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Sumire had known Akira as a hard working person, especially when it came to his Phantom Thief duties, but sometimes she would notice Akira pushing himself a bit too much.
“Hey Akira, are you sure you’re okay?” The ghost girl asked, as she floated next to her friend with a worried look on her face.
“Y-Yeah Sumire, I’m fine.” Akira grinned, but his body didn’t follow that statement, judging from his baggy, shaking eyes and a posture that made him look like he would collapse at any moment.
“Are you sure about that, Akira? You’ve kinda been pushing yourself a bit too far lately. Wouldn’t hurt to take a break.” Morgana suggested from Akira’s bag.
“A break? No way, I got way too much stuff to do.” Akira denied, as he showed the amount of messages he already got today to his roommates. “I have my part time job with Iwai-san to get to, Tae just finished a new medicine for me, I have to help Yoshida with his next speech, then I agreed to spot Ryuji at the gym, Ann just got this new outfit for her modeling stuff and wants me to give an unbiased opinion, and Yusuke wanted me to come with him to Mementos to continue working on his next piece!”.
Sumire put a hand to her face, and she slowly shook her head. “Akira, no offense, but you can barely get two of those things done before you call it for the day.”
“Well yeah, but I think I finally have a good rhythm going.”
“Do you?” The two of them looked at each other in silence for a good few seconds before Akira sighed.
“Hey, Igor said the more I hang out with these guys, the stronger my Personas get, so this’ll all work out in the long run.”
“‘Hanging out with them to get stronger’ does not mean ‘spend every moment of the day with them and pushing yourself to the bone’!” Morgana cried. “There’s so much stuff you bought during those trips that we haven’t used yet! The DVDs, the books, we barely had enough lockpicks to last us for the last Mementos trip…”
“I’ll get to them later, trust me.” Akira waved it off, “And pipe down, please.” He simply got glares from both Morgana and Sumire.
“Ugh okay fine! Just let me get these done and then I’ll take a-” Akira stated, before freezing as Yuuki walked up behind him.
“Oh hey Akira! I think I got some new targets for you guy-AH!” Yuuki jumped, as Akira suddenly collapsed.
“AAAAAAAKKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRAAAAAAA!!!!” All three of them screamed at Akira’s sudden collapse.
“Ugh, huh?” Akira groaned, looking around and finding himself in the familiar nurses office of the school.
“Akira! You’re okay! I’m so glad!” Sumire cried as she flew up to the young man, and he turned over to the ghost girl.
“Sumire…what happened?” Akira questioned. Sumire sighed as she sat down on the chair next to his.
“You were out cold for a moment there! If it wasn’t for Yuuki being there when you did, I don’t even wanna know what would’ve happened.” Sumire giggled. “It was a bit funny seeing Mishima totally freaking out. He thought he somehow killed you or that someone ‘changed your heart’.”
Akira snickered at that a bit before noticing someone was missing “Hey, where’s Morgana? Wasn’t he here earlier?”
Sumire twiddled her thumbs, looking away from Akira. “Ah, well Ann and Ryuji burst in earlier after finding out what happened… but then they got kicked out so they wouldn’t disturb the others in here, so Morgana’s on the roof with them explaining what happened…”|She facepalmed. “See this is why we told you not to push yourself! You had a total cra-ah!” Sumire jumped, as the door suddenly opened before the two looked up.
“Huh, seems like you’ve finally woken up, Kurusu-kun” A familiar voice stated, as they looked over to see the school’s therapist walking in.
“Maruki-san?!... Oh yeah, I guess this is technically your office” Akira blinked, scratching his cheek a bit as Maruki laughed, and Sumire hid behind the door.
“Hey now, when you put it like that, you make it sound like a bad thing.” Akira could spot a drop of sweat running down Maruki’s cheek.
“So, how have you been feeling lately?” Maruki asked, making Akira raise an eyebrow.
‘Where is this coming from…?’ Akira thought before shaking his head. “I’m fine. Just got a bit sick, that's all.”
“Are you sure about that? Seems to me you’ve been looking pretty stressed lately.” Maruki stated, as Sumire moved up to him.
Akira rolled his eyes before turning back to Maruki.
“Look I’m not making you tell me, but it’d be a lot better for your health if you do, plus the principal asked me to check on you, so…” Maruki suggested, making Akira whimper at how obvious the principal was being about wanting to make sure the school looks good.
“Hah, fine.” Akira tried to act casual. “Guess I have been overworking myself lately.”
