"GET DOWN!"

Joker's command was issued milliseconds before plumes of scalding fire shot over the heads of the Phantom Thieves. The leader thought he heard Morgana quipping something about how this was the reason thieves were supposed to be stealthy, but it was drowned out by the roaring flames above them. As soon as the attack dissipated the group of eight was back on their feet again, charging towards the exit to Masayoshi Shido's palace. The cruise ship rocked uncertainly, upset by the unprecedented number of guards that had been summoned to deal with the intruders fleeing through the main reception hall. It had been difficult enough maintaining their footing through the winding corridors while being pursued by a massive Cerberus without the palace itself listing one way or another at random. Dining tables were thrown aside by the group's pursuer, the lion's claws rending the ship's masked guests apart in a blind rage directed at its quarry. "Perhaps we pushed things too far," Yusuke noted, adjusting an unconscious Ryuji on his back as he fell in with Joker's gait.

"We'll make it at this pace! Keep going straight!" Futaba ordered, ignoring the complaints from her team. "Three coming in on the left!"

Joker motioned with a wave for Yusuke to take the center position in their group as he allowed himself to fall to the back. The three approaching shadows hadn't transformed yet, levelling batons and assault rifles in the general direction of the thieves. Any intention of requesting a surrender had been thrown out the window after the third or fourth infiltration of the palace. "Arsène!" Joker commanded.

He didn't stand by as his persona materialized behind him, hoping instead that he'd be able to create enough of a distraction to check the advance of his pursuers. Balls of cursed energy were flung from Arsène's long black fingertips, but the attack did little more than slow the shadows down. It was Joker's fault for not standing his ground with Arsène, but there was no time to start another fight. They would be down two members since someone would have to watch Ryuji, and there was no sign of the flow of enemies stopping anytime soon. Strong as his team was, their specialty was in quick ambushes, not all-out brawls. It was no coincidence that this sort of approach to combat had been hindered at every turn by Shido's cognitions.

One nightmare after another had confronted the thieves since they'd boarded the politician's self-perception of the Diet Building sometime over a week ago. Turning into mice Joker could deal with. Ambushes from guards were unpleasant but not uncommon in his line of work. It was the shadows that had fused with Shido's cognitions of his trusted aides that were making his life hell. Each one guarded a necessary introduction letter to reach the assembly hall where Shido's treasure waited, and each one had been far stronger than anyone on their team had anticipated to take down. It had been a mistake to attempt to tackle two of them in one palace visit, but their immovable election day deadline had motivated Joker to spur his team beyond their reasonable limits. But this wasn't the time for Joker to be cursing his decision-making. He could worry about how all the guards seemed to have learned their exact location after obtaining the fourth letter another time. Revising preparations and plans so they wouldn't have to be thrown out at the first sign of trouble like they were today could wait as well. Right now, Joker's only thought was of ensuring the safety of his team.

They'd tried to fight off the flow of shadows for a while, but the thieves were already exhausted from the battle they'd just endured. When Cerberuses had started pouring in from holes in the walls, Joker had seen no alternative but to flee. Unfortunately, Ryuji had been forced to buy time by holding off three enemies by himself while Futaba hacked open a door and the rest of the party handled their own individual battles. Joker's careless allowance for his teammate to bear an unreasonable burden was why Yusuke was now carrying their comrade to the exit rather than fighting off what should have been fodder for Goemon's ice-based attacks. With a grunt of effort, Joker fired back a few more curse attacks with Arsène, but it only infuriated the creatures behind them.

Fortunately, their destination was in sight. Noticing this, Makoto jumped on Johana and made a circle around the fleeing thieves, leaving a trail of blue fire behind her as she did. The crackling nuclear-based flames slowed down the Cerberus and its friends enough for the rest of the party to force the doors open and charge out onto the front deck of the ship. Their enemies stopped at the door, unwilling or unable to continue pursuing their prey through the fire. Makoto rode out behind the party and collapsed into Joker's arms, having completely exhausted the last of her strength with her final attack. "We're pulling out," Joker announced, tossing his phone to Futaba while he tended to Makoto. "Get us out of here."

Futaba said nothing, absorbed entirely with her task. Within a few seconds, the cruise ship around them faded away, leaving the Phantom Thieves out on the sidewalk next to the Diet Building in the late evening. Fortunately, nobody was around to see them collapse on the sidewalk, the first stroke of good luck they'd had since entering Shido's palace. "That… sucked," Ann managed to summarize as they all caught their breath.

