6/13
The alarm sounds and Makoto's eyes snap open. She rolls onto her side with a groan and begins to say, "Good morn-" before she stops. The floor is empty. That's right, she thinks. Haru isn't here.
She lifts herself onto her elbows, reaches out, and taps off the alarm clock.
The silence continues to ring.
It had been a simple choice. Haru had been snatched by Sugimura just outside of Makoto's apartment. It was no longer safe for her, here.
Makoto pushes the covers away, and stands. She stretches her arms over her head and chokes back a yawn.
She leaves her room and finds the hallway quiet. Shuffling into the kitchen, Makoto pulls open the fridge, and removes the breakfast she'd prepared the night before, alone.
It was decided that Takamaki would keep Haru at her place, for now.
Makoto drops into her seat at the kitchen table.
She told herself that the animosity between herself and Takamaki was... well, maybe not gone, but something. Certainly, she didn't see red around her. Makoto respected that Takamaki had offered to protect Haru, without having to be asked. It wasn't as if the girls were friends.
Makoto digs her phone from her pocket. I'll text Haru and see how it went.
She begins to type, then stops.
Oh, that's right. Her phone is gone.
She sets her own on the table.
She begins to eat.
She chews, and asks herself, Am I really that upset about the fact that she's staying with Takamaki?
Her phone rings and she almost chokes.
Rattled, she answers without checking the number. "Hello?"
"Makoto?" Comes the voice.
It takes her a moment to place it. "Officer Kagawa?"
"I figured it wouldn't be too early, since you've got school and all. Any word from Haru Okumura?"
She freezes. "Um," she manages.
"You okay?" He asks. "I've called in a few more favors, and-"
"She's fine," Makoto blurts out.
Silence from the other line. Then, "Really?"
"Yes," she squeaks, and cringes at her own voice. "I found her last night. I'm sorry I didn't call but she was tired and I was tired."
Calm down, she tells herself. Calm down.
"Where was she?"
In her crazy fiancé's Palace. "She, uh, got cold feet. Just like you thought." The words spill from her in flood. Stop talking, she thinks. "She didn't want to come forward. She was scared." Stop talking!
She continues her babble, until Kagawa asks, "Makoto, is this all true?"
He doesn't believe you. He doesn't believe you. He doesn't believe you.
"Y-yes," she says. "Haru is fine."
"Alright," he replies. "I'm glad to hear that. But I'd encourage you to talk to her. If this guy is threatening her, she should still come forward."
Makoto shuts her eyes. I know that, she wants to scream. "Okay, yes. Thank you. Officer Kagawa. Thank you for your help. All your help."
"Anytime, Mini-Makoto," he replies. The line goes dead.
The nickname is an icepick in her chest. Why didn't I think he'd call? Why didn't I prepare? I just lied to a police officer! I just lied to Dad's ex-partner! She drops the phone onto the table, looks at her food, and pushes the bowl away.
She puts her head in her hands and shuts her eyes. What am I going to do?
The Phantom Thieves wanted to go ahead and change Sugimura's heart. Their justification was that the messages Sugimura left her were gone. But Makoto knows that isn't true. If Haru gets her data transferred onto a new phone, she could get those messages back, intact. Makoto had been so concerned with finding Haru the night before, that after they had, she hadn't even thought of it. Now, though, it seemed obvious.
Officer Kagawa would help, Makoto thinks. I know he would. He already offered!
But was that what Haru wanted? Away from the stress and anxiety of the previous day, Makoto can see things clearer.
Haru could enter the Metaverse.
Haru could use a Persona.
So, is Haru a Phantom Thief now?
She lifts up her head and runs her eyes over the empty apartment. The cold food. The silent phone.
If Haru's a Phantom Thief, she thinks, Where does that leave me?
#
The bell rings, and Akira leans forward in his seat. "So, how was it?"
Ann turns in her chair. The other students stand and start to file out of the room. "Haru? It was fine. We didn't do much talking. She seemed pretty tired and shaken up, so we just went right to bed."
