5/5

Akira narrows his eyes. Concentrate. You've got this. A single bead of sweat runs from his brow, down his cheek. Its slide needles its way through his focus. Come on! His hands tighten on his weapon, and with a whoosh, his target speeds towards him.

Now! Akira swings. The baseball clatters into the cage behind him.

"Swing and a miss!" Ryuji shouts, laughing, from behind the grate.

"You're surprisingly bad at this," Ann says, giggling.

Akira grits his teeth and resumes his form. This time. This time, for sure.

He misses again. "It's rigged," he calls, nodding. "Definitely."

Ryuji rolls his eyes. "It's not rigged, dude. You just suck."

Another pitch. Another miss.

Akira leaves the batting cages with his head hanging low. Morgana sits atop his bag, a sad look on his feline face. "And to think, I put all my expectations on you."

"Oh, shut up." He drops onto one of the benches outside the cages, alongside Ryuji.

Ann squeezes a helmet over her head. "My turn!"

Ryuji yawns. "So," he says, as Ann takes her position in the cage. "Anyone hear anything about the stalker dude?"

"Yeah," Ann says. A ball is pitched. She takes a moment, then swings. CRACK. The ball hurls away. "I took a look at the PhanSite this morning. Apparently, Nakanohara called his ex and apologized for harassing her. She was so excited that she made a follow-up post where she told everyone about the whole thing."

Ryuji's eyes widen. "That's incredible! We're two for two!"

Another pitch. Ann swings. CRACK. "Me too!" She cries.

Akira takes out his phone and makes his way to the PhanSite. "There's a bunch more requests on here." He scrolls through a few and frowns. "But a lot of them seem like the same stuff as before. 'Help, my brother's a jerk.' 'My mom just, like, totally doesn't get me.' Junk like that."

"That's too bad," Morgana says, as Ann hits another ball towards the fences. "You're incredible, Lady Ann!"

The girl turns back to them, smiles and flashes a 'V' sign with her fingers, then reassumes her batting stance.

"But if we're really gonna make a name for ourselves," Ryuji says. "We need someone bigger than just some small time stalker. We need to target someone like a celebrity."

"Or a CEO," Ann says, swinging. CRACK.

"Or a politician," Morgana says. He looks over at Akira. "Any ideas?"

"Should we-" Akira begins, but then his phone vibrates. He frowns. "It's Mishima."

MISHIMA: Did you see?! That girl you guys helped totally told everyone about it! The PhanSite is really buzzing!

Akira shows Ryuji the message. "That dude's got no chill," the blonde boy says.

"He reminds me of someone," Morgana mumbles.

Ryuji's eyes narrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Akira ignores their bickering as he replies.

AKIRA: That's good.

MISHIMA: Good?! It's great! You guys are total heroes!

MISHIMA: BTW, what are you up to later?

Akira remembers what he told the boy on the school's roof.

AKIRA: I have work. At the flower shop.

MISHIMA: You work at a flower shop?

AKIRA: Yes.

MISHIMA: OK, cool. Let's meet up after!

"Hey Ryuji," Akira says.

The boy's eyes follow Ann as she hits another ball. "What's up?"

"You busy tonight?"

"Nah, I've got nothing going on."

"Wanna meet up with Mishima after my shift at the shop ends?"

The boy puts his hands behind his head and frowns. "Sure."

AKIRA: Sounds good. Ryuji is in too.

MISHIMA: Okay, awesome!

Ryuji looks over at Akira. "You're not just asking me to hang out because you don't want to chill with Mishima alone, right?"

Akira flashes him his best grin and says, "I wouldn't dream of it."

"Uh-huh." Ryuji turns his gaze back to Ann. "Yo, Ann! Wanna hang tonight with Mishima?"

She shakes her head as the last ball flies towards her. This does nothing to break her concentration and she swings and sends it flying. She steps away from the plate, a smile on her face, and pulls her helmet free. Her blonde curls cascade down to her shoulders. "I can't. I have a shoot downtown later." She exits the cage and stares down at Akira. "You really are going to hang out with Mishima then?"

Akira shrugs. "I guess so."

"Damn," Ryuji says, as Ann hangs up her bat. "How'd you get so good at that?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. It's not that hard. You just follow the ball and swing when it gets close." She sits down next to Akira.

"Yeah, I know how to hit a baseball, Ann. I was asking how you got so good at doing it. I don't remember you playing it back in middle school."

