I own nothing. Monika does. (There is an important note at the ending of the chapter.)
"Sayori's late to class," Morgana noted from within Akira's desk. The black haired boy nodded, taking note of the empty seat where Sayori would normally be seated, either texting with their teammates or twiddling her thumbs in boredom.
"I thought I saw her in the hallway…" Morgana said to himself, a look of deep contemplation making his whiskers stick out. "It looked like she was in a hurry. I wonder what's keeping her."
Akira wondered that himself, though unlike his impulsive desk guest, he could restrain himself from getting up to investigate. The black feline was currently trying to leave his hiding spot, completely disregarding the fact that a cat walking in the middle of a classroom was going to draw attention.
"Fine." Morgana grumbled. "See if you can get a pass then. Sayori owes me sushi for the other day in Mementos." The cat was apparently still mad at Sayori for kicking the back of his seat.
Just as Akira was about to get up to do just that, the door to the classroom quietly creaked open. The flash of pink hair and red bow immediately gave away who it was. Thankfully Mr. Ushimaru hadn't seemed to notice the late arrival. Sayori's stealth was improving even in the real world, it seemed.
That is, until she walked all the way into the classroom.
Upon seeing the multiple bandages lacing across her arms, legs, and face, most of the students in the classroom began to murmur amongst themselves. Akira could only imagine the kind of gossip that was already being circulated. Though it was to be expected, when Sayori sported a haunted look in her eyes and currently appeared to be more mummy than human.
Sayori seemed to notice the sudden attention she had gained, wrapping her arms around herself in a futile attempt to hide her injuries. Unfortunately for the already very fragile girl, she barely got three steps into the classroom before Ushimaru took notice of his class's wandering attention.
"Pipe down, everyone! At least wait until I'm finished," the man snapped, turning from the board. Like some sort of masked monster, the teacher swiveled around to the topic of interest among his unruly class. Sayori seemed to shrink as any hope of avoiding confrontation vanished.
"So, I see you finally decided to join us, Miss Matsu," the grumpy teacher crossed his arms, clearly displeased. "According to your other teachers, you've been late to almost all of your classes for the past few days."
"Um… I was… in the bathroom," Sayori murmured, cheeks turning pink in embarrassment. The girl began to fidget, clearly at a loss for what to say. Mr. Ushimaru stared the girl down, before rubbing the bridge of his nose with an irritated sigh.
"I really don't want to have this conversation with you in the middle of class, Miss Matsu. Take your seat."
Sayori smiled, shoulders untensing, and quickly headed to her spot beside Ann in order to quickly dispel any worries her friends might-
"I'll be sure to contact your guardian to discuss your odd behavior, of course," The teacher continued, not seeming to notice the way Sayori sighed in disappointment. As if that would do anything. Goro may be her "guardian" but he addressed the fact that she was a few months older than him for most occasions. Sayori wasn't dumb enough to voice these thoughts aloud, giving the teacher a curt nod before taking her seat.
She noticed Ann looking over at her in concern. The blonde nodded her head towards Sayori's arms as if to say, "Are those injuries why you were late?"
Sayori shrugged in response. She hoped she had put enough hesitation into the action to say, "You're half right. These injuries were caused by the same reason I'm late, but the two events don't necessarily coincide with each other." But by the way Ann was looking at her, she probably thought Sayori meant something like, "I don't know," or even, "I'm not sure, I just woke up like this."
Sayori wasn't fluent in body language the way Ann was, obviously. The model had had a lot more training in the dialect than her. The two could just text, but Sayori was already beginning to skate on thin ice with Mr. Ushimaru. She didn't need to get the, "See me after class," treatment and risk missing the meeting with her friends just because she had her phone out. So instead, Sayori looked at Ann and waved towards the door. "We'll talk after class," She tried to convey.
Thankfully, Ann seemed to understand, nodding in agreement before turning back to the lesson. This left Sayori with the rest of the class period to come up with a good reason for why she was suddenly so much clumsier than she had been in the time she had begun training with the Phantom Thieves.
The real reason was that she had been disappearing more and more often lately. Sayori already had no idea how to control it, so imagine her delight when the episodes began to get more and more frequent, often putting her in incredibly unfortunate situations. Already, she had been effectively banned from getting anywhere near the kitchen in the apartment, and she was probably well on her way to getting banned from the bathroom too, despite the fact that unlike the kitchen, it was necessary for her to go to the bathroom.
And now it was even interfering with school life. Sayori had been so afraid of disappearing in the middle of class, that she had hidden herself until she disappeared once. This didn't make it any less risky to go to class, of course, but she had to show up. Even if it was just for a little while, if she was in class, she was there. People saw her, interacted with her, and she knew she was still there. The time between disappearances was getting shorter and shorter, and Sayori was beginning to fear that if she didn't find out what she wanted to do soon, one day she just might stop existing… stop coming back.
Without realizing it, Sayori had once again worked herself up. Her throat was burning, and Sayori knew she was going to start crying if she didn't calm herself down. So instead, she focused on her original intent of coming up with an excuse, or at least a way to derail a conversation anyone might start having with her about being late, her injuries, why her arm was starting to look fuzzy… Oh no, wait, she was just crying.
Sayori took a deep breath, trying to focus on her train of thought. One look around the room told her no one had noticed she was crying, but that brought little ease, because no one noticed her…
Her thoughts blended together, and suddenly all Sayori could think about was how this whole mess seemed to start. Ever since becoming aware, it just seemed to feel like the things originally distorting her had moved on to other areas of her life. She used to think everything was pointless, but now she was desperately trying to find a point to everything just to stay sane. Before, she had always been sure of things. She knew people, and she always made a point to attempt to know herself.
Yuri is quiet, shy, and can often sink into herself.
Natsuki is easily irritable, stubborn, and often jumps to conclusions…
Monika is organized, confident, helpful, yet you can't help but get the feeling that she's insecure about something…
Sayori knew all of these things, but that mere day spent in her Palace all that time ago had completely thrown her off. Her friends had become scary monsters, and if her Palace was her heart, had she known them to be monsters all along? That didn't sound right to her…
This was just one big example of how confusing things were now. No longer was she pointlessly going to a club at the end of a day that only seemed so long because that was just how things were. She was a Phantom Thief, trying to help her teammates prove their justice, trying to keep them out of trouble. At the same time, she lived with one of the detectives responsible for hunting them down, trying to keep him away from the Thieves despite the fact that he needed to find them before he could help her get home.
