Akechi's fight-or-flight reflexes kicked in and he threw himself to the side before the handgun hit the ground. The fired bullet ended up going through the spot his knee occupied a quarter of a second before embedding itself in the wall.
Unfortunately, neither he nor Haru were able to dodge 170 decibels of sound emitted by the shot.
The girl let out a small yelp of pain, and realized that she's unable to hear it. Or anything, really. There was a bang, and then a continuous high-pitched hum in both ears. And pain. Bearable, but noticeable.
She came back to her senses just in time to see an annoyed Akechi picking himself up from the floor, holding the gun in his hand. She took a step backwards, towards the exit, ready to run, but he just pressed a button on the side, causing the magazine to fall out into his open palm. He grabbed both it and the pistol with his left, then pulled the slide back with his right, allowing the chambered bullet to go out through the ejection port into his hand. He put it back in the magazine, put the empty handgun in front of the girl, took a step away from her and gestured at her to pick it up.
As she knelt down, the door was slammed open - not that Akechi and Haru could hear that, they just noticed the movement - and Joker and Makoto burst in, the former wielding a pocket knife and the latter holding her guard up. Both the princess and the detective held their hands high in surrender.
"What is going on here?" the brunette asked, as confused as them.
Akechi very slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a notepad and wrote something in it. He showed it to Haru, who nodded, and then passed it over to the other two.
"We can't hear you," Joker read out loud, before pulling out his own pen. He wrote something in response, then showed it to Haru specifically. What is going on here?
Hesitantly, the girl took his pen and wrote The gun fired and now our hearing is impaired.
Joker showed her response to Makoto, who wrote, in perfect cursive, Ah, yes, the gun fired. On its own. You're safe now, you don't have to cover up for him, then handed the notepad back to the other girl, who didn't respond to that at first. Then, with a shaky hand, she wrote back:
He didn't bring it here. I did.
The brunette and the president stared at the last message for a moment, before Akechi yanked the notebook back and hastily wrote This was just a misunderstanding. No one is at fault.
We'll have this conversation once you can hear us, Joker wrote. I've got a friend with an MD, she'll come over to look at your ears. You fine with that? The casualties nodded, and Joker turned to Makoto, "I'm gonna go and call her, can you three deal with crime scene cleanup?"
"Well, to sum up," Tae announced, putting away the otoscope, "I don't see any permanent damage to both your friends' ears. If that was a one-time incident, they should recover on their own in a few days."
"What if we don't have a few days?" Joker replied. "There might be things that I need to discuss with them right now."
"Do they have any allergies?"
Makoto wrote the question on a notepad and showed it to Haru and Akechi, sitting on the couch. They shook their heads in response. The doctor pulled out a small glass vial. "I expected you to be in a rush and cooked up an old recipe I never had a chance to test on hurt specimen."
"Not reassuring," Makoto muttered.
"They won't make the situation worse, that much I can guarantee. I could demonstrate if King Hamlet tilts his head." She gestured at Akechi, who hesitantly did so, and Tae applied a few drops of her medicine down his ear canal. "The effects should kick in in a few minutes." She turned to Joker. "The problem is, I've used some expensive stuff to prepare a batch for you, so if you could cover at least some of it, I'd be grateful."
The brunette pulled out his wallet, got a few random notes from it, and handed them over to the doctor. She inspected them under the ceiling light in disbelief. "Kid, whatever you're doing for a living, don't stop. A few more months of that, and I'll be selling meds over the table as well."
"Not reassuring," Akechi muttered, then realization flashed on his face. "…my hearing is back in that ear. And the ringing is gone too."
Tae smiled proudly. "Wow, much faster than I expected."
"Thank God for that," Joker remarked as the doctor went ahead to apply the medicine to the other three ears. "You have no idea how much communicating via notepad slows down the plot."
"I can only guess." She put the half-full vial on the kitchenette counter. "I'll leave you the rest, just in case you end up mishandling a firearm again."
Everyone sans Takemi had their colours drained off of them.
"Y'know, for a bunch of secret vigilantes you're awful at keeping a poker face."
"How-how did you…?" Joker stammered.
"It was a shot in the dark." She chuckled at her own joke. "I mean, I get a panicked call about two people hurt by, quote, a loud bang, and you explicitly say that you call me because it's something you can't deal with in a regular hospital. It was a plausible option, and your reactions just confirmed it."
"And you will not speak about that to anyone," Akechi growled.
"Duh. Just… watch out next time, alright? I do not know how to treat gunshot wounds and I'd rather not have to learn about that." She marched to the exit. "Okay, gonna leave you alone. Nightie night!"
And she left. After a moment, Joker and Makoto grabbed a chair each and sat opposite Haru and Akechi. "Alright, what happened in the basement?" he asked, opening a small bottle of carbonated water.
The detective had had enough time to think about an excuse that wouldn't incriminate either of them. Haru was concerned about her safety and remembered about the handgun they had stashed… somewhere. She approached him to teach her how to use it, it slipped out of her hand, and fired when hitting the ground. Heck, that was almost true! Nothing happened, we can return to business as usual.
