4/29
Ryuji yawns and stretches his arms over his head. "And here I was, plannin' on sleeping through the morning class."
Akira peers past him and looks at Ann. "Any idea what this is about?"
She glances back and says in a hushed voice, "Probably Shiho. I mean, nothing else has happened that would make them call an assembly like this."
The announcement had come during homeroom. All students of Shujin were to report to the gymnasium for an important announcement.
Principal Kobayakowa stands in a quiet huddle with a few other faculty members upon the stage. None of their words carry to the students.
Whispers bounce back and forth. Akira stretches his head and sees Kawakami near the stairs to the stage. Her eyes are heavy-lidded and her head droops forward. She'd looked the same during homeroom too. He scans the tops of the student heads, trying to find Makoto or Haru, but they're lost in the sea of faceless kids.
"You alright, man?" Ryuji asks.
"Hm?"
"You got a bunch of scratches on your face."
"Oh," Akira says and rubs the tiny cuts. "Yeah. Morgana doesn't like his new nickname. He let me know it with his claws."
Ryuji smirks. "What's the name?"
"Mona-chan."
Both Ryuji and Ann laugh. "That's perfect," Ann says. "How'd you come up with that?"
Akira smiles. "I didn't, actually. It was-"
"Attention." The word booms through the room with microphone feedback, and the student body collectively cringes. Principal Kobayakowa stands at the stage's podium, vomit-colored suit still bulging with his barely contained mass. "Quiet, please." He clears his throat into the mike as the whispers die down. "In light of the recent tragedy-"
CLANG.
Everyone's heads whip to the gymnasium's door.
Kamoshida stands in the entryway, head dipped forward, arms at his sides, slack. His posture is stooped. His skin is pale. His hair is a scraggly mess absent its typical style.
"Dude," Ryuji whispers. "Dude, dude, dude!"
Akira knows what his friend is trying to say. This is it.
"Kamoshida-sensei," Principal Kobayakowa states into the microphone. "I didn't… that is to say, we didn't expect you back today."
His name animates him, but he winces as it is spoken. He takes one haggard step forward, then another. His feet barely leave the ground, as if they are loathe to do so. He shambles his way towards the stage, and those students in his path push and shove themselves out of his way. It has no effect on him. The man seems unable to focus upon anything but his slow, awful march.
He climbs the steps to the stage with what looks like extreme difficulty. Ryuji puts a hand on Akira's shoulder. He looks at his friend, and sees his brow knitted, eyes fixed on the stage. When he looks at Ann, he sees her pale, with one hand clutching Ryuji's in a desperate grip.
Kamoshida turns to the crowd, drops to his knees, and begins to sob. "I'm sorry," he moans. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
No one says anything. Every student is silent.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he repeats the words, again and again like a mantra, a rite.
It is the Principal, still at the podium, who breaks the cycle. "Kamoshida-sensei, what're you talking about?"
He stops his chant, and looks out at the students with red-rimmed eyes. "I raped Shiho Suzui."
A collective gasp ripples through the crowd. Akira feels Ryuji's hand tighten on his shoulder.
"I am the reason she tried to kill herself. I have solicited sexual favors from other female students, and held designs upon numerous others." His head tilts forward, but Akira does not get the impression that he looks at anything. "Recently, I made numerous attempts to coerce Ann Takamaki into a sexual relationship. I spread false rumors about our being together in order to facilitate this." The words fall from him. "I have had students spread rumors about their fellows, under threat of physical violence. I have physically and mentally abused students, both male and female. I actively sought to disband sports teams and clubs that drew attention and funds from the volleyball team. I have... I've..." The sobs return. "I am so sorry. For all I've done."
Akira's heart hammers in his chest. It worked. It actually worked.
"To atone for my crimes, I hereby resign from Shujin Academy, and I fully intend to kill myself."
Another gasp from the students. The whispers begin anew.
Ann takes her hand from Ryuji's and steps forward. She shoves her way past the students ahead of her, approaching the stage. Ryuji and Akira glance at one another, and follow in her wake.
Kamoshida is still speaking. "Now then, I'll-"
Ann reaches the front of the crowd and screams, "No!"
Silence. All eyes turn to her, even Kamoshida's. A spark of life returns to his as he regards her.