And despite all of that, she was developing feelings for him, and sadly, she was confused if those even were her feelings…
Live for yourself… Psyche had said to her. But how could she do that when she didn't know what she wanted, or how she wanted to live?
What was the lie?
What was she supposed to believe?
What was she supposed to do with the knowledge that she wasn't real?
Just as that question came to mind, Sayori got her answer. And just as she got her answer, class ended. Ann and Akira both got up, tapping her shoulder. It was time they met up with the rest of the team to discuss Alibaba, and the strange demands he had made of the Thieves.
Leblanc was always peaceful at this time of day. The calm before the storm was the best way to describe it. Most of the adult customers who stopped by for the day would be busy. Late lunch breaks over, children heading home… For these reasons and more Sojiro felt he could enjoy a small moment of peace and quiet. The TV was on, as it almost always was, but the man found he could ignore the black box which blared bad news for a small while.
"Are you kiddin' me?! No offense, but that's a shitty, shitty idea, Sayori!" Ah yes, the young, blond, loud friend of Akira's announced the arrival of his temporary charge's ever growing clique, with all the grace of a whining dog playing a kazoo. Sojiro straightened up his back ever slightly and went back to wiping off the table. They were all just arriving at the entrance to the shop by the sound of it. Already Sojiro could make them out through the small window on the door.
"None taken," came the now strained voice of a pink haired girl who Sojiro assumed to be Sayori. Akira had mentioned her at one point. She had been to Leblanc a few times before, though never when Sojiro himself was around.
According to Akira, "She doesn't come around for the coffee. I'm honestly relieved. Nothing good could come from giving this girl caffeine." And despite her currently detached tone of voice, the ever present bounce in her step and starry eyes convinced Sojiro immediately that this was an accurate statement.
"Honestly, Ryuji... Tactless as always," Yusuke Kitagawa was courteous enough to hold the door open for the three girls that followed him, who Sojiro recognized to be Ann Takamaki, Sayori Matsu, and… a new face.
Oh no. There's another one.
"What's with the big group?" Sojiro inquired, looking at the five people in Akira's company. Was he going to need to prepare more coffee for them?
"Good evening," Ann replied pleasantly. "We were thinking about putting together plans for our summer vacation." She looked pointedly over at Makoto and Sayori, only to find them scrutinizing Sojiro with an equal intensity that the man regarded them with. Basically, with cautious inspection, though still with a friendly demeanor, as if to assure the person being judged that there was nothing to worry about.
"Are those new faces I see?" Sojiro seemed to ask Akira, though his gaze was still on said new faces.
Sayori smiled and nodded. "It's lovely to finally meet you, Sakura-san. Akira has told us all so many things about you!" She clapped her hands together as if to emphasize her point.
Makoto introduced herself in her usual timid yet formal way. The look on her face was neutral, though Sayori noticed her slumped posture. She couldn't help but think it was a good method to connect a face to a name, by putting as many noticeable differences between their appearance. though Sayori personally thought the student council president was going overboard.
I mean, I have bright pink hair for crying out loud!
"Niijima?" Sojiro put a hand to his chin, seeming to recognize the name. He thought for a moment before shaking it off. "Eh, nevermind. It's lovely to meet you both. Though, what kinds of things has Akira been saying about me?" The old man glanced at the boy with an expectant gaze.
Clearing his throat, Akira laughed. "All good things, Boss." He pushed his glasses up his nose. The others smiled at his antics.
"I hope he's not causing either of you too much trouble, especially if you're a student council president," Sojiro looked at the girls and then back to Akira with an "I have to deal with this everyday" smirk.
Sayori couldn't help but giggle at that. "No trouble at all, Sakura-san. He and I, at least, have gotten along swimmingly since the day I met him," she gushed, giving Akira a big thumbs-up and an ecstatic smile.
"Sakura-san?" Sojiro asked, before waving his hands as if he could shoo the word away. "Everyone just calls me Boss." He smiled charmingly before once more turning to Akira. "By the way, that was addressed to you." He nodded to a letter on the counter before excusing himself, saying he had to pick something up.
"Late delivery on something I need at the house," Sojiro grumbled. "I'll be back soon. Don't make too much of a mess."
After the door shut and the bell rang, Sayori smiled. "He's nice. I like him."
"Yes. He has been quite generous, giving the Sayuri a proper place to stay," Yusuke smiled, gesturing to the beloved painting. The rest of the group took seats at the table as well, the left side seating Akira, Sayori, Ann in that order, and the right with Yusuke, Ryuji, and Makoto. Morgana hopped out of Akira's bag and began pacing around the table.
"And he's giving you a place to stay?" Makoto asked Akira, who silently nodded as he eyed the letter left for him warily.
"And me!" Morgana cut in, nudging the letter with his paw in curiosity.
"Are we gonna open that thing already?" Ryuji asked in boredom. He leaned back in his chair and silently contemplated getting up to get snacks. "You said you were waitin' on some invitation at one point, right?"
Akira smirked. "That's already been taken care of."
Sayori stretched her arms and yawned, the warm atmosphere of the coffee shop taking its toll. "Well, I probably don't have too much longer to stay before I should head home. Let's try to make this meeting quick?" The girl felt phantom chills across her spine, the knowledge of what would happen if she stayed too long weighed heavily on her mind. But for now she kept her mouth shut and a lazy smile on her face.
"It will be, Sayori," Ann assured. Just as they were about to begin the conversation, the news began yet another announcement concerning Medjed and the Phantom Thieves. Of course, as the Phantom Thieves, the group was sure to listen closely.
Sayori couldn't help but grow slightly pale at the rather brief announcement. Ann was already getting her phone out to read the post aloud. As everyone else began to discuss and complain, Sayori couldn't help but feel the roiling pit in her stomach was trying to tell her something.
