Work Text:
It hurt, oh gods did it hurt.
It never mattered how much she did to try and ignore the pain, everywhere Haru looked she was reminded of the mistakes she had made. Even the passage of time had done nothing to heal her wounds. Every wrong word that she had said, every wrong feeling she had felt. Every wrong touch. Every thought, every desire, and every kiss.
She hated the way that watching her friends made her feel. Haru wanted to be happy for them, she really, really did. But the gentle looks exchanged between Akira and Makoto, the casual arms Ryuji would throw around Ann, the passionate way with which Yusuke would unknowingly describe the newest young man or woman vying for his attention, even Futaba’s mischievous indifference to the relationships formed amongst the former Phantom Thieves made Haru grit her teeth, clench her fists, and force herself to keep from crying. They didn’t know how much it hurt - or at least, seemed not to know; her friends could very well be holding themselves back for her sake - and they didn’t need to. Often Haru would imagine herself years in the future at Akira and Makoto’s wedding, or meeting Ryuji and Ann’s baby girl, anything to make herself feel guilty for her envy and to make those jealous pangs go away.
She was no stranger to the pain of betrayal; she would never forget that her father, though she may have forgiven him in the last moments of his life, had put her through as much in her short eighteen years. Though it wasn’t truly his fault for leaving, he had made the choices he made of his own free will and sealed his own fate in dealing with the devil. She had never imagined there could be something worse. There was.
Goro Akechi. She had heard about him much before she’d ever met him, and that was far before the ordeal of the Phantom Thieves. His popularity arose as the Second Detective Prince, and his deductive skills were the stuff of legends. At the same age as her he had solved dozens of cases for the police by himself. He was still in high school, and yet the police of Tokyo owed so much to him. He was genuinely handsome by most opinions, including Haru’s own, but because of her engagement to Sugimura she had never really allowed herself to think any harder on such a topic. Why allow herself to imagine something she could never have?
It wasn’t that she had become smitten with Akechi, not at all. In fact she found him somewhat overrated by the public. He had the formula for fame figured out, but Haru knew the formula too and that was probably why she could never fall in love with a tv persona. It was more so the idea of looking at anyone else and considering the possibility of a relationship that she couldn’t let herself hold on to. She was trapped, to be married off to a man who saw her as a toy, as some kind of novelty.
And then her father died. Haru had mourned him, she truly had, because she was sure the change of heart was successful and in his final moments she knew he was thinking about her. It was a horrific scene, to watch her father choke on something darker than blood and know that millions of people across Japan had also witnessed it. But losing her father also meant Haru was free. Her gilded cage had opened. If she so desired, she could have distanced herself from Okumura Foods completely. And when Akechi joined the Phantom Thieves - albeit, through bribery and blackmail - she looked at him and realized just how charming he truly was when the cameras were off.
~~~
They had found each other at Leblanc, actually, on a day that Akira was not home. Sojiro had told them he went to the movies with Futaba and then had a date with Makoto later, so really neither of them were surprised. There was something about strengthening his bonds with everyone around him that they knew was important to Akira. He’d told them as much when he spent time with the both of them.
“Do you come to Leblanc often?” Akechi had asked her, and Haru, ever the shy sweetheart she was, nodded.
He joined her in the booth, sitting back and crossing his arms as he offered her a warm smile. “How funny. So do I, and yet I’ve never seen you around here.”
She had agreed softly that it was odd. She remembered with vivid clarity the timid manner in which she had closed her hands around her coffee cup as Sojiro brought one for Akechi. He mused something about how strange it was that Akira’s friends all met up at his cafe when Akira wasn’t there, but left the two of them alone.
Haru didn’t voice the fact that Akechi was not one of their friends, but in actuality had threatened his way onto the team. She couldn’t because that would both expose them as the Phantom Thieves and break the terms of Akechi’s deal.
