I. The Ghost of Akihiko Niijima
6:34 AM
Munehisa Iwai opens his mouth and says, very slowly, "You're Akihiko Niijima's daughter."
The name sharpens something inside her. Her functions begin to realign themselves. She is aware that she has now not said anything for about twenty minutes.
Officer Kagawa sits alongside her and glances back and forth between the two of them.
Sae weighs her words, then says, "I am."
The man nods as if in confirmation of something else. "Is this being recorded?"
"No."
"Are you lying about that?"
"No."
"Why am I not being recorded?"
To this, Sae says nothing. She thinks she knows why he's asking these questions but will not raise her suspicion if, in case, she's wrong. Sae does not want to provide this man with any high ground. "We are not recording this. Nor will we."
Iwai looks past her, at the reflective glass behind which other police can watch the interrogation. "Who's watching us in there? I want them gone."
Sae frowns at him, and says, "There are no police officers, prosecutors, or any representatives from the Metropolitan police force or the Special Investigative Unit - of which, I am a part - behind that glass, Iwai-san. You have my word on that."
Iwai nods, this time in apparent satisfaction. Sae keeps her face straight. The man looks at Kagawa and says, "I want him gone too."
"No way," Kagawa replies, shaking his head. "I'm not going-"
"Officer Hideotoshi Kagawa," Sae says, putting as much steel into her voice as she can. "I want you to wait in the hall." She breaks eye contact with Munehisa Iwai and regards Kagawa with the kind of stare she has spent years perfecting. "Do you understand? Not in the observation room. I want you to wait in the hall. And see that we are not disturbed."
Kagawa, to his credit, does not wilt beneath her gaze. "Sae, I-"
She decides to soften her tone. "Please, Hideotoshi." She thinks the use of his first name is a nice touch, and her father's old partner does seem to deflate a little at this. "He has no reason to harm me."
The man says nothing for a few moments, then growls out a sigh and stands up. The noise his chair makes as it slides against the floor is sharp as it reverberates through the small room. Neither Sae nor Iwai flinch. Kagawa makes a show of stomping out of the room and slams the door shut behind him.
Sae waits a few moments. "Now we are-"
"How'd he know Akihiko Niijima?" Iwai asks. There isn't much force in his words.
Sae does not appreciate being interrupted, but she sees no reason not to answer the question. "Before my father died, Officer Hideotoshi Kagawa was his partner."
"And now he works for his daughter?"
"He does not work for me. He acts as a liaison between my office and the Met. He also happens to be the lead detective in charge of the investigation into Rin Sugimura's death, which you had a hand in."
Iwai scowled. "I didn't kill him. I only tried to blackmail him. His driver attacked me and-"
"Officer Kagawa has filled me in," Sae interrupts, and glad of the opportunity to do so.
Iwai shifts in his seat, but fails to look any more comfortable. "No one is listening to us?"
"I don't repeat myself, Iwai-san," Sae counters.
Iwai crosses his arms and leans back in the - what Sae knows is uncomfortable - chair. "I didn't plan for any of this. I didn't know you would be here. I only came forward to confess to blackmailing Rin Sugimura so I wouldn't take the heat for his death. I figured, by this point, I'd be in a holding cell somewhere. But then that one, Kagawa, got excited and made a phone call. He takes me to this room. Leaves me alone until you show up. A prosecutor and member of the SIU. Akihiko Niijima's daughter." His face contorts to show his teeth but it's impossible to call it a smile. "You don't give a shit about Rin Sugimura. Kagawa only called you after I brought up Kaneshiro. That's why I'm here and not in a cell, and that's why you're here and been so quiet. And I know enough about your type to know I'm not walking out of this room unless I tell you what you want to know, and I will, but I'm not having it go on any record."
"You're that afraid of Kaneshiro?" She regrets the words almost immediately and mentally rebukes herself.
"Yes," he replies, which is precisely what she'd knew he would say and it tells her absolutely nothing.
"According to the story you told Kagawa, your involvement with Sugimura would already make you a target in Kaneshiro's eyes. Why exercise caution now?"
Iwai scoffs. "Because there's a difference between being on a list and being at the top of it."
"You want assurances? Very well. What you tell me here, so far as it pertains to Junya Kaneshiro, will not be entered on any official report." She could not do such a thing, anyway. The only thing related to the mental shutdowns Sae was supposed to be investigating pertained to the Phantom Thieves, and the link there was only a potential one.
Iwai grumbles something under his breath that Sae does not quite catch. "I need something else."
What follows is several minutes of - what Sae's mind identifies as - unimportant negotiating. Then, once concluded, Munehisa Iwai finally tells her what he has to say.
Soon enough, he finishes speaking.
One of the talents Sae's job and education had drilled into her was the ability to shut out everything that wasn't relevant now. Tokyo could be burning, but if Sae wanted to, she could explicitly focus on whatever required her attention. Some dubbed it laser-like and depending on the person viewed that as a compliment or something else. It meant little to Sae. Her brain did what it needed to do when it needed to do it.
But right now - right now - Sae is having a tough time concentrating.
Even before her father had died, Sae Niijima had pushed romantic and sentimental clichés out from her cognitive repertoire. Hers was a mind singularly given to her pursuits, and flights of fancy and dramatic indulgences had no place in her mental space.
