5/26
Madarame gestures to the piece. "And with this, you see the juxtaposition of nature and mankind's encroachment upon it."
The people nod, and make hushed noises of appreciation.
Madarame smiles, basking in their acceptance. The piece is nothing but a bunch of swirls, but in his experience, the more vague something is, the more specific a 'meaning' you can attach to it.
He turns and moves along the wall, towards the next painting in his exhibit, and this day's gaggle of sycophants follow, squawking and gesturing and letting him know through all their many ways how much they love and appreciate him.
This continues for a time. It is much the same as the time before it. And the time before that. And the time before that.
When Madarame is alone at night, away from his girlfriends and students and dealings, when he sits in his hotel rooms or in his First Class airline seats, a faint little thought tends to wiggle its way into his brain.
This is all so... boring.
There's no challenge to it. And he's so famous, no one dares critique his 'work.'
He spends the remainder of the day walking these people around his exhibit, spouting all the nonsense they love to lap up.
Then, he leaves, via the back exit. It is a hot day, and the air hangs heavy in the small alleyway. He steps his way through it, towards the spot where his limo awaits.
"Sensei?" Comes a soft voice.
His adrenaline spikes. He feels his blood race through his veins.
Very slowly, Madarame turns around, and comes face to face with Yusuke Kitagawa.
The boy stares at him, a strange mix of longing and fear and anger in his eyes. He wears the same clothes he'd worn the last time Madarame had seen him, on Sunday. It occurs to Madarame, that he has no idea where Yusuke has been. He's been so busy.
"Y-Yusuke," Madarame starts, but the boy cuts him off.
"Sensei, please!" He stammers, and closes the distance between the two of them. "I have no place to stay. I have nothing to do. I can't take this anymore."
"Yusuke," Madarame says, taking a step back. "That's close enough." This isn't the first time a disgruntled former apprentice has tried to accost him. He knows what to say, what to do. Feign the surprise. Feign ignorance.
"Please, please tell them it was all a lie. Please, let me come home."
"You know I can't do that," Madarame says, picking up his pace.
"But why?" He demands. "I don't understand? Why did you do this to me? Why did you throw me out? Why did you lie?"
Madarame shakes his head. "I've no idea what you're talking about, my boy. But I think it would be best if you kept your distance."
"Answer me!" Yusuke pleads, his voice high and pathetic. "Please, just answer me. Why did you do all this? Why do you do all this?" And then, he asks, "Why do you have a storage unit in my mother's name?"
Madarame stops. "What did you just say?" He asks. His mind spins. How does he know that? Does he know what's inside? HOW DOES HE KNOW THAT?
"Sensei, please," Yusuke says, and lunges. He grabs Madarame's robes by the collar, and moans, "Why do you have a unit in her name, Sensei?"
"Get off of me," Madarame shouts, and shoves the frail boy away. He spins and sprints down the length of the alley, towards the limo. I need to get there. I need to check. If they know what's inside. If anyone knows what's inside, it's all over!
He does not spare another glance for Yusuke. If he had, he might've seen the boy take his cellphone from his pocket, and start to type.
#
Akira waits outside Shibuya station, staring at his phone.
It vibrates, once.
It's a text from Yusuke.
YUSUKE: I find myself quite hungry. Might I trouble you for some LeBlanc curry?
Akira smiles as he reads the message.
He puts his phone away, pulls out his burner, and dials a number.
"Go," he says, when it's answered.
#
Madarame taps his foot against the limo's floor as it crawls its way through Tokyo.
"Hurry up," he shouts at the driver, more than once.
The skyscrapers slowly recede as they enter the Tokyo Bay, with its warehouses and the faint aroma of the ocean.
"Come on, come on," he whispers as they turn towards Natsuki Storage.
He's racked his brain the entire trip. How could Yusuke have learned about the unit in his mother's name? And what did it mean that he had? Upon reflection, Yusuke hadn't made any mention of what was actually inside the unit. Did that mean he hadn't seen inside? Would he have even had the opportunity to see inside? Security at Natsuki Storage was supposed to be tight, given the clientele.
Evidently, it's not that tight.
When they pull up outside, Madarame leaps from the car and narrowly avoids stepping on a black cat that hisses up at him. He considers kicking it for the briefest of moments, but realizes he doesn't have the time, and continues on and into the building.
"I need entrance to my unit," he says, to the shady looking young man, who sits at the desk. "Now."
"Easy there," the kid replies. "Let's keeps things civil."
