” The green-haired male told him, reminding him why there wasn’t a third person. He was getting really upset. He stopped the engine of the car and grabbed his bag with the partly scared bearded dragon in it.

Draco went deeper into the school bag to avoid the two humans arguing. Xander huffed as he got out as well and shot a glare at his short friend. “I… know… such a thing… experiencing… hell.” Xander said, starting to act differently than from, his usual self. Drake looked and rolled his eyes. WTF is going on!? Drake thought, not realizing what was going on. “Well, it’s not like you’ve experienced it twice in your life or even have your own clan brother, who was supposed to be the leader, backstab your trust when he knew that he could trust your family here. But no, he wants you to continue your training in New York than to follow your late Sensei’s last wishes.” The multicolor-eye teen snapped back at them as they walked into their apartment building.

Once they were inside, they went into the elevator as they continued to argue. “I… know. We…all experienced things that we didn’t want to…” Xander stated, struggling to keep himself from switching. Both of his friends noticed this as they got to their floor and headed straight towards their shared apartment. “I get it dude, but you're making it about yourself and that is not a good thing to do seeing that we both transferred here for a better start and a better life.” Drake states as he unlocks the door.

“We need to let go and find a different path in life.” He put Draco down on the kitchen counter and turned towards his friend. “I mean, it’s not like we’ve killed anyone we really care about in the past. It’s just that we-” With a blink of an eye Xander had a dagger at Jaden’s neck. “Didn’t kill anyone we cared about you say? Anyone we cared about you say?! I ENDED UP KILLING MY OWN SON!!! I WATCH as his eyes started to go pale. Do you know how it feels? As you are trying to kill someone in order to protect your son. As that man pushes you into sinking a dagger into your son’s heart!? DO YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS!?!?” 

Drake's eyes widened as he fully realized that his friend wasn’t there in that moment in time. He wasn’t fully scared, seeing that this has happened before with others including this man, but never like this. He raises his hands up to where his head was. “Bayek please calm down. I didn’t know that you killed your son but please that was in the past and I am sorry for bringing it up like this.” The short teen stated calmly trying to reason with his friend's other personality. 

“You don't know how it is to have your own family’s blood spilt by your own hands. I had to KILL every… single… one of those bastards that breathed that day in Siwa.” The voice of Bayek said looking at the teen straight into his eyes. The teen sighed a bit and looked around to find a way to escape until his eye landed on the bearded dragon on the counter. His eyes widen in fear of what they just did. 

“Listen, I know how it feels to lose a family member but you need to let go of me because we are scaring someone very close to us.” Drake stated as he motioned to the terrified creature on the counter. “What are yo- oh… it is happening again. Why do I feel…so…lighthea-” Right after Xander regains control he drops the dagger and faints onto the floor. “Wha-Wha-what was that?” Draco asked, still shaking in fear.  

Jaden-Drake sighed as he fully looked at the shaking creature. “It’s something that we didn’t want you to know...and by we I mean them and I.” Drake sighed as he shook his head. It was something they hoped wouldn’t come to this. “Them? What… What do you mean by that?” The black-eye bearded dragon asked the calm teenager as he picked up his friend and led him to the couch.  Xander was starting to fall asleep as soon as he hit the couch. “I…will expla-” He started to snore right after saying that.

Jaden sighed as he grabbed the little creature and went to his room. “So… What happened out there?” The dragon asked again as Drake set him down on his desk and he sat on his bed. “ Listen, we, well Xander, really didn’t want you to find out this way. We were waiting for the right to at least talk about it with you…” Drake bit his lip trying to find a way to describe what the lizard just saw. “What... What you just witnessed...was one out of three different...personalities that Xander has..” Drake signed out. 

Darco looked at the human with his head tilted. “Three personalities...like one of the personality disorties that you were explaining to me?” He asked Drake as he sighed. “Not really. Xander hates this side of himself. He is going to have to explain to you when he wakes up. I can’t really-” He was cut off by his phone ringing. “Who’s calling me at this hour?” The green-haired teen grabbed his phone. He checked the caller ID to find that his grandmother was calling him.

Drake's eyes widened and he cursed under his breath. “Damn it, why now?” He asked with a sigh. “Look, we’ll talk about this later. I have to take this call.” The green-haired boy looked at Draco, who was still sitting on the counter. He is then moved by Drake and placed on his desk while he hits the answer button. “Hello?” “Jaden, Jaden, this is grammy.” His grandmother states through the phone receiver. “I know grandma. I have you on my caller ID.” 

This isn’t the first time Drake’s Grandma had told him that it was her and it wouldn’t be that last. “Well, how should I know that. Anyways, how are you and Xander holding up in Japan?” His grandma asks him. “Good, good. The school work here is hard, but hey I’m getting the hang of it.” He tells her with a small smile. Here it comes. He sighed out. “How are you doing in math?” There it is. “Drake?” “Yeah, I’m still not good at math. I mean, I’m not failing but I’m not getting the best grade either.” 

“Really, Drake why aren’t you great at it. Your father is a mathematician, why can’t you be?” His grandma tells him. Drake just stayed silent with a sigh. “Hello, Drake, are you still there?” “Yeah, grandma I am. Look, I will get help for math. I know a few people that can help me. Changing the subject though, I have a friend that is into art as well as I am and is really giving me inspiration that I need to continue wanting to take art as a career.  I am really happy about that.” He explained with a grin on his face.

Drake’s smile fell as soon as he heard what he’s been hearing from her for months “Oh, that’s nice to hear but shouldn’t you choose a different career path. I know that you want to but I believe you should go this root.” His grandma explained. He bit his lip as he tried to think of a response. “I’m sorry, but I want to be an artist and this is the path that I want to take.” He sighed out as he tried to hold his tongue back from snapping at her. I’m not dad. Stop comparing his past with my present. He thought “I know but listen, I don’t feel like you're going to get anywhere if you-” She was cut by her grandchild sighing out. “I’ll talk to you later grandma. I have to get some sleep because the school has an assembly tomorrow and I need to get up early for that.” 

Drake could tell his grandmother was surprised at this news. “Really, weren’t you supposed to start summer break tomorrow?” The eldrly woman asked him. “I do, it's just that we have an assembly explaining to the students not to be stupid ‘cause of what’s going on in Tokyo right now.” He sighed out. “Well alright. I will speak with you later, bye sweetheart. I love you.” “Yeah, love you too, bye.” He hangs up and groans. 

He puts his hands on his face and falls to the bed. “Goddamn it.” Drake sighed out. He stays like that for a few minutes then gets up and grabs his motorcycle helmet, jacket, and keys. Then, heads out the door without a word to anyone. The green-haired teen goes down to the parking lot to his motorcycle. 

Drake starts the motorcycle up and speeds out of the parking lot and into the quiet city streets. He was going to drive through the city to clear out his thoughts. Having done this time and time again he rides through parts of the city that seem lively during the day but are so quiet during this time. He doesn’t know where he is heading, all he knows is that he needs his head cleared. 

He stopped at a place where parts of the city could be seen from far away. He proceeds to take his helmet off, watching the city. “The city always looked so beautiful from this view, huh?” He smiled not expecting any answers. “This isn’t really you get to see.” “It sure is. Now speaking of sights that are rarely seen, what are you doing here Jaden-Drake?” A voice of an adult male said right behind Drake.

Jaden turned around, about to throw a shuriken when he saw who was talking. “Whew, you scared me, mate.” He sighed out as he turned to the male that was right behind him. “Please don’t do that because I can hurt and or kill you easily like that and I don't want that.” He chuckled. “Yeah, wouldn’t be a good thing, huh.”

*Time skip: 7/25: Early Morning*

“Man, I wish we didn’t have to go to this dumb assembly.” Draco hissed out as he stuck his head out of Drake’s bag. “Well, it’s cause of the stupid school wanting to scare us into following its rules. Like usual.” Drake stated as Xander and him followed the other students. “They just want to make sure that the students don’t say anything dumb to the press due to the whole Kamoshida and Kaneshiro incidents.” Xander said as they moved a head. 

“That too, but still it’s not like the press would want to ask some of the students. It’s not like we have any relation towards the Kaneshiro one.” Drake stated. “Anyways, are...are we not going to talk about what happened last night?” Draco asks the two teens. Drake bit his lip and looked at Xander. Xander rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “Tis, not the time for that. Too many people could be listening.” Xander explained.

Drake nodded in agreement. “Hmm, I agree. When you're in our line of work you don’t know who you can trust outside of your group. That’s a fact that is true.” The green-haired teen started looking around. He goes into a whisper where only Xander and Draco can hear. “Trust me when I say you don’t know when an enemy is hiding in the shadows.”

Draco rolled his eyes at Jaden-Drake as he made his statement. “Well can you at least tell me where you ran off to last night?” The bearded dragon asked. Drake sighed and bit his lip. “There is a time and a place for everything now is not the time.” Xander stated. Draco huffed and nodded as they entered the school to hear murmurs of students compiling. 

*Time skip: Daytime*

After the assembly, the Phantom Thieves sat around Akira’s room eating lunch. “Man, that assembly had me bored to tears.” Ryuji stated. “I basically fell asleep through the whole thing.” Drake sighed out as he put his head down on the chair. “Huh? Did you have school too, Yusuke?” Ann asked him. “I’m doing laundry, so these are the only clothes I had to wear.” Yusuke explains. “I can relate.” Drake said, raising his hand.  “You really should buy a couple more outfits…” The blond female stated to Yusuke.

“Come now, we didn’t gather here to make small talk, now did we?” Makoto asked the three of them. “Let’s get to Alibaba’s case.” “Well then, I’ll start. It looks like Futaba was listening in to Leblanc.” Morgana stated. “But, why would she want to listen in on the cafe?” Ann asked. “I have no idea.” The feline stated. “It’s just like Boss said… She’s a tough nut to crack.” Ryuji said. “In any case, her hacking skills will be absolutely necessary if we wish to stand up to Medjed.” Makoto stated. 

“Going by what she has told us, we may even be able to identify who they are.” Makoto continued. “We’ll have to trust in her skills for now, then.”  Yusuke said looking at the table. “Anyway, we found out that Futaba has a Palace… but someone who isn’t evil have one?” Ann asks. “That does not matter. A Palace is the materialization of distorted cognitions brought about by strong desires… That’s all.” Morgana stated. “It just so happens that a lot of warped people turn out evil.” 

Makoto closed her eyes out of worry. “She’s so young though… The pain she’s gone through must be the cause of her distortion.” She stated. “Maybe that has something to do with why she calls herself Alibaba.” The blond female stated. “According to the chief’s story, Futaba has auditory and visual hallucinations, right?” The feline started up. “There’s a chance those are related to some important memories she’s holding. It’s hard to explain… but those memories may have been warped by the distortions.” Morgana tried his best to explain with what he could.

“Basically we just gotta steal her Treasure, right?” Ryuji stated. “Well, yeah.” Morgana stated. “So do we all agree about taking on Futaba’s Palace?” Ann asked. “She asked us to do so. I don’t think that part is an issue.” Makoto began. “If we heal Futaba’s heart, it will not only help Boss, but she can then assist us with Medjed.” She stated. “I agree.” Yusuke said. Xander and Drake nodded in agreement. “Likewise, mate.” Drake said. 

“I’ve been wonderin’ about how Boss said ‘a lot happened’ after Futaba’s mom died too.” The yellowish blond male stated. “Hold on a second. Our investigation of her Palace may not go like anything we’ve done up to this point.” Morgana explained. “Why’s that?” Ryuji asked the feline. “Having an individual ask you to steal their heart is an extremely irregular case.” The feline started. 

“There’s no telling what the Palace ruler’s disposition will be like, or the distortion that’ll be there. We may run into some unforeseen situations. Do you still want to go in?” Morgana questioned all of them. “Yeah, let’s do it.” Akira said to him. Drake nodded in agreement. “I agree. I don’t believe we really have anything to lose for.” The green-haired male said. “All right. Let’s just make sure we’re cautious.” Morgana told the group. “Well, let’s get crackin’ on those keywords, huh?” Ryuji said. 

Makoto pushed her hair back and looked around the group. “The ones we have at the moment are ‘Futaba Sakura’ and ‘Sojiro Sakura’s house’” She explained. “We got the ‘who’ and the ‘where’ so all that’s left is the ‘what,’ right?” Ryuji asked them. “That would be correct.” Drake shrugged. “Let us try going to their house first.” Yusuke stated. “Boss is busy running the cafe, isn’t he? We should make sure he doesn’t suspect anything.” Ann told them. 

The rest of the group gets up and heads for the stairs. While Akira and Morgana stay behind a bit to talk. Drake just looks at the two then heads down with the rest. “Speaking of important memories. Do the two of you think I’ll everything back if...if I was like you guys?” Draco asks. “You know besides being human. Being confident, strong, and not afraid of taking a risk?”

Drake and Xander looked at each other then back at the bearded dragon. “We have to just wait to see.” The tan teen tells Draco. “I’m going to have to agree with Xander. We really don’t know what the future holds, for right now we just have to sit and wait.” The green-haired teen explains. Draco just nods at the two's reasoning. “Anyways, hey Xander, how do you feel finally meeting your online friend in real life?” The dragon asked. “It will be fun.” Xander smirks as Drake just chuckled.

The Phantom Thieves made it to Sojiro’s house. Ready to go into the young Futaba’s Palace. “Now, the last keyword…” Makoto muttered. “She’s a shut-in, so we just gotta figure out ‘what’ she thinks her house is. If she can’t get out, maybe a prison?” Ryuji asks. The nav stated it wasn't correct. “Perhaps a labyrinth with an unknown exit?” The dark brunette suggested. Again the nav stated that the answer was not correct. “Hmm… Maybe an oasis?” Ann pondered. The nav stated that it wasn’t the right one either. 

“Nothing so far. In that case, how about hell?” Yusuke asks. Drake looked over at the slender man. “Dude.” He states. Akira shakes his head as the nav states permission is denied. “We don’t have nearly enough clues…” Ann sighed out. “If only we could ask her directly…” Yusuke stated. “We can. C’mon, let’s go see Futaba.” Ryuji declared. “But what will we say to get in?” Makoto asked. 