Like some big, ugly quilt, all of the things happening at the current moment had a thread connecting them. Sayori felt that if she stared at the monstrous thing long enough, she could piece it together, or better yet, tear it apart. And what was worse…
"Why does Goro have anything to do with this?" Sayori whispered in a frail voice. However, it wasn't quite frail enough, as everyone immediately seemed to notice she had said something.
"What'd you say, Sayori?" Ryuji asked, scratching the inside of his ear, trying to clear out debris.
Sayori felt herself begin to panic. Think, Sayori. Think! You need to let them know what you've found out anyway… But maybe just leave out the part about Goro giving you your very cause for suspicion… The pink haired girl bit her lip, knowing she looked rather sheepish.
"Uh… I was thinking… Don't you guys think…" Sayori trailed off, knowing how dumb and foolish she must sound. It was at that moment of knowing that a lightbulb went off above her head.
Akira squinted, about to comment that Sojiro really needed to replace those when Sayori seemed to once again find her train of thought.
"Don't you guys think that Medjed is doing this on purpose?"
The others all blinked owlishly at her, not quite understanding where she was coming from.
"Are you implying that threatening to steal money from the bank accounts of those who support us was originally an accident?" Yusuke said with wide, confused eyes.
"No, what I'm trying to say is that they're egging us on. They are trying to force us to make hasty moves by making the public put pressure on us, and also trying to insult the egos they seem to believe we all have," Sayori spoke quickly, wondering for a second if she was making any sense to them. She felt relieved to see they were all paying rapt attention to her statement.
"All I'm really saying is that while we still definitely have to figure out a way to stop these Crackers, we should try not to get too worried or intimidated," Sayori finally finished, taking in a big gasp of air and leaning into her seat to rest.
"And also don't tell anyone we're Phantom Thieves." At her words, almost everyone turned to look at Ryuji, who groaned.
"That was one… no, wait… Okay, maybe I do that a lot, but you guys don't have to be mean about it!" Ryuji shouted in exasperation.
Before anyone could argue, Akira was reaching for the letter on the table, unable to quell his curiosity at the letter any longer. The red calling card he pulled out made everyone fall into a short stupor.
"Is there anything else?" Ann questioned. She took the envelope and began picking through it. "Whose this from, anyway?" She wondered, not seeing a return address.
"Someone must have directly dropped it into the mailbox here…" Makoto trailed off. Everyone else was obviously reaching the same conclusion she had.
Alibaba…
Sayori groaned slightly. So many problems seemed to be arising lately. They needed Alibaba's help, but they didn't know who he wanted to have a change of heart in order to form a deal and defeat Medjed. Everything was one chaotic mess, and everyone else seemed to agree.
"What the hell's going on here?" Ryuji muttered.
"All we can do is await Alibaba's orders," Makoto said solemnly.
"And until then, we can discuss Sayori's idea," Morgana suggested, causing the pink haired girl to beam. "...And also why it's bad." Sayori practically deflated upon hearing that.
Sojiro was about to enter Leblanc once again, having dropped off the featherman bed set that had arrived late, when he overheard the teens talking animatedly. While he wasn't normally one to pry on melodramatic teenage conversations, he also didn't feel like walking back into the store in the middle of a yelling match. So he decided to wait and listen for when it got quiet.
"Sayori, I don't want to be rude, but Ryuji is right… for once," came Makoto's voice, lower in tone than the blond haired friend she had mentioned.
"I thought you just said you didn't want to sound rude!"
"Not to Sayori…"
Ryuji grumbled and Sojiro shook his head. Poor kid might not be the absolute brightest, but it wasn't like everyone needed to bring it up.
"But! But…" Sayori tried to defend herself to no avail.
"Sayori, you know how happy I am for the two of you," Ann began gently. "Afterall, you have somebody who supports you and keeps you safe, and he has somebody he can relax around. Not to mention, it's kind of fun watching all of the girls around school be sad that the guy they've had a crush on is taken…" She snickered before seeming to remember she had a point.
Sojiro raised his eye slightly at that, remembering something Futaba had once mentioned offhandedly before she had begun her rather long silence. Perhaps she had had a point?
"What I believe she is trying to say, Sayori, is that there are a lot of risks involved with your idea," Yusuke said. "That dynamic certainly wouldn't mix well, and with all of the stress we are under… We'd only arouse-"
Sojiro coughed quietly to himself before walking away from the door. He had heard quite enough already. Deciding to call Akira and tell him to close the shop early, the man quietly left for home.
"We'd only arouse more suspicion if we all spent time together with Akechi," Yusuke finished. Everyone looked pointedly at Sayori who sighed.
"I know, but at the same time it would only be more suspicious if I kept him away from you guys…" Sayori muttered. "You see, he knows about the post of me on the Phansite."
"He does?!" Everyone asked in alarm.
Sayori nodded. "And suddenly I have this big group of friends that I won't let him meet. In fact, he asked me just the other day if he could meet you guys. If I don't answer, he could get even more suspicious!"
The others all eyed each other warily, not knowing how to respond. It was Akira who finally spoke up.
"That's true, Sayori. But on our own, we're a suspicious group all the same. In some way, we're all involved with our targets. If we hang around him too much while we're being targeted by Medjed, we could accidentally reveal more than we intended." Akira crossed his arms with an unhappy look on his face
"What about after?" Sayori questioned earnestly. The others all hesitated to answer. Wouldn't it also seem even more suspicious if they only agreed to meet him after the Medjed crisis was solved?
"How about we discuss this later for our sushi party?" Ann suggested, leaning over to whisper into Sayori's ear, "Morgana might be more willing to listen if he has some fatty tuna in him."
Sayori sighed but nodded, getting up from the table. "That's fine. I'll see you all there then." She rubbed her forehead before adding, "I should get going, my head hurts."
Her head did actually not hurt, but instead, that familiar hiccupy feeling was coming back to bite her already. As Sayori hurried out, she blearily heard her friends say their goodbyes.
"I assume the rest of your teammates are aware of my communications with you?"
"Hello? Are you there Sayori Matsu?"
