5/5 Thursday
As it was her final day of break, she decided to check and see if Eiko was still up to their study session.
She brought out her phone and texted her.
Makoto: Hey, Eiko, were you still up to studying together?
Eiko: Yeah, sure! We could go to the library you were at before.
Makoto: Sounds good. See you there.
She gathered all of her studying materials, going to meet Eiko at the library.
As soon as she got there, she saw Eiko wave at her at one of the tables.
"Hey, Miss Prez!" Eiko greeted. "How was your little date?"
"I-It wasn't a date!" she stammered. "But… it was nice. I enjoyed myself."
"Ooooh, you'll have to tell me all of the details!" Eiko insisted.
"...Eiko, we're supposed to be studying." she pointed out.
"Ok, ok…" Eiko sighed. "I guess we should get stated then."
They went through all of the material that would be covered on exams for third years.
She quickly noticed that Eiko… was really struggling, to say the least.
"Urghhhhhh… I haaaaate math!" Eiko groaned.
"Eiko… have you done any studying prior to this?" she asked.
"Well… that's kinda why I wanted your help." Eiko nervously giggled. "I… haven't studied at all."
"Eiko!" You need to study!" she scolded. "Not only are our school exams coming, but there are also entrance exams."
"Aww, come on, Prez, entrance exams aren't for, like, forever!" Eiko argued.
She narrowed her eyes.
"Ok, ok, I get it!" Eiko quickly said. "It's just… I'm really not good at this kinda thing, you know. I wish I was as smart as you or my brother."
"You have a brother?" she asked.
"Oh, right, I never told you, huh?" Eiko replied. "He's two years younger than me, but he's super smart. He's like, a total prodigy. Super smart and talented at everything he tries. He was actually planning on joining the student council once he becomes a second year."
"Really? What's his name?" she asked.
"...Promise you won't laugh." Eiko mumbled.
"Why would I laugh?" she asked.
"My brother's name is Aiko." Eiko muttered.
"Wait… so you two are…?"
"Yes! We're Eiko and Aiko, ok!" Eiko groaned. "Our parents weren't exactly creative with names!"
Seeing Eiko's pout, she couldn't help but let out a giggle.
"M-Miss Prez!" Eiko whined. "You said that you wouldn't laugh!"
"I-I'm sorry, Eiko." she said between laughter. "It's just that you… the look on your face."
"Well, you wouldn't believe all the jokes that people make about us." Eiko grumbled.
"I can certainly imagine." she responded, before checking the time. "Ok, that's a long enough break, we should keep going."
"Ugh… seriously?" Eiko groaned. "Already?"
"We have a lot of material to cover." she pointed out.
"I guess so…" Eiko trailed off.
"Something wrong?" she asked.
"It's what I just said. I wish that I was as smart as you or my brother." Eiko repeated, sighing.
"Eiko…" she whispered. "I know that this is hard, but I didn't find it easy at first either. That's why I practiced and practiced until I got better at it. I'm sure if you practice, you'll get better at it too."
Eiko didn't respond, instead just glancing at the ground.
"...Tell you what." Makoto started. "After exams are over with, I'll treat you to some sweets to celebrate getting through them, ok?"
"...And what if I, like, do really badly?" Eiko asked.
"Then I'll treat you anyway, and let you know that's ok." Makoto offered. "As long as you did your best."
Eiko's eyes widened. "R-Really? E-Even if I fail?"
She nodded. "Of course. We're friends after all, right?"
"Y-Yeah…" Eiko stammered.
"Is everything ok?" she wondered.
"More than ok!" Eiko chirped. "I'm, like, feeling totally great right now, thanks to you!"
"Well, I'm happy that I could help." she smiled.
Eiko gave her a toothy grin, showing how grateful she was...
FAITH CONFIDANT: RANK 2
The girls continued studying for a while before she had to go home.
As she got home, she checked her phone, seeing she had a few texts.
Naoya: Yusuke said that he was interested. He said he'd be willing to meet you on the 8th.
She quickly texted him back.
Makoto: I'll get back to you tomorrow.
She still needed to see if Takayo had gotten any information on Madarame.
Her phone buzzed, and she saw that she had a text from Sae.
Sae: Having dinner with a colleague. I'll be back late.
"She's not home very often, is she?" Morgana commented.
"Her job keeps her very busy." she told the not-cat. "But I'm glad that she's spending time with her colleagues."