"Enough of this," Madarame blurts. "Buzz me in."
The kid, nonchalantly, and without taking his eyes from Madarame, takes a deep breath and sighs. "Let's see some ID."
"I came through here a few weeks ago!" Madarame shouts.
The kid shrugs. "Lots of people come through here. I'm not so great with faces. My mother says it was because my dad dropped me on my head one too many times. Course, she blames him for everything, and-"
"Fuck!" Madarame shouts, fumbling around in his robes, before he pulls out his ID card and hands it over. "Here!"
The kid picks it up, looks at it, and then slowly draws a binder from beneath the desk. He flips through it, painstaking page by painstaking page. "Ah. Here we go. For the Chisako Kitagawa unit, yeah?"
"Yes, yes, that's mine," Madarame growls. "Now please, buzz me in!"
The kid sets his ID on the counter, and slowly slides it over to him. Then, he reaches beneath the desk, and Madarame hears a faint and familiar BUZZ ring through the room.
He flies past the desk and shoves open the door, before barreling his way down the hall to his unit. He fumbles through his robes once more and pulls out his card. He comes to a halt before his unit, and slides it through the card reader. It feels sticky almost, but he doesn't have time to think on it, before he punches in his numerical code.
He hears the door unlock with a vibrant click, and it swings open. He switches on the light, and takes it all in.
He inhales.
He exhales.
He inhales.
He exhales.
"Oh, thank god," he whispers.
It's all still there. He knows the count like the back of his hand.
But he still doesn't know how Yusuke knew about this unit.
He slams the door shut, and heads back towards the entrance.
"I need to see my file," he demands, once he's back in.
"Huh?" The kid asks.
"My file. The one your lot had me sign when I first took out this unit. I need to see it."
"Why?" The kid asks. "You're all paid up."
"I need to make sure it's safe."
The kid rolls his eyes and says, "Fine." When he stands, Madarame is convinced it is the slowest anyone has ever stood in the history of standing.
He follows him, hands shaking, into the room marked 'Records,' and waits while the kid slides open one of the filing cabinets.
"Let's see... Chisako Kitagawa, Chisako Kitagawa," the kid replies.
Then, silence save for the shifting of paper.
And more silence.
And more silence.
"Well?" Madarame demands.
The kid frowns. "Where the hell is... oh." He straightens, a folder in hand. "Here it is."
Madarame snatches it out of his grip and opens it. All the paperwork is there. Nothing's missing.
He lets out a sigh of relief. Everything is where it's supposed to be.
So how did Yusuke find out?
"Someone knows about my unit here," Madarame says.
The kid shrugs. "Wasn't from us. We've got a strict, 'No Talking,' policy."
"Well, someone told my former apprentice about it."
The kid blinks. "Well, why don't you ask him, where he found out about it?"
Madarame's eyes narrow. "I may do just that."
He shoves the folder back into the hands of the kid, and takes his leave of Natsuki Storage, his head lost in his own thoughts.
If he'd been paying more attention, he might've noticed the black cat from earlier, poised and ready to climb the facility's fence.
#
The Palace's double doors rumble open, and the Phantom Thieves throw up a cheer.
"Way to go, Mona!" Panther shouts, and lifts up Mona into a tight hug. The cat makes the face of one whose dream has just come true.
"You too, bro," Skull says, and slaps Fox on the back. "Way to sell it."
Fox smiles, but it's small.
Joker slides the device out from the card reader. "You okay, Fox?" He asks.
"I am," Fox replies. "It's just..."
"You're wondering about what we saw inside Madarame's unit."
He nods. "Indeed. I know we've more important things to focus on right now, but I must admit, I'm fairly disturbed by what it contained."
Skull throws an arm over Fox's shoulder. "Don't sweat it, dude. Once we get Madarame's Treasure, we'll make him confess everything."
Joker nods. "Skull's right. We'll get Madarame to tell us the truth. I promise."
Fox's smile grows more genuine. "I've no doubt. Thank you, my friends."
"Alright!" Panther shouts, tossing Mona into the air. "Let's get moving, Phantom Thieves! We've got a Treasure to steal!"
"R-right," Mona states, righting himself. "The Treasure's just ahead! Let's secure our infiltration route!"
The Thieves dash forward, through the open doors.
#
"Okay," Makoto says, and takes another deep breath. "Okay, you can do this."
She knows this could screw up Operation Whatever They Were Going to Do to Akira, but she doesn't care.
