Chapter Text
“I still can’t believe you didn’t let me know about Lady Ann dropping by today.” Morgana moped, Akira tapping away at his controller, trying to get through the final level of the old console game.
“I did, you said to let you sleep instead.” Akira chuckled a bit, focus not shifting away from the television set.
“I- What?! I did not!” Morgana hissed, “I don’t remember saying anything like that!”
“I don’t know what to tell you Mona, when I came upstairs you said-“
Akira’s phone buzzed.
When he saw the notification read, ‘Mishima' on the top, he quickly tapped the pause button.
“Wha- Hey!” the feline protested. “What did I say??”
“Sorry, this is important, one second.”
Akira sat the controller on the floor to exchange it with his phone.
>> Ena’s on the Phansite!
>> She logged in a couple of hours ago and is visiting the forums.
Akira texted back, >> Has she said anything?
>> No, nothing. Mishima responded,
>> She’s just looking through different posts from what I can tell.
Akira slumped in his seat.
>> Alright, keep me posted.
He put this phone back onto the floor and continued to play the game. That was a bit of a disappointment. Anything that connected to Ena felt like it left more questions than answers.
“Um, hello? We were just in the middle of a conversation?”
Akira jumped, once again aware of the other person, cat, maybe, in the room.
“Sorry, I just got lost in thought.” He began, “You told me too, ‘turn the lights back off’ and that I should let you ‘sleep just for a few more days.’”
Morgana, heartbroken, muttered to himself, “It seems I have failed you Lady Ann.”
“Wait, was I supposed to mention that she was here?” Akira said, intentionally failing to keep a jesting tone out of his voice.
Akira would spend the next thirty minutes trying to fight off the very livid and distraught tuxedo cat.
A few more hours passed; Leblanc now long past its closing time. Akira was brushing his teeth in the cramped bathroom of the café. It didn’t usually smell too great in there, despite any efforts to clean it, although he had gotten used to it. The lighting inside of the room seemed to be a bit dimmer than it was yesterday, he noted to ask Sojiro for a spare bulb the next day.
He kept his phone close by him. He had only noticed that he had taken it with him when he was done with his nightly routine, with caring to a few new still stinging scratches added on.
Mishima hadn’t gotten back to him, so Ena was probably still just scrolling through the Phansite.
She saw the email, right? If she hadn’t, then why after all this time it would only be today she would decide to get on again? Akira found himself idly biting down onto his knuckle. His previous words of comfort for Ann seemed to melt away any helpfulness left for himself.
Into the night, there still was no word about any other activities from Ena. Even when checking in on it, asking Mishima, only getting a ‘Nope, not yet. Sorry.’ in response. Akira gave up on trying to wait for a reply for the night and crawled into bed, with Morgana bitterly peering at him as he did.
“Do this again, I swear to god, I’m taking you somewhere to get your claws clipped.” Akira scolded coldly, pointing to the freshly placed band-aids on his upper arm.
“Ha!” Morgana exclaimed, “You wouldn’t even be able to get me into a carrier!”
“Don’t turn this into a bet.” Akira warned.
-
The next morning rolled in, bringing along with it a much sunnier day than the last. The light spilling in through the dirt-tinted windows. The warmth this new day had brought along made whatever snow was left behind to thaw. It seemed now it was a mistake to leave the heater on so high, as Akira woke up feeling clammy under his comforter, and the room stuffy.
He walked up to the heater and turned it off, then went up to the window above his bed to let in some fresher air. While doing this, however, it suddenly hit him that he should probably check his phone.
>> I’m gonna try emailing her again, see if maybe she’ll notice.
>> She just logged off! Right after I sent it!
>> Didn’t post anything or reply either…
Reading the messages left by Mishima caused Akira’s sinking feeling to get a lot heavier.
She just, left. Was it intentional? Akira wasn’t sure what to assume, for someone so desperate for their help, she sure seemed less than intent on getting it. Was this a setup, could it be Ena was just doing this just to spite them? All of these guesses made Akira’s half-awake mind spin.
