"Amamiya, if I wanted to, I could cuff you and take you in right now."
Niijima Makoto's fists pressed down against her thighs. They were balled tightly enough she could feel her fingernails digging into her flesh.
How dare Inspector Hasegawa even suggest that?
The last time the police put Ren in cuffs-
"The reason I'm not is because I believe you are not the culprit."
He sounded so full of himself.
"To catch the true perpetrator, I need you help."
There was another detective who had told them this story. Akechi.
Makoto tried to force her face into a neutral expression but she doubted she was successful in the effort. She dared not look back at Ren, not wanting to tip off their new adversary.
What might be going through her boyfriend's head having to listen to all of this? Surely the threats, the claim of being on their side—those were not lost on him either.
Inspector Hasegawa kept going over his reasoning, but held his position, not advancing towards Ren.
If he took one step forward, Makoto wasn't sure she could sit still. An angry sigh burst through her ill-held demeanor.
Since her outburst just gained the detective's attention, she might as well speak. She had to get rid of him before she did something stupid. "May we have a moment to ourselves? We'd like to discuss it first."
Fortunately, he didn't push back. He exited the café, telling them he'd wait outside.
Futaba hopped after him, stopping when she reached the front door of Leblanc. She leaned out and shouted. "Not right next to the door Gramps! No, further! Further! You're too close! Shoo!"
While their security expert was performing a different type of security, the others gathered around the furthest table from the door. They'd need to be more quiet this time. Inspector Hasegawa's ears were too good.
Ryuji slipped into the booth across from where Makoto and Haru were sitting. Ren moved to follow, his hand landing on the table as if to pivot around it, but instead he stopped and moved closer to Makoto.
She looked up at him as he stood next to her.
Ren wasn't really looking at her. He seemed caught by some random point on the wall. His face didn't reveal any one emotion.
Makoto bit the inside of her bottom lip. He was hardest to read when he was struggling the most. That quiet, quixotic expression was a defense mechanism, for better or worse.
He let his hand slide from the table and come to rest at his side. His other came around to meet it, his fingers landing on the back of his hand and his thumb just grazing his wrist. It was a small tell he had developed after his ordeal back in November. The physical marks were long gone, but...
Makoto reached out her hand under the table, brushing the pads of her fingertips lightly over his, just enough to say she was there.
It seemed to break him from his thoughts. His eyes focused on her. His fingers curled around the ends of hers. Ren closed his eyes and took a deep breath with his whole chest rising. He looked more relaxed as he exhaled.
When he opened his eyes, he gave her a half-smile and nodded, before dropping her hand and taking the seat across from her.
By this time the others had settled. Futaba was back, perched on the seat of the adjacent booth behind the rest of them.
The team had a lot to discuss and it was unclear how long Hasegawa-san would stay out there. They needed to sort things out quickly or else the inspector might make good on his threat.
Makoto started formulating a plan, but she suspected the team was not going to like it.
––––– ––––– –––––
"Follow us." Niijima waited for him while the rest of the Phantom Thieves continued across the accessway. Before he got too far ahead, Amamiya slowed down, maintaining a point midway between them.
It was a curious dynamic.
Niijima had been calling the shots all day. Amamiya was undoubtedly the one they referred to as their leader, and yet Niijima had been speaking for the team, making several decisions along the way with nary a question from the others.
Maybe it was because she was the oldest of the group. Student council president while at Shujin too. A year ahead of most of them and with no clear connection to any of last year's cases, it was a mystery how she had gotten involved.
While Niijima did have an air of responsibility, the story she had just fed him about shadows and seizing desires was nothing short of ridiculous.
Zenkichi's eyes narrowed as the Phantom Thieves headed to a near-deserted part of the Shibuya Square complex.
It was one thing following them when they were out in public. This however...
He'd told them that he was the one person preventing PubSec from just taking Amamiya in right now hadn't he?
Surely they could do the math and figure out that if anything happened to him, it would be far worse for them.
Right?
