Chapter Text
“Yo! How is it going, Gen-san?”
Futaba made a lively greeting as she stepped into Yumenoshima, the Second-hand Shop of Yogen. The owner, an old man called Genjinami, turned his attention to the redhead as soon as he heard her.
“Hey there, Futaba-chan. Back from school?”
“Yep! Sorry I haven’t been showing up much, I had exams some time ago, and it’s been kind of a slog.”
“Oh, is that so? And how did those go for you?”
“Just peachy!” Futaba grinned. “That’s why I came here! Looking for something neat to spend my reward money on!”
In the last couple months, Futaba had become somewhat of a regular in Yumenoshima. The shop was literally on her way home, so she’d always have a chance to take a look at the old stuff Genjinami had on sale. Every now and then she would find something like some old game cartridges or even books and manga. And all at an easily affordable price too. As a teenager who didn’t have a lot of money to work with, it was the best Futaba could ever hope for.
That day too, she was hoping to find another bargain waiting for her.
“Oh, yeah. I have something new here, actually…” Genjinami snapped his fingers. “I don’t really know what it is for, but I think it might be of your interest, since it’s computer stuff.”
“Oooh! What is it? What is it?”
While Futaba was nearly hopping from curiosity, Genjinami searched behind the small counter he had in the corner of the store. He soon brought out a small rectangular box and showed it to the redhead.
“My little grandson gave me this a while ago… Said he couldn’t figure out how to use it or something.”
At the moment she laid eyes on the box, Futaba gasped. She could not believe someone just thoughtlessly handed over such an item. And over such a poor excuse too. That box was a treasure, and she had to claim it.
“Gen-san…” She spoke in a serious tone, mirroring Joker when he tried to negotiate with Shadows back in their old days of thievery. “How much do you want for it?”
“Well… I dunno…” The old man scratched his head while thinking. “How about… ¥9,000?”
“Sold!” Futaba exclaimed. “Gimme, gimme, gimme!”
With her new acquisition in hand, Futaba hurried back home so she could drop her school bag and grab her laptop. She needed space to try out her new toy, and her room just wouldn’t cut it. Not without some serious organizing, which she was not in the mood for. Surely Leblanc would have an empty booth or two, like always. So not long after getting home, the girl was already leaving again and heading towards her father’s cafe.
Worst case scenario, I’ll just borrow Ren’s room. It’s not like he’s here to complain about it anyway.
While chuckling from that thought, Futaba pushed the front door and walked into Leblanc. Just like she imagined, there were plenty of booths that were unoccupied. Sojiro himself was tending to a pan in the oven when she entered, tirelessly stirring curry even as he turned his head to see her.
“I’m home!” Futaba hummed.
“Hey, welcome back.” Sojiro smiled. “How was your day?”
“Eh, same old, same old.” She giggled and shrugged. “I did find something neat on the way back, though! Do you mind if I use one of the booths?”
“Oh? Sure, go ahead.”
Futaba happily hurried to the booth that was farthest in the back and then worked on setting up a little work station. First, her trusty laptop, which she booted in no more than a few seconds. Then, it was time to bring forth the new tool. She opened up the box she bought from Genjinami and gently removed its contents: A thin, gray colored tablet and a black colored pen.
“What’s that you got there?” Sojiro asked, peeking from the kitchen.
“This, Sojiro, is a drawing tablet!” Futaba explained. “With this, I can make drawings straight into the computer, just like if I drew on paper! Or, well, not exactly like it, but pretty close to it. Kinda.”
“Really, now? That’s interesting…” He raised an eyebrow. “Funny, though… Always thought that this drawing and art stuff was more of Yusuke’s thing, not yours.”
“Oh, I’ve always wanted to try one of these out! And thanks to Gen-san, I’ll be able to do it without spending a fortune.”
“So that’s where you got it from…” Sojiro raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure it works well?”
