Chapter 10
"It has now been five days since Shinjiro Sasaki, venerated head of the Rising Sun Daily media group, and chief campaign strategist for the United Future Party, has fallen into a spontaneous coma. Party leader and candidate for Prime Minister, Masayoshi Shido, was reached for comment, and had this to say:
"Shinjiro Sasaki was a dedicated man, and a tremendous asset to our team here. He worked himself to the bone, day and night, to see our dream for this great country come to fruition, even in spite of the recent passing of his beloved daughter, a victim of the epidemic of mental shutdowns. No doubt he was consumed by the desire to see justice done. What father wouldn't be? But even the greatest of men have their limits. All I can do is pray for his recovery, and work myself twice as hard in his stead. It's the least I can do to repay everything he's done for me. I reaffirm my vow that once I am Prime Minister, I will bring these mental shutdowns to an end!"
"Support for the United Future Party is expected to rise sharply in the wake of this development as the people empathize with Masayoshi Shido's and Shinjiro Sasaki's fervor. Many have come to see Shinjiro Sasaki as a martyr, and have rallied around the United Future Party, clamoring for the government to do something about the mental shutdowns. However, it's appearing more and more likely that the country is in for a change in management, come November."
It had been almost a week since the Phantom Thieves had wrapped things up within Shinjiro Sasaki's Palace. With Sasaki's Shadow having committed suicide to deny the Phantom Thieves any useful information, the man himself had fallen into a coma. Fortunately, he wasn't dead, but that didn't make the Thieves feel much better, Rico least of all.
The dark-skinned man sat sulking in a booth in Leblanc, his full cup of coffee untouched, and growing colder by the second, giving occasional angry glances toward the TV in the back. Akira, who had just finished up behind the counter, took off his apron and sat down at Rico's booth on the opposite side of the table with a plate of curry.
"How do you feel, Rico?"
"Well, let's see. My girlfriend and child are still dead, we still don't know who's behind the mental shutdowns because Sasaki decided to give himself one, and now I have to listen to people call that rat-bastard a hero. How the fuck do you think I feel, kid?"
"Hm. Yeah, when you put it that way, that does suck Mara-balls."
"Mara-balls?"
"Please don't ask."
"Hmph. Whatever," Rico said, turning to face the wall, resting his head on his hand, and sighing heavily.
"It wasn't a complete loss, you know," Akira said, trying to sound optimistic. "Sasaki basically confirmed that Shido knows about the Metaverse. Who knows how a guy like him has made use of it. He may even be the one behind the mental shutdowns."
"Even if that's true, how the hell do you expect us to prove that, Akira? We'd have to prove the existence of the Metaverse itself. Who would even begin to believe a place like that, or powers like ours, exist?!"
"We'll find a way, Rico. For now, we'll just have to keep on keepin' on."
"That's just not enough for me, kid," Rico replied. "Sasaki deserves to pay for his crimes, but he decided to take the easy way out. You guys told me that if we did things your way, he'd confess everything! If I could find that black-masked killer again, that'd be something, but as it is, I should've just killed Sasaki when I had the chance!"
"Would that really have gotten you what you wanted, though?" Akira said, unfazed by Rico's increasingly angered tone. "Whether Sasaki is dead or in a coma matters little if what you want is for the truth to come out. But if revenge is what you desire, then you might as well walk into Sasaki's hospital room with a gun and blow his brains out, for all the good that would bring. Is that what you want to do?"
"It might make me feel better," Rico said. When Akira raised a concerned eyebrow at him, Rico sighed and his composure relaxed. "Oh fine, you win," he pouted. "I know we already established that killing Sasaki wouldn't solve anything, but…" he trailed off, staring down at his reflection in the coffee. "When I beat Sasaki and reunited with Nagi, even if it was just a phantom created from our memories…I felt like I was finally getting some closure. I staked my future with Nagi on my journalism career…and now after all that's happened…I can't help feeling like it was all for nothing…"
"…I know how it feels to be robbed of justice. My circumstances weren't quite as extreme as yours, but I know what it's like to feel like you did everything right, only to wind up with shit in your hands," Akira said, his mood darkening for the briefest of moments before returning to his usual passive expression.
"Sounds like a story," replied Rico.
"For another time," said Akira, finishing his curry.
Just then, the door to Leblanc chimed open, and in walked Chiyo Sasaki. She was dressed casually for a change, wearing blue jeans with a light brown jacket over a red t-shirt, carrying a brown, leather purse over her shoulder. She spotted Rico and waved hello, walking over to him. Akira excused himself from the table and tied his apron back on.
"I hope I'm not interrupting," Chiyo said.
"Not at all, miss. Can I get you anything?" Akira asked, clearing away his plate and utensils.
"Oh, no thank you, I'm not staying long," she said, sitting down across from Rico. Akira nodded and went back behind the bar to take care of his dishes. Chiyo gave Rico a small smile as he sat up in his seat.
"Hey, Rico. How're you doing?"
"I should be asking you that. First, Nagi dies, and now your dad's in coma. That…can't be easy to deal with."
"I appreciate that, Rico. I won't deny, it's been tough," Chiyo replied, sighing.
"At least you've got Saito and Sae to lean on."
"And you, Rico," said Chiyo. "I'm honestly surprised you're still in town, but I'm glad you are. I could use every friend I've got right now…"
"Nice of you to consider me someone to be counted on. Not sure I'd agree with you, though," Rico said looking down.