“I was on the task force investigating your father’s death,” Akechi told her after some awkward silence. “I know what you and your friends must think of me, but I am sorry for your loss, Haru. I truly am.”
She gave him a weak smile as she opened a sugar packet and dumped its contents into her coffee. “I’ve heard a lot of that lately. It’s nice to hear one that sounds genuine. Thank you.”
“Hasn’t the rest of the team consoled you?” He had been surprised.
“Akira and the others only knew my father for the terrible things he had done. I even told them that my reason for wanting to change his heart was solely to get out of my engagement with my fiancé, not at all to save my father,” she stirred her coffee slowly, more than was probably necessary. “The fact that they don’t pity me, they still invite me to investigate Mementos, Akira still helps tend to my garden on the Shujin rooftop... because they all still treat me the same, that is what really helps me.”
“I see,” Akechi let out a sigh. “I suppose that makes sense. My detective work helped distract me when I finally learned the truth surrounding my mother’s death... so in that way I should understand.”
Haru jolted up at what he said, finally making eye contact with him. “Your mother? I’m so sorry... I had never realized.”
“That’s to be expected. No one really sees the person behind the “Detective Prince”, right? I doubt even my most devoted fans know such things.”
“Forgive me for being so blunt, Akechi, but...” she took a deep breath, and decided to just come out and say what she was thinking. “You haven’t had many friends, have you?”
The young detective appeared taken aback at first, blinking in surprise at the young woman across the table from him. Then he started to chuckle.
“No, I suppose not. I’d say it’s partly my own fault though, since I’ve always seen myself as so much smarter and more clever than the people around me. I’ve only just now begun to realize how wrong I was. I suppose Sae Niijima is the closest I’ve had to a friend, and she certainly wouldn’t label our relationship as such,” Akechi wrapped a gloved hand around his coffee cup and lifted it to his mouth, taking a long drink before continuing. “I can’t imagine Akira or any of the others of the group accepting me as a friend after all the things I’ve said about them, but I can’t help but hope they see me like that eventually.”
“I mean, I wasn’t exactly nice to them either the first time we met,” Haru assured him.
“Oh trust me, you should hear some of the things I said to Makoto. And that was before I realized she was a member of the Phantom Thieves - probably even before she became one. And she is Akira’s girlfriend.”
“I realize that you disagree with our methods,” she added, eyeing him with a considerate expression over her cup. “But if you truly intend not to report us once this is all over with Sae Niijima, myself and the others are certainly going to have a lot more free time once we’ve given up being the Phantom Thieves. If you ever want someone to hang out with, all you have to do is ask.”
He gave her a smile at that moment. A genuine, charming smile that made her heart beat a little faster within her chest. It was a smile that she would never forget. It was then that Haru thought those dangerous thoughts, the ones that were the beginning to her own personal ruin:
Akechi is so much more handsome in person than he is on tv.
“I’d like that very much, thank you Haru,” he said with a very gentlemanly politeness. “I think the two of us must have much in common, if we both find ourselves in a place like this. Would you mind joining me here occasionally?”
If only she hadn’t given the wrong answer. “I’d love to.”
Akechi watched her kindly from behind his coffee cup. “Well then, it’s a date.”
~~~
She couldn’t imagine that Akechi was being honest in that initial meeting at Leblanc, once she knew everything he had done before and his plans to double cross her and her friends. Surely, he’d had ulterior motives for gaining her trust, if it wasn’t just part of his entire masquerade. But still with everything she knew, she agreed to and met up with him several times over the course of his time as part of the Phantom Thieves.
Following Akira and the rest of the team into Mementos was where her mistakes continued; she and Akechi worked together well. Too well. He was utterly flawless in a fight, a blur of white as he assaulted the Shadows they came across mercilessly. He was eager to show off his skills and usefulness, or perhaps just to show off. She remembered when he revealed his Persona Robin Hood to them within their first venture in Sae Niijima’s Palace, a heroic-like facet of himself that matched Akechi’s princely thief costume. Haru found that he gravitated toward her side in the middle of a fight, and trusted no one to watch his back as much as he did her. He had once described her style of fighting with her Persona Milady as breathtaking, to which Akira had teasingly replied “Is that so?” with an amused smirk, causing her to blush both at Akechi’s praise and their leader’s implications. Sojiro had very obviously informed him of her meetings with Akechi at Leblanc.
