Wings of Rebellion Chapter 34: The Mastermind, a persona series fanfic

A/n (2021/02/23): whoa, it's been a while... sorry for the very long delay again!

I hope everyone is doing well. Here, I've lost my job thanks to the pandemic's effects, but aside from that, everything is fine. Most importantly, we're well and healthy.

Just so everyone knows, I've finished Royal. I think there were things that could've been better (like the true ending that I thought felt a bit rushed), but overall, I like the additions and the third semester content. Speaking of which, thank you everyone for the suggestions on whether or not to include Royal content in my fic. I've decided that I'll have Royal characters make appearances, and depending on how well they fit into the story, I might include third semester content down the line.

There were many days when I wasn't inspired to write and the scenes didn't flow at all. After a break from Persona, it looks like the inspiration is coming back. At least I believe I've finally managed to glue all the chapter's scenes nicely! This chapter was a hard one...

In the previous chapter's notes, I wrote that I might end up publishing a 30k words chapter eventually. I checked the word count after finishing this chapter, and... it's over 38k words! It means this chapter is worth more than triple the normal ones! I hope it makes up for at least three months of absence :P .

Wings of Rebellion

Written by Aiyumi

Disclaimer: Persona and all related characters are property of Atlus. Any trademarks that may be referenced in this fan fiction are properties of their respective owners. I am just a fan and do not have any relations to said people/companies.

Chapter 34: The Mastermind

"'Kind of shady' is a compliment to him." Crow spoke with disdain. "Masayoshi Shido is the mastermind himself!"

Realization finally dawned on Joker, and she recalled the talk with Sojiro a few days ago. Masayoshi Shido, that man who had been speaking on TV, was really the mastermind, just like Sojiro had deduced. And Futaba was the mastermind's daughter!

"F-for real...?" Oracle muttered, almost speechless.

The person who had taken the revelation the worst, though, was Crow. He stepped away from them and began muttering to himself. "No, this can't be true! She is... then we are really...?" He seemed more desperate at each second. "Wait, how dare he order her mother's death and also ruin her life with a fake suicide note! Did he do it aware that she's his daughter? No, don't tell me it was on purpose... and I, I..." Crow's voice lowered even more. "I obeyed him... it's my fault..."

Joker began getting worried. "Crow, are you okay?"

"I'm not!" He didn't even try to pretend. Crow dashed away from her and began screaming, cursing and punching the wall violently. He was more broken than Joker had ever seen him. It was painful to watch.

Scared, Oracle squeezed Joker's hand firmly.

"We should let him get stuff out of his system and calm down a bit." Joker decided and whispered to her.

While they watched, Joker could only imagine the expression hidden behind the boy's mask. The result of combining the hatred towards the mastermind, and the utter guilt and shame at himself. For once she was glad he had his mask on, because his expression must be terrifying, and Joker felt her heart would tear apart if she were to see it. Oracle may be having the same thoughts, too.

Crow unleashed his anger onto the wall until his arms were trembling from all the punching. Then, he leaned into the wall and closed his eyes.

"Crow." Joker's voice startled him.

Crow backed away from the wall and turned behind to look at her. "You... were still here?"

"Did you really think I'd just turn my back and leave?"

He actually did. He had thought she had gotten scared of his outburst and left. Now he was horrified that she had seen it all.

"Have you calmed down?" Joker asked.

"... More or less," Crow said honestly.

Joker giggled. "Already sounds like a huge improvement to me."

"Uh, what about Oracle? How's she taking it?"

"Why don't you ask her yourself?"

And Crow realized that Oracle was still standing in the same spot as before. He hesitantly took a few steps closer, and she did the same.

Once they were in conversational range, Oracle spoke up shakily. "Hey... you d-don't hate me now, right?"

"Huh?"

"You said y-you hate that man from the bottom of your heart. A-and now you found out I'm his daughter..."

Crow was shocked that Oracle would think such a thing. "O-of course I don't hate you! How could I? You a-are..." He was still flabbergasted to learn that they were real siblings, after all. He actually wanted to say she was his cute and dear little sister, but they had already had enough shocking revelations for the day. "You are you," he said instead.

"Good. I-I think so too." Oracle gave him a sheepish smile. "I was mulling over this while I waited for you to calm down. Mom loved me even though I'm the daughter of an evil guy. In the end, I guess who my dad is doesn't matter, just like she had said."

That mature response impressed Crow. "You're strong."

"... I dunno. But I'm fine. I don't even know the man anyway."

"You hadn't known him, huh? This was probably for the best." Crow realized an important difference between Oracle and him. She hadn't known who her father was and hadn't even heard his name. Crow, on the other hand, had heard his mother mention Shido's name many times, and was unfortunate enough to have met Shido in person and seen enough of the man's nature to begin harboring hate. If he hadn't met Shido or learned the man's name, he probably wouldn't have followed that destructive path.

"Sojiro's not my real dad, but he's been nearby ever since I was little. He liked my mom a lot, too, and the three of us always hung out together. In my head, he's always been family."

A pang hit Crow's chest. Oracle had lost those happy family moments because of him.

But before he had time to apologize, she spoke again. "It's so comforting to have a loving family. Um, what about you? What about your family?"

Once again, Crow had the urge to run away, but he also felt strongly that he needed to say something.

Joker had been listening to the conversation. When the problematic topic popped up, she thought Crow would explode and run away again. However, this wasn't what happened.

"I... have a little sister," he said, with shame both in his expression and his voice.

"Huh?" Joker startled, as she was pretty sure Crow was referring to Oracle herself. The memory from the dream where he had basically said he was the mastermind's illegitimate son flashed in Joker's mind, but she shook it off. It had been just a dream... Crow must have hinted at Oracle being his sister because she had unofficially "adopted" him. That had to be it...

"She's the cutest, smartest, and most adorable sister ever..."

"Oh?" Oracle inched her head closer curiously.

Crow avoided meeting Oracle's gaze. "She deserves a better brother, though. Someone who can set a good example. Not someone who did so many bad things... who went as far as to... kill people."

"Better than you? That'd be quite hard! You're too awesome already."

"Uh...?" Crow rolled his eyes as though Oracle were speaking nonsense.

"Crow, I know you feel horrible because of what you did. When I was depressed, I was paralyzed of guilt thinking it was my fault that my mom died."

"It isn't your fault." Crow was quick to interject.

"Yeah, but my relatives despised me because they believed that fake suicide note, and I was such a wreck that I was believing it too."

Joker noticed how Crow was burning of guilt again. Oracle didn't seem to realize that her words were only making him feel worse, though.

Crow's gaze fell. "... I'm sorry. It's all my fault. You didn't do anything wrong. You didn't deserve to go through any of that, or feel any of that..."

"Hmm, you know? Maybe I needed to. If I hadn't felt any of that... the sadness, the guilt, the depression... I'm not sure if I'd manage to understand you. You must be feeling way worse, and I can only imagine how horrible it must be! But at least I can say I kinda understand."

Crow could only stare at her agape.

Oracle continued speaking. "When Mom was gone, I thought it'd be the end of the line for me. Then, the fake Medged happened. Later, you told us it was going to spiral into that nasty trap. But if not for that fake Medged thing, I wouldn't have approached the Phantom Thieves and wouldn't have started over. Now I feel much stronger! Um, I guess what I want to say is, anyone should be able to start over, no matter where from."

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Crow spoke up hesitantly. "Uh, Oracle. Don't you... hate me?"

"Huh? Not at all. I thought you'd hate me after we found out I'm the mastermind's daughter, but you said you don't, so..." It was puzzling how she could say that so matter of factly.

"But... he gave out the order, a-and I...!"

"Um, you only did what you did 'cause your heart was berserk, right? Before the Phantom Thieves found me, I also had a berserk heart, and almost did stupidly bad stuff too. So, I kinda get it. When you showed up, I didn't know what to feel. I had thought I should hate you. But you told us your story and seemed so regretful. Then you helped us avoid the trap and saved me from the collapsing Palace. You showed us how hard you're working to start over, and I caught myself admiring how amazing you are. When I realized it, I was sad that you weren't with us at our celebrations, and that you always left the Metaverse without us. And when we come to Mementos without you, the group feels incomplete to me. It's scary when you break down, but when you're fine, you always know what you're doing when you're helping us, and I feel safe with you around. In the end, I just can't bring myself to hate you."

Crow couldn't help but argue, because Oracle's words were going totally against reason. "How can you say these things? You had your precious family moments taken away because of me! Many of your traumas must be my fault too! What if you don't recover!?"

"I was scared of that. But I'm actually managing to overcome my traumas a bit. It's hard and scary, and progress is slow, but it's still progress... Yeah, I miss my mom, and yeah, her death felt like a piece of my heart was taken away. But it's in the past and there's nothing we can do about it. I'm mostly okay now, though. I have Sojiro and Akira... uh, I mean Joker, and everyone else, and have lots of special moments with them too."

Crow lowered his head. "I don't understand how you could get over it so easily. I can't!"

"Raise your head, Crow. You have to focus on moving forward. I'm not saying you should forget everything and act as though nothing had happened. But if you let that guilt consume you, you'll be paralyzed like I was, and won't be able to do anything anymore. Since you already have a Persona and can't have a Palace, we'll have no way to save your heart..."

It was both comforting and kind of embarrassing to have her reprimand him like that. But from all things Crow could be feeling, he was feeling proud of Oracle. It was a wonder how strong and mature she had become.

"You have a point..." He admitted, and slowly raised his head.

Oracle nodded, satisfied. "Yeah, that's more like it! Moving forward! Um, so, you got me curious. Tell me more about your sis. Do you get along with her?"

It was awkward to answer that question to her directly. "Well... things between us are a bit... weird..."

"Oh. How so?" She just had to ask...

Crow chose his words carefully. "Um, we were far apart. It's only now that we're getting to know each other. It all happened so suddenly, and caring for a sibling isn't a responsibility that I'm ready to deal with. But she's great. She's the first person that made me feel proud of someone other than myself. But she, uh, didn't like me much. And I kept thinking that if she were to find out about the wrong things I did..."

"You like her a lot." It wasn't a question. "When you lamented you think she deserves a better bro, it sounded like you actually wanna start over and become this ideal bro!"

"Hmm?" He took a moment to consider that notion. "I had never thought of that before... well, I hadn't thought of how it'd feel to have a sister to begin with... but maybe it's as you say."

"I'm rooting for you! I'm sure you can do it! You've grown a lot. I mean, I can't even imagine you while you were evil! You know, if my mom were to see you now, to see how much you've changed and how much you've grown, I think she'd forgive you. So..." Oracle paused. "... Sojiro and I forgive you too."

A huge wave of compassion and kindness inundated Crow's heart, and he couldn't contain his tears.

But before he had the chance to say anything else, Oracle suddenly got all excited. "I did it! Sojiro, I finally said it! Yaay!" The next second, she was tackling Crow into a hug and stunning him even more. She noticed his sniffles. "Huh? You're crying?"

"O-of course I am!" He snapped. "How a-am I supposed not to cry after hearing you say stuff like that!?"

"Y-yeah, I'm crying too." Joker approached them, with tears escaping from her mask, but a smile on her lips. "I've just been waiting for the two of you to come to terms with all this stuff for good!"

"Ah, I f-feel so happy that I think I'll cry too!" Oracle admitted.

"No one's stopping you," Joker said playfully.

"Uh, but it's embarrassing..."

"Only you'll get away without crying? This isn't fair!" Crow snapped again in mock anger.

Oracle had tears of joy in her eyes. "Um, o-okay, but now I keep imagining our awesome secret agent being all sweet while caring for a little sis."

Joker giggled. "I can't stop imagining that, either!"

"Ugh! You two are making fun of me, aren't you!?" He asked accusingly, utterly flustered.

"No, I mean it." Oracle was firm. "You're so nice, gentle, and cute too."

That was too much. Crow's face was burning of embarrassment behind his mask.

"I have to agree with her," Joker added. "You have your explosive moments, but you can be so sweet too."

"Ugh, where did you even get that from?!" Then he blurted out in a timid voice. "It's y-you two who are cute..."

"Aaaah!" Embarrassed, Oracle buried her face in his shoulder.

"Awww. See? That was adorable."

Crow gasped. "I o-only said the truth."

"And so did we." Joker countered.

"Uh, w-w-whatever..." He finally returned Oracle's gesture by hugging her tightly. "I still think I don't deserve forgiveness... but thanks for being so kind and understanding. It means a lot to me."

Crow relaxed and allowed himself to enjoy all those warm feelings, and the Hermit Confidant ranked up.

Once the three Phantom Thieves had stopped crying, Oracle broke the embrace and walked back to Joker. "Okay, time to make like a tree."

"Oracle, would you wait at the entrance for a bit?" Joker asked. "I'd like to have a word with Crow. It may take a while."

"Okay. Then I'll start working on the super program for our calling card to the mastermind while I wait." Oracle took her phone and teleported out of that end area.

"What are you scheming, Joker?" Crow asked warily. "Don't tell me you're thinking of convincing me to accompany you out of the Metaverse..."

"That wasn't what I was thinking, but if you'd like to do it, then by all means."

He shrugged her comment off. "What are you thinking, then?"

"I wanted to make sure you're okay. I got worried when you broke down earlier. Think you can keep from losing it the next time you run into the mastermind? If not for your own sake, then try to do it for us. We need you firm and strong, you know. As much as we'd like to, we can't keep you in check when you aren't near us."

Crow nodded firmly. "I'll keep you guys in mind. I'll do my best to keep composed, I promise."

Joker smiled in relief. "Good. We'll be counting on you."

Silence fell between them. For a moment, they only stared at each other.

"Crow." Joker broke the silence. "Um, you still envy me... right?"

Crow avoided her gaze. "You know that I do. I thought we had agreed to just forget this issue and move on, though..."

"Yeah, but I can't forget it, and I'm sure you can't, either."

Great. Discussing that issue was bound to make their relationship even more awkward.

Crow grunted irritably. "I don't like it, either. But nothing can be done about this issue. Just deal with it!"

"Actually, I think we can do something. I propose we end this envy issue once and for all."

Crow scoffed. "If only it were that simple."

"Well, I have a plan." She took a step closer and extended the Divine Grace skill card to him. "I still want you to have this."

"That card..." Crow's eyes grew slightly in recognition, but he didn't take the card. It was the skill card that had him explode about his envy the other time.

"This isn't meant to be crumbs or anything like that."

"Forget I had said that! I had been out of my right mind and said things I shouldn't."

"It wasn't the 'politically correct' thing to say, but from that, I can tell that you really felt humiliated as though you were receiving crumbs. It wasn't my intention at all, and I don't want you to feel that way! It's unfair that everything has gone so wrong in your life. You're such an amazing person and has so much going for you. You deserve better!"

"Such is life, I guess." Crow responded bitterly. "Some people are blessed, while others probably shouldn't even have been born, like me." Unfortunately, that was a hard subject for him, and he couldn't avoid letting his cynicism take over.

He only realized he had gone too far when Joker's eyes widened in horror. "No! It isn't like that!"

There was no way to take those words back. "I probably shouldn't have said that. It's true, though."

"No, it's not!"

"It is. As someone in the 'blessed' category, you wouldn't understand how I feel, what I've gone through. What it feels like to be treated by everyone like trash, to live mindlessly for years, merely existing, against the whole world's will!"

Joker made a hurt face. This caused Crow to regret having let all those words out, but his frustration was stronger than him. If only this weren't the Metaverse, he probably could keep his emotions in check. But it was the Metaverse, and he failed to stop those words from shooting out of his mouth, much like in that last childhood dream where he shot sharp words about his revenge plan at her. This was his dark side he didn't want her to see, and this discussion made the thought of revealing his identity to her even more uncomfortable.

"Does happiness really exist, or is it illusory too?" The boy from her vision had been depressed, talking to himself. "Or is it meant just for the gifted, and I don't have the right to get it because I'm... I-I'm..." Then he had started crying and didn't finish the sentence.

Now that Joker was fully aware of his situation, she had a better idea of what he could have meant. He might have thought he didn't deserve to be happy because he was... a bastard child. A cursed child who no one wanted, destined to be marginalized for the rest of his life no matter if he became a good person or not.

"I'm a bastard child. An undesirable existence to society, forever to be labeled and despised. I shouldn't have been born... now you understand, don't you? You were wrong about me. I'm not special. Actually, the very opposite of that. I'm a disgrace."

Joker remembered all too well he had said this in that last childhood dream. After she found out Crow was Akechi, it was eerie how this speech made sense, though she had dismissed it as part of a mere dream, and now her heart was squeezing painfully at the thought that he might actually have these exact views. Worse, even with the Phantom Thieves supporting him, he was still this bitter about life. She had been unable to give him a proper response during the dream, but the dream was just that, a dream, and her response wouldn't have changed anything. Now, though, she wasn't dreaming. This was reality, and she strongly felt she needed to comfort him.

"I may not understand your feelings completely, but I'm confident to say that I understand you better than anyone else. When I passed out from the twins fight, I had a vision. You were a child. You were depressed and asked things like why were you still alive, or if happiness really existed or was only meant for the gifted and you didn't have the right to be happy..."

The present Crow's eyes widened in puzzlement. "Yes... that really happened... how did you? I remember you intervened to stop me from using the berserk powers, and Arsène clashed with Loki. What did you do that time, exactly?"

"Honestly, I don't know. But I think I briefly got to peer into your heart..."

"Wait. Then, you had cried that time because...?"

"Yeah. The images were very hazy, but it was all so sad... I saw you trying to kill yourself. How could I not have cried?"

"... You've seen... that too?" Crow's expression was pained as he half closed his eyes. "I'd prefer if you hadn't seen those things."

"It was painful. I'm glad I saw those things, though, because it helped me understand you better. I tried to talk to you in the vision, but my words didn't reach you, and when I woke up, I was so worn out that I failed to say anything. The horrible stuff that happened to you is all wrong. I can't accept the injustice you suffered. I was also a kid at the time, but if I had known where you were, I'd have gone there to rescue you. Actually, after having that vision, I had a dream where I did just that... it didn't work, of course."

In that last dream, she had indeed tried to get him out of the foster home. It was eerie. Maybe those dreams were really prophetic, after all.

Joker was looking at him with determination. "I'd like to think it still isn't too late, though. You deserve to be happy too, and I believe I can help you. So, back to my plan. How about we start with this skill card? I don't intend to give you crumbs. I want to make it so that you won't be envious of me ever again. In other words, I want to share my 'privileges' with you. Not only this skill card or other Metaverse resources. Everything that you think I have and you don't. My friends, my family... I want to share my life with you."

"Your... uh, life? What?" That was really extreme. Crow had no idea what she was getting at. "What... are you saying?"

"I'm saying I want you nearby so that my 'privileges' will extend to you too. This way, you'll have everything you want and won't feel envious anymore! Isn't it a good plan?"

"W-wait, stop, stop!" Panicked and flustered, Crow raised his hand. "This is too much, and too weird! You're making it sound like a, err, love confession or something..."

"You think so?" She smirked slightly. "Good, because this is exactly what it is. I've never done this before, so I'm glad I've gotten the message across."

That was really out of the blue. "... E-excuse me?"

"Remember that I asked what you would do if I were to come one day and say I'm falling in love with you? As it turns out, looks like the situation you thought was impossible happened, and said question isn't hypothetical anymore. I hope you're prepared, because the day has come. The day is today, and the time is now. I believe I've fallen in love with you, Crow."

"Huh!?" Crow deadpanned in utter disbelief. "You can't be serious..."

"I can. And I'm serious."

He still thought she was kidding, but that touching speech from earlier was serious enough, and now he wasn't sure anymore. If it turned out to be true, it was absurd! His normal self had told her that they couldn't date because he wasn't a decent person. And now she went and decided she was in love with his Metaverse self, who she had known had done the most wrong things?

"No, this can't be serious! It's absurd! Because how could you choose to fall in love with a murderer, out of all people?"

"I didn't 'choose' anything. It just... happened. Friendships come naturally, and I guess love also does. Not that I knew it was love from the beginning, though. I was already sure you're very important to me, but I didn't know what these feelings really meant. I only found out thanks to yesterday."

"Y-yesterday?"

Crow's head was spinning as he tried to reason. At the mention of "yesterday," the memory of the kiss was the first thing that came to mind. Reason told him she couldn't be referring to that, though. Could it have been something from their talk in Mementos? Perhaps that Shadow negotiation which raised the topic of romance? Or... it might indeed be the kiss. What if Joker had meant she disliked what his normal self had done, and concluded she liked Crow thinking he was someone else? If so, that was messed-up!

Crow shook his head in disapproval. "You aren't in your right mind, Joker. It'll be a shame if you ruin your life, your blessed life, and have everything go down the drain, because you went and blindly fell in love with the wrong person." This was what happened to his mother, and he didn't want the same to happen to Akira.

"What makes you think you're the wrong person? Okay, I know that we may not stay together for long because a death sentence might take you away. I'm fully aware of the possibility, and have thought about it a lot. Aside from that, I still don't understand what you think might go wrong. Unless you mean you don't feel the same way towards me. So, don't you?"

"How am I supposed to know!?" He snapped. "I can't tell what others are feeling!" Only then he realized he had blurted out strange things in panic. "Er, that wasn't what I meant to say..."

Joker laughed. "I really like when your spontaneity comes through like that. It always surprises me in a good way. But from your reaction, it sounds like you feel something special for me too. Aside from envy, that is."

Crow wanted to deny it, but he just couldn't. If he were to say no, he would be lying both to her and to himself. Just earlier, he had realized that he actually had romantic feelings for her.

He glared at her as defiantly as he could manage. "If I say no, what will you do?"

"Even if you don't feel the same way towards me, I don't mind. My feelings won't change."

"And if I say yes?"

Joker frowned. "Trying to read my next moves and choose a convenient strategy, is it? Oh, c'mon. This isn't chess!"

Crow flinched. He hadn't expected that comeback.

She chuckled. "This must be the weirdest romance discussion ever. Even a love confession has to turn into bickering. It's so like us, though, isn't it? Sounds like our relationship'd be hard if we were to keep arguing about everything, huh?" She shrugged playfully. "Nah, not really. Oddly enough, bickering with you is lots of fun."

Crow couldn't deny that. It was like them indeed. From the time they had first met, he knew how frustrating it was to argue with her, thanks to her unusual responses. It was always a challenge. Fortunately, he enjoyed good challenges.

"... Hey." Crow spoke up reluctantly. "Is this... for real? I mean, this... confession thing."

"Yeah, I already said so. You still don't believe me?"

It really sounded like Joker was serious about wanting to date him. Still, something didn't add up. How could she have developed all those feelings for him? Or more specifically, for his Metaverse self, who she knew practically nothing about?

"Joker, are you sure you aren't mistaking things?" He asked reluctantly. "To say you're falling in love with me is too much. From what I could gather, you feel bad for having privileges that I don't, just because you had a vision where I was depressed when I was a child, and because you know I'm envious of you. Isn't what you feel for me just pity? It sounds like you only want to do something to relieve your conscience, and make up for life giving you much more than it gives me. If this is the case, then I don't need that. Having you give me things just out of pity would be even more humiliating to me."

"No, it's not like that!" Joker shook her head in alarm. "And it's not 'just because of a vision.' It's because of things you said, things that happened. It's because I care! I feel well near you, be it doing stuff together, or even just talking about nothing in particular. It hurts to see you suffer, because I really care about you. And the opposite is also true. If something good happens to you, I'll feel glad too. So, I'm sure that making you happy will also make me happy."

