In the flow of people on the downtown sidewalk, that staggered at every business door with someone breaking off the flow or another person joining, a lone, bright red hair ribbon stood out in the middle of the crowd. Kasumi wasn't alone, but even only a single step away from her, Makoto was invisible between all the other bodies around him.
Kasumi gave a halfhearted look around. No one could possibly see much with so many people in the way, but she saw enough to figure who one of all those bodies wasn't. "It's about time, isn't it?" she said. "Where's Ren?"
"I don't know." There were a lot of possible answers to that, none of which Makoto could know for sure. Well, there was one thing he could probably guess, but he'd still never know if he guessed right. "Maybe he just has something else to do."
"Hmm." Kasumi tapped her chin. "What do you think he's up to?"
"Wha-? It's not like that, Kasumi!" Makoto said. "I'm just saying, he has other people to hang out with. It's not that weird."
"Yeah, you're right. I just kinda thought we agreed to work out together every week," Kasumi said. "At the least, I thought he'd tell us if he- Oh! Look out, Makoto!"
She grabbed him by his hoodie and pulled back. Caught him in her arms when he stumbled back and fell.
"Red light," Kasumi said.
"It's blinking," Makoto said. Just as soon as he said it, they both looked again, at the solid STOP signal light.
Opposing cars started driving past the intersection. "Better safe than sorry," Kasumi said. She helped Makoto up to steady feet while they waited their next turn to cross. It didn't take long before the way was clear.
In front of the gym, Kasumi searched around one more time. "Guess he's really not here," she said. "It can't be helped then. We'll just have to make do without him. You ready?" Makoto nodded and pushed open the door.
They went their separate ways at the locker rooms to change, and when they met back in the main room of the gym, Makoto saw Kasumi dragging a balance beam to their usual spot of the floor. He approached her with some apprehension. "I hope that's not for me"
Kasumi brushed the back of her hand over her forehead, and hopped back to check around that the space was clear. "Well, if you want to, Senpai, don't let me stop you," she said.
Makoto shied a step away. "No, thanks. I'm good with our normal training," he said.
"That's fine. Actually, there's something I wanted to show you, after we're done. First things first, though, Makoto. Hands up!" Kasumi raised her hands high, and Makoto followed her through some warm up stretches, holding every stance a little longer than he remembered from last week.
He could feel his heart pumping already, even before crouching down into the by now familiar workout sets. Kasumi remarked on every improvement she saw, a few seconds on all limbs, a few seconds with one leg up, improvements Makoto could feel for himself, progress he couldn't deny.
"Eight seconds longer," Kasumi said of the final pose, as he laid on the floor to catch his breath. "I think this is really working for you."
"Your coaching?" Makoto said. "Oh, a hundred percent. I know I'd probably never stick to a workout this long if it wasn't for you."
"I'm happy to hear that I'm helping, Senpai!" Kasumi said. "But that's not what I meant. Because it's not just this. You're a lot more energized about, well, everything. Just had to find that fighting spirit."
Makoto propped himself back up on his elbows, braced against the aching pain that had already faded away. "This does feel easier, now that you mention it," he said. "But are you sure it's because I'm back on the case?"
"I'm positive," Kasumi said. "You're out on your feet. You're doing stuff. Even if it's not catching the bad guys, all that energy doesn't just go away, and it's not hard to do anything with it. Sure, having some structure helps, but the motivation has to start with you. After all, I'm not the one helping you study for finals, right?"
That would be Niijima, but here, Makoto saw her point. He wasn't obligated to be here, to do this. Ren got out easily enough, and without a word or a serious worry.
"How's that going, by the way?" Kasumi said. "The case, I mean. Any new developments?"
"After out, uh, operation?" Makoto didn't know what to call their Shibuya Central mission. "Believe it or not, things really took off after that. I even got a name for the boss of the whole crime ring, and it turns out, the Phantom Thieves are targeting him too."
"I'll believe it," Kasumi said. "You know I'll always believe in you, Makoto. That's why I know you're going to take this guy down first." With a wink, she reached out her hand and pulled him up from the floor.
"Kasumi, it's not a race," Makoto said. "It doesn't who does it first. When everyone is safe, it'll be a good thing either way."
"I know it's not," Kasumi said. "I just have a feeling it's going to be you. But, who knows? Anything can happen."
"Anything can happen." Makoto knew it better than, well, not everyone, but better than a lot of people. He knew it could mean anything, too, whether the miracle came by chance, or by design. He took a deep breath and looked around, eyes landing on the balance beam Kasumi set up earlier. "Oh, right. You wanted to show me something?"
