10/11
AKECHI: Good afternoon, Haru. I apologize for not being able to help out with your gardening after school today. I was preoccupied with work.
HARU: There's no need to apologize. There wasn't much to do today, anyways.
AKECHI: That's good to hear.
AKECHI: Your father is holding a press conference today, right?
HARU: Yes, he is.
AKECHI: And will you be in attendance?
HARU: I will. I'm not quite sure why, but he insists I should be there.
HARU: It's kind of odd behavior. I'm not usually supposed to be affiliated with the business side of things.
AKECHI: Is your father acting off in any other way?
HARU: He's been really sick lately. He hasn't been able to go into work very much, or even leave the house...
AKECHI: I would ask you to give him my regards, if only he wasn't unaware of our continuing friendship.
HARU: :)
AKECHI: Have a good evening, Haru.
AKECHI: I wish you and your father the best.
"Are you excited for tomorrow, my dear?"
Haru frowned at the question, looking up from the screen of her cell phone. Sugimura's tone clearly indicated to her that there was a right and wrong answer, despite the light tone he was trying so hard to apply.
Tomorrow evening she would move in to Sugimura's penthouse.
"I'm a little scared to leave my father all by himself," she responded. It wasn't necessarily a lie, just excluding certain parts of the truth.
The pair of them were unfortunately stuck in pretty severe traffic, cradled in the backseat of Sugimura's limousine. He had very firmly insisted on escorting Haru home from school that day, and of course she was in no position to refuse his gracious offer.
"And why is that?" Sugimura questioned, a single eyebrow raised dubiously.
"Father has been ill recently," she replied simply, growing a little annoyed with his inability to remember anything about her. The amount of times she had already informed him of this made her head hurt…
Her fiance chuckled. "You shouldn't worry about things like that. That's what you have servants for, after all."
To take care of my father for me? Haru pondered inwardly. Isn't that a daughter's job... she jumped when she suddenly felt Sugimura's cold fingers graze the bare skin of her shoulders.
"I truly can't wait until tomorrow night." Sugimura's voice attempted a seductive tone, persevering straight through her glass barrier. "You should get some rest before then, Haru."
"Um…" Haru wriggled her body as far away from him as she could in this terribly cramped position, turning to face the window. "And why is that?"
He chuckled lecherously. "We'll likely be up all night. I won't even be bothered if you stay home from school the following morning."
Her stomach lurched, growling at the unpleasant realization that there wasn't even any food within to upchuck. "Um…" she hated how uncomfortable Sugimura made her feel. She could sense the hairs of her arms raising, goosebumps ascending from her pale skin.
He smirked. Haru wondered if he enjoyed causing her so much distress.
"In other news, what exactly is this press conference your father suddenly scheduled?" Sugimura asked, changing the subject rather abruptly. "I specifically advised him to avoid any news coverage until we were married, and then my father could help clean up his filthy damn mess…"
Until we were married... Haru repeated in her mind.
Sugimura sighed. "I suppose that time will come soon enough. Have you gotten fitted for a dress yet? I'd like something sexy, but loose enough around the stomach to hide your few extra pounds… Unless, of course, you plan on seriously adjusting your weight sometime before the wedding…"
Haru only half-listened to his degrading spiel, her eyes permanently plastered to the slow-moving world beyond the limousine's tinted window.
Later that day, Haru sat cross-legged on her bed. Some school books were opened in front of her, the text inside which she was only half-reading. Studying usually helped calm her nerves, but...
Haru had never been to a press conference before, She didn't even know what to wear, or how to act - would she be asked to say anything?
She shook her head. I'm being ridiculous, of course I won't… I'll probably just stand off to the side or something...
A call from far down their long hallway alerted her. "Haru, could you come out here?"
Perpetually playing the part of an obedient daughter, she immediately swung her legs over the high bedframe and ambled over to her bedroom door.
