It was quite easy to destroy a Shadow. There was no blood or guts that spewed from the creature. The Shadow would looked shocked for a few seconds before disappearing into tiny specks of ash. That is why Akechi didn't struggle shooting Wakaba's Shadow.

She would probably go unconscious for a few minutes right? His Call of Chaos spell only lasted for the same amount of time after all. It would be perfect for Shido to steal whatever he needed from her without her noticing.

But it was never that simple for him was it?

He will never forget the day when Wakaba fell into traffic. He could only stare in shock as he hears a child, a girl to be specific, shrieking on top of her lungs. He bit his lip and clenched his fists as he hid inside the growing crowd.

He couldn't stay here. The crowd were pointing at the fallen body and the little girl who was crying and calling the police.

It was too much.

It was similar to when he saw his mother — No, no don't think about it.

He quickly escaped the scene.

This was wrong. It was all wrong.

He…he just needs to talk to Shido. The research was wrong. He was told that if he shot her at a specific time and day, then she would fall unconscious during her work hours! Not only did the side effects from the Metaverse came later than expected, but she was walking with her daughter right before she got hit by a car! Is she still alive? The sound of her body hitting against the car was so loud and brutal. He really, really hoped that she was still alive.

'Oh god, that poor child.' Akechi can't get the cry of despair out of his mind.

How did it go so wrong?

He stopped and panted for breath as he struggled to grab his phone and dial Shido's number.

"What is it?" Shido answered curtly.

"W-Wakaba fell unconscious in the middle of the street and a car…ran her over." Akechi whispered the part into his phone.

"Hm. This was not exactly how we planned it, but... this might actually be better. Nice work Akechi. I will compile a list of people that I want eliminated soon. Be on a lookout for it." Shido immediately hang up the phone without even saying goodbye.

Akechi looked at his cellphone in shock. More? He wants to Akechi to kill more Shadows even though the research was faulty? If they can't get the correct time of when something takes effect, then what else about the research was wrong? What if killing the Shadows kills their real self in the real world instead of knocking them unconscious? It wasn't like he was right next to Wakaba to confirm her condition before she got ran over by a car.

Did he just kill someone in front of their kid? Shit.

Everything was so wrong.

Akechi bit his lip as he tried not to cry. This was not going as he had planned. He didn't want to become a murderer. He should stop before he gets in too deep.

But how?

He doesn't know any members of the Conspiracy other than Shido, Kaneshiro, and the SUI Director. If there was already a politician, a Yakuza member, and a SUI director who are part of the conspiracy, there might be other high position people in it too. Akechi is not sure on who he can turn to for help. If he tries to escape the conspiracy, would they track him down and kill him?

Shit! What should he do?Going to Shido to offer him his services was a mistake! Akechi thought he wanted dirty secrets from his opponents and ruin their reputations. He didn't think of the possibility that Shido would need to kill people!

Akechi guessed it makes sense in the end. It's not Shido's hands that will be getting dirty after all. It's Akechi's. He was foolish to even think that he could outsmart Shido by working alongside him.

Akechi stared as his phone as he pressed the power button on and off. He half-heartedly swiped his phone on to calm himself and noticed the dark red icon of an eye sticking out from the rest of his screen.

Maybe…if he escapes into the Metaverse, no one would be able to find him. No one has the app except for him.

He grips his phone tightly in his fist.

Akechi still wants revenge on Shido. He needs to find out the key words to his Palace are and fight his Shadow. When Akechi finally uses the skill Call of Chaos on him, there will definitely be a huge scandal and Shido's reputation will be forever ruined.

His original plan might have deviated a bit, but the end result remained the same. Shido will get fucked over by society just like Akechi and his mom. No matter what he will do, Shido's reputation will never be able to recover. When he walks down the street, people will whisper behind his back and glare at him as he pass by. He deserves to feel just like how Akechi's mother did back then.

Akechi smiled and turned off his screen. His new plan is reasonable. He can hash out the details later when he safely escaped into the Metaverse.

He went back to his apartment to grab all of his necessities. He picked up a photo of his mother and studied it. He saw her tired hazel eyes as she smiled at the camera while holding onto a squirmy younger version of himself.

'Mom. I promise I'll make Shido pay.' Akechi swore as he packed the only photo of his mother safely between his clothes and zipped up his backpack.

It didn't take long to pack everything up. He didn't give his apartment a second glance as he closed the door behind him. Screw Shido and his "generosity".

The man might have given him an apartment and money, but it wasn't worth doing all of his dirty work. Akechi was fucked up but even he has some morals left. He refuses to become like Shido.

It was strange to say that a year and a half went by quickly. He bought a variety of items on Shido's card before he escaped into the Metaverse: school books, an ice chest, futon, food, a large travel suitcase with wheels, clothes, and books for pleasure. He also purchased a short black wig and face masks to use as a disguise when he has to return to reality for any sort of reason.

