4/12: Wednesday

Daisuke Kurusu knew his son hated him. That much was plain to see when Akira first got home. The look on the younger Kurusu's face broke his heart.

Then again, what else was he to expect? That Akira would come home, all smiles, ready to rejoin a town that had collectively decided he wasn't worth saving? A foolish dream, one that Daisuke should never have thought to come true.

But here was, like a fool, hoping and dreaming that he could get close to his son again. It would never go back to the way things were before, he knew that much, but he wanted something.

Those first few weeks were like a slap to his face. A few conversations the first couple of days, then nothing. As if there wasn't someone else in the house. The only thing that signaled Akira was even home were the few times his voice carried down into the living room, usually talking to his friends or his girlfriend.

Who Daisuke still hadn't been properly told about.

He had expedited getting the downstairs bathroom fixed so he didn't have to worry about eavesdropping on his son anymore. He still felt shame for giving in to the temptation to listen in on that first night. Akira hadn't deserved that.

Daisuke was willing to wait until he was told. Or not. It was Akira's choice to share.

There was also lying about Morgana. Daisuke knew Akira was lying through his teeth when he said he found the cat in the garbage, it was such a boldfaced lie that he almost fell for it. After all, who would make up something like that? But if the cat made Akira more comfortable in the house, fine. He'd let it slide.

Things had gotten slightly better since school started, but he was still lying. Ever since Akira had gotten home, Daisuke knew there was something wrong. Not the problems between them, those were obvious, but physically. On most days, it looked like Akira was in constant pain in some way shape or form.

It was sometimes more subtle, but there was a certain stiffness to the way Akira moved. Akira himself might not have even noticed it. There were the two times he had come home beaten up, claiming it was because of his friend, a Nakamura that Daisuke had only met in passing a few times prior.

Daisuke had had minor dealings with the Nakamuras, and their son, Hideaki, was there on those occasions, and it was perfectly possible that Akira had befriended him. He found it just as unlikely that Hideaki Nakamura had a good enough punch to beat up his son that badly.

Even the talks he and Akira did have were shallow, surface level at best. Coffee, model kits, Daisuke still barely knew anything about Akira's life in Tokyo, the friends he made, the things he did, how he went from an average student to top of the class, nothing!

He needed to bridge this gap. As a father, as the elder, it was his responsibility to try. But how would he even begin to broach that subject?

So, here he was, staring blankly at pages of paperwork that didn't matter. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He was tired. There hadn't been a good night sleep in his life for years now. Akira should still be at school, then he had work afterwards.

Daisuke rubbed at his temple. He should visit Akira's work at some point. Preferably when he was working there, but he wasn't sure if his son would appreciate it or not. Most likely not.

Daisuke had always thought that these sorts of things would get easier with age, but no. No matter how old you were, talking through issues was hard.

The ringing of his phone broke him from his thoughts. He quickly reached over and hit answer without checking the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Jeez, Daisuke. You sound like crap. Has the kid been putting you through that much trouble?"

Sojiro Sakura. The man who had taken care of Akira during his probation.

A man whom Daisuke had mixed feeling for at the moment. He'd be eternally grateful to his old friend for going out on a limb to take in Akira when no one else would. On the other hand, it was clear that the boy had a preference when it came to him and Daisuke.

No matter how one looked at it, it was Sojiro who had been there to guide Akira through that tumultuous time. Not Daisuke. It was only natural for a bias to form. That didn't make the stab of jealously less painful.

He pushed it away. It wasn't Sojiro's fault.

"Sojiro," Daisuke greeted. "Haven't heard from you for a few weeks. How have you been?"

"Eh, same as usual," Sojiro replied, voice easy and casual. "But it felt kind of lonely without the kid here, and my daughter wanted me to call and check up on him."

"Your 'daughter'?" Daisuke sat up straight. "Since when did you have a daughter?"

"Did I not tell you?" Sojiro sighed. "Crap, I'm sorry. Yeah, I have a daughter now. Remember me telling you about Wakaba Isshiki?"