They were right back to where they started, he felt. Or he did until he saw another more recent notification from Futaba.
>> Are you up yet? I just finished looking up that Ena girl for you.
>> Ya know, ever since you stopped going to school, you’ve been sleeping in waayy to late. :P you’re pretty lazy nowadays.
Akira let out a sigh of relief, feeling more composed.
>> Look who’s talking dork. >:P
>> But seriously, what did you find?
It didn’t take long for Futaba to get back to him,
>> Oh good, you are up.
>> Eh, it’s a lot to cover over text. Can you come over?
>> Sure, I’ll be there soon.
Akira texted back.
>> K, nice. See you then.
Akira put down his phone and took to get himself ready for the day. When he was done, he grabbed his bag and presented it to Morgana.
“Are you still gonna pout over this?” Akira asked.
Morgana replied as he hopped in. “Hmm, possibly. For most of the day at least.” For someone who claimed so often to not be a cat, he sure had enough of a stubborn attitude to past for one.
Akira carried Morgana, within the bag, and headed downstairs. The usual morning smells from the downstairs kitchen started to kick in. Akira said his brief goodbye to Sojiro, with the promise of coming back soon to eat his breakfast, he headed down the narrow streets of his neighborhood.
In Futaba’s room, Akira caught her up on the recent activity from Ena.
“So, nothing? No response?”
“Zip.” Akira answered back.
Futaba leaned back in her high back seat, “Hmm, well. Whatever reason she had to be on there, we’ll find out soon enough.” She said, grabbing her phone out of her jacket pocket.
“Soon enough?”
“Well, going back to her email, I was able to trace her IP, and more importantly, her phone number. So, if you’re tired of waiting for her to respond to you, maybe we should remind her?”
Akira nodded, “Good,” Futaba began, “Then let’s get this rolling!”
Futaba nodded in agreement and began tapping away at her phone, with Akira watching over her shoulder.
>> Hey, Sumi, can you come over later and help me move that table?
Akira tilted his head, “Sumi?”
“Well, I’m not gonna start out with ‘Hey! What’s up, we’re the Phantom Thieves!’, I would like to think I’m more subtle than Ryuji.”
It only took a few seconds before getting a reply.
>> You have the wrong number.
Futaba texted back,
>> Oh, who is this then?
>> I’m Ena.
>> Good, that’s what I thought.
There was a long pause before getting back a reply.
>> What?
>> First let me say, Ena Tanaka, I wish that you’ll forgive us for the delay in our response.
>> However, due to your lack of return from the Phansites’ admins’ email, we’ve had to use unconventional means to get into contact with you.
>> But we are here now for you.
>> And we wanted to know the name of who’s heart you wish for us to steal.
A few dots showing that Ena was typing came up, went back down, and up again.
>> Oh, now that’s rich.
>> How did you get this number?? God, I thought I told you to leave me alone.
Futaba, puzzled, turned to Akira,
“She never said anything about this on the Phansite or to Mishima, right?” He shook his head, “Not that I’m aware, no.”
Futaba turned back to the chat and began typing again.
>> I’m not entirely sure what you mean?
>> You. Kioko.
Futaba recoiled away from the phone.
Kioko?
Who’s Kioko?
Before having time to reply, several more messages began to pour in.
>> Why are you messaging me again? seriously.
>> What do you have to gain from this,
>> Were you just not satisfied?
>> Even I didn’t think you would stoop down this low, wow. I thought that even you would be tired of this by now.
>> Tanaka. I can assure you that this isn’t Kioko.
>> STOP.
>> My name is Alibaba; I am with the Phantom Thieves.
>> STOP IT RIGHT NOW.
>> I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING.
>> AND I’M DONE PUTTING UP WITH IT.
>> I KNOW IT’S YOU. THE JOKES UP.
>> STOP.
>> Is Kioko your friend?
No response.
>> Tanaka?
Nothing.