“Well, it is an older model, from what I’ve seen…” Futaba said while inspecting the tablet itself. “But it wasn’t really used much, apparently. It should work dandy!”
Futaba eagerly connected the tablet to her laptop through a cable. She frowned a little when realizing the cable was actually kinda small, but shrugged it off quickly. She could always get a bigger one later if needed. Either way, the girl soon focused on her laptop and began typing with her usual, frantic pace.
“Gonna need a couple drivers… Then find a good program for the actual drawing… And a free one at that… Ugh, delays, delays…”
Left to her own machinations, Futaba heard Sojiro chuckle and then return to his work in the kitchen. During the following minutes, she heard walking in and out of the cafe, with her father greeting and talking to them every now and then. Futaba barely paid attention to any of that, though, her sole interest being setting up her new tablet.
There were surprisingly quite a few options of free programs for digital drawing. While that wasn’t a bad thing by any means, Futaba groaned when thinking she’d need more time to properly test each one of them and see which one felt better to use. She decided to just pick the first one on the list and worry about the others later.
Once that was settled, it didn’t take long until Futaba had everything she needed set up and ready to go. Eager to get started, she pulled the tablet closer to herself and then picked up the pen. A flash of inspiration and cheekiness struck her, and Futaba tried to spin the pen on her fingers. Just like Ren used to do.
Unfortunately, he never got to teach her that trick, and the pen basically flew from her fingers to the table.
“Shoot!” She whispered.
Her little accident did not go unnoticed by Sojiro, who made a poor effort to contain a chuckle. The girl groaned and blushed, but shrugged it off as she recovered the pen and focused back on her laptop. With one hand at the keyboard and the other holding the pen, she began her first attempt at sketching something with the tablet.
It definitely didn’t come out pretty. Or anywhere past ugly and incomprehensible, for that matter. While it wasn’t different from what Futaba was expecting, it still made her frown a bit. It would take a lot of fiddling until she improved.
That’s fine. I may be a level 1 scrub right now… But Futaba Sakura always gets to the top tiers sooner or later!
As she pressed on and kept sketching and then cleaning the digital canvas over and over again, Futaba heard the cafe’s doorbell ringing. Then a familiar voice made itself known.
“Greetings, Boss.”
“Oh, hey there, Yusuke.” Sojiro replied amicably. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you around.”
“Indeed… Apologies for the absence. I, too, have been forced to deal with the struggle of exams.”
Yusuke Kitagawa, one of Futaba’s close friends and fellow Phantom Thief walked over, taking a seat on one of the stools that was closest to the kitchen, right next to the booth she was using. That allowed him to take notice of Futaba as well, at which he promptly greeted her.
“Ah, hello, Futaba.”
“Hey, Inari.” She waved. “Good work making it through exams!”
“Thank you.” He chuckled. “I trust you’ve been successful in yours as well?”
“Don’t I always? Mwehehe!”
Always the hungry one, Yusuke ordered up a cup of coffee and a plate of curry. Peeking from her seat, Futaba opened up a small grin when noticing her father was making his portion bigger than the one he’d normally serve. Both her and Sojiro knew Yusuke often had issues with managing his own money and that his stomach would be the one paying the price in the end. It wouldn’t surprise her if that plate of steaming curry turned out to be Yusuke’s first decent meal in the whole week.
“Not gonna lie, it’s kinda weird seeing you all alone in here.” Futaba commented. “In the last few times I saw you, you came here with Ryuji, right?”
“That is correct.” He nodded. “As of late, meeting him has become somewhat of a rare occasion… He has been quite busy with his extra classes or outings with Togo.”
Futaba made a brief grimace at that last part.
“Ryuji has a girlfriend and he’s doing extra studies of his own free will…” She muttered. “What sort of twisted world are we living in?”
“Indeed…” Yusuke sighed. “It makes me wonder if this truly is our reality.”
“Geez, you two are brutal…” Sojiro chuckled sheepishly. “Can’t you just be happy for the poor guy?”