Morgana pokes his head up and over the edge of the desk. "And your parents were okay with her staying over?" The cat whispers.
Ann shrugs. "They didn't seem to care. They've got a busy week coming up. Dad has to go back to the States for work. It was last minute, or something, because he's running around like a crazy person trying to get everything together."
Akira frowns. "I thought your parents traveled for work all the time?"
She nods. "They do. But usually, they get some kind of heads up. I think they said something about design flaws and a thin called, 'Scrum.'"
"'Scrum?'" Morgana asks, sounding out the word. "What's that?"
"No clue."
Akira decides to bring them back on track. "Do you think we can keep her at your place for a few days?"
"Probably. But no more than a few. Even they're going to notice if I keep having the same person staying over, night after night. When they leave, they make me swear not to have people over, and I think they'll be leaving by the end of the week."
Akira glances down at Morgana, who meets his gaze. Neither brings up the obvious.
"Okay, then," he says. "We'll think of something." I say that, and yet...
"Couldn't we keep her at LeBlanc?" Ann asks.
Akira sighs. "Yusuke was one thing. But a girl? I don't think Sojiro would go for that. If I try to sneak her in, and he catches us, he may just kick me out."
Ann rolls her eyes. "Do you seriously think Boss would do that to you?"
Akira opens his mouth to reply, then shuts it. He doesn't know what Boss would do. When they first met, Sojiro had seemed the typical hard ass. He'd kicked Akira out of his car, after all. But he'd taken a shine to Yusuke. Hell, he seemed to like all of Akira's friends. And, he'd let him keep 'Prince.'
But for all this, Akira wasn't sure how the older man felt about him. He was still on probation. One misstep could put him right back in the box. He shuts his eyes and shakes his head clear. That's something to worry about for another time. "I don't know," he tells Ann. "But I don't think we should take the chance."
Sugimura had no idea who Ann was, which meant hers was the perfect place to hide Haru. Not to mention, Ann's mastery of fashion and concern with wardrobe meant she had a multitude of clothes to help conceal the girl, which is exactly what they did when they snuck her into Shujin that morning. Akira figured that if Haru missed too many classes, teachers and parents might get involved, and that wouldn't help their plans at all.
Once the school day was done, Ryuji and Ann were going to sneak Haru back out again.
"I agree," Morgana says. "If we plan on keeping Haru at LeBlanc, but Boss says no, then we'll have no place to stash her."
"Stash her?" Ann asks, with a frown. "She's not something we stole."
Morgana reaches up with a paw and scratches his ear. "I mean, we kind of did."
"Regardless," Akira cuts in. "You need to keep Haru for now. In the meantime, we'll try and figure out a way to steal Sugimura's Treasure."
"Did you come up with anything last night?" Ann asks.
Akira glances out the window and shakes his head. He'd had plenty of ideas, actually. But whenever he subjected any of them to the tiniest bit of scrutiny, they fell apart.
"There's too many factors," he tells her. "If we had a way of communicating between the real world and the Metaverse, we could keep tabs on Sugimura's car and know when it was safe to exit. But once we go inside, we'll have to leave blind." Finding Haru had been one thing, but to actually infiltrate the Palace and fight their way to the Treasure would require all hands on deck. No one could stay outside, like Yusuke had the day before.
"Well, whatever we do," Ann says. "We've got to do it fast. If Sugimura is that crazy, we can't afford to let this wait."
"I know," Akira replies. Down below, he sees a few students milling about outside. They sit together, eating lunch, smiling and laughing. Some play on their phones. Others flip through books. "I know."
#
The great pile of muck and slime reaches for her. Its great pit of a mouth slobbers black globs onto the concrete. Haru grips her axe and swings. The Shadow is sliced across its middle, and with a shuddering cry, it bursts and slaps the tracks of Mementos as a pile of gunk.
"Nice, Haru!" Mona calls, and runs up to her.
Haru sets the shaft of her weapon on the ground and puts some of her weight on it. She removes her hat with her free hand, and starts to fan herself. "This is somewhat tiring."