"I didn't," she says, with a shake of her head. "I didn't play anything. I was so bad at sports growing up."

"Well, you got good at it somehow," Ryuji mutters.

"Aww," she says, and reaches over Akira's shoulder and ruffles the blonde boy's hair. "You're so sweet."

Ryuji's cheeks flush and he swats her hand away. "Knock it off."

A faint little hiss escapes Morgana. "Anyway! Shouldn't we be talking about our next target?"

Akira slides his phone back into his pocket. "If we're going to pick some big-shot, we'll need to think about it some more. Let's agree to do some independent research, and meet back up with more ideas."

The other thieves nod.

#

"This one?" Haru asks.

"Enamored Orchid."

She nods, and points to another. "This one?"

"Justice Jasmine."

"Very good," she replies. Her finger drifts over the shelf of flowers and she hums a little tune to herself. "Oh, how about this one?"

Akira shakes his head and folds his arms across his chest. "Please. That's a Gold Gerbera. Piece of cake."

"You know," Morgana purrs from his spot on the shelf. "You don't sound nearly as cool as you think you do right now."

Haru nods, straightens her baseball cap, and fixes him with a bright smile. "Well done, Akira-kun! You've learned them all in such a short time. I'm impressed."

Her grin is a little too much for him, and Akira averts his gaze. "Uh, thanks."

Haru's smile soon grows tired and she lets out a little sigh and stares out at the small crowd out in the mall's main corridor. "It certainly is slow tonight."

Akira yawns and nods. "I know. It's nice to get a break now and then, but time sure is dragging." He pulls out one of the shop's small metallic chairs and takes a seat. Morgana leaps down from his spot and settles in Akira's lap. He idly strokes the cat's head, and Haru smiles down at the two of them.

"So," she says, after a few moments. "You never told me."

"Never told you what?"

"Did Mako-chan like her gift?"

Akira, for all his self-control, feels his face flush. "She, uh, appreciated the gesture."

Haru sucks in her lips in a small smile, and stares up at the ceiling. "That's all it was? A gesture?"

"That's not-"

"Because it certainly seemed more than a gesture."

"You have to understand-"

"A gesture is something small. I don't think sneaking into a classroom before school to hide a present in her desk would be a gesture, Akira-kun."

"Haru, I-"

"She certainly seemed taken by the gesture."

Akira blinks. "Did she?"

Haru shrugs. "But I suppose, if it was only a gesture, you wouldn't be too interested in her reaction."

She meets his eyes. They're narrowed. "You know," he says, tone flat. "You're kind of sadistic."

Haru blinks, and then they are both laughing. "I'm sorry," she says, once she catches her breath. "But she really did seem to like it. I didn't get a good look at it, not that I was trying to pry. But she put it in her bag and left the room. Her cheeks were redder than yours right now."

"I see," Akira says, staring up at the ceiling, a small smile on his face. "That's... good."

They spend a few moment in companionable silence, before Haru breaks it once more. "The other night, you seemed rather distracted, Akira-kun."

"Hmm?"

"When that woman showed up and ordered those red roses, you seemed a little flustered."

"Well," Akira says, clearing his throat. "It was an unusual request."

"I suppose," Haru says, and glances towards the front of the shop. Then, she leans in conspiratorially. "Want to know something interesting?"

"Uh, sure."

"I think that woman was involved with the Phantom Thieves," she whispers.

Akira and Morgana stiffen. "Crap," Morgana mewls.

Akira tries to settle into a more relaxed posture. "What would make you say that?" He asks, nonchalantly.

"You've seen the PhanSite, yes?" Haru asks.

Akira shrugs. "I've heard of it."

Haru pulls out her phone and flips to it. "Well, I was scrolling through it this afternoon..." She begins to relate the details of the woman's request, and the strange instructions the PhanSite's admin had privately emailed to her. 'Go to Rafflesia in the Shibuya Underground Mall. Wear red. Order eleven roses. Exactly eleven.' Sure, they had given her some additional instructions. They'd told her to go to a jewelry store and ask to see a specific necklace, to go to the music store and place a series of CDs in a specific order back onto the shelf. All of that to disguise who they really were, and where they were really watching her from.

But.

"And so, it looks like the Phantom Thieves actually managed to change his heart! Isn't that incredible?"

"Yeah," Akira says. "Amazing."

"We need to be more careful," Morgana says. "We were way too careless."

