Chapter Text
Goro Akechi really needed a break.
He had been mulling over one report after another for what seemed like ages now. The words on the pages began to blur together and the continuous strain on his eyes started to develop into a headache. Akechi carded his fingers through his hair irritably as he reached for his coffee. What number cup was this? His third? He normally didn’t drink more than a single cup, but today proved to be an exceedingly stressful day. From having to attend a meeting early in the morning, to having to sweet talk his way out of a mob of obsessive fangirls who decided the best way to catch a glimpse of the Detective Prince was to wait outside of the Public Prosecutors Office for a chance to ambush him. Suffice to say the SIU director was not pleased with all of the commotion that had caused. Akechi hoped that didn’t change the way the director viewed him. Even the director’s approval meant something to him, even if he wasn’t fond of the man all that much.
If his fans were to see the state he was in now they would probably cause an uproar. His perfectly styled hair in disarray due to constantly threading his fingers through them. The bags under his eyes were likely more prominent now then they were in the morning. Being slouched over his desk was not doing wonders for his back either. All in all, this was not the oh-so charismatic detective that the media viewed him as. Right now, sitting at his desk with an increasing headache and lukewarm coffee in his hands, Akechi felt far from composed, and he felt too tired to care at the moment.
His more or less than sour mood may also be influenced by the fact that it was nearing almost an entire month, and his investigation on the notorious group known as the Phantom Thieves had yet to produce a single new piece of evidence. He has been closely monitoring the group ever since their first alleged crime back in April of last year where they had targeted a volleyball coach, a man by the name of Suguru Kamoshida, from Shujin Academy for abusing his players and sexually harassing female students. A day before the crime took place, calling cards had been mysteriously posted all around the school, calling out Kamoshida for his heinous acts and threatening to steal his most treasured possession if he did not confess to his crimes. With no follow up from the coach, it was revealed the next day that an olympic gold medal, which Kamoshida had won when he went to nationals, was stolen from his home. The school filed a report to the police, and upon further investigation it was revealed that what was written on the calling cards were actually true. Many players from the volleyball team were called into questioning, along with their parents, and everyone of them confirmed what had been done to them by the coach. With the overwhelming evidence stacked against him, Kamoshida eventually confessed to everything and was sentenced to prison. However, the ones who posted the calling cards and carried out their intentions, the ones who called themselves the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, remained unaccounted for. With no clear signs of breaking and entering, or any sign of the theft being executed, to be exact, the police couldn’t lay claim as to who these Phantom Thieves were, nor could they begin to apprehend them. Akechi wanted to assume that this occurrence was nothing more than a bunch of delinquent high schoolers who found dirt on the coach and attempted to blackmail him into confessing. That was what many of the other investigators thought of at first, but Akechi was hard pressed to believe that normal high schoolers could have pulled of this heist with such swift profession. Besides the calling cards, there were no other distinguished evidence to be found at the scene of the crime.
And it didn’t stop there. The Phantom Thieves slowly started gaining traction afterwards. An official website dubbed the Phantom Aficionado Website was created in honor of the Phantom Thieves and their success at bringing a criminal’s wrongdoings to light. It was a website designed to keep track of the Phantom Thieves moves, as well as a place for fans to leave comments of support or disapproval. This in turn led to the Phantom Thieves garnering an increasing amount of support from the general public.
Akechi was hoping this would be a one-and-done thing, but then they went after a famous artist by the name of Ichiryusai Madarame for supposedly plagiarizing the works of his pupils by crediting them as his own, on top of abusing them. Once again, calling cards were scattered all throughout his art exhibit stating all of his crimes, and the next day his maiden work titled ‘Sayuri’ was stolen. What was stated on the calling card once again ended up being true, as well. Madarame was sent to prison, and the Phantom Thieves vanished without so much as a trace. They were like a flash of lighting. There one second, gone the next.
When he heard that the Phantom Thieves managed to break into Junya Kaneshiro’s hideout and steal all of his money, only to then deposit the money into the bank accounts of every person victimized by the infamous mafia boss, Akechi knew he could ignore them no longer. It was bad enough that the Thieves had successfully took down someone even the police were having difficulty arresting. Reenacting the same song and dance of sending out a calling card exposing Kaneshiro’s crimes for all of Shibuya to see, to then realizing that those crimes were indeed true and having the mafia boss sent to prison was getting to the point of really antagonizing Akechi. There was something completely different with these heists compared to those of normal ones. Each successful theft resulted the criminals heinous acts being brought to light and being apprehended, along with the victims of those criminals being accommodated for in some way.
