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“On your left!” Akira called out, just in time for Goro to dodge a blast of curse magic from the shadow attacking them.
“Ugh, what the hell is this thing?!” Ann yelled as she missed yet another attack, just barely singing the feathery hair on the shadow’s head.
“I dunno, it’s not like any we’ve seen, but it’s strong whatever it is!” Futaba’s voice came in from Necronomicon, the persona spinning high above the battlefield as she searched for answers to their current predicament.
Akira frowned, standing up straighter as he studied the shadow before them. Sae’s palace had many strange and powerful shadows, but this one was unlike any they’d seen up till now. It was big and had a feminine frame, glowing yellow eyes, and a V of feathers spread across its chest and down its arms like huge wings. Its face was almost human, ashen skin and a painted smile, it looked so wicked and intelligent. It was always unsettling to Akira when their enemies looked so sentient.
The shadow approached, long legs closing the distance as all too human feet slapped against the shiny casino tile. The shadow screeched and aimed a blast at Akira, who was a second too slow to jump out of the way. As he raised his arms, bracing himself for the oncoming hit, he was suddenly pushed aside with a hard shove.
The thief was sent rolling across the casino floor, lights spinning above his head as he slowly came to a stop. He squinted back towards his team, seeing Haru rush in and deliver the killing blow to the shadow with a swing of her axe. The shadow burst into a cloud of black smoke, only its fading scream left behind.
Akira groaned, slowly pushing himself into a kneeling position. “That was a little rough, is everyone okay?”
“The readings have calmed down,” Futaba’s voice came in. “But something is… uhh…”
She stopped, and Akira was confused to see her suddenly dropping out of her persona and running up to the others. He pushed himself to his feet, curiously heading over to see what had caught her attention.
Futaba turned on her heel, something grasped in her hands. She held it up to Akira, who blinked, utterly baffled. Resting in her hands, fluffed up and thoroughly agitated, was an actual crow wearing a tiny red mask.
---
Akira paced back and forth in his attic bedroom, one hand on his chin in a mimicry that he hadn't even realized he'd picked up. Morgana sat on his usual table spot, tail swaying back and forth as he watched the boy pace.
"Wearing a hole in the floor won't solve anything, nyou know," Morgana meowed, breaking the tense silence.
Akira sighed heavily and flopped down onto his sofa, resting his face in the palms of his hands. There was a fluttering overhead, and then something landed in Akira's hair. With a loud agitated caw, the crow Goro had been turned into pecked at Akira's fingers, then yanked one of his curls.
Akira yiped and swatted at the bird, who just tucked himself down further into Akira's nest of hair, clacking his little beak at the movement of Akira's hand.
"Goro- how are you just as much of a jerk as a bird, huh? I guess if you can't run your mouth you have to make up for it by biting me, is that it?"
The bird replied by yanking on another tuft of Akira's hair, which he took as a definitive yes.
This whole situation was beyond bizarre; not only had none of their status ailment cures worked in the metaverse, but he hadn't even turned back upon their return to reality.
Of course, exactly zero other people were willing to look after the boy they all knew would be betraying them in a little over two weeks, so Akira had agreed to take him back to LeBlanc for the time being.
Things, however, were proving trickier to solve than he'd initially thought. Akira had assumed, or more accurately he had desperately hoped, that Goro would just turn back on his own after a couple hours.
He had, very unfortunately, been wrong. It was nearly midnight now, and Goro Crowkechi, as Akira had taken to calling him in his head, seemed no closer to returning to normal.
Akira heaved a sigh and decided to just go to bed for the night, since his pacing definitely wasn't getting them any closer to solving things.
He took Goro out of his hair and set the bird down on a blanket, one that Akira had earlier shaped into a nest on the couch. "We should get some sleep. We can ask the others their thoughts on how to fix this tomorrow."
Goro cawed but didn't attempt to peck Akira's eyes out, so the thief took it as a caw of agreement.
Anxious about this ailment but hopeful that Futaba or Makoto might come up with answers the next day, Akira headed to bed for the night.
---
The next morning, far earlier than Akira liked for a Sunday, three people came traipsing up the stairs into his dusty attic bedroom.
He sat up in bed, still half asleep as angry squawks and cackling laughs filled the air. He rubbed the bleariness from his eyes, seeing Futaba laughing loudly and Yusuke trying to grab hold of an angry flapping Goro. And then there was Makoto, just standing at the top of the stairs and shaking her head. Akira ran a hand through his hair as the brunette weaved past the more chaotic teens, showing him a book he hadn't noticed she'd been holding. Akira let out a yawn and pointed, still not fully awake. "Wassat?"
Makoto sat on the edge of the bed and motioned to the cover, leather and ornate with some title written in Greek.
"This," Makoto explained, "is a book on Greek mythos. It took some digging, quite literally, but we found it in Futaba’s disaster zone of a bedroom."