Daisule smiled fondly. He didn't know Wakaba personally, but he'd heard Sojiro go on and on about her back in the day. "The one who got away?"

"The only woman to never even notice my charm." That was a lie. "But she still became a close friend. When she passed a few years back, I took in her daughter, Futaba."

"I'd love to meet her one of these days," he replied earnestly. "So, what did you call about, again?"

"How's Akira been holding up?" Sojiro asked again.

Daisuke shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "He's been…" The lie that was on the tip of his tongue died. He let out a weary breath. "I won't lie. It's been hard."

"Sounds like it. Want to talk about it?"

"Sojiro Sakura, are you actually willing to listen to a man's problems? That's a first."

"It's times like this where I remember where that kid of yours got his smartass mouth," Sojiro said indignantly, but Daisuke could hear the grin in his voice. "Really, though. I'm all ears."

Daisuke shifted in his seat. "Akira and I haven't been talking. Not really. The parole, his stay in Tokyo, it's all pent up inside of him, and I don't know how to reach him."

"Have you tried, I don't know, talking to him?"

"It's not that easy," he replied. "He's been lying to me."

"How so?"

"Little things, I think." Daisuke thought about that statement for a second. "Okay, maybe not all little things. It started with that cat of his."

"Oh, you mean Morgana?"

Daisuke noticed out of the corner of his eyes that Morgana had made his way downstairs. When he looked back towards the cat, he could've sworn guilt flashed across his face as he scampered back up the stairs. "He had him back in Tokyo? I knew he was lying about finding him in the garbage, but still…"

"I mean, I can't tell you for sure that he didn't find him in some dumpster."

"But it's more than Morgana," Daisuke said. "I think he's been getting into fights. He's come home twice now the worse for wear. And the way he moves, he looks so stiff, like he's always hurting. It started when get got back. What happened in Tokyo?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Can't or won't?" Daisuke asked.

Sojiro chuckled dryly. "Little of both. I know some details, but they're not my place to say. That's up to you to find out. By talking to him."

"Anything I say is going to make the situation worse. What am I supposed to say? 'I'm sorry'? That's just not going to cut it here."

Sojiro was silent on the other line for a long moment. "Let me tell you a little about Futaba."

Daisuke looked at his phone, confused. "Okay?"

"Almost three years ago, Wakaba was hit by a car. She died on impact. Right in front of Futaba."

"My God…" Daisuke breathed. When Sojiro had said she'd passed, he had no idea it was like that.

"For the longest time, Futaba blamed herself. Some bastards in suits told her that Wakaba willingly threw herself in front of that car because of her. She shut herself away from the world, completely and totally, for two years. For two years, she shut herself in her room and refused to come out because of the guilt.

"I thought she would never recover. But then your boy came into our lives, and he was able to get her out of her room and back into the world. I'm still not entirely sure how he did it, but he did. She still has troubles from time to time, but she's doing a lot better than she was."

Daisuke couldn't hide the pride he felt for his son in that moment. "Akira did that?"

"Yep. You've got a good son. And if you don't reach out to him, you'll lose him, just like I would've lost Futaba. I won't lie, I was close to giving up. It sounds like you're in the same position, except you don't have anyone to give you that push. You'll have to do it yourself."

"But… what if I lose him forever?"

"Then you lose him," Sojiro said bluntly. "But at least you'll know it wasn't because you gave up."

Daisuke ruminated over his words before smiling. "When did you get to be so good at giving pep talks?"

"It's one of my many talents," Sojiro said. "So, you going to talk to him?"

"Yeah. I think I will. Thank you, Sojiro."

"Anytime."

Now, here they were.

Son sitting across father, only a table-length away, but somehow still worlds apart.

Akira gripped his legs tightly to stop them from shaking. Across from him, his father didn't look like the shell of a man that he had for the past month. Instead, he looked focused and thoughtful, nursing a cup of coffee. It was both a relief and unnerving.

