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“Heya, Akechi-kun!” Ann chirps.
They’ve just returned from the Metaverse when Ann bounds over to him, bubbly and full of energy despite the fact that they just spend upwards of four hours crawling through Mementos and hunting down shadows. Akechi doesn’t know how she manages; he’s running on little more than caffeine and spite, while she’s standing here beaming at him, her arms tucked behind her back expectantly.
“Yes, Takamaki-chan?” Akechi asks, plastering a pleasant smile on her face. He’s so tired. Hopefully this won’t be anything pressing.
“Are you still feeling sushi?” she asks. “I’m totally starving.”
It catches Akechi off-guard. She – she’s serious? Surely not; he’d mentioned getting sushi while they were traipsing around in the Mona-bus, but Akechi is certain they’d just been making small talk. It had been nothing more than stupid, inane chatter, hadn’t it?
“Oh, are you sure?” he asks, pushing down the urge to refuse outright. A more calculating part of Akechi’s mind tells him this might be a good opportunity, given that he barely knows the Thieves – Akira aside – and Ann has always seemed to be a particularly open book. Perhaps he could make use of her. “I wouldn’t want to impose if you have other obligations…”
“I’m always available for food,” Ann states definitively. Before he has a chance to react, she grabs him by the wrist and tugs. “C’mon! I know a cute little place that just opened; if we get there soon, we can avoid the crowd…”
“W-wait,” Akechi says, stumbling as he tries to follow the endless bundle of energy dragging him along. “The others…”
But when he turns to look, everyone else is gone.
The sushi shop is cute, in a way Akechi would have called charming if the owner hadn’t decided the predominant motif of the restaurant should be cats: lavish murals of giant cartoon felines cover the walls, the open floor plan offering no escape from their beady little eyes. Sure, some of the critters are pictured sampling the shop’s menu items, eyes closed in delight, but overwhelmingly the cats are staring, unblinkingly, at the patrons. It’s… unnerving, just a little.
“Haha… sorry,” Ann says to him as they take their seats across from each other at a small table. “I guess this place isn’t really your thing, huh?”
“It’s fine,” Akechi assures her. “Actually, in a way, it sort of reminds me of you.”
Ann makes a face at him.
“Not necessarily in terms of aesthetic,” he quickly assures her – truth be told, her bright red tights rather clashed with the room’s pastel color scheme – “All I mean is that it’s… bold, and unapologetically unique. You exhibit that same kind of confidence in the Metaverse.”
“You really think so?” Ann asks, and Akechi nods. She turns away, a distant look in her eyes.
“That’s funny. I guess I really have changed…”
Akechi looks at her quizzically, and she definitely notices. They take a moment to order their sushi, and once they’re alone again, Ann twirls a finger around a tuft of hair, drawing Akechi’s attention against his will.
“This is my natural hair color, y’know,” she comments.
“Is that so? It’s a lovely color,” Akechi says, and somehow, it’s not as empty a compliment as he usually gives. Ann’s hair is nice – healthy, too; Akechi can tell – but there’s no doubt it is a very distinctive color.
Indeed, almost everything about Ann is distinctive, to the point that Akechi assumes it must be by design. In the Metaverse, Ann may be a Panther, but out here, she’s more like a bird, and her outfit like brilliant plumage, a dazzling display of her personality. She carries herself with a kind of grace that can only come from her experience modeling, so unapologetically herself that it often seems to Akechi that she doesn’t care about or even notice the kind of attention she draws as a result.
For Ann, who wears bold and daring colors simply because she likes them, clothing must be another form of self expression – a small taste of freedom, or else a way to attract companions, just like the birds she so resembles.
For Akechi, clothing is camouflage, a way to minimize his presence and put others at ease. He can’t relate.
Ann smiles brightly at him. “Thanks! I’m glad you think so. I like it, too… even if it gets me some unwanted attention sometimes.”
“Oh?” Akechi asks. This is a surprise, almost perfectly antithetical to the conclusion he’d previously drawn. “In what way, if I may ask?”
“Well, it was mostly in middle school, I guess; now people just gossip behind my back…” she sighs, trailing off. “I was a lot different before I joined up with everyone.”
“Is that so?” Akechi asks. He affects a mildly interested tone of voice; if he sounded too intrigued, he might come off as suspicious, but if he was too nonchalant, Ann might take offense. “I wouldn’t have guessed…”
“Yeah. I was – hmm. I guess I had just kind of given up, you know? I thought that everyone had already made up their minds about me, so there was no point trying to convince them otherwise.” She pauses, fiddling with her chopsticks. “I thought if I could just grin and bear it for a few more years, then school would be over and I wouldn’t have to deal with any of it ever again; not Kamoshida, not all the rumors…”
“But then…” Akechi begins to say, cutting himself off when he realizes that the subject still might be a bit raw for Ann.
