She wanted to murder him.

It wasn't exactly a new feeling to Haru Okumura. She'd felt the desire to kill and maim before, but that was always in a Palace or Mementos. There was something so sweet to see a Shadow beg and plead for its life before denying them that mercy.

She relished it.

But a person? An actual human being? No. Whenever the idea so much as crossed her mind, specifically with her "fiance", Sugimura, she shuddered at the thought. Not even he, as disgusting as he was, deserved that.

This was different.

Goro Akechi was no man. He was a monster.

He had killed so many people.

He murdered Kunikazu Okumura - her father - with his own hands. He'd done it mere moments after they'd changed his heart.

She still remembered when Akira had informed her of the plan to work with him on the rooftop of Shujin.

"I won't," Haru said, no room for argument in her voice.

Akira shook his head. "I don't like it either. Trust me, nothing would make me happier to tell him to take a hike, but we need him if we want to help Sae-san. But if you refuse to join us, he'll realize something is up."

"Do you know what you're asking me, Akira?" She stepped closer and looked up at him, a fire burning in her eyes. "You're asking me to work with the man who murdered my father."

"I know. Trust me, more than anything, I know."

"And then what? He walks away? Remove the one official obstacle that stands in his way and let him keep murdering people?"

"Of course not," Akira snapped. He took a deep breath to collect his thoughts and said, "Listen. I have a plan. Futaba is helping me with it as we speak. If it all goes alright, not only will Niijima-san not die, but Akechi and his benefactors will be off our backs and we'll have a new, far greater ally on our side."

"I still-"

"But this only works if he doesn't suspect a thing," he stressed. He held his hands out. "We need everything to be hunky dorey in Phantom Thief land."

Haru looked her friend and leader up and down. Every fiber in her being was telling her to shoot down the idea once again, but what he said made sense. If she didn't join in on every step of the journey to track down her father's "real" killer, Akechi would immediately know something is wrong.

Then he'd crawl into whatever hole he spends his time and never come out. She couldn't have that.

"Look," Akira said, a pleading look in his eyes, "if you know of a way we can do this without working with him, to do all of this, then believe me, I'm all ears. I just don't see another way."

Haru frowned. "That's because there isn't."

Akira didn't look entirely pleased that she agreed with him.

"Fine." She turned around and began walking away. "I'll help. I'll make sure he doesn't suspect a thing."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Haru."

"But when the time comes, when he is beaten at our feet? I'm going to kill him."

Akira was frozen in place as Haru turned back to look at him. The fire in her eyes hadn't died down. "I'm not asking. I'll guarantee he never hurts anyone again."

She didn't wait for his response as she left the school roof.

That's what should have happened. She'd been prepared to kill Akechi, doubly so after hearing that he was so willing to throw away whatever bond he and Akira were starting to form.

Her axe was sharpened. It yearned for blood. Real blood, human blood. One human's blood, to be specific. It would not be quenched with these mere Shadows, no. It demanded Goro Akechi's.

The plan was a success, although just barely.

They changed Niijima-san's heart without having to steal her treasure, then gave Akechi the slip. Whatever Akira had told Niijima-san in the interrogation room worked. He was able to convince her to help get him out of that room and home safely.

It was so close to failure, however. He was beaten half to death and as a result, was left unconscious for two days afterward. Even when he woke up, it was clear that he wasn't yet at 100%. Shido's Palace took nearly twice as long to work through because of it.

Naturally, Haru had to watch as Akechi went on a press tour about how he was only pretending to claim the Phantom Thieves were innocent of Okumura's death and by extension the mental shutdowns earlier in the year.

Akira never made a comment about it, but Haru could tell it was affecting him more than just physically. He carried on, however. Working his way toward the day when they would have to confront Akechi.

That day came sooner than they expected.

Akechi got the drop on them right after they had gotten all five membership cards. First, he explained exactly why he was doing what he was doing. His connection to Shido, his goals and motivations. Shido was his father and had left his mother and him to die. After that, when Akechi had learned of his powers, he sought out Shido in an attempt to kill him.

It was the first crack in Haru's perception of him. It didn't dampen her hatred for him, but at the same time, she felt a tug toward him, a familiarity. She cared deeply for her own father, but she was well aware of his faults and failings, especially in the end.

He unleashed two psychotic Shadows before jumping in himself.

As soon as he morphed from his princely attire into that black mask, Haru knew exactly what needed to be done. He needed to die.