“What? I’m just saying.” Futaba snickered.
“Oh, but I am happy for him.” Yusuke replied. “Despite his faults, I honestly believe Ryuji is a good man. I wish only the best for him and Togo.”
As he spoke, Yusuke absentmindedly swayed his spoon through the last bits of rice and curry that remained on his plate.
“In fact… It gives me hope that one day, even I will find someone special for me as well…”
Although she couldn’t quite tell the reason, Futaba found herself gazing at the look on Yusuke’s face. It was hard to tell what he had in mind at that moment. Was he just contemplating things with the curious mind of an artist, like usual, or was there something more to it?
“By the way…” Yusuke said, his eyes meeting with hers. “What are you doing over there, Futaba? I see you’re holding a pen.”
“Oh, this?” She grinned. “Well, lo and behold, Inari, for I am taking a jab at drawing some art myself!”
Yusuke’s eyes lit up immediately. Even his posture changed, with him shifting on the stool so he could properly look at Futaba.
“You’re drawing?” He asked, surprise clear in his voice. His eyes darted to the equipment the girl had on the table. “But I don’t see any paper or a canvas…”
“That’s because I don’t need any.” Futaba cheekily replied and patted the tablet. “With this little knickknack here, I can send whatever I draw straight to the computer.”
“W-What?” Yusuke gasped. “I’m aware your computer skills have always been more than impressive, but… To think you’d be able to actually transform drawings into data…!”
The look of awe and confusion in Yusuke’s face was quite a treat for Futaba. She almost considered going along with it. Promoting herself as the magic hacker he was thinking she was sounded like a fun idea. Futaba couldn’t bring herself to do it, though. Maybe because she knew he’d buy it as easily as he’d buy an expensive random object just because art.
“Nah, it’s nothing that fancy.” The redhead chuckled and shook her head. “This tablet is just something I found in a second-hand shop today. Anyone can have it up and running without much trouble.”
Futaba pushed herself a bit to the side and patted the empty space next to her.
“Come ‘ere, let me show you how it works.”
The young man didn’t hesitate, and the little bit of food that remained on his plate was left forgotten while he stood up and took the offered seat.
“Okay, see this? This is a drawing tablet.” Futaba explained, poking at the tablet with the pen. “Basically, you use this pen on it, like you’re actually scribbling on a paper. And then…”
To demonstrate it, Futaba gently brushed the tip of the pen over the tablet’s smooth surface. At the same time, a crooked line drew itself on a white area on the laptop. She repeated it a few more times, making another sketch prototype appear on the screen.
“And voila!” She chimed. “You can use pretty much any color that you want. And you can change your brush to make it look like all sorts of different tools. Like a pencil, a marker, or even a piece of chalk!”
Futaba quickly changed the settings with her free hand and then drew more lines on the screen, showing off the options she had talked about. Yusuke’s face looked like he was watching an astonishing magic show.
“My word…” He uttered. “To think technology has advanced to such an extent…”
“Yep. There’s a lot of artists who have changed to digital. And there’s even people who have become artists while doing digital art on their own! What do you think? Pretty neat, right?”
Once again, Futaba tried mimicking Ren by spinning the pen on her fingers. She even showed a smug grin just like his. A smile that vanished as quickly as the pen flew from her fingers and slammed on the keyboard.
“Shoot!” She hissed.
Yusuke reached out and picked up the pen, staring intently at it. Different from a bit earlier, Futaba had a good guess of what he had in mind at that moment. Curious to see how that would go, she pushed the tablet towards him.
“Here, wanna give it a try?”
“Huh?” Yusuke turned to her with a look of surprise. “May I? Are you sure?”
“Yep, go ahead. I can tell you’re itching to play with it.”