For Daisuke, it was strange seeing how much his son had grown. He hadn't really thought about it before now. Akira was a little taller, his shoulders more squared, and he had been growing a beard over the past few weeks. It looked good on him.

"Before we start," Daisuke said, "I just want you to know, I don't want you to feel… like you need to do this. I do. I need to do this. But what I need isn't important, though. So, if you want to, I don't know, go upstairs, lock the door, fine, but I really do think it would help us both if we talked."

"About what?" Akira asked, his voice hollow. Before he could stop himself, he continued. "Should we talk about how you abandoned me? How you shipped me off to Tokyo? Or maybe we should talk about how you didn't call me, you didn't write, you didn't reach out for a year."

To his credit, Daisuke didn't flinch away from the accusations. "Yes. But I also want to talk about you."

Akira scoffed. "First time for everything," he muttered. Inwardly, he cursed himself. Damnit, stop being a brat! Man up and hear him out! He sighed before leaning forward and resting his arms on the table. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."

"I'm sure I deserved that. Maybe worse," Daisuke said simply. "Where do you want to start?"

Akira forced himself to take a couple deep breaths, then asked, "Did you question the decision? Even once?"

"Which decision?" Daisuke asked. "The verdict? The parole? Or sending you away?"

"Yes."

Daisuke shook his head. "I knew there was more to it than what they were saying, but… yes, I did believe you got violent with that man."

This really was a stupid idea. Akira gritted his teeth and made to stand, but his father held out a hand. "Wait! Please, just listen."

Akira hissed and sat back down. "I'm listening."

"I'm not afraid to admit that we'd been… distant, at that point," Daisuke pointed out. "I felt like I barely knew you."

"And that was my fault?"

"No. Of course not. I take full responsibility, but the fact still remains, that we were strangers living in the same house, and I didn't see it as completely unreasonable that you laid hands on that man," Daisuke said, then he pointed at Akira. "But don't think for a second that I didn't understand why."

"Then why did you send me away?" Akira demanded. "Did they force you to? Was it a mandatory part of the parole, or… just, why?"

"I could say yes. I could say that the police pressured me, or that it was mandated. It's true, in a way, they wanted desperately to get rid of you, but the real truth, the truth that matters, is that I thought, with all of my heart, that sending you away from Meguro was the best possible thing for you."

That's exactly what you thought, a little voice in Akira's head told him. That it was the best thing for you. It's what you told Tae, right?

"What about you not calling me for a year?" he asked. "Or a letter, a text, something—anything—to show me that you still cared."

"Because…" Daisuke trailed off, averting his gaze.

Akira leaned back in his chair and waited for the response.

His father took a drink from his now cold coffee and shook his head. "I did it because… I couldn't bring myself to face you."

"Why not?" Akira threw his hands out. "Were you scared? Were you afraid of me?"

"I knew the decision to send you away was the right one," Daisuke explained. "I still believe that. But what I didn't fully understand was how it would have affected you." He looked back up at Akira. "I hurt you, Akira. I saw the look in your eye. So, yes, I was scared. Scared of facing you, of looking and seeing the damage I caused, and… and hurting you more because of it."

Neither spoke for a second. At first Akira wasn't sure if anyone would break the silence, but found himself saying, "I made a life in Tokyo."

Daisuke raised an eyebrow. He knew this already, but he was interested to hear where Akira was going to go with this.

"I have friends down there, a real family. They got me through so much pain. I don't know where I would be right now if it wasn't for them, or Sojiro, or anyone else. There were nights where I didn't think there was any hope at all, but they pulled me up and… they showed me I had something to really live for.

"And during all that time, do you know what hurt me the most?" Akira ignored the tears beginning to form in his eyes. "What hurt the most was the idea that you hated me. That you only saw me as a failure. I stayed up at night, holding my phone, staring at it, wondering when you were going to call, when was my father going to call and, I don't know, check up on his son?"