“Whaddya mean? We’re sneakin’ in.” Ryuji said. Which causes Jaden to smirk. “I like your style.” He tells Ryuji as he wraps his arm over Ryuji’s shoulder. The blond male chuckles at the shorter males action. Xander just shakes his head. While Akira side glares Ryuji. “You both have to be joking.” Makoto stared at them in disbelief. “Won’t the door be locked for sure this time?” She asked. “I’ll take care of that. Oh, and I figured out where Futaba’s room was when I snuck in last night.” Morgana said. 

Makoto looks up at the feline. “What if we run into Boss, thought? There’s no way we’ll be able to avoid his questions.” Makoto explains. “He’s at work now, so I think we should be fine.” Ann explained. “Gettin’ cold feet, Makoto? Don’t worry, it’ll be nothing. We’ve gone through loads of shits like this already.” Ryuji tells her. “Yeah, just remember I’ve done this stuff before loads of time. It gets easier the more you do it.” Drake explained. “Ditto.” Xander said. 

Makoto looked around the whole group then closed her eyes and brought her hand up to her chin. “...This is our only choice, right? I suppose Futaba did get in contact with Akira-kun… Perhaps she’ll at least be willing to speak with him…” She said. “...Very well. Let’s do this.” The brunette sighs out. Everyone nodded in agreement. They all walked inside Sojiro’s house and followed Morgana to Futaba’s room.

The group stood in front of a door that had a sign and caution tape around her door. “This is Futaba’s room.” Morgana told them. “Futaba-chan? You’re in there, right?” Makoto stated as she knocked on the door. “There’s no answer…” The blue-eyed feline states. “Futaba-chan. Are you there? I’m sorry for being startled and screaming yesterday. It was so dark that O got scared.” The brunette tells Futaba through the door. 

“No reaction whatsoever.” Yusuke states. “I mean can you blame her this is most likely the first time in at least a few years she heard other people’s voices besides her caretaker.”  Drake explained while looking straight at the door. “This is gonna be hard…” Ryuji sighed out. “You're listening, right, Alibaba?” Makoto tries to reach out for the fourth time. Right after that knock, Akira gets a text on his phone. “Is it Alibaba?” Makoto asks Akira while he pulls out his phone. 

After Akire checks the message on his phone, Makoto turns to the door. “You’re Futaba Sakura, aren’t you?” She asks again. “She’s not responding again.” Yusuke says. “Does she not like us saying her name?” Ann asks. “We don’t have time to dally around. We need her keyword before dealing with Alibaba’s identity.” Morgana snapped. “We want to learn more about you. If we don’t do so, we can’t steal your heart. The reason why we came here is because we need the keyword to enter your Palace. That’s why we want to talk with Futaba Sakura herself, and not Alibaba.” Makoto explains to Futaba.

Drake lets out a sigh. “She’s right, chickareta. We really do want to help you out here.” He tells her. “You don’t have to show yourself. Just answer some questions for us. Chat messages are fine.” Makoto adds on. 

Futaba/Alibaba: Ok

“All right then… Our leader, the guy who lives in Leblanc’s attic, wants to speak with you. We’re counting on you, Akira-kun. Try and get a keyword out of her.” Makoto tells Akira. 

Futaba/Alibaba: What do you want to hear?

Akira: How's living in this house?

Futaba/Alibaba: It’s painful…

Akira: Why not go out?

Futaba/Alibaba: I can’t leave this place

Futaba/Alibaba: I’m going to die here.

“Wha… Die?” Ann asks

Futaba/Alibaba: Is this going to continue? 

Akira: Die?

Futaba/Alibaba: That’s right. I’m definitely going to die here.

Futaba/Alibaba: This place is my tomb.

“Tomb?” Makoto asks. “You think that’s it?” Ryuji asks. “Try entering ‘tomb.’” Morgana tells Akira. “Input accepted. Searching for route to destination.” The Navigation voice stated. “We got it…!” Morgana smiled. “Yay.” Draco cheered.

Futaba/Alibaba: Was that enough?

“Yes. It was plenty. You haven’t forgotten your promise of helping us if we complete your request, right?” Makoto asks Futaba.

To be continued... 

[antman-56]

I Don’t Deserve You

Today was a special day. 

Well to the happy love birds, Ann and Ryuji, anyway.

How these two ended up together the majority of the school tried to figure out.

Hell even the school newspaper club made an article to understand the logic of those two. 

One was a beautiful model and the other was a total delinquent.

But as the school year raged on people started to notice a couple of things.

One : Ryuji stopped dying his hair blonde. It freaked Miss Kawakami out when he came to see Ann.

Two : He actually paid attention in his classes. From the below average student to making it to the top 10 in his class. (Mostly thanks to Makoto, and reluctantly Yusuke) He was accused of coping people and that accusation went with a full investigation. On which ended when they continuously found him in the library with his girlfriend and friends silently studying.

Three : He wore his school uniform correctly. This was actually the hardest thing for him and yet everyone didn’t even notice it. His guess was that they zoned him out. Until SOMEONE pointed it out.

And finally. 

Four : HE WAS DATING ANN TAKAMAKI AND SHE LOVED HIM!!!

Today was their one year anniversary. He had the day planned out. He asked Haru to make a reservation to a good restaurant (he would have done it but she was the daughter of a BIG CEO and he paid her back), have Makoto teach him some stuff about flowers (HE literally begged her), made enough time for Yusuke to make a “master piece” for free (he had to let them draw them on dates for the next 3 months) and Futaba to help him get find great deals on brand clothes and buy them somewhere convenient. And Akria just wished him luck last night. He really wished he was here to cheer him on.

Today had to be special.

But right now he had to get out of bed.

“It’s showtime.”

***Ann’s place***

 Ann had just finished her workout routine and was heading for the shower. 

Today would be a good time to try out that new shampoo bottle.

RING RING

Ann turned to look at her phone.

❤❤Babe❤❤

“You rang.”

“Hey you have anything planned for today”

“No, not really. Why you wanna meet up?”

“That’s the plan. I’ll see you at 4.”

Beep

Ann just looked at her phone. wondering why he sounded more tense then usual. Maybe he was stressed out, he did go all out on the test.

Maybe he just wanted to see me. We haven’t really talked since testing began.

She decided to go all out for him. He needs to relax or else he may pop a blood vessel.

***12 o clock***

“Daisy?!”

“Loyal love!”

“Primerose?!”

“I can’t live without you!”

“Orange Blossom?!”

“Eternal Love!”

Makoto closed the book and nodded.

“I have no more to teach you.”

“And I have the flowers.”

Haru gave him the bundle of flowers.

“I really appreciate this you guys.”

“Hold still. Your ruining my draft.”

Everyone turned to Yusuke.

“He said I was to draw his date and so on for 3 months. Now stop moving.”

“Inari stop being rude. And just because I know you two. The last bus to your guyes houses will be delayed when your late.”

“ALRIGHT I can do this.”

“Knock’em dead tiger.” Akira said over the skype call.

Ryjui marched out of the attic with Yusuke behind him. With the group giving him their support. 

“SHIT!!!”

He soon came back up to see Futaba holding out his wallet. 

He took it and was on his way. Again.

“Such a dork.” Futaba stated.

Everyone nodded.

***4 o clock***

Ryuji was outside of Ann’s door and was holding the bouquet of flowers nervously in his hands.

Here he was in a red and yellow flannel shirt and black jeans. He got them on clearance and an additional half off price with Futaba’s help. He basically got the damn things for free. 

Sure the shirt needed a patch up job but Haru was more than happy to help and Makoto kept Yusuke at bay from styling the shirt.

Why was he acting like this. It’s not like their first date!! No it was the most important date of his life right now!! I mean girls hold these thing to a high standard. Right?

“Stop that.” 

“What!” That snapped Ryuji out of his thoughts. He turned to see Yusuke focused on the paper

“Paranoid. It makes the drawing less presentable and gives out the most minimal effect possible.”

“I’m not!!”

“Your shaking slightly. obliviously sweating and over thinking things.”

That caught him off guard.

“Ann loves you. And you her. I’m pretty sure no matter how this date goes nothing will change between you two.”

That really calmed Ryuji down.

“Unless she catches you staring at other girls.”

“Hey” He dropped the flowers and marched to punch him when the door opened. 

In front of them stood Ana, who decided to let her hair down, who wore a red blouse with a clover on her right shoulder and black skirt. 

The boys noticed she smelled like cherry with a hint of lavender. 

What Ann saw was Ryuji about to punch Yusuke, who had a pencil and paper for some reason?

“Uh... what’s going on?”

Ryuji quickly stumped for an answer.

“He was complaining about my price for this masterpiece.”

““What’s this master piece Yusuke?”

“My drawing of you two on your date. 

Ann blushed and stared at a equal blushing and flabbergasted Ryuji.

“And in return I get to draw you two on dates for inspiration for 3 months.”

“WHAT!!!”

“Yes, now please pretend I’m not here.”

Yusuke quickly went back to his drawing, hiding his face in the process.

Ryuji took that as his chance to fill in the awkward silence.

“So, yeah I did agree to that. So, you look... Wow!”

“You don’t look so bad yourself. Are those new?”

“Yeah they are anyway back on topic lets get this show on the road. Oh and these are for you”

He grabbed the flowers on the flower and gave them to her.

Ann took them and gave them a sniff. They smell nice and they matched their colors.

Ryuji grabbed Ann’s free hand and began to march.

Ann meet his speed and followed her boyfriend smiling for the gift and at his antics.

“Don’t walk to fast.” Yusuke complained.

***8 o clock***

Yusuke had just left the couple and they couldn’t be any happier.

They loved the man but when it came to being his ‘willing’ models...he was demanding.

But what they got saved Ryuji a fortune. He hoped. 

Yusuke refused to show them what he finished said something about adding the finishing touches later.

They had just finished going to the park and they decided to skip the movie since it was a rerun (and because Yusuke needed them to spot him).

Through out all this, Ann noticed something. 

Ryuji was still tense, even after getting to talk again. (minus Yusuke’s occasional comments).

She thought maybe it was because Yusuke was here that he was more tense that he had to show he was perfect for her but, no he seemed just as tense as he was on the phone.

Now here they were alone and heading to a nice dinner in Ginza.

“Hey Ryuji.”

“Yeah.”

“What’s wrong?”

“What?”

“You’ve been acting weird all day.”

“What do you mean I’m acting weird?”

Ryuji began to sweat a bit more.

Since Yusuke left he was now on his own with Ann and she was now wondering if he didn’t meet her expectations. I mean they were followed for the majority of their anniversary.

“I don’t know what your talking about.” He answered weakly.

“Ryuji, what’s wrong?” She asked again with worry in her voice.

The last time he was like this was when he tried to hide the fact that his mom collapsed from over working herself. 

That was a nightmare times 10 for him and almost broke him. 

Now here they were. 

Ryuji desperately looking for a way out of this finally found an opening and unfortunately it was the worst one.

“OH SHIT THE TRAIN!!!”

Ryuji grabbed Ann’s hand and ran to catch it.

Ann was screaming at him to slow down or to just stop but he didn’t listen. 

They had to get the train

THEY HAD TO..

Just as he reached the platform the train left.

“GOD DAMMIT!!”

He watched as the train left the station along with their perfect date.

“RYUJI WHATS YOUR PROBLEM!!”

She pulled her hand out of his and was now mad at him.

“Because I messed tonight up.”

“What are you talking about?”

She sounded more confused than mad right now.

“Our one year anniversary.”

He sounded defeated.

Ann just stood in shock at him remembering that. Hell she completely forgotten what today was. 

“I asked Yusuke to make a drawing for us, asked the girls to help me make this as special as fucking possible and after all that I still Fucked it up!!”

He fell to his knees and looked down.

She finally understood why he was so tense. He wanted to make today special and she forgot what today was because he made her feel special.

“Everyone was right. I don’t deserve you.”

Now that got her mad. 

She began to walk over to him and stopped when she was in front of his kneeling body.

“What the hell are you talking about!?”

He looked up to see her.

“You don’t deserve me that’s bullshit and you know it. You are kind in your own way, you went against the biggest bastard in the school on your own and when you were right everyone else felt like an idiot! You changed for me even when I didn’t ask you to! I mean look at your grades! You make it a part of your day to be with me even if you had to do something else! You were their for me when I needed you! So to hell to what every one else says!”

She stopped to breath and felt a few tears break out.

Everyone thought she hadn’t noticed what he’s been doing. What they failed to notice was that he had changed her.

She was no longer the quiet girl everyone talked about. And she wasn’t the airhead they claimed her to be. He taught her that she was her own person and that she can be who ever the hell she wanted to be.   

And right now she wanted to be Ryuji’s girlfriend.

Ryuji looked up to see her and with that got the strength to get up and hug her.

“I don-”

Ann grabbed the sides fo his head and kissed him. And it was nice when it was returned.

“Shut up. You do.”

They both smiled.

“Now come on lets see if we can get a cab.”

She grabbed his hand and dragged him to the street. 

***Rooftop***

“Inari you perv.”

Futaba said as she and him , binoculars in hand, spying on the couple. 

Yusuke was making a new piece. He finished the one for Ryuji and now for his payment.

For Ryuji It was a portrait of those two in the park. Ryuji’s head on Ann’s lap under a tree. when the entire scene was anything but the picture.

Those two just wouldn’t stop moving.

The display of love before him. Was an unconditional sort. If only he could have heard them then this piece would have the emotions that the couple had felt.

This new piece was a man in tears throwing his heart out and a woman catching it and running to him with it, all the while the village just stares at the two. 

“I am anything but. Now to name this piece.”

“How about, “Young Love”?”

Yusuke began contemplating the name. To Futaba he looked like he was ignoring her.

“Hey Inari, I’m going to steal your food if you don’t answer!”

“Not a bad name.” 