“Overworking yourself? But didn’t you just finish your exams earlier this month?” Maruki questioned, making Akira nod.
“Yeah, I did, but I’ve also been helping a lot of people out. Not just my friends in school either. There have been other people I’ve met around the city as well.” Akira explained.
“I see…guess that would make sense for someone like you”
Both Akira and Sumire were confused at this, making Maruki jump a bit.
“A-Ah, I didn’t mean like that.” Maruki stammered, before coughing a bit. “What I’m saying is that it's not uncommon to see people who have done something wrong, or have a criminal record like your case, to be overly helpful to people as a way to convince themselves they haven’t done anything wrong. ‘Soothing the soul’ if you will”
“Akira…” Sumire murmured, as she looked over at her friend never even considering that this might have been the reason
“Yeah, I’ll admit that much. Not saying I think this’ll shorten my sentence or clear my conscience or anything. I’m just trying to…” He looked for a way to explain this in a reasonable manner. “Trying to get with my surroundings. See as much of Tokyo as I can before I leave and, I dunno, hopefully leave it an even slightly better place than it was before.”
“That’s very admirable of you, Kurusu.” Maruki complimented.
“However, that still doesn’t mean you shouldn’t focus on yourself for a change. Give yourself some time to rest and relax, otherwise putting all this pressure on you will only lead to worse things in the future.” Maruki suggested.
“Yeah guess you got a point there.” Akira rubbed his head a bit.
“Anyway, your guardian will be here soon to pick you up.” Maruki said as he got up.
“Really? But what about class?”
“Class has already ended, Kurusu.”
“EH?!”
Sumire and even Maruki snickered a bit at that.
Akira didn’t say a word to Sojiro at first. No one did. It was complete silence most of the way through. He had to have been disappointed. Akira knew it.
“Look, I don’t blame you for trying to go to each and every part of town the moment I allow you to.” Sojiro finally spoke, breaking the melancholy silence.
Akira kept quiet though.
“As much as I hate to admit it, I did have some… similar issues at your age. I don’t know if I’d call myself a social butterfly but…” Sojiro paused for a moment to focus on the road. “There was a time where I felt like I needed to hang out with someone every moment I got.”
“Yeah…” Akira sighed, feeling like he finally needed to respond. “I get it. I’m kind of a ‘seize the moment’ kinda guy.”
“And that’s exactly why you ended up here.” Sojiro bluffed. “Okay, that was a little rude of me. My point is, you gotta make time for yourself too. Otherwise you’ll never get anything done.”
“That’s exactly what my therapist said.” Akira mentioned. “Do you still hang out with your old friends?” He hesitantly asked.
“Mmh, yeah, sometimes.” Sojiro nodded. “Maybe not as much as I used to, but we still talk to each other. Of course less so since I’ve needed to watch you, but hey, don’t pin that blame on yourself… pin it on your mom’s friend.”
Akira tried to hold in a laugh, but he couldn’t, and he could hear Sumire doing the same. “I know, she’s a bit of a weirdo.”
For the first time since he had met Sojiro, Akira had finally heard him chuckle.
Maybe his day off wouldn’t be so bad after all…
Akira then blinked after feeling a vibration before looking down to see some texts from his friends which talked about how they were going out with Morgana.
“Huh…do they have something planned?” Akira thought before leaning back in his seat.
On the TV screen, a blue armored warrior drove out of what looked like a police truck in a factory at night.
"G3 equipped, surveying area now." G3 said as he began looking around the area and surveying it for any monsters. He pulled out his rifle.
He then heard a footstep and quickly turned around to see the jaguar monster in the distance.
'One of the statues? But how is that possible… was that why the devils came here?' He thought, before shaking his head.
"Target found, pursuit in progress." He spoke. He then began running towards the monster. Mamoru kept the creature in his sight during his chase.
When he reached the creature, he fired two shots out of his revolver, catching the creature's attention. It stopped in place and turned around to face Mamoru, growling at him.
He fired two more shots directly at the creature, only for the bullet to come to a sudden halt as if stopped by an invisible barrier, but then the bullets shattered to dust in front of his very eyes.
"What the?!" Mamoru gasped, before growling ‘Regular bullets won't be enough, I'll need to use the stronger things.’
G3 then pulled out the GG-02 scorpions, but before he could do that, the Jaguar ran towards him and knocked the weapon out of his hand before kicking G3 off his vehicle.
G3 tried to throw a desperate left hook, but the Jaguar monster ducked out of the way and gave the rider a kick to the stomach that sent G3 crashing to a parked car.
