Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

 A strange shadow is creeping on you,
Then you shall rise—fearless.
A strong pulse burns through your body,
And finally, you can reach out—victorious.

Akira clicked his tongue and reached over to grab the TV remote and turn it off. He wasn’t exactly in the mood.

It was a slow summer day in Inaba, as it always was. Not only the town was stuck in the middle of nowhere, but it was also probably the least interesting city in Yamanashi. You couldn’t see Mount Fuji, there were no onsens, no famous temples either—there was no reason anyone would ever visit the place. It was a small city in the countryside for people who weren’t looking for an exciting life.

Summer vacation had just started and he felt sluggish. Most of his childhood friends fell out of touch with him when he was expelled, and his sudden comeback one year later only made them more wary of him. The few friends he had made—who clearly didn’t care about his situation or were way too curious to avoid him—were planning to go to the beach or were busy with part-time jobs. Akira still had a little bit of money from his year spent in Tokyo, but he couldn’t really spend it when he’d definitely need it after graduation. And his mom preferred he didn’t get out of Inaba during summer - to make sure he didn’t get in trouble again.

He glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed when he saw that it wasn’t even past 4. His mom wouldn’t be home before 6. He really had nothing to do but laze around their little wooden terrace with his fly swatter, watching the wind chime and the spiderwebs hidden underneath the roof while silently suffering from the heat. Morgana wasn’t even there either, he had better things to do than spending his days in the heat when he could find a nice cool bush to nap in—or most likely a grandma who thought he was a stray and would let him in her air-conditioned house.

Thankfully, his phone buzzed, right next to his head. He smiled when he saw that Ryuji was once again using the group chat to rant, this time about the gym’s broken AC. He almost wanted to answer and tell him he shared the sentiment—about the heat and his own lack of AC—but Sumire chimed in and told him he could come to her gym if he wanted. He’d feel bad cutting off such a genuine display of attention, so he turned off his screen and let his head thump back on the floor.

Those moments of boredom were some of the worst. Those were when he truly felt like he wasn’t where he was supposed to be. He knew that Tokyo’s heat waves were worse than Inaba’s, that Leblanc’s attic was an actual oven at some points of the day and sitting behind the counter with an apron making coffee wouldn’t make it easier either—but it didn’t matter. He still missed it dearly. He missed them all, he missed the freedom of having a day off and having an entire city full of things to do and discover. He missed being someone who meant something to people.

His mom, Yuriko, cared in her own way. He knew that she didn’t want to send him away when he was put on probation - it was his dad who had taken that decision. And now, his dad wasn’t here, something about them “taking a break” that had evolved into his father’s stuff disappearing from the house and from both of their lives. Akira had no idea if she was actually waiting for his return or if she knew it would never happen—they didn’t really talk about those things. But he did feel guilty when he thought about fucking off somewhere and truly leaving her alone before he’d even finished high school.

Akira would go back to Tokyo after graduation. But in the meantime, he had to be a good little student, get good grades, earn money and his mom’s trust before he could finally move out for good. And sure, one year seemed longer when you weren’t occupied running inside criminals' brains and then running for your life, away from people who want you dead—but hey, he had no rights to complain about it. He was alive. Akira wasn’t even sure he'd live past 18 when policemen were injecting weird stuff in his veins and trying to break his bones.

He definitely knew someone who hadn’t been so lucky.

He must have fallen asleep at some point because he suddenly heard the door close and then footsteps in the entrance. He jumped on his feet, quickly going to the kitchen to start cooking and at least pretend he was in the middle of it. Too bad for him, his mom saw him rush inside and she shook her head in silent disappointment before going for the fridge and taking a beer. Then, she sighed, “You forgot.”

“I fell asleep,” he answered, at least trying to sound apologetic.

“Well, it’s fine. I’m not very hungry.” Yuriko opened her can, took a few sips, and then she started to awkwardly look around, as if she had no idea what to say. “I’ll draw us a bath.”

“Uh, no thanks. It’s too hot today.”

“...If you say so.” Then she left the room and went to the bathroom.

He washed the rice and put it in the rice cooker, then took a peek at the fridge and decided he’d get away with grilling the fish and call it a meal. Afterwards, he cut the cabbage and threw some Worcestershire sauce on it, with a dollop of mayonnaise on his mother’s. She looked like she had a long day, so he might as well make something that would cheer her up a little.

He turned the TV on while the fish was cooking—it would soon be time for Yuriko’s favorite drama, and he liked watching the news that aired beforehand. He finished setting up the table when she got out of the bath, letting out a big sigh of contentment while padding to the kitchen to throw away her can and then back to the living room with their fish to sit with him in front of the TV. She thanked him for the meal with a forced but sincere smile and dug in.

They didn’t really talk about anything during dinner, they mostly made conversation about what was told on TV until her drama started, and she got so focused she didn’t hear anything else, not even her phone going off. It was usually around that time that Akira bid her goodnight, going to take a shower and to find solace in his room and his cooling fan, even if it wasn’t even 8pm yet.

He wasn’t sleepy after napping all afternoon, so once he was done with his shower, he tried to find something to do while waiting for Morgana to come back. His mom wasn’t a big fan of animals, but as long as he didn’t break anything in the house and he handled food and vet expenses, she was fine with his existence. That meant Morgana spent most of his time in Akira’s room or chilling outside, especially since he’d found out Tatsumi Textile’s owner always left some tuna on a plate outside her house for the strays. Also, him spending less time in the living room was the best solution as to not make Yuriko think her son had truly gone crazy, talking to his cat like he could understand him.

Akira was saved from boredom by a sudden call from Yusuke who in the middle of a crisis - clearly, since he didn’t even text beforehand to ask if Akira was available. That’s how he spent the next hour face-timing the artist, desperate because he had no blue paint anymore, and it was too late to go ask for one – and sure he had the money for it but not the train fare. Basically, he was asking Akira to give him a lecture on how to pick locks, so he could borrow a tube in the school’s storage—and no, this wasn’t theft, this was a well needed sacrifice for his next masterpiece.

Thankfully, Akira got Yusuke to forget about this plan when he realized he’d also need money to buy the materials he needed to make a good lock-pick, and also that losing his scholarship for stealing paint wasn’t the best idea. Then, he found out he could actually make paint on his own and he was gone, as fast as he arrived. He still sent him a text about half an hour later, to thank him for his time and then to ask how he was doing. Akira didn’t lie when he answered that he missed him a lot, and Yusuke told him they’d meet again soon enough, and to take care of himself.

Morgana padded back inside the room as Akira turned off the lights, sitting on the windowsill to enjoy the night breeze. He told him about his day and even started rambling about the owner of the Amagi Inn, who he clearly found very cute although he was still not ready to admit it, something about how he’d never betray his Lady Ann. Akira fell asleep thinking about those words—we’ll meet again soon enough.

He knew he’d go back to Tokyo one day, that all the Thieves were the kind of friends you had for life. But there was another promised meeting he was much more unsure about, one he desperately wanted to believe in—and on days like these, spent being lazy and waiting for time to pass, he felt anxious. Like he was wasting time. Like it would be too late before he even realized it.

Soon enough, he was back in school. Thank god he was a third year student, so he didn’t have to work on the cultural festival if he didn’t want to—and clearly he’d gotten his fair share of emotions last time, thank you. That’s probably why the rumor took so long to reach his ears, even though literally all the school was talking about it : The Detective Prince was in Inaba.

He hated the way his heart skipped when he heard that. He stopped in his tracks before leaving the classroom and stared at the person who'd just said that, until they noticed him and scowled at him to make him look away. Ryota—a transfer student who reminded him way too much of Mishima minus all the fanboying—poked at his arm when he realized Akira wasn’t listening to him anymore. “Hey, you alright?”

He quickly turned away from the gossiping girls and nodded to his friend, his hand clenched on his bento box and his heart tearing a hole through his chest. It couldn’t be, right? First of all, why would he be here, in Inaba? To see Akira? Please. And also, the first Detective Prince was from the area. That was probably just her. He was delusional, and lonely, and still hurting over a loss he’d had time to mourn, but one he’d probably never get over. It was dumb.

… But what if?

The bell rang at the end of the day and Akira stayed around, loitering around the shoe lockers with his ears wide open, but he didn’t find much. He could hear some girls talking about “how cool” some guy was, but it could be their crush or even a drama actor. He took his time in the shopping district, the place where housewives loved gossiping the most, but he got nothing. Even Junes’ food plaza was strangely silent that day. He ended up going home that night with a heavy heart. He didn’t tell Morgana about it, he felt too shitty for that.

He got his answer the next morning. It was lightly raining, and he was still shaking the water drops out of his umbrella when he saw a little crowd in the corridor next to the gym. Heart thrumming, he got closer to the commotion, trying to catch sight of who was at the center of the attention. Then his heart dropped when he saw dark locks and ungloved hands. Shirogane Naoto was in the middle of an intense conversation with a teacher, and the same girls as yesterday were standing there to watch, probably waiting for the detective to be done to try and chat with her.

That was it. He should’ve known.

Akira spent the entire day with his head buried in his arms, hidden from the world that expected him to learn and be a nice good old student. When a teacher asked him to wake up he even decided to be an ass and replied that he couldn’t because of his broken heart. Too bad his joke wasn’t appreciated – Akira was sent to the board to fill in English sentences, which reminded him how much he missed Ann and her well thought but badly hidden whispers.

That night, he had a nightmare about policemen in an interrogation room, and wasn’t able to go back to sleep.

Sometimes, he wondered what the others were thinking, when they saw Akira and Akechi together. Did they think Akira was indulging him, that his weird obsession with their so-called rivalry was too hard to dismiss and Akira was too nice to tell him off? Did they think it was an act, and they didn’t really hang out when no one was around? Did they understand anything about that weird bond of theirs, and what did they imagine when they saw them be, in their little bubble, clearly sharing something that they couldn’t explain either?

The other Thieves were probably too wary to even touch upon that subject with him, considering he never mentioned the topic himself. When Akechi disappeared after the third of February, Akira was already back in juvie. And sure, Akechi got mentioned once or twice again after that, but those instances were often followed by silence on Akira’s part. So yeah. That was on him. He was at loss for words, just as as they were. Maybe he was still in complete denial.

He did feel somewhat depressed when the Cultural Festival started and he welcomed it like you’d welcome a dentist appointment. He really wanted to skip it, but Morgana out of all people seemed very excited about the whole event and decided he wouldn’t get off his back until Akira decided to be mature and go have fun with his friends. Said friends were overjoyed to see he had brought his cute kitty with him, then spent the entire day feeding Morgana any piece of meat they found. Akira could hear the cunning little bastard purring in contentment in his bag, and that’s why he decided to turn down the next gifts because ‘Mona already had a hard time going through the kitty door’. After that, Morgana wanted to murder him for calling him fat, but revenge felt good.

The sun started setting, and while most people were cleaning the school, Akira’s friends decided to help the school committee with the bonfire. The laziest students were already sitting on the grass and watching the flicker of the flames, some of them whistling at him when he took a big log out of a younger student’s arms to carry it next to the fire. He was actually sweating because the thing was goddamn heavy, but he kept his poker face the entire time, just to show off a little. It felt good, once in a while. Hikari, the committee's chief, thanked him when they were finally done. Then they stood in front of the fire to gaze at it, their arms crossed and nothing much to talk about. He knew Ryota was probably overjoyed—he was absolutely sure she had a crush on Akira — and now that he thought about it, that was probably why he’d suddenly disappeared.

Akira was about to say something, anything to get away from this tense and awkward moment, when Hikari started talking : “Hey, Kurusu. Do you… believe in magic?”

He blinked, not expecting that at all. She caught his bewildered look and chuckled nervously. “Sorry, it’s just… You know how there’s always some kind of fake rumor during school festivals? It’s usually a silly thing, some kind of romantic legend.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “You guys had to make one up this year?” She nodded. “I didn’t get to hear it.”

The fire still roaring right in front of them made it impossible for him to see if she was blushing, but she definitely looked a lot more cheerful when she finally found the opportunity to tell her story : “Well, our story is not that interesting. Basically, if you spend some time in front of the bonfire with someone, and then later that night you see them appear on your phone, you’re soulmates.”

Akira couldn’t help but scoff. “On your phone? That’s pretty creepy.”

“That’s where it gets interesting!” she replied, now looking at him right in the eyes. “Because we based that fake legend on another one that has been going on for a while in Inaba. You’ve ever heard of the Midnight Channel?”

The name didn’t ring any bell for him. She kept going : “I heard that one from my aunt, from when she was a student here. A lot of people said that if you looked at your TV screen at midnight on a rainy night, your soulmate would appear. That’s why we thought we could apply that to smartphones, you know, to give it a modern touch.”

Akira still thought that was very far-fetched, but he couldn’t hide his curiosity about the older rumor. “So wait, did people pretend they saw other people appearing on TV? Like, when it was off?”

She nodded, looking very solemn. “I heard some people saw dead people in there too. It’s really creepy but super fascinating. Like, can you imagine that? You suddenly see someone’s face?” She chuckled as she faked a shiver. “That would be crazy.”

That stayed with him, for some reason. Even when the festival came to an end and Ryota nagged him about missed opportunities and what-not, he was still thinking about that Midnight Channel story. He recounted it to Morgana as they were walking home, and his friend was able to confirm his weird feeling.

“Yup. That definitely sounds like the Metaverse.”

“You think so too? Like, did people’s Shadows would appear on TV, here, in Inaba? There was a big murder case in the city about a decade ago too, that means the culprit’s face would’ve been on TV.”

“Shadows aren’t necessarily bad people,” Morgana reminded him. “Remember what happened with Futaba—it’s just the projection of someone’s distorted heart. So it could be anyone, even someone who never did anything wrong.”

Akira still had a hard time wrapping his head around it. But he remembered his reflection when he left Tokyo, and he truly believed that even when Gods weren’t trying to meddle with it, there was no way the world of Palaces and Shadows was gone after what happened. That didn’t mean he wanted to get back to business, first of all because it wouldn’t feel right to do so without the others, but also because he truly didn’t have any reason to. His rebellious spirit wasn’t gone, he wasn’t done fighting for what he thought was right, but now just wasn’t the time. It didn’t feel right. He didn’t feel right.

But if the Metaverse or anything of the sort still existed, he definitely wanted to know about it.

Thank god, the next day was a Sunday which meant he was able to investigate a little bit. His mom was planning to shop for the entire day and was very surprised when he decided to join her, but she didn’t complain. When she started chatting with some friends on the way, he took that opportunity to ask questions to the owners of the stores, but didn’t learn much. Some of them didn’t even know what he was talking about and the younger ones who did know had no more information than Hikari—the Midnight Channel was an urban legend, and it was very popular that one year when those horrible murders took place. They had never tried it themselves, they were too old at the time to pay attention to those stories.

He was getting pretty desperate, because it wasn’t like a lot of people who were his age ten years ago were still living in town. Most of them were either still in college or had moved out to a bigger city, had gotten married, anything to get them out of Inaba. Still, he realized that at the time, his mom wasn’t even thirty, so she might know something about it.

“Oh, sure,” she said when he finally caved in and asked her, right in the middle of Junes’ fish aisle. “It was pretty popular when I was young.”

That surprised him, and he repeated, just to be sure : “Really? When you were a student, too?”

She shrugged, “Yes, it was a pretty nice song. But I didn’t think young folks like you were interested in that type of music.”

Akira blinked, and then sighed. He should’ve known : “Not Moonlight Shadow, mom. Midnight Channel.”

“Oh.” She frowned a little bit. “Never heard of it then.”

He rolled his eyes and shook off his frustration by stomping away from her and towards another aisle. She quickly went after him, surprised to see her son get so upset over her mistake : “What’s gotten into you, Akira?”

“It’s nothing,” he muttered.

“And what even is that question?” she kept going, visibly also annoyed by his attitude. “You kids are always on your phone, why don’t you just ask the internet?”

He shook his head and answered louder than he meant to : “Mom, if I could google the Midnight Channel, I would’ve fucking done it!”

That’s when the busy store decided to turn silent, at least for a few seconds before an employee a few meters away from them tripped on something and allowed his trolley to run into the cereal aisle. Akira didn’t have time to worry about the poor guy, however, because the look his mom gave him was one of silent fury. Disappointment was all over her face, her brows so scrunched up her forehead probably hurt. Her look told him she was keeping herself in check as to not make a scene. He muttered an apology under his breath, shame burning his neck, and when Yuriko started walking again at a brisk pace he followed her, keeping his head low.

They didn’t talk for the rest of the trip, going home in cold silence. He really wanted to run upstairs and wait for the terrible day to be over, when he saw Yuriko walk towards the cabinet with all the cleaning supplies. He tightened his jaw while he finished putting all their groceries away. When his mom was upset, she cleaned the entire house. That meant he had two options—leave her be and not bother her, or help her without getting in her way. Considering what just happened, it didn’t take long for him to walk to the cabinet too, pull on his cleaning gloves, and get to work.

They worked in silence, but the air slowly got easier to breathe. Cleaning was teamwork, after all, and through little gestures and cues, they got along pretty well when it came to this simple exercise. It was silly, but some of Akira’s best memories with his mom were of helping her around the house. It acted as some kind of ceasefire, while it helped them relax and let out all their pent-up emotions. Another family would’ve done that through a long and exhausting discussion, but that wasn’t really how things worked in the Kurusu house. So here they were, scrubbing their little house until the sun was setting, ending the day in front of the TV together, as if nothing happened at all.

He couldn’t help but think today had still been a big failure, once again. He learned nothing about the Midnight Channel, didn't know if it even warranted him actually looking into it—and he also managed to have a stupid fight with his mom. But at least the house was as clean as ever, his body ached like it did after a good workout, and he enjoyed a nice home-cooked meal with her.

Akira was barely paying attention to the news, head almost dropping with exhaustion when he heard her little surprised gasp, her eyes stuck on the TV. His curiosity got the best of him. He almost dropped his bowl of rice when he saw the large picture as well as the text :

WHERE IS AKECHI GORO?

His body turned completely unresponsive, unable to blink as he saw the familiar face on the screen. The disgustingly pleasant smile. The empty stare. And those words, reiterating a question that had been plaguing his mind for months already.

He stared at that picture, most likely taken during one of Akechi's TV show appearances, and it made him sick. That person on TV wasn’t Akechi Goro. That softly spoken, prim and proper looking boy wasn’t real. He wasn’t the one he’d come to know and dearly miss, with his downright unpleasant way of phrasing everything and his raw honesty. He wasn’t the one he wanted to save so badly only to be forced to let go, too many times.

The hosts weren’t talking about his actual disappearance, however. They thought he was taking a break from the media, and they probably hoped that this little segment would make a splash. It had been almost one year since his last TV appearance, indeed. It made sense they would talk about him, he used to be so popular.

Akira cleared his throat and forced himself to swallow another bite of rice just to keep his composure. His mom predictably didn’t notice anything when he told her he was going to bed early and would keep the leftovers for the next day’s lunchbox. He quickly locked himself in his room, only to find Morgana sitting near his pillow with his tail curled around him.

“Are you okay?” he asked tentatively.

That actually made Akira laugh out loud. He shook his head, brushing his hair from his forehead and then pushing his glasses upwards to rub at his eyelids. After a few seconds, he finally sighed : “Not really, no. Not today.”

He didn't even notice when the trees turned red. Which was a shame, because autumn weirdly fitted Inaba. When the valley turned blood-red and the sky was still dyed a deep blue, temperatures dropped with no rain in sight. It truly was one of the best parts of the year, and he managed to completely miss it, too overwhelmed by his sudden depressive episode.

A group call from the Thieves helped significantly. He guessed that Morgana was the one behind it—he had managed to type a message to Futaba using Akira’s laptop, because a certain someone could afford to spend a day doing that stuff. Even Makoto and Haru found some time out of their schedule to show their faces and say hi. And even if seeing all of them huddled together in Leblanc’s booth hurt his heart, Sojiro telling him to take care of his mom and have fun at school made Akira realize how stupid he was being. The year would soon be over and people were waiting for him. Everything would be alright in the end. He had no reason to be depressed. It was nothing compared to juvie.

That was probably why, in the last week of October, he was in surprisingly high spirits. He’d gotten closer to Hikari who was an interesting girl, although her interest in occult stuff always surprised him. Ryota spent a lot of his time between his part-time job and his night classes, but they got to hang out more, mostly to talk about their future and how different life would be when they would leave for college. Life went on, and even if it always hurt to hear people talk about the Detective Prince in-between classes—he had to move on.

It was raining on the night when he finally decided to talk about his plans for next year to his mother. At first, she didn’t say much, she expected him to just show her his orientation sheet to have her written approval. But then, he mentioned the more sensitive subject, which made her actually look away from the TV.

“Waseda? Are you kidding? We don’t have that kind of money.” He took a deep breath, ready to plead his case, but she didn’t even let him answer. “And why would you even go there? Shizudai’s not good enough for you? All our family went there, what's the point?”

He decided to place his chopsticks back on the table, because clearly, this conversation was going to take a while. “Waseda, Keio, I don’t care. I’ll go to a public university too if necessary—the point is that I want to go back to Tokyo. That’s it.”

She laughed. “Tokyo, Tokyo, what’s so great about that city anyway? I never had to live there to have a great life. You’re just young and easily impressed.” She paused, and then frowned. “Don’t tell me it’s drugs?”

His eyes widened, definitely not expecting the conversation to take this turn. “Huh? What? Where did that even come from?”

“Why else do you want to go back there so badly, then?”

“Because all my best friends live there!” he finally exploded, almost smacking the table in anger.

The look she gave him was nothing short of contempt. “This is about your future, Akira. And you would throw it away willingly, get debts that will last you your whole life, all of this because you miss your friends? You'll make new ones, don't be silly.”

“I have enough money to pay the first year on my own—”

“University is four years. Also, where would you even live? And how about food?”

He knew he was losing this fight when he stammered : “I-I’m sure Sojiro will say yes if I ask—”

“Oh, so you’re planning to rely on someone else again?” She let out a dry laugh. “You won’t be so lucky all the time.”

Silence fell onto them, his burning irritation slowly turning into cold, freezing anger. “Lucky?” he repeated, truly bewildered. “I managed just fine for a year without your help, after you threw me out. But it wasn’t luck. It was me learning to care for myself and finding people who cared in return. Because I fought for it. Not because it was given to me. You left me with nothing.”

Yuriko looked stricken, like he just slapped her or something. She opened her mouth, then hesitated, until she lowered her voice in a menacing tone : “Don’t you dare make this about me. Your dad was—”

“He wanted me out, and you didn’t even try to convince him.”

“You say that like it’s easy—”

“I was innocent, and you didn’t even believe me,” he furiously answered. “I’m your son, and you didn’t even try to listen to me. You let it all happen. And that’s exactly why I’m going back to Tokyo. You don’t get to tell me how to live my life. Not anymore.”

He didn’t want to hear anything she had to say after that, so he left his dinner behind to climb upstairs and lock himself in his room. He furiously kicked his bag away and sat, still fuming, on his bed, before getting up again to pick up his phone and find who was available in the group chat. Thank god, Ann was on her phone, currently at Makoto’s aikido meetup with Haru. She even sent him videos of their friend kicking ass, and through pure catharsis, his need to break something faded away.

He spent the entire evening with them, Makoto joining her friends after her last spar. They went to spend some time together in a little diner near Yoyogi, and they even gave him a little view of their table, Ann’s phone sitting upright near the fourth seat to let him be part of the conversation.

When he asked Ann how things were in Shujin, she became overexcited and shared the most surprising news ever with him—Mishima had found himself a girlfriend, and she was real. It wasn’t even an internet relationship but a girl in the flesh, a first year, who was actually pretty cute according to Ann. She still didn’t know why she would be interested in a guy like him, but to each their own.

“By the way, you must be pretty popular in your school, right? Anything interesting to tell us?”

This made him snort, awkwardly scratching his neck and looking away, desperate to change the subject. “As if. I’m a delinquent, no matter where I go.”

“You should start combing your hair,” Makoto said with a pointed look. “That could help. You always look like you just woke up.”

“Aww, but some girls like that too!” Haru intervened with a sweet smile. “No, what he needs to fix is definitely his attitude, don’t you think?” Ouch. Less sweet.

“It’s true that he would look easier to approach if he stopped getting lost in his own little world all the time.”

“And his posture is bad.”

He cleared his throat loudly. “Hey, I’m still here.”

“I totally agree about the hair thing! Lady Ann, it’s so nice to see you!”

“Nobody asked you,” he groaned while Morgana, who had just appeared out of nowhere, started climbing over his shoulder.

“Hi Mona!” the girls all said together, clearly not caring about his opinion on the matter.

The next half hour was spent between the girls eating what they’d ordered and Morgana talking about his little adventures in Inaba. The cat surely felt just right in this city, where he had a lot more places to explore without being blocked by cars and where he wasn't constantly at risk of being caught by the neighborhood association and losing his balls.

It was getting late when he finally bid goodbye to the girls, putting his phone to charge and going to take a shower. When he returned, Morgana was already asleep, curled up on his little cushion. Akira then realized he was starving. Considering the hour and the silence in the house, his mom was probably already sleeping, so he took that opportunity to go downstairs and eat his dinner's leftovers.

Akira sat in silence in the kitchen, heating up the soba that was now all soggy while the pitter-patter of the rain was still hitting the windows. He was just finished slurping down the broth when he noticed it was almost midnight.

He pondered over the idea for a few seconds before he finally gave in, quickly washing his bowl and chopsticks and leaving them to dry before he went to the living room. There, he sat in front of the TV, one eye on the clock, and he waited. Honestly, he didn’t know why he didn’t do that from the start instead of trying to find people who would only know bits and pieces of rumors. It only took a few minutes for something to appear.

“At last I caught you, fiend!”

His entire body jerked when the voice resonated in the room. He scrambled on his knees to get closer to the TV and take a better look, his heart beating wildly in his ears, but he knew he wasn’t wrong. That voice, he was sure about it, he heard it so many times one year ago—booming, chivalrous, almost outrageous. Like the person wanted everyone to look at him, to see him perform, and to keep their eyes on him, always.

His face was hidden behind some kind of mask that reminded him of Featherman, with all the attire that went with it. The cape flying behind him was bright red, and as soon as he was done with some kind of triumphant pose, he raised his fist and roared : “Don’t worry everyone! It was a tough battle, but here I am to save the day! I’m Red Phoenix, and I’ll never stop fighting for justice!”

Akira almost wanted to call Morgana downstairs to be sure this wasn’t some kind of weird TV show he never heard about. However, he couldn’t get away from the screen for one second and he didn’t want to wake his mother up. He could only watch, transfixed, as the boy whose death he just started getting over was here, on the screen, playing hero.

“Ah, but I think it’s already time to say goodbye… Please don’t miss the next episode, 'Justice punishes Evil'! You don’t want to miss it!” he added as a star twinkled next to his head, as if he’d winked at the camera that kept on filming him from a low angle. “See you!”

Then, Red Phoenix moved away from the camera that was tilting down, letting the audience see that all this time, he wasn't alone. Just behind him, tied up on a chair with his head down, wearing a tight suit with dark stripes and chestnut hair all over his face—was Akechi.

Akira jumped and actually brought his hand against the screen, as if he could reach for the other man. “Oops!” Red Phoenix said, quickly running back into the frame. “Spoilers! ”

“A—” he started screaming.

And then he fell.

To be continued.

Chapter Text

Spread your wings,
Fighting against time, grasping for tomorrow,
Listen to your soul, listen as it roars.

A long time ago, his mother told him something that stayed burnt into his memories.

“Sometimes, I feel like he’s right there, in my brain, and he’s only here to punish me.”

He was too young at the time to understand. Who was “he”? What was his mother being punished for? What did she mean, “in her brain”? Why was she smiling when she said that? Young Goro was naive and thought she was joking. Punishment meant pain, and he thought no one could ever enjoy that. She was just telling a joke he couldn’t understand yet. It would make sense when he was a grown up. This didn’t mean anything.

Now, he wouldn’t call himself a grown up. But he was starting to understand.

The chair was very uncomfortable, and his neck hurt from hanging low while he was unconscious. The ropes were so tight against him, he quickly abandoned the idea of using his legs to escape—the chair was bolted to the ground anyway, he was stuck.

He had no idea where he was, his memory was pretty foggy. The only light in the room came from the variety of screens in front of him, covering the wall and even parts of the ceiling, but not showing anything but snow. He could see the glint of camera lenses in there too, pointed right in his direction. Someone was watching him, and he almost wanted to start talking in the chance the watcher was listening—anything to help him understand how fucked he was. At least he knew he was in the Metaverse, the outfit he was wearing made it pretty clear. But was it Mementos, was it a Palace, was it any-fucking-where else, he couldn’t know as long as he stayed there, breaking his neck and blinding himself with too many useless screens flashing and humming in front of him.

He stayed quiet for a while, but started to acting restless on purpose, because that could potentially annoy his watcher without Goro breaking his voice. He started tapping his foot on the ground, clicking his tongue, whistling, anything to keep his brain occupied as the minutes went by, slow and steady. But the problem was that when his mind had nothing to focus on, he could only let it wander. To faraway memories, or unwanted thoughts. There was no running away from those, when he suddenly remembered something annoying he heard during a meeting one day, or a dumb spelling mistake he made on his blog once, or the sound Kurusu’s head had made when it had fallen in a gory mess on the interrogation table—

“Fucking come here and stop wasting my goddamn time!” he finally roared, his furious glare jumping from camera to camera. “What do you want with me? If you want to kill me, just put a bullet in my brain, that’ll go faster!”

There was a little bit of echo to his voice and his head instinctively whipped around. The person watching him was right there, behind him, where he couldn’t see them. That sicko was so quiet he didn’t even notice them. Goro gritted his teeth and snarled : “Come on. Hurry up. Tell me why I’m here, I’ve had enough of this weird game of yours.”

He finally heard steps and his entire body stiffened as they got closer and closer. He didn’t dare move his head anymore, he’d rather stay upright and look as cool and unbothered as possible. After all, it’d be easier to spit on his kidnapper from the front.

However, he swallowed it all back when he caught sight of his captor. His eyes widened and every word escaped him. He just stared, heart heavy, as the other man stopped right in front of him and removed his mask with one hand. Not that he needed it off to recognize himself, or to see the yellow eyes to understand where he was.

Goro actually let out a dry laugh, one that shook out of his chest like a sob, and he heaved a deep sigh. He rolled his head back and threw a look at the ceiling before he closed his eyes.

“Sometimes, I feel like he’s right there, in my brain, and he’s only here to punish me.”

Oh, he understood now. His mom delight, when she said that to him, wasn't faked. Because at the time, she hated herself so much she felt like the world was in a better place without her in it. She thought she was responsible for everything that had ever happened to her, that her situation was a direct result of all the choices she made. She was simply begging for it to end.

Akechi Goro finally lowered his eyes until he caught his own, his mirror, himself. He asked with a rasp in his voice : “It’s time, huh?”

The Shadow smiled, a disgusting grimace that was meant to look pleasant but was as fake as everything else about him.

“It is time indeed.” He slowly blinked. “You have to pay for your crimes.”

Goro nodded. And as he realized that finally, he was allowed to disappear, he smiled as well.

It took a while for Akira to come back to his senses, blinking a few times before his last memory came back to him with a gasp. He immediately sat straight, looking in all directions before getting on his feet, legs wide apart and ready to fight anything that could be hiding in the deep fog around him. He took a deep breath, tried to swallow even though his throat was dry, and decided to call : “Akechi…?”

No one answered him. He tried someone else : “Mona...?”

Still nothing. Sweat started trickling down his spine, and he made one last attempt : “Arsene…?”

“It hast been a while, Trickster.”

Akira let out a big sigh of relief when the Persona appeared before him, dark fire still burning from his wings, just like his cruel smile was still spreading his lips wide. Strangely, however, he noticed his own clothes were still the same, and he didn’t have to remove a mask to summon him. “Sorry for bothering you, but I’ll have to ask for your help until I can get out of here,” he slowly said, his Joker voice instinctively coming out of him now that he was faced with his other self. “I assume you have no idea what’s happening here?”

Arsene let out a loud laugh that echoed all around them. “I do know that if fate brought us together once again, it is not for a mere nostalgic reunion. But I shall follow thee all the same, as thou endeavor to lift the veil over this one mystery.”

Akira nodded, and the Persona vanished, leaving him alone once again and with nothing else to do but walk. Surely he’d find something as long as he moved forward. He really hoped there weren’t many Shadows around, because he was in his pajamas and also barefooted, which wouldn’t be good if he had to run away from danger. And it’s not like he had any place he could hide in for now, nor supplies to help him heal. God, Arsene didn’t even have healing spells. If only he’d brought Morgana with him downstairs...

He had no idea how long he spent walking around, but the only time he stumbled upon Shadows it was either a small terrified Pixie who didn’t even understand him when he talked to her, or an Incubus who laughed at him because he had a hard time seeing him in the fog. But they didn’t try to hurt him, flying away as soon as they caught sight of Arsene.

He tried calling a few names again—Akechi’s, Morgana’s, even Red Phoenix’s—but he was met with silence. One thing he found out was that this place wasn’t empty. He wasn’t in limbo, but in some sort of empty Inaba. Some streets were replicated pretty faithfully and some parts were missing completely, like a painter had just drawn the layout but hadn’t bothered to paint them yet. But overall, it felt very bittersweet seeing his childhood town look so dead. He didn’t like the place, but he cared about the people living there, and he didn’t like the idea of a world where they were all gone, wiped out and forgotten to let the city become some kind of ghost town.

He still noticed a few weird things. For example, some stores he’d never seen before, or some old-looking fliers pinned on the city noticeboard. He wasn’t actually able to read any of the sheets there, but even the table and crates in front of Souzai Daigaku brought a nostalgic feeling to him. He was pretty sure he’d sat at those tables when he was really young, but those were long gone nowadays, replaced by a sturdier table with actual chairs, as well as a trash bin that separated combustibles and plastic.

Akira stopped in front of these and was about to sit, because he probably wouldn’t find anything comfortable and familiar for a while—when he finally heard some noise, and it wasn’t Shadows. He quickly jumped over the store’s counter to hide and decided to hold his breath. Those were actual people.

It was hard to see them because of the fog, but he guessed there were four of them from the silhouettes. They might be his only way out, but who truly knew if they were friend or foe. They could very well be the ones behind Akechi’s sudden appearance on the TV. Or they could be Cognitions of people living in Inaba, smart enough to band and patrol around to look for intruders. Anyway, he’d better stay hidden and watch, he decided. As the group got closer, Akira started to hear tidbits of the conversation going on.

“ —sure your nose is not broken? It’s been, what, a decade already. Do bears even live that long?”

“I’m bear-y sure! And Teddie’s not a normal bear, you know! He might just outlive you, so watch it!”

There was a small stretch of silence, filled up by their footsteps. “To be fair, bears do tend to live at least twenty years, sometimes even longer,” a deeper voice interjected.

“Huh? How do you even know that stuff?”

A shrug answered him. “The discovery channel. It’s bear-y interesting.”

“Oh god partner, please don’t, not you too.”

Akira blinked a few times, and was forced to reconsider his initial point of view. Those people didn’t sound like Shadows. And he’d never heard of cognitions smart enough to banter like old friends.

The group was now so close they would soon pass in front of Akira and walk past him. His palms were sweaty as he examined all his options. If those people were that relaxed in such a place, it definitely meant they knew how to get out… right? But what if they didn’t want to help him? What if they truly were his enemies? He had to make a choice, quickly, especially because one of them stopped in his tracks right as they were walking in front of Souzai Daigaku, and screeched : “That smell!! It comes from here!”

Akira clenched his fists, desperately wishing for a dagger or his gun, sweat turning cold and his metaphorical mask already forming in front of his face, ready to be ripped off. “...from here? From Souzai Daigaku?” the deep voice from before asked.

“Yup!”

“You’re sure?” added the fourth person, the one who hadn’t said a thing the entire time.

“Teddie’s nose knows those things! Hahaha, that sounded funny.”

Akira couldn’t stand it anymore. He gulped down to be sure his voice would be as clear as possible, and he finally stood up, glasses furiously removed and ready to call Arsene when he finally saw the entirety of the scene.

His power stance significantly wilted when he discovered that one of the guys from before was shaking a guy in a mascot costume by the collar, clearly pissed off. “That’s why you called us in the middle of the night!? Because you were hungry!? Hey, partner, did the discovery channel told you if bear meat’s edible, because I sure wanna kill one right now!”

“Please don’t kill Teddie,” the shorter one of the group sighed.

“Teddie is not a bear, he’s an immortal fairy, and he’ll haunt you forever if you dare touch his precious fur!”

Akira actually dropped his glasses in shock, and that noise got the group's attention. The angry one quickly released the mascot guy, while the leader threw his arm as if to protect the others from threat. And finally, the last one that he’d just recognized, was the Detective Prince. Albeit not exactly the one he was looking for.

“Miss Shirogane Naoto…?” he slowly said.

She frowned under her hat, sending him a suspicious glare before her eyes widened. “Oh god. You’re a student, right? At Yasogami?”

Akira nodded briefly, and then the angry one gasped : “Hey, that’s him! I told you I heard a kid talk about the Midnight Channel!”

The group immediately lost its battle stance and got closer to him. The leader even reached his hand over the counter for him : “Are you alright?”

“Uh, sure…” he cleared his throat and bent down to grab his glasses, putting them back on his nose and not taking the other man’s hand. “I’d like to know where the heck I am and who you guys are, though.”

The man threw a glance over his shoulder to Shirogane, who also seemed deep in thought. She decided to be honest : “You’ll probably have a hard time believing us, but you’re inside the TV world. You fell through one to get here, right?”

“Yeah.”

“We can bring you home, don’t worry. But you’ll need to follow us for a while first.”

He heaved a sigh of relief at that. However, even after he’d jumped over the counter and was back on the street to follow them, he stopped in his tracks. “We can’t go back yet. Someone else is in here.”

Naoto turned towards Teddie with a frown, and the bear shrieked : “I swear! There’s no one lost in the fog but this little guy!”

“But I saw him!” Akira insisted. “On the Midnight Channel, that’s why I ended up here!”

The group seemed to immediately relax, albeit they looked a little pained about it. Teddie shook his head. “Ah, this is not the same. We can’t do anything for him right now.”

“What?”

“It’s a long story,” Naoto sighed. “We’ll take care of this, you can relax, but first you should really go home. This place is dangerous for people like you, there are monsters around.”

“You mean the low level Pixies?” he said with a sneer. “Please.”

The four of them exchanged a meaningful look, and the angry one who seemed to have calmed down a lot said slowly : “Um… Are you telling us you actually know this place…?”

Akira licked his lips, and decided to go for it : “You guys have Personas too, right? And this is a cognitive world.”

“Wow,” the guy answered with a wince. “Okay, what the fuck now.”

“You’ve explored the Midnight Channel before?” Shirogane asked.

“Not this place, no, but one that looked a lot like this. With Shadows, cognitions, palaces. Just… less fog, I guess.”

Naoto was about to ask something else when the leader finally stepped in : “Alright. Fine. I believe you, but we should still go back. If you know about Palaces, then you also know there’s no way to save him right now. We need more time and more information.”

“Is he going to be safe, staying there for days?”

“As long as the fog doesn’t settle in Inaba, he’ll be fine,” he assured.

Akira was still high-strung, but he was forced to nod and follow them. As they walked towards the exit, he couldn’t help glancing around, looking for a place that would look like a Palace, or the Velvet room, anything of the sort. They finally arrived at some kind of TV set, with a pile of TV screens at the center. They all gathered around them and Akira asked : “Where will we end up?”

“Junes,” the angry guy answered. He even threw him a wink. “I’m the store’s manager, don’t worry. We like going through there ‘cause it’s got the biggest screens.” Akira nodded. “I’m Yosuke by the way.”

“Ah, I’m Akira,” he replied. “Nice to meet you.”

Yosuke pointed at the taller man who was fiddling with one of the TVs, the screen changing to show a few living rooms. “Here’s Yuu, my good ol’ partner in crime.” Then he moved his thumb in Naoto’s direction. “You already know her.” And finally, he motioned at the bear with his chin. “And this one’s Teddie, he guards the place. We don’t exactly know what he is, but he’s harmless.”

Finally, the TV flickered to show them Junes’ aisles, and they all walked through the screen. Akira felt a little bit nostalgic over the sensation, pretty much the same faint dizziness as going in and out of the Metaverse, and then his bare foot touched the cold tiles of the mall.

He still had many questions, but it was extremely late, and he had no idea how long he’d been gone. He actually started to panic a little bit, because if Morgana realized he’d disappeared, he might wake his mother up to be sure. Junes was at least twenty minutes away from his house, too. Thankfully, Yosuke patted his shoulder : “Hey, I’ll drive you home, alright? It’s still raining and my car’s just down there in the parking lot.”

“Are you free tomorrow after school?” Naoto asked. “No clubs, no plans? You probably have a lot of questions, and we do too.”

“I’m all good,” he assured. “I’ll be there.”

He didn’t even think about thanking them, he followed Yosuke down to his car, and he didn’t try to think of everything that had happened. That the Metaverse was in Inaba, that other and older Persona wielders existed, that Akechi—

His brain stopped working, and he had to blink a few times to fight back the tears that were threatening to spill over. He’d had such a long and stressful day, it wasn’t surprising, but he didn’t want to break down in the middle of a stranger’s car. He had to get home first, and then he’d deal with it. Thank god, his driver had decided to stop talking, he probably thought he was too tired and shaken up to make small talk.

Yosuke stopped one street away from his house in case Yuriko had woken up and was anxiously waiting to see him come back—after her earlier assumption that he was either using or dealing drugs, he didn’t want her to see him in someone’s car this late. He waved the other man goodbye then started creeping closer, just to check if the lights were on, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw nothing unusual. He winced a few times from walking on the wet pavement, navigating between pointy pebbles and growing puddles, then slipped around to get to the garden. Inaba was such a boring city, no one actually closed their back doors, and they had already removed the heavy typhoon shojis. He slid his way back inside, quickly cleaned his wet feet with his sleeve, and finally made his way upstairs.

Morgana was deep asleep the whole time but was startled awake when Akira opened the door. He blinked a few times, then let his head fall back on the pillow : “Hey… You should go to sleep.”

Akira swallowed and nodded quickly. He changed his clothes, a little bit wet from the drizzle outside, and finally shuffled back inside his clean, warm futon. Morgana yawned and went right back to sleep, paw twitching.

However, Akira couldn’t even close his eyes. His heart was still racing, his head bustling with information, and he could feel his breathing get louder. He tried very hard to keep it in, to not wake up Morgana, but then, one thought took over the rest. Akechi was alive. He didn’t know how, he didn’t know for how long. But he was alive, and on reach, and he was there, and it was so so so much more than anything else he could’ve ever wished for.

His breath caught in his throat, broken by a sob. He quickly brought his hand to his mouth to muffle the sounds, but he couldn’t hold them in. He started sniffing and hiccups shook his entire body. Akira felt Morgana getting on his bed, asking what was wrong, and then finally he realized how late it truly was. But he couldn’t answer, nothing but loud cries got out of him. Every time he tried to explain, he started crying harder, like a kid, and he definitely felt like one when, at some point, his tears dried up, and he just fell asleep.

He’d explain everything to Mona tomorrow. For now, there was nothing he could do but rest and breathe and relax, a weight getting lifted from his shoulders. Because it took months of denial and anger and depression and bargaining and acceptance—but now he knew he’d done the right thing. He didn't make the wrong choice. Back in February, he didn’t kill Akechi Goro.

Thankfully, the next day, after a long conversation turned lecture when Morgana learned that he’d fallen into some kind of Metaverse, and he didn’t even tell him—Akira decided to let him ask the very legitimate question : “So what happened last night, exactly?”

Naoto and Yuu were the only ones here yet, meeting with him at Junes’ food plaza. They were waiting for Yosuke to get out of an important phone call meeting with one of the store’s suppliers, and Teddie was… probably somewhere. Thank god, they didn’t seem too weirded out with the idea of a talking cat, so they were able to answer their questions.

Naoto was pretty efficient in her explanations. When someone was getting the public’s attention, their silhouette would appear on the Midnight Channel, and if someone else happened to throw that said person inside the TV during that time, they would get stuck in their own Palace and their Shadow would appear on the screen. That was how all the murders happened ten years ago, and even some of their friends had gotten involved, hence how they’d gotten their own Personas. Now, most of them had left Inaba, and Yosuke, being one of the last still living there, was in charge of keeping an eye on the Midnight Channel. And it had started to act up again a few months ago.

That was why Naoto and Yuu were in the area again. Naoto was going around Japan to solve crimes while Yuu lived in Nagoya and was his own boss, handling his business from home—that’s why they could actually come and help in case they had to get inside the TV again. They also told them that last night hadn’t been the first time Red Phoenix had appeared on the Midnight Channel, and they had up until the next heavy fog to save him.

Akira tried to digest all that information, but soon enough, he was being bombarded with questions too. He and Morgana had agreed beforehand to tell them about the Phantom Thieves, and while this would usually be something they’d ask the entire group first, those circumstances seemed to allow for a little bit of leniency on the rule. Thank god, Yosuke arrived when they got to that particular subject, sliding next to Yuu on the bench of the lunch table, and even if he looked particularly excited to learn they were Phantom Thieves, Naoto quickly shut him down. “You didn’t figure it out yourself? I thought it was obvious ‘stealing hearts’ was connected to the other world.”

“Hey, we never saw anything like a Treasure back in the days! How was I supposed to know?”

“To be fair, it’s a little bit complicated to materialize the person’s Treasure,” Akira said out of pure instinct, because this was way too reminiscent of the way Makoto would sometimes dunk on Ryuji.

“Thanks kid,” he said with a smile, before adding : “I was rooting for you guys. And not only because your merch sold like crazy in here!” Akira snorted while the others rolled their eyes. “Except when you were accused of killing that guy. That must’ve sucked.”

“Well, that’s a way of putting it,” Morgana answered soberly, clearly not amused. “Anyway, we also thought everything was said and done with the Metaverse. It’s very strange to see it come back so suddenly, especially after the Midnight Channel was silent for ten years.”

Naoto crossed her arms and shook her head. “I wouldn’t say that. I’ve found a few other cases throughout history where I think the other world was actually involved. Of course, I’ve got no proof, but there’s a definite possibility someone else made those connections. And if they did, and it’s not for scientific curiosity but with darker intentions…” She sighed. “What I’m getting at is that right now, throwing someone in the Midnight Channel is pretty much a perfect crime. We have no way of finding out what happened except if we save this guy, and if we don’t, his death will either be attributed to Adachi or to a copy-cat.”

Akira started to connect the dots too. There was someone who had a lot of knowledge about the Metaverse and used it for himself. Someone who’d even ordered the murder of a psientist working on that very same world, just to steal her research. Someone who was in prison, sure, but still had a lot of influence and underlings left with no leader, basically mad dogs running around and abusing their power in any way they wanted. He turned to Morgana. “It could be Shido’s men, right?”

“You think so?”

“They clearly researched it for a long time, and like Shirogane said, it’s not that hard to see how it connects to Inaba’s murders. And even if they didn’t, I don’t know who else would want to get rid of Akechi—”

He stopped in the middle of his sentence, because Morgana’s eyes widened, and Akira suddenly realized he hadn’t mentioned that part yet. The cat jumped on the table, his tail pointing towards the sky. “Akechi? He’s the one you saw inside the TV?” He nodded, his throat suddenly tight. “You’re absolutely sure?”

“I saw him in his Black Mask outfit, there’s no way I’m wrong.”

It was hard to discern emotion on a cat’s face, but the way his entire body relaxed and his tail went down were enough body language to make him understand that Morgana was shaken—although relieved—by the news. Naoto butted in : “Wait, Akechi? You mean Akechi Goro?”

“Yes, it’s his Shadow that appeared on the Midnight Channel,” Akira said. “You didn’t recognize him?”

“We never actually met,” she admitted with a low voice. “I wanted to, and I was contacted many times to organize a public meeting, but I don't really like medias. And it was hard to meet him when you guys were at the top of your popularity—since he was at his lowest.”

Akira couldn't help but wince at that—sure, that had been part of Akechi’s plan, but at the time, Akira already felt that the way he was treated by the public and even his friends was a little harsh. Not that he could say anything—he was the leader of the Phantom Thieves, he was the sole reason behind all the harassment that he had to endure every day. And even if Akechi probably didn’t even care, Akira definitely did at the time. He always cared, anyway, that was the problem.

“Wait, so this Featherman rip-off is Akechi Goro’s Shadow?” Yosuke said with a confused frown. “Damn, no kidding I didn’t recognize him. Although I guess it makes sense, with how he was always talking about justice and that kind of stuff.”

“That’s great news,” Yuu added. “Teddie can’t find someone in the Midnight Channel if he doesn’t know anything about them, and we were pretty stuck, since we didn’t even know his name.”

“Is it though? Sure, he was chasing after the Phantom Thieves, but that doesn’t mean they really know him, right? Naoto couldn’t even meet the guy!”

Akira and Morgana exchanged a look. How could they explain it? Talking about Akechi’s job as a hitman wouldn’t help their cause, especially considering he’d been mostly known for his hatred of the Phantom Thieves. But they couldn’t lie either—they were about to get inside his Palace, they’d definitely know he wasn’t as Prince-y or pleasant as he looked.

“Well, Akira knows him pretty well,” Morgana said. “You guys became friends when the Phantom Thieves were just a rumor, your meeting was a coincidence.”

He bit the inside of his cheek to keep a straight face, and not let his face show the doubts he still held about that. Sure, at that point they’d only gotten Madarame to confess his crimes, and even if they had already heard about Black Mask, it was probably a coincidence. But that didn’t explain why Akechi tried so hard to befriend him, so suddenly and almost forcefully. At the time, Akira had thought he was very lonely or just weird like that, but now…

“Yeah, he and I were friends, I guess,” he admitted. “And he also joined the Phantom Thieves for a time, although he wasn’t a big fan of us and of our methods.”

“Then he’s got a Persona?”

“Well…” Akira scratched the back of his head. “Actually, he’s got two.”

Yuu frowned when he heard that, immediately followed by Yosuke who seemed completely lost : “Wait, wait… So basically, all his appearances on TV, and his so-called investigation, that was fake? He already knew everything?”

“He’d been in the Metaverse for way longer than us, yes.”

“But I thought you couldn’t get a Palace when you had a Persona?” Akira asked Morgana. “That’s one of the first things you told us.”

Silence started to stretch between all of them. They were all pretty stumped, and with no clear answer in view. Thankfully, Yuu seemed to be the first to shake it off. “Teddie might know more about it. We need to get inside the TV and track down your detective anyway, we’ll see what he makes of it.”

The group all agreed, and a few minutes later, they were back inside the cognitive world. The bear joyfully approached them before freezing in place when he saw Mona’s real form, but thank god he got over it pretty quickly, although he still stole fearful glances at the cat, as if he wasn’t four times bigger. He also did something with Akira's glasses, which helped him see a lot better in the fog. But when they asked him about Akechi, he didn’t really know anything either.

“This is pretty unusual, but we do know that some people are special cases,” he answered. “For example, sensei over here got his Persona without even facing his own Shadow. And even if I’ve never heard of it before, I don’t see why someone couldn’t lose their Persona, if they were to lose themselves.”

Morgana quickly nodded, arms crossed. “I guess that’s true. Akechi had pretty much two identities, and those two Personas represented each one of them. He led such an unstable life, and considering how it ended... ”

He looked a little pained as he trailed off, like he didn’t want to say more in front of Akira. Luckily, Teddie took that opportunity to ask him : “So this other boy is around your age, right?”

“Yes.”

“Was he troubled recently? Did anything significant happen to him?”

He bit his lip, because the scar was still fresh in his mind, even after he learned that Akechi had been alive all this time. “I don’t know that much, Akechi was— is not someone who shared a lot of himself.” He cleared his throat, awkwardly looked around, even though he knew the other ones had decided to step away as a form of respect. He was more comfortable sharing those things to Teddie only, someone who wouldn’t judge, a totally neutral being. “The last time I saw him, he looked pretty sure of what he wanted, though. And he got it, somehow.”

“What was it?”

He licked his lips, his fist clenched. A dry laugh escaped him. “To never see me again, I guess.”

“Akira,” Morgana said, almost disapprovingly.

“You weren’t there, Mona,” he quickly said. “He made his point pretty clear.”

Morgana kept looking at him with so much pity in his eyes, he couldn’t stand it. 

“Mmh, I don’t know you enough, so that doesn’t help,” Teddie said. “I’ll need more details than that. Just tell me more about him. You saw his Shadow, right? What did he look like?”

“Like some hero in a sentai show. With a cape, a costume and everything.” He tried to remember what he’d heard. “He said he’d finally captured a villain, and that’s when I saw that the real Akechi was tied up on a chair behind him.”

Teddie hummed in thoughts. “Hmm… So, he thinks of himself as the villain of his own story, basically? That’s pretty sad.” He started sniffing around, and let out a frustrated sound. “I’m almost there... Can you give me a little bit more…? Why would he think that?”

Akira was scratching his head, and he decided to say things he knew about Akechi, anything that the detective had ever told him when they were starting to know each other, those stories that seemed to come from the heart and that he desperately hoped were at least a little bit true. “Well, he was an unwanted child, so there’s that. His mom died when he was young, he was in the foster home system and that made him pretty distrustful of people, to the point of not caring whose side he joined as long as he could get what he wanted. But he actually wanted to be a hero when he was little, and he still has a very specific idea of what justice is, what’s wrong and what’s right, so I guess that’s why—”

“Oh!” Teddie suddenly grinned. “Found him. It’s very clear now.” He turned towards Akira and gave him a big, large smile. “You two must be very close! I never had such a passionate and detailed explanation!”

He didn’t answer to that, eager to move on and take a look at the Palace. The rest of the group joined them, and after a little bit of discussion, they decided they could afford to see what they’d be going up against.

Mona stayed next to Teddie to talk about the Metaverse and also probably out of some kind of mascot pride. Meanwhile, Akira was behind the three old friends who chatted about stuff and people he didn’t know. That small banter reminded him a little bit of Mementos, when they were all so bored, they would talk about anything as long as it could make time go faster. He tried looking around, thankful for the new glasses and the lack of fog that would’ve honestly made him claustrophobic if he’d stayed longer the day before.

Yuu, who seemed to be the less talkative out of the group, still decided to leave the other two to their conversation when he saw that Akira was right behind them. He gave him a little smile : “So. The Phantom Thieves, huh. You guys were quite big for a while.”

Akira shrugged with a little scoff, a little bit uncomfortable to talk about this with someone who was pretty much a stranger, “And most people already forgot us.”

Yuu, however, didn’t seem to mind his rough honesty. “That doesn’t change the fact that you helped a lot of people,” he answered with a very sincere and warm tone. “Back in the days, just trying to save one person at a time was extremely stressful. So I can’t imagine how much pressure you guys must’ve been under.”

His face didn’t show much, but his tall and large silhouette didn’t seem overwhelming either. On the contrary, he still had some kind of softness to his features, or maybe it was his light gray hair, but Akira had the feeling that he was very sincere, empathic.

On one hand, he appreciated that, because you didn’t meet those kinds of people every day. On the other hand, he felt so little and immature under his patient gaze, he didn’t know how to deal with it. He looked away, hiding his embarrassment behind the reflection of his glasses and his dark locks. “I guess that’s true,” he admitted under his breath. “But we didn’t really have a choice.”

Thinking back, who knows what would’ve happened to Ann, Yusuke or Haru if they’d never found the Metaverse. The Phantom Thieves had saved lives, had given people courage, at least a little bit, for a little while. That was already so much, but their downfall had been their greed—their need to get recognition, to be loved and appreciated for their work. 

And here he was, immediately jumping right back in at the first opportunity. Sure, this wasn’t anyone, Akechi was important to him—but now that he thought about it, he might’ve been waiting for it, all this time. To be someone again. To feel necessary, helpful, and alive. He hadn’t changed at all. He was still a selfish kid, who desperately wanted to be more.

“How was it for you guys, to… say goodbye to all this world, suddenly, one day?” he asked without even thinking about it. “Did you ever feel frustrated, or were you relieved?”

Yuu’s face hardened at the question, the first hint of reaction he’d gotten from him since the beginning of the conversation. But he did take his time to think about his answer, because he was a serious man, who never said anything without thinking, and had an answer to most things if not all.

“I think… It wasn’t so much about the fighting, and more about doing this with everyone else, if that makes sense.” He shook his head lightly. “Of course, I missed them when I left Inaba. And I still do. I’m lucky Yukiko, Yosuke and Teddie are still here, not too far from Nagoya—but Naoto and Rise are constantly working, Chie went to Okinawa and Kanji’s living in Tokyo… It felt good having superpowers and fighting evil while also saving lives, but at the end of the day, I guess I’m just happy to know everyone’s alive and safe. You know?”

In a sense, he could understand. That had been what rejecting Maruki’s deal was all about—accepting the world as it was and taking a step back, because even if the world was unfair, it was still a world worth living for. And yet… he didn’t get it, at all. Akira had a little smile as he said : “An answer fitting for a leader.”

Yuu seemed a little bit surprised at his answer : “Really?”

“Yeah. A true inspiration. You must’ve been pretty popular in Inaba.”

“Don’t tell Yosuke, he never got over Risette’s crush on me.”

Akira stopped in his tracks. Yuu waited for a few steps to stop too, before throwing a look over his shoulder, his eyebrows high like he didn’t know what was going on. “Risette?” Akira said bluntly, the words tumbling out of him. “Like, Kujikawa Rise?”

Yuu shrugged. “Yeah.” And then he started walking again. Akira blinked a few times before scoffing to himself, and running back to the group. Damn. That guy wasn’t just your ideal son-in-law—he was also a show-off.

After a few minutes, they finally found the Palace. It was hard to miss with all the lights on the roof, spinning and illuminating the sky with some sorts of symbols—clearly Akechi had read or watched Batman once or twice. The letter A was painted on the front, glittering in gold and illuminated by another light spot. The building wasn’t that tall, about ten or-so stories, but it seemed to be towering above them, what with the subtle curve of the structure, the top larger than the base.

Right in front of them was a paved yard with a few trees and bright red flowers, as well as a tall statue in the middle—children being carried by a man, or holding on his leg with large smiles, clearly elated to be with him, safe. The statues didn’t have a lot of details to them, but it seemed pretty obvious who the “hero” was supposed to represent, and if it wasn’t clear enough, he still had that big A on his chest.

The six of them slowly made their way to the large glass doors that led to the building’s lobby, but stopped right before entering. The lobby seemed pretty empty except for cognitions, faceless people milling about and waiting in line in front of a desk, and then in front of an elevator. There were three in total, but weirdly, no one seemed to approach those other twos. He was at least relieved to see that everyone looked perfectly human—considering Akechi's misanthropic tendencies, he'd been expecting the worst.

“Well,” Naoto said. “At least the entrance seems harmless. Should we just get inside? We don’t need to go very far, at least enough to get a read of the place before leaving and come back more prepared.”

Akira’s guts twisted at that, because he didn’t exactly want to wait, but he also didn’t have any equipment with him right now. He wasn’t even wearing his Metaverse outfit, which was pretty unnerving—he honestly didn’t know if he’d be able to handle big battles as Akira and not Joker—but he at least needed his dagger and gun, safely hidden in his room where his mom would never find them.

“I didn’t bring any weapon with me,” Yosuke groaned. “I didn’t think we’d get here today, sorry.”

“It’s okay, we should be able to at least look around the lobby,” Yuu answered. “We’ll go and take a look, ask around. We’re not going far, though, understand?”

All of them agreed, and Akira felt kinda weird agreeing into that without even talking about it beforehand. All decisions had always fallen unto him before, he wasn’t used to being ordered around. Yuu still turned to him before they finally pushed the doors : “Can you take care of the talking for us? Since you’re the one here who knows him the most.”

He nodded, then took the lead and pushed the door open while cracking his neck. He couldn’t help showing off a little and trying to act like Joker would to prove to Yuu that he had been a leader once, and he’d been good at it—that he wasn’t a kid. Sure, when it came to bullshitting their way around Palaces, Makoto was usually the one who took care of that stuff—she was much more confident than him—but he could do it just as well. And he did know Akechi and how to handle him. At least a little.

Akira led the way to the desk, confident enough to cut the line. It wasn’t like the cognitions would really be upset about it anyway, and it didn’t seem to be moving at all. He arrived at the counter, laid down his elbows on the dark and polished wood, before sending his best smile to the receptionist. “Hello.”

“Welcome to sir Red Phoenix’s Great Hideout Against Evil, how can I help you, sir?”

He had to bite his lip not to smile at the name, so cliché and over-the-top. “Me and my friends here would like to have a meeting with Red Phoenix. It is a very pressing matter.”

Thankfully, the lady gave him a big smile as she nodded. “Of course, sir. However, I will first need to know if you are friend or foe.”

Akira blinked, not too sure he’d heard right. Thankfully, Naoto took care of that for him : “We are unarmed, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Oh no, please do not misunderstand!” she immediately shook her head, before giving them another toothy smile. “Sir Red Phoenix is magnanimous, and sees Justice above anything else. This is the reason why everyone is welcome here, at the Great Hideout Against Evil—fans, allies, and even enemies!”

She took a step back and designated the main elevator of the room, the one that had the long queue in front of it. “If you are fans, and you wish to visit our facilities—we have a museum, stores, and access to the battle arena's stands—please take the central elevator.”

She then moved her arm in a practiced fashion, towards the elevator at the far left of the room. “If you are allies—heroes who wish to partner up with sir Red Phoenix, sponsors, journalists or any potential business partners—please take the left elevator. There, you’ll be able to have a meeting with sir Red Phoenix as soon as he’s available.”

Like a pendulum, her arms moved smoothly towards the right. “And finally, if you are enemies—monsters, rivals, villains, haters—please take the right elevator. There, you’ll be directed to the arena, where you’ll be able to duel sir Red Phoenix until either death or redemption ensues.”

Finally, her arms went back in front of her chest to let her cross her fingers, and she threw them another blinding smile. “Do you have any questions?”

A little confused silence started to stretch between them, until Yosuke broke it : “So we could really be here to actually kill that guy, and you’d let us through this elevator? You wouldn’t stop us?”

The receptionist frowned a little bit, and let out a strange stiff giggle. “Well, yes, sir, this is exactly what I said and this is what sir Red Phoenix intended. For grudges and anger to be dealt within our facilities, where no one is at risk of getting hurt.”

“But what if someone kills him?”

Her eyebrows shot up very high, and then she laughed, loud and clear, right from the chest. Immediately, everyone around them started laughing too, some kind of low humming growing in volume, almost snarky. In the middle of the commotion, the receptionist tried to find her breath again. “Oh sir, please forgive me, I just… I wasn't expecting that one!”

They all exchanged glances, uncomfortable from being the only ones not laughing in the packed lobby. Akira decided to stop caring about them, and go back to the important matters : “Can we take a moment to discuss this between us?”

“Yes of course sir!” she immediately recovered, as the room also suddenly got quiet again. “You can climb into any elevator, as many times as you want. Once you’re at the desired floor, my colleagues will take care of the rest.”

The group quickly moved away from the desk, still kind of spooked by the laughing fit from before. Naoto took the initiative and asked : “What do you guys think we should do? The fans elevators seem pretty safe to me, we can take a look for today and see more of the dungeon.”

“The business elevator also seemed fine,” Morgana added. “And it might be our safest way to Akechi, or at least his shadow. A little bit of negotiation might do the trick.”

Akira frowned, pretty bewildered by what he was hearing. He had to ask : “What about the villain's elevator? We could beat him right away, it would go faster.”

Morgana frowned at that. Yep, he really wasn't digging the idea. “You know how strong Akechi is, and the receptionist's reaction really sounds like it would be suicide. Also, this is pretty harsh—why not try to talk it out first?”

“When has Akechi ever done anything peacefully?” he mumbled under his teeth, which earned him a glare. “I think we’d lose our time trying to convince him—he’s keeping his own self captive.” Clearly, that didn’t convince his friend, and Akira insisted : “I’m just saying that if we win a duel, we could be done in a day.”

“This is reckless,” Morgana shot back at him. “You of all people know how important it is to take it slow in the Metaverse. Even if we can’t convince him, we can still sneak in, that’s what Phantom Thieves do! Not throwing themselves into battle!”

“I agree with the weird cat,” Yosuke said, not even flinching when he saw Morgana turn in his direction, ready to fire an angry retort. “We’re not in a hurry, kid. And I don’t know about you, but I haven’t used a Persona in ten years—I don’t feel ready to take on any big stuff yet. I’m for taking it slow and talking first.”

“I was just saying,” Akira answered, a little bit annoyed by their reactions. “We could try. From what the lady told us, those aren’t life or death situations. And I’ve beaten him twice in a fight before.”

“When you had weapons, and several Personas!" Morgana screeched. This is totally different!”

Naoto turned to Yuu, as if she wanted him to take a decision for all of them and call it a day. However, he was still pretty silent, lost in thoughts. He finally said : “We won’t make that decision today. Like Yosuke said, we’re in no hurry, and we need to prepare first anyway. We’ll think about it overnight and come back tomorrow with a clear head—and then we’ll decide what to do.” Then he turned to Teddie. “Lead us back home, please.”

“Sure, sensei!”

Akira was ready to retort something, but no-one would’ve been here to hear it anyway. All the others were already on their way out of the building, following Yuu without an ounce of doubt in their steps. Only Morgana was still hanging around him, his big eyes fixated on him as his frown eased off, turning into sympathy. “Joker—”

He quickly shook his head and followed the others, still too hot to have that kind of conversation with Morgana. His friend seemed to get the message, and they silently made their way back to Junes. He still couldn’t help but look around and try to find a shade of purple in the fog, anything that would look like the Velvet Room or Lavenza—but he didn’t see anything.

Once they got there, Yuu told them he’d take care of the battle preparations with Yosuke, and when Akira tried to join them, the leader sighed and laid his hand on his shoulder : “Please leave it to us. Yosuke and I have an actual salary now, we can buy everything we need, and I know exactly where to go in Inaba. You should take a break for today, okay?”

He felt absolutely defeated. Weak, belittled, useless—the same feeling he’d had ever since he’d come back to Inaba. And even if he knew he should’ve been more mature about it, that it was fine to rely on someone else and especially people who had more experience than him and were able to keep a clear mind about the whole situation—he wanted to be part of it. He wanted to lead and save the day, rescue Akechi on his own and prove that…

Akira made his way out of Junes after saying goodbye to everyone and exchanging numbers. Naoto looked like she wanted to ask a few more things, but a look from Yuu dissuaded her. They all split up, and Akira started walking home, eyes downwards and shoulders heavy, like all the exhaustion from his sleepless night was catching back on him.

He decided to lock himself inside his room, since he didn’t really want to face his mom now. They had not exchanged a word since the previous day, and their argument seemed so far away now. Who cared about university and money, when Akechi Goro was currently stuck in another world with his own crazy bloodthirsty self as his only company? Akira thought back to the Palace while laying on his back and staring at the ceiling. The clean and organized building, dedicated to a fantasy where his rival had saved the world, was loved and respected by everyone, so powerful people cried laughing just thinking about him losing against anyone. He wondered for a moment what they would see, once they’d get further inside. Surely, Akechi’s distortion couldn’t be as simple as that. There had to be more layers, because the cognitive world was a mirror of the true self, and therefore was always cruelly honest. And if he knew anything about Akechi, it was that he was far from blind, especially when it came to himself. He always knew exactly what he was doing, and he’d never once considered his actions were right.

That was probably why his Shadow was so keen on punishing him. Akechi had told him in the most straightforward way—he didn’t think he deserved to be saved, or forgiven. It might even be why his heart got so distorted. Because once again, his wish to disappear had been taken from him. Because he was still alive, after all this time.

Akira was startled out of his thoughts when he felt Morgana climb on his belly. The cat was heavy, and he knew it, and he was about to shoo him off when he saw the way he was looking at him. Still full of pity, and like he was truly at a loss of what to say or do. Akira dropped his hand back on the bed, he also let his head roll back, and he took a deep breath. He thought about it for a few minutes, and then decided he’d been really unfair with his friend earlier : “Sorry for before. You were right, I got careless. I wasn’t thinking right.”

“It’s fine,” Morgana said with a small voice, like he wanted to be sure he wouldn't anger him again. “You’re stressed out, and I only know how to be rational. I should’ve been more thoughtful myself.”