"Fine. Just know that time is running out to strike a deal."
As soon as Futaba Sakura sent those messages, she deleted them. She had become so absorbed in other events of her day that she failed to realize what time it was. Sayori would be asleep by now, and so would everyone else.
Tapping her feet impatiently, the girl glanced at the clock on her computer and frowned slightly. She should probably sleep too, but she was feeling a strange sense of excitement. The calling card had been delivered. Hopefully things would start changing soon.
When they did, Futaba wanted to be awake to experience them fully.
She blinked the drowsiness away and once again began typing furiously on her laptop. As the time continued to pass, sad memories flowed through her, reminding her that at this hour, she'd be nearing "The Mouth of the Cavern," in her regular journey through the kingdoms of night.
It was almost too perfect of a coincidence that while she was there, in a place where bad people were tormented by fire breathing goddesses, that she could feel that same anxiety and guilt filling her heart, making it feel hard to breathe. It was as if a thousand eyes were burning her with their gaze, condemning her for what she had done. Futaba curled in on herself and decided that perhaps it would be best to get some sleep.
Even if the nightmares were always worse, at least she would be under her new Featherman bed set.
The next day, Sayori stared at her phone while huddled in the bathroom, not quite believing what she was reading. Alibaba was just giving them the name of the next target that easily? Sayori had originally thought that they would have been more persistent and stubborn to release information like that.
Could Alibaba be more desperate than she had originally realized?
All of a sudden Sayori felt an incredible weight of sadness settle on her heart as she read her phone screen over and over again.
"Did your leader already tell you your target's name?"
"It's Futaba Sakura. May as well spray it if I'm gonna have to say it."
"You better make sure your team changes her heart or else I'm going to report you!"
Sayori hesitated for a moment before sending a brief reply back.
"Don't worry, Alibaba. We'll help both of you. We'll steal her distorted desires and ease whatever heartache or suffering that might have befallen you!"
Though she couldn't help but cringe at how corny it sounded to her, the words felt like the right thing to say, at least in Sayori's mind. Afterall, though doubts had always crept in when others had said it to her, Sayori had always found comfort when people told her things would be okay. They had hope so could too, afterall.
Perhaps Alibaba would appreciate the sentiment as well.
Days passed, the situation growing more tense as the clock continued to count down a silent timer. Those who could searched for clues about Futaba Sakura, everyone able to realize quickly the surname that she shared with Boss. After looking into this relationship further, further discord seemed to arise as Sojiro became guarded, going as far as threatening to throw Akira out. It hardly helped matters when Akira overheard that Sojiro could be abusing Futaba, his daughter, from a woman that sounded painfully familiar to Makoto.
After hearing those words, the Phantom Thieves couldn't help but grow all the more worried, coming to uncomfortable speculation upon uncomfortable speculation. Things only grew worse when Alibaba once again contacted them, asking why no change of heart was taking place. But without the necessary keywords, they could do nothing.
Alibaba quit, and they were no longer able to contact the strange hacker.
Sayori was freaking out at this point. The time between her disappearances were growing shorter still. She now could consistently say that there was less than an hour between each occurence, and with everything that was going on, she could not find the time to think clearly on how to respond to anything. However, there were a second things she could be sure of.
The first was that she believes in Sojiro Sakura. He was a good person, who was kind enough to house a kid he had barely known before this. Perhaps he was standoffish at times, but there was nothing Sayori could discern about him that told her he could be capable of hurting someone as others seemed to think. Akira believes in that goodness as well, and although the other members were slightly skeptical, they all wanted to believe in Sojiro.
The second thing she was certain of was that she wasn't going to be able to relax again until everything was settled. A steady stream of fear had settled in her since she began to disappear, and the recent drama involving Medjed made her skittish to the point she was beginning to have trouble sleeping. Sayori didn't know what to do about her own situation, so she resolved to help everyone else around her. Perhaps if she could get things to a point where she was satisfied, with her teammates and friends on one arm and Goro on the other, as well as fix the issues troubling the Sakura household, maybe a solution would present itself. Sayori hoped so at least. This was a game after all. So she remained, not confident, but hopeful that the solution would find her eventually.
But for now, she had to meet her friends for sushi.
Sayori had to admit that the more often she ate sushi, the more the taste for it was becoming lost on her. There was no doubt that she would rather have it over the fast food Goro would sometimes have to bring home, such as Big Bang Burger, but lately she had been missing the sweeter things in life, cupcakes especially.
At least she had plenty of opportunities to enjoy tea.
She didn't voice these thoughts, simply smiling and sipping the tea that she had ordered along with the meal. Occasionally she would sneak a piece of her sushi into Akira's nag for Morgana, knowing that little by little she was getting back into Morgana's good graces after the incident in Mementos that had occured before this whole mess began.
The conversation was mainly focused on how good the sushi was, with Sayori giving polite nods on occasion. As the minutes ticked by, Sayori began to think of ways to excuse herself from the table, knowing that her disappearing like a magician was going to get a lot more attention than anything a couple of teens could gossip about.
"Sayori, you're being rather quiet," Makoto pointed out, concern pooling in her eyes. "Do you have anything to say about this?"
"About what?" Sayori asked, stiffening in her seat sheepishly. She hadn't been paying as much attention as she should have been.
"I was just wondering, do you really think Boss could abuse someone? We met him at the same time, and I just don't think I know him well enough to make assumptions…" The brown haired girl trailed off, the others giving Sayori a curious look.
"Well, if Akira believes in him, than I will too. I trust his judgement when it comes to someone he lives with," Sayori said brightly, before her expression notably dimmed. "Whatever is wrong with Futaba Sakura… I don't think it's his fault, but something entirely out of his hands." The girl trailed off, briefly wondering if she should stuff her face with sushi to avoid saying anymore,but then decided against it.
"To be honest, a part of me gets this pit in my stomach whenever I think about it. I feel like I should be figuring something out, that I could, but something inside of me refuses to see the bigger picture…" She leaned her hand on her chin and sighed. "I know when I finally see everything clearly, I'm probably going to laugh or cry at myself for not seeing it sooner."