Panther, Skull, Fox and Mona smile at her. I suppose I'll have to get used to thinking of them that way.
"You'll get used to it," Skull replies. He swings the large pipe around in his hand like a baseball bat. "It ain't easy, at first. But we've got your back."
"You don't have to push yourself, though," Panther tells her. "We've been doing this for a while now, so there's no reason for you to go nuts."
Haru straightens. "But I need to be ready, for when we enter Sugimura's Palace, correct? I take it that the Shadows there will be more powerful than these?"
"That's true," Fox states, and gestures to the disappearing black pile on the ground. "These are relative weaklings compared to others. But Joker instructed us not to take you deeper than the first few levels of Mementos."
Haru nods. She understands the precaution. Were Akira - or Joker - here, he could likely take them deeper, what with his Wild Card ability. Whatever that is. But he stayed behind to come up with a plan, and he thought it best they stick to only the easier levels for now.
"Don't worry about it," Skull says, and waves his hand through the air. "By the time we get done with Sugimura's Palace, you'll be as good at ass-kicking as any of us. Then, we'll move on to even tougher targets."
Haru blinks.
Mona expands into his car form, once more, and the Phantom Thieves put away their weapons.
"That reminds me," Panther says, as she's about to enter. "We should get you a burner phone soon."
"A burner?" Haru asks. "What's that?"
"It's like a phone, but it's not your regular phone," Skull says, as he slides behind the driver's seat.
"No," Mona says.
"No?" Skull asks.
"No, you're not driving me. Remember what happened last time?"
"I'll drive," Panther puts in.
"No!" Both Skull and Mona shout.
Fox brightens. "Then I shall drive."
Haru clears her throat, and raises her hand. "Um, I can drive."
The others turn to her. Skull beams. "Works for me. Fox drives too slow, anyway."
The tall boy scoffs, and slides into the backseat. "I merely maintain the speed limit. I see no reason to behave like a hooligan behind the wheel."
"Uh-huh," Skull replies.
Haru slides into the driver seat. "You okay, Haru?" Mona asks. His voice comes through the van's radio speakers.
"Fine," Haru replies. "Just fine."
"Oh, you know what else?" Panther says, turning to her from the passenger seat. "We need to get you a code name!"
Haru turns to her. "Huh?"
"Hey, yeah," Skull says, smirking. "We can't keep calling you, Haru. If you're a Phantom Thief, you need a Phantom Thief codename."
"O-oh," she replies. Her hands tighten on the wheel. She squirms in her seat.
"You sure you're okay, Haru?" Mona asks, again.
"Yes," she says.
"How about, 'Rose?'" Fox asks.
Panther and Skull reply with long, "Ooohs."
"I like that," Panther declares. "It fits with the whole, pink thing."
"Yeah, totally," Skull replies. "It's like, she's a rose, and she's un-, uh, un... crap, what's the word?"
"Unassuming?" Fox asks.
"That's it," Skull says, with a snap of his fingers. "She's like, unassuming, but she's got thorns and shit." He frowns. "Actually, didn't you used to say that, Panther?"
"Huh?" She asks, and turns to face him. "What'd you mean?"
"Like, didn't you used to shout out, 'This beautiful rose has thorns,' or something. Like, at random?"
Her eyes widen. "I did not!"
Haru puts Mona in drive. At least, she thinks she put Mona in drive.
"I do recall that," Fox replies. "I did not understand the context, and thought it best not to bring it up."
"It's not like I'm the only one," Panther shouts, face going as red as her suit. "Skull, you keep yelling, 'Get wrecked,' and, 'Slammin',' for some reason."
"Uh, I say that shit because it fits with what I'm doing. Like, I'm taunting Shadows and stuff."
Panther scowls and turns to Fox. "And you're always talking about-"
Haru puts her foot down on the gas pedal.
Mona lurches forward, and slams into the tunnel wall.
