This is a little shorter than other chapters. Not by much, but it's not even 1k. Sorry about that to those who enjoy longer chapters.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"I have a question." Hifumi stood up. "You said that there was another persona user, right?" She asked. "Someone that was responsible for killing Kunikazu Okumura? Did you ever fight this person?"
The Shogi master's words hung over the Phantom Thieve's like storm clouds. The most hurt expression; however, belonged to Ren as he answered the question. "Yes. His name is… was Goro Akechi."
"The Detective Prince?!" Yoshida asked, raising to his feet. "You're surely joking!"
"No…" Ann said, fighting back a few tears. "Akechi was using the metaverse to help Masayoshi Shido rise to the top of the political world. He was the one causing all of the mental shutdowns."
"That bastard!" Ohya yelled. "Trying to act all just and innocent, but he was killing all those people?!"
Ren's fists were balled and his eyes shut tightly. He knew everything Akechi had done was nigh unforgivable, but he couldn't bring himself to hate his rival. None of the Phantom Thieves could. He shook his thoughts away and continued. "Akechi learned about us definitively when we infiltrated Okumura's palace. I'm sure he had his suspicions beforehand, but he was able to prove it after Okumura's death. He came to us under the guise of wanting to help return justice to the world, but was secretly planning a way to capture and execute me."
"I'm guessin' the execution didn't take, huh?" Iwai asked.
"No. And it's a miracle it didn't."
"What do you mean?" Kawakami asked.
"The only reason we knew Akechi was lying about when he learned about the metaverse is because of a single conversation we had in June when we went on a field trip to a TV station where he was being interviewed."
"What sort of conversation?" Chihaya asked.
"Long story short, Akechi heard Mona talk about pancakes without realisin' that it was a cat that was talking." Ryuji explained. "That bastard tried to wave it off, but once he confronted us, Ren-Ren and Mona knew something was up. If it wasn't for that, we'd all be dead."
"My word…"Hifumi uttered underneath her breath.
"Once he was inducted into the Phantom Thieves, we gave him the codename Crow." Ren began. "While we were clearing through Sae Niijima's palace, Makoto's sister, we were also plotting a way to outsmart him. I'd explain our plan, but we've been here long enough, and we've still got more to get through."
"Once we outsmarted him into thinking Joker was dead, we infiltrated the heart of Masayoshi Shido. Akechi's illegitimate father…" Makoto's words trailed off as she recalled their fight with Akechi. The room was stunned silent at the revelation of Akechi's parentage, with many jaws dropping to the floor in shock. "When we confronted him, we learned that he was a Wild Card like Ren. But he could only summon two different persona's. Robinhood and Loki. After that, we fought, only barely managing to win in the end. That's when he… When…" Makoto's mask slipped and she began to tear up ever so slightly.
Ren stepped forward and placed a comforting hand at her back. "I've got this, Queen." She quietly thanked him as she returned to her spot with the rest of the Phantom Thieves. "After we beat Akechi, we tried to convince him to help us take down his father. To start making up for all the things he did. It seemed like we were getting through to him, but before any of us could react, he was shot by Shido's cognitive version of Akechi. The cognitive Akechi summoned shadows. Too many for us to deal with while helping an injured Akechi." Ren's emotions began to betray him as well as he rubbed the tears out of one of his eyes. "Akechi… No, Crow, knowing we wouldn't be able to make it, closed the bulkhead doors and separated us from both him and the shadows. He made me promise to take Shido down. And after that, we heard two gunshots. Futaba told us that she couldn't detect him after that…"
By this point, most of the Phantom Thieves were fighting back tears, if not outright crying. Ren's confidants, his friends, could see how much Akechi's death affected all of them, despite his crimes against both them and society. They hesitated to even speak.