Chapter Text
December 24th, 20XX
Akira knew this had to be done in order to have the whole Phantom Thief business put to bed, but the knots in his stomach said otherwise. He just wished he could’ve said goodbye to his friends but Sae just kept moving forward, leading him down a familiar street, and stopped at the edge of the alleyway that lead to Untouchables.
“Don’t you want to say goodbye? I can give you 5 minutes if you wanted to explain to him what was going on.” Sae’s voice was hard to focus on, Akira could feel his heartbeat loudly in his ears and it wasn’t exactly easy to catch his breath.
“The light’s off, he’s probably home with Karou given everything that happened this afternoon. I don’t…” Akira paused, surprised that a raindrop hit his hand when it was this cold outside, when he looked up, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, “I don’t know if I could face him now.”
“It’ll be over before you know it. I want you to know that you’re doing the right thing, even if it’s hard now, you’re taking the fall as the leader of the Phantom Thieves to spare this from happening to your friends.” Sae took a small step towards Akira, and wiped her thumb across his cheek, leaving her hand there in a sign of reassurance. He took a deep breath and nodded, grabbing her hand and shook his head slightly.
“I’m doing this to prove that the justice system is flawed and can be bought with power and influence. I need to show that Shido is a horrible man.”
Sae just smiled and resumed the trek to her office, hoping that Akira would remain this determined in court.
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January 4th, 20XX
Iwai reread the text message from Ryuji and nearly crushed his phone in his hand. He couldn’t believe that Akira would turn himself in, but upon further thought, the gun shop owner realized that this is exactly what Akira would do. Self-sacrifice to save his friends and everyone else he was connected with, and knowing that this would further the case against Shido, he figured that Akira would have some plan cooked up. However, the text he received indicated otherwise, and Iwai immediately went to the back of his store, opened one of the desk drawers, and pulled out the phone he hadn’t touched in over a decade.
When he found the charger - underneath the paperwork that was rarely touched now that Akira was in juvenile hall - and waited impatiently for the phone to charge. The second the phone was able to turn on, he quickly scanned through the list of contacts and found the one he never thought he would need. A single text later, a meeting was set up and Iwai hoped that the Lieutenant still enjoyed the taste of French wine, and once the shop was closed up, he left to procure the alcohol before his meeting.
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January 8th, 20XX
The meeting had gone well, as the Lieutenant welcomed Iwai in with open arms, and once he was handed the bottle, the smile grew even wider. The former Yakuza felt out of place being back in the family’s building, but he would sell his soul to ensure that Akira was okay.
All he had to do now was wait. While the Lieutenant promised that Iwai would be contacted by some of his contacts who knew the warden and guards at the juvenile hall where Akira was being held, there was no mention of a date. It had been less than a week, and Iwai was on edge, staring at the cell phone hoping this would be the second when it would ring. It never did, and he knew these things took time.
Karou would visit the gun shop, much to the dismay of his father, and bring a breath of fresh air with him. For the summer, Karou had a part time job at the beef bowl shop, which kept him busy and earning some pocket change. Today Karou brought over another random beef bowl, which meant he made it wrong and didn’t throw it out like he was instructed to do by his boss. Iwai wouldn’t complain about getting free food, even if there was too much ginger on it for his liking.
“He’ll be okay, just keep believing in him dad.”
“You’re right, I know he will be fine.” Iwai thought about his meeting with the Yakuza, and wondered if his son would be disappointed in the methods he was taking to ensure that Akira was fine.
“Thanks for the food kid, are you done with work for the day?”
“Yep! I had plans to go to the park with some friends if that’s ok?”
“Just know dinner will be ready by 8pm if you want to eat tonight.”
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January 13th, 20XX
Iwai’s phone went off early that morning, which surprised him as he never left the ringer on his phone. When the realization hit him, he shot up, saw the number and got out of bed in a flash. He got dressed, left a sloppily written note for Karou, and ran out the front door, barely remembering to lock it behind him. He didn’t care about who he bumped into along the way, he wasn’t going to wait any longer to find out how Akira was doing.
When he got to the meeting location under the bridge, Iwai took a minute to catch his breath and wait for those he was meeting to arrive. Within a few minutes, he was approached by two men, and he signaled that he was the one they were meeting.
“It’s nice to meet you Iwai.” The man in the grey blue suit spoke first, and proceeded to explain what intel they had on Akira. They described the teen fairly well, but it felt cold and calculated. Iwai would never describe Akira in those words, but they had provided enough information for Iwai to be certain who they were speaking of.
“...Yeah, that’s the kid.”
