Akira Kurusu, barista extraordinaire, peeled his sweat-sticky face from the cool bartop of Cafe Leblanc as the fan creaked overhead. 

The cafe had been empty all day – nobody wanted to buy curry or coffee in a heat wave. Would Leblanc curry ice cream be an insult to Wakaba’s memory? Boss retired to Hawaii last year, so at least Akira had a head start if he needed to make a run for it. (Wait, who was he kidding? Futaba would love it, and from everything he knew about her, Wakaba would have loved it too. Maybe he should put that culinary arts degree to good use and make Boss proud. Or just add iced coffee to the menu and see how far that got him.) 

God, this had been a long day. It started with a vet visit and it went downhill from there. Japan was finally starting to enforce the microchipping law; he couldn’t care less about the law for its own sake, but he wasn’t going to risk losing access to emergency care for his best friend. He and Morgana had talked over the procedure and agreed, but it had been a difficult morning for both of them. Akira made a mental note to pick up some fatty tuna for Morgana later; it didn’t feel like enough, but if it brought Morgana any comfort, it was worth it.

By an hour after opening, the already-spotless kitchen was gleaming, he’d cleaned the grease trap, and all the coffee jars had been polished. Twice . After two hours, he had sharpened all the knives (again), organized the coffee by cultivar and region, and re-drawn the specials board in hopes of catching a customer’s eye. At four hours, he succumbed to temptation and obliterated his opponent in his current ChessOn match. Definitely satisfying, but now he didn’t even have the chess game to keep him entertained. Now, six hours in, he was contemplating a bean-by-bean coffee inventory. He’d ordinarily text Mishima to reminisce, but he was on vacation with his family in Nara – Akira didn’t want to bother them.

Desperate for a distraction, Akira flipped through the TV channels yet again. Weather, blessedly uninteresting news, soap opera reruns, a documentary on… lichen? He clicked the remote off. There wasn’t even a trashy movie worth the effort of mocking.

Morgana usually kept him grounded on slow days, but after this morning’s vet visit, Akira could tell he wanted to be left alone. Since he was no longer working five part-time jobs, staying at the top of his class, playing therapist for half of Tokyo, and saving the world… well. All that energy had to go somewhere . Unfortunately, as the Phantom Thieves had learned from painful experience, a bored Akira was a dangerous Akira.

Against his better judgment, which had spent the day curled in a fluffy ball under the counter, Akira grabbed a viciously curved boning knife from the kitchen and started juggling it from hand to hand. Adrenaline junkie that he was, he never tired of the flash of steel inches away from his face. The metaverse had been inaccessible for nearly a decade – Joker had to get his fix somehow, right?

Maybe today he could finally get the hang of this new teppanyaki knife trick. Akira’s breathing steadied as his vision narrowed. Weave forward, backward, forward, backward, reach around, and fli-

Ding!

Akira snapped back to reality as the knife clattered across the counter, landing point-down in the floor. Ugh, and he’d just sanded it smooth from last time, too.

Wait. A customer!

“Hello! Welcome to Leblanc! Please take a–”

…Okay, small unaccompanied children didn’t normally wander into Leblanc off the streets, but she was hardly the strangest customer he'd had. (The night the entire Crossroads drag troupe stopped by on their way to a bar crawl was wild. )

His latest patron appeared to be a little girl of ten or eleven, with coarse black hair shaped into blunt bangs and pulled into stubby pigtails. Her too-small shoes scuffed on the floor below her uniform skirt as she edged through the doorway. Despite her slight frame (she looked barely tall enough to see over the bar), her tawny-skinned face was round above a pointed chin.

When Akira tried to catch her eye, she swallowed anxiously and looked away.

“Kiddo, are you okay? I can get you a glass of water, just a sec-”

Turning back to Akira, she bit her lip and scowled in determination. Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, she thrust an envelope at him. “Ihaveamessageforyou!” 

Inexplicably, the scruffy child was now glaring at him with an air of deep suspicion, making her look kind of like a miniature Makoto. Adorable.

Amused, Akira reached for the envelope. Occasionally he still received letters from his former overseas students (a few years ago, he’d spent some time teaching Japanese in Italy), but they usually came in the regular mail, not delivered by Small Child Express. He was looking forward to getting the story here, but Boss raised him right; the customer came first.

“Thanks for delivering this. Is a response expected?"

The kid looked panicked for a split second before blurting out, “Um… Yes!”

