Regular food seemed to have lost most of its flavor to the Phantom Thieves after their outing to one of the best dining experiences (with some exceptions,) in their lives, except Sumire, who was having fun with her new taste synchronization ability, or at least that's what Morgana called it.
"Still looking at that website, Ryuji?" Ann asked as the second one finished eating after him. "Don't let those thank you messages get to your head."
"I would…" Ryuji began, showing the phone to Ann, "But they turned it into a forum. The original message is still on the about page on the website, but right now it's just people complainin' about their friends being mean to them and stuff like that."
Checking the site as he ate, Akira mindlessly scrolled through the various posts of a similar caliber.
"Wait, what's that one?" Sumire asked, pointing to a comment that caught her eye. When Akira tapped on it, Sumire stared at it with squinted eyes.
"Just a fad? Kamoshida probably let his guilt get the better of them?!" Sumire yelled. "We went through all of that effort for this?!"
"Damn, they don't even think we exist…" Akira mumbled to himself, swallowing a chunk of bread. "And the ones that do think stealing someone's pen is as bad as being a pedophile." he said as he kept on munching.
"Why do people even make accounts if they're just going to complain like this?" Morgana asked, pushing against Akira's bag as he stretched.
"Welcome to the internet, snow paws." Ryuji answered.
"It's only been up for a day." Ann pointed out, placing her head in her hand while her elbow sat on the table. "We'll get more people with real problems soon." Despite her words trying to lighten the mood, her lowered eyes said how effective it was. "But what do we even do until then?"
"Same thing you did before all this went down, but still making sure you're prepared for any sudden incidents." Morgana told them.
"If either of you are available, we could always do that at the gym or something." Ryuji suggested before getting up once the bell had rung.
"You up for it, Akira?" Sumire checked, floating above Akira.
"…I'll think about it."
The Phansite rabbit hole was deep. Akira wasn't even sure how long he was scrolling once the final bell rang.
Looking around the classroom to make sure all of the students were gone, Akira gestured over to Sumire. "Look at this."
The post was some sort of thread depicting an argument between two people about the placement of books in the school library seemingly only done for the sake of humor.
"What does this have to do with the Phantom Thieves?!" Sumire burst out laughing, rocking back and forth in the air.
Akira couldn't stop giggling either with how long the thread was going for. "I think they're just using it as a school chat for now."
"Checking out the phansite?" A higher male voice called. Akira quickly put down his phone as he noticed someone had been watching him, with Sumire unable to warn him from being just as distracted at the posts as him. Turning his head to the right, Akira rolled his eyes to see that frizzy blue hair right in his face.
"Oh, it's you." He said to Mishima.
"Yep! And the creator of the site, thank you very much." He scratched his hair behind his ears, just as Akira often did.
"Listen, I was just about to get up, so anything you want to say, get it out now." Akira, despite clearly lying about that, tried to leave the room without any further inquiries.
He wasn't even out of the maze of desks when Mishima asked, "You're one of the Phantom Thieves, aren't you?"
Sumire froze in the air, Morgana curled up in the desk, and Akira slowly rotated.
"Why would you assume that?" Akira hesitantly tried to save face.
"Well first off, if you are, I promise I won't tell anybody. Anyway, this event that changes the entire school happens the same month you show up, you clearly have a vendetta against Kamoshida, and you straight up have a cat in your desk!" Mishima placed a hand on Akira's desk as Morgana accidentally yelled "What?!"
"The only reason why nobody's told any of the teachers about that last thing yet is because they think it's the only thing keeping you sane in class."
"And whose fault is that?" Akira asked with crossed arms, not even looking at Mishima.
"I mean, is he wrong?" Sumire shrugged, ignoring the frown Akira gave her.
"Well if you think I'm a Phantom Thief, why haven't you ratted me out yet?" Akira questioned further, leaning on a different desk as he ignored Sumire. "You clearly don't have a problem telling everyone about my personal life."
"Listen, I know I did… a lot." Mishima began, twiddling his thumbs. "Let me make this clear, I am not asking you to forgive me for any of that crap I did. I just want you to know that if there's anything you want me to do to make it up to you, you can tell me."
"Anything?"
"Within reason!" Mishima clarified, putting a hand out when he realized what he said.
"…I'll think about it." Akira scoffed.
"The point is, you saved my life, and I want to make sure you can save other people too. This isn't just a one and done thing, right?"
"If there is anyone…" Akira answered ambiguously.
"I mean, that's kinda why I turned it into a forum in the first place." Mishima explained. "Should help you find someone to take down a lot quicker." Typing something on his phone, he showed Akira a poll rating the likeliness of the Phantom Thieves' existence.
"So right now, I'm trying to keep track of how many people on this site actually care about you guys. That way I can weed out the spammers and whatnot."
"Woah, there's that many users already?" Akira was dumbfounded at it.