He grabbed his lunch box before she could open it and gave Futaba a kiss on the head.

“Bye bye love.”

Futaba stood still for a couple of seconds, red all over face, watching his retreating figure.

“HEY GET BACK HERE!!!”

[vgckwb]

P5R: Rebel Girl (A FeMC Story/P5R Rework) Chapter 21: A Beacon of Hope

(Slight warning: There’s a bit near the end where Ren describes her initial experience with Kamoshida. If it’s too much for you, the section you should skip begins with the words “She looked down” and ends after the three paragraphs.)

May 2nd. The day Shiho was going to burn down the school, and with it, all of her fears and insecurities. Yet the three human Phantom Thieves stood in front of the school (with Morgana residing in Ren’s bag). “Yep. It’s still there” Ryuji said.

Ann was a little nervous. Ren took notice. “Are you OK?”

Ann still hesitated. She sighed. “I just thought Kamoshida would have confessed by now. We did all of that, and yet…”

“It’ll happen Lady Ann,” Morgana said from the bag. “I guarantee it.”

Ann smiled slightly. “Thanks Morgana.”

Ryuji looked around and saw something that surprised how. “Is that?”

The two girls looked where Ryuji looked. “Shiho?!” Ann said with surprise.

Shiho timidly walked up to them. “Hey everyone,” she said, quietly. After a period of silence, she just let out an “I’m sorry.”

“Shiho!” Ann said again, tears bursting out of her. She rushed to Shiho and hugged her. “I’m SO glad you’re OK.”

Shiho was surprised. She then smiled and hugged Ann back. “Thank you Ann.” The two of them stopped hugging. Shiho was still nervous, though understandably so. “Well, I guess we should go in.”

“Yeah” Ren nodded, smiling. The four of them headed in.

When they got to class, Morgana made his way into Ren’s desk. “You seem a little more cheerful than you were this morning,” he remarked.

Ren grinned at him. “You’ve noticed. Well, this is just a guess, but if Shiho is well enough to come to school, and her and Kamoshida were linked in the metaverse, I’m thinking we might get our confession today.”

Serendipitously, the announcements came on. “Attention. This is Suguru Kamoshida. I am advising everyone to come to the auditorium for a special announcement. Please. I beg of you.”

As the class murmured on what this could be, Morgana looked at Ren and said “You were saying?”

Ren giggled. “Let’s go.”

Kawakami sighed. “Alright. Settle down. Kamoshida told us about this this morning, so we made time for it. Now please, everyone in a single file line.” The class was restless, but did as Kawakami said, since they figured it was the easiest way to figure out why Kamoshida was calling this meeting.

Soon, the whole school was lined up in the auditorium. Kamoshida was standing at the front of the room. Everyone waited with bated breath, wondering what this proverbial king would say. He approached the mic and began speaking. “I...have been reborn.”

The crowd was more curious. Kamoshida continued. “During my tenure, I was not an adequate instructor. I gave in to my own self-interest, and pushed my distorted desires on the children I was supposed to teach. I’ve overworked my students. Physically abused my students. And” he let out a long, deep sigh, “sexually harassed several female students.”

The students were all in a frenzy. The teachers were unsure of what to do. And Principal Kobayakawa sweated enough bullets to load a chaingun. And yet, Kamoshida went on. “I have done various things to manipulate my students to get what I want. I have pressured them. I have spread rumors. I've even made outright threats. I can no longer live with the sins bearing on my soul.”

Kamoshida got down on his hands and knees. “I am a terrible teacher. A terrible coach. And a terrible person. Please. Someone. Kill me and put me out of my misery.” Soon there was an uproar in the auditorium. Kamoshida not only admitted his crimes, but also begged to be killed. Right there. In front of everyone.

Ren, Ryuji, and Ann were confused and a little outraged. They had ventured into the metaverse to prevent this, and yet he’s just going to give up and die? However, before any of them had a chance to speak, Shiho found her courage. “Don’t run you bastard!” she shouted, gaining the attention of everyone. They all saw the fire in her eyes. “You sent ALL of your students to Hell and back! And yet, we’re all still standing! Because we never gave up! No matter how much you made our lives agony! You have no right to run from this!”

The auditorium remained quiet until Kamoshida chuckled. “You’re right,” he said. “You’re absolutely right. Someone. Call the cops. I’m going to turn myself in and pay for my crimes.”

The crowd was chattering with themselves while the teachers tried to maintain order. There was some noticeable speculation on whether or not this was the doing of the Phantom Thieves who brazenly sent Kamoshida a calling card not too long ago. Some people thought that stealing hearts would be impossible, but others pointed out that no other explanation makes sense for Kamoshida’s sudden change in behavior.

The principal ran up to the target and took the microphone. He was clearly nervous about what just transpired here. “Well, um, in light of what just happened, I’m, um, cancelling classes for the rest of the day while we sort this all out.” There was a noticeable amount of contempt for Kobayakawa from the crowd after he said that. Still, the teachers were organizing efforts to leave, but a few decided to stick around anyways.

Notably, Ren, Ann, and Ryuji. “Man, that was something else” Ryuji commented.

“I’ll say,” Ren said. “I mean, I knew he was going to confess, but I wasn’t expecting it to be a spectacle like that.”

“Yeah,” Ann said. “But what really surprised me was Shiho.”

“Yeah” Ryuji agreed. “I mean, I was getting ready to say something like that, but I think it felt more powerful coming from her.”

“Speaking of,” Ren said. She turned in the direction of Shiho. “Let’s go.” The three of them walked over. “Hey,” Ren said, gaining Shiho’s attention. “That was really brave of you.”

“You...think so?” Shiho asked.

“Totally!” Ann answered. “You were AMAZING!”

Shiho smiled and blushed slightly. “Thanks.”

“Takamaki!” some girls called out.

The group turned to the girls. “Oh” Ann said. “What’s up?”

One of the girls began. “We’re so sorry!”

“Yeah, we believed and spread those horrible rumors about you and Kamoshida.”

“We had no idea he was pressuring you to do his bidding.”

“We’re so sorry.”

Ann smiled. “It’s OK. I was also caught up in Kamoshida’s bullshit. I know how hard it can be to see through it all. It’s not your fault.”

“But we treated you so terribly,” one of the girls said.

“How are you so willing to look past that?” the other asked.

“Well…” Ann began. “I realized something. Everything that happened was all Kamoshida’s fault. If I let how he made people think of me get to me, then he’s won. So instead, I’ve decided to not care what people think. I’m going to be myself. And if people don’t like it, then why should I care?”

“Wow” said one of the girls.

“Well, thanks anyway” the other one said. The two walked off.

“That was inspiring,” Ren said.

Ann chuckled. “I learned that from you” she said, giving Ren a light shove.

“Me?” she asked.

Ann nodded. “Yeah. You’re one of the strongest people I know.” Shiho looked at the floor. Everyone else took notice. Ann grabbed Shiho’s hand. “Shiho” Shiho looked up. “You’re also one of the strongest people I know.”

Shiho was shocked. “But...I was…”

“We know,” Ann said. “But it would be hard not to think to do that in your shoes.”

“Yeah” Ryuji said. “I almost went along with it, but something inside me said I shouldn’t.”

“You’re amazing Shiho,” Ann said. “The way you stood up to Kamoshida today. That was amazing.”

“She’s right,” Ren said. “Everyone of us was thinking that, but you summoned the courage to speak out.”

Shiho was stunned. “I guess I did,” she said.

“Shiho. You’re amazing” Ann said. “As your best friend, I’m not going to let you think otherwise.”

Shiho smiled. “Thanks Ann.” She stood silently for a second. “Alright. That’s it.” The three thieves were surprised. “I’m determined to stand on my own two feet. I’m going to bring this school’s volleyball team to nationals.”

“Woah wait, hold on” Ryuji said. “Don’t you think with Kamoshida gone, there might be some problems with that?”

“I don’t care,” Shiho said. “I’m not going to let that stop me. Kamoshida may have dragged the team down, but I will raise it up. I love volleyball, and I am determined to not let Kamoshida take that away from me anymore”

Ren smiled. “Way to go!”

“You can do it Shiho!” Ann cheered.

“Alright! I feel ya” Ryuji added.

There were some sirens blaring. Ann looked around. “We should probably head out.

“Yeah” Ryuji said. He and Ann left.

Ren started to leave, but felt Shiho grabbing her harm. “Wait,” she said. Ren turned to her as Shiho let go. “I know Ann and Ryuji well, but you’re new here. And I feel like I didn’t make a good first impression. And I’ve seen and heard how great of a friend you are to those two. So I want a second chance to make a good first impression.” She reached out her hand. “Friends?”

Ren smiled, shook Shiho’s hand, and said “Friends.”

I am thou... Thou art I… Thou hast acquired a new vow...

It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity.

With the birth of the Hope Persona I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power

Hope-Shiho Suzui: Rank 1

“Oh. There you are” Ann said. Ren turned to see Ryuji and Ann walk back up to her.

“Uh, right,” Ryuj said. “There’s something else we need to discuss,” Ryuji said. “The usual place?”

Ren looked at Shiho. “It’s OK. I’ll be fine on my own. Ren smiled, knowing that she actually meant it, and headed off with her gang of thieves.

They all met on the roof. “Well, today sure was something,” Ryuji said.

“You can say that again,” Ann remarked.

Morgana hopped out on the table. “Yeah, but this is all good news. We got Kamoshida to confess, Shiho didn’t burn down the school, and I don’t know if you've heard, but people are already talking about the Phantom Thieves.”

“Yeah,” Ren said. “Overall, I’ve gotta say today was pretty good.”

“I guess you’re right,” Ryuji said. “So, does that mean we get to hawk the medal?” He began looking up stuff on his phone.

“I guess we should,” Ann said, “but wouldn’t the buyer get a little suspicious?”

“Don’t worry,” Ren said. “I think we have a prospective buyer who won’t ask too many questions.”

“Woah!” Ryuji said. “This thing can get up to 30,000 yen?!”

The thieves were shocked. “Remember that time I loaned you some money and you didn’t pay me back?” Ann asked.

“What?!” Ryuji screeched. “It wasn’t 30,000!”

“Yeah, but with interest…” Ann said.

“That’s bullshit!” Ryuji said.

“...Why don’t we do something with the money as a unit?” Morgana said, trying to cool tensions.

“Oh, I like that!” Ann said. “There’s this buffet I’ve been meaning to try. We can go and celebrate!”

“Alright, now you’re speaking my language!” Ryuji said. “A celebration of the Phantom Thieves by stuffing our faces! I love it!”

Ren grinned. “Well, I guess that’s settled.”

“So, when should we do it?” Ann asked.

“Oh, let’s go on the 5th, Children’s day!” Ryuji said. “It’s the last day of Golden Week, so it’ll be celebratory, non-conspicuous, and it’ll give us a chance to sell the medal.”

“Wow, that’s actually pretty smart of you” Ren remarked.

“Heh heh, I try,” Ryuji said. “So, that’s the plan then.”

“I think so,” Ann said.

“We’re all in agreement there,” Morgana said.

Ren nodded. “You just leave selling the medal to me.” The four left the rooftop and started heading down. Ren went to one of her jobs early, since she wanted to keep out of Sojiro’s hair. When she got back in the evening, she got a group message.

Ann: I can’t WAIT to try out this place.

Ryuji: You keep talking it up.

Ann: Sorry.

Ann: I’ve been meaning to go with Shiho, but…

Ryuji: Um, do you think she would want to come?

Ann: I already asked. She says she might be ready to go to school, but she needs time to do more things.

Ryuji: Gotcha.

Ryuji: Still, whether we can go depends on whether or not the medal is sold.

Ren: Do you not trust me?

Ryuji: It’s not that.

Ryuji: I’m just not sure I can trust someone willing to buy it off a high schooler.

Ryuji: I mean, 30,000 yen is a lot.

Ann: Especially if you rack up interest.

Ryuji: This again?

Ryuji: Look, I’m sorry I haven’t paid you back yet.

Ren: Why did you borrow money in the first place?

Ann: He REALLY wanted that dolphin.

Ren: Dolphin?

Ryuji: We were on a school field trip to an aquarium.

Ann: He bought a souvenir and didn’t have enough money for the bus back.

Ryuji: I bought it because my mom really wanted it.

Ann: ...Well, if you bought it for your mom, then I guess I can give you a pass this time.

Ann: The next time I lend you money, I expect to be paid back in full.

Ryuji: ...Thanks.

Ren: That’s a lovely story.

Ren: Well, goodnight.

Ryuji: G’night.

Ann: Goodnight.

Ren put her phone away and went to bed.

The next day she was about to leave to sell the medal when Sojiro stopped her. “Hey. Since you’re off, would you mind helping out around the cafe?”

Ren paused. Morgana whispered to her. “It should be alright. You do owe him a little, and we can always sell this tomorrow.” Ren smiled, nodded at Sojiro, and prepared herself to help out. She let Morgana roam around the neighborhood.

As the evening was drawing near, a report about the Kamoshida incident appeared on TV. “Tonight: A former Olympian medalist turned teacher was arrested after admitting to serious abuse and sexual harassment.” The TV cut to interviews with students who said various things on the subject. “While the teacher is now behind bars, there are still some questions that linger. Most notable of which was a calling card sent to Mr. Kamoshida days before he confessed to everything.”

Sojiro looked at the TV. “Hey, isn’t that your school?”

“Huh? Yeah” Ren said.

“Hm” Sojiro said. “Well, it’s a good thing he got arrested before anything happened to you, huh.”

“Yeah,” Ren said.

Sojiro paused for a moment. “Oh. Son of a BITCH!”

“What?” Ren said.

“He DID try to harass you!” Sojiro 

Ren was surprised. “What makes you say that?”

Sojiro glared. “I could tell by your voice.” He sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

Ren steeled herself. “What makes you think I would?”

“I’m your guardian” he answered. “I’m supposed to protect you.”