Yep, definitely a story here.

“All right. Have some curry on the house while you wait.”

Akira set the envelope down next to the register and waved her to a barstool. With a clink of utensils and a puff of steam, he dished up a hearty serving of curry and rice. A wisp of contentment wrapped itself around his shoulders as he slid the plate in front of her, followed by a glass of water.

She took a tentative bite. “This is really yummy. Thank you, sir!”

A soft smile crept onto Akira’s face. “Just call me ‘Boss’.”

She reluctantly tore her eyes away from the plate and returned to studying him. Was she waiting for Akira to read the message? If she wasn’t going to keep eating until she’d seen him open it, he’d better take a look.

On closer inspection, the envelope was made of soft, pulpy paper textured with a fine cross-hatch pattern, resting heavier in the hand than he had expected. The front of the envelope was unmarked – no clues there. As Akira flipped it over, his eye was immediately drawn to the embossed crimson circle holding the flap closed. A wax seal , huh? Who even did that these days?

Wait, was the wax stamped with a crow?

Akira tore the envelope open. Sliding out the contents, he found a rectangle of heavy paper bearing familiar handwriting. Really, he shouldn’t have been surprised.

Joker straightened from his habitual slouch. An incredulous huff of laughter escaped his lips as they stretched into a familiar smirk.

Akechi and Akira had spent the last few years orbiting around each other, but Akechi had always held him at arm's length, even after they both drifted back into Tokyo a couple years ago. Akira didn’t know why; it wasn’t like Akechi had anything to hide from him, not after that distant winter.

These days, Akechi was so cautious and deliberate that Joker had wondered if he’d finally lost his edge. The Crow he remembered couldn’t have caged his incandescent passion for justice within a desk job, even if Akechi did have an uncanny ability to find the cases where he could make a real difference. Joker wasn’t sure why Akechi had suddenly decided to step up his game… but he wasn't going to complain.

Welcome back, Crow.

Joker’s voice deepened to a velvety purr. “A message from Crow, huh? It’s been a while since I’ve heard that name.”

“You must be happy to hear from him, then!”

“I wonder why it’s been so long.”

“Didn’t Crow-san say in the letter?”

“Crow, explain something? That’d be a first.” Joker’s smirk widened into a grin. “What do you think happened?”

“May– Maybe he was on the run!”

 Still holding the note, Joker folded his arms and leaned back against the coffee cabinets. “Oh? On the run from what? They might come after me too, you know.”

“Um… detectives?” The girl met his eyes hopefully.

On the run from detectives? Not likely. Crow would eat them alive, with or without Joker’s help.

The girl sensed his skepticism and backpedaled. “Uh, wait, not detectives. Other criminals!”

“What does he expect me to do about it, hmm?” Joker raised an eyebrow.

She clasped her hands in front of her. “The bad guys know where he is, so he needs help to get away from them!”

"So why is he coming to me ? We’re known to be associates. This is the first place anyone would look for him.”

“Crow-san said it has something to do with your last job together. That's why he needs your help!"

As her lies evolved into a vaguely coherent story, she looked increasingly confident. Unfortunately for her, Joker and Crow’s last “job” was a decade ago… and involved an attempted assassination, faking Joker’s death, and vandalizing the subconscious of a well-known and extremely dangerous politician. Whoever this child was, Crow hadn’t told her anything.

“Crow’s never been the type to ask for help. Even from me. What’s different this time?”

Uncertain now, she shrank back. “Crow-san looked really worried, so it, it has to be important! You have to help him! I… I don’t know what will happen if you don’t!”

If that was the best she could come up with, Crow’s message wasn’t likely to be a call for help. He might enjoy games, but he wouldn’t be this cryptic if his life were on the line. And anyway, if Crow were in a crisis situation, he wouldn’t rely on a child. Probably.

“Crow owes me enough already. Why should I bail him out again ?” Unfolding his arms and standing up straight, Joker tapped the note with a flick of his fingers.

She slammed her small fists on the counter, leaning forward. “N-no, wait! He– he’s your friend, isn’t he? You can’t abandon Crow-san like that!”

Something ugly scrabbled for purchase in Joker’s chest. “Me? Abandon him? Hardly.” 

Abandonment. He wondered why she’d jumped to that conclusion.

She flinched away, realizing that she’d hit a nerve. “And, um! All the other crime people would be so impressed if you saved him!”

