Literally: five to twelve
Meaning: at the last possible moment, just before the deadline

Kasumi was standing by the front door, anxiously waiting for her sister to return home. When someone knocked, she didn't even bother with asking who was there, she just immediately opened the door. Akira didn't have time to react and ended up knocking on her skull. "Ow."

"Sorry," Akira said. "Hey, Kasumi." He moved aside and pointed at Sumire, who had her head lowered in shame. "I found your-"

Kasumi glomped her sister. "I was worried about you, silly!" she proclaimed

"Get off me," Sumire pushed her away and marched into the house. "Goodnight, Akira-senpai."

The two watched her go to her room, and then Kasumi glanced at Akira. "What bit her?"

"Can this wait until morning?" he replied. "I don't think I have it in me to be tactful right now."

"I won't sleep tonight anyway," Kasumi crossed her arms. "Hit me. I can take it."

"In short, she went into Mementos alone, fucked around, and found out," Akira said. "It was irresponsible of her, and I expect her to stop by Leblanc tomorrow before class so we can discuss that in detail."

"Got it," Kasumi nodded. "And while you're here, I've got one more question."

"Yeah?"

"Is what Goro said true? That the Palace deadline got moved up?"

"Wha-" Akira wasn't prepared for that. "When did he tell you?"

"I'm in your group chat," she pointed out. "I've caught up with the messages after calling him about Sumi's disappearance."

He needed a moment to figure out a good way to phrase it, then realized there was none. "Yes. It's true."

Cue a few seconds of awkward silence and averted gazes, broken by Kasumi: "Man, that shrink's a cunt."

Akira didn't expect such a venomous statement from someone with Sumire's face. "He-he's not a bad person-"

"Stop. Talking," she interrupted him. "He had reopened a barely mended wound and kept pouring salt on it. He created hostages out of whole cloth and now holds a gun to their heads. I'm not going to dance around that fact just because I'm one of his hostages: He's. A. Cunt." A flicker of realization. "…this is the kind of thing that you wanted to avoid, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Akira sighed. "Sorry for stepping on your toes. Though the fact that you're at peace with it is… reassuring, in a way."

"I have two options right now:" she explained, "spend the rest of my life hoping Maruki won't deem disintegrating me a lesser evil to something… or making peace and going out on my own terms. I know which one sounds more appealing."

"That's that then." Akira inched towards the elevator. "So, I'll see Sumire tomorrow morning. If you want to come with her for emotional support, feel free." He smiled awkwardly. "There'll be curry and coffee."

Saturday, January 14th, Early Morning

The Yoshizawa sisters entered Leblanc.

Sojiro and Wakaba were sitting in one of the booths, watching Akira stirring the stew in a wide shallow pan. "Good morning," Sojiro greeted them. "The kid's on cooking duty today."

"Do you have to be here while Akira-senpai dresses me down?" Sumire asked, not bothering with a greeting.

"Well, it's my cafe," he shrugged.

"I was already informed about the deadline change," Wakaba added. "You can talk openly around me."

"Also, it's more of a debriefing than a dress-down," Akira turned to the newcomers. "I don't want to shame you, I want to break down what happened." He smiled. "Hi, by the way. Sit down, I'll serve you."

Kasumi sat by the counter, and after a moment, Sumire hesitantly joined her. Akira scooped up some rice from the cooker and put it onto two identical plates. He then topped it with the curry and placed it in front of the Yoshizawas. "So," he said, "do you mind telling me what happened last night, Sumire?"

She stared intently at her meal, too uncomfortable to make eye contact. "I…" she started, "You told me about the deadline change and I… and I went to Mementos to try and get some experience to catch up with you."

"And you went there without telling anyone." Akira put spoons in front of them. "I got a phone call from Kasumi, worried and confused, asking me if I have any idea where you are. Do not do that again."

Sumire murmured something vaguely reaffirming in response, then started nibbling on her curry.

"What happened then?" Akira continued.

"You know full well what happened," she grumbled.

"We're not here to talk about what I know," he countered. "I want to hear how this situation played out from your point of view."

Sumire said nothing to that, at first, and put some more food in her mouth. Then, she swallowed and muttered: "You and Goro-san have found me, and I… I thought he might be willing to duel me."

"And he didn't want to," Akira said. "And even after he said he doesn't want to, you tried to goad him to fight back." He paused. "This isn't the first time you attacked him. Is there any bad blood between you two?"

"No!" she protested. "I just… I just… I'm just stupid and useless!"

"Your performative self-flagellation is a dead end," Wakaba commented.

"…uh?"

"Less ten-dollar words, please," Kasumi asked.

"Okay," she turned to the twins, "rather than focus on what pushed her to do what she did, Sumire proclaims she's innately flawed and ends it there." She looked at Sumire; her head was still lowered. "Reflect on your behavior and motivations and don't just start and end with calling yourself names."

