Chapter 30
Yu’s phone wouldn’t connect.
It wasn’t that no one answered, but the repeated message “The number you have dialed is not in service” indicated a damaged phone or SIM card.
Giving up on calling, Akechi contacted the police station handling the case.
This time, the call connected.
“Hello, this is Goro Akechi. Yes, it’s me,” Akechi hailed a taxi while talking on the phone, heading towards the scene. “Yes, regarding the politician’s mental shutdown incident at the Kichijoji shopping district. Did you encounter a high school student at the scene?”
“His name is Yu Narukami.”
“…At the police station? Is he injured?”
“No.”
Akechi breathed a sigh of relief, giving the driver the address of the police station before inquiring about the incident.
A rampaging Shadow in the Metaverse could influence the real world, causing mental shutdowns. The affected individuals would experience a temporary loss of control, capable of anything. The politician, during his mental shutdown, had grabbed his bodyguard’s gun and fired at the crowd listening to his speech.
Due to the politician’s popularity, the crowd was large, and the gunshot had triggered immediate panic.
By the time the bodyguards reacted and disarmed him, he had fired two shots, one hitting a man’s arm, the other narrowly missing a pregnant woman. Yu had pulled the woman to safety just in time.
However, his phone had fallen to the ground during the commotion and been trampled by the fleeing crowd, completely destroyed.
After subduing the politician and sending him to a mental hospital, the police began taking statements from witnesses, including Yu. He had refused to let them contact his parents, not wanting them to worry. Just as the police were wondering what to do, Akechi called.
They quickly handed Yu over to Akechi.
Arriving at the police station, Akechi followed an officer to the waiting area, where he spotted Yu.
Yu, still in his school uniform, sat with his bag beside him, Morgana curled up on his lap, seemingly calming down after being startled, still slightly shaken.
Hearing their approach, Yu looked up, his gray eyes as warm and gentle as ever.
“Akechi?” Yu smiled, as if he hadn’t just experienced a shooting.
“You came.”
Akechi felt a wave of relief wash over him.
He was alive. He wasn’t dead.
This guy was infuriating. Why hadn’t Suzukida shot him?!
“Playing the hero with a cat in your arms. You’re incredible, Narukami,” Akechi said sarcastically.
“Are you an idiot? Running towards a gunman!”
Yu had anticipated the reprimand. The scene had been chaotic, and he had lost his phone. He could imagine how worried Akechi had been.
If he had been the one answering the call, he might have been even angrier than Akechi.
After listening to Akechi’s rant, Yu finally spoke. “I couldn’t just ignore that woman. She was pregnant and couldn’t run. She would have been shot or trampled. It would have been terrible.”
Akechi grumbled. “What if you had miscalculated? What if you had been injured?”
“I wouldn’t have,” Yu shook his head. “I knew what I was doing. I wouldn’t have been hurt.”
A year of battling in the other world hadn’t been for nothing. Yu’s combat and evasion skills were far superior to an ordinary person’s. He had been confident he could save her.
“Besides…” Yu sighed. “If I had just stood there and watched her get shot, I don’t think I could have lived with myself.”
“I did it for myself as much as for her.”
Akechi stared at Yu in silence.
A familiar sense of frustration welled up within him, gnawing at his insides.
Hypocrites were always wounded by genuinely kind people. Those who played games were disarmed by those who were truly honest. Those trapped in darkness resented those who lived in the light.
Akechi was, at his core, hypocritical and cynical. He wasn’t magnanimous.
So why did someone like Yu exist, appearing before him like a thorn in his side?
Idiot! Fool! Crazy! Why wasn’t he dead?!
“Your good deeds won’t always be met with kindness,” Akechi said, looking at Yu. “Your actions might be meaningless, even hurtful to some. Kindness isn’t always a virtue.”
Yu looked up at Akechi, puzzled, his gray eyes reflecting Akechi’s image.
Their eyes met, and Akechi saw his own impassive reflection in Yu’s gaze.
“What are you trying to say?”
“Nothing,” Yu shook his head. “I just think your words are strange.”
“Strange how?”
“Hurtful?” Yu stood up, holding Morgana, his light gray eyes filled with a quiet strength, like a beacon in a dark sea. The gentleness had vanished, replaced by a battle-hardened resolve, impervious to any verbal attack.
“Akechi, only those who still possess some kindness can be hurt by kindness. They’re hurt because they feel guilt, because they still have some good in them. True villains would just laugh at my foolishness.”
“So it’s a good thing. Being hurt by kindness might make them reconsider their ways.”
Akechi: …
There it was again, the Narukami attack, disarming him with simple yet profound words.