"Not exactly. I put a likeliness slider on the poll from not at all to pretty much guaranteed, so that's how the results are able to be that specific." Mishima put it away and asked, "So, what do you think? Think I can help out?"
"Ugh, fine…" Akira groaned, thrusting his head backwards.
"Akira." Sumire chidded, hands on her hips as she looked down.
Akira took a deep breath upon Sumire's implied request to be nicer to Mishima. "Just… know that it's gonna take a lot for you to make it up to me, okay?"
"Any way I can start?" Mishima asked, dragging his foot on the ground.
"Um…" With how much Akira wanted to get away from him, he hoped Sumire would give him any ideas.
"What if he made you an admin on the site?" Sumire suggested.
"…so I can make it easier to get better requests." Akira added when explaining it.
"That's… that's a great idea!" Mishima's eyes lit back up. "I could definitely use some help running the site, and having an actual member as an admin would help make things more authentic."
"Hey, show some respect." Akira taunted half-jokingly. "I'm the leader."
"Akira…" Sumire pressed.
After exchanging numbers, Mishima texted Akira the admin passcode, giving Akira access to much more of the site. Despite the amount of pressing she had to do, the warmth Sumire felt was worth it.
The Moon Arcana…
Once Mishima was walking out of the classroom, he stopped at the doorway upon seeing Ryuji and Ann there.
"…How much of that did you hear?…" Mishima asked nervously, twiddling his fingers.
"Enough." Ryuji answered nonchalantly.
Unfortunately for everyone else, the mental equation Mishima did in his head was solved before anyone had time to tell him otherwise. "Oh… you two are also…" as if sensing Ryuji and Ann's worries, he blurted out, "Would you two like to be admins too? We could have a whole group chat and whatever else a website with multiple admins does…"
"We can discuss it later." Ann reassured him. "For now, it's probably best to go before you make things look too conspicuous."
"R-right. Thanks guys!" Scurrying out of the room, Akira wiped his brow in relief when Mishima was out of the room.
"What a nice guy!" Sumire said with the most cheery yet rage-hidden expression Akira had ever heard.
Ryuji threw his hands in the air in disgust. "Welp. Cover's blown, we're dead, it was fun while it lasted!" He wailed.
Ann pushed her hands between the boys. "Hey, hey. Before we panic, we need to remember that he probably only found out because of how close he is with you and Shiho compared to the other students, so chances are, no one else is gonna get it."
"And there's always plan B," Akira murmered under his breath, though no one heard him.
"And now that Akira's an admin on the site, we can track potential targets a whole lot faster!" Morgana's head popped up and smiled.
"So funny story about the next palace," Ann brought up, tapping her finger on her cheek. "I've been looking up whip training videos online, and I didn't know how violent these things can get!"
"Speaking of things that are gonna kill me, don't we have an exam next week?" Ryuji asked.
"I'm on it." Sumire said, dashing out of the room to find any kind of study guide for Akira before he even looked at her.
Morgana mewed. "With how much help you're getting, don't blame me if your grades start dropping without us…"
Struggling with the combined weight of both a cat and some study guides for the exam, Akira walked much slower down the street as Sumire floated above him.
"Why do you hate that guy so much?" She asked, looking down at Akira. "He was only trying to help."
Akira was walking faster than before despite the weight, his eyes on the sidewalk. "It's just… he's part of the reason why we almost got expelled!" He shouted.
"What?"
"That's right…" Akira sighed. "I left you alone that day."
"Please don't remind me…" Sumire requested.
Akira explained to Sumire what happened after their argument the day Shiho jumped. Once she learned the full story, Sumire's legs came to the ground, and she gave Akira a somber look.
"Akira… do you really think he wanted to do any of that?"
"He didn't even stop Shiho…" Akira grumbled.
"Because then he would've been next." Sumire countered.
Akira's hands tightened into fists. "That dick… even while he's in jail he still finds a way to manipulate us!"
"I don't wanna force you to, but there's probably something you should tell your co-admin…"
"What are you, my mom?" Akira joked, loosening his hands.
Even still, Akira texted Mishima later that night about what he remembered, and in the middle of the night, Sumire, who randomly woke up sometime in the middle of the night for no particular reason, looked at Akira's phone to see a certain notification pop up.
Yuuki: Hey, no need to apologize. I get why you were upset. But thanks anyway.
I was serious about the whole "Would Ryuji and Ann like to be admins too?" thing btw. If they don't want to, they don't have to. Just wanted to give you a heads up.
She smiled despite the light in her eyes, and fell back asleep shortly after.
"Fatal Woman" Akira answered in front of the class.
With exams coming up, Morgana asked Sumire before classes began to temporarily stop her cheating efforts in order to help Akira study. Akira looked behind himself to see Sumire kicking back in her seat, giving him a thumbs up. Akira returned the gesture, only for the guy with the green pencil case between them to awkwardly try to copy the action.