"Absolutely! I knew you'd remember." Kasumi raised each of her legs and tossed Makoto her shoes. "Here, catch!" The first one hit him in the chest and fell to the floor.
He managed to catch the second one.
"We'll work on that, too," Kasumi said, and she took a step onto the balance beam, waved out one arm, and then the other. She stretched down, touching fingertips to toes, and scanned the whole length of the beam at every angle. For some time, Kasumi stood incredibly still.
And all at once, she burst into action. A sequence of steps and flips that flew right over Makoto's head.
A blank, black, lifeless glass screen sat on the edge of the kitchen counter. If Sae was working late tonight, and if she remembered to say anything about it, now would be the time for the message to arrive.
But instead, nothing. So she'd be back in a few minutes, which was fine with Makoto as she turned back to the pots and skillets on the stove over the heat, sizzling and bubbling and boiling.
She grabbed a pan of grilled vegetables by the handle and tossed the whole mix in the air. Makoto set it right back down on the coils and gave the pot of soup behind it one stir before poking around the steak tips in the other pan.
Taking a step away from the blazing counter, Makoto wiped the sweat off her head, and she closed in again, straining her eyes to check the thermometer in the tea kettle, which was starting to rise from its hiss to a shriek.
Under this chorus of heat, she heard a knock at the front door, a latch turning, before Sae stepped inside and saw everything for dinner in progress.
"Welcome back, Sis," Makoto said in the single moment she had to spare between all her cooking.
"Hello to you too, Makoto." Sae dropped her shoes near the door and walked around the other side of the counter. She unbuttoned her jacket, even here she could feel the heat all around. "What's the occasion?"
"I'm just starving," Makoto said. "You're not in any rush to eat, are you, Sis?"
Sae shook her head. "Take as long as you need, Makoto." She eyed the lines of steam coming off the meat and vegetables. "This looks like something you don't to waste." She set up to wait at the dining table.
Different surges of hot air rushed all over the kitchen. Makoto jabbed fast at every element on the stove top, and went to the cabinet to grab a stack of plates and bowls, and cups for the now screeching tea kettle.
She poured a cup for Sae first, and she saw Kaneshiro's name on an open file on her laptop, but went on setting the table before saying anything about it.
Makoto switched off the burner for the tea, for the miso soup, for the vegetables, for the steak tips, each one a trip to the table in front of Sae with a new, simmering plate, and last, a big bowl of rice. "Alright. That's everything," Makoto said, settling into her chair across the table.
"Makoto, before we get started, there's something I wanted to show you," Sae said. Nonetheless, Makoto took one bite of rice first before sliding around the table to the computer.
On a closer look, she saw the file from earlier was a warrant of arrest. "Does this mean what I think?" Makoto said.
"Probably not," Sae said. "I'm still probing into his activities, but right now there isn't enough evidence to have Kaneshiro indicted." Sae scrolled down the rest of the warrant, unsigned, undated, and unjustified. "However, I was talking to a judge about this, there may still be a possibility."
"What's that?" The warrant filing, blank except for Kaneshiro's name, looked to Makoto like a dead end.
"It's something another source of mine brought up," Sae said. "It turns the Kaneshiro case into an opportunity to make progress on an even bigger case. To be specific," Sae looked up at Makoto, directly eye to eye. "He says Kaneshiro is the Phantom Thieves' next target."
So, that must have been what Naegi told her. "Do you believe him?" Makoto said. On some level, it didn't make sense for him to say that. But he was closer to the Phantom Thieves than she was, perhaps closer than she ever would have been.
"I don't have cause to doubt him. And if he's right, then this is an opportunity I can't allow to slip through my fingers." Sae took a sharp breath. "Even if it means turning all of Tokyo upside down."
"All of Tokyo?" Makoto said. "What, like a city wide search? Doesn't that seem a little over the top?"
"For the biggest threat to society Japan has seen in a decade?" Sae folded her arms together. "No, Makoto, this seems like a perfectly appropriate measure to take."
"Okay." Makoto held her hands up. "Okay, let's just step back for a second. Do you even know who you're looking for in this search?"
"The search is for Kaneshiro," Sae said. "Most likely, the Phantom Thieves will be wherever he is when they execute their change of heart. This way, I can at least count on the police to simply arrest everyone on site, and I'll sort them out later."
Makoto's arms dropped limp, and she turned away to think. There was no way Naegi meant for them to be arrested too, was there? She looked back over her shoulder to Sae. "Still… You're going to arrest everyone in Tokyo?"