He trained in the Metaverse and tried his best to guess Shido's keywords to his Palace. It took him a few months but he finally did it. The Shadows prowling there were tough to kill and most of them don't even have any specific weakness that he could exploit. It took awhile for him to understand how to destroy them with his two Personas but he did it. It was annoying that when he got into the groove of things, something unexpected came up. The weather was becoming warmer and he couldn't really walk around the Diet building during the summer with his face mask on without look suspicious. This meant that he had to stop going to Shido's Palace until the fall.

Akechi fought long and hard in Mementos daily to get ready to tackle Shido's Palace once again. He also received a lot of money to buy better equipments. He never knew how expensive toy weapons and armor could be.

Fast forward to now, Akechi was in the middle of getting his second letter of introduction. He was running around Shido's Palace as a mouse and the whole experience made him feel quite vulnerable. He couldn't attack or use his Persona while he was stuck in his mouse form so the exploration the Palace was taking longer than he would have wanted.

He sighed as he left the Palace feeling exhausted and immediately wanted to collapse into his futon after a day of hard work. He found an abandon train in Mementos and set up his camp there the first week when he escaped Shido over a year ago. While there were weak Shadows crawling around, it was better than sleeping in an open waiting area. The area felt too exposed for his taste. There were always people standing on the opposite end of the train station waiting for the train and whispering to each other. He'll never knows if they would notice his presence and cross the train tracks to attack him. It better to never getting into that sort of situation.

Akechi got off the train to Shibuya and teleported to Mementos. He crawled under his futon and slept with a smile on his face. Every day, he was getting closer to destroy Shido.

The next morning he was fighting a few Shadows as his daily warm up exercise, he managed to hear something unusual. It was the sound of people talking. While Shadows do whisper things to each other or to themselves, their voices were filled with a negative emotion: anger, fear, distress, etc.

These Shadows' voices were filled of cheer and laughter. It was weird. Akechi doesn't know what this information meant. Were the Shadows powerful enough to be able to walk around arrogantly instead of crawling around in the darkness? They were also loud with their footsteps too.

Whatever. He needed the challenge anyways. They could not possibility be as strong as a Palace ruler. He mentally list the items he had on hand and nodded to himself. He was only running low on dry iceand tesla coils. Not a big deal. He'll just restock before returning to Shido's Palace after this.

He gripped his sword and hid in the shadows of Mementos. His outfit helped blend him in with the darkness as he observed the group.

'There were two blonds, one black haired male, one blue haired male, and a monster cat?'

He paused as he narrowed his eyes. The cat's head is four times bigger than its body, but this is the Metaverse so he didn't really questioned it.

Who will he attack first? He looked at the group for a few seconds before deciding on the cat. There was only one weird looking creature while everyone else was a humanoid shaped. Perhaps that was the strongest Shadow in this group.

He threw a confusion vial at them and rushed towards them as the punk looking blonds was effected by the ailment and attacked the group. He quickly downed the cat with his gun and clashed his sword with the blue haired male. It didn't take long for him to overwhelm his opponent as the confused blonde took downed the blond Shadow with red cat suit. The only person left standing was the black haired male. The Shadow stared at him in shock for a quick second before unsheathing his knife and placing a hand on his mask.

'That's strange, why hasn't it transformed yet?' He questioned as he charged at the last enemy. The element of surprise ended and the Shadow still hasn't reveal its true yet. Well, easy experience points for him then.

"Persona!"

Oh. That's why. It's not a Shadow at all.

He stopped mid-step in disbelief as he stared at his enemies. Fuck, was he about to accidentally kill a human?

"Wait!" Akechi called out as he leaped back. He dropped his sword and held out his hands as a gesture of peace.

The black haired male narrowed his eyes but didn't attack. His winged Persona remained protectively beside him as it stared Akechi down.

"Sorry. I didn't know that you guys were humans. I've been here for over a year and have not seen another human here before." He said as he bowed his head.

"…it's fine." The stranger said as he relaxed his stance and his Persona faded. He walked back to his fallen teammates, exposing his back to Akechi. Akechi stared at this person with his lips parted in shock.

How could he trust Akechi so quickly? He just attacked their group, knocked two people down, and turned another person against them!

Akechi picked up his sword and sheathed it before running after him. Now that everything was calm, Akechi felt awkward. How can he fix this situation? He looked at the knocked out group and said, "Ah, I have items that can revive your teammates." He searched through his hip pouch and pulled out three Balm of Lives. He placed the items in the black haired male's hand and allowed him to heal his teammates while stepping back to watch the group regain their consciousness.

As he watched them recover, he was wondering how these guys have access to the Metaverse. Were they also part of Shido's conspiracy group? Akechi stiffened when that thought appeared in his mind.

It's possible.

