Chapter Text
Day 1: Confession
The cafe was quiet, like it always is. Sojiro was busy stacking supplies, getting ready to open for the day, while humming his favorite tune. The sun was shining bright through the darkened cafe, giving the empty place some light. The chairs were still on the counter, ready to be put down as the cafe opened. The smell of curry brewing filled the air, filling Futaba with ease as she settled into an empty seat in front of Akira.
Akira was staring at her, looking at her with interest but a slight glare, which made her panic a little inside. He was wearing his casual school uniform, sipping his coffee, not saying a single word. Just the two of them, with Sojiro still indifferent to their presence. The air was quiet and slightly cold for a warm spring morning, as the quiet hums continued in the back. The silence was really getting to Futaba. She wanted to sleep in a little more after another neofeatherman binge session. She loved the nights when there was nothing to disturb her through sessions except the groggy and awful feeling she had when she woke up. She would have really loved to roll herself back into bed if it weren't the incessant phone calls forcing her to come to the store so early in the morning.
Akira was silently sipping her coffee as he stared with her easiness disappeared with each sip.
“Futaba Sakura,” he broke the silence. Futaba panicked a little. The uneasiness of the situation made it feel as if she were in trouble.
“When did you join the Phantom Thieves?”
The question confused Futaba.
“Last year, August, why?” she answered
“And Futab, when am I leaving?”
Shit,
“In two weeks,” she said solemnly, she had no clue what was going on, but the last thing on her mind was Akira leaving.
“Listen, Futaba,” He paused as he took the last sip of his coffee and set it aside. The demeanor and his tone changed, Akira didn’t look angry anymore rather concerned with the way his eyes looked behind his glasses.
“I’m setting aside this time here, because I'm concerned.”
“Concerned with what?” she just had to ask.
“Me, Ann, and Ryuji have been talking, and” he paused. He looked away and then back at her with full disappointment. Futaba leaned in closer.
“Just what's the deal with you and Yusuke? How are you guys not together yet?”
Futaba was taken aback. She thought it had to do with him losing, or someone moving, FUCK sombody probably died with the way he was talking before. She started to sweat; she wanted to be out of this situation so badly, but the words kept failing her
“Sorry for bringing this up, but it's been a topic between the others for a while, Yusuke has invited you to his art shows, you both have gone to conventions, Makoto saw you two shopping in Akihabara, Ann knows how much you blush when you talk to him, Haru knows how you much you smile when his name is mentioned, Sojiro says your learning how to cook for this “someone” and ryujis said that he says he sees you at Kosei every other week"
Futaba winced at all the allegations. Sojiro had just finished unpacking a new order of coffee beans from who knows where.
“Sojiro, you traitor,” she yelled from across the cafe.
Sojiro shifted towards the counter, finally revealing himself to an angry Futaba.
“He ain’t wrong, kid,” he leaned on the counter more, now fully attentive to the conversation.
Futaba gritted her teeth, there was no way to defend against the allegations
“Futaba, what do you think about him?”
She stayed quiet. She looked at her lap. Sojiro wasn’t wrong either, he was a dad to him as much as her. She curled herself, a situation she didn’t want to deal with first thing in the morning, but it's not like she wasn’t thinking about that same question either. She was always excited to go to whatever Inari had in mind, or just drifting around in the evening sky. It was a question she had to face eventually, and with Akira leaving, it only made things worse.
Akira shifted forward. “Futaba, understand Yusuke is my friend too, I’m asking for both your sakes.”
The silence and her jumbled thoughts were really getting to her, her heart was beating fast, the face Yusuke mentioned when talking about art, the air of constant nervousness around him, he really was a nice person.
“He's a nice guy," she said, trying to avoid the discussion once again.
“Futaba, be honest.” Sojiro weighing in with a calm but persistent tone.
She stayed silent, trying to process the question. Her mind raced back and forth between the right set of words to say, like a game giving you dialogue options to choose from, each having a different ending. Yet there was one that stuck with her, an undeniable truth that she just couldn’t get rid of
“I really like him, I really do,” She finally spoke, burying her face into her legs as she finally managed to say the words in her jumbled mind. Akira sighed, Sojiro beamed. The sunshine around them grew brighter.
“As I said before, I’m leaving in two weeks, so before then, I want you to confess or at least get him to confess.”
Her thoughts were to know the best way to beat the absolute shit out of him, ain't no way her most trusted friend asked her of this.
“Before you get mad,” He pulled out two tickets and a piece of paper out of his pockets like he planned this before. “Me and the rest of the thieves planned out a perfect date for you two based on your personality and interests.” Futaba awkwardly grabbed the paper, unsure of what to say.
Akira shifted out of his seat as he grabbed his school bag.