“Psh. Only for my probation” Ren snarked. “What makes you think I should be able to trust you with this kind of thing? You don’t trust me with your house. You don’t trust me with a key to this place. Hell, you don’t even trust that I’m not a criminal.”

Sojiro glared at her. “Alright. We’re doing this.” Sojiro whipped up some coffee for the two of them. “Sit down.”

Ren was unsure of where this commanding aura was going to lead, but for now she at least trusted Sojiro enough to believe he didn’t mean her harm. She sat down across from him. “What is this then?” she asked.

Sojiro looked at her intently. “I’ve only heard the police report. What’s your side of the story?”

Ren was surprised. Would he believe me? Well, this is my chance. He’s at least willing to listen, so why not? “Some guy was trying to force a woman into his car. I stepped in between them to split them up. He was pretty drunk so he fell over. He then said he was going to sue me for assault.

Some police officers came by, and appeared to recognize him. He coerced the woman he was with to say that I had attacked him. He also asked the officer to leave his name out of it. And that’s how I got arrested.” Ren put her head in her hand. “So the question is do you believe that?”

Sojiro stared at her silently for a few seconds. He sighed. “I’ve known many people like the man you just described. I also have less faith in the system than it might appear. Your story is believable, and I don’t think you would lie to me at this point.”

Sojiro took a sip of his coffee. “So, I believe you when you say you aren’t a criminal. Now, I need you to trust me on a few things. You don’t HAVE to, I’m just asking here.” Ren nodded, sipping her coffee. Sojiro sighed. “I need you to believe me when I tell you that things at my house are complicated. I can’t fully explain why unless it becomes an absolute necessity.

BUT I also need you to believe that I have your best interest in mind. Of course I don’t want you to cause trouble, but I don’t want you to get in trouble either. If you ever get backed into a corner, I want you to know that I’ll be there. What do you say?”

Ren looked at Sojiro. His tone seemed stern, but his expression seemed pained. To Ren, it seemed like he was an authority on what would happen if you had no one to rely on. He was willing to listen to her, and he was willing to help her out in different circumstances since she got here. Just as he believed her, she needed to believe him.

She looked down. “On my first day going to school, Ann and I had met at the same intersection. That man, Mr. Kamoshida, pulled up and invited the two of us in his car. Ann told me it was alright, but I sensed hesitation in her voice. I came along just to make sure everything would be OK.

Afterwards, Ann and I got acquainted, and then I met her friend Shiho. After school, Mr. Kamoshida called me to his office.” Ren began to shake. “He wanted the two of us to get intimate, and he threatened to reveal the fact that I got arrested if I didn’t comply. But before anything could happen, Ann and Shiho found us and helped me escape.”

Ren took off her glasses and cleaned them a little bit. “The whole thing was surprising to say the least. I couldn’t imagine how brazen he could be. And, in all honesty, I felt trapped between a rock and a hard place. I honestly have no clue what I would have done if Ann and Shiho hadn’t rescued me.”

Sojiro looked at her. “If I knew anyone I trusted in prison, I’d pay them to just beat the living shit out of this person.”

Ren was curious. “So, you know people in prison?”

“That’s...not the point right now,” Sojiro said. “The point is, I’m glad you were able to open up with me like that. It couldn’t have been easy, but…”

Ren smiled. “I getchu,” she said.

Sojiro chuckled. “You’re pretty strong. After going through everything you did, you seem to be still standing well on your own.”

“Well, here’s the thing,” Ren said. “I’m not on my own. I have my friends, and I have you.”

Sojiro was surprised. “Eheh. Well, thank you.” Sojiro smiled. “I know that when the time is right, I’ll have you as well. Here” he said, sliding a key towards her. “I had this made yesterday. I was going to give it to you regardless, but I think after our talk, now’s the time to give it to you.”

Ren picked up the key and smiled. “Thanks.”

Hierophant-Sojiro Sakura: Rank 3

Ren finished her coffee, and went upstairs to her bed.

[tricksheart]

BREAKING DOWN ‘the councillor’ CONFIDANT

There is no doubt that Maruki is the first adult to not treat Akira like garbage or a stain on society. Doesn’t be a complete ass or threaten to kick him out over the smallest thing like Sojiro in the beginning. And doesn’t complain that a troublesome student was set to their class roster like Kawakami has done. Even Yoshida had to be convinced to actually let Akira talk to him by working in the noodle shop. Everything took extra effort. That wasn’t the case with Maruki’s confidant. But for that easiness, the social link that Akira has with Maruki is a double-edged sword, especially in the 3rd semester events.

Ever since Akira came to Tokyo, everyone that Akira had met besides Shiho Suzui were either hostile or scared towards initially meeting the transfer student. Even those like Ryuji ( who thought Akira was going to rat him out to Kamoshida ) and Futaba fit into these categories ( although Futaba was scared of more than just Akira but she didn’t want to meet up with him during the chats of her being Alibaba, so she technically fits into the range of requirements ). However, the one only one of confidants that actually didn’t harbor any bad will against him was Maruki. 

The guy was honest, didn’t judge anyone that he counseled, wanted to help the students even if he was hired by the same school that constantly looked down and judged people like Akira, a bit clumsy but had a huge heart, not wanting anyone to suffer through pain, was well respected by mostly everyone in the school, a little dorky but down to earth, made sure people had snacks / food. Someone that would seem really good at being a therapist. Like you could talk to them about anything. Akira really trusted and respected him throughout the confidant, even if there was glaring red flags about what was to come. The signs were there, Akira just chose to ignore it and no one knew the truth that Maruki was hiding. Unlike Akechi who no doubt was designed to be suspicious from the start, Maruki was more genuine. He seemed unassuming and even Akira says in one line about agreeing to take the deal, ‘there’s no harm in a little chat’.

Akira even saw Maruki as a type of father figure. Even a personality that he wished replaced his own father’s with, it was that strong. So when seeing Maruki overcome by distortions and the god of control’s influence, it hits Akira somewhat hard. He felt betrayed because the only one good adult in his life had fallen so much into his own ideals, that Maruki didn’t see anything else. Didn’t want to be reasoned with. Sure, he was pacifistic at certain points and didn’t seem to harbor any ill will but still thought it was ‘his way or the highway’. The bad ending 2 is a perfect example of this. Instead of just making Akira happy / unaware like the rest of the thieves, he effectively puts Akira into an endless sleep / kills him ( the last part is pure speculation as we don’t see him die but if someone sleeps forever, eventually they are going to die from the lack of nutrients. Plus, the blue butterfly dies in the scene so it’s up to opinion ).

Being hypocritical just like Akira had seen with people he trusted, with his parents as an example, makes anything Maruki says before the palace collapse and rushes out to save the counselor, fall short. The trust is completely gone or shattered by this point. Even the line that Maruki gives Akira at the level 10 confidant link, ‘if you are worried about me and what I know, then it’s okay to try to steal my heart like you did with the others’ sounds completely hollow and full of dead promises. This is especially true when Maruki deliberately hides the name of the palace until Akira, Akechi, and Kasumi confronted him on January 2nd. Or was the one responsible for Sumire’s ‘Kasumi’ personality switch or actually forced out a distressed person’s persona quite painfully to fight Akira and Akechi. Maruki, who Akira had thought so highly of, was carrying so many secrets. Just what was real and what parts were the ideal?

That is one reasons why Akira doesn’t accept Maruki’s offer when it’s presented multiple times. The other being that there’s a nagging question in his mind on why Maruki wants his opinion every time there’s a way to choose the fake reality. There’s actually a great post that explains this reason in detail and if anyone wants the link, feel free to ask for it. Sure Maruki is sympathetic but still a villain. Just not in the traditional sense. Lines from the game also mention this. Not to mention that Akira would be overwriting Akechi’s personality and effectively kill Sumire ( thus making her only ‘Kasumi’ ) if he had chose the bad ending 1 of royal. Which he would never do, even if it seemed really tempting when Maruki spins his tales of happiness and no more suffering. The key word here is that it would be somewhat better but only in theory.

Even so, Akira doesn’t believe Maruki needs to die or anything along those lines. Like with everyone else, he believes that being alive and atoning for actions done is the right path for those who’s heart has been changed. Sure, Maruki doesn’t get arrested or anything like that but he gets time to reflect on everything from that point he is saved from falling towards his death by Akira. The fist fight was warranted but to have Maruki actually bite the dust isn’t something that Akira wants on anyone. His own beliefs of people can’t atone once they are dead like Akechi for example is why he does what he does. That you have to keep moving forward even if you had lost everything and had given up before. A guiding light. Even Maruki tells Akira that he has a great moral compass and that he never gives in, no matter what the type of situation that he finds himself in. And like what Akechi had told him in his own confidant that Akira literally takes honest words to heart, just like when helping the detective disguise himself. This can be also applied when Shibusawa in Maruki’s own confidant link told Akira to look after the guy for him. In which he did until the very end. It’s just a small throw away line but it’s what made Akira want to save Maruki at the end when the palace broke apart the place Maruki was located on.

Then again, if Akira had just stopped advancing the social link all together none of this would had happened but getting perks like the DETOX ability, extra snacks that are helpful healing items and being part of unlocking the 3rd semester doesn’t make it worthwhile to skip Maruki. If ignoring him takes place, the game just reverts itself to the original with a few added game-play elements. Thus, having both this confidant and Sumire’s would be completely pointless. To get to the true ending, Akira has to complete Maruki’s social link. The game won’t let the protagonist proceed without it. Which goes back to saying that Maruki’s confidant is a double edge sword for Akira.

The point in all of this is that Akira knew Maruki’s heart was in the right place just got a little mad with power. Thinking that only his world views were right and everyone else’s were wrong and needed to be fixed. In Akira’s eyes, the one who needed saving besides Sumire was the good doctor himself. The one Akira trusted a whole lot and put a lot of faith into only to be disappointed in what the counselor had become. And in the end, everything worked out for the best. People were moving forward through the pain, especially Maruki who even changed professions, much to Akira’s surprise. Or that the counselor had overheard Akira talking about driving cars for his own dream that Maruki slightly copied that. Who knows and no one will since the journey is completed and over...for now.

[forkanna]

[AO3 LINK] [EF LINK]

CHAPTER THREE

                                       ~ x JUDGMENT x ~

"So you admit you were following her?" Sae asked Makoto as she crossed her legs in the other direction. "You know stalking is a crime."

The student brushed off the black vest she wore over her white shirt. Clearly it was just a nervous habit; an attempt to appear more presentable. "And yet it's part of your job, Sis."

"It is. Not part of yours."

"Fine. But I didn't have any…" Her shoulders rose and fell. "There was no way to tell if I was completely crazy, a-and Ren was just a good person concerned about his teacher, or if… if she was doing something unspeakable with him. And after Kamoshida…"

At last, Sae let her eyes fall closed for a moment. "Alright. So you believe you have good intentions. I'll grant you that - and only that so far. But I'm going to need to hear more and you know that."

"Yes, I understand. So where was I? Right… the fresh lead."

                                      ~ x The Priestess x ~

Ms. Kawakami and myself steered clear of each other for a few days. It was good to see that she was back in school and teaching again, despite whatever trouble had befallen her thanks to those two horrible people. I really wished I could help, and I wanted to ask Ren, but there was no way I could do that without revealing to him that I had followed him to the hospital and eavesdropped. Not that this was anything new for me, but I still felt too guilty to come forward.

So I left it alone for a while. But eventually…

"Hey, bro," Ryuji whispered to Ren just after one of our little… gatherings. And his whispers aren't particularly quiet.

"Hm?"

"About that thing… with Victoria." His dyed-yellow spikes barely wobbled atop his head as he glanced around, but I appeared to be nose-deep in a book and Ann had already skipped off to do something else, so he decided the two of them were relatively 'safe'. "You're really not gonna give me any details?" Ren shook his head. "Aww, man…"

Ren muttered something back that I couldn't quite overhear. He was better at being discreet than the "monkey", as another of our friends calls Ryuji on a regular basis.

"But you actually got to talk to her, dude! Like, what's that like? Y'know, with the kinda things she does?" His eyebrows waggled. "Special services! Ehhh?"

By this point, Ren looked like he would really prefer the conversation to be over. So he said something a little quieter, a little longer, and Ryuji gradually started to look like a boy who found out the video game he wanted was all sold out at the store.

"Fiiiiiine, keep your friggin' secret. Just sayin', Becky sounded really hot! And you got to hang out with her alone because Mishima an' me choked! Why couldn't I keep my shit together, man?! UGHHH…"

That was it. And alone, the piece meant nothing to me; I assumed Ren, Ryuji, and for some reason Yuuki Mishima of all people had run into some cute girls named Becky and Victoria - maybe they were Westerners visiting? - and had hit on them, and then the other two ran off to leave Ren fending for himself. Even if I didn't know what they meant by "special services", I decided it was probably some disgusting boy euphemism for activities I didn't want to think very deeply about.

The very next day was a Saturday. Ms. Kawakami still looked weary, but not quite as bone-tired as she had before her brief hospital stay. And she still seemed the same way as I followed her out of the building. This time, it was by coincidence, not design; I had been busy studying in the library and lost track of time. It was just starting to edge into the evening by then.

And I wanted to call out to her. In fact, I started to speed up my steps and do exactly that. There had to be something I could say to show her I didn't mean her any harm; that if she wasn't hurting anyone, wasn't taking advantage of Ren, then we had no problem and I wanted to help if I could.

Before I could, her phone rang. And as she rounded the corner, her voice changed when she answered; became higher.

Bubblier.

"Hiiii, this is Becky! Did you call to request li'l ol' me again?" There was a slight pause, and then she giggled in a way I had never, ever heard a teacher giggle before. "Wonderful, Master! Laundry with Becky's extra-special fluff and fold, meeeeYOW! Do you have my usual fee ready?" Another pause. "Great! Don't worry, I will be there very soon! Byeeeeee!"