Joker felt inclined to agree. Most of his friends were sprawled out on the floor or bent over trying to catch their breath from their impromptu marathon. Once he was certain Makoto could stand, he made his way over to the first friend he'd made in Tokyo. Yusuke had set Ryuji down against a pole and was shaking him lightly to see if he would wake up. The painter glanced up as Joker approached. "He seems to be unconscious," Yusuke informed him redundantly.

"Did you try slapping him?" Futaba asked from the ground. "Really hard?"

Yusuke raised his hand and did just that, smacking Ryuji hard across the face. "Ow! What the hell!?" Ryuji sat up instantly, wide awake. "Wait, where are we? Are we dead?"

"Being dead sounds nice," Haru commented from a nearby bench, still somewhere between being awake and asleep.

"We escaped," Akira summarized as he helped Ryuji stand. "Barely."

"It's my fault," Makoto spoke up, the only member of the team not leaning on something or laying down. "I should have identified the pattern in responses to us obtaining letters from these unique shadows. If I'd done something sooner then maybe-"

"Damn it!" Ryuji interrupted as he tried to put weight on his leg. "Feels like I broke it all over again. Hey, ain't our injuries supposed to heal and stuff? What the hell, Ann?"

Ann shook her head from the ground. "Don't look at me. I healed you perfectly. If you're still in pain that's your problem."

There was a pause as everyone took a moment to inspect Ryuji's leg while the delinquent looked away awkwardly. A gnarly bruise had formed on one of his legs near the thigh. While getting injured was an expected risk in their line of work, most injuries usually healed themselves or translated to exhaustion when they left the metaverse. A sense of unease crept over Joker as he looked at the injury. "I think I just tweaked it when running," Ryuji explained, pulling his leg away from everyone's view. "This happens sometimes if I overwork it. It's not something to get all worked up over."

"You should have informed us of this liability," Yusuke chastised, though his mind was clearly on taking in the colors of Ryuji's bruise rather than concern for his friend.

"Enough," Akira cut in before Ryuji could retaliate with his fists. "Ryuji, stay off your leg for a day or three. I think we all need a break from the palace before we go back in for the final letter."

"But what about the deadline?" Haru questioned. "We only have a few weeks to go."

"It can't be helped. We need a break," Akira insisted, asserting his role as the team's leader with more force than he would normally. As a team, they were supposed to make decisions about who to target as thieves unanimously. When it came to palace infiltration, however, Joker's word was law. This wasn't an explicitly defined rule, but having a central leader figure was essential to preventing issues in communication during their high-stakes operations. More importantly, it meant Akira was responsible for exerting control over when they did and didn't choose to strike, whether he felt that he should have that power or not.

"I agree," Morgana piped up from Akira's bag. "That was intense, even for me. We should take a few days to let our injuries heal and to let the palace cool off. Once Shido lowers his mental guard a bit, we can strike again."

There was no arguing with the resident Metaverse expert on these matters, and Joker gave his feline friend a grateful look for the back-up. One by one, the rest of the Phantom Thieves nodded their agreement with the new plan. With this decided, the group went their separate ways for the day after ensuring that nobody had any life-threatening injuries. Aside from Ryuji, nobody had experienced anything more than the expected exhaustion from their trip through the Metaverse. It wasn't a coincidence that nobody mentioned the lack of a ninth member might have had something to do with their recent difficulties. Perhaps it was that concern that inspired everyone to split into two groups rather than go their individual ways to attract attention. To Akira, it was another sign that everyone was more rattled than they were letting on, which only emboldened the voice within him insisting that he find a way to be more on top of things next time.

Yusuke allowed Ann, Makoto, and Haru to accompany him to his train station while Futaba and Akira helped Ryuji hobble to his own home. The delinquent insisted he would be fine and that crutches would keep him up and moving until he recovered. This of course prompted several taunts from Morgana that only failed to elevate into a fist fight because Ryuji couldn't stand on both feet long enough to take a good swing at Akira's backpack. Though Akira was suspicious of Ryuji's claims that he was actually fine, the fact that his friend was willing to take jabs at Morgana indicated that his spirit at least was undeterred. With a wave goodbye as Ryuji's apartment door closed, Akira resigned himself to trusting his friend. It was shockingly hard to follow people around when the general public expected you to be dead anyways.

