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“Did your cat just talk?” Is perhaps the most terrifying sentence for Akira to hear. After a year of being away from Tokyo, texting his friends, waiting for the subtle cat and mouse game he’s been playing to finally come to an end, he hadn’t really processed that Morgana was a talking cat. Of course, he assumed that nobody else in the world had access to the Metaverse. It was shortsighted of him. Akechi would probably have this all planned out. If only he would stop calling him an idiot over their digital games of chess.
He turns very slowly to the guy who just spoke. Morgana has gone stiff in his bag, his eyes darting around to search for an escape. If only he still had Arsene under his wing. He’s fought a god, he’s toppled Maruki’s dreamworld, he’s survived countless brushes with death, and yet he has never felt so god damn scared. The guy stands, bewildered, and then Akira realises he isn’t alone. There’s another man beside him. He’s calmer than his compatriot, but Akira recognizes the way his eyebrows lift up.
They both hear Morgana. They’ve both been to the metaverse. That means they could be persona users.
They could be dangerous.
“Um.” He coughs into his fist. “No? Sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I swear to god that thing just talked!”
The calm man pats the other guy on the shoulder. “It’s okay, Yosuke. I heard it too.”
“Thank god !” Yosuke breathes out. “I thought I was losing it, dude. Uh. Anyways… what the hell? Why can your cat talk?”
“Sorry, who are you?” He asks. Morgana flicks his tail against his face as if to chastise him for being so rude.
“I’m Yu Narukami,” says the silver haired one. He’s still surprised but he handles it so well. “And this is Yosuke Hanamura, my partner.”
Yosuke smacks at his head. “Dude! Don’t just come right out and say it!”
Yu smiles. Akira wonders if that is a rare expression on his face. The sun seems to shine a little brighter when he does. The look in Yosuke’s eyes is soft when Yu chuckles. There’s something about them that makes Akira want to talk to them more. It could be a result of the metaverse, maybe. Or maybe even Igor’s doing. Or maybe they’re just really friendly guys.
“Akira Kurusu,” he shakes it off. For some reason he doesn’t feel so scared anymore. Maybe the lack of sleep is catching up to him. Maybe he’s become too trusting after Goro. He’s always been a sucker for people with intelligence in their gaze. “And this is Morgana.”
“M-Meow!” Morgana shouts out.
Any semblance of a plan to get out of this situation goes right out the window. He sighs, pressing a hand to his face. The two look even more bewildered.
“I should be getting home,” is all he says. It would look bad if two grown men stopped a teenager from going home, so they step aside, and he can feel their eyes on his back as he walks in the complete opposite direction of his home. Once they’re out of sight, Morgana climbs onto his shoulder.
“That was close!” he hisses. “I-I should probably be more careful. Sorry about that.”
Instead of answering, he reaches up and scratches Morgana’s ear. It’s become an act of affection between the two of them. At one time it may have been considered patronizing. Now, though, the two of them trust each other. Morgana purrs and climbs back into his bag. He has to circle back around and stake out the surrounding area to make sure the two guys don’t follow them home. He isn’t about to get caught now, not after surviving the wrath of two gods. Eventually he slips in through the back door and silently makes his way to his room.
His parents don’t need to know he was outside. They probably wouldn’t notice, but it was better to be careful than to forget the survival skills palaces hammered into him. He sits down at his desk and does his daily routine; he searches for the nav. Unlike the other thousand times he’s checked, it stares back at him when he opens his phone. He drops it. It feels as if he’s just been hit with mabufu. Hah. It’s been so long since he’s felt like this.
“What’s up, Akira?” Morgana pads his way over, hopping up onto the desk. “Wait is that…?”
“Yep,” he says. His throat feels dry. “The metaverse is back.”
--
For a while he stares at the familiar interface of the nav, his hands shaking. What did this mean? They’d killed the god of control, had they not? Was he back? Was Maruki back? He shudders.
Finally he regains his strength. The first thing he does is text the Phantom Thief chat, his mind running through the fastest ways he could get back to Tokyo. He can stay with Sojiro, obviously, and maybe his parents won’t even notice that he’s left. Worst case scenario they figure it out and he gets a bunch of angry texts and is grounded for a few weeks or a month and maybe he won’t eat for a good week and won’t be allowed out of his room but it’s okay. He can handle that. He just needs his family in Tokyo to be safe.
PHANTOMS
Akira: hey guys whats up
Futaba: i just beat goro in chess
Akechi: She’s cheating.