Akira nods. It was stupid to use a place we frequent. Hell, a place I work! If someone ever got suspicious, all they had to do was follow the path the woman took through the mall, and they'd cross paths with him. Haru continues to chatter away, but Akira's mind begins to backtrack. If they didn't notice this, had they missed something else?

#

Akira sips his tea, and looks at Mishima. "What'd you keep looking at the door for?" He asks.

Mishima glances back at the two boys. "Huh? What'd you mean?"

"Akira's right," Ryuji says, mouth half-filled with udon. "You've been staring at that door for, like, ten minutes now. You expectin' someone else?"

"N-no. Well…"

Morgana squirms inside Akira's bag. "He's up to something."

Akira's eyes narrow. "What's going on?" It's not terribly late, but the dinner crowds have gone home. The diner is empty save for a few scattered couples and groups of friends. There's enough music playing so that no conversations are heard, but Akira can't help feeling that something is a little off.

Mishima glances back towards the door, and his eyes widen. "Yes!" He says, then raises his hand in the air.

Ryuji and Akira turn to look, and their eyes bulge. Nakanohara Natsuhiko stands in the diner's doorway, spots them, and begins to walk over.

"What's going on?" Ryuji asks, then turns to Mishima. "What the hell is going on?"

Akira's hands clench. "What did you do?"

"What is it?" Morgana mewls. "What's wrong, guys?"

Mishima pales. "I didn't do anything, I figured-" but then Nakanohara stands next to their table, and regards the three teenagers.

Morgana, from his little hole in Akira's bag, cries, "Oh, crap!"

"May I, um, sit?" He asks.

"Sure," Mishima says, and slides over.

"No," both Ryuji and Akira says. Ryuji's eyes narrow. "We don't know who you are, man. So, like, get your own table."

Nakanohara's eyes widen. "Oh. I'm sorry. I was told-"

"No, it's fine," Mishima says, and looks at the other two boys. "You guys are gonna want to hear him out."

Morgana begins to moan, "Get him out of here!" But it is too late.

Nakanohara sits down. He wears a suit similar to the one the Phantoms had seem him wearing in Mementos. He sets a briefcase down on the ground alongside him. He dips his head. "Thank you," he says.

"For what?" Akira asks, already guessing where this conversation is going.

Nakanohara smiles. "For what you did. To me. For me. I feel a lot better than I have in a while."

"We don't-" Ryuji starts.

"You are members of the Phantom Thieves, yes?" Nakanohara asks. Mishima beams at the two of them. Ryuji and Akira glance at one another. They say nothing. "Right, of course. You wouldn't want your identities known." He shakes his head. "I'm sorry. I honestly don't know what you did to me, but the night after I got that calling card, I just… felt different. I realized what I'd done to my ex-girlfriend, and I knew how horrible I'd been. I called her to tell her I was sorry. She didn't forgive me, but I wasn't expecting her to, and that's fine. I went on the PhanSite, and saw what she'd written. I can't believe I'd done something to scare her that much. I reached out to the admin, and here I am."

"So," Ryuji says. "The only reason you're here is to thank us?"

"Ryuji!" Morgana growls. Akira shuts his eyes. Goddammit.

Nakanohara smiles. "Well, no. I mean, I do want to thank you for changing my heart. But, there's something else I want to talk about."

"And what's that?" Akira asks.

Nakanohara meets Akira's eyes. "I'd like to request that you change someone's heart."

Ryuji scoffs, crosses his arms and leans back in his seat. "There's a site for that, man. What're you tellin' us for?"

Nakanohara blinks. "Well, I did originally go to the site to make the request, but the admin-"

Mishima cuts him off. "The guy he wants to request is a big deal, and I figured it'd be better if we kept it off the site for now. He'll never see us coming that way."

Akira turns his eyes to Mishima. 'Us?'

"This is not how this is supposed to work," Morgana growls.

"So, then," Ryuji asks, with a shrug. "Who's this big shot?"

Nakanohara pales a bit, swallows, and says, "Ichiryusai Madarame."

##
A/N: Remember last week, when I only posted two chapters because of my finals, and you stupendous people were absolutely fantastic about it? Well, I figured I'd even things out! Happy Saturday!

Note: This DOESN'T mean next week's posting schedule will be affected. I've still got three chapters I'll be putting up, but - just a reminder - I will be going on an extended hiatus starting 9/11, that will continue to October.

Once again, thank you very much for reading Crimson! It means a great deal to me! I'll see you Monday!