Literally: material fatigue
Meaning: general weariness, tiredness

The group materialized in front of Maruki's Palace in the real-ish world. "Alright, we're calling it a day," Makoto proclaimed. "We can all go-"

She was interrupted by a notification sound.

"Sorry, it's mine," Akira said, pulling out his phone. "A text from Sojiro. Quote, 'Goro just dropped from the ceiling and ran out of the cafe screaming. Call me immediately.'"

"What have you done to him, Maruki-san…" Sumire muttered under her breath.

Akira tapped the screen a few times and put the phone to his face. "Hey, Sojiro. Sorry for not calling earlier, we were in the Metaverse."

"I guessed as much," Sojiro decided to skip the greeting. "What on earth happened to Goro?"

"It's… there's a lot to unpack," Akira gave up on summing up the reveal. "Long story short, Takuto happened."

"Tch, that goddamn shrink…" Sojiro scoffed. "I tried to chase after Goro, but I lost him in the crowd. He's probably hiding in these magic subway tunnels of yours. Memorials or whatever."

"You mean Mementos?" Akira corrected him.

"Yes, those. He hid there before, so I assume he did that again, and I can't – and probably shouldn't – go there alone to check."

"I'll deal with it," Akira offered. "And I know you mean well, Sojiro, but I think he's going to need space until it's all over. Could you please stay out of his way?"

Sojiro sighed. "If you say so. I'm worried about him though."

Akira wondered how much of that worry was Sojiro's to begin with, but didn't vocalize the thought. "I won't leave him alone with it all, I promise. I'm going to Mementos right now."

"Thank you. I'll see you all at home."

Akira hung up and put his phone away.

"Will you need assistance?" Makoto asked. "I worry that Goro might be past being reasoned with at this point."

"Let's not roll out the heavy artillery just yet," Akira replied. "I'll try talking to him first."

"Can I go with you, senpai?" Sumire offered. "I might be useful. I'm not running on reserves like you all are, I've got a clearer head."

Akira glanced at her. From what he had heard about her shenanigans, if he told her no, she would just go there alone anyway. "I need a moment alone to collect my thoughts. Prepare mentally for it. We can meet up in Shibuya a bit later if that's fine with you."

"Got it," Sumire nodded. "Let's meet near that doggie statue when you're ready."

"You don't blame yourself for this, do you, Akira?" Ryuji asked.

"No, of course not," he replied. "But… I feel responsible for Goro. The part about me wanting his redemption is how I felt, and still feel, about him." He sighed. "You… don't hold that against me, do you?"

"Of course we don't!" Haru protested.

"At this point any iteration of Goro feels more worthy of our time than the current iteration of Dr. Maruki," Yusuke commented.

Akira sighed again. "'Kay then. I'll keep you updated. See you tomorrow, guys." He turned and walked away from the group, which in turn headed towards the nearest subway station.

For those of you unaware, like I was before looking it up, Odaiba is a small artificial island with quite a few parks on it; Akira walked towards one such park, on the outer rim of the island. He found a bench with a good view of the city on the other side of the waterway and slumped down on it, tired after a long and eventful day.

"Was Takuto lying about overwriting Goro and messing with our memories?" he asked nobody in particular.

"I'm asking you. The voice between my lines."

…I beg your pardon?

"I don't even know what's real anymore and nobody else can tell me," Akira continued. "The situation's dire enough to justify a crack in the ol' fourth wall."

Well, that just broke everyone's immersion.

"I don't care," Akira replied, rudely. "I need to know if Goro got brainwashed or not. Answer the question."

I don't know the answer.

"What do you mean you don't know?!" Akira replied in disbelief. "You're the author!"

No, I'm the narrator. There's a difference.

"That's not how you've been written."

I've conflated the two before, I know. But at the end of the day, the guy you're talking to right now is just a character, on the same level as you. Fuck, maybe even lower. You have agency in all this, I'm reduced to recapping events with an occasional quip and maybe getting interrupted by-

"But, like… you're one of these omniscient narrators, right?" he persisted. "You know the events that others don't know, like that bit about Goro's suicide attempt in Mementos."