Akira looked at him for a second, before he finally raised his head and started scratching right under the cat’s chin. Morgana frowned, clearly unamused to be pet like an animal, but the purrs coming out of him gave his true feelings away. Just like that, he was forgiven, and they could go back to a comfortable silence.

At least, that’s what usually happened. This time, even though Morgana climbed off of him, he didn’t leave or go to sleep. He didn’t even try telling him he should eat something before going to bed, the way he always liked to chide him, like he was his caretaker. “You… never told me what happened last time. With Akechi.”

Akira stiffened, the memory acting like a shock of electricity coursing through his entire body. His first instinct was to lie, and he opened his mouth to tell Morgana that nothing happened, that they’d talked about the next day, that they’d had cordial goodbyes and that was it. But Morgana wasn’t dumb, and he’d been with him all those months. He’d seen him cry the night before.

Akira gulped down, his hand immediately going behind his neck, pulling on his hair. He shook his head as a nervous laugh got out of him. “It was just…” He furiously removed his hand and forced it down on his sheets. “I’m paraphrasing, but, clearly…” His laugh got a little bit wet. “He told me that he wanted to die, and that it didn’t concern me.”

The hardest thing was that he knew perfectly well that, that night, Akechi didn’t mean everything he said. He was harsh, he was cruel, and Akira knew that some words were only meant to hurt him. Anything so Akira wouldn’t hesitate, would follow the initial plan and have no remorse. But some parts still hurt just the same. Your life isn’t trivial, Akira had said, and Akechi had replied without an ounce of hesitation that it was.

You couldn’t get clearer than that. That night, he’d been rejected, entirely. His hope, his justice, his feelings—they’d all been denied. And maybe the reason why it still hurt, months after the fact, was because he’d started feeling helpless then, and it never stopped afterwards. Who cared if Akira was the one to save Akechi? He’d never wanted help, even less his. Yuu and his friends could take care of it, it was the same. He was weak, alone in Inaba, and after being rejected once, he didn’t want it to happen twice.

“But… Even then, it’s not fair to you,” Morgana finally said. “It’s not right to tell someone off when they only want you to live… Right?”

Akira gave him a little smile. He rolled on his side, and this time, when he started petting Morgana’s head, he didn’t get any complaint. Morgana kept looking at Akira, his big blue eyes so full of affection and pity.

“It’s fine, Mona,” he whispered. “I’m just overwhelmed after the last two days, but I swear I’m okay. Even if I hate it, he made his choice, back then. And even if it hurts, I’m still going to help him, in any way I can.” He chuckled, an ugly sound considering how wet his nose was. “I know I’m not getting anything out of it, not even gratitude, but…” He cleared his throat. “I’m stubborn like that.”

Morgana got up, so he could curl up against Akira’s stomach, as if he didn’t know what else to do. He even admitted : “I still don’t really get it… I thought you’d be relieved to hear he’s alive, but…”

“I am. I really am.”

“... But I guess I never really understood you guys’ thing, even back in the days.”

Akira finally let out an honest laugh, taking off his glasses, so he could wipe unshed tears out of his eyes. “I’ll explain it better another day.”

Mona watched him for a long minute, slowly blinking as he kept purring, tail lightly slapping Akira’s arm. “I don’t understand, but that doesn’t mean I mind, you know. I could see how happy you were when you were with him.” His paw stretched forward to make a grabby motion on his uniform jacket. “And he was too, in his own way. I think.”

Akira didn’t answer. He didn’t want to think of that possibility, because it hurt too much.

The only thing he had left, anyway, was faith.

To be continued.

Chapter Text

Burn and rise, immortal warrior,
Higher than the sky, breaking through the clouds,
You cannot stop.
In the middle of the glimmering, stunning stars,
You’re still flying.

Why did he do that? Don’t ask him, he had no clue. What did people say, “my body moved on its own”? He wasn’t familiar with the sentiment. He was proud of his ability to keep control at any time, with his perfect poker face and a legendary smile that helped him evade all problems. But then he had to go right to the guy, barely hiding that he actually jogged to be sure he wouldn’t miss him, bullshitting his way out of the embarrassing fact that he had no real reason to make conversation other than a strange impulse that came out of nowhere… Just to get a phone number.

Seriously, though, Akechi Goro, Mr Prince Detective? Hegel? What the hell was he even thinking? Who talks philosophy with a guy you just met? And what was that about thesis and antithesis? He wanted to ask him out, not look like an obsessive weirdo! And the guy wasn’t even that hot, Goro kept repeating to himself, still steaming in shame and anger in his taxi home. His glasses were too big, he was slouching in his chair like a kid, he’d been very obnoxious during the show too. What was he trying to do, when he openly supported the Phantom Thieves? Didn’t he get the memo? Goro was the star. Girls giggled when he made jokes, they clearly didn’t care about their weird, lanky classmate.

But then, in the middle of their little “debate” when Goro was about to turn to the show hosts so they could get back on track, the guy had said one more thing :

“Why are you so convinced the Phantom Thieves have bad intentions?”

He was almost expecting the question to be followed by a little taunt, something like ‘you think your justice is better than other people’s?’ or ‘you’re just jealous’. But he didn’t follow up with anything. He kept on watching Goro, gray eyes surprisingly clear behind his thick lenses, and he patiently waited for an answer.

“This is only a hypothesis, remember,” Goro managed to say without stumbling on his words, though his heart had a little stutter. “I do agree though that I am talking about the worst case scenario. In any case, I could ask you the same. Why are you so convinced that they have good intentions?”

And then, as the director started getting impatient and signaled to the team that they needed to cut the mic as soon as possible, the teenager had a little surprised smile. It pulled on one side of his mouth, a quick flash of teeth, and he let out a little low chuckle. He then stretched his neck to get closer to the mic – a little bit too close, because the sound was almost muffled, raspy, like his lips had brushed against it – and he said :

“Faith.”

Back in the taxi, Goro could still hear the word ringing in his ears. On set, he had an earpiece to get directions from the crew but also to hear everything perfectly – and the word had seemed whispered right into his ear. Like it was only meant for him, and the teenager – god, he didn’t even get his name – didn’t care about the cameras, the crew or his giggling classmates. Like the only one he cared about was Goro, and he could actually see everything. Under his clothes, under his skin, inside his damn soul.

Goro didn’t get crushes. He never had, in his whole life. He was too busy, too tired to even consider it. He didn’t have time for anyone other than himself – he didn’t need anyone other than himself. However, for the first time, someone had caught his attention and he’d been so startled he’d acted out of his mind. And the most surprising fact was that it worked. Even if he acted like a douche on stage, even if he talked about Hegel like an asshole, even if he didn’t even remove his gloves to shake hands, the other guy had given him his number. And he’d even taken Goro’s, so it was clear this wasn’t a fake. He didn’t reject him.

Goro muffled a very embarrassing chuckle against his hands and hid his giddy smile behind the gloves. He still couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe that he had met a guy during a TV shoot, that he had asked him out, and it had worked .

He knew it would certainly go wrong somewhere. Maybe the guy was just dumb and didn’t notice that Goro was interested in him, maybe he was an asshole, maybe he never showered. But for now, Goro decided to allow himself this little moment, this one day when he truly acted like a teenager before he’d need to go home and switch his suitcase for the one that contained a first-aid kit, a gun, a silencer, and a lot of energy packs.

For now, he was smiling, and he meant it.

Then he woke up.

Goro's first instinct was to throw his blanket away, jump on his feet and reach for his gun. However, first of all he didn’t have any weapon, and also he was suddenly faced with the realization that he had no idea where he was – again.

When was he moved from his chair and the screen room? Where did his Shadow go? Did he fall asleep, was he drugged, did he faint? Too many questions were roaring in his brain and the strain in his neck came back as he whipped his head around to try and understand where he was. The room was pretty well illuminated, he had a bed and a little plastic table – and that was it. The rest was hidden in darkness behind the thick glass surrounding the room, like those weird prisons you saw in action movies, the ones where the most dangerous criminals were detained.

He almost let out an incredulous laugh. Was he that much of a threat? Also, in movies, those prison cells usually didn’t last long – it was like they were begging to be broken – so that was one thing he had going for him, probably. He wasn’t a fan, but it was still better than being binding to a chair.

Goro sat back on the mattress with a sigh and shook his head. His heart was still beating fast from his dream and his sudden awakening, he had to breathe and stay calm. Things would be fine, he kept reminding himself. Sure, they didn’t exactly go the way he wanted. Honestly, things had hardly gone according to plan for more than a year – probably June of last year. But it was fine. He could take it.

He finally had the opportunity to meet his maker. It was time he faced consequences for his actions – he’d been ready for so long, and there he was. Sure, he hadn’t expected it to take place in his own head - he’d been thinking for a long time about how he’d do it, so it was pretty unnerving to leave it to his Shadow. And honestly, now that he had time to sleep over it, he wasn’t so sure he’d go with the flow and let the Shadow do as he wished. If Goro had the opportunity to escape, he would take it. He was responsible for his own life, and he decided when things had to be over. No matter what the sick part of his brain thought of it.

He thought about the possibility of an escape. Worse, of the possibility of him being rescued . There was only one way for anyone to find out Goro was still alive, and it was putting his name in the Navigator. It would show that he had a Palace and thus that he’d survived. And if someone, let’s say the Phantom Thieves, discovered this, they would definitely try to get in. Because they were dumb like that. Also, when they raided a Palace, they usually explored from top to bottom, so there was no way they’d miss him. And he would live. Again.

It was ridiculous, obviously. First of all, they probably didn’t have the Nav anymore – it was gone with the Metaverse. And even if they still had it, there were next to zero chances of them looking up his name, even less in the coming days. He’d be gone before that, he’d make sure of it. Goro didn’t want anyone meddling with his own heart, as distorted as it was. The idea of getting a change of heart made him sick.

They had definitely moved on, as they should. No matter if his own sick little brain still couldn’t let go of his silly crush, coming to haunt him even in his dreams – Goro didn’t want to see Kurusu Akira ever again. They were done, for real, this time.

With nothing else but his own thoughts, no need to eat or drink or anything, Goro ended up on his side, trying to sleep and definitely not eaten up by the terrifying idea of Kurusu finding out about him and seeing all the fucked up shit that was surely stored in Goro’s metaphorical brain. Anything but that. He hoped his Shadow wouldn’t take too long getting things done, or else Goro would definitely take things over. He was getting exhausted of being played with like a puppet.

The next day, Akira was up earlier than usual. He usually didn’t see his mother before she left for work, but this time she was in the kitchen when he got there. They exchanged silent greetings, the air still tense after not talking for two days and the argument still unresolved – but they didn’t do anything about it. Akira didn’t have a mind to it anyway. All that mattered, right now, was Akechi.

He had to find a way to get more Personas, quickly. He thought about going to the cognitive world without telling the group, but Teddie would notice him, and he would immediately go to his sensei , who would probably tell him to stay calm and let him handle everything. However, Akira had an advantage over the others, and it was his flexibility. Maybe Yuu would consider giving him leadership once he’d know about his ability to turn Shadows into Personas and switch between them during battles. Hopefully.

“You got home late last night,” his mom suddenly said without really looking at him except for a quick glance over her bowl of rice. Akira shrugged it off while bending over to grab a plate for his toast.

“No I wasn’t, it wasn’t even six.”

“Who were you with? Your girlfriend?”

He bit his lip and leaned back to face her properly. She was still eating with a look of disinterest, but he knew better. She was hiding behind a mask of indifference because she was uncomfortable, and also curious. That was a first, he thought with a little scoff. “I don’t have one. Sorry I didn’t tell you I’d get back late, it wasn’t planned or anything.”

“It’s fine,” she quickly said. “You’re at that age. And…” She cleared her throat. “I trust you. About… doing the right things. To stay safe, and, um…”

He would’ve winced if he wasn’t utterly shocked at his mother’s attempt to give him some kind of sex talk, and to tell him she trusted him. He finally turned around to look at her properly, and he smiled at her. “Sure. I’ll be sure to tell you next time I come home late. Don’t wait for me today, actually.”

She nodded and gulfed down the rest of her meal to leave the room with the face of someone who just ate a lemon. Akira remained frozen in disbelief for a few seconds, and then shook his head and laughed it off. At least now he could go to the other world unbothered.

That day, he went to school in high spirits. Maybe it was his small talk with his mom, or maybe he was feeling a lot more confident now that he’d seen what Akechi’s palace looked like. It didn’t seem that big, and they didn’t even have to steal any treasure this time. All they had to do was to locate Akechi and bring him back. If he had troubles in his heart that led to him manifesting a palace, they could deal with that in the real world.

At lunch, Ryota tried to make plans with him for later that day, but he made up an excuse about working a shift at Junes. He thought about it for a while and decided he could go with that story – that wouldn’t make him hanging out with strangers at Junes too suspicious, and Yosuke could easily cover for him. Akira quickly sent him a text, and the older man told him it was good with him – he might even ask him to come and help if he was ever short of staff. And just like that, Akira got an actual part-time job. He was surprised, however, when not too long after, he received another text – this one from Yuu.

“I’d like to talk to you before we jump into the TV world, if that’s okay with you? I’ll come get you at Yasogami High, and we can talk on the way.”

“Also, Yosuke is always short on staff. Hope you know how to say no, or you’ll never have a free weekend ever again.”

Akira sent a positive reply, his phone hidden under his desk, and then promptly forgot about it all when the teacher started to glare at him. In Tokyo, he would’ve gotten chalk thrown at him for that, thank god teachers in Yasogami were much more mellow.

Still, he expected Yuu to wait for him at the gate, not to find him in the corridor as he was walking out of class – even less to see him having a chat with the P.E. teacher. He stopped in his tracks, his bag almost falling off of his shoulder when, as soon as Mr. Nagase started to trot away, a girl with short brown hair rushed to his side with a big smile. Yuu finally noticed Akira though and acknowledged his presence : “Oh, there he is. Hello.”

“Um, hi.” He quickly looked between the two. “Should I… come back later?”

“Oh no, it’s fine, I just wasn’t expecting to see him here!” the girl quickly answered, and then turned towards Yuu. “You have to come one of these nights for dinner, it’s been a while.”

“Sure, how about tonight? We should be done by 7.”

“I don’t know if dad will be there, though…”

Akira’s eyes were getting bigger and bigger the more the conversation went on, and when Yuu finally noticed, he almost seemed uncomfortable. “Ah, don’t misunderstand please, we’re cousins. You two never met?”

“I heard he was transferred here this year, but that’s it. Nice to meet you,” the second-year told him with a large smile. “I’m Nanako."

“I'm Akira, nice to meet you too. I think I saw you in the choir during the festival? You guys were great.”

She giggled a thank you and then waved them goodbye when she saw that her friends were waiting for her, and some of them were checking out Yuu pretty openly. Akira couldn’t help but let out a nervous laugh. “You surely are popular…”

“Really? Maybe. Anyway, let’s go, the others are probably waiting.”

They silently made their way out of Yasogami High, this time without getting stopped on the way, although a few other people waved at the older man. As soon as they got out of sight, Yuu cut to the chase : “So, I said I had to talk to you about something. I hope I didn’t misunderstand and that you won’t think I’m crazy, but…” He turned his head to look at Akira right in the eyes. “Yesterday, Morgana said you could use multiple Personas. Correct?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, although seeing Yuu getting so serious made him a little bit uncomfortable. “Why?”

“Because I can do that too.”

His eyes widened, and his heart started to beat a little bit faster. He was so dumbfounded, he only managed to answer : “Huh?”

“Yes. The moment I got my first Persona, Izanagi, I found out I could also switch him with other ones, as long as I had met them before. I can also invoke some, or fuse them. Does… that ring any bell to you?”

Akira blinked, and let out a dry chuckle. “Uh, yeah. You’re telling me you also have access to the Velvet Room. And you’ve met Igor. And Lavenza. Right?”

That got Yuu to heave a deep, heavy sigh, as if he was suddenly relieved from a burden. “Yes. A man with a long nose named Igor, and an attendant. I’ve heard they tend to change from person to person, mine is called Margaret.”

Akira suddenly felt really stupid. And childish, once again, for thinking he was, deep down, maybe better than Yuu in some way. Turns out they were the same. Except Yuu was older, wiser, clearly more confident and charismatic than him. More handsome too. And a show-off. Damn, he couldn't win, could he?

However, this realization didn’t feel as bad as it did the day before. Sure, it pretty much confirmed that he’d have to follow his lead and shut his mouth – but he'd probably be able to access the Velvet Room now. And two Tricksters in one party almost seemed like cheating. He now had no doubt they’d be able to rescue Akechi.

“Damn. I wasn’t expecting that at all, I thought I was… I don’t know, it’s stupid, but I thought I was alone?” Akira chuckled while rubbing his neck.

“So Akechi is not the same as us?”

“I don’t think so, no. Even after I found out about his other Persona, I never saw him use any other one.” He received a nod, and immediately followed-up : “Do you have access to the Velvet Room now?”

“There’s a door in the Shopping District, and you should be able to see it in the TV world too. Maybe it’ll appear to you once you know it’s there?”

It would make sense, cognitively speaking. However, they agreed they didn’t really have time to get inside right away, and they might as well see what they’d be going up against first. He’d have all the time he needed to fuse and look for the best combinations once he’d be more familiar with the Shadows roaming in Akechi’s Palace – and he still had Arsene in the meantime.

They finally joined the others and quickly jumped inside Junes’ screen, and sure enough, he saw the purple door as soon as he stepped on the TV set. Mona was already there with Teddie since he was curious about this new cognitive world, and he could afford to spend his days exploring the place. Akira took his old gun – the latest he’d gotten from Iwai, the one he’d used to shoot at Adam Kadmon – and knife out of his bag, while Yuu was sharing supplies between them. His weapons earned him a low whistle from Yosuke, though. “Well, well, kid, you’re not joking around. Two different weapons, huh?”

“None of you have guns?” he frowned.

“Wh– Of course we don’t?” he sputtered. “I mean, except Naoto, but how the hell are we supposed to find some in Inaba?” Touché.

They finally gathered to talk about their plans for the day. Once again, Yuu took the leadership and started talking. “Alright, so we need to decide which way we should go first. If I remember correctly, Naoto wanted to explore, so we’d get a better idea of what we’re going against. Meanwhile, Morgana said we should go for the business elevator and see if we could cut to the chase and negotiate with the Shadow directly. Finally, Akira proposed we immediately duel him.” Everyone nodded. “Does anyone have anything to add, any change of opinion?”

Silence answered him, but clearly, all looks were directed towards Akira. He let out a sigh and cleared his throat. “I was thinking pretty recklessly yesterday, I’ll admit it. I thought I could take on his Shadow, but as Mona said we have no idea what’s waiting for us and most of us haven’t used our powers for a long time. Also…” he added with a wince. “If I know anything about Akechi, it’s that he’s a sore loser. He’s not the type to cheat, mind you, so I think the fight would be a fair one. However, he’s a very good liar. And I wouldn’t be surprised if going against him in a duel was a lot more complicated than what the receptionist told us.”

“Do you think this could apply to the rest of the Palace?” Naoto asked. “That even the seemingly harmless floors could be nothing but a facade?”

“Probably, yes.”

Yosuke hummed under his breath, arms crossed as he pondered over something. “Okay, so we definitely need to gather more information first, right? If I remember correctly, the girl said the visitor's elevator gave us access to some kind of arena – that must be the one where villains come to have their duel, right?”

“It wouldn’t hurt if we checked the place first, sure.”

“It all depends on how big it is,” Yuu added. “From what we heard, it’s the biggest floor of them all. Sure, it might be where we’ll find the most info, but it could take days and lead us nowhere.” He put his hand on his hip and sent a quick glance to Akira. “What do you think?”

He didn’t expect Yuu to ask for his opinion, he was already ready to go with the flow. “Sure,” he quickly answered. “It’s open, and we might even get a map of the place. I don’t see why not.”

The others agreed, and then they departed for the Palace, following Teddie through the fog. He saw Naoto widen her steps to catch up with Yuu. “I checked this morning, the next fog will probably settle in Inaba next week. We don’t have a lot of time.”

“It’s alright,” he reassured her. “We’ll take a look anyway and if it happens to be too big, we can still try going for a direct meeting or a duel. It’s just to get a feel of the place.”

“I trust your decisions, Yuu,” she sighed while adjusting her cap. “But I can't help it, this whole situation is too strange. There’s so much we don’t know yet, and now we learned that Akechi was a Persona user too. It will have an impact on his Palace, there’s no way around it.”

They kept on talking softly, as if they didn’t really want the others to hear, so Akira decided to walk slower. They were right to take every precaution and think of the worst cases scenarios, but he didn’t really want to hear them right now.

He fell right in step with Yosuke who was walking with his arms crossed while clearly repressing a frown. Akira looked around, saw that he was actually glaring at his two friends, and tentatively asked : “Uh, are you okay?”

“Yup,” he suddenly smiled, although it clearly was a little bit forced. “All good. A-okay. Ready to kick ass, and everything. How about you? Ready to get inside your friend’s head?”

He blinked a little, then shrugged. “I honestly don’t think anything I'd see in there could surprise me.”

“No way, kid,” Yosuke chuckled, shaking his head like Akira was just a naive child. “We all have our dark secrets. Things we’d never even admit to ourselves. Trust me, I had to face my own Shadow, and it wasn’t pretty.”

“Uh, I have no doubts about that,” he slowly answered. “But honestly, I think I’ll be fine.”

“What?” he chuckled. “You guys are that close? He tells you everything? There’s gotta be stuff you kept from him too, why wouldn’t he do the same?”

Akira wasn’t going to tell Yosuke about how he’d been a big witness to the detective’s darkest sides, so he decided to turn the question around. “Maybe. You don’t tell everything to Yuu?”

Yosuke immediately lost his smile and went back to his frown. He even glanced at Naoto and Yuu again, before muttering under his breath : “We used to. But things change, I guess.” Akira could feel he’d just stepped on a hornet nest, and he was ready to bail out of this conversation – but Yosuke actually kept on talking : “Look at them. Flirting like that in the open, and they’re even living together right now. But do you think he’d ever tell his best friend that he’s dating someone? Nooope. Never trust anyone, kid. They’ll stab you in the back.”

Welp, here were the hornets, and they were already trying to eat him alive. Akira looked around for an escape and there was none. Morgana was arguing about something with Teddie – he’d probably said Morgana was a cat  – and the other two were still whispering to each other, which really wasn’t helping with Yosuke’s sudden jealousy fit. Jeez, they had met three days ago, couldn’t he get a break? “I… think they’re only talking about the Palace, and nothing else.”

“They’re whispering to each other. And you don’t know him like I do.”

“Clearly I don’t, yeah,” he mumbled.

“All the girls like him, it’s infuriating.”

“Well, he is pretty cool and good-looking.”

Yosuke actually choked on his spit, and winced, until finally, he squeaked out : “I know. It drives me nuts . I adore him, but man, it’s so unfair.” Then, he sighed. “I need a girlfriend.”

Thank god, Akira finally caught sight of the Palace, so he had a reason to run the fuck away from this train-wreck of self-pity. He’d had enough between Mishima and Ryuji, and he wished Ann was there to call him out on his bullshit. Really, there was nothing like a super pretty girl like her telling you to get over yourself and strive to be a better person, if you really wanted a relationship.

Once they got inside the Palace and Yosuke was finally done with his pity-party, they climbed onto the central elevator and quickly went up to the first floor of the building. Akira noticed his outfit still hadn’t changed, which made him quite uncomfortable. At least that meant they weren’t considered as threats by Akechi’s Shadow, but still. He would’ve liked to be Joker, right now.

The doors opened on a large circular entranceway with a round door leading to a museum that was absolutely packed with people. There were not only people waiting in line to get inside, but also security guards Shadows with their backs against the wall to watch over the crowd and make sure no one caused trouble. Many people were also looking around the open shop that covered up the biggest part of the lobby, filled to the brim with merchandise, books, DVDs and other goodies dedicated to the owner of the building. Their group quickly looked around the place under the diligent Shadows eyes, and while Teddie was marveling at the entire shelf dedicated to Red Phoenix’ food products, Akira and Naoto decided to look over the books.

There wasn’t much inside, sadly. Most of them were actually empty, clearly here to fill up the space and make it look as large as possible. However, there were a few things they noticed, and they found noteworthy. First of all, Akechi was never called by his name in the books. He was always “Sir Red Phoenix”, or “Our Hero” – and when Akira found a biography, he discovered the book only covered his life as a hero but nothing before that. His identity was kept secret. That made sense, considering he was wearing a mask at all times, but Akira still found it peculiar – in the real world, Akechi was looking for recognition, and he liked celebrity. He enjoyed the fact that everyone knew his face as well as his name.

Still, they quickly came to the conclusion that the store, even if it was overflowing with objects in reference to Red Phoenix, wouldn’t help them very much. It was easy to see how controlled and superficial everything was in there – after all, it was a store, made for fans. They finally entered the museum, which also turned out to be quite disappointing. You could easily feel that everything in there was manipulated and made to fit one narrative – that Red Phoenix was a grand, generous hero, who saved regardless of age, gender and ethnicity. The museum showed videos of the hero fighting monsters and villains, some of which were very familiar – especially that one alien commander with his army of robots, or the mob boss that had created panic over Tokyo on board of his mecha-pig. And they realized they really needed to keep their opinions about it for themselves, considering the number of Shadows watching their every movement.

One part that caught their attention, however, was a room that showed Red Phoenix’s apparitions in the media. The walls were covered in medals and other trophies, probably given by all the cities he’d saved, but the videos didn’t show Red Phoenix holding them or anything of the sort. All of his interviews seemed to be quite short, like a journalist had just managed to catch him and ask him one question before he ran off in the sunset. Usually, he answered with one sentence, something deep and philosophical that the screen could write in large subtitles, and then he disappeared like smoke.

That checked out with what they’d seen up to this moment, even if Akira was still pretty confused. Sure, he knew Akechi had his fair share of innocence, deep down, but that seemed all too clean and perfect and especially humble . Like this entire place wasn’t actually Red Phoenix’ doing, but the museum and the store were managed by fans and not the hero himself.

The final room confirmed this sentiment, and they didn't even have to walk through the door to know it. The place was filled with flowers. Simple ones, big bouquets, huge stacks piled up so high it was a miracle they didn’t fall over. And also letters. Some of them were closed and inserted in the few slits that led to a huge transparent box almost as large as a pool, visible only through a glass window that overlooked it. But that wasn’t counting all the open letters, sheets of papers stuck on the high walls, with almost no room left for new ones. Shadows here helped the public in pinning them where they could, climbing tall ladders and delicately putting them on the walls.

It pained Akira a little bit, to see all of this. Deep down, Akechi wanted to be loved and admired for his good deeds. He wanted to save people and get recognition for being a good person, someone selfless who never flew away from danger. Clearly, this Palace screamed that in the end, he would’ve loved being a Phantom Thief. But he couldn’t. Not in the real world, at least.

Still, they couldn’t find any doors or elevators beyond the one that would lead them to the arena. They still hadn’t looked around the whole floor, but when they finally got out of the museum, Akira walked up to Yuu. “I don’t think we’re going to find much here. Akechi is probably locked up somewhere safe, where no visitors have access.”

“I guess you’re right,” he conceded with a sigh. “At this point, we won’t get very far if we can't even meet the Shadow. I was hoping the fans' floor would give us something, but it clearly doesn’t look like he ever comes down this area.”

Morgana jumped on Akira’s shoulder, as if he didn’t weigh anything, and chimed in : “I agree. Seems like the business elevator is our best bet.”

“For what reason, though? We don’t have anything that could interest him.”

Yuu shrugged. “We have Personas, so we can easily pretend we’re heroes who are interested in a partnership.”

“Would that be enough, though?” Naoto asked. “From what we’ve seen, this building seems to be completely devoted to him and no other hero. Are you saying we should ask to team up with him?”

Morgana answered with a wince : “Uh, yeah, that probably won’t work. Akechi’s kind of a lone wolf. We need to earn his trust, especially if we want to meet with the real Akechi and get him out.”

“And we can’t let him know we’re trying to save the real Akechi from the Palace,” Naoto pointed out. “Or else he might reinforce security, and that will clearly not help us. We need to get close to him and earn his trust somehow – and quickly.”

Akira stayed silent for a moment, as he thought of the best way to convince Akechi’s Shadow to lead them to his prisoner. The person he considered to be his arch-nemesis, someone he’d clearly wanted to punish for a long time. He wasn’t the type of person who’d let others play with his toy either, and while they could probably stroke his ego to the point of him showing off while he tortured his own self – there was still the problem of trust. It’d be long, if it was even possible, considering how closed-off Akechi had always been.

“What do you think, Akira?” Teddie asked with a gentle smile. “No one here knows him better than you do. What would you say is the best way to do it?”

He didn’t even have time to open his mouth that Morgana butted in : “Now that I think about it, the reason why he approached you in the first place was because you got him curious when you talked with him. You being here might be enough.”

“More like he approached me because he knew I was a Phantom Thief,” he muttered, trying to hide his blush behind his hand as he twirled a lock of hair around his index finger.

“Hey, I’m not stupid,” Morgana replied with a scowl. “I’ve seen you guys have your little ‘debates’, it was 100% genuine. You know how to keep him on his toes, and there’s no reason you couldn’t do the same with his Shadow.”

“But–” Everyone seemed to wait expectantly, with curiosity in their eyes. “Alright, if you say so,” he conceded, defeated. “I’ll try to think of something on our way there. Let’s go,” and then he turned around and walked out of the room.

Teddie jogged to catch up with him, clearly not even noticing how embarrassed Akira was. He didn’t think Morgana would bring up his old “debates” with Akechi, especially after everything that happened. Also, he didn’t realize it at the time, but now, a year later, he definitely remembered the glint in the detective’s eyes when they met, the way he bent over the billiard table and the winks he gave Akira over their cakes when he said something witty. Those weren’t debates , those were Akechi’s weird way of establishing dominance (probably?) and at the time, Akira was so blind he answered with nonchalance. That wasn’t him keeping Akechi on his toes, it was just him being an oblivious idiot.

Thankfully, his blush had considerably receded once they arrived in front of the other elevator. There were no cognitions going up with them, so hopefully getting this meeting wouldn’t take too long. They arrived promptly and found themselves in front of another desk and another receptionist, both very similar to the one that had greeted them on the floor below. Yuu sent him a look, but Akira moved his head in a way to tell him to take the lead for now.

The receptionist was as friendly as the one from before, and she seemed genuinely happy when she heard they were heroes who wanted to meet Red Phoenix for a partnership. She asked only a few things to fill up her paperwork, most of which Yuu answered bullshit with the straightest face ever seen, and then she led them through a corridor with chairs and vending machines where she asked them to wait for their turn. There weren’t many cognitions waiting with them, but it still begged the question of how long it would take before they could finally meet the Shadow. The receptionist gave them a ticket with a number, and they’d be called as soon as it was their turn.

They were number 21. The numbers above the door that lead to the meeting room said 9. They sighed, but reluctantly went to sit and wait for their turn.

Turns out the meetings were pretty quick, they evaluated it would take them about an hour before it was their turn. Yuu and Naoto started to chat quietly, about how some of their friends would’ve immediately gone insane if they had to wait for over an hour just for a meeting that might not lead them anywhere. And Akira could definitely see that too, especially Ann and Ryuji. They’d probably be out to go explore at the first opportunity, too.

“By the way,” Morgana told him at one point. “Do you think there are cognitions of the Phantom Thieves in here? I mean, we were a pretty big influence on his life, whether he liked it or not.”

Akira hadn’t thought about that, and he immediately got curious too. He wondered what kind of person he was, in Akechi’s head. Was he even a person? Was he an object, like Yusuke had been a painting? In the same way, he’d probably get pretty crushed if he found out he didn’t even exist there. “Well, considering the narrative he’s got going, we could be Akechi’s – the real one, I mean – accomplices.”

“ … That would be bad, if we’re about to meet his Shadow.”

“It would probably, yeah,” he agreed. “But it’s just a theory anyway. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were carpets covering his floors – he barely tolerated us in the real world, so it could get pretty extreme in his own Palace.”

“I’m fine as long as he doesn’t see me as a cat,” Morgana added with a grumble.

Time went by slowly, even if he took that opportunity to get to know Yuu and Naoto better while Yosuke and Teddie were fighting with the vending machine. Akira learned that even though Yuu had family in Inaba, he felt bad imposing on his uncle, so he took Naoto’s offer to stay at her place – aka they weren’t dating and Yosuke was just being an idiot. She had a house to her name in town after her grandfather died, and she didn’t mind the company. Naoto started teasing her friend, however, telling Akira that Yuu was often going back to Inaba in recent years, and he refused to tell her where he stayed – and that even made the older man blush a little bit.

Then, Akira started to think about the meeting coming up. How could he get on the Shadow’s good side? Like Yuu had said earlier, there had to be a way, Palaces were never impossible to get through. However, sometimes, they did need some kind of clue or cognition change from the Palace Owner. Something needed to happen during this meeting, or they might have no chance left other than a direct duel.

Akira thought back to his first meetings with Akechi. How quickly they connected, bantering and always trying to surprise the other and get the upper hand. But that wasn’t right – they needed to appeal to Akechi’s Shadow, not make him mad.

… Or did they? The answer appeared to him suddenly. Akira even let out a chuckle because really, it was so silly it was actually possible it’d work.

“What?” Yosuke said. “Got an idea?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, and then couldn’t help but grin with satisfaction. “I know exactly what we need to do.”

A few minutes later it was finally their turn, and they all went inside the meeting room. It was nothing special – tables forming a U shape and a TV screen on the wall in front of them. That probably meant the Shadow wouldn’t come and meet them, which seemed fair for a first meeting, especially if he was supposed to be a very successful and thus busy hero, who also had to duel monsters and rivals every time they walked through his door.

They all went in front of their chairs, Yuu in the middle of the U next to Naoto, as they were probably the most well-spoken ones out of all of them. Akira was at the angle near Yuu, next to Morgana, and Yosuke took the seat next to Naoto, followed by Teddie. Yuu sent him a look, as if asking if he was really sure about this plan, but Akira nodded. He was positive it’d work. It didn’t take long before the screen flickered to life.

Akechi’s Shadow was sitting behind a desk, hands crossed in front of him and shoulders resting on the thick backseat of his chair. Behind him was a window, showing a city landscape at night, illuminated by the red spotlights that were twirling around on the roof. The Shadow was, just as before, wearing a red mask that enveloped the entirety of his head with a black visor hiding his eyes, surrounded by thin white lines curling and spiking like fire. However, he wasn’t wearing his red battle suit nor his cape this time – but a single (red, obviously) suit vest over a pressed shirt that had its first button open. His head did a little sway on the side, like an intrigued cat, and finally, he spoke : “Well hello everyone, I’m very pleased to meet you. I’m guessing you’re the group that wanted to meet and discuss a potential partnership, am I correct?”

Yuu forced his best commercial smile and answered : “It’s an honor to meet you, sir Red Phoenix. Please forgive us for taking so much of your time.” Then they all bowed, or at least Teddie tried to, and with a nod, Shadow Akechi allowed them to sit down.

“It’s alright, I’m always happy to meet new heroes. Although I had never heard about your group before, sadly. Still, I’m overjoyed if we can cooperate.” He let out a little laugh. “As you know, fighting for justice is my life's work, and I’ll gladly accept help from anyone who shares my vision.”

“That’s very nice of you, sir,” Naoto said. “We would also be enthused if we could be of any use to you. We have those powers, and we’d like to fight evil, but as you noticed, our group is still pretty young. We’d love to have someone as great in his craft as you to give us direction and help us grow.”

Akira could almost feel Akechi preening with pride when he heard this, although he could also perfectly picture his fake TV smile stretching his lips right now. It was a bit unusual to deal with him without seeing his face – especially considering how much of an open book Akechi was when he dropped his facade – but he was relieved to find he still managed to catch those kinds of clues.

“I’d be honored to do that. I cannot devote my entire time to you, obviously, but I’ll be sure to answer any questions you may have. Now,” he quickly said, as if to prevent them from adding anything. “My secretary will make sure to add your group to my contacts, so I can be warned if your hideout is ever under attack or if one of you ever needs saving. I’ll also be very happy to call you in case I need support during a world-threatening event – since I sadly only have two hands.” He quickly shrugged, and then clapped his hands together. “Anyway, it was a real pleasure to meet you. I wish you all the best, and–”

“Wait,” Yosuke actually cut him off. “That’s it? We waited for an hour for this ?”

He turned towards his teammates, incredulous, while Shadow Akechi lowered his hands a little bit and seemed quite puzzled. “What do you mean? You came to ask for my protection, and I gave it to you. What else could you possibly want?”

“What the hell, no, we came for a partnership!”

Morgana cleared his throat, clearly eager to say something, and when Akira gave him a little nod, he butted in : “What he’s saying is that we don’t need to be saved. We all have powers, and we’re pretty strong, so this is not what we’re here for. Therefore, if this is all you can offer us, then this deal is worthless for us.”

The Shadow didn’t seem impressed with him, as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Well then, may I ask what’s the purpose of you coming here? What are you looking for with this "partnership"?”

“As a young group, we’re missing many things,” Morgana said. “For example, you have great facilities here, and we wouldn’t mind getting access to some of them.”

“My facilities are already open to everyone,” the Shadow quickly cut him off. “You just have to go through the central elevator.”

“But we’re not interested in what everyone has access to,” Naoto said. “We’d like to get access to the things you are not showing to anyone. You must have some special rooms the public isn’t aware of, don’t you? Like your personal gym, your library." She shrugged. "Or your prisons.”

Akechi scoffed, but he even didn’t bother answering. Morgana continued, a little bit annoyed that the Shadow didn't even react to her words : “Also, we’re supposed to learn from you, aren’t we? We’d need to actually meet you, face to face.”

“You can learn everything you need to know from fighting me, if you dare go through the duel elevator. I’m not a teacher.”

“Last but not least,” Morgana sighed, because he was probably starting to get short of ideas, and he kept sending little looks at Akira, begging him to do something. “We need access to information, which I’m sure you can share, since you can’t possibly take care of every crime on your own.”

An actual snort escaped the masked Shadow in front of them. “How little faith you have. Of course, I can take care of all of it on my own.”

“You can’t.”

Akira’s voice resonated in the room, and silence stretched as his friends slowly turned in his direction with huge eyes. Sure, he had already told them about his plan, but they had to act accordingly. Instead of trying to appeal to the Shadow and win his trust, he realized it would be way easier to hurt his pride. Akechi was a bad loser because he was arrogant. And if there was one thing Akira had ever been good at, it was to play with this side of him – and win. He just needed to tease it a little bit – and then make a crazy bet, one Akechi would be absolutely sure there was no way he’d lose.

Even through the mask, this simple sentence made him feel the disdain of Akechi’s stare. “Are you questioning my abilities? I thought you were here to ask for my help.”

“We’re here because we’re interested in being equals. That’s what a partnership is.”

Shadow Akechi let out a loud laugh, one hand coming to his forehead as if he could feel some kind of headache coming. “What an audacious answer. Please tell me, young silly hero, why would I do that? I have never seen any of you before. I have never heard of you. I don’t know anything about you,” he slowly said with a deepening voice, as he got more and more annoyed, elbow on his desk and coming closer to the camera. “In what world could we ever be equals?”

And Akira, who wasn’t one to lower his head when faced with cockiness, also leaned over the table, his now crimson-gloved hands splayed on the wood. “We are equals. And I can prove it.”

The air in the room was electric as both Akira and Akechi crossed glares from behind their masks, even through a TV screen. On his right, he saw someone do a double-take, probably shocked to see that his appearance had suddenly changed – from the Yasogami uniform, large glasses and slouched appearance, to a masked man dressed in a black outfit, his long coat almost brushing the floor and his heels clacking on the ground. But Joker didn’t look away from the Shadow who seemed unimpressed and was probably waiting for him to look away first. Finally, Red Phoenix muttered : “Can you?”

“We know something that you don’t. Something that could ruin your entire reputation forever if you do not listen to us.”

Red Phoenix raised his chin, like he was daring him to keep talking. “Are you saying I did something wrong ?”

“The person that you caught and that you’re currently keeping prisoner is innocent.”

Silence answered him first. The hero’s hand clenched a little bit and when he started to talk again, his voice was strained, as if he was trying to contain his anger. “Oh really?” he chuckled darkly. “You’re trying to tell me I can’t even recognize my own arch-nemesis?”

Akira took a deep breath and decided to soften his tone. Making the Shadow actually angry wasn’t the plan, he needed to calm things down. “I think that you may have lost your way. You didn’t give him a fair trial and immediately decided to punish him, but as far as I know, this is not how Red Phoenix does things. This is not who you are. You have had the wrong idea this whole time, and it’s finally time someone opened your eyes.”

Akechi didn’t say anything for a little while, and the fact that he stopped moving so much didn’t help Akira in figuring out what he truly thought. At least, it seemed he did strike a nerve, which was more than he expected. The Shadow finally opened his mouth again : “Tell you what. Your foolishness is actually quite impressive, and I’m almost curious to see what crazy lies that mop head of yours could come up with.” He shrugged and leaned back on his seat. “Very well. I’ll meet you. However, there is one condition. Some kind of test, if you will.”

“What is it?” Yuu said, because he felt that he was finally allowed back in the conversation.

“I’m still extremely busy, you need to understand this. I have meetings, and duels, and training, and in between I still need to save the world. Which is why I’ll only meet you if you find your way up to the very last floor of this building, where his cell is.” He chuckled. “That should be entertaining.”

“But there’s no way up,” Yosuke said. “We’ve not seen anything of the sort–”

He got cut by a kick from Naoto who was glaring at him. Things were going so well, they couldn’t let the Shadow know they’d been trying to infiltrate the building from the very beginning.

“Of course there is one,” the Shadow chuckled, clearly not that surprised to learn their true intent behind this meeting. “How do you think I go down to the arena? I am a Phoenix sure, but I have yet to learn how to fly. I will admit the way up is pretty well guarded, but I always give a fair chance to my opponents. And if someone manages to find their way up this building, if they want to be sneaky and do not dare to duel me, that’s on me.”

“Is that a deal, then?” Akira asked, because he needed to be absolutely sure Akechi wouldn’t go back on his promise. “If we manage to get to the last floor of the building, you’ll meet us, and you’ll listen to us?”

A soft laugh answered him. Red Phoenix brought his jaw to rest on his hand and he replied with a low voice. “You seem very eager to meet me in person, silly hero. Are you secretly a fan of mine?”

“I have a lot of things I’d like to say to you, that’s right,” Akira answered without missing a beat.

The Shadow curled his fingers around his chin, shoulders shaking with a repressed laugh. “Then you could at least give me your name. It’s only fair, if we strike a deal, don’t you think?”

It was probably only because he was now fully into his Trickster self that he didn’t blush and, on the contrary, was able to throw back a smirk. He kept his head high, didn’t look away, and answered with assurance : “You can call me Joker.”

“Then it’s a deal, Joker. See you soon,” the Shadow replied with a low, honey-like voice, before the screen was turned off and showed him, like a mirror, the stricken faces of his friends.

Yosuke seemed like he had just eaten a lemon and probably also a whole grapefruit considering how sour he looked. Teddie had his eyes wide and was barely blinking, while Naoto was almost gaping at him. And Yuu… was frowning, which was a lot, coming from him. Even Morgana was speechless, even though he was the first one to shake off the shock. “Well, that… was a win, I guess?”

“I guess so…” Naoto agreed, like she was finally back to her senses. “We now know there’s a way up near the arena. And if we actually find our way up the building, he should cooperate with us. Probably.”

“That means he’ll keep an eye on us the entire time, though,” Yuu added. “But I guess that would’ve happened the moment we took a step where we weren’t allowed to be anyway. Let’s hope we won’t get attacked as soon as we get out of this room.”

“Sorry,” Akira winced. “I really only wanted to egg him a little, but I guess I went a little bit too far.”

“Too far!?” Yosuke suddenly screeched, finally back with them. “What was that at the end? Joker, really? And it was so damn weird, the way your voice and outfit suddenly changed, like you were a whole other dude! And…” He took a deep breath, then his face started to get a little bit red – out of shame, anger, or maybe both. “Were you flirting with him? That was your plan? You could’ve warned us!”

Akira blinked, surprised by the outburst. However, he shrugged. “That outfit is the manifestation of my rebellious spirit, that’s what I’m usually wearing in the cognitive world. I guess I needed a little push to wake it up. Joker was my code name as a Phantom Thief.” Then, he frowned. “And I wasn’t flirting?”

“Well it sure looked like it, kid, and it was weird .”

Naoto very openly rolled her eyes when she heard this, and muttered : “I wish Kanji was here to slap you right now.”

“Oh don’t you dare, we were all super uncomfortable, don’t deny it!”

“Not for the same reasons, no, we weren’t.”

“Help me partner, jeez, you thought the same, right?”

Yuu very openly avoided his question and turned towards Akira. “That was well done. Now, let’s get out of here, we have no time to lose.”

“Hey, Ted, c’mon, tell me I’m not crazy. You agree with me, right?”

The bear looked at Yosuke, slowly blinked, his smile stuck on his face – like he didn’t have a clue what was going on with him. However, he still cheered : “Those two really are close, it’s amazing to watch! It’s a beautiful, beautiful friendship.”

Akira smiled and patted the creature’s head as he followed Yuu and Naoto out of the room. Morgana was not far behind, though he sent a nasty stare to Yosuke before leaving. As expected, however, a Shadow appeared from the elevator and when he heard his friends scream their Personas’ names, he rushed after them with a swear and entirely forgot about the scene.

The Phoenix couldn’t stop watching the screen, the one from the video camera that filmed everything going on in the corridor leading to the meeting room. He had to remove his mask as soon as he went offline because of how breathless he felt, and now he was like a child on Christmas as he watched the fight going on downstairs.

He was here. There was no doubt about it. The grin, the hair, the gloves, the name – it didn’t leave any room for doubt. The Phoenix had to hide a snicker behind his hands, covering his mouth as he was enraptured with the sight of the teenager in black – his stance as he took out his gun, the way he spread his legs as he summoned his Persona, how he lifted his chin when he gave an order and then watched his enemy burn in black fire.

He couldn’t believe it had actually worked. When his true self had appeared, he was first controlled by anger, resentment, disgust. He and the Phoenix were nothing alike, and he hated to be associated with such a miserable person. He was the reason why everything went wrong. He was the one who chose to not listen.

But then, the Phoenix had a thought. Maybe things weren’t completely lost. Maybe he still had a chance to get what he wanted. Maybe, if he played his cards right, he could get what he’d longed for. When he explored the cognitive world, he had heard of an old way to contact the real world, a lost link that he’d manage to revive and use to his advantage. He could open a window and share his message. And if the person he was looking for happened to see him, and his true self, then maybe… He could finally get his very own happy ending.

He watched Joker jump back on his feet, the incarnation of confidence, and he knew he had already won. This man would never back down until he was at the very top of this building, just so he could win his little bet. And the Phoenix would let him do it. Sure, he’d play his part and wouldn’t make things easy for him, because it was more fun to see him struggle on the way – but it was all an act. Yes, Joker would get to the top of the hideout, and he’d find out the truth about the Phoenix, about Akechi Goro, about everything.

But that didn’t mean he’d ever let him go back down.

To be continued.

Chapter Text

There’s no evil your anger cannot defeat,
Your heart is fair – so fair it’s burning, boiling,
It throbs, it pulses like a setting sun,
And finds its brothers to make it one.

He’d long since stopped caring, that was the trick. Tell us Akechi, how do you handle all the pressure from being one of the youngest detectives in Japan? Tell us Akechi, how does it feel to hear whispers wherever you go, whatever you do? Tell us Akechi, how did you manage to fool pretty much all Japan and probably a lot of foreigners into thinking you’re a nice pleasant boy when you actually murder people for a living?

Tell us Akechi, why do you want to die?

So many questions for only one answer – he didn’t give a single shit. About what people thought, about their expectations, about their jealousy and especially about their disillusions upon meeting his real self. It was so much easier that way. And sure, you could argue that he didn’t actually not care, not when he got so much joy and self-fulfillment from hearing praise and compliments – even if he didn’t deserve those.

He cared about being liked and loved and necessary, he cared about his image and did his best to always be likable, always proper and polite, always perfect. But did he ever think about what someone, an individual, could think of him? Did he ever feel guilt over one of those assholes he’d turned berserk and left to die? Did he feel bad for tricking so many people, for not actually being the boyfriend material so many thought him to be? Hell no.

Goro didn’t care and that wasn’t new. He never had anyone worrying over him when he grew up and he was used to keeping to his own feelings, without giving a single crap about what people said on his back. Why even bother? It’s not like you could change someone’s mind, not without effort, and they surely didn’t deserve the time. And it wasn’t like he was going to change for anyone else.

That much applied to his own Shadow. When Red Phoenix suddenly arrived and told him they were going to have some ‘fun’, he didn’t try to ask him why he was so interested in keeping him alive for so long. He could do whatever he wanted, it’s not like Goro was able to do anything against him for now. On that day, he was almost numb with how little he cared about his situation.

His Shadow brought him to some kind of theater with plush red seats and a big screen, and he told him to sit down. Two big Shadows around him were making sure he wasn’t going to run and tied his wrists to the armrests before disappearing. Then, Red Phoenix walked down the stairs leading to the little scene in front of the screen and looked around with an appreciative gaze.

The Shadow wasn’t wearing his hero costume this time, and he didn’t have his mask on either. He was wearing a black shirt with his sleeves folded up his elbows, and straight burgundy pants that stopped just a shy above his ankles and his black leather shoes. Meanwhile, Goro really felt undressed, in a bright red outfit like the ones people wore in jail, with short sleeves and fabric loafers. Sure, that was more comfortable than his Black Mask outfit, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.

“How do you like it? Are you comfortable? Need any popcorn?”

Goro blinked but didn’t even bother with an answer. For a second, he wondered if he was going to be shown horrible stuff with his eyes forced wide open, Clockwork Orange style, but it seemed like he was just going to sit here, tied up, to watch something.

“Well, I guess we’ll cut the chase, then. This is your first punishment, I hope you’re ready.”

Goro was clueless as to how anything he’d show him could be considered punishment, so he shrugged. Red Phoenix smiled, a large grin cutting his face in two. He seemed way too smug for his own good. Then he bowed a little, and the lights started to fade out. He was gone when the screen lit up, and Goro was almost curious to see what his sick brain was going to come up with. He leaned back on his seat and prepared himself for what was coming.

His eyes almost bulged out of his skull when he recognized Shido’s office, and then his own self perusing through his father’s alcohol shelf. “Got any favorites?” Shido’s voice resonated, and the memory of that day immediately came back to him.

“Haha, well, you know I’m not allowed to drink, sir.”

“Oh come on now,” he chided, getting up to pat Goro’s shoulder. “You’re under my supervision and I’ll allow you to do it. Just tell me if you ever wanted to try something and I’ll give it to you. You deserve a reward for your hard work.”

Past-Goro pretended to be deep in thoughts, to hide his rising panic because he didn’t actually know any names… except one.

“I’ve always wanted to try a cosmopolitan.”

Hearing it from the screen was even worse than remembering it. Shido’s wide eyes, clearly baffled, and then his loud laugh as he clearly mocked Goro for picking such a ‘girly’ drink. Back in the cognitive world, Goro immediately roared : “What the fuck is this!? What are you trying to do?”

“Aw, are you embarrassed?” he heard right behind him, and sure enough, his Shadow had his elbows on the backseat just to his left and looked extremely proud of his silly taunt.

“Is that your idea of torture?” Goro spat, appalled at the stupidity of the situation. Here he was getting ready to have his nails ripped off, lower parts tortured – but that was what he had planned? To make him blush in second-hand embarrassment, over memories shown like movies?

“You seemed way too comfortable, I didn’t like it,” the Shadow admitted. “So I thought I could remind you of your place. And you’ve always been sensitive to humiliation, didn't you?”

Goro could feel himself getting redder as his ire rose too. He shouldn’t have – the best way to get out of this ridiculous place was to not react and not give him what he wanted. But if only that was possible. His Shadow was a part of him, there was no one who knew him better and especially what made him the most upset.

He didn’t have time to really let his anger explode, however – the screen changed and his head whipped in that direction. He knew deep down that he shouldn’t have, but it was like that instinct people got to come and watch a car accident. Nothing waiting for him would be pleasant, far from it, and yet here couldn’t help but look and be forced to remember all those moments.

His disastrous first interview, and then the lecture he got from his manager. She had been so precautious with him, desperate to find the right wording, the one that wouldn’t be too hurtful to his pride – it had felt like pulling teeth. And his pride had already been well wounded by all his silly mistakes on TV, there had been no need to coddle him like a child. It had been the first time since he got his power that he’d felt so helpless, crushed under pressure, expectations, fear to mess everything up.

His worst jealousy fit ever, only a few weeks after meeting Kurusu. They just had what he used to think was their second date (how wrong, how naive he’d been) and then, the next day, as he was walking through Shibuya station with Sae to get dinner, he’d recognized Kurusu’s silhouette, heavy bag on one shoulder, hands in his pockets. Goro had even asked her to wait for him so he could say hi to a friend, before he suddenly stopped in his tracks. It turned out Kurusu was meeting with Kitagawa Yusuke, who was very close to him, his hands on his shoulders and whispering something to him. And at this point, he should’ve started to put two and two together. Anyone from Shujin suddenly getting close to Kitagawa should’ve been a red flag. But Goro was too pissed off to even connect the dots. Like a child.

Then the screen showed their third ‘date’. The deal breaker. The moment Goro had been waiting for, the moment when things were supposed to happen in a relationship. He was so nervous and yet impatient for that night to come, because sure, Kitagawa was an artist but Goro could do art too, he wasn’t limited to philosophy and billiard – he liked music too. No one would bother them, Muhen would make sure of it, and there would be a singer to fill up any silence. He wanted this night to go well so much.

And that was the problem, he remembered as he watched the night play out again, in front of his eyes, like a nice embellished and thus extremely frustrating memory. It did. Kurusu enjoyed himself, he finally started to open up a little bit. Goro was completely whipped. He loved that Kurusu didn’t know anything about drinks and was coming to that kind of place for the first time. He loved that when the singer started singing, he stopped talking to close his eyes and enjoy the music while lightly tapping his foot to the beat. He liked the sheepish way he admitted he barely knew how to cook, because he wasn’t perfect, he didn’t try to be and he was comfortable with that. Goro really liked that sincerity, in his words, in his eyes. He really liked him.

And he was also a Phantom Thief, was the crushing truth he learned a few hours later. The leader, even. Because of course he was. After the date that turned out to be a simple outing because of course it was, you never said it was anything else, you moron, Goro was blowing off some steam in a Palace, when he came across security footage. He just had to look at the picture to finally let all the cogs fall into place. Five people, including a blonde girl with pigtails, a blonde thug-looking guy, a tall one with dark straight hair, a girl doing aikido, all following a man with dark tousled hair who was smirking at the camera.

As if Goro couldn’t recognize that grin. Af if Goro could just get a normal crush and get his heart broken like anyone else. No, he had to realize his advances were not reciprocal, that the guy was probably someone he’d have to kill, and also that Kurusu had only approached Goro for his own gain.

Honestly, at this point, Goro felt numb while looking at the screen, even when his own self acted so awkward around Kurusu, telling him out of nowhere that he often got sweaty. His Shadow hadn’t given any commentary about his ridiculous and short-lived crush. What was there to say? He should’ve seen it coming. And he should’ve been able to let go, too. Only a few weeks later, here he was brimming with jealousy again as he saw Kurusu with a girl he was vaguely aware of, Yoshizawa, and he walked to interrupt their conversation and get in between the two. He was so obvious, too. God only knew how Kurusu didn’t notice anything even then.

However, for his defense, Goro did notice how strange that takoyaki looked during the school festival. And he could’ve easily deduced this one would be filled to the brim with hot sauce. Still, it is hard to think while you are in front of the guy you like/the leader of the Phantom Thieves/someone you’ll have to kill in a few weeks, and you just realized he actually has a girlfriend. Goro didn’t think, and having his mouth full seemed to be the best way to keep him from saying stupid shit. Didn’t change how red he’d turned, how shaky his voice had gotten and how utterly dumb he looked as he quickly walked away to find a place where he could spit out the atrocious thing.

Goro was almost getting used to the embarrassment. All those moments were extremely uncomfortable, but he could make it through this. He could just stare at the screen and take in his past awkwardness or stupid decisions. But the content of the scenes started to change.

The night that followed his first kill. When he’d gotten home, washed his hands, then his entire body, and collapsed in the shower to cry. Holding his arms, hiding his face in his knees, he sobbed and screamed, because no one could hear him or judge him here, and he had to be perfect and fine as soon as he got out. Because no one could know about this, because he needed to be stronger than that. Because it would happen again, a lot, and he needed to be ready.

Him losing face and nerves in front of the Phantom Thieves, screaming like a lunatic. His past self seemed so desperate, so pitiful, he wanted to look away in disgust. Like a child throwing a tantrum, like a bad villain in a bad show, talking about how having friends is stupid and a burden, as if he wasn’t just a jealous, pathetic piece of garbage himself.

The older children sharing his room at the orphanage who decided he was too pretty and smiled a little bit too much. Even when he was covered in bruises, nose turning purple and blood smeared on his collar, he still smiled at them during the day, holding his favorite book, the only thing left from his mother, tight against him. He turned completely emotionless at night when they dragged him to the bathroom to force his head underwater, as they kicked his ribs, his abdomen, in places where people couldn’t see the marks.

Goro being scolded, no, screamed at by Shido when he failed to kill Kaneshiro. All the shame building inside him, as well as his anger towards Kurusu Akira, the sole culprit for all the terrible things that kept happening to him. Surely, killing him would feel good, he’d thought. Surely, it would be a relief, to get rid of him and all the terrible, embarrassing stuff he’d seen Goro do and say.

Kurusu’s death wasn’t real, he knew that now. But it felt harrowing to watch it all the same. He could almost hear his younger self, the one that would’ve been stoked at the idea that somewhere, Phantom Thieves were beating up bad guys without asking for anything in return – screaming in anguish. He had just killed one of the rare good things this world had to offer, someone who truly was a hero, the kind he’d always wanted to be. He was a pitiful, childish, worthless criminal.

Goro didn’t say anything either. He tried to not show anything, but he knew his Shadow must have noticed the way his fist clenched, how his chest shook a little when he swallowed down saliva. He really didn’t want to remember any of this, he’d buried deep, deep, deep all those horrible memories of bullying and gratuitous violence, of losing control, of making mistakes. But he thought he could get through it.

He couldn’t. Not when the scene changed and showed him a door he was way too familiar with.

His heart started beating erratically. He instantly turned his head away, to not watch, to not see, but a hand grabbed him by the hair and forced him to look.

Goro had seen this door in his nightmares. He knew what was behind it. That memory he could never truly erase. He saw his own hand, from the past, reach to the handle and turn it, and he immediately closed his eyes. “Stop,” he begged.

The Shadow didn’t stop. He didn’t do anything, his hand still in his hair, not even pulling. He just softly talked in his ear : “I have all the time in the world. You will open your eyes and you will look. This is your punishment, remember? You have to look.”

He could already hear everything. The heavy breathing, the trickle of water, the gasps of pain. She softly called his name, and Goro couldn’t help it. He opened his eyes.

She almost looked like a painting, stretched like this on a big screen. His mother laying against the bath with her wet hair sticking to her forehead and the white tiles of the room. She was naked and it was easy to see her ribs through her sickly thin skin. One of her arms was limp on her side, blood flowing out of her wrist with every pulse of her heart. The other hand was on her thigh, barely holding on to her razor. The shower head was tangled between her legs, barely flowing to wash away blood and all the other fluids that she’d been trying to wash away in the first place.

But the most striking was her face. She looked straight at Goro, with her eyes slightly lidded, and she smiled. She had the smile of someone who didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. She started to softly shake her head and whispered : “It’s okay, Goro. It’s going to be okay.”

In the theater, Goro tried once again to look away, but the Shadow tightened his grip. Meanwhile, on the screen, his mom was breathing out chuckles, like it took all of her strength to do that. “It’s alright. He’s coming, I know it. He’s going to save us. He’ll make it in time. I know it. I trust him.”

Her breath kept getting louder, her voice higher as it turned into silent sobs. Her face contracted, her eyebrows crackling with uncertainty. “Right? Right…?”

And then she broke down, tears flowing down as she looked at her wrists like she’d just realized what she had done, and then back at him, her eyes wide and shiny and red as she cried : “No… Save me Goro…!”

And then nothing. Darkness. Goro almost reached out, as if he’d forgotten his ties. Then his head fell forward. He tried to keep it down, until he was able to school his expression again, because he couldn’t let anyone, not even himself, see him like this.

It was pointless, and he knew it. The Shadow could see the way his face contorted in pain, he could feel Goro’s shoulders shaking with repressed sobs. A hand caught his chin, and gravity worked its magic. One, two, then three tears rolled down his cheeks. He clenched his jaw to not make a noise, eyes now glaring daggers at his captor, because if he wasn’t tied up, Goro would’ve jumped at the smug smile to rip it off his face. Even if it meant killing himself, he would’ve gladly shot a bullet between his eyes and taken revenge for making him go through this for a stupid, meaningless little taunt.

“There we go,” the Shadow said, almost patronizing. “You’re finally getting angry.”

Goro didn’t answer anything, still breathing heavily through his nose and going through different murder scenarios in his mind – the more gruesome the better. Red Phoenix, however, was elated to see it. He chuckled and released his face to pat his hair and take a step back. “I’m glad we’re finally on the same page. It could hardly be a punishment if you’re not feeling any pain from it, right? Now you know what I’m capable of.”

“You can’t do shit to me if I kill you first.”

Red Phoenix chuckled and shrugged lightly, unbothered. “That won’t happen.”

“Oh do you think so?” Goro whispered, his pupils blown out, manic with rage. “Murdering pieces of shit like you is my fucking job. Try me, asshole. See if I can’t break your neck with my hands tied.”

“Trust me, I know. But I finally have all the time I need to truly take my revenge on you, and I won’t let you escape so easily.” His yellow eyes thinned out and he spat. “If you really think I’ll let you die, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Not on my watch, scum.”

Goro frowned, eyes still blurry with angry tears. His Shadow didn’t elaborate further, however, and he simply turned around and left the theater while the two Shadows from before came back to grab Goro by the arms and drag him back to his cell.

He didn’t understand. Why would his Shadow keep him alive? How was it even possible? Shadows were a mirror of the self, and Goro wanted nothing but to finally disappear. How could his own Shadow go against his will like this? What was going on?

Something was broken, that was for sure, he realized with a dry laugh. His head was so messed up his own distortion didn’t even follow his own wishes anymore. Maybe he was truly an anomaly in the cognitive world and he was destined to be tortured by his own head ‘till the end of time.

After all, if his Shadow had managed to do one thing it was to remind him of who he truly was. A sobbing, powerless little boy.

The group collapsed in a pile in the elevator, heaving for air. They had been overwhelmed with Shadows on the short way out of the business floor, and who knows what was waiting for them once they’d get to the first floor again. Akechi’s Shadow wasn’t planning to go easy on them, that was for sure, and even if Akira had been pleasantly surprised to see most of the Shadows were Principalities, he didn’t even have enough time to exploit their curse weakness with Arsene. They had no choice but to run.

He cursed under his breath, because getting a few new masks could only benefit them as they made their way up the Palace but there was no time for that when you were chased down by ten other Shadows. The place was also filled with cameras so they’d probably always be on the run. Did he actually make the Shadow that mad? Because right now, making a deal with Red Phoenix seemed like it did nothing but make their life harder.

The elevator finally reached the ground floor and the doors slowly opened – luckily to a peaceful sight, with no Shadows or bloodthirsty cognitions. “Damn…” Yosuke wheezed, his hands on his knees. “It’s been a while, I’m beat already. I’ll need a minute.”

“Me too,” Naoto nodded. “Using our Personas after so long took a toll on us, we should be careful.”

Akira bit his lip so he wouldn’t let the knee-jerk answer escape him. Of course he was fine, it hadn’t even been a year since he’d fought for the last time. It had been ten years for them. Still, the idea of leaving right now, when they technically hadn’t done any progress, left him with a bitter taste on his tongue. They needed to at least find the way up the building, but who really knew how far it could be? Could they really afford to leave now? Thankfully, Naoto saw his distress and lightly patted his shoulder. “We’re not leaving, don’t worry. It’s just a little break. Right guys?”

Yosuke threw his thumb at her before collapsing on one of the couches from the lobby. That earned him an unamused stare from Morgana who couldn’t help but walk up to him and chide him, accusing him of just being out of shape in the real world too. Akira took his knife out of his pocket and started to twirl it around, to check his reflexes and make time go faster.

He couldn’t stop thinking about their meeting with Akechi’s Shadow. He really was as paranoid as any Palace owner he’d faced before, yet his pride had won over him as soon as Akira had mentioned the real Akechi. It wasn’t anything new, but he still wasn’t used to seeing Akechi hate himself so openly. To think that in his own mind he considered he was nothing but a worthless criminal who did not deserve pity nor justice – it stung.

Akira knew he couldn’t actually do anything about that since changing his heart was out of the question – Akechi would never forgive him – and bringing him back to the real world wouldn’t fix the problem either. In the end, even if he wished for things to be different, the truth was that Akira couldn’t save him, no matter how much he wanted to. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t try. But it hurt nonetheless.

Yuu came to sit next to him when he saw Akira was deep in thought, and he asked him what was on his mind. Akira lightly shook his head, saying it didn’t really matter. Clearly the older man didn’t believe him but he nodded and let it go. Akira was tempted to ask him about so many things – did he ever fail to save someone, did he ever have to let someone go, did he ever meet someone who didn’t wish to be saved – but he didn’t. He realized he didn’t actually want to know the answer.

Finally the group gathered again and this time, when they climbed the central elevator they were prepared to fight correctly. Everyone got their weapons ready, looking at the numbers illuminating as they were going through each floor, waiting in bated breath for the moment the doors would open again. Finally, the elevator stopped and everyone stopped breathing.

The doors opened. And Akira almost let go of his dagger once he saw the familiar face waiting for them.

“Yusuke?”

The man in front of them slowly blinked, letting his gaze wash over the entire group in the same way he sometimes watched over Shibuya's crowd. What he saw, Akira could only begin to guess. But right now, as he started sweating when he finally realized the other man wasn’t the real one but a cognition – he had a red uniform, the same as the receptionists – he really hoped it wasn’t just him seizing up his enemies.

However, he didn’t attack nor show any animosity. He bowed a little, then took a step to the side and offered them to step down the elevator with a flourish of the arm. “Welcome to the Entertainment floor. I was asked by Sir Red Phoenix to be your guide and show you our amazing facilities. Would you please follow me?”

The adrenalin still going through him told him it was probably a trap and he knew all of his companions probably thought the same. He still sent a little glance towards Morgana, who was as wide-eyed as him, silently asking what their next move should be. Cognition Yusuke raised an eyebrow when they didn’t get off the elevator. “Is there a problem?”

“We can visit the floor on our own,” Naoto quickly answered, her hand near her side, where her gun was. “We’ll be fine.”

“I do not doubt it but this will not take long, I assure you,” Yusuke slowly answered with a spark in his eyes, the kind he got when he was his most stubborn. “Although I do have more work I have to go back to as soon as possible, so if you could please follow me…?”

Akira finally shook off his nerves and he took the first step out of the elevator. Yusuke didn’t react other than glancing at the others and waiting for them to do the same. Slowly, they all followed him, and when the doors finally closed behind them, Yusuke turned around and started to walk away.

The group followed him from a little distance, and soon enough they started whispering between them. “That’s a cognition, right?” Yosuke asked. “Do you know him?”

“He’s one of our friends, yes,” Akira nodded. “I didn’t think he’d look so much like the real one, though.”

“I didn’t even think anyone would really be there,” Morgana added. “That was unexpected.”

It was. And it was pretty bad, Akira slowly realized. He was ready to see so much from Akechi, all of his biggest flaws come to life and try to kill him, but he didn’t think his friends would be part of it. Sure, he’d had to face clones of the Phantom Thieves before, like the Haru Robot or that weird Ann in Kamoshida’s mind. But here, it was different – because Yusuke was realistic. He talked the same way he did in real life, he looked the exact same minus the clothes, and he probably acted the same. Akechi’s view of him wasn’t distorted.