She pushed her plate away and headed quickly for the bathroom. She felt cored, knowing that whatever was wrong with her was separating her from her friends when they needed her the most.
Running into Goro after sushi was an unsettling combination of relief and stress for Sayori. On one hand, she was very happy to see him. Heck, she was fully prepared to run up and jump into his arms like all the cliched couples did in movies. However, she was going to take her team's wish to heart and keep the groups separate until they had the Medjed situation fixed.
But that wasn't going to stop her from messing with his hair like a lovesick dork that desperately needed a nap and a hug.
"Sayori? What are you doing exactly?" the detective asked, his eyes widening and his cheeks turning a light red. He had been about to have a serious conversation with his small group of suspects, which he had deduced with little help from the pink haired girl, thank you very much.
His embarrassment wasn't helped when he saw Ann Takamaki getting out her phone and snapping a quick picture.
"I'm sending this to all of you," Ann declared proudly.
Goro Akechi resisted the urge to grit his teeth and forced a smile, finding it in himself to detach Sayori's hands from his hair. Wrapping his arm around Sayori's waist as best he could, in what he hoped was a way that would keep the girl still, the detective smiled charmingly at the group.
"It's nice to see all of you again. It's been much too long," Goro commented, noting with slight disappointment the rather hesitant nod most of them gave him in return.
Sayori, rested her head on his shoulder and sighed in disappointment herself. Of course her idea wasn't going to work if the majority of them, cat included, couldn't at least pretend to be happy to see him!
"Sayori," Goro commented instead, seeming to want to change the subject. Sayori looked up and met his gaze expectantly. "Did you enjoy the sushi?"
Sayori smiled and nodded. "It was delicious!"
Offended by the lie, despite receiving the majority of the sushi, Morgana poked his head out of the bag. "But you barely ate any of it!" Akira quickly pushed the cat back in, but it was too late. Sayori felt herself stiffen as Goro's breath hitched beside her.
He was in the Metaverse with me! Did he hear Morgana talk? Sayori fought to gain control of her quickly changing demeanor, forcing out slow and calm breaths. Beside her Goro Akechi said nothing for a long time. If this what it, all because of a stupid sushi outing, she was going to be so mad at that cat for being such a hypo-
"Interesting. Do you bring that cat with you everywhere you go?" Goro asked politely, unwrapping his arm from around Sayori and walking towards Akira. He leaned down and inspected the bag the black haired boy always carried. Meanwhile, Sayori was so shocked she thought she might actually fall over.
"What an odd bunch you all are," the detective was now remarking. Sayori was already losing focus on the conversation as she was beginning to come to an important realization.
She was only snapped out of her stupor by a loud, "For real?!" from Ryuji. Quickly shaking herself out of it, she strided over to the rest of the group to try and figure out what she had missed.
I guess we're going to war now… Sayori thought with a sick feeling building in her stomach.
After a few more awkward moments of Sayori watching her two separate groups react, the time to leave had once again come. It was like an out of body experience as she watched Goro walk towards her and talk to her in a calm voice, before seeming to realize she was no longer paying attention to the world around her.
"Hello? Sayori? I said you should continue visiting with your friends as I'm not going straight home today." The detective snapped his finger in front of her face, watching as she finally seemed to be fully awake now.
"Why's that?" Sayori asked blearily, trying not to lose her focus once again.
"Well, Sae-san and I have made enough progress in investigating the Phantom Thieves that I'm satisfied for now. I decided that this afternoon I would try to find out more about your case by a new method," the detective began to ramble out his own thought process vaguely. "At this point I think it's safe to say there is very little chance of recovering any of your memories, so I thought it might be better to investigate places… crime scenes if you will, instead of people. I think I have a pretty good idea where to start too."
As Goro smiled wide, obviously proud of himself, Sayori couldn't help but be stunned, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide with worry. There were multiple reasons to be extremely scared by what her roommate had just said. How much progress had he made? Where was he going to look?
The detective seemed to misinterpret this and snapped his fingers in her face once more. When she blinked and gave him a small smile to assure him she was paying attention, he seemed to react the exact opposite. This was a concerning trend lately.
"Sayori, are you feeling alright? You haven't been acting like yourself lately…" the detective trailed off, a look of disappointment falling on his features. He put the back of his hand to her forehead, although they both knew there would be no fever.
Sayori only smiled wider, lifting his palm away from her forehead and wrapping him in a tight hug. "I'm fine, Goro. I've just had a lot of stuff going on lately. I'm sure things will go back to normal soon."
The look on his face told the girl that he wanted to argue, but she was one step ahead. Giving him an even bigger hug and a light peck on the cheek, the girl quickly separated herself from him and ran to join her friends who were making their way to a subway.
"I'll see you tonight, Goro. We'll discuss things then!"
The detective remained silent for a few moments after that, the heavy pounding in his chest was something he knew should have made him feel light as a feather. Yet, instead it weighed him down like a sack of bricks, heavy with indecision and uncertainty.
I don't like this… I don't like this at all… Sayori thought to herself as she stepped lightly around Sojiro's house. It wasn't that it was raining, or that the darkness of the house seemed to make everyone else, Makoto in particular, think they were in some ghost story. No, like all of them, Sayori was concerned about the fact that they had technically just trespassed in Boss's house.
It was rather concerning to her that despite being able to feel the massive tension in the air as thunder cracked outside, and being able to hear Makoto's building anxiety from across the room, Sayori felt a strange sense of calmness in what some could interpret to be a scary situation. The rain outside filled what might have been an otherwise deathly silence, and if it weren't for the fact that she was worried she might get in trouble for trespassing, Sayori thought she could've settled onto a nearby chair for a nap.
That is, until the power went out.
A scream from somewhere above made Sayori look up in concern. She hadn't heard any sort of crashing noises, so she was pretty sure that scream wasn't caused by someone getting hurt. Sayori breathed a small sigh of relief at that, before focusing on the more pressing issue of making sure Ann and Makoto calmed down. They walked a bit further into the house, searching for any sign of the girl they were looking for, who was most likely the source of the scream.
