CHAPTER 27:

MORE BONDING

It was on a Sunday that they finally got confirmation of the results of their work in Madarame's Palace. The old man called a press conference and confessed his misdeeds to the world. Due to the investigation, Kitagawa would have to move out of the so-called 'atelier', and while he was moving into dorms at the high school he was learning at, it was hard to arrange at short notice. Akira was willing to set him up at Leblanc, but Harry and Sirius decided to host the ascetic and aesthetic teenager.

Harry had to admit, he didn't like the teenaged artist. He had something of the eccentric natures of Dumbledore and Luna, with some of the haughtier aspects of Draco, Snape, and even Hermione in her worst moments. And there was the way he all but strong-armed Ann into being his muse.

But unlike Draco Malfoy or Snape (especially the latter), Kitagawa had at least a fairly strong sense of etiquette when he wasn't being eccentric. Hedwig seemed to get along well enough with him, and she was a fairly good judge of character. Then again, given her true nature as Godwin, it wasn't like she had no secrets of her own.

It was on Monday that Harry spent part of the day with Futaba. Harry noted that, for a change, Sojiro hadn't told him 'no funny business'. Either he forgot in his dotage, or the older man was finally getting used to the idea of Harry being in the same room as his adopted daughter.

"So, what's happening?" Harry asked as Futaba typed away at her computer.

"Not much. I'm looking into more about Kaneshiro, as well as our other potential targets, particularly the ones on the PhanSite. You know, the one Mishima is running." She shook her head. "And I'm worried about how we're going to break it to the others about, well, dealing with my problems."

"Like your uncle and the parents of that former friend of yours?"

"Yeah. The problem is, it's perhaps too personal for me," Futaba said. "That fat bastard who is my uncle actually came to Leblanc not long ago. Sojiro managed to blow him off. But we discussed it later that night." Futaba shuddered. "We're working on finding a way to dig up dirt on him legally, maybe get a private detective, as well as prepare the case to defend against any claim he makes on my custody. I'm not going back to him."

"No, I won't let him, and I'm sure the others won't either, Futaba," Harry said gently to the redheaded hacker. "I'm sure you can tell them about your uncle…and about Kana and her parents. Remember, the Phantom Thieves take on these jobs unanimously. And I'm sure they'd jump right on board if they heard about this. And unlike Akira's problems with Shido, we don't have to worry about the escalation problem. The problem we face is that we can't delve so deep into Mementos, so we might not be able to find them yet."

"Yeah, I know," Futaba said. "But…it's pretty personal shit, you know? I may not be as bad a shut-in as I was before, but I'm still not good around others, even the other Phantom Thieves. So discussing these things…I can do it with Akira. Hell, I can do it with Morgana. With Ann and Ryuji, along with Inari, well, it's another matter, and Makoto isn't quite one of us yet. Though I reckon she will be."

Harry nodded, conceding the point. For all his issues with the Nijimas, most of said issues were with Sae, especially given what her Shadow said, to say nothing of her having a Palace in the first place. Makoto could have left them to fight, but she came out of hiding and fought alongside them. Makoto had the strength to stand up for herself, and in a good way, he thought. His main issue with her was deference to authority, rather like Hermione had, and even then, like Hermione, it only was an issue some of the time.

He winced at the thought of what had happened to his friend. The last he had seen her, she had been hit by a curse, and Ron was being molested by those brain things. He still had no idea of whether they were alive or not, let alone remotely safe.

"Well, it's up to you, but I'd rather we run it by the others…" Harry blinked as a thought occurred to him, thankfully chasing away the more depressing and morbid thoughts. "Wait, what did you call Kitagawa?"