"I know that's a tall order. But if it's my only option-"
"What if it's not?" Makoto said. "If you know where Kaneshiro will be, then the warrant can just be for his hideout, right? No need to search the whole city."
Sae leaned forward, laced her fingers together beneath her chin. "Where is that?"
"I don't know," Makoto said. "But I have a way to find out."
"If you want to go playing detective like Naegi, that's fine by me," she said. "Just let him know I need to hear it from him, Kaneshiro's exact whereabouts. If he'll swear to it, I'll amend the warrant accordingly."
"If that's how you need it." Why him, though? Evidence was evidence, Makoto thought. It didn't matter who it came from. But that was no argument either way. She'd just have to pass Naegi the evidence. Somehow. "When do you need to know?"
"Before the Phantom Thieves post their calling card," Sae said. "That's the only other fact pattern I have to go on. I have to take action the same time they do."
"That could be any day now," Makoto said.
"Now you see my dilemma." Sae folded her laptop shut and stowed it under the dinner table. "If these limits make your approach too difficult, you don't have to intervene. The police can just search the whole city. Like I said." She picked at each dish, filling her plate in neat sections.
Makoto took to her seat across the table, and scooped up everything at once. "Don't worry about it, Sis," she said. "You'll have an answer." Before either sister knew it, all the food on Makoto's plate was gone.
"Two left," Niijima said. Between them, a civics textbook laid open on the bookstore's study area table. "What was the reason for taking away the government's authority to mint paper money?"
"Is there just one answer to this one?" Makoto said.
"Do you need to see the choices?" Niijima said. "The book isn't trying to trick you, Naegi."
"In that case… Managing inflation."
"For a social studies class, that's definitely close enough," Niijima said. "The book answer is stabilizing the currency. Last one. The widespread transition of dreams from monochrome to color followed what technological development?"
"That's color TV," Makoto said.
"Perfect. Oh, incidentally, do you know what was the first color TV show?" Niijima shut the book. There was no way this was going to be on the test. Right?
"I have no idea," Makoto said. He leaned into the backrest of his chair, and reached down to touch the grip handle of his bag.
"It's an American police show. I think my dad was still a kid when it first aired," Niijima said. "Maybe even his dad. I still remember watching it the first time. I couldn't understand a single word. There's just something about old, or, I guess classic shows like that, that I could still feel it."
For his part, Makoto couldn't think of anything like that he'd ever seen, anything that might be called a classic. Not for another generation at least. Even trying to think of the oldest show or movie he'd ever watched, he struggled to come up with anything that wasn't new to the year.
"Well, that's the end of it," Niijima said. "Want to take a walk around?"
Makoto shrugged, and nodded not long after. Niijima passed him the textbook to stow away into his backpack, and they got up to wander the aisles, slowly making their way back to the shelf where they first met.
She pulled some of the books out halfway, glancing over at the covers, and across the aisle in either direction. No one was around, here at least. "There's actually something else I wanted to talk about today," Niijima said.
Just not around other people, it looked like. "What is it?" Maokto said.
"It's about the case," Niijima said. "I'll get straight to the point. My sister has a warrant in process for…" She checked around again. "For the suspect. Only, she wants you to testify about it."
"That's doable," Makoto said. Niijima kept pretending to browse the books, or she was genuinely looking for something here. Makoto played along, and he stumbled on a manga volume with a cartoon panda bear on the cover. "Why me, though?"
"She says it's because you're already involved," Niijima said.
"I guess so." It was true, ever since his ill advised scheme that kicked off June. But it sounded like there was another reason, something Niijima didn't want to acknowledge. "So, what else does she want to know? I think I already told her everything."
"There's one part left," Niijima said. "Sis needs to know where the suspect will be so the police can actually serve the warrant."
"That makes sense," Makoto said. "So, where's that?"
"I don't know," Niijima said. "But if I can meet with the suspect at his hideout, then all that's left is recording where that is, and sending it to you."
"Should I come with you, then?" Makoto said. "When this all started, your sister dismissed a lot of stuff I told her as hearsay. So if this is our only shot to change her mind, I wouldn't want her to just blow it off."
"I don't think that's going to fly with Fuyuhiko," Niijima said.
"The Pinstripe Suit Guy?" Come to think of it, pushed right past Makoto the other day. "Yeah, I guess not," he said. Fat chance convincing that guy of anything. "And it's not like we can just ask him where it is, either. Then what?"
