"A spare uniform? And what on earth would you need one for?" Kawakami asked, skeptical that her student was up to anything innocent.
"It's to play a joke on a friend." Akira responded bluntly.
"Well, at least you're honest." Kawakami sighed, shaking her head. "I'll see what I can do, okay?" she promised.
The two then said their goodbyes, and Akira hung up the phone.
"She'll see what she can do." Akira relayed this information to the two people sitting across from him.
"How often do you see that Becky chick? Aren't maids expensive as shit?" Ryuji asked, not sure if he ought to be impressed or pitying his friend.
Akira simply shrugged, giving him the same air of mystery that he always managed to maintain.
"Do we even have time for this?" Yusuke spoke up, setting down his cup of coffee. "We only have two weeks left to infiltrate Sae Nijima's palace." he reminded them. He typically trusted Joker's judgement wholeheartedly, though this mission seemed more nerve-wracking than any that had come before it. Ever since the incident with Okumura's palace, the idea of another mission and another potential mishap were weighing on everyone's minds.
"Lighten up- our leader here knows what he's doing." he insisted, before looking to Akira for confirmation. "Right, man?"
Akira nodded confidently. He knew the way the team functioned, and knew that when it came down to it, they could probably plow through the palace in a day or two if need be. It wouldn't come down to that, of course. As he was about to speak, his phone vibrated. It had been only a minute or two, but 'Becky' had already responded.
'You're in luck. I asked my boss, and we actually do have a couple spare uniforms. You only need one, correct?'
'Yeah.'
'I'll bring it over tonight, then.'
'Thanks, I appreciate it.'
Akira put his phone away, and Ryuji looked to him expectantly.
"We're good to go." Akira confirmed, a smirk at his lips.
"So, what exactly is the point of this?" Yusuke asked, still hesitant about the plan.
"Geez, man. You can be so damn dense." Ryuji muttered. "We're just gonna hit up Akechi and mess with him a bit, that's all."
"I have gathered that much. My question is why we are doing this."
"Because, dude! Akechi thinks he's so effin' smart, thinking he's gonna trap us and kill our leader after blackmailing us into letting him on the team… don't you want to wipe the smug-ass grin off his face? He still thinks we don't know what he's up to, so this is the perfect opportunity to get some premature revenge." Ryuji explained.
Yusuke considered this. He did think that Akechi deserved to have a bit of egg on his face, so to speak, though still had mixed feelings on how they intended to execute their plan.
"I'd like to get a good laugh before I have to play dead." Akira spoke up with the most earnest expression.
"Just picture it, man." Ryuji spoke up again. "It'll be effin' hilarious."
After a bit of coaxing, Yusuke did find himself humored, and was chuckling to himself.
"Alright, I concede. He does rather deserve it, I would say." Yusuke agreed.
"Now we're talkin'! Okay, Akira, you're gonna message him, right?" Ryuji clarified. The leader nodded. "Good- we're shooting for tomorrow night, then." he added.
"How do you plan on convincing Akechi to go along with this?" Yusuke asked with a hint of doubtfulness.
"I got this." Akira said simply. He'd been taking speaking lessons from a local politicians, and found that he had gotten damn near perfect and constructing an argument.
"He's got this- hell, if he can convince literal demons to join his team on a regular basis, this should be a breeze. Come to think of it, this is practically the same thing." Ryuji laughed at his own joke. He then paused, looking around. "Say, this ain't relevant, really, but where's Morgana?" he asked.
"He's staying with Haru for the next couple of days to keep her company. She says she's doing fine, but she had just gone through a lot." Akira explained.
"That's actually really cool of him to do that." Ryuji admitted, though felt a bit awkward as they now all were thinking of what had happened. "Er, anyways- now's not the time to be dwelling on that shit. It's getting late, so I should probably head home." he said, standing up and grabbing his bag.
"Late? It's only six in the evening." Yusuke pointed out.
"Dumbass- I was trying to be subtle!" Ryuji sighed. "He's having that maid over tonight- granted, it's to bring him the uniform, but still. I don't wanna intrude on their… uh, alone time." he explained.
"Why are you talking as though I'm not right here?" Akira questioned, tilting his head to the side. Ryuji paused, furrowing his brow as his friend didn't try to object or say that Becky and him didn't have alone time.
"You're one hell of a guy." Ryuji muttered, then looked to Yusuke. "Come on, let's go." he suggested.
"Very well." Yusuke yielded, getting up as well. As they headed to the stairwell, Yusuke looked back at Akira. "Please, make good choices." he requested before leaving, only having Ryuji's words to go off of when he thought about what his leader was doing with a maid service.
Once they were gone, Akira rolled his eyes and took out his phone. He needed to message Akechi and make sure their plan could even be enacted.
'Are you free tomorrow night?' he messaged Akechi. He was fairly certain this was his first time messaging the traitor outside of the group conversation.
'I very well might be. Why is it that you ask?'
'Ryuji, Yusuke, and I will be meeting at Le Blanc after hours. We haven't properly welcomed you onto the team yet.'
'A proper welcoming? I was not aware you had a specific rite of passage for new recruits.'
'We do for the guys. It's important that you do it, too, since you're part of the group now.'
'I find the concept of 'hazing' to be a bit childish. Frankly, I didn't think you would conduct such a practice.'
'So?'
Akira rolled his eyes and waited for a response. He waited about ten minutes, and was about to send another message when Akechi finally responded.
'Very well, I'll play along to humor you. I presume it's nothing too absurd, correct?'
'I wouldn't say it's anything bad.'
'That's an interesting way to word it.'
'I guess. Anyway, you gave me your word, so we'll be expecting you tomorrow.'
Akira put away his phone, hearing a knock on the door downstairs. It was likely Kawakami with the uniform. As all the pieces were falling into place, an amused grin spread across his face. Heading downstairs, he couldn't help but chuckle under his breath.
Akechi was going to try and put him through hell in the coming weeks- this couldn't be reasonably avoided. The lengths the whole team was going through just to ensure that Akira wouldn't die was tedious, and there was still a margin of error.
However, Akira decided that the following night's events would make it almost worth it.
[[Author Note: Another story that requires some quick setup before I go full-on trash-mode. I think we all know where this is going, but I have a plot twist in mind that will hopefully shake it up a bit.]]