“Tomarrow your gonna steal his heart, I promise it” he spoke through his annoying cocky smile as he left out the door.
Wait Tomorrow…
Futaba pulled up with the best amount of courage she had for today. WHY was the only question she had going through her mind as she stood there waiting for him at the location Akira sent her. It was a hot day in spring, as she stood next to the Hachiko statue, waiting for the arrival of a stupid but kind starving artist. Yesterday, the phantom thief girl forced her to go on a shopping spree in the underground mall. Everything still felt so new to her, like she was preparing for the final boss. With her equipment ready to take on her challenge. She had to ditch her usual style of an oversized jacket with black boots and shorts with a messy shirt that hadn’t been washed in days. In her new outfit, a simple red dress, comfortable sneakers, and slight makeup she wanted to rub out so badly with some bracelets and earrings. It was simple, but still felt too over the top for a date. She could feel the stares of the rest of the phantom thieves close by. Akira assured them that they would just be there to make things go smoothly, all with a sly and devious smile.
Her thoughts drifted until a voice behind Futaba's name came close by. It was Yusuke, surprisingly not wearing his regular Kosei uniform, which looked out of place, or maybe she was so used to seeing the plain white collared shirt with the logo too often. This time, he was wearing jeans with a professional button-down shirt; it looked like he trimmed his bangs a little.
“Futaba, good to see you here. Akira sent some type of crypt-"
He stood there analyzing all the details, but his mind looked like he couldn’t process it just as Futaba had when she saw him. Both were staring at each other, just unable to say anything. The defining silence was broken as Yusuke looked away, and he looked embarrassed to say anything.
“You look quite pulchritudinous today.” Futaba looked at him with confusion, but his red face gave it away.
“Hehehe” she chuckled with a devious smile, her nervousness was gone after seeing just as embarrassed as she was for this date. She grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, trying to tease him a little.
“Come on, Inari, we've got some quests to do,” as Futaba dragged him through the crowded streets of Shibuya under the bright spring sky.
Downtown Shibuya was especially crowded on a busy Sunday, students in casual wear walking and gossiping around the area, busy salesmen trying to hustle foreigners, even passed two of these foreigners with a crudely drawn map of Japan with motorcycle helmets, asking the others to name cities in Japan, which she found quite funny. Even Yusuke had a small tangent on the artistic merit of the map. As they walked, she discreetly pulled up the plan the phantom thieves had made for them. Their first stop was a movie theater playing this movie called Your Name from a new director, Makoto Shinkai
“I can’t wait for the artistic colors and direction in this one,” as they walked into the theater, she pulled out her tickets, got some buttery popcorn, and they headed to their seats."
"The dark atmosphere of the last one heavily contributed to the great-” Yusuke kept rambling a little as Futaba listened. The dark theater, the crowded watchers behind them, the limited lighting playing from the screen, brought her back a sense of uneasiness. She turned her head and definitely recognized at least four of the members within the audience. Ann’s blonde hair was just too hard not to notice from a mile away.
The dim lights and comfortable seat reminded her of the late-night calls they would have as she would try to beat some new level of a JRPG while Yusuke worked on his next “masterpiece,” describing the details and colors as he painted, sending sketches of his new works. She went into this like it would be a regular hangout, but this felt all too official.
The Screen lit up, revealing the first reveal of the production’s name before the theater immediately started to flicker. The flickering began before it immediately shut off, and the dim lights turned back on. She looked behind to see Akira settling in to join the rest of the phantom stalkers with Morgana in his bag. Yusuke looked just as confused as the rest until a loud voice came from the projectionist, bellowed across.
“UH, Unfortunately, our Projector isn’t working, we're getting someone to fix it, please stand by, if not, then we are all eligible for a refund”.
Fuck just her luck
“We did indeed pay, we might as well stay.”
Futaba nodded, ready to wait.
Ten minutes turned into twenty, and it looked like most people had left, including the phantom stalkers. It was more of a surprise that Yusuke hadn’t noticed at all that they were being followed by his own friends. The silence was getting to her, so she grabbed the bag Makoto gave her as she left the theater.
It wasn’t the greatest start to the date, just the thoughts once again. Yusuke stood beside her, ready to go just alongside her.
“Quite a shame, I had quite high hopes for it to”
“Same, it's like how a game is filled with bugs in its tutorial.” She tried to be optimistic, but the words didn’t come out right.
“There will always be some setbacks, that's how art is made."
Futaba chuckled a little. As she felt a light tap on her shoulder, and then her head, and then her face, the bright blue sky was crying its tears as she wiped the droplets from her glasses. The droplets started quietly until it increased their tempo, pouring hard on the ground. She still stood there. Futaba never disliked the rain, but never liked it either, it just felt enclosed like the black room, the dim lights of her computer screens, the plates of curry outside her door, the sad voice of Sojiro leaning at her door as she tried to sleep again. She tapped on her shoulder again, except it was a real one, Yusuke standing right behind her holding a dark orange umbrella, as dark as her sandy tomb.