As Akechi slashed at Joker with his red blade, leaving a long and bloody scar across his chest, Noir readied her grenade launcher and fired at his feet. The explosion launched him into the air, giving Joker the chance to summon Arsene and send a flurry of claw strikes.

The wall behind him bent and almost crumpled like paper as he slammed into it. His sword dropped from his hand and blood poured down over his exposed eye. Despite all of that, Akechi stepped out of the indentation and walked forward on wobbling feet.

Noir brandished her axe, wiping sweat from her brow. At her side, Joker gritted his teeth and held his knife close.

"Ready to call it quits?" Skull called out behind them.

Panther spoke a small prayer. "Please be ready to call it quits…"

Akechi snarled, his eyes wide and crazed. They were focused on a single point, the urge to kill and maim painted clear as day. It sent a chill down Noir's spine. It resonated with her in a very uncomfortable manner.

He took three steps forward, his teeth bared… then collapsed to one knee. He coughed up some blood and shook his head. "Yes… Damn you… Damn you all…"

A collective sigh of relief passed among the Phantom Thieves.

Joker turned around, placing his knife back in his jacket. "We're done here. Let's go."

"Are you sure we should just leave him here?" Queen asked.

"He won't be a problem anymore."

"So lucky… all of you…"

The Thieves turned to look at Akechi, struggling to stay on one knee. He glared up at them, the hatred still etched onto his face.

"You have your teammates… your friends… there to support you… to stop you from falling." He let out a rueful laugh. "You'll be heroes, you know. After Shido confesses his crimes. Then the truth of all my ill deeds will come out as well and I'll have nothing once again… All the trust and fame I've built up will just vanish as if it never existed in the first place."

Noir's lip ticked upwards in disgust. He was still so focused on his fame and what the public thought about him.

"You've done that yourself," Joker said firmly, though not without sympathy. A sympathy that, as much as it pained her to admit, she was beginning to feel as well.

Akechi snorted. "I suppose I have."

"All that power you gained could have been used for good," Fox noted idly. "Instead, you merely used it for your own self-benefit. You could have been a real hero had you not been blinded by your own hatred."

"You have the same powers as Joker, but because you never let yourself in, you only have two," Oracle added. "One for your hate, and one for your lies."

"Alone, you would have beaten any single one of us." Joker shook his head, his lips pursed in frustration and anger. "But that's the point. We're not alone."

The words seemed to have done more harm to Akechi than any attack dealt out today. He sat there, slack-jawed, as the crippling realization began to sink in.

Joker turned and began walking away. "C'mon. We have a calling card to make."

As the rest began to follow Joker's lead, Noir remained planted, staring at Akechi. The grip on her axe tightened.

She should want to kill him. She does want to kill him. He was defenseless and beaten, it would be the easiest thing in the world. A lazy swing is all it would take.

But as she stared down at him, as tears began to hit the floor beneath him, all the hatred and rage and burning desire for vengeance slowly washed away, only for a vague sense of pity to remain.

She stepped up to him, her axe in hand, and she slipped off her mask. The single exposed eye of Akechi glanced up at her, red and puffy from the tears he was shedding. He looked her up and down and spat out a wad of blood to the side.

"What do you want? Expecting me to beg for forgiveness?"

She shook her head. "I have none to give."

"Noir!"

She looked back at Joker. He stepped forward and said, "Don't do it."

Akechi looked between them and smiled. "Oh. That's what you want. Then what are you waiting for? Get it over with…"

"It would be rather inconvenient if you keep getting in our way…" Haru said, lifting her axe.

"Stop!" Joker cried out again, already preparing to race forward to intercept, but the injuries sustained during the fight caused him to take a knee.

The smile on Akechi's face grew as Haru prepared to bring her axe down on him… only for it to drop when she simply tossed it to the ground.

"Vengeance. Hatred. It consumed you, Akechi," she said softly. "It was consuming me. I wanted nothing more than to kill you. But killing you won't bring back my father."

She crouched down in front of Akechi and met his stunned gaze. "You're a killer. A monster, even. And that's because of the choices you made. But rather than trying to help you away from that path, you're father only saw another tool to use, abuse, and discard. This is your chance, Akechi-kun. Help up stop your father from turning someone else into his weapon."

Despite every fiber in her being still wishing for you to reach out and wring his scrawny neck, she settled with simply reaching out a helping hand.

The look on Akechi's face would have broken her heart had it come from anyone else. No one had ever bothered reaching out to him before. Was this the first choice he was ever given, the first choice he could truly make?