The worst part, however, was that Haru couldn’t definitively say everything he had done or said to her was a ruse. For example, the night he met Sugimura.
It had been like every other evening that he and Haru met up at Leblanc. Akira had been working this time and Futaba situated in her spot at the bar when Akechi held the cafe’s door open for her. Once Morgana had greeted her, none of the three under Sojiro Sakura’s care could hide their surprise as the two of them made their way into the booth back in the corner.
He was so much more suave and confident than her, acting as though it were a normal occurrence - as it was! Haru could only tell herself that so much though - when Akira approached and asked what was going on, while she turned the shade of one of her vine-ripened tomatoes. The evening only got more uncomfortable from there once she noticed Futaba and Morgana watching them and whispering the entire time, while their leader brewed their coffee, served them, and cleaned dishes behind the bar all with another small smirk on his face. Her heart was racing the entire time as though she’d gotten caught red-handed committing a crime. Akechi didn’t appear to mind, but that may also have been all part of his act.
Still, they left rather late that night, having lost track of time as what tended to happen when she spent time with him; it was rare for Akechi to not be punctual, however, and he humbly concluded with a chuckle that he was growing rather fond of Haru and wasn’t sure what he was going to do when she no longer wanted to spend time with him. He offered to walk her home and Haru initially declined, however Akira himself insisted since neither he nor Futaba could do so and it was so late the sky had grown dark. Perhaps that was the only choice she had made regarding Akechi that hadn’t been a mistake.
Her ex fiancé made his drunken appearance within rather close proximity to the modest apartment Haru had been living in since her father’s death to avoid the press, and that itself was intensely frightening. When he grabbed her and demanded she come with him, Haru had panicked and froze up. It was Akechi’s intervention that had most certainly saved her.
“Don’t stick your nose where it isn’t your fucking business!” Sugimura slurred ferociously, after the Detective Prince stepped between the two and requested calmly that he let go of her. “I don’t like you walking around with her either... she’s my fiancée!”
“No I am not!” Haru cried.
“That isn’t very smart, attempting to assault her while she’s with another person,” he spoke seriously and with authority and determination. “Regardless of who I am to her or my job as a police detective. Of course, both of those play a factor into how furious I am and how little more I am willing to give you a chance. Now, you will release Haru.”
“Back off pretty boy, this is just a minor lover’s spat. You better step back before I break your teeth in.”
Akechi adjusted his black gloves, rolling his wrists. “Very well,” he answered before slugging Sugimura in the face.
The drunken young man fell to the punch, throwing Haru to the ground as he stumbled with a pained howl. She looked up to find Akechi already extending his hand to pull her off the ground.
“Are you okay, Haru?”
“A little shaken,” she mumbled, though that was obviously an understatement as she was trembling. Sugimura... seeing him was an absolute nightmare. She hated him so much. It didn’t matter how strong she was, or even how much stronger she had become; he always made her feel powerless.
Akechi noticed instantly, and still he nodded. “Understandably,” he glared at the pathetic man who lay on the ground cursing profusely. “I will do everything in my power to make sure he doesn’t bother you again.”
“It’s alright, Akechi,” she sighed. “It will only make the situation for Okumura Foods more difficult... I believe he’s learned his lesson for some time at least. Thank you.”
He stiffened, appearing rather disturbed by Haru’s refusal, but nevertheless conceded. “Very well. Why don’t I take you to your family’s mansion tonight instead?”
“I appreciate it.”
