Chapter Text
I’ll be home early today.
We need to talk.
It’s urgent.
Makoto didn’t know what to think of her sister’s sudden messages.
It was out of character of her to send any texts at all, let alone a specific order. Sae was far more likely to inform Makoto when they were both at home, so whatever this was had just come up. Even after putting her phone away, the student council president found herself unable to focus and finish her work. Makoto put her head in her hands and sighed, realising that the message meant she couldn’t meet up with Ren like she had planned.
“What is it?” Ren asked cautiously from behind her, causing Makoto to jump. She had forgotten he was sitting across from her, doing some of his own studying as he waited for her to finish her work. Her sigh had worried him enough to make him get up and check on her through reading the messages. “Oh.”
“Do you think…she’s onto us?” She looked up as horror briefly flashed across his face. “I mean us as Phantom Thieves, Ren.”
He sighed in relief. “In that case, definitely not. We’ve done nothing to get on her radar recently.”
“Maybe she put it all together?” Makoto typed a quick ‘Okay—I’m on my way home now.’ and leaned back against Ren as though the action had drained all her energy. “Maybe she suspects I know something? That I’m connected to them?”
Ren put his hands on her shoulders. “Or maybe you’re overthinking?”
“That’s probable,” she sighed, knowing that he was absolutely right but also knowing that “It’s urgent” meant “serious.” “But it does mean I have to cancel today—”
“That’s okay.” He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and rested his head on hers. “We can meet up another day soon.”
But she could hear the disappointment in his voice, so she placed a hand on his arm. With all the Phantom Thieves stuff and school, they had hardly had a chance to go on an actual date since their first few. “I’m sorry. You even waited for me—”
“It’s okay. Promise.” He nuzzled her head, making her giggle and wonder how he made the most of every little moment they had. “I’ll take you home.”
“Are you sure?” Makoto heard him hum in affirmation and knew he’d already made his mind up.
He held her tighter and whispered, with Joker lacing his every word, “It’s more time together, after all.”
Heat rose to her face as he chuckled and she leaned back against him. Ren was going to be the end of her one day.
“You really didn’t have to walk me all the way up—”
“It’s more time with you,” he grinned. “More than worth the effort.”
Makoto sighed as she got her keys from her bag. By this point, she really should be prepared for Ren’s Joker side and his words and how they would always make her flustered. “Thank you. And I’m sorry for cancelling.”
“Stop apologising, it’s alright,” he said with a reassuring smile and a glint of hope in his eyes. “We can go somewhere after tomorrow’s meeting…?”
“Of course, if Sis—”
They both jolted at the click of the door opening. “If ‘Sis’ what?”
The couple then froze like they’d been caught kissing.
Sae was standing at the doorway, arms crossed and glaring daggers at Ren. It had been careless of Makoto to let him come all the way up here. Their relationship had to be kept from Sae.
It just had to be.
“Oh! Sis! I was just- we were- uh—” she shot Ren a desperate look. Makoto was a terrible liar, and he had learned that.
“I was just making sure Niijima-senpai got home safe,” Ren replied calmly, though his act was almost ruined by Makoto wanting to giggle at ‘senpai.’ It had been so long. “I’ll be heading back now.”
“Right. Thank you.” Sae was smiling as though Ren had actually fooled her and, as much as the younger Niijima wanted to believe that, she knew this version of her sister too well to be so naive.
“Get home safe.” Makoto had to hold back from holding Ren’s hand or hugging him goodbye.
He nodded with a small wave and turned to walk away. As they walked just out of earshot, Makoto swore she heard Morgana laugh from inside Ren’s bag.
“Come in. We have something to discuss, as you know.” Sae walked in and Makoto followed, taking a seat at the dinner table across from her older sister. It had been so long since they had even eaten a meal together, let alone discussed anything of importance to their personal lives.
“What is it?” Makoto was thrown off by the lack of tension in the air and how relaxed her sister was. She had sat down as though she was going to talk about her day and nothing else. “You mentioned it was urgent.”
“Only because I wanted you home early so we could discuss it,” she smiled in response. “The matter itself isn’t too important.”
Makoto would not let her guard down. Not after what she saw in the palace. “Oh. Alright.”
“Actually, since when do you know Amamiya?” Sae leaned back on her chair. “You do know he has a—”
“—record, yes." The high school student wasn’t about to try to convince the prosecutor that his record was false. “Is this related to what you wanted to discuss?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” That wasn’t a good sign, but Sae wasn’t even interrogating her. Maybe the matter really wasn’t urgent. “He and his friends, uh, often need help to prepare for exams and with studies in general. Since I’m a year above, they’ve requested my help and we’ve been meeting up.”
“I see. You mentioned his friends…who are they?”
“I doubt you’d know them—”
“That’s okay.” There was an edge to her older sister’s voice as though she couldn’t hold back the prosecutor in her. The one hungry for a guilty verdict. “I wouldn’t mind names.”
“Sakamoto-kun and Takamaki-san, mostly.”
Something lit up in Sae’s eyes. “Weren’t they involved with the Kamoshida case in April?”
“I…believe so. They were victims.” She didn’t need to say anything else. Sae didn’t need to know anything else.