Haru hadn't been in school. Makoto had searched for her in homeroom, and every time the classroom's door had opened, her eyes had shot to it, hoping she would catch a glimpse of her friend, safe and sound.
But she never came. She texted her again and again, but after Haru's brief spurt of texts the night before, she hadn't heard anything.
She takes out her phone and reviews them again.
HARU: I'm really sorry about today Mako-chan!
HARU: But please, please, please, can we just drop it? Please?
HARU: It's complicated and I don't know if I'm ready to tell you about it, so please, can we just drop it?
MAKOTO: Haru, who the hell was that?
HARU: You don't have anything to worry about. He's not going to do anything, and it'll all be fine, so please, just let it go.
MAKOTO: Haru, you can tell me. What's going on?
But then Haru had stopped texting. Makoto wonders if she should've just agreed, and gotten Haru to come clean, but she had promised herself she wasn't going to lie to her friend anymore.
And despite what Sae had screamed at her, Makoto wasn't going to let that scumbag get away with messing with her best friend.
Makoto puts her phone away. She doesn't remember when she started thinking of Haru as her best friend. It must've been recently. But it doesn't matter. She does think of her that way, and so she needs to help her.
Enough stalling! Makoto thinks, and storms around the corner and towards Raffelsia. Haru wasn't in class, but maybe she would be at her part-time job.
She knew she ran the risk of running into Akira, but she would just ignore him and focus on finding Haru.
Only, when she reaches the storefront, she finds it absent save for a middle-aged woman. "Good evening, young lady," the woman says. "May I help you?"
"Oh," Makoto says, trying to look past her. "I'm, um, a friend of Haru Okumura's. I was wondering if she was here?"
She shakes her head. "No, I'm afraid not. Haru-chan called in sick today."
Makoto feels something in her chest sink. "I see." Then, she stiffens. "Is Akira Kurusu here, by chance?"
The manager's smile becomes strained. "Surprisingly, he called out too. I believe his excuse was a 'complicated school schedule.'"
"Oh," Makoto replies. "Alright, well, thank you."
"Of course," the woman says, and gestures to the flowers behind her. "Interested, by chance?"
Makoto tries to smile. "Thank you, but perhaps some other time." She bows and walks away.
Where the hell is everyone?
#
Ohya scrolls through each picture, slowly.
She sits in her apartment, hot and silent, the only illumination the scalding blue light from her desktop.
When she reaches the end of the series, she returns to the beginning and clicks, again and again, until she reaches the end.
She lets out a long whistle, and whispers into the darkness, "Not sure how you did it, Akira. But you did it."
#
The Mona mobile rumbles along at a steady gait. Joker keeps one hand on the wheel, and the other is flung lazily over the seat behind him. He wears a small smile on his face.
Fox leans forward from where he sits in the middle row. "When, exactly, are you going to tell us where we're going?"
"When we get there," Joker replies.
Panther sighs. "Seriously, Joker? We found the Treasure Room. We should get some rest if we're going to send the calling card tomorrow."
Skull peers out into the distance. "Yeah, bro. Normally, I'm down for whatever you've got cookin', but I don't see how driving into Madarame's ghost town helps anything."
Joker just keeps smiling and keeps driving.
Panther crosses her arms and huffs. "Mona," she snaps at the bus that surrounds them.
"Do you know anything about this?"
"Hehehe," the bus replies. "Maybe."
Fox leans over and whispers to Panther. "Do you suppose he intends to kill us and leave our bodies in the Metaverse? It would be the perfect crime."
"What?" Panther blurts. "No!"
Joker chuckles. "I can hear you, you know. You're sitting right behind me. And no, I'm not going to kill anyone. Actually, we're just about there."
They pull up alongside a building what would correspond with the real world's Shibuya. "Hey," Skull says. "We've been here before, right?"
Joker parks Mona, and the thieves slide out. "This," Fox says, staring up at the two story structure. "This is the art gallery. The one where Madarame's exhibit is taking place."
Mona bursts into a puff of smoke and resumes his regular form, a giant smile on his face. "That's right!"
"What're we doing here?" Fox asks, turning to Joker.
Joker strides forward, and pats Fox on the shoulder as he passes him. "Follow me." He leads them to the front door, unlocked but heavy, and when he shoves it open, the resulting clang echoes out into the street.
They enter the main room, and look around. It is absent people, but full of art.
"This is kind of creepy," Panther whispers.
Joker watches as Fox makes his way to a single piece hanging on one of the walls. It is a painting of a forest, speckled with red paint. Fox stops before it, and stares.
