Hi everyone! I'm back from my little break, I feel great! I'm ready to tackle Strikers!
So, first thing, obviously this book will be significantly shorter than its predecessor, there's nothing I can do about that. Secondly, while it is not 100% necessary to have read the first fic, I would recommend doing so in case I need to mention something I altered within it to fit my canon. Or if you just need a proper introduction to how I write Akira. (I wouldn't want anyone getting confused by a change no matter how small.) Time will occasionally be set aside for character interactions, even if it is ultimately inconsequential to the plot itself.
Finally, the mandatory warning: The game contains some subject matters I am not accustomed to writing about. I will be doing my best to handle these subjects with proper respect in context of the story. Because these topics are things that happen in the game's story, some of which are crucial details, they are not things I can avoid writing or skip over without losing context on what's going on. If you are sensitive to these topics, then you have been given your warning, and I understand completely if you back out of the story when they show up. Please remember, I do not wish to put these things in. They are not there to be supported or encouraged in any way, but they are necessary to the plot. This will not be a prolonged occurrence through the story, but it will be there for a small portion of it. Strikers is a lot more toned down in terms of the mature subject matters, but the game is still rated for mature audiences only; so I'm not taking any chances, just in case.
Begin!
~Normal POV
7/24 - Monday
The past few months of staying in his hometown had been… not the best for Akira. Not impossible by any means, but certainly tough. He had Morgana to keep him company, of course, and his parents were supportive and loving to him. But ultimately he did miss living near his Phantom Thieves family.
It wasn't hard to tell either. He didn't do much to hide it. It was only natural that he'd miss everyone. He took any chance he could to visit though; making special time with each of them, according to their schedules. Sometimes Ann would come visit him instead and he'd show her the few places of interest his hometown had to offer. On rare occasions, one of the others would come visit him too, on the odd weekend where they were available to do so. His parents also enjoyed these visits, it let them get better acquainted with the people their son treasured so deeply. And as they had said previously upon meeting the Phantom Thieves last March, "They're always welcome in our home."
Most of the time, Akira's brief trips to the city were for individual outings. There were a few exceptions to this, but it just ended up that way due to how their schedules could conflict a lot. He understood, of course. Makoto and Haru had started college this year. (And with Haru being in college, Ryuji had to devote more of his free time to finding ways to spend it with her.) Futaba was going to public school again so her schedule was actually filled nowadays. As close as they all were emotionally, they did have lives outside of the group. But they still had texting and group chats to keep up with each other. The last time Akira had actually gone to visit was nearly two months ago. (And that included him and Ann going on a double date with Yusuke and his girlfriend.) It had been ages since the whole gang had done anything as a group.
But yesterday evening, after surviving several months in his hometown's high school, salvation finally came in the form of the Phantom Thieves group chat. It was summer vacation now, and they suggested the brilliant idea of spending the whole break together with a family trip. Akira didn't have to think twice about accepting the offer, and immediately said they'd meet up at the hideout today. Thus, he let his parents know what the plan was, and had spent the previous night packing. (Making sure to actually bring a yukata this time, just in case they went to a festival or something.) Morgana was a little disappointed that they couldn't bring his bed, but since they were going on a trip anyway, it wouldn't make much sense to do so. The two boarded the first available train to Tokyo early this morning. It was almost 2 in the afternoon now and they were already on their way to Yongen.
"It's been a while since we rode to Yongen, huh?" Morgana said, propping himself up on Akira's shoulder.
"Yeah, but it feels so good." Akira answered, smiling to himself at the prospect of getting real quality time with his family again.
"You bet it does!" Morgana said, purring in agreement. "When the Phantom Thieves come together, it's never anything less than awesome."
Once they finally reached the backstreets of Yongen, Morgana added, "I bet the chief will be happy to see you too."
"Probably." Akira said, shrugged as he walked. "But he'll have something snarky to say first, I'm sure."
Upon reaching LeBlanc, Akira noticed right away that the sign said it was still closed, but the door was unlocked. Eh, Boss probably forgot; not that he'd admit it, but he is kinda old now. He opened the door and was hit with the warm, comforting smell of fresh coffee. The shop looked the same as ever, but for some reason all the lights were off. Akira glanced to the right wall and smiled a little at the "Sayuri" still hanging there proudly. It's a good thing Boss was true to his word about keeping it. Morgana was still propped up on his shoulder and looking around. Nobody appeared to be here. Did they arrive early-?
"WELCOME HOME!"
It was all for a surprise. They should have seen that coming really. Once the lights came on, they could see everyone had arrived early to set this up for them.
"Damn guys, you didn't have to go to that much trouble," Akira said, smiling.
"Sure we did! We had to do something special for our leader!" Ryuji said, immediately giving his friend a bro hug.