Ann's hands are clenched into fists. When Akira and Ryuji catch up to her, they see her teeth are gritted, and her eyes are hard and storming. "You don't get to run from this, you bastard! Shiho's in the hospital, in a coma because of you, and you just want to kill yourself and get it over with? That's not good enough!" She points one long, shaking finger at her former tormentor. "You should live with what you've done. You should have to remember it every day!"
"Ann," Ryuji whispers, and reaches out a hand for her shoulder. She turns to look at him, and Ryuji falters under her gaze. Then he nods, and turns towards Kamoshida. "Yeah," he shouts. "Dying's easy. You don't deserve easy."
Kamoshida looks at the both of them and bows his head. "You're right," he mumbles. "You're absolutely right." He looks up at Principal Kobayakowa. "Sir, would you please contact the authorities? I'll turn myself in."
#
The three stand in the empty gymnasium, the call to return to class forgotten.
"I can't believe it's over," Ann says.
Ryuji and Akira nod. The police had arrived, and escorted a sniveling Kamoshida out of the building. The flustered Principal had ordered everyone back to their classrooms, but few had listened. Unable to move, the three teens had retreated to the back of the gym. A procession of students had approached Ann then, offering their apologies for believing Kamoshida's lies. Ann had smiled, nodded, thanked them and given them acquittal, but Akira could tell her heart wasn't in it. Her outburst, though short lived, had exhausted her.
"You know," Ryuji says. "I almost feel kind of bad for him."
Ann glares at him. "Seriously?"
He shrugs. "I don't know. I mean, you saw him up there. He seemed real sorry for what he did. He must've been a normal guy once, before his shit got all messed up."
"And when we changed his heart," Akira says. "All that came back to him."
"Must've been one hell of a shock."
"Bastard deserved it," Ann mumbles.
"I'm not sayin' he didn't," Ryuji grumbles. "It's just, I don't know."
They stand in silence but it is short-lived. Ann's phone vibrates, and she pulls it from her pocket. Her eyes widen. "It's Shiho's mom." Without another word, she puts the phone up to her ear and says, "Hello?" She takes a few steps away from the two boys, who regard each other with worried glances.
"Uh-huh," Ann says. "I see." Her voice drops a few octaves, becomes dim. "Okay... Yeah, of course. I'll talk to you soon."
She hangs up and lets her hand drop to her side, phone held loose in quivering fingers.
"Ann?" Akira asks. The two boys each take a half-step towards her. "What's wrong?"
"...woke up," she whispers.
"What'd you say?" Ryuji asks.
Ann whirls on them, and tears streak down her face. "Shiho woke up!" She crosses the distance between the two of them, and throws one arm around each of their necks. Her head drops into the spot between their shoulders and her sobs burst from her lips in a loud, relieved wail.
Akira stands there, his shock matched by Ryuji's wide-eyed face. Their eyes meet across Ann's back as she shudders into both of them. Then, they both smile, and each rests a hand on Ann's back.
The three stand like that for a long while.
#
Makoto sits in the student council room. She holds the calling card in her hands. The poorly drawn top-hatted figure smirks out at her. She turns it over and reads the words once more.
We're going to steal your sick desires and make you confess your sins with your own mouth.
And so he had.
The Phantom Thieves of Hearts. This can't be real. How had this happened? Blackmail? Some kind of threat? Psychological manipulation?
Ultimately, it didn't matter. Kamoshida had been singled out by the Phantom Thieves, and they'd beaten him.
Then everything Kurusu and Sakamoto said about him was true. They were right all along. She blinks. Akira Kurusu and Ryuji Sakamoto. Were they the ones behind this? She'd seen them, from the back of the gym, push ahead with Takamaki. Was she involved as well?
Kamoshida had broken Sakamoto's leg.
Kamoshida had pursued a sexual relationship with Takamaki, and was directly responsible for Suzui's suicide attempt.
Kamoshida had brutally beaten Kurusu just the other day.
She shudders at the memory of his bruised and broken face.
They hadn't spoken since. She hadn't even thanked him for the birthday present. Had this been what he was doing?
She shakes her head. There are too many questions, too many threads. Did it even matter? Kamoshida was on his way to prison. He would atone. Whatever the Phantom Thieves did - regardless of who they were - it was over.
Wasn't it?
#
Akira opens his eyes.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
A faint, far-off wail. The small clattering sound of shifting chains.
Akira shuts his eyes.
"That will do you no good here, Trickster." Igor's words drift into his cell and worm their way into his ear. "Nothing escapes my notice, least of all that which pertains to you."
Akira sighs and sits up. He turns his head and looks through the bars at the long-nosed thing.