Her words were comforting and all, but... "How? Where's all this coming from? Things I said? Things that happened? I don't get it! I took my distance, and didn't say anything out of the ordinary. This isn't making sense!"

"It makes perfect sense if you think outside the box. Or rather, outside the Metaverse. Why do you think I'm saying all these things while at the Metaverse?"

"Huh?" To him, it was obvious. She wasn't supposed to know where to find him outside the Metaverse to talk, unless...! A thought struck him, and his heart skipped a beat. Joker couldn't possibly mean...

"It's because I want to make a point. Outside the Metaverse, you'd keep running away if I were to try to corner you about the wrong things you did." These words strengthened his last thought. "And the point is, I'm saying that despite those wrong things, I accept you." Even though Joker had her mask on, Crow could tell she had a sweet expression as she added in a soothing voice, "Akechi-kun, I love you."

Said detective gaped at the sudden confirmation of his latest suspicion. Somehow, Joker had figured out his true identity. His heart raced more than ever before, and he feared it would explode if it were to go any faster.

"So, y-you knew..."

"Uh-huh. I had a hard time taking it in at first, but... well. Remember? You had said you couldn't dislike me even if you wanted to. Actually, me neither. I've already cried enough thinking about how distorted your heart had been, the bad things you did, and the possible death sentence. That whole mental shutdowns thing was really horrible. Honestly, I don't know what I'd think of you if you were still a bad person, but you currently aren't, and in the end, I really can't bring myself to dislike you. It's the opposite, actually. The more I learn about you and how you're managing to become a better person, the more I admire you, and the more I want to support you."

It was still hard to believe what he was hearing, though. Joker somehow found out it was him. She knew about the horrible things he had done. Yet, she wasn't horrified or falling into despair like he had feared. She was saying that despite everything, she accepted him... no, more than that. She said she loved him. It was like the most comforting of dreams, and he was afraid of fully believing it, only to realize later that it wasn't real.

"Is... is this true? You really m-mean it?" He asked weakly but expectantly, while he stubbornly tried to hold in the tears that were flooding his eyes.

"Yeah, of course! For the umpteenth time, I really mean what I'm saying!"

And the little bit that had remained of his composure was no more. He gave in, and let out the tears he couldn't hold in any longer, though they couldn't escape the confines of his mask.

The boy's lonely detective self suddenly overshadowed his stubborn secret agent persona. His body shook as he wailed and cried like a little child in need of attention, and Joker had the strong urge to squeeze him tightly and fill his heart with fluffiness.

"I was so scared...! I didn't want you to know... that the person who did all those terrible things was me..." Crow, or rather, Akechi, blurted desperately between sobs. "I thought you'd be upset, feel hurt because I didn't tell you the truth, and fall into despair... I thought you'd hate me... I didn't want to lose your friendship..."

Joker temporarily put away the skill card she had still been holding and hurried over to him.

"Awww." She hugged him and patted his back comfortingly. "My dear detective and secret agent, I wouldn't hate you. After I found your identity out, I got sad thinking about how messed-up your situation is, but I was never mad at you. You're such a prime example of justice and honesty now. How am I supposed to be mad?"

His crying wouldn't stop, though.

Joker chuckled. "Ah, this brings back memories of the hotel, doesn't it? Sorry, I don't have a pack of tissues on me today."

He managed a chuckle, but the tears and sobs gave no sign of stopping.

"You won't lose my friendship, I promise." Joker assured him. "No matter how the rest of the world views you, I'll always be on your side, for as much time as we still have." She placed a kiss on his cheek where his mask didn't cover, then whispered into his ear. "Speaking of kisses, the one from yesterday was overwhelmingly awesome."

He gasped, then uttered weakly between sobs. "Uh, re-really? I... lost control. I didn't know what I was doing..."

"I didn't know, either, but I sure was curious to see what you'd do next."

Crow seemed flabbergasted. "I had thought you didn't like it..."

"Well, then you thought right. I didn't like it. I loved it," Joker said with a slight smirk. "Seriously, though, that whole moment was so fluffy and sweet and... I'm not even sure how to describe it. I was overloaded with so many different feelings!"

"Um, m-me too..." He admitted timidly.

Joker giggled. "In the end, I guess you feel the same way, after all." She briefly considered asking him to remove his mask so that they could kiss again, but figured it would be hard since he was still having trouble fighting his sobs off. Instead, she chose to simply kiss his other cheek.

He eventually returned the hug and allowed himself to relax. His crying and sobbing gradually decreased. Even after he had fully calmed down and stopped crying, Joker didn't want to let go of him.

However, Crow broke the hug and backed away. "Thanks. Uh, I mean, for all those words, for comforting me, for... everything."

Joker smiled in response. "As I've said before, comforting you has a therapeutic effect on me too. So, of course I'll be here to comfort you anytime! And I'm glad we've sorted our issues out and are on the same page now."

"Uh, speaking of 'on the same page,' how did you find out?" It was obvious he was talking about his identity.

Joker grinned in triumph. "You know we have a Confidant bond, right? It's a strong one at that, and shouldn't be underestimated. It ranked up after the twins fight, actually! The thing is, it had never ranked up inside the Metaverse before. You get the implications, don't you?"

Crow gasped. He had put so much effort into hiding his identity... he had completely forgotten that Joker also had those Confidant bonds, and he could never have imagined their bond, out of all things, would end up giving his identity away.

"Mine ranked up at that same time... wait, you mean y-you had known since that day...?"

"Not really. I had been out of it when the rank up happened, and only remembered about it later. I only found out... at the beginning of this week, I think. After I put two and two together, it still took me a while to believe it. It was really sad to think about how messed-up your situation is. But I also realized that all the stuff you keep saying on TV is to buy us time, and that you've been taking so many risks to protect us. What you've been doing to mislead the organization isn't something a 18 year old kid should be doing. Akechi-kun, you're awesome. I like you so much, and admire you so much..."

"A-Akira..." Her real name escaped his mouth.

She quickly slipped out of the touching mood, though. "All the others care a lot about you too, both in and out the Metaverse. I'm sure they'll like to know that the nice detective and the cool secret agent are one and the same. So, can I leak your identity to everyone now?"

Even though it should be fine in theory, the thought still made him nervous. "L-leak? What? Wait..."

Joker laughed heartily. "I'm kidding. I've been hoping you'd reveal it yourself."

"Uh, well, I still feel nervous about it, but I'm trying. I ended up revealing it to Noir earlier today. Sakura-san also figured me out somehow. Actually, he's been pressuring me to tell the truth at least to you. He said if I don't do it in one week, he'll tell everyone himself..."

"Whoa! I hadn't thought Boss'd do that. It's some pressure! But I know your identity already. Actually, Morgana's also figured your identity out recently. And before you ask, no, I didn't tell him. He figured it out on his own, after he remembered your pancakes slip."

"Pancakes?" The mention of pancakes rang bells in Crow's head, though he only recalled the strange conversation between the Phantom Thieves yesterday, and was still clueless as to what pancakes had to do with anything. "You guys had brought that up yesterday. What's this about pancakes?"

"You really didn't notice you had made a slip, huh? On the day we met, at the TV studio." She told him about the slip.

Crow's mouth hung open in astonishment. "I had really said that?"

"Yeah, and showed you could understand Morgana. I hadn't remembered, either, until Morgana did and pointed it out."

"Ah. So, that's what this pancakes mystery is about. That event really slipped my mind."

"Then, Mona, Noir, Boss and I know your identity... oh, and of course, Minerva had already known."

"Hmm. I was thinking keeping you guys in the dark could serve as additional protection against the organization. But now that quite a few of you are aware, I'm starting to think it may be okay to have everyone on the same page. Actually, it'd be more convenient to take part in your meetings and agree when to head into the Metaverse, instead of having to come to Mementos almost every day to see if you guys are here or not... I'd like to tell them myself."

"Tomorrow is Sunday. How about we assemble and have lunch at Leblanc?"

He took some time to think. "Okay, fine."

"Alright! I'll tell them to come over." She changed the subject. "So, what do you think about my plan to tackle the envy problem? May we give it a shot?"

"Um, by your plan, you mean... dating...?" Crow was suddenly feeling nervous. Just earlier he had realized he had romantic feelings for her, but it hadn't quite sunk in yet. Her question felt heavy. If he were to say yes, they would take their relationship to the next level, and he didn't feel totally ready for that. He wasn't sure if dating her would magically make the envy feeling disappear, either. "May I respond later? Uh, my feelings are all scrambled right now. I need some time to sort them through...?"

"Hmm, I guess you've gone through a lot today, with Oracle's earlier speech and all. Okay, I'll wait a bit more, but be sure to respond, okay? Don't drag it!"

Crow nodded assuringly. "A few days at most... I'll give you a suitable response, I promise. I just want to rest a bit, and these feelings to settle down."

"Okay. Will you at least take the skill card?" She showed him the card again.

He slowly reached out and finally accepted the card. "Thanks." Now he at least had something that would serve as proof that their conversation really happened, that she really accepted him. If the card were still there when he woke up the following morning, it would reassure him that it hadn't all been just a dream.

They teleported back to the Mementos entrance.

Oracle looked away from her laptop to address them. "I got good progress on the program for the mastermind's calling card. It'll be epic! What took the two of you so long, anyway? What were you guys doing in there?"

"Uh..." That awkward question took Crow aback. How was he supposed to answer that?

Luckily, Joker came to his rescue. "Um, we were trying to come to an agreement over the envy thing."

"Did you manage it?"

"Uh, not quite. Crow said he needs to think it through. Now, let's go home so he can think properly."

Oracle closed her laptop and stood up. "Crow, you coming with?"

He shook his head. He wasn't sure whether it was a good idea to reveal his true identity to Oracle right now. The revelation that she was the mastermind's daughter was shocking enough already.

"Awww, bummer... I wish you'd come to Leblanc again..."

Crow startled. "'A-again?' What do you mean?"

"Joker said you stayed the night there!"

"Huh?!"

Joker threw him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. Everyone was sending texts because they were worried about you. I wanted to put them at ease and ended up saying that I had gotten hold of you and you were at Leblanc."

"So, how did you like Leblanc? It feels cozy and nice, doesn't it?"

Crow had to nod and agree. Even at the time his heart had been in the wrong place, the cafe's calming atmosphere had felt like solace to him.

"You have to try Sojiro's coffee. It's great!" Oracle recommended. "He makes lots of blends, and all of them taste unique!"

"I can imagine, though I'm not sure if I'll have enough time to try them all."

"I wonder whether I can try out all of this place's available blend combinations before I die..." Those had been Akechi's words during one of his first visits to Leblanc. Joker gasped in horror as the true meaning of his words sank in. He hadn't been kidding. He had said that because his days were practically numbered.

Joker couldn't contain herself. "Don't say that! Let's think positive!"

"Oh." With Joker's input, Oracle also caught on. "You mean, because of the death sentence..."

Crow didn't respond.

Oracle tried to cheer up. "Either way, whenever you show up, we can have you try half a dozen blends on the same day!"

"He's always working so hard and needs to rest well." Joker countered. "If he has too much coffee, he won't sleep and will keep thinking about the organization the whole night."

"Ugh, I guess that wasn't a good idea..." Oracle admitted. "Alright, then go home for now and take care of your sis or something."

Crow let out a chuckle.

"Again, he needs to rest." Joker insisted.

"I think she wouldn't let me." Crow himself added. Indeed, Oracle didn't seem willing to give him a break.

"Well, then she should be the one taking care of you." Joker winked knowingly, already with plans to arrange that. Some comfort would do him some good. "Let's go home then. Take care!"

... ... ... ... ...

Akira took Futaba back to Leblanc.

"Sojiro! I did it, Sojiro! Mission complete!" Futaba came running into Leblanc.

"Ah! Futaba! Hold on, what is it all of a sudden?"

"Crow helped us change Uncle's heart, then I finally managed to talk to Crow and tell him that we forgive him!"

"Oh, well done!" Sojiro gave her an approving smile.

"Good job!" Morgana complimented her from his position on a chair.

"Futaba was on a row! She unleashed a lot of touching lines!" Akira said proudly. "Crow cried a lot. Actually, the three of us cried..."

Sojiro chuckled. "I can imagine that. Her touching lines are really something."

"I was so happy to hear that he doesn't hate me that I just kinda blurted it all out! Oh, yeah... um, Sojiro. Uncle's other self in the Metaverse said something I didn't know. He said someone named Masayoshi Shido is my real dad. Did you know this?"

"Oh my god..." Sojiro tensed. "No, Wakaba had never told me. I only knew he had been eyeing her research since even before you were born..."

"Uncle said Mom and the guy got drunk at a party or something. Though I was more worried about Crow because he broke down and got all angry, then revealed to us that this Shido is the evil mastermind himself! Well, whatever. Who my real dad is doesn't really matter to me, 'cause like Mom had said, I have you, Sojiro! Coffee dad is best dad!"

Sojiro untensed and was taken aback, touched. "Futaba..."

Futaba tackled Sojiro into a hug and laughed happily.

The chimes announced a customer's arrival, and interrupted the touching moment. Akira and Futaba excused themselves and went upstairs.

"When the chimes rang, I kinda expected it'd be Crow coming over, but nope." Futaba shrugged. "Ah well. I hope he's gotten home okay, and maybe his sis' spending quality time with him. Looks like he likes her a lot, so it'd be good for him, right?" Futaba grinned. "I keep imagining him being all awkward trying to take care of a little sis, while she does a number on him. Like she asks something of him with a crying face, and he's unsure what to do."

Akira laughed. "You sure know about little sis techniques, eh?"

"Just stuff I've seen in anime! It sounds fun, though. He seems so nice when he's not being all serious. She must always be seeing that side of him. I'm kinda jealous..."

This was the opportunity Akira had been waiting for. "You have a bro you can unleash little sis techniques on, you know. Why don't you call him over?"

"Great idea! I'll do that."

Akira took her phone. "I was thinking of gathering everyone tomorrow for lunch. I'll invite them."

Futaba glanced at Akira who was busy writing the invite messages, then glanced in the stairs direction. "I wonder if that customer'll leave soon... I hunger!"

Back home, Akechi called Sae-san.

"Sae-san, it looks like you were right. Everyone has been so kind and understanding towards me, both outside the Metaverse, and also to my Metaverse self even though they're fully aware what 'Crow' did..."

"I told you. It was quite easy to notice. Only you hadn't noticed it."

"I was scared, confused... and believed I don't deserve this much kindness. Well, I still do, but I've made my decision. I... I'll reveal the truth to them. We'll gather for lunch at Leblanc tomorrow, and I intend to talk about it there."

"I have gotten an invite message from Akira-chan just a few minutes ago. I would like to observe how this will play out. And also some curry..."

Akechi chuckled. "Then, I'll see you tomorrow."

Around half an hour later, Akechi got a phone call from Futaba.

"Hey, Akechi. I need the company of a big bro, like right about now."

"What?" He worried at the way she put it. "Did something bad happen?"

"Uh, not really. I'm just calling you for a sleepover! You stayed the night at the attic with Akira the other day. Now it's my turn!"

Akechi tensed. "... The other day?" The first thing that came to his mind was the previous day, when Futaba herself had said she was aware "Crow" had stayed at Leblanc.

"You know, that day I gave Sojiro your number and you came to look after Akira."

"A-ah... yes..." He relaxed.

"Akira's planning to gather everyone tomorrow. It'll be easier if you're already here!"

Sakura-san's voice shouted in the background. "If you come, you'll get free dinner!"

"You heard that?" Futaba didn't give him time to argue. "We'll be waiting in Leblanc at eight. We have dinner and then you come to my place."

It was clear that Futaba wouldn't take no for an answer. Not that Akechi had reasons to say no, though, aside from being a bit tired. In fact, now that he knew Futaba accepted him, staying near her might be a bit easier. The thought of revealing his identity to her still made him a bit nervous, though.

"Got it. I'll be at Leblanc at eight." He responded.

Makoto opened the chat and found a text message from Akira inviting everyone to gather and have lunch at Leblanc the following day. She replied to the message and confirmed she would be coming. Makoto put the cellphone away and left her bedroom. Sae had paused what she had been doing to pick a call up, and her bedroom's door was open when Makoto passed it. Curious, Makoto decided to peer into whatever Sae had been reading.

To Makoto's surprise, Sae's laptop was displaying a news article relating to a case where a minor had been sentenced to death. The article pointed out that such a thing wasn't common, but could still happen in extreme cases. The title of one of the browser's tabs also indicated Sae had looked up capital punishment to minors on a search engine...

Makoto heard the phone being put away, and decided to stop spying. She left the room and when she passed her sister, she asked, "Who was it?"

"No one important." Sae sounded genuinely annoyed. "Just those telemarketers. I had thought it was past their working hours already. Don't they have more important things to do? I certainly have!"

Not brave enough to confess she had been spying on her sister's work, Makoto left for her own bedroom, with the nagging question of the day. "Crow... is a minor?" She uttered in astonishment. From Crow's slip the previous day, they had learned that he was younger than Sae, but a minor? Makoto would have never guessed. From his intelligence, maturity and the professional way in which he behaved, she had thought he was at least an adult.

First the TV staff and the police - which had ties to the organization - using Akechi, and now this? Makoto hadn't thought of this before, but could it mean it was common practice for them to use minors to do their dirty work?

A bit later, Makoto and Sae were having dinner together at the living room.

"Um... Sis, sorry," Makoto mustered her courage and admitted. "When you were on the phone earlier, I got curious and took a glance at your work. Is Crow really..."

Sae didn't seem angry that Makoto had spied. She tensed a bit, though.

"Really what?" She prompted Makoto to finish the question.

"... A minor?"

After a delay, Sae nodded with a serious expression.

Makoto couldn't contain her bewilderment. "He's a teenager? He doesn't act like one at all!"

"He is. A cynical, bitter, rebellious teenager, who did a lot of things he shouldn't have done." Sae paused and chose her words. Since Akechi intended to reveal everything tomorrow, there may be no harm in dropping a few hints. "I had to look him up, in order to have more arguments for his case. Makoto, he is your age. In fact, you are around a month older than him."

"... What? I can't believe it... no, wait. If he began in the Metaverse more than two years ago, then he was what? 16 at most!?" Makoto's voice shook. "What kind of genius is he?! It's scary..."

"It is scary indeed. He is more intelligent and skilled than many adults I know. It is as though he had been destined to be an enemy, possibly the most dangerous threat to the Phantom Thieves. I'm not sure how, but his heart changed. He opened his eyes, and it is as though not even destiny can control him anymore. This is the feeling I get about him. I really wish he gets a chance to start over. It would be a shame to have his talents go to waste."

That piqued Makoto's curiosity. "Then, you... found out more about him? Do you know if he has people close by that support him, like family?"

"Aside from the Phantom Thieves, I don't think so."

"What about the person he likes? He said his heart changed thanks to her. From the way he talks about her, he really cares about her. She may not be aware of the bad things he did, though."

That person was probably Akira, who had known the wrong things Crow had done. He hadn't revealed his identity to her yet, though.

"Who knows."

They continued dining in silence for a while, with Makoto lost in thought.

"Sis, do you know if it's common practice for that evil organization to use minors to do their dirty work?"

"Now that you mention it, the files didn't mention anything about minors specifically, but I don't doubt it would be the case." Sae nodded to herself. "Yes, we should ask him for more details. This might become an important argument for his case."

After a shower, Akechi left his apartment. He arrived at Leblanc at the agreed time.

"Akechi!" Futaba came to greet him.

His mouth automatically curved up into a smile at the recollection of her words from earlier.

"Hi, Akechi-kun. 'Long time no see,'" Akira said with a knowing wink.

"Hi." Akechi smiled at her as well.

Futaba began talking right away. "Akechi, it turns out Uncle reported Sojiro for abuse..."

"What!?" Akechi gasped in alarm. Did that mean they hadn't changed the guy's heart in time?

"Hey, Futaba, that's not the proper way to say it!" Morgana reprimanded from a stool. "This way you're scaring him!"

Futaba paid no mind to Morgana and continued talking animatedly. "But it looks like he had made an anonymous report, and it didn't mean much. The social service guys came here a while earlier. We talked to them and convinced them that the accusations were false! Sojiro was so happy when I said he's the best dad I could've hoped for!"

"Now now." Sakura-san seemed embarrassed as he brought their plates.

"Yay! Curry!" Futaba ignored her adoptive father's reaction completely.

Morgana sighed in exasperation. "She isn't even listening..."

They began eating their dinner.

"I'm glad to hear that everything worked out," Akechi said. "But you almost gave me a heart attack now! The first thing you said was that your uncle reported Sakura-san for abuse..."

"Yeah, but it's all okay now. You looked pretty worried yesterday, and I wanted to tell you that you don't need to worry anymore." Futaba paused as she swallowed a mouthful of curry. "Speaking of dads... um, Akechi, you had told me your dad is a horrible guy. Today I found out that my real dad also is!"

"... Huh?" Akechi found it strange how excited Futaba sounded. "This shouldn't be something to be cheerful about, though."

"But this means we have one more thing in common, and that now I can relate more! Kids of horrible dads gotta stick together, right?"

A burst of laughter escaped Akechi's mouth. At the other bench, Akira was also trying to stifle a laugh.

Futaba giggled. "See? Now you've cheered up, too!"

Akechi had thought he had had enough of overwhelming feelings for today, but Futaba just had to hit his heart with more. How could she warm his heart so much? His little sister, who now Akechi knew was his real sibling, probably the best thing Shido had ever been involved in creating.

"... Futaba-chan!" He called out on impulse.

"Huh? What is it?"

Akechi had the urge to tell her that they were real siblings, but wasn't sure how to break it to her. He recalled how she had been excited at the possibility of them having the same father, on the day she had begun that siblings talk. Akechi had thought it was absurd and nearly impossible at the time, and now he had found out it was actually true.

"Futaba-chan, um, do you still think..." The rest of the sentence died in his throat.

"Think what?"

In the end, Akechi just gave up for the moment. "N-no, never mind. We'll talk more about this another time."

"Hmm, okay."

Right after dinner, Akira's phone beeped. It was a message from Makoto in the group chat.

"Earlier today, I took a peek at my sister's investigation, and she was looking into capital punishment to minors. In other words, Crow is a minor."

"You're saying he's a kid, just like us? Seriously!?" Futaba wrote.

"We had known he's younger than Niijima-san. But a minor, really?" Ann also expressed surprise. "This is horrible. I mean, he's like the organization's secret weapon, right? Those guys are so rotten, using a kid like that!"

Yusuke agreed. "That nasty organization really has no qualms about using minors to do their dirty work! This is despicable!"

"We really have gotta put those rotten adults in their places." Ryuji wrote next. "But he's less than 20? For real!? Then, he's basically our age!"

"My sister confirmed it. He is my age."

"Then, he's still a student?" Ann asked. "Like, a high school student? He's dealing with lots of dangerous stuff and does spy work like a pro! What kind of genius are we dealing with?"

"A secret agent prodigy." Yusuke answered. "I believe it is not an exaggeration to say that, had he still been our enemy, we would not stand a chance."

"It's like he had everything to be a bad person, but he's not. That's not his true nature." Akira chimed in. "He's a fallen angel, I'd say. A fallen angel who broke his wings and is trying to rise back up. And then, he ended up becoming the Phantom Thieves' guardian angel."