Joker drummed his fingers on the counter in thought as he considered his next line of questioning. (“Crime people”? What was Crow teaching this child, anyway?)

“How do you know Crow? He usually works alone.”

“I help around the off-, um, hideout? After school??” She took a nervous sip of water.

Around the office? Crow trusted this girl with his civilian identity, too. That definitely narrowed down the possibilities of what was really going on. What was this child to Crow? A simple message-runner? A witness for one of his cases? 

“Yes, I’m sure he needs an elementary schooler to help him with his plans."

Her lower lip trembled as her eyes grew glossy. She sniffled, “Are… Are you… Are you saying I’m not useful to Crow-san?”

Sadly, the effect was ruined when she snuck a glance at him to see if he believed it. Joker quirked his lips in amusement, leaning forward on the bar. “Oh, I’m sure Crow wouldn’t keep you around for no reason. How did you start working for Crow, anyway?”

She instantly reverted to her previous energetic manner. “Oh, he knows my mom! He likes her a lot. I think she’s his favorite,” the girl said, as casually as if discussing the weather.

What.

“His… favorite.”

“Yeah! He talks late with a lot of mama’s friends, but he spends the most time with her, because my mama is the nicest and the prettiest.”

How– Wait, this didn’t– Joker was 99% certain that– What?! “Since… when?”

“Oh, for a while! He does lots of nice things for her. Like walking her to work to make sure she’s safe! And sometimes he visits her there just to bring her one of the really big combini bentos with tempura!”

Akira turned away from the bar and rubbed his face. Okay. Clearly, the kid’s mother knew Akechi, and trusted him with her child, but that didn’t necessarily imply anything about Akechi’s relationship with her. Or her “friends.” Even if they “talked late” and Akechi did “nice things.” Right?

Taking a deep breath, Akira grabbed a pitcher of ice water. By the time he finished unnecessarily topping up the kid’s glass, he could at least string together a coherent sentence again. Victory? Regardless, time to wrap this up before he learned anything else he didn’t want to know.

“Well, anyway, a friend of Crow’s is a friend of mine. I’m glad he’s got someone helping him… he spends too much time alone.” 

He nudged the nearly untouched plate of curry a little closer to her. At this sign that the questioning was over, the kid started chowing down. Now that Joker wasn’t distracting her, she was inhaling her food like she hadn’t eaten in a week. Concerning. He’d just have to follow the Yusuke Strategy and shove food in front of her at every opportunity (and if the opportunities didn’t exist, create some.)

Too-small shoes and a school uniform during summer vacation…

Akechi never had just one reason for doing anything.

“Crow usually works alone, so if he trusts you… you must really be something special.”

A shy smile bloomed on her reddening face.

With the kiddo safely occupied, Akira rifled through the office supplies drawer for paper and envelopes. As he returned to the counter with his spoils, he paused in thought – Akechi’s ridiculously overdramatic note deserved some extra effort in return. Akira didn’t have much to work with at Leblanc, but… aha! Ann had visited between shoots last week, and if he recalled correctly… Yes. There it was, rolled under the counter. A pink glitter pen, with a tuft of feathers on top.

When Akira bent down to retrieve the pen, Morgana poked his head out from his hidey-hole. “Hey hey, what’s with that dopey look on your face?”

“Akechi–”

“Oh, I see. ” Morgana sniffed. “I’m going for a walk.” Akira turned back to the counter as Morgana sauntered upstairs, vanishing around the corner with a flick of his tail. A weight fell off Akira’s shoulders to see his friend acting more like his usual self.

Now that the worst-case scenarios had been eliminated (would it kill Akechi to be a little less cryptic?! ), his best guess was that all this had been provoked by Akechi’s defeat in today's chess match. Akira had forgotten how entertaining he was when he was annoyed. He really ought to aggravate Akechi more often.

Akira suppressed a snicker as he composed his response. “Don’t disappoint me?” As Futaba would say: get rekt.

As Akira wrote, the kid peppered him with questions, looking around Leblanc with wide-eyed curiosity. (The coffee siphon, he could understand, but why was she so fascinated by the vase of flowers?) She was certainly a curious one – her questions didn’t slow down even as he reached the end of the note. For the finishing touch, Akira filled the margins with offensively cute and sparkly doodles. Akechi was going to hate it . Perfect.

While he waited for her to finish the rest of her curry, Akira developed a strategy for the other half of the message – the kid’s report to Akechi. The rules of Akechi’s challenge weren’t clear yet, but Akira had his own rule: When in doubt? Take it up to eleven.

