Work Text:
One foot in front of the other. That’s all Futaba is thinking about. It’s all she can think about. Sojiro told her to go, so she’s going. It’s all she can do for him after he’s done so much for her.
There’s the sound of footsteps in front of her, and shouting, so Futaba turns quickly and skids beneath a fallen tree. She tries to keep her breathing steady, but it’s hard. She’s still covered in scrapes and bruises from the crash, and she hasn’t slept since they had to make a mad dash from Leblanc. She hasn’t had time to even make sense of everything.
Goro Akechi, bullet hole in his stomach and clearly having been beaten within an inch of his life had shown up at Leblanc’s doorsteps and said Shido was making his move. Akira had taken him to the clinic while Futaba checked the group chat to let them know what that meant when the news announced the Legislator Shido was calling for a full nationwide manhunt of the Phantom Thieves now that their leader had “killed himself” in police custody.
Futaba had seen her face alongside each of her friends, last known addresses printed clearly next to a 15 million yen bounty for each one turned in. Futaba’s phone buzzed in her hands, but she didn’t even look.
No no no no no! The deadline was supposed to be the election !
But the Phantom Thieves were a “national security risk” and needed to be dealt with immediately.
Sojiro had cursed under his breath, thrown an apron over Futaba’s head and dragged her to the car. Sojiro’s phone rang.
“Hey, did you see the news? Yes I have Futaba, I’m- what? Are you sure? But-” Sojiro let out a string of curses and got into the driver’s seat.
“What happened?”
“Akira’s going to meet us later,” Sojiro said, knuckles white as he pulls out of their driveway.
“What?” Futaba shouted. “We can’t leave him he-”
“Is already presumed dead. His face wasn’t on that bulletin, yours was. I’m keeping you safe above all else.”
Futaba sunk back into her seat. The others had pretty quickly stopped texting. The sound of dogs barking snaps Futaba back into the present and she huddles even more into the fallen tree.
Futaba lost her phone just before the police had caught up to them and the car crashed, but Futaba still hadn’t heard anything from the other thieves.
Hopefully it’s just because they did the same thing as her and Sojiro and got the heck out of dodge, not because the police had stormed their homes and took them into custody.
They’re fine, Futaba tells herself, they have to be.
None of them had predicted this turn of events but even still. Makoto has Sae, obviously they’d know enough about police to stay out of trouble, and Ryuji’s mom wouldn’t turn him in so she’d help him like Sojiro helped Futaba, and Haru can probably run off with oodles of cash before the police caught up with her, and Ann has a passport so she could get out of the country if she needed to and Yusuke can absolutely survive off the grass growing in the country, and Akira’s supposed to be dead and Morgana’s a cat no one would even try to arrest him!
Futaba shivers in the early December air, and waits until morning when the footsteps and talking are long gone.