As Kawakami thumbed the touchscreen to end the call, I could do nothing but stand there as if turned to stone by Medusa, watching my teacher hang her head in weariness and shame. What did I just hear? Who did I just hear? "Becky" bore absolutely no resemblance to the woman who normally slogged her way through our classes as if she could really use some of Cafe Leblanc's specialty brew - the one standing before me now, who looked like she wanted to climb down the sewer grating and disappear.

And furthermore… no way was it a coincidence that was the same name Ren and Ryuji had been talking about.

Now I had to know what was going on. That whole conversation sounded like something very specific, and it made me worry about her… but I couldn't be sure. And the last thing I wanted to do was throw around more unfounded accusations.

Which is how I ended up following her.

The subway took us another stop along before she got off. Even though she did glance in my direction once or twice, my magazine shot up to hide my face often enough that she never quite realised I was following her. Then she went inside and I was left to loiter. I needed to turn to a friend - and since I was fairly certain Eiko Takao, the flightiest girl I have ever known, would be of no use to me…

QUEEN: Hey do you have a sec?

PANTHER: What? Omg you never text me Mako-chan PANTHER: What's up? 8D

It was hard not to be intimidated by Ann's overabundance of enthusiasm. Just made it feel too daunting and like I would be better off if I threw my phone away. But I tried not to let my nerves keep me from responding.

PANTHER: Hellooooooooo? QUEEN: I think I'm doing something bad

PANTHER: Something bad? PANTHER: ARE YOU ON A DATE PANTHER: Who is it? Joker? No wait, no way… QUEEN: It's not a date PANTHER: RYUJI?! PANTHER: Oh QUEEN: Seriously does Ryuji seem like my type? PANTHER: LMAO okay maybe not QUEEN: It's not a date it's something else PANTHER: Huh? PANTHER: Hey… it's nothing life threatening is it? PANTHER: Please QUEEN: Whoa whoa no PANTHER: I can't go through that again PANTHER: Okay good QUEEN: I'm sorry PANTHER: DON'T FREAK ME OUT LIKE THAT PANTHER: No no you're good friendo 3

QUEEN: Maybe this was a mistake PANTHER: Huh? PANTHER: Omg just tell me already QUEEN: Well QUEEN: I think one of our teachers is up to something strange QUEEN: And I followed them

My eyes glanced up toward the apartment building's door when some man walked inside, and I swallowed hard, waiting for Ann to reply. At least I had managed to say 'them' instead of 'her', so she wouldn't know it was Kawakami. Or Ms. Chouno, but still, the list of female teachers was shorter.

PANTHER: Something strange? PANTHER: Kamoshida strange? Because if it is PANTHER: I want in QUEEN: Well… I don't think that's it? QUEEN: Please listen PANTHER: It's not? QUEEN: I'm close to the Akasaka-Mitsuke station QUEEN: And I'm waiting to see if I'm right about something PANTHER: Dude you're being pretty sketchy PANTHER: But it sounds like PANTHER: You're worried? Like really for real? QUEEN: Yes. QUEEN: I think this teacher is being blackmailed PANTHER: Blackmail?

Just then, the door opened, and I had to close the text and raise my magazine to hide my face again. But it wasn't Miss Kawakami who came out, anyway; it was a woman in sleek black pigtails and a French maid uniform. She seemed totally at home walking around like that; probably had regular hours in one of the maid cafes in Akihabara or somewhere. While she stood at the curb, I started to go back to reply to Ann's incoming messages…

The maid glanced my way, waiting impatiently for her cab. And she felt familiar. Recognition was already making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end before my conscious mind sorted it out.

"Wait," I breathed softly as a car pulled up. It had a pink banner on the side of it, proudly proclaiming "VICTORIA Housekeeping Services" in bold red letters. My thumb was already activating the camera app as I watched the maid approach the back door and open it, bowing and saying something to the driver before slipping inside and away. I was able to get one or two shots of her, then of the car.

And she was gone before my brain fully realised what had just happened. "Was that… Kawakami?!"

                                      ~ o ~

In practically no time, I was standing around in the underground mall below Shibuya station - "Shibuchika" as it's called. Looking for Ann. Eventually, she waved me over to the flower shop she was poking around in.

"So?! What's up, what's the story, what's the dirt?!"

My hands came up to ward her off as I laughed nervously. "Okay, okay. Wow! Let me catch my breath. Can we get some boba or something first?"

"Sure, let's grab some aojiru. I'm trying to be healthier, for my modelling career? And like, I keep getting it pointed out to me that all I eat is crap."

"It won't kill us to be healthier, I suppose," I admitted as she steered me to the stairs.

Aojiru is… interesting. Greenish sludge in a glass that is full of nutrients but bitter and unpleasant. Still, we ordered two cups of Beauty Aojiru to hopefully make us more radiant, and shelled out ¥5000 for the pleasure.

"Bottom's up!" Ann laughed, clinking her plastic cup against mine. "The things we do for beauty!"

Passerby seemed alarmed at how much we were gagging afterward. Still, we managed to finish the drinks and then found a bench somewhere to sit and catch our breaths.

"I can… feel the burn!" she finally announced in a strangled gasp.

"R-right! So refreshing!"

Bracing against her knees, she took in a few strong breaths and let them out slowly. Then she sat back and smiled over at me, tears at the corners of her eyes.

"Okay, spill, girl. What's this crazy mission you went on, what did you find out?"

"Well…" I still felt really guilty for following Kawakami in the first place, and if she was truly an innocent victim, would feel even worse exposing such a secret. "Let's just say… her name is Becky."

"Becky?!" Her blue eyes narrowed in thought for a moment before she shook her head. "No Becky I remember hearing of on the Shujin Academy faculty."

"It's not her real name. Anyway, here's what I know so far…"

So I told her. Not everything, obviously, because I didn't want to out Ren or Kawakami until I was absolutely sure of the situation. But I filled in all of the other details I knew so far. That cartoonish face I was beginning to grow so fond of went through a million transformations - shock, disgust, sadness. But she seemed to feel roughly the same about the situation as I did.

"Well we can't do nothing, Mako-chan. Those two creeps are shaking her down for money! Totally exploiting her!"

"Exactly! I'm not sure what that student's connection is, but even without that…"

Ann nodded, arms tightly folded over her chest. All I had told her about Ren was that some student I knew was in frequent contact with 'Becky'. "There's a big problem here, though."

"Oh? What's that?"

"How are you supposed to ask her for details if she doesn't wanna talk to you? Like, I completely get that you wanna protect her identity, cuz you don't know for sure that she's hurting anybody. And if she's not... Becky is just in trouble and you don't wanna hurt her more."

My nod must have been sadder than I myself realized, because I suddenly felt a gentle hand resting on my shoulder. Smiling up at her, I whispered, "You're right. What she has to go through... it makes me sick thinking about it. So I need all the answers before I make a move."

"Sure, yeah. And… well, I could ask her for you, but then you'd have to tell me who she is. Same for any of the guys - and she'd prolly hate the idea of talking to them anyway."

"True," I said, even though Ren came to mind again. But Ann didn't need to know that. "So what can I do? Camp outside her front doorstep and confront her when she gets home? It would embarrass her too much. Right out there in the street like that!"

"Hell yeah, it would," she sighed, sitting back and staring up at the ceiling as commuters passed by us, off to destinations unknown. "But… what if…"

My ears perked up. "What if…?"

Ann held up her index finger as she looked at me, eyes wide and lips slowly beginning to stretch into a smile. "What if she didn't talk to Makoto?"

"Huh? Sorry, I'm… didn't we just say it has to be me, since I would be betraying her to tell any of you?"

"Yeah, but also nah. Okay, since you're the student council president, you've got the keys all sorts of parts of the school, right?"

Squirming, I held up a hand as I told her, "I'm not breaking into the teacher's office and waiting to ambush her."

"No, no! Let me see your phone again." I handed it over, and she wasted no time pulling up the pictures I have hastily snapped. Luckily, none of them showed Ms. Kawakami's face - or it was too blurry and far away to tell it was her. "Victoria, huh?"

Now Ann was pulling out her own phone and looking up something. Then she took a picture of her screen with mine and handed it back.

"'Victoria Housekeeping'," I read. "Wait… what are you-"

"We gotta hurry," she said as she popped up, grabbing my hand and yanking me to my feet so fast that I almost dropped my phone to the ground. "If we don't hurry up, we'll run out of time!"

"Time for what?!" I protested as I stumbled after her. "Ann, slow down! ANN!"

                                      To Be Continued…

[survivaltrick]

@mabufu | Continued from here

I’m overreacting, he thinks to himself.  It’s not exactly unheard of for a member of the team to collapse in Mementos.  What they do has its risks, they all know that.  And Yusuke will be okay, clearly.  He surely could have made it back to his dorm room alone, even though Akira had insisted on accompanying him.  It was just... these things usually weren’t so sudden.  Maybe, the thought keeps nagging at Akira, it hadn’t actually been a sudden occurrence at all.  I should have been paying more attention.

Regardless of the suddenness (or lack thereof) of Fox’s collapse, Akira’s embrace is probably a bit... much. He’s just so relieved that Yusuke wasn’t seriously injured.  He barely even thought about it.  He’s ready to back off, apologize for the sudden contact, but Yusuke doesn’t seem eager to pull back and honestly?  Having him this close is nice.  Somehow Yusuke always manages to smell good... although that’s not really at the forefront of Akira’s mind as he listens to Yusuke speak.

“I’ve... missed you too lately.” Akira gives Yusuke a gentle squeeze.  “It really sucks.” He grins wryly. “I’m definitely behind on my Yusuke quota.” Despite what he’s about to say, he would have been disappointed if Yusuke had stayed in tonight and he knows it.  “If something serious happened to you, though...” Akira doesn’t really want to think about it.  “You shouldn’t have to push yourself so that we can spend time together. I can swing by here if you’re short on time.  I could bring you some snacks or something... Or, I mean, I don’t know how you feel about skipping class, but...”  Ms. Kawakami would definitely find a way to cover for him if he let her know in advance.

“Oh.”  He breaks out of his reverie. “What time is it...?”  He loosens his hold on Yusuke and turns his neck to look at the clock, cringing a bit as he realizes he’s managed to push his glasses pretty firmly down on his nose.  Ah. “I didn’t notice either.”  He turns back to Yusuke. “Thanks for the offer. I think I’ll take you up on it.”  Akira moves back and gives Yusuke a squeeze on the arm. “Sorry, didn’t mean to get quite that clingy.  Hope it was okay.”

[nefastustenebris]

tell me you don’t want to fool around - p5 - canon!vers

@ vraileretif  TW: bullying

She only had a few seconds before students came back in from the supposed “fire alarm scare”.

Kobayakawa’s office was not that big and thus finding information about a recently retired teacher should not be this hard. She assumed karma was at work, considering she flicked her lighter underneath a fire alarm until it went off - ensuring the evacuation of everyone. Messing with legal forces like that must have made some deity pissed at her because she could not find any dirt on Kamoshida.

Mercy must have been bestowed on her, she found the file tucked away behind a book.

Sitting low into the ground so that no one would be able to see her, she reached for her phone and snapped pages from it.

There was one name in particular that came up - Ryuiji Sakamoto - a boy in class 2-E. He was apart of the track team that was recently disbanded for some unknown reason. He and this teacher seemed to have the most run-ins. Ryuiji was disciplined more than a dog, it seemed.

Ryuiji Sakamoto was now considered suspect #1.

Another name, Akira Kurusu appeared towards the end. He was apparently faced with expulsion, along with suspect #1. Other than that, he doesn’t appear much. Which seemed odd that he would try to expel a student who just transferred. According to the rumours floating around Shujin, Kurusu was considered to be a new transfer student with enough checkers in his past that he could have been considered a king. She hasn’t gotten the specific details about what he did that was so gut-wrenchingly nauseating. Some students mentioned that he peddled drugs, others mentioned that he had problems with aggression. She has seen Akira Kurusu and she could not believe that someone as lithe as himself could be capable of peddling drugs or even landing a well-deserved punch. She had been around criminals, hell, she considered herself one - each criminal had a look so that they would easily network with each other, Akira didn’t fit in that particular pocket of subculture. That left the other girl that hung around Akira - the blonde named Ann. Girls in bathroom frequently talked about her, in less than amorous words. According to many students, Ann was dating Kamoshida and her friend Shiho jumped off the building because of their relationship. 

“Who pulled the goddamn fire alarm?!” 

Kobayakawa was a man who had a loud voice. When she first met him, she took an instant dislike to him to save the trouble of disliking him later. He was a man with an unrelenting, and annoying, moral compass. Dressed up as a washed-up Pee Wee Herman, he managed to rule the school with both complete vigour and indifference. He did not care what happened to students, but he made sure that his school looked the best at whatever angle its’ viewed from. This Kamoshida incident took a damper on the schools’ reputation, not to mention accepting a convict that apparently managed to become school’s scapegoat in under one day.

He made sure that in under no certain terms would he make her feel welcome. He only allowed her to stay after an elaborate story made up by the man who was blackmailing her. Her blackmailer was a police officer, who immediately got on Kobayakawa’s good side.

“I bet it was that Kurusu kid.” She heard him get slightly closer. Putting the file back in its’ place, she went to the door and opened it slowly so as to not make any noise. She sprinted across the hall and hid behind some lockers. She felt guilty that her so-called elaborate ruse managed to put yet another mark on Akira’s back, but guilt dissipated quickly. She checked her person to make sure she disposed of her lighter. Students began to enter the building slowly. Some were excited at the thought of skipping an entire period and going straight to break, and some were annoyed that this even happened. Some whined about not having sunscreen, some whispered that Akira was really smart to have pulled the fire alarm. She heard some students whisper amongst themselves.

“Kurusu was with us in the class all day, I bet it was the foreign exchange student. She’s really scary, and did you see the way she disrespected that teacher? Plus the fire alarm prank sounds like something an American would do...”

 She was more annoyed that they thought she was America. She didn’t know that students thought she was disrespectful. Upon being introduced in the class, the teacher asked her where her books were and she replied that she wouldn’t be needing them as she wouldn’t be sticking around long enough.

