The A/C kicks on again, and a thin coat of cool, stale air settles across his bare skin.

Sae Niijma frowns at him, eyes narrow. "Based on what you've told me, it sounds as if the Phantom Thieves had a direct hand in the death of Rin Sugimura."

"We didn't," Akira replies. He shuts his eyes and rubs his lids with sore fingers. "We didn't do it. All we wanted was to change his heart."

Sae leans back in her chair, arms crossed. "Why are you telling me this?" She asks. "If your intention was to conceal your movements against Sugimura, why tell me now?"

"Because," Akira says, looking at her. "I want you to believe me. Because you know there's more to this."

Her eyes narrow further. "Don't presume to tell me what I know, Kurusu."

"Come on," Akira heaves out, exasperated. "Sugimura's death. Madarame's stabbing. Yukio Kan. The mental shutdowns. You know what I'm getting at."

Sae stares back at him. She doesn't reply.

"Niijima-san," Akira groans. "We didn't kill Rin Sugimura. We didn't kill Madarame. We didn't cause any of what's going on out there." He blinks. "You know what happened next."

Sae leans forward and lays a hand on the file. She'd closed it when Akira began to discuss Sugimura. Now, she opens it again.

Akira stares down at the photo. He knew it was coming, and manages to subdue his shudder.

"Junya Kaneshiro," Sae says. "Start talking."

Akira looks at the photo. "Do you know what the worst thing about Kaneshiro was?" He asks.

Sae arches a brow, but doesn't take the bait.

Akira lifts his eyes to hers. "He liked me."

#

6-19

Yusuke stirs and opens his eyes. The first thing he hears is his stomach growling. The lights in the examination room have been dimmed, and he is covered with several blankets. A few empty bottles of water sit on the table next to him. He has a vague recollection of waking up at various times during the night, and downing one at a time.

He yawns and lifts himself up, and the blankets fall to his waist.

The door clicks open and Takemi pokes her head in. She gives him a small smile.

"You're awake. Good." She steps inside, and shuts the door behind her. Yusuke is suddenly aware he wears nothing but a medical gown. "Do you remember coming here last night?"

"Of course," he says, bringing the blankets back up to his chin. "I recall most of last night."

Takemi nods and sits down on the stool. "I washed your clothes at the Laundromat down the block. They're dry now."

"Ah," he says. "I thank you, Doctor. I do not think I could return to the dorms with my modesty in tact, were I to leave in this garment."

"Right," she says, and shakes her head.

"Akira stopped by earlier today. He wanted to see how you were doing. He said he'd buy you a phone."

Yusuke's eyes widen. "Oh no! He has the most garish taste!" He begins to get up, but Takemi stands and holds out her hands.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're not going anywhere for a while yet. I want to make sure you're okay first."

Yusuke sighs. "Very well, but we must be quick about, lest Akira purchase me a revolting phone case."

"I'd prefer if you went to LeBlanc, right afterwards, and got some food. Preferably something hot."

Yusuke's stomach growls again, and he claps a hand over it. "Perhaps that would be best. I shall have to hope he retains the receipt."

"Other than starving," Takemi starts, "how are you feeling?"

"Quite well," Yusuke replies. He shrugs from inside the blankets. "Warm."

"Good. I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, but things could've gone south for you last night."

Yusuke pauses before replying. "Then, I thank you. Once more."

Takemi watches him, as he sits, almost motionless. "You attacked someone with chloroform, last night."

Yusuke breaks eye contact and stares at the floor. "I did think the plan was dangerous. But ultimately, we had little choice."

She scowls, and walks up to him, stethoscope in hand. She sticks the ends in her ears, and pushes the blanket down, placing the nozzle against his chest. "You had a choice. Breathe."

He does. "Not if we were to help our friend."

"Akira told me," she says, and moves the nozzle. "Again. Did none of you think to call the police?"

Yusuke sucks in air, and lets it out. "We did," he says, once he's finished. "Well, some of us did. It would not have made any difference. Our target was the son of a prominent politician. The police would have done nothing."

Takemi lowers the stethoscope and removes a light from her pocket. She holds it up to his eyes. "Look left. Look right. Now, up. Down. You can't know that."

"When I awoke," Yusuke replies. "After my fainting at the batting cages, I heard you calling the police. I heard you try and report my condition. The end result of your reliance upon the police was my being thrown out of my home, and kicked out of school."