After returning to Leblanc with Futaba and sleepwalking through his obligatory closing procedures with Sojiro, Joker found himself lying awake in bed, Morgana having wandered off somewhere. No matter what he tried to do, the day's infiltration kept replaying in his mind. It was sloppy, uncoordinated. Even their first infiltration of Kamoshida's palace had been more organized than what they were doing. Was it his fault? Perhaps. It was hard for Akira to say. He couldn't claim that his judgement was clear knowing that Masayoshi Shido was the reason he'd been stuck in Tokyo in the first place. The thought caused Akira to sit up in bed. "Stuck in Tokyo, huh?" he wondered aloud as his gaze wandered around the memorabilia in his room.

It had been a long time since he'd thought of himself as being stuck in Tokyo. Sometime between arriving and forming the Phantom Thieves he'd started to see Tokyo as more of a home than anywhere else he'd ever lived. Compared to his invisible life back home, he was a celebrity here, though the public would likely use a more negative connotation word for his fame. This likely had more to do with his obtaining of a persona than anything else he'd done, but it was nice to be needed somewhere he actually felt like he belonged. A message on Akira's phone startled him out of his thoughts. Ryuji had sent the group chat a picture of him using his crutches to turn on a television. It was blatant insistence that he was fine in his own way, but the sight still bothered Akira. Though he was sure that things would feel better in the morning, the pit in his stomach still refused to leave him alone. With some effort, he allowed the group to chat amongst themselves as he turned to bed. If he wanted to beat the early customers tomorrow, he'd have to sleep.

The smell of freshly brewed coffee pulled Joker out of his slumber. A lack of sunlight filtering through the window by his bed told him that Sojiro was brewing for himself rather than customers, meaning that he was smelling an unspoken offer for company at the breakfast table. Shaking the last fetters of yesterday's disaster away, Akira decided to take his guardian up on the deal. Slipping on a pair of shoes, he padded downstairs, only to pause when he realized that Sojiro wasn't alone.

"What are you doing, you're letting it sit for too long! You're gonna ruin it! Akira doesn't do that!"

"Shut up, kitty! I'm making it just like Sojiro showed me!"

"I definitely didn't show you how to do that. Just let me do it."

The scene Akira had stumbled into was something out of a sitcom. Futaba and Sojiro were wrestling over the coffee machine while Morgana ran circles around the countertop barking orders that only one of them could hear. Several mugs were already emptied in the sink, meaning that this endeavor had been renewed for several seasons of the same joke over and over again. Akira cleared his throat to break up the spat before it could escalate into warfare. He knew all too well that Futaba could and would make his life hell with hacking if she felt that he or Sojiro had offended her. All three chefs looked up sharply when Akira acted, a blush of shame appearing on two of their faces. "Sorry, did we wake you?" Sojiro spoke up as he took the coffee maker from Futaba's hands.

"No, you're fine," Akira lied. "I couldn't sleep anyways."

Futaba sighed as she retreated from the kitchen and sat at the bar with Morgana. "Same. I spent all night poring over what went wrong. It was like in Sae's palace but without outside interference. I should have been able to see it coming, but-"

"It's nobody's fault," Akira interrupted firmly, putting a hand on Futaba's shoulder. "We knew the risks going into this. After we give the palace some time to cool down we'll try again."

"That's the spirit!" Morgana agreed, having switched from nagging mode to normal housecat mode plus talking in record time.

"I can't say I fully understand, but it seems like you all had a rough go of things yesterday," Sojiro summarized. "Futaba here tried to sneak into the store to make coffee for you. She's lucky I caught her, otherwise you'd both be in real trouble."

Futaba took offense to this remark, huffing and looking away as she accepted the cup of coffee Sojiro had been brewing. Akira merely nodded his thanks as he took his own cup. "Well, it might not be helpful for me to say, but if things get tough, don't be afraid to come back here to rest. You can't do everything by yourselves. Even if I can't help much, I want to do what I can."

There was a pause as both Akira and Futaba drank their breakfast. "We're the only ones who can do this," Futaba spoke for both of them. "So whether we like it or not, we have to change Shido's heart."