She prepared a small dinner for herself and a bowl of milk for Morgana.
"You know… I'm surprised you like milk so much." she commented. "I heard that most cats are lactose intolerant."
"I guess that's just more proof that I'm actually human!" Morgana grinned.
"If you say so." she giggled.
She glanced around her apartment, seeing that it was starting to get very dusty.
"I really should start dusting." she mentioned.
"Doing some chores?" Morgana asked.
"Back when dad was still around, he'd be busy with work a lot." she brought up. "So sis would help out a lot with cooking and cleaning."
"So now that your sis is the one working, I guess you're the one working around the house, huh?" Morgana assumed.
"That's right." she nodded. "I want to be useful to my sis in any way that I can."
"Well, just try not to overwork yourself." Morgana advised. "And make sure you get plenty of sleep."
She followed Morgana's advice, heading straight to bed as soon as she finished her dinner and chores.
5/6 Friday
Once again, she found herself sitting across from Takayo in the student council room, having called her down at the beginning of lunch time.
"So, did you find anything?" she asked.
"Of course!" Takayo grinned. "I'm no amateur, you know."
"What can you tell me about him?" she asked.
"Well, for starters, he's been an artist pretty much his entire life, but only in his later years did he start to become famous." Takayo explained. "It started with the Sayuri, which is his most famous painting."
"The Sayuri, huh…" she mused.
"He's made a lot of money with his paintings since then." Takayo continued. "But he still lives in this little wooden shack. Apparently, he prefers the 'simple life', but I don't know."
"I heard that he had some sort of private security force." she brought up. "That would certainly be one way he spends his money."
"Hmm… well, I've heard that some of his paintings have been stolen before, so it makes sense that he'd want to have some security…" Takayo trailed off.
"I also heard that he has an apprentice." she told her.
"Oh yeah, he's had tons of apprentices." Takayo brought up. "But there was something that bothered me about that…"
"What was it that bothered you?" she asked.
"He's had a lot of apprentices over the years, but none of them have ever made any kind of impact on the art world." Takayo told her. "Most of them actually ended up quitting art."
"I see… that is very strange." she admitted. "You would think that they'd still be practicing art if they were trained by a master artist."
"That's what I thought too." Takayo agreed. "So I started looking more into his past apprentices, and… I was pretty surprised at what I found."
"That doesn't sound good…" she thought to herself.
"One of them died from an illness, but…" Takayo trailed off.
"But…?" she repeated.
"Well, some of the lucky ones were able to get jobs in fields entirely unrelated to art." Takayo explained. "Others… well, there were rumors that some apprentices were blacklisted in the art community, and ended up homeless, and one… even committed suicide."
"Goodness, that's…" she trailed off, not sure what to say.
"Once or twice could be passed off as a coincidence, but so many of his apprentices failing…" Takayo muttered. "My journalistic instincts were telling me that something fishy was going on… and I think they were right."
"Did you find anything else?" she asked.
"I had to look really hard to find this. It was buried really deep in the web, on some obscure forum." Takayo explained. "There was someone who was claiming to be a former apprentice of Madarame's. He said that Madarame kept his apprentices in awful living conditions, and frequently plagiarized their work."
"That's horrible…" she whispered. "But… At the same time, I want to do a bit of investigating myself. I want to validate how true this claim is before we do anything rash."
"Got it." Takayo nodded, a serious expression on her face. "Just be careful, ok, Niijima-san?"
"I will." she assured her.
Before she could leave, however.
"Oh, one more thing!" Takayo quickly said. "I… didn't really think it was that important, but from what I heard… Ichiryusai Madarame is just a pen name.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yeah. His real name is Ichitaro Madarame." Takayo explained. "I'm not sure if that'll help much, but I did find it mildly interesting."
"Thank you for all of your help." she expressed before leaving.
After ending her meeting with Takayo, she texted Naoya.
Makoto: I've decided that I want to be Yusuke's muse.
About a half an hour later, he gave a response, as well as a picture of what he looked like.
Naoya: I just talked to him. He said that he wanted to meet with you at the underground walkway in Shibuya on the 8th around noon. Is that ok?
Makoto: That would be fine.
As the bell signaling the end of lunchtime rang, she quickly texted Ren and Ryuji to meet her after school before quickly rushing off to class.