Takemi replaces the light in her pocket. Now it's her turn to look away. "I didn't know that. I-"

"Please," Yusuke says, and holds up a hand. "Do not apologize. I do appreciate what you tried to do. My point is, were it not for the Phantom Thieves. I would be homeless right now, as so many others were, thanks to Madarame's villainy."

"Alright," Takemi concedes. "But be that as it may, I can't condone the actual harming of another person."

"No one has asked you to condone it."

She holds up a finger. "That's where you're wrong. Akira did, when he asked me to get the chloroform for him."

"All he asked you to do was supply us. Nothing else. He did not seek instruction, or for you to use it."

She spreads her hands wide and shakes her head. "See? That. That right there. You all act like you're under the impression the two have nothing to do with one another. If I had given him that stuff, I would've been complicit. When he asked me for it, he was asking me to ignore what he was going to use it for. That's just another form of approval, in a way. There's a reason things like that are regulated."

Yusuke frowns and to Takemi's begrudging approval, he appears to actually be considering this. "But," he finally says. "I do not think that condoning something and obl-"

"Isn't that your point?" She cuts in. "The point of the Phantom Thieves? If you turned away from the people you helped, wouldn't you be condoning what's being done to them? If you'd refused to help your friend last night, wouldn't you have been condoning Sugimura's treatment of her? If the Phantom Thieves hadn't helped you avenge yourself, wouldn't that be saying that what Madarame did was okay?"

The boy is silent for a time. Then, "I suppose."

"Then asking me to supply him with chloroform was asking me to condone its use. I don't see a difference."

"Even though the cause was just?"

"Ends and means, Yusuke. Some people can separate the two. Some people like to separate the two. But isn't the point of being the good guys supposed to be being better than the bad guys?" She walks the length of the room, turns her back to the wall, and leans against it, arms crossed.

Yusuke purses his lips. "I would like to point out that you run medical tests on Akira. Is that not unethical?"

She shrugs. "I'm not a saint."

His eyes narrow. "I do not think that-"

"Joking," she says. "And Akira consented. I've made sure the stuff I'm feeding him doesn't adversely impact people in any overt way. I'm enough of a chemist to know what the human body can and cannot take. It's shady, sure, but I'd never give Akira something that I thought had the slightest chance of harming him."

"Doesn't he pass out and sing to you?"

"Those are side effects. But he's in a controlled environment where no real harm will come to him. Sugimura was drugged in an abandoned warehouse, with a chemical that could've killed him if not properly applied. Hell, Iwai could've screwed up and suffocated him by accident."

Yusuke rises to his feet, a little shakily. "You've given me much to think about, Doctor. I believe I should be going now." He reaches for the bag containing his clothes.

Takemi sighs. The kid needed to eat something, not have a morality debate with her. She glances at him before leaving the room. "Answer me one thing, Yusuke?"

He turns to her. "Of course."

"Can that cat really talk?"

#

Akira slides the plastic case over towards Yusuke, who takes it up and stares at it.

"Keep in mind," Akira says to everyone. "That this put a serious notch in our funds. We need to be pretty stingy for a while."

The group nods, and some look more crestfallen than others.

They sit in Akira's room, having just returned from purchasing new phones. He'd gone with Haru and Morgana, while Ryuji and Ann had gone by themselves to purchase theirs.

He glances at Haru, who still looks worn. "You okay?" He asks her.

She nods. "I, um, had to explain some things last night, when I returned home." She glances at Ann. "I told the staff I'd been at your home. You may get a call to confirm sometime later. I hope it's not an inconvenience."

Ann shakes her head. "No worries. My folks are gone, so it'll just be me. I can tell them whatever we want."

Ryuji frowns. "They didn't ask you any questions? You were gone for a hell of a long time."

"I simply told the truth," Haru replies, voice haggard. "I was at Mako-chan's, then I was at Ann's. There's nothing incorrect in either statement."

"Man," Ryuji says, and stares up at the ceiling. "If I was gone for that long, my Mom would freakin' kill me."

Haru doesn't reply. Ann jabs Ryuji in the elbow.

"And, has there been any news of Sugimura?" Yusuke asks, as he struggles to rip back the plastic of the casing for his new phone.