Akira was going to dazzle her – the kid was going to walk out of here wishing she could change sides. He could already see Akechi’s face when the kid told him that “Joker was actually kind of cool!!!”, and it was glorious. If he couldn’t manage to be cooler than someone whose rebel’s soul dressed him in bondage pajamas, Arsene would forsake him in disgust.

She set her spoon down with a clink.

All right. It’s showtime.

It was a slow, muggy afternoon in the office of Goro Akechi, P.I. Four days into summer vacation, the happy shrieks of children playing drifted in through the window, barely audible over the window fan.

Until two weeks ago, Akechi hadn’t realized how exhausting children could be. Why had he ever thought this was a good idea? And now that summer vacation had started, he desperately needed to come up with some longer-lasting distractions. He wracked his brain, trying to come up with more ways to entertain a child; his bookshelf was already alphabetized, there were no documents in need of shredding, and his paperclips didn’t need sorting in the first place, thank you. 

At least it was right after lunchtime. Children were frustrating enough already, but hungry children were hellish. Akechi was glad he had the foresight to amass a strategic snack stockpile after what happened last week.

Conveniently, he had a distraction to take his mind off the impending chaos. He opened ChessOn to be greeted with a message in his ongoing match:

ChessOn: CoffeeMate has made a move! Black rook to a1.

CoffeeMate: mate in 5. good game ;)

He narrowed his eyes in thought. Mate in 5 implied that Akira could force every single one of Akechi’s next five moves, ending in checkmate. Akira was good, but not that good – he had to be bluffing. A crooked little smile slithered onto Akechi’s face as he savored Akira’s humiliating defeat.

BulletChess: I’m sure you’ll try your best.

Akechi had to move his queen to avoid capture, but he captured Akira’s rook in the process. So far, Akira’s strategy was underwhelming.

ChessOn: BulletChess has made a move! White queen takes a1.

ChessOn: CoffeeMate has made a move! Black queen takes h2. You are in check!

Being in check forced his next move; regrettable. Could he turn things around after…

Wait. White rook, black knight, check. White king, black bishop, check. White rook, black bishop… checkmate.

Unbelievable.

Akechi crossed his arms and seethed.

Not only did Akira mate in 5, he did it with his last bishop and knight. Akechi had never even seen that move in real life. Very, very few players were capable of the flawless coordination required to maintain control of both colors while forcing the opposing king to the corner of the board.

Akira always put up a good fight, but this was far beyond what Akechi thought he was capable of. Akechi had been confident that they were evenly matched, both growing side by side as they skirmished. How did he underestimate him so badly?

Had Akira been holding back all this time? 

The doorknob rattled. Akechi hastily composed himself before a pigtailed little girl bounced through the doorway. “Guess what, Akechi-san? I saw a cute spider on the way here! I didn’t know they had fur! Do you want to see a picture?”

“Good afternoon, Miyoko-san; that won’t be necessary. Please continue with yesterday’s files.” 

“Okay! Mama says she’ll come pick me up at 6, so if I work extra hard I can finish them today!” 

One minute down, two hundred ninety-nine to go…

After dropping her bag near the door, Miyoko pulled up a chair and settled into her usual spot at the corner of Akechi’s broad desk. Her head bent over a stack of manila folders as she began diligently applying stickers to the tabs, tongue poking out in concentration. There really wasn’t any need to color-code his case files by year, but it should keep her occupied for the rest of the day. Hopefully.

For the next two hours, the office’s blessed silence was broken only by the shuffle of files and the clack of his keyboard. Akechi had made a point of finishing up any complex work before Miyoko arrived, so he was occupying himself with simple data entry. As he typed, Akechi’s mind kept wandering to their match.

How could he have been taken so off-guard? Akechi supposed he had been lulled into complacency by the back-and-forth routine of their games. It was a mistake to forget that Akira’s unpredictability was one of his greatest strengths.

“Akechi-san, what’s an alibi?”

“An alibi is a claim that a person was elsewhere when an event took place. For example, if a suspect was at work when the victim’s home was robbed.”

He needed a new battlefield, one that would give him an edge. Watching Akira scramble to keep up was one of the few things that brought joy to his black, withered heart. Perhaps a good person wouldn’t enjoy watching Akira squirm, but Akechi was under no illusion that he had ever been a good person.

“Akechi-san, can the cops still catch you if you peel off your skin to get rid of your fingerprints?”