"You said it all. All that considered, he's hell of a wild card." Morgana whispered from Akira's shoulder, from where he was peering into the cellphone.

"I can see what you mean." Haru wrote. "He is doing his best to stand back up. And he has been protecting us so much, without asking for anything in return."

"Yeah, he's so cool, and so nice." Futaba added. "And know what's also cool? I talked to him in Mementos earlier, and I finally managed to tell him that Sojiro and I forgive him!"

"Congratulations, Futaba!" Makoto replied.

Haru was also happy for her. "Futaba-chan, this is great!"

"Did he become more comfortable to reveal anything else about himself?" Yusuke asked.

"Well, at least he told me he has a little sis. Sounds like he likes her a lot. He said she didn't like him, though."

"My sister told me he is a cynical, bitter and rebellious teenager. This makes me think he may not have been in his best behavior around people." Makoto theorized. "I wonder if nearby people may be looking down on him because of that."

Ironically, Akira knew that Akechi had been doing exactly the opposite, trying to be in his best behavior near strangers in hope of being accepted.

"Wait, he can't trust anyone from work, and people from his social life may be marginalizing him too?" Ryuji wrote. "Then he might be labeled and being looked down on, and that's with people not even knowing about the worst stuff he did yet! Once the truth about everything comes out, it'll be hell for him... he's such a nice guy now, though. He needs support!"

"Must... protect..." Futaba declared.

"Yeah, we have to do what we can to protect him so that he can start over, stay near the person he likes, and get along with his sister too!" Ann wrote.

"Like we already said in the Metaverse, even if he ends up labeled for the rest of his life, we won't abandon him. We'll be there for him all the way!" With those words, Akira ended the discussion.

Futaba and Sojiro were preparing to leave with the aforementioned secret agent.

"Futaba, before you leave, would you let me borrow Akechi-kun for a bit?"

"Sure." Futaba answered cluelessly.

Akira left Morgana downstairs and beckoned Akechi to the attic.

"Wh-what is it? I still, uh, haven't..." Akechi stuttered nervously. He hadn't had time to think through Akira's romance proposal yet!

Akira smiled comfortingly. "Are you still nervous about, um, talking to everyone?"

Then, it was a different subject, though not a less difficult one. Akechi nodded in response.

"I want to show you something." She handed him her phone, with the chat app open.

The detective stared blankly for a moment, until his eyes focused on the written messages. It was a chat log of a conversation among the Phantom Thieves, talking about... him, out of all things. Or rather, the eleventh hour team member that they still weren't aware it was him. Even though it was merely a text conversation, Akechi could feel everyone's supportiveness, and had to resist the urge to cry. How could they be so nice to someone like him? So much admiration, so many compliments that he didn't deserve. He wasn't that good. He was only doing what was necessary, what he could do to make up for his past misdeeds, even if only a bit.

"Their speculation goes on," Akira said. "Not totally right, but not totally wrong, either. It's kinda amusing to see." She giggled. "I'm even starting to think I'll miss these conversations once the truth comes out... want me to help delay that a bit more?"

With watery eyes, Akechi shook his head decisively. "No. Tomorrow will be the day."

Akira grinned approvingly. "That's the spirit. You saw it. Everyone accepts you already. No need to be nervous. It'll be okay." She took her phone back, but not without stealing a kiss from his face.

"Uh, thanks for the support." He fought both his tears and embarrassment off, and timidly returned the kiss without being asked.

Akira responded with a fond smile. "Now go, my sweet but rebellious teenager. Your little sis is waiting."

"You're right," Akechi said with a chuckle.

Akira accompanied him downstairs, where Sojiro and Futaba were waiting.

"Akechi-kun, see you tomorrow. Futaba, he's all yours now. Have fun!"

They were on their way to the Sakuras' house.

"Akechi, you're crying?" Had Futaba noticed he was teary-eyed?

"Huh? It's Akira's fault." He chose not to deny that he was crying, but wouldn't disclose the details.

"Mean Akira. She made my lil' big bro cry."

Akechi chuckled. Technically, though, it hadn't been only Akira. All of them made him cry, thanks to their heartwarming chat messages.

Despite Futaba's playfulness, Akechi could tell that she was worried about him. And only now it fully sank in. It wasn't only her. Everyone was worried, not just about his real world self, but his Metaverse self too. This meant they were worrying about him twice as much. That realization was touching, but he also felt sorry for making them worry like that. He really needed to reveal his identity to them soon...

"I'm fine. I cried, but it's not for a bad reason." Akechi tried to reassure her and justify his crying.

"You sure?"

Akechi nodded.

Apparently unconvinced, Futaba shifted closer to him supportively.

Sojiro was walking behind the two teenagers and watching over them.

"Futaba, you're really fond of him..."

Futaba glanced behind with a smirk. "Look who's talking. You are too, Sojiro!"

"I never said I'm not." Sojiro countered.

"Thank you. Both of you. This means more to me than you could imagine."

They arrived at the house and went inside.

"I'll get a futon for Akechi to sleep in." Sojiro was on his way to look for the futon.

Futaba stopped him in his tracks. "Nah. I wanna stay near my lil' big bro! No need for an extra futon. The bed has enough space for both of us."

Sojiro chuckled amusedly. "That's what she says. Do you mind, Akechi?"

Akechi still seemed a bit overwhelmed. "It's... fine by me."

"I'm heading into the shower!" Futaba dashed away.

Sojiro beckoned Akechi to take a seat on the living room's sofa, and then joined him. "It's a wonder how Futaba got so attached to you."

"Yes... it's quite ironic. Why me, out of all people? Maybe she's wishing for a bigger family to feel the emptiness from the loss of her mother? That emptiness is my fault, and I'd do anything for her as a way to take responsibility. I don't think I can fill this gap, though..."

"Don't think too hard about it, and just accept the love, will you? She's really fond of you, and not because she doesn't know about what you did. You should've realized this already. I've heard that a lot happened earlier today."

"Uh, you mean, about..."

Sojiro smiled. "Futaba was so happy when she arrived. She practically barged into Leblanc, all excited that she had finally managed to say what she wanted to say to you."

"Yes, it was amazing. She is so strong, so mature..."

"Yeah. To think she had shut herself away from the world just a few months ago. I could've never imagined she'd break out of her shell and mature so quickly. I feel so proud of her."

"I don't know her that well, but I think I get what you mean. Somehow, I feel proud too."

"By the way, the second day's gone. Only five days left." Sojiro made sure to remind Akechi about his identity reveal countdown.

"Um, actually, it turns out Akira already knew."

"Oh." Sojiro raised an eyebrow. "Did she think any less of you?"

Akechi slowly shook his head. "And she said Morgana knows too."

"See? It's alright."

"It's what I'm trying to convince myself of. I'm still a bit nervous, but I've decided I'll tell everyone tomorrow."

"Now that's more like it." Sojiro nodded approvingly. "I'll be there too. I've got your back. Don't worry. Things will work out."

"Thank you, Sakura-san."

They remained in silence for a few minutes, until Futaba came out of the shower.

"Why are you two so serious? Did something happen?"

"No, nothing." Akechi responded. "I was just lost in thought."

"Good!" Futaba instantly got relieved and cheered up. "Then, Akechi, let's go!"

"... Go where?"

"Watch the Featherman DVDs, of course! C'mon!" Excited, Futaba took Akechi by the arm and practically dragged him out of the sofa, and the poor detective scrambled to keep up with her.

Sojiro couldn't stop smiling while he watched the two until they disappeared into Futaba's room. Their interactions were always so heartwarming.

"Hmm." He mumbled and nodded to himself. "Moments like these don't feel bad. Not bad at all..."

Akechi and Futaba sat side by side on the bed and began watching the DVDs from where they had stopped last time. Akechi was tired, and fell asleep in the middle of the episode.

"Akechi, Akechi!" To his right, Futaba poked on his arm.

"Hmhmm?" The detective mumbled awake.

Futaba rewinded the video. "Did you see this scene?"

Akechi tried to keep watching the anime, but weariness got the better of him, and he fell asleep again.

When his eyes reopened, he found the TV turned off, and a frustrated Futaba.

"Futaba-chan, sorry. Let's leave this for another day."

"But Akechi, you rarely come here... this way, we'll never finish watching all the DVDs!"

"I know. I'm sorry." Akechi didn't know what else to say.

Futaba stared at him for a few seconds, then broke the stare and sighed in defeat. "I know you're tired, but if you keep sleeping instead of watching the episodes, you won't have any fun. I want you to have so much fun that you'll never think of killing yourself ever again."

"Huh?" This took Akechi aback. He could never have imagined Futaba was thinking about such a thing. "I'm not considering that anymore, I swear," he said as firmly as he could manage.

"Really?"

Akechi nodded assuringly. "I won't do anything stupid. That was in the past. Now I want to live, more than ever."

"You say that, but I still worry about you, Akechi. You're not 100% fine yet. I fear that the pain might suddenly get the better of you, and... you know. If that happens, I'll feel horrible, for not being good enough, for not having done enough for you, for failing to avoid the worst..." Her expression was sad. "I wanted to do more, but I'm not good at anything outside of computers, and showing you anime is the only thing I can do for you..."

"Futaba-chan..." Akechi wrapped an arm around Futaba's shoulder. "You've done so much for me already. You did the most difficult thing in the world."

"Huh? What thing?"

"You... accepted me." Above all, she had gone as far as to forgive him, something he didn't deserve. He wouldn't say that now, though. "You know? I've lived in foster homes where there were other kids, but I was never welcomed. I wished someone would treat me like I was part of their family, but it didn't happen. Then, when I least expected, you 'adopted' me and began treating me like family. I'm very grateful for this."

"But what I did wasn't enough. If it were, you wouldn't be sad anymore."

Akechi had no idea what she was talking about. "I'm not sad."

"Yeah, you are! You disguise it, but I can tell that you're still sad deep down. Even now, something's not right."

"I wouldn't say that I'm sad." He insisted. "'Worried' should be a more accurate term."

"Worried? About what?"

"About... many things. I have a lot on my mind."

"You mean the shady guys from the TV staff?"

"Uh, well, that too."

Futaba pursed her lips in thought for a moment. "Um, Akechi, I think there's only one thing to do. You have to ask for the Phantom Thieves' help! I know you said it's dangerous to mess with the TV staff guys and all, but if there's someone who can help you, it has to be the Phantom Thieves! If you talk to them and ask for their help, I'm sure you all can find a solution together!"

Obviously, he would have to talk to them... it was time to stop running away.

"Um, I... I've actually been thinking of doing just that..." He admitted.

Futaba's face lit up. "Really? You have?"

Akechi nodded. There was no more turning back. "I-I intend to talk to them... soon. I'm still a bit nervous, but I'll do my best."

"Nervous? You're kidding, right? You talk so well in public, on TV and all."

"I'm serious. This is about the Phantom Thieves. It's completely different from talking on TV!"

"Well, at first, I was nervous too. Like, I froze up and couldn't even speak. I could only send phone text messages! But there's no need to be nervous. They're all nice people! Remember when I said I asked them to change my heart?"

"Uh-huh."

"The thing is, it wasn't that simply. I noticed that they were having trouble to take Medged down, and I decided to use that opportunity to contact them. I hacked into their chat and said I'd help them if they took the heart of a person named Futaba Sakura. I thought that was it and cut communications with them. Time passed. Since nothing happened, I canceled the deal. I honestly thought that this Phantom Thieves thing was too good to be true, and I gave up. They didn't give up on me, though. It turned out that only having the target's name wasn't enough and they needed more info. In the end, they went out of their way to track me down and really stole my heart. I hadn't expected them to go to all that trouble for me. And..." She trailed off.

"And?" Akechi prompted her to continue.

Futaba hesitated. "Uh, after that, I began working with the Phantom Thieves."

Of course Akechi had known she was a Phantom Thief, but he hadn't expected her to actually say it.

"I noticed they could have a use for my hacking skills and made a deal to work with them." At Akechi's lack of response, she added, "... Don't you believe me? ... Or are you mad?"

"Of course I believe you. I know that your skills are amazing. And I'm not mad. Just... don't do anything that gets you in trouble with the law, okay?"

Futaba nodded. "Yeah, I know. I'm being careful."

"Then, it's fine."

Futaba smiled in relief. "Thanks to working with the Phantom Thieves, I found out some more about the stuff my mom was researching. And know what else I found out? Looks like the TV staff guys that are abusing you are connected to the bad guys the Phantom Thieves are targeting!"

"Hmm." So, they were connecting the dots...

"If you give more info about the TV staff guys, I think we can confirm that! Then, as a member of the Phantom Thieves, I can help you too! And... um, actually, they've already been informed about your situation with the foster homes, too. I'm sure they wouldn't abandon you, the same way they didn't abandon me! So, don't worry, and don't get nervous. It'll be alright."

Having Futaba comfort him like that was heartwarming, and brought a smile to Akechi's face.

Futaba was excited. "I can get you in contact with them if you want!"

Akechi shook his head. "There's no need. I can handle it myself."

Futaba ruffled his hair. "Good! If you say so."

Akechi pulled Futaba close to his chest and hugged her tightly. "Thanks." He whispered into her hear.

They remained silent for a while.

"Ah, so comfortable..." A yawn escaped Futaba's mouth. "Welp, time to go to bed, I guess..."

He released her. "Yes, time for kids to go to bed."

Futaba lazily got up and took her glasses off. She turned around to fully face Akechi, then looked at him hesitantly. "Um, would you, uh, tuck me in bed?"

"What?" That sudden request took Akechi off guard.

"I-I know I'm not a little kid anymore, but... it's been so long since the last time... anyone's done this..."

A pang hit Akechi's chest. It was obvious that Futaba was referring to something her mother used to do and that she missed greatly. One of the warm moments that he took away from her. He really couldn't fill that gap...

"Futaba-chan, I'm sorry."

She deflated. "You... won't?"

Akechi's eyes widened slightly at the misunderstanding. "Uh, no, this wasn't what I meant. I meant I'm sorry about... your mother. The warm moments you lost, and that you miss. If there was more I could do for you..."

"... Akechi?" Futaba stared at him in confusion.

"Err, sorry, I'm rambling..." Akechi focused on the task at hand. Tucking her in bed should be easy enough. "O-okay, let's do this."

Her eyes lit up with expectation. "Y-you'll do it? Great!"

Akechi guided Futaba to the bed. She lay further into the bed to leave space for him, and he gently spread the covers over her body.

"Is this good enough?" He asked.

Futaba had her eyes closed and a contented smile. "This felt really nice. Good job!" At least, this satisfied her. "Kinda frustrating, though. I 'adopted' you 'cause I wanted to comfort you, but it's you who comforts me most of the time!"

"You're the one who asked me to do this." He shot back. "You've definitely comforted me a lot, though."

"You think so?" Her eyes opened, glinting with excitement. "Either way, spoiler alert! Next time, it'll be my turn to tuck you in! From your bad experiences at the foster homes, it's obvious you had no one to do it, so..."

Akechi definitely didn't see that one coming. "Uh, thanks..." He replied awkwardly before turning the light off and taking his position on the bed. "Good night."

... ... ... ... ...

Sunday, November 6

"Hey, you two. Breakfast's ready." Sakura-san's voice sounded from out the door and awoke Akechi up.

"... We're coming!" Akechi replied and got up.

"Hmmm..." Futaba mumbled. "Five more minutes..."

This was Akechi's cue to use the bathroom first, and he did so. Once he returned, Futaba finally dragged herself out of bed. Akechi decided to wait for Futaba to come out of the bathroom so that they could go have breakfast together. While he waited, his hand absently entered his pocket, only to meet the skill card Akira had given him the previous day. It was a wonder how the card didn't remind him of his envy of Akira, or the sharp words he had directed at her about crumbs and humiliation. Instead, the first thing that came to his mind when his fingers touched the card were the warmth when Akira hugged him while he cried, and her kind words when she said she accepted him, even loved him despite everything he had done. The skill card was still there, which meant that the warm event in question hadn't been a dream. It was all real.

Even as Futaba returned and they walked together to the kitchen, Akechi wasn't aware he was wearing a contented smile.

"Looks like you two slept well." Sakura-san noted. "You seem particularly happy, Akechi. Good dreams?"

Futaba looked at Akechi and smirked. "Oh, I bet it was a dream about Akira!"

"Huh?" Akechi became self-conscious and blushed a bit. "It wasn't a dream. Um, but I was indeed thinking about Akira." He admitted.

"Hah, I knew it!" Futaba exclaimed in triumph.

"So, when will you ask her out?" Sakura-san asked.

"Um, she asked me out, actually. This was exactly what I was recalling..." Akechi explained.

"Of course you said yes, right?" Futaba pressed.

"I... didn't say anything yet. Everything was so sudden that I was unsure what to do."

"You didn't respond!?" Sakura-san sighed in exasperation. "You're being so slow. It's usually the guy that asks the girl out first!" The man tsk'ed. "Listen up. When you respond, you should at least give her a present to make up for your slowness, got it?"

"A-a present?" That sounded like a good idea. "... I never said I'd say yes, though..."

"Huh!?" Sakura-san rolled his eyes. "It's obvious that you like her, and if she went as far as to ask you out, you know for sure she likes you too. And from the smile on your face, your answer can't be anything else! Remember, this is a unique opportunity. Don't waste it!"

"Um, I'll talk to her. And I'll buy her a present."

"Good." Sakura-san nodded, probably assuming that a present for Akira meant a yes.

Akechi was still a little nervous about the romance thing, but one thing was certain: it was about time he bought that jewelry for Akira.

Breakfast was just over when Akechi's phone rang. He tensed at the thought it might be someone from the organization, but exhaled in relief when he saw the caller's name on the screen and it was Makoto. He excused himself from the kitchen and picked up the call. "Hello?"

"Hello, Akechi-kun. Do you have a minute?"

"Yes. What is it?"

"It has come to my attention that the corrupt people from the media who are abusing you may have ties to a criminal organization my sister is investigating. And, um, this got me wondering, do you know if they are abusing other minors as well? I believe this might become important in my sister's investigation. If you could give us some information, it would be very much appreciated..."

"Hmm?" Akechi raised an eyebrow. "Did she tell you to ask me this?" He was sure it wasn't the case, but asked just to mess with Makoto a bit.

And it worked, seeing how Makoto was suddenly in shy mode. "Um, not really... the thought just occurred to me, and I decided to ask.."

It was obvious why she was asking that, though. Akechi recalled the group chat messages Akira had shown him, about everyone surprised that "Crow" was a minor. The mention of minors and Sae-san's investigation could only mean they were trying to find arguments for his own case. In other words, that call was a very roundabout way of Makoto saying she was worried about him... well, she didn't know it was him yet, so it was understandable that she would make up some kind of excuse to approach him about the subject. Akechi was both amused and touched at the same time.

"I-isn't this reason enough?" Makoto asked in a small and shaky voice. It was a wonder how the ever so confident Queen acted like an insecure little child when she was in shy mode.

A genuine smile crept into Akechi's face. "Of course it is enough." He replied in a gentle voice. Her true reasons were more than enough. "As for your actual question... well..."

"Do you know something?" Makoto sounded hopeful.

Come to think of it, Akechi hadn't pointed out the organization's exploration of minors in the files he gave to Sae-san. Perhaps he should go into more detail on it. Not specifically because of his case, but because it was another dirty thing the organization was doing.

"Yes, I know of some things. Uh, maybe we should discus this subject in person, preferably with Sae-san also present."

"Oh, this would be great! I'll tell her."

"We'll meet up at Leblanc later today, right? I'll see you there."

"Okay. My sister will be there too. We may talk about this if we get the chance. We'll see you later."

The call was over. Still with his phone in hand, Akechi decided to call Sakamoto.

"Sakamoto-kun, are you free right now? I was thinking of searching for that present for Akira."

"Sure! You remember I said I had found a place, right? It's in Kichijoji. Have you been there before?"

"Yes, I have."

"Mkay! Let's meet up there, then! I'll see you in front of the station."

Akechi returned to the kitchen, where both Sakuras were still present. "I'll go out for a bit. I'll buy a present for Akira."

"Oh." Sakura-san nodded knowingly. "We were also about to leave. We'll go to Leblanc. You should head straight there when you come back."

"Let's leave together!" Futaba suggested, and the other two agreed.

The three of them left the house together, and then went their separate ways.

Once at Leblanc, Futaba was left to her own devices as Sojiro began opening up shop, and her thoughts wandered off. She recalled how those requests involving bad parents had negatively affected Crow's mood. This probably meant he had messed-up family issues too. One theory from the group chat messages earlier was that his family might not like him. Futaba wished at least his little sis would warm up to him so that they could get along and he would have support.

Futaba slowly excused herself upstairs and pocked her head into the attic. "... Akira, you there?"

"Oh, hi, Futaba!" Akira was sitting on the bed, with Morgana at her side. "Did Akechi-kun come too?"

Futaba shook her head on her way to Akira. "Uh-uh. He had to leave for a bit."

"I was about to leave for a bit too."

"Oh..." Futaba deflated.

Akira noticed it. "Is something wrong?"

"Well... I was remembering our chat messages from yesterday. I'm worried about Crow. Do you think he's alright?"

"I'm sure he was very happy after you said you forgive him."

"Hmm, maybe. But... we'll have this gathering today, and Crow'll miss out again... if only he'd come too... um, Akira, can't you do something about it? Don't you have the means to invite him? Like, didn't you manage to get his contact while he was here the other day?"

"Did you really think he'd just trade contacts with me if I were to ask?"

Futaba sighed in dejection. "Proly not..."

"I have a plan, though. The next time we see him, I'll talk to him and make sure he'll never be left out of our gatherings again! Actually, I'm going to buy him a present, as part of my plan. This is the reason why I'm heading out."

"Awesome! No idea what your plan is, but I just know it'll work! Leave it to our amazing leader!"

"Wait." Morgana interjected. "Akira, you intend to search for a present now? If it takes too long, you'll be late for the gathering!"

"Oh, there's not much of a need to search. I know what I'll get him."

This piqued Futaba's curiosity. "What will it be? I already told him the important stuff, but I still wanna give him a present! Did you figure out something he might like?"

"Yeah. I'll get him the Proof of Justice toy gun."

Futaba's eyes widened. "You mean the toy gun from that commercial!? You sure he'd like that?"

"I'm perfectly sure! He spaced out and seemed all nostalgic when the commercial was airing on TV!"

"Oh, that's interesting," Morgana said. "To him, the gun wouldn't be just a mere toy, either. He could use it in the Metaverse too!"

Futaba hadn't thought of that. "Awesome idea! But our serious secret agent likes toys? And those justice hero toy guns, for real!? Aaaaah... sounds like we could actually get along...!"

"I think so too!" Akira smiled. "Apparently, when he was a kid, he wanted to become a hero."

"And he managed it. Now, he's one."

Akira giggled. "That's right." She gently placed Morgana in her bag and stood up. "Now I'll be off."

"Okay. I'll play video games while I wait."

Sakamoto still hadn't arrived at the agreed place, and Akechi had to wait a bit.

Around ten minutes of wait later, the blond boy hurriedly came out of the train station. "Phew. Sorry. I hope you haven't waited too much. I was helping my mom out with some chores."

"It's no problem."

"Then, let's get going!"

They began walking, with Sakamoto leading the way.