Oblivious to Akechi’s reaction, Yu glanced at the time, sighing softly. “Thanks for picking me up. I should get home. I’ve been waiting for my new phone.”
Akechi scoffed, turning to leave. “I’m starting to hate you.”
“You should just die.”
“Really?” Yu, unfazed, followed him, holding Mona, turning on his new phone.
A flood of missed calls and messages appeared. Yu counted the missed calls.
He sounded slightly puzzled. “Telling me to die while calling me a dozen times… what’s that about?”
Akechi gave up on his sarcasm, unable to maintain his anger.
“I regret it. Just die.”
“Then I’ll be first place.”
“That’s hurtful, Akechi. Aren’t we friends?”
“We’re not friends!”
He had been tasked with looking after Morgana, but he had ended up taking him to a crime scene. Reality wasn’t like the Metaverse. He could have died.
Yu spent a while calming Mona down.
After Mona fell asleep, Yu messaged Ren, briefly explaining what had happened.
After a long while, Ren replied.
[Ren Amamiya: …]
[Ren Amamiya: You really said that to Akechi?]
[Yu Narukami: Was there something wrong with it?]
[Ren Amamiya: No, it was perfect. Keep it up.]
Akechi wasn’t entirely evil. If he were, he wouldn’t have regretted his actions in Shido’s Palace, helping them escape while remaining behind on the sinking ship. But his sliver of buried justice was difficult to unearth.
Yu, however, had a knack for getting under people’s skin, exposing and challenging Akechi’s hidden conscience.
Unaware that Yu also possessed a Persona, Akechi genuinely considered him a friend, which was why he kept telling him to die without actually acting on it. This allowed Yu to interact with him without suspicion. If Akechi had shown any killing intent, Yu would have sensed it immediately.
[Ren Amamiya: How’s the politician?]
[Yu Narukami: Akechi told me that although it was a mental shutdown, as the one who fired the gun, his approval ratings have plummeted. He’s finished in politics and has to pay for the victim’s medical expenses. He also paid for my new phone.]
Ren, far away in Hawaii, was silent again.
He knew Akechi was the culprit, but the difference in their levels was vast. Even if they could defeat him in the Metaverse, they couldn’t do anything to him in the real world. They didn’t kill, and as long as Akechi remained unconvinced, he was a threat.
Stopping Akechi was difficult. Even with his second chance, Ren couldn’t remember every person Akechi had killed. Even if he remembered some names from the news, he couldn’t recall the exact time and place of their mental shutdowns, making it difficult to save them.
After a long moment, Ren suddenly looked up.
There was one person he remembered.
The principal of Shujin Academy, who had suddenly become catatonic and wandered into traffic, being hit by a car. Akechi had framed the Phantom Thieves for his death.
Ren immediately contacted Futaba.
[Ren Amamiya: Futaba, I need you to do something.]
[Futaba Sakura: Huh? Me? You want me to do it?]
[Ren Amamiya: Yes, I need you to hack into the principal’s communications, impersonate someone, block all other messages, and make sure he stays at school for the next two days.]
[Futaba Sakura: I can do that, but why?]
[Ren Amamiya: To save him.]
[Futaba Sakura: ?]
Although puzzled, Futaba complied, hacking into the principal’s phone and discovering a mysterious contact. She mimicked the contact’s tone, ordering the principal to stay at school for the next two days.
She didn’t tell the others about it, sensing the seriousness of Ren’s request, suspecting a hidden secret.
She would be the keeper of secrets!
The next afternoon, Futaba sat behind the counter at Leblanc, holding Morgana, while Sojiro chatted with a customer. The TV news played in the background.
“Breaking News! The principal of Shujin Academy, the same school where the disgraced teacher Kamoshida worked, has been found unconscious in his office! He’s unresponsive and catatonic, his condition eerily similar to the victims of the mental shutdown incidents! He has been taken to a mental hospital!”
“Is the principal’s sudden catatonic state connected to the Phantom Thieves of Hearts?”
“Police are currently investigating.”
Futaba’s eyes widened. She pushed her glasses up, staring at the news report.
The principal of Shujin, catatonic?!
“Shujin again?” a customer commented, sipping his coffee. “So much trouble at that school. I wonder if it’ll shut down soon.”
“Who knows,” Sojiro said nonchalantly. “They’ll probably just replace the principal. He’s in no condition to work.”
Futaba hugged her knees, messaging Ren.
She trusted Ren, but how had he known about the principal’s mental shutdown?
After a few seconds, Ren replied.
[Ren Amamiya: Don’t worry. At least he’s alive. As long as he’s alive, there’s still hope.]
[Ren Amamiya: Trust me. This will all be over soon.]