 Her teacher was Kawakami, a woman with so many eyebags she was the personification of a bloodhound. She was exhausted, the air around her was stagnant and she frequently went on soliloquies about how crap her life was, she made it very clear that she did not appreciate being given yet another problematic student. She felt this was better handled by a male teacher and she shouldn’t have to play babysitter to kids who may or may not start their own underground fighting ring.

 Ethelinda Mallory was, as the vernacular described, a bastard.  On her first day of school, she set off the fire alarm causing an uproar, just so she could get her hands on a teachers’ file. She had decided from then on out she would blend into the background like her desk mate Yuuki Mishima, a boy so soft-spoken she swore he had a permanent halo attached to his skull. 

Blending in with the incoming students, she managed to avoid any suspicion from the staff.

It would be a free period soon, and she was hungry so she might go down to the bread store and try and connect Ryuiji, Akira and Ann to Kamoshida.

She stopped by the staircase and looked down. She was hearing pained moans and groans.

“...Please sto-hng!”

She blinked and walked down a couple of steps and craned her head to see what was happening. She saw Mishima being held by two students; they both looked older than he was - they might have been third years. There was another student, balling his hand up like a fist. He could hear chuckling as Mishima was struggling to get free. The boys’ face was red, and he was struggling to hold back tears.

“Oh fuck no,” she growled under her breath.

The boy with the balled fist raised his arm above his head. Mishima was an easy target, it was even better that the staff here didn’t care about him. Mishima got Kamoshida kicked out, that meant his volleyball scholarship was as good as dead as this bastard was going to be, he hated the way he looked like a wounded deer every god damn time something happens. He’s going to permanently fix that. He was about to swing his fist before something stopped him. He looked behind him and saw a short hair, with long black hair and midnight-coloured eyes. She had freckles on her nose, and a scratch under her eye, on the bridge of her nose and near her mouth. She also had three large marks across on her neck - deep. red - as if something was trying to rip her neck. She looked at him, with narrowed eyes. He wasn’t expecting her to be that strong, her fingers began to turn almost bone-coloured.

 “The fuck are you doing?” She whispered. She forced him to look at her. “You have a problem with Mr. Mishima here?” No one answered her. She threw the boy with the fast, hard, against some lockers. “Ya’ll supposed to be prep school boys, so fucking act like it.”

 One of the boys who was holding Mishima lunged at her, but she was faster than him and elbowed him so hard in the gut he almost vomited. She spun and kicked him in the cheek. The other boy was about to bolt before Ethelinda clutched the back of his pants and forcefully dragged him back to look at her. 

“Where are you going? Hmm?” She asked him. “Look, you and I are reasonable people. So I’m not gonna hurt you, or your little crew. I went easy on you guys because it’s my first day and I know how awful first impressions can be -” she looked at her guy currently trying to stop his cheek from pulsating “however, this dude is a classmate of mine and you were holding him down - not really a fair fight is it?” She looked at Mishima.  “So I’ll cut a deal - you touch him again, or even so much as look at him weirdly,  I’ll hurt you. I’m not talking about superficial hurt here, I’m talking like that your own mother won’t even recognize you and she’ll have to hire several plastic surgeons just to fix at least one part of you. Don’t do anything to Mishima, or any kid in this school, and I’ll walk along. Oh and..” She forced him to look at her again. “You tell a teacher about this, I’ll break your jaw.” She grinned and gently patted his face.

 “Oh and, I’m hungry so can you spot me some money for lunch, and my new friend Mishima.” She smirked. After stealing the bullies lunch money, she let them run off. She turned around and helped Mishima pick up his books. He took them from her gently. “I know I kinda disrespected the teacher back then but... I have some money and I would like to buy you lunch.” She grinned. “Remember, I saved your ass.  Not that it should matter but I really wanted to ask you some things, if that’s alright?”  Mishima blinked and nodded. “Sure, I think that’s alright. Plus I’m pretty hungry, could you believe someone pulled the fire alarm?”

 “Pfft, what a disgrace. Wasting governmental resources like that.” She hoped the Lord wouldn’t strike her down. 

“I know, right. Before I go to lunch, I needed to go say hi to my friend and give him something - you can come along if you want.” He wanted to tell Akira about a new request that he saw at the Phan-site. “I’m meeting Akira Kurusu.” 

The kid who almost got expelled, and the young little criminal around here. She nodded. “Isn’t he the uh..” 

“Oh, yes the rumours aren’t very kind to him but he’s actually very nice. Or well, to me he is. I’m sure he’ll be nice to you too. So coming?”

This was the first time someone invited her along for something. She grinned and nodded and followed him back up the stairs. She slipt her phone out the pocket and got a couple of messages from her blackmailer. She was ready to put her phone back in her pocket when she noticed something odd - a new app installed itself on her phone.  She always kept her phone plain. Devoid of pictures, music, and personal mementoes. Aside from the fact she never had friends, any information that will connect this phone to her was considered a liability. She needed to frequently change and destroy phones - putting too many memories in temporary things was a wasteful wish. She only downloaded one game in her life - Candy Crush - so this app being there made her blink. 

The app itself had a name called METANAV. It was a red icon, with a white eye looking at her. She tried to move it to delete it, but her screen froze. The app itself started to enlarge itself, taking up half her screen.

“Hey Mish-” she stopped. He was frozen, mid-walk. Everyone else was frozen too. A girl was leaning down to catch her falling pencil case. She turned around, everyone was a standstill. 

She looked towards the end of the fall and blinked. There was a fire. She wasn’t entirely sure if this was karma flipping her off again. The fire seemed strangely contained. Just burning at the end of the hall. Soon it began to take shape. She could make out long arms and legs. Horns began to form, wings began to outstretch from its’ back.

She wasn’t sure, but she swore that the fire began to even form a mouth and eyes. They were grinning at her. In the middle of the flames, there was a silhouette of a woman. Long black hair concealed her face. The fire-creature began to lift up its arms with palms outstretched, it waved at her. She looked back at the woman, whose hair slowly began to blowback, revealing her face.

It was her, manically grinning. Sickly yellow eyes open wide, her mouth fixated in a snarl position.

The fire creature bent backwards slightly before lunging forwards, sending streams of red-hot flames after her. The flames began to twist on themselves, coating the entire hallway.

“Are you okay?”

She blinked. She looked up from her fetal position and saw Mishima look at her. She blinked and looked past him. Everyone was moving again.

“Uh yeah...”

“You just suddenly dropped down - you’re not sick are you?” “No, I’m..” she kept looking behind him. Everything was normal, no fire marks on the ceiling. She saw a girl pick up her pencil case whilst silently chastising herself.

 “I’m fine... I dropped my..” she looked on the floor. “Candy wrapper.” She dragged an old wrapper from the ground and showed it to him. “Recycling, man. It’s a ..  it’s a rush..” 

“Well, Akira is right down the hall so I’ll go and speak to him - wanna join?”

 “I’m.. I’m good. I’ll hang back.” She got herself up from the cold floor. She watched Mishima walk towards the black-haired boy. He was talking enthusiastically. She checked her phone again, the app was still there. She sighed and pressed on it and dragged it over to the trash icon.

There, gone.

[misawa]

hello! since you're accepting prompts could you write some MiSawa soulmate AU? >w

omg i’m so down for this!!!! soulmate au’s are my cup of tea so here i go! honestly, i kept on pondering whether i should write something cute or angsty (in the end i gave up so whatever turn the story took i just went with it tbh) but either way, i hope you enjoy this!! ♥

*note: this got really long, and personally i want to continue it, especially since i have A LOT MORE i’d like to write. this drabble almost reached 2k words, so i’m really thinking of turning it into a fic!! that if people like it of course ghdfjbgjd if i does get to that, then i might as well publish it on ao3 :)c

rating: generalcouple: misawaword count: 1,751 wordsdescription: “who needs a soul mate anyway!?” were the words a 12-year-old miyuki kazuya had screamed, whatever pebbles his small hands could grab thrown at the night sky along with all his anger and grief. back then, the 12-year-old boy had no way of knowing that at 15 he’ll be meeting his fated one, at 17 he’d have already fallen in love, shared a kiss, his heart starting its healing. through the many years that had to come though, he’d also learn what sadness truly felt like.

“hello! my name is miyuki kazuya! what’s your name?” that was the first thing a 9-year-old kazuya scribbled across his arms the moment he’d learnt about the existence of soul mates. a long time ago (last week) a certain child had asked his mother “how did you meet father?” and the answer he got was truly out of the ordinary: “mama wrote down a number on her arm and the number showed up on papa’s arm too! so papa wrote back ‘is that your phone number?’ on his arm, and it showed up on mama’s arm too. that’s the first time we talked.” 

with that in mind, he’d attempted writing to his soul mate. the first time he wrote to his soul mate there was no reply, no smudge across his skin. nothing. kazuya sulked about it for a good while until he decided to try again, only for this time to get a reply!: “hello!!! i’m sawamura eijun! : D” through the drawings and scribbles of two innocent children, kazuya had learnt that eijun hadn’t replied at first due to him twisting his wrist. he’d also learnt that the two lived quite far away from one another (”hey dad, where’s nagano?”) and that, coincidentally, they both happened to LOVE baseball, each playing a position that completed their partner. 

who would’ve thought having a soul mate could be so much fun?

days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, and months turned into years. the more he aged, the more kazuya’d close within himself. he was no longer the bubbly child his mother raised - she was out of the picture either way. he continued smiling, playing baseball a dream he’d never give up on, yet making friends seemed almost impossible, communication would only happen on the baseball field. at the age of 12, miyuki kazuya had realised it had been half an year since he last talked to eijun, more exactly since eijun attempted to write to him. his body was an empty canvas that lacked the random splatters on ink that the younger would draw upon his skin. that night he cried, he yelled, like a child he threw a tantrum, blaming the universe for his misfortune, throwing rocks at the sky with all his strength. “who needs a soul mate anyway?!” he’d been abandoned. 

skip a few years, miyuki kazuya was finally in high scool, his first year coming to an end. he no longer wrote to sawamura, and neither did sawamura write to him. a haunting silence, anything but comforting. his fingers would itch each time he’d sit in class and he’d hold a pen; he wanted to write, to talk to the other. his heart begged for it, cried for it - though they have yet to meet, he knew that not talking to the youth left a hole in his chest, a hole that ached and yearned for his soul mate’s love. after all, though he did not want to admit it, soul mates complete each other. it was a reality he couldn’t ignore; his body wouldn’t let him ignore it. not one day would pass without him thinking of eijun at least once, wondering how he’s doing, what’s he up to, and yet the feeling of being unworthy of such a blessing that came in the form of the pitcher was a constant nag in the back of his mind. 

—- that fatidic day had come though. never would he have expected takashima rei to be his … cupid of some sorts. that day would remain embedded in his heart and mind for as long as he’d have to live. the day in which he had finally met sawamura eijun. 

for some reason, that whole morning he felt antsy, his chest throbbing, heart pulsing; he felt alive, just like the days when he was a clueless child who’d spend a good half of the day writing to his other half. he’d woken up without wishing to go back to sleep, he’d gotten dressed faster than usual, he’d even offered to catch for the upperclassmen rather than have them ask him. how unusual. 

that day seemed normal, unlike his actions, everything went smoothly. everyone was training, the insults azuma threw at kawakami resounding on the field until he roared. each of seido’s member had their eyes fixed on the youth who had the courage of a lion, yet the brains of a bird. he’d stood up to azuma, his words leaving a mark upon miyuki: “you can’t play baseball by yourself!!”. a smile painted upon his features, his chest puffing a soft laugh. what an interesting kid! interesting enough for miyuki to want to catch for him when rei-chan announced that the stranger would pitch against azuma.

“wait a minute, i never asked to have a match with some jerk like him!” was the stranger’s protest.

“sawamura, this is a baseball field.” rei retorted, and her words had miyuki doubletake. sawamura? 

his eyes widened, and before he could form a sentence he was gawking at sawamura. it clicked. everything made sense. that was sawamura, pitcher and former captain of his team back in nagano, his SOUL MATE.

laughter bubbled in his chest, and he would’ve almost cried if it weren’t for the location. just imagine; seido’s promising catcher starts randomly crying in the middle of the baseball field, unknown to the rest that he had finally met his other half. ah, he was happy. what is this? how can someone be so overwhelmed with joy upon simply meeting their soul mate. ridiculous! yet there he was, all smiles and chuckles as he offered to catch for the pitcher. 

“can i catch his pitch?” a question directed at the assistant coach, an offer he knew she wouldn’t turn down.

“who’s he?” came sawamura’s inquire, and little did he know that the pitcher was about to live the shock of his life. 

“miyuki kazuya, a catcher.” her reply direct, yet miyuki could only watch in pure bliss the way sawamura’s face turned from confusion to shock, from shock to delight, from delight to anger. 

sawamura eijun was angry at miyuki kazuya. 

so this is how we meet, huh? miyuki had ran up to the three, his smile not once wavering, yet his heart thudding so loud in his ears. he was so close to sawamura that his hands tingled, his fingers twitching, itching to touch him. tonight, again. 

their game had ended faster than he’d wanted, sawamura leaving without sparing him another word, a second glance. for what reason the youth was angry at him, he had a hunch, but now that they’ve met miyuki was certain and could no longer brush aside his heart’s urges; sawamura eijun was completing him, both on and off the field.

that night he grabbed the closest sharpie, and without wasting another second he wrote: “i know you’re angry at me, but i’m really—-” really what? happy? miyuki kazuya is happy? though the damage was done, the wording would need to change. “—glad i met you.” there! sounds better.

the answer he received was almost instant, as if sawamura was expecting a message from the latter. “OF COURSE I’M ANGRY!!!!!!! DO YOU REALISE HOW LONG IT’S BEEN?? I’VE BEEN WAITING ALL THIS TIME, BAKA MIYUKI!!!!” all caps, huh? kazuya laughed like he hadn’t done in a long while, his eyes softening as he ran a digit over the other’s writing. he couldn’t enjoy the moment though, as eijun had quickly erased his words, leaving miyuki wishing the moment would’ve lasted longer. but he couldn’t mourn, not even for a second, as sawamura’s writing showed up on his arm again. “don’t you DARE stop writing you hear?! or i’ll get angry again!!!” “yes, yes ♥” miyuki had quickly added underneath sawamura’s words, and after meeting him in person today he could’ve guessed that eijun was spluttering back in nagano. 