Akira nodded slowly, finding it somewhat difficult to tune out the laughter and angry caws in the background. "Uh huh, Greek stuff. Why… why does that help us, again?"
"Oh oh I know lemme tell it!" Futaba exclaimed, bolting up to the two.
Yusuke followed behind her, somehow having managed to wrangle Goro, as he had the large bird clasped firmly in both hands. "I am unaware of the importance of this book, I am merely here for the rare opportunity to paint our fellow thief as a magical bird."
Akira chuckled, trying to imagine any scenario in which Goro sat still long enough for a painting, cursed bird or not. Still, he ignored that and turned his attention to Futaba, waiting for her to explain.
Makoto offered her the book, and everyone sat quietly while she rapidly paged through the tome, mumbling under her breath until she found what she was looking for.
"Ha ha!” The hacker exclaimed. “This! I thought, a lotta shadows come from mythos and stuff, so maybe it'd help us if I could find something that sounded similar to the unknown enemy we faced."
Makoto nodded in agreement. "We ran through many possibilities, exhausting both Egyptian and Roman lore before stumbling upon this information about some lesser known Greek deities."
"I typed 'bird witch lady mythos' into Google and found this after like ten minutes," Futaba elaborated. "But the book adds dramatic effect!"
She spun the thing around and motioned to the page with a flourish, a somewhat short passage about a Greek sorceress and deity called 'Circe'.
Akira squinted at the page for a minute, then back up to Futaba. "Circe, a woman who curses men to be animals? I guess that makes a lot of sense. But this is barely any info, I don't see how it helps us."
Futaba slid her phone on top of the book, tapping the article she had pulled up. "I told you the book was just for dramatic effect."
"You mean to tell me I had you dig up this 'incredibly important ancient tome', for no reason at all?" Makoto sighed.
"Now now, presentation is everything! It's super lame if you're talking about a magic curse without a cool mysterious tome," Futaba said, wagging her finger.
"Ah, of course," Makoto said drily, "the presentation."
Akira smiled a bit. "I mean, we are Phantom Thieves, flair is important."
"Aesthetically speaking, a book does carry much more of a weight of importance-" Makoto raised her hand to cut Yusuke off.
"Okay. Can we please cut to the chase?" she asked. Goro gave a sharp caw and clacked his beak a few times, seeming to be in agreement with Makoto.
Futaba snickered and shifted, moving to sit cross-legged at the foot of the bed. She picked her phone back up and said, "Circe wasn't JUST a crazy lady with some self esteem problems, she also had a real weird relationship with love. In The Odyssey, Odysseus actually managed to avoid being turned into an animal for the whole year he was on her island. Wanna know how?"
"Is it the answer to turning Goro back..?" Akira asked.
Futaba nodded sharply. "He pretended to be in love with her. Circe was pretty susceptible to romance. Musta been lonely I guess."
"So," Makoto chimed in, "theoretically speaking, we were debating ah… fairy tale rules, in a way. If Circe was so strangely interested in the concept of love, and it was, in a sense, her 'weakness', then…"
Futaba locked her phone and slid it back in her pocket. "We think maybe somebody should smooch Akechi back to normal."
"And by someone, we very much mean you ," Makoto stated.
The wheels in Akira's head spun for a good minute, and when things finally clicked, he leapt up in flustered surprise. "Wait WHAT? Why would you just assume-why-I doubt that would even-!"
The other three were just staring at him, with Makoto looking very unimpressed. Goro had gone still in Yusuke hands, beady little eyes wide and unblinking. There was a soft, uneasy trill in his chest, his feathers puffing up as he breathed heavily. It seemed he was about as startled as Akira.
Akira's face was red as he looked down at the floorboards. He cleared his throat before speaking again. "What I'm trying to say is… what makes you think that would work? And uh, why me?"
Makoto tsked, still very flat-faced. "You're really going to play dumb? That's fine. Let's just say that you're the only one of us who tolerates him enough to actually do it."
"Besides, they did specifically say that love may be important for it. Would that not mean that it would have to be someone who cares for Akechi?" Yusuke added.
Akira refused to make eye contact, wondering just how unsubtle he had been. Morgana padded up then, yawning loudly as he hopped up onto the bed.
"So much noise… Akira, if it'll work with anybody, it'll probably be nyou. I'm nyot gonna judge, I already know plenty," Morgana huffed.
"I'll still judge you. But like, from a distance," Futaba said.
Akira rubbed his neck awkwardly, "Thanks, Futaba." He sighed and looked at Goro, still tightly clutched in Yusuke's hands. "Look I uh, I'll think on it."
Akira looked down, feeling his face grow a bit hot. "How the hell do you even kiss a bird..?"
"Stick its beak in your mouth!" Futaba exclaimed.
Makoto pinched the bridge of her nose with a heavy sigh. "I'm sure a simple kiss on top of his head would work. If it's fairy tale logic, then it's not like it has to be on the mouth."