"It's kinda cool how chill you are about this, Sayori," Ryuji remarked.
"You guys don't seem all that worried either," Sayori replied casually. "Besides, it would be smarter if we all kept quiet. If she screams again, we can find Futaba easier that way." Sayori adjusted the bow in her hair and crossed her arms, trying to look professional but failing miserably.
The sound of footsteps put a stop to any attempted banter, everyone looking around nervously for the source.
Let it be known that Yusuke was no help whatsoever in calming everyone's nerves by saying, "I can sense someone's presence," like some sort of medium.
Makoto looked like she wished the Earth would just swallow her up as she whipped her head back and forth, clinging onto Akira's shoulder for dear life. "Who is it?" She asked, quietly at first, before trying once more with a more built up volume. When no one answered her, Makoto finally seemed to snap. Wanting to leave, yet her legs frozen, the vice president was beginning to worry everyone that she might drop dead the next time lightning flashed.
What happened after that, during the lightning flash, was much worse. Sayori was about to turn around and offer Makoto a hand up, when she suddenly felt an almost primitive instinct to take five steps back. It was a good thing she did, for when the lightning flashed, she could make out the barest glint of glasses and ginger hair before Makoto was screaming and flailing around like a startled goose.
Sayori ran back to her original spot as Makoto seemed frozen to Akira's leg. Ann began shouting for the ginger haired girl, Futaba, while the footsteps retreated up the stairs.
The rest of her time at Sojiro Sakura- Boss's house, was a blur. If someone were to ask her about it later, Sayori would only be able to say that she remembered all of the screaming and freaking out, a brief coldness of the rain outside, before she was Leblanc, about to hear a tale that would reveal a large part of that bigger picture she was so eager yet hesitant to see.
Sayori remained silent the whole time, a grim expression on her face as she listened to Sojiro's explanation regarding his adopted daughter, and her mother's tragic suicide. Everyone had the mind not to ask her how she was affected by this, for which a small part of her felt grateful, already knowing how she would respond.
It didn't matter to her, how she felt in this situation. It was horrible. There was no getting around that fact. But what mattered most…
How was Futaba feeling?
Sayori was incredibly concerned, her hands balled into fists at the thought of what the young girl had been forced to witness that day her mother jumped into the street, and what she was forced to witness on all of the days that followed.
Sayori felt that she was getting trapped in her own head lately, but there was one advantage of that. No matter what everyone else decided, Sayori knew what she was going to do.
Some way or another, she was going to help Futaba.
For now though, she was frozen in her seat, listening to the story but not taking part in any conversation, only able to absorb what others were saying. It wasn't until Boss already left, with a request to leave Futaba alone, that the others attempted to wake her from her stupor.
Shaking her shoulder slightly, Yusuke began softly, "I'm not going to even attempt to ask you if you are alright, Sayori. Obviously you aren't… But we need your input to decide what we need to do now."
"Sayori…"Ann said sympathetically, nudging her. "You need to go home, you know?"
Sayori squeezed her eyes shut and for once, ignored the hiccup building up. She stood up calmly, slowly walking over to the door with what she hoped was a neutral body language. Before leaving Leblanc, she said loud enough for her teammates to hear, "I agree with what you guys have already decided. Futaba needs help… So I'll help her no matter what it takes… Palace or no."
The bell rang and the door shut with a finality that resonated throughout the building.
Futaba listened in on the conversations in Leblanc with rapt attention. Once again, the Phantom Thieves were talking about palaces, but what did that have to do with anything? All Futaba could gather was that she apparently had one.
As if. How could I afford something like that? Futaba mused to herself as she typed faster and faster. Despite the ridiculousness of the words being said, they were all taking it very seriously, especially Sayori.
That had been surprising to Futaba. She would have expected Sayori to start bawling her eyes out at the first mention of her misfortune, yet the girl barely spoke until it was time to leave.
Just how is she planning to help me, Futaba wondered. And furthermore, she's not acting like the real Sayori normally does. I suspect cloning! Pushing up her glasses, Futaba wondered how possible that was, before abandoning the idea completely.
If they were planning on helping then there was very little time to waste. They had made a deal, afterall.
Her almost obsessive work pace was interrupted when she heard one of the Phantom Thieves ask, "Hey, where's Mona?" As if out of nowhere, a nearly fully black cat jumped out from a shadow in her room.
Just as it had suddenly arrived, making Futaba jump and yelp, it was gone.
Goro hadn't been to the Mementos that often lately. Most often he came because he had a job to do, and he never lingered any longer than he had to. However, for multiple reasons, today the detective was here to explore.
With the way Medjed was moving recently, he had no doubt the Phantom Thieves were moving cautiously. As such, they wouldn't be here today. That was a huge relief. Before, if they had by chance met up, they would only know him as the man with the black mask that shadows always tried to spill their guts about. Now, with Sayori among their ranks, it was more plausible that they would discover his identity.
I've become too open with her lately, he admitted to himself as he just barely managed to dodge a fight with a couple of overly confident shadows. He had to make haste, afterall. The reason he was here was based on a mere whim, and it would likely lead him nowhere. But with the way things were going, Goro was getting desperate.
Sayori knew so much about him, and that would only make things worse if she was still living with him when he got his revenge. Not to mention, one of the members of this sorry organization was getting antsy. The last thing he needed was for Sayori to put things together in the possible event that her principal met an unfortunate fate.
Why did I allow myself to start worrying about foolish things? I should have just run rampant from the start, without worry for the principles I'd already lost. Yet those foolish principles were what made him start on this path of destruction. The thought that he could obtain justice, for himself, and for his mother, made him walk this path… So it would only make sense.
The subway tunnels were as dark as ever, the red veins on the walls giving the masked assassin the feeling that this place was alive. Goro had to move carefully. He didn't know what he was looking for, but so far the Metaverse had been his only lead. Someone had left him a note, and given him a flash drive that he still had no access too. An entity who could mislead others in this way… It didn't seem possible to him that they had simply gone down with Sayori's Palace.
They had to know something about Sayori. He couldn't wait around for whatever they wanted him to wait for. Sayori had been getting too hurt lately for him to find any comfort in her being near him. If this person… entity… whatever it was, was still around, then he had to find them.