“so are you coming to seido?” miyuki couldn’t help his curiosity; he wanted to know: would he get to spend the remaining of his high school days with his soul mate or would he have to try his best to maintain this long distance relationship? he needed to know, and sawamura was taking his sweet time coming up with a reply. once he wrote back though, miyuki couldn’t help but feel irked. “i don’t know” sawamura had scribbled on his forearm, quickly followed by a “i need some more time to think…”.

“whatever you’ll decide, i’ll be here to catch for you if you come to seido.” miyuki’s answer was instant, the smile that played upon his visage not once disappearing. he missed this. he missed talking to the youth, spending his time writing and drawing on his body, having his soul mate’s writing tattooed on his, even if only for a few moments. happiness washed over him like it hadn’t in a long while, and finally, after so many years, he felt at ease. 

that night he slept like a child, worries forgotten, grief dug in the depth of his heart. the days that came seemed brighter, warmer even (though he’d blame the season for it, somewhere in the back of his mind he knew there was more to that), he’d smile more often. there’d be days when he’d wake up with a mustache drawn above his upper lip. his team-mates would laugh at him, some even tried erasing it for him, but it slowly dawned upon them all: that was miyuki’s soul mate. out of all, kuramochi was the most taken aback as he realised it first; miyuki kazuya is actually having fun with the one who was his soul mate.

miyuki used to live in a world enveloped in silence until sawamura eijun had appeared in front of him, until he re-entered miyuki’s life. now his life was filled with laughter and splatters of colour upon the empty canvas that his skin was, and the distance that separated them no longer mattered. even if sawamura decided to stay in nagano, they’d work a way to meet again. 

sawamura, however, was 10 steps ahead of miyuki. he had the upper hand as he got to decide his future. his decision was a surprise to miyuki, a pleasant one at least. the moment they’d met again on the field when they were both running late to practice was the day miyuki kazuya knew; he knew he’d get to spend the rest of his days alongside his other half. 

[oracleofphantoms]

So I was thinking about Kawakami at work today and it ended up snowballing into an entire AU and now I kind of want to do it....I literally do not have any idea how I came up with this AU but here it goes....

The basic idea of the AU is that Kawakami is a Persona user! Well, ‘was’ might be the best word to use! When she was a first year in High School, her and a few other students, much like all Persona characters, ended up awaking to their Personas, to deal with a shadow threat which only they knew what was really going on. Unlike the other Persona games, the threat was, smaller so to speak. Mostly just a minor God causing trouble and plaguing peoples dreams and stuff like that. Another big difference was of that group, none of them were of the Wild Card Arcana! While they did get their powers from Philemon, due to the lack of Wild Card users, none of them ever ended up in the Velvet Room or ever really figured out how they got their Personas.

While Kawakami learned alot about Personas, shadows, other worlds and such, and even defeated the God causing trouble with her friends, as the school years went on, the group started to drift apart. They had all agreed to never tell anyone about what had happened, mostly because they had no reason to talk about it, who would believe them anyways! As she drifted from her friends and graduated, the bonds that gave her Persona strength weaken. weakening her persona. She had almost completely forgotten about the entire thing.

That is however, until one certain student got put in her class. She was worried about this student, he had a criminal record after all! And he was found hanging out with Ryuji of all people! Why did it have to be her? She didn’t want to deal with this. A few days and nothing seemed to happen, the Transfer student hadn’t seem to cause any trouble, besides being late on his first day, claiming he was in a ‘Castle’ Of all things. But something did happen...The Gym Coach had some sort of mental break, suddenly confessing to doing horrible things! At first it made no sense! What could cause such a sudden change of heart? Then she remembered Rumors that The Transfer and Ryuji had been snooping around The Volleyball team and the Gym coach, even that they were going to be Expelled! Could they have something to do with it? Memory of his excuse of ending up in a Castle trying to get to school came to her head. She had a feeling....No, She knew it had something to do with those Other worlds! They had done something. Reaching into her Soul for the first time in a long time, she felt her Persona, who had been dormant for so long. She decides as a Persona user and a his Teacher, she can’t let him get too far over his head, and confronts him about it.

That’s what I came up with at work. It would like, replace her in game Confidant with one more oriented towards her teaching him like, how to fight and stuff, how to use spells and stuff like that! Of course, the skipping class perk would still be there Not that that matters for Rping but Anyways! Yeah! That’s my AU Kawakami I came up with and I’m tempted to make a blog for her......What do you guys think???

[makangerous]

Fukuya Rank 1 (Temperance Confidant)

This scene would happen automatically, around the same day you would normally find out about Kawakami's maid job.

You're sitting in your homeroom. Kawakami is lecturing…

Kawakami: Look, I know this is boring. But the principal asked me to go over the code of conduct with every student. Apparently, there's been an uptick in bad behavior, and whenever he catches someone breaking the rules, the culprit always says, "I didn't know that was a rule." Ignorance is no excuse. But since so much of the student body is-- Nakai, quit sleeping! If you're feeling sick again, you can go to the nurse, but stop dozing--

A male student suddenly sways in his chair and collapses on the floor.

[THUD]

Kawakami: Nakai! Can you stand up? …Did he seriously pass out? Someone! Yukimura, check his breathing!

You run to the collapsed student and kneel down beside him. His eyes open.

Ugghh…

Kawakami: Yukimura, can you take him to the nurse's office? I don't want him to keel over again on the way there.

You extend your arm to Nakai, and he uses it to slowly stand up. You escort him out of the classroom. You make it halfway down the hallway when he lets go suddenly.

That's enough. You don't need to actually bring me to the nurse. I'm fine. The blood just got redirected out of my head for a minute or two. You can go back to class. Or you can ditch with me if you want. You're no stranger to that, after all. You ditched your first day. But if you really want to ditch, you must work on your technique. Skip a class here or there due to chronic headaches or stomach issues? No one cares. Miss an entire day for no reason? You're in deep shit. You always need a foolproof excuse.

>You make yourself sick on purpose?

Great men and women have done it many times. My uncle's a school nurse and he sees it constantly. Some purposely infect themselves with colds, but I prefer pills, or gases, or injections that give me control over--

Nope. You don't get to know about my methods. They're secret. Not for human consumption. Forget everything and go back to class.

>Can you help me ditch classes?

Nuh-uh. You're not going to be using my stuff to do that. Get your own. Oh wait, you can't. I'm the only one who knows how to make most of it.

Tell you what. Maybe we can work out a deal. I get awfully lonely at my part-time job at night. If you can pay the upfront cost and hang out with me at work sometimes, I'll consider giving you some tips on… Time management, let's call it. I work on call as a science tutor. Work's been very slow, so anytime at night should be fine to give me a ring. The name's Fukuya Nakai. Here's my personal number. Now, I need to remove myself before anyone sees me loitering in the hallway. Do as you wish.

(…Should I really give him a call later?)

You call Fukuya at night.

Hey, what do you want? …Tutoring?! Oh, uh, sorry for answering the phone so rudely. I mistook you for someone else. Sure, I have a timeslot tonight! Can I have your name and address, please? Emi Yukimura, uh huh… wait, it's you? Dang, I was hoping you forgot about that. Don't worry, I'll stay true to my word as long as you send me the cash. You want to meet at Cafe Leblanc?

Fukuya arrives at the cafe, and you meet him on the ground floor.

This place isn't too far from that doctor's office. Maybe I should have her write me another note soon. Huh? You see Dr. Takemi, too? Do you, by chance, pretend to be sick? …I can see why you're so eager to learn my ways. It seems we're not so different. Anyway, let me lay down some ground rules for our agreement. First of all, you won't get any of my "instant sickness" concoctions. Ever. It's dangerous. Second, I'm going to have to charge you more than my standard rate, since theoretically, I could fit in multiple clients in the time I'll have to spend to educate you. But I'm sure you'll come to realize it's worth the cost. I'll show you how to squeeze every extra bit of free time out of your daily life full of obligations. Deal?

>Deal!

I knew you'd say that. You do remind me a lot of myself.

Emi, consider yourself officially enrolled in my exclusive class, "The Science of Stealing Back Your Time: Reclaiming What's Rightfully Yours"!

I am thou, thou art I…Thou hast acquired a new vow.

It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity.

With the birth of the Temperance Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power…

Well, we can start the class officially next time. I didn't have time to prepare anything for tonight. Do you have any homework you need help with?

Late at night, your phone rings when you're alone in your room.

Time for a pop quiz! No, it's not too late for one. You never know if a maniac will use a science question to decide whether you get to live or die. Quick, what's the powerhouse of the cell?

>Mitochondria.

Congratulations, you get to live another day! Keep in mind, though, "mitochondria" is plural. The singular form is "mitochondrion".

That was a very easy question. I'm not going to take it easy on you going forward. Hope you're prepared. Bye now.

[daiyanohaikyuu]

can i request scenarios when kuramochi, sanada, nori, jun, and ryosuke hear that their s/o's feel down and don't feel like their good enough for them, and what the boys do to console/show them they're wrong in their houghts. Thank you!!

This is one is late as well, my apologies!

—

Kuramochi Youichi 

He had noticed something had been off about them today. They’d been walking at a slower, more reluctant looking pace than usual and held an aura of gloom around them.

He finally had the chance to confront them about this during lunch.

“What’s up with you today?”

“What do you mean?” They feigned innocent.

“You know what- you’ve been acting sad all day, what’s wrong?”

They sighed, knowign he had caught them and there was no use lying about it now.

 “It’s just- I don’t if I’m good enough for you.”

Mochi could only stare at his s/o in shock, ‘what in the hell are they talking about?’ 

“Why do you feel like that?”

“I know how much baseball means to you and it probably sucks that you can’t have much of a conversation with the person you’re with and they have no idea what’s going on.”

He couldn’t help the laugh that came out, “I’m sorry but that’s probably one of the stupidest things I’ve heard.”

“I don’t care if you know baseball or not, I’m with you because I want to be,” he added.

“You sure?” 

Mochi pulled them into a hug, “couldn’t be more sure.”

–

Sanada Shunpei 

They knew dating someone like Sanada wouldn’t be easy, but they decided to anyway. They knew there would be jealous fangirls- even though most of them were considerably nice- and would never let the words get to them.

But there were some days, like today, where the words seemed to stick in their head like someone had glued them there.

Today seemed to be especially bad as a group of girls made it a mission to keep between Sanada and his s/o, making it seem like he was too busy to care, or just didn’t care period.

They decided to skip going to Yakushi’s after school practice and go to their dorm instead. At around 9 in the evening they heard a knock on the door. 

Opening the door revealed their wet-haired, worried boyfriend.

“What’re you doing here?”

“You didn’t come to practice,” he stated, walking in.

“You noticed?”

He stared at them, “of course I did, why wouldn’t I?”

“Well those fangirls kept your attention on them the whole day, figured they keep a little more busy.”

He stepped directly in front of them, “You knew some were gonna be like that, you remembered what we talked about right?”

“I know,” they groaned in frustration, “it’s just some days I can’t help it and I start to compare and next thing you know I’m wondering if I’m even good enough for you or-”

They were cut off by Sanada kissing them. Pulling away he held their face in his hands, “you will always be more than enough to me, please come talk to me any time you feel like that.”

The two talked until they eventually fell asleep.

—

Kawakami Norifumi 

He had actually overheard you talking about it to your friend. He really didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but right now, he was kind of glad he did. 

“Why do you feel like that?” he intervened.

“You’re so kind and smart and I’m pretty much the exact opposite, everybody I’ve talked to has asked me at least once how we came to be a couple.”

“Who cares?”

“What?”

“Who cares what they think, we’re together and that’s all that matters.”

He pulled his s/o into an embrace. 

“I guess you’re right,” they mumbled.

“Why don’t we have a night in tonight after practice?”

“I would love that Nori.”

 —

Isashiki Jun 

“What do you mean they told you they don’t feel good enough for me?” Jun barked at Tanba.

“They told him they don’t feel good enough for you, pretty self explanitory really,” Ryousuke stated.

Jun only stared at him before returning his attention back to Tanba.

“It’s probably because you’re so poor at showing emotion,” Tetsu cut in, the rest of the team nodding in agreement.

“I’m going to go talk to them now, see you tomorrow.”

As he walked to from the field to their dorm he couldn’t the nerves that developed along the way.

After knocking on the door, his s/o immediately let him inside. He decided to sit on their bed.

“Jun, are you okay? You seem worried.” 

“You know I love you and really care about you, right?” he blurted.

They stood shocked before they came to the realization, “Tanba told you didn’t he?”

“Yeah, I hope that’s okay.”

“I was going to talk to you about it sometime anyway, guess that’s going to be now instead.”

So, the two sat down and talked about what was happening and a bunch of other things too.

—

Kominato Ryousuke 

Ryo almost had a kind of sixth sense for when people he knew were feeling down. He also had the habit of unintentionally scaring said people by popping out of nowhere.

They knew he was bound to pop up in their vision sometime soon, so when the time came they told him to go away.

“Now why would I do that?” he teased.

“I’m really not in the mood Ryo.”

“No.”

“Ryo, seriously I don’t want to-” they didn’t get the chance to finish as he pulled them into an empty class.

“What the hell Ryo?!”

“I never knew you held so much attitude,” he smirked.

“Ryo I swear I will kill you.”

“What’s wrong?”

They were taken aback before regaining their composure, “nothing, it’s just one of those days.”

“We both know that’s a bunch of bs.”

Sighing, they looked down as they muttered, “am I even good enough for you.”

He wasn’t meant to hear it, but he did- barely. It broke his heart that his s/o would even think that. 

