I own nothing. Monika does.

A couple of days later, the group of thieves met up. This was a meeting of pure business, with one particular goal in mind. This was to make Ryuji stop procrastinating. Upon Makoto's suggestion, the group had decided to focus on their studies. Since they were meeting at Leblanc, Akira had decided to multitask. Since he had to watch the store, he wanted to study, but also practice independently with the food they served. A group of bored, studying students would be the perfect group to practice was quickly proving to be a problem though.

"Ryuji, you can't just spend the entire hour we planned to be here looking at the menu!" Ann chided, attempting to yank the cursed item out of his hands.

"I'm studyin' it!" The blonde boy retorted. "And I'm not looking at any stupid book until I make my order, and get my food!"

Morgana grumbled, probably getting ready to say some insult about Ryuji, only for Sayori to hold a finger to her mouth in a gesture to be quiet. "If I hear any fighting from either of you, I'm not staying," she cut in, then glanced at Ryuji and Ann, still wrestling over the menu. "Ryuji, you have five minutes to order. If you can't decide by then, Ann will order for you. Does that seem fair to you, Ann?"

The model nodded in agreement before begrudgingly letting Ryuji have his menu back. The boy pouted as he began to scan the menu. Now that there was no more fighting or arguing, Sayori felt much more relaxed. "Akira, I've already eaten. Move on to Yusuke while I get my stuff ready."

Morgana hadn't seemed to take kindly to Sayori bossing him around. The memory of her mishap still made his skin sting. Glaring daggers at the pink-haired girl, he quietly began to grumble. "You can be a real bossy-boots sometimes, you know that?"

"I see Sayori as more of a stubborn, slightly hypocritical, pacifist at times," Yusuke corrected from his spot in the corner. Sayori quickly stuck her tongue out at the artist, before taking out a deck of her flashcards.

"I'm studying more later, at the apartment. Is it alright if I stop early? Besides, I couldn't fit all of my study materials in my bag, anyway," the poor poet explained her predicament.

The group nodded in agreement. "Make sure you take some time to study in the library then, since you usually don't have much to do in there," Makoto was quick to add. Sayori hesitantly agreed to these terms. She could already imagine how Mai might respond to that.

Akira brought everyone's food out, finally taking a seat himself. "Now that everyone is ready, let's go ahead and get started," he suggested. Ryuji's audible grumbling, and the rest of the group's confused murmuring would be the only sounds in the cafe for the next half hour.

Sayori, now completely bored of toying with her flashcards, began to look around the cafe. The TV on the other side of the room blared noiselessly having been muted while the group studied. If she remembered correctly, Goro was having an interview tonight. While she knew she didn't want to bring up her suspicions with the rest of the group just yet, maybe it would be beneficial for her to finally listen more closely to their thoughts on him. Perhaps she would realize something she hadn't before…

Slipping out of her seat, Sayori walked over and began to fiddle with the device. Once she was satisfied, and the interview had less then a minute to start, she took a comfortable seat and waited. I suppose I'll be studying a bit more than I thought. The rest of the group was getting quite antsy anyway. Makoto was just about to suggest a break, when the interview began.

"And that was the follow-up report on the suspect Kaneshiro. Now, Akechi-san…" Everyone looked up at the TV in alarm. Sayori noticed out of the corner of her eye that Akira was shooting a slight glance of disapproval her way. She shrugged it off. Afterall, it was her duty to report on any progress the detective might make.

All eyes turned to the TV, and Sayori couldn't help but let out a sad sigh. It was obvious at this point that the Phantom Thieves hadn't taken a liking to the detective. This could have two meaning if Sayori wanted to look at it from a storytelling perspective. The possibility she feared most was that their natural disliking of him meant that her suspicions were correct, and whatever higher force dictating this game was simply sending signs that Goro couldn't be trusted.

The second possibility was the one she hoped most for. The Phantom Thieves of Hearts had made a slight error in their judgement for once, and Goro Akechi was just a gentleman detective trying to do his job. Sayori would freely admit that she had a bias when it came to these two possibilities. His treatment of her didn't mean anything when it came to his behavior anywhere else, but she wanted to pretend it did. She wanted to pretend she wasn't interrupting a story that had probably already been told hundreds of times.

In any other timeline, Sayori wasn't supposed to be here, so what she meant to him, as a friend, had no meaning to anything else that he was responsible for in this game. A simple gentleman detective wouldn't be interesting without Sayori there to add depth to his storyline. So there were probably already other things already in line to make it seem that he served a purpose to the original story.

But I'm here now, and it probably wasn't without purpose that I was put into a position where he and I would become friends. Sayori wanted to hope that she was here for a purpose. The Phantom Thieves of Hearts would find out in their own time whether or not they could trust Goro Akechi. But she was not restricted like they were. She had the free will to do whatever she wanted with her information. Perhaps this is what it means to live for myself…

"Thank you for having me over, Akira," Sayori thanked on her way out. The group had finished studying some time ago, but Sayori had wanted to wait until the interview was finished. Afterall, Goro wasn't home, and the thought of being alone for too long with her thoughts made Sayori rather uncomfortable, especially since her roommate had banned her from using the kitchen. Somehow, she had managed to start a fire while boiling water.

"Sayori, you said you had something to give me on the way here, right? You wanted to wait until we were done studying though," Makoto reminded. Sayori smiled nervously as she remembered she had said that.

Digging in her pocket, she brought out a sheet of paper and handed it to Makoto. "The little rhyme, as promised."

Be Polite

Except when they tease

Else you get left out

Please don't fight

But if you do, be civilized

Openly discuss your problems

One friend is enough, but more is a bonus

Please don't think too hard about this poem.

