Where We Belong
Chapter 1: Home
Akira opened the door to Leblanc after having wished all his friends goodbye. It was hard for him to walk away from this place that had been his home for almost the past year. He may have had a rough start because of his criminal record upon his arrival but that quickly changed once Ann, Ryuji, and Morgana became his friends and the original team of the Phantom Thieves. Of course, he cared deeply for everyone he had met while staying in Leblanc's attic. Yusuke, Makoto, and Haru where all close friends of his. Even the people he met that didn't wind up joining the Phantom Thieves held a special place in his heart. Sojiro his guardian, Miss Kawakami, Ohya the reporter, Iwai the soft-hearted Yakuza, Hifumi the talented shogi player, Chihaya and her fortunes, Takemi and her crazy medicines, Shinya the young gamer, Yoshida and his inspiring speeches, Mishima and his website that helped save the world, Sae the obsessive prosecutor that helped save him from death, even the now fused twins of the velvet room Lavenza.
Only two held a sour place in his heart. The imposter that forced its twisted game upon him, nearly killing him in the process, holding itself as a god. And Goro Akechi, a tormented soul similar to himself in more ways then he'd care to admit, and the cause of most of the mental shutdowns, including Haru's father. The god was easy enough to hate, it was Akechi that gave him most of the turmoil he felt. He gave his life to save everyone else's, and in the end, Akira felt as if maybe he had been willing to try and make up for all the evil he had done.
The one he pained for the most however, was the girl that stole his heart, Futaba Sakura. Ironically, they both stole the other's heart. Whether she did it on purpose or not he wasn't sure but he was happy she did. That only made not seeing her there when he returned even more painful for him. He wanted to see her one last time, knowing no matter how many "last times" he got it wouldn't be enough.
"You finish saying your goodbyes?" Sojiro asked snapping his mind back to reality.
"Yeah." Akira said as he remembered all the better moments he had here.
"Well, how'd it go? Did it make you wanna stay?" Sojiro pried.
"Of course it did." He said with a slight hint of sadness in his voice.
"I see. You must have made a lot of good memories here. Your leaving early tomorrow from Shibuya, right? Make sure to pack up before you head to sleep." The old man reminded. "Oh, and take that stupid cat with you. I don't want it getting lost and ending up back here." He joked.
Akira chuckled and headed upstairs to pack his things, taking extra care with each of his gifts before heading to bed.
"Hey." Sojiro called out. "You got everything?"
Akira gave a nod, still slightly groggy.
"You know, when I took you in, I thought I was the one helping you… but it turns out it was the other way around. Take care." Sojiro said.
"You too, Sojiro." Akira replied with a warm smile hiding the growing sadness.
"Sorry… I wanted to have Futaba see you off too… I know how much you each mean to each other. I haven't been able to find her since this morning though, along with that cat. If you end up back in the city, come on by. I'll at least treat you to a nice cup of coffee. Wait, that means I can't go closing the store early, huh…" He trailed off. He shook his head clear and smiled at the young man. "Well? What are you waiting for? Hurry up and go."
"Thank you Sojiro, for everything." Akira said as he gave a bow.
"…Yeah." Sojiro replied as he started cleaning some mugs for the day. He waited till the door to the café closed to pull out the diary the young man had kept. He didn't want Akira to see him wipe a tear from his eye. He wanted the young man to stay but he wouldn't force him to do what he didn't want to do.
Akira walked down the busy Shibuya streets towards the stations with a slight smile on his face as he went over all the memories he had over the time he had here one last time before he heard a couple of familiarly loud voices call out to him from across the main intersection.
"Yoooo! You over there!" Ryuji shouted
"Hey, look this way!" Ann joined as they shouted from a large blue van.
"And eve after we said we'd disband. My word." Yusuke said as he walked up next to Akira.
"Sorry about the weird parking job. The engine just died on us right here." Ryuji said as they walked up to the van.
"Hey, Morgana, are you done yet?" Ann asked as she peeked around the window.