They did steal Wakaba's research papers so they could have continued their experimentations with the Metaverse. Akechi wasn't safe if that's the case, but the blacked hair male stopped attacking after Akechi threw down his sword. If he was part of Shido's group then Shido would've told these people to eliminate Akechi no matter what. He kept his hand on his helmet as he watched the group stood up again and stretched their limbs.

"Are you guys a part of his conspiracy group?" Akechi said. He left out Shido's name just in case they weren't involved. He doesn't want them to know about Shido. He was Akechi's responsibility, his mistake to fix.

"Huh? What are you talking about? We are the Phantom Thieves!" The blond hair guy said in a proud manner.

"Skull!"

Who the fuck were the Phantom Thieves?

"Who?"

"You know…the people who stole the hearts of Kamoshida and Madarame." The blond guy seemed to be wilting the longer he was trying to explain what their group was.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Akechi said flatly.

The guy collapsed in despair at Akechi's response. What the hell was wrong with this guy?

"Guess we're not famous enough yet."

Everyone laughed at the blond guy's reaction. Their responses looked genuine. It doesn't look like they are a part of Shido's group. There was no way he would hire people so...open.

Akechi felt relief. It looks like he was still safe from Shido for now.

He decided to humor them and ask more about the Phantom Thieves. He was surprised to learn what they do. Steal people's hearts to change their distorted thoughts. Make bad people repent their ways. It was interesting.

'This would definitely catch Shido's attention.' Akechi thought as he watched them happily describe their adventures. He felt like his anxiousness for this group grow in the pit of his stomach.

"What are you thinking?" Joker said as he watched Akechi's grim expression.

Akechi's eyes flicker to their leader.

"If you guys are planning on continuing on doing this then I recommend to proceed with caution."

"Of course. The police are noticing us now that we caught Madarame!" Skull overheard their conversation and decided to butt in.

"No, of course you should be wary of the police but I mean the darker side of society as well." He said as he stared at them. The group's cheerfulness dim as they process his words.

"Like the Yazuka?!" Panther shrieked.

"Perhaps them. Perhaps someone else. If you are trying to change the hearts of criminals, then the big wigs from the underground will be looking for you. Don't try to stand out in public and be careful when meeting up together. The walls have ears." He advised them.

"Why don't join us with then? We don't mind having another person on our team to help look out for us." Joker asked with a smirk.

Akechi couldn't help but scoff. Was he serious? All they need to do was leave school at separate times, meet up at each other houses, and switch locations between their houses from time to time. They don't need his help for something so minor and he wants to keep visiting Shido's Palace. The election was the end of this year after all. He has no time to dilly dally. Perhaps if they got stronger, he might consider it. While Akechi would prefer to complete Shido's Palace by himself, it might be smarter to have someone watch his back. There might be more dumb shit in Shido's Palace that is similar as being stuck in a mouse form.

Well, that's a thought for another day.

"No. First, the things I've listed are common sense. If you aren't figure that shit out then you deserved to get caught. Second, you guys are far too weak right now. I managed to beat you guys within a minute. You guys need more experience and at least go through a few more Palaces before I would even consider joining up with you guys. I'm working through someone's Palace right now and if I'm struggling with it, there's no way you guys can survive."

Their faces looked so shocked but Joker pouted at him. Akechi could barely keep the grimace off of his face. What the fuck is with his expression?

"You can assess our skills after the next Palace then. I would like to challenge you one on one to see the difference between our levels are." Fox said as he held his katana in a fighting stance.

Akechi snorted. "Fine. Heck, all five of you can come at me all at once. This would barely be called a warm-up for me."

It wasn't hard to fight them at all.

Sure, their teamwork was acceptable. They were quick at helping out their teammate if they were down or received a status ailment. That means that he just needs to get rid of the healers first before moving onto the rest of the group.

Joker though, he was a pleasant surprise. It seems that he was the only person in the group who was able to summon more than one Persona and he used that to his advantage. He went from offense to defense. From tanker to healer, then to backup. It was refreshing to see how fast he was able to change positions based on who was left fighting in his group. If Joker is that effecient in battle then perhaps them teaming up together might come sooner than Akechi predicts.

While Akechi didn't give them his contact information (he lives in the Metaverse all the time. He wouldn't be able to get calls and texts anyways), he promised them that he would be in Mementos twice a week: Wednesday and Saturday.

By the end of it, Akechi's throat started to hurt. Akechi has never spoken this much in the past year. He only gave short sentences and today, he's spoke for over an hour.

He watched as they left. He hoped that they take his advice on being careful. They were loud, naïve bunch but they didn't seem to mind that he spoke abrasively towards them. It was nice to have another person accept his true self.

Akechi smiled. 'Well this is going to be interesting.'

Author's Notes:

Akechi's advice went in through one ear and out another. XD Akechi has a hip pouch so he could carry his items. Merry Chris and Happy New Year!