“Of course you are,” he whispered as stepped closer to them, “and god I’m so sorry if I’ve ever made you feel any different- god I must be the worst partner ever.”

They looked up to find a genuine expression on his face. They reached out for his hand.

“Don’t you dare say that again, you are an amazing boyfriend. Sometimes I over think things and this was one of those times.”

“You should still never feel like that.”

“How about, if this ever happens again we talk it out.”

“Deal, now let’s go to class,” he held their hand as they walked down the halls.

[seadragonjade]

Chapter 1:A new team for a new beginning

     Note: So one of the characters has two nicknames which I use both of them. So if it annoys you, I am sorry but I’m using both because I want to and I feel like it's easier for me.

 BEEP...BEEP…BEEP...BE-"*Groans* Fuck" The alarm is still ringing as the young boy tryed to find it. "Make it sstop." Screech a bearded dragon who was in a little reptile tank with a heating lamp over it that was on. "What the hell do you think I'm doing, mate?" Said a green hair teen who was groaning at this point as he finally hit his BB-8 alarm clock.

Upon doing this his roommate/ best friend walked in. "Raise and shine sleeping beauties." Said the black haired boy as he put on his glasses. "We don't want to be late on our first day." He walked off as he pulled up his school uniform shirt. "*groans* Yeah...yeah." The green haired boy replied as he got up out of bed and walked over to his closet to grab his school summer uniform. "Jaden, are you going to leave me here or what?" 

"Can you wait until I put on my uniform, Draco?" He asked him as he put on his pants. "No." The bearded dragon said as he watched the dark white boy put on his shirt. "Really...you can be a brat at times, you know that?" He said as he took him out of the tank. "I know." Draco said with a smile, well what looked like a smile. Jaden sighed as he did the rest of what he needed to do to get ready. He walked out with his book bag and the bearded dragon in it. "You sure about bringing him? What if the home room teacher gets a panic attack from seeing it?" The black haired boy asked looking at Draco. "I see your point mate, but what else can we do." Jaden starts up. "What if we have a mission at school and besides Xander he's going to be hidden in my desk anyways. So he'll be fine as long as he stays hidden." 

        "Yeah, and when have I ever got out of his bag back at our old school?" Draco asked looking Xander in the eyes. "Fine but remember," He looks towards Jaden. "Keep him hidden. And” he points at Draco. "don't make any noise. It will be hard for us to pretend that we didn't hear anything." He tells them.

"Alright Xan." Jaden said. "Weird, usually you're the one giving leader like orders." Draco said as he looked at Jaden. He just rolls his eyes at the creature as they head off to their new school, Syujin Academy. They get on to a subway to their new school. 

*time skip* 

They finally made it to Syujin. "Woah. This place is kinda big." Draco said. "Shh and stay down till lunch, mate." Jaden tells Draco as he pushes the dragons head gently down back in his bag. Both boys shook their heads as they walked into the building. They look around for a bit looking for the principle. When they found his office they went inside. The principle looked up from the papers he was looking at. "Ah, you two must be the new students. Come in and sit down." He said to both of them." As they both took a seat the principle started up again. "So you two must be Jaden-Drake Etheren and Xander Auditore, correct?" They both nodded without really saying a word to him. "Awfully quiet but I understand since it's both of your first day of Syujin Academy." He told them with a smile.

Just then the door opened to reveal a girl in her summer school uniform walking in. "Ah, Ms. Niijima. You're just in time I was about to call you. Can you show Mr. Etheren and Mr. Auditore around the school and then take them both to their respected home rooms." He asked the girl. She nodded. "Of course. Please follow me, you two." They both got up and followed her out. "I'm Makoto Niijima and both of you are?" She asked them. "I'm Jaden-Drake Etheren, you can call me Jaden and or Drake, and this guy is Xander Auditore." Drake said to Makoto. "Well nice to meet you two. Well, let's get started."

They began to walk around and Makoto showed them the different classes. They were walking to the home room building when Jaden-Drake accidentally bumps into a tall black haired boy with messy hair and glass in his summer uniform. "S-sorry I didn't-" he began but got cut off by the boy. "It's fine. I should be the one to say sorry since I didn't see you." While talking to the boy, Draco popped his head out of Jaden's bag to see a black cat with blue eyes. They both stared into each other's eyes. Both sensing something familiar about one another while the humans carrying them walk away. "That boy had a cat in his bag but...something feels...strange about them.” Draco told Drake and Xander. “I can tell what you mean. That boy felt strange as well but I guess in a nice way.” Jaden said to them. “Agreed.” Xander said. After that Makoto walked them around some more then led them to their home room classes. First was Xander both him and Drake said their goodbyes. Then she leads him to his class. “If you have any questions you can always ask me.” she told him. He nodded and thanked her. He then walked into his room home and saw a young looking woman with a yellow shirt and blue jeans skirt and fluffy black short hair. 

“Oh, You must be our new student. I am your homeroom teacher Ms. Kawakami.” She said introducing herself to him. “Everyone calm down. This is our new student. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?” She looked at him with a force smile. Um, is she okay? Jaden thought to himself. He shakes his head a little bit. “Um, Yeah...Well My name is Jade-Drake Etheren I go by either Jaden or Drake, it doesn’t really matter. I love to draw and do artsy stuff. I, uh, also love Japanese animation. They're really good in my opinion. I also love reading manga. That should be it. I hope that we can be good friends.” He finished off with a small smile.

“Alright, thank you for that. Go sit behind Akira Kurusu. Uh, Akira can you please stand so he knows where you sit.” Akira stood up as he nodded. Drake was a little surprised and kinda embarrassed as he saw who he was. The boy he had bumped into early when Makoto was showing him around. As he walked to his desk he gave the boy a small smile. Akira watches him the whole time as he sits down. He turns around when the teacher starts back teaching. As soon as he settled down in his seat he passed out due to the lack of sleep.

*time skip: lunch time*

    As their last period before lunch ended, hungry students filed out of their classes and into the cafeteria to get their food or take out their lunches and sit down with their friends to talk. Drake slowly walked up to the cafeteria with a nervous expression since he hadn’t been in a school cafeteria in almost a year cause his old high school had an open lunch period. “Nervous much Drake?” said Xander walking up to him. “What? Oh, yeah.” They walked in and found a table away from a lot of the nosey students but close enough to people they’ll soon meet. As soon as they sat down at their seats and take out their lunches, Jaden asks them. “So do you think there is someone at this school that has a distorted desire?” “Probably, however it could be difficult for us to find one. We can’t just fiddle around the Matenav.” Xander explains to him. “That’s true” Draco sighs out while eating dumplings Jaden had made for him the previous night. Jaden thinks for a moment before he suddenly remembers something important. “Wait, I know who would have a distorted desire.” He states with a smile on his face. “You do?”Both Draco and Xander said in surprise. 

    “YEAH. MY DICK BAG RELATIVE. JONATHAN BRADEMIRE!!!” He yells in a medium tone without realizing that, like perusal. What he didn’t know was that there was a group of people who heard this and their leader turned his head to see the green haired boy standing up looking happy...well what he could tell since he can only see the back of his head. Xander shakes his head trying to signal Drake that there are people watching him. He looks down and sees this then sits down in embarrassment. “Okay so now that we have the person we just need to find him. Thankfully I just know where he is.” Drake tells the other two. Nodding they go back to eating and go talking about their classes with Jaden earning a scowling from Xander for sleeping in his homeroom on their first day unaware that they were still being watched. 

*time skip after school*

    The trio walked to a giant ancient looking museum. Upon entaining they all were very surprised by the inside. The inside held the most beautiful paintings, statues, and other artworks that have been kept by the man who, for over the years, that he has stolen from others and has profited. Jaden-Drake looked around and sighed. I knew he wouldn’t put that painting up. I'm so dumb. “What painting are you talking about? Is it a baby photo?” Xander asks, looking at him. Drake turned around and looked at him. “What? Oh, Kinda. It’s a family painting that he really did paint just when I was a baby for me as a gift for when I got older. My dad explained to me that he never gave it to us and that he found out that he was stealing others paintings and selling them.” He sighed out while looking at a painting of a knight. Xander then started to look around the room. “Are you using that eagle sense of yours again?” Drake asked him. “You always have a weird glance in your eyes and that mask of yours doesn’t help it.” Xander just glanced over at him. “I know but if it’s important to you then we got to find it.” he told him. “Alright but we’ll get it back when we change his heart, come on let’s get into the metaverse.”  The trio didn’t notice a group of six walking in, due to their conversation. Both groups say what they needed to get into the metaverse without noticing each other. The palace looked like an old medieval castle. It had paintings and statues of Jonathan and the people he once considered beloved everywhere. 

     “Huh, I didn’t expect this.” Drake said. The three of them looked up to see a painting of him as a toddler dressed in princely attire.

“I wonder if this is how he views you.” Xander said. “Yeah.” Draco agreed with him. “*sigh* Maybe.” Jaden saids. All of a sudden they hear voices coming from down the hallway. It didn’t sound like any of the mini bosses or the hinch men. “What the?” Draco said in confusion. The voices got closer and they got into their fighting positions just in case they were foes not friends. They got closer to reveal a group of five humans and one humanoid cat all in different matevese suits. Jaden and Xander look at each other before the group finally notices them. “Who-” Before Jaden can finish that the cat interrupted him. He looked at the boy with black messy hair. Which Jaden could tell it was like the boy he met early today and had that strange feeling with. The cat looked at him and askes. “Are these guys? Could they be friend or are they foe?” Looking up the group saw what the strange talking cat was talking about. Confused but a little bit scared Jaden puts his sword down on the ground then puts his hands up signaling his peace as he slowly rises from the ground. “Friends. Trust me.” Everyone just looked at him a bit confused. Getting out of his confused state Xander raises his hands as well. However, as a precaution the blades are concealed ready to attack.

    Draco follows them by dropping his axe and raising his hands. But notices something odd about the black masked feline. “We’re not going to hurt you guys, We’re just here for someone’s heart to change it. That’s it.” Drake explains to them. “And how do we not know you're lying. You could be someone ready to destroy us or the distortion hinch men.” The girl that had a metal looking mask said to them. Drake gave them a WTF look. “...Okay first we don’t even know who you guys are. Second, why in the hell would we kill people that we barely just meet today mind you. Also how do you think we got in here without saying the requirements needed. I mean you can follow the person in but we didn’t really see you until now. And how do we know you aren’t going to do the same thing.” He said. “I...I don’t think they are..something about the blue eyed feline feels familiar.” Draco said to the two humans he knew. “You guys seem to be rather recognizable, Makoto Niijma. My vision is quite useful in identifying people.” Xander told them. “H-how in the effin’ hell?” The boy with spiky blond hair with a skull masked explained. “For someone who pretty vulgar I didn’t expect you not to say fuck. Ryuji Sakamoto.” Jaden said looking at Xander if that was correct. “He appears to be holding back his language.” Xander said looking at Jaden. “Like someone I should now.” “Hey! Anyways to answer your question, Him and I both got unique talents after we made contracts with our respected personas.” Jaden explains to the group. “That is quite interesting.” The bluenette boy with a japanese style fox mask. 

    “Thank you.” Jaden said with a smile. They all looked at each other trying to see if the other group would run or fight. Realizing that the situation wasn’t going anywhere Draco thought of something. “Wait! I got an idea.” He said. Everyone looked at him. “What if we all worked together.” He told them. They all looked at each. The black haired boy nodded in agreement. Suddenly they heard footsteps coming from the hall where the trios back faces it. When they turned around they saw three huge bodyguards like knights coming towards them. The knights were wearing what looked like a bodyguard’s uniform but had a more knightley apprentice. Right behind them was a man who was wearing a grown and a kingly outfit. Right in front of him was a toddler who looked just like the painting. They stopped as soon as they saw them. “Who are you and what are you doing in my castel?” The king asked the group. The group looked at each other. Most likely due not expecting to meet the main guy that fast. The black masked feline spoked up. “We are the Phantom thieves, come to take your heart.” He points to the group of six. Draco grabs his axs and spins around. “And we are the mysterious ones, the ones once called the hidden ones, we are groupless now but we come here to steal your heart so we can change what you have become.” The humanoid bearded dragon said. 

    The king took a good look at the three and sneered. “Weren’t you the group that was in America? What happened to the lot of ya?” he asked, having some idea what happened but not the full story. Drake looked at him with a serious expression on his face. “...That really ain’t any of you business. Just give us your treasure and we’ll be on our way.” he said in a serious tone. One that even surprised Xander. The poor nicely dressed boy from the painting looked very uncomfortable/ upset. He doesn’t seem to like the situation at all and is very scared. “Agreed it is none of your concern.” Xander said to the king. Drake could see the little toddler and he in a way understands how he feels. He used to be just like him. Love Jonathon without a care in the world till he found out he had stolen others works of art for himself and claimed it. He sighed to himself as he tries to regain himself before anyone sees. Unfortunately the black messy hair leader saw him and walked up to him. The boy can tell who he is just by the hair color. “Uh, Jaden-Drake are you alright? You don’t seem as calm just like you were a few moments ago. You seem more uncomfortable.” The boy said while putting a hand on the shorter boy’s shoulder and looked at him with a concerned look. “What? Oh, yeah Akira I’m fine. Just wish I didn’t have to deal with this right now since I just transferred here in all. Also like I already said you don’t have to call me by my full first name” He tells Akira. Wish more and more for the infiltration to end so they can do the rest the next day. 

    Getting back to his zone Drake bent down and grabbed his sword. Swiftly pointing and the shadow regaining his serious expression. Surprised with his action the king chuckled. “I know who you are now. It should have been obvious from the start.” The Shadow began. “It’s nice seeing you again, Jaden-Drake. My little nephew.” He points at Jaden with a smug look on his face. Most of the whole group looked and the two. Jaden looked around trying to find a way out of the situation. While they were busy no one noticed that Xander was missing, He decided to sneak around trying to find the treasure. 

-To be continued-

Words: 3009

Posted 3/23/2020