"Battery unit damaged, output at 80%." Takeo reported in as G3 stood back up.
'Damn it, this thing’s stronger than any stray devil we've faced so far.' G3 huffed, as the jaguar monster walked towards him.
The jaguar rushed towards him and kicked him to the car, pinning him but G3 was able to roll out of the way before punching the monster several times.
G3 got the creature into a chokehold, but the monster was able to break free and punch G3 in the chest, cracking it.
"Chest unit damaged!" Takeo yelled, as Hana spoke up, “Mamoru! You need to retreat now!”
Mamoru didn't listen, and got back up "I can do this all day!" he bluffed, but it was clear the suit was too damaged to continue.
G3 ran towards the monster, but it just punched him in the face one more time, cracking his helmet, and dropping him to the floor.
"WEVE LOST THE VISUAL SIGNAL!" Takeo yelled, as Hana growled, "RETREAT! THAT'S AN ORDER! MAMORU! MAMORU!"
The monster kept stepping on G3, cracking the suit even more and even breaking some of the bones in his body.
The monster was about to go in for the kill, but then, as if out of nowhere…
“Stop.”
The monster stopped his attack and looked over to see a glowing figure walking towards them.
The figure looked to be wearing a black bodysuit with a gold armoured chest. He had a pair of red eyes with golden horns atop his head and a silver mouth plate. He had golden forearm and foreleg bands, and finally a belt with a bright gold gem in the middle.
The creature's eyes widened as it stepped off of Mamoru. "A…GI…TO…"
Mamoru was barely able to look up, and his eyes widened in both familiarity and confusion.
"It can't be, unidentified life form… number 4?"
The episode ended, and Sumire’s face was already right up to the screen.
“Woah! What a cliffhanger!” Sumire grinned with stars in her eyes as she sat back next to Akira. “See? I told you this wouldn’t be so bad.”
“Yeah, that was fun.” Akira mustered out before coughing again. “Are you okay, by the way?”
“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Sumire asked before answering her own question with a kitten-like sneeze. “Oh yeah… I forgot about that.”
Akira sighed before lying his head back on the pillow. “Yeah, I figured…”
Akira heard his phone buzz on the desk next to him, and he was about to go grab it before Morgana hopped onto it.
“Nope! You promised!”
“Can I at least tell them I’m okay?”
Morgana stretched his paws. “Okay, but I’m checking what they said first.”
As Morgana attempted to operate Akira’s phone, Sumire floated over to him. “He’s been getting better at using his paws lately.”
Akira told Morgana about Sumire’s compliment, and he responded with, “Well my dexterity may be worse in the real world, but I think I’ve got a good grip on things now!”
“Says the cat who got Akira in trouble with the boss for making him accidentally spill the day's curry.” Sumire pointed out, which made Akira snicker a bit.
“She better not have called me a cat or anything!” Morgana glared, making Sumire snicker even more.
“Ugh, whatever…” Morgana shrugged as best he could. “Yusuke’s getting some meds for you from Tae, so I’m gonna go make sure he knows what he’s getting.” Morgana sighed, before climbing up and jumping out the window.
“You gonna go with him?” Akira asked, but Sumire shook her head.
“Nah, I gotta stay here and make sure you don’t do something stupid.:
“I won’t do something stupid!”
“Yes you will. I know how you work at this point!” Sumire retorted, looking at Akira with the stupidest grin.
“I swear, I won’t!”
“Hey, what’s going up there?” The two jumped at the sudden gruff voice of Sojiro.
“Sorry, on a call!” Akira explained, his voice still sounding rough when it was followed by a few coughs.
“You’re clearly still sick… You gotta stop putting so much on your plate Akira.” Sumire chastised, prompting Akira to look down and sigh.
“Look I know I messed up back there…” Akira frowned, before laying down. “I just…I just feel like I have to, you know? It’s like what Maruki said. I’m a bleeding heart.”
Sumire plopped down next to Akira. “I get that, but you still got the rest of the year to do this stuff, and you’re still helping everyone with the Phantom Thieves too.”
“It’s not the end of the world if you take a break Akira…besides, I kinda missed hanging out with just the two of us, you kno-” Sumire admitted, before looking back. “Oh…seriously?”
Behind her was the currently sleeping body of Akira, currently letting out small snores as he rested his body.
“You picked the worst time to finally rest, you know that?” Sumire smiled as she played with his hair a bit. “Well, have a good sleep, I guess…”
Sumire, feeling a wave of tired wash over her, didn’t even bother making it to the couch this time before she fell asleep with Akira…