If this was a trap, he could escape a bunch of teenagers, right?
Those previous cases—the victims weren't as prepared as he was ...right?
Yeah, this was foolhardy.
Keep your wits about you Hasegawa.
He'd never recommend any colleague take this kind of risk.
But, if he was going to go with his gut, at least it was just his ass on the line.
These kids... their story might be bunk, but whatever they tried next, he was certain to learn something.
––––– ––––– –––––
"I can't guarantee something like that without direct access to his phone," Futaba waved her arms in front of her. "Not gonna happen on any predictable time scale."
Ren watched from the other side of his room as Makoto shifted her weight, dipping her head as she brought a hand to her mouth. The rest of the team had already left for the night, leaving the two women, Morgana, Sophia, and himself.
"Hmmm..." Makoto's lips pressed together. "So what do you suggest?"
"We mask where we're coming from at least," Futaba held one finger up. She let the answer hang in the air for a moment and then took a deep breath and let her shoulders droop. "Of course, it would be better if we sent him text only-"
"I don't think he'd trust that," Makoto shook her head.
"Yeah, probably not."
"So what do I do?" asked Makoto. She took out her phone. "Can you set it up here?"
"I can, but it'd be easier to test it all from my room," Futaba explained.
Makoto raised her eyebrows. Before she could formulate the question, Futaba was already answering.
"Yeah now's fine," she waved the older girl towards her before turning to the stairs. Futaba shouted over her shoulder. "Night Ren! Mona! Sophia~"
Makoto was already following, but paused and turned. She raised one hand to shoulder height and made a meek wave. "Goodnight."
Ren waved back.
He considered saying something, calling after her.
It would only be an interruption though.
When she was focused like this, she-
No.
Now wasn't the time to be too mindful.
"Makoto." He was reaching out his hand before he knew it.
Now wasn't the time to be too mindful.
She was already a few steps down the stairs when she stopped, turning again. "Eh?"
He made long strides across the attic, taking out his phone and whispering 'privacy mode' before slipping it back in his pocket. Morgana seemed to take the hint, disappearing in the way only cats, or cat-appearing thieves, can.
When Ren reached Makoto, he took each of her hands in one of his, stepping backwards as he led her back up the stairs.
"What is it?" she asked. Her speech was faster than usual. "We need to contact Inspector Zen-"
"I know," he let the words linger. "It's just... we'll be on the road tomorrow."
Both of her hands were still in his. He ran his thumbs over them.
"Oh. Right." she slowed to his pace. "But, we really need to follow this lead."
Ren nodded.
She started to lift her hands from his, but he tugged them back. Her eyes opened wider, but he interrupted before she could speak.
"Just..."
He took one step closer and leaned in, closing his eyes, his lips meeting hers. It wasn't a deep kiss, but enough that he could savor the softness of her lips and bask in the calm that seemed to sweep his body.
Her hands loosened in his grip. As he pulled back and opened his eyes, he smiled, knowing it had had the same effect on her.
Even if her hands hadn't betrayed her, the pink dusting her cheeks and the bashful wisp of a smile would have.
"Oh," she started. "I-"
"It's fine," he reassured her. "Go. Get Alice's phone. I'll see you in the morning."
She nodded.
This time, he let her hands slip from his.
Ren watched as Makoto's figure disappeared down the stairs and out of view.
He wasn't sure when they would next have a chance to be alone. Their road trip would be exciting for sure, but it definitely added constraints. He couldn't keep her to himself tonight though. The police were definitely hanging around Leblanc and even without them, Makoto wouldn't feel comfortable indulging herself when she could be making progress on the quagmire they had gotten themselves into.
This would have to be enough for now.
Ren brought his fingers to his lips as he replayed their short moment in his memory.
He wasn't sure how long he stood contemplating, but it was long enough for Sophia's privacy mode to time out.
"Entering standard mode," Sophia announced. "Is that okay?"
"It's okay," he confirmed, taking his phone out of his pocket. He walked over to the table and propped it up on its stand.