Nonetheless, Sae recognizes this moment as something. Something game-changing - or better put, life-altering - and even if she doesn't have the pattern matching capabilities from all those dramas her former friends used to watch in their girlhood to know what the moment represents, she knows that in the story of her life this is a significant event or plot or turning point. Adrenaline thunders through her system. She sits still. Bombs detonate behind her eyes.
Dice rattle inside her mind.
She cannot focus.
She had been right.
She needs to focus.
SHE HAD BEEN RIGHT
Calm down, she commands herself. You don't know what all this means. You want to believe it means what you think it means, but you don't know that it does.
According to Munehisa Iwai, members of Kaneshiro's Dragon Syndicate branch were kept in line by a combination of ruthlessness and fear. The latter were some not so subtle rumors that Kaneshiro could make people die without lifting a finger. The manner of death made it appear as an accident. According to Iwai's contact, Kaneshiro had first used this power some three years ago against a police officer who was investigating him. He had caused a truck to plow into him.
Look for the holes, Sae demands of herself. Could it be a coincidence that this information should drop into her lap like this? Or was someone deliberately misleading her?
But who? Sae had only voiced her suspicions to Goro Akechi and Hideotoshi Kagawa.
As if he could read her mind, Munehisa Iwai says, "Was Kagawa Akihiko's partner at the time of his death?" Sae looks at him and does not reply. In those dramas her former friends had watched, this is where the gruff man with the knowledge would say, "He was, wasn't he? That's interesting. That Kagawa is still alive, but your father isn't? I bet the investigation fizzled out after your father died, didn't it?"
But Iwai says nothing more, and Sae figures it is because he either did not think to say it at all, or he's wondering the same thing that Sae is wondering. Did Kagawa follow instructions and go out into the hall? She could double-check this, of course.
Sae was not stupid. Before she had extended her offer for him to liaise between their offices, she had researched him. Hideotoshi Kagawa was well-regarded in the force but considered past his prime. She had not lied to him that day. There were plenty of other officers who would better serve the position between the Met and SIU but none had the prior connections Kagawa had. And if Kagawa was involved in a grand conspiracy, he did not seem to be benefiting from it in any discernible way. A strained family life. Strapped finances. He did not seem to live well above his means, which would have suggested undeclared income.
However.
Sae has put enough people away to know that money wasn't everything, and one need only find another's thumbscrews to make them do what they wanted. She files the possibility away for later. She was not going to think him into the enemy camp.
As for Akechi, he was the Detective Prince and little more than that. Sae could not imagine what a high school student could bring to a conspiracy. Besides, her father had died three years ago. Akechi would've been fourteen. And malnourished.
But his mind was sharp. Whatever his other flaws or failings, Goro Akechi's mind is powerful.
She remembers to think more on this later, because in truth - at this moment - she knows nothing, and reexamines what Munehisa Iwai has just told her.
Junya Kaneshiro could trigger mental shutdowns. He used this ability - potentially the first time it was ever used - against Sae's father, Officer Akihiko Niijima because Akihiko Niijima was investigating his crimes.
Junya Kaneshiro had vanished soon afterward, to let the investigation die down and become relatively forgotten. Then, he had returned and reestablished himself in Tokyo's underground. To wrest control of the entire Dragon Syndicate, he began a civil war with its leadership.
What are the obvious problems? Sae asks herself and begins to list them.
First: What is Junya Kaneshiro's connection to the other known, not suspected, mental shutdowns? If Kaneshiro had killed her father, it stood to reason that he would use his ability to benefit his illicit businesses. But how did the various truck, train, and car accidents - which were known to have been caused by mental shutdowns - help Kaneshiro?
Second: If Kaneshiro can trigger mental shutdowns to his benefit, why not kill the entire Dragon Syndicate leadership and step into the power vacuum? Why bother with the civil war in the first place? If Kaneshiro could cause mental shutdowns, there was no reason he couldn't just eliminate all the Dragon leaders and make them look like accidents. Or, he could deliberately kill them in one move and cement himself as s legend whose leadership went unquestioned on pain of death. So why hadn't Kaneshiro done that? Did he want them to capitulate on their own?
Third: How did Kaneshiro obtain this power? According to Iwai, no one knew. But he alluded to 'protections' he had. That could've been simple bluffing meant to complement the story about his powers. Or it said Kaneshiro had connections outside the yakuza.
A fourth problem involved Kaneshiro's connection to what Sae suspected were additional mental shutdowns. Wakaba Isshiki, Yukio Kan, and others. She did not want to think about that now, as she wanted to deal with the definite, as she saw them.
Then, a fifth problem popped into her mind, and she rebuked herself for taking so damn long to see it. Thinking on the second problem had directed her mind's energies in that direction.
Fifth: If Kaneshiro can trigger mental shutdowns, and he does it to benefit himself, why did he trigger a mental shutdown in Rin Sugimura's driver, and not on the rest of the Dragon Leadership? Why use it to tie up a small - in the scheme of things - loose end, but not use it to wipe out all of your enemies? Why not use it to win?
As she rolled these things over and over in her mind, she began to address potential solutions to these problems.
Junya Kaneshiro can trigger mental shutdowns, but he cannot do it all the time. There is a limit to his power. Perhaps timing or distance.