“Yeah.” Ann gives him a weak smile – not because she is in any way amused, but to show that she isn’t angry with him – a smile meant to diffuse tension. “You, uh, work with the police, right? So you probably heard all about it.”
“Read about it would be more accurate,” Akechi says, not that the distinction matters. “It was a truly deplorable situation. You know, I… I still can’t say that I agree with the methods of the Phantom Thieves, but after an incident of that caliber… I believe I understand why you would want to join such a group.”
Ann laughs a little. “Hey, that’s fair. I think I can understand where you’re coming from, too.”
Akechi blinks. “Me?”
“Yeah! About why you don’t agree with us, I mean. Like, who knows what kind of people we might have been? It would have been really easy for us to turn out just like that other Persona-user…”
She trails off, and as Akechi swallows down the bile in his throat, he feels something lingering in the back of his mind – a question he’s had for ages – and he takes a moment to observe Ann. She seems to be in high spirits, despite the subject matter. Maybe now would be the time…
“Takamaki-chan, do you think I could ask you something? Something regarding that first case.”
“Huh? Yeah, shoot.”
“Kamoshida… why didn’t you kill his shadow?”
Ann’s eyes go wide, and she hastily looks over her shoulder, but Akechi had already taken their surroundings into account: sitting as they are, they’re isolated from other patrons by a small partition, and it’s loud enough in the restaurant that they shouldn’t be overheard.
“I learned of the Metaverse only a short time ago,” Akechi says, lowering his voice, “and I have to say, there is nothing logical about such a place. We take down shadows in Mementos without a second thought, so I would have just assumed that, when confronted with Kamoshida’s shadow…”
They’re both quiet for a moment. Ann glances around the sushi shop once more time, and then she leans in closer to Akechi so that she can speak in a near whisper.
“Honestly, if it hadn’t been for Mona and the others… I probably would have.”
It’s Akechi’s turn to widen his eyes. What? Surely he must have misheard – surely Ann is trying to trick him into revealing his true nature – but the look on her face says otherwise.
“You’re serious,” Akechi says.
“Oh yeah.” Ann’s face darkens with barely-repressed fury. “After what he did to Shiho – after everything he did to all of us – if it had been up to me…”
Akechi’s lips part in shock. He’s too surprised to response.
“Ha… I probably shouldn’t say something like that to a detective, huh?” Ann asks.
“No, no,” Akechi says, “It was simply unexpected. You – you mentioned Morgana? Did he teach you, then?”
“Yeah, he told us about stealing hearts,” Ann says. She laughs a little, tracing an indistinct shape in the tablecloth with her finger. “It’s crazy, right? Who would have even thought it was possible…”
“I certainly wouldn’t have guessed,” Akechi says.
He feels sick, his empty stomach churning uncomfortably. He had felt so foolish when the Phantom Thieves first appeared back in April, a group that seemed to know every intricacy of this strange world from the moment they arrived, while Akechi had been stuck using brutish methods to appease a megalomaniac like Shido – but how, how could he have known otherwise, when even the Phantom Thieves needed someone else to tell them about changing hearts? If they had never met Morgana, then…
And now, looking at Ann, whose eyes have hardened into a look of resolute determination, Akechi is struck with the knowledge that some animals use bright colors not to attract a mate, but to warn predators to stay away.
Don’t mess with me, her clothing says. I just might kill you.
He’s about to speak again when their waitress arrives with their orders. They both snap out of the strange reverie into which they had fallen, and Ann immediately brightens up at the sight of the colorful nigiri spread out before them.
“…Well, hey!” she chimes, flashing him a dazzling smile. “Why are we being so serious? We’re here to treat ourselves, right?” She picks up a piece of nigiri and holds it up triumphantly. “So c’mon, let’s eat!”
Akechi selects a piece of sushi for himself, nodding to his dining companion, and they both pop a piece of sushi into their mouths. They’re quiet for a moment, chewing thoughtfully. He sees Ann visibly swallow.
“It’s, uh…”
“The flavor is quite… distinctive, isn’t it?”
"That's one way to put it."
Suddenly, the two plates of sushi before them appear much more intimidating. Grimacing, Ann picks up another piece and eats it, as if she may have adjusted to the unique taste by now, before abruptly setting her chopsticks down
“Hey,” she says, “do you like sweets?”
“Sweets?" Akechi frowns, another piece of sushi halfway to his mouth. “I’m certainly not opposed to them. Why do you ask?”
“After we… finish this,” she says, and shoots a glare at their food, “do you want to go get ice cream or something? As, like, a palate cleanser? It’s okay if you can’t!” she adds hastily, an apologetic smile on her face. “I know you’ve probably got a lot of stuff left to do…”
“No,” Akechi says, more quickly than he expected. He has dozens upon dozens of things to do, his work never truly finished, but he is even more reluctant to let this evening end already; to his immense shock, he feels more energized after their short conversation than he has felt all day.
“I… I think that would be nice, Takamaki-chan. I’d love to.”