"I know," Sojiro responded firmly. "I just… never mind. Don't stay here too long. I have to open up shop to keep up appearances. If you want to go out make sure you do it before then and don't come back until after closing."

"Thanks, Sojiro," Akira thanked as he took another sip of coffee.

"No thanks needed," Sojiro waved off as he headed out the door to finish getting himself ready for the workday. "Just take care of yourselves."

Things were silent between Futaba and Akira for a moment as they enjoyed their caretaker's brew. Akira had fortunately thought to grab a granola bar from his stash that he'd hidden from Sojiro before coming downstairs, which he split with Futaba as they contemplated the possibilities of a new day. "I have to get some stuff done today, so we'll reconvene for lunch," Morgana announced suddenly, breaking their silence.

Akira looked up, a raised eyebrow behind his glasses betraying his confusion. Morgana rarely left Akira's side when they weren't in the Metaverse. Though the cat did have his occasional flights of fancy by night, he'd been stuck closer to Akira than ever since Haru had joined the team. "Be careful," Akira warned as Morgana jumped off the countertop.

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Morgana scoffed as he jumped on the front door handle to open it. "You're the one who needs to be careful. I'll see you for my afternoon tuna." With that, Morgana exited, the front door slamming shut behind him.

Another awkward silence absorbed the café for a time. "Shouldn't you have stopped him?" Futaba finally asked as she stared at her empty mug.

"We all deal with these problems in our own way," Akira denied. "I can't tell you we're taking a few days off and then tell you how to relax."

Futaba shrugged. "I guess so. What are you gonna do then?"

Akira looked back towards his room. "Probably read. I doubt anyone's going to be out with all the snow coming down today."

This answer was wholly uninteresting to Futaba, a fact she poorly attempted to conceal with the look on her face. "Kay. If you change your mind and wanna go somewhere I'll be around. There's still some stuff on my list we need to do." With that, Futaba washed her mug and left Akira to his thoughts.

For a moment Akira considered going back on his word immediately and heading out into the world for the day. Odd as it was, he missed being able to go to school. It was rare that he was anything but ostracized and mistreated by everyone except his comrades there, but there was a sense of safety in that routine, like he was doing what was expected of him while also having the chance to rebel against it in his own way. It was the very system his will to rebel blazing within his manifested persona was summoned to lash out against, yet even he couldn't deny that the security of following the flow of society's river was hard to pass up. Now, he'd been completely cut off from the system, beyond the point of even being acknowledged as alive. Worse, he'd insisted that the only people who understood his frustration keep their distance for a while, ordaining that they live normally for a while to cover up their leader's ineptitude. Akira sighed as he approached the front door. Even this action sent chills all the way down to his toes. He wouldn't be leaving Leblanc this morning. By the time Sojiro returned to open up for the day, Akira had already closed himself off in his attic home.

It took some doing, but Akira eventually managed to lose himself in the book he'd bought from Akihabara a while ago. Simple things like reading, playing video games or watching DVDs became a lot harder to get to as his friend list had exponentially increased over the course of the year. The days of waiting around for something to happen after a successful palace infiltration were long gone. Each deadline was cut closer and closer as their heists had gone on, though Sae's calling card had been sent that way by design. Remembering Sae brought Goro Akechi to Akira's mind and caused him to frown. There were too many coincidences lining up in Shido's palace. Though Akechi should still think he'd succeeded in his assassination attempt of Akira, there was no way the detective prince wouldn't take notice of the increased activity in his boss's palace. Worse, he could be part of the reason that the shadow numbers were rising in the first place. If that were the case, it was unlikely he didn't know Akira was alive. The idea that this was true and he was still waiting to make a move bothered Akira more than he would have been willing to admit to anyone. "Don't think about it. He'll come to you eventually. You still have a duel to settle." These platitudes didn't sound much better outside of Akira's head than they did inside of it.

Time passed as these brooding thoughts mingled in Akira's mind with his reading. His book was a mildly interesting mystery novel about a man trying to solve the murder of his sister, but it failed to completely hold his interest. Real life had become strange to the point that traditional media felt like it was trying too hard. He wasn't about to complain about obtaining a persona, but being able to acknowledge the downsides was important too. The student didn't dare turn on his television for fear of attracting the curiosity of any customers Sojiro might have downstairs. Morgana didn't come back for the entire morning, meaning when Akira finished his book about halfway through the day he was in want of things to do. There was only so much time that could be filled by eating the rations that he'd set up for this specific purpose. Another hour was spent trying and failing to make lockpicks. While he didn't need them, he felt better when he was actually working on something rather than sitting around. Not having Morgana to bounce his thoughts off of was more of a detriment to his sanity than he expected. He ruffled through the various boxes in his room as quietly as possible, failing to find anything that held his attention for more than a few minutes. Every time he paused to think, his mind flashed back to the events of yesterday.