How do you… nevermind. Sometimes a story leaves certain plot points ambiguous. This is one of these scenarios, I'm sorry to say.

"Ugh," Akira groaned in frustration. He didn't want to mess with the narrative further – the last time he did that he was empowered by the will of the people of Japan and he ended up blacking out for the next twelve hours regardless.

"It's… tiring, you know?" he said. "The fate of the world is on my shoulders again, and I can't pawn it off to someone else." He let out a long sigh. "And I know that because I tried, and this is the end result." He paused and mulled it over in his head a bit longer, before declaring: "Screw it. Whoever Goro is right now, he needs my support. And I need everyone on board to beat a god, again." He got up from the bench. "This won't get fixed by me moping around on a park bench. Let's get this over with."

He marched towards the subway station, done with ruminating over the-

"Fuck!"

What?!

"I almost forgot about that," Akira said, pulling out his phone and opening the chat app.

About what?

"Oh, you know," he said, in a mocking tone, "sometimes a story leaves certain plot points ambiguous." He started typing a message. "You'll see it when it happens."

I-

Cut to the next scene.

Akira, the backtalking cunt, left the Shibuya station building and saw Sumire waiting for him. "Hey again," he raised his hand a bit in greeting without stopping.

She caught up with him and matched his brisk pace. "Feeling better, senpai?"

"Somewhat." He sighed. "I'll be blunt: Makoto had a point. As far as we can tell, Goro is in an unstable enough mood to be dangerous. I fought him when he pulled all the stops, and he hits like a tru-" Realization flashed on his face. "Uh, I mean, he hits hard. So if I tell you to run and leave me behind, you run and leave me behind, got it?"

Sumire nodded, unable to shake a feeling of deja vu. The two ducked into a secluded corner of the station and pulled out their phones in unison. After a moment, they materialized in Mementos.

The first thing they heard was faint, irregular sobbing.

"Well, he's close," Akira muttered. "Let's try to get closer without startling him."

Noiselessly, they went through the fake ticket gates and down the broken escalators. They noticed Goro sitting on the edge of the platform, back turned away from the entrance, weeping quietly to himself.

Akira gestured at Sumire to stay on the escalator, then took a breath. "Goro?"

He leapt away like a startled cat, landed on the tracks, and pointed his PDW at the newcomers, who raised their hands in response. "You!" he snarled, a tear going down his cheek.

"Yep," Sumire smiled awkwardly in response. "We came here to lift your spirits."

"No you fucking didn't!" Goro barked at them. "You're just here because that bastard fucked with your brain to make you sympathize with me!"

Akira slowly reached towards his mask. "Goro…" He grabbed it by the corner, and took it off. "Based on your… based on what you know of me as a person, do you think I need my brain scrambled to sympathize with you?"

"And I wasn't a Phantom Thief when we first met," Sumire added, taking off her mask as well. "So my brain's untouched." Beat. "Okay, untouched about liking you at least. That one's all me."

Then, a pause, with only the sound of Goro's heavy breathing breaking the silence. Finally, he muttered under his breath: "What the fuck am I doing…" He removed the magazine and put it away, then pulled the bolt back to eject a chambered round. "You didn't do this to me. Any of it. Why am I threatening you…"

"It's alright, Goro-kun." Sumire lowered her hands and got off the escalator. "I lashed out in grief before. I know how it feels."

He grimaced and opened his mouth before catching himself. "It's… it's different here, I think."

Akira walked down the escalator as well and sat down on the edge of the platform. "You wanna talk about it?" he asked, gesturing at a spot next to him.

With some hesitation, Goro walked up to him and sat by his side, rather close. Sumire placed herself on his other side. Despite himself, Goro found that arrangement somewhat comforting, and so they sat for a while, saying nothing, as he took time to regain a shred of composure.

"When…" he finally spoke up, calmer, "when we were comparing notes over ramen… Ann mentioned that the real world keeps going in parallel to this farce."

"Wait, how did she know that?" Akira asked.

"Igor-sama told her, apparently." Sumire explained.

