Akechi and the goon entered a hotel room.

It was relatively spacious. There were two single beds on the opposite sides of it, with Sojiro sitting on the one closer to the door. His hands were handcuffed in front of him, and he stared at the detective - he had been filled in on the break-in to Shido's office, but you can't blame him for being doubtful of Akechi's allegiance at the moment. In the middle of the room, by the window, was a glass-and-metal table with three chairs by it, one left empty, and two on the other side taken by the other two suited stooges.

"They'll do the talking," the third guy sat on the bed, next to the barista.

"Akechi!" The leader greeted him. "Welcome, sit down. Can we call you Goro?"

"That privilege is reserved for people who had held me at gunpoint." He chuckled, sitting down.

"Fair enough. Coffee, tea?"

"Don't pamper him," the goon beside him, henceforth dubbed 'the lancer', spoke up.

"Psh, pamper," the leader rolled his eyes. "I'm just being courteous to a guest."

"I'll pass. Let us get to the point, if you please," Akechi rested his hands on the table. "I've been told that you want to offer me a job."

"Indeed I do. Mostly doing whatever you were doing for the past two years, but under my orders." He tented his fingers. "There will be other changes too."

"Such as?"

"Pardon answering with a question, but why did you decide to jump ship and ally with the Phantom Thieves?"

"Pardon the same, but isn't it obvious?" In retrospect, he added to himself, and when you're not an idiot. "Shido would've dealt with me as a loose end the moment the exit polls arrived."

"Indeed. So you volunteered to kill the leader of the Thieves, allowed him to escape and lied about his death, and then you went and helped the group steal his heart."

"Um, yes, that's what happened." Sojiro barely stopped himself from commenting. Back in Leblanc, some people chortled and even Joker cracked a smile.

"It's okay, I get it," the goon went on, in a weirdly earnest tone. "Shido was an ungrateful imbecile that didn't understand how much of an asset you were. But now, he's out of the picture."

"As in, deceased?"

"No, just locked away so he can't turn himself in until after the elections." He smiled. "Currently, the people in the know can be divided into three groups - trying to reverse the change of heart, keeping their heads down and waiting for the election win, and clever people, who realized you and not him are the key to all this." He pointed at himself. "The third group consists of me and the other two guys."

"You were able to put a guy like Shido on the fast-track to ruling a G7 country," the lancer piped in. "Imagine what you could do working for clever people."

"So wait," Akechi raised his hands a bit, "you're not with the conspiracy anymore?"

"Well, we didn't hand over a two-weeks notice," the leader smiled at his own joke. "But yes, it's a new thing. And we're going to treat ya better than Shido did."

"And probably better than the Thieves treat you now," the lancer added. "I mean, I can't imagine they're soft on you after all you did."

Back in Leblanc, everyone was gathered around Futaba's laptop, watching the live video feed. Mishima scoffed. "Psh, like you're not too soft on him."

As if to respond to that, the detective's voice came out of the speakers: "Well, they did try to shoot me twice."

The Phanboy went pale. "Y-y-you tried to shoot him?"

Haru raised an eyebrow. "Twice?"

"Our point exactly," the goon said. Joker didn't register anything that followed, and just stared blankly into the distance. He had shrugged those two incidents off, he thought. But that's what Joker had said about his betrayal, that's what he had honestly believed about himself and then he put a gun to Akechi's head. Was that the final straw? Or maybe he didn't get through him to begin wi-

"Earth to Joker." Ann snapped her fingers in front of his face. "They started talking about dealing with you. Team Plan B asks if they should step in."

"He- he would've acknowledged the bug on him if he actually wanted to betray us again, wouldn't he?" the brunette said, trying to convince himself.

"Or maybe he's waiting for a dramatic moment to reveal it," Yusuke suggested.

"I'm erring on the side of trust," Joker proclaimed. "Stand by for now."

"Our point exactly," the goon said. "There's no love lost between you and the Thieves."

"Truth be told, I didn't expect them to send you over," the leader added. "But it's convenient - you all have the same powers, but convincing one of them to work for us would've been infinitely harder than convincing you."

"Our abilities differ somewhat," Akechi corrected, "but not in a manner significant to this conversation. Anyway, do you have any targets in mind right now?"

The lancer smirked. "Oh, we do. One Ren Amamiya. You might have heard of him."

The detective raised an eyebrow. "…who?"

"…you're messing with us, right? The bloody leader of the Phantom Thieves!"

"That's not what he calls himself."

"Well, that's the name we have in his papers," the leader shrugged. "Anyway, we want him out of the picture. It's pretty obvious he's too much of a threat to keep him around, and two 'suicides' in custody in a row will start looking too suspicious."

"Yeeeeah," Akechi glanced to the side. "I can't do it."

The goon skipped a beat. "What do you mean 'can't'?"

"I'm unable to," he elaborated. "Short version is: the powers we have make us immune to each other's tampering. They can't change my heart, and I can't cause a mental shutdown in any of them. It works both ways."

"So beat him to death with a ball-peen hammer or something," the lancer suggested.