“Actually, fingerprints grow back unless you remove the entire generative skin layer.”

He had to admit, it was gratifying to see just how dedicated Akira was to meeting every one of his challenges. He clung to the memories of Joker’s passion and brilliance, shining bright at Akechi’s side in the days when they had dreamed of remaking the world. 

“Akechi-san, how do you dissolve a body?”

“Sodium hydroxide.”

Joker was always at his most compelling in the moments before a triumph. And now… they simply played chess. When had their rivalry become so small? So tame ? They were supposed to be challenging each other to become their truest selves. But Akechi’s true self would never have settled for such petty games.

“Akechi-san? …Akechi-san??”

With a crack, Akechi's pencil snapped.

Akechi’s leather gloves creaked around the fragments of the pencil as he gently, deliberately placed them on his desk. He folded his hands together finger by finger.

Perfect posture.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.

“Miyoko. San. Have you finished labeling the files I gave you.”

“I just finished them! I told you I was going to work extra hard!”

“Why don't you work on your summer homework, then.”

“Akechi-san, I finished that yesterday.”

“What about… Nevermind.” Akechi sighed. “Would you mind getting me an Earl Green from the vending machine downstairs?” Coins clinked as he passed them over.

"Okay!” Miyoko bounded out the door.

Alone in the office, Akechi briefly allowed himself to lean back into the headrest and sigh. His flash of irrational rage had vanished like lightning, but the shame… lingered.

He hadn’t recognized Miyoko’s boredom, because it was an emotion he’d never been permitted to express. His office was a better childcare option than a bathhouse, but perhaps it wasn’t fair to expect a bright elementary schooler to enjoy spending hours here. There were reasons why a child might choose to sit quietly in a corner all day, but none of them were good. He knew what life held in store for a child of a single Shinjuku hostess; Miyoko's uncontrollable energy was the very sign that she wasn’t broken yet.

As a younger man, Akechi’s attempts to fix this hopeless, wrecked society had ended… poorly. These days he had to settle for making a difference in a small way, one person at a time. After all, wasn’t that how Akira helped people?

Inspiration struck him like a bullet to the head.

Akechi reached down to the bottom drawer of his desk for the thick, creamy artisan paper he reserved for personal correspondence. With the smooth barrel of his fountain pen in hand, he honed his message to a knife’s edge. He could almost see Joker’s initial bafflement… and its slow, wicked metamorphosis into a razor-sharp smirk when he accepted Akechi’s challenge.

Akechi re-capped his pen and set it aside. After sliding the note into an envelope, he considered it from multiple angles. It really needed one last flourish for proper effect, didn’t it? 

From the bookshelf, Akechi retrieved an elegant mahogany box containing a brass seal and a stick of wax. With the flick of a lighter, he painstakingly dripped a pool of wax onto the flap of the envelope. Once it had cooled to the proper temperature, he gently pressed the heavy brass stamp into it. Flawless.

Akechi looked up to find Miyoko staring at him with the awed fascination of a kitten preparing to pounce. Leaning forward, Akechi caught Miyoko’s eyes across the desk.

“Miyoko-san, I have a new job for you. Listen closely.” 

Miyoko stood at attention, nearly vibrating with curiosity.

“From the beginning of my entire career as a detective, there’s one criminal who’s continued to elude me. No matter what I do, I can’t get evidence on him; even if I did, he has the police in his pocket. My only option is to catch him in the act.”

Eyes round and shining, Miyoko drank in every word. “Who… Who is he?!”

“His name is… Joker.”

“Akechi-san, can I help?! Please let me help! I’ve been helping you for the last two weeks, I’m really good at helping!”

“Indeed. I need to know what he’s planning so I can finally put him behind bars. I’ve stolen the seal of Joker’s accomplice Crow, and I’m going to set up a trap. Deliver this message to Joker, convince him to respond to Crow’s request for help, and scope out Joker’s hideout. You’ll be my secret weapon – he’ll never suspect you of being the agent of his enemy.”

Miyoko stood straight, with the resolve of a soldier marching off to war.

“He’ll be at Cafe Leblanc for the next hour. You don’t want to miss him. Go!”

Mama told her if she did her homework, worked hard, and was very good, she might get to help Akechi-san with an actual case – and it finally happened!

