This is a shorter chapter. I've actually had this sitting around for several months, but... well, read the bottom.
"What the…?"
Akira's voice trails off. The room around him darkens, accompanied by a familiar unsightly green hue. This was… impossible. It wasn't even close to midnight yet!
But the sensation was the same. A looming sense of dread and the unnatural feeling that the world around him has gone completely still.
Akira looks back to Akechi, holding a small green crystal index finger and thumb. "Fascinating little trinket, isn't it?" he asks coyly.
The brunette rolls the crystal between his fingers, fixated on its hypnotic glow. "We've found several of these crystals among some of the ruins. Interestingly, most—if not all—of these had ties to the Kirijo Group." His gaze moves from the gem and back to Akira, raising an eyebrow, "but that doesn't mean much to us, now does it?"
Ignoring the question, Akira asks one of his own. "What is that?"
"I'm not entirely sure of its nature," Akechi admits, placing the item back in its spot within the briefcase. "It's not entirely the same as the phenomenon that occurs at midnight and only has a meager range, but the differences are negligible in these circumstances."
The briefcase closes with a resounding clap. The latches close and the green disappears; with it, their pocket of the world around them resumes. Nothing but their memories serve as evidence of what happened a few moments ago.
"Now, Joker," Akechi greets the Phantom by his codename with a drawl, "why don't you have a seat?"
No other option is present. If he knows who and what he is, he'll be dead the moment he walks out that door.
If he walks out that door.
Akira sits across from Akechi, hands folded and legs crossed with a blank expression. The brunette seems pleased, taking another long sip of his beverage before speaking again.
"You weren't hard to find, you know?" Akechi asks, indirectly answering the question at the top of the boy's mind. "I noticed the box you left had a melted lock. That alone wasn't enough to be suspicious but some of the relief efforts noticed a fence not far from here also appeared to have been damaged. And I don't think you could have done that with a blowtorch with dozens of people around."
"You're only given reasons to be suspicious of the Phantom," Akira points out. "Nothing implicates Akira Kurusu to anything so far."
"Oh?" Akechi raises an eyebrow. "Tell me, how many people do you know have cats nowadays?" he asks, his gaze turning to the feline at the corner of the room trying his best to appear as an innocuous pet. "It's nice to see you again—Mona, was it?"
Mona opens his mouth to speak but a silent glare from Akira tells him to keep his mouth shut. Instead, his only response was a silent glare digging daggers into the boy, a response that seemed to amuse him more than anything.
"Truth be told, I wasn't entirely certain it was you," he admits with a light-hearted shrug. "Connection to the Okumura's potentially giving you information of some of our shipments, living in the area that was attacked, and even having a rare cat whose coat matches the creature I saw—all those things would have been coincidental." He gently taps the briefcase, "so I brought a little test with me."
If he becomes a coffin, he was a normal human that no longer warrants attention. Persona users, on the other hand, remain completely aware…
"And if Akira Kurusu was a persona-user, he and The Phantom were one and the same," Akira concludes. Akechi nods in response. "If you think I'm telling you anything—"
"You don't need to," Akechi interrupts in a matter-of-factly tone. "Only reason why you've lasted this long is we thought you were a group of young anarchists. I noticed one of your operations some time ago had another member get into an altercation with another man, resulting in a notable leg injury."
Akira's composure breaks as his eyes widen. "Oh, crap…"
"Ryuji Sakamoto, I believe," Akechi pauses for a moment in thought. "As you both attend the same school, it was easy for me to find your circle of friends. Ann Takamaki, Yusuke Kitagowa, and most surprisingly, Makoto Niijima. How did you accomplish that last one? I wonder what her sister would think if I gave her the same test I gave you."
Akira mentally sighed. He doesn't know about Futaba. At least there was one saving grace in this.
Wait, Futaba! For once, this girl's habit of invading his privacy is the best thing he could ask for. If he was testing him, then the others might still have a chance.
Good, no one else is paying for his mistakes. He can die in solace knowing that.
"Why are talking to me?" Akira asks. "I doubt you're here to recruit me."
"I know who you are and your friends. I didn't say I told anyone else."
Akira blinks, giving a flat expression. "What an amazing answer to the question I didn't ask."
"I don't care," Akechi admits with a shrug. "Shido, this city, Yaldabaoth—I don't care for it, truly. I told Okumura what I had to. You could say in this city, we're both wild cards."
The statement baffles Akira. One of Yaldabaoth's two persona users doesn't even care? The hell kind of recruitment process do they go through that basic loyalty isn't tested and absolute?