"Yes, this is what I was trying to go for," Akira added. "Thank you… um, how should I address you?"

"Call me 'Wakaba'," she replied. "It's unorthodox, but, well… so is everything else right now."

"Got it." He turned back to Sumire. "Now, with that out of the way…" He lost a bit of steam. "We also need to discuss what happened afterwards."

"That sounds ominous," Kasumi remarked. "What happened afterwards?"

"Well," Akira took a second to figure out a diplomatic way to phrase it, "Goro held Sumire at gunpoint to get her to back down, there was a struggle, and then the gun fired, grievously wounding her."

A pronounced scowl appeared on Kasumi's face. "Wow, that realm is scarier than I thought," she snarked. "Guns fire on their friggin' own."

"As I said, there was a struggle," Akira explained.

"Which wouldn't have happened if he hadn't held her at gunpoint!" she raised her voice.

"It's my fault, Sumi," Sumire muttered in protest. "I tried to… tried to yank the gun away from him. I p-pulled it forward and then…" She paused. "And then I got shot."

"Okay, I'm stepping in:" Sojiro got up, walked up to Sumire, and put a finger gun up to her forehead. "When someone holds you at gunpoint, you shouldn't pull the gun towards you, because things like that happen," he told her. "Try pulling it to the side, so the barrel doesn't point at anyone on the scene."

"And how do you know that?" Wakaba asked.

"It just seems logical," he shrugged. "Come on, try it."

"Is this a joke?!" Kasumi sprung up from her stool in indignation.

"Please sit back-" Akira started.

"My sister got shot by Mr. Daddy Issues and you're scolding her?!" Kasumi interrupted him. "Where's the fucking bastard?!"

Not waiting for an answer, she attempted to march to the staircase to the attic – 'attempted' because Sojiro stepped to the side to block her way.

"Sit back down," he ordered.

"Sir, this is between me, Sumi, and the son of a whore," Kasumi said.

"Kasumi, has anyone ever slit your throat?"

After a beat, everyone present turned to Akira. Sumire felt her heart sink down to her stomach.

"Is that a threat?" Kasumi barked.

"No, it just sounded like one," he replied. There was an edge to his voice, but he remained calm, at least on the surface. "I promise, there's a point I am going for, but it hinges on you answering my question."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. No, nobody slit my throat."

"But someone slit Goro's," he retorted. "So I can understand him panicking when someone waves sharp implements close to his neck."

"Oh." Kasumi lost a large chunk of her desire for confrontation in an instant. "Yeah, he mentioned it once, I think." 'Mentioned' was a strong word, he just had told Sumire to slit his throat, quote, 'again'.

"I'm surprised he did." Akira gestured to her plate. "Now please, sit back down and finish your meal."

After a pause, she did so, without a word. She noticed Sumire staring intently at the barely-touched meal in front of her and put her arm on her shoulder.

"Here's the sitch:" Akira turned to Sumire, "None of these things should've happened, but between your guilty conscience, inferiority complex, and the, cough, severity of the damage, any amount of berating feels excessive. I'm only doing it to push you in the right direction."

"And what direction is it?" Kasumi asked.

"I expect Sumire to say sorry to Goro for attacking him when the Thieves meet up after school, but more importantly, I expect introspection going past 'I am stupid and useless'." After a pause, he added, "Can you look at me, please?"

Sumire sighed and raised her head. Their eyes met.

"You're not stupid, and you're not useless." He patted her on the head. "You're wanted and you're a part of the team as much as anyone else on it. Do you like the curry?"

She nodded vigorously, and went back to eating.

"Are you gonna give Dim Yagami the same spiel for shooting her?" Kasumi asked.

"Of course," Akira replied. "And he will apologize as well."

"Hesh nuth-" Sumire paused to swallow. "He's not here. He's… angry at me, isn't he?"

He's too pissed at himself to be angry at you, Akira thought. "No, he's just tired," he replied. "He couldn't fall asleep till early morning and I didn't want to wake him up now that he's catching some Zs." He glanced at Sojiro. "Could he skip class today? It's not like it'll matter after the weekend."

"Yes, of course," Sojiro nodded in agreement. "I'd rather keep an eye on him myself."

Silence followed, broken only by clinking of spoons against the plates. "Okay," Wakaba said, "with important things out of the way… could you do something for me, Akira?"

Akira glanced at her. "Yeah?"

"Make me a cup of coffee."

"Rig-"

"My request's not over yet," she interrupted him. "You see, I assume that over the time you spent with Sojiro, you have developed your own ideas about how a good cup of coffee should taste. Is that correct?"

"Yeah." Akira glanced at Sojiro. "Not that yours isn't a masterclass. I just played with the equipment a bit during downtime to get something closer to my personal tastes."

"I want you to make me that coffee you just described," Wakaba ordered. "In the biggest mug available."

"Got it." Akira turned around and picked up a bag of beans from one of the shelves.