So far, she had delivered the message for Akechi-san, and even survived an interrogation! Now she could start on the other part of her mission – Akechi-san had also asked her to scope out Joker’s hideout. The plate of curry in front of her provided the perfect excuse to stay and investigate. 

Miyoko had to buy more time to look around, though, so she tried to eat slower. (It was really hard . How dare a villain’s curry be so delicious? She wouldn’t be distracted by such things! Even though it was chicken curry, her very favorite.)

What would Akechi-san want to know about Joker’s hideout? He said he needed to catch Joker in the act, so Miyoko needed to look carefully for clues to Joker’s evil plans for his next crime. If Akechi-san wanted to trap Joker, he probably needed a way to sneak in. Maybe he also wanted to make sure Joker couldn’t sneak out? 

She didn’t want to act suspicious, though. If she asked lots of questions, maybe Boss wouldn’t figure out what she was really looking for? She ate a few very innocent bites of curry. 

“Boss, if you drink coffee every night, can you stay awake forever?”

“Kid, I haven’t slept in three years.”

While Boss retrieved something from a cabinet, Miyoko looked over to the kitchen. There was a bulletin board next to the TV, covered with postcards and newspaper clippings. Some of the postcards were really pretty! One showed a sunny beach with palm trees, with “Hawaii” written boldly across the top. Miyoko wondered if she’d ever have the chance to visit Hawaii… maybe she could see a dolphin! And there was also a laminated magazine cover, featuring a smiling and beautiful blond lady who looked like she would give the best hugs.

As she leaned forward, trying to see if there was a back door in the kitchen, Miyoko heard a faint meow . Why would there be a cat here? Boss bent down and whispered something – wait, was he talking to the cat?

“Boss, if you use too many spices, will you burn off your tongue?”

“Only if you’re human. If you’re a dragon, it’s perfectly safe.”

She watched intently out of the corner of her eye. Yes, there was a cat! A fluffy black-and-white kitty darted around the corner and up the stairs. (Miyoko wondered if the kitty was as soft as it looked. Maybe someday she would get to pet it… Her neighbor had a really soft and fluffy gray cat before he moved away. She missed her kitty friend.)

By the time the cat disappeared, Boss was standing behind the bar again, writing something – maybe an answer to Crow’s note? In front of him was a vase of beautiful fresh flowers. She remembered some of their names from the time she had grown a garden with her class for a science project (gardening was really fun!) Her mama had smiled so gently when Miyoko presented her with a bouquet she had grown herself. She looked so tired recently… Miyoko wished she could make her mama smile like she used to. 

“Boss, why is there a knife stuck in the floor?”

“Wait, another one? Time to call the exterminators…”

Gulping down more curry (it was so good! She couldn’t help herself!) Miyoko studied the windows. They didn’t open, so Joker couldn’t escape that way, but Akechi-san couldn’t sneak in. There was a bell over the door, so that wouldn’t work either.

She remembered seeing a bathroom at the back of the cafe when she came in, so that door wouldn’t lead anywhere. (Unless there was a secret passage, like in Episode 2 of Dimensional Jet Rider…) The stairs next to the bathroom might be an escape route, though! Was there a second floor?

Looking at the ceiling, she noticed a round, shiny black thing stuck to the ceiling in the corner. She had seen round shiny decorations when she and her mama set up a tiny Christmas tree last year, but those were much prettier.

“Boss, are you a wizard? Do you make potions with that glass tube thing?”

He winked at her. “The correct term is ‘alchemist.’”

Turning back to the bar, she took a closer look. It didn’t have anything that looked like an evil plan, just some clutter. A few mystery books, a napkin dispenser, cream and sugar, a Rubik’s cube… Did Boss know how to solve a Rubik’s cube?! He must be really smart! Would he teach her how to solve one if she asked? If she could show that rude Masumi-chan that she could solve a Rubik’s cube, she would never laugh at Miyoko again, right?

“Boss, why do lobsters turn red when you boil them alive?”

“Oh, that’s so you know when to add the butter.”

Stuffing another spoonful of curry into her mouth, Miyoko took one last look around, hoping to finally spot an important clue. Then she realized – a whole crime ring couldn’t fit in a room this size. It was a trick! That explained why there wasn’t anything suspicious in the cafe – the stairs probably went to the real hideout. (Wait, the cat had gone upstairs. Did that mean…) 

Miyoko’s spoon dragged across her plate. She had finished all the curry already? Reluctantly, she scraped up one last bite and set down her spoon .