Joker steps up alongside him. "I got the idea when you took off, the first time we brought you here." He spreads his hands wide. "This whole version of Tokyo is Madarame's cognition. The Palace is distorted, but the rest of it seemed pretty normal. It got me thinking."
Fox says nothing.
"I figured, if everything outside the Palace was more or less the same, then maybe the art gallery would be the same as in the real world. And maybe, it would have all the art work, still inside it."
Beneath his mask, Fox's lip quivers.
"Really soon, Madarame's going to confess to his crimes," Joker continues. "He's going to tell everyone how he's been plagiarizing his apprentices for years. How all of this art, is actually stolen. Who knows what will happen to it, in the real world? The police may take it as evidence and lock it away somewhere. Or maybe the gallery owner will toss them out. I've got no idea.
"But, if you want, we can take your painting out of here. It's not the piece you painted, but it still kind of is, right?" Joker gestures towards the work. "This is your painting, Fox. You did this. It doesn't deserve to sit in some evidence locker somewhere, or in a dumpster. But look around. No one's here. We could take it, walk right out of here, and exit to the real world with it intact. No one would stop us. No one would know. You'd get to keep it."
Fox nods. "And when the Palace collapses-"
"When the Palace collapses, all of this goes away. Everything we just drove past. This building. Every building. All the work." He smiles at his friend. "So, let's take back your work, Fox!"
Skull laughs. "Hell yeah! That'll stick it to that Madarame bastard!"
Fox dips his head, reaches out a hand, and rests it on Joker's shoulder. "Thank you, my friend. Words cannot express what this means to me."
And then Fox draws his sword, steps up to the piece, and in one smooth cut, slashes the canvas in half.
No one moves for some seconds.
Then, Fox releases a heavy sigh, and sheathes his blade.
Joker blinks. "Okay, so, I kind of thought you were going to react differently."
Fox looks at the ruins of his piece. "It is as you said, Joker. This is not the piece I painted. It is merely Madarame's cognitive representation of my work. And even if it were the true piece, I do not want it, however much it means to me. It was created under false pretenses. Its purity is lost." He shakes his head. "No. From now on, the work I create will spring from my own mind, uncorrupted, my own fingers, my own soul, to serve no ends but the expression of the artistic, be that ugly or beautiful."
Skull frowns. "Wait, so you're still planning on being a painter?"
Fox whirls on him, aghast. "But, of course! Did I ever give you the impression otherwise?"
Skull shrugs. "I dunno. I guess I just figured the whole 'Madarame turned out to be a dick' thing would've turned you off to it."
"Never," Fox replies, his head snapping from side to side. "Art is in my blood. My bones." He lifts his hands skyward. "The muse rides within me, and I am but an instrument to its will. To shake off the mantle of artist would be to sever my very limbs from my form!"
Skull frowns. "Alright dude, my bad."
Fox turns back to Joker. "Thank you very much for bringing me here, Joker. As thanks, I will paint you something."
"Oh, no," Joker replies, and pats the air with his hands. "That's really not necessary."
"I insist! It will be a piece of such magnitude as to stagger your very mind."
Joker sighs. "Okay, cool. Thanks, Fox."
Fox smiles, satisfied, and turns to regard the rest of the gallery's art. "Now then, we must see to the rest."
"Eh?" Joker asks.
"See to the rest?" Mona asks. "What'd you mean?"
"While I am prepared to move on from the work I created under Sensei, I would not presume to speak for his other apprentices. We should abscond with the rest of these paintings to the real world, so that we might return them to their rightful creators." He looks down at the cat. "Mona, I believe there is ample room in your trunk for the lot."
Mona's eyes bulge.
Joker clears his throat. "So, the thing is, I was kind of thinking we were only going to take the one painting. If we take the other twenty, I don't what we're going to do with them. It's going to look pretty weird if we walk down the street with that many paintings between the four of us."
Skull shrugs. "Can't we just hide them in our uniforms?"
Panther's jaw drops. "Hide them in our uniforms? Are you serious? They're paintings."
"Moving one wouldn't be a big deal," Joker says. "But this many? It's a lot, Fox."
Fox flings his arms wide, as if to protect the rest of the gallery. "But we must find a way! The others deserve the same choice I was given!"
This is what I get, Joker thinks. This is what I get for doing something thoughtful. He pushes his mask up and rubs his eyes with his fingers. "Okay. We need to figure out a way to transport twenty stolen paintings from Madarame's atelier to LeBlanc's attic without raising any kind of suspicion. Any ideas?"