"Yeah, we missed ya!" Futaba added, running over to give Akira a hug too.
"I can see that," Akira said, hugging her back.
"Alright, step aside people, I wanna hug my boyfriend!" Ann said, grinning brightly.
Ryuji and Futaba let go of Akira; Ann quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss.
"You could at least wait until you put the bag down first! I'm right here!" Morgana whined, as the couple smooched.
The two pulled away from their lip-lock and apologized. Akira let Morgana out of the bag; to which the cat then jumped into Haru's arms for a hug.
"Oh, sure you give her a hug, but not me," Futaba said, jokingly.
It was at this point when Sojiro came out of the kitchen. He seemed happy to see them all together again.
"Boss, long time no see." Akira greeted, smiling.
"I hear ya." Sojiro said, smirking. "Even though it's only been a couple months, it feels like it's been a real long while. I'm sure you all have plenty of catching up to do, but I gotta open up soon. Go ahead and take it upstairs… After all, it's your room."
"You see, guys, I told you he liked me!" Akira chuckled.
Sojiro scoffed. "I wanted to put you up in a hotel, but Futaba and Ann ganged up on me and threatened to never talk to me again! Geez, I was just kidding!"
"Well, we had to make sure…" Ann mumbled.
~...
Up in LeBlanc's attic, they'd set up their foldable table with snacks to eat while they talked. Morgana was sitting on the old tool work desk. Makoto and Haru claimed the couch, and Ryuji sat next to Haru. Across from them, Akira and Ann had put their chairs close together. Yusuke didn't mind standing behind Ryuji, and Futaba sat at the other end of the table.
"For real though, I flunked three of my finals in one day, too." Ryuji said, "I was freaking the fuck out. I had so many make-up lectures in a row, I almost wasn't able to come over today…"
Ann giggled. "Then I win! I only flunked one final!"
"Geez, Haru, what do you see in this guy…" Morgana asked, pointing a paw at Ryuji.
"Ryuji might not have the best grades, but he makes me happy." Haru answered, smiling and fiddling with her charm bracelet.
"If only you could improve his grades by helping him study…" Makoto said, taking a sip of her drink. "Oh wait, that won't work. Cause the last time I went over to your place, I found you two sucking face on your couch instead of studying."
"Mako-chan!" Haru squeaked, flushing in embarrassment while the others laughed. (Ryuji leaned back in his chair, looking pleased with himself.) "I told you that was during a break so it shouldn't have counted against us! And you don't get to judge me. I've seen Seiji-kun leaving your apartment quite frequently." This made Makoto shut up.
While Futaba giggled evilly and muttered something about how, "It's always the studious ones." She then added aloud," By the way, Yusuke, when am I allowed to tell everyone that you're dating one of our fans? Oh, wait, I just told them, sorry!"
"Dude, ain't that a little dangerous," Ryuji asked.
Yusuke sighed. "I was going to tell you before Futaba blurted it out. A couple weeks ago, Mei bought a Phantom Thieves logo necklace online, and because Futaba bugs everyone's phones, she happened to see her wearing it in a picture we took together on a recent date. She's been teasing me about it every chance she gets."
He pulled out his phone to show them said picture. It was of him and his girlfriend, Mei Nariko. A very pretty girl, fairly tall, with shoulder length wavy black hair with a dyed blue streak on the right side, and cerulean blue eyes. She wore her uniform slightly modified; with black leggings under her skirt, her blazer open, and she didn't wear the Kosei regulation bowtie. Around her neck was their logo on a necklace chain, it was very noticeable against her uniform shirt. He then put away his phone.
"You're welcome!"
"As for the danger," Yusuke continued, ignoring Futaba's remark, "I don't recall there being a rule against dating a fan." He smirked.
"Well… no, I guess there isn't…" Akira said, thoughtfully. The chances of such a thing happening hadn't really crossed their minds for it to be a factor. Given how much support the Phantom Thieves still had online, it wasn't impossible to think this could happen.
"Still, it's your logo, what are you gonna do if she figures it out," Ann asked.
Yusuke shrugged. "I'm not worried. She thinks I'm just a fan and that I'm very practiced at drawing it. Both of which are still true statements, even without proper context."
"I think he shouldn't have anything to worry about." Makoto said, simply. "Seiji's been a fan of ours ever since we took down Kaneshiro and he's none the wiser about me. I'm sure it'll be fine."
The conversation continued on to how Makoto and Haru were doing in college. And Futaba was doing well at Shujin. (Top of the class in everything except P.E.) She was well looked after too, with Ann and Ryuji being third years now.
"What about you, leader?" Ryuji asked. "Is everything still ok back home?"