And then Haru said "I tried to kill Akechi" and Joker did a spit take.
"This is a gross oversimplification," the detective protested.
"I pointed a gun at your stupid face with intent of firing it!"
"If you actually wanted to kill me, we wouldn't be having this conversation on account of a 9mm bullet in my brain!" Beat. "Or my left shoulder, since you have no clue how to handle an actual gun."
"I don't think proper gun handling is the most important issue at the moment," Makoto spoke up.
"Of course you don't, miss Hipfire von Hammerfanner."
"Alright, two steps back," Joker raised his hands in exasperation. "We know that Haru brought the gun and she said she wanted to kill Akechi. Why?"
"Because-"
"I want Haru to say it, Akechi."
The girl looked elsewhere. "Because Futaba's app showed him spending time in Shido's office and I thought he betrayed us again."
"Well, he didn't, he was watched by Morgana the whole time. And his phone was bugged so we heard their every word."
"I told her the same thing," the detective added. "And then she dropped the gun on the ground in surrender and it fired."
"That's not what happened!" Haru protested. "I said that I might as well shoot you and claim it was your fault or something!"
"Words, words, words." Akechi rolled his eyes. "I literally encouraged you to shoot and you didn't - and that's what matters in the end."
"You did WHAT?" Makoto reacted.
"It was a mistake, I underestimated the toll killing takes on other people," Akechi said, bracing for a punch to the stomach or below.
"Let him be, Makoto. He deescalated the situation in the end," Haru looked the detective in the eye, "and apparently that's what matters."
"Fuck me, everyone in this room needs therapy." Joker rubbed his eyes. "And all I can give you is a hug. You want a hug, Haru?"
"…do I really deserve-"
"Hug, now," Makoto and Akechi commanded in unison, and she didn't argue with that. The next minute or so went in silence, with the brunette embracing the princess, and the detective and the president sitting awkwardly on the side. "I just realized that we didn't give Futaba that SSD."
Akechi took the hint. "We'll go and give it to her."
The two retreated to the geek's bedroom. Joker and Haru remained embraced, and then he whispered:
"I'm sorry."
"What?" the girl reacted. "Why? What for?"
"I should've recognized the red flags." Their eyes met. "Should have kept you two apart. Shouldn't have expected you to be understanding of a man that took away your father."
"It's not your fault," she replied. "It's something I'll… have to process myself, sooner or later." She released the brunette. "Preferably now."
"Sounds ambitious," Joker nodded. "How do you want to start?"
With a heavy sigh, Haru marched out of the living room, followed by the brunette, and entered Futaba's bedroom without knocking.
"…but they gave me supersonic ammo, so…" Akechi cut the story he had been telling to Makoto and Morgana short, and the three looked at Haru. "Is there a problem?"
The princess braced herself and looked into the detective's eyes. "My father was… an evil person."
"I'm in no position to…" Something clicked in his head. "Oh, sorry, is this the beginning of a monologue?"
"I suppose."
"No further interruption, then," he mimicked zipping his mouth up.
"His company… was thoroughly corrupt, ruining lives and health of everyone below him," she went on. "To make his transition into politics, he was willing to sell my body to an abusive entitled dick." She paused for everyone to gasp in shock. "And yet… in some way, I loved him."
Akechi averted her gaze, out of shame and guilt.
"Look me in the eyes, Goro," she commanded, and he obeyed. "My love for him was based on two things - the man he was and the man he could have been, had he lived."
At this point, the detective was almost sure he preferred being shot over listening to that.
"I've noticed you… trying to do the right thing. Both trying to get Shido sunk for good and trying to stop me from doing something… unforgivable. And…" she took a deep breath, "…if I was willing to forgive my father based on a faint sliver of hope that he might be better in the future…" she outstretched her hand, "then I think I can forgive you."
Now he was completely sure of that. For all the experience he had in faking affability, he had no idea on how to react to a genuine act of forgiveness - it was literally beyond his comprehension. Getting shot in the face was pleasantly straightforward in comparison, and the main downside of it stopped being scary a long time ago.
Instead of taking her hand, he dropped on his knees and lowered his head in submission.
"Alright, the data's being copied…" Futaba spun on her chair and noticed all the other people in her room. "…did I miss something?"
"I'll fill you in later," Joker pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen. "Jeez, it's late." He turned to Haru. "Do you want to spend the night here or should we call a cab?"
"I have a car, remember?" Makoto piped up. "I can give her a lift back home."
"Good. Put the gun back in the hiding spot on your way there, okay?" The president nodded. "Now that everyone's listening…" He took a breath. "You are not alone, people. None of you are. If there's anything, anything that weighs you down, hit me up. Hit anyone up. I don't judge, and I don't bite." He glanced down. "That applies to everyone, Akechi."
"I don't deserve…" he whispered.
"We had that conversation before, Rootkit!" She glanced at the cat. "Morgana, attack!"
"Do I have to? He still has that tuna he had bought me before."