"Inari. Oh, right, you're British. Inari Okami is a Shinto god, both male and female, don't ask, who is associated with foxes. That's also where we get the term Inari-sushi from, a type of fried tofu dish with fox-like ears on them, that kitsunes are said to eat," Futaba said. "Kitagawa has a fox-like costume. Hence, Inari. And while he's a bit of an ass, I hope he finds his feet again. It must be difficult, coming to terms with the fact that his guardian exploited him. And he's a serious artist. I mean, I have so many doujinshi ideas I could get him to do the art for, but I don't wanna inflict that on him. While he'll probably have to take commissions for money to sustain his lifestyle, he should have the chance to pursue his art on his own terms. Plus…I'm guessing he's on the autistic spectrum like I am, even if how he shows it is somewhat different."

"Fair enough," Harry said. "Then again, normal is boring, eh, Futaba?"

"Mweheheheh…" Futaba chuckled her little gremlin chuckle. "Anyway, aside from our research into Kaneshiro, I've been continuing doing some digging into Shido and Okumura. Now, Shido's really concerning. He may just be an opportunistic bastard of a politician, but a lot of Mental Shutdowns and Psychotic Breakdowns highlight shortcomings in the incumbent government, something he's been making a lot of political capital of. This is despite being in the ruling party. It may be that he's looking to take over leadership of the ruling party, or else form a party of his own. So I'm a little worried that he may be part of this potential conspiracy we think is behind the Mental Shutdowns and this…well, for want of a better term, we'll call him Black Mask."

"…Black Mask?"

"Well, I could call him Edgelord or Chuunibyou, but honestly, that sounds a bit too facetious," Futaba said. "What's more, there have been accusations of sexual harassment against Shido, but nothing has stuck. While we don't know for sure, I wouldn't be surprised if he was the guy who framed Akira for assault. But we'll have to save him for when we're ready to take someone like a corrupt politician on, especially as we can't be sure he's orchestrating those disasters, just profiting from them. Same with Okumura, though honestly, what I'm seeing makes me shudder."

"Yeah, you told me how it's something called a black company, like a white-collar sweatshop, or so the allegations go."

"Sadly, that's far from rare in the fast-food industry, even outside Japan." Futaba nodded at her bookshelf. "See that book there? Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser?"

Harry found the book easily enough, as it was one of the ones that had an English cover, and brightly coloured. "Yeah. I'm guessing it's an exposé, right?"

"Of the fast food industry in particular, but also the food and farming industry of the US in general, including a lot of the dodgy practises involved(1). That used to be my mother's book. The moral of the story is, well, greed for money and power governs more decision-making in big business than altruism does. Akira's actually read it himself. It's a depressing book, but it's an eye-opener."

"I'll take your word for it," Harry said. "But Okumura is a pretty nasty piece of work?"

"Well, we know he has a Palace, and while we'd need to confirm that first, the fact remains that his having one with these claims and the like flying around is pretty damning." Futaba got off her chair, before sitting down next to Harry on her bed, or rather, doing her habitual squatting on it. "But honestly, Sae and Sirius are right. The power to cause a Change of Heart is a pretty scary one, and that's benign compared to causing a Mental Shutdown. But we're basically force-resetting a person's moral compass. And not everyone who has a Palace is evil, given what Sae and I were. Yeah, Sae admitted to doing some dodgy shit, but she regretted it, and is trying to be better. I'm still not sure I trust her, but honestly, unlike Kamoshida or Madarame or Kaneshiro, I think she was a good person led astray, or at least only led astray relatively recently. She hadn't passed the point of no return like those guys did."

"Maybe…but it's still a pretty bad sign. At the very least, it's a sign you need a hell of an intervention. I mean, look at you."

"Yeah. I was pretty messed up," Futaba said. "I just wonder…what it would've been like if you hadn't ended up in my Palace. It gives me the heebie-jeebies. Between my issues, Sojiro probably being reluctant to discuss me, and Akira and the others doing their thing, I don't think it would have ended well. Actually, speaking of problems, I've been monitoring chatter online, in the circles I'm active in as Alibaba. You know, the hacktivists."

"Why's that?"