“It's aesthetics reminded me of you,” Yusuke softly spoke as the rain poured hard on the umbrella.
“Orange is a nice color, huh?” Futaba replied.
“It is both enthusiasm and warmth, just what we need on this quest of ours.”
Futaba smiled again, the rain didn’t feel so bad anymore, but “Did you just have that in your inventory of something?" She never says Yusuke carries it with them.
“I was approached by a high school boy in a black mask and hoodie who told me to use this. I must repay his kindness one day.”
Akira and the phantom stalkers strike back.
Their next stop was a restaurant just near the theater. The plan had some notes with a note in Ann's handwriting to get him to talk about his thoughts on the movie. The restaurant had reservations made for them. They walked on by to the entrance to see a nice fancy-looking restaurant on the inside that sickeningly looked like the one on Shido's ship. She was sure there was no connection, but it just felt too similar.
She approached to the waiter standing out front: “ Excuse me, party of two under Sakura”
The waiter gave an annoyed look and flipped through the book, before taking a look at them once again.
“Sorry, there was no reservation under Sakura, now please hurry out, this is no place for High schoolers.”
Futaba looked so confused. She discreetly checked once again to find that this was the same restaurant that Haru wrote, and she took a double check that this was the right place
“I ask that you please check again,” Yusuke said.
The server looked at them and again refused.
It felt over, first the movie, then the rain, now the restaurant was all a bust. The feeling of failure invaded again. The charade was annoying Futaba to a new level.
She threw her arms and slammed her hands on the desk with the book of reservations.
“NOW listen here, Do you know who I am, Do you know who my friends are, I got Lawyers for sisters, A CEO, and a FAMOUS ARTIST that will sue you to KINGDOM COME, I BET YOU, I'VE GOT MORE MONEY than your Minimum wage, elitist, MOTHERFU-”
“Futaba, that's quite enough,” as he bowed, apologizing to the waiter and dragging her goblin-ahh behavior out of the restaurant while the waiter screamed about banning them.
The actions of what she had just done seemed to have hit her, as Yusuke carried on towards a different place. Instead of the restaurant, they walked in the solemn rain to find a hole-in-the-wall ramen shop. The interior was mostly torn down, but it was still locked like a decent place. They got their ramen in silence, served by someone who is definitely Akira with the phanom stalkers tailing behind a few seats in front, but this place was somehow the best Ramen she ever had.
As they finished, Futaba was about to pull out her wallet when Yusuke stopped her.
“It's quite all right, Ryuji said that every man should pay, despite the amount of money they have on hand.”
She put away her wallet that Sojiro had given her prior to the date, as Akira was always the one to pay for her when she went to Akihabara, and also the train fare to and from Kosei and Shujin.
The train led them to their final destination. The date was over, and the movie, the rain, and the restaurant crash-out felt hopeless. She was close to calling it quits, but she was already too deep into it. The rain poured harder as she felt lost in thought until she started to feel the rain on her skin once more. She turned around to see Yusuke standing there motionless, gripping the umbrella.
“Yusu-”
“Futaba,” she interrupted. “If it's about the restaurant its okay, it wasn’t fair what the waiter did, but there must be something other on your mind.”
She looked stunned. Futaba wasn’t paying too much attention after all the failures in a row. They were friends, she didn’t want to mess up the things they had, coming to the Kosei dorms to watch him paint, him eating her burnt attempts to make something edible, teaching him how to play FPS games, and him listening to the Neofetherman lore like he was making a theory channel.
She brushed her hair, covering her ears, as she attempted to say something.
“Yusuke…. Listen, I really like you, and I wanted to confess to you, but fate is showing me a sign. Maybe, I don’t know, but it shouldn’t be me-”
Her words were interrupted by Yusuke's laughter, but it wasn’t supposed to be a funny situation.
“But, Futaba, you already confessed.”
Shit, He was right. The red alarms were panicking in Futaba's head; she didn’t realize it at first, but she had just confessed.
“And to be perfectly honest, I've also had the same weird feeling, too, as I can’t lose you either.”
They stood there in silence in the rain, unsure of what to say to each other.
“Yusuke, I do love you, I love our talks, our memories, our inside jokes,” she said solemnly, looking into his eyes.
“And I love you too.”
It was those simple words that her feel better, those doubts in her mind felt dissipated like a sun that cuts through the clouds.
The rain started to fizzle as the clouds slowly disappeared, displaying a blazing blue sky they had ever seen or maybe it was because of him, it just made everything shine so much brighter.