"Akira…" Daisuke whispered. His grip on the mug tightened.

Akira felt the first drop roll down his cheek. He saw his father's breath catch in his throat. He wiped it away and shook his head.

"A day turned into a week. A week turned into a month. Eventually, I just stopped caring," Akira said. "I thought, 'If he doesn't want me, fine. He doesn't deserve me.'"

"You're right."

Akira leaned back at his father's blunt agreement.

"Every night after you le-…after you were sent to Tokyo, I sat and wondered what Hikari would've done in this situation."

"Mom?"

Daisuke nodded and hummed in confirmation. "She would've done right by you. I just know it. She wouldn't have taken it lying down like I did. She wouldn't have avoided her son for a year, just because she was afraid. She wouldn't have been a coward."

Akira looked over to a framed picture on the wall. It was of a fishing trip they all took when he was much younger.

In it, Daisuke was much younger, no gray hair, wearing a floral-patterned shirt. Next to him, with his arm around her, his mother, Hikari Kurusu. Although she didn't have the same gray eyes, they still burned with the same passion as her sons. Akira's more pointed features had come from her, as well as his more unruly hair style.

In her arms was four-year-old Akira, grinning happily along with his parents.

It brought a smile to his own lips. Daisuke saw the look of nostalgia and glanced over to the picture as well.

"She probably would've found the guy and beat him herself," Akira said. He faced Daisuke once again. "Really showed him what an assault looked like."

They both laughed a little.

Daisuke fiddled with the mug some more. "She'd also tell you something that I should have, the day you were arrested. She'd say that you did the right thing."

Akira looked back at him, his eyes wide with shock. Sojiro had told him something similar, but he never would have imagined his father would echo the sentiment.

"You saved that woman," Daisuke continued. "You're a good man, Akira. No matter what happens between us, I just want you to know that, and I want you to know that I am so, so proud of you."

Akira… wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. True, he knew there was more to the story than his father just abandoned him to his fate and never wanted to see him again, but being proud of him? That was a new one.

It was a nice sentiment, but at the same time, it felt hollow.

"Thanks…" Akira said uneasily. "…but I think that's something that needed to be said a while ago."

"I know," Daisuke assented. "I know."

"What you did, hiding from your responsibility?" Akira shook his head. "I don't know if I can ever fully forgive you for it."

Daisuke nodded. He understood. He had no right to ask or beg for forgiveness. All he could do was explain, to lay his feelings on the table. That was enough for him.

"But I want to try."

Akira saw his father's eyes widened and light up. He wasn't sure why. It wasn't like he actually forgave him.

Yet.

Oh, shut up, me, Akira thought, his face morphing into a scowl to the confusion of his father. He eased up, instead returning his face to a neutral mask. His brain was right. It was only really a matter of time at this point.

"I, uh, I would like to try as well," Daisuke stammered out, a grin threatening to spread across his face. He had to remind himself to keep his hopes in check. This wasn't a healing of the divide between them. The groundwork was being laid, though, and that was all that mattered to him.

"Um, I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds, but… what did you do in Tokyo?"

Akira raised his scarred brow. "You want to have small talk? After all that?"

Daisuke quickly shook his head. "No, it's just that I was talking to Sojiro earlier today. He's actually the one that kicked my ass into finally talking to you."

"Yeah, that sounds like him," Akira sighed, rubbed his temple. "And?"

"I see the way you move when you wake up in the morning," Daisuke said. "It didn't just start after you started hanging out with that Nakamura friend of yours, it was the day you got home."

Daisuke took a deep breath. He wasn't ready to confront Akira about Morgana, but it was a band-aid that needed to be ripped off.

"I also know that you had Morgana since you lived with Sojiro. I can also tell that he's way too smart to be just a cat."

"What do you-?"

"I saw him open the fridge for a midnight snack," Daisuke said. "At first I thought it was my mind going crazy from sleep-deprivation, but it was him."

Damnit, Morgana, Akira thought, sending a mental reprimand the cat's way.