As he reached out to grasp her hand, a small spark of hope began to kindle in her chest. Perhaps Akechi wasn't too far gone. Perhaps, through a lot of turmoil and effort, he could overcome his past and his own personal demons.

That hope was dashed when he pushed her away as a gunshot rank out. Haru fell onto her rear as all eyes whipped to the side.

Standing there, a vacant expression on his face, was none other than Goro Akechi himself. Instead of his current dark attire, he wore his standard beige suit jacket. In his hand was a small, semi-automatic pistol.

"Another one?!" Fox cried out.

"That's Shido's cognition of Akechi!" Morgana proclaimed.

Cognitive-Akechi cast a lazy glance toward the Phantom Thieves. "I'll deal with the rest of you later."

Pulling the hammer of the pistol back, he turned his attention back to Akechi. "As for you… Captain Shido has ordered you to be dealt with. He has no need for losers. I mean, you were always going to be disposed of, but I will admit this does move the schedule up a bit."

"What?!" Akechi cried out. He tried to get to his feet, but the pain sent him back down to one knee. He hissed between his teeth and shook his head. "But I-?!"

Cognitive-Akechi chuckled, an empty and hollow sound. "What does one do with a tool once it no longer serves a purpose? They dispose of it. Why should you be any different?"

"No wonder Akechi's all kinds of messed up," Skull said, "Especially if this is what his freakin' father thinks of him!"

"Father?" Cognitive-Akechi's eyebrows lifted with understanding. "Ah. That explains it."

"You…" Akechi growled but stopped short of a curse. A rueful laugh passed his lips as he painfully got to his feet. "You're the deterrent, aren't you? You're what is stopping me from just ripping through this entire Palace and slicing Shido's throat. He creates a puppet just to kill me?"

"Naturally. Although, of the two of us, I'd say you're the real puppet here."

"What did you just say to me?" Akechi whirled onto the fake, but the sudden movement almost caused him to fall. It was only with an indescribable will that he stayed on his feet.

"All you ever really wanted was to be acknowledged. To be loved. You can tell yourself that the only reason you ever came to Shido was to kill him for abandoning you and your mother to your fates, but that's not true and we both know it. After everything was done, after all of the bodies were buried, you wanted him to lay a hand on your shoulder and say three little words."

A smile spread itself ear to ear on the fake Akechi, its eyes going wide with madness and cruelty.

"'Well done, son.'"

Akechi was rendered speechless. Haru could tell that the cognition was speaking something that was painfully close to the truth.

So, in response, Haru pulled out her grenade launder and aimed it directly at Cognitive-Akechi. "I'm going to ask you to step away from him, please."

The fake regarded her with only mild interest. "Do you want me to deal with you first, little girl?"

"Okumura?" Akechi hissed. "What do you think you are doing?"

"Noir?" Joker called out.

"It doesn't matter if you're what Shido thinks of Akechi-kun," Haru said, stepping forward. "He's done many things wrong, but Shido? He took a young boy in desperate need of guidance and turned him into his weapon. I'll gladly put aside whatever differences I have with Akechi-kun to help him take down his father."

Akechi stood there, looking at Haru, his jaw practically on the floor.

Haru focused on Akechi. "It's not too late. We can change his heart together!"

Behind her, the other Thieves cast questioning glances to each other… until Joker slipped the knife from his coat and stepped up next to Haru. "This is your chance, Akechi. Will you join us?"

Beside him, Skull pulled out his barbed-wire bat and rested it on his shoulder. "Hell, we took down the real Akechi. What's some fake going to do?"

Panther pulled out her uzis and pointed them directly at the fake Akechi. "I may not like the guy, but I'm not going to let you hurt him!"

"For everything Shido has done, you will pay dearly," Fox proclaimed, leveling his katana.

Queen pulled out her revolver. "I don't have a quip for you. I think I'll just shoot you in the face."

Oracle disappeared into Prometheus and proclaimed, "Alright, guys, we're tired, low on healing items, and we just fought a major boss battle already. But I'll pour all the buffs into you as I can, sound good?"

The fake Akechi scanned all the weary and wounded Phantom Thieves. Despite the grueling battle with the real Akechi, none of them looked ready to drop to the ground just yet. Perhaps it was calculating its odds of survival.

The smile that spread across its face sent a chill down Noir's spine and put heed to any notion that this would be an easy fight. It snapped its fingers in the air, materializing behind it four extremely powerful Shadows.