"Yeah… It's been rough sometimes at school, but I got Mona and my parents to make it better. But still, I did miss you guys."
"Of course you did, why wouldn't you?" Futaba said, gleefully. "I mean, for the rest of us I understand, but you can see Ann anytime; all you have to do is buy a fashion magazine."
Ann snorted. "Can't say you're wrong there… Anyway, we should decide what we're gonna do on our trip."
It took some deliberating, but in the end they chose to go on a camping trip. (Futaba immediately opposed any insinuation that such a thing would be hard for her. Citing that she thought it sounded fun, but only if she could still bring her laptop.)
"And you can leave the firewood chopping to me!"
"My lady, she's handy with an axe," Ryuji said, smiling like a fool at Haru.
"That just means you shouldn't piss her off…" Morgana muttered.
"Oh, if we're gonna go camping…" Futaba pulled out her phone and opened an app. "EMMA, list recommended camping gear."
A feminine, robotic, voice sounded from her speaker with a response on where to find such items nearby. Akira couldn't help being curious. The voice sounded oddly familiar, yet he swore he'd never heard it before.
"What's that?"
"It's a new virtual assistant called EMMA. It can do basically anything because it has artificial intelligence. It's gotten super popular lately. The makers go on about how you can ask it anything and it'll give you the best possible answer based on all kinds of factors."
This seemed to spark everyone's interest. Akira wasn't sure that he'd use such a thing often, but decided it might be nice to have if they run into trouble on their trip. He followed suit with everyone else and downloaded it without much thought. It wasn't hard to see why Futaba would be drawn to it before them though. It did sound very advanced. But buying all their supplies would have to wait until tomorrow. For now, they had more catching up to do.
While the others were talking, Ann whispered to Akira, "Sorry, that we haven't gotten much alone time yet…"
Akira smirked and softly replied, "We'll make time during the trip. Right now." He grabbed her hand. "I'm just happy to be home."
The two shared another kiss while it seemed they weren't being watched-
"Oh, come on, get a room, guys…" Makoto said, rolling her eyes.
Akira pulled away from the kiss and bluntly replied, "We have one, we're just waiting for all of you to leave."
"...He's kinda got a point there…" Ryuji muttered.
~...
After a nice dinner together down in the shop, (curry on the house from Sojiro as a "welcome back" gift) Akira felt rather comfortably tired and relaxed. He would have asked Ann to stay the night, but Morgana wouldn't have appreciated being sent off to Futaba's after they just got here. Maybe on the trip he could convince Makoto to let them share a tent… To which she would likely not approve, but it'd be worth a shot.
However, when Akira settled into bed that night… he awoke not long after, in a familiar dream-like state, inside a small, dark, prison cell that he recognized as the Velvet Room…
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" He heard a young girl's voice say.
He stood from his prison cot and looked out the chained up door. The desk in the room's center was empty, but beside it was a small girl with silver blonde hair, in a blue dress, with butterfly hair clips.
"Yeah, it has," Akira replied. "I can't say it's not nice to see you, though."
Lavenza smiled a little. "Indeed. I know not whether to rejoice or bemoan this reunion… Regardless, I must perform my duty. Welcome to the Velvet Room. The expression you bear now tells me you already know the reason for your summons."
"You need help again?" Akira said, quizzically. He glanced at the empty desk. "Where's Igor?"
"Master is away dealing with other affairs. I have been left to assist you in this matter."
"And what's going on?"
"I must warn you of the danger threatening to consume both yourself and the entire world, whose heart you strove so greatly to change. A most loathsome prison has manifested… Your appearance is ironclad evidence of this." Lavenza explained, sorrowfully. "You have become a 'prisoner of fate' yet again. Someone, even now, plots to lure you into a disastrous fate. Confronted by this evil will, your own cries out: Rise against it. As one who rules over power, my duty is to witness the path you take. Should the world continue down its own current path, all that awaits you is destruction. Have you the resolve to defy such a fate, and face the distortion that yet again threatens your world?"
"I do… but how can we do anything? The Metaverse is gone." Akira replied.
Lavenza sighed. "I am afraid that the Metaverse usually has- what is the human expression- a way of… sticking around. But you are willing to help. That's the Trickster I know so well. What awaits you ahead are even greater hardships than before. However, you must never forget: I am always on your side."
He smiled. "I know you are."
It wasn't clear what exactly was coming, but hopefully it wouldn't interfere with their family trip too much. They were supposed to be on vacation after all.
~End of Chapter!
End note: Sorry about the timing of this story coming around, I know it's a little weird, but I had to write the first book before this for certain things to make sense. And that took a lot longer; plus most of it was written before I started posting it.
Anyway, this is gonna be fun, I hope you like it too!
