CHAPTER 17:
CRIMES AND COUNSELLOR
With Futaba having trusted Harry enough to allow him to help clean her room, Sojiro reluctantly allowed Harry to enter the Sakura house, as long as he was given prior notice by Futaba and no funny business was involved. Harry found the older man's repeated assumptions irritating, but the old curmudgeon was at least softening his stance towards Harry significantly. Besides, Sojiro was concerned for his daughter's welfare, and was truly grateful to Harry to saving her from her own self-destructive impulses.
The upshot was, Harry was now trusted to buy stuff for her, usually food, electronics, or collectables. She avoided going out during the school week, to avoid accusations of truancy, but Harry, being European, avoided most such scrutiny. That, and 'online schooling' helped waive a lot of concerns of those who did ask questions.
Which was why he was sitting with her in her room as they ate lunch which he bought for her. "So, I managed to hack Madarame's email account, the one he gave me the address for. Found nothing incriminating, he clearly uses that purely for his public correspondence. Honestly, if we didn't know what we did with his Palace and the online rumours, I'd say he was the real deal, a humble, if well-connected, artist," Futaba said. "I'm guessing that, if he uses an email account for anything dodgy, it's another one, and probably under a pseudonym. That being said…I did find something that has me worried."
"And that is?"
"I found out who Yusuke's mother was," Futaba said. "It took a lot of digging, but her name was Kotome Kitagawa(1)." She headed over to her computer, and pulled up a photo of a beautiful, if rather delicate-looking woman. Harry noted the similar features to Yusuke Kitagawa. But then, he realised something else. "She looks familiar. I mean, she looks a bit like Kitagawa, but…"
Futaba smirked, before she pulled up an image of the Sayuri. Harry's eyes widened. While the painting looked like some of the more traditional Japanese artwork, he did notice a resemblance. "The portrait is that of Kotome Kitagawa," he hissed.
Futaba nodded, her expression becoming solemn. "Kotome was apparently someone to watch in a certain art school, until she was embroiled in a scandal involving an affair with one of the teachers, though I'm willing to bet it wasn't that consensual. He dumped her when she fell pregnant, and her parents disowned her. I'll say this for my grandparents, they didn't disown my mother at least when she fell pregnant with me. But for Kotome, it was another matter entirely. The stress of all that, plus her pregnancy, wreaked havoc on her health. Madarame took her in, as he had begun to tutor her privately beforehand. Remember what I told you about my own Mom. Bastard children are not looked upon well in Japan. However, three years after giving birth to Yusuke, she had a severe epileptic seizure and died before Madarame could call the emergency services. That being said…it was about a year later that Madarame first showed off the Sayuri. Now, it's perfectly possible it is a legitimate painting by him, done with his favoured protégé as the subject…but what worries me is that she actually painted it as a self-portrait, and he took the credit."
"…Son of a bitch," Harry murmured. "But we don't know that for sure, right?"
"Right. So we'll have to do more expeditions into his Palace," Futaba said. "What's more, I've been messaging Mishima, albeit under my usual alias of Alibaba. He's the kid who runs the Phan-Site. I've given him some pointers, and he's found a few interesting requests we should deal with in Mementos. But there's a few things I want to do in Mementos, for personal reasons."
"Like your uncle?"
"Like that tub of lard, yeah," Futaba said, coming over to squat next to him on the bed. "We've confirmed he's in Mementos somewhere, even if we might not be able to access the level he's on yet. Don't get me wrong, it's personal for me, but…if what Sae Nijima claimed is true, he's already making plans to take me away from Sojiro, all because he's a greedy bastard who's flushed money down the toilet by gambling and hoping to strike it rich!" She snarled in anger. "…What he did to me…he drew the line at molesting me, but otherwise, he was happy to treat me like a goddamned animal. He hated my mother, he was always jealous of her, and yet, when she died, he claimed I murdered her with glee. You know why I think he did that? Because it felt like he was doing it to Mom. Because it was one big fuck you to her, to torment me."
As she began to sob in her anger and upset, Harry gently placed an arm around her shoulders. She stiffened, before leaning into him. "We'll stop him, Futaba, one way or the other. I know Akira would be on board with stopping him, as would Sirius. Hopefully, Morgana, Ann and Ryuji will be too. And if your uncle decides to press the issue before we can find him in Mementos…well, Sirius and I know magic, outside the Metaverse, at least."