Also, these occurrences were too great to be seen as simply coincidence. They were much too thought out and precise, as well. Clear effort was put into every heist committed, but the motifs behind them were frustratingly vague at best. If these so-called Phantom Thieves were just targeting less conspicuous individuals, then maybe Akechi could categorize them as another juvenile criminal group with too much time on their hands. But no, the ones the Phantom Thieves have targeted were key public figures. Ones that would cause a spark among the general public and leave an impact on society. They were clearly trying to leave some sort of message. Some kind of mark that would let their presence be known to the world. If that was truly their only goal, to be known worldwide, then they succeeded when they managed to shut down an international hacker organization known as Medjed that terrorized the world with their cybercrimes. To think the Thieves would waste their time initiating, in essence, a cyberwar with a truly unforseen enemy that no one would have thought was possible to actually stop. Akechi could barely even fathom this turn of events. Since then, the Phantom Thieves’ popularity have skyrocketed to great heights. With their name being known around the world, and with everyone anticipating their next move now, their presence became a formidable shadow that loomed over Akechi’s head.
Allies of Justice, as the general public referred to them. Modern day Gentlemen Thieves out to reform society by punishing wrongdoers and aiding the less fortunate. Using methods that no one could make heads or tails of and doing so in a way that went against all law and order put in place by the governing system. Akechi was hard pressed to believe that the Phantom Thieves’ ultimate goal was truly just societal reform. Maybe that was a large part of it, but something about that didn’t sit right with Akechi. If that was the case, then they could be targeting a wider variety of individuals at a much larger rate than what they were doing now. Sure, targeting key public figures was a fast way of making a difference, but why just narrow your field of vision to very specific people? Why be inconsistent with who you decide to target? If you want to make a lasting impact, why not target all of the artists who have surely committed terrible acts or take down all of the mafia bosses who are lurking in the shadows? Why just commit a crime against one specific criminal and then move on to a completely different one altogether? And why just stick to reforming Japan when you can go abroad and reshape other countries? Surely Japan wasn’t the only place with a corrupted society and governing body.
Of course, if the Phantom Thieves were to be that consistent than that would make them easier to catch and apprehend. What’s the point of being known as a thieves group if you weren’t sporadic with who you choose to target? There would be no challenge or fun in it, if that were the case. It was wishful thinking on Akechi’s part to hope it would be that easy for him. He must be really out of it today.
But still, Akechi couldn’t wrap his mind around it. A volleyball coach, an artist, a mafia boss, an unseen international online hacker organization, and the last major person they targeted being the President and CEO of Okumura Foods. The Phantom Thieves targets just keep getting bigger and bigger with each one leaving a larger impact on the general public. He thought they had hit the mark when they managed to shut down Medjed, but then they went and targeted Okumura Foods’ President. After Okumura’s subsequent arrest, though, there haven’t been any other targets on such a large scale since then. Just little inconspicuous ones here and there. A transgression, in Akechi’s opinion. Would they really go back to targeting simple criminals and wrongdoers once they’ve finally managed to reach international status? There were puzzle pieces missing in that picture and it frustrated Akechi to no end.
A knock on his door drew him from his thoughts. He checked the time to see that it was past ten. How long had he been lost in his own thoughts? Akechi already knew who might be at his door considering there weren’t many people who usually visited him. He quickly fixed himself up to his perfect composure as much as possible before calling for the person to come in.
A tall women with long grey hair entered his office and quietly shut the door behind her. Seeing her instantly brightened Akechi’s mood, which was really saying something when it came to adults. Sae Niijima turned and gave him a soft smile before sitting down in front of him. She looked just as tired and worn out as he felt. Unlike with other adults, Akechi actually appreciated working with Sae. She wasn’t like the other adults he had to begrudgingly force himself to get along with. He honestly felt at ease around her, and Sae treated him in a caring way that felt both foreign and familiar to Akechi all at once. She was one of, if not the only, adult Akechi actually respected and admired, in a way.
“I’m surprised to see you’re still here. I figured you would have left by now,” Sae says with a face that conveys how she disapproves of Akechi working so late into the night. Akechi merely gives her a polite chuckle.
“Well, I merely intended to just finish up what little work I had, but it seems I got carried away again.” It was common for Akechi to be so engrossed in his work or lost in his thoughts that time ended up flying by without him realizing it. But he has been staying later than usual for the past few weeks now. Sae was bound to notice something was off about him eventually. If the papers from his reports splayed out messily over his desk and his numerous empty coffee cups were anything to go by. His charming smile didn’t seem to convince her, but thankfully she didn’t push it. Instead, she reached into her bag and pulled out a case file.
“I was going to stop by earlier to hand you this, but I got caught up in my work.” She explains as she hands the file over to Akechi. “After my meeting with the director, he handed me this and asked me to give it to you.”
Akechi didn’t think he could handle looking at another case file, but he took it from her with a thanks.
“What is this?” he asks as he opens it up. He comes to an answer after he quickly scanned through the first page. It was a case about a missing person.
“Ren Amamiya,” the name rolled smoothly off Akechi’s tongue. He continued to scan through the report as Sae spoke up.