"This… isn't that great of an idea either," the detective managed to stay civil. "That would require me to get within melee range, overpower him, kill him, and leave the scene before anyone notices and retaliates," he counted on his fingers. "And since you aren't with the conspiracy anymore, covering up that murder will require effort, connections and or resources neither you or I have."

Judging by the scowl on his face, the lancer didn't like that answer. After a beat, he reached into his suit, pulled out a suppressed Glock 26, and pointed it at Akechi.

"Of course you got handguns with ambidextrous switches," he muttered, unfazed.

"Dude, put it down!" the leader demanded.

"So, Goro," the lancer ignored him, "can you do it or not?"

"I still cannot," the detective replied, politely. "Threats do not change the limitations of my powers or the situation that we're currently in."

"Put down the gun, buddy. That's an order."

"Don't you see?" he turned to the leader. "He's still on the Thieves' side, stalling for time or something!"

"Because I refuse to pointlessly endanger my life for your goals?" Akechi's tone turned just a teeny tiny bit sour.

A standoff of sorts followed, except one side was wielding a handgun and the other just stared daggers. "Look," the leader said, firmly, "even if he is still supporting them, we won't get him on our side by threatening him!"

The lancer stared at the detective, and his frustratingly bland expression, as if being held at gunpoint wasn't something out of the ordinary to him at that point. "We won't. But if he is still supporting them," he got up, circled the table, and put the weapon to Sojiro's head, "we might get some mileage out of threatening the barista."

Futaba started hyperventilating out of stress.

"I c-c-can't look," Joker embraced her, visibly shaking. "I'm-I'm gonna go upstairs and f-f-focus on m-m- calming my sister down."

"Who's in charge?" Haru asked.

"I don't fucking know!" he shouted. "If-if-if Plan B still has video feed, it's Makoto. If not, I dunno. Tell me when it's over." The two retreated upstairs. Haru grabbed Ann's hand in a gesture of support, Yusuke started pacing around the cafe, and Mishima gathered what little courage remained in him to not completely freak out.

"Let's meet each other halfway," the lancer glared at the detective. "If you won't deal with the Thief for us, we'll do it for you. Just give us his current hideout."

"Don't tell him anything," Sojiro said, almost managing to keep his composure.

"Sure, don't. And then you can tell his daughter her daddy's brains decorated a hotel room wall."

That was the exact moment where Akechi stopped trying to deescalate things and started thinking about how to kill everyone sans Sojiro in the room. "I beg your fucking pardon?"

"We did our homework, Goro," the lancer said, satisfied that he finally got the reaction out of the detective. "He has an adopted daughter, roughly your age. She wasn't home when we came. She's with Amamiya, isn't she?"

"I…" Pause. "I killed her mother, you know?" Akechi adjusted his grip on the cane. The plan for the next few seconds crystallized in his head. "I don't remember when exactly, it all kinda blends together now, but I think it was pretty early on."

"Yeah, and? How's that releva-"

He flung the hoodie hanging from his arm towards the leader, disorienting him. The lancer took the gun off Sojiro and attempted to point it at the detective. An opening.

"She will-"

A strike to the wrist, causing him to drop the gun on the ground - mercifully, it didn't fire.

"-not lose-"

A thrust to the stomach.

"-the other-"

A swing to the chin.

"-parent-"

An overhead two-handed smash to the skull.

"-today!"

A hook to the ankle, toppling the goon, and a kick to the groin for good measure.

At that point, the third guy was standing up, guard raised, and attempted to approach the detective cautiously. Sojiro lurched from behind him and choked him with the chains of his handcuffs, leaving the goon distracted enough for Akechi to deliver two punches to the stomach. "Thanks."

"No pro-whoa!" The detective swept the goon's leg, causing both to topple to the side. Sojiro managed to roll over and kneel on him to keep him pinned.

When the leader removed the hoodie from his face, Akechi was picking up the discarded firearm from the floor. "Now, come on-"

"Shut your fucking mouth!" the detective snarled, racking the slide for intimidation and ejecting a chambered round. "None of ya bastards move or I'll turn ya into bloody colanders!"

The Plan B team was sitting on a staircase in the hotel, ready to step in at a moment's notice.

Sae stared at her phone screen in disbelief. "Did he really just…"

"If they noticed that, he's as good as dead." Makoto pulled out a balaclava and put it on. "We're going in. "

The two guys on the floor froze, too intimidated to twitch. Even Sojiro was somewhat scared, and he was - probably - on the detective's side. The goon leader slowly raised his hands, terrified. "L-look, you can just take the barista and leave. W-we won't come back, I promise!"

"Your word isn't worth two shits." Akechi pointed the gun at him. "The Thieves wanted to do this nice and clean. Get your names, change your hearts, and just this once, everybody lives!" Beat. "But you had to be clever, so we're doing it the Goro way. Also known as the gory way." He cracked an unnerving grin. "I never fired a Glock before, how good are the suppressors? Do you think someone will hear your death in the next room over?"

The door to the room was slammed open and Sae, Makoto and Ryuji barged in, faces covered with balaclavas and weapons held at the ready.