Skull coughs and raises his hand. "I've got an idea."
"We're not hiding them in our uniforms, Skull," Panther snaps.
"It's not that," Skull replies. He runs his eyes over the paintings. "Yeah, they look small enough. I think they'll fit." He looks down at Mona. "If they fit inside you, they'll definitely fit inside hers'."
The other thieves glance at one another. "Hers'?'" Joker asks.
#
"It is so nice to finally meet all of you," Ryuji's mom says, behind the wheel. "Ryu-kun talks about you all so much. He absolutely gushes."
Ryuji groans from the passenger seat. "C'mon Mom, you're embarrassing me."
The thin, bespectacled woman, dark hair cropped short, snorts and waves her hands at him. "Oh, hush. You know you do."
Ann's grin is wide and sinister. "What exactly does Ryu-kun say about us, Miss Sakamoto?"
Ryuji spins around and glares at the blonde girl. "Don't answer her, Mom."
"Oh, he talks about how you're all the best, and how you're all so interesting. Especially you, Akira-kun."
Akira smiles from where he sits in the middle row of the van. "Me, huh?"
Ryuji turns around and faces front, but Akira can see the red in his cheeks under the streetlights as they drive.
"Mmmhmmm," his mother says. "He told me you motivated him to start running again. I swear, that was something I never thought I'd see Ryu-kun do again. It was such a delight when he asked me for money for new running shoes."
"Shouldn't you be, like, focused on driving or something?" Ryuji grumbles.
His mother chuckles, and is silent for a few moments. "So, if I may ask, what exactly are all these paintings for?"
Yusuke, from where he sits, scrunched up next to Akira, stiffens. "Ah, they are for an art project. Your son and our other friends were assisting me in their creation."
"We, um, helped carry all the painting supplies and stuff," Ann puts in. "Yusuke-kun needed a lot of paint."
"I can see that," Ryuji's mother replies. "It looks like quite an assignment. How many paintings are there in total?"
"Eighteen," Akira says. "He's been working on this for a while."
"We were prepping them for transport from my Sensei's atelier, when our previous ride fell through," Yusuke says. "Your availability was quite fortuitous."
"Anything for Ryu-kun and his friends," she says, and pats the wheel of the van. "It's a good thing I had this baby. It's been with me for a good five years, and would you believe it, aside from the regular maintenance costs, has never let me down."
She begins to go into a detailed history of the van's life story, and Akira settles back in his chair. Morgana rolls over in his lap and stares up at him. "This is lame," the cat whispers.
Akira holds a finger up to his lips.
"Seriously," the cat replies. "We're supposed to be notorious thieves, and our getaway car is Ryuji's mom's van?"
"At this point," Akira whispers back, "I'm not going to complain." He glances back at the collection of paintings stacked neatly into van's ample trunk space. "I'm just happy they all fit."
He feels an elbow bump into him. Ann, sitting alongside him, whispers, "Hey?"
Akira frowns. "Yeah?"
She doesn't meet his eyes. "That was a nice thing you did. For Yusuke, I mean."
Akira nods, and steals a glance over at the boy. For whatever reason, Yusuke appears enraptured with Ryuji's mom's story about the van. "Thanks," he tells Ann.
He turns to her then, and for what feels like the first time in a while, looks at her. There are circles under her eyes, deep, even covered with liner or whatever she uses. "Do you think," Ann begins, "that we could, like, talk, when this whole thing with Madarame is done?"
Before Akira can stop himself, he says, "What'd you want to talk about?"
She winces a bit at that. "You know what."
Akira keeps his words behind his teeth for some time, and when he feels ready, replies, "Yeah."
The rest of the ride, they spend in silence.
##
A/N:
Hoo boy.
Sorry about the delayed post. Class didn't end until 9:30 last night, and then I had an hour's drive home. So I overslept this morning, and had to race to work. The trials of the working man never cease!
Well, well, well. FIFTY chapters. Not bad, if I do say so myself. I want to thank everyone for sticking with it this long. I really appreciate it. It's been one hell of a ride, and I'm glad to have you all as readers.
So... why not speculate on the chapter's title? What do you think is in Madarame's storage unit?
Also, I think I'm going to take a break from posting the week of 1/29. Getting back into the swing of classes is going to be a bit tricky, given that I'm taking more courses than I have before while writing this. I'll be back on 2/5 with another M-W-F update week. I will be posting next week, the week of 1/22. I'll post Monday and Friday. I appreciate your understanding. Thanks again for reading!