Akechi flagged a taxi a little while down the road, paying for the trip and opening the door of the car for her in a gentlemanly manner. He slid in beside her, and Haru gazed at him in somewhat awe. Just more mistakes bouncing around in her head as her heart pounded once again.
“Ah, I forgot to mention... Haru?” He continued as the taxi wove through the lighter traffic of the late evening.
“Hm?”
“I’ll only keep that incident to myself under one condition.”
She blinked in surprise, looking directly at him. Haru narrowed her eyes ever so suspiciously. “And what would that be?”
He chuckled response, and leaned his hand on his cheek as he glanced out the window.
“Well, why don’t you call me Goro?”
~~~
They were two broken people who shared more similarities in their stories than either of them did with anyone else amongst the Phantom Thieves. Haru told him all about what she had suffered at the hands of her father’s distorted desires and subsequently her brief engagement to Sugimura, and in turn he confided in her the trauma he had suffered as a child. His mother had killed herself because of his bastard of a father, and for that Akechi vowed revenge on him. That was his primary motivation for becoming a detective. He had bounced around foster homes all his life, none of which were particularly welcoming to him, which was why he was also so invested in his job. He told her that he knew the identity of the man who had abandoned him. Akechi never told her who his father was, only that he was extremely well known to the people of Japan, and honestly Haru never asked. She never expected him to. But she was positively sure that the story itself wasn’t a trick. Even knowing what he planned to do, her heart went out to him.
Sure, they weren’t the only ones who had lost a parent, not by a long shot, but it was the fallout of that loss that really tied them together. Both were somewhat famous themselves, Haru as the heiress to Okumura Foods and Akechi as a young, good-looking detective with the charisma to match. The more they spent time together the more the tabloids caught the story and ran with it. One day, it was all anyone would talk about.
Beloved Detective Prince’s Heart Taken?! Goro Akechi spotted multiple times on cozy outings with Fast Food Heiress Haru Okumura.
It wasn’t as though Haru intended to keep her friendship, and thus her attraction, with Akechi a secret from the rest of her friends - Akira, Futaba, and Morgana knew by now, after all - but when Ann slammed a magazine in front of her at school with that exact headline on it, she couldn’t help but turn as red as a tomato. It was after they had discovered Akechi’s intentions, and therefore it came as no surprise to Haru that Ann, who quickly roped in Makoto, confronted her further.
“He doesn’t deserve your kindness, Haru!” Ann exclaimed once the two of them had dragged her to the roof of Shujin Academy. “I’m sorry for being so blunt, but he’s the one who killed your father! We have proof of that now!”
Makoto’s eyebrows knit together and she sighed. “Look, I know better than anyone from my sister where Akechi comes from. I can understand your sympathy for him, but... he doesn’t care about us. He’d kill Akira without a second thought, and lock the rest of us away in prison, including you.”
“I know.”
They had both clearly been thrown for a loop when Haru replied, sharing a glance before Ann continued.
“Then why...?”
“Because I don’t think it’s all just a trick,” Haru clasped her hands together, sighing. “Sure, most of it is. I can see right through his act. All of the time we’ve spent together has backfired on him, because I can tell what’s real and what isn’t. There are things he has told me that I don’t think he has ever told anyone else - not even your sister, Mako. Whoever he is playing soldier for truly only sees him as a pawn... and I see real regret, a really emotionally shattered man behind his eyes. Will I ever completely forgive Goro for killing my father? No. But I do see a chance for him to turn his back on who he was. He really values the friendship he had with us for a moment, and the one he thinks he has now.”
Was she selfish for thinking she could save him? Most definitely.
“Haru, you’re falling for him.”
“And suppose I am?”
“You know it isn’t going to end well if you do.”
That certainly wasn’t a lie. She could see the mistakes piling up. She could see the grave she had dug for herself. She could see how it was all going to blow up in her face. But...
“It might.”
It didn’t.