"And who the hell are you?!" the leader screamed.

"Akechi's less psychotic teammates," the president said. "Give us your full name, and you'll get out of the room alive."

"Y-yoshito Nishiyama."

"Good." She turned to the detective. "Akechi, drop the gun, please."

"Or maybe put it down gently," the athlete amended.

After a pause, he turned to them and lowered the pistol. The psychoric smirk was gone. "I had this under control, you know," he said, back to the default tone. "One of them would've blurted out a name, desperate to save himself."

"Yeah, probably," Makoto replied, "but we might as well just get to the point, before they try to call your bl-"

Suddenly, the lancer sprung up from the floor and tackled Akechi to the ground. He grabbed the gun from his hand and put it to his head. "Nobody moves or I kill him!"

"Du-"

"Nobody!" he barked at his leader.

"Oh, just surrender," the detective deadpanned. "I'm wearing a concealed microphone. The Thieves now know Mr Nishiyama's name, which should be enough to change the hearts of all three of you. You might as well shoot me for all it helps you."

Freshly beaten, taunted, and desperate bad guys aren't that good at making rational decisions, and so the goon pulled the trigger. The pistol produced an anticlimactic silent click, and he finally registered that it was lighter than it should've been.

"It works better with bullets," Akechi grinned a grin of sheer audacity. Before the lancer could attempt to salvage the situation, he got a roundhouse kick to the face, courtesy of Sae. It was strong enough to knock him out.

"Yeah, this is the part where we surrender, isn't it?" Nishiyama very pointedly pulled out his gun and slammed it on the table. Ryuji, Makoto and Akechi twitched slightly.

"If you get off of me, I can get you uncuffed," the third goon wheezed.

Mishima ran upstairs. "He did it. Akechi did it," he said to Joker and Futaba, sitting on the couch, tightly embraced.

"He did what?"

"We have a name and the goons have surrendered. The goons got manhandled but everyone's alive."

"Ffffffffuck, the luck's still on my side," he sighed, relieved. "Can ya do the navigation thing, Futaba?"

The geek vehemently shook her head.

"Alright then, we'll manage with Morgana," Joker gently pried himself off and got up. "Mishima, watch Futaba." Without waiting for the confirmation, he ran downstairs and the group, already ready to depart, left. The two stared at each other.

"You did good, you know," he said. "You kept your cool almost to the very end. Mr Sakura will be-" A lightbulb went over his head. "…can I see your phone for a moment?"

"So," Sojiro rubbed his uncuffed wrists, "was the gun unloaded to begin with?"

"No, I emptied it when picking it up," Akechi fished out a magazine from his pocket. "Any casualties would've been blamed on the Thieves as a group and not me specifically, and I've already dealt with enough accidental dischar-" His phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen, picked up the call, and handed the phone over to the barista. "I'm positive it's for you."

He put the phone to his ear. "…hello?"

The person on the other side didn't say anything at first. Then, she stammered out "D… d… d… dad?! You're-you're safe! Safe!" She sobbed.

Without missing a beat, Sojiro walked up to Nishiyama and broke his nose with his free hand. "That's for scaring my daughter. No, no, that was to someone else… Yes, I'm safe, you don't have to worry anymore…"

He marched out of the room and into the corridor to continue the conversation. "Does anyone have a tissue?" the goon asked. Makoto, out of politeness more than anything else, pulled out a pack and tossed it to him. "Thank you. What happens now?"

"We change your heart and let you go," Ryuji asked. "We can't really call the police, can we?"

"And any more strikes are unnecessary, considering your surrender," Makoto added.

"Hm." He wiped off the blood of his face, then turned to Akechi. "As I said earlier, nobody else is looking for you or the Thieves. They assumed you're hiding or ran off to Europe or something. They might start looking harder after they win the elections though."

"If they win," the president smiled. "We have a few cards up our sleeve."

"And best of luck to you."

The detective raised an eyebrow. "You're… surprisingly affable about this."

"Eh, if you'll brainwash me anyway, I might as well embrace it." He grimaced, setting his nose. "And besides, after seeing what Shido did to try to stop you from stealing his heart, I promised myself to lose with more dignity than him."

"And what did he do?"

"He killed himself, then had a doctor bring him back to life a moment later. It was supposed to get you, somehow."

"Huh," Ryuji muttered. "That explains the ship going down with the captain back then."

"What?"

"Just an inside joke."

Shadow Yoshito Nishiyama and the other two goons noticed a group of teenagers approaching them. "The Phantom Thieves, I pre-"

"Shut up," Joker snarled. "No speeches, no gimmicks, I hit you with a powerful attack, you lose and hand over the Treasure, and we're calling it a day. How does that sound?"

"Um…"

"Megidolaon!"

All three Shadows dropped like flies, without a chance to retaliate.

"Ugh…" the goon leader groaned, "Fine, sounds good, here's the prize."

The three disappeared in a white flash. The brunette came over and picked up the Treasure, a model of a subcompact handgun with an attached suppressor.

"Hm," he inspected it. "Looks nice. I think Goro might like it."