No. Distance made no sense. There had been mental shutdowns in Tokyo during the timeframe where Kaneshiro was known to have been many, many miles away, laying low. The timing made more sense, but again if Kaneshiro could use this ability at all, why not win his war? Why use the potential window of opportunity to kill Sugimura, when he could've used it to eliminate the Dragon's Boss?
Now that she thought about it, Iwai's contact had not specifically said they had seen Kaneshiro trigger a mental shutdown.
What could that mean? What were other possibilities?
Junya Kaneshiro cannot cause mental shutdowns, but he uses the mystique around them to his advantage, hinting at 'powers' that aren't real.
That didn't explain her father. A sick sensation fills Sae's gut. Unless her father did die at the hands of a drugged up truck driver. Kaneshiro had known Akihiko Niijima was investigating him, so when he'd heard of the death, he used it to his advantage and began to build the story.
But the driver insisted he'd never done drugs before. He insisted he couldn't remember doing drugs or even driving his truck that day. He didn't even remember hitting dad. She recalls what she had said to Kagawa when he had voiced skepticism.
"He had no prior drug-related offenses. His record was clean. And on the day he killed my father, he suddenly decided to hop himself up on enough crap to erase his memory? It doesn't make sense."
And what about Sugimura? His driver, who had been a competent soldier and fought with this man mere moments before, suddenly lost his mind and drove himself and his ward into Tokyo Bay?
No. There had to be something there. But Sae kept coming up against the second and fifth problems. Why get rid of Sugimura with a mental shutdown but not the Dragon?
Junya Kaneshiro can only cause mental shutdowns in certain people.
This was flimsy, but Sae saw no reason why it couldn't be right. No one was sure how mental shutdowns worked in the first place. If they revolved around Wakaba Isshiki's cognitive science research, they involved the hijacking of one's mental framework. Sae knows herself to be smart, but she'd had a hard time understanding what that meant. Since the research was gone and she'd only pieced bits together secondhand-
Sae stops.
How did Junya Kaneshiro connect with the research of Wakaba Isshiki?
Answer: He doesn't. At all.
Sae feels the dice roll one more time, and a thrill shudders through her.
Junya Kaneshiro has no known connection to cognitive science research, which, to my knowledge, is the best possible explanation for the mental shutdown phenomenon.
Junya Kaneshiro can trigger mental shutdowns, but he cannot do it all the time. There is a limit to his power.
Junya Kaneshiro cannot cause mental shutdowns, but he uses the mystique around them to his advantage, hinting at 'powers' that aren't real.
Junya Kaneshiro can only cause mental shutdowns in certain people.
Sae keeps her breathing steady.
Junya Kaneshiro has no connection to cognitive science research. Junya Kaneshiro cannot trigger mental shutdowns all the time because Junya Kaneshiro cannot trigger mental shutdowns, despite using their mystique and hinting at 'powers' that aren't real to rule over his branch of the Dragon via fear. Junya Kaneshiro can only trigger mental shutdowns in certain people because Junya Kaneshiro is not the one triggering the mental shutdowns. Junya Kaneshiro is not triggering mental shutdowns. Junya Kaneshiro requests the triggering of mental shutdowns.
He could not order a mental shutdown. If he could order a mental shutdown, it would've been the same as being able to trigger them himself, and based on everything Sae has heard he cannot. Junya Kaneshiro had to request mental shutdowns and they were carried out sometimes.
Junya Kaneshiro had no connection to the mental shutdowns that didn't benefit him.
Junya Kaneshiro had never acquired the ability or power to trigger mental shutdowns.
Junya Kaneshiro hadn't killed the entire Dragon Syndicate leadership because he either hadn't requested it or been denied.
Junya Kaneshiro had 'protections.' Protection from the person or people who could trigger mental shutdowns.
Junya Kaneshiro could not trigger mental shutdowns.
But he knows who can.
Sae looks at Munehisa Iwai and then down at her watch. She has not said anything aloud for fifteen minutes.
She stands and is deliberate not to slide the chair across the floor as Kagawa had. "Thank you for your time. I will keep my promise."
Iwai only nods as Sae turns to go. She exits the interrogation cell and closes the door behind her as she enters the observation room.
Hideotoshi Kagawa is not in the room.
Goro Akechi is.
Sae had not lied.
"Who's watching us in there? I want them gone."
"There are no police officers, prosecutors, or any representatives from the Metropolitan police force or the Special Investigative Unit - of which, I am a part - behind that glass, Iwai-san. You have my word on that."
"No one is listening to us?"
"I don't repeat myself, Iwai-san."
Akechi is not a representative of the Met or the SIU. He serves in a specific capacity and is known as the Detective Prince.
"Sae-san," Akechi says, and she notices that the boy lacks his usual casual demeanor. For whatever reason, Akechi looks very shaken. "You were quiet for a long time."
"I was thinking."
Neither says anything for a time. Sae is reasonably sure Akechi knows what she is thinking.
"I don't want to see you get hurt," Akechi replies. "Everything that man said is-"
"I know," Sae says.
"If you pursue this," Akechi says, almost pleading now, "there will be consequences. You know that, don't you?"
"Yes, I imagine there would be." Sae leaves the observation room and brushes past Kagawa, who has the good sense not to say anything to her. She continues to the bathroom, where she locks herself in a stall and waits until her hands stop shaking.
