Chapter Text
Futaba huffs as she shoves her white striped stocking foot into her black high heels. She turns to the bathroom before huffing, “Hurry up Akira! We’re going to be late! How long does it take to heavily apply eyeliner!?”
Akira huffs silently as he puts down the liner looking at the outfit he found himself in. He isn’t sure why he was doing this, but it's the first event Futaba showed interest in going to for a while. After all, it took years for Akira to get her out of her shell, let alone get her to room at Leblanc with him. They both seemed ecstatic at the idea of rooming together after a while. They were both getting pretty lonely.
It was a bright morning on a Saturday when Futaba came running into Leblanc holding a letter in one hand and the rest of the junk mail in the other. She slid into some tables making a mess of the place, Akira knew he was going to be forced to clean up, before slamming the letter onto the bar table.
“Pops! You got a letter! It’s all fancy and important looking! It even smells good! Must be from someone important-”
“Don’t tell me he has a girlfriend,” Akira mutters as he walks over to the chairs Futaba messed up picking them up as Sojiro walks out of the back to eye the letter.
“That's what I thought! But Maybe it’s from a customer as a way to say thank you too! You’ll never know until you open it! Go go go!” Futaba beams, curious about her adoptive fathers life outside of the one she and Akira both knew.
Sojiro sighs knowing he can’t get out of reading the letter now that Futaba has seen it, so he uses a knife to break the letters seal and reads it slowly squinting and pushing his glasses to his face as if looking for something in the letter.
“It’s an invitation… to the mysterious masquerade that has been set up on the mansion on the hill yearly…”
Futaba gasps, “You mean that famous one that the rich people always go to and you can only get in by recommendation!?”
Sojiro pinches his nose and nods, putting down the letter, “Yep… that’s the one. It says I’m invited with accommodations for a plus one as well…”
“Oh my god! This is excellent! You should totally go!” Futaba beams excitedly, “It’s been a while since you got out and had fun right! We can watch the cafe! You should totally go!”
Sojiro shakes his head and crosses his arms, “I’m not going. I’m just too old for things like this… I have two adopted children and a cafe to run. A party just isn’t my style.”
Futaba frowns, “Well you can’t let this invitation go to waste!”
Sojiro pauses, sighing, “Well you two can go if you stick together… And if you promise to get back at a reasonable time.”
Futaba’s eyes seem to sparkle as she teeters on her feet, “You’re serious?!” She waits for a distant nod from Sojiro before jumping for joy, “Yay! Akira, this will be so much fun!”
She takes the other's hands and spins him around. Akira chuckles a little and smiles, “It’s your time to get noticed for your skills…”
“And it's your time to get friends!” She nudges his shoulder teasingly.
He laughs a bit as they go upstairs to plan their outfits.
A few weeks later that brought him here. In a semi tight black suit with white tie with a matching mask to boot. He felt out of place in this, but he can’t say he didn’t like the distant idea of being someone else for the night. He steps out and glances at Futaba. She grins happily and stands up. She had a dark blue dress with stars fading into the bottom of the dress like a star gradient and a moon hair clip. Her mask was a velvet gradient blue to black with stars all over. He liked the galaxy look. Usually she would go all hacker get up, something that wouldn’t be the best for a party, so Akira mostly chooses the outfit himself.
Futaba smiles and does a spin. “You have pretty good taste Akira! Your outfit looks good too, though it’s a bit plain…”
Futaba took the opportunity to give him some red accents including a handkerchief in his pocket and a red rose in his hair. She winks before pulling away. “Now let's go silly! What will all the rich people think if we’re late.”
She huffs before they walk out of the cafe taking the train to the mansion.
When arriving Futaba nervously takes Akira’s hand looking at the large mansion that they happened to walk over to. Leaving wasn’t going to be as easy as getting into a car for them, that's for sure. Akira squeezed her hand and chuckled a little, “Hey… It’s okay. I’m here remember?”
Futaba frowns for a moment before nodding and running to the mansion's doors taking Akira along with her. There was a slot in the door. She frowns thinking for a moment. “I think we need to put the invention in it… Maybe it’s like super high tech and the door will open for us!” Futaba smiles before taking the invention and putting it in the slot.
Like clockwork the door opens for them and the two step inside, when as they do so the door shuts and locks behind them.
“It’s dark-” Futaba mutters as she squints. She looks around before the floor lights up and leads them to the party room.
The party room was packed with people, even ones they knew by name, famous artist Madarame, Detective Goro Akechi, even the CEO of Burger Planet Okumura and his daughter Haru. Akira couldn’t help but feel out of place in this area, but what bugged him the most was why Sojiro was invited to such a boujee party in the first place. It seemed unlike him to go and unlike him to get invited to anything like this.
“Oh look! It’s track star Ryuji Sakamoto and his coach Kamoshida! Oh! And model Anne Takamaki!” Futaba gleams in excitement.
Akira couldn’t help but notice how… odd Ryuji was dressed. It was like he was hiding something… He had a feeling that Kamoshida was… abusive to say the least, but the last time he stuck his nose into someone else's business it didn’t go well. What he learned from Futaba is to wait until the right moment. He’ll keep an eye on Ryuji, and from the way Kamoshida was glancing at Ann… he might need to help her too.
“Look! There’s also prosecutor Sae Niijima and her sister Makoto!”
Futaba seemed to want to talk to all of these girls. Good… Akira thought. She needs some female friends. Though he wouldn’t expect her first ones to be this on the eye of the public.
“Why don’t you go talk to someone?”