Akira glances at the others. No one says anything. He's sure they've all seen it by now.

Morgana is the one who tells it. "Police found a car in Tokyo Bay last night. It was on the news. There were two, as of yet, unidentified bodies inside."

Yusuke's eyes widen. "Oh, no. Then..."

"Sugimura is dead," Haru cuts in, voice low.

"We don't know that for sure," Akira points out.

"Yes, we do," Morgana mutters, ears drooping. "I didn't sabotage the car properly, and they drove off. Right into the Bay."

Akira isn't sure what to say. He'd held onto the hope that the car might've just been disposed of, but with the bodies inside it? There could be little doubt.

"But how can we be sure?" Ann asks. "The police said there were bodies. They didn't say who they were." She leans back in her seat and crosses her arms. "And it's not like we can just ask the police what happened."

"Can't we?" Ryuji asks. The others turn to him. He looks up from fiddling with his new phone. "What? We can, can't we? Haru can, at least."

She blinks. "Why me?"

"Why her?" Morgana asks.

He shrugs. "Didn't that cop want you to get in touch? What was his name?"

"Kagawa," Akira says.

"Yeah, Kagawa." Ryuji nods and smiles at Haru. "You could, like, call him and pretend to be all upset about Sugimura and ask him if he's heard anything. You were his fiancé, after all."

No one says anything, and Akira has to suppress the wince his face wants to make. He knows Ryuji means well, but even so. Ann smacks him on the shoulder. "Bonehead! You're such a Bonehead. Why would you-"

"I'll do it," Haru says. Everyone's gaze shifts to her. "I'll call him." She begins to scroll through her new phone.

"Is this a good idea?" Yusuke asks. "Wouldn't this be calling attention to ourselves?"

Akira holds up a hand towards Haru. "Hold on. Wait a second." He looks to Yusuke. "Kagawa did want to get into contact with her. I don't think it'd be suspicious if she acts curious. He may even think it's suspicious that she hasn't been in contact yet." He turns his head towards Haru. "But, wait. We don't have to do this now. You don't have to do this at all, Haru. If you don't want to."

She looks up at him. "I have to know. I have to know what happened. I have to know if we... did something."

"Haru," Ann whispers, and leans towards her. "We didn't. We couldn't have."

"Then how did this happen?" Haru snaps. "We were supposed to change his heart. That's what was supposed to happen. And now? He's dead." She looks out at them all. "You all saw him. You saw him in the Palace, at the end. We did it. He changed. He could've come back and changed, and not been so horrible. He might've even been good, but he'll never get that chance because he drowned." Akira isn't sure what he feels. Anger, certainly. But he has nowhere to direct it. He knows he's not mad at Haru. If anything, he's furious at the situation itself. But he also feels shame beneath it. Because Haru was right. They were supposed to change Rin Sugimura's heart. He was supposed to have been better. But now he was dead. Dead like Madarame. We changed his heart, he thinks. And it was all a waste.

When no one says anything, Haru states, "I have to know."

"Okay," Akira says. He reaches out and rests a hand on top of Haru's phone. "But not now. Please. Just wait. Just a bit. It might be too soon. If no one else outside the police know about Sugimura's death, then he may get suspicious after all." And, he thinks, you're way too worked up right now. If Haru called now, she'd either come off as angry and cold, or lose it and run the risk of slipping up. It wasn't that Akira didn't think she could do it. It was that he didn't think she could do it right at that moment.

Haru sets her phone on the table. "Okay," she mumbles. "I'll wait. Only until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow, then."

#

Kagawa tries to keep himself from fidgeting. He's always hated this part of the job.

"Again, I just want to reiterate," he says. "This will be difficult, but it's important that we get a clear answer. Otherwise, we may have to do it again, and-"

"Please," the man says. "Just do it."

The two stand in a cold hallway, before a large glass window. A curtain has been pulled across the glass from the inside, and at the man's insistence, Kagawa leans forward and taps his knuckles against the glass.

A moment later, a man dressed in medical scrubs, gloves, and a thin cloth strapped around his nose and mouth, pulls back the curtain.

They stare at a bare room with a single steel table in the center. There is a shape atop the table, with a long black cloth draped over it. The man inside the room glances at Kagawa, who nods. He goes to the cloth and begins to pull it back.