Mementos was getting deeper lately. The Phantom Thieves were obviously the cause of this. Once again they were being an inconvenience. Now he had more ground to cover if he was going to find what he was looking for.
When he found he could no longer run, Goro slowed to a walk, looking closely in the tunnels for anything useful. He had been down more of them than he cared to count, leading him further into the place he had come to hate. Everything about the darkly lit setting put him on edge, making him think of things best left forgotten.
The farther down you go, the closer to Hell you are, he had once heard. If that was to be believed, than Goro Akechi knew he was the lowest of the low. But his pride and what was left of his sense of self rebuked this idea, so he dismissed it. Instead, he went farther down still, running into more shadows, each one a reminder of truths he'd rather not face.
Rather not… But I'll have to eventually.
It should have been funny, really. Just earlier when he had talked with Sae-san, he had been so eager to throw the Phantom Thieves under the bus. Now as he weaved his way into Mementos and looked at the fruits of their labor, he would freely admit to himself that he held an admiration for the group. Yet now he had the orders to not bother with caution or mercy in order to catch them. These orders had come from both Sae-san and the higher-ups in the conspiracy.
Goro Akechi was fine with that.
But, he thought, they won't be able to object if I get creative and try to enjoy myself in the process, so long as the job gets done. He thought this to himself with the smallest of dry smiles as he finally came to another stopping point to investigate. The darkly lit tunnels made it hard to view the ground or walls for anything of use, but he refused to do something as stupid as try to crouch down. He couldn't afford for any Shadow to catch him in a moment of weakness. His helmet would only protect him from so much damage.
After a few minutes of inspecting the area as best as he could, Goro turned towards the area's exit, already having gone down all the other paths. At this point, he probably wouldn't stay here for much longer for sake of his safety. He was loathe to admit it, but Mementos was probably yet another dead end in his search for answers.
That thought made him incredibly angry. He bit his lip to avoid any outburst that he usually would have had while in the privacy of Mementos. He began to walk towards another area of Mementos, hands balling into fists as he tried to control his temper. He couldn't waste time getting into fights, even if it would be a nice source of stress relief.
He stepped towards the glowing red pathway and quickly passed through it. However, as soon as he passed through it, a sharp burning pain made itself present as he was slammed into the wall. So much for avoiding fights, he thought with a pained wheeze. He blinked his eyes open to find a rather suspicious scene before him.
All of the shadows were moving as though they were guards in a Palace, instead of the ones that normally milled about in Mementos. And now they were all moving towards him with the clear intent of finishing him off.
The detective smiled. Perfect. He would try to interrogate one, and if that didn't work, he would destroy them and be on his merry way. If it came to that point though, he had no doubt he would lose sight of the original motivation for coming here in the first place. Preparing his weapons, Akechi quickly dove into the fight.
After a very long battle in of defeating any and all Shadows that came near him, he finally had a rather ugly looking Oni cornered.
"What in this area are you trying to protect?" He questioned, one hand on his gun and the other on his mask.
"I can't tell you. They wouldn't like it!" The Shadow turned away from the seething detective, very obviously trying not to give anything away.
Akechi was having none of this. "Well 'they' aren't here. I am! And I'll be very unhappy if you don't tell me!" For good measure in exercising his point, he shot his gun, missing the Oni by inches as the bullet embedded itself in the walls of the darkly lit area.
"I won't miss next time."
The shadow whimpered and finally caved. "Upon entrance, any Shadow in this area was made to stay here and make sure no outsiders entered. 'It wasn't clean enough,' we were told."
Before Akechi could ask what the hell that meant, the shadow disappeared, leaving the black masked detective alone in the area. Sighing to himself, he holstered his gun and went about closely inspecting the place. He was starting to wish he had brought a flashlight. At least he knew that for whatever reason, there was something in here, perhaps causing the place to be dirtier than necessary, that was important.
Amidst the red and black lighting of the area, he saw it. A flash of white partially hidden by the tracks. Curiously, he walked over and bent down to pick that something up, only to pull on on end of it like a string as he brought it up to his face for closer view.
A white ribbon? He looked around the room for anything else that might seem more important. When nothing else caught his eye, the detective sighed in resignation and quickly got out a plastic bag, slipping the evidence inside.
He didn't understand these Shadows. Protecting a room because of a ribbon? What a waste of his time and effort. With nothing else motivating him forward for the night, and the threat of chains rattling in the background, Goro made his way out of Mementos.
After the assembly the next day, the Phantom Thieves had a short meeting in Akira's room to discuss the next course of action. Upon hearing that Futaba had bugged Leblanc, Sayori grew nervous, wondering how long Futaba had been spying. Had she installed cameras at one point as well?
Shaking off her own selfish worried thoughts, Sayori was glad that everyone seemed to be on the same page. Briefly she wondered if this meeting, where everyone discussed how upset it made them that one so young had such a strong distortion, was like the meeting they had before invading her own Palace.
Sayori no longer stewed in her own worried thoughts, instead only willing to focus on the present situation. Futaba had a Palace, so she was going to do her best in the heist, no matter how long it took.
It's my obligation to help those who can't help themselves, Sayori recalled her resolve as she left with the rest of the group to go to Sojiro's house.
The group stayed on the outside of Sojiro's house upon arrival, not wanting to trespass again. They did their best to imagine what Futaba's distortion might be. A prison, a labyrinth, an oasis, and hell were all tried, only for none to work.
"Sayori, what do you think it could be?" Morgana asked curiously."You were in a similar situation, don't you think?"
Sayori only shook her head. "If I try to think in Futaba's point of view, I can only go off of my own experience as I think about it. It's definitely one possibility, but I don't think Futaba thinks of her house as a festival."
As if to confirm her point, the Metaverse chimed in. The conditions have not been met message only served to irritate everyone.
"We don't have nearly enough clues…" Ann mumbled, looking down in disappointment.
"If only we could ask her directly," Yusuke pondered.
Ryuji gained a stubborn look on his face. "We can. C'mon, let's go see Futaba."