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February 13th, 20XX
When Akira stood outside the gate of the juvenile hall, he wasn’t sure where Sojiro was, as his guardian knew when he would be released. He waited a minute and reached to pull his phone out of his pocket before he realized that he didn’t have it on him. It was buried in the bag that contained his clothes, probably dead as it hadn’t been charged in over a month.
He heard the distinct rumbling of the cafe owner’s car from down the road, and as it approached, the smile on his face grew wider until he was staring at Sojiro. The overwhelming feeling to hug the man washed over him, but he didn’t think it would be comfortable so he followed the man’s instructions and got into the car.
The trip back went smoothly until they got into the bustling downtown part of Tokyo, where traffic was at a standstill. Sojiro reminisced about their first day together, and Akira smiled and thanked the older man for everything he has done. All the trips to jail and visit him, advocating for him, and allowing his friends to take over the cafe whenever they needed to.
“Jail does strange things to your mind kid. What I did is nothing compared to what you did for me and Futaba. You saved my family and brought us together again, and for that, I should be thanking you.”
Akira didn’t know what to say in response to that, so when Sojiro turned on the radio, Akira was grateful for something to fill the silence.
After getting through the traffic and back to the Sojiro residence, Akira let out a deep sigh. He felt like he could finally relax now that he was at home. Sojiro parked the car and the pair of them walked together to Leblanc. Akira knew what waited for him on the other side of the door, his friends would be there waiting for him to return a free man.
He opened the door slowly, and was barely able to get his foot in the door before he was being pulled in by Ryuji. Futaba and Ann ran in next and joined the hug, followed by Makoto, Haru and Yusuke surrounding their leader in a warm embrace. They didn’t move for a few minutes, and Akira knew that everyone had tears in their eyes. He knew they were working hard to get his sentenced reduced while he was sitting idly in jail, but being here felt like he was living a dream and was bound to wake up any second.
“Welcome home dude!” Ryuji spoke into Akira’s chest, muffling the words.
“Alright you crazy kids. Let Akira get some space.” Sojiro was smiling as he made plates of food for everyone. He even made sure to make enough for the artsy kid to take back to his dorm.
Akira sat smashed between his two best friends, Ryuji and Ann while Futaba, Haru, and Makoto sat on the other side of the booth. Yusuke sat on the chair at the end of the table, completely filling the small table at the booth. Sojiro handed them plates of food, and they began happily eating the delicious curry.
Later that evening, Akira was charging his phone, hoping that it would charge quickly while he unpacked his bag from jail. He got everything taken out and organized before his phone lit up signaling that it was sufficiently charged to turn on. He saw the lists of texts come in from all of his friends across Tokyo one in after another, but he needed to get a text message out to one person.
I am out. I reek, so I will be bathing and will try to visit the shop later this evening.
Iwai received the text message and nearly fell backwards in the chair he was leaning back in. His boots hit the ground with a loud slam, and he shot up and looked around the store. Since Akira had been gone for such a long time, a layer of dust covered every item in the store, and Iwai felt a bit embarrassed that he relied on the kid for doing the basic cleaning day in and day out.
He made sure there were no customers in the shop and flipped the sign and locked the front door. Since Akira said he would be taking a bath, Iwai knew he had time to get over to Leblanc and meet the kid outside the bathhouse.
Akira didn’t want to leave the hot bath water after having lukewarm showers for the past month, but with a slight grumble he got out and began drying off. Once he was dry, he wrapped the towel around his waist while he walked towards the lockers to get changed into a fresh set of clothes. He hoped the trains were still running, as he didn’t want to have Iwai drive out to pick him up this late.
When he was done changing, he tied off his bag of dirty clothes and supplies and left the bathhouse into the crisp February air. He wasn’t expecting the gun shop owner to be waiting outside with a single red rose in his hand.
“Long time no see.” Iwai started, holding out the rose for the other man to take, “I missed having you around the shop, Karou did as well.”
“I missed you too Iwai.” Akira took the rose, and carefully entered the older man’s embrace, melting into the strong arms just as he did so many times before. Whenever things got too stressful for him, he often just wanted Iwai to hold him like this while he cleared his head. Now, Akira was doing it just to be closer to Iwai after being away for so long.
“Happy Valentines Akira.”
“Happy Valentines old man.”
Iwai gently pinched Akira’s side before leaning in for a kiss. They would be okay together, the whole Phantom Thief business was over and done with, which meant Akira could return to school and finish this year out peacefully. Iwai didn’t spend too much time thinking about what would happen in a few months, as he was too focused on the present moment before him.