Futaba: no im not????? We’re on snapchat????
akechi: You make me wish I stayed dead
futaba: SAME HERE BUDDY
Ann: me ryuji and haru are making tik toks
Makoto: That sounds ….
Makoto: Can Ryuji even dance?
Ryuji: MAKOTO!!!!
Makoto: Sorry.
Ryuji: u so arent
Ann: lol no he cant
Haru: He’s improving!
Ryuji: see??!?!
Haru: I didn’t say you were improving quickly
Ryuji: i
Futaba: LMAO
Makoto: I’m sure you’re doing great, Ryuji.
Ryuji: thanks maam
Sumire: senpai!! How are you doing? :)
Akira: im a little messed up
Akechi: Why would that be?
Akira: haha um
Akira: well
Akira: the nav is back on my phone.
Yusuke: What…?
Ann: seriously?? Again???
Futaba: its just annoying now LMAO
Ryuji: damn we really cant get rid of it
Akechi: That’s quite exciting.
Yusuke: You scare me…
Ryuji: no kiddin
Akira: im nervous
Akechi: Why?
Akechi: Joker can make a comeback.
Akira: ha
He can’t help but smile. Goro’s twisted excitement is a bit contagious, and incredibly cute.
Akira: im just hoping we can beat whatever brought it back.
Haru: We killed god, did we not?
Yusuke: And I believe we broke out of Maruki’s world by ourselves.
Sumire: we should be fine senpai!
Sumire: plus, im excited to work with all of you again! I so rarely get to see you nowadays
Makoto: So we’re going to go back in?
Ryuji: hell yeah we are
Akechi: You all seem to forget that Joker lives in another town.
Akira: i can make my way down
Akira: i’ll be fine in school
Futaba: wont ur parents notice???
If only they knew. He snorts. Morgana whaps him on the head with his paw to chastise him for being so secretive. He rolls his eyes. They don’t need to know.
Akira: they’ll be fine with it
“I wish you’d stop lying to them…” he grumbles.
“I’m not lying.”
Another swat at his head. “You aren’t telling the full truth! Akira, I don’t think the way your parents treat you is normal…” his ears twitch. “I-I know you tell me not to worry.”
He pats his head as if he would ruffle a younger brother’s hair. His angry reaction is halfhearted and held back by guilt, Akira can tell. Morgana shouldn’t feel guilty. The blame is all on him. Inaba is a beautiful town with a friendly population and his parents just so happen to be the worst of the worst-- a real black stain on an otherwise fantastic place. The bruises on his body aren’t from the metaverse anymore. The danger isn’t in the shadows. The only saving grace he has is that they don’t know any of his secrets-- not a single one. His birth parents took those to the grave with them.
“I’m fine,” he assures him. “I swear.”
“Okay… but you would tell me if anything was wrong, right?”
“In a heartbeat.”
Morgana harrumphs. “Good! Now we should go to sleep… we have things to do in the morning.”
“We should probably find those guys again,” he proposes as he turns the lamp off. In the dim light of the moon, he can see Morgana scrunch his nose up. “It’s okay. We can talk about it in the morning.”
“Okay. Night, Akira.”
He closes his eyes and sleep finds him.
And then it doesn’t. He wakes up on a stiff old bed in the blue light of the velvet room with Lavenza and Igor staring at him. His back hurts. He groans and sits up, Igor chuckling in that absurdly high voice that he will never truly get used to. It doesn’t look like anything is wrong. Things look as normal as they did all those months ago.
“Why is it back this time?” he asks. Lavenza skips over, a rare smile on her face as she opens her book. There are a number of new pages and a number of new personas that he doesn’t recognize. Igor taps his foot patiently on the floor. For some reason they’re both in a good mood. He’s scared.
“A previous wild card has reawoken!” She chirps in response. She beckons him out of the prison cell. This time there isn’t anything barring him from leaving, so he does, the velvet room interior humming with a strange sense of power. His clothes change as soon as he crosses the threshold. Behind him the prison cell begins to slowly disappear, the surrounding walls morphing into one another until it’s impossible to tell that there has ever been anything there.
He shoves his hands into Joker’s coat pockets. “A previous wild card? There’s more?”
“There are quite a few tricksters,” Lavenza explains. She lays her book on Igor’s desk and he follows, the sense of being outside of his prison cell a weird one. “This time the return of the metaverse has nothing to do with you. You just happen to be in the right place at the right time. And because of your status as a trickster, and your bonds back at your home, the navigator has found itself back on you and your companions phones. So we are, essentially, back in business!”