At the sound, Boss’s head snapped toward her. His eyes glinted as he held up the pen he had been writing with. Miyoko, entranced by the sparkly tuft of feathers on the end of the pen, almost missed Joker's evil smirk as he signed the note with a flourish.

Without warning, he reached over her empty plate and pulled a 500Y coin from thin air! He flipped the coin into his palm. With the pen in his other hand, he tapped the coin once – twice – three times – and it vanished ! Miyoko couldn’t suppress a gasp as she leaned forward.

Joker spun the sparkly pen between his fingers, and faster than she could see, it disappeared. With a graceful sweep of his fingers to the left, he closed the hand that had held the coin; when he motioned smoothly back to the right, she could see that the coin had reappeared! 

Oh! Not just one coin had reappeared, but an entire shining stack of them, pinched between finger and thumb. Joker flicked his hand open and the coins leaped into the spaces between his spread fingers. She let out a tiny squeal of excitement.

He closed and reopened his hands to present her with… an envelope? 

Oh, right! She was supposed to take a response back to Akechi-san! Starry-eyed, Miyoko gazed at Joker. So cool…

“Go on, take it!”

Miyoko hesitantly picked up the envelope. Was it going to vanish too? She gripped it tightly, just in case. 

“Don’t worry, kiddo. I made sure not to get any magic on it. It’s not going to disappear any time soon.”

“Th… Thank you, Boss!”

Head spinning from her adventure, Miyoko reluctantly pushed her chair back and got ready to leave. But first, she had to make absolutely sure she had fulfilled her mission.

“If you miss Crow-san, and you want him to be safe, shouldn’t you do something to help him? If you haven’t seen him in a long time… you must be lonely too. ”

He froze as his face gradually turned bright red. Maybe he wasn’t a dragon after all.

Miyoko waited very patiently for his response.

“So, are you going to help him?”

He continued to stare blankly into space. It was no fair how adults always asked Miyoko to pay attention, and then they stopped paying attention!

“Boss? …Boss??”

“Huh– wh– uh. Yeah. Yeah. I will.”

She knew he wouldn’t be able to resist her brilliant argument! “Okaaay! I’ll tell Crow you’ll help! Bye, Boss!”

Miyoko grabbed the door handle, preparing to step out into the bright summer sun.

“Wait! I wanted to say. Thanks for reminding me. I should know better than to give up on people.”

Miyoko beamed . Mission success!

“Uh, hang on just a sec. Let me get you some curry for later. On me.”

Miyoko burst through Akechi’s office door without knocking. Hair wisping out of her pigtails, her face was alight with energy. She carried a large takeout bag with both hands; the scent of curry wafted through the air. 

Akechi scowled. Of course Akira assumed he couldn’t feed himself.

“Akechi-san! Akechi-san! I finished the mission! I survived an interrogation and there was a cute kitty and he asked me to call him Boss and he did MAGIC, it was so cool! The curry was super tasty and I looked really hard but didn’t see anything suspicious, I think the real hideout might have been upstairs. But I felt a little bad for lying to him about his friend…he was kind of nice when he wasn’t scary, and he seemed lonely?”

“Miyoko-san–”

Miyoko pulled an envelope out of the takeout bag and triumphantly waved it around. “And look! I got him to write a letter back to Crow! Open it, Akechi-san! Open it!”

“Slow down, Miyoko-san. Sit down and tell me about the hideout.”

She plopped into her usual chair, dropping the envelope and takeout bag on the desk.

“I looked for all the ways Joker could sneak out, and ways you could sneak in! I don’t think the windows can open, and there was a bell over the door, so nobody could go that way. Do you think there might have been a secret passage in the bathroom? There were some stairs at the end, though, so maybe he could escape from there if he ran away.” 

Without any guidance from Akechi, she’d thought about what he might need to know to capture Joker. Intriguing.He handed her a notebook and pencil. “Can you draw a map of the cafe and show me where all of these were located?”

“Aren’t you going to read the letter?”

“In a moment, Miyoko-san.”

Miyoko diligently sketched a rather lopsided but identifiable floor plan of Cafe Leblanc. As she drew, she pointed out the locations of all of the doors, windows… and a certain “very soft looking” cat.

“Acceptable work. Did you find any clues to Joker’s plans?”

“The cafe was full of neat things! There were flowers, and books, and a Rubik’s cube, and a bulletin board with really pretty pictures…” She lowered her head, disheartened. “But I didn’t see anything that looked like an evil plan.”