The screen showed Sophia pressing herself up against the glass, shifting against the bounds of the phone to mime looking around. "Everyone is gone. Are you not preparing for bed?"
"You've been talking to Morgana too much," Ren punctuated his observation with a light chuckle. Certainly Morgana would be nagging him if he hadn't made himself scarce. Ren wondered when he would be back.
Sophia was right though, things were wrapped up for the night and he might as well get a good night's rest while he still had a room of his own. With the whole team, the camper was bound to be cramped.
As he turned to rummage through his bag for his pajamas, Sophia's tell-tale query interrupted him. "Hey Ren..."
"Yes?" he stopped.
"Why isn't Makoto excited about the road trip like everyone else?"
"I'm sure she is in her own way." Or at least, she would be, once they got going. "She's just worried about keeping everyone safe... and, she really wants this thing with the police to be over with."
"But it sounds like we can't finish anything until August 8th," said Sophia.
"Maybe," Ren brushed away some hair from his temple. "Maybe not. If we find something on Alice's phone, maybe we can figure out their source faster."
"What if we don't?"
"Then we'll have to find another lead," said Ren.
"But can't we have fun while we do that?" asked Sophia. "Like when we went to the movies."
"I'm sure we will."
"Makoto really liked the movie though," said Sophia. "So why isn't she excited now?"
"Because she still has things she can do," Ren explained. "With the movies, we had left everything to Ann and Futaba. There are a lot of unknowns with the trip. She wants to make sure we take care of as many of those as we can first."
"Oh," Sophia glanced around the corners of her screen. "Why isn't everyone else doing that?"
Ren paused, searching for an appropriate answer. "We are. Everyone just expresses it a little differently."
Futaba was confident in being able to catch security holes. The rest of them...
Well, one of the reasons they could be so confident in their own part was that they had Makoto to back them up. The strategist role fit her so well, always thinking about the possibilities, trying to figure out the best move.
However, there was a cost to that. His face fell.
He corrected his previous statement. "Makoto takes on a lot of responsibility in analyzing our situations and aiding us in our strategies. She watches out for all of us. That's why we have to watch out for her. That means helping her relax and have fun."
Ren smiled. This road trip... he would do just that.
––––– ––––– –––––
Niijima again.
Zenkichi put down his phone. She had asked him for Alice's. More evidence that they must have some sort of cybersecurity contact.
That didn't explain why Niijima was speaking for the team again. He'd have to watch her more carefully.
Zenkichi flipped through his pocket notebook and jotted down a quick summary before returning the full size files in front of him. They were still a jumble of memories and thoughts, not yet organized. He was trying to get everything he could remember preserved in writing.
It was still hard to believe.
He had just turned his head, closed his eyes, for a moment.
Even if they had led him into some elaborate set, it didn't explain how they changed their clothes so fast. It didn't explain that thing that claimed he was the cat. It didn't explain how he could understand the cat even afterwards.
That last part they could have faked with microphones and a well-trained cat.
Was there such a thing as a well-trained cat?
But the bipedal version, the one that matched the broadcast from December, that was definitely beyond what current technology could fake.
And the clothes...
Takamaki couldn't have hid that bright red catsuit under her short shorts and midriff-baring tee.
That just wasn't possible.
Still, Zenkichi didn't want to take their story at face value. If the answer was essentially that some people have access to a mind world that they can use to change people's hearts...
He shuddered.
However, he was running low on other explanations.
He'd let 'other world' be the running theory but keep his ear to the ground. Maybe they'd slip up and reveal a less fantastical mechanism. The Phantom Thieves would be harder to tail once they were on the move, but Kaburagi had given him a long leash and a lot of authority. Even out of town they wouldn't get far from his watch.
Zenkichi gathered up the documents on his desk into a neat stack.
He'd use this new partnership to fill in the missing data on the Phantom Thieves and find the culprit of this current string of incidents.
He grinned.
It was like killing two birds with one stone.