A few seconds of silence pass, and then Haru hears Mona call out, "My face! My beautiful face!"
"Ow, ow, ow, ow," Panther says, holding her head, from where she banged it on the dashboard.
Haru hears a groan from the backseat. "Okay, change of plans," Skull says. "Fox drives."
"S-sorry, everyone," she calls out. "I'm very sorry."
"You okay, Fox?" Panther asks.
Fox holds his fingers into the air. "They are unharmed!"
"He's fine," Skull says. He puts his hand on the passenger side headrest and pulls himself forward. "Yo, you okay, Haru?"
"I'm fine," She says. "Really. I'm very sorry, everyone."
What happened?
She opens the door and slides out. The others exit as well, and move to rearrange themselves. Haru gets into the back.
At the least, she thinks, it got them off the topic of me.
She remains quiet as Fox takes the wheel and backs Mona away from the wall.
Her thoughts race.
Was she a Phantom Thief? She doesn't recall agreeing to be one. But didn't she have an obligation to join? She had awakened her Persona. She had her whole Thief attire. They were even discussing giving her a codename.
What's wrong with me? Why do I feel this way?
She had to do this, didn't she? To stop Sugimura? To stop him from hurting her?
But it wasn't just that, was it?
Am I being selfish? The others - the Phantom Thieves - worked to help others, to reform society, or something. But Haru was only in this for herself. Haru only wanted to get Sugimura off her back. She didn't want to change his heart so he would realize the error of his ways. She wanted to change his heart so she'd leave her alone.
But Skull had said she would accompany them onto more difficult targets after they dealt with Sugimura. But they hadn't even asked her if she wanted to be a Phantom Thief.
Do I want to be a Phantom Thief?
The others continue to talk as they drive deeper into Mementos.
I know what I don't want. But I don't know what I do want.
For some reason, the thought terrifies her.
#
Akira hesitates outside the Student Council Room, then steels himself and knocks.
"Come in."
He opens the door and pokes his head in.
"Hey," he says.
Makoto's eyes widen. "Akira, oh. Um, hi."
"Hey," he repeats, and glances around the room. It's empty, save for her. "Can I come in?"
Makoto gestures at the chair across from her, and Akira slides inside and shuts the door behind him.
He doesn't sit. He sticks his hands in his pockets and tries to look unassuming.
"Shouldn't you be with the others?" Makoto asks.
"They're with Haru, at the moment. I've got some other things to do." He shrugs. "Did you see Haru today?"
Makoto returns her gaze to the paperwork in front of her. "We saw each other in class, but my duties kept me busy during lunch. And since she was smuggled out after school, I didn't get a chance to speak to her today."
"Right," Akira says. "Right." He heaves out a sigh and says, "Listen, I need to talk to you about something."
Makoto straightens and he sees a little bit of intrigue dance into her eyes.
"It's about Sugimura."
Makoto deflates. "Oh. What about him?"
"I think you should watch your back, for the next few days."
She meets his eyes with a frown. "What do you mean?"
"Sugimura took Haru from outside your apartment. Since he's got no idea where she is, he may show up again, looking for her. That could put you in danger. We already know how unhinged he is."
Makoto nods. "Yes. I considered this. Rest assured, I'm taking precautions."
"Precautions?"
"I plan to alternate my routes home over the next few days, to thoroughly inspect my apartment when I return, and to periodically check my surrounding to ensure I'm not being pursued."
Akira chuckles. He finally takes a seat. "You should be... well, one of us."
Makoto's face scrunches at this, and she doesn't say anything.
Akira runs back over his words. Crap, probably shouldn't have said that.
"Has she gotten a new phone yet?" Makoto asks.
"Who?"
She glares at him. "Haru, of course."
"Oh, no. I don't think so. No."
"She should." She steals a glance at the door and leans across the table, towards him. "If she gets a new phone, she can have her old data uploaded onto the new one. She can retrieve Sugimura's messages that way. We could still..." She trails off, and doesn't finish her sentence. She looks surprised at having spoken at all.