And that was the scariest part. Because it was still Akechi’s mind and he controlled everything in here. And Akira wasn’t sure what he’d do if someone who looked exactly like one of his best friends decided to try and kill him. He hadn’t been prepared for this eventuality. It was very crafty and it totally matched Akechi’s character. He knew sending Shadows after them wouldn’t slow them but sending familiar faces would. He’d always considered their friendship to be their weakness, and it showed that he hadn’t been too far from the truth.

However, one thing he probably didn’t account for was that more than half of their group didn’t know the Phantom Thieves. That didn’t mean they were out of the woods, on the contrary it only made Akira more wary of what was to come – but at least there was that. He was warned, in a sense, while his other friends could take care of any Cognition without feeling guilty or hesitating.

And no matter how much he hated it, seeing Yusuke still did a little something to his heart. Even if he wasn’t real, Akira wanted to actually catch up to him and chat, ask him about his last piece and the last time he’d eaten dinner. He wanted to nod slowly while the artist was lost in his own thoughts and voicing them aloud, while stirring him by the elbow in the direction of the nearest CoCo Curry – praying to any god listening that Sojiro would never know, but it was the cheapest place and it was right next to Yusuke’s dorm.

“As you can see, this floor is the largest one of the building,” Yusuke said. “We have many facilities open to visitors and I hope they will satisfy you.” He turned around while walking backwards and asked Akira with a curious glance. “Is there any place you’re most interested in?”

He clenched his fist to keep himself in check, glad to finally have his mask to hide a little bit. “We’d like to check the arena, please.”

“Ah, it is our most popular spot indeed,” Yusuke immediately nodded as he started walking again, although he slowed down a little bit so he’d come closer to Akira. “However there are no duels on schedule right now so you’ll have to wait. In the meantime, you are free to rest in the several coffee shops and restaurants of this area. There are screens there that will announce the time of the next duel, but if you wish for it the fights will be broadcasted on the same televisions so you can enjoy them as you finish your meal.”

Sure enough, the food center was on four floors, all connected by several escalators. The bottom floor had tables which were occupied by faceless cognitions and doors leading to the arena, while the upper ones were full with different kind of restaurants. Fast-foods, coffee shops, Japanese stalls and even some expensive looking Italian and French restaurants. As Yusuke told them, there were large screens on every wall so people could see them no matter where they chose to sit.

“Why can people eat here?” Yosuke asked, quite puzzled by the sight as they climbed up to the last floor. “Isn’t it supposed to be a hero’s hideout? It’s closer to a mall or some kind of attraction park, at this point.”

“Well those are all pretty recent additions,” Yusuke explained. “More and more people come here to pay their respects and thank Sir Red Phoenix for his deeds, and they really enjoy watching him fight. As time went by we realized we needed to make their stay as pleasant as possible.”

Then Yusuke kept walking across the floor and went through an arch that led to a long bridge. It was only once they were on it that they realized that the bridge was very high, way higher than what they thought, and down was the currently empty arena. It was a triangle the size of half a soccer field and around it thousands and thousands of seats. The place actually consisted of three big areas – the food plaza, the gym where they were currently going and another one they didn’t know about yet – all connected through those long bridges and overlooking the field where Red Phoenix dueled with his enemies and other opponents. It was huge, so huge it almost didn’t make sense compared to what they’d seen from outside.

From the bridge and the large windows they could see the different parts of the gym except for the lower floor. There were only two big doors in the arena that seemed to lead inside. The floor above it was a pool, and the third one was full of gym equipments. Treadmills, punching bags and the sort, cognitions running or flexing on the machines while looking down at the empty arena. However, the upper floor, they found out once they entered, was all mirrors except for one part that gave a pretty nice view of the city at night. In this world, daytime didn’t seem to be a thing, as if the entire building would collapse the moment the red spotlights stopped twirling around the night sky. It wasn't the main attraction of this room though – that would be the boxing ring at the center, surrounded by a noisy crowd, hollers and whistles frequently escaping some of the watchers.

“Who’s fighting?” Yuu asked their guide who seemed to be deep in thought as they got closer to get a better view.

“Hmm, I’d say it’s Violet. She’s in charge of the gym and as you can see, she’s quite popular herself.”

Hearing the codename made Akira a little bit wary and sure enough, he would’ve had a hard time not recognizing Sumire’s deep red ponytail, even if at the moment she was nothing like the gymnast he knew. Gone were the graceful, meticulously accurate gestures. She was wearing boxing gloves, a purple helmet, and she was pounding her adversary to the ground. The other one didn’t even seem to try to fight back, hardly blocking and failing as he received a deep hook right into his guts and collapsed on the ground, barely conscious.

Sumire let out a cry of joy, jumping backwards with her arms in the air as the audience cheered loudly, some people clapping. There was no referee to count or raise her fist, she was already using her teeth to undo her gloves and she didn’t give a single look to the man still heaving in pain, gasping and coughing against the padding. Sumire climbed down the ring, the crowd opening in front of her, and when she caught sight of Yusuke she gave him a little smile and wave before going on her way.

Yosuke ran up ahead to look after the guy still struggling to get on his feet, his mouth bloody and no one in the crowd coming to help him. He wasn’t even wearing protective gear, unlike his opponent. Yusuke raised an eyebrow when he saw them all rush towards him, but he didn’t try to stop them. Akira was about to ask him why he wasn’t doing anything, that guy clearly wasn’t a faceless cognition like the others, but he froze in place as soon as he got closer.

Oh. That guy, who had just been used as a punching ball, who didn’t get any sympathy from the audience and even less from his old allies’ cognition – was Shido. At least that’s what Akira thought – he’d never seen him so battered up and pathetic-looking before. But he was bald, with a little goatee, and was here to get punched to death, in Akechi’s Palace. There was little doubt in his mind.

And there was recognition in Shido’s eyes too. As soon as he caught sight of Akira, he rolled so he could get on his knees and put his head against the ground, prostrating himself at his feet.

“Sir!” his voice resonated, a pitiful whine so far away from his usual sneer. “I didn’t expect to see you here!” He raised his head, gave him a large, toothy smile, some blood smeared on the white, and asked : “What can I do for you today?”

Yusuke suddenly climbed on the ring and caught Shido by throwing an arm around his neck to pull him to his feet. Shido started scrambling in panic, eyes bulging out and hands scratching at the artist’s arm, but Yusuke didn’t seem to mind as he explained in his usual slow, tranquil voice : “I’m sorry, he is not supposed to talk to visitors. I am in charge of security here, so I have to take him away. I will come back as soon as possible, please wait for me.”

Then he walked away, Shido still stuck in a headlock, gasping and heaving for air, his unresponsive feet leaving a trail of blood behind him. Akira felt sick to his stomach watching this, and he was completely unable to look at his teammates when they started to panic and ask what the fuck was going on. This Shido knew who Akira was, and he considered him to be one of his retainers. That meant a cognition of himself was around, using an old enemy – and probably not only one – as a training dummy, throwing him away when he was done using him.

His heart lodged right into his throat when he heard Morgana shaking off the shock to explain what was going on, and he turned away so he could get out of there quickly. He needed to breathe for a moment. He arrived on the bridge leading to the third area and let out a long sigh, pushing his mask out of his face so he could massage between his eyes. Seeing Yusuke had been a lot, then Sumire and now Shido? He really needed to remind himself of the situation he was in. This was Akechi’s Palace, of course he’d see familiar faces. Of course nothing here could be nice and friendly. He wasn’t new to this, he should’ve known.

He heard a soft sigh coming from his left and he almost jumped, turning his head to see who was there and putting his mask back on. His heart turned immediately soft, then hard, punching his chest violently when he recognized the pale auburn hair, the wistful look and the delicate hands holding onto the railings, a few meters away from him. It was Haru, also wearing the employee’s uniform, and it didn’t seem like she’d seen him.

Akira wanted to run away, because that was too soon after what had just happened, but something inside him prevented him from it. The scar was still sensitive and tender, the guilt too heavy on his heart and he couldn’t look away from her. She looked so pained, faint wrinkles of worry appeared on her forehead. A year ago he would’ve rushed to her side to ask what was wrong, he might’ve thrown a little joke, anything to make her smile again.

But there had been a point when his jokes started to lead him nowhere, and it wouldn’t work here either. She was a cognition, she wasn’t one of his best friends, the one he cherished so much but had hurt so badly with his cowardice. Akira knew he should leave and forget about the guilt gnawing at his chest, but he took a step in her direction. “Hey, are you alright?”

She gasped in surprise, a hand coming to cover her mouth. Then her eyes widened and she immediately shook her head with a reassuring smile. “Oh, sir, I’m so sorry, I thought I was alone!

“It’s okay,” he chuckled with a shake of the hand. “I’ve been told I’m pretty quiet, like a cat. Sneaking around is kind of my specialty, but I didn’t mean to scare you.”

He almost wanted to punch himself in the teeth with how sugary his tone had turned just now. Even if she wasn’t real, there was no need to try and impress her with his wit. He wouldn’t win anything if he made her laugh. And yet, as soon as he heard her little giggles, he felt himself melt like butter left in the sun.

“Then I accept the apology!” Her large eyes bore into him and she threw him a little shy smile. “Are you enjoying your stay here?”

“It’s an interesting place,” he quickly nodded, turning his head away to remind himself of why he was here, and what he was supposed to be doing – which was finding a way up the building and saving Akechi. “You’re working here, right?”

“I am! I’m White, nice to meet you, sir…?”

“Joker. Nice to meet you too.”

A glint of recognition sparked in her eyes and she blinked once, twice, then looked down and up on him. But before he had time to add anything, she came back to her pleasant smile. “Well, I’m the manager of this floor Mr. Joker, so if you have any questions or reclamation, please refer to me. I’ll be glad to help you.”

“Oh thanks,” he said, his smile immediately turning wolfish once he realized she was cooperating with him even though she’d clearly heard of him – probably from her boss. “Do you know how to get to the upper floors, then?”

She immediately started laughing and even threw a playful fist against his arm. He tightened his smile so he wouldn’t wince of pain, because really, she packed a punch. Thank god she’d never actually punched him in real life – although he would’ve definitely deserved it at the time. “Don’t be silly, sir! Those are private floors, Sir Red Phoenix would never allow visitors there! He needs peace and to keep security tight, or else he’d never be able to save the world!”

“Of course,” he slowly said. “More seriously then – what’s the third area of this floor? I’ve not had the time to see it yet and I didn’t hear about anything other than the arena, the gym and the food court.”

“Well that makes sense, since it is the VIP area as well as the staff room,” she answered with a smile. “We also have the infirmary, a lost & found and a counter to help the visitors. Oh, and the arena’s locker rooms. It isn’t anything interesting, really.”

On the contrary, he internally cheered, it was everything he needed to know. Because surely, if there was one place connected to the upper floors, it was this one. There had to be an elevator there, especially if the area was linked to the main arena where Shadow Akechi fought every day.

“How do you become a VIP?” he then asked.

“At first you could only have a seat here after winning the weekly lottery Sir Red Phoenix holds – but members of the staff tend to bring their friends here too to watch the duels. It is always a nice show, after all,” she giggled.

He noted that detail somewhere in his head, and then was brought back to reality when he heard Teddie’s voice and the weird sounds he made when he walked. Haru seemed shocked to see so many people walking in their direction so she straightened up, hands behind her back, and quickly said : “Well, it was a pleasure! I’ll leave you to your friends now, unless there’s something else you need from me…?”

He quickly shook his head and then she finally walked away, a little flustered as she glanced at her watch. Morgana came up to him, jumping on the railing. “Are you alright…? And hey, was that Haru?”

Akira sighed as he nodded, his hand combing his hair back. “Yup. That was her.” He turned towards the others, and then with a devilish smile, he added : “And she told me something very interesting.”

As soon as they entered the third area, however, they understood things wouldn’t be so easy for them. They couldn’t just sneak inside and finally find the elevator – first of all most of the area was blocked to the public, reserved for staff. The only part open to them was some sort of electrical funicular that would guide them down to the arena and to the VIP seats. Right in front of the doors leading to the staff rooms was Kaneshiro, feet stuck to the ground to watch over the door and scream at passerby to scram. They didn't have time to fight him that Shadows appeared out of nowhere to chase them out of the place. And someone was clearly monitoring them, because they couldn’t take a single step without an army of Shadows right on their tracks.

So they decided to split. Clearly, anyone watching them from the video cameras couldn’t keep track of all of them at once and if someone lured the Shadows away from the door, surely others would be able to sneak inside whether Kaneshiro was there or not. They decided that Mona and Naoto would explore the staff room - being the smallest and most discreet of the group – while the others either ran away from the guards (that would be Yuu and Yosuke) or just strolled around the other areas, as far away from the staff room as they could.

That’s how Akira ended up in the food court – since there was no way he was going back to the gym after what had happened – alone and clearly bored. He was the only one who was completely out of the operation, as the person who was most likely to be closely monitored. So he strolled around the little stands, almost tempted to buy some food if only it wasn’t all fake, trying to find something to occupy himself with while waiting for all the others to join him once they’d be done.

He found out Okumura Kunikazu was also working there. Ironically he was in charge of one of the big fast food venues of the area and he kept running around, alone to take care of a never ending crowd of hungry clients. Still, he did it all with a large smile, often screaming stuff like how glad he was to finally have a job, to be useful to society and how grateful he was that Red Phoenix had given him this second chance. Akira tried to remind himself – again – that it was just a cognition, that it didn’t mean anything. But his stomach still lurched when he heard those words as well as the lunatic look on Okumura’s face – exhausted, on the verge of passing out, but still working.

This floor was called the Entertainment floor, but truly the more he looked at it the more it just felt like a prison. All those people who had once been Akechi’s targets were stuck here, working for his Shadow and they clearly weren’t treated well. Yet, they did their job without questioning it, they even seemed loyal to Red Phoenix and his little group of retainers. They had no role except to serve their master, little slaves that could get thrown out the day they weren’t necessary anymore. Was it how Akechi felt, after he’d been in that position for so long? Did he long for nothing but to finally dominate others? Akira knew Palaces were distortions, they were nothing but exaggerations of reality, and yet...

A clamor pulled Akira out of his thoughts and he found the origin as soon as he raised his eyes to one of the big screens on the walls. Someone had finally arrived to duel Red Phoenix. Some cognitions stood up from their chairs to quickly go to the arena, eager to find the best seats for the incoming show. Akira didn’t move however, especially when the screen changed to show Ann and Ryuji, sitting right next to each other around a table like TV announcers, the arena right behind them. They started talking about the upcoming match, the power level of the opponent as well as his strengths and weaknesses, like it was a regular boxing match or another sports event. Well, they were also bantering a lot, too much for TV, but that didn’t seem to surprise anyone around him.

That actually helped him relax a bit, seeing his friends act like themselves and not stepping on other cognitions’ backs. They seemed to enjoy what they were doing, and even if hearing them openly praise Akechi felt off, their smiles were genuine. He started to let his thoughts wander again, thinking about the other Thieves' reactions if they had been here with him. Their thoughts on the Palace and their cognitions, their thoughts on Akechi and the way he saw himself.

He needed to contact them as soon as possible, he realized with a sigh. It wasn’t fair to hide this from them, especially in case something went wrong. Sure, it might frustrate them to not be able to come and help but they still deserved to know. Also, he had to tell them Akechi was alive. He couldn’t keep that from them, he had been their ally and maybe even a friend of some sort. And he certainly hoped that once everything was back to normal, that Akechi was saved and back to Tokyo, they would be there from him. If there was one thing this Palace had taught him up until now it was that Akechi, even if he scoffed at the idea of teaming up with other people, needed company. Or else, why would the other Thieves be here as cognitions? He had chosen for them to be there, because he wished for their presence. No matter if they weren’t teammates. They existed in his mind. They mattered, in a way.

Now, all that was left to know was Akira’s cognition whereabouts. He existed, Shido had confirmed that. Sure it seemed weird considering Shadow Akechi had acted like a stranger with him, but surely that could be the effects of being the Shadow of someone who knew about the Metaverse and all its intricacies. He wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out the Shadow knew exactly what he was – a simple reflection of someone’s distorted heart.

A clearing of the throat made him jump a little bit, back to the present. He raised his head and realized Yusuke’s cognition was right there, next to his table. He bowed his head a little bit and then held out a red envelope for him. “This is for you.”

Akira warily took it, a little bit anxious to see what was inside. His codename was penned on the front in alphabet with a nice calligraphy, and it was pretty light, as if there was nothing but paper inside. “Who is it from?”

“Sir Red Phoenix himself. He’d like you to watch the upcoming duel, which is why he asked you’d be given access to the VIP seats.”

He blinked in surprise but sure enough, there was an electronic card inside the envelope. He quickly asked : “Is it only for me, or my friends too?”

“They will also get access to it, indeed. However, Sir Red Phoenix asked for you to be given priority in this matter.”

That made him curious. What did Akechi want to show him? Did he want to prove that he had the upper hand? That he was superior in skills? Still, Akira wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth so he smiled and thanked the other man, and then set off to the VIP seats. He was supposed to wait in the food court to meet with the others but sure enough, if they all got a VIP pass they would meet him there.

Unsurprisingly, there was no one but him in this part of the stadium, but he was sure he’d get company soon enough, may it be from other cognitions or his friends. He sat at the front seat and appreciated the nice view of the arena. He was less than two meters above the field and he could even see Ryuji and Ann sitting on their commenters bench not too far away. He looked around and noticed there really wasn’t anything preventing the public from jumping down on the fighting grounds, or even to protect them from any stray bullets or other big attacks.

Behind him, Akira heard the funicular and he was surprised to find it wasn’t actually his friends - but Haru, once again. She sent him a smile and then asked : “Can I sit here?”

He nodded, heart beating a little bit faster once she sat right next to him, so close her thigh was almost touching his. For a second, he wondered if this was a trap. Surely Akechi couldn’t know about his and Haru’s old relationship, right? They had never told anyone. Was he using her to lure him away from his friends? What was his plan?

He really had felt like the biggest piece of shit alive back then, and even now he still didn’t understand why Haru had been so understanding with him. They had been together for six months, they had gone through so many things, killing two gods and saving the world from as many apocalypses, grief for her, torture for him – yet it hadn’t left a dent on their relationship. Still, a few weeks after leaving Tokyo he had lied to her – and to himself. And sure enough, Haru was too bright to not immediately see through it, confront him, and then take the very well-needed decision to end it all.

A lot of feelings welled up inside him and left him very conflicted. Because as messy and cruel their break-up was, his feelings for her had been genuine. He did like her, he did enjoy spending time with her. And seeing her from this close after such a long time, even if it was a copy, made him yearn for more. A little bit of warmth, of reassurance, before all his hopes could get crushed again by the sad, sad reality once Akechi would be free and immediately disappear from his life again.

Akira didn’t think when he let his hand wander and brushed a lock of auburn hair behind Haru’s ear. She startled, blushing deeply, but she didn’t move away, eyes going back on the field when the lights started to get dimmer. He brought his hand back to his own thigh.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” A voice resonated in the stadium when all the lights disappeared, leaving only the grounds illuminated as well as the two large doors – one white, one red. He realized the voice belonged to Makoto, and she was in the middle of the fighting grounds, dressed like a referee. “Thank you for waiting, the duel is about to start. Please welcome today’s villain, Kobayanuri!”

The white door slowly opened and a long, tentacular arm appeared first, before its hand grasped the floor to drag the rest of its body. It was a massive slime-like monster, shaped like a big dripping sphere that left steaming golden goo behind it. The two long arms helped it crawl right to the fighting grounds, slowly but surely, as if it was too massive to hold itself upright. Akira wondered how this thing could even fight, as it could barely stand on the two legs that trailed behind its gigantic body.

“And now, the one you’ve all been waiting for,” she added, her voice deep and professional. “Please get up and cheer for our one and only Hero, son of Robin Hood, servant of Justice – Sir Red Phoenix!”

The fervor in the arena climbed up ten levels as people were simply screaming in delight, their applause almost deafening when the red doors parted and Red Phoenix appeared, giving a single, simple salute to the crazy crowd before walking up to the ground and stopping right in front of his opponent. He crossed his arms, shook his head, and then raised a hand so the mob could quiet down. When only a murmur remained in the arena, he finally said : “It appears, fiend, that you’ve come here to defeat me, as it is your right. Now please tell me one thing…” Akechi got into a fighting pose, his hand right against his sword and his other ready to take out his gun. “Which one will you do? Give up, or die?”

Immediately, Kobayanuri roared and a multitude of other arms and legs sprang out of its body. It appeared it wasn’t actually a sphere but many slimy limbs stuck together, breaking apart with a squelching noise. And now that it had all those free hands and feet, it could walk, even run, dashing at full speed in the hero’s direction.

Akechi, however, didn’t show any surprise and simply jumped away from the beast. That didn’t stop Kobayanuri and its many limbs helped it take a sharp turn and go back after its opponent. A few more arms moved away from its center and a large mouth with crooked teeth appeared, ready to chop off Akechi’s upper half. But his reflexes were too fast – he had already taken a side step and his sword was out to cut off two of its front limbs, making the beast holler in pain and blood splash on the ground.

Akira watched the duel with a tight throat, even though the outcome wasn’t hard to guess. Akechi didn’t even get hit once – the beast was more agile than it looked but nothing compared to Red Phoenix. Its slime didn’t even seem to do anything but steam a little bit, it wasn’t poisonous and it cooled off pretty quickly. It wouldn’t survive this duel and the only reason it wasn’t dead already was that Akechi was clearly trying to put on a show, ending some moves with a dramatic flourish and waiting until the last second to dodge the monster’s attacks. It could take a long time, Akira realized, so he turned towards his companion and tried to make some kind of conversation : “So, how is it to work with Red Phoenix?”

It took Haru a few seconds to answer since her eyes were glued to the arena, but once she turned away from the scene, she cleared her throat and managed to say : “It’s great! I like it a lot here. The visitors are always very polite and patient, it’s a very peaceful place.”

“Peaceful?” he chuckled, before pointing at the fight going on a few meters away from them. “You call that peaceful?”

“Well…” she muttered, like she didn’t consider it. “It is their own choice, and it doesn’t affect the visitors nor us staff. And Sir Red Phoenix is magnanimous, he would never kill anyone for the sake of it. He cares about people, about everyone, even those who dislike him.”

Akira almost scoffed in disbelief, but he restrained himself because 1) she was serious, 2) she was strong and could break his nose with a well-placed punch. “Have you ever wanted to help him? I mean, out of the hideout. On the battlefield.”

She bit her lip and looked down, like hearing this had somehow hurt her feelings. He was immediately reminded of her look when he had met her earlier. “Well… In fact…”

Haru seemed to be struggling with her words, she even looked around to make sure they were truly alone. She then scooted a little bit closer to him, so close their shoulders touched and she whispered : “I am not supposed to talk about it. So please, keep it a secret, alright?”

He clenched his fist to keep a straight face and not look too eager. Still, he quickly nodded, and turned his head so she could whisper right into his ear. She got closer, her lips brushing against his skin and said : “We used to be a team. Me, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Violet, Indigo, Green and Sir Red Phoenix himself…”

He frowned. That was new, he thought Red Phoenix didn’t team up with anyone? That surely wasn’t in the museum or in the books they’d checked up earlier. “Used to? What happened?”

She lightly shook her head, leaning back. “It’s complicated. We all had to retire and Sir Red Phoenix promised he’d take care of everything for us. And he did. We’re all very comfortable here in the hideout, we have nice jobs, we have a lot of free time, we can train and have fun together. But…” Her expression turned complicated. “Honestly, it doesn’t feel the same. And even if I like my current life, sometimes… I miss the old days.”

Her smile became warmer, her gaze lost far away, as she murmured : “I liked it when we were a team. When the colors were just codenames and we all called each other by our real names. I wish things had stayed the same...”

He found himself a little bit at a loss for words. That’s why he didn’t really think, he reached over and took her hand in his, squeezed it a little, and looked her straight in the eyes. “You don’t have to feel bad, you know?” he reassured her. “It’s okay to have regrets. You’re allowed to feel like this and I’m sure many of your old teammates feel the same. Have you ever asked them?”

“No, of course not!” she quickly said, almost in a panic. “If Sir Red Phoenix learned about this, he’d get mad. It would mean we don’t trust him.”

“It doesn’t have to,” Akira corrected her. “Not if you tell him that you miss him. You don’t have to hide anything from him. Didn’t you say he cared about everyone equally?” He smiled. “Why wouldn’t this apply to you?”

Haru swallowed down, her lips turning into a thin line. She started squeezing his hand harder, and finally, she let out a little sniffle, quickly turning her head so he wouldn’t see the tear track on her cheek. She let out a small, tight laugh. “What a strange man you are, Mr Joker…” She turned to face him again, and then her tears started flowing down freely once again. “I feel like I’ve known you my whole life.”

She once again used her sleeve to dry her eyes, but when she smiled, it was big and sincere, a little bit crooked but earnest all the same. She closed her eyes and slowly raised her head until she could peck his cheek, right under the mask, and whisper : “Thank you.”

She leaned back and started to untangle her hand from his when a cheer from the crowd got both of their attention. They turned to look at the action but were dumbfounded when they realized the public wasn’t reacting to the duel anymore but at the scene displayed on the big screen. Him and Haru, still hand in hand, very close. Ann’s cheery voice resonated in the entire stadium. “Well look at that, White! Way to go! Don’t get your heart broken, okay?”

The audience immediately reacted in more cheers or whistles, a lot of people laughing when they saw how red Haru became, quickly taking her hand back and shaking her head to deny what had just happened. Akira was scratching the back of his head, a little bashful but thankfully well hidden behind his mask. This wasn’t reality so he knew he didn’t have to care. The others might tease him about it later, but it wasn’t much.

A loud bang resonated in the arena, turning everything silent. Right at the center, Red Phoenix had stopped moving, his arm raised after he’d shot a bullet right into the creature and had finally taken its life. Akira had missed a big part of the fight, but he was pretty sure this wasn’t how things were supposed to happen. The end should’ve been triumphant, with the villain either begging for its life or accepting its death. The crowd was supposed to clap, the coliseum cheering for its gladiator. But here, there was just silence. Like Akechi had suddenly brought the match to an end, and considering how shocked Makoto looked, it wasn’t something that often happened.

Haru frowned a little bit too but she didn’t say anything. Red Phoenix finally lowered his gun and then walked off the stage, disappearing with only confused whispers trailing behind him. “Um…” Makoto managed to say once she shook off her surprise, until she quickly went back to being more professional. “It’s another win for Sir Red Phoenix! Thank you all for coming!”

Akira glanced at Haru and she did look taken aback. He was about to ask her what had happened when Yusuke appeared from nowhere, walking right in Haru’s direction. “Red Phoenix is asking for you, White.”

“Me?” she muttered, a little frown forming on her face. “Why, what is it about?”

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice a little bit low. “He didn’t say.”

Haru got up and was about to follow him, but she suddenly turned in Akira’s direction and said : “Oh, I guess it’s time for both of us to leave anyway. After you, Mr Joker…” 

He nodded and got up, climbing with the other two cognitions on the funicular to get out of the arena. Haru was about to make a beeline for the staff rooms but she stopped in her tracks to at least say goodbye to him. “Thank you again! I’ll see you soon…?”

“Sure,” he nodded, unsure of what to make of her doubtful tone. “Take care.”

She briefly waved goodbye at him and then she was gone, the door closing behind her like a falling curtain. He wasn’t alone for long however, because soon enough, an arm grabbed him from behind and a snicker resonated in his ear. “Well look at you, Kurusu!” Yosuke chuckled. “You know it doesn’t count if she’s not a real girl, right?”

The rest of the group was a few meters away, waiting for him. Now that he thought about it, it was weird they didn’t join him in the VIP seats. “It was just a peck,” he explained with a shrug. “And I’m not a virgin, you know?”

The older man turned red immediately and released him with an irritated groan. Clearly he’d touched a sensitive spot. They joined the others and when Akira asked them if they had gotten their VIP pass, they didn’t understand what he was talking about. “The Shadow is clearly playing favorites right now,” Yuu remarked. “No one told us we could come in here, although I guess we were all running around to escape the guards.”

“But I was in the gym the whole time!” Teddie whined, clearly disappointed to learn the Shadow didn’t really consider him to be part of the group.

“At least Akira had a good time, I guess,” Yuu said with a smile. “The girl on the screen, is she another one of your friends?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Honestly, I have a hard time believing she was just here to watch the show, although she didn’t really ask me anything either. She was definitely sent by Red Phoenix to get close to me, but I have no idea why or for what purpose. He did ask to see her as soon as the match was over, though”

They all exchanged a look, but no one had any idea of what Red Phoenix’s plans could be. “I mean, I guess,” Yosuke said. “But the way his duel ended was really weird too, as if he suddenly wanted to leave to take care of something else. If I had to guess, I’d say seeing her kiss you made him super mad.”

That seemed to be the most obvious answer, sure. But he’d never seen Akechi show any attention to Haru so why would he be jealous? Was he just being protective of her, like a doting father? That fitted more with the Shadow’s obvious savior complex, but it still felt pretty odd coming from Akechi.

“Well, if she’s really trying to get something from us, then good. We might need to get some more information from the cognitions anyway,” Naoto sighed. “We managed to get inside the staff rooms and we found an elevator that would lead us upstairs, but we can’t use it without a password. The guy blocking us told us what he knew after we beat him up, but...”

Morgana jumped on Akira’s shoulder, his elbow on the top of his head. “This Palace really is more tricky than we thought it would be. I guess that makes sense, coming from someone who knows the Metaverse like Akechi – his mind knows how to protect itself from intruders – but every time we think we’ve made some progress we actually run into a wall.”

The group agreed, they had already spent a long time there and they hadn’t really done anything other than upset the Palace ruler, and they were still stuck to the lowest floor. And they didn’t even fight that many Shadows. Who knows what was waiting for them when they would climb. It seemed like they were far from done, and now they needed to find a password.

“That’s it, nothing else in the staff room? And about this password, what did the guard say?” Yuu asked them, desperate to have at least accomplished one thing that day.

“The rooms were pretty normal, and pretty empty too. And the guard…” She turned her eyes towards Akira. “He said the password was the name of Red Phoenix’s mother. Do you know it?”

Akira felt his stomach sink. He had absolutely no idea. And it was very possible no one on this earth knew. Usually that’s when the Phantom Thieves would go back to the real world and would investigate their target so they could advance, playing with their cognition of the actual world – but it was impossible with Akechi stuck in his own Palace. They had to find another way.

He shook his head and then tried to change his perspective. “I don’t, but it’s alright. This is still a big clue. Akechi’s Shadow dared me to find a way up, then that means it is possible to find the password, even for an outsider. We probably won’t find it today, so how about we wrap it up to sleep it over, and do some research tomorrow?”

Everyone seemed to agree, although their spirits were currently pretty low. Sure it had only been the first day of exploration but they had seen so much, yet found so little, it was pretty disheartening. “I’m sure the cognitions know it,” Morgana added, trying to cheer everyone up a little. “If they’re allowed upstairs, that means they know the password.”

“And if they don’t want to talk, we can still kick their ass,” Yosuke said with a tight grin, clearly part of the ‘if it doesn’t work, just hit it’ crowd. Akira didn’t enjoy the idea but he had a point – feeling sympathy for cognitions would lead him nowhere. And it might be their only choice.

They were on their way out when a new uproar resonated in the building, coming from the arena. Soon enough, they caught sight of a TV screen and they found out a new duel was about to start. That made Akira pause. “Wait, that’s weird. He was supposed to talk with Haru and he’s fighting already? Something’s happening.”

Ann and Ryuji appeared on screen but they seemed as surprised as them. She wasn’t even on her seat when they got on air and Ryuji started rambling : “Uh, so, we don’t know much about this but Sir Red Phoenix asked for everyone to quickly come to the arena for another show. Please forgive us for the late update, and don’t rush, there’s room for everyone–”

“Wait, what!?” Ann suddenly screamed, her eyes far away, probably to read her prompter. She then turned on her seat to look at the currently empty field. It was hard to see but Shadows were installing stuff behind them and it looked like two giant bullseye targets.

Akira glanced at Yuu, silently asking for his opinion. Something had happened and they clearly couldn’t leave without checking it out. They went back on their tracks, and thankfully, they were all able to get to the VIP seats thanks to Akira’s badge – except for poor Teddie who was definitely not even worth being considered a living creature according to Red Phoenix’s VIP rules. 

There were no cognitions in there, once again. Down below, they could see that Ann was out of her commentator seat and talking with Makoto who seemed just as lost as her, while Ryuji scratched the back of his head. The bleachers around the fighting grounds were slowly getting filled up too, a lot of people walking down the stairs to find a seat.

Without any cue, the red door opened and Red Phoenix appeared in full costume. He quickly waved at the crowd, the gentle hush from before turning into full on insanity. He clearly seemed to enjoy the crazy atmosphere of the arena though. He was walking to the center of the field when he was met with a furious Makoto. “What are you doing?” she asked him while covering her mic, her eyebrows so low she actually looked like she could punch him. “You can’t do those things without warning us! And we have no opponent right now!”

He didn’t stop walking, he didn’t glance in her direction either. All he did was observe the full stadium and then take a look at the Shadows when they finally finished setting up the targets and disappeared. At last, he answered her : “You’ll see.”

Then he turned his back to her and left to stand in the middle of the fighting grounds, getting the lights to turn off so they could illuminate him and gather everyone’s attention. He cleared his throat and then addressed the audience : “Ladies and gentlemen, my apologies for calling you here on such short notice! However, I felt really bad about my earlier performance and I needed to get back to you, my loyal and always passionate public.”

He bowed very low while cheers and furious applause resonated in the stadium. Clearly, the crowd was forgiving – not a single person booed him. They were all at his mercy, impatient to see what their hero had in store for them.

“Which is why today, I decided to put on a little show with one of my friends, just for you. I hope you’ll enjoy it.” He took a step back and when he raised his arm in the direction of the white door, the spotlight followed his motion. “Give a big cheer to White, our favorite manager and today’s new duelist!

Akira startled when he saw Haru down there, walking through the large door and then getting on the field. Her stare was serious, focused, and she had changed to wear something closer to what Sumire had been wearing at the gym – a white sports bra and a dark pair of yoga pants. The difference was that her hands were covered in bandages, as if she was about to fight, and a headband kept her hair out of the way. She stopped next to Akechi, gave a little wave to the crowd that followed with a polite applause, clearly respectful of her but not overzealous like when Red Phoenix talked. And she didn’t seem to care too much because as soon as she was done waving, she closed off again entirely.

“I challenged White to a duel,” the Shadow explained. “Of course, she’s my friend so we won’t fight each other to death, that would be absurd. Which is why I thought we might as well compete in her specialty, right?”

Haru tightly nodded, forcing a smile, and when Red Phoenix snapped his fingers, the grounds opened to reveal a large tree stump with several axes stuck into it. Haru took hers with a strong pull of the arm, showing off the curve of her biceps in the process, then she walked up to a line traced on the ground. Meanwhile, Red Phoenix pulled his own axe out of the wood and went to join her in front of the targets while he explained the duel : “We’ll have an axe-throwing match. Five throws each. The one with the most points wins. Simple enough, right, White?”

“Of course, Sir Red Phoenix,” she quietly answered. “I would be glad to have this little competition with you, it’s been a while.”

The crowd didn’t react too much to the exchange. Actually, it almost seemed disappointed, whispers getting louder and people getting out of their seats. However, Akechi wasn’t done yet, turning to talk to the audience again. “It seems too simple, I know. Boring, you might even say. But fear not,” he added with a mischievous tone. “I thought of a way to make this even more exciting.”

He snapped his fingers again and the targets turned on their axis, showing what was on their backs. Haru let out a shriek, letting go of her axe that planted itself right into the ground, while Akira almost jumped out of his seat. Two people were attached to the targets. The first one was the madman he’d just seen flipping burgers and shouting his loyalty to his Boss and old enemy – Okumura Kunikazu, Haru’s father. The second one was the Palace ruler’s prized arch-nemesis, his own self and current prisoner – Akechi Goro himself.

The crowd became crazy. That’s what they were here for – a slaughter. Red Phoenix seemed to rejoice at the sight. He bowed a few more times, his axe sitting on his shoulder like a magician after a successful trick, swimming in self-satisfaction. Meanwhile, Haru had turned white as a sheet and was covering her mouth, sight stuck on her father as his eyes almost bulged out of his head with fear, looking at the mad mob screaming all around him. Akechi, however, was very calm, although the glare he directed at Red Phoenix didn’t leave any doubt as to his actual thoughts. He didn’t move, he didn’t even seem to react to all the noise nor to the sight of Phantom Thieves in front of him. He seemed completely apathetic, like he was waiting for the show to start so he could get this over with.

Akira’s head felt too full, all of a sudden. Too many things were happening at once, and too many possibilities seemed to be offered to him. He could try to get inside the crowd and take Akechi away as soon as he had an opportunity. It could be that easy. But then he caught sight of the many, many Shadows hiding right behind the targets and near all the entrances to the arena. Red Phoenix knew better than to leave his most prized prisoner out in the open like this. Also, they had been in the Palace for a while now and they were not ready to fight a Boss Shadow. He could also wait and see where this was going. Surely, Red Phoenix wouldn’t kill his own self like that, out of nowhere, and he did say he was planning to torture his prisoner. That was a whole lot more extreme than what he’d been expecting, but really, it was probably nothing.

That’s what the rational part of his brain thought. The less rational part, however, told him to just run. Jump and act as a meat shield when the first axe would be thrown. He knew it was stupid, he knew he needed to stay calm and think, and yet, it wasn’t like he could stay there and do nothing either. Panic was rising inside him with every second, with every new whistle of encouragement rising from the bleachers, and he would’ve probably ended up doing something very stupid if not for Yuu’s hand on his shoulder, shaking him out of his daze.

“Think, Akira – he’s bluffing. Killing his own self means suicide. He clearly doesn’t want that, he’s playing with us. With you.” His grip got tighter. “Don’t let him. We’ll get our chance, but this isn’t it. We have to stay calm and see what happens, alright? If we fight right now, we're as good as dead.”

Akira nodded, his throat dry. He didn’t know how he managed to keep his body from moving, but he stayed on his seat while his hands clutched at the hem of his cloak. His gaze was fixated on Akechi who was still looking very grumpy and not at all aware of the terrible position he was in. Actually, it seemed like he had been drugged beforehand, there was no way anyone could be so calm in this situation and Akechi wasn’t exactly a ‘calm’ person. Meanwhile, down below, Makoto was arguing with Red Phoenix without covering her mic this time. “Are you out of your mind!? What are you trying to do here, this isn’t funny!”

“You’re just a referee, Indigo, you don’t make the rules,” he coldly answered. Then he took his axe off of his shoulder and used it to point at the targets. “Or do you want to take their place, hm?”

Haru was still frozen in place, looking down as if she couldn’t even bear to see her father in this position. The crowd kept chanting around her, encouraging her to start the duel, to get to it. Red Phoenix let out a little chuckle when he heard it. “You heard the people,” he told Makoto. “They’re waiting for us to start – it would be rude to make them wait longer, don’t you think?”

Makoto had her fists clenched but she didn’t move from her spot next to Haru, as if she was trying to shield her from Red Phoenix’s insanity. Some people in the audience were really getting pissed though, and they started insulting the referee. Bitch, killjoy, pain in the ass – they certainly didn’t lack vocabulary.

“That’s enough!” a voice resonated in the stadium, high and clearly furious, both directed to the public and to Red Phoenix. From the opposite side, Ann had left her commentator booth to get on the field and it just made the booing rise in volume as she stomped her way in her friends’ direction. “What is this duel for anyway!? What did she do to you, this is downright cruel and you know it!”

Red Phoenix sighed and let his free hand come on his hip, tired of being continuously interrupted. “This doesn’t concern you, Pink. Go back to your seat.”

“Fuck no!” she shouted, finally getting right into his face and wrenching the axe out of his hands. “I’m not leaving until you answer me! What's going on with you? We were a team, remember?”

Red Phoenix’s eye roll easily translated into his body language. He answered slowly, as if he was dealing with a child. “I offered you all a life of comfort and peace, that’s what happened. Our past is water under the bridge. You’re all my employees now, and you don’t get to talk back to me this way.”

His hand fell back on the axe handle, but Ann didn’t let go. He was encouraged by the booing audience, some people clapping when he violently pulled, making her stumble to stay upright. However, she didn’t release her grip. She swallowed hard, terribly alone and weak, a sheep in the middle of the tiger’s cage. But she still refused to let go and lose her ground. She tried to soften her tone, hoping he’d at least hear her plea : “Listen. It’s been a while and we’re all indebted to you, it is true. But something happened that you’re not telling us. We have no idea what to do, and now we can’t stand on the side anymore!”

She bit her lip, her eyes getting glassy as both panic and desperation rose inside her. In front of her, Red Phoenix didn’t show anything. His expression was well hidden behind his mask and he didn’t look away, his higher stature pinning her down, silently ordering her to step back. Ann almost sobbed : “I’m begging you, just listen to us. Leave Haru alone. Please, A–”

The sound of a gunshot cut her off, soon followed by her screams when she fell to the ground while clutching her leg. Blood started spreading all over her thigh and down to the ground, covering her shaking hands. Makoto was frozen in shock next to them, eyes right on the gun the Shadow had pulled out of his holster, to coldly shoot Ann in the leg.

Red Phoenix didn't hesitate. He didn’t even warn her before he took his shot. And now he was still holding the gun in her direction, his other hand tight on the axe handle.

The crowd went wild with this new twist, covering Ann’s wails of pain. Some people even started clapping, whooping, while Ryuji ran out on the field, shouting insults at the hero. A Monabus ambulance drove inside the arena while the man started taking care of the wounded girl, not without sending death glares at her attacker. Red Phoenix puffed his chest and twirled the axe in his hand until the head met the floor with a loud clang.

“Do not try to call me by that name ever again. I am Red Phoenix, Hero of Justice. You are just Pink. And you’re in charge of commenting on my duels. Stay in your place and do as I say, or I will shoot higher next time.” He chuckled, and while the crowd was cheering behind him, he added while he put his gun away : “Or at least do the right thing and properly challenge me to a duel. Then, I might listen to you.” Another laugh shook his shoulders. “If you win, that is.”

Akira felt like he couldn’t breathe anymore. Ann was put inside the ambulance and driven away. Makoto was unable to move or say anything, frozen in fear. Haru was still clutching at her mouth, as if she was about to cry or throw up. And Red Phoenix wasn’t even reacting to this, cold-blooded, mocking them even.

He understood what Yuu had just said, that they couldn’t be reckless. But at the rate things were going, Red Phoenix would clearly not be stopped by anyone. He couldn’t trust his sanity right now. Akira needed to act before things turned for the worst. He didn’t think and quickly caught the rim of his glove with his teeth as he got up, putting one foot on the rail that separated the bleachers from the fighting grounds, and he screamed as loudly as he could : “I’ll do it!”

He heard the exclamations of his friends, Yuu calling his name with a panicked voice. Naoto furiously asked him what he was doing, pulling at his arm to get him away from the view but that was too late – a spotlight fell on him and a close-up of his face appeared on the stadium’s screen.

The action was about ten or twenty meters away, but he had still managed to get Red Phoenix’s attention. He even saw Akechi, the real one still stuck on the target, slowly raise his head in his direction. Akira took a deep breath and then threw his glove, a bright red spot impossible to miss on the field. “I will duel you in her stead.”

Red Phoenix didn’t move, but he was watching in his direction while Morgana tried to pull at Akira’s pants with his claws. Akira softly apologized to his friend when he pushed him away and jumped down, coat flying around him. He slowly straightened up and then walked until he was right in front of his glove with his hands in his pockets. He didn’t look away, he didn’t even glance at Akechi nor back at his friends who were panicking in the audience. He kept his ground, solid and unwavering, silently praying this would work.

“She clearly doesn’t want to fight, but I do. And it doesn’t change anything for you, does it?” He sent him a cocky grin, for good measure. “Or what, afraid you’ll lose against me?”

At last, Red Phoenix snapped his fingers again and the targets disappeared, swallowed by the ground that opened beneath them. Akira felt some of the anxiety still rushing through his veins ease down, glad to see Akechi wasn’t at risk of being dismembered by an axe anymore. Makoto let out a long sigh of relief and Haru fell to her knees, her hands now hiding her entire face, although her shivering shoulders clearly showed her distress. Meanwhile, the Shadow started walking in Akira’s direction, his axe still in hand as he softly stroked the handle.

“Another duel from you? My, I’m starting to think you’re obsessed.” He chuckled. “I’m blushing, silly hero.”

“I won’t lie – I’ve wanted to fight you since I set foot in this hideout. Truly, I would’ve preferred it to be more private, but…” He shrugged. “This will do.”

“Oh? And what did you have in mind for us, then, Joker?”

Akira took out his knife and gave it a little flourish, just to show off, twirling it around and throwing it in the air to catch it by the blade, and then poke at his mask with the handle. “We made a deal earlier. If me and my friends got to the last floor of this building, you would meet us. Clearly, the meeting happened earlier, but I trust that doesn’t mean you’ll go back on your word?”

“Of course not,” Red Phoenix confirmed.

“Then I have a proposition – if me and my friends get to the top of the building, we’ll also have to go through you. And it is only if we manage to beat you that you’ll let us plead for your prisoner.” He shrugged. “This will only make it easier for you to win.”

“That could take some time,” Red Phoenix remarked, looking almost disappointed. “Why can’t we fight now?”

“We need to make it a big event, build up the heat. I’m sure a lot of people in the audience would like to make bets too, considering how my skills are totally unknown to the public. I know for a fact that you have cameras all over this place so you could broadcast our ascension to the public right here, to entertain them. And then, we would have a perfect climax - the final battle.” Akira’s eyes twinkled, malicious. “That would make for a very good show, don’t you agree?”

“And what do I get from this, other than you running around my own hideout? I should get some sort of insurance,” Red Phoenix added, his tone getting somber. “Obviously, at this point I won’t be satisfied with seeing you lose. And you should get a time limit.”

Akira nodded. “There’s only a week left before the next fog.”

“Too long,” Red Phoenix retorted. “Make it three days.”

A shiver ran down his spine, anxiety building inside him. However, he didn’t really have a choice, here. He was making a gamble and bluffing his way through. He couldn’t back down now. “Deal. If we cannot make it in three days, I’ll surrender to you. However, I’ll ask you to leave my team out of this,” he insisted. “They are not part of this bet, after all. This is all on me.”

The Shadow was holding his chin, seemingly deep in thoughts. Akira lowered his knife and took a look around the audience. Clearly, people seemed divided. On one hand, they did want to see Red Phoenix beat up a person and not just through a game of axe-throwing, as much as it could’ve been entertaining. On the other hand, they were impatient, they had already been here for a while and nothing happened. And the previous show had ended prematurely.

Red Phoenix finally raised his head, having come to a conclusion. “We’ll let the public decide. After all, this is all for them, they deserve to be heard.” He turned on his heels, facing the audience. “What do you all think? Should we wait until this gentleman and his team manage to get to the top of the building in less than three days? Or should I just turn him down?”

A hush fell over them, people talking between themselves and debating, conflicted. It was a real conundrum. Red Phoenix let out a little sigh while Akira wasn’t moving, his hands back in his pockets and his foot lightly tapping the floor behind him. He sent a quick look over to Haru and Makoto and was relieved to find out they had left the fighting grounds, Haru sitting on a chair near the big entrance doors while Makoto comforted her, hands on her shoulders as she spoke softly to her.

Finally, a shout broke the peace. Someone from the audience had risen out of his seat to scream : “I love you Red Phoenix! No matter what, I’m here today and I’ll still be here tomorrow and the days after to watch you fight! You’re a hero!”

The chatter gained in intensity and soon enough, other people joined him, voicing their loyalty and respect out loud, for everyone to hear. The support he got was unwavering, genuine. And loud. Soon enough, the statements became applause, and the applause turned to cheers. In the end, the only thing they wanted was to see their hero, all the time. The rest didn’t matter.

Red Phoenix turned his head towards Akira once again, seizing him up, and he scoffed : “I guess stealing hearts is never easy.” He didn’t give Akira enough time to react to this line – he started clapping his hands lightly and made gestures signaling them to calm down and let him talk. “Well, that settles it, thank you for your delightful opinion everyone.” He started walking in Akira’s direction, bending down to catch his glove and, after giving it a little look, he put it in his pocket. He gazed a few more seconds upon Akira, and then turned around. “This is all for today, thank you for coming. Have a nice evening everyone! See you soon!”

Then it was over. The Shadow finally walked in the direction of the red door, disappearing from sight. He left Akira behind, dumbfounded, and deep down completely floored to realize he’d done it, he did manage to change the tide. Still, he needed a minute to catch his breath after holding it for so long.

Akira was still standing there, almost in a daze while the bleachers emptied themselves. He finally remembered his friends were probably waiting for him and he was about to turn around and go back to back with them when someone caught his arm and pulled him in the direction of the white door. “Don’t just stay there!” Makoto furiously whispered to him. “And are you out of your mind!?” she quickly added once they got closer to the walls, where no one could hear them. “Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ll get yourself killed!”

“You don’t trust me?” he tried with a lighter tone, a failed attempt to calm her down.

“Why would I? I had never seen you before and I don’t know what you said to White earlier but the matter stands – this whole situation doesn’t concern you!” Makoto released his arm so she could cross hers, still looking at him disapprovingly. “We don’t need your pity.”

“This isn’t pity,” he simply answered, his voice so calm and confident it shook Makoto out of her anger. “I know I can win against him. He’s strong but he’s not a god – and if defeating him is what is needed to bring him back to earth, I’ll do it.”

Her brows were still very low when she heard this, but she didn’t dare answer. She turned around and started walking away, leaving him in front of the white door. “I wish I could believe you, really...”

Akira watched her as she disappeared behind a staff only door, and then glanced at the huge doors open in front of him. He was completely alone and he hoped he’d be able to meet with his friends soon enough. He followed the large corridor that led out of the stadium and found himself in some kind of locker room. That was where Red Phoenix’s opponents waited before their duels, never to step inside twice. He silently wondered how many villains had died in the arena without leaving any trace.

He was looking around the room, in the showers, the lockers, just in case something useful was hidden in there. It was a habit he had from all his experiences in Palace exploration – the most innocent looking places could hide the most precious information. He was about to use his third eye when he heard footsteps coming in his direction, and then an arm slammed the wall next to his head. Akira turned around to fight back, but his assailants’ other arm flew right against his neck, pinning him against rough concrete.

He gasped for air, hands trying to push the arm away from his windpipe, to no avail. It was probably the shock of his head meeting the wall that slowed down his brain, and made him take so long to realize his attacker was Akechi’s Shadow, unmasked and showing his yellow eyes for the first time. The Shadow had a manic look on his face that made a shiver run down his spine, thrown back to a year before, in the boat’s engine room. Back then, Akechi had been looking at him too – fury and madness in his eyes as he made himself go berserk – but this was different. This time, he smiled and it was truly joyous.

“You’re always where I don’t expect you, Joker. What a strange man you are, throwing yourself into danger for the sake of a woman who is not even real.”

Akira swallowed, his heart beating faster at the admission. So the Shadow did know it was just a Palace and he wasn’t really a hero, the mere reflection of someone else’s distorted heart. That changed a lot of things. “You promised you’d let me see your real self if I managed to get to the top of the building,” he breathed out, struggling to let out all the words with the strong push applied to his neck. “You were about to break off our deal.”

“Oh please,” he sneered. “Who do you think I am? I couldn’t care less about what would happen to this disgusting slug of Okumura, but I would never kill myself like this. He would’ve probably pissed his pants in fear, though.” He let out a chuckle. “Especially when the axe would’ve ended up right between his legs, a few centimeters away from his little treasure.”

Akira tried to free his neck from the other’s hold, at least to breathe more easily. He did expect the Shadow to be sadistic behind his affable manners and friendly facade. Truly, he was just like the real Akechi – a two-faced man who didn’t like getting crossed and was too prideful for his own good. “So what was it? What did she do to deserve this punishment, huh?”

Red Phoenix didn’t react to this, his expression completely devoid of emotions. Akira’s breath stuttered but not because of the arm against his carotid this time – but because this emotionless expression really hammered home how long it had been since he’d seen the detective. Almost a year spent thinking they’d never meet again, that the only traces of him left were those of his Detective Prince persona littered around the internet. A fake Akechi, a skin he’d built to hide and to deceive those around him.

But Akira had seen what was underneath. And suddenly, at that moment, he realized how much he’d missed it. Even if he didn’t like it, the person in front of him was Akechi. He was a part of him, distorted but still true. Shadow Akechi slowly blinked, and then gave the most simple answer : “She pissed me off.”

Akira almost let out an annoyed groan, because really, going this far because Haru had stolen his little show by being on camera for one second didn’t deserve this much hatred. But he couldn’t say he was really surprised either. Akechi did have a pride larger than life. “You better not touch her again, you hear me? Not her, or anyone else.”

The Shadow grinned, completely unimpressed by his meaningless threats. “Joker, always the benevolent hero,” he murmured. “Is that truly why you chose to challenge me this time? To save some worthless cognition?”

Akira bit his lip, his grip on Akechi’s arm tightening. Honestly, he did. He wanted to save Haru even if he knew she was just a cognition. He didn’t want to see her so distressed. But he couldn’t admit that, not in this position. He needed to stand his ground, even if he was starting to get dizzy from the lack of air. “No. I want to fight you, I meant what I said.”

That seemed to do the trick. The Shadow immediately released him, eyebrows flying to his hairline as Akira fell to the ground to cough and gasp for air. After a few seconds of colorful spots dancing around his vision, he heard the Shadow mutter : “Really? Why?”

Akira sat down, back against the wall and his breath still erratic. Yellow eyes glared down on him and his pinched expression told him he wouldn’t accept any joke. “Because we’re rivals,” Akira simply answered, a little hot under the collar because while this wasn’t the entire truth, he knew how Akechi always reacted to this word and it was his best shot right now. “I was promised a rematch and this is our chance. I’m not sure the real one would agree with that, but…” He coughed a little chuckle. “He’s not here right now.”

Red Phoenix really looked taken aback by this. He put his hands on his hips, biting his lip and shuffling his feet around, taking a step back and then stopping. Akira really hit a nerve on that one, it seemed.

“Is that so…” the Shadow said, still unconvinced. “Why didn’t you go through the duel elevator then?”

“I’m not alone, I have a team with me. But now…” Akira’s stare finally caught the Shadow’s. “This is between you, and me. It doesn’t concern anyone else.”

The yellow eyes seemed to sparkle in the darkness of the locker room. The Shadow had completely stopped moving, his eyes wide, like a predator looming over its prey. “Alright,” he finally drawled, his voice low, almost raspy. “I’ll play with you. If you can even get past this floor, that is.”

“You don’t think I’m able to find one little password?”

Red Phoenix scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Is that why you got close to White? So she could tell you the password?” He rolled his eyes, lips thinning out in clear irritation. “And what if she doesn’t know it?”

“I know I can find it, one way or another. No matter what I need to do.”

He actually laughed. “You truly are desperate, huh?”

“You did give me a pretty short deadline.”

The Shadow didn’t seem to mind hearing this. On the contrary, he looked overjoyed. Truly, seeing Akira at the end of his rope seemed to make his day. He shook his head with a sigh. “In that case, I could make things easier for you.” His grin was frozen on his face, for anyone else it would seem forced but here, it was more like he was trying to keep himself from smiling too much. “How about I give you a hint?”

Akira frowned, heart beating a little bit faster while he finally got back on his feet. Red Phoenix was still a little too close for comfort but he didn’t try pushing him away. Right now, the Shadow had the upper hand. They did need that password and couldn’t afford to lose more than a day to find it. “For free?”

“For free.”

“Then I guess I’m all ears.”

Red Phoenix chuckled, self-satisfaction written all over his face. He leaned a little bit forward, so close Akira almost thought he was going to head-butt him – and said : “Tomorrow night. Come here, alone. And I’ll give it to you.”

“That... feels an awful lot like a trap,” Akira deadpanned.

“I’ll be unarmed, if that’s what you’re scared of.”

“And why should I trust you on that?”

“Think of it as a simple indulgence, a whim,” Shadow Akechi answered lightly. “I just want to sit down and have a talk with you. Then you’ll get your hint, and you’ll be free to do whatever you want.” He raised his hands in a little shrug. “Simple enough.”

Akira had to swallow hard, his throat tight. He was way too close, it was hard to think straight. His voice shook a little. “The last time I ended up alone in a room with your real self, he shot me in the head.”

His bewilderment seemed to overjoy the Shadow, the corners of his mouth curling and digging dimples into his cheeks. “And you’re still alive, so clearly it wasn’t all that bad.”

Akira didn’t answer, truly at a loss for words. Sure, he was curious to know what Shadow Akechi wanted from him. But he wasn’t about to run straight in the lion’s den, there clearly was something Red Phoenix wasn’t telling him.

He didn’t get a chance to ask however, the Shadow was reaching into his pocket to take out his mask. Akechi finally took a step back, twirling it around his index finger as he turned around and finally started walking for the door. “Leave it or take it. It’s an offer I make, and the choice is up to you. It’s not like it’ll change anything when I defeat you in the end but…” He opened the exit door wide, sent one last look over his shoulder, and smirked. “I’ll be waiting for you. Don’t leave me hanging, Joker.”

He put on his mask again and then swiftly left the room, door wide open behind him. Akira didn’t move for another minute, his heart still beating erratically. He pushed his mask up on his forehead and burrowed his head in his hands to heave a long, tired sigh.

To be continued.

Chapter Text

You disappeared with a detached face,
But if I needed to ram the entire world, if it helped me find you again,
I would do anything.

The sound of punches echoed against the walls. Soft taps of bare feet against the mats, followed by the sounds of knees hitting the ground, of backs meeting padding. Grunts of exhaustion and rage, exploding into fighting howls.

Goro tried to breathe slowly, eyes focused on his opponent. He was waiting to see his Shadow drop his guard, to show a moment of weakness or inattention. However, even with his hair sticking to his sweaty forehead, cheeks red with exhaustion, the Shadow’s yellow eyes were still shining bright. His own face was staring at him, mad with hostility, and he waited for the same exact thing. The perfect chance. He tried to feint an uppercut right against the Shadow’s ribs but was immediately blocked and pushed away, almost punished by a blow that went right past his ear. Thank god for his reflexes, Goro immediately dodged back, footwork engraved in his mind.

Who knows why they started fighting. Goro was brought to this gym, given appropriate sportswear, and then put against his own self. And truly, he didn’t need to be asked twice – he’d wanted to punch the smile off this face for a while now. He didn’t mind the opportunity to show him who was the real person here, and who actually made the rules around his own head. But obviously that meant the Shadow was as strong as him. It was exhilarating, in a way, to be faced with such a strong foe, someone who already knew all your moves. That meant he couldn’t just go with his usual tactics. He had to improvise and take him by surprise if he wanted to land a punch. But the same could be said of his Shadow. And really, Goro wasn’t sure he’d ever gotten that roughened up in a fistfight.

Still, it felt quite good to get rid of all the tension in his body. And from the spark in his Shadow’s eyes, the feeling was mutual. Goro had no idea what was going on with him, in his little fake world – but if that meant he could punch him in the face, he wasn’t complaining. Even when he started to feel blood pooling in his mouth, even when his nose made a terrifying noise – Goro was exhilarated. The Shadow started to step back and Goro couldn’t help but throwing a little jab : “What, you’re running away now?”

“Strategic retreat,” Red Phoenix spat, an ugly grin still pulling at his lips.

“Seems like your favorite strategy. I’m still waiting for that axe, you know?”

A snarky laugh answered him, although it seemed like the Shadow was going to keep his distances. He began to walk in a circle around Goro, slowly getting closer while using his wrist to wipe off blood from his open lip. His tongue slid against the wound and he chuckled : “I was very disappointed that Shadows had to drug you to keep you from struggling like a wild deer. Were you so afraid I’d cut off something precious?”

“I wasn’t raised in a circus so I don’t see why I should trust your skills.”

“There’s so much you don’t know about me,” Red Phoenix seethed, finally rushing towards Goro with his fist armed, ready to break his cheekbone.

They traded a few more blows, each getting rougher and wilder, screams of pain and exhaustion escaping them every time they received a punch or landed one. Goro could feel his knuckles screaming and the world swaying around him. He needed to put an end to this, he realized, or he’d really hurt himself. With one moment of lucidity and sudden pinpoint awareness, Goro managed to catch Red Phoenix’s arm and use his weight against him to pin him on the ground. The Shadow let out a shriek and struggled like a madman, but Goro hissed : “We’re done. I won. Stay on the fucking ground and admit your defeat.”

The other man calmed down a little in his arms, but he still turned his head in his direction, bright yellow eyes glaring daggers at him between messy chestnut bangs. Red Phoenix’s face was flushed, his teeth clenched so hard they probably hurt. “I didn’t lose,” he hissed.

And then he threw his free leg, more exactly his heel, right into Goro’s crotch.

It felt like a shock passing through his whole body, he stumbled and lost his grip on his opponent as he wheezed in pain. Red Phoenix got away from his grasp and then back on his feet while Goro stayed on all fours, biting his hand to keep himself from letting out a cry of pain while he could still feel the blow echoing through him in waves. Red Phoenix didn’t deem it enough, however, and he added a kick right into his jaw for good measure. The detective rolled on his back with a shout, as he could now definitely feel the wound inside his cheek bleed profusely.

He started to choke on it and got on his side so he wouldn’t die by drowning in his own blood. He could see the Shadow looking down on him though and he gritted between his teeth : “Fine, I lost! I get it!”

The Shadow didn’t say anything, spitting on the ground with a disgusted face. He didn’t hide the sneer on his face, even if he also had to sit down now that the fight was over. Goro rolled on his back once he managed to control his breathing, the pain still throbbing between his legs but not as strong as before. He threw a look at his Shadow, who wasn’t done glaring at him. “What?” he groaned.

Red Phoenix didn’t answer, eyes dark and fury contorting his face. He clearly didn’t want to win with such a low move and now he was pissed off. So he shrugged and pretended to look away. “I just can’t believe you. You don’t remember anything that happened in the arena?”

Goro frowned, puzzled to hear him go back to this. He tried his hardest to think back to it but his memory was foggy, he didn’t know what had been real and what had been part of the weird dreams that followed. “I was attached to a target while people screamed all around me?”

“And that’s it?” the Shadow insisted.

Goro vaguely remembered other people being here but their faces were all blurry, he couldn’t even tell how many were there. He only knew one of them was Red Phoenix because that made sense – and he was hard to miss, dressed in all red like that. But that was pretty much it. “Interesting…” Red Phoenix continued, looking like he meant it this time. “Someone actually tried to save you and you can’t even remember them?”

He wanted to tell him to piss off and stop the jokes, but that rang true when he heard it. Now that he thought about it, he did remember someone stopping everything right before he was taken away from the stadium. He had no idea who, however, nor how they did it. In the end, he shrugged. “I thought that was another one of your stupid games.”

Red Phoenix seemed to ponder over this for a few seconds, but then he threw him a little sideway smile. “Bingo. You’re right. It was a test.” Then he let out a dry laugh. “Who would try to save you?”

“Piss off.”

The Shadow got back on his feet and started to walk away, hand coming to his back pocket to take out his mask. “You’re right,” he sighed. “I’ll be very busy tonight so I should leave as soon as possible.” Then he threw a look over his shoulder, added a shit-eating grin and said : “I have a date, you see.”

Goro slowly blinked, unsure if he should care about this information until he finally connected the dots. He felt a blush rising on his cheeks and quickly tried to find a way out of it, turning his head away and forcing a smirk. “Oh yeah? Can you really call it that way when you know it’s just a fantasy from your fake little world?” He snorted. “You’re so desperate.”

Red Phoenix bristled at this, but he didn’t move, glaring at him from the other side of the room. His hand shook a little when he clenched his fist. He turned around with a dismissive sound and finally put on his mask. “It’s still better than your sad, pitiful reality.”

Goro’s eyes followed him until he disappeared behind the door. Soon enough, Shadows were all around him, catching him by the arms to drag him back to his cell, his face showing nothing but disinterest and boredom. But his Shadow must have known it was just a facade. Because clearly, beneath his mask, Goro was seething.

He finally let it all out when he was left alone, his swollen jaw almost numb with pain. He winced and then expressed his ire in the only way possible considering how exhausted he was – which was throwing his pillow against the glass. This was enough to make his arms and fists scream and he collapsed face first into his mattress, hidden from both the shame and the silent fury still going through him.

He didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to imagine Red Phoenix in company of Kurusu Akira’s cognition, one that would laugh and smile at everything he said, one that would cover the back of his hand when they played chess, one that would warm his bed, listen to him, never annoy him – a doll for a man who found pleasure in owning people and never being talked back. The property of someone hot-blooded, prideful, possessive, jealous. The son of Shido Masayoshi.

Goro felt sick when that thought washed over him. He rolled on his back with his arm covering his eyes to force himself to breathe. It didn’t matter, he reminded himself. The true Kurusu was never interested in him, he was too smart for that. This was just one of his sick brain’s fantasies.

He tried to find something to occupy his brain and forget about the disgusting images of his Shadow spending time with a fake and lovey-dovey Kurusu. Sadly, no one had thought it was a good idea to give him a first aid kit, but there had been an addition to his room – a small TV screen as well as a pile of video tapes, all neatly lined up. He wasn’t sure he should trust this, but in the end it was better than nothing. It’s not like he had a lot of things in his cell anyway.

Goro loaded the first tape and sat at the end of his bed, arms crossed and tongue applying pressure to the wound inside his mouth, hoping it’d stop bleeding soon. A cheery song started playing and sure enough, the video was actually from a kid’s TV show. He frowned a little bit as he watched the opening credits because he’d never seen anything like it before or at least he didn’t remember it – when the title screen revealed what exactly he was watching.

It was a show about Red Phoenix. Well, actually, he wasn’t alone, he had a team with him – all of them wearing masks and wearing the same kind of costume but with different colors. The smug asshole had a show dedicated to him.

Goro chuckled, stunned by how pretentious this was. Red Phoenix had found it smart to give him tapes of his own fake adventures, as if he needed to educate him and maybe even prove to him that he was, in fact, a true hero. Like he wasn’t just a stupid Shadow, a part of Goro and definitely not his own person.

He shook his head, quite bemused by the situation, and then decided it wouldn’t do him any harm to watch a few episodes.

“It was probably the worst thing you could’ve done.”

As soon as he found his way out of the arena’s locker room, Akira managed to get back to his very stressed out and very annoyed teammates. He got three very disappointed stares from Yuu, Naoto and Mona, some scolding for being so impulsive, and a private thumbs-up from Yosuke who thought his move was actually pretty cool.

He apologized, obviously – and sent a smile to his new best friend – but still tried to explain himself : “I really don’t think Red Phoenix was thinking right down there. He was going crazy, I couldn’t sit back and trust that he wouldn’t kill Akechi. I know three days is really short, but I don’t think he’d ever make it impossible for us to get to the last floor. He clearly wants that fight.”

That didn’t stop Naoto from frowning nor Morgana’s unhappy look. Yuu decided to step up and said there was nothing to do but go back and make plans for the next few days. Naoto confirmed she needed to leave as soon as possible so she could start her research on Akechi’s mother and that she’d contact them when she had something, hopefully the next day. And if not they’d go back to the Palace the day after. Three days was way too short to take an actual day off, but it wasn’t like they had any other choice. They’d spend their entire days in the cognitive world if needed, as long as they could get to the top of the hideout.

They couldn’t just sit and wait, so they decided they’d use the next day to train a little – Akira and Yuu did need to get their hands on some new Personas if they had to fight against a Palace Ruler. And the following day was a Sunday so they were all free.

Still, Akira was left with a sour taste in his mouth when they all went their way home. He had been reckless and now they were in a rush. They’d have to speed through the Palace with absolutely no certainty they could accomplish it in two days. And he’d done it for nothing, no matter what he’d said earlier – the Shadow wouldn’t have hurt his own self and Haru was just a cognition. Morgana was trying to be positive, telling him that he could feel there weren’t that many floors to go through past the elevator, but they both knew it didn’t mean anything. They had no idea what was waiting for them.

He had a pretty silent dinner with his mother. He could feel the few worried stares she sent his way but he wasn’t exactly in the mood to have any kind of conversation with her that night. Thankfully she didn’t try to make him talk, but she went to the kitchen in the middle of her TV drama to make some tea for the both of them. It wasn’t much, but the warmth helped him breathe a little bit easier.

Back in his room Morgana was waiting for him, paws delicately tapping on his computer’s keyboard. Akira asked him who he was talking to – Futaba, obviously – and when he saw the conversation, his heart dropped a little.