"You're hitting too many of Okurmura's shipments. They'll see him and his inability to protect his goods as a liability soon, and your friend will be left to the wolves," Akechi raises his cup only to see that it was empty, earning a disappointed sigh. "I can tell you where else you can steal from to help allay their suspicions. How ironic that it's my persona that is named Robin Hood."
Robin hood? Was there an old-world story behind that name? Akira could ask Sojiro about it after—if there is an after.
After all, there is still one part missing in this arrangement. "And in return?"
"I'll ask for you to meet me from time to time."
"And what?" Akira scoffs. "I'm not stealing kittens. Or candy. Know where I can get any of that last one?"
"You'll just have to wait and see." Akechi stands, dragging the briefcase off the table. "See you next week in Shibuya," he says, walking to the door. Swinging it open, he looks back with that taunting grin, "we wouldn't want to get your friends involved, would we?"
The question seems to jog a memory in the boy. "Oh, I almost forgot," Akechi reaches into his pocket and tosses a small disk onto the table that Akira was still seated at. "Not the first bugged building I've been in. Courtesy of Wakaba's daughter, I assume," Akechi grins, "There's no need to involve anyone else in our accord, is there?"
He doesn't wait for an answer. With what Akira could only assume was a silent warning, Akechi leaves the boy to his thoughts. Akira remains focused on the disk in front of him.
What does he do, tell the others and try going into hiding? Can he do that to Ryuji's mom? Makoto's sister? Ann's family? Move away and change his name, pretending nothing ever happened.
Of course, he can't. He can't and Akechi knows it. What happened to them, his family disowning him, and now his friends are in danger because of him—once more, life does its best to deal him the worst hands possible.
"Akira?" Mona calls out his name, trying to reach out to the boy who has been sitting there for the past few minutes in silence. "What are we doing?"
Akira stands up, tossing the disk somewhere to the side where it makes a metallic thud on impact with the floor.
One week was all he had to get ready. There's only one thing he knows in Shibuya that would be worth calling him there for. Dangerous but no one said that protecting his friends was going to be easy.
Through it all, an image of a familiar butterfly pierces its way through the forefront of his mind, casting aside and drowning everything else. It urges him to go on, to play this boy's game. Play the game, learn the rules and when the time is right, seize the moment and win.
Lupine hunches beside a withered tree, panting heavily in an attempt to catch his breath. Endless hours of laborious movement aren't doing his body any favors. Using one of his items is a tempting thought but ultimately decides against it. His body almost gave up in his last fight; he can't risk being unprepared for the next one.
But his time is getting shorter by the second. Does he know? Of course, he does; this assignment is either a death sentence or a test to see if he can still be useful. Bastard.
Finding Arisato after he teleported away to an unknown location was an almost impossible task.
In theory, anywhere he had been in his entire life is a potential location he could be. If Minato were the sentimental type, then there were a handful of locations that Lupine could estimate. None of them are close.
Then there's the matter of the girl…
If deciphering his current location is impossible or if arriving was infeasible, then perhaps he should instead consider where he will go instead. That child following him is a boon, in a sense. The Dark Hour would render her an immobile coffin. Of course, if he is to be believed, then the threat of the full moon will be at the top of his mind.
He doesn't have long. With what happened at the girl's home, it is unlikely he will trust strangers to care for her but his options are limited. Even with him away, he has to think she may still be a target.
Something that can protect her during the Dark Hour and that he has some semblance of trust. He won't go back to his friends—he can't. But there is one that may meet his criteria. It may not be his first choice but with his limited options, it's likely the only one he has.
Fortunately, the redheaded dullard makes a lot of noise. Their paths diverged but Sho is drawn to shadows and Nyarlathotep's daemons like a moth to a flame; the trail he leaves behind is hard for an amateur to miss.
What would Yamato do with the girl? With luck, he won't care what happens to her.
Wishful thinking—foolish and naive; he's seen what he does—to him, to Rin…to Sakura.
Lupine glances at his female companion; mask off and hood down, revealing bright green eyes and letting her raven locks fall free from their confinement. Rin is content to let him think for both of them, taking the time to brush her hair without a care.
"Never again," he promises himself. Lupine forces himself back on his feet, his body aching with every movement. If he were to wait for the pain to fade he would be waiting eternally; he has a job to do.
I know what some of you are thinking. "Why the hell has this idiot been?"
To put it bluntly, life hasn't been kind. I've been spending the year helping care for a family member who has just now recently passed from cancer. Combining this with my own internal struggles such as my depression and adjusting to the fact that I'm believed to have been an undiagnosed autistic my entire life, I wasn't in the writing mood. I tried writing for Death From Within since it's by far my most popular story and shelving OaC for a bit but I was getting nowhere.
I can't say when I'll update anything. I miss writing and everything but I'll need to try and get my affairs in order.