Daisuke shook his head and held his hands out in a placating manner. "I'm not going to tell you to get rid of him, I can tell he's important to you, but I just want to know."

How the hell was he going to explain the details behind Morgana? That was a headache and a half, and he was there for the initial explanation from the dude who made Morgana.

Akira was about to say another lie, but then he saw his father's pleading look. His father had been nothing but honest this whole time, and he was about to lie again? So, he said the first thing that came to his mind.

"I'm the leader of the Phantom Thieves."

Daisuke didn't react at first. He just stared blankly at Akira. Finally, he flatly asked, "What."

"I'm the leader of the Phantom Thieves," he repeated. He gestured towards the stairs. "And Morgana was one of the members."

Daisuke leaned back in his chair. He was looking at Akira with a very dumb expression on his face.

"The Phantom…" He trailed off, shook his head, then started again. "The Phantom Thieves?"

Akira nodded.

"The ones who vandalized Tokyo and claimed responsibility for the confessions of a bunch of criminals?"

Akira nodded again.

"And you're the leader who apparently killed himself in prison?"

Akira hissed between his teeth, then tentatively nodded again.

Something happened that Akira could confidently say he'd never seen before.

Daisuke Kurusu was not, by and large, an angry man. He'd gotten stern a few times, sure, but almost never truly angry. It's where Akira got his mostly calm demeanor from.

Suddenly, though, at this very moment, Daisuke became very, very angry.

"ARE YOU STUPID?!" Daisuke shouted, standing up and slamming his hands down on the table. Akira flinched back. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"

Akira opened his mouth to answer, but Daisuke cut him off. "Don't answer that because you clearly weren't thinking! Was that why you were arrested again?!"

"More or less," Akira mumbled, still awestruck at his father's complete 180. He wasn't afraid, necessarily. After all, how would anyone else react to their son being an internationally known criminal?

"Of all of the idiotic things you could have done in Tokyo, you joined a gang?!" A lightbulb went off above Daisuke's head. "You got into fights, didn't you? You did more than just throw some posters up. That's why you're hurting."

"Well, it's a little more complicated than—"

"Explain." He was calm now.

Akira stopped. "Explain what?"

"Explain everything," Daisuke demanded, sitting back down and steepling his fingers. "You said that Morgana, your cat, was a member, so I want to know what that's all about. Start from the beginning."

Akira rubbed at the back of his neck and looked towards the stairs. "It's a long story…"

"We have time."

Akira took a deep breath. "Hoo boy. Alright. It all started when I got to Tokyo."

"So, hold on a second. Your gym teacher turned the school into a castle?"

"No, that's just what he perceived it as."

"I don't understand. Was it a castle or not?"

"Sort of? We found Morgana lock in a cell in the basement. He was this weird, anime mascot character though."

Daisuke rubbed his head. He was sorely tempted to grab a drink.

"So, you can understand Morgana? And all of your teammates can understand Morgana? But I can't?"

"Pretty much. It's because you only see him as a cat, so you only hear, well, a cat. But we've all seen what he really is, so we see more than just a cat."

"And he is…?"

"A chibi mascot. Big eyes, cat ears." Akira's voice dropped to a low murmur. "Don't tell him I said this, but he was really cute in the metaverse."

Daisuke just stared blankly, unsure how to respond to that.

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"Trust me, the burgers will play an integral part of this story."

"I'm still confused, were you guys going into an alternate dimension?"

"Something like that."

"But what happens there affects what happens here? And vice versa?"

"Yep."

"And you get there through an app?"

"Uh-huh."

"Why was his skin purple?"

"…You know, I never really thought about that. This other guy had blue skin, too."

"So Shido was, in total, the mastermind behind a massive government conspiracy, the owner of the strongest Palace known to man, and the man who framed you for assault in the first place?"

"I know, right? Who would've guessed?"

"Christ..."

"I got to punch him in the face."

"…"

"Like, a lot."