"Oh stop it, Rico. If my sister's boyfriend isn't dependable, then I don't know who is."
Rico's head snapped up, his eyes wide and his mouth agape. "You…you knew?"
"Come on, Rico, we've known each other for years, and Nagi and I are sisters! Did you really think that I, of all people, wouldn't find out?" Chiyo chuckled.
"Then you know how I was out chasing a pipe dream instead being with her," Rico deprecated himself.
"Rico, Nagi loved you. She understood why you were doing what you were, and so did I. Plus the excitement and scandal of a secret romance made for lots of juicy sister-talk!"
Rico flushed as he imagined the details of his and Nagi's sex-life being the subject of sisterly gossip. He shook his head to get the thoughts out of his mind.
"I always knew there was something between you two, even back in high school," she went on. "The way you two always spent so much time together after school, even after the rest of the newspaper club had left. I'm not sure how I would have felt about keeping things on the down-low, but Nagi was always the optimist in the family. She even spent her free time working on this," Chiyo said, reaching into her purse and retrieving a stack of papers. She handed them to Rico, recognition flashing on his face.
"This…this is our manuscript for 'Lyres in Yomi'…and it's finished! Where…how…?!"
"I found them the other day when I was going through some of Nagi's old things. She would have wanted you to have it."
"I didn't even know she was still working on it… When I moved back to America, I completely forgot about it…"
"She must have wanted to surprise you. I read through it myself, and it's pretty good."
"That's only after she edited most of it, I'm sure," said Rico. However, as Rico read through, he became shocked. "All of my original ideas are still in here! She just added on to what I already had…"
"That's surprising. Your stories were usually crap until Nagi added her fixes to them."
"You don't have to remind me!" Rico cried with embarrassment.
"She must have been really impressed with your work on this one. Y'know, if you want, I'd be willing to publish it."
"Say what, now?"
"Well, with my father out of commission, I've taken over as the head of Rising Sun Daily. I could dedicate some resources to getting your story in people's hands."
"That's a kind offer Chiyo, but I've got some hang ups about having something Nagi and I wrote published by Japanese-Breitbart."
Chiyo folded her arms as her eyes narrowed. "I'm not my father, Rico. He's run the company his way for a long time, but with me in charge, we're going to be heading in a new direction. I'd like us to become more open to embracing and promoting new ideas. A lot of people won't like it, especially with this being an election year, and we're going to lose a lot of support and sponsors, but I believe in standing resolved in one's ideals. I want to use Rising Sun's resources to promote a more open and welcoming view of the world, rather than closing us off like my father and Masayoshi Shido would have us do. And I would like you to be a part of that, Rico. I think Nagi would, too."
"So you're not just offering to publish our story, but you're offering me a job, too?" Rico asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I can confidently say we're going to have a lot of job openings in the next few days. You were born to be a writer, Rico. Whether journalist or author, you've got talent, and Nagi wouldn't want to see you give up on your passion. Neither do I, for that matter. If you still feel like putting your skills towards a good cause, if you still feel like fighting for justice," she said with a wink, "I'd love to have you on my team."
Rico stared at Chiyo, then back down at the manuscript, a hundred thoughts running through his head. Finally, he looked back up at Chiyo and spoke. "When Nagi first convinced me to join the newspaper club, it was because she found me snooping around trying to figure out who rigged the student council election. No one believed me when I said there was no way that many people voted for Sae…"
"Well, everyone knew you two didn't like each other. You still don't as far as I can tell," giggled Chiyo.
"She's always been one scary lady, even back then…"
"And everyone else back then agreed with you. This might surprise you, but you actually weren't the only one who thought there was foul play. But everyone was too scared to say anything about it. Everyone, but you. I thought Nagi was crazy to follow you around the way she did, but she wouldn't be dissuaded."
"Honestly, I don't think she so much as believed my story so much as she was just curious," Rico said, scratching his head. "And it wasn't like I wasn't scared, myself. But I just knew there was something there. Of course, it turned out that even while there was foul play, Sae didn't know anything about it…"
"She voluntarily resigned as student council president, and she's hated you ever since. What are we discussing ancient history for?" Chiyo asked.
"When I started writing, it was for the sake of revealing the truth. Even my short-stories were meant to bring light to truths about the world we live in. But I lost sight of that when thought I needed more than my ideals to be worthy Nagi. Not this time. Who cares if I get blacklisted, again? If you'll truly have me, I'll be happy to work for you!" Rico said, the flames of determination sparking his eyes once more.
"Then the first thing to do is get you set up with an apartment. Saito's always been a generous guy, but you can't sleep on his couch forever! I call you later with the arrangements! Oh, this is going to be so much fun! The Shujin Academy Newspaper Club really will be working together again!" she cried giddily, grabbing her purse, and leaving the café.
Akira waited until the doors closed behind Chiyo and turned to Rico, grinning. "So I guess you'll be sticking around then, eh Bandit?" he said, using Rico's codename.
"Looks like it, Joker," Rico said, returning the gesture.
"I'll tell everyone the good news then," Akira said, pulling out his phone and walking upstairs.
Rico allowed himself a smile and finally raised his coffee mug to his lips, not caring that it had long since ceased to be hot.
"There's a special place in Hell for those who waste good coffee. Here's to you then, Nagi," Rico said, raising his mug in the air. "And to doing things right this time…"
To be continued...