Makoto read the poem a few times over, noticing with rising suspicion that the poem hardly rhymed. Sayori continued to grow more and more nervous as Makoto flipped the poem sideways and read it again. Making sure her escape route was clear, Sayori didn't notice how Makoto suddenly tensed in realization.

"Sayori… is this by any chance an acrostic poem?" Makoto looked up with a glare.

The girl jumped slightly at the dangerous edge in the Student Council President's voice. "N-No. Not at all…" Sayori began to slowly back away from the confused group, only to break into a run when Makoto made eye contact with her. "Well, would you look at the time! I need to get back to the apartment!"

The Phantom Thieves of Hearts watched as Sayori retreated in terror. "Are you going to go after her?" Yusuke suddenly asked.

"Nope. I'll let her inevitable exhaustion teach her a lesson. However, I will make sure to visit the library tomorrow," Makoto replied simply.

The teens all sighed in relief, before grabbing their backpacks and heading home.

Goro Akechi was preparing to head home for the night. Packing his briefcase, he almost didn't notice his colleague walking over to him. Only when the woman tapped him on the shoulder did he bother to look up. "Niijima-san? I figured you would be home by now." The detective was rather confused.

Sae had a rather serious look on her face as she studied the teenager. "I apologize for my intrusion, but a thought occurred to me while looking over the case details about the suspect, Kaneshiro. I would like to discuss it with you."

"I would love to talk about it with you, Sae-san, but I must be leaving. I wouldn't want my roommate to starve," Goro responded with his typical friendly smile. He was about to head for the exit when Sae's next sentence froze him in place.

"Actually, it's something about your roommate I need to discuss. I'll make it as brief as I can," she quickly promised. Sae smiled in relief when Goro hesitantly turned around.

"What about Sayori would you like to discuss?" the detective asked, making sure to keep everything about himself guarded, even though he was internally panicking. Does she suspect something?

Sae gestured him over to two seats. Reluctantly, the pair sat down and began to talk. "When I was looking over the facts of the case, I remembered how stressed out you were when Sayori's name was on the Phantom Thieves forum. I'm sorry for forgetting to ask this sooner, but when you walked into the station a few days later, seeming as happy as ever, I assumed the post on the forum was a false alarm. Anyway, how is Sayori doing?"

"She is doing well. I still have barely made any progress on her case however… By the way, has anybody taken a look at the drive I brought in?" Goro couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed in himself. Hopefully others were having a slightly better time with the drive. Any clues it may contain had to be vital, if the odd being that had left it there for him was telling the truth.

"Sadly, nobody has been able to access its contents. However, we did find something odd about it," Sae watched as the detective looked up expectantly. "It was a good thing you only handled it with your gloves. When it was examined, it was discovered to have absolutely no sign of fingerprints, or even that somebody had used it before you did. Furthermore, we couldn't find out what brand it is…"

"So it would be impossible to figure out who bought it by tracking the record of sales," the teenager concluded. While it was hardly a surprise that this would be an issue, knowing where exactly he had gotten it, it still frustrated the detective to no end. "Thank you for telling me this, Sae-san. What else did you want to discuss?"

"Well, would you say that the fact that she does not seem depressed mean that the Phantom Thieves of Hearts have already finished their business with her. You seemed so worried before that it might actually be true that she wanted to end her own life. For that to suddenly not be a concern anymore must mean that something has happened," Sae noticed a frustrated scowl cross Goro's face.

"Well, I haven't seen Sayori receive a calling card yet, so there's no way for me to tell if that is truly what happened. Besides, while it may not be as bad as before, Sayori still has days where I'd rather just let her sleep in, instead of have her being awake and miserable," the detective sighed. Despite the sad implications of what he was saying, he couldn't help but smile. Those days she always had a pensive expression, like she was thinking too hard about something that only served to bother her. He couldn't help but wonder what concerned her so much.

"What's with the smile all of a sudden?" Sae suddenly asked from her seat.

Goro jumped slightly and looked up with a blush. "It's nothing, just something that happened a few days ago. I suppose you could say it was a time when I was seriously considering just letting her sleep… Anyway, what were you saying?"

"I suppose we are getting off topic. I'll cut to the chase…" Sae looked at the blushing teenager in rising suspicion. "I want to meet Sayori in person."

The detective seemed to choke on air as he looked at the woman in shock. "Why exactly would you want to do that?"

"It's highly likely with the fact that Sayori no longer seems depressed, and the fact that the Phantom Thieves have moved onto another target, that she has already had a change of heart. I would like to interview her to see if I can gain any clues about the Phantom Thieves methods," Sae answered matter-of-factly.

"I don't know if she would take kindly to that. She supports them, you see?" The poor detective was trying and failing to come up with a reason for Sae not to meet Sayori. The girl was so bad at lying to him… How would she handle Sae? The woman would probably turn it into an interrogation if Sayori slipped up.

"All the more reason to come talk to her," Sae responded resolutely. Clearly she wasn't taking "No" for an answer. "When can the two of us meet?" the woman asked, probably already thinking about the questions she would ask.

Goro Akechi was trying very hard not to make it look like he was trembling. He needed the time to come up with a good solution. Sayori needed enough of a headstart to prepare herself. The solution became obvious after a full minute of internal panicking, disguised by him appearing to simply ponder the question. "I will ask Sayori about it, and then get back to you, my preferences would prefer for it to be sometime during summer," he finally responded calmly.

"Thank you, Akechi-kun. I will leave you to your business then," Sae said with gratitude. Getting up from her chair, the woman left for her own home. She was completely unaware of the predicament she had left her colleague in.

The detective sighed as he grabbed his briefcase and headed out as well. What am I going to do?

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, as well as the poem. Please read, review, and I'll see you all next time!