“He’s a teenager, around the same age as you, who was charged with assault and sent here for a year to serve out his probation under the custody of a man by the name of Sojiro Sakura. A month after arriving, the boy suddenly went missing. Sakura stated that Amamiya went to school like he normally did every morning, however later that day he had received a call from the school Amamiya was suppose to be attending that the boy had never showed up. At first, Sakura assumed Amamiya had just decided to ditch school that day. However, when he asked around, he found out that was not the case. None of Amamiya’s friends had seen him or were with him that day either. They even said they tried contacting him, but they did not receive any form of a reply. After searching every place they could think of and coming up empty, Sakura filed a claim. We brought Sakura and a few of Amamiya’s friends into questioning to find out if anything had seemed off about the teen prior to his disappearance. They all said that nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Amamiya was always a quiet man who mostly kept to himself. Though of course neither Sakura nor any of Amamiya’s friends knew him for very long, seeing as he just moved here. We contacted the boy’s family and told them of the situation. We ordered search parties to search all of the areas Amamiya was thought to have gone. We didn’t find any evidence of a struggle, suggesting that he may have been kidnapped. Eyewitnesses from around Sakura’s residence reported that they didn’t notice anything unusual either. Other than that, we don’t have much else at this point,” Sae concluded.
Akechi hummed under his breath and waited to make sure Sae was done talking before finally asking the obvious question. “Why is there no picture of the person?”
Sae rubbed at her temples before answering. “That’s the biggest mystery of this case, you could say. Any and all pictures we’ve accumulated from the boy’s family to use in our search have been completely erased from our records. Someone either removed or stole the picture that was in that file, along with all the other tangible ones we kept. Even the pictures on our database have been erased.”
Akechi’s eyes narrowed in suspicion and slight confusion at that. “So you mean to tell me that whatever photographic identification you had on this person simply just...vanished?”
Sae nodded, “I know it’s hard to believe. This threw us in quite a shock, as well. We tried to procure more photos from the family, but they didn’t have any more to give us.”
At Akechi’s questioning look, Sae added, “The family is a relatively small one, and they stated that their son did not like having pictures taken of him.” Even after she said this, it didn’t seem like she believed it entirely herself either. She was most likely having the same suspicions as Akechi was having about this whole case.
“We did, however, hire a sketch artist and asked family members and Sakura to give us a detailed description of what the boy looked like. The drawing the artist made should be on the next page.” Sae gestured for Akechi to turn the page.
The drawing itself wasn’t anything spectacular. Just a simple image of a male teen with what was written as having black hair and grey eyes. His age, height, weight, and blood type were also listed. Simply the basics of information that was needed to be known about any person.
“So, to be clear,” Akechi began, “This teen, Ren Amamiya, came to live with a guardian here to serve out his one year probation. However, only after a month later, he disappeared one morning after seemingly leaving for school. Since then, there have been no clues as to his whereabouts.”
Sae gave him a nod. “A year has passed since his disappearance, and we are no closer to finding out what could have happened to him.”
“Why did the director decide to bring up this case now if there has been no progress on it for this long?” Akechi questioned. He finished going through everything that was mentioned in the report. Truth be told, there wasn’t much to go off of. There was scarce information, and whatever there was could be summed up in what Sae had already stated.
“I’m honestly not sure. All he said during our meeting was that he believed you to be the perfect person for this case. He seemed quite persistent about it, as well. I wasn’t given the chance to question him properly about it.” Sae cast her eyes down in thought. Akechi’s eyebrows creased in confusion. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to be assigned to rare and, most of the time, difficult cases. He had proved himself to be leagues above most detectives, even those far older than him with years of more experience to showcase. However, this case was a cold one. With no additional progress to show for after a whole year, the chances of success for this case were slim. Besides, there have been hundreds of cases such as this one that resulted with no promising progress. What makes this one different?
Akechi took one more look at the picture in the report. He tried to figure out why this one teen required the SIU director to insist he be the one to take on the case. Was there something about this teen that he wasn’t being told of?
Something felt off about this, and Akechi didn’t like it one bit.
He was so lost in thought he almost didn’t hear Sae calling out his name. He looked up to see her looking at him with a strange look in her eyes. Akechi had to forcefully will himself to relax his clenched jaw in order to give her one of his signature fake smiles.
“My apologise, Sae-san. I was just planning on how I would begin tackling this case.” Which wasn’t exactly a total lie. Akechi was eventually going to do that. After he figures out why his intuition was telling him that there was something else at play here.
Sae let out a deep sigh before standing up. “It’s getting late. You should head on home now. If you want to talk more about the case, you can always contact me.”
Akechi stood up as well and began to gather his things. He felt even more exhausted than before. This case could wait until morning. Akechi should really try getting some sleep tonight, though the chances of that happening were slim.
“Thank you for delivering this to me, Sae-san. I’ll make sure to find results as soon as possible.” He flashed another smile her way, which she returned. They both headed out together and said goodbye to each other before parting ways. On his way back to the apartment, Akechi couldn’t help but think that he was going to have a long week ahead of him.