Akira frowns. "You still want her to go to the police?"
"I want her to have options."
"Yeah, the options you want her to have."
Makoto scowls. "You're doing the same thing. You don't want her to go to the police, because you want her to want to change Sugimura's heart."
Akira meets her scowl with his own. "I don't want her to go to the police, because I don't think it'll work."
"Officer Kagawa offered to help. He would help. Will help."
Akira feels his blood spinning behind his eyes. "And I'm telling you, I don't-" He stops. He remembers how this went last time, back in LeBlanc.
He settles back in his chair, and looks away. "Can we just not? Please?"
Makoto crosses her arms and looks away. "Maybe you should ask Haru what she wants."
Akira stares down at the table. "Yeah, maybe I should."
They sit in silence for a few minutes. For his part, Akira knows he feels too worn out to move. Even through class, he tried to come up with plans for Sugimura's Palace, but his brain feels all dried up.
Eventually, Makoto begins to look at him again. "So," she finally says. "Have you come up with anything? For the Palace, I mean."
Akira rests his elbow on the table and props his head up in his hand. "No. There's so many factors."
"Like?"
He rolls his eyes towards her. "Well, the way I see it, we've got a few problems. First we need to find a reliable way to get into and out of the Palace. Hell, we also need to figure out where the car will be. With Kamoshida and Madarame, we could just show up outside the buildings and enter, no problem. But since this is a car, we need a way to tell where it is and when it'll be unsupervised."
"That does seem like a large obstacle."
"Yeah, especially considering once we get into his Palace, we'll have no way of knowing when it's safe to leave. It can get rough in the Metaverse. If we have to retreat, I'd like to know we could do so safely. We can't do it if the car is driving."
Makoto settles a hand on the table and begins to tap her fingernail against the wood. "When you left his Palace yesterday, you emerged outside of the car, yes?"
Akira nods. "Right. Which was good. We could've showed up in the backseat or something, and that... well, that would've been very bad. But-"
"But," Makoto says. "If the car is driving somewhere and you exit the Palace, you'd wind up appearing in the middle of the street. You could get hit by a car."
"And if it was a populated road, everyone would notice a bunch of teenagers just popping into existence."
Makoto nods and stares up at the ceiling, her fingernail still rhythmically tapping the wood. "So, getting into the car, and getting out of the car. Anything else?"
"Oh yeah," he says. "There's still the problem of the Calling Card."
"If you don't want people to know the Phantom Thieves targeted Sugimura-"
"And we don't," Akira cuts in.
"Then you'd need to get him the Calling Card in a way that won't attract attention."
"Not to mention," Akira reminds her. "We need to do it in a way that ensures he won't take it to his father, or to the police. People take the Phantom Thieves seriously, now. If Sugimura got a Calling Card, he might think to throw himself at the mercy of the cops. And the cops might dig around a bit."
"And they'd find out about his betrothal to Haru," Makoto finishes. "And then they might investigate her, to see if she's got a link to the Phantom Thieves."
"They'd know she was a Shujin student. That'd be another reason to look at the school."
"And three of your targets would've had a direct link to Shujin Academy."
Akira nods, getting into it now. "This is how it works. We go into the Palace, and we secure the route to the Treasure. Then, we leave and deliver the Calling Card. Once the person reads the Calling Card, there's a twenty-four hour window. That's when the Treasure manifests. If we don't steal the Treasure in that time, it won't manifest again, and we can't change Sugimura's heart."
Makoto frowns. "Wait a second."
"What?" Akira asks.
Makoto tilts her head forward and stares down at her fingers. "Why do you need to leave the Calling Card until after you've established the infiltration route?"
Akira blinks. "Huh?"
"You just said that you secure the infiltration route first, then go back and give the target the Calling Card. Doesn't it make more sense to deliver the Calling Card first, and then..." She trails off, frowning.