That evening was when she made the worst mistake of all. She knew Ann and Makoto were right, that they said what they said for her sake. There was nothing Haru hated more than when people sugar-coated their words for her, and thus she was grateful for the brutal honesty. It didn’t mean it didn’t still hurt however, and Haru cried. She cried, and cried until she was sure she had only ran out of tears, because the pain certainly wasn’t gone. And it was right when she realized she’d had another date with Goro that day when the doorbell rang through the halls of her mansion like a siren. With no other option before her, she let him in with puffy eyes and damp, tear-stained cheeks.
“Har... ru?” His voice had started out in a gentle greeting as he held out a bouquet of flowers for her - full of pink roses, white lilies, and a dash of purple from some irises in the middle of the bunch, the combination of which distinctly brought to mind herself, which surely wasn’t a coincidence on his part - but quickly switched to questioning concern when she opened the door.
As she expected Goro was immediately alarmed, demanding to know who or what made her cry. Haru very obviously couldn’t tell him, because that would put Akira in even more danger than he already was with how risky a plan he had decided on. She lied through her tears and told him it was just a bad day. Memories of her father. Perhaps telling him the truth would have changed the outcome of what was doomed from the start.
The world froze when he kissed her. The tenderness with which he cradled her face burned her, as he worked to wipe her tears away. Goro couldn’t have been more gentle, and yet the kiss tasted not sweet like sugar but sickly sweet like poison. Her stomach dropped, and even still she didn’t pull away. She had in fact yearned to be kissed by him.
She was a bundle of tears, and yet the kiss continued as Haru deepened it herself. Despite her actions, the nerves stirring in her stomach and the thoughts she had already been grappling with only caused her to tremble more, and Goro wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in close. Her eyelids fluttered like soft butterflies as she finally melted into the warmth and comfort of the moment.
Did he know? Was this a trick? It very easily could have been. Haru thought she could see right through him, the possibility that he could see right through her - straight to how she felt about him - was very plausible. Ann and Makoto were right; everything, even what she thought was authentic, could just as easily be a lie.
But it didn’t feel like one.
A liar wouldn’t have gone out of their way to add purple flowers to the bouquet; she doubted a liar would have even taken the time to figure out her favorite flowers were those soft pink roses instead of bright red ones without inquiring it of her. She supposed he could have just been that good of a detective; but it seemed unlikely. It seemed to her that deep down, beneath his thirst for fame and desire for revenge, he really, truly cared about her.
Haru soon lost herself in the embrace, holding to him tightly as she silently willed him, begging him to stay.
Don’t go through with this, Goro. Stay on our side. Stay with the people who care about you.
That was all she could do for the young man that she had grown to care for, and it hurt like her own personal hell. She could only hold him now, hoping that she had done enough to sway his heart. She could only hope that he cared for her by now more than he cared for his revenge.
It was only a day later that the Phantom Thieves were shattered, and with it all of Haru’s hopes went up in flames.
~~~
Three days spent with Sugimura. Three days wondering if everything they had worked toward had been for naught. Three days crying behind closed doors for fear that their trick had failed and Akira had been killed for real. Unable to contact any of her friends for fear they were being tracked by members of the Conspiracy following and watching them, Haru had nothing but the fallout of her father’s death and her own thoughts to deal with. As traitorous as the man himself, her mind always took her back to Goro Akechi.
She was so angry with him for everything he had done, and wished that there had been another way to get out of his trap without having to get to know him. Without having to play the role like she’d been blindsided. She watched him appear on tv, magazines, books, everywhere; that stupid face that had kissed her haunted Haru all across the city. But she still could not bring herself to hate him, because behind that golden smile was still the look of someone who had suffered.
Akira’s return to Leblanc had been a welcome distraction. They were relieved, happy, and she smiled for the first time in days. Of course she had believed they would succeed, but there were too many risks involved in their plan for her to have been entirely confident that it would work. And it was their leader and friend’s life on the line. They risked their lives fighting Shadows, but Shadows couldn’t deceive and trick and change their plans the way a person could. A Persona could stop a raging hailstorm, a flaming inferno, and a monstrous bolt of electricity, but it couldn’t stop a human pulling the trigger of a real gun with real bullets.