"And…" Goro continued, "And apparently he said that we won't remember what happened in the real world during this… thing. And since that fucking shrink… overwrote the real Akechi, he's gone now. Dead." He gestured at himself. "With just this… fucking caricature left squatting in his body."

"I don't think Maruki-san was telling the truth," Sumire remarked.

Goro replied with a scoff. "What, you think he wouldn't be capable of pulling this shit?"

"I think it makes sense for him to lie," she countered. "Especially that bit about it being senpai's wish. Like, 'Look, he cares about a bad guy, doesn't that make you mad?'." After a pause, she added "For the record, it does not, senpai."

"That's a relief," Akira muttered under his breath.

Goro replied with a weak "I'unno… I still feel like there is… a line in there somewhere. Like, the person that entered the Engine Room wasn't the same one that woke up afterwards in Akira's attic. Like… like something that wasn't there before is pushing my buttons now. I-I assumed it's the vestigial remains of my conscience, but now…" He lowered his head. "Now I don't know what I am."

Both Sumire and Akira found themselves out of their depth. Unable to offer a meaningful response to Goro's worries, they settled on accompanying him in silence for the next minute or so. Sumire dared to put her hand on his shoulder. He didn't protest.

Finally, Akira broke the silence: "Do you wanna go back to Leblanc?"

Goro didn't reply, continuing to stare at the faux-train-tracks in front of him. "I could sleep here," he muttered. "Akechi did that a few times, apparently."

"Nonsense," Akira retorted. "You have a room and a couch, there's no reason to-"

"What's up, bitches?"

The three turned to see Futaba and Morgana walking down the escalator.

"What are they doing here?" Goro growled.

"I just brought over some cameras for Akira," she said, with a cheeky grin. "You convinced them for that threesome?"

Sumire's face turned a shade of crimson, Akira shot her a glare, and Goro didn't react.

"What?" said Morgana. "That's not what you told me!"

"Uh, also," Sumire added, "I-I think Goro-san's not in the right headspace right now."

"Fuck it," Goro said, loosening up his tie knot with a thousand-yard stare. "Y'all might as well get something out of-"

"Keep your damn clothes on," Akira forcefully pushed the knot back up.

"Weren't you interested before?" he hissed, choked by the now-too-tight tie.

"Not in this state, for the love of-" He turned to Futaba, frustrated. "There is a time and a place for jokes like this, and it's not now."

"Invert that bit, Akira," she countered. "If Roo- uh, Goro's mad at me he won't have the processing power for his identity crisis."

"I can multitask," Goro muttered, loosening his tie. "Now can you tell me why the fuck are you here?"

"I asked her to get me the full name of a…" Akira looked aside, "certain someone. I think I can squeeze in one last minor Mementos target, while we still have the powers."

"I asked the others if they're fine with it," Futaba added. "They don't mind, and they don't mind letting you handle it on your own."

"So you wanted to face a Shadow alone?" Goro got up in Akira's face. "Are you fucking dense?"

Akira took a step back. "Not alone, I'd bring Mona and Futaba to assist me." He pointed a pair of finger pistols at him. "But since you're here, let's make a deal – you can come help me, if you come back to Leblanc with me when we're done."

"Fine," Goro caved in. "Lead the way."

"I'm going with you," Sumire proclaimed. "That's not negotiable."

"I won't negotiate it," Akira replied. "I'm running on fumes, and a burden shared is a burden halved." He put up a harmless smile. "Fifthed, in this case. Mona, car form?"

Morgana leapt onto the tracks and instantaneously turned into a van. "Get on board. She's not far."

"Who's the target?" Sumire asked.

I answered the question.

"I see," Sumire commented. "Yeah, that's a good idea."

"Why are you blocking off the narrator, Akira?"

Akira, Futaba and Sumire turned to Goro, the latter two confused. "Uh, what are you talking about, Goro-san?"

"The narrator," Goro repeated, pointing at nothing in particular. "That snarky asshole talking between our lines. Akira blocked off that we're going aft-"

"We'll talk about it later," Akira butted in. "Now, get in the car."

Everyone boarded the vehicle. Akira sat in the driver's seat, and, wondering about the sanity of both Goro and himself, gently pushed the gas pedal.