"Yeah," Akira says, seeing the hurdle she's come up against. "Not if there's a twenty-four hour window. Because if we jump the gun and deliver the Card before we secure the route, then-"
"Right, right," Makoto says, nodding. "Then there's a chance you wouldn't reach the Treasure in time and the entire plan would fail." She makes a small tsk noise. "Still, something feels off about that. I feel like you could work around that, somehow."
Akira smiles at her. "Maybe. My plan wasn't exactly the best."
Makoto purses her lips. "What was your plan?"
"Well," Akira says. "I thought we could infiltrate Sugimura's Palace and have someone tail the car in a van. We'd have to run a few tests first, on the car, to determine how far away we'd materialize in the real world. Then, the van could keep that distance between the car exactly. So, when we exited the Palace, we'd pop up in the back of the van, and no one would even notice."
Makoto blinks. "Akira."
"Yes?"
"That's the stupidest plan I've ever heard."
"Makoto-" Akira tries.
"First of all, who would be driving this van? Do any of you have licenses? Second, wouldn't Sugimura or his driver notice that there was a van tailgating them for the entire day?"
"Makoto-" Akira tries again.
"Thirdly, there's no way you could be certain over the distance, and it's highly unlikely someone could keep the van at the same exact distance from the car for the duration of your operation. If something were to go wrong, you could end up phased into a wall or-"
"Makoto," Akira states, firmly.
"What?"
He smiles. "I was kidding."
"Oh," she says, and a small smile pops back onto her face. "Well, good. Because that plan was terrible."
"I know," he replies.
They grin at one another, but then those smiles fade, and the silence starts to stretch once more.
Even if I was kidding, Akira thinks. We still don't have a plan in place. His gaze lingers on Makoto, and she looks away.
No real plan at all.
#
"I confess," Toko says. "To my surprise at your request to meet."
Kaneshiro squirms in his seat. The two sit side by side on a pair of barstools at some no-name place in Ueno. It's not his territory, and he doesn't like being away from his territory.
"I want you to know," she continues, and Kaneshiro hates how at home she seems. Always that quiet, feminine confidence. Always the goddamn Matron. "That I passed on your request. It is being considered."
He won't thank her, but he nods all the same. "I need information," he says.
"On a what, or a whom?" Toko asks.
"Rin Sugimura," he whispers.
Toko looks around. It's early enough in the day that the salary men aren't popping in for dinner and a beer, but there are still a good amount of patrons. "I'm not familiar with that name."
"He's the son of the politician."
"Oh, that Sugimura. What about him?"
"I need to know, if he or his old man are part of this thing of ours."
Toko sips her drink. It's dark, like tea, but it smells terrible. She sets the glass down and frowns. "Why?"
He turns his head and scowls. He doesn't want to explain himself to her, but he needs answers more than he needs his pride right now. "He's made use of my services," he replies. "But he's becoming a liability. Deranged."
"He's a danger to your operations?"
Kaneshiro smirks at her. "What did you say last time? A problem isn't a problem until it becomes a problem. I don't want this kid to become a problem."
"But you don't want to get rid of him if it'll ruffle the wrong feathers."
"I try not to piss on my own shoes, even when I'm desperate."
"Lovely."
"So do you know anything or not?"
Toko frowns. "I'm not familiar with the Sugimuras. That doesn't mean they're not part of this. Conversely, that doesn't mean they are." She takes another sip. "I'll make some inquiries. You should know soon."
Kaneshiro stares down at his hands. "The sooner, the better," he mutters.
##
Hey everybody, Dowdz here!
Sorry about the overlong hiatus. Some things came up and I needed to resolve them. My wife and I needed to find a new apartment, and then I got sick. A few other annoying things happened, and it forced me to put this story on the back-burner.
To be honest, things are still a bit up in the air, but you've all been waiting so damn patiently and been pretty chill about this whole thing, so I wanted to update Crimson with a new chapter! I'll let you know by the end of the week whether or not I'll be going back to my regular update schedule.
Thanks so bloody much for reading Crimson! It's always a delight to see that hit counter tick upwards, and to wake up to find a review/comment in my inbox.