Chapter Text
Akira Kurusu was struggling.
He was currently fighting Shido alone, after his last attack scattered his teammates, leaving them all either unconscious or too disoriented to continue fighting.
He was the only one to remain standing, though it came with a great cost of most of his HP.
The beginning of the fight was great. Each slash of his knife against Shido’s golden armour was incredibly cathartic, chipping away at his defences. The multi coloured flashes of magical attacks, having grown incredibly strong from their hours of training in Mementos, drained Shido's health. He unleashed his strongest attacks, wanting Shido to feel even an ounce of the mental anguish he was forced to go through since the beginning of the year.
There was also one other thing. He also wanted to avenge his fallen teammate who never got the chance to face Shido himself. Who fell in the engine room, after a draining fight with the Phantom Thieves. Goro Akechi, who had the misfortune to be born as Shido’s son.
However, the fight ran much longer than he expected and due to all the heavy-hitting elemental attacks he had unleashed early on, his SP was close to empty. Considering that Shido still had a quarter of his health, things weren’t ideal.
He had a choice to make, use an item to restore his SP and leave himself open to an attack that would most likely render him unconscious. Or he could heal, but he only had enough SP to use a moderate heal. The problem was that Shido was incredibly strong and could possibly take him down even with decent health.
He knew it would all be over if he fell here. He was unsure of how long he might be out, but if the treasure dematerialised, they would lose their only chance to change his heart.
With that, he decided to heal. His mask dissolved into blue flames as he called Parvati and cast Diarama on himself. The spell closed some small injuries, some of the pain fading away.
He knew he was nowhere close to full health, but it was all he was capable of in his weakened state.
Shido began to move, starting his attack and Akira hastily got into a defensive stance, hopefully to negate any damage he may receive this turn.
As Akira felt the tingle of electricity from Shido's oncoming attack, he realised Shido had used Heat Riser two turns previously and panicked, knowing it would still be in effect.
He held firm, hoping he wouldn’t be paralyzed from shock or knocked unconscious.
The air began to crackle and Akira saw a spear begin to materialise, ready to strike the ground, hurting the person unlucky enough to be targeted.
Akira braced himself for the unpleasant pain of electricity coursing through his body, when a loud, angry and familiar scream rang out as a black suited figure dropped in front of him. Just in time to take the brunt of the attack that may have left Akira unconscious.
He grunted as he took the attack, his limbs shaking from the electricity. He, thankfully, didn't get shocked and took his place on the left side of Akira.
Akira tried to hold his surprise but found himself unable to as he exclaimed “Crow?!”
He could barely believe his eyes. The person who just protected him, who now stood with him, was none other than Goro Akechi. Who he swore had sacrificed himself in the engine room, locking himself behind a steel wall. The same guy who disappeared from Futaba’s sensors after they heard the two gunshots.
“Not now!” he growled, readying his sword. “Help me take this fucker down!”
His voice held the familiar anger from when he confronted them in the engine room, which Akira took to mean he was feeling particularly murderous. He was excited to fight with the real Akechi, but considering who they were fighting, he had some rational fears.
Akechi had the desire of revenge against Shido much longer than the Phantom Thieves and trained to be an assassin under Shido’s tutelage all for this very moment. There was a very real possibility he may try to kill Shido, which Akira very much wanted to avoid.
“But-” He was cut off with a glare from Akechi.
“Do you want to change his heart or not?!”
Akira hastily breathed a sigh of relief when he realised they were on the same page.
“Okay, guys, the order is Crow, followed by Joker. Joker needs SP stat, and you both require healing!” Futaba narrated, flying above them in Prometheus.
Akira realised fairly late that Futaba wouldn't have been hit by Shido's earlier attack, flying high above the battleground. He was grateful for her running commentary, where she kept track of party members and provided assistance when required.
“Thanks, Oracle,” he replied, before turning to Akechi. “Give me a full SP restore and I'll heal us both.”
Akechi wordlessly followed his order, and threw him a Moonlight Carrot. By some weird quirk of the Metaverse, their items appeared in their hands when needed, which was particularly handy as most of their costumes didn't have pockets, unlike the coat he wore as Joker.
Akira quickly ate the vegetable he had grown with Haru and energy surged through him. He summoned Parvati again and cast Mediarahan, grateful that he used his skill card from itemising Titania.
The pale blue light enveloped them both, healing all their injuries. Akira felt good as new and he heard Akechi mutter “No time for thanks,” obviously eager to get back into the fight.
Shido took his turn to unleash a strong physical attack, but Akira managed to dodge it at the last second and it didn’t seem to faze Akechi.
“Alright, Crow, you took some damage, but you should be able to finish the fight before healing,” Futaba advised.
“Exactly what I wanted to hear,” Akechi snarled, before launching into a melee attack, his jagged red sword flashing as he got a solid hit on Shido. Akira smirked, launching into his own attack, slashing at Shido with his dagger, not giving him any respite.
“Not bad,” Akechi commented. Akira smiled at the unexpected praise, it always felt great to fight with Akechi. It was even better now he was no longer holding back. “Want to attack together to finish him off?”
