6-17

Akira explains his plan, and Ryuji gnaws on the inside of his mouth. It's the only way he can guarantee he'll keep his trap shut. Otherwise, he runs the risk of interrupting and Akira had been very specific about people interrupting.

He spares a few looks at the others as Akira continues. Ann's eyes grow wider the longer he talks. Haru looks ill. Yusuke's frown grows thinner.

Morgana looks, well, like he normally does. Ryuji is willing to bet Akira walked Morgana through all this before they all showed up. He tends to use the cat as a sounding board.

Akira wraps up, and stares out at the group. At the silence, he mutters a quick, "And that'll be that," and sticks his hands in his pockets.

The fidgeting starts. Everyone shifts around in their seats, stealing glances at one another.

Alright, he thinks. Someone's got to say it. He raises his hand. "Uh, dude?"

Akira's face remains blank. "Yes, Ryuji?"

"This whole plan seems, kinda, uh-"

Ann cuts in. "Violent."

"Perilous," Yusuke says.

Haru mutters something beneath her breath that sounds like, "Ill-advised," but he can't be sure.

"Yeah," he replies. "All those."

Akira leans against the window and sighs. His eyes drift up towards the ceiling and Ryuji watches as a stiffness creeps over his friend's face, as if he's holding his breath.

"Like," Ryuji says, to fill in the void. "The thing with Iwai. Are we sure that's a good idea?"

"I agree," Ann blurts. "You want to trust him that much? Didn't you say he was a former yakuza member or something?"

Yusuke clears his throat. "I bear no grudge against our purveyor of side arms, but I do think it a bit strange that you would elevate his status so quickly."

Ryuji nods. "Right. It's one thing to buy guns and burners and shit from him. But don't you think that this-"

Akira's voice is soft, but silences all the others. "How else," he begins, "would we get the chloroform? How else would we use it? Takemi isn't going to help us."

Yusuke makes a small hmmm noise, and says, "Well, she is a doctor."

"Which is fine," Akira replies. "Whatever. Iwai isn't. And he can get some."

"Why do we even need it?" Haru asks, her voice a bit stronger now. She still looks at her hands, clutched in her lap. "You didn't need it for Kamoshida or Madarame."

"True," Morgana says. "But Haru, this is different. With our previous targets, we could be sure the Palaces would stay stationary. In this case, we need to make sure the Palace stays put, and that means keeping Sugimura-"

"You mean 'poisoning,' not 'keeping,' Mona-chan," Haru points out. She looks up at Akira. "We're just going to do the same thing to him that he did to me?"

Akira clasps his hands together in a tight ball. "Technically, chloroform isn't a poison," he says. "It's an anesthetic, and-"

"But this is assault, right?" Ann asks. Akira's mouth clamps shut. Ann looks at the others, as if for confirmation. "Right? Like, if we do this, it'll officially be assault."

"Yes," Akira whispers.

Ann blinks. "Well, we could get in a lot of trouble for this. Like, a lot, a lot."

"I know that," Akira replies.

"Then why is this the plan?" She asks.

"Because there is no other plan," Akira snaps. He looks out at each of them in turn. Ryuji manages to hold the gaze, but only just. "Does anyone else have any suggestions? Any other ideas?"

Ryuji shrugs his shoulders. "What if we rent an apartment or something and-"

"Paper trail," Akira replies. "Unless we had a fake identity to use. Do any of us have fake identities? Do any of us know how to establish a fake identity? Do we have the time to learn how?"

"What if we just break the car and follow it to the garage?" Ann asks.

"Sugimura's car isn't a cheap one. He likely won't have it towed to a regular garage. If it's stored overnight, we'd have to break into the place after dark. If the car gets repaired before we've secured the Treasure, we're in the same boat, all over again."

Yusuke opens his mouth, but Akira talks over him.

"Guys, I've tried. I've tried to come up with another plan to minimize the danger. But there's too many factors. This is the only way we can all get into the Palace and get out again, with the Treasure, in as little time as possible."

"I don't like it," Haru says, and shakes her head. "I don't like it at all."