Akechi smiled sadly. "If my mother were alive, I'd probably be doing the same things as you... Sakamoto-kun, what kind of person is your mother?"

"Well, she doesn't exactly have any talent, kinda like me, I guess. So, she had a hard time finding a job, and a hard time raising me on her own. She's kind and caring, but I feel she keeps blaming herself for not being able to do more for me. I think she deserves better too, but I'm not smart or skilled at anything... and all we can do is keep on walking together and catching each other when one of us trips. Lame story, right?"

"Not at all. Both of you care deeply for each other, and are doing what you can to support each other. It's rather heartwarming, if you ask me. To be honest, I feel a bit envious."

"Uh, it's nothing special..." Sakamoto seemed a bit embarrassed. "Wait, you had no one... to you, maybe it is... um, Akechi, what about your mom? From your face, looks like you cared a lot about her too. You miss her, don't you?"

Akechi nodded solemnly. "She was very kind and nice, and was always telling me about the stories she had read in books. We also had fun making our own stories up together."

"That sounds nice."

"We were very poor, and barely had food. Life was hard, but was way better than what I went through at the foster homes. Despite everything, the memories of the nice moments with my mother are among the best ones in my life."

They walked in a solemn silence until Sakamoto pointed out, "That should be the place! From what I saw on the map, it has to be it!"

They were in an area Akechi had never been to before, and indeed there was a jewelry shop. The store had a huge assortment of necklaces, pendants and bracelets. Unlike the selection from Tsurukame Diamond, the designs weren't predominantly romantic. Akechi glanced absentmindedly at the products, still half lost in his memories of the good moments with his mother.

Suddenly, one of the products made his eyes widen. "Aaah!"

"What's up!?" Sakamoto startled and his gaze darted to Akechi.

"That! That pendant!" Akechi pointed at a pendant which was a gold star inside of a silver ring.

"Uh, what 'bout it?"

"Please, may I see that one?" Akechi asked the male clerk and ignored Sakamoto. The clerk handed him the piece, and for a moment, all Akechi could do was stare mesmerized at the jewelry.

"Hey..." Sakamoto's voice got him out of his stupor.

"My mother had a pendant that looked very similar to this one." Akechi finally addressed Sakamoto, in a nostalgic tone. "A golden star inside a silver ring. She had bought it saying she wanted to look good for my father once he came back. Her pendant was beautiful, and I enjoyed looking at it. With time, though, the pendant wore out and totally lost its shine. It was obviously fake, like the illusion of the relationship she believed she had with that man. But this one is not fake. It's made of true precious metal, with a star that won't stop shining no matter how much time passes."

"Um, so, you wanna buy that for Akira to show that your love for her isn't fake and will last forever?" Sakamoto made his own conclusions.

Akechi's eyes bulged at Sakamoto's conclusion. "Ugh! I hadn't thought of it that way... what I thought was, this figure of the golden star in a silver ring is important to me, and I'd like Akira to hold onto it. A star suits her brightness, and I believe she's the perfect person to have it. To be honest, if it were my mother's fake jewelry, I'd look at it and only get angry thinking about my asshole father, but when I look at this and think about Akira, the only thing that comes to my mind is that it feels... right. Perfect."

"Whoa, that's deep... and there's the eternal love thing too."

"I never said anything about love!" Akechi protested. "It's you who's saying that!"

"It's true, though, isn't it?"

Akechi blushed. "Err..."

"Anyway, if you're saying the pendant's perfect, it means our search is over! Better buy it before anyone else does."

"... R-right..."

Akechi called the clerk over and paid for the pendant. It was a bit expensive - definitely, much more than his mother could have afforded when she bought the fake one -, but he didn't mind. It was worth it.

"Yeah! This went out great!" Sakamoto cheered.

"I have been to Kichijoji for work, but had never been to these parts before. Thanks for finding this store, Sakamoto-kun."

"Nah, don't sweat it. I didn't know this store, either. I just found it on the net."

"Do you come to Kichijoji often?"

"More or less. I started coming after I won a free ticket to the darts place... speaking of that, you had said you're good at darts, hadn't you? Why don't we play some darts before we head back?"

They headed to the darts place and bought a ticket.

"I usually choose the 701 rules," Akechi said. "Have you played 701 before?"

"Nope. I tried 501 once, and that was already hard. But let's go with 701. I wanna see what you've got!"

Akechi chuckled. "You're eager, huh? Well then..."

They started playing against each other. At first, Akechi went easy for a bit while he studied his opponent... and almost regretted it. Sakamoto proved to play much better than expected. He hit quite a few bullseyes, and from his calculations to find out what other numbers to hit, no one would have guessed he isn't a very good student. In the end, Akechi still won, though.

"You play well." Akechi complimented Sakamoto, genuinely impressed. "I brought Akira here once, but her throws were all over the place."

Sakamoto laughed. "I bet she'd get the hang of it in no time, though! And yeah, you play great!"

"How about some cooperative play next?"

"Good idea. Let's do it!"

They started cooperative play, once again on 701. Unlike versus play where the first one to reduce the score to zero won, co-op play had a limit of five turns where they had to work together to reduce the score to zero.

Akechi performed his throws. With three triple 20s, he reduced 180 points from the 701 score.

"Whoa! Triple 20 3 times in a row, for real!? It's hard to hit double 20, let alone triple 20, and many times in a row!"

"As we have a very high score to reduce in a limited number of turns, we should try to get numbers as high as possible in the beginning. In our previous game, I saw you could hit bullseyes rather consistently. Those are fine too. If you feel more comfortable hitting bullseyes, then just go for that. I'll handle the rest."

"That's reassuring! Okay, better to play the way I'm more comfortable, instead of trying something else and screwing up... alright, I'm ready! Leave the bullseyes to me!" Excited, Sakamoto raised his right hand.

On instinct, Akechi raised his left hand, and they slapped each other's hands in a gesture of trust. It felt so natural, as though they were used to doing that for a long time.

Sakamoto managed to hit three bullseyes and the score went down to 371. When he switched back to Akechi, they did the hand gesture again.

Akechi scored triple 20 three times again, and the score became 191.

Sakamoto stared in awe at the board. "Wow. You're darn good. There's the five turns limit, and the score was so high in the beginning that I thought we couldn't do it. But 191 feels like a more 'normal' score, doesn't it?"

"We still have two turns and 191 is definitely manageable. If you hit three more bullseyes, I'll only have the last 41 to deal with."

"You make it sound so easy, eh?" Sakamoto grinned. "Alright, let's do this!"

They made the hand gesture again. Sakamoto hit two bullseyes, but his hands were trembling at his last throw.

Ryuji was nervous. They were so close to winning the game, and the pressure caught up to him. When he threw the dart, his aim went way off and the dart hit a 17 instead of the bullseye.

"Gah! Why did I have to screw up, at the last moment?"

"74... hmm." Akechi hummed to himself. "It's fine. We still have a chance. I believe I can finish the game."

Akechi seemed so confident that Ryuji felt better about his previous mistake. "Alright. I'm counting on you!" He and Akechi slapped hands again.

Akechi silently stared at the board for a few seconds, then made his first throw. A bullseye. 24 left. His second throw was a 10, and his third throw finished the game with style and a double 7. It was a wonder how the detective kept so composed and managed to hit exactly the numbers he wanted every time. Ryuji could only imagine how amazing Akechi would be with that confidence and precision in the Metaverse!

Ryuji threw his fists in the air. "Yeah! A perfect zero! We did it! More like, you did it..."

Akechi seemed proud, and he had enough reasons to. He was really skilled and had the right to boast it.

It wasn't what he did, though. "No, we did it. You did well too. We wouldn't have cleared the game if you hadn't hit all those bullseyes."

Ryuji chuckled sheepishly at the compliment. "Um, yeah, I guess..."

"Impressive play!" The game host complimented them. "You two make a great team. Are you used to working together?"

At that question, the first thing that crossed Akechi's mind was that they actually were used to working together, in the Metaverse. And his eyes grew slightly as he realized the slapping hand gesture was exactly what they did when performing baton pass! That explained why it felt so familiar...

"Err, um, well..." Akechi wasn't sure how to answer, though.

Sakamoto answered for him. "Not really. It feels like we've been working together for quite a while, though! Right, Akechi?" And he just had to throw the question back.

"Uh..." Akechi gaped for a moment, and in the end he just nodded in response.

Luckily, the game host was satisfied. "Akechi-kun, I've seen you playing all by yourself quite a few times. You brought that girl here the other day, and today you brought him. Honestly I had begun to wonder if your fame was getting in the way of your social life, and am glad to see you're playing with friends now."

It was a surprise to Akechi that a random person like the darts game host would be concerned about him.

The detective offered a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. I have good friends."

They left the darts place.

"Akechi, I hadn't thought we could work so well together. Working with you feels so natural, though. It's like working with Akira."

Envy got the better of Akechi, and he couldn't avoid making a face. "Why does everyone keep comparing me to Akira? We are nothing alike! It's like comparing apples and oranges."

"Nah, more like tangerines and oranges. Some stuff about you two are defly alike. You two are confident, know what you're doing, and have this way of assuring us that things'll be fine if we rely on you. Isn't this one of the reasons why you're interested in her? 'Cause you identify with her?"

"Ugh." Akechi blushed. "A-Akira is an amazing person. Kind, confident, positive, and people accept her easily... I guess this was what first drew my attention to her. I've always struggled to get people to accept me, and still can't understand how she manages to get others to accept her so easily even when she acts out of society norms. This is the mystery I'll probably never be able to solve. I don't think I could ever become like her."

"Hmm." Sakamoto cocked his head thoughtfully. "Isn't this your chance to solve the mystery? If you date her and spend lots of time near her, maybe you'll find out more 'bout her ways! Some of 'em might even rub off on you, who knows."

Akechi recalled Akira's "plan." "I'm saying I want you nearby so that my 'privileges' will extend to you too. This way, you'll have everything you want and won't feel envious anymore! Isn't it a good plan?"

He still wasn't sure if it would work or would have the opposite effect, leave him frustrated watching her easily get everything he was never able to get.

Sakamoto patted Akechi on the shoulder and startled him out of his thoughts. "You have to give her that present and ask her out! The sooner, the better!"

Akechi had promised a response to Akira, and he didn't want to make her wait much. He really needed to talk to her. "Uh, I was thinking of giving her the present today... that being said, you may go on ahead to Leblanc. I don't have the jewel case on me. I have to drop by home to get it."

"Alright. Mission complete here, then. The search for Akira's present was a success, and playing darts was great. We should play darts again another day!"

"Definitely." The memory about the baton pass gesture made Akechi wonder if playing darts could improve their performance during baton pass in some way. "Maybe we should also invite the others here sometime."

"Sure thing! That'll be even more fun! Mkay, I'll be going then. See you at Leblanc!"

Sakamoto was both excited and satisfied with the results of their outing. The Chariot Confidant ranked up.

Some time later, everyone had arrived at Leblanc except Akechi.

Akira was talking to her friends and waiting for Akechi to arrive... but then, Futaba dropped the bomb.

"We finally learned the mastermind's name. It's Masayoshi Shido."

Everyone froze for a second.

"Masayoshi Shido!" Makoto echoed.

"Shido? I feel like I've heard this name before..." Ryuji commented.

"He's a politician, and has been appearing on TV a lot lately." Makoto clarified for him.

"It's that man who was speaking into a loudspeaker nearby the other day, and you had complained about the noise, Ryuji." Ann reminded him.

"Oh..." It seemed to click for Ryuji. "... You mean the mastermind was this close by?!"

"Yep. And there's more." Futaba continued. "Sounds like that man had been prying about my mom's research ever since, and they got drunk at a party one day, and um... he's basically my real dad."

Everyone was shocked.

"What!? For real!?" Ryuji shouted. "You mean your own dad ordered your mom to be killed and and and...?" Futaba nodded with a serious expression, and Ryuji became even more indignant. "This is so messed-up!"

"Futaba, are you okay about this?" Ann asked.

"I'm okay. I have coffee dad Sojiro. And I have all of you guys. And of course, my lil' big bro Akechi too!"

"You are strong." Niijima-san spoke.

"I dunno. I don't feel anything about this Shido guy. What matters to me the most is that he's our target, and we'll expose all his crimes for the whole Japan to see!"

"Um, speaking of fathers..." Haru began hesitantly. "Akechi-kun told me that he was able to locate his father."

"What?" Akira perked up. He had never mentioned that to her.

Niijima-san also seemed interested. "This is new information to me."

"He didn't tell me that!" Futaba whined as though Akechi had been mean to her. "All he's told me is that his dad's a jerk."

"He found his dad? Then what did he do?" Ryuji asked.

"I'm not sure..." Haru seemed conflicted, likely choosing her words. "But he said his father was the person who introduced him to the corrupt organization."

Everyone was shocked.

"For real...?" Ryuji uttered.

"Akechi's father is tied to the organization..." Yusuke muttered his conclusions. "This probably means, if not for that, Akechi would not have ended in the corrupts' hands."

"From what I understood, Akechi-kun really dislikes his father." Haru added. "Because the man had abandoned him and his mother, and refused to recognize him as his son, and... probably because of this mess too." She startled with a gasp. "Wait, now that I think about it, perhaps..."

"What is it, Haru?" Makoto asked.

Haru shook her head. "No, a thought occurred to me, uh, but never mind. Let's ask Akechi-kun directly."

It didn't take long until the chimes rang and their last member entered the cafe. However, the dark subject was quickly set aside at the sight of the detective wearing a gray suit and a necktie over a white shirt.

"Oh!" Akira gasped in pleasant surprise.

Everyone's gazes focused om him.

"Huh? ... What?" The detective seemed uncomfortable under all those gazes.

"Such elegance!" Yusuke stared as though he were looking at an art piece.

"Too formal!" It seemed like Futaba would scold Akechi, but then she added, "So cool, though!"

Ryuji was awed. "Yeah, what's with that look? It's so cool! But Futaba's right. Why so formal? We're all just having lunch..."

It must be just a simple gathering to the others, but to Akechi, it was a special occasion and called for special clothes. When he dropped by his appartment to retrieve the jewel case, it occurred to him to wear the gray suit.

"Um, a-actually, the suit was a present from Akira..." Akechi tried to justify his choice.

This response somehow caused a glint of understanding to cross everyone's gazes.

"Ah, I see..." Morgana mumbled from beside Akira.

"Hmm. Good choice, Akira." Sakura-san's approval made Akira blush slightly.

Akechi tried to change the focus. "It's refreshing to see the workaholic Sae-san here and seemingly so relaxed."

"While it is true that I have a lot of work to take care of, I also need some curry to recharge."

"She's like Yellow!" Futaba said out of the blue. When Sae-san threw her a confused glance, she explained. "Feather Yellow from Featherman. He really loves curry! He eats a lot of it, and that always boosts his energy!"

"Speaking of curry, when will it be ready? I am hungry," Kitagawa said.

"Grrr. Inari, you-" Futaba began, but then, her own stomach grumbled. "Sojiro! Hurry up!"

"Fine, fine! Hang in there. Akira, help me get the plates and serve everyone."

"Sure thing!" Akira sprang to her feet, eager to help serve lunch to her friends.

Akechi sat down at the table next to Takamaki-san.

"Doesn't Akechi-kun seem unusually nervous?" Makoto asked no one in particular.

"Must be 'cause of 'that,'" Sakamoto said. "Being nervous is totally unlike you, though, Akechi."

"... 'That' what?" Akechi asked in confusion.

"Akira's gift." Takamaki-san clarified in a low voice. "Ryuji messaged us earlier saying he helped you buy her a gift."

"Hmm..." Makoto's eyes shone as though she had just made a scientific breakthrough. "This explains the reason why he is wearing the formal suit she gave him. This must be a very special occasion to him."

"Uh..." Akechi gaped in confusion at the misunderstanding. While it was indeed a special occasion to him, it wasn't exactly because of that! It was mostly because he would reveal his Metaverse identity to the Phantom Thieves.

Takamaki-san continued speaking in a hushed voice. "When you give her the gift, are you going to confess to her too?"

"Uh-ugh, I..."

She placed a hand on his arm. "Akechi-kun, you can do it."

"We will be rooting for you," Haru said.

"It is Akira-chan we are talking about. It will be fine."

"E-even you, Sae-san!" He had talked to her on the phone the previous day, and couldn't believe even Sae-san, who had known precisely why he had come to that gathering, was misunderstanding the situation.

"Don't worry. It will be fine." Sae-san repeated, and those who paid enough attention would have noticed a slight smirk, uncharacteristic of her. It might be a sign that she could tell what his actual problem was, and was going along with the other Phantom Thieves just to mess with him. So uncharacteristic of her... but again, she had become more mischievous after her change of heart. Perhaps this was actually her true nature.

Akechi felt something soft touching his arm.

It was Morgana, who had climbed on the bench and settled himself next to Akechi. The detective greeted the supernatural cat with a smile.

Morgana climbed on the detective's back and whispered in his ear. "Be sure to tell her those three magic words, got it?"

This caused Akechi's smile to break and he narrowed his eyes in annoyance. Morgana smirked in triumph and laughed, which left Akechi even more annoyed.

Morgana patted Akechi's head and continued whispering. "Hey, don't make that face. We're here to support you. Not only in your relationship with Akira, but the other things too. It'll be fine." The supernatural cat gently rubbed his cheek against Akechi's once before climbing back down to the bench.

"Awww Mona. Why do you have to like Akechi so much?" Futaba whined.

"Look who's talking!"

Haru giggled. "All of us like him a lot, right, Mona-chan?"

Takamaki-san smiled. "Akechi-kun, we're always talking about you. Actually, We've been a bit worried..."

Akechi recalled the text messages again, and to say the Phantom Thieves were "a bit" worried was quite the understatement.

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Sakamoto rolled his eyes. "Why are you apologizing?"

"Um, I mean, I feel glad that you guys care this much, but I didn't want to make you worry."

"We worry this much because you're important to us this much." Akira approached and left a plate of curry in front of him. She gave him a gentle smile before turning around and resuming helping with the plates.

"We are worried about what the TV staff and the corrupt police might be doing to you." Kitagawa added.

Haru raised a hand. "Speaking of which, in your last interview, you said you would stop disclosing your theories about the Phantom Thieves. Did the TV staff tell you to say that too?"

"Uh, yes, they said that the audience is getting bored because I've been repeating the same things for a while. They intend to stop my TV appearances for some time, but not long enough for the public to forget about the Phantom Thieves, otherwise the next big news that hits won't have enough impact."

"The next big news?" Takamaki-san echoed. "Like what?"

"Perhaps a calling card?" Kitagawa deduced.

Akechi nodded in confirmation.

"It must be the trap." Morgana spoke from beside Akechi. "It sounds like they still intend to resume the plan that failed with Okumura. Have us target someone important, get the calling card on the news, then order a mental shutdown and blame it on us." The kitty laughed mockingly like a villain. "Only, we're miles ahead of them, and it won't happen!"

Sakura-san sighed in mock exasperation and spoke playfully. "Hey Akechi. Don't you get annoyed at this cat making so much noise?"

Akechi raised an eyebrow in amusement, since he was aware Sakura-san had also understood what Morgana had said. "I don't mind. I find it amusing, actually. He must be really eager to get some curry, huh?"

Morgana nearly drooled. "That wasn't it at all... um, though I guess I can't deny I'm totally up for some curry! You understand me very well, Akechi!"

No one could keep from laughing at that, not even the detective himself.

"Fine, fine. I'll get you some curry too." With a chuckle, Sakura-san went off to get Morgana's curry.

They were about to start eating when the chimes rang and announced a male customer's arrival.

"Oh crap. I forgot to flip the sign to 'closed...'" Sakura-san mumbled annoyedly.

Disappointment was written all over the customer's face. "C-closed?" His stomach grumbled loud and clear, and he could only fidget and laugh in embarrassment. "Uh, I found this cafe while looking for nearby restaurants on the Internet. I still haven't eaten anything today... please, may I at least order some coffee and something to eat?"

"Huh?" Makoto's eyes grew wide in recognition. "... Dr. Maruki?"

"Niijima-san...?" The man who Makoto had addressed as Dr. Maruki, looked around at the group. "Kurusu-san as well? And you all... what a coincidence!"

Sakura-san's annoyance disappeared, replaced by mild surprise. "Do you guys know him?"

"He is Dr. Takuto Maruki, the psychologist working as a counselor at our school." Makoto explained. "That incident about Mr. Kamoshida traumatized many students, and the school hired Dr. Maruki to advise them."

"I still wish I could do better, but the students seem satisfied overall," Dr. Maruki said modestly.

"Alright, take a seat." Sakura-san's expression softened, and he turned to Dr. Maruki. "I'll get you some coffee and a plate of curry."

"Oh, thank you!" The psychologist bowed, and his glasses nearly fell off his face. He embarrassedly adjusted them back on, then proceeded to take another good look at the group. He looked at Kitagawa. "You are... Kitagawa-kun, right? I remember having seen that news article about your art piece that won a competition. It had some amazing statements you made in your presentation. Those were wise insights."

"Oh, thank you." Kitagawa replied politely.

The doctor continued looking at the group, until his gaze stopped on Akechi. "Hmm? ... You are Akechi-kun, aren't you?"

"Yes." Akechi responded in a neutral way.

"I almost failed to recognize you. I'm surprised at how different you look from your TV image. To think even you would be here, though..." That statement sounded rather strange, as though the man were thinking Akechi felt out of place for some reason... or maybe Akechi was reading into it too much.

"He's a regular here." from the background, Sakura-san explained.

"Oh, sorry. Don't get me wrong. I just thought it was rather unexpected meeting him here, that's all. But again, I hadn't been expecting to run into a gathering of mostly Shujin students in my day off, either."

"I live here, and decided to call my friends over for lunch today." Akira clarified.

"Ah, that explains it. I had heard that you live in a cafe, but hadn't realized it was here. It's such a cozy place!" His gaze shifted to Akechi's direction again. More specifically, to Morgana comfortably seated next to Akechi. "Um, Kurusu-san, is that your cat?"

It looked like Morgana would protest about not being a cat like usual, but he managed to keep it to himself this time.

"Yeah." Akira confirmed.

"Akechi-kun, do you like cats?"

"Um, you could say that."

"And it's easy to tell that this one likes you a lot. I like cats too. Too bad they don't seem to like me much..." He hesitantly reached out and seemed about to try petting Morgana, but gave up. "Akechi-kun, I think you would regain many fans if they could see this side of you."

"Maybe." Akechi chose to leave it at that, unwilling to explain his complicated situation.

"... uh, though I have to say it's quite the contrast to see you in the company of a cute cat while dressed like you're heading to a business meeting..."

"Quite the contrast indeed..." Kitagawa mumbled. "The sight is inspiring in its own right, though."

As Dr. Maruki made his way to grab a seat at an empty table, he was fumbling with his things and dropped a book.

"Ah! That!" Futaba shakily pointed at the book on the ground.

"Huh?" Dr. Maruki retrieved the book from the ground and threw Futaba a questioning glance. "You mean this book? What about it?"

"... C-cognitive psience!"

Akira's eyes sparkled. "Really!?"

The doctor was surprised at their reaction. "Are you interested?"

"Yeah!" Akira replied enthusiastically.

"This isn't a topic that high school students tend to be interested in."

Makoto indicated Futaba. "Her late mother was researching cognitive psience. We have been trying to find out more about the subject, but couldn't find any related material so far."