"So, what did you wanna talk about, Prez?" Ryuji asked.
"I wanted to discuss our latest target." she informed them.
"So, we goin' after that Madarame guy?" Ryuji asked.
"That's right." she confirmed. "I managed to get in touch with an apprentice of his, and I'm going to be meeting with him on the Shibuya underground walkway on Sunday at noon."
"I'll be free then." Ren told her. "I could go with you."
"Yeah, me too." Ryuji offered.
"Thanks. I appreciate it." she smiled. "Hopefully we'll be able to get some information out of this."
"Man, I'm getting pumped just thinking about this!" Ryuji grinned.
"Then I'll meet both of you on the 8th then." she said.
They ended their little meeting, and she headed home for the day.
"Say, didn't you pick up some manga at the library?" Morgana asked. "You ought to read them before you have to bring them back."
"You're right… and I suppose I do have time right now." she admitted.
She sat down, the battle manga in her hands as Morgana curled up in her lap.
She turned to the first page of the manga, hoping that she would enjoy it…
With every turn of the page, with every panel, with every word… her fists gripped onto the manga hade and harder.
She was completely engrossed in what she was reading.
The way that the kind-hearted protagonist valiantly defended the innocent and fought for justice, even in a post-apocalyptic world endeared them to her and made her wish for their success.
The fact that they used martial arts to defeat their foes didn't hurt.
"You, uh… are really getting into this, huh?" Morgana muttered.
"I-I'm a little surprised myself." she admitted. "But I really do like it. I'll have to grab the next volume soon. I might even be able to emulate some of the techniques here in the Metaverse."
"That's certainly possible." Morgana said.
"All the more reason to keep reading." she smiled.
"Just don't stay up too long reading it!" Morgana advised. "It's important that you get plenty of sleep!"
"Time for... a catnap, then." she smirked.
Morgana groaned. "You've been spending way too much time around Ren…"
She let out a small giggle before putting aside her manga and heading to bed.
5/7 Saturday
After school had ended for the day, she checked her phone, seeing that she had received a text from Sojiro, or Boss.
...Which, she realized, was her actual Boss now.
Sojiro: There are a lot of customers coming in today. Think you could stop by and help out?
She quickly responded yes, hopeful that the money she would make from working at Leblanc would help fund their latest operations as Phantom Thieves.
She quickly arrived at Leblanc, greeting Sojiro and Ren before putting on her apron.
"Were there a lot of customers before I arrived?" she asked.
"Nah, not that many." Ren said. "But the dinner rush is coming, so I guess Boss wanted to be prepared. And also…"
"Also what?"
"There was this suspicious man who came here earlier." Ren recalled. "He'd never been here before, but he seemed to know Boss."
"Did Boss tell you who he was?" she asked.
"No, he didn't." Ren shook his head. "He didn't want to talk about it."
Before she could inquire further, Sojiro walked up to them.
"All right, since you'll be working here, we'll have to hammer home some of the basics…" Sojiro told her.
"You mean… making coffee, right?" she asked.
"Not just the coffee… desserts too." Sojiro pointed out.
"Oh, right." she nodded. "Thank you for teaching me, Boss. I would really like to learn how to make coffee and desserts.
She was a decent cook, but Sae wasn't a fan of sweets, and she would usually just have instant coffee, so her knowledge on making those things was limited.
"Of course." Sojiro grinned. "No employee of mine's going to be serving a bad cup of coffee."
He proceeded to walk her through the basics of making coffee and the desserts on the menu. As the dinner rush started, she once again diligently took the orders of all the customers, while trying to pay attention to Sojiro's cooking and customer service skills.
As it came time for Leblanc to close for the day, she hung up her apron and let out a sigh of relief.
"Thanks for the help. Here's your pay." Sojiro said.
"I noticed that you seemed to know a lot about some of the customers." she pointed out. "Were they regulars?"
"They were. Another thing that you need to be aware of is the personality of regular customers to keep them coming back. It's really important in food service." Sojiro explained. "Speaking of which…"
"Hmm?"
"This doesn't really have anything to do with your job, but… I was wondering if you could tell me what girls your age like." Sojiro muttered.
That… was an odd question for him to ask.
"Why do you ask?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, it's for my…err, well, my friend's daughter." Sojiro said. "I was going to get her a gift, but I wasn't sure what I should get. She's a few years younger than you, but I was hoping you'd have an idea of what I could get her."