Akira eagerly agreed as both he and Akechi withstood Shido’s pathetic wind attack.
It only took a glance between the two to understand what they’d do. The room seemed to disappear and took the form of a rainy city. Akechi called Loki, and, with a scream of rage, cast Call of Chaos over himself, his eyes glowing red.
Akira scanned the battlefield, quickly noticing several grappling points on the buildings at the side. He used his grappling hook to move closer to Shido, while not impeding Akechi who ran down the middle.
As he reached Shido, he opted for a different tact and launched himself into the air, pulling out his dagger. For an extra point in style, he decided to flip his dagger by throwing it up into the air. He caught it at his peak and held it out ready to attack. This allowed him to land a solid hit on Shido on his way down, leaving him disorientated, startled from the sudden attack.
Akira, immediately noticing the momentary weakness, flipped himself over the rapidly approaching Akechi, calling out his code name to inform him of the opportunity. Akechi immediately took it, slashing at the weakened Shido. After a few seconds of a frenzied attack, he took a final swing while screaming “YOU DON’T CONTROL ME!”
Akira could relate to the sentiment, but he kept an eye on Shido as Akechi started to walk away, recovering from the temporary psychosis. Shido was still moving and showed signs of attacking. Knowing Akechi was still suffering from a lowered defence and currently had his back to Shido, Akira had to act.
Thinking quickly, he pulled out his gun and fired a shot. Due to all the damage Shido suffered from the previous attacks, that was enough to make him fall.
That was also enough to revert the battleground back to normal. Akira immediately ran to Akechi who had fallen to his knees after their final attack, exhausted after the Call of Chaos he cast on himself.
He cast one more healing spell over him and that seemed to help. Akechi responded with another huff before forcing himself to his feet.
Akira barely had time to smile at their victory before he was swarmed by his teammates, who had been healed by Futaba soon after the battle ended. They offered their congratulations, and a few commented on Akechi’s return.
Akechi opted to stay out of their celebrations, talking to Shido’s shadow with venom in his voice. Akira heard a lot of insults after Shido admitted to the false charges he issued Akira with. He swore he also heard ‘you ruined the life of the one dear to me’ from Akechi but decided to not comment.
“I’m sure we can forgive Crow, considering he saved Joker’s life.” Futaba’s voice pierced through the haze in Akira’s mind. She had apparently broke up a small argument over where Akechi's loyalties now laid.
“The attack was that strong, huh?” Akira was honestly terrified of how close they were to losing the battle.
At that point, they didn’t have time to talk, as the Palace started shaking.
Akechi gave an angry yell. “That fucking bastard just disappeared! I should have known he’d have something up his sleeve. We need to get out now!”
Sure enough, Shido’s shadow was gone.
Makoto grabbed the Treasure from where it floated, and they started running back the way they came, only to be stopped by flooded corridors. Akira could hear more explosions in the background as Futaba frantically searched for an alternate escape route.
“Just go for the obvious route!” Akechi yelled, running for the closest window, but Futaba panicked, saying she couldn’t swim.
“Wait, there’s a lifeboat!” Makoto pointed to the far end of the ship.
There were mutterings of how they wouldn’t be able to reach it on time, before Ryuji offered to get it for them.
After a large leap, he was running towards the lever. Akira was in awe at his balance on the steep slope he was running up. With one more leap, he managed to grab the lever, pulling it down. The lifeboat came swinging around and dropped in front of them. They got in immediately and went to rescue Ryuji, who was hanging on for dear life.
Only, just as they reached him, there was one last explosion, concealing their view of Ryuji. Akira watched as the smoke dissipated, hoping for the best case scenario.
Apparently, the universe hated him, as Ryuji had disappeared.
Ann was the most distraught, screaming for him. The whole team was subdued, even Akechi giving an annoyed groan and muttered “that fucker…” under his breath, clearly referring to Shido.
They silently escaped the Metaverse, being deposited in front of the Diet Building. They immediately moved to the next street over, where they could talk.
“So, he’s really dead?” Ann cried, tears running down her face.
“Not necessarily, there’s a possibility that the explosion blasted him out of the Metaverse,” Akechi explained, assuming his thinking pose. “After I… disposed of Okumura’s shadow, I was unable to get out of the station in time, but it did explode and the blast helped me reach the exit point.”
Haru shot him a glare and Akira worried that he might have to break up the inevitable argument when Ryuji stumbled out of a nearby park to rejoin the group.
“You ass,” Ann cried, before wrapping him in a relieved hug.
“Sorry…?” he tentatively said, looking slightly confused.
“That’s what you deserve for making us think you died, I guess?” Akira explained, before patting him on the back. The rest of the team joined in on the friendly ribbing, except for Akechi. He stood off to the side, but Akira swore he saw a slight smirk on his face.
“Well team, I guess we should head back and get some rest after the successful heist,” Akira announced and everyone seemed to agree as they all headed their separate ways. Akechi remained behind, much to Akira’s relief. “Want to grab some coffee back at Leblanc? I wanted to talk anyway.”
Akechi immediately turned away, but wasn’t fast enough to hide a small blush painting his face. “...I guess you deserve that much.”