Right. They still had to tell the Thieves about what was going on, and even if he had faith in Naoto’s sources, Futaba was the best intel they could ever get. And Makoto could ask Sae, who had legal access to the police records. Hell, maybe Akechi had told her about his mom. Morgana sent a wary look in his direction. “I’m sorry, I went ahead and told her to contact the others for a group call.”

Akira swallowed the anxious knot lodged in his throat and nodded, patting the cat’s head. “Ah, yeah, good move. Thanks.”

“I’m not your pet, stop that!”

“My bad, kitty.”

Once Morgana was done getting revenge with his very sharp claws on Akira’s very sensitive thighs, everyone was ready for the call. He took a deep breath, tried to not look too stressed out, and pushed the call button. Everyone appeared slowly, some with perfect quality like Futaba who was using her webcam, while others like Ryuji were filmed from a not flattering low angle. Others were on call like Haru and Sumire. They quickly said hi, all too happy to get news from him, turning into some unintelligible chatter when they all tried to ask him how he was. He bit his lip and cleared his throat. “Sorry for the last minute call…”

He lost his words for a second, unsure of what to do – try to build it up slowly or just go with it? Considering the hour, he figured he couldn’t really waste time in pleasantries. He had decided to contact them for a reason, and it was better to go for it as soon as possible. “I had something very important to tell you, and honestly I should’ve done that earlier, but…”

Akira caught some worried looks from his friends, Ann’s blue eyes wide and curious. He felt something sink inside him. Not too long ago, he’d seen her – well, Akechi’s cognition – get shot in cold blood. He was glad to see that she was perfectly fine, that it had indeed been nothing but a clone, a fake one, but… This little moment of utter terror, of guilt, made him blurt it out : “Akechi is alive. I learned that a few days ago.”

An immediate uproar answered him and he winced, because that’s what he got for not sugarcoating anything. He could hear Futaba’s screech, asking how, as well as Sumire breathing out in relief. Thankfully, they got quiet when he started talking again : “Long story short, we found out there is a way to access the cognitive world in my town – we met people with Personas too. That’s how I discovered that not only he’s alive but he’s stuck in his own Palace, and his Shadow is pretty determined to kill him…” He forced himself to catch his breath. “And I thought you guys deserved to know. That… I had to go back to the other world, without you.”

He was immediately welcomed with reassuring words, telling him it was fine, he had to do what he needed to do and most importantly, was he going to be alright in there? Did he already have access to Akechi’s Palace? How did that even happen, more details, please!

And then, Ryuji, who had been pretty silent this entire time, managed to make them all speechless. “Okay, that sucks.”

No one could actually deny it, falling into a guilty silence. They knew they could trust Akira and they knew he was doing the most obvious thing. But really, deep down, they all wished they could’ve been with him. Ryuji quickly added : “I mean, I get it man. If you’ve got other people with you then that’s fantastic, and you better save Akechi’s ass and make him stay this time but…” He let out an annoyed sigh. “I know it’s not about me but I wish I could be there with you, you know?”

Akira felt something that could only be described as crushing shame. Because he’d spent so many months thinking he was the only one, that he was an asshole who wanted to be a hero so badly he’d jump at any opportunity to be a Thief again. He’d hated himself, he’d felt depressed and alone and selfish. And yet he wasn’t. And considering the other’s silence, it was obvious Ryuji wasn’t the only one. They all felt that way.

Akira forced a smile, a part of him furious at his stupidity and the other absolutely relieved to hear those words. He nodded : “Yeah. I totally get you.”

He wasn’t alone, he had Mona and all the others from Inaba. But it wasn’t the same. He and the Thieves had a special connection, bonds that couldn’t be broken. They knew each other, fighting by their side was nothing short of obvious after doing it for so long. And he could trust them with his life. He knew Yusuke would always be the first one to shake him off the worst ailments, he had seen Ann jump and take a very serious attack for him once too many times, he could trust Makoto with leadership if he needed to fall back and heal himself.

Yuu, Naoto and Yosuke were great and he knew that when they’d had time to sit down and get to know each other they could also become great friends – people who could make his last months in Inaba more bearable. They were older than him and they knew what it was like to be a hero and then go back to normalcy. But they weren’t his best friends.

“Akira, are you okay?” Haru timidly asked him, breaking him out of his thoughts.

Akira tried to keep his voice and face in check when he heard her. The crippling guilt inside him welled up, almost suffocating him. They had never told the others about their attempt at a relationship – and truly, it had been the right choice considering how it ended. But he suddenly wished he had told her about Akechi being alive beforehand, just so he could avoid this. She certainly didn’t deserve to be put on the spot like this and he didn’t deserve her compassion.

“I am, please don’t worry about me,” he forced out of his chest. “It was pretty unnerving to find that out but right now I’m focused on getting Akechi out of here. Still, I felt like you guys needed to at least know about him.”

Deep down, he was relieved to see Haru’s camera wasn’t on. He did see Makoto frown, but she didn’t say anything. Thankfully, Sumire got his attention : “How long has he been in there?”

“Our best guess is that he’s been inside for at least a week? That’s when we found out about him anyway. But how he actually got inside the cognitive world, that’s something we’ll have to ask when we rescue him.”

“Alright, okay, but spill the beans now – what’s his Palace like?” Futaba quickly asked, eyes almost shining with curiosity.

Akira spent the next half-hour telling them most of what had happened those last two days. The Midnight Channel, falling inside his TV, meeting Yuu’s group and then Red Phoenix. He did mention their cognitions inside the Palace but he didn’t give a lot of details –– he really didn’t want to think about Haru’s frightened look when she saw her father on the bullseye target nor Ann’s wails of pain anytime soon.

He didn’t talk about his second meeting with Red Phoenix either – he hadn’t told anyone. He wasn’t sure what he should do about it, but he knew everyone would be against the idea. So in case something went wrong and no one could manage to find the elevator’s password, he still had this option. Not that it was the only reason why he wanted to meet with Red Phoenix in private again, but he couldn’t really say those things aloud.

Unsurprisingly however, no one knew the name of Akechi’s mother. Futaba immediately hung up to start her research and Makoto said she’d ask her sister. “She can probably check the records,” she added. Then her stare turned a little bit cold and she sighed : “But I doubt she knows it herself. He never trusted anyone but you, didn’t he?”

A little strained silence followed her sentence, and while Yusuke nodded with a little smile, surely confident she’d meant it as a compliment – it definitely was the opposite. His heart started beating faster, almost painful in his chest, and he didn’t dare reply anything. Upon further thinking, it was pretty obvious why she was upset with him – she was Haru’s closest friend. And even if Haru had promised she wouldn’t tell anyone, he couldn’t really be mad at her for this one slip-up.

“Still, you better send us a dumb selfie with that bastard once he’s out of the woods,” Ryuji added, saving him from this uncomfortable moment.

“He’ll probably be exhausted when he gets out though…” Sumire answered, always thoughtful. “A text will be enough!”

“I wonder what he’s going to do,” Yusuke pondered. “He probably doesn't have any money nor documents on him. Can he stay at your house while he figures things out?”

Akira winced as he exchanged a look with Morgana. “Yeah, probably not,” the cat answered for him. “But I think we’re fine, Yosuke lives alone and he did say Yuu stayed at his house once or twice so he’s got room for someone else. We’ll need to ask him, though.”

“I’ll do that tomorrow,” he agreed.

The call finally came to an end and Akira was ready to finally call it a night when he felt his phone vibrate. His stomach sank when he saw the sender. 

Haru : I’m sorry, I promise I didn’t tell her. She guessed it.

His guts clenched, guilt still heavy inside him. It was the first message he got from Haru since last May. He quickly answered : 

Me : It’s okay, don’t worry about it.

A few dots appeared. Then they disappeared. It lasted a whole minute, and in the end :

Haru : Great. Goodnight :)

It took him a while to fall asleep that night. He couldn’t stop looking at his ceiling, head full of too many thoughts. At one point, he slid out of his covers to quietly get to his closet and find the glove still in his coat’s pocket. He decided to take it back to bed with him. He squeezed the leather, felt it get warmer against his skin. And then, finally, he fell into the arms of Morpheus.

“I hate it. I genuinely hate it.”

“We know, we’ve heard you the first thirty times.”

Akira couldn’t find it in himself to try and support Yosuke this time. He was as tired as the others from hearing about it and Mona wasn’t that far off – he did say this more than ten times already.

When Yuu had told him to dress lightly and bring a lot of hydrating drinks, he thought he was exaggerating. He’d spent entire days in the Metaverse before, running through a desert and deep down Mementos during heatwaves – he’d be fine. What he didn’t know, however, was that his new teammates decided to train in a bathhouse, with some rooms being actual saunas.

He had no idea a Palace could look like this, it didn’t even cross his mind that if you didn’t steal someone’s treasure, you could go back to their Palace afterwards. And this one, according to Yuu, was a great place to build teamwork. Some of the Shadows lingering in there had spells that could target their entire group on their weakness, while still not being strong enough to really be dangerous. That way they could find a rhythm between them, try combinations and get used to each other’s fighting style.

For example, while Akira was pretty versatile between his gun and his knife, Yosuke was more of a long distance fighter and healer, relying on his Persona and only using his kunai when necessary. Yuu, however, was a force to be reckoned, slashing through Shadows with his katana like it was nothing, large shoulders never trembling when he got into his fighting stance, his blade right along his side, ready to strike.

Still, the witches were all gathered around the seventh floor and Akira discovered pretty quickly that the higher they climbed, the hotter the place got. Which did change many things. First of all, Akira quickly had to get rid of his coat and his gloves, bare arms shining with sweat as time went by. Yuu had been ready and was in a black wife beater, exposing his collarbones and frankly solid body built – and Yosuke was being a baby about it, although he pretended he was only bothered by the heat.

Thankfully, while Naoto couldn’t join them since she was focused on her research of Akechi’s mother, they had been joined by an old friend of theirs – Amagi Yukiko, who Akira had met once or twice during Inaba’s summer matsuri. She was also the owner of the city’s most famous inn which was why she hadn’t been able to come and help them in the Palace – it was the only day off she could offer them.

Needless to say, Yukiko was a great addition to the group. Not only because the testosterone level would be unbearable without Naoto, but also because she was a great healer and fire user. He’d been blinded by her capacities when he’d seen her summon Amaterasu and thoroughly wipe an entire room in one spell. Sure, her little handheld fan didn’t seem to ever land a hit, but she was strong and she was carrying their team, especially considering all the enemies that were weak to fire in this place.

But she was as relentless with her old friends as she was with the Shadows. She was sharp and downright cold when Yosuke was too annoying, and when she met again with Teddie, she gave him a smile before pointedly telling him to never, ever call her “Yuki-chan” again. “Yuki-san” seemed to do the trick, thankfully. Teddie looked still awestruck though, even a few hours later.

And he wasn’t the only one. Morgana did have a little crush on her now that he thought about it, and while he could easily hide it – being more subtle than he’d ever been with Ann – he was still a little bit sweeter to usual. And she had the other guys wrapped around her little finger. Which was how she actually saved Akira from a lot of grief and cleared a lot of things when, after one too many complaints, she burned Yosuke alive with both her stare and words : “I’m starting to think that the reason why you’re so uncomfortable with Kanji’s palace is because deep down, yours would be the exact same one, you know?”

Akira saw the way Yuu’s face fell when he heard that, eyes wider than he’d ever seen them before, almost panicked. And oh, she did strike a nerve, even if he couldn’t understand why yet, because Yosuke frowned and crossed his arms, immediately getting on the defensive : “We know what my palace looked like, first of all. And what are you trying to say, huh?” His mouth had a little spasm, like he was repressing a lot of words. “I’m not like Kanji, I know exactly who I am. And the memories of this place gives me the creeps – what’s wrong with that? It’s made to be uncomfortable because it’s distorted, my reaction is totally normal!”

Yukiko then sent him a very unconvinced and even disgusted stare. “You’ve been saying that for years now and really, it’s just as pitiful as before.”

That seemed to do the trick, and this time, the red on Yosuke’s cheeks couldn’t be attributed to the heat when he screeched : “What the hell, how is it wrong to be weirded out by a gay bathhouse!?”

Akira didn’t dare say anything, still sitting on one of the wooden benches of the sauna, sipping on an energy drink. He glanced at Yuu who had his head in his hand while his two friends continued to argue with each other, and then felt a little tug on his sleeve. Morgana was right next to him and looked very confused, asking him what’s going on. He shrugged, because honestly he had no clue, although he was starting to connect a few dots. Not that he’d ever try to get into the conversation. It clearly didn’t concern him.

They were saved by Teddie’s arrival who had just smelled Naoto getting inside the Midnight Channel. That probably meant she had good news, so they all forgot the tense atmosphere and got free from the heat with a Goho-M. They all gasped in relief once they finally breathed the fresh dry air. Akira quickly made use of the towel Yuu had brought for them and he saw Yosuke on the verge of complaining about the dirty towel they had to share but their leader sent him a look that immediately made him shut up, thankfully.

Naoto was on the TV set when they got back, sitting on the top of a broken screen while scribbling a few things on her notebook. She brightened up when she saw Yukiko and they exchanged a few words, and then some whispers, before she finally turned to the whole group. “I hope you guys feel ready to move now, because we are going to Akechi’s Palace right away to make sure the password is right.”

To be fair, Akira felt a little bit lethargic after spending the entire day fighting in such a suffocating setting. But they weren’t going far and there was a safe room right next to the elevator so it shouldn’t take long, technically. He walked up to her as they were marching towards Red Phoenix’s hideout. “What did you find?”

She scratched the back of her short hair with her pen, jostling her cap while she opened her notebook. “Well it wasn’t easy but even with the little information you had we managed to find her case. Akechi Hiromi, 29, half-japanese half-chinese, unemployed. She committed suicide when he was ten and he was the one who reported it. I guess he used his influence in the police to bury the file when he got older.”

“Her job was so shady it wasn’t even recognized by the state?”

“Maybe,” she shrugged. “Or he asked for it to be erased from the file. You did say she was a sex worker, he probably didn’t want journalists to find that out.”

Akira felt something fuzzy inside him, like a spark that hurt a little but felt good at the same time. Because if that was true, then that meant Akechi did trust him enough to tell him something he really wanted to keep secret to others. He didn’t lie at all when they went to the bathhouse near Leblanc. Even before they truly started to see behind each other’s mask, Akechi had opened up to Akira. And that knowledge made him feel pretty good.

They quickly made their way inside the hideout and Akira couldn’t help but glance at one of the cameras. He wondered if Red Phoenix was currently watching him and if he was still expecting to meet him later that night. Deep down, Akira had no idea what he should do. They had the password now. But he wanted to go, even if everything indicated this was a trap as well as a very, very bad idea.

They all got in front of the secret staff elevator, and sure enough, a keyboard and a little screen were waiting for them next to it, telling them the doors wouldn’t open if they didn’t type in the right password. The keyboard only seemed to handle alphabet, so after checking a few times, they finally typed :

H – I – R – O – M – I

The screen flashed red and Akira’s stomach sinked. It wasn’t the right password. Shit. Here they thought they might actually make some progress, and it turns out they were still stuck. He quickly shook his head before panic could overcome him : “Wait, didn’t you say she had a Chinese parent? Maybe she’s got another name.”

Naoto bit her lip, glaring at the screen. “Maybe. After all, I just found her police file, there’s not a lot of details in there. But I don’t know if I can find anything more. Truly, if she had double nationality then maybe we could look into her Chinese files but even then…” She shook her head. “There’s no way the Chinese government would give us anything of the kind. Not legally, at least.”

“Futaba could find it,” Morgana said. “We’ve not lost all hope yet. She’s one of the best hackers in the world, I’m sure she can find this!”

Akira nodded, throat tight, while everyone around them sighed dejectedly and made their way back to the safe room. They had time, he tried to convince himself.

He sent Futaba a text as soon as they were out of the cognitive world, asking her if she could do it. She replied that while she didn’t find much about her in the Japanese Civil Registry (even after she went snooping where no one was allowed to be) she could totally do it for the Chinese one too. She only needed help from a Chinese friend who was a night owl so she might only have answers in the very early morning. He said that was good enough, and thanked her.

“We still need to have a plan B in case this fails too,” Yuu said, no fear in his eyes but clearly not joking around anymore. “A life is at stake here, we already lost an entire day. We have to be able to get past the elevator tomorrow.”

Akira felt his heart go faster, his palms getting a little bit sweaty. He had a potential solution, after all. And truly, at this point, he’d made up his mind – he would go and they couldn’t stop him. But still. They wouldn’t like it. And Red Phoenix did ask for him to come alone.

“I might have a way,” Akira said slowly, bracing himself for the incoming conversation. “Red Phoenix came to see me yesterday after I interrupted the duel. And he offered to give me a hint, on the condition I met with him again tonight. Alone.”

Yuu immediately frowned when he heard this. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because you would’ve stopped me.”

The older man couldn’t deny that, it was written all over his face. Naoto managed to stay pragmatic about it though : “This is too risky, you know we can’t let you do that. It’s clearly a trap.”

“Maybe not,” he tried, although he knew he was hardly convincing. “He said he’d be unarmed and he wouldn’t ask anything other than me coming here. And he’s got no reason to lie and kill me. He wants his big show.”

“Why would he want you to go there alone though?” Yosuke said, confusion written all over his face. “What does he want?”

That was exactly what Akira wanted to know. And probably everyone else in the group. What could Red Phoenix possibly want from him, at night, and with no one else around? If Akira was really desperate he’d think it was nothing more than a straightforward invitation from the Shadow, one with very simple and candid intentions.

But deep down he also remembered that in real life, Akechi tended to do those things too. So many times he’d invited him to spend the evening with him with some very cryptic words, telling him how alone he was and that he wanted to show him things. If Akira had been less blind about his own feelings at the time, his brain would’ve probably had a shortcut from seeing these.

He heard a little grunt to his right and was stunned to find it was Yukiko who was almost folded in half, her hand in front of her mouth while she tried to restrain another snort of laughter from escaping through her nose. Morgana blinked wildly, already back in Akira’s bag. “Hey, Lady Yukiko, are you alright…?”

“Ha… Ha, ehehe, yes…” she gasped, quickly wiping tears of laughter with the tip of her finger. “I just thought about something really funny…”

Yosuke was making a face, clearly appalled by the sight of his friend laughing like a lunatic. “There she goes.”

“It’s just…” He sniffed and hiccuped. “I thought about the look on his face… if you actually… went with Teddie!” More giggles escaped her. “I mean… he’s not a real person!”

“Yuki-san, you sure know how to break a bear’s heart,” the poor lad whined, head dropping forward as she devolved into absolute hysterical laughter, holding her stomach as if it hurt.

Meanwhile, Yuu and Naoto were exchanging looks. Akira saw that and quickly shook his head. “Nope. Not happening. He’ll kill me.”

“Technically, you wouldn’t be going against his conditions,” Yuu said, hand on his hip.

“And he clearly doesn’t consider Teddie to be a person, he couldn’t even get to the VIP area. It might work.”

“If Teddie can help, he’ll be glad to!” the bear added with a large big smile, already recovered and going with the flow while not caring about anything else, not even Yukiko who was still dying from laughter while Yosuke lightly patted her back.

Akira was forced to admit it was the best thing to do. If anything happened, Teddie could use a Goro-M and warn the others. And it wasn’t like he’d understand anything going on between them, he had been blissfully unaware of everything until then and it didn’t look like it was going to change soon.

But still. He would’ve liked to be truly alone with Red Phoenix again, without Teddie hanging on his shoulder. For... reasons.

They finally said goodbye for now, although Yuu would come and get Akira later that night. He asked him if his mother would be okay with him spending the night outside but clearly, considering the next day was Monday, she wouldn’t be. And no matter how charming and reassuring Yuu was, Akira knew his mom wasn’t moved by stuff like that. She didn’t know him and she wouldn’t trust Akira with weird adults she had never seen before.

However it wasn’t even 5PM yet and Akira didn’t feel like going home immediately. That’s how he ended up hanging out with Yosuke who wanted to chill somewhere in the city. They climbed up the hill that overlooked Inaba and settled near the railing while children ran around the gazebo not far below.

Yosuke and Yukiko didn’t talk nor apologize to each other after their argument but it was clear he was upset about the whole ordeal. And even if it didn’t concern him, Akira couldn’t help but be curious. He had the feeling half of what Yosuke said didn’t actually match what he really thought, and he was ready to sit down and listen to him. After all, Akira always had a knack for that – he loved listening to people’s problems, although he rarely shared his. He tried to break the silence : “It’s a cool little spot. I don’t think I ever came here, or maybe I was too young.”

“Oh yeah?” Yosuke seemed surprised. “It’s always been one of my favorite parts of Inaba. It’s pretty quiet and you can see everything, especially during firework season. Me and Yuu used to come here a lot to chill during high school.”

“He only stayed a year, right?”

“Yup,” he replied, letting the ‘p’ pop. “Things got pretty lonely when he left. He and I were both transfer students, you know? But when he left, even if all the other guys were still here…” He chuckled. “It didn’t feel the same without him.”

Akira silently wondered if the Thieves had felt the same after he left. He didn’t think he had even a tenth of Yuu’s charisma, but he hoped, deep down, that they missed him too. Ryuji had pretty much said so the day before on the phone but he was probably the most sensitive one out of all of them. It’s not like he wanted them to feel lonely, but he still had this little selfish wish inside of him.

“He’s your best friend,” Akira said. Then he smirked. “Your partner. Of course he’s special.”

Yosuke chuckled, his ears blushing a little bit, but he didn’t try to deny it. “I guess. Although I also missed him because I was left surrounded with girls.” Then he made a face. “And Kanji.”

Akira remembered the name as the one of the guy whose Palace they had spent the day in. The one Yosuke had described as ‘a gay bathhouse’. Suddenly he wasn’t sure he really wanted to keep this conversation going, but Yosuke didn’t really ask for his opinion : “He’s a really great guy, don’t get me wrong. I know what Yukiko said earlier and she’s just dumb. I love him. I mean…” He winced. “He’s cool. He’s a weirdo but he’s cool. Sometimes. But he’s not the kind of guy I’d want to spend some time alone with, y’know?”

He didn’t dare say anything. Yosuke was going down a slippery slide and with the way things were going it would soon be beyond recovery. But Akira couldn’t stop listening, almost fascinated by the chaotic display.

Yosuke saw it on his face. He suddenly stopped talking, started sending looks around. And then, finally, he hit the last nail to his coffin : “I’m not homophobic. I swear I’m not.”

Heavy silence fell. Akira was pretty stunned, he had no idea how he should reply  – if he even could. However, Yosuke was now looking at him, his arms crossed and his expression somber. He didn’t seem to take his silence very well. “What? You disagree?”

“I couldn’t be more confused right now.”

That made Yosuke relax a bit, his frown now turning into a pout. “That’s what Yukiko was saying earlier. She thinks I hate gays or something. And I don’t.”

“... Okay.”

“I can’t be. One of my best friends is gay. And sure, I don’t wanna know anything about it or ever see him do stuff with another guy, but I wouldn’t want to see him with a girl either!” he groaned. “Is that wrong!? That’s how I feel, I can’t help it!”

“Well, that’s true-” Akira tried to say, but he was immediately interrupted.

“Yeah, you agree with me, right?” he finally turned in his direction, his smile wide and relief written all over his face. “It’s just uncomfortable because you don’t get it! And they probably feel the same about straight people, right!?”

“Uh… Yeah, maybe.”

Yosuke finally let out a huge sigh, head falling right on the railing with a light ‘thud’. He turned his head to whisper : “Thank god. I’m not an asshole.”

Yosuke seemed so happy deep in his delusion, he decided to let that go. It wasn’t like he was allowed to say anything – he’d never told any of his friends about his deeper feelings for the Detective Prince. He wasn’t in a position to lecture anyone, even less someone he barely knew like Yosuke.

However, the other man was revitalized by this little one-sided conversation and he straightened up to keep the chatter going : “But you know, I would’ve never pegged you as a heartbreaker. Not to be mean or anything, just…” He shrugged, sheepish. “I guess I’m too used to Yuu being the chicks magnet and you definitely don’t look like him at all.”

Akira rolled his eyes and let out a little laugh, because that part was true. “Yeah, I noticed. He came to Yasogami the other day and it was pretty surreal.”

“You should’ve seen him in high school,” Yosuke started to say with a soft smile. “People would almost line up in front of him to ask if he was free after class. I even had to do it once because, I mean, we’re partners and all, and it was super scary. All those girls glaring at me like I was stepping on their territory or something.”

Akira could actually picture that pretty well, hiding a snort in his hand when he went to rest his head against his fist. Oh how different it had been for him a year ago at Shujin, seeing lines of people in front of his class waiting for him but not to talk to him, but behind his back. “Yeah, that never happened to me, thank god.”

“Right? I mean, I wouldn’t mind if it was my girlfriend waiting for me like that, to ask me if we can have lunch together. That’s sweet.”

Yosuke started to get lost in his little world as he said the words, reinforcing Akira’s idea that he clearly never had a girlfriend in high school. “I did it sometimes for mine,” he said with a shrug. “If we had plans after school or stuff like that.”

“Oooh look at you”, Yosuke grinned with a little wink. “Past tense though, I notice. You left her in Tokyo?”

Akira was about to shrug it off, tell him that yes, that’s what happened – and it wouldn’t exactly be a lie. However, he couldn’t help but think about the short exchange he had with Haru last night. All the guilt deep in his stomach, ready to climb out and tear out his insides every time he talked with her. He stilled, eyes downwards, and let out a sigh : “You sure you want to know?”

Yosuke blinked, blissfully unaware of what Akira was asking. “Yeah? Sure, I can listen.” He added a little side smile. “I might not really know what to tell you, but you can trust me with anything, kid. I’m not that smart, but I’d never spill any secrets.”

He slowly nodded, raising his eyes so he could look at the other man, making sure one last time. He saw nothing but sincerity on his face. Akira didn’t know if he was ready yet, but he figured this moment was as good as any. “You remember the cognition from yesterday? White, the manager.”

“Oh yeah, she was a Phantom Thief too, right?”

“Yes. She joined us around September of last year. And…” Akira threw a little smile at him. “We started dating like a month or two after that.”

Yosuke whistled, arms crossed with his eyebrow lifted a little bit. “Look at you, kid. Made her fall for you with your little knife tricks?”

“I have no idea,” he answered because that part was true. He knew Haru started to trust him while he helped her with all the responsibilities that followed her father’s death, and he might’ve been the first guy she’d ever gotten so close to. But he couldn’t say why exactly she’d been interested in him. He never asked, maybe too embarrassed to truly know. “But I figured she liked me, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. So it just happened.”

They were probably desperate. Haru had just lost her father in the most terrible circumstances and Akira could see all the Phantom Thieves’ reputation fall apart. They had been framed for murder. The police started to actually look for them. They had a bounty on their head. Haru and her smile had felt like a ray of sunlight in the middle of the storm.

He appreciated that Haru was too honest for her own good, because she always talked to him if something was on her mind. For Akira who had been living with parents who barely knew how to communicate, it had felt like finally breathing after being underwater for too long. Sure, it had been hard for him to reciprocate, to realize that in order to make their relationship work, he had to open up too. But he had managed to do it, slowly. He’d worked for it, because she deserved it.

“We both knew I’d have to leave at the end of the school year but we thought we could make it work,” he explained. “After all, I was only supposed to be gone for a year, we could be long-distance for that long.” Also, Haru had enough money to visit during the holidays – he didn’t really like the idea of her spending so much money for him, especially to come to a place like Inaba, but at the time it felt like a necessary evil.

“What we had was sincere, I really think so. Although maybe a little bit more on her side than mine,” he admitted. “But I knew I could learn to love her. I could imagine myself being by her side for years, even after high school.”

Yosuke was staring at him, entranced by his words. He was waiting for the twist, for the moment things started to fall apart. And sure enough, even if the sentence was hard to pronounce, Akira ended up saying it : “What I didn’t know at the time was that I actually liked someone else.”

Yosuke’s face fell when he heard this. He even let out : “What? What do you mean, you didn’t know?”

Akira couldn’t answer that directly, he shrugged. He didn’t know why it took him so long to figure it out. Maybe because losing him the first time was such a shock, or because he and Haru had just started dating and it helped him in not obsessing over it, letting it go. Maybe Akira didn’t really believe it, and then was so busy fighting against Yaldabaoth that he didn’t have enough time to mourn properly.

However, at the beginning of February, it hit him hard, like a slap in the face. When he learned that Akechi wouldn’t come back after they defeated Maruki, when he suddenly felt all of his repressed feelings get out of him, mangled and still too messy to be put properly into words, he panicked. And he wasn’t able to do anything. He was rejected, almost the moment he’d noticed his own feelings.

He had fallen silent as the memories of that day kept flowing through him. Meanwhile, Yosuke looked very confused, like he didn’t know where to start. “So… What happened? Did your girlfriend find out? Did you tell the other girl?”

Akira bit the inside of his cheek, staring at him. He didn’t want to lose his cool, didn’t want to look judgemental either. He didn’t actually care about what had happened earlier, but he had the feeling Yosuke needed to hear this, almost as much as Akira needed to say it. “It wasn’t a girl.”

He saw his face fall. His eyes widened, his face got paler and then darker. His mouth opened, then closed, but Akira didn’t look away. Thankfully, Yosuke didn’t flip out or anything. He didn’t get angry either, he just looked thoughtful, behind the flush covering his face. “Oh,” he finally said, his hand right against his neck to pull at his hair. “I... see.”

“So yeah, I couldn’t tell her for obvious reasons,” Akira continued. He could’ve left it at that, but suddenly, he felt like this still wasn’t enough. So he took a deep breath and added, forcing himself to smile. “And…” He almost let out a nervous laugh as he said it. “I was pretty sure he was dead, until he appeared on my TV a week ago.”

Yosuke was watching him like a hawk, his ears and cheeks now bright red and his eyes almost shiny. “Oh,” he said again, like he had lost his entire vocabulary. “So… That’s why.”

“Yeah,” he whispered, gaze lost down below, in the valley. “That’s why.”

Silence stretched between them. Akira needed a little bit of time to stomach what just happened. He’d never put words on it before, it was the first time he told someone about it. And even if he knew he should’ve told his best friends forever ago, finally doing this with someone who was pretty much a stranger felt like it unlocked something inside him. Like he might actually be able to tell people, to stop letting all those feelings and his fright stew in his head until he exploded.

He let out a trembling breath, trying to keep his hands from shaking while he went back to his story : “Anyway,” he forced out with a tiny voice. “I thought I could hide it from her for a while. I thought I’d forget, with time.”

Yosuke turned in his direction, almost looking grave. But he didn’t seem to judge him. He was listening with attention, and if Akira dared, he might even say he looked a little bit emotional.

“I could say I was grieving, that when I saw her fake, polite smile, I didn’t want to be snarky and wipe it off. I could pretend that hearing her apologize when she let out a swear in front of me didn’t make me feel out of place. That I didn’t yearn for something more than a shy, tender gaze when she kissed me. That I didn’t want to get my breath stolen away by someone who knew how to do that stuff, who knew me without even asking.”

Akira closed his eyes and licked his lips, his chest feeling lighter with every word escaping him. He swallowed around the knot in his throat, trying to breathe more easily.

“It wasn’t fair to her, I knew it. But I also felt like I wasn’t allowed to walk this path and I’d better keep it a secret. For her sake and mine, I was better off never talking about it and waiting for time to work its magic. But it didn’t take long for her to notice something was wrong.”

He heard Yosuke gasp, eyes wide and leaning closer and closer, to hear Akira better as his voice got smaller and smaller but also like he wanted to reach out, to be closer. “Shit, she found out?”

At this moment Akira felt both like crying and laughing. He turned his head towards his friend, threw him a little crooked smile, and let out : “Yeah.”

Yosuke blinked rapidly, lips tight and eyebrows creasing.

“She never said how,” Akira continued. “She promised no one had told her – as if anyone knew. She never even said his name. But she made it very clear that if I wasn’t honest with her, she would come to Inaba and get an answer out of me, no matter what.”

Flames of shame started to burn his skin, his entire body, all over. He chuckled, nervous when he remembered how it happened. “It was such a terrible break-up. Over the phone, mountains between us, I had to admit to her and myself that yes, I was in love with a guy. With Akechi. That his death didn’t change anything, I just… couldn’t forget him.”

It probably made things even worse for her, since her rival in love wasn’t part of this world anymore. Without a word, without even existing, Akira couldn’t stop thinking about him and grew more and more distant each day. She didn’t deserve that.

“She said she couldn’t do anything for me, not as a girlfriend,” he said with a sigh. “She’d never be able to act like she didn’t know the truth. She wasn’t prepared and it wasn’t worth it. We were young, there was no use thinking about it too hard. The answer was simple.”

Haru promised him she wouldn’t tell anyone – about his feelings and also about his sexuality. When he managed to ask her if she was alright with this new part of him, she simply said that she didn’t know. She couldn’t answer. Months later, she was able to chat with him while they had group calls, and she smiled genuinely at him again, so maybe she was alright with it. He didn’t have the time to ask yet.

Yosuke nodded as he finished talking, and, after a while, came to rest his hand on his shoulder. Akira smiled when he felt it, and chuckled. “I can’t blame her, really. I was as lost as her and really, I still am. It’s not like I could talk about it with anyone, especially in Inaba.” He scratched his head. “And I’ve never really been good at talking about myself. So I kept it inside, and waited, again. To see where it would lead me. If it was just Akechi or...” He made a hand gesture. “You know.”

“Hey, kid, it’s… it’s okay, you know?” Yosuke finally said, his voice no louder than a whisper. “You said it. You’re young. You’re not supposed to know those things so early, you don’t have to, you know what I mean?” He let out a laugh, and it sounded a little bit wet. “I mean shit. Look at me. I’m ten years older than you and I’ve got no fucking clue who I am.”

He then trailed off with a groan, hand falling back on the railing and his head low between his shoulders. “Actually, I’m probably not the right guy for this conversation. My bad. I feel like a real piece of shit now.”

“Yosuke, I could easily understand that you didn’t think a single word of all the stupid bullshit you’ve been saying today–”

“Don’t make up excuses for me,” he whined. “The others have known me for a decade and they just gave up. I can’t stop. Every single time, with the most little things, my brain goes on autopilot. I start spouting this shit, like it’s going to protect me. I…” He groaned. “I’m so worried about what everyone could think about me, I’d rather it be anything but… that. That scares the shit out of me.”

Akira could empathize, at least a little bit. Even though he knew that none of his friends would ever judge or look down on him, he was anxious. By what that meant for him later in life, how it could change how he interacted with new people. And that feeling he knew too well, of being observed like a monkey at the zoo, people whispering behind his back, making assumptions. He would have to live with it, always.

“Yeah,” Akira finally agreed under his breath. “I’m terrified too.”

He was completely out of his mind, he knew that. However, there was absolutely no way he’d go meet Red Phoenix with Teddie hanging off his shoulder and Yuu breathing down his neck.

So Akira ditched them. Both.

After all, he had access to the cognitive world in his own home. Sure he didn’t know how to get out yet but if it failed, he’d be able to find his way back through their usual place. Also, clearly, Yuu and Teddie would go and try to find him – after all, they knew exactly where he would be. And if that meant they had to interrupt his secret meeting with Red Phoenix, well that wasn’t his fault – he came alone as promised but the Shadow never said anything about being followed.

He had to hurry through the cognitive world though, it wouldn’t take long for Teddie to smell him and then go warn his Sensei. Thankfully he was now able to go through the fog without a problem and he’d gotten a sense of the place as well as memorized where Red Phoenix’s hideout was. So he powered through it, earning curious glances from a little group of Mokoi and a lonely-looking Jack Frost. As a second thought, he even went back on his tracks and got the little guy to join his party. Maybe he could freeze Red Phoenix in place if he tried to strangle him again.

Akira let out a little relieved breath once he caught sight of the red spotlights. His outfit changed, mask covering his face, but he realized he was still missing a glove. He thought about the other glove that was currently sitting in his pocket but decided against wearing it as a replacement. He didn’t want to risk anything happening to it.

The place had an eerie feeling to it when it was empty. Sure, he’d always seen the building surrounded by night but for the first time, it looked closed. The yard was deserted, and through the glass doors and windows he could see the lobby was in the same state. It was deafeningly silent, it almost felt abandoned.

However, some things were different. Obviously, none of the receptionists were here and a few lights had been turned off except for some neons. When Akira got close enough he also noticed something new in the middle of the lobby – a small table and two chairs facing each other. The automatic doors opened for him and he looked around, anxiously waiting for Red Phoenix to jump out of a shadow, but he was interrupted by the little ring of the elevator.

The Shadow appeared when the doors parted and the sight made his heart skip. He was wearing his green school uniform, the one Akechi Goro used for his media appearances. The one he’d been wearing as he’d made his way to Akira’s interrogation room, to shoot a bullet between his eyes. He even had his briefcase – the only thing missing was his right glove. He turned his head towards Akira, chestnut hair perfectly in place, striped tie tight against his neck, and sent him a smile that broke his heart.

Akira didn’t think he’d look like this, like the one he’d come to know so well. He didn’t think seeing his Detective Prince smile would hurt like this. Thank god he was currently Joker and he could hide behind his mask, but as Red Phoenix got closer, and his heartbeat rang faster in his ears, Akira finally realized how stupid he had been.

The Shadow was playing with him, there was no doubt about it now. He knew about Akira’s feelings and he was going to use them to his advantage. He’d done the exact same thing the day before when he’d used the real Akechi as bait – all so Akira would lose control and surrender to him. Yuu had tried to warn him many times, but he hadn’t listened. And now here he was, completely defenseless, with a man who truly had the power to destroy him, body and mind – and he came here willingly, just because he couldn’t resist. Just because it was so tempting.

At least, Red Phoenix’s yellow eyes served as a reminder of the situation he was in. This wasn’t real, this was Akechi’s Shadow being cruel to him. He hoped he’d be able to keep that in mind until the end of their little rendez-vous.

“I’m glad you’re here,” the Shadow said with a warm voice, eyes soft in a way that sent him back months ago, to the sight of a young man sitting at Leblanc’s counter who was asking for coffee because he seemed to genuinely enjoy it. “I had my doubts when I saw you and your friends come in earlier, but I guess…” He chuckled. “You still wanted to see me, hm?”

“Getting an invitation from Red Phoenix himself seems to be fairly rare. I would be a fool to pass on this opportunity.”

He raised a brow at this, like he wasn’t sure if Akira was being facetious when he said this. Still, he shook his head, stopped right behind his chair, and then placed his briefcase on the table. “I am not Red Phoenix right now. There’s no need for titles between us.”

“What should I call you, then?”

A smile pulled at the corner of his lips, as if he’d been waiting for this. The look he gave Akira made him feel like his lungs were burning. “You can call me Goro.”

He had to swallow, his mouth dry. That was when he was supposed to say “you can call me Akira too”, but he didn’t trust his voice. And it was probably a very bad idea to say this. Red Phoenix was a Shadow. Joker dealt with Shadows. Not Akira. So he took a breath, tried to calm down, and pointed at the case with his chin. “What is this?”

“Glad you asked,” the Shadow said, visibly not upset – or pretending not to be – that Akira didn’t follow his cue. “As I told you, our meeting today is nothing but a whim of mine. A little whimsy thought, but one I couldn’t let go of and since the opportunity arose, I would’ve been a fool not to take it.”

He used both his thumbs to open the case with a resonating ‘click’ and opened it to let him peruse its content. Akira was expecting many things, especially the kind that could kill him in a second, but he was far from the truth. “A chessboard?” he muttered, perplexed.

“You and I have a history of some great, intense games. Although you could argue you never actually fought me, and I would agree with you. Which is why I wanted to fix that. Let’s have a little game.”

Akira frowned, not really convinced by the Shadow’s too-sweet-to-be-sincere tone. “What’s the catch?”

Red Phoenix blinked, the epitome of innocence. He was now sitting on his chair and in the middle of preparing the board for them. “None? I just want to play with you.”

“And I’ll only get a hint for the password if I win?”

“Joker,” he sighed with a little shake of the head. “I’m the one who invited you here. And you were kind enough to come. You are my guest and I promised I would give you your hint as long as you followed my conditions. And you did. So you only have to play with me and no matter who wins, I’ll give it to you. Then you’ll be free to do as you wish.”

“I have a hard time believing that.”

The Shadow seemed to be getting annoyed, maybe even hurt by his rebuttals. “Here I am, coming to you with the most sincere intentions and you won’t even accept my feelings.” He sighed as he finished setting up the pieces. “What a cruel man you are.”

He even tried the sad puppy look, the same one Akechi used when people criticized him for his opposition against the Phantom Thieves. That didn’t really help his case but Akira was weak, and dumb, so he sat down, pushing his coattails so they flew around him and came to gently rest by his sides.

He raised an eyebrow when he finally took a better look at the chessboard displayed in front of him. It was a pretty classic one except for the colors of the pieces. While the black pieces were carved in dark wood, the others were painted in a deep shining red. And they were on Akira’s side too. “Shouldn’t you get to be the reds?” he asked, curious of the reason behind this choice.

“It’s nice to change once in a while,” he answered. Then he sent him a smile. “And red suits you so well.”

On a second thought, it was probably the Shadow’s way of giving him a small advantage by letting him start. After all, Akira had never won against Akechi in chess. They had played many games, and he’d come close a few times, but he could never really put him in danger. Most of the time he spent the entire game running away or trying to win by being sneaky, but Akechi’s frontal and relentless attacking was definitely the better strategy.

He couldn’t wait for the day he finally got Akechi out of this place, when Akira would challenge him to a shogi game. He was no Hifumi, but he certainly had more chances of wiping Akechi’s smile with all the dirty tricks the shogi master had taught him.

He decided to stop thinking too hard about the situation – about Red Phoenix’s appearance, about the password, about this strange moment. He just had to play chess and try not to make a fool of himself too quickly. He made his first move and the Shadow started to mimic them, infuriating him when he didn’t try to steal his pieces, even when they were barely protected. After a few exchanges, Red Phoenix didn’t immediately follow with his own move and Akira raised his eyes away from the board, to see what was on his mind.

The Shadow wasn’t looking at the board at all. He was looking at him. Gently, without an ounce of disdain. As if they were back in Leblanc, playing late at night, long after Sojiro had closed the shop. When Akira made the stupidest decisions because he’d just spent the day in Mementos, and Akechi didn’t say a word, almost soft as he watched his rival slowly fall asleep in front of him.

It felt like electricity going through all his body. After a few seconds, the Shadow finally made his move, but he only quickly glanced down before letting his eyes rest on Akira again. That made him feel like his arms and legs were made of lead, stuck on the ground and against the table while something started crushing his chest. Red Phoenix blinked, silently asking what was wrong, waiting for him to play.

Akira tried to keep his poker face, even his breathing and not let his hand shake when he raised it again. He honestly had no idea if his move had been the right one, because as soon as he leveled up his stare to the Shadow’s eyes again, he found he hadn’t stopped looking at him. Silently, without shame, he was openly staring like he was fascinated with the sight and truly couldn’t get away from it.

Red Phoenix finally looked down, and this time he did take his time in reviewing the board, like he was only seeing it for the first time since they had started playing. Now, it was Akira who was watching him like a hawk, waiting for a reaction, anything that could be a clue as to how this game was going.

Akira saw the corner of his mouth raise a little bit, and he knew he was screwed.

The Shadow made Akira’s red pawn click on the board when he pushed it away, stolen by his black knight. His voice, finally breaking the silence, made Akira shiver. “Did you know some chess pieces have different names, in different languages?”

He didn’t expect any kind of conversation during this game, even less about that kind of stuff. But he decided to humor him, only because that was the only way he could try to regain some sort of assurance. “Oh? I didn’t.”

Red Phoenix nodded slowly. “Some pieces, of course, do not. In all countries, kings and queens make perfect sense, you know they are the strongest pieces and they need to be protected at all costs. However, the secondary pieces are different.”

Akira went back to look at the board, focused on the game while the Shadow softly spoke in the background. “Rooks are pretty straightforward. Some languages will call them ‘towers’ or ‘castles’. Same for knights, some will refer to them as ‘horses’ or ‘jumpers’, considering their moveset.”

Akira decided to fight back. He took one of Red Phoenix’s pawns too, trying to push back his knight.

“However, the most interesting one is the bishop,” he sighed as he shook his head, easily getting his piece out of Akira’s harm. That’s when he noticed it was the first time he could take a real long look at what Akechi’s hands looked like, under the gloves. “It’s fascinating how this little piece can be interpreted. It’s a man of god in some countries, some will call it a hunter, a counsellor, a camel even. But I particularly like one version. The French one.”

Akira was starting to be confused, wondering where his opponent was going, on the board and with this conversation. His hand hesitated, he had the feeling he was really in trouble but he couldn’t see how. He couldn’t concentrate at all.

“Le fou, nowadays it means ‘madman’, or a crazy person. But it has another meaning, from the middle ages, and it’s the one used in chess. ‘Le fou du roi.’ That’s what we call a jester, in english.”

He completely lost track of the game, eyes right back up to Red Phoenix who was now full on smiling, eyes on the board as he raised his naked hand, took his knight, and finally stole Akira’s bishop.

“The Jester,” he whispered with a little chuckle. “In other words, the Joker.”

Then he raised the red piece, took a long look at it, and grinned before bringing it to his lips to kiss its round head, the small smacking sound echoing in Akira’s head, and down his whole body, making the fire in his guts burn even hotter.

Lips still against the red wood, Red Phoenix crossed Akira’s eyes again, and his smile widened. “Checkmate, by the way.”

Akira couldn’t move, throat tight, shoulders and hands clenched, his eyes stuck on the little bob of the Shadow’s Adam apple when he talked, the curve of his mouth against the wood, his long, slender fingers wrapped around the shaft of the piece. So he let his eyes drop to the board and indeed, he had lost. Terribly. It was a crushing defeat. Yet, he didn’t care. Right now, all of his attention was focused on the heat in his guts and the way his mind screamed ‘don’t, don’t, don’t’ at himself, loud and on repeat.

“Yes,” he finally said, thankful his voice was stable. “I lost.”

“Rematch?” Red Phoenix asked, almost preening with gratification.

“I think I’ll be fine, thanks.”

The Shadow briefly showed his disappointment although he didn’t push his luck. But he didn’t move to tidy up the table. He kept the red bishop in his hand, twirling it around, and then he sighed, eyes on the piece. “You want your hint now.”

“That would be nice.”

Red Phoenix shook his head, like hearing this broke his heart. “So cold. And to think you already know the answer…”

That helped Akira in going back to his senses, at least a little bit. “What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said,” he added with a shit-eating grin. “You totally missed it, but you had the answer given to you, loud and clear.”

He wasn’t expecting that. When? How? In the Palace? By who? He didn’t think he could miss something that big, but he also knew the Shadow had no reason to lie – especially if he was gloating like this. “And… would you like to repeat it for me now?”

“Of course not,” he smirked. “But I am a man of my words. I will give you a hint. I just thought it would be funny to see your reaction.”

“You… truly do like teasing me, right.”

“Oh, please,” he sent right back, his smile slowly turning tighter. “As if you weren’t the biggest tease of them all, honey.”

That did hit the spot. At first he was intrigued, led by morbid curiosity, but this was enough. Akira got up from his chair and let his hand fall against the table, chess pieces jumping and rolling around, some of them hitting the floor. “Tell me the hint now, Akechi. I don’t have time for your games anymore.”

That didn’t really impress the other man, although he lost his smile. At least, the bored, contemptuous look he was now giving him was closer to the Akechi he’d come to know last January, the true one who didn’t try to pretend he was someone else anymore. “Why should I listen to you?” he hissed. “You’re in my Palace. You’re my guest. I’m the one calling the shots here.” His eyelids thinned out as a cold, unkind smirk stretched his lips. “Are you sure you don’t want to hear what I have to say first?”

“I don’t know, will that help me get your true self away from here?” he replied, not even hiding his annoyance anymore.

“It could, actually, yes.”

Akira frowned, still far from convinced he should stay and listen to this man. But once again, his curiosity got the best out of him. He didn’t move, waiting to hear what the Shadow had to say.

Red Phoenix finally put down the red bishop, although he continued to lightly play with it, rolling it around his round base, index finger holding it by the tip. “He stole something from me. Something… I wouldn’t dare call it important, it would be demeaning. And I want it back.”

His other hand caught the black knight from before, and slid it until the face of the wooden horse was facing the red bishop.

“I am willing to make a compromise, though,” he said under his breath, eyes stuck on the two pieces, both of them under his fingers. “I will let him go, completely free, to return to the real world…” He slowly moved the pieces, until they had changed sides – the bishop under his gloved hand and the knight under his naked one. “If you take his place.”

The yellow eyes flashed back at Akira, almost stabbing him in place. He blinked, for a moment too shaken up to really process what the other had just told him. He was offering to free Akechi in exchange for his own life? That didn’t seem to make any sense. He had no idea what that meant.

His confusion was too big, Akira didn’t even try to bluff with him. He shook his head, completely thrown for a loop, and said : “What? No. Why would I do that?”

All mischief in the Shadow’s face vanished. He didn’t seem to appreciate his answer. “Why not?”

“What do you– You’re saying that like I could actually consider it!” he said, now truly baffled by the turn the conversation had taken.

“How is this place any worse than the one you came from? You have powers here. You can be a hero, and save people. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”

“Those people you’re talking about are not real. They don’t have feelings, they’re just cognitions – your cognitions, who would follow all your orders.”

“It’s all about perspective,” he answered easily. “They feel very real to me.”

Akira was almost at a loss for words. He felt an incredulous laugh escape him and he had to take a step back, just to shake it off. “Why me? You have a cognition of me, right? You say that in your perspective, a cognition could be real enough. So why not ask him?”

Red Phoenix didn’t answer, although his look briefly turned into a glare. Oh. He didn’t want to talk about this. That, as well as all the stuff he’d heard from the Thieves’ cognitions only made Akira more curious. He really wanted to know what was up with Akechi’s cognition of him, now.

“I won’t take his place,” Akira repeated to make sure the message was clear. “But I will take the elevator, climb to the top of this building and then win against you in a fight. And that’s how I will free Akechi from this place. I was offered to give up on the real world before and I hate the idea almost as much as you hated it back then.”

Red Phoenix finally lowered his gaze, taking a long breath but not pushing it out. He kept looking at the red bishop on the table. And then he flicked it, letting it fall down and roll a little bit.

“That’s a shame,” he softly said. Then he finally got up, quickly making sure all of his clothes and hair were perfect, and stopped in place. He sent a glance to Akira. Then he shook his head. “I wanted to give you a choice, but I guess I’ll just have to force you after I beat you. That’s too bad.”

He turned around and started walking towards the elevator. However, his steps faltered and before he could reach for the button, he said : “My mom’s name is the same as the hero of my favorite book. Goodnight, Joker.”

Then he disappeared, leaving Akira truly alone in the room with nothing but questions.

He received the infos they needed from Futaba around 5AM and sure enough, they were all at Junes at 8, ready to jump back into the TV and finally get through this damn elevator. Akira was a little bit anxious, not because he had been thoroughly scolded by Naoto and he could see exhaustion in Yuu’s eyes (who, as expected, had come running for him not too long after Red Phoenix had left) – but because he still didn’t think they had the password.

He’d spent the last hours thinking about it, and he truly had nothing. Not a single clue what Akechi’s favorite book could be, and he didn’t know about any characters in any book who had a Chinese name. And yet, Red Phoenix had told him he already had the answer. But he couldn’t find it.

Nonetheless, they had to get to the Palace today, even if it meant skipping school. If it was indeed not the right password, then they had to find it in another way. The cognitions would be their last chance, although he suspected they didn’t really know anything either.

The Palace was in a weird frenzy when they arrived, and they guessed it was probably because of their bet with Red Phoenix from the other day. After all, he had promised a show to his public, it made sense there was tension and excitement all over the place. Especially in the front yard that was milling with people, Shadows walking around with benches on their shoulders and cognitions in the middle of some big work on the façade of the building.

But they didn’t have time to lose with this stuff. They quickly made their way through the building until they ended up in front of the elevator again, and Akira sighed as he put in the name Futaba had found in the Chinese civil register. He really didn’t think it was the password. But they had to try nonetheless.

L – U – – M – I – N

The screen flashed red. Yosuke let out a curse while all the others groaned, still completely defeated by a single door and a single word.

But Akira refused to move. They couldn’t give up yet. There had to be a way for him to find it. He took out his phone again and reviewed everything Futaba had sent to him earlier, while Naoto tried to keep her calm. “Okay, before we give up, let’s just recap everything we know so far, one last time. The password is the name of Akechi’s mother and also the one of the hero of his favorite book. And the names we found were Hiromi, her Japanese name, and Lu Min, her Chinese name.”

Akira nodded, throat tight as he continued to read what he had on his phone. Futaba had included police reports from both Chinese and Japanese police - she had been arrested a few times in her late teens. There were a few reasons, prostitution was the one that came up the most. Theft too, it seemed.

“What if it was her nickname?” Yuu said, biting his lip as he looked over Akira’s shoulder. “Prostitutes rarely use their real name. I don’t see why Akechi would use this particular name but…”

He scrolled until he found the name again, and looked at it closely. Her Japanese name had nothing interesting, Hiromi, ひろみ, not even in kanji so that left out any potential hidden meaning. Sure, now that he thought about it, he could see the link between this and her Chinese name, Lu Min, 呂敏, since in Japanese it could be read…

Akira stayed still. Eyes wide, he read, and re-read the name, and sure enough. It was right here, staring at him. Limpid. Crystal clear. A bewildered chuckle escaped him and caught the others’ attention. “What? You’ve found something?”

He slowly nodded. “Yeah,” he said, almost giddy and mostly floored by what he’d just found out. “I got it.”

He immediately turned towards the keyboard and he shook his head, barely believing it was real, as he typed :

R – O – B – I – N

The screen flashed green. And the elevator doors finally opened.

A loud sigh of relief escaped them, although Akira was reeling back from what had just happened. Akechi’s mom was nicknamed Robin, and that explained so much about him. About his Persona being Robin Hood, his idea of what a hero and Justice are. Akira knew how important Akechi’s mom had been for him, and he had lost her in the most tragic way. Worse, he had been the one who reported her death.

There was no time to lose, though. He decided to leave those thoughts for another day and he followed the rest of the group inside the elevator, eager to finally get going. They gathered inside, pressed the button leading to the third floor - the only one available, things couldn’t be that easy - and departed.

They didn’t catch the brief message that appeared on the screen right after they typed in the password, however.

“Welcome back, Black Phoenix.”

Goro slowly blinked, eyes stuck on the TV screen in front of him. He had no words. Nothing he could say would sufficiently describe what he was feeling right now, about what he’d just seen.

Disgust? No, it was close, but it wasn’t the one. Indignation? That was going a little bit too far. Revulsion? Hm. Maybe. This one felt right.

One thing for sure however, he wanted to burn those videotapes right now. He had no idea why Red Phoenix thought it would be a good idea to show him this but now, Goro was really pissed off. What was he trying to accomplish? What was he trying to say?

Goro felt his hands clench on the comforter of his bed, teeth gritting as some shots of the last tape, the “last episode”, the “happy ending” stayed printed in his mind. He hated this. He shouldn’t have watched those. This little Red Phoenix show was garbage, and he had binged the entire thing so he could mock it later when he’d see his captor again – but he wasn’t expecting this. This fucking ending. He didn’t want to know this part of his brain existed. He was fine being braindead for the rest of his life if it meant he never had to know this.

The doors outside his cell opened and Red Phoenix appeared. If Goro wasn’t so furious himself he might’ve noticed the way his Shadow moved, brutally and lacking the slow and measured control he usually had over his steps. But Goro got up instead, walked to the glass wall of his cell and spat : “Here to get your trash back?” He sneered. “You’re such a freak. I really can’t see how you were born for me.”

Red Phoenix didn’t seem impressed by his insults but he clearly wasn’t in the mood to make fun of Goro’s reaction either. He just snapped his fingers, made some Shadows appear in his cell so they could restrain him and then open the door. “I’ve got no time for your stupid taunts. Get out, we have somewhere to be.”

“Oh good,” Goro scoffed. “What is it this time? Another attempt to humiliate me? Time for another carnival game? You’re losing faith in your aim, asshole?”

The Shadows jerked him on his feet and soon enough, he was pulled out of the jail without even a hint of an answer. That made him realize that something was up with his captor. When he didn’t even look at him before he turned around and started walking, Goro was sure something had happened to him. “Where are we going?” he asked, lowering the sass just a notch.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

Goro started walking through corridors, that led to rooms, that led to more corridors. And finally, an elevator. For a moment, he wondered if that was it, if his Shadow was finally going to kill him. But why did he need him to go somewhere, couldn’t he do that in the cell? Well, no, of course not, he thought, answering his own question. Surely the Shadow would want to make a show out of it.

Indeed, the sight that greeted him was an actual TV set. There were faceless cognitions milling about, talking between them with headsets while others were fiddling with some light spots. Goro mumbled : “A live show…?”

“Exactly,” the Shadow said, finally in the mood to talk to him. “You’ll be here to assist me. I look forward to it.”

“And what will I do?” he grunted, already bored out of his mind.

Red Phoenix turned in his direction, and even with his mask on, Goro knew he was giving him a large, TV-proof smile. “I’m not spoiling the surprise.”

Goro was led to a chair on a small podium where he was tied up again. He pulled at his restrains a little bit but sure enough, those were tight. He wouldn’t get out of these so easily. A little further away from him, Red Phoenix was talking with a technician who was putting a mic on him, testing it to make sure everyone could hear him, while a make-up artist was visibly doing something – don’t ask him what, the guy was wearing a goddamn mask.

Goro couldn’t help but wonder once again – what was his goal? Why was he doing all of this? To make him suffer, but for what? His Shadow was nothing but his own reflection, and they couldn’t live without one other. What was he getting out of this? Fun? He had a hard time believing it.

His mind flashed to the tapes from before and he shook his head to get the picture away from his head. That couldn’t be it either, it didn’t really make sense. But something was happening now, something that led his Shadow to take him out of his cell and bring him here. And he wanted to know what that was.

Red Phoenix was finally free from his little “make-up” session and he walked in Goro’s direction with slow steps, hands in his pockets. Someone behind them shouted that the show would start in five minutes, to hurry up and get ready. Goro decided it was now or never. “Why am I here?”

The Shadow let out a light laugh, almost like he was mocking him. “I told you. You’re here to help me with my show.”

“I meant here, in this Palace, stuck with you,” he groaned. “What do you want from me? What’s your plan, with all of this? Clearly you’ve appeared for a reason and I have no idea why, so I can’t see how I could get rid of you anytime soon.”

He thought Red Phoenix would ignore him again, for a moment. However, the Shadow sighed, turning his head to the side. “You really have no idea. You truly don’t know what you’ve done to me.” He crossed his arms, shaking his head. “You don’t get it.”

“I know you don’t really care about torturing me,” Goro answered. “I know you don’t do things without reasons, on the contrary. This is all very well thought-out. I just don’t know why.”

Red Phoenix tapped his index finger on his arm as he stared at Goro, while a man a few meters away from them shouted to everyone that there was three minutes left before start. He was silent for a moment, and then he finally answered : “Well, I do want something, that’s true. What you stole from me. I want it back.”

Goro frowned, puzzled by his answer. He waited, hoping Red Phoenix would elaborate, but when he didn’t and the man announced there was two minute left, he said : “I… didn’t steal anything from you.”

“Oh you did.”

“You’re my goddamn Shadow, no I did not,” he hissed, because really, he felt like he was going crazy here and he only had one minute left. “You're Red Phoenix, isn't that precisely what you wanted from the very beginning? You showed me that you had everything you wanted, with those dumb tapes of yours. Or are you trying to make metaphors here? Because I really don’t get it. Can I really give it back, or are you just pissed for no reason and now you want to punish me for it?”

At that moment, he didn’t know how, but he knew the Shadow was smirking behind his mask. He briefly leaned down, and whispered : “We’re about to find out.”

Red Phoenix immediately straightened up and turned to face the camera as music started playing and the light fell on him. “Welcome everybody, thank you for tuning in!”

Far away, Goro heard something, like a roar of applause and shouts. He turned his head around, and slowly realized the walls around them weren’t walls, they were too thin for that.

“I hope you are all ready because we are finally about to start and let me tell you, I’ve been waiting for this myself! But now, without further ado, let me introduce you to the man of the hour!”

He stepped to the side and the light fell on Goro who briefly had to close his eyes so he wouldn’t get blinded by it. “My very own arch-nemesis, the enemy of Justice and biggest villain of them all – Akechi Goro!”

This time, Goro heard booing sounds. This made him openly roll his eyes and the TV host didn’t waste the occasion to comment on it : “Look at his face! Doesn’t he look excruciatingly annoying? If it was me, I would’ve taken care of him already or he’d still be rotting in his cell but…” He shrugged. “I am a man of my words. And I promised nothing would happen to him if our most special guests managed to make their way here. So here he is.”

Goro frowned when he heard this. What did that mean? Who was he talking about?

“Oh, that’s right, he doesn’t know,” Red Phoenix said in stage-whisper, looking at Goro like he was a lost case. “He doesn’t even remember the person who saved him from a very painful death on my special bullseye targets. What a pity.”

His heart started beating faster. He had his doubts, but it was clear now – Red Phoenix hadn’t been playing with him earlier. Someone came to his rescue. And he hated the way his stomach clenched when his stupid mind immediately provided him with the dumbest, no-way-in-hell possibility.

“They are currently in the elevator leading to the third floor of this building, right? Could we switch to the right camera feed please? They should arrive soon.”

The big screen on stage was turned on and showed them elevator doors, shrinking Red Phoenix to a small window in the corner. The numbers above it lightened up one by one, until finally, the big 3 shone, and a ‘ding!’ resonated. It opened, light pouring out of the steel box into the darkened floor.

Goro tried to see through the bad quality of what was clearly a security camera, but he couldn’t recognize the first people who were walking out of the elevator. However, by the large katana the first guy was holding, they clearly weren’t friendly. The strange bear plushie, however, was pretty cute, he had to admit.

But then he saw him. It was hard to not recognize him. The stupid coat that flew around him with every step. The sound of his heels on the floor. The stupid cartoonish cat walking by his side. That mop head of unruly black hair. And that white mask, like a target for his gun, as if he wanted all of him to be completely unnoticeable in the dark except for his eyes.

Goro clenched his jaw and forced himself to close his eyelids. It couldn’t be real. It had to be his Shadow playing a trick on him again. Kurusu wasn’t here, there was no way he knew where he was, and even if he did he couldn’t do anything for him. It was too late. They had said their goodbyes. Goro had given up long ago. It wasn’t possible.

A loud blaring sound resonated in his ears and forced him to open his eyes again. Red Phoenix was now holding a pose, and shouted : “Here they are! It’s time to start the countdown!”

Text appeared on the screen in a very large font. It read “36 hours left!!” and flashed a few times on top of the videofeed of the people currently exploring the third floor, before going in a small corner.

“Now, of course I wanted to have a little chat with them before they finally started their ascension. Soon enough they should get inside a room where they will be able to see me too…”

The group opened a few doors, the camera switching frequently to follow their exploration of the place. Suddenly, it switched to a better feed from a camera that was clearly placed here for this particular reason and not just as security – and the six of them entered the room with caution.

“Ah, turn on the sound of the TV please…?” Red Phoenix said, his voice clearly overflowing with excitement. “Oh, there we go! Hello everyone! You’re finally here! Welcome to the very private and very unauthorized to public part of my hideout!”

“Uh… Thanks,” one of the guys said, the smallest one with earphones around his neck. “What the fuck is this?”

“You’re on live television right now, little heroes. Everyone is watching you, so please, keep it family friendly. Anyway, I finished all the preparations and I am now ready to meet you at the very top of my hideout, as promised.”

“Where’s Akechi?” the girl with the hat asked. “Is he safe?”

The Shadow scoffed and turned around to look at Goro. “He’s right here,” he said slowly, his voice turning darker. “But safe? Hmm. That’s up to interpretation.”

Suddenly, all the walls disappeared, tarp sliding down to reveal the truth about the TV set. They weren’t inside the building at all. They were on the roof. And Goro’s chair was right next to the edge.

He swallowed and tried not to think about the emptiness right behind his back. He tried to not think about how easy it was now for Red Phoenix to push him backwards and let him fall to his death. He tried to keep his composure, breathing evenly, even though he could now hear the cheers of the people gathered at the bottom of the building, right under him.

The screen showed it all to him. Thousands of people on the ground, looking up at a large screen that had been put on the facade of the building, screaming in joy when they saw him in such a precarious position. Then it went back to the group on the third floor, showing them whispering in panic between them, before Red Phoenix started talking again : “Of course, I promised nothing would happen to him. Not in the next 36 hours. You’ll have to hurry up, silly hero.” The Shadow shook his head in fake disappointment. “This time, I’m afraid you won’t be able to jump in to save him.”

Joker’s eyes were shining, even through a camera lens. He didn’t answer, he just turned around and told the others to follow him, they didn’t have time to lose. Red Phoenix didn’t seem to mind - he cheerfully told the audience to watch closely as the group fought their way up, and that’s when Shadows appeared out of the TV room the group was in. Then, the little window showing Red Phoenix disappeared so the screen only showed the group. They weren’t on air anymore.

Goro was now shaking. His eyes were stuck on the screen, his voice stuck in his chest, struggling to get out, in the form of screams, or curses, or cries – he didn’t know. He couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t trust his Shadow with this, he could do absolutely anything he wanted in his Palace, and he wanted to torture Goro.

But this felt real. This felt so real.

“See?” Red Phoenix said as he got closer to him, now back to his regular voice, not shouting and cheering like a stupid TV host anymore. “That’s what I was saying earlier. You stole something that was really, really important to me.” He let out a scoff. “And now it’s about time you give it back.”

Goro finally released his breath, choking on his own saliva, eyes shifting all around him, to the night sky, to the screen where Joker was now firing his gun at a Clotho, to Red Phoenix and his impenetrable stare. Panic overwhelmed him. He barely managed to let out : “I… I don’t believe you. There’s no way Kurusu–”

Red Phoenix caught the back of his chair and pushed, lifting the front feet and making Goro shout in fright, eyes closed and breathing getting faster now that he was on the wrong side of gravity. The Shadow got closer to him and viciously whispered : “He is here. The reason you’re still in one piece is because you were the perfect bait. I knew that if I used you, I’d make him come to me without breaking a sweat.”

He released the chair that brought him back all feet on land, although Goro honestly wasn’t really sure what was up and what was down anymore.

“And I succeeded. He’s so close to us now. I’m sure they won’t need more than ten hours to finally make their way up here, they’re smart and they know what they’re doing.” 

The Shadow let out a long breath that slowly turned into low chuckles, like he couldn’t help them. “When the time comes, we’ll be right here. And I’ll fight them. And I’ll win. And then…”

Goro blinked, slowly getting his bearings back, but still feeling this scorching terror in his guts, especially when the Shadow moved his hand to grab his throat.

“And then he’ll be mine. I’ll never let him go. And I’ll be good to him, you can be sure of that, I’ll make you watch. You’ll be forced to see him give up on you. He’ll end up wondering why he even tried with the pitiful broken one,” he giggled.

Goro couldn’t listen to this anymore. He gritted his teeth, and even if he couldn’t find it in him to get angry anymore, he croaked out : “You’re wrong.”

“I’ll show you how happy I can make him”, Red Phoenix continued. “I’ll show you what it’s like to love people and care for them. Because you don’t know anything about that, do you?”

“You’re wrong!” he said again, although his voice trembled. “He never wanted me and he’s not going to want you either, you’re fucking insane!”

Red Phoenix gripped tighter, making it harder for him to breathe. But Goro couldn’t stop, not right now.

“You’re lying to yourself, that’s all you’re doing,” he spat. “With your little TV show, with this fucking set, and with this whole hideout!” Goro screamed. “You’re a fucking liar!”

“Takes one to know one!” the Shadow roared back, and then violently released him, taking a few steps back. They both panted as they glared at each other, and finally, Red Phoenix turned around. He wiped out any wrinkles from his suit, and then said : “It doesn’t matter what you think. I’ll do it and your opinion on it doesn’t matter. Now, let’s go back to the show.”

He walked away, head high and absolutely no hesitation in his steps. Goro, however, was still shaking from the confrontation. He warily looked up, right back to the screen. He saw Joker lower his gun in the direction of a Gabriel that was pleading for his life. It seems he was negotiating with him. Items? Maybe money, he always loved to ask for way more than what seemed feasible, and he usually got away with it.

