Work Text:
Vladimir Masters may not be a parent, but even he found it questionable when Madeline and Jack decided to go travel the world to hunt ghosts. Which meant they gave up custody of Danny until he turns eighteen and finishes High School. They asked Vlad and he said yes.
He decided the boy needs to be straightened out, so he send him to a Japanese school. Not a private school but not the most worthless public school there is. A compromise. Japan was the idea of Jasmine. She said Danny would need a distraction from his parents’ break of trust. She said he always wanted to go to Japan since he discovered Manga.
Vlad send Daniel to Sujin Academy.
At first nothing weird happened. Daniel took in a stray cat. Not weird, especially since Jasmine mentioned he always wanted a pet but nothing would survive his parents. However she hinted at a dog.
Then Daniel befriended two delinquents. Not optimal, but not surprising. The girl was partly of American heritage, so no wonder Daniel gravitated to her, regardless of the ghost’s innate ability to speak any language.
Then the Phantom Thieves announced their presence. Vlad didn’t pay this any mind until their P.E. teacher Kamoshida admitted of his crimes.
After that happened, Vlad came into Daniel’s room unannounced. Said boy was reading manga, now in Japanese as those are readily available. He was not pleased Vlad came in unannounced. Vlad could feel his icy glare. Then again, Daniel has an ice core.
“Daniel, are you part of those Phantom Thieves?” he asked.
Daniel dropped the manga onto the bed and just stared at Vlad. “Let me guess, you ask because I am Phantom? Despite the stupidly obvious name, no, I am not.” he answered rather annoyed at his guardian. “Have you considered that the word Phantom isn’t rare and often used for secretive stuff? The Thieves are massively mysterious to use the word.”
“I suppose…” said Vlad.
Months later, Vlad realized Daniel had lied to him. Not only was he part of the group, he was their leader!
He barely managed to process that the boy befriended the shadiest doctor in the whole of Tokyo. That was followed by building a link to a Japanese politician. Apparently he has contact with Medjed, a hacker group. Then he connected to an ex-Yakuza! Said man claims to sell model guns, but something about this, Vlad can’t believe. He knows illegal doings when he sees them.
Vlad was not sure if he should be proud – as he was guiding Daniel to be more like him – or worried.
All that was topped when he discovered Daniel was a wanted Japanese criminal.
On top of that, the cat was not a cat.
Vlad doesn’t know anymore.
“But you aren’t going to ‘steal my treasure’?” he had to ask, whatever that meant.
Daniel just shrugged. “Eh, for now we have bigger problems. Honestly, I just don’t want to see your mind palace, considering your AI… and your cat…”
With that, Vlad decided not to get evolved, even if he could use this to his advantage. He does not want to know what ‘palace’ refers to.