“Well, that’s not the way I expected this to go, but I would still call it a partial success.” Futaba said as she closed the messaging app.
“No- hang on a minute,” Akira began, “Ena was trying to protect her friend on the Phansite, this isn’t who we’re after.”
“We shouldn’t rule out that possibility yet,” Morgana began, “but either way we should at least see who she thinks we are before coming to any conclusions.”
“Doesn’t look like Ena’s willing to give anything else away… other than that name.” Futaba mumbled as she leaned back into her seat.
She put her phone down and turned to the computer once more. “Let me check something. You guys might want to get comfortable; this’ll take a bit. Don’t touch my snacks though.”
-
Whenever Futaba was on her computer for more than a moment, she became engrossed into her work, like the rest of the world fell away, leaving nothing but herself and the display of her monitor.
Any computer work she had done with the Phantom Thieves, her focus couldn’t be broken, or at least shouldn’t be attempted to.
Any banner given was scarce, and always faded the further Futaba would get absorbed into her task, which leads Akira to his default of being on his phone to pass time.
A ping came from Futaba’s phone, then immediately Akira’s followed.
Ann
>> Hey, did Futaba ever get back to you about the Ena thing?
Futaba snatched up her phone to respond, put it on silent, then set it back down to continue working.
Futaba
>> We’re working on it now.
>> Futaba get back to what? Who are you talking to??
Ryuji popped into the chat.
Ann
>> Shoot, I forgot this is the group chat,, sorry
Akira responded,
>> Ann meant me; we got another request for someone.
>> Also aren’t you guys in class right now?
Ann
>> I finished my work early, Kawakami doesn’t care that I’m on my phone lol
Ryuji
>> Well, yeah but this is more important.
>> But what’s up with this request?
Akira
>> A girl named Ena reached out to Mishima in November, but he didn’t see it until a couple of days ago.
>> She wanted help with a friend then, but now is refusing to talk to us.
Ryuji
>> What?? Why?
Akira
>> She thinks we were someone named Kioko, pretending to be the Phantom Thieves.
Ryuji
>> For real??
>> So, what’s the beef between them then?
Akira
>> That’s what we’re trying to figure out now.
Yusuke
>> Sorry I am late to respond. I saw the notification but was unable to read it until now. Has something happened with Shido?
Ann
>> Not yet Yusuke, we just got another request that Futaba and Akira are trying to look into.
Yusuke
>> Oh, then are we meeting up later then?
Akira
>> Probably. Unrelated or not, it's looking like we'll probably need to.
Ryuji
>> Yeah, seriously. Who knows what she’s telling people running around as us!
Ann
>> Let us know if anything changes!
Akira
>> Will do.
-
Within less than a half-hour, Futaba completed her search. She rolled her seat over to show Akira, who was on his phone, her findings.
“There’s a lot of Ena Tanaka’s in the world,” She began, breaking the silence, “but linking back her email address, I was able to find one of her social media accounts.”
Futaba then clicked on a minimized tap, showing a user named, “Unsalted_Desserts” on a popular networking site.
There were pictures of a variety of types of food. Mostly one that would fall under being desserts, as the name suggested, with a healthy mix of other entrees. Morgana took a notice, starring contently at the photos.
“The second I saw “Unsalted” in her name,” Futaba continued, “I knew that this was likely her, and it only confirmed it when I saw people tagging and referring to her as Tanaka.”
“I noticed that a lot of her photos, partially food she made herself, was taken inside of a cafeteria. Which then I was able to track down to Sakiyurai High school, in Yokohama.” Futaba closed the browser, much to the tomcat’s disappointment.
“Other than that, there wasn’t much she was giving out publicly, nothing mentioned about a Kioko. So, I decided to dig deeper.” She finished, with a mischievous smile.
She rolled her chair to the side of the desk, and with a tap of her mouse it showed a school account pop up.
The account showed an image of Ena, next to her name. She had amber eyes, dull but curled brown hair, and was dressed nicely. “She moved classes at the beginning of December, with the difference between the change being just the classrooms, not the units. Now, pair that with how Ena reacted, and somethings started to line up.” Futaba stated,
“So, I looked for Kioko.”