"I know it's not perfect," Akira replies. "But no plan is. If we wait any longer Sugimura will get more and more dangerous. We have to stop him before-"

"Then maybe we should just call it off," Haru blurts, and stands. "Maybe we should just stop. I don't want your help if it's going to put you in danger and-"

"Put us in danger?" Akira growls, and spreads his arms wide. "You've known how dangerous this all was since you went to Mementos the first time. But now you want to stop? What else are you going to do? Go to the cops? He's the son of a prominent politician, Haru. Understand that the police do not give a shit. Sorry that this isn't super easy and totally doable and-"

Ann shoots up, a scowl on her face. "Stop yelling at her, Akira."

"I'm not yelling," Akira replies. "But we're not going to just throw our hands in the air and say, 'Oh well, I guess it's too complicated! I guess we'll just stop and-'"

"No one is saying that, Akira," Yusuke points out, voice still steady.

"No?" Akira asks. "Then what the fuck are we talking about right now?"

Ryuji stands, steps between everyone and shouts, "Okay, hold up!"

To his surprise, everyone shuts up.

Oh, crap. Now what?

He turns to Akira and bumbles out, "Come with me, dude."

Akira blinks. "Huh?"

Too late to back out now. Ryuji closes the distance between them and seizes his friend's shoulders. "Just, come on."

"Good idea," Ann says, and crosses her arms. "Let's take him-"

"Nope," Ryuji counters, and holds out a hand towards her, palm out. "Not you. Just us. We'll be back."

Yusuke moves to stand. "Is this to be 'Bro time?'" He asks.

"Uh," Ryuji replies, as he moves Akira towards the stairs. "Hold down the fort, Yusuke. We'll be back."

Their eyes follow them as they step into the stairwell. They descend and walk down the length of LeBlanc's bar. Ryuji nods to Sojiro, who flashes them a frown as they walk past.

Once they step out into the late afternoon, Akira turns back to Ryuji and asks, "What's going on?"

"Dude," Ryuji says, making sure the door has shut behind them. "That's what I was gonna ask you. What the hell was that?"

Akira heaves out a deep breath, walks across the narrow street and leans against the building across from LeBlanc. "Are you seriously going to give me shit about this?"

Ryuji spreads his hands wide. "You just yelled at Haru, man. That wasn't cool."

"I wasn't yelling at her."

"Pretty sure you were."

Akira tips his head forward and stares at the concrete. "Yeah, well, I don't think it's very cool that she's pulling this whole 'I changed my mind' crap at the last second."

"I don't think she was, Akira. And besides, dude, she's scared."

"So am I," Akira replies, and looks up at him. "You think that I'm not? Do you think I like this plan? This plan fucking sucks. But it's the only one I've got. You guys asked me to run things by you, and to not just come up with things on my own. Well, this is me running things by you."

Ryuji frowns and tries to put his words together. "I dunno if this really counts as that, bro. Like, it doesn't feel like you're running this by us. It feels like you're just telling it to us. As in, this is the plan, and we've got to do it."

"It's the plan because there aren't any other plans," Akira says, exasperated. "We came together and tried to come up with one, remember? It didn't work."

"We did that once, Akira. One time. Besides, I thought my 'blow up the car,' idea was pretty good." He smiles, but Akira doesn't laugh. Ryuji smothers the grin. "Right, well, we can't come up with good plans after one short meeting. Remember when we tried to throw off Haru and Makoto? Back during the whole 'Destroy Akira Kurusu,' thing?"

"'Or Something Less Drastic,'" Akira mutters.

"Uh, right. Point is, we met a bunch of times and went over shit again and again. Or, at least, we did. I know you and Ann were pretty pissed at each other, then."

Akira lets out another sigh that turns into an aborted snort. "Ryuji, everyone keeps changing what they want from me. They want me to lead, but then they question everything I do. They-"

"We don't question everything you do, man," Ryuji replies, rolling his eyes. "I mean, come on. You're doing some sort of political spy shit for an alcoholic journalist, and getting tutored by your homeroom teacher while she moonlights as a sort of sex-worker. There's actually a lot of shit that you do, that we don't question you on." Ryuji shakes his head, trying to get the tantalizing image of Kawakami in a maid outfit out of his head. Focus up! Not the time, brain!

