Work Text:
You promised.
Murmurs identical to the ones from less than a year ago crowded around him as he sprinted the city. The silence between each beep multiplied.
It was nothing short of a miracle they came to trust you.
Some of the crowd made way for him- voicemail. Try again.
This is how you repay them?!
He never noticed the people pinging him with odd looks.
You knew this was coming.
No one was answering.
You KNEW.
“ Shit ” he hissed.
Group Chat: Phantom Thieves Fan Club
Zenkichi: Are you guys okay? 7:38PM
Zenkichi: Hurry up and get outta there! 7:38PM
The echoes of the announcement rang in his ears until it turned into white noise.
“The police have been notified regarding this case, and are looking to arrest the Phantom Thieves as soon as possible”
Ice shot through Akira’s veins.
“Akira…?” Sophia’s voice was a note too high.
“They’re coming for us.” He whispered, his heart rapidly speeding up.
“Uh, Akira?" Ryuji 's voice, confused, from the opposite sofa, he barely caught it- cold dark hurt please be safe dizzy hard to breathe don’t fall asleep sharp pain help me do not forget -
No.
NO.
He stood. “Grab your things as fast as you can and head to the back door”
Everyone paled at the fierceness in his tone, he didn't care. What’s going on? went unspoken.
“We’re leaving.”
Black blurs were lining up near the building.
He heard a woman’s voice from afar, “Good work”.
She was standing in the middle of it with her arms crossed. Zenkichi’s stomach dropped as he recognized who it was.
“Commissioner!” he called anyway.
He finally stopped behind her.
She waited for him to catch his breath as he put his hands on his knees.
“You’re late,” she said.
He straightened himself after a few moments. Slowly, he looked around at what surrounded him.
Cops were in formation at his sides. Armed. They had shields at the ready like if a bomb were seconds from exploding, black trucks with their signature red lights stretched as far as his vision allowed.
Dread and guilt coiled up in him like poison. Have they seen this before?
“Maybe,” he couldn't keep his voice light, “but you know this case isn’t solved yet. You can’t do this to them”
Her shoulders lowered, and he heard hints of a sigh.
Zenkichi pressed on. “The Phantom Thieves have nothing to do with the Change of Heart epidemic. I thought I told you this at Okinawa, so how…” He waved an angry hand at the squad, still in disbelief. “How can you let something like this happen?”
He got no response. The quiet made him realize the night was cloudy, unsurprisingly, though the house lanterns glowed brighter than streetlights. He spotted one of the officers adjust themselves from the corner of his eye.
The Commissioner finally turned to him. The light framed her in a way that highlighted the bags under her eyes. Her tone was even, tired and low but still firm enough to reach the ends of the clearing. “It’s as Mr. Konoe stated- they’re under suspicion for the murder of the Madicce research center director and for hacking into EMMA. Such crimes are deserving of arrest, I'm sure you can agree.”
“And you’re going to take him at his word?!” Zenkichi snapped. “That director had died before they had even stepped foot on the prefecture, do you honestly think they’d sink so low as to-”
The Commissioner snapped back with gritted teeth. “You’re seem awfully concerned about a group of criminals, Inspector Hasegawa.”
He wavered. Zenkichi could feel the eyes of the other officers on him. The Commissioner’s gaze was sharper than a blade. “Did you forget who the leading suspects were from the start? Or did you let yourself get carried away by them?" Zenkichi's jaw snapped shut out of reflex. "You have to put your feelings aside and focus. ”
He tried to suppress the grimace, but it didn't go by unnoticed. What felt like hours passed in the summer night.
The Commissioner's features softened to something unreadable. "I’m under direct orders from the Commissioner General. Disobedience isn’t an option."
His eyes widened. “The Commissioner General?” he mumbled. Wait, but- “What does he have to do with any of this?! There has to be more to it, don’t you sense something wrong here-”
“Like when your wife died?” She cut in.
He flinched at the old wound. It tugged at him, and he carefully pushed back the thousands of meetings he’d dedicated to that sentence alone, trying to convince the poker-faced superiors to let me extend the investigation please-
She gently shook her head from where she stood. A mark of exasperation. He’d seen that enough times to know that he was being an utter fool.
“One can’t simply bend this organization to their will, I thought I told you this before." The silence from the other officers was deafening. “You yourself made a vow back then: to stop any atrocity, you’d be willing to endure any hardship”
He couldn't bear to keep looking at her, and instead he drove his eyes to ground trying to pin down just where he'd gone wrong. It was never meant to be like this.
“Endure for now, Hasegawa, your time will come. Once I am at the top, I will bring the corrupt to their knees. Let my justice be your justice.”
His head snapped back up at that. “They’re not even criminals-” He scowled. “They’re kids ! Kids that did more than we could have ever hoped to do in a lifetime in less than a year, how can you allow this?!”
She pursed her lips. “I’ve already made myself clear”
He couldn’t just let them-
Seven heads and a cat watched him as Nijima talked for them. “You’re saying that the world isn’t neatly divided into good and evil”. She gave her team a significant glance.“But that won’t stop us from fighting”
She was calm, yet she didn’t leave any room to argue on it. Not for the first time, Zenkichi wondered what memories had replayed through their heads.
Kitagawa sunk into the sofa with his arms crossed, tilting his head with amusement. “If someone is suffering, it’s only right to provide aid when possible."
Kurusu leaned against the car window, staring outside, at the highways, as they all drove into the night.
“They sure put me through hell.” He mumbled.
He’d heard of it- it was one of those rumors that drifted its way through the workplace every now and then.
‘The leader of the Phantom Thieves, finally caught and he escaped-’
‘-any scraps of the tapes have been wiped or become highly confidential-’
‘-nothin’ more than a scrawny brat, he deserved what he got-’
“Hasegawa.” He couldn’t tell if her tone was of pity or sympathy. “Let me handle this. I believe you have a daughter who needs you.”
“Aren’t the police supposed to do what’s right?!” Akane cried bare meters from her mother’s grave. “Why, Dad?!”
The Commissioner turned her back to him. "Is everyone ready?”
They’d never forgive him. Akane would never forgive him.
“All units, move out!”
“Hold it! ”
The officers froze mid-step.
He trotted past the commissioner and looked up at the windows. Please let this be enough.
“Run…”
The world be damned, if he couldn’t protect the innocent then what the hell was he?
“RUN FOR IT! ALL OF YOU!”
Akira had stayed behind for just mere seconds longer to make sure everyone else made it out safely.
That yell was the last thing he heard before he soundlessly stepped into the night and ran .