Staying here was clearly a mistake. Whatever capricious god had trapped his fate and intertwined it with this room was clearly enjoying themselves. His phone was silent, his friends either in school or too considerate to bother him for once. It was odd to miss the constant buzzing of his phone so dearly, but it was very apparent that Akira needed to be active right now. It was fortunate for him that Morgana finally decided to return at this time, appearing at his windowsill while he was considering how to escape his room without alerting anyone downstairs. "Where have you been?" Akira asked more irritably than he meant to.

"Exploring, patrolling, stuff," Morgana replied with much less bravado than Akira was used to. "I can see you've been busy."

"Can't seem to focus today," Akira admitted, cracking his neck as his eyes took in the form of his companion.

Morgana was washing himself on Akira's bed, something he'd warned the cat not to do countless times but couldn't seem to get him to concede on. The small patches of dirt on Morgana's fur told him he might have a decent enough reason for the transgression this time. More accurately, it meant Morgana was bothered by his failure too. "I messed up," Akira announced to the room, prompting Morgana to look up sharply.

"Is that what this brooding thing is about? You shouldn't be beating yourself up over that. Nobody could have predicted-"

"It's about how I handled it, not the alarm going off," Akira clarified as he sat on his couch. "If I'd organized our team better, Ryuji wouldn't have gotten hurt and we wouldn't have had such a close call."

"Ryuji got hurt because he's Ryuji. If you're not going to let the others beat themselves up over this, you shouldn't do it to yourself either," Morgana countered. "Just treat this like any other job, alright?"

That was impossible, and both parties knew that. Akira stared at his feet. "We can't afford failure," Akira pointed out. "I don't want to have to die for real. I'm doing everything I can to treat it like a normal job, but the pressure feels so much higher this time."

Morgana stopped cleaning himself and stretched out on the bed. "Is that really what your concern is though? That's not what it looked like to me in the palace."

Akira's frustration gave way to confusion. "What did it look like to you then?"

If cats could raise their eyebrows, Morgana definitely was doing just that right now. "You wanna know?"

A silence from Akira informed Morgana of his sincerity. The cat sighed. "You looked to me like you were completely lost in the moment. Drunk on freedom, or something like that. You almost seemed disappointed when we escaped, like you thought we could have taken them all on. It's not the sort of leadership I look to you for, honestly."

Akira was dumbstruck for a moment. "What are you talking about? I was focused on getting us out of there, nothing else."

Morgana shook his head. "I'm not doubting that. I'm just saying your personal stake in the matter might be clouding your judgement a bit. Your persona tried to attack that horde all by itself, didn't it?"

"I was buying time."

"Yes, you were."

"Then what exactly are you trying to accuse me of? If nothing else, I was focused entirely on doing my job."

Morgana turned away. "You're still Joker, even if something goes wrong during an infiltration. You belong here just as much as I do, you know that, right?"

It was odd how bluntly Morgana was speaking this afternoon, and Akira didn't like it. He was used to being the one to have to assuage the cat's insecurities, not the other way around. The air suddenly felt strangling to him, making him crave freedom. "Is anyone in the shop right now?" Akira asked instead of acknowledging Morgana's comment.

Morgana shook his head. "Nope. You can leave if you want. I-" Akira didn't give Morgana the chance to finish what he was saying.