Igor nods along. He can’t help but notice a pulse of light that peeks out from underneath the eastern wall. It seeps out of the cracks in the wall. Igor notices his staring and snaps his fingers. The wall starts to crack apart, and he takes a step back as it crumbles before his eyes, the wall turning into a thick sheet of glass. Behind the glass is the strangest sight Akira has set eyes on yet. It’s like the metaverse, unnatural and hazy, but it looks like it’s modelled after a TV station. The yellow is offensive to his eyes.
“What… is that?”
“That is the metaverse,” Lavenza says. She seems proud. “At least… how the people of Inaba see it.”
He places a hand on the glass.
“I don’t think I understand.”
“That’s quite alright. We don’t expect anyone to.”
He swallows down his fear and backs away from the glass. The view is extensive, drawing him in, Arsene lingering in the back of his mind just waiting to be called upon. Will he have to relearn all of the metaverse? The one thing he thought he had a grasp on.
“So what do you want me to do?” He asks. Igor laughs as if he should know already. As if he isn’t a confused eighteen year old with a tendency to lie to the people he cares about most and hide behind a mask. He wonders if they can see past his mask, or if the velvet room attendants aren’t as transient as they appear to be.
Lavenza places one of her small hands on his shoulder. She looks serious, now, her mouth in a thin line instead of a smile.
“Recall the spirit of rebellion inside of you. The bonds you made should aid you, but you must make new ones. We ask that you find the other wildcard and his companions. We,” she gestures to herself and Igor, “are not completely certain as to why our old trickster is back. It could be dangerous…” she sighs and scuffs the tip of her shoe against the ground.
It could be dangerous. He grins.
“I’m in.”
--
Akechi: How exactly do you plan on getting to Tokyo?
Akira: worried about me?
Akechi: Not in the slightest.
Akira: thanks
Akechi: Haha.
Akira: the sarcasm in that message
Akira: ouch
Akechi: I’m being serious. How are you getting here?
Akira: train
Akechi: And your parents?
Akira: what about them
Akechi: They’re fine with this?
Akira: perfectly.
Akechi: Then I will see you soon.
Akira: cant wait
Akechi: I can.
Akira: u dont have to do that everytime sometimes we can just have a nice moment
Akechi: Go back to sleep.
--
By noon he’s already printed off his ticket and packed his bags. His parents pay him no attention as he runs around the house trying to get ready. They only notice him when he’s done something to ruin their family image-- he might as well be invisible the rest of the time. Sometimes they like to remind him just how much trouble he caused them with his arrest, but that’s mostly on the weekends, and thank god it’s Monday. Morgana is waiting for him in his bedroom. He scoops him up and puts him in his bag, then takes a quick picture to send to his friends.
He’s ready to leave. The enthusiasm in the chat is overwhelming. He can’t help but smile.
He leaves the house without a word exchanged between him and his parents. It finally feels like he can breathe. He adjusts his glasses and begins the short walk to the train station, Morgana prattling on about how excited he is to see Ann again. He wishes he had the simple mind that Morgana did; wishes that he could have a crush on Ann of all people-- someone so simple and sweet and easy to love. The universe hands him cursed cards, though, and stacks the deck against him. Of course he has to love what he can’t have.
They have two courses of action: find the two guys from yesterday and go to Tokyo . Oh god. He’s going to get to see his friends soon— later today, in fact. Morgana jumps up onto his shoulders and chuckles.
“You seem happy!” He says.
He pets his head. “I am.”
“Can’t wait to see everyone?”
Mostly Goro. That’s embarrassing.
“Yeah.” The looming figure of Junes pops up in the corner of his vision. He nods towards it. “Wanna go get some snacks? I think they have those chips that Ryuji likes.”
He can hear Morgana roll his eyes.
“Yeah, okay. But he owes you!”
He laughs as they enter the store. “No, I’m just being a good friend.”
“It’s coming out of the Phantom Thief account, though.”
“Don’t care.” He plucks a bag of candy off the shelf that he remembers Goro eyeing once. Ann gets an energy drink because seeing her bounce off the walls is funny. “The Phantom Thief money belongs to everyone.”
Oh, Sumire likes these coconut chips. That goes in the basket. Morgana slides off of his shoulder into the basket, his paws denting the bags. He stares down at him.