"Look man, you're our leader," he says. "But this isn't a dictatorship, yeah? We decided unanimously to go after Sugimura. To help Haru. That's why we're doing all this."

"Then why aren't you guys letting me do that?" Akira asks.

"Because sometimes it feels like you're not trying to help Haru, or something."

Akira's eyes pop. "Are you joking? How can you say that?"

"Like I said, you were just yelling at her upstairs. I get that you're frustrated, but that's not okay. She's scared. She's never done this before. Hell, we've only done this twice and now we've got to do it with all these moving parts. Literally. But sometimes it seems like you're less concerned with helpin' Haru, and more concerned with, I don't know, making things work."

Akira just stares at him. "Making things work?"

C'mon man, help me out here, Ryuji's mind complains. Ryuji shrugs. "She's freaked out, Akira. And you're not talking to her. She's more your friend than ours', but you've mostly just stuck her with us, or with Ann. I get it. We want to protect her from Sugimura and keep her under cover, but I think something's up with her, and..." He trails off. "Shit, dude. I don't know. But something doesn't feel right about all this."

"Haru, or the plan?" Akira asks.

"Both, man."

Akira doesn't reply for a time. Then, "What do you think I should do?"

"That's the thing, man. I don't really know. I'd tell you to take a break but-"

"I can't."

"Yeah, I know." Ryuji begins to tap his foot against the concrete. He doesn't like this. Doesn't like there not being a simple solution to this entire thing. "Are you really sure this is the best way to take down Sugimura?"

Akira shakes his head. "No, but it's all I've got."

Ryuji nods. "Okay. Then, when we go back upstairs, I'll back you up. But we're all friends, yeah? You gotta go easy on everyone. They're freaked out too, and it's probably because we don't have such a handle on all this crazy-ass mental gym shit you pull all the time."

"I don't have a handle on it either, Ryuji," Akira replies.

"Then maybe, we gotta figure out another way of doing things," Ryuji suggests, and nods. "This shit got out of hand a long time ago, dude. Once we finish with Sugimura, and the Mementos people, we'll take another look at all this." He shrugs again. "You know, figure something out."

Akira stares at him for a time, face blank. Finally, he says, "Okay."

"Alright," Ryuji says, and pumps his hand into the air. "Let's go back inside and talk to everyone." He grins. "The more I think about it, the more I like the plan, anyway. I bet this'll totally work."

Akira smiles back at him, but for whatever reason, it unsettles him.

#

Akira sifts through his notes, his mind alight with the many, many ways this plan could go wrong. It was nice of Ryuji to tell him he believed in the plan, nice of him to pull him aside and tell him they'd re-examine everything once Sugimura was finished. None of that changed the fact that the plan was shit. Back upstairs, everyone had eventually and begrudgingly, accepted that this was the way forward.

Akira had had to pull Haru aside. He apologized for losing his temper, and she accepted the apology, but Akira could tell she still had strong doubts about the whole thing. He expected her to get heated over it, but she'd just accepted things along with everyone else. Akira couldn't understand it. When Haru was with Makoto, she seemed so driven and determined, but now that she had switched sides, she seemed listless and uncertain.

Maybe that's the problem, Akira thinks. Haru went from having a constant companion in Makoto, to switching sides and joining up with the Phantom Thieves. Could Akira blame her for being distant?

None of that matters though, he tells himself. If we fail tomorrow, we won't be able to help Haru. We won't be able to help anyone, anymore. He blinks his eyes a few times to clear his head.

One wrong step, and he'd be back in the box. It would be worse, though, this time. Because this time, his friends would be trapped in their own little cells, dealing with their own little hells.

Go over it again, he thinks. Go over it again. Am I missing anything? He was sure he was missing a lot. The problem was, he didn't know what those things were.

Kawakami stirs on the couch, and jolts awake. "Pythagoras," she calls.

Akira whips his head towards her. "Huh?"

She looks at him, pale and wide-eyed. "Huh?" She sits up. "Sorry, I must've dozed off. How long was I out?"

Akira glances down at his phone. "About half an hour."

She groans and forces herself to sit up, maid outfit rustling. "Where were we, Kurusu?"