Futaba chuckled sadly. "Yeah. Hopefully, it won't come to that. But thanks for the offer." Futaba wiped her tears away, before she said, "I've also identified another target. Well, targets. They're definitely in Mementos. I dunno where, though."
"…Who are they?"
Futaba seemed to gather herself together. "…I dunno how I'm going to say this to the others. Akira and Morgana, I might tell, but Ryuji and Ann? Sirius? Honestly, I've known you longer, even if part of that was my Shadow. But she is part of me, so I guess she counts." She shrugged off his arm, and went over to her computer, squatting on the chair. "My Shadow and I have told you about Kana, right? In passing? She was pretty much my only friend. Everyone else was creeped out by my eidetic memory and my quirks. Kana greeted me every day until I finally greeted her back. We were friends…until one day, she dropped her diary, and I saw what was in it." She grimaced. "I didn't even mean to, but it fell open, and I saw it."
"…What was wrong?" Harry asked.
"…Her parents were making her dress in weird clothes for photoshoots. I…I tried to find out what happened, but she broke things off." Futaba looked away. "Mom and I would make Promise Lists for things we had to do…but until the day she died, I lied to her about making up with Kana. Her parents moved her out of that school, and before I could try to pluck up the courage to contact her again…Mom died."
"…How bad is it? I mean, with Kana?"
"…Bad. I looked Kana up recently. They basically turned her into a gravure idol, making her dress in stuff that is way too sexual for her age," Futaba said quietly. "Nothing actually outright pornographic, but it's getting close, and I'm worried that they'll start pimping out Kana next, if they haven't already. I've checked their names in the MetaNav. Kouta and Asami Magario. And they're definitely in Mementos."
"…Great," Harry said, feeling sick to his stomach. "Definitely worth a Change of Heart. Still…what worries me is that whoever was behind your mother's death, and whoever is behind these Mental Shutdowns, assuming they're not one and the same, are going to take notice."
"Yeah, those were my thoughts too," Futaba said. "In fact, I've been doing my own research on them. While some seem entirely random, more than a few have been exposing shortcomings in certain parts of the government. Over the past year or so, there've been a number of resignations from government posts. Last month, due to a supposed accident caused by a Mental Shutdown on the subway line, the Minister for Transport was forced to resign, as the carnage was made worse by faults caused by cutting corners. Someone is using the Mental Shutdowns as a means of influencing the government. Of course, pinpointing who and exactly why, I'm trying to figure out. But, well…let's just say I've got a lead. Not much of one, but one I might be able to follow up on."
"What's that?"
"I've been looking up any researchers into Cognitive Psience. I'll be honest, it hasn't really progressed well. Aside from my mother, a couple have died, and others were recruited by the Kirijo Group, and they've been tight-lipped about what they do behind closed doors for decades, even without taking what happened in 2009 into account. But there is one who, while publicly ridiculed and who has had their research taken away, is still alive."
"And who's that?"
"Mweheheheheh…" Chuckling that little gremlin laugh of hers, Futaba activated a window on her computer, showing an image of a brown-haired, glasses-wearing young man with a kindly, if slightly careworn, face. "Meet Dr Takuto Maruki. He's the counsellor that tub of lard Kobayakawa hired for Shujin to salvage the school's reputation. My mother actually corresponded with him once or twice, I think, but they were working separately in the same field. Maruki's research was purely academic, while Mom's research was partly funded directly by the government."
"Do you think he's part of whatever group murdered your mother, then?"
"…I don't think so. His research was ridiculed and taken away," Futaba mused. "I just think that whoever killed Mom didn't think him a big enough threat to murder. Mom may have been eccentric, but she held a lot more sway in academia. Maruki's work, while promising, was nowhere near her level, from what few abstracts I could get a hold of. They probably just took it away to ensure they had a monopoly on Cognitive Psience research. So, what I'm gonna do is, see if he's willing to act as a counsellor to me, and ask him a little about his work. I'll talk to Sojiro about it first. He wants me to find a counsellor, to help with my issues, and Sojiro knows about the Metaverse at least. This can be a 'two birds, one stone' kind of thing."
"Okay, Futaba, but be careful," Harry said. "We don't know if he actually does have links to those who murdered Wakaba."
"We'll work on it…"
After discussing it with Sojiro, the older man seemed reluctant to allow it. Not because he thought Futaba didn't need a counsellor, but anyone with a potential link to whoever murdered Wakaba could be dangerous. However, Futaba wore him down, as well as pointing out that they needed to ensure that their case against Youji was tight. Eventually, thanks to Akira being asked by text to provide Maruki's contact details, Maruki was called.