Morgana stares back with those beady little eyes. He disapproves.
“We can make it back,” he chastises. He continues to stare. “Fine. You’ll get some fatty tuna.”
His ears perk up. If he were a human, he would be grinning ear to ear. They walk through the aisles and he carefully pads across the shelves, moving bags of flour and boxes of salt as he follows Akira with his little paws. He prays that none of the workers see him.
“Be careful,” he warns as they enter the frozen aisle. “There aren’t too many places to hide here.”
He bounces off his shoulder into one of the open freezers. “I could hide behind the topsicles!”
He can still see his tail. He tells him such and Morgana pouts, knocking the box over. The sound draws the attention of a nearby worker who had been stocking shelves. There’s something familiar about him. They make eye contact and Akira realizes what it was.
“Found one of the guys,” he remarks. Morgana gasps and dives into his bag, his ears sticking out. The guy does a double take before he rushes over, unceremoniously dropping what he had been putting into the freezers.
“Y-You!”
Akira waves.
“Your cat talks!” He whispers. They both freeze up as someone else enters the aisle. Yosuke (he believes, if his name tag is anything to go by) lets out a breath of relief. “Kanji! Dude, this is the guy I was telling you about.”
Kanji is massive. His hair is slicked back, black roots a great contrast to his shocking blonde hair. It looks like he needs to touch up the dye. Akira has done it enough times with Ryuji to know. He looks confused for a second. He sticks his hands in his pockets and slouches, fixing Yosuke with a stare.
“You mean the one with the talkin’ cat?”
Yosuke frantically nods. Kanji turns his eyes to him and Morgana, whose head has just popped out of his bag. His nose twitches. He flicks his tail, turns his eyes up to Akira as if to ask for permission. He subtly shakes his head, hoping desperately that Morgana understands what he’s trying to say. Wait. We don’t know if we can trust them yet.
“I don’t hear it talkin’.”
The tips of Yosuke’s ears turn red. “I-I swear it does.”
“Are you feelin’ alright, senpai?”
“Dude! Yu heard it, too.” At the mention of Yu, Kanji’s shoulders lose all tension. There isn’t any more suspicion in his gaze. Akira knows that they’ve been caught, but he intends to see this out till the end. He puts his hand on Morgana’s head and scratches him behind the ear. The two guys follow his hand with their eyes.
“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” he says with a face of stone. Morgana really leans into it, now, as he catches onto what Akira is doing. They’ve done this act before. He likes to call it: ‘traumatized teenager with his emotional support animal’. It’s got some truth to it… it just forgoes the part where Morgana is his teammate and second in command of the Phantom Thieves.
Yosuke impatiently taps his foot. While he’s stared at by two grown men, he can see out the corner of his eye yet another person enter the aisle. Immediately he assumes that he is being cornered. Recognition flashes in their eyes. Sirens start to blare in his mind and he suddenly feels as if he’s been dropped into a palace on the day of the calling card.
“Naoto!” Yosuke beckons the person over. Something about that name rings a few bells in his head.
“Did I not advise against harassing a teenager?” Comes Naoto’s voice. She is entirely unimpressed as she steps into his view, her arms crossed over her chest and a frown on her face. Yosuke opens his mouth but she cuts him off. “No. It’s fine, Yosuke senpai, I’ll take it from here.”
She looks to him. His hand stops it’s movements on Morgana’s head. The plan is changing. She knows something.
“Hello, my name is Naoto Shirogane. You may know me as the first detective prince, or perhaps you don’t know me at all.”
“Oh,” he breathes out. It feels like he’s been punched in the chest. This is who Goro modeled himself after. “I… that’s funny, actually, because I’m friends with the other detective prince.”
Her eyebrow raises. “What a coincidence.”
He tries to remember how he interacted with Goro all those months ago-- when he was actively trying to kill, blackmail, and ruin him. Naoto is smart like Goro, he can tell. He’ll have to choose his words carefully.
“Yeah. I’m actually going back home.” he makes a show of checking the time on his phone. A text from Goro pops up. And then one from Futaba. And then one from Haru. Then the group chat. He stares, bites his lip, and pockets it. He can deal with it later. “My train’s leaving soon, so I should probably be…”
“Nope!” Yosuke steps in front of his exit. “Nope! No way! Partner is going to kill me if you leave.”
He does not break eye contact.
