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“Please, come in! Sit, sit.”
To put it plainly, she was upset. Her science class had been square in the middle of the most important lab of the unit when she was pulled aside and brought to the counselor’s office. Again. It was like the man was conspiring to interrupt as much class time as possible. Maybe another student-athlete would have been pleased, but she was an honor student!
“Feel free to take any snacks; they’re for you. I promise this won’t take long.”
“Dr. Maruki, is there something wrong? We’re usually scheduled for Tuesdays.” She eyed the table of treats. The spread covered most categories, from gummies to sugar cookies. Bribery looked sweet. Smiling slightly, she pocketed a couple.
He had a pitying expression on his face, which foretold another speech about taking care of herself. “Some of the staff expressed concern about your behavior, Yoshizawa. I personally don’t think you’re abnormal, but this is just procedure.”
Her behavior? She hadn’t really done anything out of the ordinary lately. Possibilities filled her head like smoke. It could be because of her recent performance in gymnastics. Her coach had already warned her she had been off-sync, but it hadn’t seemed like something that would warrant an intervention. Or maybe…?
“Really? I had no idea. What did they say was the problem?”
He cleared his throat. “Well, you’ve apparently been showing signs of social isolation and anxiety. Somebody reported seeing you hide in bushes and behind corners to avoid interaction with others. Could I just have you walk me through what’s going on?”
So it wasn’t about her scores. Small blessings. The problem was that he didn’t mention how she was hiding so she could stalk the Phantom Thieves. Had the witness not noticed that part? Because Akechi had said she could be obvious sometimes. Sure, she was way better at it now, but still. Just how much did Maruki know?
“Oh, so that’s what this is about. It’s uh… not social anxiety. I was hiding though! It just wasn’t because I was scared.”
“What’s the matter, then? Excuse me for saying so, but you get why it seems a little out of the ordinary.”
“The truth is really embarrassing, I don’t know if I can say it.” A half-truth, which was unspecific and shy, could at least buy her some time.
Internally, she was freaking out. If her answer was bad enough, Maruki would insist on more intensive counseling. Sumire didn’t trust him anymore, not after he suggested she become more like Kasumi. It didn’t matter to her how much psychiatric experience he had, the idea alone barely missed sending her into a spiral. She needed to make him believe she was fine, and she didn’t have a ton of options.
“I won’t force you to tell me if you’re not ready, but please know that I will always have your back no matter the situation. I want you to feel comfortable here, so you can have a space to be completely authentic. The problem is that the administrators want an answer, so I need you to try and cooperate here. No matter what it is, you know you can trust me, right?”
“Right, I don’t mean to doubt you! It’s just… I’m a little bit nervous. I have a crush on someone. It probably seems pretty creepy, but I just don’t know how to approach him.” She cast her eyes toward her shoes and began fidgeting with her blazer.
“That’s wonderful. Again, I’m extremely sorry that I had to force it out of you.” He sighed. “You know how demanding the school is. At least you shouldn’t need to do much hiding anymore. After all, you have a very good chance.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“With Kusuru? Oh, I forgot to mention, the witness reported that you were hiding around him. There were worries he was threatening you! Imagine!”
“Oh!” She laughed, a little too painfully. “Ha! Ha ha. That’s so funny! So glad we have this cleared up! Yeah, I have a crush on him.”
“I hope I haven’t invaded your privacy too much for the day. This part will stay strictly confidential, as usual. You’re free to head back to class.”
“Thank you, Dr. Maruki!” She bowed 90 degrees, spun around, and fled into the hall. Stalking back to class, her mind whirled. He promised confidentiality, so it should be fine, right? At least it’s not true, but she needs to be cautious.
It was a good cover, though. Not just from the staff, but from the Phantom Thieves too. If she just acted like she had a hopeless crush…
After taking her seat (now, unfortunately, in English class), she stealthily pulled out her phone.
[Sumire]: Dr. Maruki talked to me about the stalking.
[Hifumi]: Wait, what?
[Goro]: Are you alright? How much does he know?
[Sumire]: Don’t worry!! I misled him :)
[Sumire]: I’ll tell you more when school ends. So we can debrief 👍
“Just what is his problem? Why wouldn’t he open with the concerns that you were getting threatened?”
“I know, it felt really weird. Usually, he’s not this vague.”