#
7:15 PM
"I want Tsuda leading the third team," Kaneshiro says. "That guy's been buggy lately, and I want to make sure he's still loyal."
Nanashi steals a glance across the table at Muzaki, who is leaning forward in his seat, silent. "And what if he's not, Boss? You sure you want to trust him with this?"
Kaneshiro shrugs. "I entrust the important shit to you two. If Tsuda pulls off the job tonight, great. If he doesn't, he doesn't. Depending on how he does, I'll know if he's still on my side or not." He grins at Nanashi. "It's difficult, but not too difficult. If he can't pull it off, then he's not trying, or he's not creative enough and either way, he's no more use to us."
Muzaki's knuckles are white against the chair's armrests.
Nanashi nods. "I get it. But Boss, I'm not so sure the guy's got anything left in him. He's washed up, and even the younger boys don't look up to him anymore. The only clout he has is with the older Dragon members. I tasked him with watching the old Dragon HQ a few days ago, and he barely did anything useful. When he got back here, he looked all skittish. If he can't hack that, he won't be able to handle this."
Kaneshiro leans back in his chair and stares up at the ceiling. "I don't trust Tsuda to handle this. I don't trust any of those old boys. I may be the Dragon, but I'm not strong enough where I can eliminate people without anyone standing up to it. Fear keeps those fellas in line, but it's fear of putting your head on the chopping block. Once your head is there, you stop giving a shit. If I take out too many of them too fast, they'll rebel. Or maybe not, but I'm not willing to take that chance." He looks at Nanashi and frowns. "What's wrong?"
Nanashi is staring over at Muzaki. Kaneshiro follows his gaze and feels his brows rise. Muzaki is sitting up, stock still. His eyes are eggshell white. He shudders, almost imperceptibly.
"The fuck?" Nanashi demands and starts to stand.
Kaneshiro lifts a hand towards his friend. "Hold on," he orders. Muzaki is not moving. If this was an assassination attempt, it was a pretty poor one. Mental shutdowns didn't make one stronger, but joints could be locked in place to make it difficult to move them. Muzaki isn't armed, and the distance between them was too great to cover quickly. All Kaneshiro would have to do is stand. He knows he can take Muzaki in a fight, sure.
Muzaki slumps for a moment, then slowly turns his head towards Kaneshiro. His eyes reflect nothing. His mouth inches open. "I bring... a message... from Crow."
Kaneshiro frowns. He will not forgive this lightly. If Muzaki became permanently damaged due to this, he would forgive it less still. "A fucking phone call would've worked."
"This..." Muzaki drawls, "is not... a conversation. I speak... you listen..."
"What the fuck?" Nanashi growls. "Boss, what should-"
"Sit down," Kaneshiro commands. "If this is a full-fledged mental shutdown, then Muzaki's already dead. If Crow is smart, or smart enough, he'll know not to offend me by killing him. Hopefully, once the message plays out, Muzaki will be released."
Nanashi sits down as Muzaki begins to speak. "Sae Niijima knows... about her father."
Kaneshiro scowls. Fuck.
His mind begins to work. Sae Niijima worked for the SIU now. It was a pain, but not insurmountable. Kaneshiro didn't see how she could know about Akihiko Niijima unless someone was talking, and even then, the only two who knew the real details aside from himself were Muzaki and Nanashi, and Kaneshiro knew they hadn't talked about it.
Maybe all those 'allusions' to powers I don't have finally came back to bite me in the ass.
It didn't matter. Kaneshiro would request a mental shutdown on the woman. But why would Crow send a message about that? He knows I'll make the request and-
"I imagine..." Muzaki continues, and the man's lifeless lips twitch upward in a smile. Kaneshiro feels his blood go cold. "...you think I'll do..." and a hand spastically gestures towards Muzaki's body, "this to her... But Kaneshiro... she only knows thanks to your... behavior. You have a leak... you are now a... liability...Your privileges are now... revoked."
Nanashi, eyes wide, turns to regard Kaneshiro. The latter assumes the former must be expecting a major blow-up. Kaneshiro disappoints. He remains seated. He remains calm. It wouldn't do to explode just now, though Kaneshiro would like to do so very much.
I'm going to kill Crow.
"...prove yourself..." Muzaki continues, "valuable... and privileges will be... restored... This is a lesson... do not contact us until... the situation is resolved."
Muzaki shudders once more, and falls forward out of the chair, crashing to the ground. Nanashi finally stands and moves quickly to his side. Kaneshiro remains still. It was an absurd request. If someone outside the network knew about the network, the standard operating procedure was to trigger a mental shutdown. Why cut him off now? His war with the Dragon couldn't be that disruptive to the network's operations. It was the very definition of short-term loss for long-term gain.
Nanashi helps Muzaki up. The latter groans and squeezes his eyes shut. Nanashi lays him back in the chair and puts a hand on his shoulder. "You okay, bro?"
Muzaki mutters something incomprehensible and drops his head into his hands. From what Kaneshiro understands about the potency of mental shutdowns, Muzaki will be fine.
This doesn't make sense. Crow had said there was a leak. One of the older Dragons had talked. "Nanashi," Kaneshiro whispers. "Talk to our people in the police. Figure out who's been speaking to Niijima. I want names."