“Then I guess you’re dying today,” he says, shouldering past into the other aisle. He can hear Morgana snicker from over his shoulder. He treats the store like it’s a palace. As soon as he exits the frozen aisle, he is gone, hiding between boxes and behind shelves. They’re following him. They can’t catch him, though, because Joker is back . He may not be wearing his outfit, may not be able to summon Arsene, but the energy thrums through his veins.
“They’re still following you!” Morgana whispers from his bag. He hides behind a display of a goofy cartoon bear. Morgana signals him when it’s clear. “You’re on fire! Should I be calling you Joker?”
He chuckles. “Only if I get to call you Mona.”
“Of course you do!” They flit to another aisle. He hasn’t seen any of them yet. The self checkout area is so close. But he and Morgana are really on fire… would it be so bad if they acted as real Phantom Thieves? It’s easy to swipe things. Painless. It will get him out quicker, too...
Maybe he shouldn’t. If he got caught then everything would be over.
--
The self checkout is empty, so he picks the first machine and scratches nervously at Morgana’s ear.
“You’re really keeping this act up?” He whines.
“No, Mona, I’m just nervous.”
“Oh…” He wiggles his way out of the bag, perches atop the machine, and stares. “It’s okay, Joker. We’ll be back with the others soon. What kind of Phantom Thieves would we be if we got caught like this?”
He laughs quietly as he shoves the cash into the machine. He’s got a point.
“We can always escape into the metaverse if we need to.”
With a nod, he signals for Mona to get back into his bag. The two of them exit, their eyes darting furiously around the store to check for people. The sliding doors are so close. It doesn’t come as a surprise when Morgana tells him to run. As to not look suspicious, he stays walking, picking up the pace a bit when Morgana whaps at his forehead.
Eventually they catch up with him, one of them grabbing his arm and forcing him to spin around, the bags and his cat colliding. They’ve added yet another person to their roster. He’s starting to wonder what he did to deserve a day like this. The one who grabbed his arm is someone completely unfamiliar. She has a disarming smile and a pep in her step that reminds him of Ann.
“Hey, sorry to stop you like this--”
Suddenly Kanji bursts out of the doors, Yosuke following and panting heavily.
He levels them with a stare. The girl drops her hand and lets out a tortured sigh.
“Am I in trouble? I have my receipt.”
The girl titters, placing a hand on his shoulder. He shrugs it off immediately. It still hurts from the tumble he took a week ago.
“Nothing like that! My friends and I just wanted to ask you some stuff,” she twirls her hair around her finger. Akira thinks she’s trying to flirt with him. He is deeply uncomfortable.
Everyone is here now. Naoto walks towards him with a curious gaze.
“Rise, please stop. You’re making him uncomfortable,” Naoto sighs out. “Please forgive my friends. I know that it isn’t easy to trust strangers, especially when they chase after you .” She directs a pointed glare to Yosuke. He’s still out of breath. “But I pray that you trust us.”
He bites at his tongue. The Junes parking lot is oddly silent.
Rise throws her arm around Naoto, hangs off her like a coat on a coat rack. “Why don’t we just go with Chie senpai’s plan?”
“I…” she licks her lips. “Fine. Does the word ‘persona’ mean anything to you?”
His eyes blow wide. That moment of weakness is all they need. Their shoulders all fall in relief.
“Well, Mona,” he says. “Looks like we’ve been caught.”
The tension is tight as a wire. Tokyo suddenly feels so far away.
“So who sent you?” He asks. “Who’s fault is it this time?”
They drag him to the rooftop before they answer his questions. It’s in the elevator that he thinks of looking at his texts. His phone has been vibrating nonstop. The rest of the people in the elevator talk quietly amongst themselves, throwing glances his way.
“They’re not even trying to be subtle,” Morgana huffs. It’s funny to watch their reactions to him talking.
He opens the chat. Everyone is online, actively talking, but it stops as soon as he opens it. From what he can read before he’s bombarded with messages, their personas are acting strangely and--
Shit. It brings him to the most recent message.
PHANTOM THIEVES
Ryuji: bro!!!!! Akira!!!!
Haru: Have you read the past messages?
Akira: no whats happening??
Ann: uh oh
Sumire: Senpai, its not good..
Akechi: You have a palace, which by using simple logic most likely means that you won’t have a persona anymore.
He drops his phone.
“Jeez, kid!” Kanji bends down and retrieves his phone. It hasn’t turned off. It happens so fast. It feels like hell. “Oh, holy shit. The Phantom Thieves?”