"I thought letting you mess around the shop would keep you busy, so you'll stay out of trouble," Sojiro commented, watching him in action.

"That worked out fine." Everyone turned to see Morgana descending the staircase. "Hey, everyone." He sat down by the counter, next to Kasumi. "Did you talk about what happened last night?" he asked the twins.

"Y-yes," Sumire replied. "Goro-san and I will say sorry to one another and we'll get back on schedule."

"Okay, so what do we tell the others?"

Cue a short period of terse silence.

"What do you mean 'tell the others'?" Kasumi asked. "Can't this stay between the three of us?"

"When Sumire disappeared, we ended up calling everyone else to make sure they're safe. They'll have questions."

Akira poured some coffee beans into the grinder. "Can I say something?"

"Yeah," Sumire nodded.

"I think we should be upfront about what happened," he said, holding down the button to grind the coffee. "Otherwise it'll come up at the worst possible moment and people might overreact."

"So the others can have a go at her too?" Kasumi protested.

"They will not 'have a go at her', I promise," Akira reassured her.

Lunchtime

"…and then I got shot," Sumire finished. "I… I don't blame Goro-san, this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't clumsily tried to disarm him."

The Shujin-bound Phantom Thieves – Morgana, Ryuji, Ann, Makoto, Haru – were sitting on a bench on the rooftop, listening to the Yoshizawas explaining last night's events.

"And, um, why did you attack him?" Ann asked.

"She already got dressed down," Kasumi asked.

"I'm not dressing her down, I'm just concerned about her self-preservation instincts," she retorted. "She saw first-hand what Goro does to Shadows. And we have seen what Goro does when he pulls out all the stops. And she goaded him to fight back, because…"

Everyone stared at Sumire, waiting for her answer. "I… I wanted to be stronger," she muttered, barely audible. "To not be a millstone."

"You're not a millstone, c'mon," Ryuji protested. "And what did I tell you about overexerting yourself?"

"We have thirty six hours to stop a god from taking over reality itself and I am the weakest link in the team," she retorted.

"In the team. Of, uh…" Ryuji paused to count, "ten people. We've got this covered."

"It's not the first god we've taken down," Haru added. "We've almost reached the end, we'll fit in the-"

Cue a bloop of a notification. And another, and another, and four more. Everyone pulled out their phones and noticed a new message in the group chat.

ak56: [File: 20xx-01-14_11:21:37.m4a]

"I'll play it on loudspeaker," Makoto offered.

She tapped the play button and everyone else gathered around her.

"Alright, so," Goro's voice came out of the speaker, "I have something to say and I don't want it to wait until we meet after class." Inhale. "The short version is, I am stepping down as a Phantom Thief."

Exclamation points appeared over everyone's heads.

"I handed over all funds gathered in the Metaverse to Akira. He mentioned he doesn't want to take charge, if he stays by that, you probably had a line of succession figured out back in November, when I… did the thing."

He sighed.

"And yeah, that's why I'm stepping down: I… haven't really processed things I've done… and things done to me while we're at it. Yesterday's events demonstrated that perfectly. Instead of facing my past, I've buried my traumas and fuck-ups and kept on going, and when they came back up, I was unable to handle them properly. I need… I need some time alone, with myself. And Sumire…"

Here we go, she thought. This is the part where he calls me out for what I've done last night. Not like I don't deserve-

"This is not your fault."

She didn't expect that.

"I am aware of your insecurities, so I'm saying this as unambiguously as I can. What happened last night is the product of a process that has been going on since the day I was born. Fuck, even before that. It is not your fault, I am sorry for hurting you. You're a good friend, and you didn't deserve it. Kick Maruki's ass in my stead. Crow, out."

The recording ended. Everyone took a moment to take it all in, and then Sumire proclaimed, bitterly: "Well, now thanks to me there's nine people on the team."

"Wha-" Makoto blurted out. "He literally said it's not your fault!"

"Because he hates himself," Sumire countered. Her voice was dripping with scorn. "He blamed himself when I literally slit his throat, of course he'll blame himself for my fuck-ups. And you will all just… pretend that the team hasn't just lost a heavy hitter because of my bullshit!"

"Are you angry at us?" Ann asked, confused.

"No," she spat. "I'm angry at myself. None of this would've happened if I just stayed put. None of this would've happened if I fucking died last year!"

There might have been a gasp or two.

Somewhere in the Metaverse, a Shadow manifested.

"Allow me to repeat:" Makoto said, "everything is under control. With Goro or without him. And I think you should take a few deep breaths. Maybe walk it off, think about what you've just said."

In response, Sumire turned around on her heel and left in a huff.

"I'll keep an eye on her," Kasumi offered. "Make sure she doesn't do anything rash." She left the scene, shouting after her sister.

"So," Ryuji said, "what do we do about this?"

"From what I've seen of her, benching her might make the situation worse," Makoto replied. "Maybe she'll calm down in the next few hours."