He let out a long sigh, frown contorting his face. He didn’t want to believe it. He didn’t want to fall for it, it had to be another one of his Shadow’s sadistic plans.

But he saw the grin on Joker’s face once the Shadow fell to his feet and started sobbing crocodile tears. And deep down, he knew he was real. He knew Kurusu Akira was currently fighting through his Palace, because who else could be so dumb, who else would be so overly dramatic as to jump down the arena to stop a duel? That was so like him, he wanted to save the whole world and he would even try to save Goro, out of anyone.

Really. He had to admit it. There was no way his own sick brain could conjure such a faithful and thus irritating copy.

To be continued.

Chapter Text

Keep flying higher, gentle soldier,
The sea is large and wide, it wraps up around you.
The wind is calling for your name,
And as it echoes throughout the realm,
You’re still fighting.

What if he had said yes? What if he had accepted Maruki’s deal? What if turning him down was actually a mistake?

Those questions turned around his head incessantly. Being in juvie was far from boring – all day you were given work, like making laundry, preparing meals, gardening or just going to class. The other delinquents didn’t really care about their peers’ life stories, it wasn’t like they were planning on seeing each other once they’d be out of there. They knew they’d need to lie low, and hanging around people with a criminal record wasn’t the best way to get reintroduced into society.

But they did talk. They had to, they had group sessions with their teachers where they were asked to write on a subject and then make a little speech about it. It could be whatever they wanted, just reading a text off some paper, making it up as they went, some even went as far as making real presentations with posters and pictures and everything.

And today’s question was this – if you could change anything, what would it be?

Akira was on his seat, barely listening to the others as they got up to the front of the class to give their answer. It’s not that he didn’t care – he was just too nervous to think about anything but his upcoming speech. He knew what the teacher was expecting of them. He wanted to hear them express remorse over the offenses that had led them here, to this place. He wanted to hear more about their feelings on their own situation, so they could reflect on their faults on their own.

But none of that was going through Akira’s mind right now. Sure, in his case, he didn’t actually do anything wrong. But regrets? Oh, he had tons. Stuff he should’ve said, stuff he shouldn’t have, places he shouldn’t have gone to, people he shouldn’t have met.

But really, at this moment, there was only one thing in his mind. It had been less than a week. And he hated himself.

He should’ve noticed sooner. He should’ve been able to talk to Akechi. He should’ve been able to convince him. He should’ve been selfish. He should’ve been there earlier. Back in Leblanc, back in the engine room, back in Okumura’s Palace, back at the jazz bar, back at Penguin Sniper, back at the television studio. He should’ve done something.

The idea was eating him alive. Akira’s biggest regret? Which one was it? That he didn’t immediately tell the other boy that he knew he had access to the metaverse? That he hadn’t even given a thought to his proposal of partnering up, right before everything went to shit? That he started dating Haru even though he didn’t love her? That he did consider giving up and accepting Maruki’s deal, the moment he realized refusing would mean letting Akechi disappear for good?

He heard the teacher call his name, and he let his head fall into his arms with a groan. He wasn’t ready. He didn’t want to do this. However, the teacher was more than patient – he was teaching in a juvenile prison after all – and he made him reluctantly get up and walk to the board.

Akira kept his head down, wishing he had his glasses right now, just so they could help him hide. The silence of the classroom was deafening as everyone was waiting for him to start. He didn’t want to tell them. He didn’t know how to put it into words. He should’ve just made something up to get done with it.

However, as soon as he opened his mouth, his chest shook. A shiver ran deep inside him, made him stutter. Anger took over him. Directed to whom? Himself, the world, Shido, the metaverse? He had no clue. But the words escaped him, like a vomit of sounds and meaningless syllables.

“If I could change anything, I would’ve never met Akechi Goro.”

Things did change. Akira had gotten over it. He’d stopped hating himself for the funny yet painful feelings blooming in his chest every time he thought about the detective. He’d stopped running away from himself and from the truth. And as they ran through the many corridors of the hideout’s third floor, he only had one thing on his mind – get to the top of this building and finally get Akechi out of this place. It didn’t matter if the detective entirely disappeared from his life afterwards. As long as he was alive, even if he didn’t want to be, it was enough for him.

The Shadow was playing with him, that he knew perfectly well now. Everyone already knew that. And it had taken Akira meeting him in secret to finally understand that there was no way for him to win. Red Phoenix didn’t care about his feelings, he only wanted to make his own self suffer. And seeing Akira struggle was nothing but fun for him.

Something must’ve had happened to his cognition, and the more he thought about it, about the story behind Red Phoenix, the more obvious it looked. If Akira had any place in this world, then he’d certainly been kicked out of it. Maybe Red Phoenix had gotten rid of him, as he’d tried to do in the real world. Or maybe he was being paranoid, and he didn’t even exist, just like Yusuke had been nothing but a painting hung on a wall in the middle of many others. 

But it didn’t actually matter anymore. Every question of his had vanished once he’d seen Akechi staring at him like he’d seen a ghost. Answers would come later. Right now, the bruises on the Detective’s face told him that Red Phoenix was getting more and more impatient, and knowing they were so close made him just as reckless and eager to get it over with.

He took leadership of the group without even thinking. He gave orders to the others, his mind all set on destroying every single Shadow standing in their way. The others didn’t seem to mind, thankfully. Sure, he could feel Naoto glaring daggers at his back when he did something a little bit too daring, but clearly, they were doing fine. Waves of Shadows kept appearing in front of them, but the rhythm they had going on made battles feel like formalities. Akira and Yuu were leading the way, slashing and shooting the weakest foes, while Naoto and Teddie fired spells onto bigger and slower Shadows. Finally, Mona and Yosuke acted as support, healing and dealing final blows. Their group was still inexperienced, but already felt like a well-oiled machine, and it made Akira grin as he fired at a Belphegor blocking their way. They were winning this game.

At least that’s what he thought at the beginning, but he was forced to admit, after twenty more minutes of this, that they had no idea where they were going. The enemies were weak, sure, but they were lost. This floor was a maze of corridors, dead ends and empty rooms – all of which looked the same. He had actually no idea what this floor was supposed to be – a hospital? A prison? There was nothing but isolated rooms with a single bed, a table and toilets, but none of them were locked, and they were all empty. If this was indeed a prison, then what, did Red Phoenix keep anyone from escaping because of how labyrinthine this whole floor was?

He had to admit it might be the case, when they came across the same T intersection for what felt like the sixth time. He had a pretty good sense of direction, but he’d probably have gotten lost at least ten times by now if not for Morgana acting as their navigator. As it turns out, an enormous floor full of small corridors all painted the same and with no windows made you lose any kind of internal compass.

Naoto tried to think of a way to keep track of where they had already been, but it turned out the walls weren’t safe. Just touching one made the alarm blast and dozens of Shadows started running after them. They were outnumbered, so they did the only thing they could - they tried to outrun them and make them lose sight of their group through the maze.

And that’s how Red Phoenix won that first round.

What they didn’t realize as they were running was that as soon as they were far enough from an intersection, the walls shifted all around them. It was quiet enough that no one noticed it, but they had truly been running in circles this whole time - at least up until Red Phoenix had managed to isolate all of them. Akira figured that out way too late, and it’s only when he saw a wall slide open in front of him to reveal a whole new area of the floor that he connected the dots and was forced to admit his cockiness had led them here. He should’ve been more careful, instead of running ahead and trying to figure things out on the way.

He slowly walked towards the new opening, wary of the dark room that had just opened in front of him. He could hear something clacking fast, like a keyboard. He felt sweat run down his neck as he slowly figured out who had led him here, and once again cursed Red Phoenix and his ability to put Akira in situations where he felt absolutely powerless.

The door closed behind him as soon as he entered the room, his hand clenching on the gun inside his pocket. He cleared his throat as the light of dozens of computers and screens covering the wall started revealing a little bit more about the room – and showed him the back of the guardian of the floor.

Futaba’s cognition turned her seat around with a frown on her face and a gun pointing in his direction. He slowly let go of his own and raised his arms, unsure of what he should say, and if he should say anything. Thankfully, she immediately cut him off when she saw him open his mouth : “Shut up. You’re my prisoner. Just give up, or I-I’ll shoot you.”

Deep down, Akira knew she was a cognition, but he couldn’t for the life of him imagine Futaba actually pulling the trigger on anyone. She was trembling, trying to put up a brave front but completely failing - what with the shiver of her shoulders, her wide wet panicked eyes and the little stutter in her voice. She couldn’t hurt a fly, or at least just its feelings. He didn’t feel in danger at all.

Still, he followed her orders. He sat down on the chair in the middle of the room - it was bolted to the ground, was it what they used for interrogations? - and felt an unpleasant shiver run down his back when bad memories overcame him. At least, Futaba was way cuter than the cops from a year ago. Now he just hoped the similarities stopped there, and he wouldn’t see Akechi and his evil grin shoot him in the head.

Futaba was still glaring at him, arms crossed, as if she’d already forgotten the firearm in her hand. She kept scrutinizing him for a few seconds, and then finally groaned : “Are you not going to say anything?”

He blinked, and the words escaped him without him realizing. “You told me to shut up.”

“Not forever, duh. Aren’t you going to ask what’s going on?”

He paused for a moment. “...What’s going on?”

“I captured you.”

He blinked, trying very hard to not roll his eyes. “I can see that. Can I know why?”

“In a minute. First, you see, Red Phoenix is doing a show up there,” she kept going, not even acknowledging him. “And he asked us to, let’s say, make it spicier.”

She turned on her seat to push a key, and Akira immediately understood what she meant. On screen, he could see all of his teammates facing cognitions. Naoto and Haru were fighting, Yuu was going against Sumire - and it looked brutal - while Yosuke and Yusuke were staring at each other with their arms crossed. At least Morgana seemed to make Makoto’s life hell, jumping out of her reach and all around the room they were stuck in. The same couldn’t be said for Teddie who was getting his ass beaten by Ryuji.

“That looks spicy for sure,” he deadpanned.

“Would’ve been even better if I didn’t need to take Pink’s place,” she added, not even bothering to hide the bitterness of her voice.

“So that’s what this whole maze was about? Setting up some 1v1 fights?” He chuckled just thinking about it. “Well, it’s not actually that surprising, but still.”

Futaba rolled her eyes and got out of her seat, her small figure still towering over him. For a second, he thought she was going to agree with him - she surely looked annoyed by the situation. However, her tone was icy when she answered : “Actually, no. I set up that maze to isolate you because I wanted to talk to you in private. I know where all the cameras are, and they’ve been following you guys pretty closely, but this…” She took a deep breath, fists clenching on her sides. “This is all me.”

Akira sobered up in a second. Futaba wasn’t joking around. Sure, she had completely let go of her gun and wasn’t trying to threaten him anymore, but her voice was as serious as it could get. “What do you want from me?”

She stepped right up to him, making him lean as far away from her as possible, arms slowly lowering to his chest in a defensive position. And then, after a few seconds of scrutinizing him, her big bright eyes boring into his soul, she asked : “Where is Black Phoenix?”

His stomach sank. Futaba misunderstood his wide-eyed look as perplexity, and she kept going : “I saw it when you boarded the elevator. It recognized one of you as Black Phoenix, so don’t play dumb with me.”

Akira was at a loss for words for a moment, stuck between shock over her statement, and fear of Futaba losing her patience with him. He didn’t have time to think - she was mad and was asking something she thought he had the answer to. And he probably did. He had a very good idea of what it was, but no certitude. That’s how he ended up saying : “I… think that’s me. I’m Black Phoenix.”

Her reaction was immediate. Her eyebrows furrowed and one second later, she let out a snarky chuckle. “No you’re not,” she said, like he’d completely lost his mind.

“I didn’t notice the elevator thing, but it has to be me.”

She slapped him right on the cheek, the sound resonating in the room. It didn’t hurt a lot, although it did burn a little bit, but his focus was elsewhere anyway - he slowly turned his head back towards the angry girl and noticed how her lower lip was trembling. She was upset - by him or by his words, he had no idea. But clearly, this wasn’t a joke to her.

He didn’t comment on the slap, even if it did start to sting after a while. He let her regain her composure, breathe out the anger and straighten up, and then he softly said : “Look, I… don’t know where he is. But I definitely want to know more. I want to help you.” Her gaze showed her disbelief, so he insisted : “I’m here to save Red Phoenix, I swear. I know he’s not acting normally, Pink said it herself the other day. And I promise that if you tell me more, I’ll do everything I can to help you. And him.”

Doubt was still shining in Futaba’s eyes, but he could see her glare crumbling. She looked away from him, eyes a little bit wet, and ran her sleeve under her nose before redirecting her stare in his direction. Like she was evaluating him, trying to determine if he was genuine or not. Her voice was softer when she finally said : “So you’re not hiding him? Or holding him hostage?” He shook his head. “I don’t know how it actually works, but the elevator did say he was there. How do you explain that?”

No matter what she said, he had almost no doubt he was the Black Phoenix she was talking about. Black Phoenix was his cognition in Akechi’s Palace, and the reason why they hadn’t seen him up until now was because he’d disappeared for some mysterious reason. And Futaba seemed to care about him, to the point of going against her Master’s orders to find him. That was really strange to see cognitions act on their own, as if they had their own agendas and weren’t born from Akechi’s own mind. But nothing made sense in there. Red Phoenix himself knew he was a Shadow, so everything was possible at this point.

“I can’t,” he admitted. “Not yet. Not if I don’t know what’s going on.”

Futaba kept her eyes down, but she didn’t try to question him further. She went back on her seat, her legs brought back against her chest, and she glanced at the screens behind her while he finally lowered his arms. “We’ve got about fifteen minutes left before all the battles are done. Red Phoenix asked us to let you go after that point, and you should all easily get back together.”

“Let us go, really? Don’t they have to win?”

“Nah,” she shrugged. “He just wants a show, not to actually make you lose before the big showdown. That would be pretty disappointing for him - he really wants you guys to get to the rooftop.”

“Sadistic,” Akira let out between his teeth, to which Futaba actually snorted.

“Yeah, pretty much. He’s going to tear me a new one though, that’s for sure. He must be pissed to see that the cameras lost track of you.”

She pretended to be calm and collected, but he could see the anxious glance she cast towards her phone, sitting on the table and lightening up with silent calls she wouldn’t answer to. He couldn’t help but remember what Red Phoenix had done to the last cognition that had tried to go against him, and he asked in a low voice : “What is he going to do to you?”

Ann’s cries of pain were still ringing in his ears. It didn’t matter if he knew they weren’t real - they looked real enough. Ann’s cognition didn’t deserve to be put down that way, and he didn’t want to imagine the same happening to Futaba - small, frail and anxious Futaba who didn’t know how to defend herself and shook just from holding a gun. She sighed : “I don’t know.” Then she turned back towards him, her eyebrows low and her tone trying to be menacing. “And I’ll never have to know if you win in the end.”

That finally made him smile a little. That he could do. He didn’t know this Futaba, but he would’ve protected her even she didn’t ask. He answered with a little cocky smirk : “You can count on that.”

“Easy now, hotshot,” she said with a roll of the eyes, turning her seat back towards him. “It won’t be easy. But you might actually win if you find Black Phoenix’s whereabouts.”

“Who is he?” he quickly followed, his curiosity now making him strangely eager. “What happened to him?”

Futaba sighed and settled deep in her seat, almost like she was getting ready for a long story. “I don’t actually know much.” She was staring into the distance with a light pout pulling at the corner of her mouth. “To me, he was just this mysterious guy who always seemed to appear when things were getting rough, back when we were all fighting together as a team.” Then she snorted. “He was kind of a show-off, to be honest.”

“So he wasn’t actually part of the team?”

“Not officially, no,” she said. “I mean, he was always around, even when we weren’t on the battlefield, but he never lived here with us, no.”

She kept going, smiling lightly as she got lost in her memories : “Still, Red Phoenix and him were pretty close. I never really understood much about their relationship, but he considered him to be his equal, that’s something I’m certain of. And there weren’t many people like that.”

Futaba paused for a moment, pushing her hair out of her eyes. Her voice was a little bit tighter when she went back to it : “I don’t know what happened to him. No one knows except for Red Phoenix. And ever since the day he disappeared, everything changed. It’s like something broke in him, and no matter how many times we tried to reach out, it didn’t matter. He kept pushing us away until we were nothing but underlings. Not even allies anymore, just mere employees working for him. He stopped calling us by our first names and started using our code names all the time. And we let it happen.”

She closed her eyes briefly, breathing in to get back on track. Behind her, Akira could see some fights were coming to a conclusion. They didn’t have much more time left. Thankfully, she managed to keep going : “I never had the opportunity to actually know Black Phoenix, but I know how important he was to Red Phoenix and to the rest of the group. And I want to know what happened. I want to know the truth. Maybe go back to what we were. Or just… I don’t know, talk it out with Red Phoenix. But I can’t stand this situation anymore.” She shook her head, almost defeated. “I can’t.”

“I understand,” he nodded, hands clenched to keep himself from reaching out to her and comfort her the way he knew best - his hand brushing the top of her head, body language showing he was here if she wanted to hug him, showing her he cared while watching her boundaries. But it was meaningless here. So he tried to keep his cool and asked softly : “Is there any way to know more about him? Anything that could help me?”

She cleared her throat, quickly glancing at him before looking away again, as if she was now too intimidated by his presence and hadn’t slapped him minutes ago. “I think I know someone. I can try to keep the cameras away during that meeting, but you’ll have to be quick. Also…” She looked uncomfortable saying those words, but she still forced them out. “You’ll probably stumble upon the archive room. Red Phoenix is kind of a control freak, I’m sure you’ll find some stuff in there.”

“Where is that?”

“Fifth floor. That’s where Red Phoenix is most of the time. It’s also where the Special Cell is located. I’ve never actually set foot there, neither did any of us. Except maybe Black Phoenix, I guess.”

He blinked slowly, carefully taking note of all of this information. Something got his attention, however. “You said fifth floor? We’re on the third right now, what’s on the fourth?”

She shrugged. “Nothing much, really. You shouldn’t even be able to get access to it. That’s where all of us used to live before we were demoted to the Entertainment and Prison floors, but Red Phoenix closed that floor off. Honestly, I don’t think you’ll find anything worthwhile in there.”

And Akira completely disagreed, obviously. If anything, the places Red Phoenix didn’t want anyone to get access to were the most interesting ones, in his opinion. “So there are no cameras in there?” he asked, the beginning of an idea starting to bloom in his head.

“Nope. It was our apartments, we’re not going to put cameras in there.”

“So basically, it’d be the best place to hide something, or someone.”

Her complexion got paler. She frowned, suddenly deep in thoughts, and shook her head. “You really think he’s in there…?”

“If you’re absolutely sure Black Phoenix is in this building, then yes, clearly.”

“I would’ve caught him on camera, though. How do you explain that?”

Akira shrugged. “If my hunch is correct, then he definitely knows how to be stealthy.”

Futaba didn’t look entirely convinced, but they didn’t really have time to talk any further. She sighed and swirled her chair around to face her computer and type a few things. “Our time is up. I hope you understand that my fate is in your hands.” She glanced at him over her shoulder, opening the wall behind him once again. “You have to beat Red Phoenix. Or in the very least bring him back to earth. If not…” She thought about her words for a few seconds, but decided against it.

Akira got the message. He got up and left the room without looking back at her, returning to the endless corridors of the prison. In a flash, his imagination got the best of him, and he tried to imagine Red Phoenix next to another person, one dressed entirely in black. A secret ally he was close to, someone he’d keep away from the others, almost like he wanted to keep it all to himself. The two of them fighting back against monsters, back to back, synchronized like a well oiled machine.

He shook his head and reminded himself that it was just what he was hoping for. That reality was probably not as romantic as that. And honestly, there was one scenario in particular that would explain everything in a much more believable way. But Akira was hopeless like that. He wanted to believe in the way Futaba’s eyes had been shining as she talked about the duo. He desperately wanted to believe that Red Phoenix didn’t just kill Black Phoenix with his own hands.

Navigating his memories was like sailing a ship in the middle of some deep fog. The water was murky, the ship didn’t seem to actually move forward, and all that left him with was a deep sense of unease. Maybe this journey was meaningless. Maybe he should’ve stayed ashore. Maybe, just maybe, there was nothing to be found.

But Goro had to try. He knew, deep down, that this wasn’t in his head. There was something he’d forgotten, something he’d done, maybe unconsciously, that had led him to this very place. Tied to a chair with a hundred meters drop right behind his back, darkness waiting to swallow him whole if someone just decided to tip his seat backwards. He was there for a reason. And if his Shadow didn’t want to cooperate, then he had no choice but to find the answer himself.

Somewhere in his memories laid the reason why this Palace existed, and why his Shadow had designated him as being the sole culprit of this distortion. And he had to find it, or else this whole thing would be meaningless. Kurusu going out of his way to rescue him would not matter if Goro wasn’t able to face himself and actually understand how he’d ended up like this. And the first step was very simple, in theory. He had to remember how he’d ended up in the cognitive world.

Really, this should’ve been simple. He had to have gone on his own, he had been tricked into it once and at the time he just didn’t trust his gut feeling. He now knew better. He could feel the transition from the real world to the cognitive one. So how did that happen? What did he do? Theoretically, he didn’t even have access to the metaverse anymore, so how did he manage it?

Truthfully, his memories following Maruki’s defeat were very blurry. He could remember being angry, however. Not angry with anyone or anything, just feeling this heat inside him after realizing that, once again, he was very much alive even after making peace with his own passing. He was tired, too. Tired of this loop of waking up in unknown places and not knowing where to go next. Last time, the sight of Maruki’s Palace had been there to show him what, exactly, he was supposed to do. But this time, there had been nothing. And that’s where his memories ended.

But there had been more than that, right? He didn’t know how long it had been since that fateful February day, but it had to have been at least a few months. Maybe even a year? He did feel like he’d been stuck for a very long time, walking in limbo and desperately trying to find something until even that wish started to fade away from his mind.

And he did find something, somehow. That something was the violent, possessive and dramatic version of himself, incarnated into a man wearing a mask to hide his true nature, a man too broken to even listen to the people who were trying to help him. While Goro had been looking for something, the Phoenix had lost one. And no matter how much he turned this around in his head, this was still not ringing any bells. Worse, it only brought one picture, one memory of something he’d seen again and again, in his nightmares. Kurusu’s head, dripping with blood, falling with a thunk against the interrogation table.

His gaze followed the Shadow around, as he stomped in anger because the cameras had lost sight of his precious Joker - and Goro tried to guess what a man like him could love so much he’d turn like this the moment he lost it. What had Goro done to him? What was his crime?

From Goro’s point of view, his Shadow had everything. He was strong, he was admired by everyone, he had people caring about him, he even had a partner, that dirty little secret he was carrying around and that he’d shoved right into Goro’s face the moment the occasion had showed itself. That wasn’t to say Goro was jealous - far from it actually, watching the tapes had also reinforced how utterly vile and pitiful the Phoenix actually was - but he was still confused. What was missing? What did Goro steal? What did he do?

As his mind kept running in circles, so did Red Phoenix - at least until the elevator leading to the roof opened up, and a cognition walked out of it with his head down. Goro quickly recognized the long limbs and dark hair, even if the slumped shoulders and uncomfortable look didn’t fit Kitagawa at all. He bowed a few times, truly looking apologetic, while Red Phoenix finally stopped pacing but started clenching his fists, as if he was this close to punching him.

“I wish someone could tell me how this keeps happening,” Red Phoenix snarled, his voice low and menacing, rough as if he wanted to seethe like a beast. “This is my hideout. How do people keep disappearing in my own building?”

“I really don’t know sir, and I’ll take my responsibilities as the head of security,” Yusuke softly answered, his back still into a low bow. “We’re not done looking, and we’ll eventually find them, please trust me on that. They cannot have gone too far.”

Red Phoenix sneered, although there was no humor in his laugh. “You better. You’ve rarely disappointed me before, Blue, so let’s not change this, alright?” Then, he dismissed him with a flick of the chin, Yusuke happily taking that as his cue to disappear right back into the elevator.

Goro watched the entire exchange with curiosity, not just because he wanted to know what the fuss was about, but also because it looked like his Shadow was truly nervous about something. He’d never seen him like this before. Deep down, he wanted to tease him about it when the Phoenix walked back on stage, close enough that he could hear Goro - but he didn’t think it was the time. Honestly, he’d rather be forgotten and not risk getting pushed over the side of the building.

Sadly, his Shadow was far from being that forgetful, and as soon as he caught sight of Goro’s face, he said : “I wouldn’t look so smug if I were you.” This time, he actually laughed. “In fact, I’d be sweating bullets.”

Goro raised an eyebrow, not even bothering with a verbal answer. Red Phoenix didn’t seem to appreciate his prisoner’s coyness, so he stepped closer and said slowly : “Oh, trust me – you should. If they actually went off the initial route, that means they’ll get access to a very private floor, the most private one of this building.” He crossed his arms over his chest and tipped his head to the left. “And when I say private, I mean it.”

That managed to finally get Goro’s attention. Surely, he couldn’t mean…

But it was all in Red Phoenix’s posture. The nervous gestures, like the way his index finger kept tapping on his forearm, the pacing, the impatience in his voice. He’d hidden something embarrassing that he didn’t want people – and most likely Kurusu Akira - to see. No need to be a genius detective to figure it out.

Goro blinked, then started frowning, denial on the tip of his tongue. But Red Phoenix slowly nodded. And just like that, Goro felt his face burst in flames. Oh, no. Everything but that.

“Glad to see we’re currently on the same page,” Red Phoenix sighed. “Even if it’s not like you could actually do anything about it, can you?”

It was tempting to agree. It was tempting to just let things happen, because really, he wasn’t in any position to call the shots here. But deep down, he knew this wasn’t exactly the case. This was his own Palace. He knew his mind better than anyone else, and he was fully aware of the kind of things his brain would lock away.

“Actually, maybe not,” he finally said. He kept his head low, but he looked up and stared at Red Phoenix. “You must have cellphones in this world, don’t you?”

Futaba guided him back to his friends, and even if they were disgruntled to see they were back to the very entrance of the floor, this little interlude had calmed Akira down considerably. The team went to sit in the safe room to rest, especially since most of them had just been in a fight, and he took that time to think.

Something had happened to his cognition, to Black Phoenix. And sure, finding out more details seemed like his own misplaced curiosity, but Futaba was right - this disappearance was important. Red Phoenix had hinted at it the day before, although Akira had understood that as disinterest, contempt, even. And while he still had a hard time believing Akechi would be swayed by his disappearance, he was still convinced that Black Phoenix was his cognition. Even Futaba’s description of him was hitting a little bit too close to home.

However, he was taken out of his thoughts when Naoto came to stand right in front of the table, arms crossed and looking sour. She seemed annoyed with something, which was a lot considering she was usually the epitome of patience and critical thinking. At least, Yuu looked as surprised as him - it was a comforting thought.

“We have to talk about a few things,” she said slowly, her stare cold. “First of all, no more running ahead like earlier. We’re going against the clock, sure, but we’ve still got time. And ending up right where we began because we try to run through a maze is not going to help us. Got it?”

She said that, and her look was directed to the entire room. He could hear Yosuke apologizing under his breath right behind him, and Yuu was looking down, like a scolded child. Morgana tried to defend himself : “We still have no idea what we’re up against, and splitting up isn’t the worst thing to do in a labyrinth.”

“It can be, but here this only made us more vulnerable,” she sighed. “We do not only have to find our way out - we also need to fight. And they’re clearly not planning to go easy on us.” Her eyes twitched a little. Oh. It seemed Haru had truly made her life hell.

“Actually, you look pretty okay, Akira,” Yosuke noticed. “Who did you fight?”

He was at a loss for words for a moment. He didn’t exactly know where to start. Still, that seemed to be the opening Naoto was waiting for. “I get that you’re the most anxious out of all of us,” she conceded. “But I feel like I need to ask again - is there anything you’re not telling us? Or that we should know?”

The others’ stare made him a little bit uncomfortable, he wanted to shy away from it. He tried to defend himself : “I swear I’m not hiding anything. But… there are a few things I need to share with you, after what just happened.” Naoto decided to sit next to Yuu with an expecting gaze. Morgana looked pretty curious too, his tail flicking behind him.

“Something’s off in this Palace,” he quickly explained before he lost his words. “And I’ve had this feeling ever since we first set foot here, to be fair. I didn’t say anything because I thought it was just my imagination, but now…” He bit his lip. “I’m certain of it. I met another cognition, back in the maze, who wanted to meet me and ask me something. Actually, she’s the second, maybe even the third one I talk with who says the same thing - Red Phoenix is not being his normal self, and he hasn’t been for a while.”

“Cognitions are self-aware, now?” Yosuke asked with a disbelieving stare.

“Not just them. Red Phoenix knows he’s a Shadow and that nothing in this Palace is real except for us and his prisoner.”

Naoto frowned, as if she was ascertaining the possible repercussions of such a situation. “That would fit what we’ve seen up until now,” she conceded. “That Cognition, Pink, she tried to stop him back in the arena. She said something was wrong with him - that’s not how your typical cognitions work.”

“Well, you told us Akechi knew a lot about the cognitive world,” Yuu reminded her, before he raised a pointed look towards Akira, pining him on his chair. “Although you were never very specific about it.”

An uncomfortable shiver started running along his back, especially when Naoto turned her head towards him again and raised her eyebrows expectantly. He quickly tried to get out of this trap : “It’s really complicated, and we’re not sure if it’s actually linked to this Palace–”

“What are you not telling us?” she simply asked again, putting more pressure on her words and showing that she wouldn’t ask a third time.

He couldn’t help the distressed look he sent Mona, who was looking as nervous as he was. They absolutely couldn’t talk about Akechi’s crimes right now, not to Naoto. It wasn’t that he was scared they would just drop the case and let him die - no, he was scared of what would come after. It had been so long since he’d seen Akechi, he’d spent months thinking he was dead - and it might be selfish, but Akira didn’t want him to be put in custoday as soon as he was back in the real world. He wanted some time, the least he could get, before they had to part once more.

That’s why he said the first thing that came to his mind – even though he should’ve breached the subject with more delicacy. But he needed to lure them away from his lies by omission, and at that moment, it was the only thing he could think of : “There’s been no signs of my cognition in this Palace yet, and it’s not normal.”

Yuu looked quite taken aback by his words, while Yosuke’s eyes grew larger, almost panicky. Thankfully for him, Morgana saved him from embarrassing himself even more : “I agree. None of the Phantom Thieves were close to him like you were, and yet they’re all here. That’s definitely suspicious.”

“Okay,” Naoto agreed slowly, as if she wasn’t entirely convinced but was willing to listen. “And what do you think that means? You two were ‘close’ you say, but how so? What’s waiting for us, when we find that cognition of yours?”

Akira almost blushed, but thankfully he was well hidden behind his mask. He cleared his throat : “We were friends. Of sort. I guess he considered me more of a ‘rival’ than anything else, and his feelings towards me were…” He winced, the voice still ringing in his ears, one ‘I hate you’ as clear as it had been since the day it had been thrown at him. “Complicated.”

He saw that Naoto wanted to ask more, but he quickly cut her before she was able to : “I do have some clues concerning his cognition of me, though. The cognition I secretly met in the maze asked me to find him. Actually, she thought he was already with us.”

“Woah woah woah,” Yosuke quickly shook his hands, jerking upright on his chair. “Slow down now, secretly? Explain.”

He spent a few minutes telling them about his meeting with Futaba, how she went against Red Phoenix’s orders to see him privately and the promise he’d made to her. “It seems obvious to me that the Black Phoenix the elevator recognized was me. No offense, Mona.” Morgana shrugged. “But that doesn’t tell us what happened to the real cognition and why his disappearance changed Red Phoenix so much.”

“Do you think he killed him?”

Akira felt his stomach drop when Yuu said this, his eyes bright and serious boring into him. He opened his mouth, felt the words get all jumbled in his throat, and finally escape him in the form of a loud sigh. “Seems like the most obvious answer, yeah.”

“Hey kid, don’t say that,” Yosuke tried to cheer him up, bringing a hand to pat his shoulder. “Maybe he changed because someone else killed him, or I don’t know, did something to him? Maybe he’s just sad?”

“No cognition would go against the Ruler’s orders,” Morgana shook his head. “Especially in this case, if that disappearance was indeed the trigger to all those cognitions and Shadows becoming self-aware.”

“Hey, he’s the one who keeps talking about arch nemesis and fighting villains,” Yosuke shrugged. “Who knows, maybe it was someone just like us, who killed him without even realizing that it was gonna mess everything up.”

Akira stopped listening after that. His heart was beating too fast, he could feel his breathing get deeper. He could guess what had happened to that cognition. Just like he still remembered that confession of hate, he could hardly forget the few times the guy he liked – although he wasn’t aware of it at the time – tried to kill him. Actually kill him, not just fight. It would fit with what he knew of the Palace so far - Akechi was a lone wolf who didn’t want a team anymore, and he had to get rid of the most annoying hero around him. He’d almost done the same with Ann’s cognition a few days ago – there was no way he’d go soft on the one he actually despised the most.

Back in the cognitive world, Naoto was still looking unconvinced, but she wouldn’t take any side. And it made sense – they didn’t have enough information yet. At last, she shook her head and broke the rising argument between Yosuke and Mona. “We’ll see what we can find. In any case, we’re still here to save him, whether he truly feels that way about you or not,” she told Akira. “Our primary goal is to prevent anyone from being killed by the Midnight Channel again.”

“Yeah…” Morgana nodded. “And I don’t think a change of heart would be the way to go either...” Then his expression turned sour, almost like a pout. “I’d love to see what his Treasure looks like, though.”

Akira would be hard-pressed to pretend the opposite. But they truly had more pressing matters. He quickly shook this thought away. “She told me about a secret floor right above this one. We’re supposed to skip it if we get through the maze, but we might find something around the entrance.” He shrugged. “Maybe going back on our tracks isn’t such a bad thing.”

“Yeah, we could check the elevator shaft, right?” Yosuke said. “I mean, it did feel kinda weird that it couldn’t go past the third floor, with how hard it already was to get inside it.”

That made a lot of sense – even if Red Phoenix had banned the access, it used to be a place where all of his teammates lived, and while Palaces didn’t really have to be logically sound, this place had been pretty realistic up until now.

“One more thing before we go - you said the Cognition would send us someone who would know more about what happened with Black Phoenix,” Yuu said. “Did she say anything else?”

“No,” Akira confessed. “But she can control the cameras, and she has complete control over the maze, so I guess that whoever they are, they’ll just come and find us when they can.”

“Who are we meeting?” Teddie inquired, finally talking after just observing the discussion in silence.

“I don’t know, probably one of the main Cognitions? Red Phoenix’s old teammates.”

“Oh, in that case…” he said cheerfully, reaching towards the zipper around his neck. “I think we’re good.”

Shocked silence followed Teddie’s sentence when he opened his neck and leaned over, making a body tumble out of his now empty self. Morgana let out a piercing shout while Naoto’s head fell in her hand. Once past the initial shock, Yosuke started screaming at the bear, asking what the hell he’d done. Meanwhile, Akira was just staring with wide eyes, silently wondering how long Ryuji’s cognition had been in there, if he’d heard everything they’d said and if he was actually dead or not.

At least, the blonde only looked groggy, slowly pushing on his elbows and blearily looking up, probably blinded by the light and overwhelmed by the sounds. Yuu, always the knight in shining armor, got on his knee and asked : “Hey, you alright there?”

Honestly, caring about a cognition’s well-being was a pretty abstract concept – but just like Ann’s cries of pain or Haru’s glassy eyes, seeing Ryuji looking up with dread, slowly realizing that he was surrounded by enemies, made Akira’s heart drop. He followed Yuu’s lead and asked : “Can you stand up? We’re not gonna do anything to you, relax.”

He didn’t look convinced, but he did sit up, letting out a wince when he touched the back of his head, and he got on his feet on his own, while trying to maintain a little bit of distance. “You bastard tanuki, I swear I’ll get my revenge one of those days.”

“Teddie’s a bear!” he let out in a squeak, a big frown back on his face now that his neck was zipped up again. “And I won our fight fair and square! That move was my trump card, and it worked, don’t be a sore loser.”

Ryuji immediately frowned and seemed about to argue right back, when Naoto got between them. Time was still running, and they had a lot of questions. “We need to talk with you, and then you’ll be free to go on your own. And I’m afraid we’ll have to insist.”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you,” Ryuji groaned, stepping back to push his hip against the table and now looking pretty relaxed about the whole situation. “Green told us about her plans. Some of us tried to stop her, but honestly I don’t give a damn. Red Phoenix went too far this time and if you guys can knock some sense into the guy, well I’m all for it. Also, you helped White, so I guess I’m thankful for that,” he added with a nod towards Akira.

He decided to take the lead in their line of questioning. The reason why so many cognitions trusted him might’ve been that they unconsciously recognized Black Phoenix when they talked with him – and it had helped them until now. He decided to just jump into it, considering Ryuji wasn’t the kind to beat around the bush. “So you agree with her? You think Black Phoenix’s disappearance is what started everything?”

Ryuji actually rolled his eyes when he heard that, and Akira’s heart had a little stutter. “Of course it was. How is that even a question?”

“We don’t know much about Black Phoenix,” Naoto explained. “And we were told you could tell us more about him.”

Ryuji sighed and crossed his arms, a frown already forming on his face. “I don’t know, man, I don’t think any of us knew a lot about that guy. He was always around, but never actually there, if that makes sense? I don’t even know his real name.”

“But do you have any idea what could’ve happened to him?”

That was enough to darken his complexion. He looked down, almost like he didn’t want to say the words. “He’s dead. He has to be.”

“Why?”

He gritted his teeth tightly. “Because Red Phoenix is a stubborn bastard, okay? So clearly, something happened that he couldn’t fix. And you can’t get more unfixable than that.”

Yosuke threw a nervous glance at Akira, who didn’t show anything. Well, that was their answer. He wasn’t exactly surprised. Futaba seemed to still hold some hope - probably because of the elevator thing - but really, there wasn’t. He was right, it was the most obvious answer.

“How did it come to this?” Akira asked, trying his best to keep his voice as neutral as possible. “Did something happen between them? An argument, anything?”

Ryuji’s frown deepened, and he pushed his hip away from the table, hands deep in his pockets as he came right against Akira, his face so close he could see the speckles of gold in his deep brown irises. He hissed : “You’re asking me if Red killed him?”

He didn’t have time to answer – Ryuji threw his hand against Akira’s plexus and pushed him away with violence, anger written all over his face. “Fuck you dude. I just told you how broken Red has been since Black Phoenix disappeared, and you think he did it? Heartless bastard.”

Yuu quickly got between them, or more like in front of Akira, his wide shoulders shielding him from another blow. Naoto immediately reacted too, reaching for her holster while Morgana was jumping on the table. “We’re only asking questions,” he intervened, calm but dripping with authority. “And if you don’t keep your hands to yourself, we’ll do our investigation alone.”

Ryuji was still glaring at them, but the way he started scratching at his neck betrayed his act. He’d acted without thinking – that’s how important this was to him. The real Ryuji was quite hot-blooded, sure, but he’d learned his lesson the hard way in the real world. This only reminded Akira that despite how good the depiction was, this guy wasn’t real. He was just a projection of Akechi’s brain, someone or something created to defend its master. Sure, he’d seen a few of them go against his orders, but deep down, they were also just some parts of Akechi. And those parts violently rejected the idea of him killing Black Phoenix.

And it didn’t mean anything, he quickly reminded himself. This was Akechi, sure, but it was also a distorted part of him. He couldn’t take anything at face value. But still, for one second, a weight was lifted from his shoulders and allowed him to breathe more easily. He was also able to step away from Yuu’s shadow and face the cognition once again. “I’m not trying to blame anyone, I’m just looking for the truth. And if you truly think he’d never do that, then I’ll believe you. Alright?”

Ryuji sneered and looked away, but he looked a little bit relieved himself. He was pretending he wasn’t affected at all by what had just happened. “It just shows how little you guys know. Black was kind of a loner and a weirdo, but everyone liked him, deep down. And Red adored him, even if he tried to not show it too much.”

“So they were not just temporary teammates? They were actually friends?”

Ryuji snorted at that. “Dude, you should’ve seen them. They were trying to be subtle and all, but it was all for show, or some kind of misplaced pride, I don’t know. Honestly, at first I was skeptical too, and mostly worried about it being… You know.” He shrugged. “One-sided. But it definitely wasn’t. The others weren’t sure, but I could see it.”

“How?”

He rolled his eyes back, clearly going for the dramatics here. “Jeez, I mean sure I never saw them hanging out together, but I’m sure they were meeting behind our backs all the time. Or else I don’t know where all those weird inside jokes they had came from.”

“Inside jokes?” Akira repeated, almost taken aback by how surreal it was to imagine him and Akechi being buddies.

“Yeah,” Ryuji nodded. “I never got it, and frankly, I couldn’t exactly ask them either. I’m pretty sure he called him ‘honey’ once.”

He almost choked on his spit - he wasn’t expecting that either. And he preferred to change the topic right now. “Do you have any idea who could’ve done it? And why?”

Ryuji sighed, clearly not enjoying going back to the heavy stuff. “I mean, there’s one obvious possibility, right? Red’s been obsessed with his arch nemesis ever since Black Phoenix disappeared.”

“You mean the person who’s on the roof right now?” Naoto asked, just to be sure.

Ryuji didn’t look thrilled by the idea either. “Yeah. The guy you’re trying to save. The other reason why Red Phoenix turned like he did.”

That was definitely how they could turn everything around. Red Phoenix thought his own self had murdered his friend and teammate, and he was trying to get his revenge. That also explained why he’d wanted Akira to take his place the day before. What they needed to do, not only to get out of there alive but also to bring Red Phoenix back to his senses, was to find the real killer. Which wasn’t much easier than fighting, sure, but they might as well try, especially if the answer was hidden in the floors above them. “Anything else?” he still asked, just in case.

Ryuji looked ready to make off any moment now - he probably had somewhere to be, just like all of Red Phoenix’s minions. Still, he forced himself to stay and keep talking : “Just… don’t go too hard on Red, okay? I know he’s your target and that he’s done shitty stuff - I sure ain’t forgiving him for what he did to Pink – but…” He grimaced and tightened his jaw. “He’s got a heart of glass, even if he’s an expert at pretending the opposite.”

Akira saw Yuu’s eyes flicker right in his direction. Was it to judge his reaction, see if Ryuji’s words made him emotional, or just if he was having doubts about what to do next? In any case, his poker face was on, and he simply nodded curtly. Any reaction was hidden deep in his coat’s pockets, when his fists clenched hard enough to hurt, fingers brushing against a leather glove.

Ryuji quickly left the room after that, startled by patrolling Shadows dressed like security agents who quickly surrounded him and caught him by the shoulders to drag him somewhere. Morgana followed them but found that the wall had already closed behind them, leaving him no chance to find their way out of the maze just by following the guards.

Meanwhile, they went back to the elevator and started looking around the metal box. Yosuke was currently sitting on Yuu’s shoulders, pushing on the roof and trying to see if there was some kind of opening or latch to go through the shaft. At least, Akira managed to use his knife to dislodge the plastic cover stuck over the elevator buttons, proving that indeed - there was a fourth floor and this elevator should grant them access to it.

Pressing buttons did nothing, but to everyone’s surprise, Yosuke groping around the ceiling did. He almost fell forward when one part of the roof gave up under pressure, sliding up a few centimeters and letting a latch appear. In one more flick of the index, a hole big enough to let them all go through – except for Teddie – appeared, and after climbing and coughing because of the dust accumulated up there, Yosuke confirmed that he could see the upper floor’s elevator doors.

“What should we do? We’re not gonna let Teddie stay alone down there,” Yuu said.

“I guess we do need to split up this time,” Naoto sighed. “Some of us stay here and find their way through the maze, while the others go up and investigate the fourth floor.”

Akira had to go to the fourth floor because his grappling hook was pretty much their only way to climb up there. They also decided Naoto should come with him – investigating was, after all, her job. At last, they decided Yosuke would be the last one to come with them, considering Morgana was a better healer and would be more useful on a floor where enemies were constantly prowling about.

They had no way to communicate with each other, so the only thing they could do was to agree to meet on the fifth floor in the next four hours. The building wasn’t that big so in all fairness, it shouldn’t take that long to get through, but they figured they could afford it. They had already lost two hours in the maze and then trying to get their shit together, which meant 34 hours left to get to the top of the building. They still had plenty of time.

Yosuke took care of using his phone to light up the elevator shaft, while Akira tried to find something to latch onto with his grappling hook. At last, and with some help from his third eye, he found a small hook with a dent right on the side of the elevator doors. It took a few tries, but he finally caught it and started climbing, his feet on the wall while his shoulders kept traction on the elevator wires.

He took a deep breath when he finally arrived in front of the door. He slowly used the rope to tie it around his waist in some kind of makeshift harness, praying to god that the noose he made was like the one he remembered from the climbing PE classes he took back in middle school. Sure, even if he fell it wouldn’t be from very high, maybe something like four meters, but injuring himself would definitely not help them right now.

Once the rope was holding him, his trembling hands let go, his shoes being the last thing keeping him grounded. Step by step, as the blood kept pumping in his ears, he got closer to the elevator doors until they were right in front of him, the bottom of the metal door threshold just in reach. He winced when he felt the dust and grime accumulated around the plates under his fingertips, but he clenched his abs and biceps and pulled.

He had no idea how long it actually took, but he was still sweating bullets by the time the doors were sufficiently open to let them all pass through. He heard a little whistle down below, Yosuke lightly clapping and Morgana calling him ‘dreadfully cool’, and couldn’t help turning his head to throw a little grin at them, just to show off a little.

‘Dreadfully cool’ immediately turned into ‘stupidly pretentious’, because Akira felt his shoe slip, and he gasped as he lost his balance and had to catch the dirty and slippery edge of the elevator to not fall and break his knees. Thankfully, his forearm managed to catch it and his body crashed against the wall, making a big ruckus as he hit his ribs. It took him a second, mostly to get his air back, but at last he used his upper body strength to crawl upward and into the fourth floor, falling on his back to catch his breath.

Yosuke and Naoto’s ascension was far less eventful and a few minutes later, they were all standing in a dark hallway, with only their phone flashlights to look around. All the windows were tightly closed, and the lights weren’t working. There was, however, one single door in front of them, a door that used to be closed by some heavy mechanism and password, but that had been left slightly ajar, as if a thief had been the last person to visit the place.

The sight that greeted them wasn’t that surprising, on hindsight, and yet it was so different from everything they’d seen up until now, it made them pause. Gone were the lavish looks of the museum and public area, gone was the primness of the previous floors. This whole palace screamed eccentricity, as if everything was made to look like its owner : pleasant and welcoming on one side, biting and ruthless on the other. But this? It was desolate. Not empty, but screaming melancholy, with all the furniture still in place and the lights not working. Some chairs were slightly facing away from the table as if someone had just risen up from it, a teacup was sitting on a small table, forever waiting to be picked up and washed, a TV remote was perched on the arm of the couch. People had lived there. People had cooked, played video games, broken glasses in these rooms.

And yet, the most surprising thing was that those rooms weren’t dusty at all. The apartment was quite big since it covered the entire floor – a living room connected to a dining table and a communal kitchen, a small gym and amusement room, even a small home theater room, and a long corridor with closed doors that were probably leading to the bedrooms. “Which one is it?” Naoto asked, voice tight as she went over some magazines and books scattered on the living room’s coffee table. “Do you think Red Phoenix decided to keep this place clean, or does someone else live here?”

Akira opened the fridge and found it completely empty – it wasn’t even plugged in. “There’s no condensation in there. No one has used this fridge in a long time.”

“I agree. Or if they did, they didn’t sit on the couch, didn’t use the sink – they didn’t touch anything.” Yosuke frowned a little bit and added : “It’s pretty creepy to keep everything like this without even at least covering it up, though.”

That definitely would’ve been the easiest way to keep everything dustless without sending someone to clean up the place every once in a while, probably every week by the looks of it. But at least, it made it easier for them to look around, rifling through documents, looking under pillows and opening cupboards.

However, Futaba had been right – there was nothing much to find in here except for bitter memories of a time long gone, and stairs leading to the fifth floor through a door only locked from their side. That's why they decided to look inside the bedrooms, just in case, but at this point this was mostly because they had time to spare before meeting up with the others, and also they didn’t want to greet them with absolutely nothing.

Akira believed the rooms he looked into were Makoto’s and Sumire’s - and they closer to small apartments than bedrooms, to be honest, with their own living space and bathrooms. The first one was pretty obvious, from the motorbike helmet to the overall tidiness of the place and walls painted in warm woody tones. She had law books and a few hidden light novels, and her wardrobe was full of clothes in darker tones, a few summer dresses and three pairs of shoes that were clearly overused, except from one pair of Puchimaru Special Edition sneakers that had clearly never been worn. Cute, and very in character, but that was not really what he needed.

Not that he had any idea what, exactly, could help them find more about Black Phoenix. Ryuji had been clear - he’d never actually been part of the group. The best thing they could probably find would be a diary, anything that could tell them more about who he was and what had happened to him, but if Makoto didn’t have one, then he didn’t know which one of the Thieves would.

He decided to give up on that room and went to Sumire’s next. Her place clearly had more life to it, from all the exercise bench or the few posters on the wall. She had a big library covering many subjects : nutrition manuals, motivational books, mangas or high quality fashion books, some of them left on the side of the shelf as if she’d wanted to keep them in her sight to be picked up later.

He was rifling through a novel she had left on her table when his heart dropped. The bookmark was actually a picture, printed on glossy photographic paper. He delicately removed it from the book and brought his light closer, so he could see all the colors.

The team was all geared-up in their colorful battle costumes, clearly caught unaware by the photograph. It must have been right after a battle because they were in some kind of battlefield and a few of them had mud on their clothes, as if they’d rolled on the ground. Ryuji had his mask off and was drinking from a water bottle, while Haru was bandaging her arm. Sumire was in the foreground, clearly the only one who had seen the photographer and looked truly caught out of guard, even blushing a little bit.

And in the background was Red Phoenix, turned away from the commotion as he talked with a man in a black suit - Black Phoenix.

Truly, that picture didn’t give him anything. Sumire had probably gone after the photographer and had either bargained or straight up stolen his film, so she could protect their privacy – but then had decided this one picture deserved to be printed. It was, after all, a nice scene. Futaba and Yusuke were smiling as they were talking, Ann was berating Ryuji for something. All the while Red and Black Phoenix, arms crossed and still all serious business with their masks on, were enjoying one small conversation, Black’s head turned in his partner’s direction while Red Phoenix looked straight ahead, but with his shoulders a little bit hunched over.

They were comfortable with each other. And even if it didn’t mean anything, this at least supported Ryuji’s theory. They didn’t look like people who wanted each other dead. Sure, this had also felt like this back in Sae’s Palace, but Akira really wanted to believe what he was seeing now. Red Phoenix wasn’t responsible for Black Phoenix’s disappearance. Someone else killed him.

He shared his little discovery with his friends, and at last, they turned in the direction of the last door of the corridor, the one at the very end of it. Logically, this had to be Red Phoenix’s. It was their last chance to find clues about Black Phoenix before they had to move on to the fifth floor and meet up with the rest of the team. Akira’s heart started knocking softly against his rib cage, and he lowered his hand in the direction of the handle.

A sudden noise broke him out of his trance, though. All three turned around with their weapons in hand and saw that a Shadow had just appeared behind them in the corridor. It was empty-handed and could transform anytime, but as it reached for his pocket and Akira got ready to tear off his mask, he froze when he saw that it had only pulled out a phone and was holding the screen in their direction. The screen flickered to life and Red Phoenix appeared in front of them.

“You little bastards,” he sighed, visibly relieved to know the Shadow had finally caught them. “You weren’t supposed to come here. There’s nothing to see anyway, so get out and go through the proper way.”

“Or what?” Yosuke retorted, arms crossed and clearly enjoying the sound of Red Phoenix losing his cool. “It sounds like we’re exactly where we needed to be,” he added with a little knock against the wood of the door.

Red Phoenix’s mask kept them from seeing his expression, but Akira could feel his eyes rolling. “Oh, you think you’re so smart. But this is definitely not worth your time.”

“Oh yeah?” Yosuke grinned. “Got any dark secrets behind this? Now I definitely want to know.”

His hand actually reached for the handle, and Red Phoenix groaned, like a parent scolding their child : “May I remind you that we are doing a show? People can see you now that my Shadow is here. And I have the power to show this on the Midnight Channel too.” His voice lowered, with a little menacing lilt to it. “You don’t want to know what’s behind this door, Joker.”

He didn’t think Red Phoenix would talk to him directly. And to be honest, he really wanted to see it now. He shrugged. “I’ll decide what I want and what I don’t want on my own, I think.”

“Kurusu Akira, you’re a fucking dead man if you open this door.”

His heartbeat came to a stop. Red Phoenix had switched the phone’s point of view and now, Akechi’s face was in full view, bruises littered around his brow and jaw, while red eyes were full on glaring at him.

He didn’t even think, he walked closer to the phone and took it from the Shadow who didn’t even try to resist. “Hey, are you alright?” he immediately asked, not even bothering to hide his concern. “What did Red Phoenix do to you, what happened to your face?”

Akechi’s head jerked back in a mix of surprise and annoyance, while red started dusting his cheeks. “Who cares!? You–”

“I didn’t do anything, for the record,” Red Phoenix interrupted him, snapping back into view. “We just had a friendly spar. And I won.”

“Shut up!” Akechi snapped, his face coming back on the screen. “And you better leave that room alone, Kurusu, alright? It’s…” His jaw tightened, his eyes flickered, probably in Red Phoenix’s direction, and it’s with a defeated frown that he furiously whispered, ears now completely red : “Private.”

Akira almost dropped the phone in shock. Oh. The embarrassment on Akechi’s face was pretty self-explanatory. He risked another look in the direction of the door - white, innocent and so tempting - while Red Phoenix added : “Yes. We’d like to keep a PG-13 rating, guys. Don’t play this game.”

Yosuke jerked away from the door, now also red as a tomato, while Naoto was shaking her head, fingers resting right under the rim of her cap. She walked closer to Akira and tried to be as quiet as possible when she said : “Checking it out doesn’t hurt. This is just for our investigation.”

“I…” He was at a loss for words now. This was Akechi’s Palace, and if this was his room - worse, his bedroom - then that was obviously where his most intimate thoughts and fantasies would materialize. They didn’t need to see those things, and it would be extremely rude to do it after Akechi himself had just told him not to.

But he really, really wanted to see it now. The desire to be selfish was overwhelming, and the knowledge that this could be his only occasion of ever seeing this side of Akechi was tantalizing. What was behind this door? His Treasure? Some kind of sexual fantasy? Or maybe someone precious to him, that he’d want to keep hidden to the world?

“As flattering as your reluctance is, I guess you leave me no choice,” Red Phoenix sighed. He walked away from Akechi, further into the TV set, so the camera was directed towards the big screen on the center stage. It was showing Yuu, Teddie and Morgana fighting against Shadows in the maze, but it suddenly flickered to a completely different scene. Rows of red seats similar to the ones they'd just found in the home theater room, and at the center of the screen was Akechi – his head down, shoulders softly shaking, and his hands tied to the armrests. A gloved hand appeared from the bottom of the screen and caught the detective’s chin, raising his head until his wet eyes appeared, and tears started trailing down his cheeks.

Akechi looked furious, glaring at the man behind the camera, and his contempt only grew when Red Phoenix’s voice resonated : “There we go. You’re finally getting angry.”

Without a care in the world, the Shadow patted his head mockingly, while Akechi’s red eyes, still overflowing with tears, glowered at him. “I’m glad we’re finally on the same page. It could hardly be a punishment if you’re not feeling any pain from it, right? Now you know what I’m capable of.”

“You can’t do shit to me if I kill you first.”

Akechi had spat the words, seething between his teeth, with a murderous look Akira hadn’t seen him sport in a very long time. Even in Shido’s Palace, as he turned mad with anger and resentment, his power turning him berserk and making him insane with anger – he didn’t look like this. This was rage. This was icy fury, one of bitter betrayal and cruel torture, to which Red Phoenix only sneered : “That won’t happen.”

And suddenly, Akira understood where Red Phoenix was going with this. And he didn’t have time to say a word, to make him stop – the Akechi on screen was too far gone to care, and he probably didn’t know he was being filmed. His lips tightened in a dry smirk, and he spat : “Oh, do you think so? Murdering pieces of shit like you is my fucking job. Try me, asshole. See if I can’t break your neck with my hands tied.”

He heard Yosuke gasp, and he didn’t need to look at Naoto to see her piercing gaze - the way his heart dropped was enough. The video stopped there, and soon enough Red Phoenix was back, walking around while he started talking again : “You don’t want this video to get out there, right Joker? I have the ability to broadcast it on the Midnight Channel. I can broadcast it for an entire night if necessary, and you know people won’t turn a blind eye to this.” He paused, probably for the dramatics, and added with a little laugh : “You’ve worked so hard so your murderer could get out of this place. You probably don’t want him to immediately end up in jail, right?”

Akira couldn’t answer anything. His throat was tight, and no sound could get out. And Red Phoenix looked overjoyed by the sight. “That’s right. Now, please hurry up and get back on track, will you? I’m getting bored. Who knows what I could do to keep myself entertained?” Then he waved. “See you soon, Joker.” And hung up.

A shiver ran along his spine when the phone finally turned off. The Shadow took it back and then disappeared, as if he’d never been here in the first place. Deafening silence started stretching between them, as Yosuke and Naoto exchanged distressed looks and Akira was stuck looking into space while panic crept on him. He heard Naoto’s voice, deep and almost incredulous as she asked : “What the hell just happened? What does that mean?”

“He was just super upset, huh?” Yosuke asked with a shaky laugh. “C’mon, he’s a super famous detective, right? He never killed anyone, right? Why did he call him your murderer?”

Too many words were trying to get out of the same time. He wanted to deny it all. He wanted to say that it was more complicated than that. To admit that it was the truth. He could still hear the words ringing in his ears, the words of an angry man threatening to kill someone else without even a second of hesitation. He could hear the footsteps echoing in the corridor, the resonating click of the silencer. And then the ugly grin, the mask slipping off to reveal a torrent of resentment.

Naoto grabbed his shoulder and shook him awake, clearly not in the mood to be patient anymore. Her eyebrows low and teeth clenched, she asked one last time : “What are you hiding from us? What did Akechi do?”

Too many things, that was the answer. And now that he was cornered, with no way out, he didn’t even know where to start.

To be continued.

Chapter Text

Those struggles will finally fade away,
I might be hurt, I might be down,
But I’ll always stand up, undefeated.
Because I’m- 

“This can’t be the end…”

The wind is howling on the mountaintop. Grey rocks have long since turned to rubble and dust, crackling under their feet as they stumble upward once again. They haven’t given up, they know they cannot, but doubt is starting to seep into their minds like the most contagious of poisons.

The enemy is right in front of them, floating a few meters above the ground as they keep their barrier stance. Their fingers are crossed in front of their ribs and their eyes are closed, while the translucent sphere around them ripples softly in the aftermath of their last attack. They are already ready to fire again, and the group gathered at their feet – exhausted and out of options – still has no idea how to counter it.

There’s only silence to answer her, so Pink turns her head away from the enemy to find Red. He’s still got a knee on the ground, his fist tight around his trusted pistol, and the sight makes her close her mouth. There is no way he’s going to give up, is he? Not him. Not now. They’ve still got so much to do.

“Watch out!” she hears from her right, and then feels something colliding with her left side, pushing her away from what looked like yet another thunderbolt. She gasps and shakes her head to find her bearings, softly thanking White for saving her ass. But she doesn’t have time to say anything else – the enemy is gathering strength for another one of their most powerful attacks, and this one will definitely hurt if they don’t do anything.

Then, in the corner of her eye, she catches sight of the red cape floating in the wind. Red has finally gotten up, and he’s walking towards the enemy. Blue calls his name, tells him to get away, that they have to run before it’s too late. But Red’s glove squeaks when he closes his fist, and he drawls : “I am not going to run away now. Not after all this.” And then he turns around, catching Pink’s eyes through the visor of their masks, and tells her : “You’re right. I won’t let this be the end.”

And suddenly he turns around, sprinting in the direction of the enemy and stepping on a large stone to jump higher, closer to their adversary. He’s high in the sky, so close, he’s definitely going to either jump right against the shield or be drawn into the accumulation of raw power – none of which would leave him unscathed.

The enemy seems to have other plans, however. Suddenly, they grin as the shield drops, and a second pair of arms spurts out of their back to grab Red by the neck. They sneer, opening their eyes and letting the blue aura emanating from them light up the mountaintop.

“You fool. Did you really think sacrificing yourself would help you win?”

Red chokes, hands coming to grasp at the enemy’s wrists, fighting for air as he sputters : “I… am not sacrificing myself…”

“Oh?” the enemy replies, almost looking surprised by his words. “And how do you call this?”

A low chuckle answers him. It’s devoid of any humor, it’s desperate and grim – yet not hopeless. He stretches his neck until his trachea is freed enough to let him breathe, and at last, he answers : “This is just… me following my own Justice.”

The villain doesn’t look moved by the line and gets ready to finish his adversary off. Down below, Yellow is running, hoping he’ll get there in time before their leader gets blown to pieces. Indigo is right next to him, and she screams his name as the sound of the charging blast resonates in the mountaintop.

Then silence, once again. Neither Red nor their enemy has moved, but the blue aura is gone. The arms holding Red are slowly losing their grip, and when he opens an eye, he can see that the villain has a look of terror on their face. Red looks down, and sees that there’s now a large hole at the center of the enemy’s chest.

And then he falls. Thankfully, Indigo and Yellow were right on time to catch him while the villain drops dead on the ground, raising a cloud of dust with it. Blue coughs as he gets closer to his friends, checking to see if they’re all in one piece, and he asks what they’re all collectively thinking : “What just happened?”

Red has no answer. He’s still catching his breath, his heart beating like crazy after seeing his life flash before him. But even as he feels Yellow groaning from beneath him, even as Violet rushes to check if the villain is definitely out of commission, he’s sure of what he’s just seen, even if he can’t explain it.

Through the hole in the enemy’s chest, he saw a silhouette. Someone dressed entirely in black, who had a gun raised in their direction. A gun that was then put away in a flourish before the other hero jumped down the cliff they were standing on and disappeared in the darkness beneath them.

He’s heard the rumors, yet didn’t know if they were true. But now, he’s seen it with his own eyes. There is another Phoenix out there, someone who just saved them from a crushing defeat and a certain death. And he only wants one thing now – it’s to find them. He wants to know who they are. What they want. Why they helped him.

For the first time in his entire life, Red Phoenix doesn’t win because of his own powers. And now that he’s torn between a crushing feeling of humiliation and a sincere burst of curiosity, he knows that even if he loses sleep over it, he’ll find this Black Phoenix again and get an answer to all of his questions.

Sometimes, however, some questions do not have easy answers. Akira was well aware of that as he sat on the couch of the fourth floor’s old apartment while some very concerned and serious Persona users were glaring at him and waiting for an explanation he didn’t have.

It didn’t take long for them to reunite with Yuu, Teddie and Morgana at the entrance of the fifth floor, and then go back to the safety of the abandoned apartment to finally have this talk. He’d been forced to acknowledge it all. Yes, Akechi had used his powers to do monstrous things. Yes, he’d killed people. Yes, he’d tried to kill Akira too. No, he didn’t do it because he wanted to, he’d been manipulated. Still, how many people did that entail? Did he only kill in the metaverse? Could he still be trusted? Those were things he didn’t actually know.

He wanted to believe it had only been the targets Shido had given him – he wanted to assure them that Akechi would never harm anyone ever again. But truly, who was he to make those assumptions? He trusted Akechi because he believed what he’d seen during all those months spent talking, arguing and sharing personal stuff. But that didn’t mean he truly knew him, sadly. He wanted to have faith in those memories, in his own guts, but Naoto, Yuu and Yosuke needed the truth, not his own beliefs.

Morgana did try to help him plead his case. After all, he was more pragmatic than Akira, and he was pretty good at reading people too, while Akira wasn’t exactly unbiased when it came to Akechi – and from the look in his eyes, Yosuke was well aware of that. Worse, it looked like he pitied Akira – as if he was persuaded he was too blind to see the terrible truth, which was that the guy he liked wanted him dead. He didn’t say it out loud, obviously, but it was all in the curl of his mouth, distaste written all over his face.

Naoto looked more conflicted. She’d listened carefully to Akira’s recounting of the facts, showing nothing except for a few twitches of her eyebrows. She looked pensive, actually, and it was making Akira anxious. Was she considering dropping everything right now? Was she about to tell him that the risks taken to save a murderer were not worth it? Was he going to do this with Morgana alone? Because clearly, that wouldn’t stop him, but while he was sure their group had their chances against Red Phoenix, he definitely didn’t want to go against him on his own. Morgana was a healer, which was great, but he had the feeling Red Phoenix needed raw power in order to be defeated. And while he had a few Personas like Yoshitsune or Ose as back-up, they didn’t hold a candle to Yuu’s Izanagi. 

Thankfully, Naoto simply crossed her arms once he was done talking. She didn’t frown, she didn’t turn on her heels in the direction of the door. She glanced at Yosuke – who, on the other hand, still looked upset, although he was probably waiting for her to make the final decision – and then sighed. “Well, now I understand why you didn’t want us to know about all of this. It’s quite a lot.”

Akira knew, deep down, that the truth would eventually come out. They were in Akechi’s Palace, and surely once they got access to the deeper stuff – like the archive room they were desperately looking for – it was very likely that his lies would be exposed. Still, he would’ve preferred to wait for everything to naturally come out rather than being put on the spot like this and talk about the past of someone who would definitely not appreciate it. “He’s done terrible things, I’m not going to deny that. But surely we can all agree that he still doesn’t deserve to stay in here and wait to be killed by his own shadow, right?”

“Of course,” Yuu replied without missing a beat, as expressionless as he usually was. “We’re here to save him from the Midnight Channel, not put him in jail.”

“Right,” Naoto agreed reluctantly. “And even if I wanted to drag him to the authorities once we finally manage to get him out of here, it’s not like we have proof against him anyway – and you won’t testify against him, obviously.”

Akira felt a torrent of relief tearing through him, his chest so light that breathing felt incredible. “Yeah, I’m not a big fan of the police anyway.”

“To be fair, he tried to surrender himself the last time we saw him,” Morgana added, clearly as relieved as him. “So he might do it again. That’s also why I agree with Akira – I don’t think he’s dangerous anymore. Somehow, he had his revenge and now, as far as we know, he’ll never hurt anyone ever again.”

“Akira, he tried to kill you.”

He raised his head when he heard his name and found Yosuke’s wide-eyed look. Akira blurted : “It doesn’t matter.”

“Huh? Yes, it does!” Yosuke opened and closed his mouth, truly at a loss for words for a moment. He turned towards Naoto. “Please, guys, tell me you agree, c’mon.”

“It’s… unsettling, yes,” she conceded. “But I’m not that surprised, honestly, considering the interactions we had with Red Phoenix up until now.”

“Oh my god, are you serious?” he gritted between his teeth. “Partner?” Yuu’s silence spoke for itself.

“Anyway,” Naoto quickly cut him off before he could go on another rant. “I’ll make my own opinion of him once we meet for real. In the meantime, I’ll trust Akira. It’s not like we have much of a choice, anyway. We've gone too far to walk out now.”

Yosuke shook his head angrily and stormed off in the direction of the stairs. That’s how the conversation ended. Akira stood up from the couch he was sitting on and prepared himself to follow after Yosuke who, hopefully, was actually waiting for them and not running into any enemies.

As they walked past Red Phoenix’s door, he couldn’t help but glance at it and slow his pace, imagining what was hiding behind it. Red Phoenix wouldn’t be able to actually do anything if they managed to beat him before the next rainy night. It wouldn’t hurt anyone. He’d only be indulging himself a little, for no other reason than that he could. However, Yuu was right next to him, and from his looks, he knew what he was thinking. So he placed a hand in between his shoulder blades and pushed him towards the stairs.

The fifth floor had one big central room, filled from top to bottom with files, books and other papers, and there were a few doors leading out of it. The corridors were plain, kinda labyrinthine, but not as much as the ones from the prison floor. Since they didn’t see any shadow, they split up, looking for the closest safe room. While Morgana and Yosuke were looking around the main room, Yuu and Teddie were investigating the northern part, and Akira and Naoto were in the southern part.