"Why not come closer?" It asks.
"I think I'm good here."
"ADHERETOTHEMASTERSSUGGESTION"
He cringes under Caroline's onslaught, and shuts his eyes.
"Fear not, inmate," he hears Justine whisper. "Our forms are still hidden from your uncomprehending sight. But my sister speaks wisely. Approach."
Akira stands, creaks his eyes open, and approaches the bars.
"It would seem your mission was a success," Igor says through his teeth. Akira can feel the presence of the two sisters, just beyond his sight. It makes him nauseous. "I am pleased at your progress. Your rehabilitation is well under way."
"Why are you doing this?" Akira asks.
Igor tilts its head. "Your kind. Always obsessed with the why and how." He spreads his arms in what approximates a shrug, but it doesn't look right. The bend is wrong. "Do you disdain the gift given to you so much? Is it not enough to be handed something, and told to do what you will with it?"
"Why me?" Akira asks. "Why now? Why can I carry multiple Personas?"
"You are of the Wild Card, inmate," Justine's voice whispers. "It is rare indeed."
Igor chuckles. "You ask why you can carry multiple Personas. I direct the question back to you. Why can you carry multiple Personas?" His chuckle grows in timbre, and Akira backs away from the cell door.
The horrid ringing blasts through his ears. "Wait, I'm not done!"
"Our time is up, Trickster," Igor says. "But we shall see you soon. I've another gift to bestow upon you. Look forward to it."
#
Kamoshida sits in the room. Its walls are a dull gray and the air tastes stale in his nostrils and upon his tongue. He is so tired.
The two detectives regard each other, from across the table. "I think that's enough for tonight," the one says. They had given their names, but Kamoshida doesn't remember them.
He looks up. "I'm not done."
The other shakes his head. "You are for tonight."
The door opens and a uniformed officer steps in. He walks up to the nearest detective and whispers something in his ear. "Seriously?" The man asks in response. The officer shrugs. The detective turns to his partner and whispers something to him.
"That right?" The second asks.
Kamoshida follows this exchange, uncomprehending.
Both detectives stand and follow the officer out the door, without another word to the disgraced Olympian.
He sits in the quiet, alone with his terrible thoughts.
Then the door opens.
A thin figure steps inside. He is young. Sandy brown hair falls to his shoulders, but it is immaculate in its style. He wears a school's tan uniform, but Kamoshida does not recognize the institution. Black gloves cover his hands.
He carries with him, a steel briefcase, and after shutting the door behind him, sets it on the table. The noise is sharp, single and painful. Kamoshida shrinks from it.
When the boy speaks, his words are smooth, silken. "A man spends his days, fulfilling whatever sick desire pops into his head. Beyond reproach or impeachment, he reigns over his school as if he were the king of his own castle. Then, without warning, he confesses to it all. Turns himself in to the authorities. Demands that he be arrested and made to pay for his crimes." The boy unsnaps the briefcase and opens it, withdrawing a pencil, a pad of paper, and a tape recorder.
"One might say you had a complete and sudden change of heart."
"Who are you?" Kamoshida asks, his voice a quiet whimper.
"Unimportant." The boy pulls out one the chairs previously occupied by the detectives, and sits. "My name doesn't matter to you, though it's not as if it's a secret. Soon enough you'll be prosecuted and jailed. Your name will tarnish headlines and you'll be the talk of Tokyo for a week, perhaps two. Then you'll vanish. Forgotten. Just like everyone else." He holds up a solitary, black gloved finger. "But, before all that happens, Suguru Kamoshida, I need you relate every detail of the past, let's say… three, weeks to me. I want to know who you spoke to, and what you said to them. I want to know who you touched, raped, and hurt. And then I want you to tell me again. And then again, and then again, until you are absolutely sure that you have left nothing out."
"Why?"
"Questions don't become you. Do yourself one last favor and do what I tell you."
Their eyes meet until Kamoshida can no longer hold the gaze. "Okay," he mumbles. "I'll tell you everything."
Goro Akechi smirks. It is an awful thing to behold.
He presses the appropriate button on the tape recorder.
##
A/N: And with that, the King is dead! But it sure as hell ain't the end.
What a ride. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story and left comments, subscribed, left a Kudo, and all the other wonderful things you people do.
As for the decrease in chapters for next week, I think I'm going to do it. I'll probably post Monday and then Friday. I hope you all have a great weekend!