There is a sharp intake of breath from the man next to him. Kagawa watches as he leans forward and rests one hand against the glass. He dips his head forward. "That's him," he says, his voice faint. Kagawa watches as his eyes squeeze shut. A grimace spreads across his mouth. A shudder escapes him. "That's my son."

Kano Sugimura lets out a single, loud sob, then shakes his head clear and moves back from the glass.

Kagawa looks at the medical examiner and nods once more. The man inside the room goes to replace the blanket over Rin Sugimura's pale body.

"Wait," Kano Sugimura says. There's something in his voice approaching hardness, but it doesn't quite reach. "Please, just wait." The medical examiner stares at Kagawa, as if waiting for confirmation. Kagawa nods.

Kano Sugimura stares at his son's corpse for a long time, and eventually leans forward until his forehead rests against the glass. "This will kill her," he finally says.

"I'm sorry?" Kagawa asks.

"His mother. She was always... on top of him. Always overly affectionate. I tried to teach him. To show him how to be a man, but..." He shakes his head. "What was Fumihiro thinking?" He finally turns to Kagawa. "Why would he do something like this?"

"We are investigating, sir."

"The man was a soldier, for God's sake! This job, this job should've been a cakewalk for him. There's no way he would've lost his mind like that. Not a chance! Something happened." He points back at the glass. "My son was killed do you hear me? He was murdered."

Kagawa doesn't nod, because he doesn't want to give the impression he agrees. "We are investigating, sir. We will get to the bottom of what happened."

Kano Sugimura spits a few obscenities. He asks the questions everyone always does. He blames the police for failing to protect his family. Kagawa has seen it all before, or variations, anyway.

He can't give this man any information, not at this stage, no matter how much he rages.

Finally, Kano Sugimura breaks, and he slides down to the ground, until he sits with his back against the wall, and sobs.

Kagawa knows, that with his bulk, going that low will not make it easy to get back up again, so he pulls over a chair from across the hallway and sits next to the man. He doesn't say anything, he just sits there. Sometimes, that's enough.

While the father cries, Kagawa thinks about the son.

Rin Sugimura, dead.

His driver, Fumihiro Asoka, dead.

Why?

They needed to do a comprehensive investigation on the driver's background, but the elder Sugimura had a point. The man was a soldier, and used to the stresses associated with that. Kagawa doubts the Sugimura's would've hired him as a driver if he had some kind of PTSD. What would make him lose it now? If Fumihiro wanted to kill himself, why involve Rin Sugimura?

Kagawa didn't like it. Then there was Haru Okumura and Makoto Niijima. It had been a bare handful of days since the latter had told him about Rin Sugimura, and the messages he'd left for the former. Then, Haru had disappeared, only to apparently reappear, and want to drop the whole thing.

Don't jump to conclusions, he tells himself.

But what conclusions was he jumping to? That Makoto Niijima somehow did something to Rin Sugimura? The girl was smart, but he didn't think she was smart enough to engineer a double homicide.

His phone vibrates. "I'll be back in a moment," he whispers to Sugimura. "Please, take your time."

The man sniffles in response. Kagawa stands and takes his phone from his jacket pocket. "Hello?"

"Officer Kagawa?"

He balks at the voice. "Sae?"

"Yes," she replies. Her voice is stiff. "I realize that when last we spoke, I was less than cordial."

"Uh, listen," he says. "I don't mean to be short here, but I'm actually in the middle of something and-"

"I didn't call to apologize."

Kagawa frowns, then sighs. "Oh."

He hears her sigh on the other end. He can't help but smile. He remembers the same noise from when she used to get flustered, way back when. "I've heard about the death of Rin Sugimura. I trust he's been positively identified?"

"That's where I am, actually," he says.

"I see. Then, I'll get to the point. I've some questions about it. I would like you to drop by my office and discuss it with me."

Kagawa casts a glance back towards Kano Sugimura, still huddled up against the wall. "Why, exactly, do you want to talk about it?"

"I've got a hunch."

"Care to elaborate?"

"I will. Once we've spoken at my office. Goodbye, Officer Kagawa." The line goes dead.

Kagawa stares down at his phone. "Your kids are gonna kill me one of these days, Akihiko," he whispers.

##

A/N: Back in action! Thanks for reading! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

Oh, and also, Happy New Year! I hope 2019 is a great one for you!