They found a big armory, with silly guns and costumes all set up like in a museum – however, there was no sight of any black jumpsuit that would look similar to the one Red Phoenix was wearing. They also stumbled upon a larger prison cell – one cell made of glass instead of bars, situated at the center of the room, with a bed and nothing but the smallest necessities – that was most likely used to lock up Very Important Prisoners. Once again, looking around didn’t really teach them anything new except that someone had definitely lived there until not too long ago, and it didn’t take a genius to figure that this had been Akechi’s room for the last few days.

After this, they reunited in a safe room that was just a few corridors away from the VIP cell, and tried to make sense of the layout of this floor. It was the last one before the rooftop, and Yuu and Teddie had found the elevator leading to it but it was heavily guarded. And by that, they meant that there was a Cognition of the Phantom Thieves sitting in front of it at all times, waiting for them to fulfill their part of the deal – find out the truth about Black Phoenix. Only then would they let them access the roof, otherwise they’d fight back, as Red Phoenix had ordered them to do. And from their previous 1v1 fights, his friends definitely didn’t want to go through that ordeal again.

They had no choice but to look around the main room – the Archive, from the looks of it. And of course it couldn’t be that easy, because this place was also a big maze. Rows and rows of shelves made it hard to find one another, and every time someone went to investigate one aisle, the curvature of the shelves made it impossible to see them at all times. And to make things worse, they couldn’t for the life of them figure out what filing system Red Phoenix was using. It wasn’t alphabetical, nor chronological – because that would be too easy – but while there definitely was some rhyme and also reason behind the way it was all organized, they really didn’t get it.

Still, the question remained – to find what? A file that said “Everything About Black Phoenix”? A sealed box with a stained mask and crime weapon? The guy himself, safely hidden (or locked) behind some cryptic puzzle only Shadows with time to lose in their palace could think of? Akira was reading the names written on the spines of all the files neatly lined up on one shelf, trying to find anything that would at least ring familiar – when suddenly he heard a little click, and then Yosuke groaning and telling Teddie to stop fiddling with stuff.

The room had some empty desks and chairs between two aisles – the kind that are used for sleepless nights of looking over books or, in this case, files – but also a little TV in a corner. Honestly, Akira didn’t even think it was plugged in when he saw it, so he was kinda surprised to see the screen flicker to life as well as some dramatic music – strings and trumpets, the usual stuff of old animes and sentais.

It seemed a cassette tape was already inside the machine and started back again when Teddie turned the TV on. From looking at it a little bit closer, he was surprised to find some familiar figures – it looked like a TV show straight up taken out of Featherman, but with Red Phoenix and his little group of Phantom Thieves-slash-minions instead. They seemed like they were in a tight spot – a villain that looked like a final boss, most of them with a knee on the ground and no true way of escaping. The voices felt a little bit off – like they weren’t his actual friends, but actors pretending to be them – so maybe it was an actual TV show that aired in Red Phoenix’ world.

They all gathered around the TV once they heard the noises – struggling to all fit in the small corridor, but curious to see what kind of episode Red Phoenix was watching before they got here. In the very least, Akira would’ve expected something more triumphant, something that would scream how much of a hero Red Phoenix is, and why they’re all going to be defeated in the end.

He finally understood when the episode came to its end. This was a scene where Red Phoenix’ group had been saved in extremis by another fighter – one all dressed in black. This was the episode that recounted their first encounter with Black Phoenix.

“Why would he do that…?” Morgana mused out loud. “He’s basically giving us some kind of key as to Black Phoenix’ past and probably actual whereabouts. It’s only going to help us get to the rooftop and reveal the whole truth to his old teammates. What’s his objective?”

“Well, we do know he wants us to eventually get up there,” Naoto answered slowly, her eyes still trailing on the screen while some kind of anime ending with a melancholic song started playing. “As to why he was willing to hide the truth to his teammates up until now, only to reveal the whole thing to us – I don’t know. Akira?”

He genuinely didn’t know why. He thought about it for a moment – was it because he wanted Akira to know, and he didn’t actually care about his teammates’ thoughts? Was he just playing with him more? He had no idea, so he simply answered : “He loves the drama, I guess.”

Naoto only raised an eyebrow. Oops. Not the answer she was waiting for. But she didn’t have time to say more about that – the ending song ended, and a quick montage of scenes started playing, until a title card appeared and told them the name of the next episode.

“狙撃兵の氷鳥... Sogekihei no Hyouchou… A sharp-shooting… ice bird?” Yosuke read. Yuu walked to the TV and pushed the button to eject the cassette tape. He frowned a little bit. “This has no title. But it might be the sixth episode, out of ten?”

He turned the tape around to show it to them, and after a few seconds, Akira felt his stomach sink, while his face suddenly heated up. He couldn’t help it – he shook his head. “It’s a date. 6/10, the tenth of June.” They all turned in his direction, and he kept his eyes on the tape, so he could avoid seeing the looks on their faces when he elaborated : “That’s the day he and I met for the first time.”

If he’d been looking at him, he would’ve enjoyed the look of actual surprise on Yuu’s face. But he was too shaken up to care at the moment. Those weren’t just some random episodes made to show them more of who Black Phoenix actually was. It was about him and Akira – the real ones.

It made sense, since they were so deep in Akechi’s Palace – of course they were getting into really personal stuff. But even so, he didn’t prepare himself for this. To see more of what Akechi truly thought of him, of the beginning of their relationship. And even though he rightfully knew it was rude to peek behind the curtain – he wasn't embarrassed. He was glad to see this. That he mattered enough to have their first meeting (even if it was a fictional one) loaded in Red Phoenix’s cassette player.

“Sogekihei no Hyouchou sounds like the name of an enemy,” he finally managed to squeak out, his heart beating like crazy. “It might take some time, but if we all get into it, I’m sure we can find something about that guy – with the help of the next episodes.”

“Oh…” Morgana let out suddenly, probably because he also connected the dots. “Sharpshooting Ice bird. That’s Penguin Sniper.”

Akira nodded frantically, his hand shooting up to fiddle nervously with his hair while he got his phone out and scrolled up on his and Akechi’s texting log. It wasn’t that long – he’d spent enough time staring at it to almost know it by heart – and when he saw the text, he felt a flutter in his chest.

6/13/20XX at 6:37 PM

“Hey there! This is Akechi Goro. Do you remember me? We met at the TV station the other day.

I’m in Kichioji right now because I was supposed to meet with a potential witness, but she’s actually pretty busy. It’s still early, and I have nothing else to do tonight, so I thought of our deal again. Can I see you? I hope it’s not too far away from where you are. I’ll be hanging at the Penguin Sniper anyway, just tell me if you’re free. We could play billiards together and talk some more :)”

“Do any other tapes have dates on them?” he asked softly, his voice caught at the bottom of his throat.

“I don’t think so…” Morgana said slowly. “This is just the title of this one episode. We’ll need to use the preview screen to find the others.” His ears flattened on his head as he turned around, taking in the immensity of the Archive room. “This'll take a while…”

Akira nodded, still not trusting his voice. It was fine, he told himself. They had time. It couldn’t be that long to go through all those episodes. Those would surely give them answers on who Black Phoenix was, and what happened to him. There was hope. They could do this.

He just needed a minute to get a hold on himself and stop his hands from shaking so badly.

The man dressed in red exhales – slowly, silently. He knows he’s being watched. He knows he might get shot if he moves just a tiny bit to the left. He needs to wait for the right moment.

Truly, what a day – stumbling on an enemy while he’s out of town, after leaving the team behind, and finding out he has links to The Prime Minister, the mastermind behind many of the most recent attacks on the city. The man is too cunning to do any of the work himself and Red knows that a little bit too well - he’s, let’s say, pretty familiar with his methods – so the only possible way for him to get dirt on a man that is such a public figure is to go step by step, and go through his target’s entire tree of connections. This is one of them. And deep down, he’s glad to be alone. He doesn’t want the others to end up involved – this is a very personal grudge, after all.

His eyes are fixated on the wall in front of him. The Sniper doesn’t know it, but the sun’s vicious glare is reflecting on the rifle’s scope. It’s small, almost undetectable, but he can see it. The moment it drops or veers away from him, that’s when he’ll be able to move away from the corridor he’s hiding in. One shot to get to the man waiting to shoot him from the opposite building. That’s his window. It’s small. He won’t get another chance. But he has no other choice left.

The tiny white circle starts trembling. The sniper is starting to hesitate. He probably wonders if his target is still here. Soon enough, he’ll start looking around and will lower his rifle. It’s only a matter of seconds now. Red Phoenix squeezes his own gun, and prays to any god listening that his shot will put an end to this.

A hand drops on his shoulder, and he doesn’t even think. He turns around and shoots.

A curse answers him, and he immediately finds himself tackled to the ground, his gun kicked away from his hand. He struggles, fighting against his opponent, ready to throw him on his back and regain the upper hand – but he stills when he realizes who his attacker is.

“You…” Red Phoenix breathes out, before panic catches up with him, and he furiously whispers : “Get off me! You’re going to get us killed!”

Black Phoenix releases him but doesn’t get up from where he’s settled – which is on Red Phoenix’s lap, his thighs still clenched around his waist. Black shrugs like he’s actually mocking him. “I’ve taken care of your sniper, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

“What?”

Black laughs at him – for real, this time. “It’s easier to take enemies by surprise when they’re entirely focused on someone else – especially when they did such sloppy work and managed to get themselves cornered.”

This time, Red Phoenix pushes the other hero off of him and finally jumps on his feet. “Sloppy? Everything was going according to plan. I had him. It sounds like you just used me to get credit for all my hard work.”

“I never said that,” Black Phoenix immediately snaps back. “I found what I was looking for, so I don’t care about this sniper anymore, you can have him.” He immediately takes a step forward, forcing himself in Red Phoenix’s personal space. “But I saved your ass twice now, so don’t you think this warrants a thank you, in the very least?”

Red Phoenix holds his ground, no matter how uncomfortable he is with Black Phoenix all up in his face. He thanks the gods that his expression is hidden behind his mask – and answers : “I’ll thank you once I’ll know your true objective. You didn’t save me twice out of pure sympathy, surely. Who are you?”

Black Phoenix snorts. He probably thinks Red is being childish for not even thanking him properly. “I’m no one. Just another hero, like you.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Red says. “I know you’re up to something. Answer me.”

Black stays silent. He crosses his arms, wordlessly staring at his rival. And then he chuckles. “Tell you what. First we finish this job – and then maybe, if you’re lucky, I’ll talk. How is that?”

“Hm? What do you mean, finish–” Red cuts himself off. After a few more seconds of just staring at the other, almost seeing the skeptical brow that must be lifting behind the mask, he lowers his eyes. Both of their feet are stuck to the ground – imprisoned in slowly growing ice. “Oh. Didn’t you say he was dead?”

“I certainly was under that impression. That’s my bad.”

“That sounds like sloppy work to me.”

Black Phoenix has no time for a comeback – the Ice Bird suddenly comes crashing through the windows and cuts the discussion short.

This episode ended on a cliffhanger, and Akira couldn’t help his frustrated groan. Red Phoenix was toying with them. What did Black Phoenix want? Of course, they wouldn’t get their answers so easily. Even worse – in most TV shows, those kinds of questions were left unanswered until at least the second to last episode of the season. He really hoped Akechi’s brain was not that kind of cheap writer.

Thankfully, the preview was pretty straightforward – “Red&Black VS Honey & cie.” was clearly a reference to another villain, and they quickly went back to skimming the room’s numerous shelves. While they were watching the episode, Naoto had gotten a lot of work done. She had already found quite a lot of tapes, hidden inside files or under piles of books. They were kinda scattered around the room, it seemed, but they had enough time to look around. This was the last piece of the puzzle they needed to finally confront Red Phoenix. And Akira wanted to get to the bottom of this.

They found and watched the next episode, which was delightfully not helpful at all. It was just more of the two heroes shenanigans, their paths crossing again and again, with tension between them while Red Phoenix’s team was blissfully unaware. It reminded Akira of those months when he would make up excuses to Ryuji, missing leg day to jump into the first train to Kichioji and happily get destroyed in billiards by a guy who wasn’t even using his dominant hand.

Similarly, Red and Black Phoenix looked annoyed to always find the other in their way – but it was all show. They enjoyed fighting together, even if they pretended they only did it because it was more practical. None of them wanted to admit that they clearly needed the other – and were still alive because someone else had their back. It was ridiculously cheesy. And it made Akira feel like a schoolboy reading their crush’s diary – minus the shame. Akechi didn’t know. And if Akira couldn’t peek into his private room, then at least, he had this.

Still, he had to admit it was pretty surreal to imagine Akechi acting like a leader, while he, Akira, was the outsider. Sometimes, it was even hard to tell who was who, but that only underlined how similar they both were, deep down. Akechi could be a good leader if he got his mind into it, and Akira could be the bratty lone wolf. In another world, they might’ve ended up exactly like this – if Akira had gotten a Persona early on, had met Shido by chance and had been offered something he couldn’t refuse, in exchange for his services as a hitman. Meanwhile, Akechi would’ve probably also stumbled upon the metaverse at some point – and if Morgana was in there too, he would’ve jumped at the opportunity of being a hero, stealing hearts, saving lives. That’s what this Palace meant.

While they were looking around the room, Akira stumbled upon a small area he would’ve missed if he didn’t try to squeeze in between two rows of shelves that were way too close to one another. He curiously made his way in, wondering if some treasure chest was hidden behind it, but he stopped in his tracks. There was a futon, neatly folded against the wall. A small fridge that contained not much but energy pouches and water bottles. A gym bag containing some clothes : a tracksuit, a green uniform, and…

His breath caught in his chest. He slowly pulled it out of the bag, as if to make sure he wouldn’t tear it up, even though the material was very sturdy. It was a black jumpsuit. Similar to the ones he’d seen in the armory earlier, and in the episodes of the TV show. Black Phoenix’s battle suit.

Akira could feel his heart slamming against his rib cage. This was clearly where Red Phoenix came to rest. In a corner of the archive room – not even in his own bedroom. He could almost see him hunched over, reading books and reports until late at night, and then deciding it was too much of a hassle to go down to the empty floor to sleep. Maybe he didn’t want to go to that place, maybe he was uncomfortable with the ghosts of his ancient life that were haunting those rooms. And that’s why he slept on the ground, hidden behind the shelves, away from the people that screamed his name every time he took a step. With Black Phoenix’s costume hidden in his bag.

He thanked the gods he was alone, and the others couldn’t see how pink his face was. If Red Phoenix had changed because he was mourning the loss of Black Phoenix, then it made sense that he’d kept this with him. It didn’t have to be romantic. He had lost a dear friend, a partner. He was allowed to miss him. But Akira’s brain wasn’t so pragmatic, and he was alone, so he indulged himself for a little bit, and smiled while he pressed the battle suit against his heart, letting his thumb stroke the fabric.

Mona was the first to notice he looked different when he came back. Akira had decided to put the suit back in the bag – it wasn’t what they were meant to find in here, and the tapes were their primary goals – but his face must have given him away. “Did you find something interesting?”

Akira had to bite his lip to not start smiling like a lunatic again. He shook his head. “Just some funny books. Akechi really likes things targeted for kids – it’s pretty cute.”

“Really? Futaba loves those too, but that’s because she’s a big nerd.”

“Futaba’s cute,” he shrugged. “And I like nerds. All of my friends are nerds, in a way.”

“Lady Ann is not a nerd!” he screeched. “Neither am I!”

“Okay, okay, most of my friends are.”

He still looked kinda indignant, but he was forced to admit. “I guess so. Yusuke definitely is one… Wait, why are we even talking about this? What I wanted to know was how you find this cute. Especially for a guy like Akechi.” He shook his head. “His TV show is terrible. It’s repetitive. And the story keeps getting stalled. It’s infuriating, if anything.”

Mona wasn’t wrong. It had been a few episodes since anything remotely interesting had happened, and while they did have more than a whole day left, they couldn’t help wondering if this was really the answer they were looking for. It had to be – or else Red Phoenix wouldn’t have left the tape right there, ready to be watched. And even if Akira was very interested in those tapes and even the most boring, slice of life episodes, he could imagine his friends getting frustrated if nothing of interest came up soon.

“Yeah, kids’ shows tend to be like that. So that you can watch most episodes without caring if you missed the one before.”

“Well, I wish we could just skip to the important parts,” he sighed. “I really want this whole thing to be over.”

Akira raised an eyebrow, following Mona back to the others to gather around the TV and cross fingers that someone had found the tape they needed. “It’s not like you to try and rush things. What’s the hurry, suddenly? We’re almost done.”

“I don’t know,” Morgana admitted, his ears getting lower, like they tended to be when he was upset with himself. “I just feel like I’m missing something, and I don’t like it.”

“Really?” he asked, now getting a little nervous – because Mona’s hunches were often right. “About what? You don’t think those tapes will tell us what happened to Black Phoenix?”

“I do! But what I don’t get…” He stopped in his tracks, paws on his waist and head lowered in thoughts. “First, Red Phoenix accepts your bet. Then, you interrupt his duel, and he raises the stakes. And now, he’s constantly helping us? I know you said he just wants his big show and to show off on TV, in front of his supporters, but this was all your idea, at first.” Mona raised his head, bafflement written all over his face. “He must be after something else. Right?”

Akira did wonder the same thing. He didn’t want to think about it too hard, but now that Morgana was saying it all out loud, he was forced to admit it – Red Phoenix wasn’t dumb. He was a Palace Owner. He was cocky, but not suicidal. He knew facing off with a whole group of Persona users wouldn’t be easy. So where did that confidence come from?

He didn’t forget what the Shadow had asked him the day before. He told Akira he’d let Akechi go if he took his place. But this was madness – Akira would never go willingly, Red Phoenix should’ve known that. He wanted to bring Akechi back, with him, to the real world. He wanted to hopefully go back to the way things were before.

And now, he knew that Akechi was longing for those days as well. Those TV episodes were frustrating, but they were full of warmth. Of team effort, friendship and banter – just like what they had only a year before. Akechi cared. Not just about Akira, but all their friends – or else their cognitions wouldn’t be so detailed and faithful. He liked them, and the dynamic they had back then.

So why turning against them once he’d lost Black Phoenix? Akira’s cognition wasn’t that close to them, according to Ryuji’s. There was no reason for Red Phoenix to fight so hard to bring him back – going as far as to use Akira as a replacement.

Mona was right. They were missing something. He was forced to admit it out loud : “I think he wants me to take Black Phoenix’s place, somehow. But you’re right, this doesn’t really make any sense. He could’ve just kidnapped me when I was alone, or when I met him last night.”

“Still!” he screeched. “You guys were friends, but this goes too far! Why you ? Doesn’t he have anyone else he’d want to bring back? Why would he go this far for another guy?”

This time, Akira couldn’t help but stiffen, his brain immediately supplying him with images – the suit in the bag, Red Phoenix’s lips against a chess piece, the sparkle in his eye when he had slammed him against a wall – and he had to clear his throat.

The thing was that this question could absolutely be addressed to Akira, as well. Why did he go this far to rescue Akechi? Why would he do this, even though he knew deep down that as soon as he was safe, Akechi would leave his life? Of course, he knew the answer. He’d accepted it months ago already. The words tumbled out of his mouth.

“You know… Sometimes, some people… they don’t care about the gender.” It was so terribly awkward that he didn’t even have the guts to look at his friend in the eyes while he said this. “Two guys can feel that way about one another. Or two girls, anything you want. It’s more common than you think. It’s just less known, socially speaking. I guess.”

Mona didn’t answer, even after some long silence started stretching between them. Akira kept his hands deep in his pockets, trying as much as he could to look casual, even though he had basically outed himself to one of his friends – for the first time, ever. It was way harder than with Yosuke. He swallowed, and after a breath or two, risked a look in Morgana’s direction.

His arms were crossed, and he looked… pensive. But not judgmental. On the contrary, he looked a little bit like he’d finally connected a few dots. Akira helplessly tried to get an answer out of him, anything : “Um… is it the first time you hear about this?”

“Hm? Oh, no, no,” he quickly answered, shaking his paw in front of his face. “I did hear about it once, I had just forgotten, so thank you for reminding me, Akira. You’re right, this might be the missing piece…”

Now, he was really confused. Akira frowned a little, and turned completely in Morgana’s direction. “What do you mean?”

His friend blinked. “What do you mean, what do you mean? You just said it. If guys can have romantic feelings for each other, then that’s probably why Akechi is doing all this.” He shrugged, a smirk now pulling at his lips. “What a prick, he spent all this time telling you off while he was actually feeling all of this… The real Akechi must be super embarrassed to know you’re finding out like this. I wouldn’t want to be in his place.”

Akira’s mouth was open in bewilderment, and just when he was about to correct his friend and tell him he’d gotten it all wrong, that it was the other way around – he heard Yosuke’s voice cry out in victory, then telling everyone to gather around the TV for one more episode. Morgana immediately started running in the direction of the TV, and Akira was forced to drop the subject for now – and also rub his cheeks until they stopped burning so much.

This is supposed to be his day off. This is when he should be resting, enjoy his time as a nameless citizen, and appreciate that he chose to keep his real identity a secret. But then, as he strolls around the mall, checking his phone while walking and clearly forgetting to watch where he’s going – that’s when it hits him. Literally. And he only has to raise his head, an apology on the tip of his tongue, to forget it all.

Because he doesn’t know how, or why, but Red only has to run into him to know that the man standing in front of him, dressed as casually as he is, is Black Phoenix. It might be his stance. It might be the spark in his eyes. The strength of his hands when he caught him by the shoulders, to prevent them from crashing into the another.

Red quickly schools his expression, because he shouldn’t show that he knows, even if his heart is beating like crazy. He doesn’t know why, the fact that not only it’s his rival – in the flesh, without his mask – but that he’s also handsome? It can’t leave his head, for some reason, and he finds himself gazing at the other, quietly enraptured with this impromptu meeting.

At last, Red manages to talk – he gives the other a smile that he hopes shows his embarrassment, and he apologizes for not watching where he was going. While a part of his brain is focused on pretending he’s just a normal guy having a normal day and meeting another normal man for the first time – the other can’t help trying to find clues of whether Black also knows.

And oh, lord, his grin when Red asks him whether they have already met before. He definitely knows, too.

At least he can relax a little bit, he tells himself afterward. It’s not a big deal. They now both know, and surely, it won’t change anything. The next time they meet, they’ll still banter, they’ll still end up fighting back to back, and they’ll still end up going their own way. Red just tells him goodbye and goes back on track.

It doesn’t happen once. Or twice. At some point, Red actually starts to wonder if the other is following him, because it’s getting ridiculous. Black is everywhere. Every time he goes out, their paths cross, and they have to pretend to be pleasantly surprised – ‘Oh, you again. What a funny coincidence,’ but is it? What if he actually wants something from Red? What if this was all a nasty plot against him and his team? What if this easy smile is hiding something dark?

“Do you live around here?” Black asks him once, and he hates how clammy his hands get every time they exchange anything but niceties. A part of him enjoys those meetings, he likes seeing the other man without his mask, see all of his expressions, his cocky little smile – but he also fears them tremendously. What if this was a trap? What if he wanted to reveal his true identity? Not for the first time since they first met, he can only wonder if the other is trustworthy.

Red gets his answer a few weeks later, while he’s visiting the city’s panoramic tower and a man barges through the elevator with a gun, screaming at everyone to get on the ground and keep their hands on their head. Red obeys reluctantly – if he was in his battle suit, he would’ve immediately fought back and saved everyone, but he’s dressed like a civilian. He doesn’t have any weapon. He needs to shut up and cross fingers that no one will get hurt before either the police or another hero arrives.

Of course, he doesn’t do that. He just can’t help it. As soon as the man is looking away, he jumps on his feet and drags people over to the escape door, a finger in front of his mouth to make them understand that they need to be quiet in case the man has accomplices downstairs. But while the attacker is not very bright, there’s no need to have a brain to notice the people you’re supposed to keep hostage are slowly disappearing. Red ends up face against the wall, a gun pointed at his head, and he tells himself that this would be a great moment for Black Phoenix to show up.

The attacker suddenly drops to the floor with a cry, and when Red turns around, he sees Black looking over the man with cold fury in his eyes. He looks like he wants to kick him in the ribs, but he’s keeping himself in check. When he raises his eyes in Red’s direction, there’s true concern in them. “Are you okay?”

Red’s heart does a backflip, and he’s absolutely certain he must be blushing. He nods, and then jumps to keep another attacker – who was pretending to be one of the hostages – from shooting at Black. The gun fires once, twice – he misses both times. And Red manages to land a punch right against his jaw, immediately knocking him out.

He doesn’t even have time to catch his breath that screams start rising in the direction of the stairs. They start running towards them in tandem, taking the steps two by two, and when they get to the lower floor where more people are getting targeted by way, way more criminals, Black catches his shoulder before Red runs in there. “Wait. I’ll get the guys on the right. You get the ones on the left. Let’s meet in the middle.”

He nods. “What if I need backup? Who should I call for?”

The other looks stunned by his question. But after a second, a grin replaces his wide-eyed look. “I didn’t know a Phoenix ever needed any help.”

Red scoffs, rolling his eyes and lightly punching the other’s shoulder, and they finally jump into the fight.

Later, when all the criminals are unconscious and all the hostages have fled to safety, they both find themselves laying on the ground, on their backs, staring at the ceiling while catching their breath. They got really roughened up – they were definitely outnumbered. But they still made it. Somehow.

Red is also feeling something else – it might be elation. When he first heard about Black Phoenix, he never thought he could be a potential teammate. His own team was built through circumstances and fate – none of them chose to be where they are right now. They just found out they had the same fire inside them, and that’s why they decided teaming up would be beneficial for all of them, no matter how dangerous it could turn out to be.

But this is different. They’re the same. Their fire burns – it burns so much it’s eating them alive. They know they will probably not survive it. They know they should stop blindly running into danger. But they just cannot stop, because they love it so much. Because it’s all they can do. “How is it, to be on your own?” he asks, because he’s wondered the same thing – many times.

“Why?” he answers with a question after a pause, clearly avoiding it.

“Because you don't have to be.”

Black actually rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “You don’t need me.”

“It’s not about need,” he insists, although he knows he already lost this battle.

“And it’s not about loneliness, either.” He sighs. “I have something I need to do. Something that I have to get, on my own. Team, no team.. ” He shakes his head. "This has nothing to do with it."

Red stays silent, because he understands. He watches as Black pushes himself off of the floor, dusting himself off and combing his hand through his hair. He’s looking away from Red, who is still on the ground, looking at his back. And he says softly, so low that Red almost misses it : “Ask me later.”

“What?”

Black's hands turn into fists, and turns around after sliding them in his pockets, his eyebrows a little bit low but with no resentment in them. “When the time is right. Ask me if I want to be your partner. If you’re still up to it.”

“What if it’s too late?” he asks just to be a contrarian, a little bit annoyed by the other still evading him. He jumps on his feet, and he insists : “What if we never meet again? I don’t even know your real name.”

Black doesn’t look moved by his little guilt-tripping speech, but he takes his phone out of his pocket. They quickly exchange their numbers, and Red can’t help the knot in his stomach when he sees the other’s first name.

“You better start calling me by my name before then,” Black says with a shrug, before a smirk starts pulling at the corner of his mouth. “You seemed really adamant about knowing this information, after all.”

Red’s face must be burning to be the exact color of his battle suit – or at least that’s how he feels when Black finally disappears down the stairs. And yet, he is also absolutely smiling. And forced to admit that even if this could still be a trap, even if Black could still be a very dangerous person to associate with – he’s been compromised and there’s no coming back from it.

He has stopped counting how many tapes they have watched since they arrived in the archive room. They must be past 20 of them right now, and with each one, Akira can feel everyone’s frustrations rising. Naoto just keeps finding new ones and piling them on the table next to the TV while Akira and Yuu watch them religiously, now easily finding the next episode and simply sliding it in the machine, desperate to find something – anything. Yosuke probably gave up around the fifteenth one, and he’s now exploring the room with Teddie and Morgana. They’ve been at it for ages. They only had fifteen hours left.

Akira could feel the way they’re all looking at him. This was going nowhere, they all thought. This was just Red Phoenix fucking with them once again, gloating, shaking a red cloth in front of a bull to better pierce his side with a lance. But he just couldn’t stop watching.

This was quite surreal and yet fascinating, to see people he knows on the screen, but in a world where they teamed up around Akechi. One where they had met as rivals once again, and it was Akira who slowly started to gravitate around their leader – and then the rest of the group too. Episodes where they all actually met and interacted were almost painful to watch – Black Phoenix clearly wasn’t exactly comfortable when he had to participate in some light, fun team-building moments. 

Akira couldn’t help but wonder if this was truly how Akechi would’ve wanted things to go, had their roles been exchanged. It made him think of an alternate universe where he would’ve been the one to kill, deceive, give up on life. And he wanted to see if this was what would happen. If the reason behind Black Phoenix’s disappearance was his betrayal – and then tragic ending before they were even given the time to have one meaningful conversation.

Akira didn’t want to assume anything. Those tapes probably wouldn’t mean anything in regard to what the true Akechi could feel – towards him, towards their relationship. And yet, on the pretense of finding more about Black Phoenix’s fate, he couldn’t help but hope. Hope that even through distortion, Akechi’s mind truly believed there could’ve been a happy ending for them. For him. He wanted to see the end because the ending to that TV show was the key to understand who Red Phoenix was and what he stood for. This would tell him exactly what the Shadow wanted, and what he was ready to accomplish to achieve it.

He just didn’t know how long exactly this would take until they finally got to the last episode. And his teammates were clearly not ready to spend ten more hours on this. They had been in the Palace for a day already – and even if they barely needed to fight up until then, they were getting tired and they would need all their strength if they had to confront Akechi’s Shadow. Something needed to happen, to change, and it needed to happen now.

As if some god was actually listening, Teddie suddenly screeched, in such a high-pitched tone that Akira unconsciously went to cover his ears. They all but scrambled in his direction, guns and weapons akimbo in case their friend had been attacked and needed support.

But Akira immediately relaxed when he saw the silhouette of the enemy that had created such panic. From what he was seeing, Teddie had been rifling through just another shelf of documents when it had all started to fold over itself, revealing a large recess in the wall. And in that recess was a woman, sitting on a file cabinet with her legs crossed. She was dressed like every employee they had met up until now – her ashen hair neatly coiffed to be parted on the side of her head and her face stuck in a poker face that made you immediately understand that she wasn’t like the receptionists from earlier. This woman was a lawyer, and from the look in her eyes, she wasn’t like the Thieves – a Cognition that they could bond and make deals with. Nijima Sae’s cognition was here for a reason, and the cold stare she settled on Akira only brought bad memories.

“At last, you found me,” she slowly said, just an ounce of annoyance in her otherwise clipped and professional tone. “I thought you’d miss me entirely.”

Akira immediately signaled to the others that they could lower their weapons – and let him talk. In his last months in Tokyo, he’d come to know Sae better – see her warmer sides, especially when she couldn’t help but play the older sister with him, regularly visiting him in juvie and still catching up after he’d returned to Inaba. Akechi never really got this chance. Sure, they had spent a lot of time together – but that was around a time when Sae was stressed out by her job, and their relationship had been professional at best.

One time, she admitted under her breath that she wished she could’ve seen the signs of everything Akechi was going through – of all the things he was doing behind her back, manipulating her and the investigation to not get caught, and also get what he wanted from the Phantom Thieves. And this was probably how he still saw her in his mind – like a woman who couldn’t afford to get sentimental, or else she’d risk it all. This cognition was not their friend.

“Good evening,” he said with a nod of the head. “Did Red Phoenix send you?”

“Indeed. I was told to make sure this,” She pointed at the cabinet she was sitting on. “Served its purpose.”

Instead of explaining, she simply stood up and stepped on the side, unveiling what this cabinet actually was – a safe. Sae’s heels rang as she started walking towards them with her arms crossed, until she was standing in front of Akira. “This is Red Phoenix’s last challenge to you, Mister Joker. If you can find the key, you’ll be able to see what’s inside. And all of your questions will be answered.”

His eyes widened, and he unconsciously went back to stare at it – a medium-sized silver safe, and nothing else. No code. No traps. He swallowed. “Why didn’t he tell me? Why did you have to wait for us to find you?”

“He wants you to earn this,” she shrugged. “What’s inside this safe is Red Phoenix’s most well-guarded secret. As you know, people have been watching you as you climbed this building, but they can’t see you right now. These rooms – these floors – are private. And if you open this safe, you will be the first and only person to learn what Sir Red Phoenix has been keeping secret this entire time.

“This is the proof that he’s ready to bare it all to you, if you so wish it. This will tell him how far you are willing to go to know him like no one has ever known him before. This,” She took a step back to point her index finger at the safe. “Is his faith in you, Mister Joker. And what you decide to do with it? It is now up to you.”

This actually made Akira feel light-headed, breathless. Sae had clearly said what she had to say, though, so she walked around them and in the direction of the exit without another word. He came back to himself with a start and asked with a desperation that didn’t fit his usual Joker attitude : “That’s it? How do we open it? Is it related to the tapes?”

But she didn’t answer. She had already left them, with more questions than ever.

When he finally turned back, he saw everyone gathered around the safe, looking around the door for some kind of clue. “There’s no keypad or any kind of keyhole. Just what looks like another cassette player,” Yuu commented. “One of the tapes is probably the key.”

“That’s great news, right?” Yosuke said. “We don’t need to watch all the episodes now, we can just try them one by one until one of them works.”

“That sounds too easy,” Naoto said once she was done checking for any other hidden mechanism – which there were obviously none. “There might be a trap or some kind of punishment if we try to force it open. But…” She turned her head towards Akira, silently asking for his opinion. “We might as well try?”

Akira’s throat tightened, and he nodded, his heart slamming against his rib cage at the thought of finally getting answers, of being given access to Akechi’s heart so directly, like a dare. He wanted, deep down, to see all the episodes. He wanted to know what had happened exactly, but this would go much, much faster. They only needed to watch the last episode – the conclusion. And who would he be to refuse an opportunity like that, especially when he was given direct permission?

He took the first tape they found and slid it inside the tape player, listening to the soft whir of the machine. Then it stopped, and the tape was sent back out, while an “error” message started flashing above it. They all waited in bated breath for anything to happen.

A melodic trill started ringing as soon as the “error” message stopped flashing, and they all had to jump backwards when a Shadow suddenly appeared over the safe. The guard was holding a long trumpet with decorative wings, and when he brought it against his mouth, something burst from inside him to reveal the true Shadow guarding the safe – a skeleton with large wings, hanging upside down with its white cloak flowing upwards, like the being was not subjected to gravity. It laughed in a deep, almost warm manner, and lowered the trumpet like it was saluting them.

“Little Lambs that climbed all the way here, you have done well until now. I have been patiently waiting for you.”

It raised a bony hand that came to rest on its chest, its dark hollow eye sockets fixed on Akira and making him shudder.

“I am the Trumpeter…” it announced reverently. “It is I who will announce the end of time. And I have been called here to see if you are worthy – worthy of standing at the very end of the staircase that will lead you to Verity.”

It brought the Trumpet to its mouth, the jaw slightly lowering, but its voice still inexplicably coming out, clear, booming even.

“I shall sound my trumpet when eight breaths have been spent. It is then that the weak shall receive salvation… or death.”

Akira’s sweat immediately turned cold, and he ripped his mask off with a cry, calling for Yoshitsune. The Persona went to slash at the Trumpeter, which evaded the blow, knocking Teddie out of the way to fly over their head until it came to rest above them on a higher shelf. Yosuke managed to land a Garudyne, while Naoto fired her gun in the direction of the Angel – but it looked completely unfazed.

Then, it blew in the trumpet, a little melody. A light glow started shining around Teddie, who was whining on the ground, and immediately stopped, then jumped back on its feet with his eyes wide open.

“What did it do to you?” Yosuke asked, panic making his voice go higher.

“I don’t know, but it feels good!” Teddie cheered. “Here I thought I was gonna get a nasty bump on my head, and it’s all gone!”

Akira turned around to look at the Trumpeter again. It still hadn’t moved, floating and keeping its dead stare on their group, waiting for their next strike. He tried to think of what this could mean, what pattern this Shadow could have.

Then, after a few more seconds, the Trumpeter brought its instrument to its mouth again. And it hit him. Salvation, or death.

He didn’t have time to tell Teddie to run away that the melody resonated again, and this time, the bear was enveloped in a dark aura, and immediately fell face down on the ground. Akira’s voice escaped him in a shout : “It’s got a countdown! We need to defeat it, and fast!”

“The trumpet!” Morgana exclaimed. “We need to get rid of the trumpet, or we won’t get out of here alive!”

They all scrambled in the direction of the Trumpeter, climbing the shelves, making books and files fall to the ground in a big mess to try and catch the Angel that immediately started flying away from their grasp. It wasn’t as easy for it now that all their team was on its tail, but it was quick and as slippery as a snake, so they had still barely landed a hit on him.

Next to him, Akira saw Yuu stagger in place when the Trumpeter brought its instrument to its mouth again. His eyes immediately fell on Yosuke who was definitely struggling to follow everyone, still not as in shape as he’d been when he was a teen who had P.E. classes every day. He started glowing, being healed and getting all of his strength back –  but this also meant he was the next target.

Yuu leaped over two shelves and landed on the back of the Trumpeter, his katana sinking in its left wing. Finally, the skeleton let out a cry of pain, but the other wing started flapping as well to shake him off. Luckily, Yuu had a good grip on the handle of his weapon and while he was getting jostled around, he reached for the trumpet and pulled as hard as he could

But the Shadow was strong. The Trumpet was part of its being – it couldn’t be removed by hand. The instrument was pulled against the teeth, mouth slightly opening, and the trill resonated again, taking Yuu with it and making him go limp and slide off of the back of the creature. Yosuke got there in time to catch him before he broke his neck on the ground, but he hurt his wrist in the process – Yuu wasn’t exactly light.

A laugh resonated, Trumpeter staring at Yosuke who was still catching his breath, trying to hide his wince as he held his hand against his stomach. “What a fool. He rushed in by force in order to sacrifice himself for his Brother in arms. However, this is not the last breath I shall take, human. He only delayed what is but inelucta-.”

A loud bang resonated in the room, and the wail of pain that followed all made them stop breathing. Trumpeter suddenly slumped forward, bony fingers coming to cup what had been his mouth – teeth and jaw bone had been blown to pieces. Naoto had been waiting patiently for an opening, and when she understood getting rid of the trumpet would be near impossible, she decided that keeping the Shadow from blowing into its instrument would also do the trick.

This time, when Akira sent in Yoshitsune, Trumpeter didn’t move away. He only jerked its head in shock, and then after having been neatly cut in two, right in the middle, he began dissipating in the usual dust defeated Shadows turned into.

They managed to regroup and assess their status – Morgana knew the Diarahan spell, so it didn’t take long for Yuu and Teddie to open their eyes again, but they were definitely groggy and exhausted. Yuu tried to get up, pretending that he could just shake it off and get going, but Yosuke forced him to stay down with a push on his shoulder with his non-injured hand. No way in hell could they fight Red Phoenix like this – they needed rest.

It didn’t take long for them to decide that they might as well take advantage of the empty fourth floor and rest there, getting their forces back while the other three could finish checking the tapes. In any case, they weren’t going to try and open the safe if they weren’t 100% sure. They couldn’t afford to go through this kind of fight again.

So Akira and Morgana went to sit down in front of the TV, both physically and mentally exhausted. They weren’t used to spending so much time in a Palace, and this was getting on their nerves. They had no time left to lose – they needed to find what had happened to Black Phoenix. If they figured it out before they got to Akechi’s secret, good. If they didn’t, that would be fine too. What mattered the most was Akechi, the real one, still waiting for them to arrive, stuck on the roof with the most insane part of his brain.

So Akira took the next tape, loaded it in the machine, and settled himself for another few hours of Red Phoenix’s TV show.

This might be exhaustion, this might be stress finally leaving him, a weight lifted off of his shoulders after so long. But when the cloud of smoke starts dissipating, and he sees the two men in front of him – one on its side, clearly unconscious, while the other is standing a few meters away from the battlefield, looking absolutely ragged for worse – he knows this is over. His quest for revenge, for Justice, for himself – it is done. At long last, he caught The Prime Minister red-handed. Well, actually, Black did. Red only landed the final blow. And it’s all that matters.

In another world, he would’ve gone directly to the man who had ruined his life to make sure he is truly incapacitated, tying him up while waiting for the authorities to take him away and finally bring closure to this chapter of his life. But he doesn’t. Because in this world, he sees Black Phoenix walking in his direction, and through his pants of exhaustion – he did have to survive an explosion, hidden behind what remained of a wall, to survive the Prime Minister’s last attack – he chuckles softly. Red is probably going to be scolded, told that he was acting recklessly, as he always does. Black never likes it when he jumps directly into danger – as if he’s in the right place to say that himself. He straightens up and prepares himself for the nagging.

The nagging never comes. Instead, Black Phoenix punches him as hard as he can, right in the jaw. Red falls on his ass, having lost his balance and feeling dizzy because of the pain, and after a moment of pure bewilderment, he yells : “What’s wrong with you?!”

Black Phoenix doesn’t even look like he wants to scream back. He’s clearly too angry for that. His hands shake when he folds them into fists. “You shouldn’t be here,” he only whispers, ire making his voice so low he’s not even sure the other can hear him. But Red does – because of course he does. He gets up and walks right until he’s in Black Phoenix’s face.

“Says who?”

“Says me.”

Red Phoenix is absolutely floored. Offended, even. Is that really what it comes down to? Some bullshit rivalry? He pushes Black Phoenix away with a hand against his sternum, and answers : “I save your ass, one time, and this is how you repay me? Are you serious?”

“You didn’t need to intervene. This was my fight.”

Red is absolutely incredulous. Yes, Black was already fighting the Prime Minister when he arrived, ready to give a hand and help him this time, instead of the other way around. And this is not like he was fighting just anyone – Red has been on the man’s tracks since forever, he deserved to be there to put an end to his terrible deeds.

“Are you mad that I stole the finishing blow?” he replies dryly, bewildered with this turn of events. This should be a joyous moment. They just won. This is not about their rivalry anymore. “You should know by now that I don’t give a damn about those things, I did it to help you–”

Black Phoenix’s patience visibly snaps. He grabs the other by the front of his battle suit, and roars : “I spent years chasing after this man too! Don’t you dare belittle all that I’ve gone through! This is not me being petty.” He grits his teeth, trying to regain control over his hands, over his body, and he groans : “You weren’t supposed to get involved.”

Red Phoenix relaxes a bit, the hand he brought to rip Black’s off of him slackening and just holding onto his wrist. He’s never seen Black like this. And now that he’s thinking about it, it’s true that Black often got involved when it came to The Prime Minister, but up until now, Red naively just thought it was because of him. Not that they were actually after the same target.

“I just saw that you were in trouble and I came to help,” he says with a low tone, still accusing, but softer, because he might’ve fucked up, and he needs to clean his mess. Still, he can’t help trying to justify himself. “This is what I do. I’m a hero, I always get involved in what doesn’t concern me. It’s my job.”

“Exactly. And as a hero, it’s just courtesy, when you see another hero in the middle of battle – to let him handle it alone.”

This hits him hard. Black is right. Coming in the middle of someone else’s fight, someone who is supposed to be his equal, does sound like he doesn’t think he’s able to handle it himself. He really lost all his head earlier, too impatient at the idea of finally being able to put an end to his enemy’s actions. If this was anyone else, he’d have let them handle it. But that wasn’t the only reason, and he knew it.

He also didn’t want Black to get hurt. Not on his watch.

“But… You’re not…”

Black Phoenix goes rigid against him, and he immediately closes his mouth before he makes things worse. He probably shouldn’t say it. It’s not the right time.

“But in your eyes, I’m not a hero, right?” Black finishes himself, voice clipped, bitter. “What is it? I’m just another guy you needed to save? A citizen in a suit, pretending to be more than what he truly is? Do I not fit the requirements to be Red Phoenix’s equal?”

Red really messed up, because this is clearly a misunderstanding. He never meant that, and he snaps, trying to justify himself : “I didn’t say that, I meant–”

But Black Phoenix clearly doesn’t want to hear him say anything more. He releases his hold on the other man, and steps back. Far away, they can hear sirens, because citizens probably called the police after the explosion in which Red Phoenix defeated their common enemy – still lying on the ground, silent. Black goes over and checks the man’s vitals, and he says with a cold voice that he rarely hear him use : “I’ll take it from here. Just go back to your teammates. I’ll make sure to not cross your path ever again.”

Red immediately bristles, annoyance taking over, although there’s a hint of desperation in his voice : “Do not put words in my mouth–”

“I don’t care. I…” Black doesn’t finish this sentence. He just sighs. “I don’t want to see you right now. Please leave me alone.”

When he’s finally done tying up his target, and he looks over his shoulder, Red Phoenix is gone.

The archive room was very silent. Naoto had finally allowed herself to doze off once she’d made sure all the tapes that could be episodes had been found. She could’ve gone downstairs with the boys, but she didn’t want to leave Akira alone in case something else happened, so she was just resting her head on her arms, sitting at a table that was covered in books and files and anything else they could find that looked even a little bit linked to their investigation. She was probably asleep, actually, from the slow rise of her shoulders as she breathed.

Morgana couldn’t stay awake the whole way either. His eyelids had started dropping around the thirtieth episode, and now, his head was down – lost to Morpheus’ arms. Akira was completely alone in front of the TV, eyes stuck on the screen, the pause symbol flashing at the top left, because he needed to really make sure he was reading this right.

He had made it to the end of the show. Almost. The episode he just watched felt like some climax – Red Phoenix had defeated a villain that looked exactly like Shido and that he’d been chasing for a few episodes now, which had led him to have an argument with Black Phoenix, and after reuniting with his team and celebrating their victory, there had been one last shot of the camera over one empty chair.

And then, no ending song. Just a preview screen, the one he was currently stuck on, that said :

HAPPY

OR

TRUE ENDING?

He felt like he’d been stuck by lightening. That was it. This was the tape that would open the safe. And yet, he couldn’t move.

What should he do? Wake everyone up, so they could all watch it together? At least shake Mona awake, and ask him to watch it with him? Or… should he watch it alone? He swallowed. Of course, he had to watch the true ending with everyone, that made sense, they could all finally go upstairs and save Akechi once they were done. But the happy ending, on the other hand…

Akira let out a shaky breath, and made sure Morgana was asleep before he stood up from his chair. He walked by Naoto as slowly as he could, his heartbeat echoing in his ears as he made his way towards the safe, still sitting there innocently.

He pushed the tape inside until a satisfying click resonated, and waited for the machine to analyze it. He was acting rashly – what if this was a mistake and a Trumpeter appeared again? But it didn’t. Instead, with a soft clicking sound, the safe opened up, and Akira pushed the small door to reveal what was inside.

As expected, there was nothing except for two tapes, sitting in their cases, waiting to be loaded. One with the name “Happy ending.” One with the name “True ending.” He took both, holding each in one hand, his throat so tight he thought he was going to choke. And then he silently rushed back towards the TV.

Morgana and Naoto hadn’t moved an inch, and he crossed fingers they would stay that way. He would’ve wanted to be truly alone for this, but no can do. He felt silly for hiding this from them – but he felt too uncomfortable at the idea of anyone seeing him do this. This was private. And if he was going to break Akechi’s privacy, he should at least do it alone.

He was thankful for the glove covering his hand when he pushed the "Happy Ending" tape inside the player – his hands were so sweaty he might’ve dropped it and woken up all the sleepers that were just a few meters away from him – and brought his chair closer to the screen. He took the remote, lowered the volume until he could hear it just fine, but quiet enough so that it wouldn’t disturb his friends – and then he pushed play.

The roof is silent except from the sound of the wind. Red Phoenix watches over the city – the one he swore to protect whatever would happen, whatever he had to sacrifice. He often comes here when he needs to think – to focus. He should be happy to be successful once again. The Prime Minister was a villain he’d been chasing for far too long, almost all his life, it felt. This man he hated like he rarely hated anyone – and he’s finally managed to put an end to his actions. He has won.

And yet, he feels like he lost something, when he saw Black Phoenix’s anger. When he didn’t manage to answer to his accusations and left, too prideful to admit that he could’ve done things better.

More than anything, he wants to settle things with Black Phoenix. He wants to sit down with him, and truly talk about things he’s had to keep inside for so long because he just didn’t know how to get them out. He wants to tell him that he regrets the way they separated the last time. That he doesn’t want to chase after him all the time anymore. He wants him by his side, this is not a lie.

And yet.

And yet…

Something’s still not right. Something’s still missing. Something’s still unresolved.

Red Phoenix prides himself in his ability to sneak around, but Black Phoenix probably surpasses him in that department. He actually startles when he turns around, ready to go downstairs, and he sees the familiar dark silhouette sitting on the edge of the roof. Black Phoenix raises his head, glances at Red, and says : “Hi.”

It takes him a few seconds to gather his bearings, between the small heart attack he just had, and the restlessness coursing through him now that they’re face to face once again. And this time, there are no villains around them. No teammates that could interrupt. They’re alone. And they have time to talk.

Red Phoenix can’t help it – he puts a hand on his hip and answers in a fake haughty tone : “Well, here you are, Black Phoenix. I thought you wanted to be left alone?”

“The other day, sure, I did. And I have. Now I’m here.”

Red feels his brows twitching in irritation, but he breathes out and remembers that he actually needs to apologize – that Black was right to be mad at him, especially after he put his foot in his mouth when Black needed sincerity.

“That’s good. I was planning to go look for you, but I guess that won’t be necessary.”

“Oh really, you wanted to see me?” the other chuckles, his voice devoid of the iciness from last time. “To say what?”

Red Phoenix cannot believe how nervous this is actually making him feel. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. With everyone else, his charm carries every conversation. He’s suave, he’s playful, and people love him from the moment they meet him. But Black Phoenix is different – he knows this is all an act, and he sees right through it. Just like right now, he knows Red Phoenix wasn’t just going to “look for him”. He was going to roam the entire earth if necessary, because he couldn’t sleep knowing he’d hurt the other.

Red Phoenix is a weak man, with a weak heart. And Black Phoenix knows that. He’s known, from the very beginning.

He slowly walks up to the edge and sits down next to Black, one leg against his torso while the other dangles into the void. The setting sun is blood-orange at this hour, and it shouldn’t take long before it starts dipping over the sea of buildings that are covering the horizon. He breathes in, trying to assemble all the words that have been floating in his mind for the last few days, everything he’s wanted to say but couldn’t on the moment.

“I messed up last time”, he says slowly. “I didn’t mean to. I genuinely wanted to help you – especially when I realized who exactly you were fighting against. It was insensitive of me. And I deeply apologize.”

Black Phoenix doesn’t show anything through his body language, but he’s staring at Red intently, like he’s waiting for him to continue. When he doesn’t, he says : “Do you think that’s why I’m here? Because I wanted an apology?”

“From your tone, probably not. But I wanted to say it anyway.”

Black sighs and finally looks away, head turned towards the emptiness below them. “You shouldn’t. My feelings got the best of me too, the other day. I didn’t know you’d been chasing him for almost as long as I was. You didn’t actually do anything wrong.”

“It’s fine. I need to be pulled down a peg sometimes. That was a good reminder that not everyone wishes to be saved by someone hidden behind a mask and some spandex suit.”

This earns him a little laugh, and he can’t help but feel his chest get warmer. This feels good, to talk like this with Black Phoenix again. Like they’re just friends hanging out after work over a beer, going back over what happened to them during the day and apologizing for a clash they had in the middle of a meeting. This feels… comfortable. Which is probably the reason why he feels brave enough to say : “You were wrong about one thing, however. I didn’t come to help you because I don’t think of you as an equal. I’ve never thought so.”

“Oh? So what were you going to say?”

He swallows, willing his heart to stop beating so loudly – this isn’t the time. But when he manages to open his mouth, the words come out of him without thinking : “I was going to say that you are not just a hero to me, Black. You’re more than that. And that’s precisely why I couldn’t stop myself. You mean too much for me to just stand back and watch.”

Black keeps his head down, listening. He’s not started mocking him yet, which is good, in a sense. This encourages him to finally say what he’s wanted to for so long : “Hey, Black. You should join my team.”

He surveys the other’s body language, looking for anything that would cue him as to how the other is reacting to the question. When he gets nothing, he keeps going : “The other day, you told me to wait, to ask when the time was right. Doesn’t it feel like it?”

“I don’t know,” Black Phoenix finally answers with a flat voice. “Is it? Do you really need me? Do you think your teammates will accept me? Do you even want this so much? Do you think that this is what I want?”

Red Phoenix swallows hard. And he wants to nod. He wants to say that yes, he thinks that Black Phoenix would love to join him. Yes, Red Phoenix has secretly wanted this since the very first words they exchanged. Yes, of course the others will accept him – if anything, they’re getting tired of Red going on and on about him. And yes. He needs Black. He needs him by his side, where he can always watch over him. And likewise.

But Black Phoenix shakes his head and gets on his feet. Red quickly follows, scared that he’s about to run off once again, that he messed up once more. But Black doesn’t run away. He faces Red, hands in his pockets.

“Well, you’re wrong. I don’t want to join your team. I never did.”

“So, what do you want?” Red answers quickly, the words leaving him in a breath, panic making his voice raspy. “What’s wrong with working together? I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t,” he answers with a dry laugh in his voice. “You’re always convinced that you know everything that’s going on, better than anyone else. You think everyone will end up listening to you, eventually. You think that your beliefs are righteous, and anyone that goes against them is fundamentally wrong. Basically, you’re unbelievably annoying.”

Red loses his words once again, torn between the part of him that immediately feels offended, and the other that knows he’s right, and cowers in shame. “So that’s why you won’t join me? Because you despise me so much?”

He can hear his voice almost break, and he hates it. But this comes from deep inside him – there was no universe in which he managed to just stay silent after hearing this from Black Phoenix. And when he chuckles, Red Phoenix can feel his heart cracking just a little bit more.

“That’s precisely the thing. I don’t. I don’t despise you. And it’s another thing I can’t handle about you. You’re so damn clueless, sometimes.”

“Then explain, god dammit!” Red cannot help but blurt, taking a step in the direction of the other hero. “Maybe you’re right, maybe I am clueless! But that doesn’t justify you not telling me anything! You’re not so good either, Black. Ever since we’ve met, you’ve never given me any straight answer. You’re always being vague, you’re always running away. You could’ve told me you were after the Prime Minister. And yet you didn’t.”

Black just stares at him, for one, two, three long seconds. And then he says without a single beat of hesitation : “But I did tell you. I already told you what I wanted. You just never listen.”

“Huh?”

Black Phoenix actually looks exasperated this time. His head falls in his hand like he’s nursing a headache, and he groans. “See? Just what I was saying. Clueless.”

“Wait, I don’t understand… When? What do you mean?”

“I told you…” Then, as if his patience has finally snapped, Black grabs his own mask and rips it off his face. And he follows, voice dangerously low, as his red eyes shine defiantly : “To call me by my name. Not Black. My real name.”

Red Phoenix doesn’t have time to react – not to the words of his ally, not to the blinding sight of his chestnut hair, his soft locks stuck against his temple, not to the slight blush that is darkening his face. Black Phoenix – no, Goro catches Red Phoenix's mask and slides it up over his nose, so his lips can find Akira's.

From an outsider’s perspective, the setting sun is so bright it’s not possible to see anything but their silhouettes – intertwined, united. When Goro’s hand reaches up to grab the dark curly hair that peek from under the red mask, right at the base of his neck, Red melts into the embrace and returns the kiss. Yes, he was clueless, and he doesn’t mind admitting that right now. Especially when he’s so glad to have been wrong. They kiss – untold words, promises and apologies shared in the brush of their lips, the warmth of their breath, the beating of their hearts.

They are Red and Black Phoenix. They are Akira and Goro. They are not teammates. But they are partners.

“Wait, what the fuck?”

Akira startled, eyes finally leaving the screen as he turned around and saw Yosuke’s open-mouthed shock. He hadn’t even heard him come back to this floor, that’s how focused on the episode he’d been. He stammered on his words, looking at Akira, then at the screen, the couple still making out in the sunset like some kind of terrible romance flick, and then at Akira again.

“...what the fuck?” he said again, more quietly, for good measure, like this was all he was able to say anymore.

And Akira definitely felt the same. He had absolutely no clue what was going on, either. Too many things at once, that’s for sure – he almost felt like he was having a stroke.

Red Phoenix, in that show, wasn’t Akechi. Akira’s cognition was Red Phoenix. And Akechi’s Shadow was Black Phoenix. The one they’d been looking for this entire time. The more he thought about it, and the more he could start to piece things together. The Thieves’ cognitions kept saying that Red Phoenix had changed. That something happened, and they didn’t know exactly what.

The answer was under his nose the entire time – in this universe, their fates hadn't been inverted. Black Phoenix had taken the place of the true Red Phoenix. He started wearing his mask, and rejected the other’s teammates. He started working alone. He forbade them from using first names. For god’s sake, Red Phoenix had a big A on his chest. Why didn’t he think about this earlier? Everyone was using first names, so it’s should’ve been a G. Not an A.

This Palace was built on a lie, was another thing he was slowly understanding. Its ruler was a fake hero, under someone else’s identity, who only climbed down his ivory tower to slay villains or torture his own self, or when he’d met Joker – the man who the true Red Phoenix was based on. Who he wanted to stay with him in the hideout, in exchange for Akechi’s life. Because even if Red Phoenix, the cognition, was gone for whatever reason, the real Akira still existed. The one that would put this whole universe right back to the way it used to be. The partner Black Phoenix had longed for so much.

The picture of the two, the couple, flashed in front of his eyes again, and he had to push his mask away, hiding behind his hand, while Yosuke was waking Naoto up. This… was definitely unexpected, too.

He’d resigned himself to never see those feelings reciprocated – being because the other was Akechi or also just because he thought him dead – so this was surreal. Deep down, he still couldn’t really believe it. He didn’t know how to process it, how to take in the tenderness he could still see on the screen, the way Black Phoenix’s arm went and pulled at Red Phoenix’s waist, coaxing him to open his mouth and…

He could feel his cheeks burn, and he felt extremely silly – but the most embarrassing thing was that he was smiling, his chest lighter than it had ever been. He was grinning like a child on Christmas. This had to be real, not just some hopeful thinking. This was Akechi’s heart – distorted, sure, but still. He’d found this on a tape named “Happy Ending”, in a safe hidden in the archive room of his Palace.

He was certain Akechi would hate that this had to be revealed this way, but Akira was glad he did. Knowing the detective, and considering how he’d acted with Akira all this time, he would’ve probably never told him. And now, he wanted to get him out of here even more than before – if that was even possible – and tease the shit out of him. He wanted to hear it, from his mouth and not a TV screen. He wanted to touch his hair and see if it was as soft as it looked. He wanted to kiss him until his lips were cherry red. He wanted to bury his head against his throat and suck it until he could feel the vibration of Akechi’s moans. Feel his gloved hands against his skin. The muscles of his thighs bracketing his waist. His tongue turning his legs to jelly, when he didn’t use it to call Akira a moron. He wanted so, so, so much.

Sadly, his glee (and mind slowly veering into unholy territory) was rudely interrupted when all the others started gathering around him. He cleared his throat and rewound the tape until it was only showing Akechi after he’d removed his Black Phoenix’s mask – and yes, he knew this was meaningless, everyone had already seen what happened right after that, but this part of the video was his and only his.

“So… We’ve found who Black Phoenix is,” he said in a voice that was surprisingly stable.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yuu staring at him, because he clearly wanted to say something, and yet he couldn’t. Which didn’t matter, because his other half did it for him : “Yeah, and he was making out with Red Phoenix. Don’t try to gloss over that fact.”

“Wait, what?” Teddie said, clearly the only one who had yet to catch up on what was happening. “Was Akechi kissing himself?”

“No, Teddie,” Naoto replied with a sigh. “The one in the black suit was Akechi all along, at least in the videos. And the Red Phoenix we've met up until now was definitely Akechi's Shadow as well, there's no doubt about it. But the one in red, in the videos, was… someone else.”

He silently thanked her for not bringing that up – this didn’t exactly matter right now. Akira took this opportunity to add : “This is not the last cassette tape, by the way. There’s another one.” He raised the True Ending one. “And I’m willing to bet this will tell us why, exactly, Akechi’s Shadow has been lying and pretending to be Red Phoenix this entire time.”

There was not much time left – six or so hours. Still, they decided they should all watch the last tape – just to be sure. His elation started to slowly recede when he realized this tape’s beginning was the same as the last one. Red and Black Phoenix on the roof. Talking about apologies. About teams. About meaning more. About names.

But before Akechi’s Shadow, unmasked, could reach for the one in front of him, everything shattered.

No one exchanged a single word as the video kept going. There was no music anymore. No fancy camera shots. Just the cold, harsh truth, preserved like a found-footage movie. A cruel rendition of the truth – of the moment Akechi’s heart got distorted.

They didn’t even need to talk when they finished watching. They all immediately caught their weapons and started running for the last elevator.

Those struggles will finally fade away,
I might be hurt, I might be down,
But I’ll always stand up, undefeated.
Because I’m a Phoenix Ranger Featherman

To be continued…

Chapter Text

Goro didn’t know how much time had passed. He didn’t know what was happening. Why there were no more videos of Kurusu and his crew climbing up to save him. Why his Shadow didn’t even seem mad about it. Was it over? Were they killed? Did they give up? Was the end finally coming – for him, for everyone else?

At one point, he’d gotten so restless he’d tried to remove his ties – and he’d succeeded. However, there was no way he could be this deep into a Palace on such high alert and get away so easily. He didn’t even make ten meters before someone on the TV crew realized he’d run away, and a security guard caught him. He tried to shake him off, but he was just a human with no Persona – his Shadow standing in front of him, disdain written in his posture as he told his guard to make him more obedient.

He was feeling quite woozy, which meant the drug was starting to wear off after keeping him lost to the world for a few hours. As he blinked, things started to come back into focus, and he almost felt sick. God, he didn’t want to throw up. Even if his hands were free – because clearly, they didn’t even need to tie him up in such a state – he felt like if he were to vomit, he’d probably do it all over his lap. Gross.

But he had this nagging feeling inside of him. That something was right under his nose. That he must’ve looked over something. And weirdly enough, coming out of his drugged state and looking around him, on this roof, brought some weird feeling of déjà vu. When was the last time he’d been drugged up? There was the one a few days ago, but this feeling was older than that. Way older. A few weeks, months, maybe. Of him, getting caught between two strong grips, forced to swallow some pills, and then…

Then nothing. Walking around forever, in darkness. Losing sense of where he was and what he was here for. Kurusu’s wide eyes when he raised his pistol. A scream, a plea, in his head. And then…

Black Phoenix came to a stop in front of him when he saw that Goro was getting his bearings back. He chuckled : “Good, you’re back with us right on time. They’re coming.”

He couldn’t help the sneer that he threw at his Shadow. His head was still turning, but he didn’t need to feel grounded to express how utterly disgusted this version of himself made him feel. “Oh? Ready to finally get your ass kicked and disappear for good?”

“Do you really think of yourself so badly you don’t even believe for one second that I could win?”

“We are nothing alike. So no. I don’t.”

Black Phoenix scoffed. “You have a point. I’m always honest with what I want, while you keep spouting such nonsense. How many Palaces have you been to? How many Shadows have you killed? You should know how this all works by now.”

“Well, even if you do think we’re the same guys, then I have bad news for you – Kurusu beat me every time we fought. And I don’t think this is going to change.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying, though,” his Shadow replied with a shake of the head. “You’ve always tried to fight him out of pure pettiness. First, because you wanted to prove that you were better than him. Then, because you thought every problem you had could be solved if you got rid of him. But I don’t want to fight him for those reasons.”

Goro couldn’t help but laugh, his self-preservation still kinda hindered by the drugs. Thankfully, Black Phoenix was more interested in his own little speech than in Goro’s grimaces.

“I’m fighting for us. You’ve kept trying to find a way out in your relationship with him – telling him off again, and again – and I am not a coward like you.”

“Sure,” he replied, his voice flat, bored. “He’ll just jump into your arms because you winked at him.”

“You never even tried,” he kept going, like the anger in him kept rising, and he couldn’t hear Goro anymore. “You never tried to see how it could be. He told you he’d join you once, do you remember? You waved it off like it was a joke. He told you he’d hold onto your glove. And you called him an idiot. He even asked you to stay alive, because your life wasn’t trivial to him. And you said it didn’t concern him.”

Goro’s hands started clenching as the Shadow talked – memories all coming back to him with every word. Yes. He had done all that. Because he knew there was nothing waiting for him in the end. He wasn’t meant to survive. Once he’d kill Shido, he would have nothing – and that was fine. Because he’d accepted it.

But he couldn’t help getting up from his chair, slowly walking towards his Shadow while trying not to stumble because his balance was still hindered by the substance flowing in his veins. He squinted, his vision now almost cleared up, and glared at his other self. “Yeah. And I’d do it again. Any day. My life doesn’t revolve around him. The story doesn’t end if we get together, like in your dumb little TV show.”

Black Phoenix watched him back, not impressed. And he answered with a deep, raw voice. “That’s the thing. It didn’t. I didn’t get my happy ending. But I can finally get it now. Tonight.”

Goro frowned, confused. “What the fuck does that even mean? You showed it to me, I saw it with my own two eyes – you two making out in the sunset, on that very roof. What’s the problem? Is the cognition so bad, compared to the real one…?”

He didn’t need to see Black Phoenix’s face behind his mask to feel the silent fury coming out of him. And he even lost his spite halfway through, because this didn’t make much sense and they both knew it, although he probably needed to see this reaction to truly realize how wrong things were. Why would Black Phoenix be so obsessed with Kurusu if he already had him to his disposition, enamored and laying at his feet? He said he was going on a date with him the day before, but why would Kurusu’s cognition let him take his place as leader? Even in his wildest dreams, Goro never yearned to be one. And Black Phoenix wasn’t acting like it either, even when he was wearing the red battle suit – he was always alone.

“What happened with him?” he murmured, more to himself than to the man in front of him.

“You still cannot remember? Do I actually need to show you? Again?”

Blach Phoenix shook his head with an exasperated groan, but then he threw a gesture towards the big screen on the stage. It flickered to a grainy picture, that progressively got sharper, more vivid – and Goro could recognize the scene easily. It was what he was talking about before – Red and Black Phoenix, their “happy ending”.

Then he blinked. Remembered Kurusu’s gory head falling on the table again. The gun in his hand. The quickening rate of his heartbeat. The sunset so bright it was blood-red.

Getting through the fog of days, weeks, months of being suck in limbo, and seeing himself, like he was watching in a mirror. Seeing shock and then fear in his own eyes. Seeing them, begging him silently.

Please. Do not take that away from me.

He had been on this roof before, in the haze of being lost in the Metaverse. Someone – probably some of Shido’s men – had found him after their reality had gone back to normal, and they had wanted to shut him up forever, waiting for their leader’s retrial. They sent him in between realities, to wander forever until he lost his mind completely. And that’s where he ended up.

On the screen, it all went so fast, he would’ve missed it if he was actually able to blink right now. The door leading to the fire exit suddenly opened, and Akechi Goro – the real one – appeared, his black mask half opened and his metaverse outfit being nothing but rags. He almost looked vacant when he stumbled closer to the duo, but his eyes sharpened when they fell on the hero in black.

Black Phoenix had chosen to remove his mask that one time, in the hope it would show how sincere his feelings were. And that little slip, this one moment when he thought he could finally let go and be himself with the one he loved, was what destroyed everything. Because Akechi Goro, after months of only seeing Shadows and emptiness, of losing track of time, space – didn’t even think at the time. He saw his reflection, his own self, and he had a gun in his hand. He simply raised his pistol and shot, smiling at the thought that at last, this would be the end.

But Red Phoenix was a reckless idiot with no self-preservation. He tried to shield his partner from the shot, and collapsed on the ground, turning the bright red of his suit into a dark, murky burgundy. Black Phoenix immediately rushed towards him, turning the hero around to try and find the entry wound and apply pressure. But it had been a clean headshot. There was nothing to be done. And even with the short amount of time it took him to figure that out, by the time he raised his head again, the shooter was gone.

Back to the present, Goro slowly turned his head towards his Shadow, cold sweat running down his back. Black Phoenix was standing tall next to the screen – head lowering, shoulders shrinking – but he didn’t send a single glance towards it. All of his contempt, his disgust was found in his posture, as he looked at Goro from above, arms crossed, almost disapprovingly.