Futaba looks panicked at the idea, “Without you? That… I’ve never done something like that before-”
“You haven’t done a lot of things, but I’m here for you if you need it.”
After a moment of decision from Futaba’s part she goes over to Ann, who honestly seemed happy that someone wasn’t too scared or high up their asses to talk to her besides Ryuji.
Akira himself walks over to the horderves table and picks up a probably expensive, but very small sandwich to indulge himself with.
“Hey-”
Akira turns around to see Goro himself going up to talk to him. Embarrassed he covers his mouth and swallows before shuffling a bit. He was too nervous to speak. He waves slightly as Goro chuckles.
"I don’t remember you being on the invite list when I snuck a peak-” He tilts his head, “You’re mighty mysterious because of this. Do tell me… How did you get the invitation?”
Akira didn’t want to give himself away that easily. Let alone getting Sojiro in trouble for having two kids go in his place if he wasn’t supposed to so he responded simply, “You’re the detective. How do you think I got it?”
Goro seemed amused with that response, and didn’t take a single moment before showing off his detective skills, “Well the only person who hasn’t come to the party is one Sojiro Sakara. I see his daughter, but not him… My deductions would be that you, the other adoptive child of his, elected to go in his place so his daughter could have some fun. Am I correct?”
“Close, but… Sojiro didn’t want to go at all. Futaba did. Sojiro was the one who said that I should go with her instead. It was never my idea.”
Goro chuckles and grabs a glass of punch before tilting his head, “You’re quite the strange one. Mighty mysterious. I haven’t met anyone who had made my deductions so accurate, yet off the mark by even the slightest bit… What is your name?”
Akira pauses, not sure if he wanted to be in the spotlight by giving a detective his name. The last time he had done something to put him in the spotlight he was thrown out of the house and given to Sojiro. He was the only person who still believed he was a good person after that.
“I’ll give you a game to play instead. You may call me Joker. By the end of the night you can figure out my real name then you get a prize of your choice. If you lose I’ll be gone like a ghost in the morning.”
Akechi chuckles before downing the rest of the punch, “I like your style Joker. Let's see what I can do to get this prize.”
With that the detective walks off leaving only Akira at the punch table alone one last time.
Futaba smiles as she glances over to Akira, who was hitting it off with Akechi. On her side of things she’s talking to Ann who was probably the nicest person she ever met. She talked about her friend Shiho a lot, but Futaba didn’t mind. She honestly found it cute and really wanted to meet this person if she got the chance.
Futaba frowns as Ann perks up a bit, she looks over to notice a girl in a vampire-like dress and striking red hair walk over to her. She had glasses and her hair was down. She wasn’t- It was the famous gymnast Sumire Yoshizawa. She was constantly overshadowed by her sister, however how she showed hope and grace after her death was simply remarkable to the public. The shy natured girl pulled herself out of the pits of grief and made herself successful for her sister. This wasn’t ignored by anyone in the public.
When Futaba read about her online she couldn’t ignore the fact that she was gaining the slightest girl crush on the other. She knew she would never meet the girl in real life, but she couldn’t help but strive to be with her. Now she was here and Ann was waving her over like she was a good friend.
“Hey Sumire!” Ann smiles before looking over to Futaba with a smile, “That’s Sumire, she’s an underclassman of mine. Between you and me she’s a bit lonely…” She winks slyly.
Sumire walks over and pouts slightly, “You better not be telling her I’m lonely again… it doesn’t go along with my public image.” She mumbles slightly, twiddling her thumbs a bit.
“Just because it doesn’t go along with your public image doesn’t mean it isn’t true.” Ann sticks her tongue out at the other jokingly.
Sumire shakes her head and pouts slightly before looking over to Futaba. Her heart skips a beat when the other looks at her, “Who might you be?”
“I- I uh. Futaba…” She blushes and curtsies at the other who laughs and does a curtsy back.
“No need to be nervous. I would like to think we’re all friends here-”
Ann scoffs, “Sure we’re all friends if we’re not counting the adults here-”
Sumire’s eyes widen, “Ann you’re going to get in trouble if you keep on talking like that-”
“They hurt Shiho. This is my only chance to find people brave enough to fight against the corrupt Futaba-”
“Hey girls. What are you talking about?” Sumire tenses up as track coach Kamoshida walks over to the group.
Anne glares at the man and shakes her head, “Nothing…” She twirls her pigtail around her finger.
Kamoshida seems to be about to say something when the lights go out and a mysterious figure speaks from the speakers on the wall. Futaba knew right away that they were using a voice changer, but a good one. One that wouldn’t be noticeable by the naked ear. Futaba tries to focus but Sumire grabs onto the other female's arm tensely. Was she scared of the dark? Or just surprised.
“Welcome to my party! Don’t be surprised, but you will find that you cannot leave the manor and none of the phones work, including cellular devices.”
The room is filled with shocked gasps as everyone seems to try their phones simultaneously.
“As many of you just found out, I am telling the truth. Sadly unlike the parties of the past, this party will be much more… deadly.”
Everyone seems to be shocked. Futaba could even feel people pushing past her to get to the doors banging on them. Some of them seemed to take this very seriously. Others seemed to have their doubts. That was until they heard a scream.
Akira noticed that voice. Goro Akechi. He rushes over to the other boy’s side. Though it was hard to see, Akira could feel the blood on the other's stomach. It seemed to taint the other's hands as he backed up.
When the lights turned on people seemed to look at the body. Though Akechi wasn’t dead, Akira found himself looking suspiciously like the culprit.