"I'm studying cognitive psience. Actually, I'm writing a paper on it. We could talk more about it, if any of you would like."

"Sure!" Akira nodded excitedly.

"One day wouldn't be enough to cover everything, though. Kurusu-san, you still haven't come for a counseling session. Even though I stopped insisting, the school is still pressuring me about it. You could show up for pretend counseling sessions, and we can talk about cognitive psience instead. What do you say?"

"Deal!" She agreed seemingly without a second thought.

Akira spaced out for a few seconds, and Akechi suspected she was having one of those Confidant bond Tarot card visions.

Dr. Maruki's order arrived, and he started eating along with everyone else.

"It's not every day that we run into someone who is researching cognitive psience." Akechi commented.

"And it's not every day that I run into a detective. Akechi-kun, do you believe in cognitive psience?"

"Yes."

"Oh. I ask because it's such an obscure topic that most don't believe it. The theories are so hard to prove that some people don't even consider it to be real science. Since you're a detective and must be a very rational person, it's interesting that you believe in it. I'm curious about your opinion on the subject."

Most of the Phantom Thieves also seemed curious, from the way they perked up.

"To be honest, I don't like it much." Which was quite the understatement. Akechi hated the cognitive world. If only that blasted entity hadn't given him access to it, he wouldn't have screwed his life to the point of no return. "I think it can be... extremely dangerous. There are too many things we don't understand about it. It has the potential to mess people's minds and who knows what else. It can be very harmful. The kind of thing that ill-intentioned people shouldn't have access to."

"You had said in interviews that you think the changes of heart and the mental illness cases may be related. I think so too, by which I mean, I believe both use the cognitive world. Had you made that statement because you had arrived at the same conclusion?"

The Phantom Thieves became apprehensive at hearing the doctor lumping the changes of heart and the mental illnesses together.

"Something like that." Akechi answered as neutrally as he could.

"I think the connections end there, though, in the tool used." Dr. Maruki added. "I don't view cognitive psience as inherently good or bad in itself. It depends on how it is used, like any tool. Take a knife, for example. While it may hurt others if used by someone with ill intentions, it also may be used for something good like cutting food. Thus, we shouldn't automatically label someone as bad just because they have a knife. Do you get what I mean, Akechi-kun?"

"Yes, of course." And more. It sounded like Dr. Maruki was rooting for the Phantom Thieves, and seemed to think that Akechi was trying to associate the changes of heart and the mental illnesses just because both used the cognitive world.

"So, what if there are two opposing groups with access to cognitive psience? One causing the changes of heart and the other one causing the mental shutdowns?"

It sounded like the doctor was either very sharp, or actually knew something. He was researching the cognitive world, after all. He might have discovered something that wouldn't be easily found out through normal means, who knows?

Apparently, Sae-san had the same thought. "Excuse me. I am Sae Niijima, Makoto's sister. I am also investigating these cases, and you raise interesting points. Perhaps, do you happen to know something concrete about said cases, Dr. Maruki?"

The doctor shook his head slightly. "Oh, no, it's just a theory. The possibility of different groups exists, and should be something to consider. I have heard of positive results of the changes of heart, and found them quite inspiring. As someone hoping to help many people using my research, I want to believe that the Phantom Thieves share similar goals and are using cognitive psience for a good cause."

They finished eating, and Dr. Maruki stood up. "Um, Mr..."

"Sojiro Sakura."

"Ah, right. Sakura-san, thank you. The coffee and the curry were delicious." The doctor paid for the bill, then walked over to Akechi. "Akechi-kun, it was good talking to you. As you may have noticed, I support the Phantom Thieves. They are an inspiration to me. Don't get me wrong, though. I respect you, and admire that you're a promising detective at such a young age. It is a shame that you and the Phantom Thieves are having this conflict. You had said in an interview that you would share your conclusions with the public once you were 101% sure about the Phantom Thieves' methods. For that, you probably should look into cognitive psience, with a more open mind, so that you can make fair judgment. I can help you with that, if you would like." Dr. Maruki extended a card out to Akechi. "Here is my business card. Feel free to contact me so that we can set up a time to discuss cognitive psience... or maybe if you need counseling."

On reflex, Akechi reached out. When his hand grasped the business card, everything froze.

"I am thou, thou art I... thou hast acquired a new vow, the Takuto Maruki Confidant. It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity. With the birth of the Councillor Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power..."

Akechi blinked in confusion, not having expected that sudden Tarot card at all.

"Bye." With a smile, the doctor left the cafe.

"Whoa, he's nicer than I thought." Sakamoto commented.

"Have any of you guys attended his counseling sessions?" Akechi asked.

Sakamoto was the first one to answer. "The school forced me to attend at least one session, but our conversation was totally awkward and didn't flow at all!"

"The school forced me too, because I was one of Kamoshida's victims," Takamaki-san said. "The session was better than I had expected, though. Dr. Maruki is friendly, and good at listening and giving advice."

"I attended a session mostly out of curiosity." Makoto spoke. "I had a lot on my mind at the time and was unsure what to do with myself, when I realized we had a psychologist and figured I might as well attend a session. It was a good conversation."

"It was similar for me," Haru said. "He does his best to make us feel comfortable. The session was an enjoyable moment."

Akira raised an eyebrow. "Am I the only one who didn't attend a session?"

"I didn't, either." Kitagawa replied.

"'Course you didn't, Inari! You're from a different school!" Futaba remarked.

"Yes, but I would like to talk to him more. The fact that he enjoyed what I said in my presentation makes me think we can engage in interesting discussions. I should drop by Shujin one of these days and see if I can talk to him."

"Both he and Ms. Kawakami insisted I should attend a session at first, because of Kamoshida and because of my criminal record." Akira spoke. "Both of them stopped insisting, though. Even when he showed up in classes to cover for absent teachers, he didn't push it. Time passed, and I even forgot about the counseling." She admitted in embarrassment. "Now I regret having ignored him. Who'd have thought he's into cognitive psience?"

"To think someone familiarized with cognitive psience had been so close by..." Kitagawa said. "By the way, he seems to have taken a liking to you, Akechi. Considering your current popularity, or rather, unpopularity, this was a wonder."

"Yes, this whole thing was... rather unexpected..." Akechi stared awkwardly at the business card in his hand before pocketing it.

Takamaki-san giggled. "Dr. Maruki seemed very willing to help you out, Akechi-kun." At that, Sae-san's head shot up slightly. "He even suggested a way to regain fans! I bet Morgana would be okay with joining you in some photos for your social media."

"I refuse to appear in Internet photos like some ordinary cute cat!" Morgana was quick to protest.

Sakamoto laughed mischievously. "See? Morgana's all excited!"

Futaba joined in, also with a mischievous grin. "Yeah, he's saying he'll love to appear in photos on the net!"

Akira, Haru, Sae-san and Sakura-san - the ones who knew Akechi had actually understood what Morgana had said - tried to keep from snickering.

Morgana growled. "Stop messing with me! I didn't say that! ... Err, although, if joining you in photos is the only thing I can do for you, Akechi... I guess I can make an exception."

Akechi failed to keep a straight face and burst laughing. "I appreciate the suggestion, but I don't think there'll be a need to follow it." His expression became serious. "Once the manipulated cases come to light, it'll be over for me anyway..."

Everyone fell into a solemn silence.

Akechi broke the silence. "I don't know what details will become public, but I guess the bottom line to people will be, 'In the end, that arrogant detective was a fraud and was just opposing the Phantom Thieves because they were becoming more popular than him.'"

Pain showed in Haru's gaze. "It's horrible to hear people saying things like that. If only the public would stop criticizing you..."

"They might. The news is just entertainment to most people. Like any trending topic, the public probably will forget about me eventually."

Takamaki-san also had a pained expression. "That's too sad!"

"That'll be for the best." Akechi chuckled resignedly. "Who would imagine this? Someone who used to crave for fame so much, now wants people to just forget about him. Quite ironic, huh?" He heaved a sigh. "I had been so desperate that I wanted someone, anyone to accept me. But all the public knows about me is what my social media profiles and my celebrity image convey. In other words, nothing. They know nothing about me, and I realized that their attention doesn't count as acceptance. So, I don't want fans anymore. Most importantly, I also realized that, the few people present here in this cafe knows the worst details, yet still accept me even though I shouldn't deserve it. This means much more to me than having a lot of fans."

Futaba spoke up. "Yeah, we accept you... Though I wish you'd accept the Phantom Thieves. Um, you said you don't like cognitive psience much. Is this the reason why you don't like the Phantom Thieves? 'Cause you know they use cognitive psience?"

"When have you heard me say that I dislike them? I never said that!"

"Right, you didn't say it in words, but it was obvious."

"That's not it at all. They drive me crazy often, yes. But I never actually disliked them." Not even back when his heart was in the wrong place. "I just... didn't understand them enough. I really don't like cognitive psience, though. Futaba-chan and Sakura-san, don't you have hard feelings toward cognitive psience? After all, it was what, uh-" He was unable to finish the sentence.

"What killed Wakaba." Sakura-san finished for him. "She was targeted because she was researching that, and ironically, the subjects of her own research were used for killing her. This was what you were going to ask, wasn't it?"

Akechi nodded solemnly. "... Yes."

Sakura-san answered first. "Well, of course I didn't like what happened. But Wakaba was really passionate about her research. She knew the risks involved, and still didn't stop. She knew she was doing something only she could do. Deep down, I knew too, so I couldn't bring myself to stop her. The involved stuff was too big for me, and still is... and like back then, there's nothing I can do about all that big stuff. I guess I'll have to leave the job to the Phantom Thieves. It's frustrating, but looks like they're the only ones who can handle this now."

"Well said, Sojiro!" Futaba nodded proudly. "It came to a point that my mom was so focused on her research that I got upset at her, thinking that the research was more important to her than me. Only later I got to understand the research's importance. Really big stuff, like Sojiro said. I think cognitive psience's really interesting, but can be used both for good and for bad, like that doctor said. If my mom had managed to publish the research, we'd have more details on how stuff works, and more means to counter bad guys using it. I wanna become a specialist in cognitive psience too. After all, the good guys need a specialist to rely on if bad stuff happens, right?"

Once again, Futaba was showing her maturity and strength.

"Aren't you scared of bad people coming after you if you keep meddling in cognitive psience?" Akechi asked.

Futaba smirked. "The thing is, I intend to continue my psientific studies in the shadows, so no one'll know! Then, if I find other good guys struggling with problems involving the cognitive world, I'll contact them and offer my assistance myself! Like I did with the Phantom Thieves to defeat the fake Medged!"

Akechi raised an eyebrow. "Clever."

"She gave us quite the trouble at the time," Morgana said, presumably for Akechi to hear. "We were supposed to find her to change her heart, but literally no one knew she existed! Not even people in the neighborhood!"

"Talk about a mysterious awesome ally working from the shadows..." Sakamoto commented. "Lately I've been thinking this kinda stuff's very cool!"

"You sure think up some crazy stuff, huh Futaba?" Sakura-san sighed, half amused, half resigned. "Fine, I won't stop you. Just be sure to stay safe, got it?"

"Roger that! Yay, I got some supporters! Now, Akechi, go talk to that doctor and grab some juicy cognitive psience info for me."

"Huh? You're the one wanting to study it. It's you who should talk to him!"

"But it looked like he really wanted to talk to you. You said you hadn't understood enough about the Phantom Thieves. He wants to help you understand them better, and I want that too."

"I think it is a good thing that we got to meet Dr. Maruki." Sae-san said. "He might turn out to be a very useful connection."

"I suppose..." Akechi agreed. "Like I said earlier, it's not every day that we run into someone researching cognitive psience."

"Yes, but that is not all."

Akechi didn't understand. "What do you mean? I don't see your point, Sae-san."

"The point is, aside from researching cognitive psience, he is also a psychologist."

"And?"

"And let's be frank. You need therapy."

"Me?" Akechi gasped.

"Yeah, you do." Akira agreed with Sae-san. "You surely have lots of trauma and stuff. Maybe he can help you overcome them."

"Uh, maybe, but..."

"Approaching him should be easy. He already showed interest in talking to you, and even gave you his business card." Sae-san argued. "Of course, learning more about cognitive psience is important as well, and wouldn't be entirely an excuse. Akechi-kun, I advise you don't waste this opportunity."

"Well, I won't deny that having a new source of cognitive psience information is a good thing." Akechi took a deep breath. "As for the Phantom Thieves, though, I believe I already know everything I need about them."

The ones not in the know tensed.

"E-everything you need?" Sakamoto stuttered. "Like what?"

"Uh..." Akechi braced himself. Apparently, it was time to reveal the truth.

However, a dreadful voice coming from a loudspeaker outside interrupted the conversation. "The authorities are unable to even manage their own reputation, much less the country's!" It had to be Shido, of all people. "If elected, I, Masayoshi Shido, will change this shameful situation. Under my administration, Japan will be a country the future generations will be proud of!"

Sakamoto startled. "Wait, didn't he say 'Shido' just now?"

"Yeah!" Takamaki-san exclaimed in realization.

"So, the rumored evil politician decided to come waltzing into Yongen-Jaya, out of all places..." Kitagawa concluded.

"At a very inopportune moment." Akechi added with an annoyed face. Why did Shido have to show up right when Akechi was about to make the big reveal!? "Just for the record, he's promoting his campaign before the election campaign period starts, which is illegal."

"Another crime to add to his list," Sae-san said.

"Actually, he's been doing that for a while now." Akechi continued. "Other candidates deemed it unfair and tried to do the same, but were caught and forced to pay huge fines."

"Do you mean he has so much power that he doesn't get caught?" Haru asked shakily.

"He bribed the agents with amounts actually greater than the fines so that they would turn a blind eye to him."

"Bribery..." Makoto muttered.

"And threats too." Akechi added. "In other words, the agents have no choice."

Everyone was disgusted.

"So nasty..." Sakamoto muttered angrily.

"How despicable!" Kitagawa followed.

Sakura-san was clearly displeased as well, but shrugged it off. "As long as he doesn't decide to stop by here..."

"I don't think he would." Akechi argued. "It's all about luxury to him. A run-down cafe isn't the kind of place he would choose to go to... err, no offense intended."

"None taken. I guess keeping the looks modest has its advantages, huh?"

Makoto stared at Akechi a bit warily. "You seem to know a lot about this man."

Akechi sighed awkwardly. "More than I'd like to admit, actually... for most of my life, I made it my personal mission to find out all I could about him. Who he is, where he is, what he does, how he thinks... I can even say that my real motivation to want to become a detective came from that." He admitted in shame.

"Why so much obsession over that man, though?" Kitagawa asked.

"You don't mean, perhaps..." Haru uttered.

"Because..." Akechi paused in hesitation. "... Because he is my father."

"... What?" Sae-san spoke up first. "You are saying..."

"Yes. Masayoshi Shido... is my father..." Akechi repeated. "I'm his illegitimate child."

Everyone froze with their mouths agape as the revelation sank in.

"Is this f-for real?" Sakura-san stuttered.

"... Yes." Akechi confirmed.

"So, it's true!" Akira exclaimed.

Akechi was confused. "What's true? What are you talking about?"

"This man is trying to become prime minister, right? I had a dream where you said your dad wanted to become prime minister. This means it's actually true!"

"A dream? Talk about wild card intuition!" Morgana grinned. "But if the mastermind is Akechi's father, then..."

Sakamoto's eyes widened. "Wait, he's Futaba's real dad too, right? Then you and Futaba are..."

"Th-then, this m-means..." Futaba sounded more excited each second. "This means we're siblings... for real! You're really my bro! Aaaah! This is awesome!"

"Y-you really think so?" Akechi uttered awkwardly.

"Yeah! It means I r-really have a brobrobro! Oh... my... gawd...!" Futaba came over to him and ruffled his hair from behind.

"Uh..." Akechi blushed, embarrassed at being treated like that in front of everyone.

"Akechi-kun." It was Takamaki-san. "We don't think any less of Futaba for being the kid of an evil guy, and the same goes for you, okay?"

"Um, thanks..." He answered, still embarrassed. "I wasn't sure how to break this news to you guys, but, uh, there's still another thing I have to, ugh..." Futaba ruffled his hair again and interrupted him.

Akira giggled. "See? We love you. Now give the other important news."

"... I... uh..." He tried to speak, but Futaba wasn't about to give him a break and kept petting his head.

"Gonna confess to Akira?" She whispered in his ear, then gave his hair a vigorous ruffle. "Go on, you can do it!"

"Uh, that's not..."

Shido's voice from the loudspeaker was getting louder.

"Sounds like he's close by!" Sakamoto sprang up from his seat. "I don't remember his face from TV. Let's go there and take a look!"

"What!?" Akechi was alarmed immediately. "Don't do that. It's dangerous!"

But Sakamoto was already on his way to the door. "Nah. He doesn't know us or anything. We'd be just some passersby looking around."

Futaba stopped petting Akechi for a moment and muttered. "I don't remember his face from TV, either. Maybe I should go too..."

"No way!" Akechi objected. "What about working from the shadows? You know how dangerous he is. He's the person who least should be seeing you."

"Hmm. You're right. I'll look his pic up on the net later. Right now, I have my dear lil' big bro to care for, and nothing else matters."

"Futaba-chan..." Akechi was both touched and embarrassed.

"No one else coming? I'll be back in a few!" Unlike Futaba, Sakamoto ignored all of Akechi's warnings and stormed out the door.

"Ah! Sakamoto-kun!" Akechi sighed in exasperation. "I can't believe this... he's really going there... shouldn't someone stop him? It feels like the chances of him getting in trouble are very high..."

"I agree," Makoto said. "But only one person should be going. Shido may not know us, but we will stand out too much if the whole group goes there."

"I'll go." Akira volunteered.

This caused chills in Akechi. He had a bad feeling about the situation. Their gazes met.

"... Akira." Akechi had the urge to stop her. He wanted to offer to go in her place, but he obviously wouldn't want Shido to see him there. "... Be careful, and be sure not to get in any trouble, okay?" Was what Akechi ended up saying.

Akira nodded assuringly, then hurried out of the shop after Sakamoto.

Silence reigned inside the cafe for a while. To Akechi, the seconds dragged and seemed like minutes, but all he could do was wait while listening to Shido's voice in the background.

"Akechi-kun? You're so tense." Takamaki-san's voice startled him.

"Ah! ... Um, I'm worried."

"Ryuji's an idiot, but Akira's with him. It'll be alright!" Futaba tried to assure Akechi.

Unfortunately, Akira tended to get in trouble too.

Akechi sighed. "Well, at least the speech is still going on. This should mean nothing unusual is happening... for now."

A bit later, the speech stopped. A minute or so after that, Leblanc's door opened. But instead of Akira bringing Sakamoto back, it was the other way around. Sakamoto took the lead with Akira leaning on him. She was pale, and had shock written all over her face.

"A-Akira!" Alarmed, Akechi left the bench and hurried over to them. "Wh-what happened!?"

"I don't know!" Sakamoto answered, also worried.

"Don't tell me Shido did something to her!"

Sakamoto shook his head. "No, no one did anything to her. She suddenly began feeling sick on the way back. We saw them, though. That Shido guy and his bodyguards. I remember them. They're those asshole adults we ran into at the restaurant!"

"Restaurant?" Akechi had no idea what the blond boy was talking about.

"Oh yeah, it was just Akira, Morgana and me at the time. It was at a buffet we went to. We were returning from the bathroom and were waiting for the elevator. When the elevator came, those guys appeared and acted like they owned the place! They shoved us away like we didn't have the right to use the elevator! It got on my nerves!"

Takamaki-san shuddered. "You mean you ran into the mastermind at the Wilton Hotel! Ugh, what scary twist of fate was that?!"

"Uh, come to think of it, Akira looked a bit out of it at the time, too..." Morgana noted.

"Akira, are you okay?" Akechi asked in concern. "What are you feeling?"

"I... I..." She shut her eyes tightly and one of her hands went to her head. "I remember now... it was him...!"

"Huh?" Sakamoto blinked.

"The man who incriminated me falsely..." Her voice was weak, but her words had the impact of a powerful bomb.

"What the hell!?" This was a fitting sentence for Sakamoto to have shouted, but it wasn't him who had shouted it. It was Akechi, and everyone jumped at the unexpected outburst.

"... Akechi-kun?" Takamaki-san uttered, a bit scared.

"So, It was really him, wasn't it?" Akechi's words sounded more like a statement rather than a question.

Makoto's gaze flew to Akechi. "What? I know you were investigating the case, but did you already think it might be him?"

"I... had my suspicions." Akechi answered with a trembling voice. "There's the anonymity and all the weird stuff surrounding Akira's case, and a big lead strongly hinted at Shido being the culprit. I didn't want to believe it, though. This is too messed-up to be true..."

"He's the true culprit in Akira's false charges case!" Morgana exclaimed. "Then, this will be payback time!"

"Isn't it too much coincidence, though?" Sakamoto also sounded scared. "The guy's the head of a powerful criminal organization, is Futaba and Akechi's dad, and is also the man who screwed Akira's life? How can this be? What's going on!?"

Akechi had to agree. "But why Akira,? Why even Akira's life had to be ruined by him!? She has nothing to do with any of this!"

Akira yelped and nearly lost her balance.

"Whoa!" Sakamoto managed to turn around and catch her.

"She should lie down." Makoto advised.

"Right. Akechi, help me take her upstairs."

Akechi quickly forced his thoughts about Shido to the background and focused on Akira. He reached out to hold her, but as his hands were inches away from her, he froze. Suddenly, he felt scared. It was horrible seeing Akira in pain as it was, and he felt as though touching her might trigger a psychotic breakdown and screw her mental state even more. After all, he was the one carrying that power, and his own mental state wasn't the best at the moment, either.

"What's wrong?" Sakamoto's voice startled him.

"Ah! I got lost in thought. Sorry." Akechi did his best to shake his fears off and do as requested. Thankfully, nothing happened, and he released the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.

They took Akira to the attic and lay her on the bed. When Akechi let go, Akira seemed to panic and began flailing.

"Akira, it's okay. I'm here." Akechi took Akira's hand and held it assuringly.

"Hmm..." It worked, and she stopped flailing.

Akechi continued holding her hand patiently until she fell asleep.

Makoto stealthily entered the attic and spoke in a low voice. "How is she?"

"She fell asleep just now." Akechi informed her.

"I think we should have a doctor examine her. There's a medical clinic nearby. I'll call the doctor over." Makoto didn't wait for a response and simply left to do as she had said.

A few minutes later, a female doctor, Dr. Takemi, came to examine Akira, and everyone gathered at the attic to watch. Akechi's thoughts about Shido resurfaced, and during Akira's whole examination, he was unable to keep from making an angry face.

"Same kind of symptoms as last time." The female doctor nodded to herself. "Previously, I had gotten to the conclusion that she might be suffering from acute stress disorder. This may be another episode."

"Acute... what?" Sakamoto seemed clueless.

"Acute stress disorder." The doctor repeated. "It is a condition that may occur when experiencing or recalling a traumatic event."

"Um, then, it's because we ran into those guys earlier..." Sakamoto concluded.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, but that is probably the case."

"What should we do?" Makoto asked.

"Just let the sleeping beauty have her sleep. She will calm down and the symptoms should go away after a few hours of good rest. If not, call me over again."