Yosuke snatches Akira’s phone out of Kanji’s hand. He gasps and looks at Akira.
“We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
--
The roof isn’t nearly as empty as he thought it would be. He feels like a prisoner again, being toted around by the cops and paraded in front of the civilization with his hands cuffed behind his back. They haven’t even bothered to give him his phone back. They lead him to an almost full table where he’s seated at the end and stared at like an animal in a cage. He recognizes Yosuke’s partner and that’s it.
Everyone sits down. Yu huffs out a sigh.
“Sorry we couldn’t just,” he drags a hand down his face, “be normal about this. I don’t know why talking cats are so weird for you after what we’ve seen.” That’s directed to Yosuke. He sulks.
“He knows about personas,” Naoto pipes up. “Which proves our theory that he has visited the TV world, and thus proves that his cat might originate from there. Am I correct?” Yep. That’s directed at him.
But it’s not right.
“TV world?” He leans forward and tents his hands in the way he’s seen Goro do. He’s trying so desperately to act calm when there’s a storm brewing inside of him. A palace. He has a palace. Arsene is gone. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“What? How the heck do you know about personas then?!” A girl with a bowl cut yells.
“I…” he looks towards Morgana. The cat sighs and jumps up onto the table.
“We don’t know anything about a TV world, but we do have persona,” he starts to explain. Unfortunately, he’s cut off by the surprised yells, the latter half of his sentence only heard by Akira.
“Holy shit, Yosuke wasn’t lying!”
“Thanks, Chie! Real nice of you!”
A girl snorts and smacks her knee. “Y-Yosuke, you should see your face!” She says amidst tearful laughter.
He cuts them off with a cough. They all turn towards him, and he realizes just how much older they are than him. They all look about twenty, give or take. His parents could decide to visit Junes at anytime. They could see him up here, an employee could tip off his location, he can be found , so they need to act quickly. He needs to leave.
“I’m on a time crunch,” he explains. “I have to catch a train soon.”
“Do you have time to answer a few questions?” asks Naoto.
“Depends on the questions.”
They all turn towards Yu. It seems he is their leader. That makes sense.
“How do you enter that world?” Yu asks after a few moments of thinking. His stare is cold and calculating, the warmth he had displayed previously completely disappearing. He swallows.
“An app.”
Yu cocks his eyebrow. “Okay. Is your cat from that world?”
“Yes, and I am not a cat!” Morgana preens. “I am Morgana ! The second in command of the Phantom Thieves, if you’ve heard of them.”
Their jaws drop. Yu’s smile is beginning to come back, slowly creeping onto the edges of his face.
“So all of you have personas?” He asks the table. They all nod. “Okay. Put your number in my phone and then give it back, I have a train to catch.”
“You weren’t lying about that?” Yosuke hands him his phone back. It buzzes. The group chat yet again. He tries not to remember why they’re so insistent on reaching him-- it just sends his mind into a frenzy.
“Nope,” he answers, voice hoarse. “I’ll text you when I can.”
“You better!”
“Chie, calm down,” the once laughing girl lays a gentle hand on Chie’s shoulder. He doesn’t want to stick around, so he leaves, his hands shaking and Morgana talking but he can’t hear anything. He has a palace, there are people here who have personas, he’d been caught so easily what can he even do to make sure they’re all safe, oh god there’s so much.
After walking all the way to the train station in a daze he finally snaps to his senses. This is only after five minutes of staring at the railroad tracks and contemplating jumping. It’s nothing but contemplation. There might be something more to it, now that he has a palace, but as long as Morgana is here he’s not doing anything like that. Plus, he’s not about to start dissecting his thoughts. That’s Goro Akechi’s job.
He clicks on his phone. Messages are still popping up. He enters the Phantom Thief chat and refuses to look at it, instead typing as blindly as he can and sending the message. He feels as if he’s been hit in the head with a baseball bat-- the way Ryuji would hit shadow’s; with a satisfying crack . After a moment of contemplation, he puts his phone on do not disturb. His eyes drift just before he turns it off.
Akechi: akira i swear if you give up before you’ve even started i will kill you.
And it doesn't fix things, this love and support under the veil of a threat so deeply enmeshed in their history that it makes him chuckle; it doesn't. But it makes it easier.
He pockets his phone and feels something different begin to bubble up inside of him as he walks onto the train. He can do this.
It's not like he's ever had a choice.