“We’ll, you’re certainly not wrong.” He chuckled. “In that case... Excuse me…”
Yusuke pulled the tablet closer and adjusted the pen on his hand. Then he stared at the laptop’s screen for a few moments. He remained silent all the time too, seeming a bit thoughtful as well. Futaba even wondered if he was waiting for something to happen.
“...You okay there, Inari?” She asked.
“Hmm? Ah, yes… Apologies, I was just thinking about what I should try drawing.”
“Just do anything! I dunno, maybe a tree?”
“...That wouldn’t be my first choice, but… Very well.”
Looking down at the tablet, Yusuke made a few quick movements with the pen over the device’s surface. Then he turned back to the laptop screen and his eyes widened.
“Huh? That is not what I tried to do at all!”
“Yeah, uh… Inari? Your eyes gotta be on the screen or you won’t know where you are. You need to draw on the tablet without looking at it.”
“Ah, I see… It seems this will require no small amount of coordination.”
“Yeaaaah, it’ll take some getting used to.” Futaba chuckled. “Just try to use the cursor on the screen to guide yourself.”
Yusuke frowned as he tried to do as told, keeping his focus on the laptop. He tried again to do a few lines, but the result wasn’t much better than last time.
“What the… I did not want it to be this long!”
“It’s okay, relax…” Futaba replied. “You can just undo the lines you get wrong. Hold the Ctrl key and then press Z.”
After taking a moment to find the mentioned keys on the keyboard, Yusuke tried out the command given by Futaba. The last line he tried to do vanished in the blink of an eye, causing the young man to gasp.
“Ctrl + Z is your best friend, Inari.” Futaba giggled. “Each time you do that, it’s like you’re going a step back in time! It’s really nifty.”
The redhead then reached a hand to the keyboard.
“Or you can just press Delete, and it’s like you’re tossing the whole page away.”
She demonstrated it by pressing the key, which cleaned everything they had previously scribbled on the program’s digital canvas.
“I see!” Yusuke said, his voice packed with awe. “To think it’s so easy to get rid of my own mistakes… This is truly impressive!”
Seemingly growing more enthusiastic, Yusuke resumed his attempt at sketching a tree. He roughly scratched the pen’s tip against the laptop, causing a noise that reached deep in Futaba’s heart.
“Hey! Not like that, you oaf!” She complained. “You’re going to hurt the tablet!”
“Oh! Sorry!” Yusuke stopped immediately, raising both hands.
Futaba groaned and nudged herself closer to Yusuke. Using both hands, she held the hand he was wielding the pen with.
“Gotta be gentle, Inari.” She said. “You don’t need to put much force into it. Just go nice and easy, like this…”
Futaba gently moved Yusuke’s hand over the tablet, helping him to draw a single, curvy line.
“I understand…!” He widened his eyes. “It’s similar to an actual brush.”
“Don’t worry about being too fast, or you’ll get your lines all wrong. But don’t be too slow either. You must be perfectly balanced…” Futaba then imitated a deep voice. “As all things should be."
Yusuke looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Clearly, he didn’t get the reference. Futaba sighed and released his hand, before waving and telling him to just go on.
Futaba would never have imagined that someone would have so much trouble over drawing a simple tree. Yet there she was, trying to guide Yusuke as he struggled to learn how to work with the digital drawing program. That, by itself, wasn’t so bad. The real problem was to deal with his quirks as an artist.
Yusuke wanted to make his tree as perfect as possible, no matter how many times Futaba told him he didn’t need to go so far on his first try. And that led him to make decisions she wasn’t exactly fond of.
Such as when he suddenly cleaned the whole canvas without a second thought.
“Why did you delete all of that?!” Futaba questioned.
“It was not to my liking.” Yusuke replied as if it was a simple matter of fact.
“You could just undo or erase whatever you didn’t like!”
Or the time Yusuke seemed to be stuck on a loop while trying out different shades of brown.
“...Inari, it’s the same color.”
“They are not! The smallest difference in shade could make it a completely different kind of tree.”