"Thank you, Dr. Takemi!" Takamaki-san bowed slightly.

Dr. Takemi left.

The solution sounded very simple, and this was great. Futaba was sure Akira would be alright.

Akechi, however, wasn't alright. He had been making an angry face since the moment Akira said the mastermind was the one who screwed things for her. And Akechi didn't seem to have liked to know that he and Futaba were real siblings, either. He disliked his dad. Did he dislike her now, too? Futaba was a bit scared to ask.

Instead, she took her phone and wrote in the group chat. "Akechi looks angry..."

"It must be because of the mastermind." Yusuke responded. "To think someone so knowledgeable about the mastermind was near us this whole time, though..."

Ann wrote. "Actually, shouldn't we take Akechi-kun to the Palace, too? If he wants to 'study' the mastermind so much, he'll see all he'd want to know if he goes to the Palace."

"Hey." Ryuji manifested in the chat. "It feels kinda bad to decide this without Akira, but I also think we should take Akechi to the Palace. I mean, the dude's his dad."

"Yes, Akechi should have the right to give his father's Shadow a piece of his mind." Yusuke summarized Ryuji's point.

"I think so too." Haru wrote. "Akechi-kun definitely needs to be there, the same way I was present when changing my own father's heart. I don't see how Akira-chan wouldn't agree."

"Just thought of something." Ryuji wrote again.

"That's a miracle in itself." Yusuke mocked him.

"Hey!" Ryuji protested, then continued. "Akechi knows a lot about what the mastermind does. Think he knows something about Crow too?"

Ann replied. "Oh... it looks like he knows more about the mental shutdowns than he lets on. So, maybe?"

"We must ask him." Makoto decided. "Since we will take him to the palace, we must go through this one way or another. I will try to approach the subject."

The chat was over.

"Why?" Akechi stood up from the chair abruptly and uttered in a shaky voice. "Why does Shido have to be behind any and every bad thing that happens to us!? Why does he have to ruin the lives of everyone important to me?"

Sakura-san heaved a sigh. "I came to this Yongen corner, and thought I had managed to run away from the problems involving Shido..."

"Only for the problems to come all the way here after you..." Akechi lowered his head. "I'm sorry. Sakura-san, I'm really, really sorry. I..." No matter how hard he tried, those where the only words he managed to utter, and made him sound like a broken record. It was frustrating how he couldn't find other words to express what he felt.

"I know." Sakura-san directed an understanding look at Akechi. "I guess it may be time for me to stop running away. Now I feel more prepared! ... Sort of. I look at you guys who've gone through so much messed-up stuff and are still moving forward, and it makes me want to move forward too. I have no idea if there's actually something I can do yet, but now I have hope that I didn't have before. All I'm sure I can do is support the Phantom Thieves." He shrugged. "And make coffee and curry. Speaking of which, I'll head downstairs and do the dishes. Having fed this whole group, there's a lot of dishes to take care of."

"Let's also head downstairs." Makoto suggested. "We should let Akira sleep at peace."

Everyone agreed and filed out of the attic, until only Akechi and Futaba remained.

"Akechi..." Futaba hesitantly approached him. "You know a lot about that Shido guy. Did you already know he's my actual dad? You didn't look surprised. You didn't even react..."

"Of course I reacted. And no, I didn't know. Uh..." Akechi hesitated. "I... I found out a-about it at the same time as you." He tried to say, but the words came out in a murmur.

"Huh? What did you say? I didn't catch it."

Would Akechi really have to repeat his last sentence? Saying it the first time was already hard enough...

"I..." He tried to speak, but froze up and the words died in his throat. Defeated, he simply looked away from Futaba.

Futaba was getting apprehensive. Something was weird with Akechi. The way he was acting strengthened the thought that he didn't disliked the fact that they were real siblings.

"Um, I like that we're really siblings. You like it too... right?" She risked asking. "You don't look happy about it..."

He was looking away. When he looked at her again, his expression softened a bit, but he definitely wasn't alright yet."I don't know. To be honest, I'm not sure what to think of it. This is so messed-up. This is all wrong... your mother's side of the family hates you for something you didn't do, and your father's side of the family is worthless. Your own father ordered your mother to be killed, and, and... and if we're really siblings, then I..."

Akechi closed his eyes shut. It looked like he wanted to finish whatever he was saying, but no words came from his mouth. It reminded Futaba of her own communication struggles where she simply froze up.

The first thing that crossed Futaba's mind was that the "lil' big bro" nickname really fit him, as her big bro was looking like a lil' bro being scolded. The second thing was that Akechi seemed about to cry, and made Futaba want to hug him. And the third thing was that, in fact, the way he was acting was reminding her a lot of Crow.

Futaba felt she had to say something. "A-Akechi, don't worry. Sojiro and the Phantom Thieves saved me. I'm fine now. I don't care about what my family thinks anymore."

"But I care. Things shouldn't stay like this..."

At least one thing was clear. He wouldn't be saying these things if he disliked her. It meant he cared about her, and a wave of relief washed over Futaba.

Akechi wasn't done yet. "Neither you or Sakura-san deserved to be involved in any of this..."

Futaba attempted a reassuring smile. "What happened happened. Now the only way we have is forward, right? I'm sure the Phantom Thieves can do something about this mess!"

Akechi's eyes reopened, and his lips formed a sad smile. "I wish I could move forward easier, like you're doing."

"Then, I'll pull you along with me! This sort of thing's what siblings are for!"

Akechi blinked. "... Is it?"

"Yeah... I think. C'mon. The others are waiting downstairs!"

Akechi was unable to react as Futaba grabbed him by the wrist and literally pulled him along. All he could think of on the way downstairs was how hard it was to talk about the bad things he had done. He had almost revealed his identity to her. Almost! But he felt so guilty, so ashamed... it was so hard!

When they arrived downstairs, the others had taken the same seats as before.

"Ann, would you switch places with me? I wanna stay near my lil' big bro!"

"Oh, sure!" Takamaki-san stood up from where she had been seated, which had been next to Akechi.

Soon, they were all seated, and Futaba was glued to Akechi.

Haru giggled. "It is so heartwarming to watch the two of you! She is so cute!" At that, Futaba became embarrassed.

"I have to agree." Both on Futaba's cuteness and how heartwarming it was to have her showing her fondness for him. Despite all the guilt, Akechi couldn't avoid having his heart warmed as well. That was the kind of attention he had always wanted. It was ironic how he never got it when he still deserved it, and was only getting it now.

"She likes you no matter what happens," Sae-san said. "This is what family love should be about."

"I admit, she's the little sister I never knew I needed so much. But I have no idea what to do now. Sae-san, I think I'll need lessons on how to be a good older brother..."

"I do not think I am fit to teach you, though. I have not done a very good job in caring for my sister."

"I think you're doing well. Your sister is also adorable."

Makoto blushed. "Uh, wh-what kind of conversation is this?"

"It is older sibling talk." Sae-san answered before addressing Akechi again. "Both of us made our mistakes, but we can still start over. I have lost my focus for a while, and have not done what I should, but I will give my best from now on. You should do the same."

"I will try..."

Takamaki-san changed the subject. "I wonder how long we'll have to wait until Akira wakes up..."

"Dr. Takemi said, 'a few hours of good rest.'" Kitagawa reminded her.

"We will wait for a bit," Haru said. "If it looks like the sleeping beauty won't wake up, maybe she will need a prince to kiss her."

"Hmm. In that case, we have nothing to worry about." And Sae-san's teasing side surfaced again. "We just so happen to have a detective prince at our service."

Akechi blushed. "Wh-what?" He shook his head furiously. "Please, don't call me that! A-and you guys don't actually mean to have me, uh..."

"What's the problem? You like her." Takamaki-san stated matter of factly.

Even Haru was teasing him. "It has to be someone who loves her, or it won't work, right?"

Akechi gritted his teeth, completely unsure how to respond.

Sae-san chuckled. "Fine. Let us leave that option for the worst case scenario, shall we?"

Thankfully, the teasing stopped.

"What do we do while we wait?" Sakamoto asked. "If only we could play a video game..."

"I can get the retro console upstairs and hook it up to the TV here!" Futaba offered excitedly. "Akechi, do you like video games?"

"I'm not sure. I haven't had many opportunities to play video games."

"Ever heard of Feather Seeker? It's a game with an original story about a different Featherman called Gray Pigeon."

Akechi shook his head.

"Akira has the game. I'll get it upstairs!"

"Remember to be stealthy and not wake Akira up, alright?"

Futaba nodded and ran upstairs.

The girls smiled.

Sae-san threw him an approving look. "Good job, big brother."

... ... ... ... ...

Futaba managed to bring the retro game console from the attic. They took turns taking the controller and playing. Even Sae-san joined in a few times, and she proved to be surprisingly good at the game. Akechi wasn't used to playing video games, either, but eventually got the hang of it. He became so good at performing attack combos that the others began turning to him at the difficult parts.

They spent around one hour and a half playing the Featherman game. Despite the limited graphics and sounds, Akechi had to admit that he had found the plot quite interesting. An original character known as Gray Pigeon, who was given his powers in a laboratory, and was training to become a Phoenix Ranger... or so everyone was made to believe. As predictable as the Featherman series usually was, Akechi hadn't seen the plot twist coming. Eventually, the scientist training the protagonist revealed to be evil, and to be training him to become the Phoenix Rangers' strongest enemy and defeat them! However, even after learning the truth, Gray Pigeon proved to have his heart in the right place and to be really fighting for justice. At the end, he sacrificed himself to defeat the evil scientist and save not only the Feathermen, but everyone else as well.

The mood was gloomy in Leblanc while the credits were rolling.

"No, it's not over yet. It can't be over yet..." Sakamoto kept uttering.

"The after credits!" Takamaki-san exclaimed with hope. "There are those games and movies where stuff happens after the credits. Maybe..."

With hitched breaths, the Phantom Thieves waited for the credits to finish rolling. Unfortunately, nothing happened after the credits, and all they got was a "thank you for playing" message.

"What a masterpiece," Kitagawa said. "I had not expected I would be so shaken by a retro video game,"

"How come he sacrificed himself and died on us like that..." Takamaki-san lamented.

Haru's eyes were half-closed in a pained expression. "The Phoenix Rangers only watched and didn't even try to save him..."

Even Morgana heaved a sigh. "I had already seen the ending when Akira beat the game, but this time it felt worse."

"I had known about the ending 'cause I saw a let's play of the game years ago," Futaba said. "I thought it was sad back then, but seeing it now was so..." She trailed off, unable to choose the right words. "I knew nothing was supposed to happen after the credits, but deep down, I had a shard of hope. Maybe something would change, and the Feathermen'd try to help him. Maybe, this time, we'd have done something that might've triggered a new ending, who knows? But nope. Nothing changed. Come to think of it, Gray Pigeon's exclusive to this game. He doesn't appear in any other Featherman media. Why? Obvious. 'Cause he lived only in this game, and died in this game. Gray Pigeon is dead, and we can't do anything about it."

"He did the right thing, though." Akechi gave his opinion.

"But he didn't get to become a Phoenix Ranger like he had always wanted. He didn't get a chance to actually join them and fight alongside them."

"Things don't always happen the way we want them to. He saved everyone. So, we can say he became a hero. Not really in the way he wanted, but was the next best thing."

"Sure, but... he deserved better. He was supposed to be bad but his heart was in the right place. He deserved to live more!"

Akechi sighed in exasperation. He had to agree that the ending was sad, but everyone was too worked up about that game!

That was what he had thought until Morgana's next statement came. "Same also goes for a certain someone we know..."

Sakamoto nodded. "Yeah, this hits too close to home... sacrificing himself sounds like something 'he''d do, too."

Everyone's expressions darkened, and they fell into an unsettling silence.

Only then it finally clicked for Akechi. The game wasn't really what the Phantom Thieves were thinking about. They were sad thinking about him! Come to think of it, there were parallels between Gray Pigeon and Akechi. Both were destined to be villains but actually wanted to fight for justice. Gray Pigeon was being trained to become the Phoenix Rangers' greatest enemy. Akechi had gotten his Persona power from that mysterious malevolent entity, and if he hadn't realized his mistakes and switched sides, he might have become the Phantom Thieves' greatest enemy. And if a moment came where the only option would be to sacrifice himself to save the others, Akechi certainly would do so. Even though no one had said it explicitly, all of them had noticed these parallels and were thinking the same thing. Once again, Akechi felt bad for making everyone worry so much, but he had no idea what to say now.

No one spoke a word while Futaba got up and turned the TV and the game console off.

"A-Akechi-kun." Makoto broke the silence hesitantly. "Um, about what I had asked you on the phone regarding those corrupt people exploring minors. You had said you know of some things. Could you elaborate?"

"Of course. I hadn't put much thought into it before, but it turns out that exploring minors is a rather important part of their operations. Kids, especially the poorer ones, have no means to defend themselves through legal action, and it's what the corrupts most take advantage of. Their methods range from having minors transport illegal materials in exchange for money, to even having minors do their own work. Two instances of this that you know very well are Kaneshiro and Madarame."

"So, Kaneshiro and Madarame also had ties to them..." Sae-san murmured.

"And some people in the police too. This is the reason why they didn't let you interrogate Madarame and Kaneshiro. Again, like I said at the culture festival, I believe there are good people in the police, although we still have no way to know who is corrupt and who isn't. Hopefully, the good ones will show themselves once the organization is exposed."

Makoto nodded. "Yes, hopefully." She hesitated. "Um, you know a lot about what Shido and his organization have been doing. I have heard that you were hiding their involvement in the mental illnesses. Do you know the truth behind those cases?"

"... Of course." He answered equally hesitantly. As much as he was sure they already accepted him, it was still hard to talk about the bad things he had done. "How could I hide something without knowing what I should be hiding?"

"You have a point. So, perhaps, do you happen to know about..." Makoto trailed off, and fidled with her hair nervously. "Um... well, how do I put this?"

She didn't need to finish the question. From the way the conversation had started at the organization's abuse of minors and went into the mental shutdowns, Makoto could only be referring to the person who had been causing the mental illnesses. In other words, him.

"Um, y-yes. I know." Akechi replied hesitantly.

"Huh? But I didn't ask yet!"

"A-actually, Akira showed me your text messages from yesterday..." Akechi revealed.

Makoto was perplexed. "What? You mean, the chat messages? Akira showed them to you?"

"Uh-huh. So, your question is obvious. You can only be asking a-about..."

"Did someone mention my name?" The voice and footsteps sounding from the stairs diverted everyone's focus.

"Look who's awake." Sakura-san pointed out.

"Akira!" Akechi exclaimed.

Sae-san raised an eyebrow amusedly. "So, there was not a need for a prince's kiss."

"Huh?" Akira was clueless.

"Dr. Takemi addressed you as a sleeping beauty." Takamaki-san explained.

Sakura-san added mischievously, "And we even have a detective prince here, so..."

"O-oh..." Akira blushed slightly. Despite that, she still managed to say, "That doesn't sound like a bad idea... should I go back to sleep?"

Futaba whispered to Akechi. "See? She likes the idea. Go confess to her!"

"W-wait, no, don't go back to sleep!" With a furious blush, Akechi gesticulated in panic.

Akira giggled at his reaction.

The detective tried to regain his composure. "Err, at least you seem to be in a good mood. Are you okay now?"

"I feel much better. Nothing hurts anymore. Everyone, sorry for making you guys worry and ruining the meeting."

Sakamoto shrugged. "The meeting's fine, no worries. We were having fun playing video games while we waited for you."

"We are glad you are feeling better," Kitagawa said.

Akira placed Morgana on her lap and sat down next to Akechi, where the supernatural cat had been previously.

"Akira, what happened to you?" Akechi asked. "What did you feel?"

Akira's expression darkened, and she took a while to start speaking. "The moment I saw Shido's face, I realized it was him who screwed my reputation. Then, I began feeling dizzy. My head hurt as though it'd explode, and everything came back at once. Memories of that incident, of the woman who I tried to save being forced to incriminate me... the trial, where she was called as witness, the guilt and helplessness in her gaze as she must've been threatened and forced to testify against me. My schoolmates looking at me with disdain after they found out about my criminal record. The principal shouting at me, saying the school had no place for 'people like me.' Even those who used to respect me before began looking down on me, both inside and outside the school. It was as though they didn't recognize me at all, as though we had never talked before, and in their heads I became just a delinquent. I had never imagined anything like that'd ever happen to me. I always did my best to do everything right, and tried to become a better person every day. But suddenly, I lost everything. I was scared, on the verge of despair. The only people who were still supporting me at that point were my parents. If not for them... I don't know."

"Akira..." Akechi whispered her name. She was such a great person. He could never have imagined she had been mistreated like that. The world had many assholes who deserved that, but she definitely wasn't one of them. Quite the opposite. She was the most honest and kind person Akechi knew. Just imagining Akira being treated like that made anger bubble up inside him. How could people be such jerks to a good person like her? It was so unfair!

Akira was still speaking. "When I recalled those events, I also felt the same fear I had felt back then. The fear of losing everything in a blink again. Then I began thinking about how weird coincidences keep happening to us. At first, I thought it'd be okay, as long as things kept going fine, but I don't know anymore. It's eerie if I think about it now. What if a weird twist of fate suddenly decides to screw us over and makes we lose everything we have?"

Akechi became serious. "I also had similar thoughts. Come to think of it, the fact that Shido is Futaba-chan's father actually makes sense, if we analyze it logically. Uh, it's very shocking and all, of course, but what I mean to say is that Shido being her father is actually not as impossible as we had thought. If he was interested in the research and trying to get close to Isshiki-san, it makes sense that something might have happened between them. Why Akira, though? She has nothing to do with any of this! Why even Akira had to have her life ruined by that asshole!? She's just a normal girl living her life and doing what's right. She has nothing to do with the research or with anything related to this mess. Why did Shido have to go to her hometown, out of all places? And why did Akira have to be sent here to Tokyo, out of all places? Later, why did the Phantom Thieves just have to unwittingly choose his organization members to target?"

"Yes, it is scary how all of these events add up too perfectly to be coincidence." Makoto agreed with him. "But when did you find out that the Phantom Thieves had been targeting his organization's members?"

"After Kaneshiro, I began having my suspicions, though I wasn't sure if they were targeting the organization on purpose or not." Akechi couldn't help but show off a bit, in his smug detective self. "It turns out they weren't, and this confirmed my most likely hypothesis. I somewhat doubted that the Phantom Thieves were resourceful enough to figure those connections out."

Futaba took offense to that. "Hey! Take that back! The Phantom Thieves are awesomely resourceful, alright!?"

Akechi laughed amusedly. "Really? I thought you had told me they were struggling to take Medged down."

"Uh, well, that's... true... um, but like I said before, sometimes, the good guys need the help of a specialist, and the Phantom Thieves have plenty of specialist help now!"

Akechi shrugged and resumed his train of thought. "Either way, in the end, everything leads to Shido. What the hell? Is this fate? Or what? What if these things are all predetermined, like the events of the Featherman game we could do nothing to change? Sometimes I feel like we're playing right into someone's hands and being laughed at. It's so frustrating!"

Morgana smirked. "Who laughs last, laughs best, right? Then, we just have to make sure we'll be the ones to laugh last! The coincidences may be scary, but a lot of good things have also happened. To start, if Akira hadn't come to Tokyo, none of us would be here right now. We probably wouldn't have even met..."

"Yeah..." Takamaki-san spoke solemnly. "If Akira hadn't shown up, I'd still be dealing with Kamoshida's pressure, and I don't know if I'd manage to take it."

"Same here." Sakamoto agreed with her. "And I wouldn't have made up with the track team."

Followed by Kitagawa. "Had I not become friends with Akira, I would still be Madarame's obedient sheep."

"I wouldn't have broadened my horizons, and would still be doing whatever others decided for me," Makoto said.

"I'd still be locked up in my room and worrying Sojiro." Futaba spoke. "And I wouldn't have even met my lil' big bro."

Said "lil' big bro" was touched. Anyway, they had a point. If they hadn't met Akira, things would have been worse for everyone.

"Akechi, you too." Morgana pointed out.

Yes. If Akira hadn't come to Tokyo, Akechi wouldn't have met her. He wouldn't have realized his mistakes, and would still be trapped in his destructive mindset, doing everything Shido wanted with no regards for the consequences. He felt bad just be thinking about it.

"I definitely wouldn't be here now," Akechi said. "If I hadn't met Akira, I wouldn't have... I wouldn't have..."

"Fallen in love?" Morgana teased him.

"Huh!? That's not it! No one said anything about love!" Without thinking twice, Akechi retorted. "What I mean is that I wouldn't have found the right path to follow. I wouldn't have found my true self, and would still be... be..." Shame threatened to overtake him again at the thought of what he would likely be doing.

"Wait, didn't Akechi-kun respond to Morgana just now?" It was only when Takamaki-san pointed it out that Akechi realized he had, in fact, responded to Morgana.

Silence, as the others processed what had just happened.

"Now that you mention it... uh, I think he did...!" Sakamoto concluded.

"Yes, he definitely did." Haru confirmed.

"Not only that, but he referenced what I had said, too." Morgana made sure to add.

"Hmm." Kitagawa hummed in thought. "It felt so natural that it nearly escaped us."

"And he reacted in a very peculiar way!" Morgana dropped another hint. "Guys, you get what this means."

"Then...!" Takamaki-san's eyes widened.

"Sis?" Makoto must have connected the dots, and turned to her sister for confirmation.

But instead of saying anything, Sae-san only threw an encouraging glance in Akechi's direction.

This was it. There was no way to bail out.

Akechi abruptly stood up and exploded, in the same way that often happened in the Metaverse. "Yes, I responded to Morgana. So what!?"

"A-Akechi?" Futaba startled.

His cover had practically blown already. Akechi threw caution to the wind, not caring to hide anymore. "He decided to annoy me at a very inappropriate moment. I was talking about a serious subject. It's not the time to be joking around!"

The others could only stare reactionless, seemingly taken aback by the sudden outburst.

Except, Akira suddenly burst laughing and took everyone by surprise.

"Akira?" Makoto glanced at her in confusion.

"I was wondering when something like this'd happen outside the Metaverse." Akira looked in Akechi and Morgana's direction. "You two, thanks for the humorous moment. I really needed that. Now I think I feel a bit better about all of this." It was true, as she was smirking, back to her mischievous Phantom Thief self. "To add to the weird coincidences, the mastermind's daughter became one of my best friends, and I just had to fall in love with his son, out of all people. Uh, Akechi-kun, not that it's a problem or anything. Just saying this is also part of the weird coincidences. I don't care who your dad is. You're an incredible person, and this is all that matters to me."

Akechi tried to avoid blushing, without much success. "Ugh, how come you say these things in public?!"

"What's the problem? I didn't say anything no one should hear, did I?"

Akechi rolled his eyes in exasperation.

Akira went on. "Besides, everyone agrees that you're amazing. I'm sure they'd understand how I could fall in love with the Phantom Thieves' secret agent."

Despite all the evidence, Makoto was still having a hard time believing it. Akechi was Crow. This meant his sad upbringing was worth double, and strengthened her question of, why did he have to ally with that evil organization, get obsessed with power, and go as far as to cause mental shutdowns? Then, there was that mysterious entity he had mentioned, the one who gave him access to the Metaverse. Why did he have to fall to the temptations of power?! It was such a waste of potential... Akechi had previously mentioned that the TV staff had shady connections and were using him, but Makoto couldn't have imagined it had been to that extent! He was so smart and talented, and had everything to be successful in life without doing anything extreme! It was really sad.