The counsellor agreed to come and see Futaba that very afternoon, after school, as he had no appointments. As it was a quiet afternoon at Leblanc, Sojiro reluctantly agreed to allow Maruki to hold the session in one of the booths. Indeed, Maruki arrived before Akira got home.
The man seemed completely pleasant as he arrived. Harry was reminded of Remus, given how diffident and pleasant and careworn he was. Greetings were exchanged, Harry using a Translation Charm to understand Maruki.
"I must admit, this was a somewhat unusual request," Maruki said to Sojiro. "Your daughter isn't going to Shujin Academy, after all. And while I have been acting as a freelance counsellor prior to this, becoming Shujin's counsellor hasn't given me much time for working outside of the school."
Sojiro harrumphed. "Shujin only really hired you to improve their reputation after that scumbag confessed."
"A fact I am painfully aware of," Maruki admitted. "Principal Kobayakawa strikes me as someone more concerned with appearances than his students' welfare, if you'll forgive me being rather unprofessional. And many of the students are rightly suspicious of me for that very reason. But I do genuinely wish to help people. I wish to lessen the pain the world is steeped in."
"Life is pain," Futaba remarked. "Anyone who tells you differently is selling you something."
Harry recognised the slightly paraphrased quote thanks to Hermione, and Maruki clearly did, for he laughed. "The Princess Bride, huh? How very true." And then, he saw the book Futaba had in her hand, and did a double take. "That's…isn't that on Cognitive Psience?"
"Uh-huh," Futaba said. "My…Mom, before she died, was a researcher in the field."
After a moment, Maruki's features softened. "…Dr Isshiki…you resemble her a little, around the face, and I thought your name sounded familiar. She and I corresponded for a time. Not for long, I was a rank amateur compared to her in the field, a dilettante, but…I know this is belated, and it may not have much meaning coming from me, a total stranger to you, but I'm so sorry for your loss."
"At least someone other than Sojiro is," Futaba muttered sullenly.
On Maruki's questioning look to Sojiro, the older man said, "They read out what was apparently Wakaba's suicide note to her and her relatives. Wakaba, in that note, blamed Futaba for driving her to suicide."
"They did that to a grieving young girl?!" Maruki snapped, mortified. "But that is…why did they do something so utterly appalling?! I…" He ran a hand through his hair, before composing himself. Harry noted that if it was an act, it was a pretty good one. "Sorry about that. As a counsellor, my job is to help relieve the suffering of people, not make it worse, so to hear of them do such a thing…"
"It's fine," Futaba said. "It took me a long time to come to terms with it, but I'm beginning to get better now. I've been following in my mother's footsteps a little, trying to understand what she's been doing."
"I see," Maruki said. "Well, how about we begin? Oh, but before we do, Mr Sakura, what would you recommend for me to drink?"
Over the next hour, Maruki and Futaba had a discussion, the gentle counsellor discussing matters, while Harry, in order to help Futaba's privacy, retreated upstairs. Akira and Morgana soon followed when they arrived back at Leblanc. Akira had been doing some study in the library with Makoto, while Ann and Ryuji were consulting with Mishima on some matter regarding the Phan-Site.
"She's been prying a little, and I have no doubt she is suspicious of us," Akira said, "but she's also being helpful as far as my studies are concerned. Her sister must've helped push her to help me. I see where Ryuji and Ann are coming from with the way they view her, but honestly, I think she's under a lot of pressure. My mother was like that in high school. Britain's education system isn't quite as high-pressure as it is in Japan, but she was eager to please and show off. But, well, events ground her down. Her first boyfriend was caught having an affair, her second was a rebound thing that broke up soon afterwards, and my father…he was on the verge of leaving us when I was put on probation, the assault accusation was just the last straw. My mother was the only one who tried fighting for me, and even then, it wasn't enough. She was a British-Chinese expat, after all, and there's still more than a little xenophobia in Japanese society."
"British-Chinese expat? No wonder you look fully Japanese with a British mother," Harry noted.
Akira nodded. "Yeah. Her maiden name was Chang. Cho Chang."
"…What?!" Harry all but yelped.
"You knew her?" Akira asked.