Akira frowns. The moment Kawakami had fallen asleep, Akira had switched gears and gone back to his notes about tomorrow's heist. He couldn't even remember what Kawakami had been showing him. Well, she did say Pythagoras, so...

"Math?"

"Right," Kawakami says. "Math." She forces herself to her feet. "Show me the latest problem set."

Akira stifles a groan of his own. "Uh, well-" Kawakami walks over and Akira has to hide his notes beneath his textbooks.

"Kurusu," she says, when she sees the blank pages. "You're supposed to be studying. If your grades continue to slip, Toko-sensei will be on our collective butts."

Akira frowns. "Hey, you're supposed to be helping me. Not sleeping on my couch. What exactly am I paying for, anyway?"

She cups one of her ears with her hand and turns it towards Akira. "I didn't quite hear that, Kurusu. Mind repeating?"

Akira swallows. "Uh, no. No. Never mind."

"That's what I thought," she says, straightening. She shakes her arms loose and yawns. "Fine. Let's go. Show it to me anyway, and we'll work through it."

He does, and they do.

Akira steals glances at Morgana, who naps on the bed. How the cat can sleep at a time like this is beyond him.

The night drags on and their work slows down.

"Okay, okay," Kawakami eventually says, backing away from the desk. "That's enough for tonight. I'm beat."

Akira nods. "Me too."

Kawakami moves back over to the couch and sits down. "Let me gather my energy, and I'll head out."

"No problem," Akira says, and leans his head against his hand, propped up on his desk.

Silence passes for a few moments. Then, Kawakami asks, "How are you doing, Kurusu?"

Akira blinks. "Hmm?"

"You," Kawakami repeats. "How are you doing? At school, and whatnot?"

He shrugs. "Fine."

"Still hanging out with Sakamoto and Takamaki?"

Akira nods. "Yeah."

Kawakami nods, and her face looks concerned, but Akira cannot tell over what. "Okay. I remember you saying, back in the Principal's office, that you had a falling out with Niijima. Is that true?"

Akira tries to choose his next words carefully. "Sort of."

"Have you patched things up?"

"Somewhat. Maybe." He shrugs. "Not especially, I guess."

"And what does that mean?" She asks.

Akira purses his lips. "It means... I guess it means we're not angry at each other. But we're not whatever we were before."

"What were you before?"

"I don't know," Akira replies. "Closer? But it's weird. I'm more honest with her now than I was before, but I still feel distant from her."

"And you don't want to feel distant from her?"

"No," Akira replies. "I don't. I don't want to feel distant from anybody. I just want everyone to be..." He trails off. To be what? "Good. I want everyone to be good." His thoughts drift back to the early days of the Phantom Thieves. Makoto and I were closer, and becoming something. Things were simpler. He blinks. But they weren't better. Kamoshida was still around. Ann was being blackmailed. Ryuji had no friends. Yusuke was still under Madarame's thumb. Haru didn't have anyone. Things were objectively better now. So why does it feel like things are worse? Is it me?

"You okay there, Kurusu?" Kawakami asks. "You looked like you went somewhere far away."

Akira shakes his head. "I'm alright. Just trying to find my way through things, you know?"

"Do I ever," Kawakami mutters. She shoves herself to her feet, and gives him a small curtsy. "Guess I'll get going. See you in homeroom tomorrow, Kurusu." She heads for the stairwell, then pauses at the top. "You know," she says, before she descends. "If you ever need to talk, about things, or whatever, you can with me. I can't promise to be much help, but I can listen." She doesn't look at him as she says these things, then shoots him a look. "And patch things up with the people close to you, yeah? They'd probably be much better than me at it, anyway."

Then, she's off, leaving behind a very perplexed Akira.

##

A/N: Happy Monday, everyone. I hope you all have an excellent week.

I'm still trying to bridge the gap so I can get back to a regular posting schedule, but it may have to wait until after I move, which will be at the end of next week, on the 30th. Shit, that reminds me, I've gotta tell work I need that day off.

The struggle is real, my friends.

Also, thank you very much for all the recommendations! I don't know when I'll be getting to them, or if I can, but I do appreciate them.