“It's the same color!”
However, against all odds, and after a lot of back and forth, the drawing of a tree did come to life eventually. Both Yusuke and Futaba leaned back on their seats as they both looked at the product of their work. It wasn’t by any means the prettiest tree ever drawn, but it was quite presentable.
For Futaba, it was pretty damn good for a drawing made by someone with no experience with digital drawing. As for Yusuke, it was far from ideal, but acceptable enough.
“You two done?” Sojiro asked while scrubbing a plate and looking at them from the kitchen. “You’ve been at it for a couple hours now… ”
“Hours? Seriously?” Futaba blurted.
Only then she looked around and realized that there weren’t any other customers in Leblanc anymore. She also could see through the windows at the front that it was getting dark. If Sojiro hadn’t closed the cafe yet, he was probably just about to.
“Huh… I didn’t realize it at all…” Yusuke commented. “I suppose time does fly when we have fun.”
“...Well, if it was fun for you, I guess that’s a win.” The girl mumbled while laying her arms and her head on the table. “Myself, I’m exhausted…”
“I can’t quite say I’m satisfied… But this shall do for now.”
Even though he said that, Yusuke kept staring down at his own drawing. Looking up at him while her head was lowered, Futaba felt his eyes were serious. Not in an analytical way, though, but more as if there was something he was saying beyond the drawing.
“How about some coffee?” Sojiro offered. “I think you two might need some energy after all that hard work… Whatever it was for.”
“As much as I’d love that, I shouldn’t linger much longer.” Yusuke said. “There still are things I should see done before the day ends.”
“Well, I’ll take a full course of curry!” Futaba declared while patting playfully on the table. “Got a lot of HP and MP to restore.”
Sojiro chuckled and shortly began preparing a fresh new serving of curry, while Ftaba sat up straight again and stretched her arms. Despite having just said he needed to go, Yusuke remained still in place for a few moments, eyes still turned to the laptop screen.
“You worried about your drawing?” Futaba asked. “Don’t sweat it, I’ll save the file and keep it safe for you.”
“Ah, yes… I appreciate it.” Yusuke nodded. “Truth to be told… I was thinking of something else…”
“Yeah? What’s up?”
Yusuke seemed hesitant for a moment, but he soon assumed a serious expression.
“Futaba… I have a request for you.”
“Hmm?”
Out of a sudden, Yusuke grabbed her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes with a fierce, determined look.
“I wish you to teach me more of how to create art through the digital way!”
“H-Huh?”
“The time we spent together today… It was quite a unique experience for me… In fact, it actually reminds me of many years ago, when I was but a clueless child taking my first steps into the world of art…”
Yusuke glanced at the laptop screen once again, although his hands remained on Futaba’s shoulders.
“Now that I think about it… The first thing I ever tried drawing was actually a tree as well.” He chuckled softly. “This feeling of not fully understanding how to use the tools I have at hand… The many mistakes and attempts to fix them… I’ve forgotten how incredibly fun this is.”
Then he turned back to Futaba, showing the same determined look.
“As an artist, this new path is something I simply cannot ignore… But, without proper guidance, I’ll surely lose my way sooner or later… That’s why I’m asking you, Futaba. Lend me your knowledge so that I can hone my skills even further!”
The redhead felt overwhelmed by how intense his eyes were. Not only that, but also because of how close he was. Unable to look back at him for long, she turned her head away a little and tried to respond.
“O-Okay, okay, I get it! Just back off a little, will ya!”
“Oh! Sorry!”
At last Yusuke moved his hands away, also leaning away from Futaba.
“I apologize… I’ve been told more than once I tend to forget about personal space when I get too enthusiastic. Seems like it’s a hard habit to get rid of…”
“Y-Yeah, sounds pretty legit.”
After taking a quick moment to recompose, Futaba cleared her throat.