Another tap and an additional account appeared. Haramoto Kioko read the top of the page, and her record lengthier than the last. Kioko was much more somber-looking than Ena, her dark eyes were too sunken in for someone of her age.
“Many unexcused absences, a 3rd year, like Ena, with the same class types. I think that Ena’s ‘friend’ and Kioko are the same.”
“Then, what happened between them?” Morgana asked,
“Do you think that- “
Right as Akira started to pitch into the conversation, his phone chimed. It was from Sojiro, stating that his food had gotten cold half an hour ago, asking when he was coming back.
“Shoot, hey, so I need to head back to eat.” Akira briskly explained as he started to gather up his phone and Morgana into his bag. “But, after everyone gets off of school, we’ll meet up to go to Mementos.”
Futaba took in a deep breath, “Yea, I figured as much.” She sighed. “I’m gonna rest up a bit before then.”
“This should be just a quick run,” Akira reassured her, as he slid on his jacket. “and afterward we can just focus and make a plan for after the election.”
She nodded, “Good, because later I’ve got a show to watch, and I want to be back before everyone starts posting spoilers everywhere.”
“I’ll make sure we’ll be back before then.”
“You swear?”
“I promise.”
Futaba grinned.
“Good. Now get back before Sojiro starts guilt-tripping you for being gone so long.”
-
With a trip home and an apology about the time, Akira sat down to take a bite of his curry. The familiar taste of honey came as a sweet contrast, and almost surprise, to the expected spiciness of the sauce. Despite having only been living at LeBlanc’s for less than a year, it tasted nostalgic already. Sojiro’s cooking, even when mostly cold, would always serve as a source of comfort for Akira.
“I thought you guys were finished with this Phantom Thieves thing for now?” Sojiro’s asked over the sound of the sink as he finished up cleaning the latest customer’s meal.
Akira kept his eyes onto his meal. He swallowed and shook his head. “No, not yet.” He gathered up some more rice and chicken onto his fork, “To be honest, I’m not sure when we’ll be done.” He finished, taking another large bite.
Moments passed before Sojiro spoke again, “You’ve been pretty engaged in your work lately. Just make sure you don’t push yourself, or anyone else too hard, alright?”
Akira nodded.
“I mean it, Akira.” Sojiro’s tone more serious this time, putting Akira off guard. “Poor Futaba slept through the whole day yesterday.”
Akira gulped and looked up towards Sojiro. “I understand.”
“Good. Now, when you’re done, come help me with the dishes.”
The topic was dropped right after, but Sojiro’s words had planted inside of his head. He had let his anxieties drive him, with the cost being the exhaustion of the team.
But that was during the cruise ship. They didn’t have the comfort of time like the other palaces. It was something that needed to run through efficiently and quickly, the weight of the country was on their shoulders, and it still is.
He was doing his job as a Phantom Thief, but as a leader? Was this the way to handle things? Shido still hadn’t done anything, at least to their knowledge. Not to mention the Akechi situation, and he had nearly lost Ryuji as well. He had made mistakes.
Why hadn’t he thought about this until now?
He was able to push this to the back of his head before, but any attempt of relief or remaining mentally calm felt unearned. Even his muscles tensed, hesitant to move with those thoughts running through his head.
He seated himself at one of the empty booths after this chore, slumming into it. He grabbed his phone to search for a momentary distraction, only to be greeted with a missed message from Futaba.
>> Hey.
>> so, I’ve got some good news and bad news for you.
>> Which do you want to hear first?
A fresh wave of restlessness began to crawl up Akira’s back, along with a sense of Déjà vu.
He typed back to Futaba,
>> Bad news first.
>> Well, the bad news is that I went to put into, the Meta-Nav, Kioko’s name out of curiosity, and I got a hit, but not the one we expected.
>> and, well, the good news, in a way, is that we no longer have to go to Mementos.