Her father was waiting on their living room sofa, gesturing for Haru to take a seat next to him as soon as she wandered into his view.
"Hi, Haru," his voice was still a little hoarse from lack of use over the past few days. "How are you?"
She blinked. When was the last time he had ever asked her that question…?
"I'm alright, Father," she responded timidly. "Are you feeling any better?"
Her father let out a deep sigh that rattled throughout his body, bringing his handkerchief up to chapped lips. "I'll be relieved of my worries after this conference. Only then will my mind finally be at ease."
Haru had never quite heard her father sounding so sorrowful before. "What will you be discussing during the press conference?"
He remained silent, as if he were carefully listening to her words. That's a first… "No matter what happens, I want you to know that… I'm sorry for what I've done to you." Haru's mouth parted slightly in surprise, but only a measly breath trickled out. Her father continued. "I know that I've hurt you, and I understand if you can't ever forgive me… just know that tonight, after the conference, I'll be ending things with the Sugimuras. I'm calling off the wedding, the partnership, the politics. Everything ."
She felt like she was dreaming, hearing this heavenly stray of words cascading from between her father's lips.
"B-but why?" Haru questioned.
This doesn't make any sense…
Lines of tears trailed down her father's cheeks as he spoke, his voice cracking, "Because… you are my precious daughter. I won't let anyone hurt you... I love you, Haru."
Haru's heart began beating faster. Her eyes grew damp listening to her father's rare words of affection. Words that hadn't graced her presence in years, creating endless strings of tension between them.
"I love you too, Father…"
She was so, so happy… but absolutely perplexed by this turn of events. What exactly had happened to her father? Why was he acting so different? It was as if he had a change of heart, or -
Her eyes widened. A change of heart?
Of course… her father had been at the top of the Phantom Thieves polls for weeks now. People rioted outside of Big Bang Burger daily, threatening hundreds of terrible different things if a change of heart didn't occur within the CEO of Okumura Foods…
The Phantom Thieves really did listen to my plea, Haru thought back to the request she had sent in online months ago. They've saved my life… I can't thank them enough…
Haru smiled, hastily wiping a few tears from her eyes. I can't wait to tell Akechi-kun.
"Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to gather here."
Akechi watched the press conference from his cell phone screen, a knot of unease weighing down his gut.
"How my employees were forced to work under severe conditions, how… lax we were with sanitation…"
Masayoshi Shido called him. The call was declined.
"For all of this, I wholeheartedly apologize."
He wished Haru wasn't there.
"I… am solely responsible..."
That just made everything so much worse...
"I have a critical piece of information to announce here today."
And then of course things happened the way they usually did. Okumura clutched at his chest, an expression of intense pain overtaking his face. He bent forward at the waist, head hanging low parallel to the wooden structure of the podium.
When Okumura rose, a black tar-like liquid was oozing down his face, leaking profusely from every orifice.
Akechi winced at the graphic nature of this broadcast, but was unwilling to turn away. The station immediately began scrambling to cut the cameras, workers running around the screen in a disorganized, chaotic clamber.
The video was eventually cut, but not before a clearly audible, shrill cry was heard just as a small figure began rushing forward.
"Papa!"
ANN: Did we… mess up?
AKIRA: We did everything exactly the same.
MAKOTO: And now this has happened…
MAKOTO: I still feel that we made a mistake not confiding in Haru Okumura.
ANN: Yeah, me too...
YUSUKE: It doesn't seem fair that we all got a say in the change of heart that directly affected us, yet she was entirely unaware.
AKIRA: If we had done that, we would have risked having everything spilled to Akechi.
RYUJI; I gotta side with Akira here. That guy is bad news, and we can't trust anyone that's close to him either.
FUTABA: I agree, but still... This feels wrong.
MAKOTO: Don't forget that my sister is also an acquaintance of Akechi's.
YUSUKE: I can't help but wonder if things could have played out much differently…
Akira set his phone down with a sigh.
Where did we go wrong?