"Boss," Nanashi says. "If Niijima knows then-"
"There's no evidence," Kaneshiro snaps, then brings himself back under control. "That's the whole point. There's never any evidence. That's the whole fucking point."
There was no way Sae Niijima could know. She could suspect, but there was a significant difference there.
Another problem dawned on Kaneshiro. If he was out of the network, he was fair game. If Crow decided to, he could target Kaneshiro's Palace. From what he understood, Crow would not have an easy time of it, but without his protections in place, it was a possibility. Killing Kaneshiro could, potentially, ingratiate the network to the rest of the Dragon.
Would they expose themselves to that level?
Nanashi and Muzaki regard Kaneshiro, awaiting further instructions.
Killing Sae Niijima would be considered a severe escalation. Even if he took her out, his privileges might remain revoked. She may not have been police, but she worked with the SIU and had connections at the Met. Killing her father had been one thing; the driver took the blame. Kaneshiro was aware of his abilities, and he was not sure he could pull off the murder of a rising star within the SIU anonymously. Her friends and allies would come after him, and Crow might kill him then to ensure his silence.
Everyone has a thumbscrew.
"I seem to recall," Kaneshiro says, looking at his two enforcers, "Akihiko Niijima had two daughters."
Muzaki nods.
#
II. The Ghost of Wakaba Isshiki
5:19 PM
She sits in her chair, knees pulled up to her chest, eyes drowning in the blue light of the screens. "Wh-what do you mean?"
"I'm saying," comes the voice of the boy who lives in the attic above LeBlanc, whose name is Akira Kurusu and who is also the leader of the Phantom Thieves, "that we already have what we need on Kaneshiro. We know his Palace's location, and how it manifests. We-" she stops listening.
"You see?" Her mother asks. "They don't need you. They never did." She feels the woman's clammy fingers on her bare shoulders, and she hastily zips up her sweatshirt, despite the heat in the room.
She thought she could leverage the Phantom Thieves' hunt for Kaneshiro into their changing her heart. She did compile all that information for them. Yakuza dark sites. Deciphered text chains. Even the police profiles. But if they never even needed that stuff, then what she'd done was useless.
USELESS
"Useless," her mother whispers.
Akira is speaking, but Ali Baba does not hear him. I have to do something, she thinks. I have to do something. I have to do something. I have to do something. I have to do something. I have to do something.
"I'll tell," she blurts. She does not even think about the words, and it takes her even longer to comprehend them. She claps her hand over her mouth. She couldn't go to the police! If they learned Akira Kurusu was the leader of the Phantom Thieves then they'd wonder how Sojiro couldn't know, and they'd arrest him and if they did that what would happen to her she'd have to go live with her uncle and if she had to do that she knew knew knewknewknwwknwknwkoenw
"Excuse me?" Akira asks. His voice is harder now.
"Y-yeah," she squeaks. She hates this. Hates how she sounds. She's Ali Baba, dammit! She never has this problem when she'd been with Medjed. Never had this problem with Tatterdemalion. She knows she's good at this and that's not true she's the best but when it comes to this when it comes to hearing her mother's voice whisper whisper whisper in her ear again and again she can't think and when she can't think she does stupid
"Stupid," her mother says.
They don't know that, Ali Baba's mind desperately calls from wherever her intelligence has gone to hide. They don't know that you can't go to the police.
"If you don't change my heart, I'll go to the police and tell them who you are, Akira Kurusu."
There is a brief pause on the other end. Then, a more protracted sigh. "Are you recording this, Ali Baba?"
"I record everything," she says. She's not impressed with the Phantom Thieves' security thus far, but she sees no reason to lie about this. It only strengthens her position.
"Okay," Akira says. "Look, Ali Baba. I don't think I've been clear. I apologize if you misunderstood me."
Ali Baba swallows and says nothing.
"We appreciate the information you got us on Kaneshiro. Just from flipping through it, I can see it confirms a lot of what we suspected. So, thank you. But as I said, we know enough to change his heart, and we're working towards that. But if I implied we wouldn't change your heart because of that, then I'm sorry."
What.
"Explain," she commands.
Her mother tsks from behind her. "You're so rude to people. This is why no one wants to be around you. This is why Sojiro can barely talk to you. People say they'll help, and you push them away. You're so ungrateful. So ungrateful. You don't deserve it. You know that, don't you? Here's this boy, offering to help you and you're not even listening to him. You don't deserve his help."
Ali Baba makes a small 'meep' noise as she realizes that Akira has just said a bunch of words she didn't hear because she was listening to her dead mother. "Could you, um, repeat that?"
STOP SOUNDING STUPID, her brain screams. She feels like someone far less than Ali Baba now.
"You found us pretty easily," Akira tells her. "From what I can gather, anyway. You said we weren't as careful as we thought we were, and I think you were right. So, what if, in exchange for our changing your heart, you help us boost our security? I don't want to get caught by the police." He pauses, but Futaba says nothing. He clears his throat and continues. "We have someone who works on our PhanSite now, but I'm not confident in his abilities. I'd rather you handle that for us."
Futaba takes a deep breath and tries to gather her thoughts. Ali Baba asks, "You'd trust me with that?"