"Guess having such a legendary French thief as a Persona helped with your translation skills, huh?" Morgana cheekily complimented.
"Possibly, or maybe I had it in me the whole time." Akira responded.
"Maybe we should stop helping you even after the exams?" Sumire suggested, a smug look on her face as Akira gulped.
"Let's… we'll get there when we get there."
While the rest of the lesson almost managed to get out of Akira's other ear, one thing Ms. Kawakami mentioned caught his attention.
"…Not to mention the wild, seductive dancer of opera, Carmen."
"Hey, isn't that the name of Ann's-" Sumire was cut off upon seeing Akira's texting on the phone in his desk.
Akira: Hey, it's you!
It took until the end of the listen for her to finally reply back.
Ann: Not an opera girl, sorry.
"Ugh." Ryuji cried. "How many is that now, Mona?"
"That's thirteen girls complaining about their boyfriends and seven variations of 'my parents want me to clean my room'." Morgana listed off, rolling his eyes as it was the third time Ryuji had asked him.
Akira had woken up that morning to numerous posts of random nonsensical comments on the poll Mishima had set up, most of which had nothing to do with the phantom thieves themselves.
"Being website admins suck…"
"Psst, Sumi." Akira whispered. "Can you check the comments for a bit?"
"If I could use the touch screen, I could." Sumire shrugged.
"Right, right. Morgana, could you do it?"
"Stupid paws…" Morgana complained as he struggled to use Akira's phone.
"Do you have thumbs in the palaces?" Sumire asked him.
After a relay, Morgana answered, "Yeah, but it's not like the Phan-Site would work there…"
"Oh! Here's one!" Ann excitedly cheered and shoved her phone in Morgana's face.
"With all due respect, Lady Ann…" Morgana began as he pushed Akira's phone back to him. "That one would work, but we need a post with a specific name and location. It can't just be 'My best friend' or 'my younger sibling'."
"You want us to dox people?" Ryuji stopped scrolling for a moment, a bewildered look in his eyes. "Isn't that, like, illegal?"
"I prefer to call it 'calling out the wicked'."
"Wow, Morgana, you're a real anarchist." Akira let out a chuckle.
"Actually, now that I think about it, remember how long Kamoshida's palace lasted?" Ryuji asked. "It took us almost the whole month! We should probably wait until exams are over to do any real thieving."
"Since when did you become a planner?" Morgana uncharacteristically complimented. "I'm almost proud of you."
"Close enough…" Sumire sighed, a small smile on her face, but her breath was cut short when the door opened gently and Morgana dove behind the plants. "Uh, who's that?"
Seemingly to answer Sumire's question, Ryuji rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, great. Here comes the fun police…"
"This place is off limits, you know."
"Should I know who you are?" Akira asked, tightening his posture defensively as he looked the speaker up and down.
"Makoto Niijima, student council president."
"We're just chatting, nothing more." Ryuji replied quickly, not even making eye contact.
"Between the new kid, the delinquent, and the victim?" Makoto's eyebrows lowered with the sternness of a mother who was not mad, just disapointed.
"Plus a talking cat and a ghost." Sumire added to herself.
"Well when you put it like that…" Ann twirled a pigtail around her finger.
"All of which are associated with the case that shook up the school?"
"About as much as any other student." Akira deflected, trying in an attempt to throw her off.
"One of which got their record leaked by another one of said victims?"
"Funnily enough I was just talking about that with someone last night. That won't hold up in court, though." Akira replied sarcastically.
"Analogy wasted…" Makoto pinched the bridge of her nose. "This position will do that to you."
"Then just leave us alone!" Ryuji snapped back.
"Fine, I'll just read out what was given to me." Makoto said, clearing her throat. "Following the attempted suicide of Shiho Suzui, access to the rooftop of the school shall be forbidden until the new fence is installed at a to-be-determined date."
"Oh wow, Shujin actually caring about the well-being of their students?" Ann said with widened eyes. "That's a first!" She added, barely hiding the frost in her tone.
"We'll see how that goes then." The student council president said as she took her leave.
"What a prick!" Sumire said the moment Makoto was out of earshot.
"Yeah… let's try to avoid her as much as physically possible for now…" Morgana told everyone once he got out of the bushes.
"I swear, it's always the 'goody two-shoes' students that get on your nerves the most!" Ryuji stomped in his seat. "But anyway, let's get back to the point here. "How the hell are we gonna stick in people's minds if these palaces are gonna take as long as Kamoshida's? How many times are we gonna have to say 'we're taking our time, that's not how it works' on the website?!"
Morgana spoke the second after, as if he was waiting for someone to ask that question. "What if I told you we don't need a palace to go to the Metaverse?"
"What do you mean?" Sumire asked, careful not to blind Morgana again.
"Just follow me to the subway. You guys are gonna love this…"