“Yeah, let’s take down that bastard Akechi!” Ryuji roared, and Haru couldn’t breathe.
She was furious, just like the others were, and she did want him to pay for what he had done. But Haru found herself also wanting to reach out to him once again. It was as Makoto said, Goro Akechi was but a mere pawn in someone else’s plan. Someone very dangerous. Someone who would kill them, and probably Goro too, at their earliest convenience.
She was unsurprised how quickly Sojiro Sakura and Sae Niijima’s help led them to pin down the true culprit behind all of the crimes that had been committed; Masayoshi Shido. Shido, that was the name Goro had spoken to on the phone while Futaba wiretapped him after his supposed murder of Akira. Certainly that was who he was working for, but the biggest question eluding the team was why.
She had an idea of what the answer might be.
The entire time they explored Shido’s palace she tried to distract herself, even her attempt to take the letter of recommendation from that scumbag of a human TV executive had been a distraction from what her true feelings were. His admission of purposefully broadcasting her father’s death could only dull her nerves for a short time from anger. Deep down she had been sure they would be forced to face Goro eventually, but his lack of appearance while exploring the ship gradually gave her false hope. Haru knew how clever he was, he would have most certainly discovered that they had tricked him eventually. Her heart swelled with hope at the prospect that he had figured it out, and didn’t want to stop them. When the princely Crow leapt from the rafters of the Palace cruise ship, Haru’s heart broke like a dam. From it spilled forth an overwhelming rush of emotions all over again.
The rest of the thieves were shocked when he revealed Shido was his father, but she was not. And there was that moment they made eye contact, that Goro made it clear that he knew she had figured it out the moment they learned who Masayoshi Shido was. She knew how much he despised his father, and how bent on revenge he was, and thus it was the only logical conclusion she could come to. Everything, all the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns and the framing of the Phantom Thieves has been carried out by Goro as part of his plan to destroy his father.
Though she may have wanted it more than anything for him to simply concede and join their side, she recognized that Goro had become desperate, that he cared for his revenge more than he had ever felt for her. She expected the fight that came, and she fought her hardest even as she was forced to watch as the man who had stolen her heart drove himself mad and attacked them over and over again with renewed power. He had made his choice however, and she made hers. How poetic it was, then, that Milady be the one to defeat him and his newly revealed second Persona, the trickster god of chaos Loki.
And yet still, with him defeated, the Phantom Thieves could not help but yield to his overwhelming power. Makoto, ever the eloquent and intelligent young woman she was, admitted to jealousy over his singular power and how much her sister trusted him. They had truly won only by the power of combining their abilities. Whatever gift Goro possessed, it simply outnumbered all of them but perhaps Akira. And Haru tried once more, reaching out for him to rejoin their side, to take down his father together alongside them; alongside her . She saw the look in his eyes. He knew that her feelings were still there, were genuine, and Haru saw his own reflected back. Despite everything those two broken souls had been through, despite what he had done to her, they could not pull themselves apart. The hand that he reached toward her, Haru unconsciously began to do the same. She wanted to pull him close again and not let him go this time.
And like a nightmare it all came crashing down with the sound of footfalls at the approach of Shido’s cognitive version of Goro Akechi, a self-deranged puppet all too eager to flaunt the real Goro’s mistakes. And with a gun pointed at the defeated detective’s head, he smugly invited the Phantom Thieves to take his place. It had not mattered how much she cried and reached for him, they were powerless to save Goro Akechi. Haru saw, however, when his cognitive copy threatened the thieves how the look in his eyes changed. When he met Haru’s gaze again, a blaze had ignited in them.
“Don’t misunderstand - you’re the one who’s going to disappear !”
