Chapter Text
Aigis was the one who found him, draped over a tree branch on the far end of the fenced land of the Diet Building. She had been in the area with Akihiko per Mitsuru’s orders to see if they could get a word in with the leader of the Phantom Thieves who had turned himself in just the day before. The reading was faint, but she could sense someone within the area, unmoving, on the obscure side of the government facility.
After the meeting, the blonde had taken off without a word towards the back of the facility and jumped the fence, much to Akihiko’s bewilderment. He did not have time to be impressed, however, as Aigis was back out in no time with a limp body in tow. They gave Fuuka a quick call about the camera footage for good measure, even if it was dark out and there was not a camera in sight nearby, before heading back to headquarters.
During the car ride, the blonde was quick to identify the body and assess its condition. The results were...surprising, to say the least.
“Isn’t Akechi Goro that popular detective who went missing before elections?” the white-haired man stated more than he asked, trying to look carefully at the boy’s face but hardly recognising him, “How’d he get so beat up, and wind up on a tree branch near the Diet Building, of all places?”
The brunet’s face was scorched over his right eye and a little more of his forehead, the long hair that had covered his right ear was singed partway to expose red tips instead; and the dark patches reaching down his neck into his collar suggested that the burns covered more than just his head. If not for the shallow breathing through parted lips, one would have easily thought him dead.
At the moment, further diagnosis was not possible without careless prodding through the boy’s clothes, and to remove said obstructions themselves would be equally careless should they pull and break something. The two Operatives decide to leave such delicate work to the professionals once they reported back to Mitsuru.
That being said, Akihiko urged the driver to drive faster, worried that the longer they waited, the worse Goro’s condition might get. He had - at some point - thought it better to just send the boy straight to the hospital and file a police report. However, with the state and location the boy’s body was found and all the scandals regarding the government coming to light this Christmas; not to mention his initial disappearance, both he and Aigis thought it safer to tell Mitsuru about it first.
Upon arriving, they leave the boy in the care of the present maids and butlers who were skilled far beyond the boundaries of household assignments. Aigis follows them in case an emergency were to happen for her to report while Akihiko makes his way to practically barge into Mitsuru’s office. He knocks no more than three times before waiting a beat to push down the door handle and step into the room.
If Aigis had not given her a status report beforehand during the car ride, the redhead would have taken her time chastising him; but as it stands, there was urgent business to tend to when she asked, “How is he?”
“He’s with the staff now, hopefully he isn’t in any worse shape than when we found him,” Akihiko replied promptly, leaning his back against the door that had just swung back closed, “What’s your take on the situation?”
Mitsuru wasted no time in giving him her perspective, stating thoughtfully, “There’s a high chance his disappearance is tied to the Phantom Thieves, or even Shido Masayoshi. Fuuka has been looking through the profiles of suspected accomplices of Shido, alongside Shirogane who seems to have suspected Akechi ever since he was reported missing.”
According to one of her many theories, Goro could very well have been threatened by Shido Masayoshi or the Phantom Thieves into hiding, if he was not already dead like they once assumed the leader of the Thieves to be. Due to the boy’s publicised stance against the Phantom Thieves and supposedly firm belief in justice in general, she admitted her doubts of his involvement at all, if only in the hope that his word was to be trusted.
As much as they wanted to give Goro the benefit of doubt, no one could deny the fact that his disappearance was much too timely with regards to the Thieves’ leader’s interrogation and subsequent death, and their theatrical resurrection in the form of a nationwide broadcast. However, in the end, all they could do was theorise. There was no evidence, no real ground for said theories to be more than plausible.
The two adults in the room sighed in unison, Akihiko uttering finally, “Here’s hoping he wakes up and tells us something.”
Meanwhile, the boy in question lay unconscious. He slept upon a hospital bed in an otherwise regular-looking bedroom, his former attire had been carefully removed and set aside to wash as the staff identified and inspected his wounds. After dressing them where appropriate, trimming the scorched ends of his hair then evening the rest out, and putting him in a hospital gown, the head nurse reported Aigis the boy’s status.
As the blonde had initially suspected, the burns reached below his neck and down to his waist with his entire right arm covered in darkened patches of scorched skin. In addition to burns, they also discovered what appeared to be a bullet wound just below his collarbone where his shoulder muscle was torn; however, despite the absence of an exit wound and no sign of digging or prying, there was no bullet to be found within the flesh. The supposed bullet hole had yet to close which led them to believe it was recent.
They also found that the boy’s right eye - the one where the burns overlapped - was thankfully spared most of the damage and was very likely only partially blind if not at all. Simply from looking, it was difficult to gauge the damage done except for a rough estimate of heat that reached it and how soon the burn was cooled, seeing as there was no infection of injuries. He could not have been out for more than a day, reasonably.
The brunet also had a few fractured ribs with bruises littered over his chest and stomach, but nothing that several months of treatment and rest cannot undo unlike his aforementioned injuries.