“Anyway… I guess I wouldn’t mind teaching you more stuff about how to use the tablet and the program…” She said. “But I’m not an artist, Inari. I literally bought this tablet just for kicks. I’m not an expert at digital art.”
“I understand… Yet you still remain as the most reliable teacher I could hope to find at the moment. And honestly, I wouldn’t have anyone else to do it.”
Futaba felt her cheeks get really warm all of a sudden. She knew well that, among all her friends, Yusuke was the one who definitely would not say things just for the sake of pleasing or causing a good impression. He was always sincere, almost to a fault. Straight to a fault, even.
“...Okay then, Inari… I’ll give you a deal.” Futaba said, crossing her arms. “I’ll look for all the tricks on how to do digital art and pass them over to you. Be warned, though, I’m a very strict teacher.”
“That is perfectly fine by me.” Yusuke nodded. “But if you say it’s a deal… That means you expect me to do something for you in return, correct?”
The question actually caught Futaba by surprise. She used the word “deal” simply because it was a common slang among her and the other Phantom Thieves. But the truth was, she had no idea of what she could ask him in exchange for her help.
“Yeah, you know what? I’ll think of something later. For now, let’s just say you’ll owe me a favor.”
“Are you certain?” Yusuke asked, looking surprised.
“Sure.” She shrugged. “Let’s just roll with it and see how it goes. But then again… It’d really help me if you were a little less picky with your colors…”
“...I can only promise to try.”
“I’ll take it.” Futaba giggled. “I guess we have a deal then! Let’s work together and make something super cool, Inari!”
“Yes! I very much look forward to it!”
Yusuke extended his hand towards Futaba. Guessing it was no more than a gesture to seal their deal, she reached out and shook his hand. Instead of letting it go after that, however, Yusuke moved his other hand in, so could use both to hold Futaba’s hand in a snug yet gentle grip.
“Thank you, Futaba. I shall do my utmost to live up to your expectations.”
“Oh… Uh… Y-Yeah… Sure…”
Looking quite pleased, the young man let go of her hand and stood up. He turned to Sojiro and gave him a grateful nod.
“My apologies for extending my welcome today, Boss.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. You and the others are always welcome here.” The old man replied amicably. “Take care on your way back, kid.”
“Of course! I shall see you again soon.”
Before walking away, Yusuke looked back at Futaba one last time and smiled.
“Let us keep in touch through messages, yes? I’ll let you know whenever I’m available for our next session.”
“Right…” She nodded. “See ya later, Inari.”
With that, Yusuke said goodbye to both Sojiro and Futaba, picked his few belongings and took his way out of the cafe. The girl looked at him go, staring at the front door even after he left.
“Saaaay…” She grinned at her father. “Is it just me, or Inari never paid for that curry earlier?”
“...Who knows?” Sojiro smirked right back at her.
Futaba chuckled and then began to organize all the things on the table, so she could have space for her food. After putting the tablet and the other parts back in the box, however, she stopped to gaze at the tree that Yusuke had drawn. Just like promised, Futaba saved a copy of the drawing’s file, even adding it to a new folder she dubbed as “1N4R1”.
Once that was done, the redhead stared down at her own hands. A few things ran through her mind, and she guessed she must’ve stayed like that for some time, since Sojiro asked her at some point:
“Something wrong?”
“Huh?” Futaba snapped softly. “Oh… Nah, I’m good, I was just thinking… I never noticed it before, but… Inari actually has some pretty eyes, doesn’t he? His hands are pretty soft too… They felt kinda nice.”
Sojiro seemed at a loss for words for some reason.
“...Uh…”
“Oh, well.” The girl shrugged it off and giggled. “Guess I got myself something fun to do for some time, huh?”
The few hours spent trying to teach Yusuke how to draw on the computer weren’t exactly a walk in the park. And Futaba was sure that their next “sessions” probably wouldn’t come without its own set of troubles. Yet for some reason, she was actually looking forward to it.
Inari the digital artist, huh… This oughta be good.