“Remember, sometimes the smallest details are the most critical. Did you see anything else, even if it seemed insignificant?”

Miyoko brightened. “Oh! Wait! I saw a round shiny black thing on the ceiling by the window – was that a camera, Akechi-san?”

“You spotted a camera, very good.” Akechi had given her this “mission” on a whim… but it seemed that Miyoko had more potential than he realized. She was observant – did she have aptitude for deductive reasoning, as well?

“I happen to know that there’s one more camera – can you guess where it might have been?”

Miyoko rested her chin on her hand in thought. “If the round thing in the front corner was a camera, then…” He could see the gears spinning in her head, but she still seemed puzzled. He decided to give her a hint.

“What parts of the hideout can the camera see? That particular type of camera has a 180 degree field of vision – that means that it can see in a half-circle. Let’s take a look at your map.”

Miyoko picked up the pencil again and started shading in the areas visible to the camera. “Oh! The other camera has to be in the kitchen – that’s the only place the first camera can’t see!”

She had evidently come to some sort of epiphany, judging by the determination etching itself upon her face. Clenching her fists at her sides, she declared, “Akechi-san, I’ll find everything next time, like a real detective!”

This was the first time anyone had ever wanted to make Akechi proud, wasn’t it?

Akechi looked away briefly, clearing his throat. “Miyoko-san, were you successful in convincing Joker to help Crow?”

“Yeah! I told him that Crow was hiding from other criminals and needed his help. He seemed really worried, since hadn’t seen Crow in a long time and missed him a lot. I’m sure he’ll help Crow! And I bet the letter says so, too .” She pouted as she stared pointedly at the envelope.

Joker had maintained the acting skills he’d honed that November, it seemed.

“Yes, Miyoko-san, we will get to the letter shortly. Did he seem suspicious of you?”

“Nope! He said if I was Crow’s friend, I was his friend too. Does this mean he invited me back for more curry? The curry was really good , Akechi-san. He gave me some to take with me, you should try it! Are you sure he’s a bad guy? I mean, he was scary at first, but…”

Better head off that line of thought. “Why don’t I read the letter now, Miyoko-san?”

Akechi picked up Joker's response from where Miyoko had dropped it on the desk. He cautiously slit open one end of the envelope with a letter opener, then extracted a rustling sheet of torn-out notebook paper. Was he imagining the faint scent of coffee?

From the end of his desk, Miyoko’s eyes stayed glued to the paper. Akira had always treated Akechi's dignity as fair game, so Akechi would have preferred to read the letter in private, but that apparently wasn’t going to be an option.

Heart pounding, he gently unfolded it. 

Akechi’s mind momentarily went blank as he took in the glitter-encrusted nonsense that Akira apparently thought was an appropriate response to Akechi’s elegantly minimalist note. Were… Yes. Those were doodles of crows. Wearing sweater vests. What message was Akira trying to convey? Perhaps the sweater vests were a threat to reveal his dual identities to Miyoko?

Maybe the remainder of the letter would provide the necessary context to interpret the drawings. Squinting at Akira’s terrible handwriting (it seemed that he still hadn’t learned to write like an adult), Akechi began to read. As was his typical pattern for examining documents, he began by skimming the high points before attempting to determine the significance of the evidence as a whole.

Akechi losing his nerve? That was rich. He wasn’t the one who– Ugh! The flirting! In pink glitter ! Could the insufferable man stop flirting for five minutes? He probably flirted with trees just to stay in practice. And how dare he – when did Akechi ever leave a job half-finished?! …Oh. Akechi probably deserv– and then the little shit just jumped straight to accusing Akechi of enjoying– surely it was only natural to enjoy winning but– a pink sparkly heart. What was wrong with that man?!  Where did kittens come into it? How could a kitten possibly be an apprentice– Oh. The game. Miyoko. Yes. That. It appeared that Akira’s opening move was–

A small voice piped up from near Akechi’s elbow. “Why does Joker think Crow would want to see him get shot? Aren’t they friends?”

Akechi failed to suppress a scream.

"Micchan, sweetie, how was your day at Akechi-san’s office?"

"It was so much fun! I went on a secret mission to help Akechi-san defeat his archrival! His hideout was in a little coffeeshop and he had a super cute kitty and made the best curry, but he must be really sneaky because I couldn’t find any clues even though I looked really hard…"

Outgoing message, 6:22 PM:
Akechi-san. Please explain.