With the sound of the first gunshot, the world began to blur. It all happened so fast, Haru had barely registered what he had done by the time the bulkhead door closed. And horrified, she cried for him... only for Goro to command the thieves to leave, begging Akira to promise him he would defeat Shido.
“So my final enemy is a puppet version of myself... not bad.”
And though it was futile, she screamed for him again. Haru pushed past her friends to the door beside Akira. She didn’t care what her friends thought - they all had to know how she felt by now. She wanted to heal Goro’s heart because she could have easily become just like him if it weren’t for the Phantom Thieves.
Those two gunshots that followed would haunt Haru more than anything her father had ever said, nor any touch by Sugimura’s hand.
~~~
Another December had rolled around again. At the beginning of her college winter break, Haru had made sure to immediately make plans with all of her friends from the Phantom Thieves. She left that day in the middle of the break, however, free of any plans so that she could visit the cemetery; to the place where the love she never even got a chance to try was marked.
So many people had died in the previous year due to the actions of Masayoshi Shido and his Conspiracy. The anniversary of her father’s death was early November, and she barely had a month until the date that those gunshots had ricocheted from the other side of the bulkhead doors. It wasn’t the first time she had visited Goro’s gravestone, but as of this day, as she got dressed and wrapped a coat around her petite frame, Haru realized it had officially been a year since he died. She wondered if any of her friends would go to the cemetery as well.
The day was quiet, the sky surprisingly clear of clouds or snow. A layer of it lay on the ground from the previous day, causing her footsteps to make soft crunching sounds under her boots as she walked to the spot she and her friends had chosen for him. Of course they and the police had never found Goro’s body or even proof that he died, but just simply the situation that had befallen him, and the subsequent destruction of the Metaverse, made it very clear that he would not be coming back. She remembered the funeral they held for him very clearly as if it had only been a week ago. Each of the former Phantom Thieves had said a word about him, and Sae Niijima had as well. The prosecutor also brought and read a statement written by Masayoshi Shido from where he resided in prison, apologizing to Goro for everything he had done in ruining the young man’s life. It was certainly reassuring to see how the change of heart had made Shido realize what he had done, and finally acknowledge him as his son. In particular to Haru.
As she approached Goro’s grave, the silence of the day surrounded her. In the distance, the normal bustle of the city, someone laughed. It reminded her of the warm cafe nights spent in Leblanc, sitting across from a detective who she knew was going to betray her and her friends, but whom she couldn’t help but grow closer to anyway.
“It’s been a year,” she mumbled as she stared at the letters carved into the stone. “I’ve missed you longer than I even knew you, Goro. I truly cannot believe it.”
No one answered her, of course. She heard the distant laughter again.
“I think about you almost every day, but you probably knew that already,” she gave a somewhat cynical laugh as she squatted down so that she was leveled with his name on the stone. “What you’d be like, now that the Metaverse is gone and Shido is in prison. Obviously I’m sure Niijima would have worked to get a lighter sentence for you. Similar to what Akira had to serve, I’m sure. But after that... I think you’d try to be a detective again. Yes, revenge was your biggest motivation, but I’m sure the justice you spoke of was real. You believed in it, truly. I would have loved to be by your side through it all, you know.”
The laughter had grown louder now, closer, and no matter how much Haru tried to block it out, she couldn’t. She had assumed it was someone dealing with grief as it had continued, but it made her blood boil. Here she was, mourning the loss of someone who had never really had a chance at happiness, and this person couldn’t realize that laughing in a cemetery wasn’t perhaps the most thoughtful thing?
“Goro, I hope... wherever you are-“ she winced a little, the laughter growing even closer to her back. She clenched her fists in anger and told herself not to react. “I hope you can be at peace now.”
A new round of soft chuckles erupted from merely a few feet away, and Haru had enough. There were tears forming in her eyes as she turned her head toward them over her shoulder.