"I said this before," Akira replies. "But if we're going to change your heart, we're going to need your real name and-" he quickly interrupts as she begins to protest, "I know 'Ali Baba is the only one that matters' but we can only change a heart when we know the person's real name. You already know who I am. I'll know who you are, Ali Baba. I'd say knowing one another's secret identities warrants some degree of trust. We can help each other." A part of Ali Baba's mind that's begun thinking once more notes that he doesn't spell out how - once he knows her name - him getting arrested would also severely endanger her. So, in essence, it would be in her best interest to do her best to make sure his PhanSite was secure.
"You want me to like, secure your website, and stuff?"
"Yeah," Akira replies. "We're going to try and change Kaneshiro's heart this week. Once we've finished with that, we can work to change yours. Is that alright?"
he is saying he will help you. this could work.
But she would have to tell him her name. What would they do once they learned it? Would they look her up? Find out more about her? Why did they need to know her name to change her heart? What kind of stupid rule was that?
She is not sure why, but she almost tells him about Tatterdemalion. She almost tells him about Junichiro Maki and what both he and she know. She is not sure why she thinks about doing this and she is not sure why she keeps her mouth shut.
"You're not going to tell him?" Her mother asks, sounding startled. "You're not going to tell him there's another group of thieves that are interested in the Phantoms? You're not going to tell-"
Futaba clamps her hands over her ears and shuts her eights tight and begins to hum the OP of her favorite seasonal anime mentally. The tune is catchy and upbeat and manages to drown out the voice of her mother for a few moments. "That's fine," she says to Akira. She wants this call to end. She wants to be alone in the dark again and wants everyone to be quiet.
"Then we have a deal," Akira says. "I won't press you for your information now. But once we've finished with Kaneshiro, we'll reach out."
"I-I'll," Futaba says, before she can stop herself, "I'll keep monitoring the yakuza dark sites. Ever since Kaneshiro started his war he, um, hasn't used them very much. He might, though. If I see anything weird, I'll let you know."
A brief pause. Then, "Thank you, Ali Baba. That'd be great."
A small smile breaks across her face. She considers, for the barest of moments, mentioning the maid he'd seen come down from Akira's room that night. She had been supremely startled as she'd tried to reset the microphone she'd set up in LeBlanc. The woman had screamed, and Futaba had bolted all the way home.
"Okay," she says. A part of her wants the conversation to continue, despite her misgivings from only a few seconds ago.
Instead, Akira says, "We'll talk soon." The line goes dead.
We'll talk soon.
We'll talk soon.
We'll talk soon.
We'll talk soon.
A shred of hope inches through her, as the dull hum of the computers becomes the only sound in the dark, empty room.
Someone knocks on the door, and Futaba's heart almost goes nuclear.
"Futaba?" Comes Sojiro's voice through the door. "Sorry if I startled you. It was slow at the café, so I figured I'd bring you back some curry. I'm heading back now, but I'll leave it in the fridge if you want it. I'll leave the hall light on, just in case. If you want it off, text me or call and I'll come back and turn it off."
Futaba's hands scramble across her desk until she finds her own, actual, non-'upgraded' phone. She quickly calls Sojiro's number and waits until he picks up. He doesn't say anything, and Futaba quickly mumbles a, "Thanks," before hanging up.
Outside, she hears Sojiro say, "You're welcome," before his footsteps recede.
#
III. The Ghost of Taiki Takase
2:42 PM
Taiki Takase was dead. He was dead, and it was her fault and she had to make it right. She had to make it right and she had to learn from her mistake.
There are times, though, when Sadayko Kawakami is unclear as to what the real mistake was.
Akira Kurusu sits in his seat and listens to her lecture. He had shown up only moments before the bell, and so she had been unable to ask him about anything. What had that drunk woman wanted with him? Who had been the strange person she had seen in the downstairs cafe, standing on one of the tables? What was going on with him, period?
She catches him sharing a few whispered exchanges with Ann Takamaki (who has yet to take her up on her offer of help), but she ignores this. She has other students and they all need to prepare for the exams.
Time passes, and the school day ends. She steels herself to call Akira forward, but when she finishes putting her papers away, she finds that he is standing at her desk, a patient look on his face. "You wanted to talk, Kawakami-sensei?"
You wanted to see me, Kawakami-sensei? Taiki had said.
You should transfer out. Go to a school that's more your speed. We can help you do it. You're not cut out for this. All the things she was supposed to have said. But instead, she'd said, "Takase-kun, how are things at home?"
And then he had died.
Kawakami sighs and stands. "Yes, I do, Kurusu."
Akira watches as the last of the students leave. "Could we go to LeBlanc?" He asks, then adds, "I'd like some help before the exams."
She narrows her eyes. A sense of inappropriateness rises within her. You've been to Akira's home after hours, dressed as a maid. Why is this such a problem? "I suppose I could spend an hour or two tutoring you," she adds. It is a stupid pretense as they're both alone, but Kawakami knows enough about rumors in Shujin to watch her words.
Akira nods and heads for the door. Kawakami shoves the rest of her things in her bag and follows. She keeps her distance from him as they both leave the school, which only serves to make her feel this is more scandalous than it is. Due to the distance the trip to the station is made in silence, and they hardly say anything to one another until they're both in Yongen-jaya.
"I hope," Kawakami says, as they near the cafe. "That you're feeling better."
There's a small hitch to Akira's step then, but he turns and smiles at her. "I am. Thank you."