Hifumi closed her textbook and shifted herself forward. “Well, this is really good, isn’t it?”
“It might seem good, initially,” sighed Akechi. “But if the Phantom Thieves hear about it, which they very well could considering the man we’re talking about, they might start taking more notice of Sumire. That would defeat the point of getting intell, and we’d have to step back further.”
“Couldn’t she just befriend him, though? Like the other people Kusuru connects with? We’d have an even better inside.”
“Because then Shido would hear about her, and it’d be even harder for the three of us to meet. Besides, what if Kusuru… reciprocates?”
Sumire frowned. “I’m not dating him.”
“I’d expect that you wouldn’t. That’d be risky, especially since they just recruited Alibaba. Who knows how much she could get from your phone if she had access.”
“Couldn’t we just get her a burner phone, like how you have one for your infiltration? It shouldn’t be hard,” Hifumi mused.
“I work with the police, so it makes sense for me to have one. But if we start getting investigated, it would seem very strange for a student gymnast to have one. They’d wonder what she’s hiding, which is the same thought the thieves would have if they found out.”
“Guys,” Sumire interjected, “I know this is important, but it’s basically over. We need to talk about Okumura instead. What we get from him is tons more important than anything the Phantom Thieves’ school lives could give us.”
“Right. My meeting with Shido went decently. He officially ordered me to begin the plan to assassinate Okumura. I snagged a recording of it, but the quality is awful.”
Hifumi tapped her fingers on the table, making a face you’d most often see her wear in a match. “That should be fine, as long as we can find any proof of Okumura’s patronage. Do you think checking the emails would work again?”
Months prior, they had broken into the headmaster’s office to make copies of his emailing history. The man at least had the sense to use end-to-end encryption and vague language, but accessing them was painfully easy. His password was ‘H3adm4ster’. His job title. And he didn’t even have a password on his call logs. Their file on Shido doubled that day.
Akechi shook his head. “These people are professionals. I hate to say it, but we’ll probably need to use your dad, Hifumi.”
“How is doing? You said it was looking like his insurance would get approved, right?” She was playing with her loose hair.
“He’s bad.” Her voice tremoured. “The company insurance said they can only cover half of the bypass surgery. Okumura Foods keeps emailing him about how he’s running out of paid sick leave. The doctors are saying that he has a high chance of survival if the surgery proceeds, but the price is insane. Every time he’s awake now, he’s either in pain or asking when he can go back to work.”
“We need to move quickly. Once Okumura is down, your father should be able to get enough of a settlement to at least pay off any medical debt. I know it’s awful, but we’ll take care of this. We’re close to the end now.”
“I’m glad we at least don’t need to do the palace ourselves. I have another tournament soon, and I feel like I’ll get in more trouble with the school if I don’t win.”
“I also have one for Shogi. Perhaps we could do something together tomorrow, for the mental strength?’
The majority of their plans were already laid out and in action, so it’d be a slower season. Morale would undoubtedly be a good use of time. However, Akechi frowned. “I already have plans tomorrow, but you both should do something regardless.”
“Oh? Do you have an interview or something?”
“…No, Akira asked me to come over so we could beat Featherman in Galactica: Space Undertow. It’s a long game.”
“Um.” Sumire was looking at him a little sideways. “Futaba is a better gamer than you are. Why not ask her?”
“Wait, and since when has he been Akira?”
“We have been getting a little closer lately. Don’t give me that look, he’s interesting. That’s all.”
Hifumi giggled. “Right, right. Make sure you get all of the intel for us. We’ll analyze it until we drop.”
A flash of panic struck Sumire across the face. Her eyes went wide, and drops of cold sweat fell from her forehead. She stuttered slowly, “Guys. We have exams soon.”
Unfortunately, she made company with the most annoying natural geniuses the world has to offer. One might expect mercy, or a promise to study together. Instead, they just laughed and added a new string titled ‘poor academics’ to the growing investigation wall.
“Hey.” Akechi was bent over on the tiny chair, face scrunched into the hulking old-fashioned TV. His elbow was wedged into Akira’s side. It took a great effort for him to speak since his entire brainpower was focused on the awful mechanics of the level’s boss.
Akira didn’t seem to be doing much better. His bangs were damp and stinking to his forehead like tape. He’d taken the (obviously fake) glasses off to negate the glare. For a whole minute after Akechi spoke, the only sound was rapid button mashing. Finally, the boss had a loading screen long enough for him to reply. “What’s up?”