“How horrible. It must’ve really affected their studies.” To Makoto, this sounded like filler. Like a build-up to the real topic. “I’m glad you’re helping them catch up. Of course, as a transfer student with a record, I’m sure Amamiya appreciates your help too.”
“Of course. It’s the least I could do after failing to see the abuse and—”
“But you mustn't lose focus on your own studies,” Sae cut in, her eyes narrowing a little. “You must help yourself and get results above all else.”
“Of course, Sis.” Makoto dropped her gaze to the table, clasping her hands together. “Was that—?”
“Was it just you and Amamiya today, then?”
There it was. Sae’s true motivation. “No.”
“Then what about today? Amamiya had to have gone out of his way to take you home.”
“I…” Think of something. You suck at lying on the spot, but think of something. Anything. “...ran into him as I was leaving school. He offered to take me home and I didn’t refuse.”
“This late?”
“I was finishing off some student council work. Principal Kobayakawa’s death has—”
“And him?”
“Studying?” Makoto asked. Uncertainty . Sae glared as she found a weakness to exploit and the interrogation could finally begin. “He didn’t say—”
“Makoto.”
This wasn’t her older Sis. This was prosecutor Niijima determined to solve a case, even if it meant intimidation.
Intimidating her little sister.
“Y-yes?” Makoto stuttered.
“Are you involved with that boy?”
The younger Niijima tensed, thinking that perhaps it would’ve been better if she suspected she knew something about the Phantom Thieves.
“...Where did you hear this?”
“Irrelevant. Answer the question.”
Makoto took a deep breath. Prosecutor Niijima would do anything to get her confession. To get her guilty verdict. Makoto didn’t want to find out how far she was willing to go to get her to admit she was involved with Ren.
She might as well just confess.
“Yes. I am.”
Sae inhaled, closing her eyes. Makoto knew she was likely counting to ten backwards to keep herself from exploding.
“How long?”
“Since around last month…officially.” There was no point in hiding how long it had been.
“Last month ?” Sae raised her voice. The counting had not worked.
Makoto looked back up at her sister. “Yes.”
“Were you ever going to tell me?” She folded her arms and glared daggers at Makoto in the same way she had done to Ren earlier.
“I didn’t want you to be concerned with something like this. It’s not—”
“Oh, but it is serious.” The prosecutor was quickly losing her composure. “You mean to tell me that you spent the entrance exam season messing around with some boy ?”
“We weren’t—”
“Ah, there’s a we . How very sweet,” Sae rolled her eyes, shouting now. “Next I’ll find out you want to start a family instead of following your career!”
“Sis, I—”
“Don’t. I expected better from you. Lately, all you do is disappoint me. You could’ve at least picked someone without a record —”
“False,” Makoto stated, straightening up with newfound confidence and glaring right back at the prosecutor. “False record.”
Sae looked appalled. “Are you suggesting that our criminal system is flawed?”
“Everything is flawed. His trial was.”
Sae scoffed. “You’re starting to sound like those Phantom Thieves. I don’t have time for such discussions.”
“So then what did you want out of this?” Makoto dared to raise her voice, though not as much as Sae’s. “Did you want me to break up with Ren? Forbid me from seeing him?”
“Ren,” She spat; it was like his name was some forbidden word that Makoto had just dared to say.
“Yes, Ren.” She clenched her fists. “We’re together and, though I would’ve liked to tell you myself, now you know. There’s nothing you can do about us. I ask again— what did you want out of this, Sae?”
Sae stood and slammed the table, making Makoto flinch. “I will not tolerate such disrespect! How dare you suggest what I can and can’t do?”
Makoto mirrored the prosecutor, but with far less force. “And I will not let you dictate my entire life! I’m dating Ren, and that’s that, whether you like it or not.”
The two were glaring into each other’s souls, perhaps the most distant from each other that they had ever been.
“Fine,” Sae spat, walking away from the table and past Makoto. “I’m heading back to the office, where I’m respected, where my work is respected and where I don’t have to put up with teenage outbursts and wishing that father was still here instead of you! ”
Both of them gasped at the words.
If there was any regret on the prosecutor’s face, Makoto didn’t turn around to look for it. She accepted the words, having seen the inside of her Palace, her distorted desires, and knowing that’s where the words came from. This wasn’t her sister—it hadn’t been her sister for a long time now—so Makoto didn’t bother looking for any remnants of her in the eyes of the prosecutor.
She knew she wouldn’t find Sis in there.
“Sae.”
The door opened, but the prosecutor stopped walking.
“Ren is not a criminal,” Makoto stated, unable to keep her voice from breaking.
As soon as the door slammed shut, the younger Niijima buried her face in her hands and let her tears out. She was almost deafened by her own sobs and crushed by the sudden loneliness that weighed on her. For the first time, and so suddenly, Makoto realised that her sister had abandoned her a long time ago, replaced completely by her distorted desires. Desires that did not see Makoto as anything worth caring about. Even while being crushed by this realisation, she felt a strong certainty rise to the surface of her consciousness.
She had never been so certain about prosecutor Niijima’s change of heart.