Ryuji seemed to be as incredulous as her. "Y-you mean, Akechi's... the Phantom Thieves' secret agent? Is this really true?"

Morgana shot Ryuji a glare. "It was obvious from the time he slipped and responded to me. Don't tell me you've realized it just now!"

"'Course I had realized it. But it's still kinda hard to believe, y'know? Hey, Akechi. A-are you really?"

Still standing, Akechi nodded, but avoided eye contact with anyone. "Yes. Goro Akechi, code name Crow. It's me. Uh, actually... this is the important thing I wanted to say."

"Not that I think it is a lie, but I will have to agree with Ryuji," Makoto said. "It is hard to believe. That secret agent prodigy is actually Akechi-kun? I know Akechi-kun is very smart, but the quality of work demonstrated in those files is on a whole different level! It isn't even detective work, nor seems to have been done by a high school student. It is high level spy work!"

Of all possible ways they could react, Akechi hadn't expected the Phantom Thieves would have a hard time believing the truth.

"Is it that hard to believe? How about this, then? I have to admit that including details of the organization's abuse of minors in the files completely slipped my mind. I can write the report here, right in front of you, if you want."

Makoto shook her head. "Err, no, you don't need to do that!"

Sae-san added, "No need to do it right now. A detailed report on that would be very much appreciated, though."

"... This is a dream, right?" Futaba asked hesitantly.

"No." Akechi answered. "I wish it were just a nightmare, but it's not. It's real." His gaze lowered. "Now you understand, don't you? This is why the implications of us being siblings feel so wrong. Considering what I did..."

Futaba's expression was unreadable as she stared intently into his face, and it caused apprehension in Akechi. Even though Futaba had already said she forgave him, Akechi couldn't help but think there was still a chance that fully realizing the situation might make her dislike him. Akechi believed it was actually the right thing for her to do, but it would still hurt.

Futaba looked away from him and closed her eyes. "Exploding at someone's comment, check. Rolling eyes at Akira's comment, check. Smug attitude, check. Getting ashamed when talking about the past, check..." She shakily muttered to herself, and sounded more scared at each sentence. "Aaaaah... it's Crow. It's really Crow, oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!"

"Futaba... chan?" Akechi had no idea what he should say next.

Futaba stood up, and looked shyly at him as her eyes reopened. "Um..." She hesitantly reached out and tentatively touched his cheek, then his head. "But this handsome face, this neat brown hair... it's Akechi... it's Crow, and it's Akechi. It's Akechi, and it's Crow..."

Futaba thought her heart would stop. Akechi, her lil' big bro, was Crow? Crow had done horrible things, but she admired him so much for his 180 turn and how he had realized his mistakes and was working so hard to do the right thing now. She didn't want Crow to get caught and sentenced to death, and imagining her dear bro being sentenced to death was even more painful.

"Uh, wait. Then, the little sis you like so much you had talked about... was actually me?"

"... Uh-huh." He admitted awkwardly.

"Aaaah!" Futaba felt like crying. "Then, I was getting jealous of myself for having an awesome bro?"

"... Huh?"

"This means I don't need to be jealous 'cause my bro is doubly awesome!" Her face suddenly lit up and she tackled him into a hug. "If this were a dream, I wouldn't wanna wake up..."

"Gah!" Akechi's eyes widened comically as he lost his balance and fell back to a sitting position on the bench, with a cheerful Futaba still clinging to him.

Most of the Phantom Thieves were chuckling at the scene.

"Akechi, you finally managed to say what you had to say, huh?" Even Sojiro seemed amused. "It wasn't that hard, was it?"

"A-actually, it was."

Futaba finally released Akechi. "Sojiro, you already knew?"

"Yeah, I've known about his secret for a while. I was actually trying to make him reveal it himself."

"Akechi, why didn't you say anything!?" Futaba asked in a whiny voice.

"I... ...red." His voice almost didn't come out.

"What?" Takamaki-san inched her head forward. "I didn't hear you." No one else probably did, either.

Akechi took a deep breath and let it out at once. "I-I was scared!"

"Of what, exactly?" Makoto asked.

"Of losing our friendships. At first, I thought only warning the group about the trap would be enough, but we ended up having to work together, and you guys clearly didn't trust me. No one trusted me outside the Metaverse, either, and I actually thought it'd be fine if you guys found out, but then, we began getting close outside the Metaverse. You guys showed me what it felt like to be around nice people... to be among friends. But we kept clashing inside the Metaverse. I thought that everyone still disliked me and was just putting up with me because of our biggest mission, and that if you guys were to find out 'Crow' was me, you'd start to hate me outside the Metaverse too, and I'd lose the only friends I had thought I had... if this were to happen, I'd be alone again... I'd lose everything again..."

"Oh. You weren't lying when you said you were scared of the Phantom Thieves, huh?" Sakamoto commented.

"Awww. In the end, the secret agent prodigy is just a lonely child..." Akira looked at him fondly. "We were wary of you in the beginning, of course, but we never actually hated you."

"You began moving our hearts as soon as you told us your story," Kitagawa said. "It made us think we might have found ourselves in a similar situation if power had gone above our heads. Since then, we have always been concerned about you and your mental state, after everything you have gone through."

"Akechi-kun." Makoto spoke. "I had been so wary of you both inside and outside the Metaverse. I am sorry." She smiled weakly. "Akira has always trusted you, though. No matter how many times I warned her, when it was outside the Metaverse, she would say she trusts you, Akechi-kun. And when it was inside the Metaverse, she would say she trusts Crow."

These words touched Akechi. As he glanced at his right, he met Akira's comforting smile.

"Akira went to lengths to have everyone know you better and accept you." Morgana told him. "This was the reason for all those hang-outs she set up. If not for this, I don't know what might've happened. We didn't hate you, but even with all her efforts, we had been wary of you at several occasions, and your interviews kept making us uneasy."

"I'm sorry. My statements had to be consistent with what I had said before, so that I wouldn't trigger any alarms in the organization."

"We understand." Kitagawa spoke. "All this time, you had been protecting us... we are very grateful."

"Yeah." Futaba placed a hand on his back.

Akechi had never felt so accepted before. "Thank you. I'm the one grateful, for you guys being so kind and understanding."

"Akira had already known his identity when he came to Leblanc the other day." Sakamoto spoke. "Akira, why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"Because I wanted him to get comfortable enough to tell everyone himself. I gave some hints, though. I said he's handsome."

"Uh, yeah, but who'd guess with that vague hint?" Sakamoto argued.

"And let's not forget the pancakes discussion at the Metaverse." Morgana reminded them.

Akira nodded. "I said it was an important clue to a big mystery."

"I still do not understand," Kitagawa said. "What is the relation between his secret identity and pancakes?"

"Care to enlighten us?" Makoto also asked for clarification.

"Oh yeah, not everyone was present at the time the epic pancakes slip happened." Akira reminded herself.

Morgana grinned. "It turns out Akechi had made a big slip months ago!" Morgana told everyone about the pancakes slip.

"Yeah! I remember now!" Sakamoto exclaimed.

Takamaki-san's head shot up. "Now I remember too! Akechi-kun's pancakes comment was so random that it totally slipped my mind!"

Morgana continued. "I only figured his identity out a few days ago when I remembered the pancakes comment. Since only I had mentioned pancakes, it could only mean he had already heard me talking in the Metaverse at some point. And Crow himself had told us he had been spying on us at Madarame's Palace, so..."

Makoto's eyes lit up. "Oh, I see... the pancakes comment indeed explains it all."

"Hmm..." Futaba hummed in understanding. "Now I finally get the meme... that's a good one!"

"I didn't realize only Morgana had mentioned pancakes." Sakamoto said.

"Me neither." Akechi had to admit. "Back then, the only times I had seen the Phantom Thieves before had been at Madarame's Palace. I had only seen the group from a distance, and hadn't gotten to identify everyone's voices yet, nor many of the visual details for that matter, though I had noticed the talking feline creature. At the TV studio, I wasn't even sure you guys were actually the Phantom Thieves yet, and hadn't imagined that even the talking 'cat' would be there. All I know is that I heard someone mentioning pancakes. To think the talking 'cat' had been the one behind that comment... that was quite the trap."

"May we have a snack now? This talk about pancakes is making me hungry," Kitagawa said.

Akira winked. "I told you guys that pancakes would become a Phantom Thieves tradition. I still had no time to look into recipes, though."

Sakura-san chuckled. "We don't have pancakes, but have sandwiches. I bought some at Yon-Germain while you guys were playing video games."

"Sounds great!" Sakamoto answered for everyone.

... ... ... ... ...

With his fears finally dissipated, Akechi allowed himself to forget all of his problems and just enjoy the warm moment, as warm and comforting as the cup of coffee that accompanied his sandwich. During that break, there were no Phantom Thieves, no cognitive psience, no corrupt organization, no messed-up twists of fate. Just a group of close friends snacking and doing small talk without a care in the world.

However, after the break, the serious talks resumed.

"Akechi, can you tell us more about your mom?" Futaba asked. "You had said she basically died 'cause of your dad. Um, our dad, I mean. What happened?"

Akechi nodded firmly. He felt he could tell them the details now.

"We lived in a poor village in the middle of nowhere, known simply as Grape Village. My mother was one of the few villagers that could read. She had always wanted to leave the village and visit other places, and the books were her only way to do that. She even named me after Kogoro Akechi, the detective from the books she read so much about. She always told me stories about Kogoro Akechi, Robin Hood, and many other characters. She had also started teaching me how to read and write, so that I would have access to those different adventures for myself."

"Hmm. Robin Hood?" Sakamoto stared blankly. "Where have I heard that name before?"

"It's one of his main Personas, idiot!" Morgana didn't miss the opportunity to throw a sharp comment. "And also a very famous fictional character."

"I know that!" Sakamoto shot back. "I just, uh, forgot."

Morgana rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah, whatever. Sorry for the interruption, Akechi. Just ignore him."

"So, what really happened between your mother and the mastermind?" Akira asked.

"The village we lived was poor, with no access to big stores, or hospitals, or anything. The only thing the village had to offer were its wines. My mother's job was to help transport wine to the neighbor town where the villagers sold it, and that was where she met him. I know because she used to talk about it all the time. She began seeing him more frequently during her job, until she confessed to him. Then, he filled her head with promises of a marriage and a house in a big city where they could live peacefully. But once she told him she was pregnant, he told her he would be away because of work, and stopped coming to the town. She had me, and years passed without a word from him. Everyone at the village looked down on us, saying that she had committed a sin by having had a kid with someone she didn't marry, and that the man was trouble and would never come back. Still, she kept insisting that he was just busy and believing he'd come back, and dreamily telling me how we'd move to a big city and live in a much better house..."

"Then, she got sick?" Futaba guessed. "You had told me that your mom was sick."

Akechi nodded. "The nearest big hospital was at another city. We didn't have the money to travel there, much less to pay for her treatment. She kept doing her job even though she was sick, otherwise we couldn't have food on the table. Then, one day, we were in town after her work, and he appeared." Akechi gritted his teeth at that memory which still made him angry. The event he kept recalling during his entire life, and that had fueled his desire for revenge.

X:X:X:X:X

"Masayoshi!" Her eyes lit up, and she pulled the little Goro by the hand towards the man. "Masayoshi, oh dear. You're finally back! Look, this is Goro, your son. Our son..."

Goro looked apprehensively at the man, who still had hair at the time. Masayoshi Shido, his father, who his mother had always spoken so well of. But something didn't feel right...

"I don't have a son!" Shido's voice rose and startled both of them.

"B-but he is..."

The man cut her off. "I am becoming an important political figure. I aim to become Prime Minister, and having an illegitimate child would taint my name!"

"I-illegitimate?" She coughed due to her sickness. "This is just because we aren't married, right? Then we marry and problem solved!"

The man scoffed. "I have no intention of marrying someone like you!"

"But you had said-" She gasped in shock and her eyes watered.

"If I said anything, I don't remember. I have to reserve space in my memory for more important matters."

She coughed again. Her mouth opened and closed a few times until her next words finally came out. "Then... then, please, could you just help pay for a hospital? I'm sick, and if I don't receive treatment, I'll die, and Goro won't have anyone to care for him!"

Now, Shido was angry and annoyed, as though he were trying to swat pests away. "You and the kid can go to hell. I can't care less!"

The little Goro hid behind his mother and held onto her skirt, while she gaped in horror.

"Masayoshi..."

"Quit wasting my time. Out of my way, bitch!" He purposefully shoved both of them aside and walked away as though he owned the place.

"Masayoshi, please!" She still insisted, and pulled Goro into running after him.

Shido had joined a pair of bodyguards.

"Masayoshi! P-please! At least... at least..." She coughed as she ran and desperately asked for the man's help.

"An acquaintance of yours?" One of the bodyguards asked.

"I have never seen that woman in my life. She's being a nuisance. Get her out of here!"

The two bodyguards forcefully dragged them away and completely ignored her desperate protests.

Away from the three men, she began shaking as she cried and sobbed uncontrollably. "Why...?"

"M-Mom?" Scared, Goro finally managed to speak.

"Then, your love for me, the marriage, the house in the big city... was it all a lie?" His mother muttered weakly between sobs.

"Mom... Mom!" But no matter how much Goro called out to her, she wouldn't respond.

In the movies Goro had watched on their old black and white TV set, the fathers loved their kids. But his father didn't care the least bit about him or his mom. Goro dreaded the thought that his mom would die if she didn't get treated, but his father didn't even care. Not only that. That man broke his sweet mom's heart. Maybe even more than her heart. He had broken her, and Goro would never forget that. Masayoshi Shido, who wanted to become Prime Minister, whatever that was. Goro didn't know what this was supposed to mean, but he knew this would be forever engraved in his mind.

X:X:X:X:X

Most of the Phantom Thieves looked angry.

"What an asshole!" Sakamoto exploded.

"That was terrible..." Sae-san said.

"This event broke her for good. Despite our hard life and her sickness, my mother had hung on persistently until then. But on that day, the world ended for her. She lost the fuel that kept her going. I had thought she'd be back to normal after a few days, but it didn't happen. In fact, she only got worse. She barely spoke to me anymore. She either spent a long time crying or staring out into space. She stopped reading. The excitement over the adventures in her books vanished from her face. She lost the will to do anything at all, and surrendered to the sickness..."

"She lost all her desires. This is sounding almost like a mental shutdown..." Morgana commented.

"Now that you put it like this, yes, the effects must have been similar..."

"What about you, though?!" Sakamoto asked. "My mom and I've gotten it rough too, and we managed to press on 'cause we were always ready to support each other. But you didn't have anyone else, right? I think I'd have shut down too if my mom were to have gone almost brain-dead when I was five!"

"I didn't know what to do, either. She stopped helping transport wine, and we couldn't get money or food. One morning, when the villagers were heading to work, I came out of our shack and offered to help in my mother's place because she couldn't do it."

"Wow, you were so responsible already!" Takamaki-san smiled in admiration.

Akira made a cute face. "Awww, it must've been so adorable!"

Akechi blushed a bit. "This is embarrassing. But anyway, the villagers didn't agree with either of you and just brushed me off... when I told my mother what had happened, she barely acknowledged me."

The Phantom Thieves had no words to respond.

"We consumed the last of our food. The villagers didn't let me help transport wine to get some bucks, and I didn't know what to do. Then, I glanced at the trash and noticed my mother's chain necklace and pendant, which she had previously bought because she wanted to look beautiful for my father once he came back. They were beautiful jewels at the time she bought them. Alluring, and as shiny as her dreamy gaze. But with time, they wore out and lost all their shine. I assume she threw them away after the realization that her dreams were as fake as those jewels. As I noticed those items, I did the first thing that crossed my mind. I took the fake jewels from the trash and snuck out of the village. I went to the neighbor town all by myself and tried to sell the jewels. Eventually, a woman bought the pendant out of pity, but no one wanted to buy the necklace, and I ended up keeping it. The money from the pendant somehow lasted us a couple of days."

"That must've been rough..." Takamaki-san said.

"Did you tell your mom that you sold her pendant?" Futaba asked. "Did she get angry?"

"I told her. But once again, she barely acknowledged me. It hurt, even more than if she were angry. She was nearly unrecognizable. I wanted my mother back to the person she was before. I cried, frustrated that there was nothing I could do to get her out of that state. It was all that man's fault. He was the very opposite of what she kept telling me. He had broken my mother, the only person who had loved me, beyond repair. If only we hadn't run into him that day, even though she might have died from the sickness, she would've died happy without having seen his true colors."

"She had loved you so much, hadn't she? How could she kill herself and abandon you, just like that?!" Futaba was incredulous.

Sadness surfaced full force as the inevitable came. Akechi's recollection of his last interaction with his mother.

X:X:X:X:X

She finally addressed him one morning. "Goro, let's go."

Goro perked up. It was good to have her talking to him again. Something didn't feel right, though.

"Mom, where are we going?"

"We're leaving."

"... Leaving?" Her words were simple enough for his five year old mind to understand, but he began feeling uneasy. How could they leave if they had no money to go anywhere?

"Leaving this world. There's no place for us here."

The bad feeling intensified, and his eyes filled with apprehension.

"I'm sorry. This is all I can do for both of us." His mother hugged him tightly. "Goro, I love you."

It was good to hear that. The confirmation that she still loved him. Even so, Goro could tell that something was very wrong. It brought tears to his eyes, and a pain he had never felt before to his heart. "Mom..."

X:X:X:X:X

Akechi's eyes teared up in the present as well. "Then, she... burned our house, with both of us inside... it was a wooden shack, and fire consumed it quickly. She died. I was supposed to have gone down with her, but some villagers noticed what was going on and managed to get me out of there. All of our belongings went down with the house. The only things that remained were the clothes I had been wearing, and my mother's worn out necklace that I was still carrying."

Everyone gaped in shock.

"Akechi-kun..." Makoto seemed unsure how to respond.

"Your own mom tried to kill you!?" Sakamoto snapped.

Akechi nodded solemnly. "She had known the sickness would kill her anyway, and since no one liked us in that village, no one would want to take care of me. It was the only exit she found..."

"Oh my god..." Haru spoke in horror.

"The villagers didn't like us, but ironically, they still came and got me out of the burning house! I resented them. I wished they'd have left me alone. I flailed and cried and screamed in despair while the villagers mobilized to put the fire out. Someone managed to call the firefighters from the nearby town. I don't quite remember what happened later, but the social services eventually arrived there as well. I think it was the following day, or maybe the day after. Then, a weird problem happened. We had no documents or access to register offices or anything, and they had trouble to make my mother's death certificate, and also my identification document. Everyone addressed each other by first names, and no one, not even me, knew my mother's last name, which obviously should be my last name too..."

X:X:X:X:X

"What about other relatives?" The man from the social services asked, but no one knew how to answer. "What about the boy's father?"

Everyone made a face in scorn.

One of the old ladies spoke. "That good-for-nothing man came here a lot to buy wine some years ago and stayed the night at her house, but when she told him she was pregnant, he just went poof! And never came back."

"What was his name?"

"Hmm... it was... Masa... Masayoshi something," A male villager said. "At least it's what she kept saying whenever she went on and on about him."

Goro knew what that "something" was, but he sure wouldn't want that man's last name for himself.

Once the villagers had dispersed, Goro was alone with the man from the social services.

The man heaved a sigh. "That was no help at all..."

"Do we really need a last name?" Goro asked weakly.

"Yes, everyone needs at least a first name and a last name to be registered officially. Goro-kun, was it? Are you sure you don't remember your mom talking about your name or something?"

"Hmm..." He stopped to think. "She said she named me after Kogoro Akechi, a character from the books she liked."

It looked like the man had enough of struggling with that problem and just wanted to get it over with. "Alright, let's go with this. Akechi it is then. Listen. From now on, your full name will be Goro Akechi."

"Goro Akechi..." He experimented saying his full name. It had a nice ring to it. It sounded almost like Kogoro Akechi. It sounded... just right. "Then, will my mom's last name be Akechi too?"

"Yes."

"Her full name will be... Nanami Akechi, then?"

"That's right. You're a smart boy."

Goro smiled. Finally something good had happened. He thought his mom would have liked that.

X:X:X:X:X

"Oh, so that's why!" Takamaki-san exclaimed. "I've always thought your full name's very cool!"

"Um, do you mean your actual last name isn't Akechi?" Makoto asked.

"Maybe it wasn't." His eyes widened slightly. "Or maybe, it was. Now that I think about it, it might very well be our real last name. She liked the Kogoro Akechi books so much, and having that last name would've given her the perfect opportunity to name her son after the main character. She was sharp. Knowing her, I'm sure she wouldn't have let such an opportunity pass."

"You like your full name, don't you?" Futaba said.

"Yes, I like it a lot. And if my mother put so much thought into it like I'm thinking she did, then it means more than I had thought."

"The fact that she named you after a character she liked so much might express how much she loved you, from the moment you were born." Kitagawa arrived at the same conclusion. "This is really touching. The name your mother gave you might be an expression of love as touching as the Sayuri painting my mother left for me."

"Mom..." Akechi muttered. The thought of how much his mother loved him brought a smile to his face and a wave of warmth to his heart.

"Yes, this is it!" Kitagawa was still speaking, now lost in his own world. "This should be the theme for my next masterpiece. A mother's love. It might very well be the actual message the real Sayuri intended to transmit, which was lost to Madarame's forgery. It may be the perfect opportunity for me to create a piece inspired by the Sayuri! Thank you for this inspiration, Akechi."

"What? I didn't do anything."

"Inspiration would not have struck if not for this conversation. So, I thank you. Once I finish my painting, I would like your opinion before I make the piece public."

"Uh, sure." Akechi answered awkwardly.

And the Emperor Confidant ranked up, just like that.

Futaba rolled her eyes. "Just ignore that weirdo Inari. What happened after that?"

"Oh, right." Akechi got back on track and continued telling his story. "The homage to my mother managed to cheer me up a little, but that was where the good things stopped happening, because my cycle of being thrown around institutions and foster homes began. I had thought I might end up at a better place than that poor village. This wasn't what happened, though. I was sent to an orphanage, but no one wanted to adopt me. As soon as they saw my new documents and found out I was a bastard child, they gave up on me and went on to choose someone else. I lived there for around a year, and it was a horrible place. It housed too many children and none of the kids received enough attention. Not only me, but also other children, were bullied a lot and no one cared. The people from the orphanage were only worried about increasing the number of children because the government would provide them more money the more children they housed. I kept hearing them mention how they were nearing a certain number of children, and the right to earn more from the government..."

Sakamoto made a face. "That's disgusting..."

"Yes. I was transferred to another orphanage where I stayed for around one more year, and it was the same thing. When I was eventually sent to a foster home, the family saw my documents and also didn't want me, but the social services forced them to take me in as an emergency measure. Some days I had nightmares about the fire and woke up crying in the middle of the night, and the adults yelled at me because I was being too loud and woke them up. No one ever asked why I was crying, or how my life had been before I got there. And when I was bullied at school, they didn't care, either."

"How can this be!?" Kitagawa spoke angrily. "How can some people be so insensitive!?"

Pain filled Akira's gaze. "I remember you had said you had no one to talk to, but this is too much... now I understand why, at the hotel, you... uh, never mind. Go on."