"Because I've got a sneaking suspicion that one of the groups like Anonymous or Medjed might do something stupid, inspired by the Phantom Thieves. Medjed in particular's run by a bunch of attention whores these days, claiming they're hacktivists for justice, but honestly, there's a reason I left them, gave up my old handle in favour of Alibaba. They're a bunch of quixotic posers at best, and at worst, self-righteous assholes with a sprinkling of incels who are like monkeys at a zoo, throwing shit at anyone they take umbrage at. I'm not sure what they'll do, though targeting the PhanSite is a real possibility. It's part of the reason I had Mishima plug up some of the holes."

"If they targeted us, would you be able to take them down?" Harry asked.

"Harry, if I wanted to, I could hack the Pentagon. I don't do that mainly because I don't want that kind of heat brought down on me," Futaba said. "Honestly, I've been keeping away from hacking a lot of our targets in earnest because it can be traced to some degree, especially if I'm not careful. And I'm not an amateur script kiddy like a lot of these wannabes who are part of Medjed these days. Not to mention that I don't want to end up bringing Sojiro down with me if something goes wrong."

"Fair enough," Harry said. "He seems to be warming up to me, forgot to say 'no funny business' to me for a change."

"Sojiro warmed up to you ages ago, Harry," Futaba said, finishing up on the computer and clambering off her seat, stretching a little, before throwing herself onto her bed next to where Harry sat. "You saved me from myself, and, well, it took him a while to accept that, but he's certainly accepted you. He just says that because he fears for my chastity. Well, he shouldn't. We're 15, I'm a socially-awkward shut-in, you're a British gentleman, and unlike some idiots who've hit on me online, you don't mind taking it slow."

Harry blushed. "Futaba…"

"Hey, it's okay. Honestly, I'm fine with thinking of us as boyfriend and girlfriend. I mean, if that's okay with you?"

Harry looked to the redhead, his thoughts awhirl. Futaba saying such a thing almost casually threw him off balance. "…Are…are you okay with that?"

Futaba looked up at the ceiling. "…Actually, yeah. I've played so many dating sims, mostly otome stuff, though some of the better visual novels for guys like Fate/Stay Night, I've played. I know that shit isn't anything like real life romance, all those relationship values and stuff. But I never really had much hope of having it happen in reality. I was a self-loathing mess thanks to what happened to Mom. I thought that I was going to be dead before I reached 18, either by killing myself, or OD'ing on energy drinks. And that was the optimistic scenario. And then, you literally dropped into my Palace. Harry, you helped save me. True, I needed to claw my way out of that pit I allowed myself to slide into, but you helped me do so. Maybe, just subconsciously, I had a crush on you, my knight in shining armour. I just didn't want to acknowledge it, especially after I learned of all the crap you went through. The thing is, are you okay with that?"

Eventually, Harry nodded. "…Don't get me wrong, I haven't had the best track record in that regard. Ginny had a crush on me, but…I think she saw me as the Boy Who Lived, not Harry Potter. I told you about Cho Chang, the one of my world. That didn't end well. You're not like them, though. You don't view me as the Boy Who Lived, just…me."

"Yeah…I guess not all masks we wear on our psyches are ones we don ourselves," Futaba said. "And Harry…for all that I had a bit of a crush on you, I don't want to force things to happen. We've both gone through too much. But…we've known each other for over a month now, not counting the time you knew my Shadow. I want to give it a shot. I never had a boyfriend before. The closest thing I had was a couple of incels hitting on me online." She shuddered. "And even if it doesn't work out, even if we decide we can just still be friends, well, that's fine, yeah?"

After a moment's thought, Harry nodded. As he told Futaba before, he was giving serious thought to staying in this timeline, once Voldemort was dealt with. He hoped he could visit his friends from his home timeline, assuming they were still alive. Maybe he could persuade them to come over as well.

But he had new friends now, and not just Futaba. Akira, Morgana, Ann, Ryuji, Makoto…all of them willing to take him on face value, as Harry Potter, not the Boy Who Lived. And he could do so much more as a Phantom Thief than he could as the Boy Who Lived.