"Oh, I see. Well, do you know what she likes?" Makoto asked.
"Well, she's got a lot of books on… technical stuff. Computers and science." Sojiro told her. "But she's also really into anime and manga and all of that. I don't really keep up with any of that, though."
"Not able to keep up with the youth of today, Boss?" Ren smirked.
"Quiet, punk." Boss scoffed.
"Well… recently I've been into Shonen manga." she told him. "Maybe you could look into that? There's a focus on fighting, action, adventure… things like that."
"Mmm... Yeah, I think she'd like that." Sojiro told her. "Thanks. I'll, uh… try and take a look then. Now, as for the coffee..."
She could feel the elder man's gratitude as he instructed her in the basics of brewing.
HIEROPHANT: RANK 2
After finishing her shift at Leblanc, she headed home for the day.
5/8 Sunday
"Is this guy comin' or what?" Ryuji groaned.
"He should be here any minute now." she told him.
"We've already been waiting for ten minutes." Ryuji muttered.
"Does he know what you look like?" Ren asked.
"I do, and I'm sure that Makigami-kun described what I look like to him." she told them.
"It'll be a little hard to find anyone in this crowd." Morgana brought up. "Maybe we should split up?"
Before she could respond, she felt someone grab her shoulder, causing her to whip around, ready to fight if she had to, her fists at the ready.
Before her stood a tall, blue-haired boy who seemed to be staring at her.
She noticed that his frame was gangly and skinny, almost unnaturally so...
His fingers were held out in a sort of framing motion in front of her.
"Who's this weirdo?" Ryuji muttered.
"Can I… help you with anything?" she asked.
"You are… Makoto Niijima, yes?" the blue haired boy asked.
She quickly relaxed her fighting stance. "Wait… are you Yusuke Kitagawa?"
"I am." Yusuke nodded. "You said that you wished to model for me?"
She nodded. "Yes, that's right."
Yusuke continued to look her over, as if appraising a piece of art.
"Um… so, do you accept?" Ren asked.
Yusuke ignored them, continuing to look her over for a few moments before letting out a smile.
"Yes, you will do nicely." Yusuke smiled. "You will make for a wonderful muse."
"Then… you'll accept?" she asked.
"Of course." Yusuke nodded. "All of my art lately has been lacking, but with you, perhaps I could truly express my passion for art on the canvas."
"He's… certainly an interesting character, isn't he?" Morgana muttered.
"Will you cooperate with me?" Yusuke pleaded.
"O-Of course." she stammered. "I'd be happy to help you."
"Excellent." Yusuke smiled. "However, it'll have to wait a bit. I'm very busy preparing for the exhibition."
"Exhibition?" Ryuji repeated.
"My sensei is having an art exhibition starting tomorrow." Yusuke explained. "I'll be spending most of today and tomorrow helping to set everything up."
"Your sensei is Ichiryusai Madarame, right?" she asked. "I have to admit, I'm a big fan of his work."
To be honest, she wasn't very familiar with Madarame's art at all, but she hoped at least that he would buy her act.
"I see. Which of his pieces is your favorite?" he asked.
"Well… maybe it's a bit cliche, but I'm very fond of the Sayuri." she confessed, recalling the only painting she knew Madarame made.
"What a wonderful coincidence. I'm rather fond of it as well." Yusuke admitted. "It's my main inspiration as an artist, in fact."
Yusuke reached into his pocket, pulling out what appeared to be an invitation.
"This is a ticket to my sensei's exhibit. It will take place at the department store near the station." Yusuke explained, handing the ticket to her. "I would appreciate it if you would attend."
He expression turned neutral as he glanced at Ren and Ryuji.
"I doubt that you two have any interest in the fine arts, but I'll give you these anyway." Yusuke scoffed, handing them each a ticket.
"I hope to see you there, Niijima-san." Yusuke said, before walking off.
"What a sketchy guy…" Ryuji muttered as soon as he was out of earshot.
"Well, I guess you have to be sketchy to be an artist." Ren joked.
"That ain't what I meant, man." Ryuji sighed.
"So, are we going to that exhibition?" Morgana asked.
"It'll be good for gathering information, at least." she reasoned.
"I thought we'd be doing the whole modeling thing today." Ren said. "Guess we've got some time to kill before we meet up tomorrow."