For now, Akechi Goro was to be kept under close watch by a nurse or an Operative at any and all times until further notice. With that, the blonde android turned to take her leave and report to Mitsuru, leaving the boy in custody to rest with his right arm in a cast hung by a sling from the ceiling, and bandages wrapped over the right half of his face, neck, chest and arm.
“What in the world was he doing to sustain such grievous injuries?” the redhead asked no one in particular, a grimace twisting her elegant face, “In any case, we should wait until he wakes up. I’ll update Shirogane on the details, I don’t doubt she’s curious as well.”
The detective had taken a personal interest in the case of the Phantom Thieves. In particular, their methods of “stealing hearts”; at least, that was her initial point of focus before the incident with Shujin’s principal and the President of Okumura Foods. Even if the Phantom Thieves ultimately proved themselves innocent regarding their deaths, it still brought along other questions; questions that then concerned more than just herself and the Shadow Operatives.
Changing people’s hearts that make them fess up to their crimes, causing mental shutdowns that result in a strange display of death or suicidal behaviour; while the first phenomenon was pretty much unheard of, the latter sounded awfully familiar. Based on the senior Shadow Operatives’ account, the glimpse of black ooze coming from Okumura’s face before the broadcast was interrupted looked similar to what happened to victims of Apathy Syndrome before they fell sick.
“The person’s shadow forcefully separates from its host, leaving behind a shell of what they used to be,” Mitsuru had recalled, “However, the person would still be alive, seemingly left to wander aimlessly which often resulted in fatal accidents. The cases reported on the news: psychotic breakdowns or mental shutdowns, they may be similar but they’re certainly far more extreme.”
Assuming that world was truly the medium in which these incidents were caused, then a meeting with the Phantom Thieves was very much needed; and if the Thieves were not the culprits of the reported deaths by mental shutdowns, then the true culprit needed to be found immediately. That being said, with the leader of the Thieves arrested, it was only about time before they got answers.
Eventually, the weeks pass. The leader was sent to a youth detention centre to be interrogated and observed for an indefinite amount of time, charged for the more apparent crimes he and his group had committed, not to mention his past criminal record; but nothing detailing his methods of “stealing hearts”. Well, if the methods are what the Operatives were suspecting, such was only to be expected.
Word on the street is that supporters of the Thieves were making efforts to clear the boy’s name: asking around to try and prove he had been convicted on false charges for past crimes, collecting signatures for petitions, starting forums and making mentions of him on television and other media in hopes of giving him a good name. Whatever was going on out there, it was going big.
More importantly, the man of the hour had finally woken up.
“ Sanada Akihiko , Shirogane Naoto , and the one and only Kirijo Mitsuru ,” the boy had named almost dreamily if not for the likely reason such renowned figures were in his presence to begin with, “To what do I owe this honor of meeting all three of you at once, in a single lifetime?”
If anyone picked up on his half-baked effort of flattery, they ignored it in favour of business. The true detective prince had sat themself on the chair by his hospital bed, legs closed and hands over one another upon their lap - as he had once mimicked - where a folder was placed. Steel blue eyes peered up at him from under a fashionable blue cap, an interrogation no doubt about to commence.
Behind them, the President of the Kirijo Group and ever-popular-and-powerful police officer stood back solemnly as they watched the brunet’s every movement. The boy would like to wholly face them as a form of respect but, as it stands, he could hardly push himself up with both arms bound and the nurse’s advice for him to not move almost at all. If no one was helping him up, he supposed it was unnecessary either way.
‘“ Akechi Goro: reported missing just before elections on December 17’, ” Shirogane read from the documents in hand, “ Believed to have been missing since before then, when Shido Masayoshi was hospitalised due to minor complications with his health’ .”
The detective sets the papers upon his bedside and leans forward curiously.
“...and yet, here he is; battered and burned almost beyond recognition,” they marvelled unenthusiastically, “Having been found unconscious, up in a tree within the fenced premises of the Diet Building--”
The boy fails to suppress a rather ugly snort.
“I - I’m sorry, that surprised me,” slightly embarrassed now, he regains his composure to look at his interrogator - who had hardly even flinched - anyway, once more, “Please, continue.”
“--promptly after the arrest of the leader of the Phantom Thieves,” the detective finished their earlier sentence, then proceeding, “Rather convenient timing, if you ask me. However, we cannot draw any conclusions with just what the media tells us. Not to mention all these scandals coming to light after the Thief’s testimony aligning with Shido’s confession; I doubt putting you in the hands of the police is a good idea right now.”
Oh, that begs the question then ; Goro asked, “Aren’t you guys - technically - the police, too?”
They were not done speaking, though.
“Before we get into that, I have some questions for you,” Shirogane dodged effortlessly, “Firstly, can you recount what happened just before and during your absence?”