Just getting the address wasn't likely to be an option. And even if it was, if the story was that Makoto heard it from Niijima who heard it from Pinstripe, that was definitely going to be tossed as hearsay.
"I have something better than an address." Niijima bowed her head, and rubbed her wrist. There was a device there, that she switched from a timer to a map. "Once I'm done, I'll send you the coordinates. That way, there won't be any room for misunderstanding."
"So, once I get that, I'll pass it to your sister, and then she'll make the arrest." Makoto put the panda comic back on the shelf. "Okay. When should I expect it?"
"Tomorrow. She wants to know as soon as possible, to start the arrest as soon as the Phantom Thieves commit to their-" Makoto stared, wide eyed, as she stopped. "Right," Niijima said much flatter than just a moment ago. "Is that what you told Sis?"
Makoto nodded.
"This isn't you giving them up, is it?" she said.
"I thought they were doing something else," Makoto said. "I didn't know I'd be walking them right into a trap." He turned about, and leaned his back onto the bookshelf. "What if we just stop here?" he said.
"Sis will still wait for the Phantom Thieves to move first," Niijima said. "Only, she'll search all of Tokyo to find them."
If they did nothing, the police would search everywhere. If they told Sae where to search, it'd be concentrated on the place his classmates were most likely to be. Makoto sank lower against the shelf, and felt like it was his own back against the wall.
He couldn't do nothing. He had to trust them to find another way out.
"I'll do it," Makoto said. "You tell me, I'll tell your sister. There's just one thing I want to make sure of first."
Niijima pulled him up to his feet, and they walked back to the reading area, and picked up their belongings before they left. Tomorrow, the thought felt oddly familiar to him. Tomorrow, Makoto would find out whether there was still a choice to be made, or not.
Two round, plastic pieces shook against one another, as delicate hands struggled to fit them together. Makoto reached over, and with her help, the other girl snapped the pieces in place.
"Thank you, Niijima," Chihiro said. She turned the fitness tracker over, and handed it back to her. "It should be done now."
Makoto smiled, and set her phone on the desk, next to a computer keyboard. She tapped on the touchscreen, changing from one app to another. "So I switch from GPS to vitals to arm it," she said. "And then when I take it off, it sends the location?"
Chihiro nodded, eyes closed in a wide smile. Makoto unclasped the other end of the fitness tracker and took it off. A few seconds later, her phone buzzed with an incoming location ping from the computer room of Hope's Peak Academy.
"It's really that easy. That's amazing, Fujisaki!" Makoto put the tracker back on her wrist.
"I'm so happy you like it, Niijima," Chihiro said.
"And how do I disarm it? If I don't want to send the signal," Makoto said.
"Just switch away from vitals," Chihiro said. "Or, if you're actually using it as a fitness tracker and not a dead man's switch, you can switch to something else from GPS, and then to vitals. It's a two step arming process."
"Got it. So this…" Makoto set the tracker from GPS, to timer, to vitals, and then took it off. She watched her phone.
Nothing happened.
Light footsteps approached from the hall, a girl in a dark green hoodie slipped in the doorway, against the flooding ceiling lights and the night outside the windows. "Hey Makoto, Fujisaki!" she said.
"Hello, Chiaki," Makoto said. "What's up?"
Chiaki held a fold up card in her hand. "My class is having a party before the summer festival," she said. "I thought it'd be fun if you guys could come as well."
Makoto opened the card to the block letter message inside. From our class to yours. "When is this happening?"
"It's tomorrow," Chiaki said. "I'd appreciate it if you two dropped by, but I understand if you can't make it on such short notice."
Makoto already had plans for tomorrow, and it struck her just now that this party also coincided Fuyuhiko's deadline to decide on meeting Kaneshiro or not. That couldn't really be a mere coincidence. "I'm sorry, Chiaki," she said.
"No worries. This will hardly be our only chance to get together," Chiaki said. "Good night, Makoto. Good night, Fujisaki." She bowed to each of them, and left back into the hallway.
Chihiro shook the mouse on the computer she was using, waking it up from its screensaver to a simple compiler. "Do I want to know what you're doing tomorrow?" she said. But the implications of needing a secret GPS transmitter were clear, even to her. "Sorry I asked, Niijima. Just, don't get hurt out there, okay?"
"I promise I won't," Makoto said. She turned the tracker over, and pulled off the cover to the transmitter unit, and removed that too. "There's just one more thing," she said.
Makoto wrote down a phone number on a scrap of paper. "Can you make it send the coordinates to this number instead?"