"And months later, the cat incident happened." Akechi had to tell the others about the cat story, as only Morgana and Futaba had known about it. "After that, the family gave up on the foster care thing, then began locking me up and giving me less and less food and water until the social services came to take me away and effectively rid them of me. The next family took me in begrudgingly as an emergency measure as well. They were ashamed of having to house a bastard child, and would force me to stay hidden in a room so that their friends wouldn't see me and ask questions. The bullies beat me up on the first day at the new school. The adults yelled at me because my uniform got dirty, and didn't even hear what I had to say. The next day, the bullies beat me up again. I couldn't take any of that anymore and..." Akechi paused. "I ran into the street and jumped in front of a car." This made the Phantom Thieves gasp, and Akira flashed an understanding look. "Yes, that was the suicide attempt you guys kept worrying about. But I survived and just passed out. I awoke in the hospital, and all the adults did was yell at me for 'not paying attention while crossing the street' and causing them trouble. They refused to hear what I had to say and didn't let me explain myself."

"The hell!?" Sakamoto snapped.

"After that, I began questioning why I was still alive and whether there was any point in living. I concluded my mother had been right and this world had no place for me. Then, Apathy Syndrome happened. I was staring out into the sky from the balcony very late at night and suddenly passed out, only to wake up three weeks later. I almost missed finals, and the adults got angry at me for catching a weird cursed illness no one knows anything about."

"They should at least have shown a bit of concern." Sae-san commented. "Makoto had informed me that you had caught the Apathy Syndrome. I have looked into it, but for some reason it was not mentioned in the social services data I got access to. I will search for it in your medical records, as it is important information."

Akechi didn't understand what she was getting at. "Important for what?"

"The Apathy Syndrome was associated with suicidal tendencies in past researches. The fact that you caught it should be an indication of your emotional state at the time. I am collecting information to try to explain what led you to do what you did. I need all the information I can get, and you need all the allies you can get. And this brings me back to one of my previous points. You should talk to Dr. Maruki."

"Huh? I still don't understand what you're getting at. Why do you think I should undergo therapy? Yes, I'm fully aware I probably need it, but... well, you know. I, uh... might die before concluding therapy, which will make it totally pointless, and will only have wasted time and resources."

"Yes, you really don't understand. What I mean to say is that having a psychologist on your side might help your case. You may get points in your favor if we show that you are getting professional help to be rehabilitated, and that there are people who believe you aren't a lost cause and still have the potential to achieve great things. If we show that you are no longer lost and alone, and that now you have friends who love you and won't let you stray from the right path ever again..."

Akechi rolled his eyes in disbelief. As touching as Sae-san's words were, that was too much. "Sae-san, that's pushing it."

"Maybe. We have to push it, though. Your case is difficult, and we have to use all our resources to solve it. Give it some thought, please. It doesn't need to be right now, but be sure to think about what I said."

"But Sae-san..."

"Go on with your story. It's clearly not over yet." She cut him off before he could protest.

"Um, r-right." Akechi straightened his posture and went on. "Soon enough, I was transferred to another family, which didn't care the least bit about me, either, and only agreed to take me in to get the money from the foster care program."

"This explains the reason why you had snapped at the Takases' Shadows when they mentioned the foster care program money... no, at deranged parents' Shadows in general..." Makoto concluded.

"Yes. At hearing those things, I couldn't help it... anyway, I got transferred again, and the cycle continued. I did all I could to get the highest grades possible and be in my best behavior. I did everything to be an exemplary kid in hopes that one of the families would recognize my efforts and accept me, but none of them changed their views of me. To them, I was only a bastard child and a burden, and the fact that I was getting good grades was one less problem for them to worry about. I was sick of it. I wasn't thinking about killing myself anymore, though. But not for the right reasons. There was one thing I could never forget. Masayoshi Shido, the man wanting to become Prime Minister. It was all his fault. He had abandoned both my mother and me, and had shattered her heart. It was because of his lack of support and of consideration that my mother fell to despair, that I am a bastard child and had to go through that hellish life. I told myself I would endure whatever I had to endure, and make sure to survive until I could find him and make him pay for what he had done to us. To make him lose everything, so that he would feel what it was like to have nothing left."

"This was the reason why you decided to find him and get revenge..." Akira spoke.

Akechi nodded. "Then I decided to become a detective, so that I could find his whereabouts. I actually managed to find out that he was in Tokyo, where the Diet building is. But I was aware that I was just a kid and couldn't do anything. When I was about to turn 16 and finally be allowed to live on my own, by a twist of fate, I got sent to the last foster home I stayed at, here in Tokyo. I was at the Shibuya station one day when the Metaverse app suddenly showed up on my phone. Deep down, I had known I shouldn't open unknown random apps, but I was in a sort of daze and my finger automatically went for it. When I touched the icon, the app opened and I was transported to Mementos, and that blasted disembodied voice spoke to me."

"Didn't the entity tell you its name?" Morgana asked.

"Hmm, maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I don't remember. I only remember that I heard a booming voice that seemed to be coming from all directions. It told me to stop accepting all that injustice in my life, and that I had the power to take justice into my own hands. It filled my head with flattery words until my desire for revenge exploded and I awakened to my two Personas. The mysterious entity kept going on and on about how I had been chosen, how I was special, and that having two Personas was proof of that because people normally only had one. Aside from that, it said the hatred in my heart gave me the power to have people rampage by making their Shadows berserk. The entity revealed to me that it had been the one who gave me access to the Metaverse. It told me that Shido was interested in the Metaverse thanks to a peculiar research, and since I had obtained the power to access the Metaverse, I would be able to approach Shido easily, and this was the last I've heard from that entity. I didn't care, though. I approached Shido, and he bought into my talk easier than I had expected. Things finally seemed to be going my way, and I got full of myself. I became obsessed with power and thought I could do anything. I thought it was finally the time for me to have everything I couldn't have until that point. Then, my destructive quest began, with Shido and his organization offering me fame and privileges in exchange for 'favors...'"

"Do you mean the mental shutdowns?" Haru asked.

"At first, it had been only the psychotic breakdowns, where I used the power that I was aware I had. Then..." Akechi's gaze lowered in shame. "When Shido asked what I wanted to be in the future, I told him that I wanted to become a detective. This gave him the idea of having me work as a detective and manipulate the cases' solutions so that no one would associate the incidents and him. Since it was hard to prove anything related to the Metaverse anyway, I just closed the cases with the most logical conclusions possible without considering the Metaverse. As I became more known, the police also began asking for my help with honest cases, but the dishonest cases were the ones that made my detective reputation really take off... and the worst thing was that I felt proud of it."

Morgana looked at him in shock. "This is... despicable. It's scary what a distorted heart can do to a person..."

"And it only got worse. Shido found out from the research that killing someone's Shadow would kill the person in the real world, and decided he wanted to kill the Shadow of someone that was in his way. Since I was the one who could enter the Metaverse, he ordered me to do it... This gave me chills at the time. When I hesitated and tried to argue that it was extreme, Shido made it clear that he wouldn't tolerate disobedience and would kill me if I didn't do what he wanted. I needed to survive to be able to exert my revenge. So, I... agreed in the end..." Akechi closed his eyes, on the verge of breaking down. "He was pleased with the result, and the second victim was... you know who..."

Everyone tensed, and a heavy silence filled the cafe.

"Hey..." Futaba broke the silence. "How was my mom's Shadow? What did she say to you?"

The answer didn't come to him immediately. Akechi had been so blinded by his revenge plan at the time he had ran into Isshiki-san's Shadow that he had totally forgotten how the interaction had played out. Now that Futaba brought it up, Akechi began recalling the event. Suddenly, he jolted at the memory.

X:X:X:X:X

Akechi entered Mementos to carry out Shido's order to eliminate Wakaba Isshiki's Shadow.

"I need to finish my research at all cost. I need to!" The Shadow sounded desperate.

"You won't publish it." Akechi spoke coldly and startled her with his arrival.

"You! ... I see. You are the detective kid that Shido is abusing for his gains, aren't you?"

Akechi's eyebrows rose behind his mask. "Hmm. I'm surprised that you know this much. You are only wrong about one thing, though. He thinks he's using me, but everything is going according to my plan."

"Why are you cooperating with Shido?! Why are you letting him use you?!"

"To make him think he's having his way, and then take everything away from him at the end. This is my justice. This is my revenge!"

"You shouldn't be following Shido. Nothing good will come from it. You have to stop before it's too late!"

Akechi scoffed. "Sorry, but I'll have to break this to you. It is already too late." And he summoned his Persona.

The Shadow transformed into Scathach and fought back, but she wasn't very strong. A couple of attacks from Loki were enough to knock her to the ground, back to her human form.

Even though she was clearly defeated, she still didn't give up and tried to get back on her feet. "No, it's not too late... listen, I can help get you out of this and-"

"No." Akechi cut her off. "Don't you understand yet? I have no intention of getting out of this! This is an integral part of my revenge plan!" His fists balled and his voice exploded. "Thanks to that man, my life turned into hell! Because he abandoned me! Because he ruined my mother's life! Because he didn't acknowledge me! I won't be satisfied until I make him pay and feel for himself the humiliation I've suffered!"

Surprisingly, the Shadow was still able to reason. "I... I see. You are... Shido's son, aren't you?"

Akechi gasped. Only then, he realized that his anger had gotten the better of him and he had said too much. Why had he begun talking in the first place? That conversation was no use, since she would die soon.

The researcher's Shadow went on in a weak voice. "When I found out that Shido had gotten hold of a detective boy, I looked you up. I found out about your situation... that your mother died and there's no mention of your father in your documents. About the orphanages and foster homes. So, this was it. Shido is..."

"Now you understand, don't you? I have no place in society because I'm a bastard child. All that's left to me is to exert my revenge before I die!"

"No! Wh-what are you saying!?" Her voice also rose. "Akechi-kun, open your eyes! You aren't in your right mind because your heart is distorted! Admit it. You actually would like to have a family, wouldn't you!?"

"... I..." Akechi tried to argue, but faltered.

"It's not too late! Let's make a deal. Once I publish my research, I can-"

"Shut up!" Akechi couldn't have any more of that interaction. He regretted having prolonged the conversation, because now he was beginning to hesitate. "Shut up, shut up, shut up! I already said you won't be publishing it!" He shouted in panic and pointed his pistol at her, and his hand trembled no matter how hard he tried to keep his aim steady.

The Shadow stood up shakily and looked at him also in panic. "Akechi-kun, listen! You... you have a-"

And Akechi pulled the trigger before her words could change his mind. The Shadow screamed in agony and vanished into a cloud of smoke, unable to sustain the damage from Loki's previous attacks.

Akechi panted, and his hand was still shaking. His heart briefly tightened at the thought that he had killed a person for the second time, but he did his best to set that feeling aside. He had chosen to walk that path, and there was no turning back. He couldn't let anything or anyone sway him again.

X:X:X:X:X

Akechi cried as he relayed the event to everyone present. "She... actually tried to make me open my eyes..."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Sakura-san suddenly exclaimed. "Now I remember. The night before the day Wakaba died, something strange happened. I dropped by her house to check up on her. After dinner, Wakaba got absorbed in her research as usual. She fell asleep in front of her computers. When I tried to wake her up, she mumbled something like, 'Hey Sojiro, Futaba has no friends and is so lonely... think she'd like if she were to have an older brother?' I asked her what she was talking about, but she fell asleep fully and said nothing else. I only thought she was sleeptalking nonsense, and just ignored it. But Akechi, what if she had been thinking of adopting you?!"

It could very well have been the case, and this was too much. Akechi couldn't take it and broke down in front of everyone. A wail of anguish escaped his mouth.

"M-maybe she was right." He spoke between sobs. "Maybe I still had a chance out of this mess back then... But I... I w-was so blinded by my stupid revenge plan and refused to hear her out! She was the only person ever that was really willing to take me in, to accept me and give me a good family life exactly the way I had always wanted... and yet I went and...!" Akechi's tears intensified. He lowered his head and apologized profusely. "I'm sorry. Isshiki-san... Sakura-san, Futaba-chan... I'm sor-ry. I'm sorry... I'm sorry!"

"Then, I adopted you and did what she wanted without knowing it?" Futaba's face unexpectedly lit up. "If even her Shadow was this nice, then now I'm 200% sure she'd forgive you if she were to see you now." Still sitting by Akechi's side on the bench, Futaba turned her body to her right and pulled him into an embrace. "Aww, now, c'mon. My lil' big bro, don't cry."

"St-stop..." Akechi wasn't sure whether he could take any more strong feelings, but the protest came out of his mouth strained.

"I didn't catch that." The slight smirk on her face indicated otherwise, much to Akechi's annoyance.

Futaba petted his head as though he were a little kid. Akechi was too overwhelmed to argue or to continue trying to fight his sobs off.

"No, no, no. Not like this." Futaba scolded him. "I wanna see you laugh, not cry! Everything's working out now. It'll be alright! I wanna see you happy happy! Akechi..." She called out to him sternly.

"B-but... but..." Akechi was utterly embarrassed. He was breaking down and crying in front of everyone! He wanted to stop crying, but his body only continued shaking and refused to obey his command. All he could do was close his eyes and wait for the tears and involuntary movements to stop.

"Awww! Futaba, your bro is so adorable!" Akira's voice didn't sound normal, though. Was she crying too?

"After all of this, it'd be weird if he didn't cry, actually..." Sakura-san was definitely crying.

The sniffles around the cafe indicated that almost everyone, if not everyone, was crying as well.

"Hmm. Alright, I'll let it slide this time." Futaba ruffled Akechi's hair.

Futaba kept comforting him for a while, until his crying subsided.

Akechi raised his head and opened his eyes, but didn't make eye contact with anyone in particular. "All of you are too kind to me. I still think I don't deserve forgiveness."

To Akechi's surprise, even their supernatural cat was crying! "Akechi... you managed to overcome your heart's distortion on your own. This is something very hard to happen! It's admirable. You surely deserve a lot of credit!"

Akechi shook his head. "No. You guys keep saying that I changed my heart on my own, but it's not true. It was... it was all thanks to Akira."

"Oh!" Takamaki-san's eyes glinted in realization, and she smiled. "Then, the special person that you like so much... is actually..."

Akechi glanced to his right, where the leader of the Phantom Thieves was sitting. "I don't know how much she has told you guys, but I ran into her at the hotel she stayed during an entrepreneurship course. Akira reached out to me and insisted on keeping me company, despite the jerk that I was. She even looked after me when I got sick. Back then, the only people I had been in contact with were those selfish people from the organization, who only do things with ulterior motives and expect something in return. Akira helped me out, and the only thing she wanted in return was to make me feel better. This made me remember what kindness was all about, and gave me hope that there may be other kind people like her in this world."

Akira smiled at his words. "What I did was such a small act... did it really impact you this much?"

"Small act? You did more good to me on those three days than I had received in years! You didn't save only me, either, but also Principal Kobayakawa."

"The principal?!" Haru voiced everyone's surprise.

"The news reported that Shujin's principal might have turned a blind eye to that P.E. teacher Kamoshida's abuses." Sae-san said. "So, the organization was after him?"

"Yes. It was supposed to be part of the trap the organization set for the Phantom Thieves, and another mental shutdown to blame on them. I had actually gone to that hotel because I had orders to cause a mental shutdown on him, and his palace was nearby."

Akira gasped. "Whoa, that was dangerous! I could've never imagined...!"

"Wait, you mean, if Akira had come to the school trip with us, the principal might've died!?" Sakamoto concluded.

"Exactly." Akechi nodded with a serious expression.

"Holy crap..."

"I'm thankful she was there. After Akira was so nice to me, I felt so well that my revenge plan suddenly didn't matter anymore, and I concluded that I had had enough. At the last minute, I gave up on carrying out the order, and convinced Kobayakawa's Shadow to pretend he had suffered a mental shutdown and go into hiding. The principal is in a coma right now, only waiting until all this mess is over. I'm glad my rushed last-minute plan worked, and didn't result in another death. This was when I decided to help you guys. I still wasn't sure whether Akira was a Phantom Thief or not, but I came to think that if the Phantom Thieves turned out to be kind people like her, then they didn't deserve to fall into that trap. Now I know I was right. You guys are the people with the purest hearts I've ever met."

"Aww, you're making us embarrassed!" Takamaki-san said with a sheepish smile.

Akira threw him a slight smirk. "You're a very kind person too, you know."

"You think so? I had thought my heart was messed-up beyond repair, and that there was nothing good left in it. I thought that Kitagawa-kun's 'Desire' painting was a good representation of my heart's state, and that the 'and Hope' part would never come to me. I have to admit, I had begun trying to help Futaba-chan purely out of guilt. The next thing I knew, I was getting attached to her. Not only that, but being near this band of Phantom Thieves made me remember how good it feels to be good, as hard as it might be sometimes. Before I knew it, I had only been wanting to make others smile, and feeling very fulfilled whenever I managed it."

"Oh." Kitagawa stared solemnly at Akechi. "So, this explains why you identified with the 'Desire' painting... I assure you, though. Your heart has definitely found the rays of hope by now."

"More or less... I know that nothing I do can make up for my past actions, but I'm willing to do anything I can to make things better. What should I do, though?"

"Do you even need to ask that? Aren't we changing that asshole's heart? You gotta be there to help us!" Sakamoto spoke in a motivating way.

"You definitely should be there to change his heart. He is your father," Makoto said matter of factly. "You have this right."

"I'm not sure if I have any right at this point, but thanks for saying that."

Makoto spoke again. "Speaking of which, does Shido know that you're his son?"

"I'm not sure. I didn't tell him... although, come to think of it, it's not that hard to figure out. Since he doesn't fully trust anyone, he needs information on his connections to make sure he has the upper hand. A boy that suddenly came out of nowhere, who can access the cognitive world. It's suspicious enough, isn't it? He has surely looked me up. An orphan who was born in Grape Village. Who else could it be, right? It's too obvious. But he always says he doesn't have kids, every time someone asks him. Many times in front of me, too. Hmm. Perhaps, he's pretending he doesn't know, or doesn't want me to realize he knows." Akechi nodded to himself. "It makes sense. This might be the case."

"What about Futaba?" Akira asked. "Do you think he knows she's his daughter too?"

"I have no idea. He has never said anything of the sort. All he has ever mentioned about Isshiki-san was the research. He never even mentioned the fact that she has a daughter. Um, this reminds me. Just to be clear. I know this doesn't minimize the impact of what I did in any way, but at least I wasn't the one to cover Isshiki-san's case up. I just want you guys to know that the fake suicide note isn't my doing. In fact, I didn't keep track and didn't care to find out how the case was closed. I didn't know about the fake suicide note until Futaba-chan told me. It was a shock to me too. Shido realy went too far...!"

"Hmm, I hadn't thought of this before, but I'm glad it wasn't you!" Futaba spoke. "We sure will find out whose doing it was!"

"Maybe we can find out these answers in the Palace," Takamaki-san said.

Akira nodded. "Yeah, the mastermind's Shadow or the cognitions in his Palace might drop some hints."

"Good point." Akechi agreed.

Futaba made an angry but determined face. "Even if we can't find this stuff out in his Palace, we'll get that mastermind for good and make him spill it all! Let's all expose his crimes together!"

Everyone nodded in unison.

Akechi smiled. "To be honest, initially my plan was to figure out how to change hearts and go change Shido's heart myself, but now, I'm actually glad you all will be going with me. The more horrible stuff I find out he did, the more angry I feel. After what I found out in these last few days, about what he did to Futaba-chan, about what he did to Akira... I think I might do something stupid if I were to go to his Palace alone. So, I'm also glad you all became as strong as you are now. I don't doubt anger may get the better of me and I might even kill his Shadow if no one is there to stop me."

Akira patted him on the shoulder. "We won't let you do anything stupid. It's like Niijima-san said. Now you have people on your side who love you and won't let you stray from the right path ever again. Don't worry. It'll be alright."

"Maybe some of the weird things we have been through are really fate," Morgana said. "But of course fate can be changed. It's what wild cards do best. And we have two of them, for crying out loud! Speaking of which, I have the feeling that both of you were fated to oppose each other. But this definitely isn't what's happening! I strongly feel that both of you are changing fate already. We'll overcome these obstacles. We can do this!"

Akechi recalled Elizabeth saying that the world's fate had changed several times thanks to the wild cards' influence. Maybe the Phantom Thieves could get around that mess unscathed, after all. He sincerely hoped so.

Futaba hummed excitedly. "The calling card'll be awesome! I can't wait!"

Akechi made a face. "You may be eager to get the calling card out, but it's not you who will have to sort through all those nasty recordings. I feel chills just by thinking about it."

Haru was concerned. "Akechi-kun, will you be okay doing that?"

"I know it'll be hard, but I feel that filtering those recordings is something I must do, as a way to take responsibility for the mental shutdown cases, especially the one about Isshiki-san. We must publicly prove Futaba-chan's innocence so that her relatives stop hating her. It'll also be great if we can make Shido publicly confess what he did to Akira and prove her innocence, so that the people from her hometown stop looking down on her. I believe I can push through the task if I keep these goals in mind."

Akira cheered up. "That would really be great! Thanks, Akechi-kun."

"It's still early to thank me. First we need to actually get the mission done."

"This mission's outcome is really promising. We'll be counting on you, Crow!" Morgana encouraged him.

"Thank you, everyone. It took a long time, but I'm glad to finally have met people who accept me like I have always wanted. I guess what I can do for now is give my best on our next missions, then try to make the most of the time I still have and treasure all the pleasant moments. I don't know how much time I still have to live, but be assured that I will keep all of you in my heart until the end."

Akechi felt more at peace with himself than ever, and more connected to the Phantom Thieves than ever. The Fool Tarot card appeared to indicate a Confidant rank up, but this time, something was different. A sense of completeness, and a new Persona possibility sprouting inside his mind.

"I am thou, thou art I... thou hast turned a vow into a blood oath. Thou hast forged a bond that cannot be broken. It shall become the wings of rebellion to break the yoke of thy heart. Thou hast awakened to the ultimate secret of the Fool, granting thee infinite power."

The Fool Confidant had reached the maximum level.

A/n: this is it. The truth about Crow's identity finally came out. Like Akira said, I think I'll miss the suspense and speculations :P . But now the Phantom Thieves have other important things to worry about, and will need to be more united than ever!

I wanted to have Akechi hand Akira her gift in this chapter, but it's too long already. More than 38k words! The gift will have to wait until the next chapter.

And... a wild Maruki appeared! Kichijoji's darts game (though Royal's version doesn't have versus mode and Akechi only seems to hit bullseyes), and the Featherman minigame too. What about Yoshizawa, you ask? I had been wanting her to make a cameo for a while, but was unsure about including her because I still didn't know much about her at the time. Now, I know. She'll probably be making an appearance soon. As I wrote in the beginning notes, if the new characters manage to fit well into the story, I might include third semester content. If not, then they'll only remain as cameos, and at least we got a much needed psychologist for Akechi :D .

After writing my version of Akechi's backstory, I keep thinking it'd be interesting if either that guy from the social services had decided to take Akechi in, or Wakaba had taken him in if her Shadow had managed to win Akechi over and he hadn't killed her. If anyone writes a fanfic about either of those scenarios, I'd be interested in reading it.

Akechi's Confidant rank ups in this chapter:

- Fool 10

- Emperor 5

- Chariot 8

- Hermit 9