"Well, it sounds like the perfect opportunity to get some last minute studying in." Makoto mentioned.
"Oh, um, that reminds me." Ryuji quickly said. "I have to go and um, uhh…"
"Oh no you don't!" Makoto quickly said. "I've seen your grades, Ryuji. You're going to study with us."
Ryuji quickly turned to Ren, a pleading look in his eyes.
"Sorry, Ryuji. Queen's orders." Ren chuckled.
"Traitorrrrrrrrr!" Ryuji yelled as she dragged him off to study.
"So, you struck a deal with Madarame's pupil." Sae said. "And from there, I assume you were able to uncover the truth about his actions."
"That's right." she nodded.
"But why did you get involved?" Sae asked. "Unlike with Kamoshida, you and your friends weren't involved with him at all. So why did you bother?"
"I just… didn't think it was fair." she whispered. "It wasn't fair that people like him could get away with what he did…"
"Life isn't fair or just." Sae responded, dismissing her. "We just have to deal with what it throws at us. We can't just do whatever we want."
She narrowed her eyes, but said nothing, instead continuing on with the story.
"Anyway, I wanted to speak about the principal for a bit." she said.
"So early?" Sae asked.
"It was around this time that the principal started ordering me to look into the Phantom Thieves." she recalled.
"That's… very irresponsible of him." Sae replied. "If you weren't a member, they could have gone after you. They could have… killed you, even. What on Earth was he thinking?!"
"He essentially told me that he wouldn't give me a letter of recommendation unless I discovered their identities." she told her. "And that it would reflect poorly on you if I failed."
*SLAM*
Sae slammed the table in a fit of rage, causing her ears to ring.
"That bastard!" Sae snapped. "Makoto, why didn't you tell me that the principal was blackmailing you?!" Sae yelled. "I could have helped you!"
"... I needed to keep him off of my tail, so I pretended to be on his side." she muttered.
"Then it was because you were actually a Phantom Thief." Sae noted.
"Yes… but to be honest, I probably would have agreed even if I wasn't." she said.
"What?! Why?!" Sae demanded.
"Never question superiors. Always do what they ask you to do." she said. "Before I joined the Phantom Thieves, I was naive enough to think that authority figures always had the best intentions for me and everyone else…"
She looked Sae straight in the eyes.
"...But now I realize that that's not always the case. Some of them are corrupt."
"Even so… you could have gone to me for help." Sae countered. "I could have gotten you out of that situation. What he was doing isn't fair to you."
"I thought life wasn't fair?" she replied.
Sae's expression grew annoyed as her own words were thrown back at her. "Listen-"
"Perhaps I didn't want to burden you, Prosecutor Niijima." she replied, her tone cold. "It would have been a shame if I ate away at your life even more than I already did by making you bail me out of trouble, right?"
"Y-You… why are you speaking like this?" Sae muttered. "It must be that thing they injected you with. You wouldn't be talking to me like this otherwise."
"What, you mean the truth serum?" she spat.
Sae didn't respond.
"This drug… it just lowers the inhibitors that could have stopped me from speaking my mind." she muttered.
"...Then this has been what's on your mind for so long." Sae realized. "I… never realized. If I had, then maybe you wouldn't have felt the need to join…"
"There's no point in wondering about what ifs." she pointed out. "We should move on."
"...I suppose you're right." Sae admitted. "So, what happened at the art exhibition?"
Makoto's Confidant Progress:
THE FOOL - Ren Amamiya: Rank 3
THE HUNGER - Igor: Rank 3
THE CHARIOT - Ryuji Sakamoto: Rank 2
THE MAGICIAN - Morgana: Rank 2
THE FAITH - Eiko Takao: Rank 2
THE TOWER - Chiaki Yasui: Rank 1
THE SUN - Shiho Suzui: Rank 1
THE MOON - Takayo Tachibana: Rank 2
THE HIEROPHANT - Sojiro Sakura: Rank 2
THE TEMPERANCE - Naoya Makigami: Rank 1
THE FORTUNE - Phantom Thieves of Heart: Rank 1
THE JUDGEMENT - Sae Niijima: Rank 1
Do you believe in the Phantom Thieves? Yes 6.7%
Something to Note:
If you're wondering why Madarame has an actual name and a pen name, it's something that was taken from the unused content of P5R. There will be a bit more with that later.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