Suddenly all the defiance drained out of Noir. There was no way they could stand up to all of them. To her left, she heard Joker let out a curse.

"All of this talk of teamwork is starting to irritate me." It looked back towards Akechi and gestured towards the Thieves. "I'll give you one last chance to make up for your failures. Kill them. All of them. Then I'll see if the captain can find it in his heart to feel merciful."

Akechi swept his gaze across the Phantom Thieves, narrowing on Joker. The look in his single revealed eye was still one of hate, but at this point Noir wasn't sure if it was directed towards Joker or himself.

When he finally fell on Noir, they only locked eyes for a brief moment, no more than a second. In that second, he had made a choice.

He shook his head and laughed. "I've been such a fool, haven't I?"

His posture went rigid, he pulled out a handgun and aimed it directly at Joker.

The fake Akechi laughed and clapped its hands together. It was perhaps the first time it sounded like it was feeling genuine joy. "Excellent! Yes! That's what our captain wishes to see!"

Akechi's gaze hardened… and his lips curled in a grin. "Don't misunderstand, you fraud. You're the one that's going to disappear!"

It all happened so quickly. Akechi whipped around, pulled the trigger, and shot the fake Akechi directly between the eyes. Before the body even hit the ground, he turned and fired past the Thieves.

The alarm overhead began blaring and a large bulkhead door closed between them and Akechi, trapping him on the other side with the four powerful Shadows. "What the shit?!" Ryuji shouted, stepping back at the sudden impact.

" Get out of here, you idiots! " Akechi's voice shouted from the other side.

"Akechi-kun!" Haru shouted.

Joker slammed a fist on the bulkhead door. "Goro! The hell do you think you're doing?!"

"I don't think I gave you permission to use my name, Kurusu. I can't hold these things for long. So do what you should have done in the first place and just leave me! Just promise me one thing. Change that bastard's heart. Make him pay for everything he did to me!"

A large object slammed into the bulkhead door, rattling it. Queen shook her head. "He's right, we need to leave now, Joker."

"We don't leave people behind," he fired back. "Never."

Panther stepped up and rested a hand on his shoulder. "He's made his choice. The only thing we can do is respect it."

Joker gritted his teeth. Noir could tell the idea of leaving anyone behind, even a sworn enemy like Akechi, was weighing heavily on him.

She placed her hand on the bulkhead. Before today, she would have been thrilled at the prospect of leaving Akechi to his own fate, but now? All she could really feeling is a sense of pity and regret.

She almost became exactly like him. Consumed with revenge, willing to take a life. Perhaps Akechi didn't deserve the chance at atonement they were offering, but who were they to judge?

"Akira," Haru said quietly. "Let's go. Please."

Akira's eyes flicked over and looked her up and down. She was tired. They were all tired. No matter what he wanted to tell himself, he was tired too. And he knew that. They needed to get out of the Palace as quickly as they could and Akechi had just bought them precious minutes. Maybe even less.

He didn't say anything. He just turned around and stormed out of the engine compartment. The rest of the team followed without a word. The trek back to the entrance would be a quiet one.

Haru cast a last look towards the bulkhead. She could vaguely make out the sounds of battle behind them. Akechi was willing to die to give them the chance they needed. Was it because he already knew there was nothing left for him afterward? It's not really her place to say.

For the first time in Akechi's life, he made a choice that was entirely his own. And she almost took that away from him.

Another slam on the door knocked her from her thoughts.

"Au revoir, Akechi-kun."

She turned on her heel and quickly left the battle behind.

She thought about Akechi a lot as the years passed.

Did he turn over a new leaf? Was the ever-present specter of death influencing his decision? Or was it just a last bit of spite being thrown in Shido's face?

He was dead, so she couldn't ask him.

Even after all this time, there were still moments where she regretted not being the one to end him. She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind with effort.

Logically she knew that was the wrong thing to do. The past was the past. Vengeance wasn't the answer, no matter how sweet it would have tasted in the moment.

But it left her with no closure. True, he was dead. Shido was in prison for the rest of his life. They couldn't hurt anyone ever again.

Strangely, that didn't feel like it was enough. Like they deserved more punishment for what they did.

During these times, she would sit on her patio with a cup of coffee in hand and look out to the cityscape, pondering the question constantly in her mind.

What if she had killed Akechi? Would the fake Akechi have just shot them dead instead? Would they get the chance to even send the calling card to Shido in the first place?

On those days, she found sleep difficult to come by.