"…did it feel good?"

"Stop, stop," Daisuke pleaded, waving his hands. He was officially tapping out.

"Are you okay?" Akira asked.

"No, I'm not." Daisuke rubbed his temples. "Christ, that's… that's a lot of information."

"The whole thing about Morgana kind of broke us, too," Akira said sympathetically. "We didn't have much time to think about it in the moment, but yeah. It's a lot."

When Daisuke didn't answer, Akira asked, "Do you believe me?"

"I kind of have to. There's no way someone can make up a story like that on the spot," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head. He looked over to the clock. "So, we've been at this for a few hours."

Akira glanced towards the clock. Oh, wow, they have been at this for a while.

Daisuke rubbed his eyes and looked back at his son. "This has been a very long, very informative night. I know I got a little angry at you—"

"Which is fair," Akira admitted.

"Right. I'm assuming your friends were the other members. Sakamoto, Takamaki, and all the rest. Am I right?"

"I can't tell you that," Akira said. Of course, his father would have been able to connect the dots, even in the vast, complicated web that was his time as a Phantom Thief. He shrugged. "Wouldn't be fair to my team."

"That's…" Daisuke took a deep breath. "…an understandable stance to take. Was there anything else major that happened while you were… there?"

The way he asked that question made it sound like he knew the answer. Akira blinked a few times, trying to think of what he could possibly know. He had carefully avoided any mention of Tae, so that secret was safe.

"Well," Akira thought aloud, rubbing his beard. "I did shoot God in the face."

That wasn't exactly what Daisuke expected to hear, but that would certainly fall under the category of "major".

He buried his hands in his face. "Why do I believe that? I shouldn't believe that."

"Believable or not," Akira said, grinning, "you have to admit, it does make for one pretty compelling narrative, huh?"

Daisuke didn't find it all that funny, but he couldn't help but laugh at the audacity of the joke. Here was his son, confessing to a string of crimes and cracking a joke all in the same breath.

He stopped and really looked at his still grinning son.

That smile. It was so very much like his mother.

"You," Daisuke said between laughs, "are very much your mother's son, Akira."

"Thanks," Akira said, his trickster grin easing into a smaller, gentler smile. "I miss her, y'know."

Daisuke nodded in agreement. "I know. Can I tell you something, just between us?"

"And Morgana?" Akira asked, gesturing to the cat listening in from the conversation on the stairs.

"Yes, him too, I guess." He shook his head. "I don't think I'll ever get used to the fact that he can understand us."

"At least you know," Akira said brightly. "Sojiro never found out. It just never came up."

"Sounds like him. But anyway, you know how I told you how proud your mother would be? For helping that woman?"

Akira nodded, his face falling into a more neutral expression. He nodded.

"Well, I think she'd be even more excited knowing that you were some sort of superhero," Daisuke said, doing his best impression of Akira's Joker grin. It was a good attempt,

Akira laughed. "She would," he said wistfully. He frowned. "You're not mad?"

"Oh, no, I'm absolutely livid," Daisuke said, a bright smile still on his face. That was more unnerving that his yelling from earlier. "You're grounded forever."

Another laugh came from Akira as he nodded agreeably. "Understandable."

They sat and looked at each other for a second before Akira got to his feet and held out his arms. Daisuke smiled, got up, and embraced his son.

Daisuke patted Akira's back a few times, then said, with a choke in his voice, "I'm going to do my best to be the father you deserve. Thank you for giving me this chance."

Akira nodded, ignoring the tear that slipped out of his eye. He felt the bond between him and his father slowly start to reform. It was a long way out from being completely whole.

But after this… maybe his stay in Meguro wouldn't be so bad after all.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him.

"Oh, uh, before I forget."

Daisuke pulled back with an apprehensive look on his face.

"I… may have shot off a bunch of fireworks this morning to steal some files form my principal's computer?"

Akira knew the phrase "if looks could kill" was rather cliché, but sometimes the clichés are used for a reason.