"What was wrong with you?"
He pats his stomach. "I had a bug. And I've been pretty fatigued lately. I think things just caught up with me."
Kawakami had heard about his confrontation in the courtyard. She was shocked Toko had made nothing out of it and wondered if she'd even heard about it. Kawakami somehow doubted the older woman hadn't but then couldn't understand why she hadn't done anything about it. Kawakami means to bring this up today as well but she's nervous about how to phrase it. It wasn't as if Akira got into a fight. Once she'd read through the lines of the rumors, it sounded more like he averted a fight.
She sighs. There are so many threads with Akira. It was difficult for her to organize her thoughts when it came to him. And she didn't want to think about what that meant.
He's not Taiki, she thinks.
They enter LeBlanc and Akira gestures towards a seat near the door. Kawakami slides up on the stool, and Akira sits alongside her. Sojiro turns to look at them, then frowns. He saunters over and says, "You're Kawakami-sensei, aren't you?" He asks.
She nods.
His frown deepens. "What's he done?"
Kawakami blinks. "Um, nothing." She quickly adds, "I'm here to tutor him before exams." Why do I feel guilty about saying that?
Sojiro looks from her to Akira, who shrugs. "How're you doing in school, anyway?"
"Pretty good," Akira replies.
"Pretty good, eh?"
"He is," Kawakami puts in. "He did very well on his last exams, and we're hoping he does even better next week."
Sojiro grunts something else. "Alright then. What can I get you?"
"Um, just a cup of coffee."
"Say 'Guatemalan blend,'" Akira mutters.
"Guatemalan blend," Kawakami says, quickly.
Sojiro nods and moves off to where he keeps the beans.
"That's his favorite," Akira puts in. "Ordering it puts him in a slightly better mood."
Once the older man sets the cup down before her, he moves off and leaves the two alone. Akira takes out a notebook and sets it down before him.
Kawakami takes a book from her bag as well, and puts it down alongside Akira's, feeling absurdly like a spy. "So, are you going to tell me what happened the other night?" She whispers.
Akira smiles. "The woman you met. Her name is Ichiko Ohya. She's a journalist. She took an interest in Shujin after the Phantom Thieves took down Kamoshida, and she tried to talk to a few students. I met her and she interviewed me. I also have a part-time job in Shinjuku, at a bar where she's a regular and-"
"Wait, you work at a bar?" Kawakami asks, eyes widening. "In Shinjuku?" There was nothing about that in Akira's file. She knew he had an afterschool job at a flower shop at Shibuya Underground, but not this.
Akira clears his throat. "Well... yes. I do. I'm not in any danger. The patrons like hearing about my school life and I can only serve water and soda and clean the place up. Ohya frequents the place and she's unfortunately got a bit of a drinking problem. One time, the owner of the bar asked me to help her get up and I wound up taking her back here to make her some coffee. She treated it as an open invitation to keep coming back. I get the feeling she's lonely." He shrugs.
Kawakami stares at him. Nothing about that sounded appropriate. There was an incredible amount there that could be interpreted into very, very inappropriate happenings. Still, the matter of fact way Akira conveyed it made Kawakami suspect that it was just as he described.
"She's a bit mad at me," Akira continues. "But I consider her a friend. I'm sorry she surprised you the other night. I had no idea she was coming over. Usually, she texts or something."
Kawakami takes a minute to finish absorbing all of this. "Okay, so she came over. She seemed like she needed to talk to you about something. Was everything okay?"
"Like I said," Akira says. "She's a bit mad at me. I lied to her about something, and she got upset, and the drinking didn't help. As to what I lied about, I'm afraid that's between the two of us, Sensei."
Kawakami glances over at Sojiro, who seems to be ignoring them in favor of the small television over the bar.
"And what about the other person who saw me? The one I saw as I was leaving?"
"I can confidently say I don't know who that was." Akira lets out a nervous chuckle. "But I think it was someone I met on the internet."
"Tell me you're kidding."
"No, no, hear me out. And don't look at me that way, Sensei. I didn't invite them over. We connected because we have some mutual interests, but we kept it anonymous. I got freaked out, however, because they seemed to know more about me than I did about them. Please don't tell Sojiro about this, because I don't want him to kick me out over this." He leans a little bit closer to her, and Kawakami is very aware of their proximity. "The other night, my cat knocked down this weird thing from over one of the booths. I didn't think anything of it. I figured it was a carbon monoxide detector or something. I think it might've been a listening device, though."
"What?" Kawakami asks, shocked.
Akira hushes her and pats the air with his hands. "Please, keep it down. I think the person set it up so they could learn a bit more about me. The other night, they must've been trying to install a new one. You scared them off, and they haven't tried again. I've been meticulous since then. I'm freaked out enough. I've talked to them since then, and even though we haven't talked about it, I think we've come to an understanding."
"Kurusu, that's very dangerous. You should tell someone and-"
"I'm telling you," Akira whispers. "And I can't tell anyone else. I mean, my friends know, but that's it. I can't trust anyone else. If Sojiro finds out I've had strange people showing up in the cafe after hours, I'll get kicked out. Please, just let this slide, okay?"