“If you found out that someone you knew had a massive crush on you, to a kind of creepy extent, what would you do.”
His eyes were still fixed on the awful graphics of the TV. The boss, now in its final stage, was giving some sort of monologue about power or something. “Why are you asking? Do you have a massive creepy crush on me?”
The white 8-bit clump split into about 100 spiders, overwhelming the field. God, he hadn’t been expecting to play Touhou. “No, I’m just worried I might have a super fan.”
“Must be a great fan if they’re still with you right now.”
“Ha ha.”
Akechi’s controller began lagging, leading him to smack it against the chair repeatedly. A loud click jolted him back into position, and he unleashed his special attack. It missed the main body and hit a stray spider. This game was awful. They didn’t have Feather Black or Gray as an option, so he was playing as Pink.
Eventually, their combined efforts seared its HP down to just 25 percent. Because this game sucked, the figure entered a frenzy mode. Every time it blinked out of invulnerability, his attacks seemed to choose to miss. He was submitting the game dev’s name to the Phantom Thieves after this.
Finally, a combo attack made contact, and the beast took a critical hit. A couple of good hits later, they were finally in front of a heaping pile of monster loot. He could have cried. He had an image to maintain, but he could have. Akira was grinning. He tapped his hand on the table.
“What a relief. It was a tough fight, but not unfair. It’s quite a nice balance!” He was completely lying. It was one of the most unfair hit rates he’s ever experienced. He was so mad.
“Really? You’ll be glad to hear we’re officially halfway through the game, then.”
“Oh. This is great.” His teeth were grinding against one another. “You know me so well. Inviting me to play this with you.”
Akira just smiled at him. “Since we’re at a save point, I’m going to use the bathroom. Don’t run away on me.”
“Haha! You’re so funny!” If he could run, he would have already.
As soon as the creaky steps went quiet, he dove for Akira’s phone. He’d already memorized the password from the one time he saw it inputted. What kind of idiotic ‘criminal mastermind’ uses 123456? His friends had been teasing him earlier, but it wouldn’t hurt to see what he could find. His first hit was the messenger app, with a very discrete group chat titled ‘Phantom Thieves of Hearts’. He scrolled to the first messages of the day.
[Ann]: Now that Morgana’s back, we can finally get to work like usual!
[Yusuke]: It’s truly heartwarming. I’ve never seen such an intense flurry of
[Futaba]: ur forgetting about those weirdos? blegh
[Yusuke]: passion! I am inspired, our work has become a most divine, esteemed muse!
[Haru]: Sakura? Are you talking about the shadows?
[Futaba]: nahhh we’ve got a rival group. yk like team rocket
[Makoto]: Are we doing an infiltration today?
[Akira]: Sorry guys, I’m busy
[Futaba]: he’s hanging out with the pleasant boy again
[Ryuji]: Come on man…
[Akira]: Can’t let your vigilantism stop you from meeting your cop husband
[Ann]: Nobody says that, hope this helped!
[Makoto]: I sincerely hope he arrests you.
[Akira]: Me too, tbh
Never mind, he should have known better than assuming they had anything useful to say. They were literally just supernatural vigilantes, not a care in the world. Poor Sumire’s brain must have rotted from just watching them. He swapped to his phone and ordered her a fruit basket.
It reminded him of why they couldn’t just let them take care of Shido. But for now, it was Okumura, and there were no consequences for fraternization.
Akira walked up the stairs like the Hunchback of Notre Dam. “Ready to get back to it?”
“Of course! I’m itching to try the next level. Think you can keep up?”
Honestly, the only reason he was still there was that he was at least better than Akira. He would simply choose to go missing if he couldn’t surpass him.
“Don’t get too comfortable.” He dropped himself onto the chair and dusted off his pants. “By the way, I thought about it. I’d probably try to see if we could just be friends, depending on who it is.”
“That’s kind of you. I suggested that I was uncomfortable and my stans took care of it for me. Though, I don’t have access to a force quite like that anymore.”
“Would you do it to everyone?”
“Hm… I guess I could make a couple of exceptions. Like you said, it depends. They might get my respect by showing a little intelligence.”
He laughed, as if privy to some joke he didn’t have the context to. “Let’s get started then. Evil incarnate won’t kill itself.”