Within a minute he was nodding to Sojiro as he made his way out the door. The mid-afternoon sun greeted him as he stepped into it, his hoodie shielding him poorly from both the shining star and the gently falling snow. It was an odd contrast to have both assaulting him at the same time, but anything was welcome after being cooped up in his room all morning. Only when he finished breathing some fresh air did Akira acknowledge the fact that he'd left his room without any clear plan of what to do. Checking his phone confirmed that there would still be several hours before school let out, meaning that if he wanted to do something he'd have to find a crowded area to do it inconspicuously in. It was much harder to blend in where there weren't students everywhere to make his age look normal, even if he was wearing a hoodie to help mask his presence. With this in mind, Akira decided to stick to wandering around the alleyways near Leblanc for a while. If what Morgana said was true, there shouldn't be any harm in him taking a quick jog around. There were few people wandering about due to the weather, and even fewer due to the time of day as Akira passed by Dr. Takemi's clinic. The corner store across the street reminded him that the energy bar he'd eaten wasn't nearly enough to fill him up, and the scent of real food drove his decision-making protocol to purchase some rations. He ate a sandwich in his hand as he walked, taking in the sights of the area surrounding his home. Since he and his team had tricked Akechi, it had been one thing after another, with Akira unable to pause to pick his head up for anything as the team struggled to infiltrate Shido's palace. These moments, where he was alone and able to think clearly, they were rare, and Akira was in no hurry to ruin this one. Morgana's comments drifted to the back of his mind like forgotten snowflakes as he took in the streets around him, bustling yet quiet at the same time.

Unfortunately, Akira's sandwich ended before his desire to leave did, and it became painfully apparent that he'd have to return home before too many people came outside. Though he didn't necessarily feel like it, he also probably needed to apologize to Morgana. At the very least, the cat was right about his personal stake in the situation. If he didn't simmer down his rage at Masayoshi Shido, there was no way he'd be able to bring the bastard to justice. Having it expressed in such subtle ways only meant he'd have to be that much more careful. It was never too late to improve himself. He wouldn't have to think about what would happen after stealing Shido's heart so long as he remained focused on the present moment anyways. As he returned to Leblanc's door, however, something caught his eye that caused his heart to skip a beat. Taped to the front of the door was a calling card, identical to the one the Phantom Thieves used. Morgana was standing guard by the door, and when he saw Akira, he leapt forward. "It wasn't there when I got back," the cat insisted. "I tried to get boss's attention to remove it but he wouldn't listen to me."

Akira nodded to himself as he removed the card, already running down the list of everyone who could have sent it. Though it couldn't be a real calling card, sending one here meant that someone was threatening the Phantom Thieves, and that someone likely noticed what had happened in Shido's palace yesterday. "Did you check the nearby businesses?"

"We're the only ones who were visited. Nobody else has come by since I noticed it," Morgana informed his friend. "It seems like we were lucky."

"Or whoever sent this knew what they were doing," Akira countered, looking around.

Seeing nobody, Akira decided to avoid as much attention as possible by slinking back inside. Sojiro glanced up in confusion when he saw the pensive expression on Akira's face. "Isn't that a-"

"Who came in here recently?" Akira responded with a question of his own before Sojiro could finish talking.

"Nobody since you left. I closed early, same as every day since you died," Sojiro responded gruffly. "Don't tell me someone's targeting you. Well, someone else, I guess."

"Looks like it," Morgana answered despite Sojiro being unable to understand him. "What does it say, Joker?"

The use of his metaverse name wasn't lost on Akira as he broke the seal on the calling card. Perhaps he and Morgana were just overthinking everything, but the very short list of people who could send a targeted calling card to Akira was unfortunately full of dangerous people. He read he card aloud, every word causing his throat to tighten.

Akira Kurusu, leader of the Phantom Thieves,

I saw what you did, and I've had enough. If you don't stop by the end of tomorrow, I'll have taken away the heart of the Phantom Thieves. Call it off.

"No signature," Morgana noted. "They typed it, too. Looks like they used one of those cards that were popular a while ago. Not traceable."

"Is this the government?" Sojiro guessed. "They're trying to turn whatever you're doing to them on you?"

"It shouldn't be possible," Akira shook his head. "The government thinks I'm dead, and even if they didn't they would just try to kill me. This doesn't make any sense."

The only thing that did make sense to Akira in the moment was to reach for his phone. He needed to get the team together, let everyone know what was going on. "Are you sure?" Morgana asked, noticing what Akira was doing. "We might just make everyone panic."

Morgana had a point. There was a small possibility that this was some sort of cruel joke. His name had supposedly been all over the news when he'd been arrested. At the same time, the weight the words on the calling card had carried felt far too heavy for some bored delinquent. No, whoever sent this was challenging his position directly. The only reasonable answer was to respond in kind. "Get Futaba," Joker ordered. "We need to have a team meeting."