Every instinct in Kawakami insisted that she push this. But every instinct Kawakami had led to Taiki's death. If she chose to pursue this, and Akira was right, he would get kicked out. It wasn't as if she could take him in. If he honestly had no place else to go, there wasn't any other option. "Alright, I'll keep quiet about this. But you need to stop having a relationship with this person. It's crazy. You should know better. I thought kids your age were careful about this kind of thing?"
Akira makes a face. "Yeah, well, I didn't think they'd break into my house."
The conversation drifts off after this. Kawakami does not approve of his making friends online, but she can't exactly stop it and there's nothing that untoward about it. Besides, it appears Akira has learned his lesson.
"I do want to thank you," Akira tells her, looking vaguely off down the length of the bar. "For everything you've been doing for me. I know I said some harsh things a while ago, but I didn't mean it."
Kawakami isn't sure what to say to this. Part of her does not know what to say because she is not sure Akira is telling the truth. She is not stupid. While Akira has plausible explanations for the events that unfolded, it seems a bit too coincidental that he's got an answer for everything. She can find no fault in what he's saying, other than an underlying gut feeling that while he may not be lying, he's not telling her the entire truth. Despite the coffee - which is very good - she feels as if her throat is dry. She looks over at Akira and wonders just what this boy is to her. And then she wonders who she even is anymore.
Kawakami has a lot she wishes to say.
She says none of it.
##
A/N:
I do believe this is the longest Crimson chapter to date. I went back and forth on uploading the three parts over consecutive days but decided against it. I played with the formatting a bit and you'll see that prominently in Futaba's section. I wanted to break down the prose to showcase her mental state. You'll all have to judge if it's effective or not.
The hardest section to write was Sae's. This bit went through about four drafts and each was substantially different than the last. Initially, fragments of the conversation between Kagawa and Iwai took centerstage (I mentioned this scene in the last chapter's notes) but I realized that even adding Sae couldn't make this bit more interesting. Ultimately, I decided I wanted this chapter to demonstrate Sae's - and I don't mean to make this sound eye-rollingly cliché - brilliance and reasoning. In the recent chapters where Sae appeared, she hasn't been given much opportunity to live up to her hype or utilize her mental prowess. This is a woman who figured out Akira's familiarity with Makoto based on a single sentence. This is a woman who has deduced much of the shadowy machinations of Shido's network even if she doesn't know the how or why. I did my best to have her reach the correct conclusion given Iwai's *cough cough* testimony. We also get to see a bit of her paranoia during her initial distrust of Kagawa, and her condescension towards the idea of Akechi's possible involvement.
You may be wondering why Iwai told her as much as he did. I wrote Iwai to be smart and I think he deduced a good amount from Sae's presence. He always intended to divulge a bit about Kaneshiro's operations to the police - as far as they pertained to the mental shutdowns - but did not expect the old allies of Akihiko Niijima to be front and center. Iwai is hoping Akira can change Kaneshiro's heart, and soon. But I believe Iwai is pragmatic. By giving as much information as he did to Sae - while also trying to minimize his own exposure, though he ultimately got played due to Sae's doubletalk - he hedged his bets. If Akira cannot change Kaneshiro's heart, at the least he's (from his perspective) placed the SIU on Kaneshiro's tail. Iwai is betting that even Kaneshiro will have a difficult time juggling the Civil War with the Dragon, the assault from the Phantom Thieves, and an investigation from the SIU. Of course he would know that Kaneshiro had people in the police, but he couldn't have known that Sae had a direct link to an agent of Shido's network. Akechi's movements after Iwai's disclosure will be explained in due time. I don't want to get all spoilery on you guys. :)
With the Futaba scene, we finally reach a point I'd intended to get to much earlier in the story: wresting control of the PhanSite from Mishima and giving it to Ali Baba. I had originally planned for Ali Baba's appearance earlier in the story, but too many threads entangled the plot and it became supremely difficult to add another. While it's inexcusable that the PhanSite security aspect has gone unmentioned for so long, from a narrative standpoint I'm happy that Futaba is getting introduced properly closer to her own arc. My hope is to wrap up the Kaneshiro arc relatively (LOL) soon and this week I plan on doing some serious revising of the various arcs I intend to introduce. We are, actually, at roughly the point in-game when Futaba is introduced, which I find surprising given that we had the Sugimura/Operation Destroy Akira Kurusu before Kaneshiro's. My hope is that I've done Futaba's character justice. I want to call attention to the various emotional and social problems she exhibited in-game, but also point out her impressive skills as well. I thought this scene was a decent display, but again, you'll all have to judge.
The Kawakami scene. Sigh. To be honest, the reason this is included is due to Kawakami's last scene. She encountered both Ali Baba and Ohya during her moonlighting as a maid, and thus demanded an explanation from Akira, which she did not get earlier because of his freak-out over getting caught. I could not reasonably delay this conversation any further, but I did consider having it happen off-page. But. Kawakami has been involved substantially up to this point, and given the general theme of this chapter, I figured it'd be a good idea to at least introduce her own personal ghost. But I still don't like this section because I don't feel like much was accomplished. Akira sorta-kinda lied and explained away the things Kawakami encountered. There's still trust issues between them, but these same issues existed before, so I don't know that this actually managed to advance the narrative. Perhaps it was a mistake to include this section, as nothing particularly interesting happens, but now that it's out of the way I can at least start to steer this relationship towards its next stage.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Happy Wednesday. Hope to talk to you all soon!