Straight to the point, I see . A lot had happened, so much that he was unsure of where to begin. In the first place, the question asked was not something he could answer without sounding batshit crazy so what could he say? Prior to his waking, he thought he was going to very well die and, even before that, he was just waiting for death to claim him; both in the form of drowning.
He would like to ask just how much of his crimes Shido had actually confessed, but he was in no position to ask questions when he himself had yet to answer his own share of it. However, it was relatively safe to assume a confession meant that the man has had a change of heart; the Phantom Thieves succeeded. Whatever Goro confessed to himself, he did not doubt the doomed politician would attest to in his current state.
Well, in that case, what did he have to lose, right ?
“I believe my last contact with anyone until now would be Shido Masayoshi himself, actually,” the brunet said outright, savouring what little surprise managed to surface upon the three faces before him, “He ordered for me to deal with the remaining Phantom Thieves, with their leader already dead at the time, but as you can see, I failed; ‘ battered and burned almost beyond recognition ’ from their retaliation.”
A stunned silence, although their stone cold expressions showed otherwise.
The adults seemed to be processing the revelation that was the detective celebrity turning out to be just another of Shido’s pawns, lips pursed and eyes wandering to the side in thought. Eventually, their eyes trained back onto him and Goro realised that they knew; they knew he was still withholding a lot of important details from them. It was not a tough guess, but it did not stop him from trying to keep certain secrets to himself.
“What can I say? Taking on all the Thieves at once really took a toll on me, I’m honestly surprised I came out alive at all,” he mused, dodging any mention of that world as much as possible, “Well, I think that’s about all I remember: Shido gave me a call, ordered for the elimination of the Phantom Thieves who proved more troublesome than I had been prepared for. I was ultimately done in and left for dead until you guys found me.”
He heard Shirogane let out a long exhale, as if considering something, then reached back to his bedside table to flip through papers again. As much as Goro would like to turn his head to see exactly what they were reviewing, the bandages on his neck did not stop the burned skin underneath from causing friction and consequent pain. It was not nearly as bad as when he tried to move around with it unprotected or treated, but pain was pain.
“...I had planned to ask you a few more questions but there are some things I’d like to clarify first,” the detective finally sat back down with folders in hand once more, glancing up at him, “Since you were told to go after them, am I right to assume you know of the identities of each individual Phantom Thief?”
He breathed once, heard the clock tick twice, before he decided to give his curt answer, “I do.”
“Does Shido Masayoshi know?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Would you say that you’re the only one who knows?”
“...Yes.”
“Will you tell us who they are?”
The brunet sighed, “No.”
“Why not?” they continued to ask, unfazed by his apparent unwillingness to cooperate, “As one of Shido’s men, one would think it would be your goal to doom the Phantom Thieves who’ve exposed him. If not for Shido himself, then for your own self-preservation So, why?.”
Why, indeed . Actually, now that someone had asked him, he was curious as well. Why, after all that time he spent plotting against them; after all the pain he put them through; after all he lost as a result of shamefully losing to them, why ? Thinking back to their final conversation in the engine room, he recalled the storm of emotions that had flooded his chest, unable to fully comprehend or even contain with how suddenly it hit him.
A light chuckle bubbled from his lips.
“Perhaps, I had a change of heart ?”
Those metallic blue eyes blinked at his light-hearted answer in mild surprise, but they were not offended; hardly so, as they instead bowed their head with a hand to pull their cap further over a creeping smile. If not for the tender glimmer that made itself known within those eyes, Goro might have thought he imagined it when they looked back up with downturned lips once more.
“You’re one of them, then,” the detective stated more than she asked, “A Phantom Thief.”
His smile dropped.
“...that’s quite the accusation, Shirogane-san,” the boy laughed uneasily, “Which part of what I said made you come to such a conclusion?”
“For one, you refuse to rat them out,” they replied matter-of-factly, playing with the visor of her cap between her thumb and index, “Even though - if my deduction is right - you yourself were the one who ratted on their leader to begin with.”
“I don’t see how betraying their leader is a trait of a fellow Phantom Thief,” Goro reasoned before he could stop himself, that familiar mask of a pleasant smile already slipped on, “If anything, would I not have doomed the entire team by severing the head from the body?”
“Hardly,” they shot back immediately, “As a matter of fact, you’ve just spared the rest of the ‘ body ’ the suffering it may have gone through should you have offered them up in one piece. You were hoping to avoid that, were you not?”
The boy in question did not answer.
“However, as it turned out, you’re reasoning didn’t appease Shido, seeing as he still sent you out to take care of what remained,” they continued without waiting a second for a response, “Supposedly, you failed to do so and sustained grievous injuries as a result of their resistance.”
The folder was back on his bedside and the detective folded their arms.
“Well then, I have one final question before we’re done for today,” they announced, implying they would probably come back at a later date, and soon, “Are you familiar with the research of ‘ cognitive psience ’?”
“...No, not at all.”
“I see.”
...and the three of them leave.