“You killed Red Phoenix right in front of me. Without a moment of hesitation. I know you didn’t mean to do it – it was me you were after. But you still pulled the trigger. You didn’t even realize he’d taken the bullet for me. Bang. Right in the middle of the eyes. Is that finally coming back to you, or should I just put the tape on repeat until you fucking remember?”

He felt sick, that was now a certitude. He shook his head, because denying it was the only thing he could do. Those were just bribes of memories, a video that his Shadow could’ve fabricated, it couldn’t truly have happened. This was just a bad dream he’d had once. He was fucked up, but not that much, right?

“You stole everything from me,” Black Phoenix kept going, hand holding onto the fabric of his sleeve so hard it was a miracle it wasn’t torn already. “You killed and rejected it all. What did I have left? Tell me, what was I supposed to do after that? Live with it? Die?” He laughed dryly. “Fuck off. When you disappeared, that’s when I realized the only way I could gather the forces necessary to find you again and drag you back here was to take his place. I didn’t enjoy it, that’s for sure. I fucking hate this lie too, trust me. I didn’t ask for it. But as Red Phoenix, I managed to get your ass back here.”

Black Phoenix took a step forward, right into Goro’s space, and he recoiled automatically. This didn’t stop his Shadow from grabbing him by the hair, still spewing words and venom.

“I’ll finally answer your question. No, I did not bring you here to kill you. You are not running away from this so easily now. This is time for you to pay – and I’ll make you by doing what you’ve always dreamed of. That’s how I get my revenge. By making you as powerless and pitiful as I was, when you barged into my life and made it all go to shit.”

“I shouldn’t be alive anymore, you know I don’t,” Goro wheezed, wincing when the Shadow’s grip on his scalp got stronger. “I’ve killed people. I’ve used them for my own benefit. This is not right.”

Black Phoenix laughed at that, so hard he released him and pushed him away. His legs were so shaky, his side ended up slamming against the cold hard ground. “Oh my god, righteousness, really? As if we ever really cared about that, about “Justice”. It was just something we said to appeal to the public. It was never about justice – it was about winning. Killing our piece of shit father and laugh at him.”

In the background, he heard the elevator doors opening, followed by the sound of running. He vaguely heard his name through the white noise in his ears. Black Phoenix looked in the direction of the newcomers, but he didn’t even greet them.

“We’re selfish little bastards – enough to want to survive all of this and also get what we’ve always wanted. And like I said before, I am not a coward like you. I know what I want, and I always have.” His eyes landed on Kurusu, whose head kept going between Goro and his Shadow, probably trying to judge whether he should step in.

Goro pushed on his arms, feeling so weak, he cursed at his own legs that were still not cooperating – like jello in place of his feet. But his spite made him spit out : “Stay back, Kurusu. This doesn’t fucking concern you.”

“Oh come on, this has everything to do with him,” the Shadow answered for him, looking right at Kurusu, but still talking to Goro. “You called me a liar, but look at you, trying to look all tragic and unbothered by your own death. As if you weren’t overflowing with regrets. As if there weren’t many, many things you wished could’ve happened. As if you didn’t want another chance to make things right.”

He turned his head, a sinking feeling in his stomach as he watched the group of people in front of him. He didn’t know half of them, and he hated that intruders could be given access to such a private part of him. Why was Kurusu not followed by his usual little lackeys? He would’ve honestly preferred to see them instead of complete strangers.

At last, Kurusu seemed to make up his mind and he crossed the roof to get to Goro’s side, no matter the glares he sent his way. He softly asked him if he was alright, hands coming to grasp his shoulders to get a read of his physical condition. The delicateness of his touch made him sick.

“I’m fine,” Goro spat, slapping his hands away. “You shouldn’t be here. How did you even find me?”

“That’s… a long story.”

“...Well, isn’t that just great,” he replied, too angry and shaken up by how quickly things were going to realize Black Phoenix was now openly staring at them. The rest of Kurusu’s group had gotten all around him, as if to shield him from his Shadow, and the sight made him scoff.

“It looks like all the chess pieces have finally been gathered on the board. That’s good. Now I can finally remove this thing,” Black Phoenix said, ripping his mask off of his head, letting his yellow eyes finally glow in all their silent madness. “And we should get started.”

He didn’t even notice Morgana behind him, using a spell that suddenly made him feel like everything around him was much more clear – including his own head. He finally managed to get back on his feet, and this time, when Kurusu’s hand came to rest on his back, he didn’t shake it off – too focused on the Shadow in front of him. “Start what? You’re outnumbered, there is no world in which you can win this. Just stop with your nonsense already.”

“But you’re not the one who made a bet with me,” he answered with a snarky smile, his eyes now falling back unto Joker, shining with something almost obscene. “You’ve made me long for you, Joker. You really took your sweet, sweet time.”

(commission from @sketchy4kechi)

Goro openly groaned when he heard this. “Don’t listen to him. He just wants to push my buttons. He’ll say anything to make me mad.”

“Hmm, but this won’t work,” the bear suddenly said, butting in like he didn’t even realize what was happening. “You need to accept your own Shadow, or else nothing will change. Soon enough, it will start eating you up from inside once again.”

“I don’t care,” he snapped. “I’m not here to accept anything. And if you came to my rescue, then do your job. I’m tired of this.”

“Oh?” the Shadow interjected, his smile still pulling at his lips like he was some kind of creepy doll. “You want to get out, now? I thought you wanted to disappear? Where did this go?”

“I want to get away from you and this ridiculous fucking place–”

“Akechi, calm down,” the girl with the hat – Shirogane Naoto, now that he could look closer, he finally recognized her – said. “The easiest way to get out will be if you accept it. This is your Shadow. And you should know what this means.”

He ripped himself away from Kurusu’s hand. “And why do you care, huh? I don’t know any of you. Why did you even bother coming in here?” And then he turned back to Kurusu, his anger still rising and making him lose control over his words. “And this includes you! Why? I’ve already told you I didn’t want to go back. I’m done. When will you learn how to fucking give up?!”

Kurusu looked frozen in place when he heard this. He probably wasn’t expecting it. But what Goro didn’t see coming, however, was the way he steeled his expression, eyes hardening as he hammered : “I am here because you wanted me to be. Your Shadow did everything he could to bring me to this roof, and he is you, no matter what you say.”

Goro felt like cold had washed over him. No. This wasn’t what he wanted to hear. An incredulous laugh escaped him as he pointed at his Shadow. “Him? Me? How long have we known each other? You can’t possibly think this guy’s actually me, right? This is a distortion. You’ve seen the real me, many times now. You know who I am.”

“I do,” Kurusu answered, his eyes shining behind the mask. “And it’s fine. It’s fine, Akechi.”

“What is?” the Shadow asked, like he was legitimately curious.

Kurusu bit his lip, struggling to keep his focus between the man in front of him, who he was trying to convince, and the Shadow that was still watching them like you’d watch a group of monkeys at the zoo. He replied, while still looking at Goro right in the eyes : “It’s fine to be selfish. It’s fine to want things you do not think you deserve.” He hesitated, but took a step forward, raising his hand like he was going to put it on his shoulder. “It’s fine if you want to live.”

This was the last straw. He stepped backwards, as if Kurusu’s hand was fire, and he was scared of bursting into flames to his contact. He couldn’t do this. Kurusu couldn’t give reason to the insane part of his brain. He shook his head as he started speaking faster, without even thinking. “You’re wrong. He’s lying. To himself, and to you, to get what he wants. He just wants me to suffer, and you’re falling for his trap right now.”

“It’s your Shadow, Akechi. He has no reason to lie.”

“Quiet!” he shouted, at the end of his rope. He was so furious, he didn’t even want to hear anyone’s argument. He was surrounded by insanity, and he wanted out, now. “I know who I am. And this is not it. This…” He pointed at Black Phoenix, who now had his eyebrows lifted, almost like he was waiting for the ball to drop. “This guy…” he repeated, almost choking on his words.

Three people talked at the same time, in the same breath, as the air on the roof was becoming so stuffy it was suffocating.

“Akechi, you know how this works–”

“Akira, make him stop talking, now.”

“I am thou, thou art I.”

And he broke. He closed his eyes briefly, turned towards Black Phoenix, and grit his teeth as he screamed : “Shut up! Shut the fuck up! You’re a liar, and you’re wrong! You’re not me, and you’ll never fucking be!”

He heard a gasp coming from behind him. Then he saw Black Phoenix raising an eyebrow. Joker turning back towards the Shadow while reaching for his gun.

“Oh? Well, that’s interesting. But it also doesn’t matter anymore.” The Shadow shrugged, looking almost uninterested by his furious cries, despite the growing dark blue aura around him. “Because I’ll just win, and get what I want. It’s as simple as that.”

A shockwave all made them stumble backwards, Goro being too taken by surprise to stay on his feet. He could only watch in a mixture of terror and awe as the Shadow’s metamorphosis started.

They couldn’t run anymore. It was time to fight.

La bombe humaine
Final Chapter

Let’s go! As Featherman, all united,
For our beautiful, sparkling planet,
Oh! Yes, yes!
Let's go, ready go, fly away!
Phoenix Ranger Featherman!

Akira had to raise his head as the shape in front of them started stretching upwards. It started from the shoulders, getting way higher than Black Phoenix’s ears as he kept glaring at Akechi. The yellow pupils soon became the only thing they could see through the dark fog, as the lights started getting dimmer and the silhouette grew larger. In a spasm, the Shadow’s arms uncrossed and the glint of claws appeared on his fingers, growing just like the appendixes on his back.

When it reached around two and a half meters, the Shadow dropped on all fours, his claws leaving trails on the concrete. The creature hissed, steam coming out of his mouth – or maybe it was a beak, it was hard to know, because it did have sharp teeth as well as a huge protuberance that curved downwards. Suddenly, its head cracked back, and it howled, like an injured beast, and the shockwave that followed forced all of them to close their eyes, as the wind started getting stronger on the rooftop.

When he opened his eyes again, the Shadow was back on his two legs, although they had stretched considerably and looked almost feline, despite its talons. The red battle suit was gone – black had covered his entire body. From the claws on his hands and feet, to the steel beak and the velvety feathers covering the wings that had sprouted on his back and came to rest around him like a cloak. The only color they could perceive was that of his eyes – yellow, burning bright from behind his hair and the steel covering his face. Black Phoenix reached behind him, in his wing, and they didn’t need more than a few seconds to recognize the weapon in his hand.

“Run!” Yuu immediately screamed.

But it was too late. Black Phoenix raised his silver bow, pulled on the string, and as soon as he released it, a plasma blast destroyed a pylon’s base. It fell over the elevator’s doors, raising a cloud of smoke and temporarily closing off the only exit available to them. Black Phoenix snickered. “Run where? I’m right here,” he said in a voice that now sounded metallic, sharp and almost crunchy. He twirled his bow and, in a flourish, it changed to a long sword, its silver blade shining defiantly as he raised it towards them. “You guys promised me a fight, and you better not disappoint.”

“There is only one exit,” Mona told the group in a low voice, reverting to his usual role of support. “And we need to have access to it in case things get too dire. Whether it’s because we just need a tactical retreat or to straight up run from here. Akechi is vulnerable if his Shadow starts shooting again.”

“Right,” Yuu nodded. “Some of us can fight him while the others work on our escape route.” He quickly turned around, probably to gauge who could come with him on the frontline, but worry suddenly made him frown. “Akechi? Are you alright? Still with us?”

Akira immediately wrenched his eyes away from the Shadow, and he found Akechi still on the ground, eyes wide and what could only be described as sheer terror on his face.

His Shadow was monstrous, for sure. A beast, seething, with almost nothing humanlike to it except for the fact that it stood on two legs. A weird feline-shaped crow, agile and towering over them, but still talking with a calmed voice. This was what his inner rage and self-hatred looked like – a cold-blooded carnivorous monster.

Teddie suddenly stepped behind him and caught him by the armpits, dragging him to his feet. “I’ll take care of him, sensei! You can rely on my special technique if anything goes wrong.”

The look of indignation on Akechi’s face was enough to ease Akira’s nerves. Teddie wasn’t the best fighter, but he was reliable and tanky. He threw a nod in his direction, a silent thank you, and then followed Yuu as they started running towards Black Phoenix.

Yosuke and Naoto went to take care of the rubble in front of the exit door, while Teddie and Morgana stayed on the back line, watching over Akechi and sending spells to keep their two main fighters going. Which helped a lot, because close-combat against the Shadow was far from an easy task. He was way quicker than the both of them, and his talons were as sharp as steel, clinking against Yuu’s katana while his wings protected him from Akira’s bullets. Every time he tried to land a bless spell against him – because it used to be Loki’s main weakness and sure enough, that was still the case – he used his long legs to jump out of his reach, and then got too close for them to use anything but physical attacks.

He was glad he had Ose with him, because those seemed to work against the Shadow. Black Phoenix was truly like a beast – to beat him, they couldn’t rely on strategy. It would get down to who would have the most stamina, and who could hit the hardest. And truly, even in a 2v1 like this, Yuu and him were barely keeping up. Black Phoenix took the hits, he snarled in pain when Akira managed to land an Atom Smasher, but then he took a Laevatein in return, only staying on his feet thanks to Mona’s support.

At least, the Shadow didn’t look interested in the people who were visibly trying to clear their only way out. His focus was on Akira and Yuu, and he almost seemed to have forgotten his own true self. For a moment, he was relieved. That meant Akechi could at least escape safely, while they took care of Black Phoenix’s fury.

They suddenly heard Yosuke’s cry of joy, and Akira jumped back to look at the exit door as Naoto opened it and beckoned Teddie over, so they could at least keep Akechi out of the Shadow’s reach. The detective looked reluctant, but he did follow them, and Akira felt like that was already a victory in itself, when he saw the door close behind them. Akechi would finally be safe.

But then he heard the snicker coming out of the Shadow, and his glee turned to dust. The door flew open almost immediately, with Yosuke and Naoto quickly shoving their shoulders against it to try and keep whoever was behind it away from them. Akira’s head flew towards Black Phoenix, who looked way too proud of himself. “You naive little creatures. You really thought I wanted to block your way out?” He cackled. “I was buying time so they had enough time to come upstairs.”

Yosuke and Naoto couldn’t hold on any longer. The door flew open, and the crowd behind it poured on the rooftop. Fifty or so people, young men and women, walked out in the open, blocking the access to the door, and behind them the elevator through their sheer number. However, they didn’t get any further than that. They didn’t even look like they were armed or anything. They just stood between the battlefield and the exit door, watching Black Phoenix with something that was teetering between fright and awe.

Those were Red Phoenix’s fans, the people who were gathered in the building to watch him fight, but had visibly decided that watching on a screen wasn’t enough. Who knows how many more were waiting – outside, on the lower floors, at the base of the building. Akira felt his sweat turn cold. At the same time, they saw hands arise from the edge – they didn’t even notice the ropes that had been installed there, and now, cognitions were climbing up there too, crowding over the edges of the rooftop silently, observing. They had no choice anymore. If they didn’t beat Black Phoenix, they wouldn’t be able to escape. They were completely trapped.

They all gathered again at the center, back to square one, but the Shadow didn’t seem like he wanted to let them chat anymore. He started walking in their direction, with slow but long strides, and Yuu took it upon himself to act as a shield between his teammates and Black Phoenix.

“We need to find another way out,” he told them in a low voice. “I’ll keep him distracted, while you guys take cover. You know what to do.”

Akira nodded quietly, his hand sneaking down to catch Akechi’s wrist and pull him away from the fight, so they could duck behind a fake wall that used to mimic a TV studio. Teddie followed them gingerly, while Naoto and Yosuke offered support to their friend. Black Phoenix didn’t look pleased to see Akira run away like that, but Yuu’s katana forced him to shift his focus back on the battle.

Once they had taken cover, Akechi snatched his arm back, looking more sour than ever. “Will you all stop pulling me all around? I’m not a fucking damsel in distress.”

“Stop complaining,” he groaned. “Help me find a good rope.”

“Huh? Are you crazy?” Akechi snarled back at him while looking at the cognitions that kept on climbing up and closing off any exit – even the emptiness beyond the roof. “Also, I’ll shut up if you talk. How did you find me? Why are you here?”

Akira actually stopped in his tracks when he heard this. Akechi didn’t look like he wanted to be difficult – he wanted answers. It wasn’t like they could afford to have a chat right now, but he figured he could at least try to reply, just in case it made Akechi a bit more cooperative. He stepped back, closer to the detective, and his heart lurched a little bit when he realized he had to lower his eyes a little to look at him in the eyes, since he had pretty high heels and Akechi was wearing simple cloth loafers.

He couldn’t help himself – flashes of what he’d seen earlier, on the TV screen, came back to him. Red and Black Phoenix were almost in the exact same spot, when Black Phoenix ripped off his mask, tired of his partner being so oblivious, when he had pushed Red’s mask over his nose so he could…

“I-I saw you appear on my TV,” he quickly said, trying to clear his mind from things that would do nothing but distract him from the most important one – them staying alive. “This is how this cognitive world works. When someone gets stuck in their Palace, they appear on people’s TV around midnight, and Teddie right here,” He nodded towards the bear who was still gently smiling, not a care in the world no matter the sounds of battle echoing from behind the fake wall and the uncomfortable amount of people watching them like hawks. “Is able to navigate the fog, right up to the Palace itself.”

“Yup. Akira was really helpful,” Teddie said with a cheer. “I usually need to know more about the target, the more detailed it is, the easier I can smell them. And Akira’s descriptions of you were very accurate.”

Akira had to look away, almost embarrassed to hear this while Akechi was right in front of him. He cleared his throat, unable to look at him directly – he had a feeling he was better off not seeing what kind of face he was making right now. That’s why he quickly added : “As to why I’m here, that’s a stupid question. I wasn’t going to do nothing about it. Is that good enough?”

“Really? That’s it?”

This time, he couldn’t help but finally look at Akechi, heart up to his throat. What did he mean, “that’s it”? Was he asking whether his intentions were strictly friendly ones? He thanked the gods that his mask was hiding the upper part of his face, because he felt his cheeks heat up under Akechi’s glower. “What… What else could there be?”

“Don’t play dumb, Kurusu. I know your methods.” His look turned into a full-on glare. “What’s my Treasure? Did you even manage to find it?”

That helped in bringing him back to earth – or at least the cognitive version of it. He immediately shook his head. “I’m not here to steal your heart, Akechi. None of us are. We’re here to get you out of here, period.”

“Oh, really?” he said, not looking convinced at all. “But my heart is distorted enough to have materialized into a Palace. That’s not something the Phantom Thieves usually look past.” His mouth twisted into some kind of mirthless smile. “Or do I get a special treatment because we know each other? You truly are the paragon of justice, indeed.”

Akira’s fist shook when he closed it. He really wanted to punch Akechi when he acted like that, but this was still not the right time for it. Deep down, he knew he was better off dropping it and doing what he was supposed to, but he couldn’t help crossing the distance between them, taking advantage of the few centimeters he had over the detective, and snap back : “The Phantom Thieves are not here. But if you want me to act like a thief, I will.”

Back to the fight, Yuu was forced to jump back, sweat running down his temple as he tried to catch his breath. Fighting against Black Phoenix was difficult and physical, and without Akira it was a whole new story. Even Yosuke and Naoto’s help weren’t enough when it came to his relentless attacks, and he’d definitely been grazed near the ribs, although the others had yet to notice since the wound was pretty superficial. But it did hinder his ability to fight, and he needed a break. Black Phoenix, on the other hand, still looked ready to brawl, no matter how ruffled his feathers were. He had been on the receiving end of quite a lot of punches and spells himself, but he was not even near to getting tired.

He anxiously thought about Akira and wondered if everything was alright on their end. There wasn’t a lot of noise nor movement from behind the fake wall – some of the watchers had tried to go take a look, but it didn’t seem like they dared taking an actual step.

“What is it?” the Shadow taunted, switching back to his mechanical bow. “Are you getting tired? Is it finally time for Joker to stop being a coward and get back to our fight? My patience is running out. You said you wanted this, didn’t you?” He fired in the direction of the fake wall, and his voice became even raspier, like a furious whisper. “There’s no escape. Get over here already, Joker! Fight me!”

The wall slowly started falling apart, revealing a wide-eyed Teddie, who clearly wasn’t ready to lose his cover, but also Akira who was on the edge of the building, in the middle of tying up a rope around his and Akechi’s waists, his gun in his hand to keep the crowd from getting too close. He raised his head, caught in the act of trying to escape their fated battle, as a rumbling noise started rising around them.

“Sorry guys!” he screamed at his teammates after throwing a look downwards. “I’ll get back to you as soon as possible!”

A helicopter suddenly appeared from below, slowly rising so it could reach the roof. The door opened, and a bunch of people tumbled out of it – the Thieves’ cognitions had come to their rescue. Yusuke, Makoto, Sumire, Ryuji and Haru were here, while Ann and Futaba were still in the helicopter, watching it all with wide eyes.

“Mister Joker!” Haru shouted, trying to cover the sound of the helicopter. “Please don’t do anything rash!”

But he didn’t listen to her. He caught the rope leading to the grappling hook that was stuck on the edge of the rooftop, tightened his hold on his companion, and jumped off. He drew a wide arc through the air and broke through the downstairs window, back to the archive floor and out of their sight.

Everyone gasped, Yosuke running to the edge to make sure Akira was alright. But it was soon followed by a rush of wind that knocked a few faceless people off the edge, and he thanked the gods that Yuu was right there to keep him from tumbling down to his death. However, that meant no one was there to stop Black Phoenix from spreading his wings and following suit, flying down after Joker, through another window and probably a part of the wall.

Thankfully, the uproar had managed to break the crowd that was still in front of the elevator. They all started scattering around, in panic now that their precious idol was downstairs, and they couldn’t watch him anymore. Naoto was trying to push them off their way, because they couldn’t let Akira fight off Black Phoenix alone – when Teddie put his paw on her shoulder.

“It’s okay, Nao-chan,” he said softly. “The Shadow won’t hurt Akira.”

“But Akechi is down there with him! He’s defenseless!”

“Oh, actually– fucking hell!”

Naoto’s eyes turned comically larger when she heard the swear word coming from Teddie. But then, she saw the zipper on his neck moving, and she almost laughed in disbelief when she saw Akechi, hidden inside Teddie with the look of someone who had definitely not been warned beforehand.

“Wait,” Morgana exclaimed. “But if you’re here, who jumped with Akira?”

“The first bystander that he found with sort of similar looks,” Teddie answered while zipping up his neck again, forcing Akechi to stay hidden, although the others could hear him growl : “Stupidly reckless asshole.” “Me, Akira, and sensei agreed to do this in case things turned too dangerous.”

“So that’s what he meant…” Naoto said while shaking her head, still in awe that Akira managed to fool every single one of them in such a short time. She raised her head towards the exit elevator and sighed. “At least that means he’s safe for now. And we finally have our way out.”

And it should’ve been the end of it, at least for a few of them. Soon enough, Yuu, Morgana and probably Yosuke would be able to get to the lower floor, to help Akira in his fight against Black Phoenix, while Naoto and Teddie escorted Akechi downstairs, out of danger. That meant he wouldn’t face his Shadow, but from what they had heard earlier, it might be too early for that. It was fine, she reasoned. He could deal with his own issues in the real world too.

They went down the elevator, but while they had pressed the button that would lead them to the fifth floor where Akira was supposed to be, Yusuke pushed the third floor button and prevented the doors from opening, while Ryuji, Sumire, and all their friends blocked the door. They didn’t look threatening, but their eyes were shining with something that didn’t look friendly. Ryuji was the one who talked first : “Sorry guys,” he said, and he did look like he meant it, despite the frown on his face. “But we can’t let you go to this floor.”

“Huh?” Yosuke exclaimed, wiping sweat off of his brow while helping his partner that was starting to collapse under the pain of his wound. “We helped you find out the truth about Black Phoenix, though. You guys got what you wanted, and you’re supposed to help us now.”

“Exactly,” Makoto nodded, her arms crossed and looking truly uncomfortable. “We’ve learned the truth, and that’s precisely why we have to stop you before you go any further.”

Futaba looked intimidated when she stepped forward and all the eyes fell on her, but she still managed to say : “We had no idea. We didn’t think Black Phoenix was the one impersonating Red Phoenix this whole time. A-And while he definitely did some bad stuff and wasn’t exactly a good leader, he… was all alone. He was never allowed to grieve.”

“It’s a big shock for us to learn that Red is gone,” Yusuke added. “And I cannot even imagine having to handle this without ever being able to share it, to have someone else shoulder the pain. Black Phoenix had no one except for Red Phoenix. We weren’t enough.”

A shocked silence answered them. They waited a moment, for the ball to drop, for the cognitions to realize what they were saying, while the elevator slowly came to a stop, doors opening behind them, welcomed by the white corridors of the prison floor.

“But now…” Sumire said with an actual smile, her eyes shining with unshed tears while they were all ushered out of the elevator box, Cognitions now standing between them and the elevator. “He finally has found him again. At long last, his suffering can end.”

“Mister Joker said he wanted to help us. To help him,” Haru added while leading the way, opening the door of a larger cell. “This is it. Thanks to him, we will finally be able to go back.” She swallowed, and a relieved smile broke on her face while she turned back towards them. “We’ll be a team again. And this time, we will be here to help. We won’t run away like before.”

But they were exactly that. Akechi’s cognitions. They were here to follow his every wish. And now that they knew exactly who their leader actually was, they were ready to serve him.

Akechi stayed silent inside Teddie – the cognitions didn’t know about their subterfuge yet. But while they did manage to escape from Black Phoenix, they were still clearly not out of the woods yet.

Akira quickly found out how hard it was to run with a hostage, especially one who kept trying to scream and blow your cover. He’d managed to get to the archive room, thankful he’d spent hours rummaging around and thus getting to know all the spots that were the hardest to reach. However, the downside was that if Black Phoenix found him, he was as good as dead, stuck between the shelves with nowhere to run.

He suddenly heard the heavy footsteps of the Shadow, his talons screeching on the wooden floors and his feathers brushing against the rows of books and files. He ducked behind a smaller shelf and plastered his hand over the cognition’s mouth, thankful that this one was too dumb and frail to escape his hold. He counted his heartbeats as he saw the creature roam along the alleys, head darting around to try and find him. At last, he walked past them, but then, the cognition, in a sudden flash of bravery, bit Akira right through his glove and screamed : “He’s right here, sir!”

Akira cursed under his breath and pushed the cognition away, annoyed to have been found this easily. Black Phoenix rushed in their direction, not caring about the shelves that were in his way, pushing them and ruining his methodically crafted library until he caught sight of his rival who was running away, jumping over a table to find another hiding spot.

Black Phoenix roared at this sight, and with a push of his wings, he caught up to the thief and caught the back of his coat. Akira slid his arms out of it, evading the Shadow’s grasp and managing to rip off his mask just in time to summon a Skadi and throw a Confusion spell, briefly blinding him. However, Black Phoenix shook the spell away in a second, and looked at the coat still between his claws, and then at the rows of shelves again. He sneered, visibly amused that Joker was still going on with his little game of hide and seek, and didn’t hesitate to send some more shelves flying.

Akira was forced to jump out of hiding once again, but this time he took advantage of him being behind Black Phoenix to attack his back. The Bless spell made the Shadow straighten up like he’d been shocked, and he fell forward with a pained wail. Akira immediately raised his gun towards the Shadow, but before he could tell him to stop moving or else he’d shoot, Black Phoenix’s arm stretched out and caught his leg, throwing him away like he weighted nothing.

This made Akira choke on air, torn between the pain in his ankle, in his back, and the cold sweat running along his spine when he saw Black Phoenix getting on all fours, wings deployed around him, ready to pounce. He didn’t have time to breathe. He had to roll away once, twice, to evade the beast’s claws as they tore through the floor, splinters of wood flying around them, followed by stripes of paper when Akira used a large folder as a shield, escaping another blow with a backwards somersault he barely managed to land.

At last, Black Phoenix stopped moving, while Akira stumbled to a staggering stop as well – but he was panting hard, his naked shoulders jumping while he tried to swallow and finally get his bearings back. However, it didn’t take long for the Shadow to start walking towards him again, visibly not sharing his exhaustion, still ready to fight.

Akira tried to fight back, getting his dagger out and raising it in front of him, threatening the Shadow with the silver blade, who answered with his own, longer, larger, and mostly, faster. It didn’t take long for Black Phoenix to overwhelm him, sending his weapon flying and this time catching Akira before he could manage to slip away. The Shadow forced his way until he could truly tower over him, making him stumble backwards and ending up face against the wall, claws holding his shoulders.

A shiver ran down his back when he felt the rough feathers grazing his skin, as well as the way the creature curled around him and hissed in his ear, the steel jaw lowering just to make him feel the heat of his breath : “I got you.”

He risked a glance over his shoulder, and shuddered when the yellow eyes started bearing into his. There wasn’t much left that looked like Akechi in this Shadow – except for this. The flame in his eyes – furious and determined, ones of a predator that would not stop until it had caught its prey. Yellow or red, it didn’t matter. This was the look of brutal desperation. Hunger. Yearning. Possessive, just like the way his claws climbed along his shoulders and came to circle his neck.

Akira swallowed deeply, trying to keep his breath steady despite the heat he could feel gathering on his face, at the back of his neck, in his guts. And he nodded. “You got me. Now what?”

“Can’t I have some time to gloat a little?” the Shadow chuckled. “I was told time and time again that I’d never be able to win against you. And yet, here we are.”

“Well, third’s time the charm. And I still have more wins than you.”

“Oh?” he answered, his voice dripping with unveiled satisfaction. “Should we have a rematch, then?”

“S-Sure,” he rasped, his voice breaking on a shudder when one claw came to graze against his throat. “At chess, shogi, with a knife or a gun, whatever you want. As long as it’s in the real world. With the real you.”

That was enough to make Black Phoenix’s mirth vanish from his voice, his hand releasing its grip on Akira’s neck. His metallic jaw creaked near his ear when he started gritting his teeth. “I am real.”

“Partly, yes. You are.” He managed to turn around, raising his head so he could look at Black Phoenix in the eye and hammer this : “You’re his anger. His ruthlessness. His greed. You’re as relentless and stubborn as the one I know. You are Akechi Goro, there’s no denying that.”

He tentatively raised his hand, stopping before he reached the steel face. Instead, he let his thumb brush against a feather, the Shadow’s wings draped around them like a cocoon. “But I’ve never seen your eyes widen and shine when you just drank the coffee I made, like it’s the best one you’ve ever had. I’ve never seen you close your eyes and listen to Jazz Jin’s singer, when you start to smile without even noticing, because you’re truly enjoying the moment. I’ve never seen you lower your head and your voice, almost like you’re surprising yourself by telling me something you never told anyone else.”

Akira swallowed softly, almost breathless as he finished talking. “You’re Akechi. But only one side of the coin. And I’m as greedy as you, I guess,” he added with a little laugh. “Because I want the whole thing. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“You’re wrong,” he replied almost urgently. “I'm better than he. I used to be what you just said, but not anymore. I know what he did, in the real world. I know how he hurt you.”

The wings tightened around them, and Akira realized the Shadow wasn’t forcefully holding him anymore. His arms were wrapped up tenderly around his shoulders, while his face got so close to his he could actually see the yellow pupils under the steel face wear.

“You saw the last episode, right? The other one lied a lot to you, so it must’ve been quite a shock…” He laughed softly, lowering his face almost bashfully. “He said he hated you, but it wasn’t the truth. You made him feel like he was losing control, and that’s what he couldn’t stand.”

Akira’s heart was slamming against his chest when Black Phoenix’s beak came so close to his face, he was almost scared his sharp teeth might sink into his skin. But it started lowering, the mask slowly opening to reveal Akechi’s face underneath, surrounded in steel and eyes still bright yellow, but his cheeks warm, his lips red. “Me, on the other hand, I was ready to tell Red the truth, as you saw. I never ran away.”

He had to evade his gaze, too hot under the collar to be able to pretend this wasn’t doing anything to him. Yet, he softly gasped when he felt the Shadow’s claw under his chin, keeping him from looking away. “Tell me, Akira. What did you think of what you saw? Did my feelings upset you?”

He wanted to deny it, for one second. However, at the moment, with the scene still playing and replaying in his mind, the proximity of the Shadow, of Akechi Goro's face - he slowly shook his head, his heart just about to jump out of his throat. His answer seemed to startle the Shadow, and his talons started digging into his skin. “Really? You didn’t mind? Then…?”

Black Phoenix’s eyelashes fluttered down. He bit his lip and started to lean closer, his eyes still stuck downwards. His lips hesitantly brushed against silken skin, once, twice, and then he pressed further with a sigh.

It was like a spark, in his stomach, behind his eyelids. He gasped, overwhelmed by it all – the wings trapping him, the sharp claws against the fragile skin of his throat, the tongue that started tracing the seam of his mouth, relentlessly looking for its twin. He felt light-headed from the burning heat of the Shadow's breath, the hunger with which he started biting his lips. Like he was about to devour him whole.

Until suddenly, the Shadow felt Akira’s hand at the center of his chest, soft ebony fur and feathers. Not pushing him away, but keeping him from going any further.

“...Oh.”

Black Phoenix released him, at last, and Akira took a shivering breath, while willing his cheeks to stop burning so hard, to not look at Akechi’s shiny, bruised lips. The Shadow let out a mirthless laugh, his brows knitted as he looked away, clearly upset by Akira’s answer. “It seems I drew hasty conclusions.”

“Akechi, I–”

“Don’t justify yourself, it’s fine.” His jaw worked around his words, while his wings jerked, letting a few dark feathers fall on the ground. “I knew it was a possibility. And it doesn’t change what I said. I still need you by my side, even if you don’t feel the same way. I can handle it, I won’t force you into anything. You…” He let out a dry laugh. “You can have White if she’s the one you truly want. But you need to stay.”

His yellow eyes were bright and sincere when he finally found the will to look at Akira again. He told him, in a clear voice that bordered on desperation : “You know what will happen if you let him come out of here, right? You know what he’ll do. Eventually, he’ll find a way to truly disappear for good. And that will be the end of me, too. But if he knows you’re here, he won’t…”

When the clawed hand caught his shoulder this time, it was without violence. Black Phoenix pleaded : “Please, Akira. Stay with me. I’m so tired of this. I’m so tired of hiding who I really am. Don't let him end it all.”

The feeling was mutual. Black Phoenix wanted to finally get his happy ending, go back to that bliss he’d only been able to brush before it all exploded in his face. Akira wanted to be honest – with himself, with his friends, with the one person that never once left his thoughts, even a year later. “I won’t let that happen,” he replied. “You can trust me on that.”

The Shadow started smiling, visibly relieved, but it froze on his face. He blinked, once, twice, and then said with a flat voice : “...You don’t mean here, with me, right?”

“No,” he answered truthfully. After a few seconds of pensive silence, he removed his mask and said : “I’ll help him to the best of my abilities, in the real world. I’ll be there to listen and to bring him back to earth, as many times as he needs me to. But I’m not staying in the cognitive world. Not for him, not for you, not for anyone.” He shook his head. “I fought for this world, for this reality, and I am not giving up on it, no matter what. If there are hardships to overcome, then we’ll do it ourselves. This is what we both chose to do, when we fought Maruki. And I’m not coming back on that decision.”

Back then, Akira had hated himself for it. His grief and self-hatred had him convinced that everything would’ve been easier had he not met Akechi. Just like the Thieves had all eventually come to the realization that their fake world was not worth abandoning everything they went through, he wouldn’t have had to doubt himself, on the last day before their deadline. He wouldn’t have realized that he had feelings for someone who would be gone the next day, and who didn’t even want to hear what Akira had to say on the matter.  

It had taken him months to understand that this wasn’t right. He didn’t actually regret meeting Akechi, he never did. He didn’t regret all those hours spent arguing, bickering, sharing parts of himself and seeing the other open up in return. He didn’t regret fighting with, or against him. He only regretted that their time had been so short. That he didn’t have enough time to understand what those feelings meant. And what they could lead them to, if they decided to act on it.

And his wish had come true. He was so close, now, to getting Akechi out of this damned place. Back in the real world, where they didn’t have anyone that was trying to kill them anymore. Jeez, now Akira even knew that Akechi liked him too. It still felt surreal, but that was enough for him. He was not letting him run away anymore. He’d given up too much for that. He was going to bring Akechi back, and they were going to find a way to make this work. And no matter how much it broke his heart to hear Black Phoenix’s words, to see betrayal darkening his eyes, he knew he was making the right choice.

Black Phoenix’s beak clasped back in front of his face with a snap. And his voice was cold as ice when he said : “I’ll do it the painful way, then.”

And Akira couldn’t help but let out a laugh, a cocky smirk pulling at his lips. “I’d like to see you try, Black Phoenix. You said you finally won against me, but…” He cocked his chin down, towards the Shadow’s feet. “You got sloppy. Again.”

Black Phoenix startled and looked down, finally catching sight of the little Jack Frost who seemed to have found Akira’s coat and was just done freezing his feet against the archive’s floor. He cocked his head, letting out a small little “ho-ho?”, until Akira caught it by the collar and proceeded to run away once again, pulling his coat back on while thanking the little Persona for his help.

“No biggie! You scratch my back, and I scratch yours-ho!” he said before disappearing, back inside Akira’s mask.

He didn’t turn around, even when he heard Black Phoenix’s furious howls. He had no time to lose anyway – there was nothing he could say that could convince the Shadow anymore. And it wasn’t his place.

He needed to find the others – to find Akechi. Because he now knew exactly what he needed to do to get rid of this Shadow of his, and while it was obviously easier said than done, he might at least be able to reason with him. Akechi would listen to him, if he found the right words. In the worst case scenario, they could still run away from the Palace, and deal with this later.

There was hope. This Palace didn’t need to be the end of their story. It could be the beginning. And for that, it was about time they faced what they’d both been running away from all this time.

They were fucking lost.

No, but literally. Where were they? Where was the exit? The bear had been pretty useful up until now, but at this instant, Goro just wanted to ditch him and figure it out on his own, being weaponless be damned.

The Thieves’ Cognitions had tried to imprison them, but thankfully, making a break for it had been enough to throw them off and run away. However, things couldn’t be that simple – they were in a floor that was meant to keep villains prisoners, and the warden could control all the walls. They had to be quick, Shirogane told them while they were running, because the warden – Sakura, from the sounds of it – wouldn’t be able to keep track of all of them as long as they split up. One of them would eventually find his way back to the elevator, and then get back to the fifth floor – the true way out, because while Sakura clearly had a way to simply block them from leaving the prison, the archive floor also led to the old apartments, which had their own elevator access.

That was the plan, on paper. Split up, get back to the fifth floor, find the stairs leading downstairs, and then go through the old elevator. However, there were big holes in that strategy. First, only a few people would be able to escape from the prison, while the rest of the group would definitely find themselves stuck once the warden had located them. The best case scenario was for Teddie (and thus Goro) to find their way out before the Thieves found out about their ruse. Also, Goro had never navigated this palace himself, and it seemed like Teddie had never explored this fourth secret floor either. Which meant that even if they managed to escape, it would take them a while to find their way.

And last, but not least… Teddie was slow. Way too slow. The human hiding inside him probably did not help, but even when, through sheer luck, they managed to crawl their way back to the elevator, and with Morgana in tow, it didn’t take long for some Thieves to catch up with them on the archive floor.

Teddie screeched when Niijima’s brass knuckles only brushed his fur, and they quickly had to hide in the safe room when they saw Sumire cocking her shotgun in their direction. Thankfully, that stopped the Cognitions, who seemed to think they had lost sight of them, and they were able to catch their breath for a minute – but there would definitely be more enemies waiting for them now that they had been localized.

Morgana was keeping an eye out through the door, watching their enemies’ movements, especially Ryuji and Sumire who were still nearby and whispering between them.

“I’m tellin’ you, they have some weird powers that allow them to disappear in some rooms I’ve never seen before! We need to be on the lookout and ready to catch them when they decide to peek their head out of it.”

“But senpai, we also need to give a hand to Black Phoenix… He’s alone against Joker and his arch nemesis, what if…?”

“Shut up!” he snapped. “You know as well as I do that Red Phoe-…”

He didn’t end his sentence, suddenly overcome by what looked like some grand hesitation. Sumire didn’t need to hear the end to understand what he meant, though.

“Things haven’t changed. Even if he wasn’t actually Red Phoenix, Black has stayed undefeated all this time, and he’s been keeping peace in the city ever since. There’s no way he’ll lose, I just know it.”

“Yeah, you’re right…” he admitted, like her words had managed to give him some hope back. “He’s goddamn insane, and I’ll kick his ass for never telling us the truth, but he still protected us all this time.” He added a nod for good measure. “We’re so close. We can’t let them escape right now.”

“Who did?”

Morgana almost closed the door when he heard Black Phoenix’s voice, even lower and more threatening than before.

Sumire immediately straightened up, bowing lightly and looking almost ready to salute before she realized the voice was coming from her walkie-talkie. She reported : “Sir, some of the intruders managed to escape the prison floor, but we are right on their tail. You can focus on your fight against Joker and the VIP prisoner, sir.”

Black Phoenix replied : “The prisoner wasn’t with Joker. It was a trick.”

“Huh?” Ryuji exclaimed. “But he wasn’t with us on the roof either! How could he have…” And then, it hit him. His eyes widened, and this time he let out a real swear. “That goddamn tanuki! He’s hiding inside!”

“You mean the bear we’re currently trying to catch…?”

There was a beat of silence, Black Phoenix seemingly furious with the discovery. “Are you saying that you lost sight of him again?”

Sumire looked absolutely beside herself with culpability, and Morgana couldn’t bear to watch it, so he softly closed the door with a wince. He turned around to Teddie : “I guess you can come out now, we’ve been busted.”

Goro didn’t need to hear it twice. Not that staying inside the suit was uncomfortable – far from it, actually – but he truly had it with being transported and hidden like a fragile little thing. He opened the bear’s collar and quickly stepped out, combing his hair back and trying to look at least a little bit dignified. “So, what’s your plan now? This place is full of cameras. They’ll find us as soon as we step out of this room.”

“The fourth floor has none, and I know the way to the stairs. I was hoping we could at least find Akira before we left, but now that we also have to deal with the others being stuck in the prison floor…” Morgana’s eyes thinned out. “Our easiest way out would really be for you to confront your Shadow and accept it.”

His fight or flight reflex almost kicked in, but he managed to just stay silent instead. After all, there was nothing to answer. Yeah. He already knew that. But he couldn’t. It was easier said than done, and seeing what his Shadow had turned into clearly didn’t make it any better.

Goro was so tired, at this point. He had enough of running away, of being a spectator, of being so powerless. And yet, just seeing the Shadow standing tall over them, rage and anger, fighting even though he was hurt in the process – it shook him to his core. It wasn’t anything new to him, especially when he’d already turned himself berserk in the past. It probably wasn’t the worst look he’d ever had, craziness turning him to a laughing lunatic, desperation making his voice break as he screamed. But the Shadow looked beyond that. He was perfectly lucid, and his fury was used methodically, like a weapon. Black Phoenix was nothing but this. Greed. Possessiveness. Desperation. Just as many sides of him that he deeply despised and had wished would never come out of him ever again.

And yet he still couldn’t accept it. Thinking about this creature as a part of himself made him ill. Goro would rather finally disappear, before admitting that this was what he had inside of him. That this was what he looked like when he had feelings for someone. A despicable monster willing to lock their loved one away until they finally reciprocated their feelings. He didn’t want to be this person. He hated being this. Everything would’ve been easier for everyone if he’d managed to shoot the right fucking Shadow.

And that’s precisely why he’d accepted long ago that it didn’t matter – after all, as long as he repressed all of this, as long as he pushed it all away, his death would fix everything. He wouldn’t need to think about all this, about the terrible things he’d done, and all the crushing mistakes made along the way. It was just so simple. It was the best solution, for everyone. The unwanted child, the bastard kid of the most despicable man in Japan – getting rid of him would be making everyone on this Earth a favor.

But the Shadow refused. And suddenly, Goro felt like nothing made sense. He had no idea what the right step was, in this situation. His only certitude was that he was, once again, tired. In the metaverse or in the real world – it didn’t matter. He cared about none of them. He just wanted out.

“Give me a charged gun, and I’ll give you a very quick way to get it over with,” he muttered. Then snickered dryly. “But you wouldn’t do that – it would upset Kurusu too much, huh? That sentimental dumbass.”

Morgana clearly didn’t appreciate the way he laughed while talking about killing himself right in front of them. Of course he didn’t. Goro didn’t even truly mean it. He’d never be able to pull the trigger, and he knew that because he’d tried already – to no avail. He talked big, but in the end, he was just a coward.

“Your problem is probably that you think Akira would be the only upset one, if you did that,” the cat finally answered with a roll of the eyes. “All those cognitions in your own palace care enough about you that they’re ready to break their promises, as long as your Shadow gets to be happy. So maybe you’re actually aware of it, deep down. Or you just think that’s because they’re all “sentimental dumbasses”. I don’t know. In any case, there are also strangers who risked a lot in order to help you, and we won’t leave them behind.”

“Sure, if you say so,” he snapped, because while Morgana was right, that didn’t mean he liked his lecturing tone. “Do you know how we should proceed, then? Do we go back to the prison floor, in case they changed their minds? Or are we actually going to kick my Shadow’s ass, instead of constantly running away?” He threw a frustrated look at the door. “Kurusu’s all alone against him right now. He needs our help.”

“But you can’t fight him,” Morgana shook his head. “You might be okay right now, but as soon as you’ll get close to Black Phoenix again, you’ll feel too weak to even protect yourself.”

“I know,” he sighed. “But I don’t really see any alternative right now… at least not with me staying unarmed.”

It took a few more minutes to convince Morgana that he wasn’t actually going to kill himself if he got his hand on a gun, and that’s how they started treading their way towards the armory, creeping along walls in case they stumbled on the Thieves’ cognitions or – worse – Black Phoenix himself.

And because fate worked in a strange way – and also probably because this floor was not that big – they managed to stumble on Kurusu first, since he was also hiding behind a corner, and grabbed them by the wrist to drag them to his safe spot, deep in the armory.

“What are you doing here?” he whispered, clearly a little bit upset to see Goro walking around outside of Teddie.

“Black Phoenix found out about your trick already,” Morgana answered. “And the Cognitions have joined him – they’ve got Yuu, Yosuke and Naoto.”

Kurusu frowned a little bit. “I see. That makes sense, I guess. In any case, it’s good that you’re here. I have a plan. A real one,” he insisted when both Goro and Morgana sent him skeptical looks. “But we’ll need to make sure the others aren’t stuck in prison first, or it won’t end well for them.”

“And what’s your genius plan?” Goro said, not even bothering to hide his contempt.

Kurusu had the gall to smirk. He brought a hand to his waist, cocked his chin, and said : “I told you before. You just never listen.”

At that moment, Goro was hit with some kind of déjà vu, but he couldn’t really place it. Kurusu didn’t let him think about it for too long, however, because he immediately followed : “I can’t actually tell you, though. If I do, we’re at risk of your Shadow catching on, and it’ll ruin everything. Mona?”

The cat jumped on Kurusu’s shoulder, and he turned his ear in the direction of his mouth, frowning with concentration while the other told him his plan. Morgana looked a little bit taken aback. “Wait, you’re sure?”

“To be honest, if there’s one person who can confirm it, it’s you.”

Morgana closed his eyes, looking deep in thoughts, and suddenly he opened his eyes wide again. “Oh god, you might be right… How did I not notice…?”

“It doesn’t matter. I should definitely go right now, as soon as I can. Black Phoenix will quickly catch on. You guys need to free the others while I do this.”

“You can’t go alone,” Morgana snapped back. “I’m coming with you.”

Kurusu shook his head. “You’re the only one here who knows his way around the third floor. Also…” He glanced at Goro, so fast he almost didn’t catch it. “Akechi should be there for it. Or it’s meaningless.”

He raised an eyebrow, hoping Kurusu would elaborate – and of course, he didn’t. Still, he decided to participate in the conversation : “It shouldn’t be too hard to free the guys downstairs, if you ask me. The cognitions are running around like headless chickens, because they’re scared they pissed off their leader.” And then he cocked his head towards one of the battle suits that were still in full display. “I can dress up like Black Phoenix, pretend I’ve captured those two, and threaten the warden to free everyone.” He shrugged. “They would probably obey in a heartbeat, as long as I’m wearing the right suit.”

“You’re not going to do that,” Kurusu answered. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Is it?” he replied with a sneer. “Do you think being stuck here has made me soft or something? I can still fight just fine, especially against some dumb cognitions. Also, Mona and Teddie can’t pretend to be Black Phoenix.”

“Hmm.”

They all turned towards Teddie, who was deep in thoughts. Morgana blinked, once, twice. “What?”

“Hmmmmm,” he answered, frowning even harder. “This could work. I think. Maybe.” Then he opened his eyes again, and turned his head towards the other three. “Where’s the suit?”

A few minutes later, Green jumped out of her seat when she saw the dark silhouette walking out of the elevator, turning towards the security camera, and holding the black cat from before by the collar. She quickly opened the doors, stumbling on her feet to salute when Black Phoenix finally appeared in front of her.

“S-Sir, thank you so much! I’ll make sure he gets in the cell with the others, so please, you can… just… leave it to me?”

Her voice came to a complete stop when she realized that the Black Phoenix in front of her had not only released his prisoner, but that he was also holding a gun right towards her head. With a simple nod, he told her to go back to her seat, which she did, trembling all the while. However, she still found the strength to stammer : 

“I-It doesn’t matter,” she said while looking at Morgana jumping on her console, pressing a few buttons and cheering when he saw through the security feed that their teammates’ cell was opening. “Black Phoenix will eventually win. It’s only a matter of time. And once Red Phoenix is back, they’ll be unstoppable.”

The man clad in black took a step forward, pressing the cannon against her forehead. Green let out a squeak, trying to get as far away as she could, sitting in her seat. She gulped down, eyes desperately trying to find something, anything behind the black visor. He breathed in, ready to answer, and then turned his head towards the cat : “Wait, which one is Red Phoenix again? I’m so lost.”

The voice was much higher and friendlier than she was expecting. She immediately lost her nerves, too unsettled to think about running. How did she not even notice how short this Black Phoenix was? There was no way he could be the real one!

Behind her, Morgana let out a long sigh, trying to follow their friends as they were finally starting to escape the maze. Still, he heard Teddie giggle behind him, playing with his gun, and he groaned : “Why can he transform into a human, but I can’t…?”

It was pretty surreal, running behind Kurusu as they crawled around the Palace. Hugging the walls and avoiding Shadows, silently making signs to the other, telling him to go, to stop, to listen – it had been months, but he remembered it like it was yesterday. What it had felt like to be part of the Phantom Thieves, even temporarily.

Kurusu was as confident as ever. He ran without fear nor compass, like he knew exactly what he was doing at all times. He even had the gall to smirk when he saw the stairs leading to the fourth floor being left unattended – maybe Teddie did manage to fool everyone, with that Black Phoenix suit hidden in a random bag that Kurusu had found god knows how. He even relaxed a little bit when they started going down, but then he stopped when they reached the bottom. He turned around, gray eyes pining Goro to the floor when he said with a grave voice : “We’re getting close, so please, stay close to me and stay calm, okay?”

“Okay…?” he said slowly, because he couldn’t really hide his doubts. “Are you finally going to tell me what your genius plan is, or what?”

Kurusu looked torn between evading the question, and staying there while they had some time, to explain himself. He seemed to choose the latter : “You wanted to know what your Treasure was? I have no clue. But I know where it is. And it’s very obvious, in hindsight.”

Goro’s eyes widened. His hands closed into fists immediately, and his lip raised itself in a snarl. “Fuck you, you’re not changing my heart–”

“I didn’t say I would,” Kurusu replied. “But if we steal Black Phoenix’s treasure, it will make this place collapse – and he’ll also disappear.” He shrugged. “We just need to be quick. Every Palace Users are attuned to their treasure, and he’ll know that something’s up if we don’t hurry.”

“And then what? Where is it? How can you be so sure that you know its location if you’ve not found it yet?”

“Because there is only one room in the entire Palace that Black Phoenix strictly forbid me to enter.”

It took Goro a second. Then it slapped him in the face, his eyes widening. He didn’t even think, he snapped right away : “No.”

Kurusu only shook his head and turned on his heels, ready to cross the door that would lead them to the fourth floor, but Goro grabbed him by the lapel and pushed him against the wall. “Not on my fucking life, Kurusu, you hear me? This room is private, I told you already! Leave it alone!”

“No, you listen to me,” he shot back. “Think. We’ve had it all wrong. Black Phoenix never actually lived in this building, so there’s no reason for his room to be here. It’s Red’s – that’s why he didn’t want us to enter, or else his secret would’ve been revealed right away, before he actually wanted us to. That’s all.”

Goro’s jaw closed with a click, as he fought against his own body so he wouldn’t start actually blushing like an idiot. His fist tightened on Kurusu’s coat. “You do not know that. Palaces don’t have to be perfectly logical.”

“Did he actually tell you what’s inside? Did you see it?”

He slammed his other hand against the wall, right next to the thief’s shoulder. “I saw how upset he was, and I can only imagine what could be behind that door.” Goro slowly and agonizingly raised his head again. “I know what’s inside my brain, Kurusu. It’s nothing good, I assure you.”

“I know. I’ve been inside it, too, for days already.” This time, he was the one who caught Goro by the collar. “And I want to get out. Now. With you in tow.”

“Not on my watch.”

They both jumped away from the wall, startled by Black Phoenix’s steely voice. Kurusu kept his hold on his shirt and opened the door, running through it and in the direction of the many doors of the apartment floor. However, Black Phoenix didn’t take long to catch up with them, and Kurusu had to release him and parry his sword with his gun, barely staying upright under the force of the two meters high monster pressing him down. He only managed to cry : “Go inside! And tell me if I was right or wrong. I…” He barely managed to jump away from the Shadow’s range, ending up with his feet on the living room’s sofa. “I’ll try to buy you some time!”

Goro was momentarily stunned. A part of him wanted to run, when he saw the black silhouette, the claws, the beak, the shiny yellow eyes. It made him want to cower in a corner, his legs against his chest and forehead against his knees. But he also wanted to join the fight and help Kurusu. He was barely avoiding the Shadow’s attacks, and he actually looked exhausted. How long had he been in here already? Too long, even Goro could see that. He didn’t have much strength left. What if he turned around, got to the room, and there was nothing? What if he returned, and Kurusu was nothing but a cold corpse, once again?

What if, under some cruel circumstances, he was fated to see Kurusu Akira die, not once, not twice, but three times?

But Kurusu seemed decided to prove him wrong. God only knows how, but he managed to slide between the Shadow’s legs, and when he sent in Arsene, his spell caught Black Phoenix’s right wing. The Shadow howled in pain, cowering while patting his feathers and trying to put the dark fire out. Kurusu then raised his head, and silently pronounced : “Go.”

Goro didn’t even think. He nodded, and with a heavy stomach, he started running in the direction of the room. Deep down, he knew nothing good could be in there. Whatever he said, even if his treasure was actually inside, it could still be very bad. It could still ruin any chance he still had (if any) of ever having a normal relationship with Kurusu. It could very well be the most disgusting, perverted thoughts he ever had. But he needed to open that door. It was their last chance. Goro tightened his hold on the handle, took a deep breath, rubbed his burning cheeks one last time, and then pushed it open.

A little bell rang. His steps on the floor echoed in a familiar clacking sound. The soft whir of the fridge, the bubbling pots reached his ears. The smell of coffee.

His legs felt like lead, as Goro tried to step forward, but he couldn’t. This didn’t actually feel real. Leblanc was just like he remembered, minus the people behind the counter. From the dark wood covering the chairs, the tables, the books next to the old yellow phone – to the warm light coming through windows that shouldn’t even be there.

There were two dirty cups, sitting on the counter, right next to a chess board holding a game that never reached its conclusion.

Goro opened his mouth, compelled to say something, anything, but he couldn’t. He didn’t even know what to say. Behind him, he heard the door violently open, but whether that was Kurusu or Black Phoenix coming after him, he didn’t know.

“Why…?” he whispered, more to himself than to anyone.

“Akechi?”

He turned around and saw Kurusu’s wide eyes, looking around the room, turning on himself, as if trying to find anything that would prove that this was nothing but an illusion. But Goro didn’t even need to look to know that the reproduction was perfect. Even if he’d never been the one who lived in there. Even if he’d only been in Leblanc a couple of times. The cafe, the booths, the machines, the chairs – they were all burned in his mind.

He felt something grow inside his chest, climbing up his esophagus, and finally escape – a deep, painful, dry laugh. His throat started hurting, and when Kurusu turned his head towards him, Goro needed to lower his own shamefully. He closed his jaw, hoping to stop the raspy chuckles, but he failed. In the end, his voice trembled around a hysterical giggle when he panted : “Why did it have to be you…?”

Why did Kurusu have to come to his rescue? Why not any other Phantom Thieves? Heck, why not those other guys who also had Personas? Why couldn’t he still escape from this painful situation, after so many times? The ache was too much. He didn’t want to go through this again. He was tired.

“Go away. Leave me alone. Just…” His hand reached his forehead, as he couldn’t bear to even look at the surrounding room. “It was supposed to be over. I can’t do it anymore. Not again.”

But Kurusu wouldn’t have come this far if he was anything but a stubborn bastard. He shook his head, softened his voice, and tried to reach out : “It doesn’t have to be the end, though. This…” He vaguely designated the room. “It doesn’t have to mean anything, if you don’t want it to be. You’re allowed to want this, or reject it. And I… we won’t judge you for it.” He swallowed. “No one will. Alright?”

“But I will.”

Goro straightened up, coming face-to-face with Black Phoenix, back to a somewhat normal form – although his suit was ragged for wear, and he had blood dripping from his forehead, which made his yellow eyes all the more shiny. Kurusu tried to act like his shield again, but Goro immediately caught his shoulder to stop him. Just looking in this distorted mirror made him sick, but Teddie, Shirogane, Kurusu had been right. It was time for him to face himself. He had to say his piece, and make him understand. This whole thing needed to stop.

“You’ve been beaten already. You lost. So give up and let us go, now.”

“Ha,” Black Phoenix laughed. “You love this word so much. 'Give up'. That’s all you ever do."

Goro bristled, probably because the words were hitting a little bit too close to home. "I'm just being pragmatic. That doesn't mean-"

Black Phoenix sighed. "The moment you finally get a friend, you forever give up on friendship in fear of being betrayed. The moment you’re being offered a way out, some kind of redemption, you close the door and decide you’re not worth fighting for. The moment he…” He raised his gloved hand to point it at Kurusu, but this time, he wouldn’t look at him anymore. His eyes were on Goro, and Goro only. “Says that he doesn’t want you to disappear, you tell him that it doesn’t concern him.”

Black Phoenix took a step in his direction and Kurusu stepped aside, leaving Goro on his own, stabbed by the words of his own Shadow. Here he thought he might be able to reason him – and he was the one being lectured. And speechless again.

“You lie, and you lie, and you lie. Again, and again, and again. And I’m tired of it. I’m tired of seeing you fuck it up, all because you’re unable to accept anything good in your life. I’m done.”

“It’s not true,” he tried to answer, his voice sounding so unsure, it wasn’t hard to feel how little he actually believed in his own words. “I just knew what my objectives were. And sometimes, you need to make sacrifices–”

“I could’ve had it all,” Black Phoenix snarled, right in his face. “All that you rejected. An equal. Recognition. A future. A life to live for myself and no one else. Yet you took it from me.”

Goro couldn’t help it. He felt it in his stomach. Guilt. He took a step back. And Black Phoenix followed.

“Then what? What was I supposed to do?”

Another step back.

“Tell me, Goro. What are you even doing?”

And another. His back hit the counter.

“Why won’t you let yourself be happy?!”

“You fucking know why!”

Black Phoenix froze in place, his eyes wide open. There was no hatred in them. Only stupor.

“You know why,” Goro repeated, quieter. His jaw was starting to hurt with how much he was clenching it. His forehead hurt with how much he was frowning. “You’re supposed to be me, right? So you know how it feels. You know what it is, to be unwanted. And I’m sick of it, okay?” He swallowed, like it was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do. “I don’t want to die. But I want it to stop. Is that too hard to understand?”

Black Phoenix blinked. Then he lowered his eyes. And shook his head, as if he was disappointed with his answer. He finally stepped back, only to walk to a chair and sit down in front of the chess board, staring at it.

Further back, Kurusu was also looking at him, and Goro felt a pang of something deep inside him. He didn’t exactly know what it was, though. Shame? Anger? Bitterness? In any case, it didn’t feel good. God, he hated that Kurusu had to be there and see this. This only made everything more excruciating.

“Stop looking at me like that,” he sighed. “We’re done here. So get my treasure, or don’t, I don’t care. But let’s get out of here.”

However, Kurusu didn’t move. He kept staring at the floor between them, his hands in his pockets, hiding the way they had turned into fists. The sight made Goro’s chest shake. “Let’s go.”

His Adam’s apple moved up and down when he swallowed. And then he slowly shook his head, lips tight and eyes still looking downwards. “No, we won’t. Not if you keep saying stuff like that.”

The burning fire inside Goro started growing again. He could feel his breathing getting faster, his arms vibrating with the need to punch something. He tried to keep it down, though, at least for a moment. “Stop that,” he scowled. “This is not about you this time, okay? It’s me. My fucking life. You don’t get to intervene.”

“But he’s right!” he finally exploded, his head snapping up. “And you know he is! So no, I’m not gonna just stay there and watch you self-destruct again!”

Goro let out another brief, dry chuckle. “Oh yeah? Then do what he wants! Stay here, be a fake hero with him, have fun saving cognitions or whatever!”

“This is not what this is about, and you know that.”

“Oh, but I do know, trust me, Kurusu,” he spat. “No one’s waiting for me. Can’t you see? You’re only here because you’re too fucking stubborn to accept when to let go, but truly, tell me, how many months has it been since I disappeared, huh? Where are your friends, right now? Is there anyone, out there, that truly wants me back?”

Kurusu’s eyes widened, like he’d been punched. Goro kept going, the fire in him still burning, and far away from being put out : “Look at me in the eyes and tell me that I’m wrong. Tell me what it changes – me being here, or out there, or six feet under?”

Silence answered him, this time. Goro felt another chuckle tumble out of his chest. Yet, this one almost felt like a sob. “See? You cannot. So please, let’s get out of here. And then, stop wasting your time with lost causes. Go back to your perfect little life, and leave me to mine.”

This seemed to shatter something inside him, at last. Kurusu steeled his expression, bit his lip, and sighed. His hand shook a little bit when he raised it to take his mask off, but the look he sent Goro was piercing.

“You’re allowed to call me dumb, irrational, stubborn, naive even. But you truly misunderstood a lot about me, if that’s the conclusion you drew from all the time we spent together.”

The mask disappeared, and for a moment, he just gazed at Goro. Like he was looking for his words. Or maybe something else, in Goro’s expression. His eyes softened, eyelashes fluttering briefly as he opened his mouth and nothing came out of it. At last, his mouth broke into a crooked smile, one dimple deepening his cheek.

“And I’m to blame for that. You’re calling yourself a liar, you’re saying that the only thing you know is to run away, but… I feel the same. I was never able to be honest with you, at least not how I truly wanted to.”

He briefly looked away, like saying all those things made him feel so uncomfortable he’d rather be anywhere but here, in this position. Still, he kept going, although he wasn’t quite able to face Goro anymore.

“I didn’t manage to say what I wanted, back then. All the regrets that I had. I…” He shook his head and pulled one hand out of his pockets, revealing Goro’s leather glove from back then. “I kept looking at this, hoping that somehow, one day, you’d reappear to take it back, because you promised you would.”

He dropped his arm with a groan, as if he was annoyed just thinking about it.

“But the truth is not that pretty, Akechi. You’re saying that no one wanted you back? Well, I missed you. Every day. Sometimes, I got so sick at night I couldn't sleep, thinking that I might've killed you when I let you go.”

Goro’s heart stopped when he saw how shiny Kurusu’s eyes were. He felt compelled to say something, anything to deny what he just heard, but then, the thief stepped forward and when his hands came to cup Goro’s cheeks, one of them was warm against his skin.

“I wanted to be there, for you. And I failed. I should’ve been able to find the words earlier, but…”

“Stop,” he finally managed to say, his voice nothing but a terrified murmur. “Stop saying stuff you think I want to hear.”

“I’m not.”

And Goro knew it was the truth. Kurusu was not actually an idiot, but he was so easy to read, sometimes. This wasn’t like all those times Goro had asked him something, and he felt that the answer was made up to please him. This wasn’t a half-lie, here to pretend he’d answered, only to hide what he truly felt. This was genuine. And that’s what scared him even more.

“But… Why…?” Goro whispered, his throat tight when Kurusu’s thumbs started stroking his cheeks.

“Why what?”

“Why me?”

Kurusu seemed surprised by this, and Goro took the opening like a desperate man. He didn’t shake off his hands, didn’t try to push him away, but his words were dripping with desperation as he said : “I tried to kill you, remember? I did it, and I didn’t fucking look back. Meanwhile, you’re surrounded by amazing people who would probably die for you. So if you want me to believe you, you’ll have to tell me. Why?”

He saw a spark of something in Kurusu’s eyes. He had to wet his lips, and Goro’s heart leaped in his chest. But what followed was nothing but a trembling : “I… I don’t know. I don’t know why. I wish I knew, too. It would probably make things so much easier…”

Kurusu swallowed, and his head fell forward, his forehead bumping against Goro’s. His trembling breath brushed against his lips, and he murmured : “What I do know, is that it hurt like hell, when you told me your life didn’t concern me. Because I wanted it to. Call that savior complex, I don’t care. But I wanted you to feel like I was someone you could trust and be open with. I wanted to know you better, and be there when you needed me. I wanted you to live. And I still do. All of it.”

Goro had to lower his eyes, because having Kurusu so close when he could feel his eyes sting and his throat tightening was too much for him to handle. He managed to shake his head, at least a little bit, despite the other boy still all up in his face. “But what if I fuck up again? What if I betray you? What if I disappoint you? What if I’m not actually who you thought I was?”

“And what if you don’t? It doesn’t hurt to try.”

Kurusu sounded so hopeful, it broke Goro’s heart. God, he wanted to say yes so much. This sounded so easy, when he put it like that. However, deep down, he still had this voice that told him things could never be so easy, not when you were called Akechi Goro.

“... I know. But…" He finally pushed Kurusu away. "I still don’t think it’s truly worth it.”

He saw Kurusu’s face darken, and when he was about to say something, they saw movement in their periphery.

On Goro’s right, Black Phoenix was gone. Instead, on his regular chair, was a child, wearing an argyle sweater and uniform shorts. He sat in their direction, his feet not touching the ground, and turned his head towards Goro. His expression was hidden behind a cheap plastic Featherman mask, the kind you could find in every summer festival. His little hands clenched on his thighs, and he asked : “Why is it not worth it?”

Goro stammered on his words, taken aback by the new form his Shadow had taken. He said : “I-It just is.”

The child didn’t move, staring at him from behind his mask. And after what felt like an eternity, he asked : “Do you hate me?”

“I-I don’t know, I…” He tried to laugh, but the heart wasn’t in it. “What are you trying to do here? You’re not fooling anyone, you know? That’s pretty low, even coming from you–”

“So you’re gonna do it?”

He was confused, he just snapped. “Do what?”

The child stared at him, and swallowed nervously. He replied in a small voice : “Are you gonna disappear like mommy did?”

It was like the world suddenly came and crashed into him. Goro opened his mouth, but no words managed to come out. “I…” He started shaking his head without even thinking. “This is not… I can’t…” When he saw that the child was still waiting for an answer, hand gripping the sweater, feet stuck together anxiously, he remembered. He remembered looking in the mirror for the first time, after his mom’s suicide. He remembered seeing his eyes red with tears, his sleeves smudged with blood. He remembered thinking he was going to be alone for the rest of his life.

He whispered in a hush : “Of course I won’t.”

The Shadow hopped off his seat, and then came to stand in front of him. He raised his head, then his hand, holding his pinky in his direction. “... Can you promise?”

His legs gave under him. He dropped to his knees and caught the kid in his arms, pulling him into a bruising hug. Goro burrowed his face in the soft chestnut hair, and when he heard the question again, that’s when the first tear escaped him.