And being the boyfriend to a reclusive and adorable nerd with a long laundry list of social phobias, and yet a wonderful mind and heart? The cherry on top. It had only been a little over a month since he came to this world, but while the anxiety about what befell his friends and loved ones would always be there, the scars and traumas and anxieties he had been feeling throughout the past few years at Hogwarts, and particularly the most recent one, were healing.

Time would tell if things changed for the better, though…

CHAPTER 27 ANNOTATIONS:

So, some more Harry/Futaba fluff, and Futaba's taken the lead and called them boyfriend and girlfriend.

Honestly, I didn't know when this chapter would be out. But between the new TV Tropes page for this fic (thanks to The Disquieting One for doing so!) and my regaining an interest in playing Persona 5 Royal (as well as Persona 3 Reload: finally, they have a proper walkthrough on GameFAQs!), well, it was past time I got back into writing this fic. I was astonished to find that, when I went to try and start a new chapter, I found I had already written about three quarters of it ages ago, I simply forgot about it. All I needed to do was write some actual fluff.

And I thought, as I wrote the last part of the chapter, that this is the point where Harry and Futaba decide to give being boyfriend and girlfriend a go. Now, Harry, IMO, is not on the autistic spectrum like Futaba is (and I don't care what Sinyk claims in Harry Potter and the Daft Morons, as good as that fic is), but he is socially awkward to some degree, partly due to his upbringing (if that's what you can call what the Dursleys did to him) and partly due to the fact that he's also a teenager. Add to that trauma from his misadventures, and you've got someone who, while not oblivious to female attention, is reluctant to make the first move, especially after the (admittedly self-inflicted) disaster of the Yule Ball and the train-wreck involving Cho Chang on the rebound from Cedric.

As for Futaba, well, she has her own list of issues. We've gone over them throughout this fic, and said issues were bad enough to give her a Palace. But because of her little crush, she's making the first move, despite being more socially awkward than Harry.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I dunno when the next one will be out, so no guarantees. Sorry.

Review-answering time! waytodawn0: Yeah. Morgana at the beginning is somewhat suspicious, and there are times when his impulsiveness and selfishness have landed the Phantom Thieves in hot water. While Sae is wrong, her suspicions are not, in that they are the right sort of questions to ask. She doesn't truly believe Morgana to be a villain per se, but she's suspicious enough to keep the possibility in mind that Morgana is potentially manipulating them.

And not just about Morgana. For all that the Phantom Thieves are heroes, a Change of Heart is a disturbing concept at its core, effectively brainwashing someone into becoming moral again. It's very much a grey area in fiction for a reason, and while the morality of a Change of Heart is debated in the game, it's also glossed over somewhat. Sae, however, is willing to point out the dangers of such a power, and Sirius did so in earlier chapters. However, Sae also had an explanation, as well as resolving her Palace without a Change of Heart. She may be suspicious and vigilant, but she's definitely an ally of the Phantom Thieves earlier than she was in the game.

Jlargent: Yeah, sadly, I didn't pick up on that at the time. I just thought it looked like one of those classic flying saucer-style UFOs with a bank on top.

Guest: My playthrough was of Persona 5 Royal, so this is broadly based on Royal, with elements from the manga thrown in, which itself was based on Royal. I would have thought Dr Maruki's appearance made that obvious.

demedichi: Akira and Morgana explain their status as Phantom Thieves to Harry, Futaba and Sirius after the second scene break in the chapter. Futaba knows of 'phantom thieves' from fiction, they're already a well-established trope. I did forget to write in an explanation from Harry and/or Sirius about them using magic, but Harry and Akira discussed it prior to Chapter 9.

1. I first read Fast Food Nation in high school, and it was a real eye-opener about the fast-food industry, as well as the food industry in general, both on the farming end and in the meatpacking industry.