"May I still paint him first? An opportunity like this is rare-" Yusuke's soft baritone climbed to a shrill yelp as Goro managed to maneuver himself well enough to bite the artist's finger.
Yusuke let go, and the indignant bird flew over to Akira, landing in his hair before turning to angrily snap and trill at the lanky teen.
The artist scoffed as he rubbed his hand. "It is your loss then. You've shattered my dream, I hope that satisfies you, you macabre little creature."
Goros feathers puffed up and he let out a caw that certainly sounded smug to Akira.
Makoto clicked her tongue and stood, tucking the book under her arm. "Well, we'll leave you to think it over. I suppose just give us a call if he turns back."
Akira nodded. "Will do. I uh, I'll let you all know."
"I'll be waiting with baited breath and your wiretapped phone data!" Futaba hummed, making her way back to the stairs.
"Yes. Good luck. But Akira, if you're ever turned into an animal, you will let me paint you. Won't you?" Yusuke asked.
Akira breathed out a laugh, "You know I will, Yusuke."
"At least you appreciate my endeavors." Then Yusuke was gone as well, headed back down the stairs and out of the cafe with the others.
Morgana looked up at Akira, then down at the ground. The cat heaved a sigh, tail swishing. "I feel like this'll be awkward if I stay, I'm gonna go bother Futaba for the night. Alright?"
"Oh, yeah that's fine," Akira paused, then added, "Thanks, Mona."
"Look, I don't try to understand nyour weird bond, but I support nyou. Just as long as it doesn't ever get nyour dumb self hurt," Morgana meowed.
Akira gave Morgana's ears a scratch. "You're a good friend. And a little over protective."
"Nyou'd be lost without me," Morgana replied, a purr rising in his throat. His tail swiped one last time, and then he slunk off down the stairs, leaving Akira alone with his feathery rival.
Akira let out a sigh, plucking Goro off his head and holding him in his cupped palms. Goro just stared back, dark eyes boring into Akira's grey.
It felt strange, not seeing the glint of challenge that always loomed in those usually maroon irises. A crow's eyes were so hard to see, the windows to their souls tinted too dark to easily glimpse through.
"We really are similar, aren't we?" Akira murmured. Goro made a soft sound, beak opening and then closing again, as if he wanted to respond somehow.
Akira shook his head. "You can't even talk right now, but I bet I know what you're thinking. I bet you think this is all frivolous nonsense. The bitter heart under all that public fluff must be hating this whole mess."
Goro fluffed up, tucking his head down against his body. His sharp eyes stared back at Akira, a small, low sound leaving his throat. Akira took that to mean he agreed. Or at the least didn't disagree.
"But you know what I think?"
Goro tilted his head, blinking slowly, never breaking eye contact. 'Go on, Akira. Don't keep me waiting,' his expression said.
Akira smiled and let out a soft little sound of his own, an amused breath that wasn't quite a laugh. "I think… you kind of hope it works. We've never been normal, nothing in our bond has ever been that. We aren't friends, we aren't in love, you and I both know that."
Goro let out a small chirp. A sound Akira took to be 'but?'.
"... Do you ever think, maybe those things are just too black and white to describe us? What we have, whatever it is, maybe it's just as strong. In its own way."
Goro let out a sound very close to a huff, impressive for a bird. He clacked his beak a few times, then looked away. He couldn't really argue; even if he wasn't a bird, Akira thought he wouldn't have a comeback.
"Want to call me an idiot and try to say I'm wrong? That glove of yours proves you agree. Even if you won't ever say it."
Goro's eyes snapped back to him, managing to look surprised. He opened and closed his beak again, flapped his wings once, and then stood in Akira's hands. He tapped his claws against Akira's palms, standing as tall as a foot long bird could. It was challenging, in a way. A gesture that Akira felt he alone understood.
The thief smiled softly. "Want to know something? I'll never say it either." He leaned forward, pressing a gentle peck to the top of his feathery head.
He opened his eyes, staring back at the bird and watching. Nothing happened for a moment. Goro just opened his beak in the start of a loud, amused caw, when a puff of smoke and shadow exploded around them.
When the smoke cleared, a very human Goro Akechi sat in Akira's bedroom, hair ruffled and looking incredibly dazed.
Akira chuckled softly, and Goro flushed a soft red, refusing to meet his eyes.
"... It was merely a coincidence," Goro protested weakly.
"It's good to have you back, Goro," Akira hummed.
The detective hesitated, picking at the sleeve of his jacket. He slowly stood and dusted himself off, thoroughly flustered. Finally finding his words, he spoke, voice barely above a whisper.
"... Thank you, Akira. For um, that whole… thing you said."
Before Akira could respond, Goro thrust a finger at his face. "But don't think for one moment that this changes what I said to you before. I won't lose to you."
Akira rested his chin in his palms, smiling broadly up at the brunette. "I wouldn't expect any less."