“Do you... mind?” She growled albeit softly, but with malice nonetheless. “You are being incredibly rude, and ignoring my feelings! Most people come to cemeteries because they’ve lost someone!”
It felt so good to yell at the person, as her feelings for Goro were overwhelming her in waves and she wasn’t sure if she could even keep standing for much longer.
“Lost them? That, you certainly did.”
Haru’s head shot up at the voice, now directly behind her. She was going mad, she was hearing things. Otherwise it was impossible.
A pressure wrapped around her waist and leaned on her shoulder. They had come up from behind and now their mouth was right beside her ear. Haru’s body grew cold.
“Forgive me, I couldn’t help but find it funny that you put a headstone in a cemetery with no body to accompany it. I could never comprehend doing such a thing myself, especially for such a fool.”
She had long ago stopped crying when she went to visit the cemetery, but on this visit, they clearly had refused her wishes and returned. Habitually, she covered her mouth to dampen the sound of her cries, turning to see the presence which held her by the waist and kept her from slipping to the ground. She reached out to touch him, to confirm that the young man beside her, holding her, was real. Dark brown eyes the color of Leblanc’s coffee gazed back at her, framed by long brown hair that she remembered had tickled her face when they kissed. It really was him.
“But... how...?” She gasped through her tears.
He didn’t answer, in fact his expression darkened as he let go of her. Haru felt cold as he stepped back.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She remained silent, fearing what he was going to do. What he was going to say to her, although somehow she felt it coming.
He took a deep breath. “I wasn’t going to... I was going to let you think me dead but when I saw you here I couldn’t help it. But you and Akira and the rest of the Phantom Thieves; you’re too kind. You, especially you Haru, don’t deserve to have to fix me. This is actually going to be goodbye as well.”
He waited, perhaps for a response from her. But Haru remained silent, her gaze fixed on the ground. When he turned from her however, and began to walk away, Haru gritted her teeth.
“You don’t get to make that decision for me,” she snapped softly, but with resolve.
He stopped walking.
“All my life I’ve had choices made for me. Some people might say that’s a blessing, but it was a curse!” She was crying again, but didn’t care about it this time. “I make my own choices now! You don’t get to tell me what I deserve, and you certainly don’t get to walk away from me after everything you’ve done!”
She moved forward without even thinking, wrapping her arms around him from behind. Even his coat felt the same.
“That was a bit unexpected Haru,” he sounded like he was smiling now. “Fair enough. I truly am sorry... for everything you’ve gone through because of me.”
She hugged him a little bit tighter. “I know.”
Nineteen minutes later, Haru reached into the pocket of her coat for her phone. They sat on a park bench outside the cemetery, with her head and fluffy hair on his shoulder and his arm set gently around her again. Haru raised her phone slowly, opening up her text messages. There was a group chat that used to light up with dozens of messages a day, but had slowly faded away to a few texts a week after Akira returned home, and after she and Makoto went away to college. Haru smiled to herself as she opened up the keyboard.
‘Goro Akechi is alive.’ Her text read, which she sent to all of the former Phantom Thieves. It was only a minute later that someone saw it, and the first to open her message was fitting indeed.
“Hm? What are you doing Haru?” He asked her.
“Letting everyone else know the good news,” she answered. He let out a small hum of acknowledgment and gently kissed the top of her head. At the same time a set of three ellipses appeared at the bottom of her phone’s screen indicating an incoming response from Akira Kurusu.
She looked up at the darkened clouds now, noticing the instant that the world had seemed to grow silent. Small white flakes made their way to earth, cold as they fell upon the pair. Her phone made a soft, short ring in her hand.
“It’s snowing,” Goro mumbled.
A diamond dust of snow had begun fluttering down from the sky, glittering and glistening as if a sign to Haru that things were finally going to go right for her. It reminded her of the snow on that fateful Christmas Eve one year ago, the first time happiness had befallen her since making all the mistakes she had.
She smiled. “Yes, it seems it is.”