"But what will we say to get in?" Makoto asked nervously.
"Well, it's not like we haven't already trespassed," Sayori said as she looked at the house, a nervous yet familiar feeling sinking into her stomach. "Let's just go in and see what we can find out from Futaba."
"Won't the door definitely be locked this time?" Makoto asked, knowing Sojiro wouldn't want to risk it.
"I'll take care of it," Morgana replied. "And I figured out where Futaba's room was when I snuck in last night."
Makoto continued to object, but everybody else had already made up their mind.
"Makoto," Sayori began with a reassuring smile on her face. "We've already faced down the mafia before. We can handle a few questions from Boss."
"Besides, he's at work right now. We should be fine," Ann added.
Makoto finally seemed to cave. With one final confirmation, Morgana got the door open and they were on their way.
"Futaba-chan?" Makoto asked, knocking on the door to the girl's room. Sayori felt a certain kind of pain stitching itself between her eyes, taking root there as she squinted in the dark hallway.
This felt wrong… but in a familiar way.
"Futaba?" the pink haired girl knocked on the door too. "You texted me and our leader right? It's been strictly business for you? Despite that, I want to communicate with you however you feel comfortable. Makoto already apologized for scaring you last night… Is there anything else we can do?"
"She texted you too?" Ryuji wrinkled his nose. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"It never really came up," Sayori said with a shrug. "Though it does make me feel nice that she decided to get into contact with me as well. I wonder why that was…"
Shaking off the thoughts, Sayori watched as the others took a different approach, calling the girl by her chosen name.
"You're listening, right, Alibaba?" Makoto tried in a firmer tone of voice. Akira looked up as his phone vibrated.
"Alibaba?" Sayori questioned. She got out her phone as well, noting with disappointment that her phone remained silent. Her head was starting to hurt and her vision got blurry. Don't focus on it, and just let whatever is happening, happen. This is no time to fret. Sayori didn't really care what would happen if she disappeared at that moment. Instead she leaned over Akira's shoulder and tried to give her own input.
There was a brief beat of silence on her end before Sayori decided to ask what she considered to be a selfish question. Sayori trailed off, knowing they needed to be asking more about Sojiro's house.
"Futaba… Sometimes, do you hear rain clouds?"
But they were surprised to get a response, despite never having texted the girl herself.
"Not rain clouds, more like the static sound that the TV sometimes makes. Are rain clouds what you hear?"
"Yeah," Sayori said, smiling a little. "Thanks to these guys, I don't hear them as much anymore. Answer as best as you can, and then we'll help you too… Just like you wanted. I think it's something to be proud of, that you came to us despite not being able to leave the house."
Sayori stayed silent after that, hoping the lack of response to her comment didn't mean anything bad.
"Why don't you go out?" Akira texted, continuing on with Sayori's statement.
"I can't leave this place."
"I'm going to die here."
"Is this going to continue?"
The pain was a heartbeat now, but Sayori ignored it in favor of listening in on the room. There was no reaction to what Alibaba had just texted, as if it was a simple fact to her. The room was so silent it buzzed, sending a wave of shockingly familiar tinnitus through Sayori's ears as she remembered her old wish to finally be met with true silence, the constant storm in her mind becoming too much to bare.
"Why do you think that?" Akira responded.
"Why?"
"This place is my tomb."
One try in the MetaNav confirmed it, they had Futaba's final keyword. Sayori trembled and shook, wanting to get away from the bedroom door as fast as possible and begin their heist. The door itself brought on so much discomfort. Sayori was afraid to open it, for reasons she could not yet fathom.
With one click on the Nav from Ryuji, the "real world" bled away. And Sayori couldn't help but yelp as something strange once again happened.
The hiccup feeling in her throat turned into the painful soreness that happened before and after a cough. Her vision clouded over and faded into black.
It happened in barely a second, unspoken words and thoughts that weren't her own surged through her head.
"Sayori?"
She really is a heavy sleeper…
I swallow.
I can't believe I ended up doing this after all.
Waking her up in her own house…
That really is something that a boyfriend would do, isn't it?
In any case…
It just feels right.
Outside Sayori's room, I knock on her door.
"Sayori? Wake up, dummy…"
There's no response.
I really didn't want to have to enter her room like this…
Isn't it kind of a breach of privacy?
But she really leaves me no choice.
I gently open the door.
Futaba sat alone in her room, her typing less enthusiastic than before. She probably had something else she could be working on, but out of curiosity she had decided to visit the Phansite. She didn't particularly like it. The person who ran it seemed to see it as a publicity stunt, and the people who made requests on it seemed to be whiners.
But what Sayori had said earlier had made her curious. How had Sayori joined the Phantom Thieves, and how had they helped her. Surprisingly, it only took her only a few seconds to get an answer.
That's strange. This post must have been made months ago. What's it doing at the very top?
Futaba read it with growing concern. I feel bad about picking on her now…
Please help phantom thieves!
I think my friend wants to kill herself. Her name is sayori matsu. Shes depressed all the time and lonely too! I can't really describe it in text but I mean it. Shes always talking about some school festival she wanted to go to and how she wanted to make everyone happy with her performance. I guess it got canceled and shes super broken up about it. Now shes living with some dude named goro akechi at his apartment. I think hes the one from the tv? Rly strange. I dont know what to do. i need your help phantom thieves!
- Anonymous
Futaba gulped and quickly exited the site. Something strange must be going on, and she wasn't quite sure she wanted to know what that something was.
Happy anniversary, you guys! A few weeks ago, as many of you may know, this story turned a year old. My partner and I wanted to do something special for this occasion. After some thought, we decided to create a blog on Tumblr, for the stories on my account in general, but right now, mainly about A New Route. Here you could check on story progress, or ask questions about things you might be curious about, and stuff like that. Depending on how the first few weeks go will determine if it continues for long. The blog is tumblr dot com/blog/nevermore-the-dragon-sings. (but chsnge the "dot" to an actual dot, cause as far as I know link sharing doesn't work. I'll also put a link on my fanfic profile if that doesn't work.
Anyway, please read, review, and I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. See you next time!