Goro had no idea how long he stayed there, his knees hurting as he held his other self in his arms, crying and apologizing. Somewhere, far away, he knew that Kurusu was still here, and he could see everything. But at this moment, it didn’t matter.

The child in his arms was terrified, and he needed reassurance. That’s all he cared about. And as his warm tears kept flowing, as the kid started gripping his back, he briefly thought that, maybe, he could try to give it a shot. Just one more time.

Akira softly closed the door behind him. He cleared his throat, quickly wiping the wetness out of his eyes, when he saw that his friends had finally managed to join them. They gave him a patient smile, and he nodded softly. As soon as Akechi was done, they would finally be able to get out of the Palace. They made it. They were done.

Thankfully for all of them, Teddie had reverted to his usual mascot appearance. Morgana still looked sour about it, but at least, he already had the experience of being a human, and he knew that deep down, he actually liked staying in Akira’s bag, being fed sushi and having no responsibilities all day, napping and strolling around as his only daily activities.

“Do you think he’s going to be okay?” Yuu asked Akira with a worried gaze.

He couldn't help but send one more look towards the bedroom's door. He didn't know what was going on behind it, and what Akechi and his Shadow were talking about. “I have no idea,” he admitted. “In the real world, you don’t exactly heal those kinds of wounds in a single day, but…” He smiled at him. “I feel like he should be alright. And I'll be there to make sure of it. I'm a pretty stubborn guy.”

Yuu chuckled at that. “That’s one way to put it.” And Akira followed with his own laughter.

A few minutes later, Akechi finally reopened the door. His eyes were bloodshot, and his nose and cheeks were pink. He frowned when he saw the fond looks sent his way. “Any of you has a tissue or something?”

Naoto came to his rescue, and he thanked her under his breath, turning away to blow his nose. He then threw the crumpled paper away, and started walking in Akira’s direction. His heartbeat quickened a little bit – he didn’t have the guts to confess earlier, but surely, his feelings must’ve come across somehow, and he was still waiting for Akechi’s answer – but then, he saw that he was only holding out something for him.

It was a small book, and when Akira took it, he immediately understood what it was. The title was a little bit faded, and the corners were kinda bent, but this version of Robin Hood was Akechi’s treasure. It was probably sitting on the counter, or maybe the Shadow had it with him this whole time. In any case, Akira shook his head and held it back to Akechi. “I don’t think we need it anymore.”

He looked pretty surprised, but he still nodded. He must’ve been relieved to not get his treasure actually stolen, and as if he didn’t want Akira to get any second thoughts, he quickly went back inside the room to place it on the counter. When he came back, he breathed in, and said : “Alright. Let’s leave, now.”

They slowly made their way down the building. Exhaustion was creeping on them, and with every step, Akechi looked like he was on the verge of collapsing. Yosuke then decided to offer him his shoulder, which Akechi took reluctantly. But as soon as they were in the elevator, going back to the entertainment level, he voiced something he had been wondering for hours now : “Who the fuck are you?”

Explaining the whole situation took them the entire trip out of the hideout. Akechi looked positively puzzled, but he didn’t say much. While he looked pretty surprised to know that there were older Persona users, he admitted under his breath that he’d heard something to that account before, but he thought the rumors about the Kirijo group were nothing but that, at the time.

They finally stepped outside, and while it still didn’t feel like they were back in the real world, leaving the building felt refreshing. Akira was about to ask Akechi if he was alright, wondering if it would be okay to offer his shoulder as well, but he stopped when he saw him looking at the hideout with a wistful gaze. It lasted but a few seconds, and when Akechi turned back towards him, the way he raised his eyebrow made him forget what he wanted to say. “Um… So… Glad to see you back.”

He honestly wanted to punch himself in the face, at this moment. This wasn’t something you said to a guy that had just started to admit that he maybe truly wished to live. And yet, after taking a moment to think, Akechi’s mouth turned slightly upwards, and he whispered under his breath, as if he didn’t want Akira to actually hear him : “I think I am, too.”

A few minutes later, as they were treading through the fog once again and Akechi was grumbling while Teddie made him try every kind of glasses he had on him – Yosuke approached Akira. He elbowed him and stage-whispered : “Dude, that’s it?”

“What is?”

Yosuke made a face, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Seriously? ‘Glad to see you back’? You don’t have anything else you wanna tell him?”

Instinctively, Akira’s head turned towards his friend again. The annoyed curl of his mouth. The way his hair had gotten a little bit longer and let him sometimes see the back of his neck when he turned his head. The spark in his eyes, red, alive.

Akira smiled and softly shook his head. “Later. We have plenty of time, now.”

...Or so he thought, at the moment. He quickly understood how boned he was when they finally stepped out of the TV, back in Junes, and he came face-to-face with his mom as they were walking out of the electronics aisle. She immediately caught him by the back of his neck, forcing him to bend down and walk behind her as she furiously whispered at him, calling him every name in existence, and promising that he’d be grounded until the end of the year.

He barely managed to look behind, trying to catch one last glimpse of Akechi before Yuriko pushed him inside her car, locked the door, and let her back collapse against it, hiding her face in her hands. He felt terrible as he watched her shoulders shaking, how distressed she had been over his disappearance – he was gone for two whole days, after all. Then, he felt terrified once Yuriko finally opened the driver’s door, sat on her seat, and forced him to give her his bag. She actually screamed in fright once she saw the airsoft gun, and no matter how many times he told her it was fake, she didn’t want to hear it. Screw the end of the year, he would be grounded and without phone until at least graduation.

But then, seeing Akechi’s small smile and intrigued stare while Yosuke was seemingly explaining the situation to him – it quickly dawned on him that none of it truly mattered. Akechi was alive. Out of the metaverse. And he finally looked somewhat at peace with himself. He’d take his punishment. He’d wait for his mom to calm down. He’d make it up to her. And the rest could wait.

To be continued.

Chapter Text

Sometimes, when you’re close to being done, the hardest thing is taking that last impossible step.

Akira could feel it grow every single day. That yearning feeling – to skip school, to leave the house in the middle of the night, and get to Yosuke’s, where Akechi was staying. And yet, every time, something stopped him in his tracks. He remembered color draining from his mom’s face when she saw him. The quick updates he managed to get when he got home and had access to his phone again, of the detective being bedridden, exhausted after spending days if not weeks stuck in his Palace, and then facing his own Shadow. His friends’ reactions when he finally got to tell them that Akechi was safe and sound, asking him how he was.

It was alright to wait a little bit more, he kept telling himself. He had time. Soon, he wouldn’t be grounded anymore. Soon, Akechi would be well enough to organize his life again, and hopefully include Akira into it this time. But then, what?

That was one of the questions that haunted him. After months of grieving for a relationship that never was, how was he supposed to go about it? Should he just be upfront? Would Akechi be receptive to it? Would he reject him again, despite what he truly felt? And even if he reciprocated, then what? Would he stay in Inaba? Would he go back to Tokyo, and start a new life? Who was he, to ask someone who had been Japan’s ideal son-in-law, to wait for him? What if Akechi wanted to settle down and live a safe life? Find a normal job, a girlfriend, and have the family he was always denied of?

Those thoughts were ridiculous, and he knew it. If anything, meeting with Black Phoenix should’ve taught him that this was the opposite of what Akechi truly wanted. He liked Akira back. He knew that now. And yet, maybe that knowledge made it even harder to take that last extra step. Because now, he wasn’t only thinking about how he could fuck up one conversation – but their entire friendship. If his last relationship was anything to go by, then clearly, Akira still had a lot to learn on that matter.

So he stayed away. He half-answered Ann’s text messages, asking him how things were going at home. He avoided Ryota’s heavy allusions, when he asked who Akira was day-dreaming about during class. He listened quietly to Morgana when he came home one night, about a week after the rescue. He told him about his afternoon, spent watching anime with Akechi who was bored out of his mind but still got short-winded from climbing down the stairs. 

“What are you going to do, by the way?”

The way Mona asked was vague, but not enough for Akira to pretend he didn’t understand the insinuation. He nervously shrugged, immediately looking away and fiddling with the light switch next to his bed. “It doesn’t matter right now. We’ll see when he’s feeling better–”

“No, but what are you going to do?” he insisted, his big blue eyes fixated on him, deeply judging.

Akira swallowed, and suddenly, he found himself at a loss for words. Mona had managed to strike on the very subject that had been on his mind for a week already. When he saw that he was not getting an answer, Morgana sighed : “This is not a hard question, Akira. After what you saw and learned in his palace, he deserves to get a clear answer, that’s it.”

“My answer is not the problem here,” he said quickly. “And there’s no problem, at all, actually. Like I said, we’ll see that later. Just leave it to me, okay?”

Mona stared at him, definitely not convinced. He ended up shaking his head and going on his pillow to sleep, while Akira finally turned off the light and tried to shake off the feeling of anxiety deep in his guts as uncertainty took over him again.

A few days later, it was Yuu who asked him the same question. He’d come to say hi, still as comfortable walking in and out of Yasogami as before, like he had anything to do in there. And when the question popped up, and Akira answered under his breath that it didn’t matter right now, Yuu didn’t give up as quickly as Mona did.

“You probably think that you have time, but it’s not actually true, you know. It’s only going to get harder to talk to him if you avoid the issue.”

It might’ve been because they were in public, or because he still had this small part of him that wanted to prove to Yuu that he didn’t need to be told what to do. But he answered without even thinking : “That’s rich, coming from a guy who could never tell his best friend that he loves him.”

Akira regretted it as soon as he said it. It was mean, and he knew it. Also, Yuu had never directly talked about any of this, so he might be extrapolating – he was pretty sure he wasn’t, though. He couldn’t even look at him directly when he said it, and after a few seconds of heavy silence, just as he was about to apologize, Yuu replied : “Exactly. I don’t want you to end up stuck like me.”

This time, he managed to raise his head, and he saw that Yuu was smiling – not happily, more like a small rueful dimple on his cheek. Yet, instead of apologizing like he’d planned to, he said : “But you’re not. You can still tell him, nothing’s stopping you. He doesn’t think it, when he says all of this stupid homophobic stuff.”

“But that’s the thing – this has stopped being about telling him a long time ago,” Yuu sighed. “Now, it’s about it being even worth it. Me and Yosuke are almost thirty already, we’ve known each other for almost half of our lives. And that begs the question of trying to change something that’s been working perfectly fine for both of us, until now.”

“That still sounds lonely.”

The older man simply nodded. And he didn’t add anything. Soon enough, an old friend of his – one of the gym teachers – caught him by the shoulder and dragged him away, talking about how long it had been since they went ballin’. Akira was left alone, in his class’ corridor.

This is probably what led him, that night, to actually ask his mom something that he never even thought about before. He was washing the dishes while Yuriko was drinking a beer, one eye on the television and one eye on her phone, when he turned off the faucet and asked, barely able to turn around and look at her : “Have you ever… liked someone so much, you were afraid of telling them?”

Akira knew he’d fucked up the moment he felt the heavy silence. In a movie, he would’ve heard a fork drop. But instead, he got his mom’s wide-eyed look, her eyebrows twitching lightly while thoughts ran through her head. She ended up lowering her head, chugging back her can of beer, and coughing a simple “no”, before uttering an apology and leaving the room. When she didn’t come back, he let his forehead fall against the cupboard with a groan, and stayed there for a while.

He felt like he was going insane. Things were fine, he kept reminding himself. Whatever they all said, they had time. They could take things slow. First, Akechi had to recover from his prolonged stay in the metaverse. Then, Akira needed to get his freedom back. Those two could take a while. He’d figure things out later, when the time was right. Overthinking would lead him nowhere – he would talk to Akechi, and he would finally come out and confess properly. There was no rush. Everyone was just making a big deal out of nothing.

He was ready to fall face-first on his mattress and forget everything about his day. Not even his dinner and shower helped him shake off this feeling – of being so awkward and petty that he’d made his own little situation everyone’s problem. That’s probably why, when Mona nudged his shoulder, he whined like a kid, pushing his head under his pillow.

“Uh… Akira? Can I talk to you?”

“Not now.”

“But…”

His friend’s hesitant tone actually made him turn his head, and the look of panic on his face forced him out of his little episode. “What?”

Mona blinked. “I… just want to say that even if it doesn’t look like it, I swear it wasn’t me.”

“Huh?”

“I swear!” he screeched, his hair almost raising around his neck. “I couldn’t say no, that’s it! It has nothing to do with what we talked about the other day!”

Akira was lost, so he didn’t even answer, shaking his head with a confused look. Morgana sighed loudly, jumping on Akira’s back who face-planted on the bed with an ‘oof’, then on the windowsill. His tail flickered as he glanced outside nervously, and when Akira pushed on his elbows again, he realized there truly was something going on, not just Mona being weird. He crawled upward, craning his neck until he could see what was so interesting, in the street.

He jumped back almost immediately, all of his exhaustion gone as he went as far away from the window as possible, gaping at Morgana who now looked very apologetic. He wanted to ask so much – how, why, when – but then, as it all dawned on him, something in his guts that he previously thought was fear suddenly turned into some ravenous yearning, and he opened his bedroom door, managed just in time to not slam it behind him, and tried to climb down the stairs as fast but also as quietly as possible, so he could get to the sliding doors leading to his garden. He didn’t even care about the frigid air of December or the cold plastic of the outside slippers, because in front of his house, looking like a deer stuck in headlights, hands deep in Yosuke’s winter coat – was Akechi Goro.

Gone were his thoughts of taking this slow. Gone was his fear of messing everything up. At this moment in time, with the guy he’d been running after for god knows how long, after months of grieving, days of stress over his rescue, adrenaline and sweat as he fought off his Shadow – Akechi was here. He came to Akira, on his own.

“...hi,” he said softly, too shaken to say anything else.

Akechi raised his eyebrows a little – he probably wasn’t expecting this to be Akira’s opening line. “Hi,” he replied, as cool as a cucumber. “Sorry for coming here unannounced like that. Can I come in?”

He immediately nodded, clearing his throat before opening the little gate leading to his house and telling the other to follow him. “I’m not supposed to have anyone over, though,” he muttered, while closing the gate behind them. “We’re gonna have to go through the back… You should, uh, probably keep your shoes with you.”

“Yeah, I’m aware,” Akechi said, leaning down to remove his sneakers and keeping them in hand as they silently climbed up the stairs leading to his room. Akira staggered for a second before opening his door, but he managed to get a grip – no, of course there wasn’t anything incriminating in his room, stop being paranoid – and invite his guest inside.

Morgana was gone when they entered – thank god for that, he was just starting to realize what was happening, he didn’t need the pressure of his friend lurking in the background, listening to him making a fool of himself. “Is that truly okay?” Akechi asked again with a doubting look. “Your parents won’t hear me talking?”

He shook his head, occupying his hands by locking up the door, taking the other’s shoes and putting them on an empty shoebox, then offering to get his coat and put it on a hanger. “My mom’s room is on the other side of the house, she can’t hear anything. Or else she’d think I’m insane, when I talk with Mona.”

“Mmh, touché.”

But then, once his hands were finally empty, he realized he didn’t even know what he should be doing under these circumstances. He had imagined Akechi coming over to his room before, but usually they skipped right to the meatier moments, and he didn’t need to think about whether he should offer him to sit on his bed, or his desk chair. He hesitated for a moment, but decided to go for it : “You can sit down wherever you want. Make yourself at home.”

Akechi looked taken aback. He shrugged. “I’m okay standing up, thanks.” 

“Okay. I can also… go fetch you a drink, too, if you want?”

This time, he frowned. “What’s gotten into you? Just…” He rolled his eyes. “Let’s actually sit down, yeah, why not.”

He settled on the bed, and Akira followed him gingerly, nervously licking his lips when his knee brushed Akechi’s. His heartbeat was quickening, too. He didn’t know why Akechi was here. And at this moment, it didn’t matter. Because they had never been this close in months, maybe ever – so close he could probably count his eyelashes, feel the heat on his cheeks – and he almost wanted to just stay there for a while and simply look at him. Take it all in. The reddish hue of his pupils. The gentle slope of his nose. The slight jut of his upper lip.

He forced his nails into his palm to shake himself awake and stop staring. Akechi had definitely noticed though, at least that’s what his raised eyebrow was telling him. But Akira also realized that he’d considerably calmed down. Now that the shock had passed, he felt relieved. Akechi was there, breathing and alive, right next to him. The thought even made him chuckle incredulously. “So… You wanted to see me?”

Akechi slightly brushed his hair out of his face, his eyes fixated downwards. “Yes, I should go straight to the point, I guess. I’m going back to Tokyo tomorrow.”

His stomach immediately dropped. Far away, in an echo, he suddenly heard everything his friends had been telling him for days. They were never concerned about how but about when, and now, he finally understood why. He had deliberately blinded himself to this possibility, convinced that he had enough time in front of him, that the hardest was behind them. And now, Akechi was leaving. Again.

The words escaped him in a breath – a burning, aching one. “Already? Why? Why the hurry? You were still bedridden a few days ago.”

“I wasn’t,” he snapped back. “I was tired, and I needed rest, sure, but I’m perfectly fine now. And this couldn’t last, anyway. I can’t exactly stay at Hanamura’s place forever – I’ll snap his neck if he asks me for ‘girls’ advices’ one more time – and I also need to get an actual life back. I have no clothes, no phone, no ID, no money, some of it is in a safe place in Tokyo, so yeah, I should go as soon as possible. I’ll also need to meet with Sae, so we can see where I stand juridically speaking – I might even need protection in case Shido’s men find me again. There’s…” He groaned. “So much stuff I need to do, now.”

Akira slowly nodded. This all made sense. This was the next logical step to take. But suddenly, he felt a tremor, deep in his chest. Something that constricted his lungs, ran up to his vocal cords, and made him completely speechless, stuck in a silent cry, to beg Akechi to stop right there, to stop talking, because February 2nd was happening again, and he hadn't learned his lesson. He was physically unable to say anything, while Akechi kept going, pulling the knife out of his gut to stab him one more time.

“Considering the current situation, it didn’t feel right for me to leave without at least seeing you once,” he continued, clearly unaware of the storm raging inside Akira’s brain at this precise moment. “Not just to thank you, but also to say goodbye. I guess I could’ve seen you during the day, I probably could’ve gone to your school, but I wanted to do it privately. That’s why I asked Morgana to show me the way to your house.”

“I see.”

Akechi looked taken aback by his short, simple answer. He opened his mouth, thinking about his words for a moment, and finally, he sighed : “Stop looking at me like that, Kurusu. I’m just going back to Tokyo. I’m not saying we’ll never see each other ever again. You did a lot for me, it wouldn’t be proper of me to disappear like a thief – as ironic as it would be. But I need to get my life back in order.”

He clasped his hands together, gritting his teeth while finally avoiding Akira’s gaze. “I’ve spent years waiting for my plans to work out, for my thirst for revenge to be satiated. And I had nothing planned after that. I still don’t. I… have nothing left, except for this annoying, little will to try.” His mouth curled downwards like he was irritated, even though Akira hadn’t said anything. “So yeah, I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but I’m leaving. It’s probably very sudden, and I wish I could’ve had more time to express my gratitude towards you, but… this is happening, and there’s nothing you can say that would make me change my mind.”

At last, he raised a look towards Akira, almost daring him to do the exact opposite of what he’d said. And he was nothing if not a crowd pleaser, because he didn’t even need to think about it too long, instantly replying with a crooked smile : “Even if I beg?”

Akechi actually looked startled. Then, confused. And, finally, delighted, as a wolfish grin started pulling at his lips. Because he liked that answer, although he’d never say it out loud. “Such a sentimental moron. You truly never learned.”

“I try,” he answered with a light voice. “I don’t mind being sentimental. That’s how I show I care.”

Akechi shook his head, defeated, but his smile was still right there. Meanwhile, Akira had to shake off the weight of disillusion. He was truly unable to say anything that would change Akechi’s mind, because he was right. He needed to go back to Tokyo as soon as possible, or else he’d be in trouble. He had no reason to wait for Akira. He never gave him one.

He had no argument in his favor. His only option left, now, was to act.

“I understand,” he ended up admitting, almost in a whisper. “I don’t like it, but I truly get it. I’m just being selfish.”

To this, Akechi had the gall to laugh. This made Akira’s eyebrows shoot up. “Oh my god, Kurusu, seriously? You’re a lot of things, but selfish is not one of them. You gathered strangers and came to my rescue for no reason except that you wanted to help me. Mindless, sure. But selfish? Come on now.”

He wasn’t expecting Akechi to actually compliment him – in his own twisted way. And despite the still growing disappointment in his chest, this managed to cheer him up a little, as well as give him a small bit of strength back. He didn’t look away, staring right into Akechi’s eyes, when he said : “That’s where you’re wrong. I had a reason to save you, and it was very, very selfish.”

At first, the other looked like he wanted to laugh again, probably because he thought he was joking. But seeing Akira’s serious, unwavering stare made him slowly reconsider. He sobered up, confusion written all over his face. “What do you mean? What’s that reason?”

The breath Akira took in at that moment felt like the last one. It filled him up entirely, as his stomach lurched, the feeling of emptiness so close under him, like he was on some small equilibrium and one small little breeze would make him fall through the ground. He actually tried to find the words, for a moment. He wondered if he should maybe just show him, instead. But strangely, a memory came to him, and the warm fuzziness that overcame him made him answer, his voice as mellow as honey : “I want you to stop calling me Kurusu. Akira is fine.”

It took a second for realization to illuminate Akechi’s face. His eyes widened, his posture straightened up, and his cheeks even started darkening while his brows furrowed in some barely-contained embarrassment. “You… You’re kidding me, right?”

This was Akira’s last straw. He needed to jump. Akechi was too close, too open, he had to make his way in right now. He snapped his hand right around the other’s collar, pulling him flush against his chest, so he could finally let their lips connect as he’d been craving for ages. He closed his eyes to savor the feeling, the warm, wet, soft and pliant skin against his mouth, the sensation of it pushing back, briefly locking them in a molten embrace of heat against heat – skin, breath, heart burning with want and hunger. He felt weightless, like everything had led him to this moment, time stopping for this half-second of ecstasy and relief. 

And then the landing happened. Akechi wrenched himself out of his grip, looking positively furious. He didn’t try to move away from his spot on the bed, though, Akira noticed. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Somewhere during the kiss, Akira’s self-preservation seemed to have vanished. Because despite the look of true fury in the other’s eyes, he had the gall to smirk – too relieved to have finally managed to do it, to care about his negative reaction. “I kissed you. If you didn’t get it the first time, I could do it again?”

This time, Akechi pushed his cheek away in a vague slap, although the heart wasn’t there. It hurt a little bit, but it didn’t manage to wipe off his grin. “You asshole,” he seethed, now bright red. “Just because you saw some stuff in my Palace doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want.”

“Sorry,” he replied, still a little bit sheepish. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while now, I got a little overwhelmed.”

“A while?”

“Yeah. A big, long while.”

Akechi frowned, clearly not happy with his answer. He snapped back : “Your girlfriend would be thrilled to hear that.”

It was time for Akira to be offended, this time. “Huh? Wait, you think I have a girlfriend? That’s why you’re being all bitchy about this?”

That was the moment Akechi seemed to realize he overreacted a little. Still, his stubbornness prevented him from admitting he might’ve been wrong : “It doesn’t matter, seeing something in someone’s Palace doesn’t allow you to draw conclusions from it.”

“Okay, so tell me what conclusions I was supposed to draw, when your own Shadow’s happy ending had me in it?” Akechi’s mouth curled distastefully. “Or when Black Phoenix flirted with me through a chess game?” His eyes widened. Oh. He wasn’t aware of that part. “Or when he was so relieved to learn his feelings for me didn’t make me upset, he kissed me as if he’d been dying to do so for ages?”

“He did wha-”

Akira interrupted him with a finger against his lips, and the strangest part was that Akechi actually let him do it. Little by little, Akira was punching his way through his walls. And he was so close.

“And you. You, who got jealous over Haru, even though we broke up months ago, because of you.” Akechi’s eyes widened even more, if that was truly possible. His lips were slightly open behind Akira’s index finger, but he wasn’t moving away. “You, who was so scared of what I could find in your treasure room. Because you wouldn’t care if it was someone else. It was because it was me. Right?”

Akechi swallowed, shoulders so high they almost reached his ears. He was still as red as a cherry, but now, his eyes almost looked desperate – for Akira to stop, or keep talking, it was hard to know. He decided to assume it was probably the latter. “Come on, tell me. What did you think was behind that door, exactly? I’m curious.”

He finally caved in, closing his eyes in shame : “... oh my god, Kurusu–”

“Wrong name.”

“... Okay.” He directed a glare towards him, eyebrows low. “You’ve made your point, Akira. Now, shut up.”

And he had been waiting for this. Because that’s when he finally removed his hand, sliding it over Akechi’s cheek instead – curling his fingers around the hair near his ear, stroking the back of his neck, bringing his face so close he could feel the other’s breath on his skin – and whispered : “Make me.”

He didn’t think it was possible, but Akechi grabbing him by the hair and kissing him felt even better than earlier. The feel of him then relaxing and sighing in his mouth, closing his eyes in pleasure when Akira kissed him right back, his thumb stroking the duvet of his cheek while his other hand slid on the bed to cover Akechi’s. His heartbeat tripped when he felt fingers tentatively come and lock with his own.

It wasn’t Akira’s first kiss, far from it. And yet, it felt like a whole new experience. He’d never felt this exhilarating feeling before. Maybe because he’d only kissed girls, or maybe Akechi Goro was just that special. But at that moment, he knew he never wanted to kiss anyone else – ever. This was everything he’d wanted, if not more.

And Akechi was not even that good at it. He clearly struggled with where to put his other hand, almost bumping his nose against Akira’s when he started deepening the kiss, tentatively brushing his tongue against the other’s and jerking back like he’d been electrified – before diving right back, hungry for more. Another day, Akira would tease him about his inexperience – who would’ve thought, coming from the oh so popular detective prince – but at this moment, he only wanted to enjoy it to its fullest, and make Akechi enjoy it too. If this was his first kiss, then he wanted it to be the best thing he’d ever experienced. Make it worth his while, so he never, never even thought of trying it with someone else.

The thought made him squeeze his hand even harder, as a surge of possessiveness ran through him. He almost climbed on Akechi’s lap, settling for sliding a knee on the mattress and facing the other properly, almost chest against chest. The movement made his friend gasp in his mouth, and he had to jerk back a moment to catch his breath – but Akira wouldn’t let him go. His mouth kissed his jaw, then his neck, and when Akechi took a shivering intake of air, whispering his name right in his ear, Akira groaned because he was already getting hard.

That wouldn’t do, he told himself, forcing himself to slow down. Akira released his grip on Akechi’s hair, which earned him another shuddering gasp, and stroked the skin apologetically before sliding down over to his shoulder and pectoral. He licked his lips, hypnotized by the sight of Akechi’s – red, moist, almost swollen – and had to clear his throat to manage to talk : “Hey. While we’re at it… Could I call you Goro, starting now?”

Akechi blinked, like he was trying to wake from his daze. He swallowed, lips closing tightly as he finally raised his red eyes back to Akira’s, so shiny despite how blown out his pupils were. And he just chuckled, like he could barely believe what he was hearing. “You can call me whatever the fuck you want.”

Akira felt his smile widen so much it hurt his cheeks. He couldn’t help but steal one, two, three more kisses, which Goro immediately turned into more making out, like he didn’t care how breathless or unkept he was. Because the detective was a lot of things, but mainly one of the most intense people he knew – and he seemed like he was still hungry for more, which Akira was glad to provide.

“God, I like you so much, Goro, you have no idea…” he murmured in between kisses, because he wanted to and also just to hear the way it made the other gasp.

“Oh yeah?” he said, like hearing those words didn’t turn him into putty. “Which part do you like so much? The part that was beating you at pool, or the one with the gun between your eyes?”

“Both are hot, but I’ll pick the one where you would bend over and let me have a good look at your ass.”

He replied with a nip on Akira’s lip, but had clearly already forgiven him, considering the way he dove back inside his mouth. He looked like he wanted to get control of the kiss this time, so Akira let him, leaving his hands on Goro’s waist and struggling to not let them slide lower.

Any restraint Goro had earlier seemed to have faded away. Contrary to Akira, he didn’t hesitate to throw his leg over the other’s lap, arms curled around his neck while he deepened the kiss. And while he was pretty okay with that development, he still felt the need to wrench his mouth away. “Hey, you might wanna slow down there.”

“Why?” he answered dryly, almost like he was offended to have been cut-off. “Not to your taste anymore?”

“The opposite, actually,” he chuckled, brushing Goro’s back as if to appease him. “But if you keep going, it’s gonna be hard to keep my cool, if you know what I mean.”

Goro raised an eyebrow, almost disdainful. “Yeah? Isn’t that the point of what we’re doing?”

Akira groaned, head falling against Goro’s chest. “I don’t know? I just don’t wanna go too fast. It’s not only about your ass, here. It’s way more.”

He felt fingers going through his hair, almost tenderly running through his curls. “Hey, Akira. Look at me.”

His reaction was almost Pavlovian – hearing his name made him instantly raise his head, eyes looking for Goro’s. He bit his lip, breathing back to a somewhat normal rhythm, and kept talking : “Do you… know when, exactly, I started wanting you?”

Akira wasn’t expecting that, and he immediately shook his head, hanging to his every word. Goro chuckled, amused by the way Akira’s eyes started sparkling with curiosity. “I don’t know,” Akira confessed. “Knowing you, it could be either when we went to the bathhouse together, or when you told me you hated my guts. You’re a pretty hard guy to read.”

“Hmm.” He lowered his head, as his smile turned malicious, and his forehead met with Akira’s, while his legs bracketing his lap tightened around him. “It was before that.”

Oh? He tried again, feeling the heat in his lower belly ignite again when Goro’s hand started playing with the hem of his shirt : “When you brought me to Jazz Jin, then?”

“Even earlier.”

Oh god. He swallowed, completely overwhelmed by the other’s heated gaze, goosebumps running over his arms. “When you… talked about switching clothes?”

His ominous chuckle made him shiver. Goro brushed his lips against his cheek, until he reached his ear, and there, he whispered : “From the very first time we met, in that television studio. You infuriated me, with your debonair attitude, the way you slouched on your chair like you didn’t even care about being there. I thought about pushing you on your knees, in the studio’s bathroom, just to make a mess out of those dumb fake glasses.”

Akira almost choked on his spit, which did nothing but make Goro even more smug – if that was even possible. He kept going, his voice low and dripping with self-satisfaction over seeing Akira squirm under him. “My point is…” He lowered his hips, and Akira finally felt him, hard and poking against his thigh. “When a horny virgin who thought he was going to die, and has also been attracted to you from day one, is on your lap and asking you to fuck him – you can probably stop having second thoughts.” 

“Whoa, fuck, okay. Got it.”

But Goro looked like he wasn’t done making his point. He straightened up and pulled at the back of his borrowed t-shirt that swiftly ended up on the floor. And while it wasn’t the first time Akira saw him half-naked, this was also the first time he was allowed to look so closely – while also being aware of how attracted to the other man he was. He vividly remembered being highly strung up after their bath together, shamefully looking away, as if he knew, deep down, that he wouldn’t be able to look respectfully.

Now, he clearly didn’t have to. He didn’t ask, when he slid his hands over the other’s abs, feeling the slight bumps of past scars that didn’t heal properly, the taut curves of his waist’s muscles, the hard feeling of his ribs. Higher, right under his pectorals, the thinner skin was almost burning under his palms. And above that, pink nipples, that he felt hardening between his fingers.

Goro was silent while Akira followed with his tranquil exploration. He wasn’t doing much, just touching the skin, brushing against sensitive zones, and going to the next. He stroked the dip of his collarbones, then slid upwards, against the bony part of his shoulders, to better go down against the swell of his biceps, along the soft hair of his forearms, and to envelop hands as large as his.

This was also a first for him, after all. He’d learn to touch more feminine bodies, and while the concept was pretty similar, the feeling in his guts, as he explored more, wasn’t. Goro’s body wasn’t like his own – he had more muscles, while also being slightly curvier. This was a man’s body, and once again, Akira felt deep inside him how this actually managed to scratch an itch he’d probably had ever since he’d become sexually aware. This was what he’d always wanted, deep down. He just wasn’t able to accept it. He’d quickly pushed it away, deeming it ridiculous, a passing fancy.

But when Akira finally let his hands slide around the other’s hips, to grab his ass and push him against his crotch, rolling his hips to meet Goro’s erection, feeling the hardness against his own growing one – it was like electricity along his column. Hearing the lower voice slightly breaking on a pleased groan, and then the replying gesture of Goro grabbing his shoulders and panting as he closed his eyes and continued to move right against him – this wasn’t even foreplay, this was barely anything more than making out, and yet, he felt like he’d never been more aroused in his entire life.

Suddenly, Goro straightened up and stood up from his lap, leaving Akira breathless and also completely unaware of what was going on. He quickly got his answer in the form of Goro’s hand flying to his pants’ buttons and zipper, sliding out of it and also his underwear, freeing his erection – dark pink, with only a small trimmed bush above it. He nodded towards Akira. “Am I supposed to do all the work here, or do you just like keeping your clothes on during sex?”

Akira, at this moment, was not even sure he was still capable of talking. He swallowed hard, almost ashamed by how he felt his mouth water from seeing Goro’s cock. He’d wondered, at first, when he was still struggling with his feelings and the consequences that came with being attracted to a man – how he’d feel from seeing another guy’s cock, in real life and not just in porn. And he had his answer : he desperately wanted to have it in his mouth. Suck it, feel it harden against his palate, taste the precum, swirl his tongue over the glistening head, feel Goro’s hand grasp his hair, pushing him deeper…

He cleared his throat and forced himself to look away for one second, pretending to be interested in the contents of his desk’s lower drawer, throwing condoms and lube onto his bed. Then he started pulling at the strings of his sweatpants, finding his hands slightly shaking from excitement. It all stopped, however, once he felt warmth against his back, the slightly taller man having finally decided to take charge of this for him. Goro covered his hands with his own, and whispered right into his ear : “You’re too slow. I’ll do it.”

Akira gladly gave up leadership temporarily. At that moment, he genuinely didn’t mind letting Goro do anything he wanted with him. Reverse their position and finger Akira until he was crying and begging. Catch him, gag him, restrict his movements and use him like a toy. Use his mouth on him and tease him, bringing him so close to orgasm to deny him from it, again, and again.

Luckily for him, what Goro wanted right now was much more straightforward. Maybe it was revenge for how Akira had just spent minutes doing nothing but slowly explore his body – but he took his time getting him out of his clothes, too. He slid a hand under his t-shirt, tickling his abs and then lower belly, letting his fingers comb through his happy trail. Then, Goro’s other hand pulled the shirt upwards, exposing his chest as he pushed his chin against Akira’s shoulder, as if he wanted to see but not move away from his position against his back.

Goro was a virgin, he was inexperienced, sure, but what Akira was slowly understanding was that it didn’t matter, when you knew how to make people squirm. And in that field, Goro was a true master. After teasing him, tracing around his chest, letting the cloth get lower just to tease his nipples through it, he dove his other hand in his underwear, circling his dick. He gasped, both from surprise and also this needy part of him that kept begging for more, and he heard Goro chuckle in his ear.

Soon, he pushed the hem of Akira’s shirt under his chin, silently telling him to keep it like that while his other hand took care of lowering his pants down his hips. Akira had to close his eyes, almost embarrassed to see his cock spring out in the cold air, the way his thighs almost trembled under him, while his body asked for nothing but to collapse against the man holding him up, especially when his hand started stroking slowly, stopping at the tip to play with his foreskin, pulling it over and down the head until it was shiny with precum.

“I’ve been chatting a lot, it won’t do…” Goro murmured again, voice a little rough, as if he was getting a little bit too excited himself and was barely keeping his composure. “Why don’t you tell me more about your little fantasies, hm?” His nose came to brush against his cheek, and Akira keened after a very good downward stroke. “You said it yourself. A big, long while, was it? You must’ve kept yourself occupied, when you were all alone in this room. Or maybe…” His movements suddenly turned a little rougher, thumb digging against his frenulum to make Akira jerk against his hand. “Maybe even with your cute little girlfriend.”

Shame tore through him immediately, and the more terrible thing was that he also hardened, thrusting into Goro’s hand, who seemed obviously delighted by the discovery. “Holy shit, did you actually?” he asked, his voice almost shivery, and this time, he pulled Akira’s shirt over his head and pushed his dick against his lower back, almost between his ass cheeks. “Tell me. Was it the only way you could cum, when you were with her? Or were you just that kind of scumbag, who likes to think of other people when they fuck?”

“I never…” His words were broken by a moan, when Goro started getting tired of this position, and finally let Akira turn around, pushing him so he’d lie on his back on the bed. “I could never do that to her, it’s too mean.”

“But you did something,” Goro said with a grin, climbing over Akira’s lap and taking the lube in hand. He repeated : “What did you do? Tell me.”

“While you’re fingering yourself?”

He answered with a raised brow. “Yeah. And I might let you do it for me if you hurry and start talking.”

Akira was almost tempted to shut up and enjoy the show, but as soon as Goro started getting into a comfortable position, cock dripping on his lap, so close to his own weeping one, and he pushed the first finger inside himself, he lost all kind of restraint. Goro wanted him to talk. So he’d talk. It was so embarrassing, he thought he might die, but it was also the hottest thing he’d ever seen. He just had to do his part, now.

“She wasn’t there. We were on the phone. I had just arrived back here, and she called to know how I was doing. It started as pretty innocent, saying stuff like “I miss you”, and that kind of things. But then, uh…”

Goro had considerably slowed down to listen to him talking. He waited a moment, and then said : “Hey, forget the details. Just get down to it, and don’t embarrass yourself with her side of the story – I genuinely don’t wanna know.”

“I wasn’t going to,” he snapped back, because of course he wouldn’t bring Haru into this right now – she was his friend and he would never disrespect her like that, not even for the hottest role play in the world.

“Good. Now back to you trying and failing to be straight – you tried to have phone sex with her. What’s next?”

He swallowed, because Goro took that opportunity to add another finger – and he had to say : “Slow down first, you’re gonna hurt yourself.”

“I’m not,” he groaned back, eyelids fluttering briefly. “Remember that I had time to kill recently. Keep going.”

That was quite a lot to take in – but he didn’t say anything. After all, he had a story to go back to. And he'd have time to think back to this image another day.

“It… was nice at first. I’m kinda sensitive to sound, so it quickly worked on me. We didn’t use our cameras, only the speakers. But I talked, and she talked, and she sounded so close, but I just… wasn’t.” He bit his lip, while Goro added a bit more lube on his fingers, and circled his dick with the others. He was listening, and he didn’t want this to end too quickly. So Akira started getting more into the story : “At the time, I already knew I liked you, but I could never really think of you… like that. It hurt too much to simply think about you. But right then, I was desperate. I didn’t want to fake an orgasm – it was going so well, and I still thought we could make it work somehow.”

Goro nodded, his fingers thrusting in and out to a slow rhythm, not even trying to get off anything, just stimulating himself, opening up, and waiting for the ball to drop. “So what did you do?”

“First, I tried to imagine her being next to me. Just her doing her own thing, not even adding myself in the scenario. I couldn’t. I felt like I was actually losing my boner, with how shitty I felt. And then I…”

The words were caught in his throat and he had to close his eyes, pushing his forearm against it, as if to hide. But Goro pushed it away from his face, and even caught his glasses between two fingers, throwing them away. “Then…?”

His chest shook, his cock wept from being denied of any attention. Goro’s fingers made a slick sound when they went out of his hole, and all the air inside Akira’s chest was pushed out of it when the dripping hand took both of their cock and started stroking them together.

“Then I… I imagined you instead, fuck.”

Goro nodded, slightly breathless as his hand stroked them both, rolling their hips closer, together. “What was I doing?”

“Nothing,” he groaned, torn between the desire to keep looking at Goro’s hand, and to look away, to keep his cool as long as he could. “You were right there, watching me, looking absolutely disgusted… Telling me how stupid, and weak, and nasty I was, and…”

Goro’s face lit up like a goddamn Christmas tree. He lived to hear Akira’s most shameful sides, and this he would be able to tease him with until the end of time. “And you came from that? From me being mean to you?” he teased while tightening his hold on their cocks.

“Fuck you,” he immediately replied, so utterly mortified and also aroused, he didn’t know why he was red anymore.

“Soon,” he breathed out, because he was also getting close to his tipping point. “That explains everything, too.” He smirked, like the villain he was. “You have to be quite the masochist, to fall for someone who not only betrayed you, but also tried to murder you.”

“I… guess,” he whined, but also unable to stop anymore. “One moment I felt like I would just have to grunt and fake it, and the next I was coming so hard I had to mute myself.”

Goro hummed, and he looked like he was also approaching his breaking point. He still asked : “Did you ever think about this scenario again?”

Akira nodded, another moan escaping his lips. He saw his friend licking his lips, his gaze lidded as he watched him, cheeks rosy and his breathing deepening with every passing moment. “Noted. We’ll… explore more of that another time.”

And while he’d probably think about this again later, about the fact that this wasn’t a one time thing – at that moment, his brain was too focused on the body flushed against his. He circled his arms around Goro’s waist, dipping his fingers lower, into the lube that almost dripped out of his hole, and pushed them in. He didn’t even try going slow, he’d seen how open he was, and the pleased sounds that followed confirmed his theory. Goro grabbed unto his shoulders, anchoring himself while he continued rutting against Akira, and, at last, he gasped : “I’m good, just get inside me already.”

To this, Akira nodded, not in the mood to tease or be cocky anymore. Goro let him push him down, his back against the mattress, legs around his waist. He slid a cushion under his hips, just in case, and finally rolled a condom on his cock, sliding down until it met the wet entrance. Then he quickly glanced upwards, and when he saw Goro looking down, almost vibrating against him, Akira couldn’t help but thrust in.

He had to close his eyes momentarily, just to control himself and not come on the spot. It was definitely not like his previous experiences. Anal sex felt… tighter. Almost a little too much, it was suffocating. He almost pulled out, tempted to add more lube to the already lubricated condom, but Goro grabbed him by the hair and pulled him into a devouring kiss.

This was the most breathless he’d ever felt kissing someone. Like he had a fever – molten heat running through his veins, sweat dripping along his column, the back of his thighs. Goro kissed him like he was parched – sucking on his lower lip and tightening his hold, making it downward painful. He pushed down, legs wrapped up around him, begging him to get deeper.

“Akira,” he murmured against his lips, barely letting him breathe. “Move.”

“I can’t,” he admitted, his voice breaking. “It’s too much, I… I need a moment.”

Yes, he definitely needed a moment, he realized once Goro released his hold a little bit, letting him gasp for air, head falling on the cushion next to his friend’s, wetly panting while he tried to will his hips and thighs to stop trembling. His arms curled tight around Goro’s midriff, hugging him, pressing him against his chest while he tried to relax – his body, and his mind.

And Goro didn’t make fun of him for it. He started stroking along his back, relaxing his legs to simply entwine them with Akira’s. He whispered : “Okay. I’m not going anywhere.”

This made him chuckle, just a light little airy laugh, and he managed to push against his elbows and stare at Goro again, now that the heat had been simmered to tolerable. He’d never seen him look so open. He gazed at his bruised lips, at the hint of wetness in the corner of his eyes, the way his hair fell around the pillow – curling slightly at the tip. He’d softened up inside, too – still burning hot around him, but not as overwhelming as before.

He pressed down a kiss on his lips, brushing along his jaw. The following one lasted a little bit longer, and Goro closed his eyes. By the third one, Akira was once again deepening it while his lover started slowly rolling his hips, beckoning him further. Without even noticing, he’d gotten all the way inside, and when he finally pulled out to slowly thrust back, the sound that echoed from deep inside Goro’s chest felt like a signal for him to, at last, get to work.

He tried to build up a rhythm, which was hard, considering how easy it could be to lose focus, with such a lover. Sometimes he just got lost into thinking about how gorgeous Goro was, or how good he felt, or how good he sounded, how nice he smelled – the list was endless. One thing for sure, however, was that Goro didn’t seem to mind at all. As soon as Akira started thrusting inside him, hands pressing into his hips, his legs came back around him to accompany his movements. When Akira pressed against his best spots, he softly gasped and told him to do it again, completely lost in his pleasure. No more thinking for the detective prince. Only feeling.

The bed was softly creaking, sheets ruffling around them when Akira tried to go deeper, straightening up, grabbing Goro by his sweaty hips to let gravity help him. This was what made Goro moan out loud, and he wondered for a second if it was actually possible for his mom to hear them. He forced himself to calm down, and even if Goro groaned disapprovingly, it wasn’t like Akira could hold on for very long before going back to truly letting his hips slap against his ass.

Akira was starting to get lost in his own pleasure, desperate to keep rutting away, make Goro whine – and he burrowed his face against his neck, sucking on the thin skin, on the beads of sweat rolling down, and hoping to leave his mark. He shivered when he felt the pulse of his throat, the vibrations when a thrust made Goro’s voice break.

And then he suddenly heard it. The most beautiful yet incongruous sound he’d ever heard. Goro laughed.

He slowed down his rhythm, raising his head and pushing his wet curls back to see what was so funny – or if he was just ticklish – but Goro didn’t stop chuckling, eyes fixated on the ceiling and one hand in front of his mouth, as if he wanted to muffle the sounds. Akira tried to join him – although his own laugh was more nervous than anything else : “What’s so funny?”

“Ah, nothing,” he quickly answered, sniffing and then working out his jaw, as if to keep it closed and keep out another round of giggles. “It’s stupid. Sorry.”

“C’mon, tell me. It’s probably not as bad as what I told you earlier, is it?”

A roll of the eyes answered him, but it helped Goro in getting a grip over his fit. He cleared his voice, then let his hand travel along Akira’s shoulder, stroking the skin almost pensively. “It’s really nothing. I just realized that…” Another snort escaped him. “I came here to wish you goodbye, but instead I’m getting fucked. That’s not how I thought this would go.”

Akira couldn’t help scowling. He didn’t want to remember that part of their earlier conversation. So he chose to be a brat and pushed his head against Goro’s shoulder once again, kissing and softly sucking on the skin. “No one’s forcing you to leave tomorrow, you know. You could stay one more week.”

Goro sneered. “Oh yeah, to do what? Keep sneaking into your house like your own little boy toy, instead of trying to be responsible?”

“Hmm,” he sighed, slowly starting to roll his hips again. “Sounds like a great plan to me.”

“You fell for the wrong fucking guy, then,” he said bluntly. “And your dick is not gonna make me change my mind. I’m going to Tokyo tomorrow.”

Akira left a bite mark on his neck, just to punish him for being so stubborn – and Goro gasped. “And what about my extremely charming demeanor?”

He simply shook his head disapprovingly, and dove back against Akira’s mouth, probably to shut him up and make him start fucking him again. Still, he wasn’t done talking, and as soon as he’d readjusted his position, his hips back to a rhythm – slower but deeper than before – he pulled away from Goro’s lips and whispered : “C’mon. Just a few more days.”

Goro groaned – from the penetration or his words, he didn’t know – and gritted his teeth to snap back between two intakes of breath : “Narukami is… haa, going back to Nagoya tomorrow, and, ngh, he’s offered to pay for my train fare. It’s… only for a few months.”

“You know, I still don’t know if my mom would actually let me study in Tokyo,” Akira replied slowly. “She was definitely against it, and now that I’m grounded, it’s gonna be even harder to convince her.” He pouted. “It might not be months, but years before we see each other again.”

Goro squinted, as if he wasn’t sure if he should believe Akira. “God,” he ended up groaning, rolling his eyes. “You’re so annoying. Guilt-tripping me won’t work either.”

Akira replied with a kiss, slowing down to languidly thrust his tongue inside Goro’s mouth instead. In this position, and at this point of their love-making – perspiration shining on their foreheads, spit rolling down their jaw – this kind of kiss was dizzying. It felt like they were trying to fuse together, connected inside and out, sticky skin stuck together, mouths devouring each other, hands in hair. All of his desperation – for Goro to listen to his selfish request, to leave his worries for another day, to finally be with him, at long last – was in there. In this deep, desperate kiss.

“Please,” Akira whispered, because he did say earlier that he was not beyond begging.

He felt Goro shiver right against him, and return the kiss eagerly, like he would never get tired of this. However, after the second, then third time he heard Akira’s plea, that’s when he finally broke down. He sighed through his nose, eyes clenched shut, and grabbed him by the cheeks to wrench him away. “Fine!” he conceded. “I’ll think about it, okay? But you better fuck me hard enough I can’t walk tomorrow.”

Akira didn’t need to be told twice. He grabbed the other by the waist and dragged him on his lap, getting a small cry of surprise, followed by a delicious cry of pleasure. Goro let himself get moved around, melting against Akira’s chest, head falling over his shoulder while his hips tried to meet the others under him, his legs too shaky to be able to ride him.

And Akira was getting close to his limit too – he could feel exhaustion crawling over his limbs, his waist starting to scream, especially now that he had to thrust upwards. But he held on, focusing on the sparks of heat inside him, the friction and wet channel sucking him in, the heavy and hard body grinding against him, their skin sticking together, his cock leaving wet trails all over his abs.

He managed to sneak a hand in between them, and Goro almost wailed when he felt his erection finally getting some attention. He trembled against him, voice breaking and arms tightening around Akira’s shoulders, scratching his back. There was no rhythm anymore, just unadulterated lust, to slam in and out, take their own pleasure and get closer to their tipping point.

And Akira was close, so close he felt like he was actually going to die. He’d never felt this shaky, this desperate and yet still yearning for more, for it to never stop. His hand kept stroking, and Goro kept squirming, his head so wet he had to be only seconds away from coming himself. As his voice got raspier, his moans higher, his body also kept tightening around him, spasms and waves of mounting pleasure, so close to reaching his own earth-shattering climax.

Akira felt it, when Goro came. First from inside, the way his body locked up, squeezing his dick so much it hurt. And then he felt it on his skin – come splattering on his belly, white shot after white shot spitting out of his dick, almost pulsating in his hand. And at last, he felt it inside his own body, too. Because the painful grip on his dick, the sight of Goro – sweat darkening his hair, eyes closed, mouth open, pert nipples and weeping dick – and the feeling of come covering his skin were enough to make him reach his own peak.

His arms squeezed Goro’s waist so hard, Akira probably left marks, and he thrust up so violently the slap of skin resonated lewdly throughout the room. All sound around him turned to fuzzy noise for a few seconds, white flashing behind his eyelids when he came. He buried himself inside Goro, and he did it again, and one more time, shooting so much cum he feared he would be empty for weeks after that. His hips jumped one last time – mostly from oversensitivity – and, at last, he let it all out in a long, shuddering moan turned gasp, as if he’d forgotten to breathe.

His arms were shaking when he came back to his senses, and he let himself drop forward, bringing Goro with him and using his chest to cushion his landing. The other groaned under him, weakly slapping his shoulder and telling him to be fucking gentle, and Akira wasn’t able to answer with anything other than a tired but contented grin.

They spent the next few hours together, first cleaning up and then falling into bed again. Soon enough, they were back to making out lazily, talking about a few things in between – about life in Inaba, about his friends in Tokyo, about Morgana who, hopefully, didn’t try to sneak back in only to stumble on them being very occupied. Akira didn’t try to ask him to stay again. Goro had told him he’d think about it, and it was already more than he could’ve expected. He didn’t want to be a pushover, especially when they also had so much more to discuss, and then when Akira's mouth started trailing south down Goro's body, desperate for at least one little taste.

Still, when it was finally time for Goro to get his clothes back on, sneak down the staircase then outside his house, and closing Akira’s gate behind him, the question fell out of his lips again. He had to know if this was the last time he’d see Goro before at least a few months.

“...I’m sorry.” This apology, in the middle of the cold early, early morning, was his answer. 

Akira knew he shouldn’t feel his heart break from hearing this. Yet, it definitely felt like it. Goro looked away from him, eyes downwards, as if he didn’t want to see the dejection written all over Akira’s face. “I already told Narukami I was leaving with him tomorrow,” he tried to justify himself, despite how little strength there actually was in his words. “And it really wouldn’t make sense for me to tell him to wait. And I shouldn’t keep imposing myself at Hanamura’s.”

Akira nodded, throat tight and a pit in his stomach. He knew he had to stop being irrational. This wasn’t the end of the world. They’d see each other in a few months, once he had graduated and was back in Tokyo – and whether his mom liked it or not. It was mid-December already, that only meant what, three, four months to wait? Also, Goro would quickly get a new phone, and they’d be able to chat as much as they wanted. It was nothing. Time would fly.

But he was still incredibly frustrated. Disappointed. After all this time, all those months spent waiting for a miracle, for a new chance to be offered to him. And he’d jeopardized it, just because he was too much of a coward to simply make that final step before it was too late.

Goro looked a little bit uncomfortable, torn between telling Akira to grow up, and to be nice and reassure him. Thinking about it, he probably never actually had to comfort someone before. “I’m not going to disappear anymore, Akira,” he insisted, but his voice was too shaky to be convincing. “I’ve told you already. I’m not going anywhere. I have decided on a new path, and I’m not pushing you away this time. I swear.”

“I know that,” he quickly answered, because he could feel Goro’s panic rising. “This is not about that. It’s actually pretty dumb, but…”

He would probably not get rid of his insecurities regarding Goro anytime soon. It would take a while before he’d be able to look at him without thinking he might vanish in the time it would take him to blink. But he couldn’t tell that to Goro – that was unfair, because he absolutely couldn’t do anything about it. Not anything more than what he’d been already doing that night, at least.

However, he still had a question Goro might be able to answer. And no matter how silly it actually was, he decided he might as well go for it.

“Hey, Goro. This…” he finally managed to say, throat so tight his words were whispered, his breath creating condensation as he spoke. “This is not a one-time thing, right? Even if you go to Tokyo, I can bite the bullet and be sure that you won’t have changed your mind about me in a few months… right?”

He saw surprise in Goro’s eyes, then what looked like indignation. Of course. He was asking to be sure, because he didn’t want to regret not doing it later – but he knew the answer already. Akechi Goro didn’t sleep with anyone just for fun. He wasn’t that kind of guy. And it wasn’t out of gratitude from saving him, either. He liked Akira, that he knew. But he still wanted to hear it. Aloud.

At last, Goro sighed. Then, he beckoned Akira to lean closer, over the garden gate. Cheeks red – from the cold or embarrassment, he didn’t know – Goro crossed the gap between them, lips softly pecking Akira’s cheek.

“Alright. So, this,” he said slowly, voice rough, almost a whisper. “Is for coming to my rescue.”

Akira blinked, but before he could ask where this was coming from, Goro leaned over again, and this time, it’s his forehead that he kissed.

“This is to say goodnight, and see you soon… And this...”

Dawn started peeking through the clouds, just a few spots of pale rose far away on the horizon. And Goro finally pressed his lips against Akira’s, eyes closed, hand immediately coming up to cup the side of his face.

“Is because I love you,” he sighed, breath trembling against Akira’s chin, “Okay?”

He felt shivers running all over his arms, his back, his neck, followed by some profound heat. Likewise, Goro was beet red in front of him, all softness from his face evaporated, replaced by a scowl, as if he was actually annoyed he had to do this. Akira felt all the air escaping his lungs at once in the form of a brief, relieved laugh, and he replied with a large smile on his face : “Roger that.”

He stayed there for a long time, watching Goro’s back as he pushed his hands deep in his pockets and walked away. He didn’t look back towards Akira, and turned to a corner, disappearing from his sight. In his guts, he felt a painful twinge. A reminder of all the times he’d seen Akechi Goro walk away, and what it meant every time.

But this time was different, he also reminded himself. This time, Goro was not trying to leave his life. He was not ditching Akira after telling him that his feelings didn’t matter. On the contrary – his feelings had been heard, and answered. All that was left to do was wait for spring, pass his exams, get into university. In the meantime, Goro would get settled, get a new phone, start living again while waiting for Akira to fill up the spot by his side.

They would be fine.

Still, he couldn’t fall asleep after that. No matter how much Goro’s words helped him calm down and eased his mind, his brain wouldn’t stop showing him the sight of him – of his boyfriend – disappearing behind that building. It was so silly, but he also already knew those next months were going to suck, especially after getting a brief taste of what they could have. He wanted it all the time, right now. But things couldn’t be so simple.

He heard his mom start getting her breakfast ready, so he got up to join her, quickly backtracking to go to the bathroom and make sure he didn’t look like he’d had sex last night – and finally went downstairs. She didn’t act like anything was wrong when he arrived, mumbling him a good morning and hiding a yawn behind her newspaper, and it made him smile fondly.

Or at least, he thought things were as usual, but he caught her glancing at him several times, when she thought he wasn’t looking. He started sweating, nervous as he wondered if she actually knew everything. Maybe she’d seen Goro leave the house? Maybe she’s heard them? Maybe it was just easy to read from his face? He cleared his throat, and decided to go for it : “Do I have something on my face?”

Yuriko almost startled, and shook her head. She then finished her toast in two bites, getting up to get herself some more coffee. Something was definitely amiss, but he figured that if she’d actually seen him with Goro, she would’ve said something, except if the realization that her son was gay was what made her so jittery. At last, she seemed to steel her resolve, and she turned towards him. “Akira, um… About last night–”

…only to be cut-off by the house’s bell. They exchanged a look, wondering who it could be this early in the morning, and she went to the entrance to open the door while he forced himself to swallow more of his orange juice, now torn between his heartache and the fear of what his mom might want from him. He started thinking about their conversation of the previous evening, and it came back to him suddenly – his dumb question about loving someone, and never being able to tell them. Was it really still on her mind? Was she going to tell him something about her love life? He didn’t know whether he was super confused or super curious, now.

However, after a few minutes of her not coming back, he started seriously wondering who had come to visit them. He got up and walked out of the kitchen, slightly opening the door first to listen and make sure he could walk in.

“-are you here to arrest him...? Is that what it truly is?”

Akira frowned, heart slamming against his rib cage and blood turning to ice. He immediately pushed the door open, ready to confront whoever was here to ruin his morning even more.

However, he stopped in his tracks when he heard an airy, melodic laugh. Professional, polite, obviously fake. Dozens of memories came rushing back to him. Of Leblanc’s television, always on the news channel, which showed this clip again and again. Of a very stilted and awkward encounter in the middle of the street, while he chatted with Sumire after her tournament. Of the Shadow he’d met a few weeks ago, as he was kicking his ass at chess.

Goro was at his door and talking to his mom, wearing a pressed shirt, a suit jacket, leather gloves and a dark tie. He glanced towards Akira, and his mask stayed perfectly in place, acting like they’d not seen each other a few hours ago : “Oh, there he is. Good morning Akira, sorry I couldn’t text you beforehand – you know I lost my phone.”

Yuriko started glancing nervously between them, and she looked relieved from seeing Akira : “H-He’s telling me he knows you. Is that true? Do you know Akechi Goro?”

Her eyes were wide, and if he looked closely, maybe even a little bit shiny. He nodded dumbly, and when she frowned, clearly asking for him to elaborate, he cleared his throat, glancing at Goro who was now looking so goddamn smug, even with just one raised eyebrow. And sure, Akira had no fucking clue what was going on, but he could play along. “Yeah, we met in Tokyo. I told you I made some friends over there, right?”

“This is not a ‘friend’, this is Akechi Goro!” she insisted, before she gasped and turned back towards their guest. “I’m being so rude, I’m so sorry. Please, get in, do you want some coffee? Akira, find him some spare slippers, will you?”

Goro went inside like he owned the place, complimenting the house like it was actually his first time in here. Akira only had a second to catch his wrist and whisper furiously to him, while his mom was pouring a cup of coffee for their guest : “What's going on? Why are you here? I thought you were leaving?”

“Hey,” he groaned back, suddenly back to his normal self. “You were the one giving me puppy eyes earlier, so you should be happy. And I’m still leaving soon, I just asked Narukami if he could give me a few more days. I don’t even have Sae’s number, and I figure I shouldn’t just drop at her office like that.”

He almost couldn’t believe it, and for a moment, he even wondered if this was Maruki acting up again. But no. Goro was just there. He’d decided to indulge him and stay a little bit longer. And he just rang at his house, like that, to tell him. “Okay, but why didn’t you wait for me to leave for school or something? And what did you say to my mom?”

And Goro, little shit that he was, shrugged and had the gall to answer : “You’ll see.”

Soon enough, Yuriko was back and offering coffee to the young detective. He drank a sip with an appreciative sigh, although he probably thought it didn’t taste like much, especially compared Leblanc’s. “It’s perfect, thank you. It really is the best way to warm up during cold winters.”

Yuriko smiled, her fingers nervously clutched around her cup before she asked : “So… Why did you need to see Akira today?”

Goro nodded, lowering his cup, and then putting his good boy mask right back up on his face. He even laughed all bashfully, scratching the side of his neck when he answered : “Well, I actually came here to see you, Mrs Kurusu. This is the least I can do, after this huge misunderstanding.”

Confusion was written all over Yuriko’s face – and probably Akira's as well – so Goro kept going : “As you know, I’ve been collaborating with the police for a few cases. Nothing big or gruesome, of course, they wouldn’t let a minor see those things. But as it happens, that’s how I met Akira when he was still in Tokyo.”

He couldn’t help frowning a little bit, wondering where Goro was going with this, although he was starting to have a vague idea. “Ah…” his mom whispered, nodding along. “For a case, really? As… a suspect?”

“Oh no,” Goro laughed, shaking his hand. “Only a witness. You must’ve heard of this terrible story, about Shujin Academy’s P.E. teacher. I was there to give a hand, considering how many students there were, and Akira and I became friends after that.”

Yuriko nodded again, although she did look a bit lost.

“Long story short, Akira often helped me back then. He doesn’t look like it at first, but he’s got a knack for those things, and he always has a very interesting point of view that I often never consider myself. You could say he was my own little Watson,” he added with a wink, to which Akira had to bite his lip so he wouldn’t roll his eyes.

“I was very disappointed to see him leave, obviously, but we kept in touch. And since I was in the area a few weeks ago, we decided to meet up, just for old time’s sake. However…” He grimaced, and shook his head dejectedly. “Things got complicated.”

Goro then launched himself into a tale of him being in Yamanashi to investigate a corrupt politician, and how his carelessness blew his cover, and thus made him the target of some ‘unsavory individuals’. Which is why after being seen meeting with Akira, he had to make sure nothing happened to him, and the best way for that was for them to disappear for a few days, hidden in a safe house while waiting for the arrest to take place.

Yuriko gasped at that, taking the newspaper from before and opening it to the central pages : “This one? You’re talking about this arrest right here?”

Oh god, Akira realized. Goro had actually prepared his lie beforehand, even checking the recent news, so they’d support his story. He nodded solemnly. “Indeed. It was supposed to be done in secret, but the media caught wind of it. That’s also why I tried to keep Akira away – his criminal record has been wiped clean, but there are still traces of it in the police. If his involvement – even coincidental as it is – got out, it could be disastrous.”

“Yes, of course…” Yuriko said slowly, probably piecing things together herself now. “But wait, why were you in Junes when I found you, then?” she asked Akira, doubt back on her face.

He was speechless for a second, his brain working his hardest to find a good explanation. Thank god, months of being friends with Ryuji had taught him to bullshit his way out of many similar situations. “I was a part-timer there, remember? I just finished meeting with Yosuke, the manager, to apologize for skipping work on that weekend. I should’ve called you first but, uh, I… thought you wouldn’t like it if I did it on the phone.”

Yuriko looked appalled by his explanation, but thankfully, she didn’t think he was mature enough to not believe this to be an actual possibility. “But why didn’t you warn me? I…” She briefly closed her eyes in frustration. “I expected the worst, when you vanished like that.”

“I’m sorry, that was my fault,” Goro replied, lowering his head and shoulders in a bow until it was parallel to the table, hands on his knees. “If you knew what was going on, there was a potential risk of you being targeted as well. I couldn’t take that risk. I would never forgive myself, if anything happened to you, Mrs. Kurusu.”

Akira wanted to facepalm himself so hard it hurt – Goro could be such a sweet talker, when he wanted to. And it was so annoying to see his mom – quiet, cold, unimpressed Yuriko – eating right out of his hand. 

“A-And you said that the gun I found in your bag was fake…” she whispered to herself, as if she was slowly coming to the realization she’d had it wrong the whole time. “You weren’t lying. You gave it to him, in case something happened. Right?”

Goro nodded gravely, finally straightening himself up. “Yes. I was really scared for him. I didn’t know what would happen, once I wasn’t there to protect him anymore. Fighting is not his strong suit, after all.” Akira couldn’t help it – he kicked his shin from under the table. Goro’s lips quirked up, repressing a snort.

“I see. I…” Yuriko sighed, and it sounded like a relieved sigh – not an annoyed one anymore. “I would’ve never expected that. And I probably wouldn’t have believed Akira either…” she added, sounding a little bit ashamed of herself.

She suddenly got up, walking to a small closet near the TV, from which she removed a shoebox. Inside was Akira’s airsoft gun. “Here, you probably want it back…” she said slowly, clearly uncomfortable just looking at the weapon, no matter how fake it was. After all, Akira had paid a lot of money to make sure it was as realistic as possible.

Goro took it without batting an eye, and slid it inside his chest pocket, thanking her with a nod. Yuriko came back to sit on her chair, but now she looked almost exhausted, as if all those revelations had taken a toll on her.

“I’m sorry for grounding you, even though you just went through all of this,” she ended up muttering, barely able to look Akira in the eyes. “But you scared me! And, I-I…”

She bit her lip, cheeks reddening a little bit. Then, after a heavy second, of her looking like she was going to regret this, she said :  “I love you, Akira. You’re my only son. And I was so scared something had happened to you, I…”

His eyes widened, almost comically. He’d never, ever heard his mom tell him that she loved him. That’s what she wanted to tell him earlier. When he’d asked her if she’d ever regretted not telling someone she loved them, the reason why she got all weird wasn’t because it made her think of some old high school stories she was ashamed of. She was simply faced with the fact that she had never, in her life, told that to her son. And that it was maybe time for it to finally happen, especially after the last few weeks – years, even.

However, he wasn’t allowed to ponder on that any longer, about how in a span of a few hours, two people had told him they loved him – because she quickly changed the subject : “Anyway, thank you, Akechi-kun. For coming here to tell me, and to have done this for Akira.” She smiled at him, and this time, she looked like she meant it. “I was never sure, from just looking at your appearances on TV, but… You’re a good man. I’m glad to know that he has someone like you in his life. I guess Tokyo is not such a bad place after all.”

Goro looked taken aback as well. He’d often gotten praised, complimented for his pleasant boy behavior, for his intellect. This was probably the first time in his entire life someone told him he was a good person. He had to clear his throat, suddenly looking like he didn’t know where to put himself, and answered : “Thank you very much. It means a lot to me. I’m also very lucky to have met your son.”

Yuriko looked happy to hear that. She looked down inside her cup of still untouched coffee, and sighed : “And that explains why he wants to go back there so badly, I guess.”

“About that…” Goro followed-up, hands clasped in front of him on the table. “I heard that you were quite opposed to the idea… And I have to confess that this is also why I’m here this morning.”

He sent a side look towards Akira, who felt his heartbeat get louder when he finally understood what Goro truly wanted, with all of this.

“We’re friends, sure,” he continued with a low tone, like he wanted this to sound as emotional as possible. “But as you can guess, I also value our partnership. I think there’s quite a lot we could do, if we were to spend some more time together in university.”

Goro was here to make sure Akira would be there in Tokyo in a few months. He wanted to make sure nothing would stop him from going back to his side. Akira had been anxious while thinking of all the possibilities, of a future where Goro simply left and was never actually part of his life. And what he understood, right now, was that the feeling was absolutely mutual.

“I think we make a good team,” he said with a soft smile, but also a spark of malice as he eyed Akira from the side. “Not only because we work well together, but mostly because we have great complementarity. There is a lot we two can gain from each other.”

They were both so bad at this – at loving each other and also themselves. They’d have to learn. They’d probably mess up a lot. He could hardly imagine being in a relationship with Akechi – moody, difficult, sometimes straight up unpleasant – Goro without moments of electricity that would lead to arguments, to fights. But he wanted it. He wanted it all. The good moments and the bad ones. The trust and the stubbornness. The faith and also the selfishness.

“He truly is a very good partner,” Goro added, before turning his head towards Akira entirely, his hand sneaking under the table to possessively catch his wrist. “And I wouldn’t want anyone to steal him away from me.”

Goro sent him a smile. For a half-second, there, his eyes turned yellow.

And Akira smiled back.

THE END