"…She was a Hogwarts student in my timeline, if they're the same person," Harry said. "I…used to have a crush on her. It didn't end well. Our relationship was rocky after her actual boyfriend died, and when one of her bitchy friends betrayed us, well, I kind of lost any crush I had on her…"
"…Well, that's awkward," Akira said, rubbing the back of his head. "But believe me, I know you weren't her previous boyfriends, she once told me their names. You're not gonna judge me by your version of my mother, are you?"
"…Why the hell should I? Cho wasn't bad, she just…had very poor taste in friends," Harry said. "Besides, this is a different timeline, isn't it? Sirius isn't in the criminal database in Britain, despite the fact that he was on the Muggle news back home. For all I know, if I have a parallel counterpart here, then he's probably evil, complete with goatee."
Akira laughed, while Morgana rolled his eyes. "I doubt that'd be the case, Harry," the so-called not-cat said. "Still, it's a weird coincidence, huh?"
"Yeah…"
CHAPTER 17 ANNOTATIONS:
Awkwarrrrd.
I wanted to show Harry and Futaba still doing some bonding, hence the discussion about her uncle and Kana. Maruki making an early appearance at Leblanc was just something that grew out organically from that. I wanted to bring in Maruki sooner rather than later, and I felt this worked, as Futaba has been motivated to begin investigating her mother's death sooner.
Maruki is second only to Naofumi Iwatani from The Rising of the Shield Hero in my favourite roles of the late Billy Kametz, and it's easy to see why. He's one of the most sympathetic villains in Persona 5, let alone all of gaming. Whether he can be dissuaded from his course remains to be seen, but hopefully, you guys enjoyed this.
As for making Akira's mother an AU version of Cho Chang, I didn't actually plan that originally. I had a notion that his mother was an alternate version of a Potterverse character, but Hermione and Luna didn't quite work, as they would've fought more against Akira's conviction. But then, I remembered Cho Chang, who lacks a certain amount of backbone in some regards. She's not a bad person by any means, but given the way she defends someone like Marietta Edgecombe, she would have probably folded when Shido's spiteful lawsuit was brought against her son.
Now, before I get onto the review-answering, I should bring up a few things. This will be the last chapter for a while, possibly until I do a mass-update in December. The next chapter is already written, covering Yusuke's Awakening, but aside from that…well, you might get it early if I manage to finish another chapter prior to Christmas. No promises, though.
However, before I leave you guys to enjoy what I've written so far, I should point out (as some shameless plugging) that I've written a number of oneshots for Halloween. I did a Potterverse crossover with Persona's parent franchise, Shin Megami Tensei, called 100 New Friends and More, a Sekiro crossover with Bloodborne called Jinroh, a Final Fantasy XV crossover with The Dark Tower called 2 Men of No Consequence, and, for all you chooms who want to see Adam Smasher get his comeuppance, there's a Cyberpunk crossover with a certain franchise…namely, Silence of the Lambs. It's called Boîte de Conserve, or 'Tinned Meat' for those of you who don't speak French.
In addition, there's a franchise I am putting serious consideration into writing a crossover for. I first had contact with this franchise years ago, but now, I'm getting into it enough to seriously consider writing a crossover. Probably with the Potterverse, in all likelihood, but it could be with something else.
Specifically, The Witcher.
Keep in mind, there's no guarantee that I will do such a fic, and I have other crossovers to consider, including Forgotten Realms (specifically The Legend of Drizzt), and further stories in Persona 5 and High School DxD, but The Witcher, based on either the games or the novels, is still a possibility.
Review-answering time! Yorae Rasantae: Makoto is not quite there yet, and we'll have a very different way of how the Kaneshiro arc begins. However, once the Nijima sisters have both had a reality check, Sae will indeed be doing a bit of digging. Also, keep in mind, Akira only suspects that Shido is the one who framed him for assault. He doesn't know for sure.
Aran Thule: Futaba doesn't have access to Madarame's other email accounts, the ones he uses for shady business. Madarame only gave her his public email, the one he uses for academic and media correspondence. Futaba may be a prodigy hacker, but I wanted to limit what she could do to a degree. A surprisingly large amount of hacking is actually what's known as 'social engineering', which actually really amounts to just tricking people into giving you access, like pretending to be tech support and asking for details, something I learned from Underground. And Futaba is mostly focused on learning more about Madarame's victims rather than looking into his finances.
1. Kotome was the second wife of Katsuhika Hokusai, and the mother of his most famous daughter, Ooi, who was an artist in her own right. I decided on this name for Yusuke's mother.