"Why the heck am I in charge of the car again?" Morgana asked with a plug in his mouth and his tail wrapped around a screwdriver.
"And I thought we were done?" Yusuke said with a smirk.
"It's fine; we're on break." Haru reminded.
"Exams are done too, right? Come on, why don't you let us drive you home." Makoto offered.
Akira cast a look into the back seat and saw Futaba sitting back there quietly smiling at him, a couple of tears in her eyes. He smiled back at her and climbed into the van. "You really, really gotta go?" Futaba asked.
"C'mon man, nobody's forcin' you to leave y'know." Ryujia said earning a nod from Futaba. "Wipin' your slate clean ain't so easy. You see what I mean?" he asked as he cast a look to the black sedan parked a few car lengths behind them.
"Things must be slow these days." Yusuke said.
"Don't mind them. What they think of us doesn't really matter." Makoto replied.
"Yeah she's right. We can totally do whatever we want to do." Ann joined in before Morgana jumped in and sat on Akira's lap.
"The car's fixed!" He announced. "Just had to borrow a plug."
It wasn't long before the gang had left the hustle and bustle of the main Shibuya streets and were on the toll road. They had been enjoying their time together driving the long way towards Akira's home.
Ryuji broke their conversation first. "Aaanyways, now that we gotcha, we ain't takin' you straight home."
"Don't." Akira said as he stared down at Morgana.
"What, all I'm sayin' is." Ryuji continued before being cut off.
"Don't take me back!" Akira practically shouted.
Makoto cast a concerned glance to their leader in the rearview mirror before pulling off the nearest exit as the gang sat in quiet before pulling in to an empty beach parking lot.
"Akira, are you sure this is?" Makoto said again only to be cut off by Akira.
"I don't want to go back there!" He shouted. "Before I came here I was treated like trash! Not even my parents cared about me after the bullshit with Shido happened! Once I got a criminal record it was like I wasn't even their son anymore, they don't care about me anymore."
"Akira, I'm sure that's not true." Ann tried to calm her friend down.
"Isn't it Ann? Isn't it though!" He replied as tears streamed down his face. "Take a guess at how many times they called or texted me to see if I was ok. Here, I'll save you the trouble. They never did!" Everyone's heads looked to the ground, except for Futaba, Makoto and Haru.
Futaba walked up and wrapped her arms around her boyfriend. "Hey now, its ok." She said gently. "We're here now and we aren't going anywhere."
Akira's cracked wall finally broke, and all the emotion he had been holding back since his first day came flooding out. He sobbed heavily into Futaba's chest as she ran her hand gently up and down his back. "All I would have wanted was a simple text asking how I was or if I was ok!" He sobbed. "But they didn't even do that! Their one and only son and they couldn't even care enough to find out what had actually happened!" The whole group stayed quiet as they all gathered around him and joined in to give him one big group hug. It took the better part of an hour for the group to get him to finally calm down and back in the van. "Please you guys, I don't want to go back there."
"Where do you want to go?" Futaba asked him as he leaned into her shoulder.
"I want to go home." Akira replied. "I want to go back to Leblanc. My home is with you guys and the city we helped reform." He said as his eyes started to close. "I want to be with my friends and also." He said before stealing a kiss from Futaba. "I want to stay with you Futaba." He said before he passed out, the toll of his emotions too taxing on the young man.
Akira woke up on his bed in Leblanc's attic, dressed in the same outfit from earlier. He could hear his friends talking downstairs.
"Hey." Morgana said as Akira sat up. "Everyone is downstairs waiting for you."
"Thanks Morgana." Akira replied.
"I just wanted to say, I'm glad we aren't leaving this place." Morgana said with a smile.
"Me too Mona, me too." Akira said as his phone buzzed. "You go on ahead, I'll be right down." Morgana nodded his head and jumped down to the lower floor. Akira sighed as he looked at his phone. The display showed a single text from his father.
"When will you be home?" It read.
"I have decided to stay here in Shibuya with Sojiro Sakura dad. I won't be coming back." Akira replied before locking his phone and heading downstairs. To him, he was already home.